Half-Way Evangelism

 The following is from Charles G. Trumbull's pen as recorded in R. A. Torrey's book The Fundamentals:

 "Evangelism that is limited to the Good News that there is freedom from the penalty of our sins is only a half-way evangelism. It is a crippled, halting evangelism. If we would tell 'that sweet story of old,' let us tell the whole story.

"And the whole story is that our Lord Jesus Christ came, not only to pay the penalty of our sins, but to break the power of our sin. He laid aside His glory and came from heaven to earth, not only that men might be saved from dying the second death, but also that they might live without sinning in this present life. Here is Good News indeed; so good that to many it sounds too good to be true. But, praise God, it is true!

"When the Holy Spirit says to us, 'Sin shall not have dominion over you:  for ye are not under law, but under grace,' He means it. When Paul declared in the exultant joy of the Spirit, 'The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin,' he meant it. It was true. And the same Spirit of life in Christ Jesus is making men free today from the law of sin, when they are ready to take Him at His word.

"When the beloved Apostle [John] wrote, under the direction of the Holy Spirit, 'My little children, these things write I unto you that ye may not sin,' he meant just that. When our Lord Jesus Himself said, first, 'Every one that committeth sin is the bondservant of sin'; and then, instead of leaving us hopelessly there, went on to say: 'If therefore the Son shall make you free, ye shall, be free indeed' He was trying to tell us what His whole salvation is.

"The victorious life is not a life made sinless, but it is a life kept from sinning. It is not, as has well been said, that the sinner is made perfect here in this life, but that the sinner even in this life has a perfect Saviour. And that Saviour is more than equal, while we are still in this life, to overcoming all the power of our sin."