Peace: What Is It?
Scripture speaks of the Son of God as “having made peace through the blood of His cross.” Peace, then, has been made, and the One who did it “has been raised from among the dead, and glorified in consequence.
Founded on this great work is “peace with God,” of which we read in Rom. 5:11Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: (Romans 5:1). We understand by this “peace with God” the removal forever of everything which could make the believer uneasy in His holy presence, because He justifies us from all things through our Lord Jesus Christ, and reckons us righteous on the principle of faith without works, What love! Peace with God, then, we repeat it, is founded on the blood of the cross, therefore, when Jesus was risen from among the dead, He said to His disciples, “Peace be unto you”; and “He showed unto them His hands and His side.” He “was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification,” therefore we who believe have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Peace with God is now known — we have it, but only in believing God’s testimony concerning Christ’s finished work. It is to God {that} the Holy Spirit brings us. We have “joy and peace in believing,” not in feelings, or experience, or ordinances, or religious works of any kind, but in believing. About this we cannot be too simple, for, as the apostle says, “It is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure.” There is no other ground of assurance in Scripture as to our eternal salvation than God’s testimony to the abiding efficacy of the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Will the reader turn to Rom. 4:3, 5, 18-25; 5:1; 15:133For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. (Romans 4:3)
5But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. (Romans 4:5)
18Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. 19And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara's womb: 20He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; 21And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. 22And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. 23Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; 24But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; 25Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. (Romans 4:18‑25)
1Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: (Romans 5:1)
13Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost. (Romans 15:13); Heb. 10:9-229Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. 10By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 11And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: 12But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; 13From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. 14For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. 15Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, 16This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; 17And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. 18Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. 19Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; 21And having an high priest over the house of God; 22Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. (Hebrews 10:9‑22), and believe what God says? But some may say,
WHO ARE BELIEVERS?
When you speak of believers, what do you mean? What is a believer according to Scripture? The question is of all importance; for we read of the believer having everlasting life, of his being justified from all things, and having joy and peace in believing, so it surely is a matter about which we should have divine certainty.
There are not a few who try to persuade themselves that they are believers, because, as they say, they believe the whole Bible, by which they mean they believe it to be a true book. But where has God said He will save a sinner because he assents to the Bible being true There are others who say they are believers because of what they have felt, while many more take the place of believers because they believe they are believers. But where, we ask, does God say that a man shall be saved if he feels this or that, or because he believes he is a believer? There are also many sincere souls who are looking at the work of the Spirit in them, instead of the work of Christ for them; and if they can trace what they suppose to be the Spirit’s work in them they conclude they must be believers. But perhaps the commonest deception in our day consists in persons taking the place of believers because they believe some things about Christ, instead of believing on the Son to the saving of the soul.
Now these and similar wanderings of the human mind do not agree with what Scripture teaches about believing. Such ideas (alas! how common) not only damage souls, but bewilder those who desire to be right with God. They give shelter to empty professors, and hold fast in carnal security those who care only for the present, and are not exercised before God about their eternal future.
In turning to such Scriptures as set forth the grace of God, we find the Lord Jesus Christ presented as the object of faith, while the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever, is given as the sole authority for faith. The believing soul receive God’s testimony, and knows it to be the truth. “He that hath received His testimony hath set to his seal, that God is true” (John 3:3333He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true. (John 3:33)). He is certain that God means what He says, that His word is forever settled in heaven, and will never pass away, “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:1717So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Romans 10:17)). Nothing can be more simple or profoundly grand, for all the glory is thus secured to God, and the blessing to us; and assuredly so, because it is given, not on the principle of law, but on the principle of faith, and flows from the loving heart of the God of all grace through the sacrifice of His own Son.
As to the Lord Jesus Christ being the object of faith, the gospels and epistles abound with instruction and examples. Jesus Himself said,
Observe, it is not believing something about Jesus, but believing on Him — making the Son of God the object, the blessed Person to whom our hearts look, and His precious blood our only way of approach to God. Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me” (John 14:66Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14:6)). Did not our Lord explain to Nicodemus, by the illustration of the brazen serpent, that He, when “lifted up,” would be the only object of saving faith?
Thus, as the Israelite who was dying from the serpent’s bite looked to the object presented to him and “lived,” so the sinner now who looks away from himself to the Lord Jesus Christ has eternal life; for “He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life” (John 3:3636He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. (John 3:36)). It is not said, if you try, or if you feel, or if you turn over a new leaf, or if you reform and strive to get better first; no, nothing of the kind; but “whosoever believeth in Him”; or whoever puts his heart’s trust in Him, knowing that He died for sinners, that He bids us come, and would have us drop into His open arms that He might have the joy of saving us. Oh yes, He delights to save every sinner that thus looks to Him. His word is, “Look unto Me, and be ye saved.”
“He makes no hard condition,
Tis only, Look and live.”
But perhaps the reader will say, “I look only to the Lord Jesus as a sinner to a Savior, and approach God only by His precious blood, and yet I cannot say I am sure that I am saved.” Now why is this? Is it not because you do not make the written word of God your sole authority as to salvation? It may be you are trying to determine by your own thoughts and feelings whether or not your sins are forgiven. You reason about it and say, Could a true believer have such thoughts and feelings as I have? Should I not be happier than I am if I were truly a believer? Such reasonings however are not of faith but are the activities of unbelief, and should be treated as false and delusive. The whole question is, What does God say in His Word of one who truly looks away from himself to the Lord Jesus Christ as a sinner to a Savior? Does He say such an one will perish? Nay; He declares they “shall never perish.” Does God say that the sinner must do good works before he can be justified? Certainly not. Quite the contrary. He declares he is justified on the principle of faith without the deeds of the law; that he is saved by grace without religious works of any kind. And further, as he looked out of himself to Christ, and received eternal life, so now he knows that he has it on God’s testimony in His Word. “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life” (1John 5:1313These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. (1 John 5:13)). When he hearkens only to God’s testimony, he will say, like another —
“I dare not work my soul to save,
That work my Lord has done;
But I will work like any slave
From love to God’s dear Son.”
Again. Perhaps the soul is perturbed as to whether he has the right kind of faith. But Scripture speaks of the faith of God’s people as that which worketh by love. “God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” This love, when believed — not merely known, but “known and believed” — causes confidence to spring up in our hearts; so that we love God who has so loved us, and we trust Him, and take Him, according to the word of His grace, as “a just God and Savior.” The point, then, of all importance is not the quality and measure of our faith, but whether we are looking to the right person. Is the Lord Jesus Christ the One we trust in as having saved us by His work of eternal redemption? If so, God declares that “by Him all that believe are justified from all things” justified by His blood, justified on the principle of faith, and have life eternal in Him. Yes, it is God that justifieth; “for by one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified”; and says, “Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” All this, and much more, we know on the authority of God’s unerring word.
Every one who believes on the only-begotten Son of God is then entitled to say, “He loved me, and gave Himself for me; all my sins are forgiven; I am cleansed from all sin, and I am before God whiter than snow; I have passed from death unto life, shall not come into judgment; I know that I have eternal life, and am a child of God.” Sure he is now that if death takes place he will at once be present with the Lord; or should the Lord come, he would be caught up to meet Him in the air. He knows, too, that every step of his earthly pilgrimage God has provided for in the present offices of Christ in heaven on his behalf.” He is able also to save them to the uttermost” (or for evermore) “that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Heb. 7:2525Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. (Hebrews 7:25)). Let the reader, if not quite sure of eternal salvation, ponder and mix faith with such Scriptures as are here referred to, and give glory to God: Gal. 1:4, 2:20, 3:26 Acts 10:4343To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. (Acts 10:43); 1 John 2:1212I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake. (1 John 2:12); Rev. 1:55And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, (Revelation 1:5); 1 John 5:1313These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. (1 John 5:13); John 5:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24); 1 John 3:1, 2, 141Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. 2Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:1‑2)
14We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. (1 John 3:14); 2 Cor. 5:11For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. (2 Corinthians 5:1); 1 Thess. 4:16, 1716For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:16‑17); 1 John 2:1, 21My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: 2And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:1‑2). When these words are believed to be God’s truth, and to have been written for our present comfort and hope, how can there be either question or fear left? As we sometimes sing –-
“Our doubts and fears for ever gone,
For Christ is on the Father’s throne.”
We may be certain that God will be as good as His word, and that the Spirit leads us to rely upon it, for He is faithful that promised. “God is not a man, that He should lie; neither the son of man, that He should repent: hath He said, and shall He not do it? or hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good?” How then can He possibly act contrary to His own word, or deny the eternal value of the work of His own Son?
It is generally the sinner’s guilt and burden of his sins which compel him to take refuge in the Savior’s open arms. Thankful indeed, and often joyous too, is he when he finds, through the atoning sacrifice of God’s Son, that his sins are for ever blotted out, that God is the Justifier and has justified him from all things, given him eternal life, and made him His child for ever. His burden is gone, and he is a happy soul. He delights now in prayer and praise, and in knowing and serving the Lord. He loves the brethren. He finds increasing interest in the written Word, and his heart goes out in ways which are according to the truth. He knows he is an object of divine grace, and flatters himself that he will never be unhappy again. But he knows little of the state of the world as it is in God’s sight, or of Satan, who goeth about like a roaring lion, or of the desperate wickedness and deceitfullness of his heart. If, however, he tarry on earth, he will learn in some measure, by the Spirit’s teaching, according to the truth of God, what he really is after the flesh, as well as the character of his surroundings. He will find out, to his inexpressible joy, that peace with God is never founded on experience, but on Christ’s finished work.
Peace Founded on Christ’s Finished Work
Peace, then, through the exceeding riches of divine grace, is founded upon a work done for us, a redemption which is accomplished, and made sure to the heart and conscience of the believer on the Lord Jesus Christ by the word of God, brought home to him by the Holy Spirit’s power. Both the work and the Word are unchanging and eternal in their efficacy; so that amidst all the tossings and temptations to which a child of God is exposed, his peace rests on that which changeth not. Moreover it is his sweet privilege to turn to the unchangeably loving heart of God his Father, and to His testimony to the infinite value of the work of His own Son, who has “made peace through the blood of His cross,” and has assured us that “Christ is the end of the law, for righteousness to every one that believeth” (Rom. 10:44For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. (Romans 10:4)).
Standing and Experience
But while the ground of the believer’s peace with God is unchangeable, it is evident that those who are born of God will have a very different experience from what they could possibly have known before. And it is just here that soul-trouble often comes in; not so much from outward circumstances (though there may be that too), but from what they now discover in themselves. This so occupies their minds, that until they know that deliverance has been wrought for them in the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, as well as peace made, they cannot cease from self-occupation. They recognize that there is working within them that which they know to be totally opposed to the holiness of God. Moreover, they resolve and make efforts to overcome this bad self; but, learning their helplessness either to improve self or to overcome self, they are obliged at last to give it up, and cry out for a Deliverer. All this is experience; and let it be again noticed that these humbling and painful lessons as to what we are “in the flesh” and “under law” are turned to good account, so that we may enjoy the deliverance which God in infinite grace has entitled us to have. And this deliverance is through the redemption work of His own Son, by which we are set in a totally new place before Him in Christ in cloudless and changeless favour. If it be a question of peace with God, it is “through our Lord Jesus Christ.” If it be how we have deliverance from sinful self and the law, it is “through Jesus Christ our Lord,” with a new life in the Spirit in Him risen, so that henceforth we are “not in the flesh,” but “in Christ Jesus.”
Before looking into the teaching of Scripture as to our deliverance, from “the law of sin and death,” it is important that we should distinguish the Christian’s standing from his own experience. Our peace and also our standing in Christ are wholly of God, and we have the comfort of both on simply believing God’s testimony concerning His own Son. This calls out our hearts in praise and worship. When we have not the realized blessedness of these things, it is because we are taken up with our own thoughts, and have let go God’s word about peace and standing; for we have “joy and peace in believing.”
But experience is another thing. Here self, reasonings, unbelieving thoughts, and even Satan may come in, and this is why a soul who is unduly taken up with experience is never a bright and joyous Christian. Some one said, “I have never known a person reason himself into peace with God; but I have known many who have reasoned themselves out of it; The truth is that the experience of every Christian is sometimes bright and sometimes dark. We often change, but God changeth not. His word is forever settled in heaven; and Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and to- day, and for ever. Look at Paul; as to his peace and standing it was wholly of God, and through Christ and in Christ; but as to experience, he was at one time in unspeakable delight in the third heavens, and shortly after buffeted by a messenger of Satan on earth in indescribable humiliation and distress. But though his experience so changed, his standing and true ground of peace were entirely unaltered. Was he more in Christ when in the third heavens than when under such an attack of Satan on earth? Was Paul less secure in Christ when humbled and tempted by Satan’s messenger than when in the third heavens? Certainly not. Let us not fail then to hold with strong confidence that which nothing can shake or alter — the ground of our peace and standing in Christ Jesus; for it is wholly of God. Our experience may be joyous one day or hour, and very distressing the next. Children of God therefore are not called to live upon their experience (happy, indeed, as it sometimes is, and when otherwise, often turned to profit), but to live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved us, and gave Himself for us. Happy those who can say —
“My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus Christ, God’s righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name
On Christ, the solid rock, I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand.”
Deliverance: What Is It?
Deliverance is a very different thing from overcoming. The truth is, believers need a Deliverer because they cannot overcome “sin in the flesh,” but practically find that it overcomes them. We do overcome the world by our faith, and also much activity of evil doctrine and practice around us, but not “sin in the flesh.” Even those who know deliverance are not told to overcome “sin in the flesh,” nor to crucify it, but by the Spirit to “mortify the deeds of the body,” and not let sin come out; to reckon themselves to have died with Christ. In fact, no one is on the Scripture ground of deliverance so long as he is trying to master the “old man”; for this shows he is not reckoning himself “dead with Christ” as leaving thus been crucified with Him. We surely do not contend with any one we reckon and hold to be dead. Hence the Holy Spirit not only says to believers, “Ye are dead” (or have died) “with Christ,” but He also says, “Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, and alive unto God in Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:6-116Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 7For he that is dead is freed from sin. 8Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: 9Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. 10For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. 11Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:6‑11)).
DEAD TO SIN
Many who are painfully sensible of the inward workings of “sin in the flesh” are in bondage and distress, fighting against it, and praying and longing to overcome it. A believer once said to the writer, “I prayed a hundred times a day, Lord, help me to overcome this and overcome that, and got no relief,” because he did not know or receive what Scripture teaches as to this. However, as such find out the incurable badness of the flesh, and are so often brought into captivity to this law of sin which is in their members, they thus learn their own helplessness, and find the need of a Deliverer. Then they cry, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Such then learn that God has wrought this deliverance for them. Blessed be His name!
But a common and more serious mistake is the supposition that “the flesh” is capable of being made better. Those who think so have not received the divine verdict, that “they that are in the flesh cannot please God,” or that “the carnal mind is” (not at, but is) “enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be” (Rom. 8:7, 87Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. 8So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. (Romans 8:7‑8)). Such is the divine testimony; and the oldest and most devoted believers know that “sin in the flesh,” unchanged in its moral qualities, is still in them, and gets no better. It is “only evil,” and that continually, and, when active, it is in continual and unchanged opposition to God. Its activity is stirred too by God’s commandment, so that the exercised yet undelivered soul, vainly trying to overcome it, finds it too strong for him, and has painfully to say, “When I would do good, evil is present with me.” More and more he becomes self- occupied, becomes increasingly distressed at being led into captivity to the thing he hates, and is really a wretched man (Rom. 7:8, 9, 138But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. 9For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. (Romans 7:8‑9)
13Was 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. (Romans 7:13)).
Perhaps among the most serious blunders of the day are the statements that “sin is rooted out,” “extirpated,” and that there is “entire sanctification through faith.” Such notions are opposed to every principle of the gospel, and set aside the truth as to the believer’s new position or standing in the full favor of God. That every child of God has “sin” in him — that sinful nature which is born of the flesh and is flesh — there can be no doubt, as he often painfully proves. To imagine that being born again is the changing of a bad nature into a good one is entirely contrary to the truth; for our Lord Himself, when speaking of the new birth, says, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh: and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:66That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. (John 3:6)). Moreover, the aged apostle John, when inspired to write to babes, young men, and fathers. in Christ, says, “If we say that we have no sin” (observe, not sins, but “sin” — that evil thing “sin in the flesh”) “we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:88If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. (1 John 1:8)). Can any statement be more solemn as to the unsoundness of the doctrine of the sinlessness of the flesh? First, those who hold it are self-deceived; secondly, the truth is not in them. How this admonishes us to be subject to God’s word, subject to God’s Son, and subject to the teaching of the Holy Spirit, if we would please the Father as His dear children whom He loves as He loves His Son!
The delivered soul has been set free; but not by “sin” being “rooted out” of him, or “extirpated,” or there being “entire sanctification through faith,” expressions not known in Scripture, or by being “made better,” or by “overcoming” it; but by knowing, on the authority of the word of God, that he is cleared from it, by its having been judged in the sacrifice of God’s own Son, Our Substitute. “For what the law could, not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin” (or by a sacrifice for sin),” condemned sin in the flesh” (Rom. 8:33For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: (Romans 8:3)). We therefore are no longer looked at by God as in the flesh, but as “in Christ Jesus,” “alive unto God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” On this account the consciousness of sin dwelling in us is now no excuse for sinning, and no bar to communion with the Father, because we know God has judged it, and bids us so to reckon; and it is no hindrance to our saying, “Come, Lord Jesus!” for He is our life and righteousness. Moreover, we filed our springs of joy and strength, and all our resources, in the risen and ascended Son, who loved us, and gave Himself for us.
The doctrine advanced of late years, that dead with Christ means that our old man is actually dead, and therefore incapable of stirring, is so totally opposed to both Scripture and experience, that it seems unaccountable that any child of God can listen to it for a moment. The passage we have already quoted from. 1 John 1:88If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. (1 John 1:8) is directly to the point, and most decisive; and the sixth of Romans and other Scriptures are equally so.
That all believers on the Son of God for salvation are entitled to know from the word of God that their “old man” has been crucified with Christ is unquestionably true, but it is “with Christ,” so that we are not actually dead (though we were actually dead in sins, which is another line of truth), but we are substitutionally and judicially dead with Christ. But we are actually alive unto God in Christ Jesus our Lord, hence we are spoken of in Scripture as in a totally new position, not in the flesh, but “in Christ Jesus.” But as to fact, the flesh is in us, and ready to act through the members of our body if its “lusts” are yielded to. Therefore those who have died with Christ are told not to “obey it” (observe, it is sin, not Satan, here), “in the lusts thereof.” We are not to yield our members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but to yield ourselves unto God as those who are alive from the dead. (See Rom. 6:11, 12, 13, 1611Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 12Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. 13Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. (Romans 6:11‑13)
16Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? (Romans 6:16).) Is it not evident there would be no sense in such language, if those who are alive to God in Christ had not sin dwelling in them?
But further; that there might be no mistake as to this solemn matter, when the apostle Paul says, “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live,” he is most careful by the Spirit to add, “Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me”; that is, the life he now actually has is not an improvement or alteration of the first “I,” for that, being too bad to be made fit for God, could only be judicially put out of His sight by the crucifixion of Christ. “I am” (that which is born of the flesh), “crucified with Christ” — substitutionally and judicially set aside, yet have I actually a new life which is totally distinct from the first “I,” for it is “Christ liveth in me.”
Those who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit have therefore to find, all through their earthly pilgrimage, that “the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other.” (See Gal. 2:20, 5:17.) The doctrine then that “sin” is not in the true believer, or that it is “extirpated,” or “actually dead” and incapable of stirring; is very contrary to the truth.
Many dear souls are in cloudiness and uncertainty, because they have not received from Scripture-teaching God’s mind as to these things. They may have been quite sure as to the forgiveness of sins, but finding evil desires, pride, self-will, and other workings within, which they hate, and know to be contrary to the holiness of God they become full of fear (no doubt aided by Satan) that, after all, they are deceiving themselves, and do not belong to the Lord. They are terrified at what they discover in themselves, and thus become self-occupied, miserable, and sometimes despair of ever being happy again. The only bit of comfort some have is in finding that others are as miserable as themselves.
That such experiences are often turned to great profit there can be no question, but such persons, though truly converted, have not yet known deliverance; they are occupied with themselves instead of with Christ, where He now is. How can they know their need of a Deliverer unless they have found out that sin in the flesh is too strong for them? Besides, as long as we think we can overcome and deliver ourselves, how can we truly look for a Deliverer?
God will have us learn experimentally that “the flesh profiteth nothing,” and that “in me” (that is, in my flesh) “dwelleth no good thing.” It is a corrupt tree, and cannot bring forth good fruit; and our finding it to be so is very humbling. Old theologians might speak of it as “the plague of our own heart,” and as a necessary kind of law-work before liberty is enjoyed, which is generally, perhaps, but not always, the case. But sooner or later most have to learn that “that which is born of the flesh is flesh,” and so unsubject to God, so opposed to His will, that self-occupied and undelivered souls are brought into captivity to the law of sill which is in their members. Such cry out for a Deliverer, and to their great relief find God delivers them and sets them free by the death of the cross, and, by the gift of the Holy Spirit, has given them power against the perverse will and activity of sin ill the flesh. They are now set free from “the law of sin and death.” They have consciously a new standing, not in the first Adam, but in Christ Jesus; a new state of soul, for instead of bondage and fear as to the law of sin, they enjoy the liberty wherewith Christ hath made them free; a new experience, for, knowing they are objects of God’s perfect love and cloudless favor, in and through Christ Jesus, their hearts respond in love to God, and manifesting love to those around. They have also new relationships; for they know they are children of God, members of the body of Christ, and indwelt by the Holy Ghost, who shall also quicken their mortal bodies. They have a new Master, and their great concern is to please Him. Is it any marvel then that such give God thanks? No doubt all through our pilgrimage we learn more thoroughly the good-for-nothingness of ourselves, and the divine grace and divine power that has thus given us deliverance; and though the more spiritually-minded we are the deeper may be the consciousness of sin in us, yet, knowing God has condemned it and judicially set it aside for us forever in the death of His Son, faith finds its presence no bar to communion with the Father, and can rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Thus we go forward, and, knowing we have two natures, we have to say, “So then with the mind I Myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.” Looking off unto Jesus the Lord, as alive to God in Him, the delivered soul Call sing
“Nothing but Christ, as on we tread,
The gift unpriced — God’s living bread;
With staff in hand, and feet well shod,
Nothing but Christ — the Christ of God.”
“Everything loss for Him below,
Taking the cross where’er we go;
Showing to all where once He trod,
Nothing but Christ — the Christ of God,
“Nothing save Him in all our ways
Giving the theme for ceaseless praise;
OUR WHOLE RESOURCE along the road,
Nothing but Christ — the Christ of God.”
Let us now look a little more particularly at what Scripture further teaches as to this in connection with the law.
DEAD TO THE LAW
God is spoken of in the Scriptures as the Justifier of the ungodly who believe, the Reconciler of His enemies, and the Deliverer from the law of sin and death; and all founded on the death of the cross. We are justified by the blood of Christ, “reconciled to God by the death of His Son,” and delivered “through Jesus Christ our Lord.” All too on the principle of faith, and not by the deeds of the law.
The law instead of justifying condemns; instead of reconciling gives the knowledge of sin; (and instead of delivering brings in all who are under it guilty and under the curse. Yet the law is “holy,” because instead of excusing sin it exposes sin; the law is “just,” because it judges even the motions of sin as well as sins committed; and the law is “good,” if a man use it lawfully. The law also hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth, but has nothing to say to a dead man.
Our sins are forgiven on the ground of Christ’s having “died for our sins”; but we are delivered from the distress and power of that evil principle in us “sin in the flesh,” by death; for Christ having died, not merely for our sins, but “unto sin once,” we have died with Him, and are alive unto God in Him who is alive again, and that forevermore. We are thus “dead to sin” and “dead to the law by the body of Christ,” that we might be to Another, who has been raised from among the dead, that we might bring forth fruit unto God; to whom be everlasting praise for such marvelous deliverance.
The doctrine of the believer, who knows the law, being dead to the law, and of his being now to Another who has been raised up from among the dead as the only source of fruit-bearing, is set forth in the first six verses of Rom. 7. Then follows a supposed case, in which is described the experience of a quickened soul under law trying to obey, struggling to answer to God’s just claims, and at length, finding himself powerless, cries out for a deliverer — “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” This deliverance is set forth by one who has been delivered. Practical righteousness follows the consciousness of deliverance.
It is clear that the person supposed in Rom. 7 to be speaking and crying out in distress of soul for deliverance is quickened — this is, has life — for
1. He knows that “the law is spiritual”; that is, that it is not merely applicable to outward conduct, but to the inward feelings and desires, and that he is fleshly, sold under sin — the slave of sin.
2. He owns that “the law” is “good,” and he resolves to be good, and to do good, but finds that he cannot.
3. He delights in “the law of God,” after the inward man, and allows that the commandment is holy, and just, and good. His understanding is enlightened, so that he consents to the law that it is good; his will is changed, for to will is present with him for good; and he has a heart now that can love according to God, for he delights in the law of God after the inward man. These things show that he is born of God; but the context shows also that he is not occupied with Christ, but with self, for it is “I” and “me” all through He learns, too, his powerlessness against “sin in the flesh.” Hence his wretchedness; and the more conscientious the more wretched such must be. But this experience is turned to much blessing through finding out the incurably bad and insubject state of that which is born of the flesh, and then looking away from self to God, and what He has done for us in the death of His Son.
Though the one brought before us in this passage has life, he is not delivered till the end of the chapter, but goes on struggling with the law, because he has not given himself up as thoroughly bad and powerless, through which exercises he learns experimentally
1. That in him — that is, in his flesh — no good dwells.
2. That sin dwells in him. He finds he has a nature which is opposed to God, and that its opposition is provoked by God’s holy commandment. This is a terrible discovery for a tender conscience; for with all his resolves, all his good desires and struggling he is conscious of the appalling fact that sin dwells in him — that corrupt tree which only brings forth evil fruit; an active principle of evil ever opposed to God, and always ready to war against the law of his mind. Such is “sin in the flesh.”
3. That he has no power to perform the good he would, so that he is brought into captivity to the law of sin which is in his members, With all his good desires and efforts he finds himself unable to overcome indwelling evil, and to work righteousness by law- keeping. He is now consciously “without strength,” and has no resources in himself. He looks for good in his flesh, and finds none. He would have no evil within; but finds evil thoughts, lust, pride, self-will, continually rising up, even if nothing come out. Though he seeks to do good, evil is present with him. He tries to have a better experience of himself, to answer to God’s just claims, and finds he has no power; so that if he be delivered at all, it must be by another, for he has the sentence of death in himself.
These are profitable lessons, but often learnt through deep distress and humiliation. When a soul has to do with an infinitely holy God, and finds out so painfully that his Adam nature is incurably bad, with no good in that thus sin dwells in him, and is his master, so that he has no power over it, can he be otherwise than truly “wretched”? Hence his cry, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”
And how does he get deliverance? By efforts? No. By religious duties? No. By bodily inflictions, sacrifices, and self- denial? No. Not even by earnest prayer; but by simply looking out of self straight to God, and believing His testimony concerning Christ’s work on the cross. Then he finds that God, who knew how bad and helpless he was, has gone before him, and wrought condemned sin in the flesh” (Rom. 8:33For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: (Romans 8:3)). This is not “sins,” but our evil nature, “sin in the flesh.” Thus divine grace in the way of righteous judgment has set us free by death with Christ, and by a new life in Christ risen. When this is known and believed, we can praise and thank God. We have now soul-deliverance, and wait for the deliverance of the body; for “He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you.”
God’s purpose is, that we shall be conformed to the image of His Son.” We are set free from the law of sin and death, our old man having been crucified with Christ; so that we are dead to sin, dead to the law, dead too as to the world, dead with Christ, and thus judicially set aside by God Himself as to any standing in the flesh, and brought into another standing; so that God can now say to. us, “Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.” What a deliverance! What freedom! The flesh in us, but we not in the flesh; so that we are to think of ourselves not as in Adam, but as in Christ Jesus; to reckon ourselves to have died indeed unto sin, but alive unto God in our Lord Jesus Christ. What a gracious deliverance, founded on righteousness too, because that evil thing has been condemned and judicially set aside for ever when God condemned sin in the flesh in our spotless Substitute, His own Son.
From the time the believer knows deliverance he has a new experience. Is he not, then, sensible that sin dwells in him? Most certainly, and he may be more so than ever. He has learnt also that neither experience nor self-occupation in any form can give peace, but that faith in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ always does. He is delivered from himself, “so that as long as the truth engages his heart he dare not give way to self occupation, but he knows that in a Glorified and triumphant Savior all his blessings are forever settled. He lives by the faith of the Son of God who loved him and have Himself for him, and goes on in service to Him, knowing that he has two natures one that is of God, “and the mind which serves the law of God”; and the other, “the flesh which serves the law of sin.”
THE EXPERIENCE OF A DELIVERED SOUL
As to the experience of a delivered soul, then, we may observe that
1. His eye is off self and the law, looks to God in Christ, and becomes occupied with what divine grace has accomplished for him in the death of the cross. He knows (not feels, not hopes for,
for him, by the death of His Son, the very deliverance he longs but on the authority of God’s truth he knows) that his old man has for; and, believing God’s word as to this, he is delivered, so that he gives God thanks — “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Observe, his distress was not about the things he had been crucified with Christ, and that he has thus died to sin and to the law by the body of Christ, and is now alive to God in Him who is risen from the dead. Before he knew deliverance, it was done, but about what he was. He might have long known the forgiveness of his sins; but it was not forgiveness he now sought, but deliverance from the distress and power of an evil nature, which he had proved in his experience to be too strong for him, and only evil, and that continually; in-subject to God, and incurably bad. As the law could not make it better, and as, as it has been often said, offences can be forgiven, but an evil nature can only be dealt with judicially; therefore we are told, “What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, self-occupation — “I” and “me”; but now he is before God thanking Him for the deliverance wrought for him through our Lord Jesus Christ. The enjoyment of this new standing in Christ is connected with an amazing change in the state of his soul.
2. He is, now occupied with God’s thoughts from God’s word, instead of his own feelings and thoughts about himself. He knows that he has two natures of very opposite qualities — “that which is born of the flesh” and “that which is born of the Spirit”; the former he knows God has judiciously set aside by the cross; the latter he knows is that in which God now always views him. He is aware, too, that both these natures are unchanging in their moral qualities for “that which is born of the flesh is flesh,” and “that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” Both these natures are in the believer; the one, when it is active, acts out what is “only evil,” the other what is for the glory of God. Therefore, in thinking of himself now, he, having believed God, takes sides with God, and recognizing these two natures, he concludes, as we have before noticed, “So then with the mind” (or new nature) “I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh” (or old nature) “the law of sin” (v. 25).
3. He has power over sin. By the gift of the Holy Ghost he now knows that he is connected with a triumphant and glorified Savior. He is conscious of being set free, and that SIN is no longer his master; so that looking up he can say, “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death” (Rom. 8:22For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:2)). All his resources now are in Christ. He draws on Him for all he needs. He lives by the faith of the Son of God, who loved him, and gave Himself for him. If he feels sin in the flesh, which he often will, the workings within of evil thoughts, lust, pride, self-will, and unbelief, he remembers that “God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh” {Rom. 8:33For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: (Romans 8:3)}. It is gone thus for ever to faith under the judgment of God. He is not in the flesh, though he is painfully conscious that the flesh is in him. If he looks within, and learns again and again, as he will all through his sojourn on earth, that in his flesh no good dwells, he looks up again, and knows that his standing now before God nothing can alter, for it is not in the flesh, but in Christ Jesus.
Thus having a new life or nature, and the gift of the Holy Ghost, who sheds abroad the love of God in our hearts, the two righteous requirements of the law are fulfilled in him — love to God, and love to man; though he is not under the law, but under grace, and his practice is, that he walks not after the flesh, but after the Spirit (Rom. 8:1-41There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 2For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. 3For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: 4That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. (Romans 8:1‑4)).
How gladly his heart can now sing —
“For me, Lord Jesus, Thou hast died,
And I, have died with Thee.
Thou’rt risen, my bands are all untied,
And now Thou liv’st in me.
The Father’s face of radiant grace,
Shines now in light on me.”
THE FIVE LAWS OF THE SEVENTH AND EIGHTH OF ROMANS
It may be well to observe that between Rom.7:5 and 8:2 we have five laws brought before us.
1. “The law” is many times mentioned, and refers to the law which was given by Moses, and is often in the same chapter called “the commandment.”
2. “The law of God,” or the revealed will of God, which a quickened soul delights in, and with his mind seeks to obey but before deliverance finds himself powerless to carry out (vv. 22, 23 , 25).
3. “The law of my mind,” or the resolve and purpose of a quickened soul to obey God, against which he found another principle working within him. (v. 23)
4. “The law of sin and death” the principle of antagonism and enmity of the natural man to God, of insubjection to His law or will. As another has said, “That deadly principle which ruled in us before as alive in the flesh.”
5. “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus,” the principle and power of that new life which is given us in Christ by the Holy Spirit, who now dwells in us. We are in Christ Jesus, and Christ is in us; and we know it by the Spirit which is given unto us, and “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”
IN WHAT SENSE ARE DELIVERED SOULS SET FREE?
Delivered souls are set free —
1. As to sin in us, by having died to sin, having been crucified with Christ, when God in richest grace to such “condemned sin in the flesh.” We know we have thus died with Christ.
2. As to position, we have a perfect and unalterable standing. We are “not in the flesh,” but “in Christ Jesus.”
3. As to the law, as having died with Christ to it, we are not under it.
4. As to state, Christ liveth in us. Christ is our life. The Holy Spirit has been given to us; so that we are so set free from the law of sin and death that we worship the Father in the sweet consciousness of being His children, and have no confidence in the flesh.
5. As to practice, we “walk not after the flesh, but after the
6. We have a new Master, and are become servants to God.
7. As to relationship, we are children of God, and members of the body of Christ; relationships which can never change.
What a deliverance! What praise and worship the sense of it produces in our hearts! What unceasing thanksgiving to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ it calls forth! What gratitude is manifested in the few words of the delivered one, “I thank God through Jesus Christ!”
Is the reader in the enjoyment of this wondrous deliverance? While you may be often painfully conscious that sin is in you, do you in faith “reckon yourself indeed dead unto it, and therefore have nothing to say to it, but go forward knowing that in God’s sight you are in Christ, and not in the flesh? If so, you will go on, in the power of the Holy Ghost, worshiping the Father, rejoicing in Christ Jesus, bearing fruit unto holiness, and waiting for His return from heaven. Surely we can say to the self-occupied, and therefore disconsolate, believer —
“Look off unto Jesus, and sorrow no more.”
The comfort then of this deliverance we have in believing God’s testimony to the work of Christ as dead to sin upon the cross. The power for godliness and enjoyment is the Holy Spirit; and we are told that if we are led of the Spirit we are not under the law, and if we walk in the Spirit we shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh (Gal.5:16, 18). Before deliverance it was all “I,” “me,” and “my”; but after deliverance Christ is the object of the heart and the indwelling Spirit the power for holiness, who is the Glorifier and Testifier of the Son. In the consciousness of being God’s children, being in Christ and Christ in us, in a groaning creation yet to be delivered, with a body yet to be conformed to the image of His Son; and often called to resist Satan by being steadfast in the faith, yet, knowing that God is for us, God is our Justifier and our Glorifier, we are entitled to go on waiting for the redemption of our body, being fully persuaded that nothing “shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
THE HOLY SPIRIT
Before the subject of deliverance is brought out in this epistle to the saints at Rome, the Holy Spirit is only once mentioned in the whole of the first seven chapters; but when deliverance is known, the personal actings and operations of the Spirit dwelling in us are over and over again presented to us; and this is important to notice. As to this we may observe
2. As a divine Person — the Spirit that raised up Jesus from the dead — He dwells in us, and shall “quicken your mortal bodies” (v. 11). The Holy Spirit Himself dwells in our bodies. (See 1 Cor. 6:1919What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? (1 Corinthians 6:19).)
3. He is our power against all evil and for all fruit-bearing. It is by the Spirit we have power to mortify the deeds of the body. Observe here it does not say “the body,” but “the deeds of the body,” for in this way sin in the flesh comes out (Rom. 8:1313For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. (Romans 8:13)).
4. He is in us not as a spirit of bondage, but as “the Spirit of adoption,” to make us know that we are really God’s children. He communicates intelligence, and strengthens affections and motives suited to such an endearing relationship, “whereby we cry, Abba, Father.” He also leads us, “for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (Rom. 8:14, 1514For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. 15For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. (Romans 8:14‑15)).
5. He is given to us as the “firstfruits of the Spirit,” because by-and-by the Spirit will be poured out upon all flesh. (v. 23)
Thus we have brought before us something of the power that works in a delivered soul. Ought we not then to “abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost”?
Concluding Remarks
But be it remembered that, though so blessedly delivered as to be walking in the liberty and joy of the Holy Spirit, and waiting for God’s Son from heaven, we can never forget that the flesh is in us; but the flesh is not us; for before God we are in Christ, and not in the flesh. Yet we never lose the sense that in us, that is, in our flesh, dwelleth no good thing, or that the two natures are opposed to each other. We find too that our communion with the Fattier is interrupted when we trust the flesh and walk in it, though our relationship to the Father never can be altered, for which we adoringly praise and give thanks.
It is also true that the delivered soul groans as having a mortal body; “for we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened.” In this he groans, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with his house which is from heaven — his glorified body. He is often painfully conscious that he has a mortal body liable to disease and death (2 Cor. 5; Rom. 8:1111But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. (Romans 8:11)). The delivered soul has also groanings within; for being born of God, and having the Holy Spirit, his affections and thoughts are according to Christ, who was the suffering Savior, and is still the rejected One, who is coming, not only for the redemption of our body, but to bring even this groaning creation into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. “Ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body” (Rom. 8:2323And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. (Romans 8:23)). The Lord was a Man of sorrows, and knew what it was to groan in Himself. By the Spirit also believers know what it is to have unutterable groanings in prayer, for “the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered” (Rom. 8:2626Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. (Romans 8:26)).
How many groans the Lord Jesus will hush when He comes again! How blessed is the thought that when Christ, who is our life, shall be manifested, we shall be manifested with Him in glory! (Col. 3:44When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. (Colossians 3:4)). Meanwhile may our hearts be taken up with Him where He now is as our eternal treasure, while we stand fast in the liberty wherewith He has made us free, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.