Testing Our “Doctrine” of Victory
There are some simple tests of our “view” of complete victory over sin which will show whether we are in danger of coming into bondage to a doctrine.
Any view that centers attention upon self is dangerous. The heart secret of victory is looking away from self unto Christ. If I testify, “I am holy”; if I must look into my own state, examining self to see whether this holiness still remains, I am on wrong ground.
Any view that brings into prominence my past record of victory or holiness leads to difficulties. The testimony, “I have not sinned for so many weeks or months since my new experience” may be given with sincerity, and the speaker may intend to give the glory to God. Nevertheless, it is a wrong testimony, and no encouragement is given in the Word for such a statement. For one thing, no human being has a perfect memory; none of us can have accurate knowledge of past states of consciousness. Victory is always a matter of the present moment, and if we are occupied with Christ and his perfect work for us, the matter of our past record is of no consequence, so far as it bears on present victory by faith.
Any view that centers attention upon feeling is on the wrong basis. Many Christians who have come into the new experience of the fulness of the Spirit have been overwhelmed with flood-tides of blessed feeling. In some cases this exalted state of feeling has continued for weeks or even months. Some have counted this the “witness of the Spirit” that a new work of grace has been wrought in their hearts. Many have been thrown into confusion and darkness by waiting for this “witness of the Spirit,” which they have been taught to believe is some wondrous consciousness in their feeling. Others who have had such a “witness” have later lost the feeling and have wondered whether their experience has gone. God often permits the feeling to go, that his child may learn to look to Christ and to the fact of his grace in the life, rather than to the feelings, which vary according to temperament and circumstances.