Gold Tried in the Fire - Robert J. Wieland

end until the problem of continued sinning in those
who believe the gospel is solved. A purely and
exclusively legal declaration of justification
without a justification by faith that reconciles the
believer's heart to God's righteousness would
defeat the entire sanctuary ministry.
It's as if a cosmic chess game were being
played out in the realm of salvation. Satan would
like to make a move that will checkmate Christ,
and this he can accomplish if he can ensure that
sinning is perpetuated. Paul makes this clear:
"What the law could not do, in that it was weak
through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin
in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might
be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but
after the Spirit." Romans 8:3, 4.
Satan may be willing through force of
circumstances to concede that Christ in His
incarnation "condemned sin in the flesh," but his
checkmate strategy is to block "the righteousness
of the law" from being "fulfilled in us." His device
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