We get here the blessed side of the Christian state—being risen with Christ, the great groundwork on which we are. It is not that Christ has died for our sins, but that we have died and are risen; and this is the starting point of the exhortation. We have done altogether with the old man, having died as children of Adam; and we are also risen, having totally done with the world, and yet in it, but risen with Christ; therefore you get the practice of a person risen, and the affections and state and condition of the heart. The Christian is looked at as a person not alive on earth at all; he has died, and now, "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above."
In chapter 2 you get, "Why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances?" You are not living in the world; you are dead. Now set your affection on things above. You belong there; you have not gone there yet, but the new man is not in you to put you into earthly things. The Spirit takes of "the things of Christ" and shows them to you, not to fix your heart on earthly things, but to deliver you from them; we are to be, in spirit, mind, and affections, up there. We are risen, and have nothing more to do with the world, as to our affections and object, than a man who has died out of it. It does not say, "You must die," but, "You are dead," for that is the Christian state. Christ having died, and He being my life, my life is hid up there in Him. There is complete association with Christ. He has died; I have died. He is hidden up there; my life is hidden. He will appear; I shall appear with Him in glory. Thorough, complete, blessed association with Christ is the place into which we are put; and it is the starting point of the character of this life displayed on the earth to which we do not belong. If an angel were here, he would do that which was God's will for him; but he would have nothing to do with the earth as to the object for which he lived.
The Apostle does not allow that we have any life here, but talks of our members: "Mortify" (put to death) "therefore your members which are upon the earth." All that proceeds from the flesh, the Christian is not to allow for a moment. Mark how different it is from dying to sin, as people speak. Mortify is just the opposite; it is putting to death. That is power. If I say, "I must die," that is being alive. We are dead to sin, the world, and the law. Christ having died, we have died. What is true of Him is true of us. Having now life and power, we are to put these things to death. There is no more lust, or self-will, or working of the flesh, if a man is dead. I am to reckon myself dead, not setting about to die to sin, for I should not be able; that is, the flesh, the old man, does not want to die. The Apostle says, "Reckon yourselves dead." You have died. Then put off the old man. "Our old man is crucified with
Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed." Rom. 6:6. Sin has been "condemned in the flesh." Now I have the place of power to put to death every evil that the flesh would produce. Put to death your members, not your life in Adam. You are dead; therefore put to death your members. If you let them act, it is the flesh. The Christian has power in Christ—"I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" (Phil. 4:13)—to put down everything inconsistent with the life in which this power is. The life is hid with Christ in God, but our members are on the earth; and he says, in effect, "Now keep them in order; you have the power of Christ."
There is not deliverance till you get to that. "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." We have to watch not to be careless and let these things spring up; but we have power to say, "Not a single sprout of the old stock shall spring up." The old tree is cut down and grafted. The old stock may begin to sprout, but that is not "the tree" in common parlance; it has been grafted. We know the stock is there, and so is the flesh there; but we must remember we have power, and we must not excuse ourselves. Our will is not changed; but if Christ is our object, there is power. There is still the law of sin and death, but I am not a debtor to it; it has no claim or power over me. It will have power enough if we allow it, but we have a power entirely above it. The Lord leaves us here to learn to have our senses exercised to discern good and evil, to be tested and tried. The flesh is there, but if we are full of Christ we are masters of it; if we are not full of Christ, it masters us, but it is our own fault—we have no excuse. We have to exhibit this life of Christ or else the flesh acts, and then the old man is exhibited. The Apostle says, You are not living in the old man at all now; you are living in Christ and you are not going to walk in these things.
In verse 7 he applies it to their walk. It requires us to make active use of the power. The flesh is soon up if we are not full of Christ. We are to arm ourselves with the power of Christ, and be active in keeping the flesh in its place—down altogether. If I am not full of Christ, for Himself, for His own sake, enjoying Him, the flesh comes out. It will not do to put on your armor at the battle. Everything we pass through in this world is one of two things: either an occasion of obedience to the new man, or of temptation to the old. The Lord prayed in an agony in Gethsemane, and when they came to take Him, He said, "Whom seek ye?" He had gone through it with His Father, and it was an occasion of obedience when it came. "The cup which My Father hath given Me, shall I not drink it?" Peter was asleep in the garden; and when the Lord was witnessing a good confession, he was cursing and swearing he did not know Him. If he were full of Christ, temptations would be nothing but occasions of obedience and glorifying God. We need self-knowledge and diligence of heart in abiding in Christ for Himself, so that when the temptation comes, we do not enter into it, and it is an occasion of blessed obedience.
In verse 8 we come to another thing—there is no lust, but the flesh is not subdued. We have no lust to be angry; it is an unsubdued nature, and that is not Christ. This is a second step—"also put off all these." We have done with those horrid evils that God abhors (and He abhors them even more in His children than in others; His delight in us does not change the holiness of His nature); now put off these which express an unsubdued will, an unarrested action of the flesh. If a man says something to me, and I get in a passion, that is not Christ; it is that which unsubdued flesh gives forth. "Lie not one to another." Satan was a liar and a murderer; we are to put off lying and violence. Put these off, because you "have put off the old man [faith has done it]... and have put on the new." You have done with the old man as to its very nature; you have put on the new. Now do not bring forth the fruits of the old, the crabapples of the old stock. The new is "renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him." The new man knows God, and takes nothing as the right thing but what suits God. It is not merely an intelligent creature; he is not received in that way. But the Christian knows the love and holiness of God in Christ. It is the knowledge faith has in God. There is no measure of the path I am to walk in as a new man but God Himself. That is where the Christian is set. Act in the same spirit and character as He has shown in Christ. Did He not show grace to you when you were an enemy? Then you go and show grace. Was He not full of mercy to the unthankful? Then you go and do the same. "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." Matt. 5:48.