Many believers have a wrong understanding of Christian victory. They think victory is an unbroken span of sinless peace where one does not transgress in word, thought or action. But this alone is an inaccurate picture of triumph. True victory, true triumph in Christ leading from glory to glory is actually comprised of segments of overcoming linked together through confession and subsequent blood-washing. There is not a Christian alive who can get through a day without having to confess some impurity at the thought-level, a random hasty word, or a deed born out of a reactionary impulse to some challenge to her own self-preservation.
The Holy Spirit is always faithful to bring knowledge of sin to the understanding of the child of God. This is the purpose of light.Victory is not so much resisting darkness as it is returning to the light. Every Christian is able, in some capacity, to resist darkness in the face of the light he or she currently has. The problem arises when he or she enters into varying degrees of darkness minus the corresponding grace of God. A believer may be plagued with a sense of impurity, and yet, opposing and confessing the impurity constitutes on-going victory. This victory is granted through the instantaneous effect of blood-cleansing.
It is not the person who hides an outbreak of sin who is counted victorious, for such a struggle is no victory at all. It is merely a successful masking; a mortal concealment, a corking of the volcano. The magma beneath the skin still bubbles. Rather, it is the person who confesses the magma as it burns his conscience who is truly victorious. He needs no cork at all, for the blood of Christ is able to make the fire recede. This recession is effectuated through confession and its effect is immediate. Though the conscience of the believer be slightly burnt in the detection of sin, the instantaneous effect of the blood is one of cooling, one of healing, one of absolute cleansing and instant restoration.
These periods between the risings of sinful impulses are linked together by the blood of Jesus Christ, and they are what present a sense of concurrent triumph to the child of God. Without the blood, the cork of the law is needed to stop the mouth of the volcano from spewing lava into the atmosphere. And this is the unfortunate scenario where people are injured, having fallen prey to legalistic teachings which thrive through self-condemnation.
The child of God must know about the instantaneous effect of the blood-cleansing. The sooner this truth is assimilated, the sooner the cork can be rendered obsolete. It is, in fact, all the difference between the Old and New Covenants. Victory beneath the surface of the volcano should be the normal condition for all New Covenant believers. It is when this victory becomes sought-after in ways incongruent with the New Covenant that cork-legalism gains a foothold.
Through the grace of God in Jesus Christ, all believers can experience this wonderful triumph below the surface and sense of victory today – the Lord’s way. Do not fret over upsets. Upsets are God’s way of making the way of the cross even more precious, more attractive. Through the rain-watered ashes of a burnt forest, new seedlings spring forth into life. Victory may be restored with instantaneous effect, when the heart is humbled unto confession.
The period of blue sky and volcanic dormancy will grow longer in time, and the more the Christian grows in grace, the more he will learn of the power of the blood of Jesus in conjunction with the Spirit’s grace. At the slightest rumbling beneath the surface, the seismograph of the Holy Spirit will be faithful to alert the conscience to an impending eruption. If the conscience gets burnt during this discovery, do not allow yourself to come under condemnation but confess it immediately. In this very moment you can witness the instantaneous effect of blood-cleansing and continue your sojourning in victory.
Dear believer, this is the marvelous power God affords us through the blood of His Son and the grace of the Spirit of Holiness. He comes to convict us of sin, of fire beneath the surface. But He doesn’t leave us in an emergency situation with only a cork to plug the explosion! He grants us immediate access to the grace of God, to the ever-flowing blood of Christ, to power of the Holy Spirit in our time of need.
Scripture Meditations: II Peter 3:18, John 16:8, Hebrews 4:16; 9:14, I John 1:5, 7, 9; 2:1, II Corinthians 2:14; 3:18, Galatians 2:19
Understanding Mortification 