Gold Tried in the Fire - Robert J. Wieland

carry. He has tasted my despair, my
disappointments. Nothing has escaped Him. He has
even gone beyond everything I have experienced
and has "tasted death," the second death, for me.
In fact, He is so fully and exactly my Substitute
that He could come no closer if I were the only
sinner in the world. He is my true other Self; I am
"in him" both legally and practically. No husband
and wife are ever so close to each other as I am to
Him through faith. Thus He "is able to save [me] to
the uttermost," and He lives always for only one
purpose: to "make intercession" for me, to plead in
my behalf even against my own doubts against
myself. See Hebrews 7:25.
Do you know how fierce battles with alluring
temptation can be? Do you feel the powerful force
of the riptide that would sweep you off your feet
into the enticement of sin? Welcome to the human
race! This is the problem Christ came to conquer.
No wind of temptation ever beat upon us as
fiercely as upon Christ, and no riptide ever swept
us off our feet as strong as that which Christ braced
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