Power Over Sin - Whitall Smith

I strongly recommend you pick up a copy of Hannah Whitall Smith’s book A Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life(Revell, 1985 - paperback). If you question this recommendation, here is a taste of what you will find.

Would you believe that it is impossible that anyone should be free from sin because the devil has such power over them that God cannot cast him out? . . . This kind of teaching say that although God’s power is available, it is impossible to get rid of sin because the devil has rooted sin deeply in man’s nature. Isn’t man God’s creature, and can’t God make man new and cast sin out of him? . . . Must I be a believer and yet have not faith that I can be sanctified and live a holy life? Can I never have mastery, can I never have victory over sin? Must it prevail over me as long as I live? What sort of a Redeemer then, is this, or what benefit do I have in this life of redemption?

Ask God to open the eyes of your understanding by His Spirit, that you may know, “what is the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe, according to the working of His might power, which he wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 1:19,20). And when you have begun to have some faint glimpses of this power, learn to look completely away from your own weakness. Put your case into His hands and trust Him to deliver you. (19)

. . . suppose I were to describe to a person, who was entirely ignorant of the subject (sanctification), the way in which a lump of clay is made into a beautiful vessel. I first tell him about the role of the clay in the matter. All I can say is that the clay is put into the potter’s hands and then lies passive there, submitting itself to all the turnings and overturnings of the potter’s hand upon it. There is really nothing else to be said about the clay’s part. If he is an intelligent listener he would say, “I understand. That is what the clay must do. But what must the potter do?” “Ah,” I answer, “now we come to the important part. The potter takes the clay and begins to mold and fashion it according to his own will. He kneads and works it. He tears it apart and presses it together again. He wets it and then lets it dry. Sometimes he works at it for hours. Sometimes he lays it aside for days and doesn’t touch it. And then, when he has made it perfectly pliable in his hands, he proceeds to make it into the vessel he has designed. He turns it upon the wheel, planes it and smooths it, dries it in the sun, bakes it in the oven, and finally turns it out of his workshop, a vessel to his honor, and fit for use.” (25)

Before I was speaking of the clay’s part in the matter. I am now speaking of the potter’s part. These two are necessarily contrasted, but are not the least contradictory. The clay is not expected to do the potter’s work. It only yields itself to his working. It seems to me that nothing could be clearer than the perfect harmony between these two apparently contradictory sorts of teaching.

What can be said about man’s part in this great work is that he must continually surrender himself and continually trust. But when we come to God’s side of the question, much can be said about the many wonderful ways in which He accomplishes the work entrusted to Him.

Having therefore taken the step of faith by which you put yourself completely and absolutely into His hands, you must now expect Him to begin work. (26)

From the moment the lump of clay comes under the transforming hand of the potter, it is during each day and hour of the process, just what the potter wants it to be at that hour or on that day. Therefore, it pleases him, but it is far from being the vessel he intends it to be in the future. (28)

Our part is the trusting. His part is to accomplish the results. When we do our part He never fails to do His. No one ever trusted in the Lord and was confounded. (29)

The potter, however skillful, cannot make a beautiful vessel out of a lump of clay that is never put in His hands. Neither can God make out of me a vessel unto His honor, unless I put myself into His hands. (30)