We were talking together, a young Christian and I, and he was telling of his spiritual experiences, of his struggles after holiness of life, and of all his terrible failures and disappointments. He had been plumbing the depths of the iniquity within him, and had come to his wits' end. His past life and his present condition overwhelmed him and he finished the recital of it all with what sounded like a despairing cry, "I tell you, its terrible, AWFUL, HORRIBLE!"
"Yes," I said, "and you have not discovered yet all the evil that is in you, but at the same time it is wonderful, AMAZING, MAGNIFICENT!"
"What is?" he asked.
"The grace that much more abounds where sin abounds. You," I said, "have looked down long enough, you have searched within yourself for good and found only evil. Now look up; cease to be occupied with the corrupting cancer of your own evil nature, and turn your thoughts to our Lord Jesus Christ. All the evil that has been giving you so much trouble was fully judged and condemned when God's own Son came in the likeness of sinful flesh and made His great sacrifice for sin on the cross. And now the grace of God has reached you, and He has saved you, though He knew the worst about you, knew more than ever you will find out. And He has His way of deliverance for you from it all through our Lord Jesus Christ. Consider Him and you will begin to seek for the grace that is in Him.
"It is wonderful, amazing, magnificent!"
So we talked together, and at last, with the clouds lifting, my young friend left me.
A few days afterwards he wrote: "Yes, it is wonderful, amazing, magnificent; and everything is changed for me now, for I see JESUS who tasted death for me crowned with glory and honour."
This is indeed the way of deliverance, and the way in which we are maintained in liberty from sin's power. For a greater power than sin reaches down to us from our exalted Saviour and is effectual towards us and in us as we look in complete dependence to Him.