This deliverance stands in the closest connection with redemption, not so much with regard to forgiveness as with regard to our being dead with Christ. We have already seen that there are two capital points in redemption; namely, the forgiveness of sins, or justification; and deliverance—liberty before God, and liberty from the yoke of sin in the flesh. Now if we are dead with Christ, we are dead to sin, and are no longer in the flesh before God. Life in the flesh is no more our position, because Christ, after having died, is become our life. Sin in the flesh is judged, condemned—not forgiven—and that in the death of Christ on the cross. The power of the life of Christ is in me, is my life; yet not only that. Sin in the flesh, which was my torment, is already judged, only in another; so that there is no longer for me any condemnation on account of the flesh. Death has entered in where condemnation, the judgment of the flesh, had been exercised, and those who are in Christ Jesus are dead with Him, so that there is no more condemnation for them. What is true of Him is true of us; He is dead to sin, and the condemnation is passed. This is our condition with is to sin in the flesh. If putting away of sins is clearly set forth in the first part of the epistle, the setting aside of sin in the flesh, and its condemnation, is here just as clearly presented; yea, for faith the flesh itself is set aside, since we are dead, this condition is described in the three first verses of chapter 8 The Christian is in an entirely new position; he is in Christ. The grace of God has not only revealed itself in the fact that the sins of the old man are forgiven, but his standing also is an entirely new one; we are redeemed. It does not say, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those whose sins are forgiven,” but “for those who are in Christ Jesus.” This standing is the result of the work of Christ, of redemption. The Christian is delivered with Christ from the standing in the flesh because he is dead with Him, and has part in the life of a risen ant glorified Christ. Thus, he no longer stands before God as a child of Adam responsible in the flesh, but as one who has truly, by death, done with this standing, and who is alive in Christ. The flesh is considered as dead, condemned, as no longer in existence, but as out of sight in the death of Christ. The Christian is alive in Christ; he is no longer in the flesh. (Compare Galatians 2:19,2019For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. 20I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:19‑20))
The expression, “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus,” in the second verse of our chapter, may appear strange to many of our readers. It means, I believe, that the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus works continually and without interruption, according to one and the same principle, in order that, since the flesh has been condemned in another, it should be dead in the believer. The believer is in Christ by the life of Christ and the Holy Spirit. How could there be any more condemnation? God has already occupied Himself with sin in the flesh at the cross, and has now, if one may so say, done with it. The new life and the Holy Spirit give to the believer his place in Christ; he is redeemed and alive before God in Christ. It is not a question here, as already said, of forgiveness of the sins of the old man, but of a new living position in Christ. This is what is presented in the first verses of chapter 8.
After describing as real facts the experience of the first position in Chapter 7, as well as deliverance through redemption in Christ, and the continuance of the two natures, the three first verses of chapter 8 give us the new standing in Christ in contrast with the standing in the flesh, or in the first Adam. In the first verse, no condemnation; in the second, the power of life; in the third, the judgment of sin in the flesh in Christ on the cross. The second verse is characterized by life in Christ according to the power of the Holy Spirit, and that as a principle uninterruptedly in operation. The third verse is characterized by the judgment of sin in the flesh in the sin-offering of Christ. Sin indeed is still there, and it is active in us, if we are not faithful, if we do not practically bear about with us the dying. of the Lord Jesus; we lose communion with God, and dishonor the Lord by our behavior, in not walking, according to the Spirit of life, worthy of the Lord. But we are no longer under the law of sin, but, as dead with Christ, and participators of a new life in Him and of the Holy Spirit, we are delivered from the law. We are in a new standing, in the second Adam before God; and conformably with our nature our walk is according to the Spirit, not according to the flesh. Thus, the law of God and its claims are fulfilled in us. The teaching does not go beyond this, because it is a question of people wanting the law.
But the law is not the measure of Christian walk; it only says that he who walks according to the Spirit fulfills it. When I was in the flesh, I could not fulfill it, because the flesh is not subject to the law, neither indeed can be, but only follows its own will. The Spirit will surely not lead us into that which is contrary to the law of God. The law is practically fulfilled, whilst we are not under the law, but under the guidance of the Spirit. We are under the influence of the Spirit; and it is not a question of a law outside us, but of a nature in us, which possesses an object suitable to it. They who live after the Spirit, according to the new man, desire the things of the Spirit; but they that are after the flesh mind the objects of their fleshly lusts. We have not to do here with an imposed law, but a new mind, the mind of a nature which is born of the Spirit, and which seeks what is spiritual; a holy liberty, in that the man, as dead with Christ, is delivered from the yoke of sin, possesses a holy nature born of God, has holy objects before his eyes, and is a dwelling-place of the Holy Spirit, who produces holy thoughts in the heart, and reveals the things which are above. The minding of the flesh is the death of the soul; it bears no fruit, and separates the ‘soul from God, both now and throughout eternity. But the minding of the Spirit is life, a well in us which springs up into everlasting life, and fills the soul with peace. The mind of the flesh opposes itself to the authority of God. In manifesting the activity of the natural man, it has to do with the law, which is the expression of this divine authority over man, and the rule of his responsibility as God’s creature. But it is not subject to the law, neither indeed can be, because self-will will go its own way; also, it absolutely does not love what is, pleasing to God. Thus, they that are in the flesh, who are before God in the standing of the ‘first Adam, and walk according to the life of the first Adam, cannot please God.
In verse 9 we find a very important principle. When can anyone say, “I am not in the flesh?” Answer When he is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. A man can be converted, and yet still be in the condition described in chapter 7; as, for example, the prodigal son before he met his father. He was converted and in the right way, yet he only wished to be a hired servant of his father. But as soon as he had met his father we hear nothing more of it, but only what his father was and what he did for him. Deliverance comes through the personal knowledge of what the Father is, known in Jesus Christ, through the knowledge of redemption. And this is only found in a soul in which the Holy Spirit dwells. A converted man, as such, is only in the Christian standing when he has been anointed. The conscience and heart of the prodigal son were reached by grace, and rightly directed, when he was on the way to his father’s house; but he was not yet clad in the best robe, and did not yet know the Father’s heart. But he entered into the Christian standing when he reached his father; and from this moment we hear no more of him, but only of his Father. Previously his condition was not fit for the house.
In verse 10 we see the other side of the Christian position. At the beginning of the chapter it says, “Which are in Christ Jesus;” and here, “If Christ be in you.” Thus, on the one hand the Christian is in Christ; and on the other, Christ is in him. We are in Christ, according to all His perfection before God; Christ in us is the ground and measure of our responsibility, whilst He is the source of our strength, and that according to what has been said in the beginning of the chapter. A Christian is a man who is not only born again (which is absolutely necessary), but who is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. He directs the eye of the believer to the work of Christ, and teaches him to appreciate its worth, giving him the consciousness that he is in Christ, and Christ in him (John 14), and filling his heart with the hope of glory, with the certainty that he will be like Christ and with Christ forever and ever. A converted mans delivered when he knows that his sins are forgiven; when he can cry, “Abba, Father;” when he has the knowledge that for him there is no more condemnation; he is in liberty before God, and is freed from the law of sin and death. But he is not a perfect Christian until he comprehends by the Holy Spirit that he occupies the position of Christ, that God is His Father and God in the same manner as He is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, until he understands that he has passed out of the standing of Adam into the standing of Christ, that he has died with Christ; and thus he lives no more, but Christ lives in him. (Galatians 2:2020I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20))
This liberty is most clearly presented and developed in the epistle to the Romans, yet only in so far as the believer is therein considered as dead with Christ, and possessing Christ as his life, whereby he is delivered from the law of sin, as also from the Mosaic law, because this has dominion over a man so long as he lives, and cannot go further. The epistle, however, does not take up the counsels of God and the glory of our new position, though they are touched upon in chapter 8: 29, 30. But in general the epistle takes up man’s responsibility, as well as what God has done to cleanse us from our guilt and to justify us, teaching us at the same time how we are delivered from the law of sin and death by our being dead with Christ. The above-mentioned verses give a somewhat larger view; but the new position is not more closely developed. The epistle does not go beyond the truth that we are made alive through Christ; it does not speak of our resurrection with Him. This, the starting-point of our new position, we must look for in the epistle to the Colossians. This doctrine is further developed in the epistle to the Ephesians, from another point of view, however. There we do not find that a child of Adam must die and be raised, and that the believer is dead, although he is presented as risen with Christ. The unconverted man is looked at rather in the Ephesians as dead in sins, and all is a new creation. We there find all the counsels of God, as well with regard to believers raised with Christ, as to Christ Himself; to the children of God and our union with Christ as His body.
It is well to remark that whilst the first three verses of chapter 8 give us the principles of deliverance, so the following eight verses describe the practical character and the result of deliverance. The Holy Spirit acts in the new life, instead of an external law which the flesh sets itself invincibly to resist. The Spirit furnishes the new life with heavenly objects, in which it finds its joy and sustenance. “To be spiritually-minded is life and peace.” All this depends on the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.” We have already said that the condition of such an one is similar to that of the prodigal son before he had found his father. If, on the contrary, the Spirit of Christ dwells in one who is converted, then the body is dead for him on account of sin; but the Spirit is life on account of righteousness. If the body lives by virtue of its own life, it brings forth nothing but sin; but according to chapter 6 the spiritual man reckons it dead.
The Spirit is inseparable from the new life. He is the source of the life, and that which characterizes it. Now if the Spirit of Him who raised up Jesus dwells in us, He who raised up Christ from the dead will also quicken our mortal bodies on account of His Spirit which dwelleth in us. This is the blessed end of the life of the Spirit in Christ Jesus, or rather its beginning in true perfection. The Spirit is God’s Spirit. God has raised Jesus as a Man—Jesus is His personal name. But it was not for Himself that He lay in death; Christ is His name, as come for others. If then the Spirit of God dwells in us, He who raised up the First-Begotten will raise up also the sheep He has redeemed.
Three characteristic names are here attributed to the Holy Spirit—the Spirit of God (v. 9) in contrast with the flesh; the Spirit of Christ as the formative power of the new man; and the Spirit of Him who raised up Christ from among the dead, because He is the pledge in us of our resurrection.
The glorious end of delivering grace is reached; the circumstances by which we are surrounded remain doubtless the same; and the following verses of the chapter give us our position before God in connection with these circumstances.
J. N. D.