Christ for strength, and maintain the conflict in dependence on his power and grace. Then, though unable to do any thing of ourselves, we shall be enabled to " do all things."]
3. How are we indebted to God for sending his only Son into the world !
[If Christ had never come, we had remained for ever the bond-slaves of sin and Satan. We had still continued, like the fallen angels, without either inclination or ability to renew ourselves : whereas, through him, many of us can say, that we are " made free from the law of sin and death." Let us then trace our deliverance to its proper source ; to the Father's love, the Saviour's merit, and the Spirit's influence. And let us with unfeigned gratitude adore that God, who " sent his Son to bless us, in turning away every one of us from our iniquities6."]
e Acts iii. 26.
Rom. viii. 5. They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh ; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
IT is a certain and blessed truth, that all who be- lieve in Christ are delivered from the condemnation due to their sins. But it is no less true, that all who believe in Christ are delivered also from the dominion of sin, and are enabled to walk in the paths of right- eousness and holiness : and it is only by men's attain- ment of this latter state that their attainment of the former can be ascertained. At the time that men believe in Christ, they have a new and spiritual prin- ciple infused into them by the Spirit of God : and where that principle exists, it will of necessity mani- fest itself by its appropriate operations. Hence the carnal and the spiritual man may be clearly dis- tinguished from each other. Each will follow the predominant principle by which he is actuated : " They that are after the flesh, will mind the things of the flesh ; and they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit."
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