MY DEAR YOUNG FRIEND, — The only means of exercising any effectual power over indwelling sin is by taking exactly the place with regard to it that God assigns to you in His word. You confess that you have proved your own helplessness to prevent evil thoughts from rising and intruding themselves at the most solemn moments. When for example you bow your knees in prayer, you sometimes find yourself confronted and conquered by thoughts which are positively sinful. Now can this be helped? If so, in what way?
Much help may be gained from Rom. 6. This chapter teaches the true relationship of the believer to sin, that is, to the root of evil within.
You will observe that in this part of the epistle “sin” does not mean a sin, but the cause of sin. This distinction is an important one in the consideration of this subject. If you tell a lie, you commit a sin; but it is sin—the evil nature—that prompts you to utter the untruth. And in this scripture sin is viewed in the latter aspect, and is spoken of as dwelling in a person as in a house, and of reigning over a person as a master. Observe how the word is used in the following passages: —
|
Sin entered into the world
|
(5:12).
|
|
Sin hath reigned unto death
|
(5:21).
|
|
Henceforth we should not serve sin
|
(6:6).
|
|
Let not sin reign in your body
|
(6:12).
|
|
Sin shall not have dominion over you
|
(6:14).
|
|
Ye were the slaves of sin
|
(6:17).
|
|
Sin deceived me and slew me
|
(7:11).
|
|
Sin that dwelleth in me
|
(7:17).
|
Now two things at least are very apparent from these texts, and will strike you at once in glancing down the list:—
Sin once ruled over us like a tyrannical slave-master.
But sin is not to reign over us any longer: we are not its slaves now.
I am sure you will admit the truth of (1), because you not only believe it since God says so, but in your letter you own that you have proved it in your own experience. And indeed none but converted persons really find out what it is to be a slave to sin, for an unsaved man is used to the service of sin and loves it. He is like a person floating down a rapid river, who does not realize the force of the stream till he tries to swim against it.
And as to the second point (2) I am equally sure that you are anxious to prove its truth in your own case, and that you are not content to go on doing what you do not wish to do. Let us therefore seek to learn what is God’s way of deliverance. As we look again at these verses we find further facts stated with regard to our relationship to sin.
|
We are dead to sin
|
(6:2).
|
|
We are made free from sin
|
(6:18, 22).
|
There can be no more perfect deliverance from a slave-owner than death; because while a slave is alive he is the property of his master. Thus the runaway slave Onesimus was sent back to Philemon by the apostle Paul. The claim of the master was recognized by Paul and Onesimus, whatever grace might work in Philemon’s heart. But obviously if Onesimus had died Philemon could make no claim whatever; the bonds of slavery would have been broken Forever.
This figure is used as to our liberty from the bondage of sin. We have died, and that death makes us free from the power of sin as a master over us. But perhaps you say, I do not feel myself to be dead; on the other hand I feel myself to be alive to sin. And this may be the state of your feelings; but your feelings do not alter the truth of God’s word. God says you are dead, and that death delivers you out of the very difficulty as to which you are troubled.
How did this death come about? Let the chapter answer again.
|
We are baptized into the death of Jesus Christ
|
(6:3).
|
|
We have been planted together in the likeness of His death
|
(6:5).
|
|
Our old man is crucified with Him
|
(6:6).
|
|
We are dead with Christ
|
(6:8)
|
These passages make it plain that our death (in the sense of the word as it is used in this connection) took place simultaneously with the death of Christ. When He was crucified, we were crucified with Him. When He died, we died. When He was buried, we were buried with Him. So that it is of no use consulting one’s feelings and saying, I do not feel dead. The question is, Did Christ die or not? If He died (and who can deny it?) then we died too.
Now for the practical application of this truth. Paul not only instructed the Roman believers that they were dead to sin, but he exhorted them to make full use of the fact in their daily lives. He wrote:—
Reckon ye also yourselves to be indeed dead unto sin (6:11).
If they did not take this position they would be utterly powerless. If a letter signed by Her Majesty came to a convict in Dartmoor prison, stating that he was free to leave at once, what warder or governor could resist him when acting upon it? If, however, the man put the letter in his pocket, and continued to obey his warders as before, who was to blame? So it is with you, my young friend. God has made you free through associating you with the death of His Son. If you allow sin to exercise lordship over you, whose fault is it?
Should evil thoughts arise, treat them as though you were dead. This is the counsel given by the author of the extract you refer to (page 102, May last). If you entertain them, even though you give them battle, you leave the ground of Rom. 6, viz.— that you are dead to sin but alive to God, and if you leave divine ground you are sure to fall under the power of the old master again. You have a new master, for you have become a servant of God (6:22). And now Christ and His word are the subjects for the thoughts of the new life. May the Lord help you to yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness under your new Master.
I am, Yours faithfully, “Yod.”