The apostle treats a new question in this chapter: What is the effect of the law in relation to our new position? The principle is simple. We are dead with Christ; again, a law has dominion over a man only so long as be liveth. When a murderer is condemned to death, and suffers the judicial sentence of death, the judge can do nothing more with him. Now we are dead; yet if it were only by the law that we were put to death, we should be not only dead but also condemned. But now we are dead with Christ, and He has borne for us the condemnation due to sin. Thus we are dead, and the law, therefore, exercises no more authority over us. Christ has stepped into the place of judgment. Instead of a law which forbade sins and lusts, and must of necessity condemn us (because the flesh, to which the law addressed its claims, was not subject to it, neither indeed could be), we possess in Christ a new life; whilst by faith we reckon the flesh, which is subject to sin, dead. The apostle makes use of marriage as the example; death dissolves the tie between husband and wife. So we are dead With respect to the law, and we are bound to another Husband; namely, to the risen Christ. The figure is employed here in the inverse sense. Not the law, but we, as having had our life in, the flesh, are dead. This is the doctrine. In what follows the apostle speaks of experience. This in no wise annuls the important principle, but rather confirms the deliverance of the soul from the law through being dead with Christ, who is now become our new life. According to the figure of marriage employed by the apostle, we are united as by marriage to Christ, and thereby are brought into an entirely new position—that of relationship. Therefore it says, “When we were in the flesh.” To be “in the flesh” means to stand on the ground or in the position of the first Adam before God, and to be responsible to Him according to this position. It is a question. here, not of guilt, but of the deliverance of the soul from the yoke of sin. When man is without law, and seeking nothing but pleasure, the conscience can indeed be awakened some time, but the power of sin is not felt. He swims with the stream, and is not aware that he is under the dominion of sin. When one is converted one is first occupied with guilt, the burden of sins. Even when one has learned to know the forgiveness of sins, and to believe that one is a child of God, the form of experience may indeed change, because it is no longer a question of justification; but the soul is none the less troubled so long as, in the history of its experience, it is undelivered from the power of indwelling sin. The question ever afresh arises, “How can God accept me, or how can He delight in me, when sin, which I cannot overcome, is still present?” As long as one does not know forgiveness one asks, “How can I obtain forgiveness?” When one has found it, the question still remains, “What am I before God? How can such a one as I be accepted? Have I really not deceived myself?” In a word, the eye is solely directed to that which we are in ourselves before God. We see that sin is still there, and yet a Christian ought to obtain the victory over sin. Such an one is, in fact, or as to the state of his spirit, in his mind, still in the flesh. We have already remarked that the first four verses speak of standing. The fifth and sixth verses lead us on to experience. We were in the flesh united as by marriage to the law. This gave neither life, strength, nor confidence in God; it forbade sins, and imputed them to me. Not only that, but it gave occasion for sin in the flesh to work so as to bring forth fruit unto death. In forbidding sins and lusts it brought them before the heart. If a heap of money lay on the table, and someone said to me, “You must take none of it,” immediately the desire to do so is awakened in me. Or if I say, “I have something here in this drawer, but no one must know what it is,” instantly each one, great and small, feels a desire to open it. The passions of sins are absolutely not of the law, but through the law. It supposes, however, the existence of the flesh, and that we do not possess the strength of Christ. But now (in Christ) we are delivered from the law, being dead to that wherein we were held. We were in the flesh under the yoke of the law; the flesh was the source of sins, and now for faith it is dead, so that we serve in newness of spirit. The death of the flesh, of the—old man, forms the basis for the transition from servitude in the flesh to liberty in the Spirit. At the same time this death stands in connection with redemption.
But how can this end be obtained? This is quite another thing from desiring it. The doctrine is presented very clearly and simply in the word of God —that there are many who, according to this doctrine, know that the Christian is dead with Christ, and even raised with Him; who also believe that they are dead with Him, because the word of God plainly declares it; who do not doubt that they are children of God, and that such a position belongs to them as children of God, and who, in spite of all this, are not delivered. There are even upright souls, who, not walking as they would like to walk, begin to doubt, and to ask themselves if they are not hypocrites, and if they have not deceived themselves. They believe, and with reason, that God would fain see something other in them than what He sees. They make everything depend on what they are in themselves before God. But that is law, and not grace. The answer to the question, how the condition of liberty can be reached, is developed from verse 7.
In order to be truly delivered, one must learn, and that experimentally, that one is taken captive by the power of sin, and that one has no strength to deliver oneself, even when one earnestly desires to be delivered. To this end God makes use of the law, and the desire of the new man to be delivered from the yoke of sin, which he hates. Thus the Christian learns, not that he has sinned—this is not here the object in view—but that whilst he would gladly attain to holiness, a principle of sin in the flesh is active in him. The law teaches him that God cannot permit this; his renewed mind teaches him that God cannot allow it; he himself also does not desire it. And yet this principle of sin exists, powerfully active, too strong for him to be able to free himself from it.
Therefore the law has not only established with divine authority the duties relative to all circumstances of mankind, but has also added, “Thou shalt not covet.” This is a touchstone for man, and clearly shows his state, even when he has not outwardly sinned, even when through conversion his will is directed to holiness. This holiness after which he strives he cannot attain. When he was without law, his conscience did not feel the judge’s sentence of death, if he had not sinned against its voice. Formerly he lived quietly, without carrying about with him the sense of condemnation. But the law came, and pronounced condemnation on the coveting. Experience teaches him that covetousness exists in the heart, and now conscience feels the sentence of condemnation; lusts even are awakened, and all comes to light. Conscience feels the judicial sentence. One would like to do good, but one finds that evil is continually present.
The law says, “This do and thou shalt live.” The converted man, over whose conscience the law exercises its power, regards it as the law of God. The fear of God is in his heart, and he would fain do what the law saith. We speak here of the state of one who is converted, not of a delivered soul. Since the law promised life to the one who kept it, it was also given for life; but since the flesh is not subject to the law, it proves itself in reality for man to be unto death. This is the experience of an upright converted soul. It is well to remark here the difference between a natural man who has only a conscience, and the state of a man as here presented to us. The conscience distinguishes between evil and good. God has taken care that man, after becoming a sinner, should enter the world possessed of a conscience. It judges according to its nature what is evil; nevertheless man does evil. A heathen, whose will is not changed, might say, “I approve indeed what is better, but I desire not what is good, and follow what is evil.” But it is not thus with the man of whom the apostle here speaks. His. will is renewed; he delights in the law of God. This is the mind of Christ Himself, and proves that the man in whom this mind is found is converted, and in the bottom of his heart has received a new life. Conscience in the unconverted man leads him to recognize what is good; but the will of the flesh remains ever the same. He just lives in the flesh, has indeed a conscience, but no new will. The will, on the contrary, is not lacking in the man described in Romans 7, but the power to do what he would. It is the state of a soul which desires good which is in question here.
In verse 13 the apostle goes on to describe the effect of the law on the experience of the soul who also desires what is good. In the previous verse it is acknowledged that the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. The question now naturally arises, “Was then that which is good made death unto me?” In no wise. But sin worked death by that which is good (the law) in order that sin might be fully manifested, might assume its true character, and become exceeding sinful in that it has made use of what is good to produce death. The evil does not manifest itself only as evil by and for itself, but also as disobedience, because it is forbidden, and thus through the commandment becomes exceeding sinful. Sin in man has a strong will; he will do what is evil even when God has forbidden it. If my child goes to play instead of doing his tasks, it is a bad habit; but if I forbid him to run out, and he still goes on with this bad habit, it is in addition disobedience. By the commandment sin is become exceeding sinful. It shows that in me there are not only evil lusts, but that self-will which commits the evil, in spite of God’s commands, is also there; God and His word are despised.
But we learn yet more from the law; namely, our weakness, even when we would do good. The converted but undelivered man does not succeed in doing what he would like to; he lacks the strength. He finds that he is carnal, sold under sin; that is to say, a slave to it. He knows that the law is spiritual; but he is in the flesh, carnal, under the yoke of sin, to which he is sold as a slave. Conscience is active according to the measure in which he knows the will of God in the law, and he sees indeed in the law not only external precepts, but something which judges the springs of evil in the heart. One may be outwardly blameless; Saul and many others were; but they were thereby full of self-righteousness, But the law in forbidding lust might as well forbid us to be men; therefore God has added the commandment, “Thou shalt not covet. In the flesh dwelleth no good thing. I have done, but of what I am, and there I first discover that in me dwelleth no good thing. I would do good, but I do it not, I am under the yoke of sin in the flesh. I acknowledge that the law is good; I hate sin, and yet I do it. But what I hate, I am not myself; yea, I hate it. Thus, taught of God, I learn to distinguish between myself and what I do. As the apostle says, “Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.” Yet this is not deliverance; this requires strength. But it is none, the, less a very important comfort by the way to have not only learned that in me dwells no good thing, but also to distinguish between me and sin which dwelleth in me. I delight in the law of God after the inward man; the conscience is in activity, and the will is brought into subjection. What is. still lacking is strength, and this is not possessed because redemption only not fully known. One learns experimentally, not only that one does not do good, but also that one cannot do it; the yoke of sin is ever there. And this is precisely what one has to learn; namely, that one has “no strength” to do the will of God: truths which have to be learned experimentally:
In the flesh dwelleth no good thing.
We have to distinguish between ourselves, who desire what is good, and sin which dwelleth in us.
3. There is no strength in us to overcome sin in the flesh as long as we are not delivered; we shall the rather be overcome by it.
We cannot then deliver ourselves; on the contrary, we must be delivered; and the soul has to be brought to the knowledge of this. “Who shall deliver me?” is the expression springing from the consciousness that we cannot do it ourselves; we look around for another to do it. This is what we have to learn, not our guilt, but our weakness—our utter powerlessness, our dependence on God. However, we have here several things to consider.
Only one who has been in this condition, and has come out of it, can describe it. It is impossible for a man who has fallen into a bog quietly to describe his situation as long as he is in it. He only feels that he is sinking and perishing, so that he can do naught else but cry out for help. But after he is saved, he can calmly describe it all. One who has never been in such a situation might perhaps say to him, “Why did you not go on until you found a firm footing?” “Indeed,” says the other, “that is easily said; but when I lifted up one foot in the bog, the other sank in all the deeper.” This, then, is the condition of the soul in Romans 7, described, it is true, by a Christian who has himself been in it, but is now delivered. I say, “by a Christian;” for when the apostle says “we know” (v. 14), it is Christian knowledge. But experience is the consciousness of a person individually. Thus, when he says “I am,” it is experience and not doctrine. The experiences communicated to us here are legal throughout. The person concerned consents to the law that it is good; yea, he delights in the law. The conscience and the will are sincere as to divine things; but both have the law as object and measure. We do not hear a word of Christ or of the Spirit; the law is the only object before the soul. But in verse 25 true deliverance is obtained, and the Christian, delivered, thanks God. Conflict, it is true, ever goes on; we find this in Galatians 5:16-18. If, however, we are led of the Spirit we are not under the law; that is to say, not in the state described in Romans 7.
J. N. D.