Part 1

VICTORIOUS LIFE STUDIES

ROBERT C. McQUILKIN Secretary Victorious Life Testimony

Foreword by CHARLES G. TRUMBULL Editor of The Sunday School Times

REVISED AND ENLARGED EDITION

CHRISTIAN LIFE LITERATURE FUND Headquarters for Victorious Life Literature Room 600 Perry Building 16th and Chestnut Streets Philadelphia

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Copyright, 1918, by

Christian Life Literature Fund

FOREWORD

Did you ever go with a very dear friend into some foreign land,――say one of the islands of the sea, like Madeira; and there you and your friend vie with each other in making new discoveries of things beautiful and fresh to both of you: new flowers, fruits, birds, vistas in valleys or mountains? If so, you know something of what it means to explore, with a friend, in the land of Victory in Christ.

It was the new and undiscovered country of the Victorious Life that brought us together, Bob McQuilkin and me. (New and undiscovered to us, that is, but as old as the Day of Pentecost.) We should never have been friends but for Him; we entered, not far apart, the “foreign land” of undreamed riches and delights; and ever since then we have been joyously telling each other of our discoveries, comparing notes, sharing our finds, and together thanking Him who alone is the Promised Land, the Life, and the Victory.

God has greatly blessed me through the discoveries of my friend, as our common Guide, the Holy Spirit, has led him on and on into always new and clearer visions of what belongs, in Christ, to every Christian. I am glad that he is now sharing his findings and his convictions with many, through these studies in the Victorious Life.

As one reads this book, let it be remembered that the Victorious Life is not optional for the Christian who wants God’s whole will. It is a simple duty for every Christian to “be filled with the Spirit” (Eph. 5: 18); and being filled with the Spirit means having Victory and all that goes with this.

We think of the New Testament, and rightly, as being God’s revelation concerning how men may be saved from the wages of sin. They deserved death penalty, or hell. This is true, but have we realized, as a clear-sighted Bible teacher has pointed out, that a much greater part of the New Testament is devoted to telling Christians how to live after they are saved than how to be saved? Have we asked ourselves why this is so? Have we realized what a sad commentary on the Gospel is the man who claims that Christ has saved him completely from the penalty of his sins, yet in whose life is plainly seen, and habitually, the unbroken power of sin?

This book tells how to be as free from the power of sin as from its penalty. It gives God’s own message on _present_ salvation: salvation from sin now and here.

What the Victorious Life is; how to make it one’s own in practical experience; how it may be not only entered into, but maintained; how it differs in life-and-death ways from false substitutes for Victory,――these and other questions that are perplexing many a burdened and seeking Christian are discussed here and answered out of God’s word.

Closest fellowship with Mr. McQuilkin for five years, when we were together daily in editorial work, enables me to know that he has come to his present convictions after exhaustive Bible study, frequent conference with mature and trusted Bible students, and wide reading in the best works, new and old, in this field; but above all, after his rich personal experience, through surrender and faith, of Christ’s freely offered power and grace to meet all needs in the believer’s life. With thanksgiving to the Captain of our Salvation, who never asks us to win victories for Him, but Who has already won all our victories for us, This book is prayerfully commended in His Name.

CHARLES GALLAUDET TRUMBULL.

CONTENTS

A Word of Explanation vii Preface to Second Edition ix I. What Is the Victorious Life? 1 II. Out of Bondage Into Liberty 13 III. God’s New Spelling for “Obey” 22 IV. When Temptation Strikes in the Victorious Life 31 V. Conquest of Temptation in the Victorious Life 38 VI. How Jesus Lived the Victorious Life 47 VII. Serving With the “Mind of Christ” 55 VIII. The Second Coming and the Victorious Life 63 IX. Christian Science and the Victorious Life 72 X. Is the Victorious Life a Second Blessing? 82 XI. Continuing and Growing in Victory 94 XII. Can Man Be Free From Sin? 102 XIII. The Holy Spirit in the Victorious Life 119

A WORD OF EXPLANATION

BY THE AUTHOR

Most of these “studies” have been published, or are yet to be published, as editorials or articles in _The Sunday School Times_. There has been added an introductory article written particularly for those who may have little acquaintance with the meaning of the Victorious Life.

Each chapter has been prepared as an article complete in itself, but there are three pairs of articles which form closely connected studies. The chapters entitled, “Out of Bondage Into Liberty,” and “God’s New Spelling for ‘Obey’” form one study on the relation of law and grace in the life of the Christian. The two chapters on temptation form one study. The chapter on “How Jesus Lived the Victorious Life” and the one which follows on “Serving with the Mind of Christ” form a connected study on the practical meaning for us of our Lord’s humanity.

Whenever use has been made of the writings or messages of others I have endeavored to give full credit, but there should be added here a personal word of special acknowledgment. My own entrance into a new experience in Christ seven years ago came through the message of Charles G. Trumbull, who himself just a year before had found Christ in the new way that transformed his own life and with it the message of _The Sunday School Times_. Following my new experience and this new friendship there was the rare privilege of five years’ fellowship with Mr. Trumbull as Associate Editor of _The Sunday School Times_, a work that was surrendered at the call of the Lord to go into foreign missionary service. This being the foundation of these studies on the Victorious Life, it may well be that in addition to the sentences in quotation marks used with or without Mr. Trumbull’s name, there are statements and ways of putting things that have come directly or indirectly from this association. This applies particularly to the first article; the others embody more definitely suggested applications that have not been touched upon in other articles or editorials in _The Sunday School Times_. Those familiar with “The Life That Wins,” the leaflet that tells Mr. Trumbull’s personal experience, will recall the threefold division of the needs in the Christian life,――“fellowship, freedom from sin, fruit bearing,”――which is the division used in the first chapter of these studies.

Many have been eagerly awaiting Mr. Trumbull’s own book on the Victorious Life, which will deal with the subject in a comprehensive and connected way. It is hoped that this booklet may prove a helpful supplement to the later work.

Special acknowledgment should be made also to another beloved teacher, Professor Melvin Grove Kyle, for his illuminating suggestions on temptation. While this study of temptation and the outline were begun before taking theological work under Dr. Kyle, its development has been strongly influenced by the rich suggestions that are quoted from Professor Kyle.

The little book goes out with the prayer that whatever errors of statement or of judgment may be discovered, these errors may not bulk so large in the mind of the reader as to shut him out from the glorious blessing of victory in Christ, or if he has learned that secret to keep him from further riches of Grace the Word may have for him. As you read through these chapters will you pray through them also? If you receive a blessing, will you pray that God may use it with other readers, and that He alone may be glorified who is our Victory.

_July 20, 1918._

PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION.

BY THE AUTHOR.

This revised and enlarged edition of Victorious Life Studies should not go forth without grateful acknowledgment for an abundant answer to the prayer that whatever errors of statement or of judgment might be found they should not hinder the blessing that God intended from these little “studies.” There is not alone thanksgiving to the Lord of answered prayer, but to those who shared in the prayer for blessing, and it is hoped that the increasing circle of those who are finding new riches of grace in our sufficient Saviour may continue to ask God’s guidance and blessing upon all attempts to put into print the message of victory in Christ.

Changes have been made here and there which affect the use of certain theological expressions which were not accurately used, and which would serve to confuse the truth. While none of these corrections, so far as I know, changes the vital truth that was intended to be expressed, the further study of terms used in Scripture, and terms used theologically that are not in the Scriptures, leads to a conviction that it is helpful to avoid the use of any term the meaning of which is not clear to the one who uses it.

While these studies were not intended as a comprehensive treatment of the subject, it was thought well to take advantage of the call for a second edition by adding two studies, one to consider the relation of the work of the Holy Spirit to the life of victory in Christ, the other to ask what the Scriptures mean by freedom from sin.

After outlining these studies in preparation for this new edition, it was my privilege to be associated in Victorious Life Conferences throughout the country with Dr. A. J. Ramsey, who is now giving his whole time to the work of the Victorious Life Testimony. So far as may be possible in such a word as this I wish to acknowledge the great debt of gratitude I owe to Dr. Ramsey, whose masterly expositions of Romans and First John, and other Scriptures dealing with the sin question, have served to confirm and clarify the glorious truth of God’s plan of victory over sin which a direct study of his Word will disclose to every earnest seeker. With a first-hand knowledge of classical and New Testament Greek which ranks with the leading teachers of that language, with an intimate knowledge of the ramifications of all the theological systems as well as the false “faiths,” Dr. Ramsey for eighteen years has been studying the Scriptures against the back-ground of an experience of the fulness of the Holy Spirit which transformed his own life and ministry. The result is that from all over the land have come insistent calls that he should put into print some of the results of this study which has given a new Bible to scores of ministers and other Christian workers where the message has been spoken.

* * * * *

Accordingly, Dr. Ramsey is hoping soon to prepare leaflets that will discuss such questions as “What is Sin?” “The Body of Sin: Who has It?” “The Old Man: Who is He?” “The Law of Sin: Who Obeys It?” “The Carnal Mind: What Is It?” “Is Romans Seven Christian?” “Is First John One Eight for Christians?” Others will deal with the conflict of “flesh and Spirit,” and the question whether a Christian has two natures, and it is planned later to issue a brief exposition of Romans. The studies in this little volume necessarily deal with some of these questions but as far as possible I have sought to avoid encroaching upon the distinctive contribution that Dr. Ramsey will bring in the careful exegesis of these Scriptures, and the scientific handling of the psychology and ethics that are involved as well as the theology.

To Dr. Ramsey I am indebted for a number of the changes in phraseology, but most of all for the glad confirmation that the truths so self evident in the Scriptures, but so obscured in the writings of men, do rest upon an irrefutable theology, an exegesis of Scripture that cannot be gainsaid. It is this that has given courage to speak plainly on some vital points that need clearing up. And it is a matter for encouragement to every humble student of the Word that without the equipment of a specially gifted mind and a scientific training, it is possible to arrive at both the understanding and experience of the simple plan of salvation from sin.

Shall we also remember as these pages are read that while the Holy Spirit does use human teachers to help us to know His truth, it is our responsibility to make the truth our own by seeing it in the Word for ourselves. Let us have nothing in our experience or our understanding of salvation merely as a result of what any man has said or written regarding the Word of God: let us have a glad original experience of Christ through searching for ourselves whether these things are so.

_June 19, 1920._

VICTORIOUS LIFE STUDIES

WHAT IS THE VICTORIOUS LIFE?

Are you enjoying the Victorious Life?

The Victorious Life is a life of victory over sin. Do you have it?

The Victorious Life is a life of constant fellowship with God. Do you have it?

The Victorious Life is a life of fruit-bearing. Do you have it?

Do you have the peace of God that passeth all understanding? Do you have freedom from worry and discouragement so that you are “anxious in nothing”? Do you have the joy of the Lord, which is independent of feeling, and independent of circumstances? Are you able _in all things_ to give thanks?

Have you, shed abroad in your heart, the love that suffers long and is kind, that envies not, that vaunts not itself, is not puffed up, does not behave itself unseemly, seeks not its own, _is not provoked_?

Do you enjoy in actual experience the fruit of the Spirit, in its nine-fold variety: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control? (Gal. 5: 22, 23).

Is prayer a precious reality to you, so that you can come to a living, present Lord to talk over every question that affects your life? Do you know what it is to ask and receive, to abide in him and have his word abide in you so that whatsoever you ask you receive? Do your prayers change things?

Is the Bible to you sweeter than honey and the honeycomb, more to be desired than gold? Do you go each day to the Word and get a direct personal message from the Master to your own soul, to meet the very need of that day?

If this picture of the Spirit-filled Life, as it is given in the Word of God, does not describe the experience you are having, then you do not have the Victorious Life. There is something that the Lord Jesus offers that _you do not have_. You may have some of these things at times, you may have glorious fruit-bearing, you may know the Lord in a vital and real way, but if there is not _complete victory_ over sin,――which includes such things as worry, discouragement, lack of love, irritation, pride, jealousy, impatience, covetousness, worldliness, lust,――then you do not have the Victorious Life, and there is an experience in Christ awaiting you which will transform life.

Your lack in these things does not mean, necessarily, that you are not a Christian, a born-again child of God, saved by the blood of Christ: it does mean that you are not using in experience what the Lord Jesus provided for you by his death and resurrection.

The First Step Toward Victory

Do you believe there is something in the Christian life that you have not found, or that you do not possess? And do you want that experience? If you can say yes to these questions, then give thanks to God that he has led you by his Grace to take the first step toward Victory.

The first step toward the Victorious Life is for a Christian to recognize the need, to realize that there is an experience that he does not possess. As in the case of an unconverted man who can never understand nor receive the Gospel message till he comes to the place of seeing himself a sinner, so a satisfied and defeated Christian is in no place to receive the Victorious Life message. The defeated man described in the seventh chapter of Romans cries out, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?” The reason some Christians have never tasted the victory of the eighth chapter of Romans is because they have never known anything of the struggle that is described in the seventh chapter of Romans.

A College Student’s “Problem”

A young college student came to a speaker on the Victorious Life for an interview, but started in by saying that he had no “problems” in his Christian life.

“Do you have complete victory over sin?”

“Well, it depends on what you mean by sin.”

“Do you ever have angry thoughts and feelings in your heart toward others?”

“Do you mean get ‘peeved’ at people? Sure I do.”

“Do you ever worry about things?”

“Worry about things! I should say I do. Everybody does.”

“Do you ever have impure thoughts and desires in your heart?”

“Yes, I do.”

“These things are sins, aren’t they?”

“Yes, I suppose they are.”

“These are the things that put the Lord Jesus on the Cross. You have these things in your life, you do not have victory over them and other like sins, and yet you tell me you have no ‘problem’ in your Christian life.”

This young college student was led by the Spirit to see the inner meaning of sin and to confess that he did indeed need something in his Christian life that he did not have.

The sin problem is the problem of all problems. If the sin problem in your life is settled in God’s way, you will have the secret of solving all other problems in God’s way. Fellowship with God, peace, joy, freedom from anxiety, power for service, the right enjoyment and use of Bible study and prayer, all of these things and every gift of grace will be open to you when you get the sin question settled. At Victorious Life conferences, Christians come to the leaders and say that they are not troubled in the matter of getting victory over sin, but that they do not get results in their Christian service and they want the Holy Spirit for power in service. In every such case it is found that the real difficulty is the sin question: there is not complete, Spirit-given victory over inward sin. When that is settled the power in service and the results follow.

When God came to choose a name for his Son, some one has pointed out, he went to the heart of the subject and called his name “Jesus,” because it is he that shall save his people from their sins. It is going to the heart of the Christian’s need, then, first to emphasize victory over sin as the road to all other blessings of the Abundant Life.

What is God’s way of securing this Victory?

There are two ways of getting money, or any other thing of value――either working for it, or receiving it as a gift.

Two Ways to Seek Victory

There are two ways of seeking after salvation――working for it or receiving it as a gift. But there are not two ways of _obtaining_ salvation or eternal life. For when a sinner works, he works sin; and the _wages_ of sin is death. Life is never earned. Death is. Life must be given. So the free gift of God, the only author of life, is eternal life. We are saved by Grace, not by works, for the least particle of “works” would make Grace void.

There are two ways of seeking after the Victorious Life, present freedom from the law of sin――working for it, striving and struggling after it, or receiving it as a free gift, without effort. There are not two ways of _obtaining_ Victory. For when a saved sinner struggles with inward desires toward evil he is under the law――using his own efforts――and not under grace, and the struggle at some time or other always ends in defeat.

The Victorious Life is a free gift from God. It cannot be earned. It therefore must be accepted on the same terms as salvation from the penalty of sin. It must be received as a gift. To enjoy a gift one has but to take it, and thank the giver.

“Sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under law, but under grace” (Rom. 6:14). “My grace is sufficient for thee” (2 Cor. 12:9).

To believe these words of God is to enjoy the gift of victory.

“The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death” (Rom. 8:2).

To believe this word is to enjoy present freedom from the law of sin. “Every one that committeth sin is the bondservant of sin.... If therefore the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (John 8:34, 35).

“If ye are led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law” (Gal. 5:18), that is, we are under Grace. And Grace means, Jesus Christ is doing it all for us, winning the victory for us by his indwelling power.

The Much More Salvation

These Scriptures show clearly that God’s way of victory over present sin is by the power of the Holy Spirit. That new law, the law of the Spirit, makes us free from the law of sin. “If, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved by his life” (Rom. 5:10). This is the “much more salvation,” present salvation by his indwelling life. Reconciled saints need to be “saved,” and the Victorious Life is nothing other than salvation by free grace, in present action, applied to each temptation and problem.

God’s plan of salvation from the present power of sin, therefore, is exactly the same plan as he has revealed for salvation from the death penalty of sin. Both are by free grace without effort on your part. Both are to be received and enjoyed by faith. After the remarkable passage in the fifth chapter of Galatians, which gives the nine-fold fruit of the Spirit, there is this statement: “If we live by the Spirit, by the Spirit let us also walk” (Gal. 5:25). That is, since we have been born again by the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit, by that same supernatural Spirit, without effort on our part, let us also live our daily lives, winning victory over sin by just letting the fruit of the Spirit be produced, letting the rivers of living waters flow out (John 7:38).