IN the first eleven verses of the eighth chapter of Romans we find the complete answer to the question, Who shall deliver me? The seventh chapter had described the hopeless struggles of the quickened soul under law, but now, as we have seen, the Christian learns the true secret of deliverance in Christ.
We are brought into a new standing before God. We are in Christ risen from the dead, and no longer in the flesh. The life which we have as Christians is not a life struggling under the bondage of the law, but it is life in Christ Jesus, and in the power of the Spirit. It is a life which has a constantly working principle of its own—for this is the meaning of the expression in vs. 2, “The law (or principle) of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.” The principle constantly at work in the flesh is sin and death, whereas the principle constantly at work in connection with the new life of Christian liberty and power is righteousness and peace. Failure there may be, because the flesh still remains in us, notwithstanding that we are no longer in the flesh. The two natures remain in us so long as we are in this world, and these two natures never lose their distinctive characters: “So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.” But it is our privilege to walk according to the new principle and power which belong to us as being in Christ, mindful of the truth that all condemnation for us is passed, for in all its full extent it was borne by Christ when He was made sin for us, and was forsaken of God on the cross. The Spirit, too, which is the energy of this new life, has things of its own wherewith to occupy the mind: “They that are after the flesh, do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit” (vs. 5). So that in a practical sense we may know the life, peace, and joy of deliverance from the power of sin, while waiting for the day of resurrection glory when we shall be free from its hateful presence. Then indeed will be the complete answer to the question, Who shall deliver me? Free from the power of sin now, free from its presence then, when our mortal bodies shall be quickened by His Spirit, and all trace of sin shall be eternally removed.
In these opening verses of the chapter the Spirit of God is brought before us not so much as a distinct person indwelling the Christian, as the power and energy of the divine life: “The Spirit is life because of righteousness” (vs. 10). They present more that aspect of the subject unfolded in John 20, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost,” than the fact of the Spirit’s actual presence as at the day of Pentecost. Not but what the expression occurs, “If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you” (vs. 9), but we speak of that which characterizes this part of the chapter (vers. 1-11), and the difference is an important one.
In the second portion of the chapter (vers. 12-28) the doctrine is clearly unfolded of the actual presence in the Christian of the indwelling Spirit, with its divine consequences.
But first of all we are shown our complete deliverance from the flesh, as a principle that can have any possible claim upon us: “We are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh” (vs. 12). What possible claim can the flesh have upon us? To live after it can only end in death, and after death the judgment. The only fruit it ever yielded are things of which the Christian is now ashamed (ch. 6:21). It has proved itself to be incorrigible even under the influence of the law, which was holy, just, and good. The flesh is an evil principle, hopelessly and irrecoverably bad. The Christian has done with it in Christ’s death, he no longer stands in it before God, and he is no longer a debtor to it in any wise. The Christian has the Spirit of God dwelling in him, and this is a power greater than that of the flesh, so that the flesh need never overcome him, for by the Spirit he may mortify the deeds of the body. This is liberty; liberty of the soul before God, and liberty from the power of sin. We all, alas! fail in carrying out these blessed principles of divine grace, but this is the privilege that belongs to us. May we learn to live up to the height of our privileges!
But if the Spirit of God dwells in us, we are the sons of God. Here a fresh truth is brought before us. Not only are we in a new standing or position before God in Christ, but we are introduced into a new relationship, we are the sons of God (vs. 14). For the Spirit we have received, the Spirit that indwells us, and by which we are led, is not a spirit of bondage. Bondage and fear was our state under law. But the Spirit of God which is given to believers is the spirit of adoption. Possessing this spirit we are led into the conscious sense of a new relationship with God: “We cry, Abba, Father” (vs. 15). “The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God” (vs. 16). God has brought us into a new relationship by grace, and has given us the seal and power of that new relationship: “Because ye are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father” (Gal. 4:66And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. (Galatians 4:6)). In other words, Christ’s position is ours, for we are “in Christ Jesus,” and Christ’s relationship is ours, for we have the Spirit of His Son in our hearts. In all things it is true He has the pre-eminence—this every fiber of our moral being acknowledges with adoring worship; and yet, blessed be His name! He has said, “I ascend unto My Father, and your Father; unto My God, and your God” (John 20:1717Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God. (John 20:17)).
But blessed results flow from this great truth of the Spirit’s presence in us. Not only are we children, but we are heirs (vs. 17). It could not be otherwise. If God by divine grace has introduced us into His family, it is that we might share and enjoy all that properly belongs to that family. We are “heirs of God”; but not only this, we are joint-heirs with Christ. Having given us Christ, He with “Him also gives us all things;” this is true for faith now, but presently we shall enter into the full manifestation of it all in glory. For here we suffer with Christ, but presently we shall be glorified together with Him (vs. 17), and then as His loved co-heirs we shall share with Him all that as Man He Himself possesses. His Godhead glory is His alone, but the glory given Him as Man by the Father He deigns to share with us: “The glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them” (John 17:2222And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: (John 17:22)); and yet in all things, be it remembered, He has the pre-eminence: “For God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows” (Heb. 1:99Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. (Hebrews 1:9)).
But what is suffering here when compared to the glory of that day? Paul had an abundant share of it (2 Cor. 11:23-2923Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. 24Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. 25Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; 26In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; 27In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. 28Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. 29Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not? (2 Corinthians 11:23‑29)); but calmly viewing it all in the light of the coming glory he declares, “I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (vs. 18). For that glory we wait with quiet and confident assurance. The whole creation, too, waits for it, for in the day when the sons of God shall be manifested in their glory with Christ, and not before, will creation’s groan be hushed. By Adam’s sin, and not of its own will, was the creation made subject to vanity. But a glorious hope awaits it; the creation itself shall be delivered from the thralldom of corruption; no more creature tears and groans and suffering when once the children of God are introduced into the liberty of the day of glory. The liberty of grace belongs now to the guilty sons and daughters of Adam who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, but even they, through their bodies, are linked with the groaning creation. Our souls are now at liberty in Christ; we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, but we wait for the adoption, the redemption of the body. In other words, we wait for the moment when we shall be ushered, in bodies of glory, into that condition which will manifest the full results of Christ’s redemption work. For that day creation waits, and while it waits it groans. And we, too, albeit that we have the first-fruits of the Spirit, as the earnest of coming glory, groan within ourselves. This is not the groan of bondage under law as in Romans 7, but the groan of sympathy with Christ.
Patiently we wait for His coming again, when the hope in view of which we are saved will be realized. We do not hope to be saved, but we are saved in hope (vs. 24).