d, been confined to the one
great blessed truth of free justification with ever renewed pardon and
eternal glory for the vilest of sinners, while the other equally blessed
truth of "grace abounding" in sanctification is not fully known. Paul
writes: "Much more shall they which receive the abundance of grace reign
in life through Jesus Christ." That reigning in life, as conqueror over
sin, is even here on earth. "Where sin abounded" in the heart and life,
"grace did abound more exceedingly, that grace might reign through
righteousness" in the whole life and being of the believer. It is of
this reign of grace in the soul that Paul asks, "Shall we sin because we
are under grace?" and answers, "God forbid." Grace is not only pardon
of, but power over, sin; grace takes the place sin had in the life, and
undertakes, as sin had reigned within in the power of death, to reign in
the power of Christ's life. It is of this grace that Christ spoke, "My
grace is sufficient for thee," and Paul answered, "I will glory in my
weakness; for, when I am weak, then am I strong." It is of this grace,
which, when we are willing to confess ourselves utterly impotent and
helpless, comes in to work all in us, that Paul elsewhere teaches, "God
is able to make _all grace_ abound unto you, that ye, _always_ having
_all sufficiency_ in _all things_, may abound unto _all good works_."

It has often happened that a seeker after God and salvation has read his
Bible long, and yet never seen the truth of a free and full and
immediate justification by faith. When once his eyes were opened, and he
accepted it, he was amazed to find it everywhere. Even so many
believers, who hold the doctrines of free grace as applied to pardon,
have never seen its wondrous meaning as it undertakes to work our whole
life in us, and _actually give us strength every moment_ for whatever
the Father would have us be and do. When God's light shines into our
heart with this blessed truth, we know what Paul means, "Not I, but the
grace of God." There again you have the twofold Christian life. The one,
in which that "Not I"--I am nothing, I can do nothing--has not yet
become a reality. The other, when the wondrous exchange has been made,
and grace has taken the place of our effort, and we say and know, "I
live, yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in me." It may then become a
lifelong experience: "The grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant, with
faith and love which is in Christ Jesu