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The Secret of Victory

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Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Aug 10, 1915

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 42, No. 31.

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The Secret of Victory

By G. B. Starr

IN the manner in which Jesus met and triumphed in every conflict with Satan, He gave to man the secret of victory. “It is written” was His successful weapon; and it may be ours.
It was not a matter of choice with Jesus as to how He would meet and conquer every temptation. That is, it was not a question of selection of one among many methods equally good and effective. No; there was only one effective weapon that even He, the Son of God, could use; and that was the word of the living God, the promises of God, the “exceeding great and precious promises,” containing in themselves the divine nature, the very life and power of God. This was the only weapon by which even Jesus could conquer sin and Satan; and it is absolutely our only weapon. All others, without this, must fail.
“Christ Himself could not resist temptation but by the Word. ‘It is written’ was His weapon for every attack. You will have to study that Word before you can know what is written.”
The Spirit of God brings to our memory what we have read and studied of that which is written. The more the Word is studied, the more securely is the soul garrisoned against the attacks of the enemy.
The word of God is also an antidote for sin. No man can continuously, daily, read the word of God, and keep on sinning. He will cease to read the Word if he decides to continue in sin; and he will cease to sin if he decides to read the Word constantly. The word of God creates an aversion for sin, a hatred for it, for evil in every form. When praying for “a clean heart,” let us remember the words of Jesus, “Ye are clean through the word which I have spoken to you.”
Our only hope is to “let the word of Christ dwell in” us “richly in all wisdom.” “For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.” 1 Thess. 2: 13.
G. B. STARR.