Truth as It Is in Jesus
281
Advancement Not to Cease
We are never to rest in a satisfied condition, and cease to make
advancement, saying, “I am saved.” When this idea is entertained, the
motives for watchfulness, for prayers, for earnest endeavor to press
onward to higher attainments, cease to exist. No sanctified tongue will
be found uttering these words till Christ shall come, and we enter in
through the gates into the city of God. Then, with the utmost propriety,
we may give glory to God and to the Lamb for eternal deliverance. As
long as man is full of weakness—for of himself he cannot save his
soul—he should never dare to say, “I am saved.”
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It is not he that putteth on the armor that can boast of the victory;
for he has the battle to fight and victory to win. It is he that endureth
unto the end that shall be saved. The Lord says, “If any man draw
back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him” (
Hebrews 10:38
). If we
do not go forward from victory to victory, the soul will draw back to
perdition. We should raise no human standard whereby to measure
character. We have seen enough of what men call perfection here
below. God’s holy law is the only thing by which we can determine
whether we are keeping His way or not. If we are disobedient, our
characters are out of harmony with God’s moral rule of government,
and it is stating a falsehood to say, “I am saved.” No one is saved who
is a transgressor of the law of God, which is the foundation of His
government in heaven and in earth.
Those who ignorantly join the ranks of the enemy, and echo the
words of their religious teachers, in the desk, that the law of God is no
longer binding upon the human family, will have light to discover their
errors, if they will accept the evidence of God’s Word. Jesus was the
angel enshrouded in the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by
night, and He gave special direction that the Hebrews should teach the
law of God, given when the foundation of the earth was laid, when the
morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy.
The same law was proclaimed in grandeur by His own voice from
Sinai. He said: “And these words, which I command thee this day,
shall be in thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy
children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and
when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when
thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand,