Victorious Christian Living
By Bertha Smith
An edited Transcript of her audio message
That old woman [the flesh] hasn’t even paled a little. Let’s cover her up quickly. Just as black as she ever was. And if I could be as old as Methuselah, I wouldn’t be one bit better. Well, if a person’s nature’s will never be any better, why would the Lord command you and me to be holy?
Well, friends, the Lord has done something for you and me. He’s done something glorious for that old “human nature.” He didn’t come down here in the world to improve anything that has the devil in it. He didn’t come down here to make you and me get a little bit better and a little bit better and a little bit better. What did he come to do? To put us to death. We’re not fit to live [as the old self].
So we were put in the position of death in God’s sight [Col. 3:3]. And He never could have placed us in His Son if he hadn’t.
And He never could have let His son come inside of us if He hadn’t put us in the position of death. You know, I’d been in China three years before I understood that. And I was troubled more than a little about what Paul said in Galatians 2.20 “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives in me.” How could Paul be dead and I couldn’t be dead? Bertha was always too much “alive [naturally]. I had no idea what it meant.
The sixth chapter of Romans just burdened me even more. And, lo, I found out that the Lord had had me in the position of death ever since the day I was saved [Romans 6:6]. And I don’t have to be controlled by something that God counts a dead carcass [the flesh]. I can be controlled by the Lord!
I went to a summer conference and took a Presbyterian layman and a Methodist missionary, Mrs. Ruth Paxson. (I wouldn’t call her a Methodist missionary. She grew up Methodist. And she was blessed. She was lost in college and was saved through the Young Women’s Christian Association, which at that time was alive and got people saved and helped Christians. And she went to China and … became a marvelous Bible teacher…How many of you have ever heard of Life on the Highest Plane by Mrs. Ruth Paxson?)
But she and Mr. [Charles] Trumbull led a summer conference for missionaries in North China. He was a Presbyterian layman from Philadelphia. Led an editor of The Sunday School Times, which was a wonderful interdenominational Christian weekly paper.
And the subject of that conference was Victorious Christian Living. And from the Word of God they told us that every Christian ought to be living victoriously all the time. And the first verse that Mr. Trumbull talked on was 2 Corinthians 2:4. “Thanks be unto God who always causes us to triumph in Christ.”
Well, of course, if you’re living in Christ, you can triumph. Christ is living in you [Col. 1:27]. He’s the one who does the triumphing. And He triumphs through our personalities if He’s living in us. And I’ll tell you, I found out that I’ve been [in] a position of death [Rom. 6:6]. How live victoriously?… Accept that position of death that the Lord sees you in by counting the death of His Son to you as a position in which you live by a definite act of your will [Rom. 6:10,11]…
Well, I tell you, I had so wanted this … I didn’t always live gloriously before that. I had a glorious Lord inside of me. But I went to talk with Mr. Trumbull. (I talked a little with Miss Paxson about it too.) I made an appointment with him between conferences just to go talk about this glorious good news he was sharing that every Christian should be a victorious Christian all the time, regardless of their circumstances. That has nothing to do with what’s outside of us.
The only thing that matters is what’s going on inside of us. Our victories are won from the inside out, not from the outside in, not controlled by the circumstances….
Well, … that man showed me from the Word of God that I’d been “dead” ever since the day I was saved; the Lord had had this old devil nature in a position of death, like charging the death of his Son to me. I saw it!
Now, I don’t know what I thought [water] baptism was when I was baptized. I knew it was following the Lord. And I was baptized with great joy, (and I think anybody that obeys the Lord, if they’re saved, gets a spiritual blessing from that obedience, being buried, following the Lord.)… But I didn’t know that I had “died.”
God counted me dead when He charged the death of His Son to me. And that’s why I was buried in that grave of water. (You bury dead people.)… And I was buried in that grave of water, announcing to the world that I had died in Christ, and I had been placed into the resurrected Christ [Rom. 6:4]. And Christ arose that I had arisen in Him!…
I didn’t know that. But I learned it later. I learned what baptism really means…
Well, I’ll tell you, when I went home from that conference, I had a new transaction with the Lord, and I said, “Now Lord, I’ve learned from Your words that You’ve had me in the position of death ever since the day I was saved. And I don’t have to be overcome by the devil coming at me through my carnal nature [the flesh], or coming at me through anybody else’s….I’m just supposed to count myself dead in that position of death that you have me in.” And I knew the Lord was inside of me…
And from here on out, I am counting myself dead [to sin’s authority]. And no matter how I may be acting, I’m still going to declare myself dead in Christ…Praise the Lord. You took not only my sins to the cross, You took me there.
You died my death. And the Lord placed me into You, the living Lord. And I am dead, and you are living inside of me, and I’m dwelling inside of you [John 14:20].
And I began to act on the fact that the Lord was counting me dead and began to count myself dead…The Lord gives me grace to live an interrupted life…
And over here,… I may get calls from way out somewhere west, people that may not know that my time is two, three hours ahead of theirs, and I’m asleep, and they wake me up, and then they wake me up and talk about the problems, and then I’m too awake to go back to sleep, maybe for a while. Then I’m too late to wake in the morning. And I lived such a disordered life…
But for about 40 or 50 years after that [conference], my first waking thought every morning when I came to consciousness, I declared myself dead in Christ. I said, “Lord, thank you you see me dead [at the Cross]. I take that for myself today….I enthrone you to live in me today and I refuse to live [independently]. I’m accepting death for this old self today. And I’m enthroned in Christ in my heart today instead of this big “I”. And now Holy Spirit, you’re in my heart. Just fill me up for today and make that real. You keep me in that place of death and magnify Christ through my personality today.”
And the Lord knew I meant it. And He did just what I had asked Him to do. And I want you to know that I have not been under the power of that old “self” since that day. Now I have had some accidents. Accidentally, I said things I didn’t mean to say. Maybe I accidentally did things I didn’t mean to do. But that was not my manner of life. And praise the Lord if he gives and cleanses the sins of accidents.
Maybe y’all wouldn’t believe it, but I think I’ll say it to you: It was 1920 that I went to that conference. And from 1920 to this day, I’ve never been angry again. And I’ve gone through many things that would have formerly made me angry. But the Lord has just so controlled me. Now that’s a miracle. When we make a break with this big “I” and in the name of the Lord refuse to let it dominate us any longer, assent to our death in Christ and take that position of death and the stance in which to live…And then trust Christ in our hearts and let Him do the living. Let Him live His life through our personalities.
I’ll tell you friends, it’s glorious, it’s glorious, it’s glorious. Now I wonder if that’s the life you want. Is that what you want for yourself? Is that what you’re living? Well that’s the Lord’s plan. That’s just being a Christian. That isn’t anything special…
And we surely after we are saved we ought to be taught the position that we’re in [in Christ] and how we should respond to that position. And we ought to be taught that it breaks the heart of God when we sin and give expression to this [flesh] devil nature.
[In that case] we’re not showing Him, and we’re disgracing Him, and we’re keeping other people from coming to Him when we [walk according to the flesh] instead of expressing the Lord through our personalities.
And people are not seeing Christ in Christian people, so they get all [emotionally] torn up and their nerves are all torn up as I said last night. They don’t know to come to the church. They don’t know to telephone Christians and ask [for help]. And they just have to go off to the psychiatrist to get human help.
This is the glorious, victorious life that the Lord has for every child of his. That’s just living saved [from sin and self]. That’s living to save lives, not just getting ready to go to heaven.
Now is that what you want for yourself? Now that’s what I came here for. I called this getting lifted up on a higher plane. And I asked those who wanted to get lifted up on a higher plane … to face up to everything in your heart and life that’s unholy. And I want you to make a break with this old self [flesh]….And then live from Christ in your heart, from the Holy Spirit who came into your heart when you were saved….And the living Lord and the person of the Holy Spirit invaded your personality. I’ll tell you, you were filled up. But we don’t know how to stay filled [Eph 4:30; 5:18].
We’re just grieving back in a corner and don’t know what to do. And praying, praying, praying to restore that joy we had. And in a revival meeting we may get to praying again and confess a few sins and get a little of that joy back again. Oh, isn’t it awful? Living a defeated life.
And the Lord means this [victorious life] to give glory to you all the time.
I hope you’ll make a break with that big “I”. And in the name of the Lord refuse to let that live under the power of that old self anymore. The Lord has something better for you.
Scriptures cited
- Matthew 11:28
- John 10:10
- Acts 1:8
- Galatians 2:20
- Romans 6:6,11
- 2 Corinthians 2:14
- Ephesians 5:18
- 1 John 1:9
https://www.sermonindex.net/sermons/Sxq44XMd3CWkCum8
For a free video-based course on Victory in Christ, go to www.GraceStudyHall.org
Edited by John Woodward, GraceFellowshipInternational.com
Olive Bertha Smith (1888–1988)
After graduating from Winthrop College in 1913 with a bachelor’s degree, she taught briefly before enrolling in the Woman’s Missionary Union Training School in Louisville, Kentucky, graduating in 1916. Appointed by the Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board in 1917, she served in China’s Shantung Province for 30 years, teaching at a girls’ school, leading Bible studies, and witnessing the Shantung Revival of the late 1920s, which saw thousands converted through repentance and prayer. Expelled by Communists in 1948, she became the first board-appointed missionary to Taiwan, serving a decade until mandatory retirement at 70 in 1958, despite working 15-hour days. Smith authored Go Home and Tell (1965) and How the Spirit Filled My Life (1973), recounting her experiences and revival principles, and founded the Peniel Prayer Center in Cowpens to foster spiritual renewal. In retirement, she traveled to over 15 countries, preaching to churches and inspiring figures like Adrian Rogers and Charles Stanley, until her death on June 12, 1988, at 99.