For the Lord himself shall descend from
heaven with a shout with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump
of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are
alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds,
to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
Wherefore comfort one another with these words" (1 Thessalonians
4:13-14). It was not enough for them, in his judgment, to abide in the
faith; they must abound in the works of the Gospel. To talk well
without walking well is not pleasing to God, for the character of the
Christian is thus described, "He walks not after the flesh but after
the Spirit."

The presentation of this subject impresses upon us the fact that we
have lost many of the best words in the Bible because they have been
misused and their teaching misapprehended. If you speak of holiness
men look askance at you, and yet holiness is simply wholeness or
healthfulness and is to the soul what health is to the body. Who,
then, would be without it? If you speak of sanctification immediately
your hearers imagine you are talking concerning sinlessness, and yet
there is no better word in the Scriptures than sanctification, for in
one way it means separation from sin, in another way it means an
increasing likeness to Christ. There are six particular effects of
faith.

First: There is union with Christ. It is true that we were chosen in
him before the foundation of the world and that we are an elect people,
but it is also true that we are by nature the children of wrath and it
is necessary that we should make a deliberate choice of him as a
Savior. When by faith we have taken Christ as a Savior we are united
to him. Faith is counting that which seems unreal as real, as untrue
as true and that which seems not to exist as if it existed. Faith
unites us to him. Without him we are as nothing.

Second: Justification. "There is therefore now no condemnation to them
which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the
Spirit" (Romans 8:1). "He that believeth on him is not condemned; but
he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not
believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God" (John 3:18). As
we believe in Christ we are clothed with his righteousness. Whether we
can explain it or not, this righteousness answers every demand of God's
justice. Thus it is that Romans the eighth chapter the thirty-third