The concluding part of this chapter opens with a practical exhortation founded upon the great
judicial transaction of our being dead with Christ and alive unto God. Let us meditate upon its full
significance in the light of the preceding verses:"Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed
unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (verse 11).

We have seen previously that the apostle speaks of the manner in which the believer is delivered
from the power of sin as a principle of action, and the whole question of his conduct was seen to
rest on Christ Jesus and His work. We have to look to Him for the solution of all the problems
of practical moment that arise day by day in our lives, and one of our most difficult problems is
how to regard the uprising of the evil nature in our hearts. This nature asserts itself in spite of the
sense of God’s love within us. We may have cherished the vain hope of growing out of such
tendencies, and year by year of approaching nearer a state of holiness and perfection.

If so, honesty must compel us to admit that so far as our hearts are concerned, little or no real
progress is made toward the extinction of inward evil. This chapter, however, sheds light on this
problem. It shows that the evil nature whose presence and action we mourn received its utter
condemnation in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Sin itself (speaking now not of sinful acts but
of that which is the origin of them) was judged at the cross when He who knew no sin was made
sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21). And we learn that in the mind of God we are associated with the Lord
Jesus Christ in His death, and thus, as descendants of the first Adam, we have passed into non-
existence, but have also partaken of the risen life of Christ beyond the judicial death.

Reckoning Ourselves Dead to Sin

The apostle had spoken of the death of the Lord Jesus, and that He now lives to God in a state
altogether apart from sin. The Lord passed through this evil world uncontaminated by sin within
and without. He went to the cross absolutely pure, but was there made vicariously the abhorrent
thing, and was judged on account of it. But rising from the dead and being exalted by the right
hand of God, a new state of things ensued_a new creation_of which Christ is the Head. And in
this newness of life sin is a past thing. The apostle therefore directs believers to regard themselves
as having already passed from death to life where Christ is:"Likewise reckon ye also yourselves
to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord."

The verb "reckon" carries us back to the fourth chapter of this epistle, where we read of God
reckoning Abraham righteous because of his faith. The patriarch believed God in a matter which
seemed in itself most improbable. For in the ordinary course of nature it seemed an incredible
thing that blessing should flow to the earth through the unborn seed of an old man and woman.
But Abraham believed the Lord and His promises, and this was counted to him for righteousness
(Gen. 15:6). God looking down from heaven regarded Abraham as a righteous man. His faith was
in connection with the seed which was to come, that is, Christ; and indeed this confidence was
true also of all the Old Testament saints. There might be and was failure, as there were faults; but
wheresoever there was faith in the Coming One it was reckoned for righteousness.

Here we are exhorted to reckon ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God. It must
be carefully observed that this is an exercise of faith. If we consider ourselves conscientiously we
shall find ourselves capable of sinning, if not actually sinning. We fail to find inward or subjective
evidence that we are dead to sin. But faith accepts the testimony of the Word of God that I am
associated with Christ in both death and resurrection. Hence I am dead to the dominant power of
sin and alive heavenward. This status I must accept if I believe God rather than self.

To God or to Self?

We must broaden our views of what sin really means. Taken comprehensively it includes all that
lacks due reference to God. Actions precisely similar in outward appearance may nevertheless
differ in essential quality and value according as they are done to self or to God.

An instance of this is recorded in the Gospels. It occurred in the temple courts at the time when
the offerings were being placed in the treasury chest. Here was an opportunity of making a
sacrifice to God by depositing a sum of money for the use of the temple service. Many rich and
influential persons gave substantial amounts, doing so in an ostentatious manner to attract the
attention and admiration of their neighbors. Thus the offering became to them a means of self-
advertisement, and they gained as their reward the notice of their fellows. But the Lord observed
among the offerers a person of another order. There was a poor widowed heart in the company
overwhelmed with gratitude and praise to God. Something had happened in her experience which
caused her to be full of thanksgiving to God who had granted her some special fulness of blessing.
She was therefore impelled to offer some sacrifice of her goods to His service (Luke 21:1-4).

What should she render to the Lord for all His benefits? Two mites constituted her sole livelihood.
Under such circumstances should she not divide the small pittance, giving a part and reserving a
part? From the point of view of what is called practical economics this course would seem the
more reasonable. But the widow did not regard the matter from the standpoint of her own present
or future needs, for she was full of a sense of the great kindness of Jehovah to her. She resolved
she would not hold back anything, being a contrast with Ananias and Sapphira of a later day. She
placed her all in the box_her two mites. Her gift was to God. She gained the victory over self,
and everything having been offered to God, the gift was appraised by the heavenly standard. Her
motives gave the sacrifice of her goods a value above that of all the rest.

Another example of this truth is to be gathered from the Epistle to the Philippians. Paul, by
reference to himself, shows how worthless, though moral in themselves, acts become when the
will of God is contravened. In the third chapter he speaks of himself and of what he was before
he knew the Lord. He enumerates the privileges he possessed at that time only to pronounce them
to be not only valueless but even offensive. His circumcision and law-keeping were quite proper
matters for satisfaction until he learned the super-excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus.

The qualities he names are not such as are sinful in themselves, but such as might reasonably give
him confidence in the flesh. And the flesh is not necessarily the evil principle. It is the natural way
of doing things, that is, always acting from the individual’s own standpoint, without looking above
and seeking the will of God.

Saul of Tarsus before his conversion had a position of pre-eminence. If any one might have
confidence in the flesh, he most surely might have done so. Did he not contend zealously for the
law? Was he not desirous of keeping it to its most minute particular? Yet at the very time during
which he supposed he was doing God service he was persecuting the Church of God.

Touching the righteousness of the law, he was blameless. Can you imagine anything more
desirable in a man? In outward demeanor he was perfect and upright so far as the eye could see.
But having learned the truth of the person of the Christ in glory, he counted the whole of his own
attainments in this respect as nothing and worse than that.

He wrote then quietly in prison, looking back upon his past life in the light he had received
through advancing years, without a warped imagination and without self-deception, and he
describes his early days as blameless. The statement is a remarkable one; but whatever gain this
unblemished character might have been to him he counted it but loss for Christ. He reckoned
himself to be dead indeed to those things and alive to God through Jesus Christ the Lord. The
things he mentions had no more effect upon him than upon a dead person.

This piece of autobiography is an illustration of our text. What Paul wrote by way of doctrine in
Romans, he exemplified from his own life in Philippians. In the earlier epistle he spoke of being
alive to God through Christ Jesus the Lord. In the later we see the activities of that life expressing
themselves in intensity of desire and earnestness of effort.

There was therefore a continuity in the life of the apostle. He did not depart from the self-
renunciation of his early days. His enthusiasm did not wane as trials and persecutions multiplied.
Neither did self assume a Christian garb. Christ was the dominating object before him, as the
Epistle to the Philippians reveals. In practice he was still reckoning himself dead to sin, but alive
to God.

(Note:This subject will be concluded in the issue after next (March-April 1977), Lord willing,
with a discussion of our yielding ourselves to God and yielding our members as instruments of
righteousness unto God.)

"Blessed is the man … in whose spirit there is no guile. When I kept silence, my bones waxed old
through my roaring all the day long. For day and night Thy hand was heavy upon me; my
moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah. I acknowledged my sin unto Thee, and mine
iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest
the iniquity of my sin. Selah. For this shall every one that is godly pray unto Thee in a time when
Thou mayest be found; surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him.
Thou art my hiding place; Thou shalt preserve me from trouble; Thou shalt compass me about
with songs of deliverance. Selah." (Psalm 32:2-7).

A man in whose spirit there is no guile is not a sinless person. There are no sinless people on
earth. There was one and that was our blessed Lord Jesus Christ, but since the fall of Adam there
has never been another. "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23).
There is not a just man that doeth good and sinneth not. "In many things we offend all." This is
true of believers as well as of unbelievers. Even believers offend in many things but the man in
whose spirit there is no guile is the man who is not trying to cover up and hide. He has owned up
that he is just what God says he is. As long as a man is covering his sin, there is guile there. When
David kept on covering his sin there was guile; but when David came out frankly and
acknowledged it and said, "I have sinned against the Lord," there was no more guile. . . .

In the next three verses David tells how he got to know this. He first tells of the time he did not
know it. "When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long." If there
is anything on earth that will make you feel like an old man it is unconfessed sin, trying to be so
nice outside while inside there is such a roaring going on. "For day and night Thy hand was heavy
upon me; my moisture is turned into the drought of summer." All his joy was gone; he was
desolate, and he could not stand it any longer, and so he says, "I acknowledged my sin unto Thee,
and mine iniquity have I not hid." He had been hiding it, but it brought him nothing but sorrow.

"I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord." And the very next thing is a free pardon,
"And Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin." Have you been there? "If we confess our sins, He
is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9).
Now everything is different. Now he is on praying ground. David says, as it were, "I could not
pray in those old days, but I can now." "For this shall every one that is godly pray unto Thee in
a time when Thou mayest be found; surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh
unto him." Because he knows what it is to be forgiven, because he knows what it is to be without
guile, he can pray with glad, happy assurance and know that the Lord will protect him in every
time of trial.

See how beautifully he expresses himself in verse 7:"Thou art my hiding place; Thou shalt
preserve me from trouble; Thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance." In verses 3
and 4, David was hiding from God, but in verse 7, he is hiding in God. Which are you doing? It
makes such a difference. Some of us remember when we were hiding from God and were very
miserable and unhappy; and then instead of hiding from Him we turned about-face and went
directly to Him to find our hiding place in Him.

"Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee;
Let the water and the blood,
From Thy wounded side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure,
Cleanse me from its guilt and power."

(From Studies on the Psalms.)

When you feel convicted of sin in your life, what do you do?

Do you confess? Or do you try to explain?

Do you acknowledge your sin and accept God’s forgiveness according to His clear promise in the
Bible?

Or do you attempt to vindicate yourself by making excuses?

Recognition and confession of sin is evidence of spiritual maturity. Trying to explain away sin by
making excuses is a sure sign of spiritual adolescence.

Confession opens a door! Excuses slam the door and bolt it in God’s face!

Confession opens the heart to God’s healing grace, mercy, and love. Excuses barricade the soul
against the Divine initiative.

Someone has said, "The blood of Christ cannot cleanse excuses … it only cleanses sin!"

God sent His Son into the world to solve the sin problem. Christ offered His life on the cross as
the solution. His resurrection demonstrated the adequacy of His offer.

There is no need for further sacrifice. There was a once-for-allness about Christ’s crucifixion …
a never-to-be-repeatedness about His sacrifice for sin!

All that remains necessary is for man to acknowledge his sin_confess it to God_and receive the
forgiveness Christ died to provide. (Of course you can’t explain it, but you can experience it!)

This does not make it easy to sin. The man who has experienced the forgiveness of God has a
growing repugnance to sin which is one of the fruits of forgiveness.

The man who handles forgiveness carelessly_takes a shallow view of sin_does not know the first
meaning of God’s grace. He does not comprehend the awful price the Son of God paid.

On the other hand the man who takes sin seriously, hates it, resists it, will find an easy (not cheap)
forgiveness with God by virtue of Christ’s sacrifice.

"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our
sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1
John 1:8,9).

"Then Job answered the Lord, and said, I know that Thou canst do everything, and that no thought
can be withheld from Thee. Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I
uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not. Hear, I beseech
Thee, and I will speak; I will demand of Thee, and declare Thou unto me. I have heard of Thee
by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth Thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in
dust and ashes" (Job 42:1-6).

Here, then, was the turning point in Job’s life. All his previous statements as to God and His ways
are now pronounced to be "words without knowledge." What a confession! What a moment in
man’s history when he discovers that he has been all wrong! What a thorough breakdown! What
profound humiliation! It reminds us of Jacob getting the hollow of his thigh touched, and thus
learning his utter weakness and nothingness. These are weighty moments in the history of
souls_great epochs, which leave an indelible impress on the whole moral being and character.
To get right thoughts about God is to begin to get right about everything. If I am wrong about
God, I am wrong about myself, wrong about my fellows, wrong about all.

Thus it was with Job. His new thoughts as to God were immediately connected with new thoughts
of himself; and hence we find that the elaborate self-vindication, the impassioned egotism, the
vehement self-gratulation, the lengthened arguments in self-defense_all is laid aside; all is
displaced by one short sentence of three words, "I am vile" (Job 40:4). And what is to be done
with this vile self? Talk about it? Set it up? Be occupied with it? Take counsel for it? Make
provision for it? No, "I abhor it."

This is the true moral ground for every one of us. Job took a long time to reach it, and so do we.
Many of us imagine that we have reached the end of self when we have given a nominal assent
to the doctrine of human depravity, or judged some of those sprouts which have appeared above
the surface of our practical life. But, alas! it is to be feared that very few of us indeed really know
the full truth about ourselves. It is one thing to say, "We are all vile," and quite another to feel,
deep down in the heart, that "I am vile." This latter can only be known and habitually realized in
the immediate presence of God. The two things must ever go together:"Mine eye seeth Thee,"
and "Wherefore I abhor myself." It is as the light of what God is shines in upon what I am that I
abhor myself. And then my self-abhorrence is a real thing. It is not in word, neither in tongue,
but in deed and in truth. It will be seen in a life of self-abnegation, a humble spirit, a lowly mind,
a gracious carriage in the midst of the scenes through which I am called to pass. It is of little use
to profess very low thoughts of self while, at the same time, we are quick to resent any injury
done to us, any fancied insult, slight, or disparagement. The true secret of a broken and contrite
heart is to abide ever in the divine presence, and then we are able to carry ourselves right toward
those with whom we have to do.

"Thus we find that when Job got right as to God and himself, he soon got right as to his friends,
for he learned to pray for them. Yes, he could pray for the "miserable comforters," the
"physicians of no value," the very men with whom he had so long, so stoutly, and so vehemently
contended! "And the Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends" (42:10).

This is morally beautiful. It is perfect. It is the rare and exquisite fruit of divine workmanship.
Nothing can be more touching than to see Job’s three friends exchanging their experience, their
tradition, and their legality for the precious "burnt-offering"; and to see our dear patriarch
exchanging his bitter invectives for the sweet prayer of charity. In short, it is a most soul-subduing
scene altogether. The combatants are in the dust before God and in each other’s arms. The strife
is ended; the war of words is closed; and instead thereof, we have the tears of repentance, the
sweet odor of the burnt-offering, the embrace of love.

(From "Job and His Friends" in Miscellaneous Writings, Vol. 1.)

In this series of articles dating back to the May-June 1974 issue we have considered each of the
nine types or aspects of spiritual fruit mentioned in Galatians 5:22,23. We have attempted, through
God’s help, to discover what each of these types of fruit really means and how they are (or should
be) manifested in our daily lives. Let us review one or two important lessons which we have
learned in connection with each type of fruit of the Spirit.

1. Love. The proper standard of our love to others is Christ’s love for us, manifested in giving
Himself for us (Eph. 5:2,25). Love is the opposite to seeking our own interests, reputation,
wealth, or honor (1 Cor. 13:5).

2. Joy. The Christian who is walking in the Spirit, feeding upon Christ, communing with the
Father, is able to have a deep, abiding, peaceful joy and gladness in the Lord, whatever the
surrounding circumstances might be. Sorrow and trial only serve to enlarge the capacity for joy
in the believer (Matt. 5:12; 2 Cor. 7:4; 2 Cor. 8:2; Col. 1:24; James 1:2,3; 1 Peter 4:13).

3. Peace. We are enjoined to be anxious for nothing, but to allow the peace of God, which passes
all understanding, to keep our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus (Phil. 4:6,7). Many things
in our lives irritate, anger, or worry us. We need to realize that God is at peace about these
matters_He knows how they are going to turn out and that they will be for our ultimate blessing
(Rom. 8:28)_ and He offers to share His peace with us.

4. Longsuffering. This is the ability to bear without loss of temper or retaliation the offenses,
provocations, and antagonism of other persons. Again, the Lord is our standard (2 Peter 3:9; 1
Peter 2:23).

5. Gentleness. We need continually to be reminded of the kindness and gentleness of Christ toward
us (Eph. 2:7; Titus 3:4) so that we may cultivate this same grace in our dealings with
others_particularly within our own families.

6. Goodness. This goes beyond righteousness. For example, we may have a perfect right to
complain about poor service or workmanship, bad behavior or habits, or whatever. But we will
find that by seeking to give words of encouragement and compliments we will be of greater help
to the person as well as having a better opportunity for effective gospel witness. (Handing a
waitress a tract and then complaining about her service goes a long way toward nullifying the
message of the tract.)

7. Faith. This is not simply the faith which we place in Christ for salvation, but the trust we place
in Him for every smallest detail of our lives. God often tries our faith (James 1:2-4; 1 Peter 1:6,7)
to show us whether we are trusting Him for everything, or whether we are relying in any degree
upon our own abilities, wisdom, knowledge, or strength.

8. Meekness. This is the attitude in a person which receives reproof or insult or injury without
defending self and without retaliating or avenging the offense. But more than this, it is an attitude

of heart which goes out to the person who may have been the offender and seeks to draw that
person to the Lord.

9. Temperance. This refers to the control we should have over all our desires, habits, appetites,
thoughts, words, and deeds. With regard to the problem which most of us have with the tongue,
we need to make it a habit to pray with regard to every word we speak in every situation.

Now one may ask, "How can I manifest the fruit of the Spirit in my life?" First of all, you have
to be saved; that is, you must come to the Lord, owning your sinfulness and need of salvation, and
accepting the free gift of salvation made available through the work of Christ who died for our
sins. If you are truly saved, the Holy Spirit of God indwells you and is seeking, through the Word
of God, to "guide you into all truth" (John 16:13) and to lead you in following and imitating
Christ.

However, the Spirit does not automatically produce fruit in the believer’s life. Only if He is
allowed to fill or have full control of our lives (Eph. 5:18) will that fruit be manifested. If we
grieve the Holy Spirit by allowing unjudged sin in our lives (Eph. 4:30), He will be diverted from
His proper work of teaching us all truth and producing fruit in our lives, to a work necessary for
our deliverance from the sin and restoration to full communion with the Father.

Thus there is a great need in our lives for sensitivity and tender consciences with regard to
sin_especially our own sin. We need often to ask God to "Search me . . . and know my heart;
try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way
everlasting" (Psalm 139:23,24). Along with this there is great need for confession of all known
sin (however insignificant we may regard any particular sin), and of self-judgment, that is, taking
the side of a holy God against ourselves and our sin. As we become increasingly aware that certain
attitudes, habits, and activities in our lives are not the fruit of the Spirit but rather the works of
the flesh (Gal. 5:19-21,26), let us be careful to name these things as God names them_SIN_and
confess them and seek God’s help to turn away from them. Only then will the positive fruit of the
Spirit begin really to appear in our lives.

There may be a danger with some believers of seeking, in their own strength, to produce
imitations of the Spirit’s fruit. Having read this series of articles one may, for example, set the
goal for himself of (a) controlling his temper the next time one provokes him, (b) complimenting
the waitress, (c) not worrying when things do not go according to plan, and (d) cutting down his
coffee consumption to two cups a day. Even if he succeeds in achieving this goal it may have been
accomplished through the flesh and not the Spirit. Let us avoid setting up for ourselves a rule of
life (see J. N. Darby’s Collected Writings, Vol. 10, pp. 27-29; also Words of Truth, Vol. 14, pp.
106-108). Such a thing will often lead to pride, self-complacency, and even condemnation of
others if we are successful in adhering to these rules; or it may lead to depression and doubts if
we fail to live up to the goals set for ourselves. Rather, let us seek to reckon ourselves dead to sin
and self and alive to God (Rom. 6:11). And may we truly desire that God, through the Holy Spirit
acting upon His Word, should make us grow unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the
stature of the fulness of Christ (Eph. 4:13). What spiritual fruit will be produced in our lives if
this be so!

What is to be done if a Christian sins? The Apostle John gives the answer:"If we confess our sins,
He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John
1:9). Confession is the means by which the conscience is to be kept clear.

God has been perfectly satisfied as to all the believer’s sins in the cross of Christ. Our sins can
never come into God’s presence inasmuch as Christ, who bore them all and put them away, is
there instead. But if we sin, the conscience will feel it, for the Holy Spirit will make us feel it. He
cannot allow so much as a single foolish thought to pass unjudged. Our sin cannot affect God’s
thoughts about us, but it can, and does, affect our thoughts about Him. It cannot hide the Advocate
from God’s view, but it can hide Him from ours. It cannot affect our relationship with God, but
it can very seriously affect our enjoyment thereof. God has already judged our sins in the Person
of Christ, and in the act of confession, we judge ourselves. This is essential to divine forgiveness
and restoration. The very smallest unconfessed, unjudged sin on the conscience will entirely mar
our communion with God. By confession the conscience is cleared, our communion is restored,
and our thoughts concerning God and our relationship to Him are set straight.

There is a great difference between confession and praying for forgiveness. It is much easier to
ask in a general way for the forgiveness of our sins, than to confess those sins. Confession
involves self-judgment; asking for forgiveness may not, and in itself does not. By merely asking
for forgiveness, we tend to lessen the sense of the evil; we may be thinking we are not completely
to blame. Or we may be motivated by a desire to escape the consequences of the sin, rather than
by an abhorrence of the sin itself. God wants us not only to dread the consequences of sin, but to
hate the thing itself, because of its hatefulness in His sight. If it were possible for us, when we
commit sin, to be forgiven merely for the asking, our sense of sin, and our shrinking from it,
would not be nearly so intense; and as a consequence, our estimate of the fellowship with which
we are blessed would not be nearly so high. The effect of all this upon our spiritual condition, and
also upon our whole character and practical career, must be obvious to every experienced
Christian.

(From "Sin in the Flesh and Sin on the Conscience" in Miscellaneous Writings, Vol. 2.)

Until there is confession of sin, and not merely of a sin, there is no forgiveness. We find David
in Psalm 51, when he was confessing his sin, saying, "Behold I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin
did my mother conceive me." Not merely does he say that he has done this particular evil, but he
also recognizes the root and principle of sin. When our hearts are brought to recognize God’s
hand, it is not merely, then, a question of what particular sin may need forgiveness; God has
brought down the soul, through the working of His Spirit on it, to detect the principle of sin, and
so there is confession of that, and not merely of a particular sin. There is then positive restoration
of soul.

Now this is a much deeper thing in its practical consequences, and the Lord’s dealings thereon,
than we are apt to suppose. Freed from the bondage of things which hinder its intercourse with
God, the soul learns to lean upon God, instead of upon those things which had taken the place of
God. "Thou art my hiding place; Thou shalt preserve me from trouble; Thou shalt compass me
with songs of deliverance" (Psalm 32:7). This is the confidence of the soul that is leaning upon
God.

We are often like the horse or the mule because our souls have not been plowed up. When there
is anything in which the will of man is at work, the Lord deals with us, as with the horse or the
mule, holding us in (Psalm 32:9). When every part of the heart is in contact with Himself, He
guides us with His "eye" (verse 8). "The light of the body is the eye; therefore when thine eye is
single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of
darkness" (Luke 11:34). When there is anything wherein the eye is not single, so long as this is
the case, there is not the free intercourse in heart and affections with God; and the consequence
is, our will not being subdued, we are not led simply of God. When the heart is in a right state,
the whole body is "full of light," and there is the quick perception of the will of God. He just
teaches us by His "eye" all He wishes, and produces in us quickness of understanding in His fear
(Isa. 11:3). This is our portion, as having the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, "quick of understanding
in the fear of Jehovah," hearts without any object except the will and glory of God.

(From "Confession and Forgiveness", in Bible Treasury, Vol.7N.)