The apostle has shown in the two previous chapters the effect of the death and resurrection of Christ with regard to justification (chapter 5.) and practical life (chapter 6). In chapter 5 we are delivered from the guilt of sin, and in chapter 6 from the power of sin. But there remained yet another question to be answered, namely, What is the result of this doctrine with reference to the demands of the law? What place does the law take in the face of Christendom, Christ being risen?
We shall often find the word “law” in this chapter, but not always in connection with one and the same subject, as we shall see. Law in general is a governing principle, which demands subjection. If a man stands under a law, he is under an authority which imposes obligations, or makes demands upon him. Whether he fulfills, or does not fulfill them, whether he is able or unable, whether he will or will not, the law demands and is satisfied with nothing else but its accomplishment. The apostle now addresses himself in this chapter to those who well know the true meaning of law.
“I speak to them that know the law” (v. 1). The expression “law” here is quite general. “Know ye not, brethren, how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth 8 “As long as a law exists or remains in force, so long is he that is in subjection to it bound to its claims; death alone can abolish this connection. The apostle proves this in verses 2 and 3, by the marriage law, and then applies it in verse 4 to believers. Although the believers from among the nations were never under the letter of the law, yet the principles declared therein, especially in the ten commandments, found their application to them as well, inasmuch as they contained what the righteousness of God can demand of every man. But under this law, man can only be lost. It therefore is a solemn and important question for all, How shall I be freed from the law? We cannot, it is true, release ourselves in an illegal way from the dominion of the law given by God. God would never permit this, in that all demands of the law on man are perfectly just. But now God Himself has in Christ provided a righteous way for our perfect deliverance from the law—a way which puts us altogether and forever out of its reach; and this way is “death.” “Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ....” (v. 4). Death here is the only means of deliverance, as in the marriage law. We are “become dead to the law by the body of Christ,” as we read plainly here, and therefore the law cannot reach us any more. But does not this lower its authority? Not in the least, for we own that Christ has died, and we with Him; and the law cannot be applied any more to a dead person. On the other hand, its authority has been fully administered, because sin has been visited with death. In the death of Christ the authority of the law has been fully exercised and satisfied. Now all who were under the law, and have believed in Jesus, have died under the execution of the judgment of this law; for this judgment on them has taken place in Christ. The law applies to living persons only, and not to dead ones. A wife becomes an adulteress if she marries another while her husband is still alive; but she is free as soon as her husband is dead. So is it with the Christian. He cannot belong to two masters at the same time: the law and the risen Christ cannot exercise authority over the soul at the same time. The application of this example is somewhat different for us as regards the form, but the principle remains the same. The law has not died, and therefore has not lost its authority; but we have died, and because we are dead the law cannot exercise any more power over us, for its rule ceases with death. We have died with Christ, and then are raised with Him, and therefore by death we are separated from the law. Our present husband is the risen Christ. In no way do we stand any longer under the law—be it with regard to its just claims or in its righteous judgments. It exists no longer for us, so to say, or rather, we are no longer here for the law, inasmuch as we are “become dead to the law by the body of Christ.”
But are we now freed from the law to be lawless, to do our own will without any responsibility? Or have the righteous demands of God contained in the law lost their value? Neither of the two, for we read in the second half of verse 4, “that ye should be married to another, to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.” It is just in connection with the law—in which God demands fruit certainly—that we bring forth fruit unto death only (v. 5); but fully delivered from the law and in relation with Christ, the risen man, we are able “to bring forth fruit unto God.” This is the blessed result for the believer of deliverance from the law. Risen with Christ, he has partaken of a new life, which bears its fruit—a life for which the system of the law exists no longer.
In verse 5 we read— “For when we were in the flesh....;” therefore not “are,” but “were.” Likewise, in chapter 8, 9— “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit.” The word “flesh” here signifies, of course, moral flesh only—the whole being, or the entire position of the natural man before God. Man risen with Christ, and therefore renewed man, is no longer in that position before God. Yet, though the flesh is still present with him, he is neither under its dominion, nor does it present his position before God as before. “When we were in the flesh, the passions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members, to bring forth fruit unto death.” The passions, which urged on to sin, wrought in the flesh, and through the opposition of the claims of the law, the will, i.e., sin, which the flesh loved and the law forbade, became the more alive. “But now we are delivered from the law, being dead to that wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter” (v. 6).
In Gal. 2:1919For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. (Galatians 2:19) we have the same thing, but differently expressed— “I through the law am dead to the law.” The law is the service of death. All who find themselves under it are sentenced to death, because they are sinners. For us, believers, this judgment is executed in the death of Christ. Now I can say, “The law has killed me;” and I can add at once, that through this death I am dead to the law, or I exist no longer for it. The law has not been put to death, but I have been put to death, and that through its righteous demands. By faith I find in the death of Christ the end of my position, as in the flesh and as under the law before God. But, if I am “planted together in the likeness of his death,” then “I shall be also (in the likeness) of his resurrection.” As raised with Christ, I am just as little under the law as Christ Himself, who sitteth at the right hand of God. Even so now our service is of an altogether different character, as we see in verse 6. It exists no more in the fulfilling of a demand according to the letter, but in the service of the Spirit. As partakers of the nature and life of Christ, we walk in the power of the Spirit of God, in that which is well-pleasing to God. This is not a law, which delivers us unto the curse because of the transgression of its declarations; but we are partakers of the righteousness in which Jesus Himself is before God.
Now, if it was impossible to serve God under the law, and fruit was brought forth unto death only; and if one must be entirely separated from the law, be free from its dominion, really to serve God and bear fruit unto Him, how easily could the thought arise, that the law itself is sin, and of an evil tendency! The apostle proceeds to meet this in the following verses. He justifies the law against every accusation, and places its true character, as also the exceeding sinfulness of sin, fully in the light.
It may be well here first to remark, that the apostle uses the little word “I,” in order to present his doctrine on this point very clearly and simply. But this has led many undelivered souls to conclude that the apostle speaks of himself here, of his own condition, and therefore of the condition of every true Christian. But this would not only stand in the grossest contrast to the first half of this chapter, but also to chapters 6 and 8. Compare only verse 14 with verses 4 to 6, and chapter 6:14 and 18; also verse 19 with the whole of the sixth chapter, and with chapter 8:4. The very portion before us proves that the apostle could not be speaking here of himself, For, I ask, at what time was Paul alive without law? as he says in verse 9. Before his conversion? Certainly not; for he himself speaks of himself circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee” (Phil. 3:55Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; (Philippians 3:5)). He therefore could not say of himself: “For I was alive without the law once,” because he was under it from his very youth. He speaks much more here of the condition of man in general. Altogether, in the last half of this chapter, specially from verse 14 onward, he presents the experiences of a man under the law—his condition, his conflicts and his end. Even the natural man can have such experiences, yea, we find similar utterances in the writings of heathen philosophers to those expressed in this portion; but never will a natural heart be able to say: “I delight in the law of God, after the inward man” (v. 22). This cannot be the language but of a quickened one, whose conscience and will are renewed. Besides, every Christian will experience the same conflicts if he puts himself under the law, though in ignorance, or through want of deliverance. But it is not the intention of the apostle here in the least to present the measure of the spiritual condition of a soul, nor the experiences of a delivered Christian; but he will simply show what are the experiences and conflicts of a renewed soul, or what its judgment is upon itself when placed under the law.
But it is also well to notice that it is not a question of grace, Christ, or of the Holy Spirit in this part of the chapter; but of the law only, of the strength of sin, of the impotence and corruption of the flesh, and of the fruitless efforts of one in this position. It is not till verse 25 that Christ is introduced, and then as the only place of refuge and safety for the captive under the law of sin and death, as a perfectly satisfying answer to the question: “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”
Now before we enter upon a closer examination of this part of the chapter in question, I would, for the confirmation, of what has been said before, put the question for calm consideration to every Christian conscience: Had the apostle for himself, or has any other delivered Christian still to sigh and exclaim, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Did Paul still lie captive under the law of sin, and by his conduct bring forth fruit unto death only? Did his salvation and deliverance through Christ still remain in uncertainty, or had he so feebly known the value and bearing of the work of Christ? Did his faith understand so little what the grace and the love of God had given him in Christ Jesus? Did he still go on without the indwelling of the Holy Ghost? Surely a quiet meditation over this question will leave no doubt whatever that the apostle here speaks neither of his own condition nor of that of any other delivered Christian.
But let us now return to verse 7, where the apostle, as stated already, commences to justify the law against every accusation, and to bring the true character of sin to the light. In this verse he declares, first, that by the law comes the knowledge of sin. “I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not lust.” It is by the law then that sin and lust are known in their true character; and it is manifest what both are before God. Sin is that evil principle, dwelling and operating in the flesh—a hostile power striving against the law of God. It works just what the law forbids, and that because it does forbid it. Lust is the active inclination and desire in the flesh. If the law says, “Thou shalt not lust,” then it shows thereby that these desires and inclinations of the heart are evil. But, now, what does sin? It just takes occasion, through the commandment which forbids the desire, to excite these lusts, and at the same time works upon the will, in order that every resistance may cease. This reveals the true character of sin, its hatred and enmity against all that is good. “Sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence”— (v. 8). One might ask, Is it not just the law that produces sin? Oh, no! it was there already, before the law came. “For until the law sin was in the world” (chap. v. 13); but “without the law sin was dead” (v. 8). The law does not produce sin, but puts its true character in the light. It is always present; but where there is no law its true nature is concealed. But, as soon as the law appears, it rises up and shows what it is in reality—enmity against the law of God. “For I was alive without the law once; but when the commandment came, sin revived” (v. 9). The apostle here simply says that the commandment is that through which sin is revived, which places its real character, in contrast to the law, clearly in the light. We see it already in a child, that at once manifests a strong desire to do it when it is forbidden a certain thing it hitherto has done without an evil thought or particular inclination. By the commandment, sin, which proved to be dead hitherto in this matter, revives in the child and excites it to act against this commandment. Without law it would be impossible for sin to produce such a conflict in the soul, and make us responsible for the sin. As soon as the law declares what sin is, then are we no longer ignorant, and feel our conscience guilty because of the transgression of the law. If any one lives without law, sin is there nevertheless, but it is dead; but, as soon as the commandment comes in, it revives. And what is the consequence? It causes death. “And I died, and the commandment which was (ordained) to life I found to be unto death” (v. 10).
The law says, “Do this, and thou shalt live;” and just this declaration is found for me to be unto death, because it puts the claims of God upon a sinful nature, upon a nature, which by its own will refuses the accomplishment of these demands, and to a conscience which cannot deny the justice of condemnation. Without law one lives in an undisturbed indifference, does one’s own will, and that without knowledge of God, and therefore without knowledge of guilt. But the law steps in, prohibits all that one desires, and one dies under its just sentence. The apostle here presents sin as a surprising enemy. When the law came, sin, in that it knew that the will would resist it, and the conscience pronounce condemnation, made use of this opportunity, and brought man into a condition of rebellion against the law, and killed him by the same. Death was the sentence on God’s part; and for man was the result of this law, which promised life. “For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me” (v. 11). The commandment, therefore, did not bring on this death, but sin. The law certainly pronounced this sentence of death, because of sin; but it could not do otherwise, because “the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good” (v. 12).
“Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful” (v. 13). Here, then, the apostle puts its real character in the light. By the holy and good law it had occasion to bring me under the just sentence of the same, and thus wrought death in me by that which is good.
Now, after the apostle has cleared the law, and shown it to be good and holy, and that it is not the law but sin that incurs this sentence of death, he describes the condition of man who, with the knowledge of sin that dwells and acts in him, and the just demands of the law, is found under the law. “But I am carnal, sold under sin” (v. 14). This is the sad sentence such a one has to pronounce. Note in this 14th verse the twofold expression:—First, it says, “We know that the law is spiritual.” All Christians know this; but then he does not say, “But we are carnal,” &c., but “am carnal, sold under sin.” Thus man must exclaim, under the law—I am carnal, and the law is spiritual; I am a slave of sin, and the law demands of me to be a slave of righteousness. What principles! And what brings man to this confession is the experiences he makes on his way, which he describes more fully from verse 15 to 23. “For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate that I do” (v. 15). Though the conscience is renewed and acknowledges the good, though it consents unto the law “that it is good” (v. 16), what profit is this acknowledgment and consent unto the good to me if I just do the contrary? Though the will is renewed, and perfectly free to do the good, what does it avail, if “to perform that which is good” is wanting? (v. 18). I know that what the law demands is only good, and I know too, that it is just to demand it of me, nor do I wish that these claims be diminished; but I have no power to meet them. It is perfectly true that, if I acknowledge the good, and am also ready to do it, “It is no more I that do the evil, but sin, that dwelleth in me” (v. 17). O what a comfort for me lies in this! This confession just shows the greatness of this slavery in which I find myself. I am such a slave that, though I myself perform no more that which is evil, but sin that dwelleth in me, yet against my will I must allow myself to be used of it. I acknowledge the badness of sin, and still am in utter subjection to it; I consent unto the good, and yet do not perform it; I hate that which is bad, and yet I do it. Though I would serve God ever so willingly, and use my whole strength to gain this end, yet all my intentions make shipwreck on this irresistible power of sin, which keeps me captive in its chains. Yes, all efforts, though ever so sincere, are useless, and only increase my discomfort. They reveal the more glaringly how hateful sin is, and how entirely I am sold under it; they convince me more and more “that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing” (v. 18). “The good that I would I do not, but the evil which I would not that I do” (v. 19). There is no power, no accomplishment of the good, and there is therefore also no true peace of soul.
In verses 21, 23, it is the question of various characters of law, of a certain principle, by which the condition of an undelivered soul is still clearer revealed. In verse 22 we have the law of God. The inward or inner man—the renewed conscience and the renewed will—has its delight in this law, and this delight is termed in verse 23 “the law of my mind.” It further states in this verse, “I see another law in my members.” This law is mentioned already in verse 21, “the law, that evil is present with me.” This “law in my members” is opposed to “the law of my mind,” and wars against the same; the evil dwelling in me stands in perfect contrast to the delight of the inner man. Still there is yet another law in my members, namely, “the law of sin,” as we see in verse 23—the hostile principle acting in my flesh, under whose dominion I am brought by the evil that is dwelling in me, “which wars against the law of my mind.” Thus, then, are all my actions, yea, my whole person, in entire subjection to sin. I may groan, strive, struggle, wrestle—all is of no avail; I must submit myself, I must obey a power whose abominable character is clearly before mine eyes, whose badness before God is fully known to me. I may do what I like: all is without fruit. I am sold as a slave under sin, and there is no man that can deliver me, because they all are slaves, just as I am; superhuman, divine power is necessary to burst the iron chains and fetters, to keep off the thunders and lightnings of Sinai. My hope for salvation is vanished. I am entirely lost, corrupt, altogether ungodly.
“O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (verse 24).
This is the end of the conflict against sin. Man is conquered; sin remains victor; man is a slave; sin retains the dominion. Who shall deliver me? is the outcry of the deeply—felt weakness, which is experienced more and more during the conflict, and finally revealed under entire helplessness. Self-righteousness is thrown to the ground, and man formerly in eager combat has surrendered his weapons, because he is convinced of the impossibility of acquiring a holiness in the flesh, a righteousness by works. Pride is humbled; the power of self-destroyed; the will is broken; and God, who has used all these efforts of self-righteousness to convince the soul of its incompetency, hears at last those acceptable words for His ear: “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” But no sooner has He heard this cry, than He lets the full comfort of His gospel stream into the heart groaning under the yoke of sin. He unfolds before the eyes of the disconsolate and hopeless slave, the glorious and unspeakable blessings of an eternal deliverance, attained by the death and resurrection of Christ, and by Himself sealed with the pledge of His Spirit. The chains and fetters are burst, judgment and condemnation forever gone, and the sinner—until now sighing deeply and almost in despair—lifts up his head exultingly to heaven, and triumphs in the knowledge of an eternal liberty: “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” He has redeemed me! He has made me free—free from the law of sin and death. He has conquered forever, and in Him I am more than conqueror.
Thus, then, we have found three things in the clear and simple instruction of this chapter. First, Deliverance from law through death (verse 1 to 6); then, the knowledge of sin through the law (verse 7 to 13); and lastly, the condition of a soul, though renewed in conscience and will, under the power of sin and the law (verse 14 to 24).
Before we now pass on to the consideration of chap. 8, we desire to make a short remark on the last half of ver. 25. This part of the verse has already perplexed many a reader, both as regards its contents, as also the place, which the Holy Ghost has assigned to it, in that it suddenly crosses the stream of thought as it were. The first shout of deliverance, viz., “I thank God through Jesus Christ,” is interrupted by the words: “So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin,” before the apostle continues more clearly to prove this deliverance and to unfold it in its entire bearing.
Now, will the apostle express the condition of the undelivered, or of the delivered soul, with these words? Or will he express the change from one condition into another? Neither one nor the other. These words rather present a simple principle in order to bring both the true character of the mind, as well as that of the flesh, clearly to the light. The apostle, in the last half of this chapter, has unfolded this principle in connection with an undelivered condition; a condition under the law the result was, hopeless captivity. If now the same principle is repeated here in the last half of verse 25, then it is done to unfold it in chapter 8 in connection with the condition of a delivered soul, which through the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus is made free from the law of sin and death, and to bring the opposite result to the light. The nature, or the character of the mind, as well as that of the flesh have in nowise been changed through the deliverance in Christ; but, nevertheless, the result as regards service, or conduct, is altogether different, as we shall see most distinctly. Under the law I could not follow my mind and serve God, but had to obey the flesh and be a slave of sin; but in Christ Jesus, made free from the law of sin and death, I am able to serve God, and to keep the flesh in subjection, though its nature remains unchanged.