Where, then, is the relief from this dilemma?  It is found only in the power of God.  He has provided a complete salvation from the dominion and power of evil, which is a real victory—­the only victory for the believer in this present life and conflict.  It is a second form or tense of salvation, for it is possible to be saved from the condemnation and penalty of sin, and still for a time to be under its dominion and power.  Salvation from the power of the world, the flesh, and the devil, may be secured as freely and completely as the salvation from the penalty of sin, and on the same terms; yet its terms and conditions are so unlike the methods of the world that often it seems unreal, even to Christians.

No instructed person expects to be free from condemnation, or justified before God, by virtue of his moral character; nor can there be freedom from the power of sin by virtue of the resolutions of the human will.  Though the Christian life is impossible to human strength, it is within the power of God; and He offers to supply all that He requires, even to a completely victorious life.  Since it is necessarily a Divine undertaking, the human part can be no more than an attitude of expectation or faith toward God,—­an attitude which reckons self to be helpless, and God alone to be sufficient.  It is a perpetual realization of the principle of faith and, therefore, at every point, contradicts Satan’s principle of self-help.

Here, as in every human effort to be God-like, Satan’s ideals and methods are so thrust upon the world that the natural dependence of the creature upon the Creator is made to seem a weak and unreasonable thing.  This worldly mind has found a place in the Church and to a large extent, in spite of the teachings of Scripture; and it is often as difficult to inspire true expectation toward God in the Christian mind in the matter of daily victory, as it is to move the self-righteous and self-sufficient sinner to believe on Christ for regeneration.

True dependence upon the sufficiency of God is thus born of a vision of the utter inability of the natural man to meet the demands of the heavenly citizenship.  The world citizen may wrestle against flesh and blood to realize his moral ideals:  but he has no heavenly standards to fulfill; no mighty foe to face; and no conflict of natures.  Therefore, his low ideals may often be reached by virtue of his own resolution and will.  Especially will this method be adequate for the unregenerate, as the energizing power of Satan is working in him to cause him both to will and to do the purpose of Satan (Eph. 2:2):  but the faith principle is the only possible way to victory for the child of God; and it must be faith alone.

As the soul may be eternally lost, while calling upon God to help him save himself:  so the saint who only seeks the assistance of God in the exercise of his own power toward a correct manner of life, may be a dishonor to God constantly.  The principles of faith and of works can no more be mixed in the one case than in the other.  They both present human impossibilities and, therefore, demand the power of God.  The Scriptures are clear on this point, both in precept and example: