"The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God." Galatians 2:20
There is no way except by being spiritually immersed into Christ's death and life�that we can ever get a victory over our besetting sins. If, on the one hand, we have a view of a suffering Christ, and thus become immersed into His sufferings and death�the feeling, while it lasts, will subdue the power of sin. Or, on the other hand, if we get a believing view of a risen Christ, and receive supplies of grace out of His fullness�that will lift us above sin's dominion. If sin is powerfully working in us, we need one of these two things to subdue it. When there is a view of the sufferings and sorrows, agonies and death of the Son of God, power comes down to the soul in its struggles against sin and gives it a measure of holy
resistance and subduing strength against it. So, when there is a coming in of the grace and love of Christ�it lifts up the soul from the love and power of sin into a purer and holier atmosphere. Sin cannot be subdued in any other way. You must either be immersed into Christ's sufferings and death�or you must be immersed into Christ's resurrection and life. A sight of Him as a suffering God�or a view of Him as a risen Jesus�must be connected with every successful attempt to get the victory over sin, death, hell, and the grave. You may strive, vow, and repent�and what does it all amount to? You sink deeper and deeper into sin than before. Pride, lust, and covetousness come in like a flood�and you are swamped and carried away almost before you are aware! But if you get a view of a suffering Christ, or of a risen Christ�if you get a taste of His dying love�a drop of His atoning blood�or any manifestation of His beauty and blessedness�there comes from this spiritual immersion into His death or His life a subduing power�and this gives a victory over temptation
and sin which nothing else can or will give. Yet I believe we are often many years learning this divine secret�striving to repent and reform, and cannot�until at last by divine teaching we come to learn a little of what the Apostle meant when he said, "The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God." And when we can get into this life of faith�this hidden life, then our affections are set on things above. There is no use setting to work by 'legal strivings'�they only plunge you deeper in the ditch. You must get Christ into your soul by the power of God�and then He will subdue�by His smiles, blood, love, and presence�every internal foe.
