Romans (Continued.)
THUS it is when, and so far as, self-occupation has ceased with us, and Christ in glory, made of God unto us righteousness, has become for faith the measure of what we are, that we find power for a holy walk. Leaving self under the condemnation of the cross, it is our privilege to occupy ourselves with Christ, and to forget ourselves. Then the joy of His love becomes our strength. We drink in, and the waters flow out. We become conscious, not of our holiness, but of Christ’s attractiveness, and we become the more holy, the happier we are in Him. His care for us leaves us free to care for Him. Beholding the glory of the Lord, we are changed unto his image, from glory to glory.
And this it is to “walk, not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (8:4). In the legal effort after holiness in the 7th chapter, there was no mention of the Spirit at all. The path in which He leads is no more that of legality than it is that of immorality. The following of Christ from choice and desire, not because you must or ought, becomes your happy portion. You “are after the Spirit;” therefore you “mind the things of the Spirit” (5). The walk is changed because the heart is. “Newness of spirit” is yours. You are free to follow the instincts of your new nature, as led and empowered by the Spirit of God. And “the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace. Because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be” (5-7). What is the necessary consequence of all this? That “they that are in the flesh cannot please God” (8). What is the remedy? The Spirit of God, giving us through the work of Christ deliverance from the old ground of being men in the flesh altogether, and lifting us up unto our place in Christ. “You are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His” (9).
What is the consequence of this? Why, that “if Christ be in you,” while indeed “the body is dead, because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” The body here is not “the body of this death” (ch. 7:24), nor the “body of sin” (chapter 4:6), but just what we ordinarily mean by that, and which does not yet share in the redemption of the soul. “We groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (verse 23). The body, not yet a “spiritual body,” but linking us with the old creation scene around, is for faith therefore, “dead, because of sin.” If we allow it to guide — to have its own will or way, it will lead us into sin. We have to keep it under, bring it into subjection. Our life is no more in the indulgence of the senses and appetites, but one which is really such, because a life of righteousness, the life communicated by the Spirit of God (10).
Nevertheless the body also will be yet quickened with this life from God, and delivered from all the power of death by that same Spirit that is already dwelling in us, the Spirit of Him who raised up Jesus from the dead (11).
To live after the flesh, then, is the way of death; to mortify through the Spirit the deeds of the body, the way of life (12, 13). In this way the real sons of God are manifested (14); but those upon this path are not in the bondage of legal fear, but children with the Spirit of adoption, the Spirit hearing witness with their spirit that they are such: children and heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ, to whom if a path of suffering be appointed, it is that suffering with Him, they may be glorified also together with Him (15-17).
In the meantime we do suffer, and the Spirit of God which we possess, makes us intelligently to participate in the groans of the groaning creation, which waits for its deliverance from the bondage of corruption, at the very time too when our bodies being redeemed we shall be manifested fully as sons of God (18-25).
Moreover now, for the present time, “the Spirit helpeth our infirmities,” interceding in us when we know not even what to ask for as we ought, and that with groanings which if they cannot be uttered are yet “according to God,” and intelligible to Him who searcheth the hearts, and knoweth what the mind of the Spirit is (26, 27). And then, if in our perplexity we do not know what to ask for as we ought, yet “we do know” this, “that all things work together for good to them that love God, to those called according to His purpose.” That purpose is, that Christ shall be firstborn among many brethren (28, 29). For these, therefore, predestination, calling, justification, glory, infallibly succeed each other. God being for us, who can be against us? He who gave His Son cannot withhold anything. Who can lay a charge against the chosen ones of God.? He justifies, and who can condemn? Christ dead and risen again intercedes for us in the place of power: who shall separate us from His love? Suffering for His sake down here, this can certainly not separate; but neither can death; no, nor life, though naturally much more to be dreaded; no, nor the spiritual powers leagued against us; no, nor yet anything, present or to come; height, depth, nor any other creature — shall be able to separate us from that love, which divine in nature, “the love of God,” has found at once its expression and its perfect justification, as manifested towards us in that Son of His love delivered up for us, Christ Jesus, our Lord.
(To be continued, if the Lord will.)