MY DEAR Brother: In the number of " Sound Words" for last August, there is an article on responsibility, in which, I think, there are some statements hardly supported by Scripture. They may not he noticed by many of your readers, and they may be noticed by some and Satan may use them to confuse souls and hinder the usefulness of " Sound Words." Believe me, my dear brother, I do not write in a spirit of fault finding. I thank God for " Sound Words;" and my earnest desire that it may be widely circulated and much used of God, urges me to notice the objectionable statements in the article from which I will now make some extracts.
And first, as to the law: " Man having thus failed, the law comes in by the by to bring out transgression and make it more apparent, and was thus the last great test of man in responsibility."
The two points to be noticed in this statement, are, " transgression," and the law being " the last great test of man in responsibility."
" The law comes in by the by to bring out transgression and make it more apparent." By this I understand that there was transgression prior to the introduction of the law—that it was "apparent," and that the law came in " to make it more apparent." Transgression must exist, and he "apparent," or it could not he made " more apparent" by the introduction of the law. God gave Adam a law, he transgressed it. This is the first law and the first transgression we read of in Scripture. From Adam to Moses there was no law, and consequently no transgression. A law may exist in the mind of the legislator, but it can not be transgressed until it is enacted by his authority. There can be no transgression until there is a given law embodying the claims of the legislator accompanied by his authority. Such a system, I need hardly say, did not exist, on God's part until the law was given by Moses." Death reigned from Adam to Moses over, them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression. They hail no given law to transgress as Adam had. You are too familiar with the whole body of Scripture which proves this truth, for me to quote texts or make any further remark.
I turn to the second point. " The law was thus the last great test of man in responsibility." The law was a test of man in responsibility; but not " the last great test." The Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, on the earth, among men for their acceptance, was " the last great test." The law was the perfect measure of what man it, the flesh ought to be for God; it was not in any way, what God is for man; Christ is that. It was added because of transgression—came between the promise and the Seed, to raise the question of righteousness in man's conscience by requiring righteousness from him. He was responsible to have a righteousness for God and to walk in it before Him. It I would use familiar language, I would say, the law was the plummet applied to the crooked wall to demonstrate its crookedness. This it did perfectly. It showed man's impotency to meet its claims, carried the sentence of death to his conscience. cursed him, and opened no way of escape, but shut him up to death. It is the ministration of death. Such, a system could not possibly be " the last great test," because it was not the revelation of what God is in grace for man as he is. God manifest in flesh, among men, in perfect grace was the final test. To see the place the law holds in the ways of God with man in the flesh, is of the greatest importance.
In 2 Cor. V. 19, we read that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. Here, God is not seen in the splendor of His majesty, on a fiery mount giving a fiery law to "a peculiar people," but in the world in grace, above all dispensation and failure, reconciling it unto Himself. This made an entire change in man's responsibility—a change which the Gospel by St. John sets forth; for in that Gospel we see God acting above all dispensation—God in the world reconciling it to Himself, and gathering to Himself His elect from among the Jews. Perfect goodness was presented in God to man, and he was responsible to accept it. This goodness was not only presented to Israel, the beloved nation, but to the world. In John's Gospel it is presented to the world. but not exclusively; in Matt. 21 it is presented to the Jews, the husbandmen, 'exclusively. Now the law was not " the last great test" for Israel. much less was it the final test. for the world. Chap. 3:17, For God sent not His Son into the world to judge the world; but that the world through Him might be saved." Here is the final test. He that believed on Hun was not judged; he that believed not was already judged. He did not accept the grace, salvation, and eternal life in the person of the Son; he was judged. He was responsible to receive grace and eternal life in the Son—not to give a righteousness. Poor man in the flesh, would neither give the law its demands, nor accept perfect goodness in the Son of God on earth. Moreover the light was there and judgment; it manifested the character of their deeds and object of their affections. Light, the effulgence of emitted from the person of the Son, tested men in a way that law could not.
Before I close my remarks on this point, I would look at John 12. Here we have the final test, and the world's judgment for refusing perfect love, without reference to its condition, manifested in the Son of God. "Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out." The world as a system, never was judged for the transgression of the law; it was judged for the rejection of the Son of God who is God over all blessed for evermore; and the Holy Ghost on the earth is the witness to this, John 16:3-113And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me. 4But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them. And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you. 5But now I go my way to him that sent me; and none of you asketh me, Whither goest thou? 6But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart. 7Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. 8And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: 9Of sin, because they believe not on me; 10Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; 11Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. (John 16:3‑11). The coming of Christ did not close up man's responsibility; His death did. Man's history of trial whether Jew or gentile, did not close with Christ's appearing, but with His death. The parable of the three years trial of the barren fig tree proves this in Israel's case. Perfect love in the Son of God, was presented to man; he refused it, killed Christ and closed up his probationary life. There was no extinction of this life before God, until the murder of God's Son proved man incorrigible, and consummated his guilt. It was not in his breaking the law that his probationary existence was terminated; for he was alive in the flesh when Christ came, and up to His Cross, The law addressed him as alive, and said," This do and thou shalt live.'' Luke 10:2828And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live. (Luke 10:28). We have nothing like this now; for the death of Christ—' not transgression of law—is the judgment of the world, the death of man in the flesh, the total extinction before God, of his probationary life. Now if the law had been the last great. test of man in responsibility " it must have closed up his life of trial; but the very fact that it did not do this, but addressed him as alive before God up to the Cross, proves beyond all controversy that it wits not " the last great test of man in responsibility." To make the law "the last great test." clouds a very solemn way the glory of the grace that shone in Jesus the Son of God among men in this world. I am sure the writer of the article desires the shining forth of the glory of that grace, in all its own precious fullness and power; but his statements unwittingly cloud it.
I pass on to another statement which I extract. Rom. 8:99But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. (Romans 8:9), " But ye are not in the flesh (the first Adam state), but ill the Spirit, if so be the Spirit of God dwell in you, and if Christ be in you the body (the first Adam state and condition), is dead (not going to die, nor yet dying, hut dead, is dead). because of sm." W hen and where did it die? Rom. 6:66Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. (Romans 6:6), " Knowing this that our old man (the first Adam state before God) is crucified, that the body of sin (the old state of self-will and lust) might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin." The writer confounds the natural body with" the body of sin." Scripture never does this. The natural body was created by God and existed by His will prior to the introduction of " the body of sin "—" the flesh "—by Satan through Adam's transgression. " The body of sin " is no part of God's creation; neither is it called in Scripture " the natural body; " nor is the natural body ever called " the body of sin." These two bodies are very distinct in the word of God, and it is well for us to keep them distinct. Rom. 6:66Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. (Romans 6:6), " Our old man is crucified with Him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin." Here, " the body of sin "is not the natural body at all, but a principle of will which is opposed to God, introduced into the natural body by Satan. " We," Christians, are not to serve it; it is not to move or govern the natural body. " Let not sin reign in your mortal body that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof." Here sin and the natural body are distinct. Sin is in the body but it is not the body itself. It is not to reign in the body and use it against God. The body and its members are to be yielded up to God as instruments of righteousness. We could not yield the " body of sin " up to God, because He has judged it.
In regard to the passage quoted by the writer from Rom. 8, his mistake lies in separating verses 10 and 11. The Holy Ghost dwells in the natural body and is the power to quicken it when the Lord comes. He does not quicken " the body of sin," but " our mortal bodies." He could not quicken the body of sin and present it with Christ in new creation glory. I thank God, not an atom of it will be there; but our mortal bodies quickened and changed into the image of God's Son, will be there. The writer has not apprehended the true meaning of, "If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin." He applies death in a judicial sense to the body here. That is, he applies death to the natural body in this verse in the same way that it is applied to the" body of sin" in Rom. 6:66Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. (Romans 6:6). There it is judicial death; the annulling of the body of sin; here it is not that, but the result of Christ being in me. My body is dead to the will of the flesh; it is no linger energized by the life of the first man; he is not the spring of my life before God; Christ is that; and here it is not Christ in the glory, as in Col., hut Christ in me, in my body on the earth. His being in me renders my body 'dead to sin, i.e., to the will of the flesh, but alive to God. He lives to God in me. So it is Christ in us, living to God and using our bodies for Him that we have here. See Gal. 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). As those alive to God in the life of a victorious Christ, we are to present our bodies living sacrifices holy and acceptable to God. The body then is to be given up to God, as a holy thing. in the power of the life in which we now live before Him. Precious and deeply important truth! Let us hold it fast, and not neutralize it by confounding the natural body with the body of sin. If these bodies are identical, and I read in one Scripture that the body of sin is " destroyed " and in another that the body is to be presented to God, I must either get into endless confusion, or adopt the notion of presenting the natural body and " the body of sin," as one and the same thing, to God. Sure I am, the writer has not the slightest desire to do this, I know him too well, and I believe he is pretty clear upon the points I am writing on. How he came to make the mistakes I do not know, but one thing I do know, viz., they are before the readers of " Sound Words," and I think they ought to be corrected as God gives grace and wisdom.
1 Thess. 5:2323And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thessalonians 5:23) will be well read in connection with the verses alluded to in Rom. 12. Here the whole man is to be wholly sanctified and presented blameless until the coining of Christ. And note: what the whole. man—the Christian, consists of. There is nothing said of " the body of sin " here. Spirit, soul, and body, compose the Christian before God. " The body of in "—" the flesh," is no part of the Christian before God. He does not recognize it. He has judged it and forever put it aside. He could not recognize the thing He has crucified, as alive and forming part of His children. But the flesh is in the Christian and if it is allowed to live God will judge it in En own way for His own glory and the blessing of His child. If the body of sin and the natural body are identical, both are to be sanctified. If the body of sin even forms a part of the natural body, it is to be sanctified; but it forms no part of natural body. Nevertheless, its true character is declared in the action of the body of the sinner, as the body is but its instrument opposed to God. I do not touch the question of the mortality of the body. Mortality shall be swallowed up of life, and our bodies glorified when Christ comes. Our bodies are for the Lord, and the Lord for them; they are members of Christ; but again, every thought of the body of sin is distinctly excluded.
To follow out God's thoughts of His people's bodies, is not my object; my object's simply to show that the body of sin and the natural body are always distinct in Scripture. I have found a great deal of confusion among saints on this precious truth. Have you not heard some say, " my poor body of sin," meaning the natural body, the temple of the Holy Ghost and the holy instrument of God for service here? I am sure 2 Cor. 4, is another precious Scripture that sets aside all such unscriptural expressions.
W.B.