I belong no more to the old Adam, who fell in
Paradise. I belong to the New Adam, who was conceived without sin,
and born of a pure virgin, who lived by perfect faith, in perfect
obedience, doing His Father's will only, even to the death upon the
cross, wherein He took away the sins of the whole world. And now for
His sake my original sin, my fallen, brutish nature, is forgiven me.
God does not hate me for it. He loves me, because I belong to His
Son. My baptism is a witness and a warrant, a sign and a covenant
between me and God, that I belong not to old Adam of Paradise, but to
the Lord Jesus Christ, who sits at God's right hand. The cross which
was signed on my forehead when I was baptised is God's sign to me
that I am to sacrifice myself and give up my own will to do God's
will, even as the Lord Jesus did when He gave Himself to die, because
it was His Father's will. And because I belong to Jesus Christ,
because God has called me to be His child, therefore He will help me.
He will help me to conquer this low, brutish nature of mine. He will
put His Spirit into me, the Spirit of His Son Jesus Christ, that I
may trust Him, cry to Him, My Father! that I may love Him; understand
His will, and see how good, and noble, and beautiful, and full of
peace and comfort it is; delight in obeying Him; glory in sacrificing
my own fancies and pleasures for His sake; and find my only honour,
my only happiness, in doing His will on earth as saints and angels do
it in heaven.
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