At present, we are working with the light of truth presented by Dr. Francis Schaeffer from his book True Spirituality where we are discussing the basic considerations of the Christian life, or true Christianity.

So continuing…. Let us say now that I have been living in the light of what God has been giving us and provides for us in this present life.  As a ‘new creation’…having truly experienced what Jesus identified to Nicodemus as being ‘born again’…as a literal child of God, I have been practicing the reality of true spirituality, as Christ has purchased it for us.  And then sin reenters.  For some reason my moment-by-moment belief in God falters—a fondness for some specific sin has caused me at that point not to draw in faith upon the fact of a restored relationship with the Trinity.  The reality of the practice of true spirituality suddenly slips from me.  I look up some morning, some afternoon, some night—and something is gone, something I have known: my quietness and my peace are gone.  It is not that I am lost again, because justification is once for all.  But as far as man can see, or even I myself, at this point there is no exhibition of the victory of Christ upon the cross.  Looking at me at this point, men would see no demonstration that God’s creation of moral rational creatures is not a complete failure, or even that God exists.  Because God still holds me fast, I do not have the separation of lostness, but I do have the separation from my Father in the parent-child relationship.  And I remember what I had.  

At this point a question must arise: Is there a way back?  Or is it like a fine Bavarian porcelain cup, dropped on a tile floor so that it is smashed and beyond repair? 

Thank God, the gospel includes this.  The Bible is always realistic; it is not romantic, but deals with realism—with what I am.  There is a way back, and the basis of the way back is nothing new to us.  The basis is again the blood of Christ, the finished work of the Lamb of God: the once-for-all completed work of Christ upon the cross, in space, time, and history.  (tomorrow we will continue with ‘the steps to the way back’). 

Thoughts developed or used directly from the work of Schaeffer, Francis. True Spirituality . Tyndale House Publishers, Inc