I wish to direct your attention
this morning to two verses in the sixth chapter of the Book
of Romans. One verse will be the primary
focus of our study, but we must understand that one verse in
the light of the verse that follows. And so, the two verses that will
occupy the major part of our time are Romans 6, verses 22
and 23. Romans 6, 22 and 23. But now being made free from
sin and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto sanctification,
and the end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death,
but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now the first thing I want to
do is to give just a little reminder of the context of these verses,
the thread of argument in Romans 6 as it relates to the rest of
the Book of Romans. Then we shall look briefly at
the essential ideas of verse 23. And then we will come to
a detailed study of verse 22, and I trust when we're all done,
you will see what I intend to demonstrate from these scriptures,
that eternal life and true conversion are inseparable realities of
God's grace. Eternal life and true conversion
are inseparable realities of God's grace. Now then, just a
word about the context of these verses. The Apostle Paul has
been expounding the doctrine of justification by faith alone. That is, God's design to save
sinners and accept them in his presence not upon anything they
have done or anything they are, but solely upon the basis of
what Christ has done and what Christ is. And in expounding
that doctrine all the way from chapter 3 and verse 20 through
to the end of chapter 5, the Apostle comes to this tremendous
conclusion in verse 20, but where sin abounded, grace did abound
more exceedingly. And so he says, it matters not
how high the mountain of a man's sin may be, the mountain of God's
grace unto justification overshadows it. And it overshadows it not
on the basis of merit by man, but free grace in Jesus Christ. Well then, someone draws the
conclusion. They say, now wait a minute,
Paul, do I understand you rightly? Where sin abounds, grace superabounds. That means the higher the mountain
of sin, the higher the mountain of grace must be to supersede
it. Well then, the way to increase
the display of grace is to increase sinning. So then, let us continue
in sin to the end that grace may be magnified. That's the
logical extension of Paul's teaching. If there's A mountain of sin
10 feet high, and the mountain of grace is 20 feet high? Well,
let's raise up the mountain of grace by raising up the mountain
of sin. Now, Paul is going to answer
that objection that is made to his teaching, or a conclusion
drawn from his teaching, and so he introduces it by the question
of chapter 6 and verse 1. What shall we say then, in the
light of this tremendous teaching, that where sin abounds, grace
abounds? Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound? And he answers, Meg, genital,
God forbid. He takes the strongest words
he can conjure up from his Greek vocabulary and says, God forbid. And now he begins to show why
that conclusion is impossible. And when you boil down everything
that he says, you can boil it down to this simple statement,
it is the truth of union with Christ which cancels out this
conclusion. When this person says, all right,
if sin abounds and grace superabounds, let's continue in sin, that there'll
be more grace, Paul says no. The only reason anyone would
say that is if he's ignorant of the doctrine of union with
Christ. For the very faith that unites
us to Christ Bringing the gift of justification is the faith
that so unites us to Christ that it secures the grace of sanctification. And wherever there is union with
Christ unto justification, that same union with Christ will inevitably
produce sanctification. So Paul's answer to the objection,
where sin abounds, grace does much more abound, let's continue
in sin that there'll be more grace, is not to say, oh wait
a minute, you misunderstood me. We must add to grace human works. We must undercut grace by putting
in human merit. That's how Rome attempts to answer
this objection. The teaching of Rome is why if
you're saved solely on the basis of the merit of another, received
by faith plus nothing, why that'll lead to license. And so they
say to protect grace, we'll buttress grace with works. Well, that
isn't what Paul does. He says grace has its own buttress. And the buttress of grace is
the doctrine of union with Jesus Christ. And so the sixth chapter
of Romans is an exposition of the fact and the implications
of union with Jesus Christ. A union with Christ that means
in the life history of every believer that he will have experienced
death to sin as Christ died to sin, emergence to newness of
life as Christ emerged to newness of life. Now, in a very short
and simplified way, there's a statement of the argument of Romans 6.
Now as the Apostle Paul comes in the conclusion of that argument,
we now find him here summarizing that whole argument in verses
22 and 23. So we move now from the brief
statement of the context to the essential ideas of verse 23. For the wages of sin is death,
But the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. Now verse 23 is well known to
all evangelicals. It is considered one of the most
formidable weapons in the arsenal of gospel texts to use in witnessing. You couldn't memorize any verses
of scripture given out by any group all the way from the advanced
structure of topical memory system of the navigators to the very
simple outline of verses given in some follow-up courses, but
Romans 6.23 is always there. And Romans 6.23 is a tremendous
text embodying some of the most fundamental elements of the gospel. Notice those three things that
are stated. Sin has caused the forfeiture
of life. The wages of sin is death. Secondly, God has conferred the
gift of life, but the free gift of God is eternal life. Thirdly,
that gift is bound up in the person and work of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Now you can't get any more fundamental
issues of gospel truth than you have there. Sin has caused the
forfeiture of life. God has conferred the gift of
life, and the gift of life is bound up in the person and work
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Those truths are the heart, the
marrow of the gospel, and those truths must be maintained even
unto blood. They must be proclaimed. They
must be enforced upon the consciences of men. But will you notice that
verse 23 begins with a little word, for? It doesn't stand alone. It is the conclusion of something
that has preceded. And when you wrench it loose
from verse 23, from verse 22, you don't really understand the
apostle's argument. For, verse 23 begins with a for,
it is a conclusion of something that precedes. Now what precedes? And here we turn to verse 22. But being now made free from
sin and become servants to God, You have your fruit under sanctification,
and the end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life. You notice the phrase,
eternal life, is used in both verses. But it's approached from
a different perspective. In verse 23, eternal life is
called the gift of God. But in verse 22, eternal life
is the end result of true conversion. Notice, being made free from
sin and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness
and the end eternal life. For the wages of sin is death. Now can you bring those two things
together? Verse 22 says, the end of true conversion and progressive
holiness is eternal life. Verse 23 says, the free gift
of God is eternal life. Now is there contradiction? Of
course not. There is a beautiful synthesis
of truth, and that brings us to the heart of our study this
morning. And the heart of our study is an attempt to see from
this passage that eternal life and true conversion are the inseparable
realities of the grace of God. And whenever the grace of God
is operative to give the gift of eternal life, it will always
be operative to give that gift in a way of true conversion and
progressive holiness. The end result of the gift? Eternal
life. The end result of this true conversion
and progressive holiness is eternal life. And unless we're going
to make the Bible teach two different salvations, we must come to that
conclusion that these two things, eternal life and true conversion,
are the inseparable realities of the grace of God. Now, do
you see that in the text? I hope you do. If you don't,
see me afterwards and I'll try to clear up where I haven't been
clear enough. Then, if this principle is true, it's tremendously important
for every man, woman, fellow, or girl here this morning to
ask the question, has my supposed possession of eternal life come
in the way that Paul says it will always come? Not only as
the free gift of God, but in a way of true conversion. And as the Apostle Paul describes
true conversion, he does so in verse 22 under these three basic
concepts. First of all, he speaks of a
change of masters, being made free from sin and become servants
to God. Secondly, a change of practice. You have your fruit unto sanctification. Thirdly, a change of destiny,
the end, everlasting life. Now let's look at those things
in that order. What are the irreducible elements
of true conversion? When you strip away everything
that may be different in the conversion of a man, a woman,
a fellow, or girl, when you take all those who have been truly
converted throughout all the ages of the work of God's grace,
and you strip away everything that is peculiar to the individual's
conversion, what are the common denominators in every single
instance? Well, here they are. There will
always be a change of masters, leading to a change of practice,
issuing in a change of destiny. And let's look at them as they
stand before us in that order. Being now made free from sin
and become servants to God. Who was the old master? Who is
the new master? Well, in the text, the old master
is personified and called sin. Sin is taken out of the realm
of an abstract concept, and Paul deals with sin in this passage
as though sin were a living person. and he speaks of being a slave
of sin. He speaks of sin giving orders,
and these Romans rendering obedience. Notice how real this servitude
to sin is in the thinking of the Apostle Paul. Verse 19, I
speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your
flesh, for as ye presented your members as servants to uncleanness
and iniquity unto iniquity. Why, he says, when sin spoke,
you came and stood before sin as your master, and you said,
All right, sin, what shall I do? And when sin said, Give me your
eyes to be instruments of coveting, you said, Yes, master, and you
gave sin your eyes. When sin said, Give me your feet
to walk in forbidden paths, you said, Yes, master, and you gave
sin your feet. When sin said, Give me your ears
to listen, to untruth. Listen to gossip. Give me your
tongue to speak untruth and your tongue to speak uncleanness.
You said, yes, master, and you rendered obedience. This is his
picture of sin as a master giving orders and the child of the devil,
the one who is the slave of sin, rendering disobedience unto the
commands of sin. It was a very real servitude
In verse 20, he says, it was an exclusive servitude, for when
you were the slaves of sin, you were free in regard of righteousness. In other words, he says, when
righteousness spoke and gave orders, You said, who is righteousness
that I should obey him? Sin is my master. Sin speaks. Yes, master. Righteousness speaks. Who are you? Paul personifies
these things and he makes them into living characters. And he
says to the one you rendered no obedience and no allegiance,
to the other you rendered absolute obedience. And so the master
who rules every one of us by nature is this one called sin. And our servitude to sin is not
an idea. It's not a theological concept. It is a real personal abiding
experience in which the members are yielded up to its service. What then is the new master?
As the Apostle Paul thinks of the conversion of these Roman
Christians, he says in verse 22, the new master is God himself,
being now made free from sin and become slaves to God. The new master is the living
God and his son Jesus Christ, but because servitude to God
is so bound up with servitude to his law, he says in verse
18, being made free from sin, ye became servants of righteousness. And he uses as synonyms in the
New Master, God and righteousness, indicating there is no true servitude
to God. except a servitude expressed
in practical subjection to the law of God. There is no such
thing as a mere sentimental servitude to the living God. If it isn't
ethical and moral, it isn't real. Therefore the Apostle Paul has
no problem with using as interchangeable terms, ye became servants to
righteousness, ye became servants unto the living God. So the new
master is God himself. God in the expression of his
will in the law, in his righteous standard. Now this servitude
to God, like the servitude to sin, is a very real servitude. As ye presented your members
servants to uncleanness, so ye even so now present your members
servants to righteousness. This is not a matter of something
that can't be seen and known, that merely exists in the realm
of one's subjective experience. No, no, he says, just as your
servitude to sin was real, when sin said, give me your hands,
give me your feet, give me your eyes, give me your ears, and
you yielded, so now when God says, I demand this of your eyes,
and this of your ears, and this of your hands, and this of your
feet. Your subjection to Him is a practical servitude, a practical,
a demonstrable subjection, something that can be seen and known. Well, when did this change of
masters occur? He tells them in verse 17, Thanks
be to God that whereas ye were the servants of sin, He became
obedient from the heart, and here the translation of the authorized
version is regrettable. It says in the King James, He
became obedient to that form of teaching which was delivered
you. But that's not an accurate rendering of the original. The
American Standard has captured the thought very accurately.
Whereas ye were the servants of sin, ye became obedient from
the heart to that form of teaching whereunto ye were delivered,
and being made free from sin, ye became servants of righteousness."
When did they become servants of righteousness? Well, they
became servants of righteousness, Paul says, when they obeyed from
the heart that form of teaching unto which they were delivered.
Well, what was that form of teaching? Well, it was the gospel. The
gospel that came proclaiming free grace, acceptance before
God on the basis of the work of another. And he says, when
the gospel came, these people didn't take that form of teaching
and make it their own. No, no. They were, by the operation
of the Spirit, cast into the very mold of that teaching. That
teaching which comes proclaiming Christ as a mighty Savior, not
only justifying men, but breaking the dominion of sin, loosing
them from servitude to sin. And he says you became obedient
to that form of teaching unto which you were delivered. When
the gospel was preached, there was that work of God casting
you into the mold of the gospel. And then he goes on in the development
of his argument in Romans 6 to say, now that's precisely what
you bore witness to in your baptism. Verses 1-11. He said, what did
you declare in your baptism? Why, you declared that the message
of Christ crucified, buried and risen is the message into which
you were cast by the power of God, and therefore in baptism
you declared you were joined to Him in His death. joined Him
in His emergence to newness of life. How unthinkable that anyone
would say, let's continue in sin that grace should abound.
When did you come into the possession of grace? When you heard the
message of Christ. And when you embraced that message,
what was it? Well, it was the Gospel. Christ
died. Christ was buried. Christ rose. And when you embraced that message,
you were joined to Christ. You died. You rose. You walked
in newness of life. And so he reminds them that their
baptism was the declaration of their new master. They had died
to the mastery of sin. They had now risen to newness
of life with the living God and His Son as their new master. What a practical declaration
of the significance of baptism, and I can't pause to enlarge
upon it. But you see, baptism is never
looked upon as the master's degree of sanctification. The idea that
you come along and you become a super saint and then you be
baptized? No, no. No, no, it's the initiatory
ordinance. It's getting enrolled in the
kindergarten of sanctification, which begins when there's that
change of masters. By virtue of union with Christ,
I have died with Him. I have risen with Him to newness
of life. And so this change of masters
was the beginning of this work of grace in the heart of the
Roman Christians. Let me ask you as you sit here
this morning, you claim to have the gift of eternal life. Do
you hope to have that gift of eternal life? Then settle it
now. Eternal life will only come to
you in the way of true conversion, and true conversion involves
nothing less at the outset than this change of masters. There's nobody in this building
who's free this morning. Every one of you is a slave.
Every one of you. You're either a slave to sin
or a slave to righteousness. And there's no new true ground.
One or the other. There's nobody who's free this
morning. Not a one. Paul says, being made free, he
became slaves. You're either a slave of God
and of righteousness through grace, or you're a slave of sin
and self by nature. And nobody in this building is
free. Nobody. Nobody. Not a person
here who's free! And there's nobody half a slave
of one, half a slave of the other? The Apostle Paul absolutely sweeps
that away by saying in verse 16, Know ye not that to whom
ye present yourselves as servants unto obedience, his servants
you are whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death or obedience
to righteousness? There's no middle ground. You
may say that you're the slave of God, but he says it's not
what you say that counts. It's the one to whom you yield
obedience. To whom do you give your hands?
To whom do you give your mind? To whom do you give your ears?
To whom do you give your tongue? To whom do you give your hands?
Your faculties? That's the one who's your master.
The one to whom you yield servitude, that's your master. And for every
true believer comes the ringing declaration, I was the slave
of sin. But the great Emancipator has
come, the one anointed with the Spirit, to open the eyes of the
blind, to open the prison to those that are bound. And the
moment He loosed me from the servitude of sin, He brought
me chained in loving chains of servitude to His own feet. And in the words of that hymn,
I forgot the precise words of it, but it deals with that, I
lie in willing chains at the feet of the Savior. A change
of masters. Eternal life begins in true conversion,
which always involves the change of masters. Well, the apostle
goes on to say that if the change of masters has been genuine,
it will always result in a change of practice. Notice, being now
made free from sin and become servants to God, ye are having,
it's in a present tense, ye are having your fruit unto sanctification. This is not an exhortation ye
ought to have, It is not a prediction you shall eventually have. It
is a statement of fact. You are having your fruit unto
holiness. Well, first of all, then, let's
define what fruit is, and then define what holiness, or the
word sanctification, means. Paul had used the term fruit
in verse 21. Notice. What fruit then had ye
at that time in the things whereof ye are now ashamed? What fruit had you? What was
there that in any way could be acceptable unto God? Jesus said, make the tree good
and its fruit good. So Paul is saying here, that
the issue and the tangible expression of that new relationship with
reference to your masters will be the issue of a new life considered
as fruit. Now he says that fruit shall
be unto in the direction of sanctification. Now the word can refer to a process
or to a state. The state of being set apart
unto God by union with Christ is considered the sanctified
state. Christ is made unto us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, redemption. 1 Corinthians 1.30.
But other times it refers to the process of increasingly conforming
of every area of life to the revealed will of God by the power
of the Spirit. Hebrews 12, 14, follow after
the sanctification, the holiness, without which no man shall see
the Lord. And it's in that second sense
that Paul uses it here, for he says you are having a process,
present tense, you are having your fruit unto holiness. So then, the inevitable, the
natural, the ever-present result of a change of masters will be
this change of practice summarized in these words, fruit unto Now
in terms of the context, what does that mean? It means that
what happens in the initial change of masters will be increasingly
expressed in the many details of life. Has sin's mastery been
destroyed in principle? Being made free from sin, you
became servants to God. Then the expression of that change
of mastery will be an increasing measure of progressive holiness.
More and more presenting my members instruments of righteousness
unto God, verse 13. More and more giving my members
to be vehicles of conformity to His law. So the mind which
once became the cesspool of thoughts of uncleanness and impurity becomes
a mind that more and more is set upon Christ. and is fixed
upon those things which are above. The tongue that once spoke with
abandonment, lies, and sarcasm is a tongue that more and more
speaks truth and kindness. The ears that were given to listening
to that which affected the soul in a direction other than Godward
are more and more jealously guarded. The feet no longer walk willfully
in forbidden paths, but in paths of righteousness for His name's
sake. Energies that were dissipated
contrary to the will of God are now channeled into the standards
of His Holy Word. And so the unanimous testimony
of Scripture is that holiness in progressive measures is the
absolutely indispensable issue of grace begun. Ye have your
fruit unto holiness, and that change of practice will always
follow. Notice the apostle is not exhorting,
he is stating the fact of the workings of God's grace. And then in the third place he
says there will be the change of destiny. And the end, eternal
life. The end of what? The end of this
change of practice, which is rooted in the change of masters,
will be eternal life. A change of destiny. The original
destiny, death. The wages of sin is death. Exposure to divine wrath. The
new destiny, eternal life. This phrase, eternal life, sometimes
refers to a quality of life enjoyed here and now, John 17.3. This
is life eternal, that we should know Him. and his son Jesus Christ. Other times it refers to the
consummation of that life in the world to come. Mark 10.30. And in the world to come, Jesus
said, he shall receive eternal life. It's in the second sense
that Paul uses it here. He's not speaking of eternal
life as a quality of life enjoyed here and now, but he's speaking
of eternal life as the consummation of that life in the world to
come. Now this change of destiny, and notice the relationship in
the text, comes at the end of the change of practice and the
change of masters. And so we see the salvation of
God, which comes as His free gift, verse 23. The free gift
of God is eternal life. is a salvation which always comes
in the way of producing a change of masters and a change of practice. What Paul gives us in theological
terminology, our Lord gave us so beautifully in pictorial language. Who among us is not familiar
with the words of Matthew 7 verses 13 and 14? Enter ye in at the straight gate. For wide
is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction,
and many there are that enter in thereby. For, notice the three
elements, narrow is the gate, change of masters, straight in
the way, change of practice, that leadeth unto life, change
of destiny, and few there be that find it. You have a gate,
You have a way, you have an end. No one comes to the end, but
they get there along the way. And no one is found along the
way unless they come through the gate. What Paul gives us
in theological language, our Lord gives in pictorial language,
and John Bunyan picks it up and gives it to us in beautiful Christian
allegory. Nobody got to the Celestial City
who was not found in the way. And nobody was truly in the way
unless they came through the Wicked Gate. Now there were people
who seemed to be on the way to the Celestial City who climbed
over a wall, who came through over some hedges, but none entered
into the Celestial City but those that came through the gate. And
every one of them who came through the gate were found in the way.
Now some were found in the way as valiant for truth, faithful,
Mr. Graveyard. Some were Mr. Fearing,
Mr. Ready to halt. But they had this
in common. Everyone who was in the way had
his back to the city of destruction, had the light of the celestial
city in his eye, had the world and the flesh and the devil beneath
his feet and was pressing on that narrow way which leads unto
life. What is it but a beautiful statement
of our text this morning? Being made free from sin and
become servants to God, ye are having your fruit unto holiness
and the end everlasting life. I want to say in concluding our
study this morning several things by way of application. The first
one I already have hinted at. Do not separate what God has
joined. These three things are inseparable
in the gift of life. And God never gives the free
gift of eternal life, but what He first of all delivers men
unto the teaching. They are cast into the mold of
the power of the gospel. And being cast into that mold,
they become obedient from the heart to that form of teaching
unto which they are delivered. And there is this change of masters,
not something subsequent to regeneration, not something that is part of
progressive sanctification, but the change of masters is there
at the threshold And once God gets a man in the
way by the change of masters, he is as certain as to have the
full consummation of life as he is of his own name. For that
free gift not only secures the change of masters, but it secures
his continuance in the fruit unto holiness and the ultimate
issue in the world to come. And so this becomes a two-edged
sword. It says to the person sitting
here this morning, oh yes, I have accepted the free gift of life
in Jesus Christ and His work upon the cross. I have trusted
the Lord. I have eternal life in pledge
because I believe in Jesus. Well, you see, this sword cuts
at such a profession if it is not attended with progressive
holiness. Where is the evidence of a change
of master? Where's the evidence that righteousness
is indeed your master? I don't mean in some theoretical
way. Where's the evidence that your hands, your energies, your
eyes, your feet, your heart, your mind, everything is the
possession of the living God? Don't you talk blithely, oh yes,
I've accepted the free gift. Where's the change of masters?
leading to the change of practice. Don't delude yourself that your
destiny has been changed unless your master and your practice
is changed, for the wages of sin is not life, but death. Ah, but there's the person who
says, Oh, I wonder if I had the change of masters. At times when
I'm so sure I have, and I see some evidence of desire to press
on, but I wonder, I wonder, am I going to make it? Ah, friend,
listen. God does not begin anything but what He completes it. He
that hath begun this good work in you, he's going to carry it
on, in spite of your struggles, in spite of the fact that at
times you wonder if any progress is being made. The very fact
that you find in your heart that sense of disquiet and that sense
of disturbance at your present measure of grace is that God
has planted that principle within that will ultimately find expression
when you are like Him and you see Him as He is. And therefore
that very sense of restlessness is the token and evidence of
God's working in you. And so this truth of the inseparability
of these three things, which undercuts on the one hand the
shallow confession of one, comes as a balm of encouragement to
another. Then the last thing I would say
this morning is this, that the proof of the reality that you've
had a change of masters and that you're going to have a change
of destiny is that there is presently the fruit of holiness. You see,
the second aspect is both the proof of the first and pledge
of the third. You follow me? How do you know
you've had a change of masters? Well, because there's a change
of practice. And how do you know there'll be the change of destiny?
Because this is the earnest of that which is to come. And isn't
it interesting that in our day, Whole systems of teaching on
the Christian life have been conceived to negate that simple
statement. So that people are encouraged
to believe they've been converted and will end up in heaven even
though there is no fruit unto holiness. And so we found categories
for them. Carnal Christian, saved but not
surrendered. Converted but not consecrated. And dear ones, that's not dead.
I've heard it with my own ears there in the British Isles this
summer from good men. men imported to be conference
speakers, known for their great ministry in the Word, who constantly
talked about consecrated Christians and unconsecrated Christians.
Those that are simply saved, and others who've had their own
Pentecost. As though there's some other category in which
people may have some comfort that all is well, they have eternal
life, though there is no fruit unto holiness. No, no, dear friends. The proof of the reality of the
change of masters and the pledge of the change of destiny is the
fruit unto holiness. And we dishonor the Lord Jesus
and that salvation which He purchased with His own blood if we negate
this simple principle that stands before us in this text of Scripture. For the salvation which God has
designed in Christ is designed in such a way that praise shall
be rendered unto him, not only for what is accomplished, but
for how it is accomplished. And God in wisdom has purposed
a salvation which begins with the change of masters when we
are brought into union with Christ and sin's dominion is broken.
And now in union with him by virtue of his dwelling in us
and we in him, John 15, we bear fruit unto holiness. And then
in that day, as Paul says, if we believe that Christ died and
rose, we believe that we too shall rise with him. And we will
then share in that day the full glory of his own resurrection
when these bodies of our humiliation should be made like unto his
own glorious body. Being then made free from sin
and become servants to God, Ye have your fruit unto holiness,
and the end everlasting life for the wages of sin is death,
but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our
Lord. Do you have eternal life? As
you sit there this morning, do you profess to possess the gift
of life? then God would have you to know
that the gift of life and true conversion are inseparable realities
of God's grace. And true conversion always involves
change of masters, leading to a change of practice. Is this
true of you? If not, I urge you to call upon
Him who is mighty to save. Cast yourself upon Him. Pray
that by the Spirit you would be cast into the mold of the
gospel and know its power operative in your own life. And dear child
of God who can say by God's grace, that is true of me. I've had
a change of masters and it's as real as my own name is real
to me. Then I trust that we shall take
fresh hope and courage in the battle to know that God never
begins this salvation, but what He is going to carry it on to
completion, and that we shall cry mightily to Him to work in
us both to will and to do of His own good pleasure. Let us
look to God in prayer together.