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p539 [From the French.] * * * I have been greatly struck with the difference of the instruction in that which precedes and follows verse 12 of Romans 5. To the end of verse 11 it is a question of sins and of our justification, of pardon by the blood and by the resurrection of our precious Saviour. From verse 12 it is a question of sin, of our condition, common to all before God and not of pardon, but of deliverance; and therefore it is not a question of Christ dying for our sins, but of our death with Him, and of the fact that we live by Him. The blessedness of the first of these mercies is portrayed in chapter 5:1-11, that of the second in chapter 8. The first is specially that which God is Himself, that which He is for the sinner; the second our position before Him and what He is for His own. In the Epistle to the Romans the sinner is looked at as living in sin, then dead with Christ (he is not yet risen with Him, but living by Him). In the Epistle to the Colossians the apostle goes further, we are dead in sin and raised with Him. It is a change of position as well as the communication of a new life.

In the Epistle to the Ephesians we are only viewed as dead in sins (even as walking in them) then quickened, raised with Christ, and seated in Him in heavenly places. In the Epistle to the Colossians the Christian, though raised, is on the earth; his life is hid with Christ in God, he ought to have his affections on high, his inheritance is there preserved for him. You can examine these things in the word. What I have said of Romans is very useful for the deliverance of souls. It is deliverance.

I bless God, dear brother, that He has spared you your dear little girl, after having taken away your son. His good hand is upon us, even (and very particularly) in things that are painful. It was not worth while to give a long history of the prosperity of Job, but the Holy Spirit of God has given us details of all that took place in his difficulties. It was worth while; and it is for the profit of His own to the end of the age. It is there that the work of our God is found. May He give us to have entire confidence in Him. It was the first thing that Satan destroyed before - and in order that lust might enter into Eve. Now the entire life of Jesus was the manifestation of love to regain the confidence of the heart of man. Without doubt he needed grace, but it is what He was, God shewing Himself to man that he might trust in Him. His death does not diminish the proof of His love.

Demerara, December, 1868.

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With the prayerful desire that the Lord Jesus Christ will use this God-given ministry in this form for His glory and the blessing of many in these last days before His coming. © Les Hodgett .