Evening, April 6, edited from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

“In the name of the Lord I will surely cut them off.” — Psalm 118:12

Our Lord Jesus, by his death, did not purchase a right to a part of us only, but to the entire man. He contemplated in his passion the sanctification of us wholly, spirit, soul, and body; that in this triple kingdom he himself might reign supreme without a rival. It is the business of the newborn nature which God has given to the newly regenerated believer to assert the rights of the Lord Jesus Christ. My soul, so far as you are a child of God, you must conquer all the rest of yourself which yet remains unholy; you must subdue all your strength and passion to the silver scepter of Jesus’ gracious reign, and you must never be satisfied till he who is King by his purchase of you becomes also King by your coronation of him, and reigns by grace in you supreme. Seeing, then, that sin has no right to any part of us, we shall go about a good and lawful warfare when we seek, in the name of God, to drive it out. O my body, you are a member of Christ: shall I tolerate your subjection to the prince of darkness? O my soul, Christ has suffered for your sins, and redeemed you with his most precious blood: shall I suffer your remembrances to become a storehouse of evil, or your passions to be fire starters of iniquity? Shall I surrender my judgment to be perverted by error, or my will to be led in chains of iniquity? No, my soul, you are Christ’s, and sin has no right to you.

Be courageous concerning this, O Christian! Do not be dispirited, as though your spiritual enemies are invulnerable. You are able to overcome them—not in your own strength—the weakest of them would be too much for you in that; but you can and shall overcome them through the blood of the Lamb. Do not ask, “How shall I divest myself of them, for they are greater and mightier than I?” Instead, go to the strong for strength, wait humbly upon God, and the mighty God of Jacob will surely come to the rescue, and you shall sing of victory through his grace.