1-12. DEPENDENT RECEPTION

"Walk in [dependence upon] the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh" (Galatians 5:16).

Those who have thoroughly learned full dependence on Him for justification will come to understand that sanctification is by the same faith principle. We are to rest in His finished work both for birth and for growth.

"We are not to overcome the lusts of the flesh in order that we may walk in the Spirit. We are to walk in the Spirit in order that the lusts of the flesh may be overcome. The enemy can hold up young Christians on this point for a long time, so that they do not really get started on the Christian walk. They feel they cannot expect to begin to walk in the Spirit until they have, in some degree at least, dealt with the lusts of the flesh.

"They wait for some vague time when they hope they will have reached a more satisfactory position in regard to the lusts of the flesh, and will feel more confident about attempting a walk in the Spirit. But that is all the wrong way around. If we are to wait until we have, in some degree, mastered the lusts of the flesh before we venture to walk in the Spirit: if we are to wait until we feel that we can give some sort of security to ourselves and to God that we shall do a bit better in the future than we have done in the past, then we never will walk in the Spirit. For until we walk in dependence upon the Spirit we shall not, and cannot, overcome the lusts of the flesh." -D.T.

"Be filled with [controlled by] the indwelling of the Spirit" (Ephesians 5:18, Cony.).

Remember, except for receiving salvation, nothing which God does results from anything we do, for He "works all things after the counsel of His own will" (Ephesians 1:11). Nothing He blesses us in is merited but foreknown and preplanned. "For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate . . . ." (Rom 8:29).

1-11. DESIGNER AND DESIGNED

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ" (Ephesians 1:3)

Since the sovereign God has every atom in the universe precisely timed and controlled for the carrying out of His perfect will, it should not be difficult for us to understand why He is so meticulous in His development of us as His instruments. "Being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will" (Ephesians 1:11).

"You are one of God's rough diamonds, and He is going to have to cut you so that you may really shine for Him. It takes a diamond to cut a diamond. You are to be ground and cut, and hurt by other diamonds, by other Christians, by spiritual Christians. But the more cutting and the more perfecting, the more you are going to shine for your Lord." -G.M.

"God in His wisdom has ordained our trials, and it is our folly that causes us not to welcome them. God sends us such trials as are exactly fitted for us. Our Heavenly Father knows what will best serve us. He serves us by trials and by comforts. Let us remember that our trials are few our evil ways are many; our worthiness nothing; our comforts great. When God tries us let us consider how we have been trying Him. By grace we will not murmur, but humble ourselves under His mighty hand, and He will exalt us in due time."

"Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you" (1 Peter 4:12).

Jesus said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me . . . .”  “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word . . . .”  “He who does not love Me does not keep My words . . . .” (John 14:15, 21, 23, 24).

Considering the above statements of Christ, it would be not presumptuous to conclude that, to love Christ is to obey Him and to obey Christ is to love Him!

It’s helpful to be aware of the fact that our obedience to God is not to be out of obligation, but desire (Phil 2:13). We need not to feel we owe Him for our salvation and therefore, somehow repay Him. As we should realize, repayment is not possible, nor is it required. It’s a certainty that those who are saved would give their all for Christ’s atonement and therefore, all our works would suffice, but this would render salvation as a merit instead of a gift. This is why the responsibility of our salvation, in obtaining and retaining it, is on the finished works of Christ. Our works do not present a medium of obtaining but is evidence of something already obtained.

The greatest accomplishment anyone can perform in this life is to “love Christ” for He Himself has stated, “You shall love the LORD your God . . . .”  “This is the first and great commandment” (Mat 22:37, 38). This brings us to the most important question, “What is the prime requisite to loving God?” The answer is in Christ’s second commandment, namely, “Love your neighbor as yourself” (v 39). Since obeying Christ is loving Him, neighborly love summarily comprehends loving Christ, for the command He wants us to obey is neighborly-love: “This is My commandment, that you love one another . . . .” (John 15:12). Other supportive Scripture is “If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also” (1 John 4:20, 21).

 The love we are to love with is beyond our natural (Grk:phileo) love. It is within the Lord’s divine (Grk:agape) love we are to live. Divine love is not us trying to measure up to the life of Christ but allowing Him to be our life, by our “yielding to God” (Rom 6:13). It is not our attempting to live like Christ but that He does the living, in and by, us. Our lives are overlaid by His and so, all the good works (fruit) are from Christ and are performed by Him—using us. We are bearers of the fruit (works), not producers, for the vine (Christ) produces the fruit and the branches (we) bear it. “By this My Father is glorified, that you bear (not produce) much fruit” (John 15:. Yield, not wield!

Christ asked Peter three times if he loved Him. The first two times were in the Greek usage for “agape”, which can be only transferred, not produced, because it originates from Divinity.   The third time Christ asked Peter if he loved Him was in the Greek “phileo” usage. In this passage (John 21:15-17) I believe the Lord was making a distinction between His divine-love and man’s natural-love so that He can teach us to live by His love, for Christ’s command to “love your neighbor” is in the Greek usage “agape”.

As it is known, neighborly-love (agape) is the “royal law” (Jam 2: and as shown above, the significance concerning works, lies within the distinction of “who is doing the works?” It’s not, we do the works—by God, but God does the works—by us! We are the vessel (Act 9:15), not the contents!

I found this explanation to be most accurate and conducive for spiritual growth in “the image of Christ”: “Our Father is going to teach us, mainly through personal failure, that the life we live is the life of our Lord Jesus alone. The Christian life is not our living a life like Christ, or our trying to be Christ-like, nor is it Christ giving us the power to live a life like His; but it is Christ Himself living His own life through us; 'no longer I, but Christ.’”

“He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked” (1 John 2:6). To “walk just as He walked” does not facilitate the means of coming to Christ but is evidence of one who is in Christ, because it can only be performed by Him (John 3:2).

Much of what the believer chooses is directed by the Holy Spirit, “so that you cannot do the things that you would” (Gal 5:17). The desire for God’s will to be done by our lives does not originate from us, “for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for [His] good pleasure” (Phil 2:13). <><

1-10. REST IN HIM

"He has created us through our union with Christ Jesus for doing good deeds which He beforehand planned for us to do"(Ephesians 2:10, Wms.).

The turning point in our Christian life comes when we begin to "let God be God," the day we throw all caution (fear) to the winds and look to Him to carry out His purpose for us in His own time and way.

"Our Father never does a thing suddenly: He has always prepared long, long before. So there is nothing to murmur about, nothing to be proud of, in the calling of God. There is also no one of whom to be jealous, for other people's advantages have nothing to do with us. 'It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that hath mercy' (Romans 9:16). Our heritage, our birth, our natural equipment: these are things already determined by God. We may pick up other things in the way, for we are always learning; but the way is His way. When we look back over our life, we bow and acknowledge that all was prepared of God. To have such an attitude of heart, that is true rest." -W.N.

"Let us take care lest we get out of soul-rest in seeking further blessing. God cannot work whilst we are anxious, even about our spiritual advance. Let us take Him at His Word, and leave the fulfillment of it to Him."

"For it is God Himself whose power creates within you the desire to do His gracious will and also brings about the accomplishment of the desire" (Philippians 2:13, Weymouth).

1-9. POWERLESS RECIPIENTS

"Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us" (Romans 8:37)

The world, the flesh, and the devil say, Be powerful. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit say, Be powerless "for My strength is made perfect in [your] weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9)

"There would be little harm in trying to imitate Christ if such an endeavor did not hide from us what our Lord really desires; and so keep us back from 'life more abundant.' Christ has come Himself into our hearts to dwell there, and what He wants is to live His life in us, as the Apostle Paul says, 'For to me to live is Christ.' Christ was the very source and mainspring of all he was and did. What a wonderful thing this is! We would be driven to despair if Christ had simply left us an example to follow or imitate, for we have no power within ourselves to do it. We must have a new source; a new spring of action, and Christ Himself wants to be just that for us." -E.C.H.

"The man in Romans Seven is occupied with himself, and his disappointment and anguish spring from his inability to find in self the good which he loves. The man of Romans Eight has learned there is no good to be found in self. It is only in Christ; and his song of triumph results from the joy of having found out that he is 'complete in Him.'" -H.A.I.

"I have strength for all things in Christ who empowers me; I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him who infuses inner strength into me" (Philippians 4:13, Amplified).

1-8. UNCLEAN! UNCLEAN!

"Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips...for mine eyes have seen the King the Lord of hosts'' (Isaiah 6.5).

Paul wrote, "In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you" (1 Thessalonians 5:18). This includes giving thanks for the disclosure of self! At first, we seek to hide our sinfulness and to save our life. Later, by His grace, we yearn to be freed from self, regardless of the cost. And the price is the Cross.

"Many a young Christian, who has not been forewarned of this necessary voyage of discovery upon which the Holy Spirit will certainly embark him (Romans Seven), has been plunged into almost incurable despair at the sight of the sinfulness which is his by nature. He has in the first place rejoiced greatly in the forgiveness of his sins, and his acceptance by God; but sooner or later he begins to realize that all is not well, and that he has failed and fallen from the high standard which he set himself to reach in the first flush of his conversion.

"Little does he know how healthy his condition is, and that this shattering discovery is but the prelude to a magnificent series of further discoveries of things which God has expressly designed for his eternal enrichment. All through life God has to show us our own utter sinfulness and need, in order to more fully lead us on into realms of grace." -J.C.M.

"But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil" (2 Thessalonians 3:3).

1-7. LIFE'S MOTIVATION

"For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God" (Romans 8:14).

It takes a good many years of sin and failure in order to see through our own motives. The growing believer finally learns to trust but one source of motivation: "the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:2).

"All of our motives will be tested by fire. Are we seeking personal influence, popularity, reputation, prestige, acceptableness, success? We may think our motives to be perfectly pure; but not until we pass into daily death, death to any or all of the above, and find ourselves 'despised and rejected of men,' our names cast out as evil, and a real hold-up (seemingly) of our work, do we really come to face the true purpose and motive of our having any place in the service of God. The Cross separating us from everything Adamic both within and without is a good test of motives.

"Men of God who have been truly used by Him have gone this way. Not upon our flesh whether it be the gross flesh or the refined, soulish, educated flesh will God allow His Spirit to come. Before there can be life for others there must be death for us (2 Corinthians 4-12). Before there can be the fire of God there must be an altar and a sacrifice; and it must be the burnt offering." -T. A-S.

"Present your bodies a living sacrifice. . . which is your reasonable service" (Romans 12:1).

1-6. FULNESS OF SELF

"Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?" (Isaiah 2:22).

As Christians we are going to be controlled by one of two powers: the self-life (old man), or the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. The former will make life hell, the latter, heaven.

"He who knows that awful power of the self-life within; its enmity with God; its carnality; its grieving and quenching of the Spirit; its deadly blighting of all the blessed fruits of the Spirit; its fierce and desperate resistings of his hunger to enter into the full life of the Spirit, needs no other explanation of the lack of the fulness of the Spirit than the fulness of self." -J.H. McC.

"Do not seek to shatter the mirror which reflects your soul's lack of beauty; rather welcome the truth, and believe that next to knowledge of the Lord Jesus nothing is so important as the knowledge of self."-N.G.

"There is nothing in self worth holding on to; it ought to be handed to the Cross; we have submitted ourselves to such a life as that, and our Father is going to give us every opportunity to allow the Holy Spirit to hold the old nature in the place of death, with the glorious end in view that our Lord Jesus will have the preeminence." -F.M.

"I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth Thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes" (Job 42:5,6).

1-5. LOVE DRAWS AND CONFORMS

"Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee" (Jeremiah 31:3).

God is the first and only Cause. He always makes the first move. "For God so loved. . . that He gave"; "Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you" (John 3:16; 15:16). Even the hunger of heart necessary for our response to His love comes from Him. "But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus" (I Peter 5:10). He brought us to His Son; He will make us like His Son.

"If you feel the drawing of God within, cherish it as you would cherish a great treasure. If you are aware of a deep hunger, if you are entering into a closer walk with Him, do not look upon it carelessly, nor treat it lightly. But if you do not feel the divine drawing and hunger for God, cry to Him that He will give it you; and ever remember that the desire for hunger is the beginning of hunger, and that you cannot feed upon the Lord Jesus Christ until you are spiritually hungry." -H. McI.

"Our Lord is generous in His provision, but He is neither casual nor wasteful. There must be a real hunger and felt need. It is a fixed principle with the Lord that He does not move until something like desperation makes it evident that it is His move." -T. A-S.

"No one is able to come to Me unless the Father who sent Me attracts and draws him and gives him the desire to come to Me" (John 6:44, Amp.).

1-4. DESERT RICHES

"And He said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart, into a desert place, and rest a while" (Mk 6:31).

In the early days of our lonely pilgrimage, the desert is nothing but burning heat and barren sand. As we "keep on keeping on," we see our desert become full of springs and blossom as the rose.

"Has the Father led you into the desert? Has He plucked from under your feet all that you depended upon? Then a glorious experience is yours. See if this be not a way whereby God will glorify you! Do not complain about what you have lost, and do not yearn to have it back again, for then you are like Israel who wished to turn back to Egypt. God leads on, and instead of the flesh-pots He gives you bread from heaven, and instead of water from the Nile, water from the Rock. But you must put your trust in Him also in the desert, and through the days of darkness and difficulty. This is possible, however, only for those who have lost their self-assurance in the desert whereto God beckons His children."

"Are there sorrows that sorely test our hearts? Be assured that our Father intends every one of them to be a road for us to Christ; so that we may reach Him and know Him in some character of His love and power, that otherwise our souls had not known." -C.A.C.

"And they thirsted not when He led them through the deserts: He caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them. . . ." ". . .for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ" (Isaiah 48:21; 1 Corinthians 10:4).

1-3. RELENTLESS PURPOSE

"For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him" (2 Chronicles. 16:9).

All of God's thoughts concerning us are centered in His Son, where He has placed us. Hence they are "thoughts of peace, and not of evil" (Jeremiah 29:11). Others may do evil against us, but our Father turns it into our good, for Jesus' sake.

"The purpose of God is that through the conditions and sufferings of my life should develop in me the features of His Son. On the one hand, the features of the old creation may be seen to be more and more terrible and horrible, as I recognize them in myself; but over against that God is doing something which is other than my old self. He is bringing into being Another, altogether other, and that is His Son, my new life. Slowly, seemingly all too slowly; nevertheless something is developing. The sonship is not very much in evidence yet, but it is going to be manifested. What God has been doing will come out into the light eventually conformity to the image of His Son." -T. A-S.

"Afflictions are in the hands of the Holy Spirit to effect the softening of the heart in order to receive heavenly impression. Job said, 'God maketh my heart soft' (Job 23:16). As the wax in its natural hard state cannot take the impress of the signet, and needs to be melted to render it susceptible, so the believer is by trials prepared to receive, and made to bear, the divine likeness."

"Rooted and built up in Him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving''(Colossians 2:7).

Thanks Solder4Christ and your comment on glorifying God is also why I work. Thanks again for the idea!

 1-2. LIFE'S PURPOSE

"For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily" (Colossians 2:9).

Our Lord the Vine provides all that His branches will ever need for fruit-bearing. All provision is according to our Father's riches in glory by Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19).
"Christian growth is the becoming real in ourselves, of what is already true of us in the Lord Jesus. 'I am the vine, ye are the branches, He says. But the vine furnishes the branches, not only with the principle of life, but with the type of life. No pressure or molding from without is needed to shape them to the pattern of the parent stock. Every minutest peculiarity of form, and color, and taste, and fragrance is determined by the root, and developed from it. A true believer, therefore, will ask no better thing of the Lord than that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in his body (2 Corinthians 4:11). For such a manifestation will, by a necessary principle, be the unfolding within him of every needed element of joy and sorrow, of suffering and triumph." -A.J.G.
"Straining, driving effort does not accomplish the work God gives a man to do; we must partake of Christ so fully that He more than fills the life. It will then be not overwork but overflow."
"And ye are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power" (Colossians 2:10).

I would like to add that we are to remember we do no produce the fruit but bear it. Many Christians work needlessly in attempting to do works by the Lord instead of allowing the Lord to do the works by us. "Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples"(John 15:.

Greetings Solder4Christ! I like your Daily Devotionals and it gave me the idea, if it's ok, to post one also. Thanks for your labors on this site and God's blessings to you and your's and to all site members!!

This is the "None But The Hungry Heart" series, a daily devotional anthology from Miles J Stanford (1914-1999).


1-1. NOTHING DAUNTED

"Blessed are they that . . . seek Him with the whole heart" (Psalm 119:2).

Once the Holy Spirit instills within our hearts the hunger for God's very best, all must and will become secondary to this supreme goal: " . . .the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:14). Our puny, worthless all exchanged for the One who is All in all! "For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things: to Whom be glory for ever. Amen" (Romans 11:36) .

"A sage of India was asked by a young man how he could find God. For some time the sage gave no answer, but one evening he asked the youth to come and bathe with him in the river. While there he gripped him suddenly and held his head under the water until he was nearly drowned. When he released him the sage asked him: 'What did you want most when you were under the water?' 'A breath of air,' he replied. To which the sage answered, 'When you want God as you wanted the breath of air, you will find Him.'" -G.G.

"Every Christian will become at last what his desires have made him. We are all the sum total of our hungers. The great saints have all had thirsting hearts. Their cry has been, 'My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God....' Their longing after God all but consumed them; it propelled them onward and upward to heights toward which less ardent believers look with and entertain no hope of reaching."

"For He satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness" (Psalm 107:9)

“And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" that is, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me" (Mat 27:46; Mar 15:34)?

Did the Father momentarily forsake Christ on the Cross or was it just Christ, in His humanity, feeling forsaken by Him? I believe Christ, in His humanity, felt forsaken by the Father, much like in His humanity, Christ momentarily desired to avoid the “cup” which He was required to endure (Mat 26:39, 42).

Just as Christ recovered from desiring to avoid the “cup” by saying, “O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done” (Mat 26:42), He also realized the necessity of the Cross by saying, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit” (Luke 23:46), which is indicative that the Father was still with Him. Let’s also not forget that Christ was still the Word of God while He was on earth, which means He was and is omnipresent, in heaven and earth simultaneously. “No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven” (John 3:13 NKJV, KJV). Also, when considering this passage, “And He who sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left Me alone . . . .” (John 8:29), one can safely conclude that Their union is always permanent. I’ve heard it said that the Father would not look at Christ at this time because all the sin in the world was on Him. I still fail to locate Scriptural support for this thought but I have found conflicting Scripture:
“The eyes of the LORD [are] in every place, Keeping watch on the evil and the good” (Pro 15:3).


To me, the significance of this issue reveals the desires of Christ and the Father to relate to us, to the degree that Christ became as one of us, in human form and nature. “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hbr 4:15).

The importance of place in these “earthen vessels” is to cause us to always depend on God and not ourselves, for all things at all times. “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us” (2Cr 4:7). “And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness" (2Cr 12:9).
“Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the LORD of hosts” (Zec 4:6).

It has been well said that “His Blood procures pardon for our sin and His Cross procures power over our sin (the indwelling old man or nature).”

Ultimately, this teaches us to depend, not on our works, but on His atonement (Rom 5:11) and propitiation (Rom 3:25; 1Jo 2:2, 4:10).

Reckoning on our life-union with the Lord Jesus Christ establishes us in the full assurance of salvation. On this foundation we are able to reckon on our eternal, unconditional security in Him. Until we are grounded in the truths of substitution and union, we are not prepared for the more demanding reckoning of our identification with Him in His death and resurrection—and on to ascension.

The believer who does not realize that he is eternally secure in Christ—a birth truth for babes—is certainly not going to be able to trust Him for emancipation from sin and maturity of growth. Those who begin weakly, and are not instructed concerning their position in the Lord Jesus, are apt to remain weaklings. They move mainly up, down, and backward, with rarely any forward spiritual progress and abiding growth. For the most part, they subsist on experiences and so-called blessings; they seem to go from one crisis to another, never really settling down to reckon on Christ risen as the source of their life here and now.

It has been felt necessary to share the following selected material on Eternal Security (author unknown). These truths may be of help to any believers who are attempting to enter on the reckoning of identification before they are settled in that of justification.

“If you recognize in the Word of Truth: that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Savior because He is God the Son who became the Son of Man, and as such bore in His body the sins of the world;
“And if you rest in Him: in self-surrender for fellowship, relying with confidence on Him alone for deliverance from the guilt and penalty of your sins and from the power of indwelling sin;

“Then there are twelve proofs that you can never be lost:
1. Because in the eternal, sure purpose of God, you are a ‘vessel of mercy’ and will finally be ‘conformed to the image of His Son.’ ‘That He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had afore prepared into glory.’ ‘For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son’ (Rom. 9:23; 8:29).

2. Because God’s infinite power is no longer hindered by your sins, but can wholly keep you safe, for the Blood of Christ still removes you guilt. ‘He is the propitiation for our sins’ (1 John 2:2).

3. Because God’s love for you, supremely expressed at Calvary, can now be manifested ‘much more’ and so accomplish His every desire for you. ‘God commended His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being justified by His Blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life’ (Rom. 5:8-10).

4. Because of His delight in the Son, God can never reject the prayer of the Son asking Him to keep ‘them which Thou hast given Me.’ ‘I pray for them . . . for they are Thine.’ ‘Holy Father, keep through Thine own Name those whom Thou hast given Me’ (John 17:9, 11).

5. Because the death of the Son, having a value equivalent to the punishment demanded for all your sins, has paid also for sins you now commit. ‘There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.’ ‘Who is he that condemns? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us’ (Rom. 8:1, 34).

6. Because by the resurrection of Christ God has broken your connection with Adam and joined you to Christ for acceptance and life. ‘You, being dead in you sins . . . has He quickened [enlivened] together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses.’ ‘Yield yourselves as those that are alive from the dead’ (Col. 2:13; Rom. 6:13).

7. Because, although your sin could hurl you into hell, Christ as your Advocate defends you. ‘Christ is . . . entered . . . into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.’ ‘Now once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself’ (Heb. 9:24, 26).

8. Because Christ ‘ever lives to make intercession’ for you, Satan has no power to unsave you. ‘He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever lives to make intersession for them’ (Heb. 7:25).

9. Because the Holy Spirit has taken over your body as His personal, permanent home. ‘I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever’ (John 14:16).

10. Because the Holy Spirit has planted in you the very life of God, making God your real Father. ‘Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God’ (John 1:13).

11. Because the Holy Spirit has now united you with Christ and you are a very part of Himself. ‘For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one Body’ (1 Cor. 12:13).

12. Because the Holy Spirit in you is the seal that your salvation is a finished transaction. ‘Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed unto the day of redemption’ (Eph. 4:30).

“Though your present sins cannot unsave you, remember there are other penalties you can bring upon yourself, the least of which is chastisement at your Father’s hand.” “Do not faint when He corrects you; for those whom the Lord loves He disciplines” (Heb. 12:6).

Further, “to accept and teach that a Blood-bought child of God can fall from grace is to conflict with the very nature, character, and sovereign purpose of God, as well as His justice and His love.

“Such teaching conflicts with the nature of God in that the believer is declared to be ‘partaker of the divine nature’ (2 Peter 1:4); ‘born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God’ (John 1: 13); and indwelt by the Holy Spirit God (John 14:16, 17).

“It conflicts with the character of God—His faithfulness and truthfulness, in that the life He imparts He gives His pledge to maintain. His promise is, ‘I give into them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man (self is also “any man”) pluck them out of My hand’ (John 10:28): ‘and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life’ (John 5:24).

“Also, the doctrine of ‘falling from grace’ conflicts with the sovereign purpose of God as set forth in Romans 8:28-30, where the believer is seen in the purpose of God in the eternity of the past, in His foreknowledge and predestination, and in the eternity of the future sharing the very glory of Christ (John 17:22-26).

“Then, it conflicts with the justice of God, in that God declares concerning the believer, ‘Your life is hid with Christ in God’ (Col. 3:3), and that there is now ‘no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,’ and no separation ‘from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord’ (Rom. 8:1, 37-39). Thus, we can thank our Heavenly Father for His justice because it is this which preserves the child of God form a second charge:
‘Payment, God cannot twice demand,
First at my bleeding Surety’s hand,
And then again at mine.’

Lastly, it conflicts with the love of God, in that God declares His love ‘an everlasting love’ from which nothing ‘shall be able to separate,’ for He is ‘able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy’ (Jer. 31:3; Rom. 8:39; Jude 24).”