The Righteousness of Faith - Part 4 — Roy Hession

Abraham Justified by Faith

We return to the 4th chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. The 4th chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. What shall we say then that Abraham, our father of the taint of the flesh, hath found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof the glory, but not before God.

For what saith the Scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward, not reckoned of great, but of death. But to him that worketh not, that believeth on him that justifies the ungodly, his fate is counted for righteousness.

Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputed righteousness without works. And here is a quotation from David's psalm in Psalm 32, where having himself been restored to God, he says, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.

Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputed not sin. How is this blessedness upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? For we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness.

How was it then reckoned? When he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. And he received the sign of circumcision, a seed of the righteousness of faith which he had, yet being uncircumcised.

That he might be the father of all them that believe, so they be not circumcised. That righteousness, rightness with God, might be imputed unto them also. And the father of circumcision, who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham, which he had, being yet uncircumcised.

For the promise that he should be the heir of the world, that nothing may matter politically, but religiously. It was promised that in him and in his seed all nations ultimately would be blessed through what comes from Judas to Christ.

And that promise, he says, was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For it is they and they alone which are of the law, the heir. Faith is made void. And the promise is not a faith, because the law works it wrong.

For where no law is, there is no transgression. Therefore it is a faith that it might be by grace to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed. Not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of it all.

As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations. Before him will be believed even God, who quickeneth the dead. And calleth those things which be not, as though they were, who against hope, believe in hope, that he might become the father of many nations.

According to that which was spoken, so shall thy seed be. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about a hundred years old. Neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb.

He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, being fully persuaded that what he had promised, he was able also to perform. Therefore it was imputed unto him for righteousness.

Now it was not written for his faith alone that it was imputed unto him. But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him, that raised up Jesus, our Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification.

Well, what a legacy it is, even the reading of it. Before we approach the subject matter of chapter four, there are two things I want to finish off from yesterday's study, which I didn't have time. It would be unfair to leave at least one verse without comment.

Christ’s Propitiation and the Righteousness of God

In chapter three, verse twenty-five, you have, Whom God set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God, to declare, I say at this time, his righteousness, that he might be the just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.

I wonder, have you understood what those verses mean? As they stand, they are perhaps a little difficult, a little obscure. The Revised Version gives us a more accurate rendering, and it says that he is set forth as a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare God's righteousness because of the passing over of sins done aforetime in the forbearance of God.

In other words, the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ has a retrospective value. After all, it was something eternal. He was slain from the foundation of the world in the mind and purpose of God. It happened in time, but it was a reality in eternity.

Therefore, its value is retrospective and covers the sins that were passed over aforetime through the forbearance of God. Abraham had his sins passed over. He had many, but they were passed over. Moses had them.

David had them. But how can a righteous God, who says the soul that sinneth it shall die, pass over sins, when he himself has passed that evil? Only because he knew that in the fullness of time the Lord Jesus was coming, and become the propitiation for those sins.

And thus it is that Abraham was saved through Christ. Moses was saved through Christ. David was saved through Christ. For a time he wanted to see how God was righteous in passing over those men's sins.

Until Calvary. And Calvary declared the righteousness of God in passing over sins done aforetime, passing over them in his forbearance. And so Calvary has a retrospective value. At the same time, it declares his righteousness in the present.

In the present. That in the present he might be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in him. God ought to have a righteous ground on which he could declare the wrong person to be right. It's unlawful to do it.

Unless it's a ground that's satisfactory to justice. And Calvary's judgment there is satisfactory to divine justice. Divine justice cannot demand from man any more than what Jesus does. Divine justice was settled in the most awesome and terrible manner possible.

The most dreadful view of sin was taken up at Calvary. And so that precious blood declares his righteousness. Because of the passing over of sins done aforetime in his forbearance. And it declares his righteousness in declaring you to be just when you know you're wrong.

That's what it says. John says he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins. But how is God just to forgive me? I think he's probably setting aside his justice to be lenient toward me. No, no, he hasn't set aside his justice.

I'm not in love in these days. I'm just, you see. I'm just. Calvary was the biggest evidence of the righteousness of God. Then the man in America flew up to the gas station. And he was a great man of witnessing to all and sundry as he could.

And he said to the man, you know the judgment day is over already? No, sir. He said, it is. We're over. But Jesus said, it's not for the unbelievers. It's not for the believers. I just want to explain that verse.

Faith Does Not Make the Law Void

Just to see how satisfactory to every moral principle is this God's way of justifying judgment. And then a word on verse 31. Do we then make void the law through faith? Now, it's almost breathtaking, as we fought yesterday, to think that God declares him to be right, who in reality is utterly wrong.

And he does that, not where he's improved, but while he's still a sinner. On the one condition he admits that fact. It would seem as if he can do what you like and you're still going to be justified. It would seem that this way of faith would make void moral principles.

And if that's all there was, that criticism would be valid. But it isn't. Because this way of being saved, of being made right with God, has produced this more powerful motive to holiness than any other man's divine way.

Death to the one who would be the recipient of this great life, to the one who'd loved him in his sins and restored him and declared him right now that he's a sinner. And the last thing in the world you want to do is go out playing with death, which costs his Lord so dearly.

This is God's way of holiness. It isn't only a call of duty that doesn't do anything for us, but to be freely subdued, gloriously restored, to be in peace with God by utter grace. Oh, it changes the heart.

It binds our hearts like a festal gift. And it's more than that. As a man comes to Christ as a savior, and hears the word that he's declared right with God for Christ's sake, there happens within him an eternal miracle which Paul isn't at the moment dealing with, but it's dealt with elsewhere, the new birth.

And the man is immediately given a whole range of new appetites, new desires, a new life, which has affinities with God and heaven and holiness, as his old life has affinities. But a new angel. And holiness is noted for that one.

Oh, the old man was made a baffle. But oh, my man, that man is never going to be the same. He's got appetite, you know, to be satisfied with God and walking with God. And so this way of faith does not make faith toward the Lord.

It is capacitive. It produces holiness in a way that mere calls to duty never will. Well, then, those are the two things I wanted to say just to finish off from yesterday. Now, chapter four. Now, I remind you that the theme is still this matter of righteousness with God.

Righteousness with God. Being declared right with God, which is the basic necessity. Now, the natural thing for all of us is to feel you can't be declared right unless you are right. Isn't that so? The natural logic.

You can't be declared right unless you are right. That judge, he can't declare you innocent unless you are innocent. And you've got to prove that fact. And that's the natural way we all go around. We all have to prove we're not as bad as people say we are.

They haven't got it all wrong. They've just understood us, you see. And we can only be declared right if we are right. Therefore, our great attempt is to make ourselves right. To prove ourselves right.

In other words, a way of worth. And it's based on this natural logic that you can't be declared right or regarded right unless you actually are right. And therefore, we struggle and strive and argue to make ourselves right, to prove ourselves right.

To stand before God on the grounds of our own righteousness. Now, we must disempathize with one another. It's nature to all. Even after we're failed, you still find yourself arguing you're right. You can't feel you are, you can be regarded right if you are right.

You've got to say, yes, I'm right. And whenever we do that, we're trying to stand before God on the grounds of our own righteousness. It's the way it works. Which lingers on even after an experience of grace.

But the message of this book is the very opposite. It is that God is prepared to declare those to be right who, in reality, are utterly wrong. He sees our enemies without any regard for their merit or demerit in the case.

On one ground only, that they're demented. In other words, that's the way of grace. And so this is a great theme, especially in this chapter. Is this being declared right by worth or by grace through faith?

Abraham’s Justification Apart from Works and Ritual

Well now, the Jew, with his possession of the law and of circumcision, was quite sure that the only way in which he would be declared right with God and fit for heaven was by worth, by obeying that law, by proving that you're right.

And also, very great help in the matter, by the ritual of circumcision. He then thought and felt naturally that righteousness was by worth and by ritual. And so Paul has got to help this dear man, his own kingdom.

And he does so in a skillful way. He takes him there, to the father of their race, from whom the ritual of circumcision first came. Abraham. What do we say about Abraham? They based everything on Abraham.

And Paul says three things about Abraham's experience of God. He says, was Abraham justified, declared right with God by his worth, by his merit, by his attainment? Well, it is. Let's have a look. Because if he had, if he did, he had whereof he might rightfully boast.

A man wouldn't like to boast, but after all he's done, and it's due to his attainment and his religiousness, well, he doesn't like to be proud, but he says, after all, I'm in fact a saint. I mean, they're the saints, they're the hostesses.

You can't even cry. But of course, I've been crying for years. Eighteen, you see. And you have whereof the glory, if your righteousness with God is the result of attainment. And all the things that can become our righteousness, even after we've said it.

The things that become our righteousness, which give us a little higher standing with men, even if we don't believe they give us a higher standing with God, but in today's latitude, we think they do. All the things that can become our righteousness, the things we do, the standards we adopt with other people, just the things we put down on them.

It becomes our righteousness, and in fact, we say, we had whereof the glory, but Paul says no one had in reality before God as we do today. Well, he says, what about Abraham? And he takes them back to a certain incident in Abraham's life, to an extraordinary verse that you might miss if you were just reading the Old Testament, but he picks it up and highlights it.

Turn to Genesis 6, verse 6. Abraham believed in the Lord, and he counted it in for him ferociously. Now, the circumstance of that verse was this, that God had promised that to Abraham and his seed, all nations of the earth were going to be blessed.

Salvation was coming. But he hadn't got a seed, he hadn't got a son. And there seemed no likelihood of him having one, or Sarah having one. And the years went on and on and on, and they got beyond the age where a child was normally possible.

Paul or Abraham said, what about that promise, Lord? And one day God took him out on a starry night, and look at those stars. He counted them for multitudes. He wasn't speaking only of Abraham's natural seed, but his spiritual seed.

I'm of the spiritual seed of Abraham, and so are you if you're a believer. What a multitude. Everything on the human level is dead. But Abraham considered not his own body, nor the deadness of Sarah's womb.

He looked off to the promise, he didn't address, well, I believe the Lord, and he just said, I'm going to have a seed like that. And you know, that touched God. So much so today, Abraham, I'm going to count that faith to you for a righteousness which you don't otherwise forget.

You haven't got one stitch of righteousness. You're a sinner as much as anybody in the world, but you've done the one thing that delights my heart. Against hope you believe in hope, you believe me faithful.

You accepted the promise. And now I count that faith of righteousness of which you naturally have not got one stitch. And so God counted the faith of Abraham for righteousness. There you are. How was he declared right with God?

By what? No, you've got it in your own scriptures. It was utterly apart from her. It was simply to dare to believe. Now Paul goes on to apply it. Wonderful verse it is. Now he says, going back to Romans 4 verse 4.

For him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt. Do you understand that? Once again, it's a little difficult in the King James Version. To him that works and gets a reward for his work, his reward, his wages, come as a matter of debt.

He's put his employer into his debt. It's not a matter of grace at all. It's a literature. Faith is that which you have got no claim for. But this is a matter of faith. And so it is the man who hopes to stand well with God by the fact he's earnest, he's religious, the fact that he's very prayerful and so on.

Is that going to make his standing with God the right? He's really trying to put God in his debt. And you're off the ground of grace altogether. It is the of works. It is no more of grace. And you've got to have it one way or the other.

You're either going to be utterly judged and tired by grace without a tincture of mercy or grace, tired by works without a tincture of mercy, or else you're going to be saved. Utterly by grace without a tincture of works or mercy.

You can't mix it. And some of us unwittingly grant it, of course. The whole purpose of the Scripture is to discover to us what we're really doing. And what we're really doing in so many ways is trying to put God in our debt.

For he owes us peace. So he owes us righteousness. So he owes us salvation. So he owes us power. So he owes it to us to be used. I don't think I'm trusting my works for my justification, but I trust them for a lot of other things sometimes.

And I try to put God in my debt when he gives me power. I try to put God in my debt if you'll use me. If I do this and do the other, I put God in my debt. It's a futile task. You're never going to save me.

Grace has to be the source of everything. I've got to come as a beggar. I can't do it. I can't achieve it unless I say I can do it. And if I'm going to have power, if I'm going to be used, it's going to be all grace.

Grace. Grace. But to him that works is the reward not latent of grace, but of debt. You don't get a sink of God. You can't do it. You can't do it. You've got to come as a saviour in the past. That's all that I want to put there.

To him that works is not. This is what the Bible says, friends. Not what I say. Not what our conscience. But to him that works is not. But believe it on him that justifies the ungodliness. But believe it on him that declares him to be right who admits he's wrong.

That man's holy confidence in a God like that is counted to him for a righteousness which he doesn't otherwise possess. The most depraved creature in jail is he who may give him this view of the God he has to deal with.

Oh God, I'm a man who doesn't realize. That man's coming to Christ like that is counted for an eternal, unassailable righteousness which he doesn't otherwise possess. His repentance and faith and the blood of Jesus is counted for righteousness.

There's nothing else. Just that. This is what the scripture says. It is God's way of peace. You get to peace. No other way. And you want restoration to people. See, always the same. They're right to the end of our days.

Oh, this verse is lifting. I love to be a man who, without works, believes crinkly on him that justifies the ungodliness. Christian knows that that new attitude of faith is counted for righteousness and comes at a new time.

Sometimes I'm so slow. I'm struggling. I'm striving. Why can't I improve, son? When am I going to be a really good Christian? When am I going to have a wonderful record? I'm pining for a right of my own.

And as long as I'm pining and mourning over myself and my faith, the hour of my peace is decided. Oh, quickly. Joyous continually to be a man who knows how to believe on him, who justifies the ungodliness, whose faith is counted in for righteousness, and who comes at that time as peace with God and liberty with God.

Although sometimes, once again, this is no way of us having peace while in sin. You don't get peace. You get it while you're sinning. But that's not while you're sinning. You're sinning. You've got to repent.

And the moment you repent, you're not in sin. You're in Christ. Well, that's that. And then, of course, he brings a case. Oh, it's a tremendous argument. I don't know how these men could have a word to say.

Going in fast. The blessedness of a man whom God forgives and to whom the law will not impute sin. Meanwhile, you've got pleasure. And it could well be imputed to you. Oh, the blessedness of one who knows God no longer imputes my sin and joy.

He's imputed them to his son. He imputes his righteousness in himself. That's the first thing that Paul says about Abraham, that he was declared right with God apart from work. Now, I must say a word on that.

Righteousness Apart from Works and Circumcision

You see where it says, verse 6. To whom God imputed righteousness without work. Literally, in those eyes and elsewhere, it's apart from work. Now, it is possible to preach salvation by grace without work.

In such a way that you could almost give the impression it's wicked to do good work. That there's got no taste in the life. Good work. It doesn't say that. All it says is that righteousness is imputed apart from understanding.

When it comes to being declared right with God, it's apart from that question altogether. Your good doesn't help you one little bit. The accumulated effort of yours doesn't do one little bit to put you right with God.

And the accumulated sins of yours, if they're acknowledged, doesn't do one little bit to impact you. This is altogether apart from work. Oh, who's to say? But in this matter, notice, when it comes to your peace with God.

You get it through Jesus. All I know in getting it through Jesus and repenting, you do actually pray. And if he might convict you, you do actually read your Bible. You get it through the Bible. Listen to the Word.

Probably into a sermon. You come of a conviction. But that isn't the thing on which your eye is focused. It's the one of whom you're speaking. The one whom the Scriptures reveal. The one to whom you're coming in prayer.

That's the one by whom. And so righteousness is apart from work. You're good. And then he also says it's apart from the ritual of circumcision. Now he says, well now, this when Abraham was declared right with God, how was he?

Was he circumcised at that time or uncircumcised? Actually reminds them that at that stage, God had not given him the sign of circumcision. He was as uncircumcised as any Gentile. But that apparently was no hindrance to God.

He was declared as right as God could make him be. Why? He was without outside any covenant at all. And so the Jew had to admit that the one that he based so much on, he was made right, declared right with God, apart from work and apart from this vauntless ritual of circumcision.

Please turn the cassette over now. Do not fast wind it in either direction.

He was declared right with God apart from any ritual. Apart from any ministration of the church. Apart from sacraments. Now circumcision had its place. What was it? It was a seal upon the righteousness which he had while he was uncircumcised.

Just a seal, that's all. It didn't add one little bit to his righteousness. That was on another ground altogether, but it was a seal. And so it is on those things that I've mentioned. They have their place, of course.

They're commanded in that, the sacraments. But they're only sealed or intended on a righteousness of God that I've got at the cross. They do not add one little bit to my righteousness. We destroy blood and righteousness by duty, my Lord.

But there are seals on that and signs on it. The trouble is you have the seal without the reality. You have the sign without the thing which is meant to signify it. Thousands of them. And they hang on to that as the Jews hang on.

And that's why sometimes the preacher of the gospel has to appear to be destructive. He's got to rip it away. It's a royalty. Depending on their own righteousness and their own religion. Oh, they have their place, their seals.

The signs of a reality which ought to be in our hearts already. That we're all connected to. And so Abraham's righteousness with God was apart from the ritual of any sort at all. And apart from the law.

The promises made to Abraham were not contingent on his obedience to the law. Now it says here, verse 15, the promise that he should be heir of the world. That is, that not only that he should be blessed, but through his seed the whole world one day would be blessed.

A reference, of course, to the Messiah, the Messianic Pope. Now it says, Paul, that what is given to him contingent on his obedience to the law. But on the same basis as he got right with God. On faith.

In Galatians, we have a time to turn to it. Paul takes up that same point. As a matter of fact, the law hadn't even been given. How could that promise be contingent on the law, which wasn't given until 400 years afterwards?

And he says, if you now, afterwards, make it contingent on the law, you can serve up the promise. Oh, you say, I shall. There's the promise, and you put a condition on it. Yes, but you won't keep the condition.

Are you sure I won't? I'm sure you won't. The Bible says you won't. The Bible says the only effect of law is to work law. It says, this do and thou shalt live, this says do and thou shalt die. I'm going to tell you, you're going to fail to do it.

You're a sinner. You're a fallen nation. It's high and holy law that you concern many with the outward but the inward. And if my peace with God is contingent on that, then the only promise of God is contingent on me now, keeping up to a certain standard, you forfeit the promises overnight.

Now, that wasn't law. It's the Scripture, isn't it? Our own Scripture. For the promise that he should be heir of the world was not to Abraham or his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of the saints.

For if they, and they only, which are of the law the heirs, faith is made void, and the promised men are none of them. And I think we need to see that our righteousness as God is ours. It isn't contingent on our attaining a certain standard.

It's grace. And yet I say again, there's no more powerful incentive to holiness than that. And as I say again, that with it, it carries new birth and makes a man new. And the lovely thing is this, that if there should be failure, he is a trash.

He's not under the law that would trash him and congender, but under grace that tells him that if he's finished, he's never going to come again. He can be at peace and restored into fellowship with God.

And there is a wonderful verse. Here's a verse for a sermon, really, in itself. Verse 16. Therefore it is the faith that it might be by grace, to the end the promise might be sure to all the people. Now some people aren't sure.

Not sure, and I hope I am. I think I'm like a sea lion, let's say. But they're not sure. Do you know why? Because deep down, at the back of their mind, their thinking is, and it's so natural to all of us, that of course you can't be sure unless you've kept the law, unless you've been the sort of person you should be.

And how can I say that I have been? And even if I say that I've been up to this moment, how am I sure I'm going to continue to the end? And on that basis, you never, never, never can be sure. But the scripture says, it is the faith, the simple way of coming, that it might be by grace, to the end that the promise might be sure to all the people.

Jesus, man, may be sure of that. Because it's a grace, dependent not on what he is, but on what God has done in Christ for him on his behalf. Are you sure? Are you sure? You haven't been. The reason why we're not sure is that we're trying to find something on force on which to build.

Our great hope, our peace, our hope of relationship with God, our hope of power in Christianity, I'm all the time trying to find something in myself on which to build, my hope of being used. And I've been disturbed because I can't find it.

The devil sees to that and says, oh, you're not this and not the other. And so on when he says it's true. And the law says you've got to find something in yourself to be sure. And you look and you can't find it.

You can find it one day and it's gone the next. Like religious feelings, how long do they last? You get a build on peace, or an experience of joy. You'll never be sure. It's building on self, it's building on worth, something that you have.

God wants us to build on Christ, the sinner's friend, the solid rock. To the day that it might be by grace to the end, the promise might be sure to all. So those are the three things that God says, that taught us about Abraham.

Well, aren't they tremendous? If it's argued out with consummate skill to a man, of course he's not out there knocking for six, he just wants to. He wants to build him up. The man's making things too hard for himself.

He's only trying to give someone despair. Under the law, but it's tenfold lash. Lord, in the last house too, that the sooner, the more I tried, the sooner I died. While the law cried, you, you, you. Hopeless, this period of the battle raged.

Oh, wicked man, my Christ. A deliverance I sought by some terrorist force. While my heart cried, I, I, I. Then came a day when my struggling feet and trembling in every limb at the foot of the tree where one died for me.

My heart cried, him, him, him. I see it all. I don't have to find anything in myself in which to give him. I've got even love in which to give that to my husband. Well, now we must continue on. So it's right, that's all about Abraham.

Faith in God’s Promise Despite Impossible Circumstances

Now, I want you to look at this man's face. Don't just think it was easy. It was the hardest thing that Abraham ever had to do. That's hard at night to believe God's word because everything pointed in the opposite direction.

And he had the virtue to engage hope, a hope based on human possibilities. He believed in a hope based on God's promise. Not being weak in faith, he said, all right, I'll have to consider the facts that are beyond the age.

He said that not that the promise of God to Abraham was weak, it had promised that he believed in God. But it should be even so. Therefore, it was included to him for righteousness. Now, this is a posture of faith in faith, of justifiability, which you and I need to exercise from the beginning and all the way along.

And I want to tell you, sometimes it's hard for us to believe that God declared me who still was to be utterly right with himself as it was for Abraham to believe that he was going to have a son. Abraham's faith was exercised about his son.

Our faith has to be exercised about God's son. But sometimes it's just as hard to be the latter as it was for Abraham to be the former. Now, in the Christian life, at the beginning and right the way on to the end, to me, I discovered there are two big battles.

The First Battle: Admitting Our Wrong

The first battle is to be willing to admit I'm wrong. Oh, what a battle. Would anything go to admit we're wrong? We'll argue, we'll explain, we'll write letters. Some people even have to go to the legislature and go to law to prove they're right.

They won't admit they're wrong. But they say, I'm not wrong. Even if you were, you wouldn't be willing to admit it. Or if I were, where would you be doing it now? I'm going to be willing to admit we're wrong.

And of course, we've always done an alibi for ourselves. And that is God's great battle with us to bend us this way, to bring us to contriteness, to brokenness of the spirit. This is the thing which in the sight of God is of great price.

Say it day to day, it's our desire, not sacrifice. Else would I give it. The sacrifice of God is a broken contrite spirit. And brokenness is simply the difference, or the opposite, to hardness. Hardness says it's your fault.

Brokenness says it's mine. Oh, what a battle. What a battle. Friends, you won't get anywhere in the Christian life. Neither will I. I won't get chosen in the first place. I won't go on with him unless I'm willing to be broken.

In this simple sense. That is all brokenness is. Is it having its shedding tears? Is it going to tell of its suffering? It's the willingness to bend and stick in it. Broken. I'm wrong. There's the first battle.

The Second Battle: Believing God Declares the Wrong Person Right

The battle to admit you're wrong. But then there's a second battle. The battle to believe you're right. And sometimes that's a bigger battle than the first. Oh, the battle. Well, you can see no difficulty at the moment, you'll say, in admitting you're wrong.

But then we believe that God declares wrong to the wrong person to be right. And the devil comes along. He's the accuser of the great. And he uses the very law of God, which he says, you ought to attain to this.

You have to attain to this. And he creeps under the law with his tenfold wrath, learning alas how true that the more I've tried, the sooner I've died, while the law cried, you, you. And you've got to.

You're not going to victory unless you've won the second battle as well as the first. You won't admit you're wrong. Now, can you believe that a man as tall as you have, as pale as you have, if the blood is enough for you, that you could have the best girl in heaven, that you couldn't be scattered away as it is, as never before before, can you believe it?