PSALM 119:3 They also do no iniquity; they walk in His ways.
This was not their character from their birth. Once they were
doing nothing but iniquity. It was without mixture, without
cessation-from the fountainhead. Now it is written of them-
"they do no iniquity." Once they walked, even as others, in the
way of their own hearts-"enemies to God by wicked works."
Now "they walk in His ways." They are "new creatures in
Christ; old things are passed away; behold! all things are
become new." This is their highly-privileged state-"Sin shall
have no dominion over them: for they are not under the law,
but under grace." They are "born of God, and they cannot
commit sin: for their seed remains in them, and they cannot
sin, because they are born of God." Their hatred and
resistance to sin are therefore now as instinctive, as was their
former enmity and opposition to God. Not, indeed, that the
people of God are as "the saints made perfect," who "do no
iniquity." This is a dream of perfection-unscriptural and selfdeluding. The unceasing advocacy of their Heavenly Friend
evidently supposes the indwelling power of sin, to the
termination of our earthly pilgrimage. The supplication, also, in
the prayer of our Lord teaches them to ask for daily pardon
and deliverance from "temptation," as for "daily bread." Yes-to
our shame be it spoken-we are sinners still; yet-praised be
God!-not "walking after the course," not "fulfilling the desires,"
of sin. The acting of sin is now like the motion of a stone
upward, violent and unnatural. If it is not cast out, it is
dethroned. We are not, as before, "its willing people," but its
reluctant, struggling captives. It is not "the day of its power."
And here lies the holy liberty of the Gospel-not, as some have
imagined,-a liberty to "continue in sin, that grace may
abound"; but a deliverance from the guilt and condemnation of
abhorred, resisted, yet still indwelling, sin. When our better will has cast it off-when we can say in the sight of a heartsearching God-"What we hate, that do we"-the responsibility
is not ours: "It is not we that do it, but sin that dwells in us."
Still let us inquire, is the promise of deliverance from sin sweet
to us? And does our successful resistance in the spiritual
conflict realize the earnest of its complete fulfillment? Blessed
Jesus! what do we owe to Your cross for the present
redemption from its guilt and curse, and much more for the
blissful prospect of the glorified state, when this hated guest
shall be an inhabitant no more forever! Oh, let us take the
very print of Your death into our souls in the daily crucifixion of
sin. Let us know the "power of Your resurrection," in a habitual
