SIN: by Andrew Murray

 

And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus…Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
—1 Timothy 1:14-15

Never forget for a moment, as you enter the secret chamber, that your whole relationship to God depends on what you think of sin and of yourself as a redeemed sinner.

It is sin that makes God’s holiness so amazing. It is sin that makes God’s holiness so glorious, because He has said: “Be holy, for I am holy” (Leviticus 11:45); “I am the Lord which hallow you” (Leviticus 22:32).

It is sin that called forth the wonderful love of God in not sparing His Son. It was sin that nailed Jesus to the cross and revealed the depth and the power of the love with which He loved. Through all eternity in the glory of heaven, it is our being redeemed sinners that will give music to our praise.

Never forget for a moment that it is sin that has led to the great transaction between you and Christ Jesus. Each day in your fellowship with God, His one aim is to deliver and keep you fully from its power, and to lift you up into His likeness and His infinite love.

It is the thought of sin that will keep you low at His feet and will give the deep undertone to all your adoration. It is the thought of sin, ever seeking to tempt you, that will give fervency to your prayer and urgency to the faith that hides itself in Christ. It is the thought of sin that makes Christ so unspeakably precious that keeps you every moment dependent on His grace, and that gives you the right to be more than a conqueror “through Him that loved us” (Romans 8:37). It is the thought of sin that calls you to thank God with “a broken and a contrite heart…[that] God…will not despise” (Psalm 51:17), and that works in you a contrite and humble spirit in which He delights to dwell.

It is in the inner chamber, in secret with the Father, that sin can be conquered, the holiness of Christ can be imparted, and the Spirit of holiness can take possession of our lives. It is in the inner chamber that we learn to know and experience fully the divine power of these precious words of promise: “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7), and “Whosever abides in Him sins not” (1 John 3:6).