“Do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life” (Rom. 6:12, 13 NIV)

There is one man, Christ Jesus, who resisted successfully all the powers of sin when He was here upon the earth. He was the Word made flesh. He could stand before the world and challenge any to convict Him of sin. No guile was found in His mouth. By His obedience many shall be made righteous.

Many ask today, How can I have His life or His righteousness? If we all eat the flesh of Christ and drink His blood, we will have the life of Christ. If we have His life, we have His righteous life. His obedience works in us, and that makes us righteous. This does not leave any room for the statement that Christ obeyed for us and that therefore we can do as we please, and His righteousness will be accounted unto us just the same. His obedience must be manifested in us day by day. It is not our obedience, but the obedience of Christ working in us. The life we live is the life of the Son of God. He lets us get all the benefit of that obedience because we have shown the intense desire for obedience.

When we go to God in prayer, take these Scriptures on your lips: “We shall be saved by His life." “By the obedience of One shall many be made righteous.” Then when you come to the time of temptation, the time when you have usually fallen, you can tell Satan that he has no power to make you fall beneath that temptation, for it is not you but Christ that dwells in you.

We must have a life different from our natural life in order to resist sin. That must be a life that sin has never touched and can never touch. Repeat the glorious words over and over again, “His life is mine, I cannot be touched by sin. That was a sinless life, and by faith I have it.

That is the only way to resist, and that will be successful every time.

Waggoner, General Conference Bulletin, 1891, No.9