02.14. Chapter 7B

CHAPTER 7B

What perfect theological folly to conceive that the struggle of Romans Seven had been all along in Saul’s heart! That such a monster of murder was at the same time "delighting in the Law of God after the inward man"! No, no! That was before the holy Law, with its "Commandment" for an inner personal holiness,--free, even, from unlawful desire (epithumia(G1939)) had been quickened to him! Saul of Tarsus could have headed the Spanish Inquisition, and have had no qualms of conscience! He was on his way to Damascus as a regular, merciless Duke of Alva, to crush Christ’s confessors,--with a good conscience: "I verily thought I ought to do."

Paul certainly distinguishes here between his early Christian life of rejoicing in the new-found Redeemer, and that later experience in which God exercises him about indwelling sin and deliverance therefrom. But upon the coming of the Commandment [to my conscience] sin sprang into life, and I died.

Here is seen that crisis described by so many godly saints. it is what some people call "coming under conviction for holiness." "Ye are yet carnal," Paul wrote to the Corinthians. Here he is discovering that state in himself. To Paul, converted, but still thinking himself under law, God uses "the Commandment." He discovers to Paul the spirituality of the Law and lets it command him to be and do. This Paul undertakes, not knowing of the sin dwelling in his members. So, Sin sprang into life, with the result that,--I died, as the following verses describe: it is the death of all hopes in himself, in his flesh. And the Commandment, which was unto life, this I found to be unto death--its proper ministry, condemnation and death (2 Corinthians 3:7; 2 Corinthians 3:9)--to all hopes in flesh, even in the flesh of people born again, as Paul was.

Romans 7:11 : For sin, seizing occasion, through the Commandment beguiled me, and through it slew me.

Sin is personified all through this passage: Let Paul, says Sin, undertake to fulfil this Commandment! Let him keep on trying it!

How wonderful the consistency of Scripture! Paul was not under Law, being in Christ. God was not "beguiling" Paul in commanding what He knew Paul could not fulfil. But God permitted Sin to "beguile" him, by leading him to rely on his own power to obey, that Paul might find his utter powerlessness, and finally despair of delivering himself. And through it slew me--That is, killed off all his hopes in himself, his "flesh." We all know how endlessly "resolutions" are formed by earnest Christians--honest resolutions to be "better" Christians, to "quit" this or that sin or bad habit: and what failure and despair is the result of relying on our own wills! But to Paul, failure was terrible: for there was the Law, the Law of Moses, given by God, under which he had been born and brought up, and constantly instructed. The Law was his hope. And now it helps him? Not at all! Indeed it becomes the very means by which Sin attacks him. And Sin slays him--that is, all hopes in himself lie vanquished dead! And that by means of a holy instrument! for, Paul cries:

Romans 7:12 : The Law is holy, and the Commandment holy, and righteous and good--Here Paul positively refutes the charge that he dishonored God’s Law. Nay, more, the Commandment (entol(G1785)), the direct application to him of the Law, with its fatal consequences to himself, to his self-hopes, he defends. This is the mark of a saint: he upholds God, and condemns himself.

Romans 7:13 : But now he answers the further question: Did then that which is good become death unto me? And again his answer is, Banish the thought! But it was indwelling sin that wrought death to me,--using indeed, that which was good. Through the Commandment, thus, Sin was shown to be sin. The more fully and widely the Law resolved itself in new and fresh commands to Paul’s soul, the more intense and desperate became indwelling Sin’s horrid opposition to it. Thus was Sin’s hideous countenance seen in full! It became exceeding sinful! In general, we may say that in Romans 7:14-17, the emphasis is upon the practicing what is hated,--that is, the inability to overcome evil in the flesh; while in Romans 7:18-21, the emphasis is upon the failure to do the desired good,--the inability, on account of the flesh, to do right.

Thus the double failure of a quickened man either to overcome evil or to accomplish good--is set forth. There must come in help from outside, beyond himself! This, of course, is the indwelling Spirit, as the eighth chapter so vividly portrays. In narrating in particular the account of his great struggle in Romans 7:14-23, we find the apostle arriving at three definite conclusions.

First, In doing what he is not wishing, but practicing what he is hating, his conclusion is: "If what I am not wishing, that I am doing, I am consenting unto the Law that it is right." Romans 7:14-16.

Second, It is indwelling sin, and not his real self, that is working out this evil: "But if what I am not wishing, this I am practicing, no longer is it I that am working it out, but on the contrary, sin which dwelleth in me." Romans 7:17-20.

Third, There is the terrible revelation of a positive Law (or settled principle) of sin in his members, defeating him despite his inward delight in the Law of God:--"bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members." (Romans 7:23). For we know that the Law is spiritual: but I [158] am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I am working out, I do not own: for not what I am wishing this am I doing: but what I am hating--this I am practicing.

[158] "The apostle does not say, We know that the Law is spiritual and we are carnal.’ Had he done so, it would have been to speak of Christians, as such, in their Proper and normal condition." Romans Seven is not the present experience of any one, but a delivered person ascribing the state of an undelivered one. A man in a morass does not quietly ascribe how a man sinks into it, because he fears to sink and stay there. The end of Romans Seven is a man out of the morass showing in peace the principle and manner in which one sinks in it" (Darby). The Law is spiritual: but I am carnal--"Spiritual" may include:

(1) Addressed to man by God, who is "spirit";

(2) To "the spirit of man that is in him" (1 Corinthians 2:11);

Therefore:

(3) Consisting of communications adapted to and only understandable by beings of a spiritual realm or sphere.

(4) "Spiritual," also, in the moral sense; holy because communicated by a holy God.

Thus Law is spiritual. But I am carnal: Paul speaks of himself here as he is by nature. He does not say body-ish (soma(G4983), body, as opposed to pneuma(G4151), spirit) but "carnal": The word sarkinos(G4560), translated "carnal," comes from the root, sarx(G4561), "flesh."

1. If Paul had been speaking of himself before being quickened, he would have used the word natural: "the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God" (1 Corinthians 2:14).

2. "Carnal" is not used to describe an unregenerate person, but a Christian not delivered from the power of the flesh: "I, brethren could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, as unto babes in Christ" (1 Corinthians 3:1).

3. In this connection, note that while Paul’s condition at the time of this struggle was that of being carnal, there are those that are spiritual: "He that is spiritual judgeth all things" (1 Corinthians 2:15). "Ye who are spiritual, restore" (Galatians 6:1).

4. Therefore, by the word "carnal" Paul was describing a state out of which there was deliverance.

We know that carnal, sold under sin--is evidently meant by the apostle in this fourteenth verse to indicate the state of human nature as contrasted with God’s holy spiritual Law.

Sold under sin: This is slave-market talk: and it describes all of us by nature. Instead of being spiritual and therefore able to hearken to, delight in and obey God’s holy spiritual Law, we are turned back, since Adam sinned, to a fleshly condition, our spirits by nature dead to God, and our soul-faculties under the domination of the still unredeemed body. Now Paul, though his spirit was quickened; and his inward desires, therefore, were toward God’s Law; found to his horror his state by nature "carnal," fleshly, "sold under sin." How little humanity realizes this awful, universal fact about man--"sold under sin"!

"Sold under sin" is exactly what the new convert does not know! Forgiven, justified, he knows himself to be: and he has the joy of it! But now to find an evil nature, of which he had never become really conscious, and of which he thought himself fully rid, when he first believed, is a "second lesson" which is often more bitter than the first--of guilt! For that which I am working out, I do not own [as my choice]: for not what I am wishing this am I doing [159] , but what I am hating, this I am practicing.

[159] Three Greek verbs expressing conduct are used in these verses: (1) prasso(G4238), do! (2) poieo(G4160), practise, make a business of; (3) katergazomai(G2716), work out to a result (whether by personal choice or nature). By translating literally we can better get the vivid sense of the original.

We must constantly remember throughout this struggle that it is not a description by the apostle Paul of an experience he was having when he wrote this Epistle! but an experience of a regenerate man before he knows either about indwelling sin or that he died to sin and to the Law which gives sin its power; and who also does not know the Holy Spirit, as an indwelling presence and power against sin. God let Paul have this experience. And he now writes about it that we may read and know all the facts of our salvation: not merely of the awful guilt of our sins, and our forgiveness through the blood of Christ; but also of the moral hideousness of our old selves; and our powerlessness, though regenerate, to deliver ourselves, from "the law of sin" in our members.

Therefore Paul said that in that struggle he found himself "working out" a manner of life he refused to "own"--to admit as his real choice. For, he says, Not what I am wishing, that am I practicing. The word "wish" or "desire" is not quite strong enough for the Greek word here, (thelo(G2309)); but the word will is too strong; for "will" has come in English to have the element of carrying a purpose through; which Paul was unable to do. His holy wish never mounted the throne of I will.

Romans 7:16 : But now he gains a further step: But if what I am not wishing, I am practicing, I am consenting unto the Law that it is right. The wicked man does what he is wishing; and is willing to condemn God’s Law if it interferes with him. But Paul cries in this struggle, "I have just discovered that I am not at all in my heart opposing the Law; but am in my heart of hearts consenting that it is right." And that is a very real step. In the matter of forgiveness, the thief on the cross took that step, in saying to his fellow, "We receive the due reward of our deeds." And Paul, forgiven but undelivered, cries, The Law is right! My heart consents to God’s Word and God’s Way,--however far I am from following it! And now he pursues his advantage: So therefore, no longer is it I that am working it out, but sin which is dwelling in me.

Romans 7:17 : "No longer I!" That was a wonderful discovery! For a forgiven Saul, who had gone on in joy awhile without inward trouble, it was indeed a terrible awakening to become again convicted--not now of sins, but of indwelling sin, of a hateful power that seemed one’s very self--but was really "our old man." [160] But he is making discoveries about himself--amazing things, brought out for the first time in Scripture. He is going much further than "consenting to the Law that it is right" (Romans 7:16); for now, instead of being completely over whelmed by this holy, righteous Law; he arrives at (and writes down for us!) a conclusion that is daring: Since I am doing what I am not wishing, there must be another and evil principle working within me. For it is not my real self that is working out this evil, but sin which dwelleth in me. An unwelcome, hateful presence!

[160] For, though our old man was crucified with Christ, put in the place of certain, though not instant death--we find, though we have "put him off" (Colossians 3:9) we must "put away," as to every thing of the former life, "the old man" (Ephesians 4:22). And, to be put away, he must be discovered to us, and this is what is so vividly set before us in this struggle. Note, it is never said the old man is dead, but that we died. We were federally identified with Christ, and passed on with Him into burial, and. now share His Risen life. The old man is not to be "counted dead" (as some very dear brethren have put it): but to be counted crucified--his place being there only.

Romans 7:18 : For I know that there does not dwell in me, that is in my flesh, a good thing: for the wishing is present with me, but working out that which is right, is not.

Here is that man who wrote in Php 3:1-21, "If any man hath whereof to glory in the flesh, I yet more!" And he gave there seven facts he could glory in,--beyond the greatest Greek, or Roman, or English, or any Gentile--"I yet more"! but now saying, "In me dwelleth no good thing." And also: "I can will, but cannot do!" This great double lesson must be learned by all of us! (1) There is no good thing in any of us--in "our flesh"--our old selves. (2) We cannot do the good we wish or will, to do. Most humbling of all confessions. Renewed, desiring to proceed--we cannot! We are dependent on the Holy Spirit as our only spiritual power, just as on Christ as our only righteousness!

Alas, how incompletely are these two facts taught and learned! We have seen hundreds of eager young believers who are being told to "surrender to Christ," that all depended upon their yielding, etc. But these dear children, what did they know of the tremendous truths Paul has taught in the early part of Romans, before asking that believers present themselves to God as alive from the dead? (Romans 6:13). He has taught the terrible, lost guilty state of all men; their inability to recover righteousness; then Christ set forth as a propitiation through faith in His blood as their only hope; then identification, as connected with Adam, with Christ in His death; and the command to reckon themselves dead to sin, and alive to God in Christ Jesus; together with, the fact that they are not under law, but under grace.

All this before the real call for surrender for service, in the Twelfth Chapter is given at all! Our hearts are weary with the appeals to man’s will,--whether the will of a sinner to "make a start," "be a Christian," etc.; or the appeal to the will of believers who have not yet been shown what guilt is, and what indwelling sin is. For God’s Word in Romans 7:18 tells us that while to will may be present with us, to work that which is right is not present. Paul told those same Philippians that believers were such as had "no confidence" in the flesh, and that it is God that worketh in us, "both to will and to work, for His good pleasure." [161]

[161] The author must be permitted to say that he had part in the Student Volunteer Movement for foreign missions of fifty years ago; that he saw hundreds of earnest and honest students "volunteer" for the mission field. But afterwards, in teaching the book of Romans, especially in China, he had many a missionary say, "We never knew this gospel before." It is nothing short of tragic to send men and women out against the hosts of hell in heathendom without teaching them through and through and through and through this mighty gospel Paul preached!--which gospel he says is "the power of God unto salvation." And he comes to further detail in saying, "The word of the cross is the power of God." Education, medication, sanitation, and general sweetness--what does Satan care for that. The word of the cross is the great wire along which runs the dynamic of God--and it runs along no other wire. If God is permitting great investments of money, men and time along other lines to be swept away, let us remember that the real Church of God, having the Holy Ghost, does not need great outward things. Paul built no colleges, schools, or institutions--which may be useful, never essential, But Paul’s last epistle, just before his martyrdom, says "The Lord stood by me and strengthened me; that through me THE MESSAGE might be fully proclaimed, and that all the Gentiles might hear."

Romans 7:19 : For not what I am wishing am I practicing--that is, the good; but on the contrary, what I am not wishing--that is, the evil, this I am doing.

Now this verse must not be for one moment misapplied, that is, it must not be made to describe Paul’s "manner of life in Christ Jesus," which was, as we know, victorious, and fruitful and always rejoicing. But verse 19 does indeed express concerning Paul, and all of us, all the time, our utter powerlessness in ourselves (though Christians) against the evil of the flesh: whether we are consciously under Moses’ Law, as was Paul, or convicted by the power of an awakened conscience that we ought to have deliverance from our sinful, selfish selves, and walk in victory in Christ. Romans 7:19 is not normal Christian experience, certainly. But it may describe our very case, if we have not learned God’s way of faith.

Romans 7:20 : But if what I am not wishing, this I am practicing, no longer is it I that am working it out, but on the contrary, sin which dwelleth in me.

Paul reasserts the blessed fact (which is, alas, no comfort to him as yet!) that it is no longer the real "I," but indwelling sin, that is working out this hated life of defeat.

Romans 7:21 : I find then the law [or principle] that to me, desiring to be practicing the right, the evil is present.

He now states as a settled conclusion, what he has experimentally discovered. And we all need to consent to the fact--even if we have found God’s way of deliverance, that evil is present. It is the denial of this fact that has wrecked thousands of lives! For evil will be present until the Lord comes, bringing in the redemption of our bodies.

Romans 7:22-23 : For I delight in the Law of God after the inward man: but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members.

Here is first, delight, second, discernment, and third, defeat.

1. First, delight: in God’s Law, Paul delights--this is a strong and inclusive word. And, after the inward man,--thus revealing himself as regenerate throughout this struggle: No unregenerate man would say, (unless profane) "It is no more I that do it, but sin which dwelleth in me:" For,

(1) An unregenerate man is not conscious of a moral power which is not himself: for he has but the one nature,--he is "in the flesh."

(2) An unregenerate man could not say, "What I hate, that I do." For only born-again people hate evil. "Ye that love Jehovah, hate evil" (Psalms 97:10), and David could say of himself, "I hate every false way" (Psalms 119:104). But of the wicked he wrote, "He abhorreth not evil" (Psalms 36:4).

(3) An unregenerate man could not say, "What I would not, that I do,--I consent to the Law that it is good." An unregenerate man resists the Law, that he may "justify himself." A regenerate man consents to the Law’s being good, no matter how it judges what he finds himself doing! (Romans 7:16).

(4) The unregenerate man could not say, "I delight in the Law of God after the inward man." For by nature all men are "children of wrath," "alienated from the life of God"; and "the mind of the flesh is enmity against God, not subject to the Law of God." Before his conversion, Saul, as we saw, could help to stone Stephen,--"verily thinking he ought" to do it; but Paul was not then seeking holiness (as the man in Romans 7:1-25 is), but was secure in his own righteousness as a legalist.

(5) The unregenerate man could not say, "Wretched man that I am!" For he could not see his wretchedness! His whole life was to build up that which was the flesh.

(6) If you claim that the "wretched man" of Romans 7:1-25 is an unregenerate man under conviction of sin, the complete reply is, that this man of Romans 7:1-25 is crying for deliverance,--not from sin’s guilt and penalty, but from its power. Not for forgiveness of sins, but help against indwelling sin. This man is exercised, not about the day of judgment, but about a condition of bondage to that which he hates. The Jews on the Day of Pentecost, and the jailor at Philippi, cried out in terror, "What shall we do to be saved?" It was guilt and danger they felt. But this man in Romans 7:1-25 cries, "Who shall deliver me" (not from guilt) but, "from this body of death?" No one but a quickened soul ever knows about a "body of death"!

(7) But perhaps the most striking argument of all is in the closing words of Romans 7:25 : "Therefore then I myself with the mind, am subject to God’s Law, but with the flesh to sin’s law." Here we have both spiritual life and consciousness; also, discernment. and discrimination of both his real true new self, which chooses God and His will and of the flesh which will continue to choose "sin’s law": and all this conclusion after he has realized deliverance from the "body of death" through our Lord Jesus Christ!

2. Second, discernment: I see a different law in my members. It is the unwillingness to own this different law, this settled state of enmity, toward God, in our own members, that so terribly bars spiritual blessing and advancement. As long as we think lightly of the fact of the presence with us of the fallen nature, (I speak of Christians) we are far from deliverance. In the law of leper-cleansing (Leviticus 13:2 ff), "if a man shall have in the skin of his flesh a rising," or even "a white rising"--he was unclean. (See the various degrees of the plague.) But, "If the leprosy break out abroad in the skin, and the leprosy cover all the skin of him that hath the plague from his head even to his feet, as far as appeareth to the priest; then the priest shall look; and, behold, if the leprosy have covered all his flesh, he shall pronounce him clean that hath the plague: it is all turned white: he is clean"! It is significant that at the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount, (Matthew 8:1-4) two things should be there: (1) A leper--showing the Law could cleanse no one. (2) A leper, as Luke the physician tells us, "full of leprosy" (Luke 5:12). It is because people do not recognize their all-badness that they do not find Christ all in all to them.

3. Third, defeat: There is no strength or power in ourselves against the law of sin which is in our members. God has left us as much dependent on Christ’s work for our deliverance as for our forgiveness! It is wholly because we died with Him at the cross, both to sin and to the whole legal principle, that sin’s power, for those in Christ, is broken.

Romans 7:24 : Wretched man that I am! The word here translated "wretched" meant originally, "wretched--through the exhaustion of hard labor," (Vincent). But the word reads in the Septuagint of Isaiah 33:1, Jeremiah 4:30 "desolate, bound for destruction," as also in Revelation 3:17. The hopelessness of Paul’s condition, unless he be delivered, is thus appallingly revealed! Who shall deliver me out of the body of this death? Note now at once that all self-hope has ceased! It is not, How shall I deliver myself? or even, How shall I be delivered? But it is a frantic appeal for a deliverer! Who shall deliver me? Instinctively and absolutely Paul knows that no process will deliver him. The awful shallowness of the "Christian Scientist," who would get rid of all evil by "demonstrating" with the human will against it is seen at once! So is the silly (and damning) folly of the Buchmanites, the "life-changers." Where do such folk come in, in such a struggle as this of Paul with this body of death? They simply do not come in, for they know nothing of it. The Holy Spirit is not in their vain self-processes, any more than in the mumblings of human priests,--pagan or popish. The body of this death--what a fearful description of the body!--unredeemed, unchanged, under the law of sin in all its members. No matter what the "delight" of the quickened human spirit in the things of God may be, to dwell undelivered in such a body is to find it a "body of death."

Romans 7:25 : I thank God, [for deliverance] through Jesus Christ our Lord. Ah! The answer to Paul’s self-despairing question, "Who shall deliver me?" is a new revelation,--even identification with Christ in His death! For just as the sinner struggles in vain to find forgiveness and peace, until he looks outside himself to Him who made peace by the blood of His cross, just so does the quickened soul, struggling unto despair to find victory over sin by self-effort, look outside himself to Christ--in whom he is, and in whom he died to sin and to law! Paul was not delivered by Christ, but through Him; not by anything Christ then or at that time did for him; but through the revelation of the fact that he had died with Christ at the cross to this hated indwelling sin, and law of sin; and to God’s Law, which gave sin its power. It was a new vision or revelation of the salvation which is in Christ--as described in verses 4 and 6 of our chapter. The sinner is not forgiven by what Christ now does, but by faith in what He did do at the cross, for, "The word of the cross is the power of God." Just so, the believer is not delivered by what Christ does for him now; but in the revelation to his soul of identification with Christ’s death at the cross: for again, "The word of the cross is the power of God."

It will be by the Holy Spirit, that this deliverance is wrought in us; as we shall see in Chapter Eight. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, and by "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus," is God’s order. To sum up Paul’s Great Discoveries in this Struggle of Chapter Seven:

1.That sin dwelt in him,--though he delighted in God’s Law!

2.That his will was powerless against it.

3.That the sinful self was not his real self.

4.That there was deliverance through our Lord Jesus Christ! [162]

[162] Archbishop Leighton, on Romans 8:35, says, "Is this he that so lately cried out, Oh wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me?’ that now triumphs, O happy man! who shall separate us from the love of Christ?’ Yes, it is the same. Pained then with the thoughts of that miserable conjunction with a body of death, and so crying out, who will deliver? Now he hath found a Deliverer to do that for him, to whom he is forever united. So vast a difference is there betwixt a Christian taken in himself and in Christ!"

I thank God [for deliverance] through Jesus Christ our Lord! Paul had cried, Who shall deliver me? The answer is,--the discovery to his soul of that glorious deliverance at the cross! of death to sin and Law with Him! So it is said, "Through Jesus Christ our Lord." The word of the cross--of what Christ did there, is the power of God--whether to save sinners or deliver saints! But ah, what a relief to Paul’s soul--probably out yonder alone in Arabia, struggling more and more in vain to compel the flesh to obey the Law, to have revealed to his weary soul the second glorious truth of the Gospel--that he had died with Christ--to sin, and to Law which sin had used as its power! And now the conclusion--which is the text of the whole chapter! So then--always a quod erat demonstrandum with Paul! I myself, with the mind, indeed--this is the real renewed self, which the apostle has over and over said that "sin that dwelleth in him" was not! "With the mind"--all the spiritual faculties including, indeed, the soul-faculties of reason, imagination, sensibility--which even now are "being renewed" by the Holy Spirit, day by day. Am subject to God’s law [or will]--all new creatures can say this. But with the flesh sin’s law. He saw it at last, and bowed to it,--that all he was by the flesh, by Nature, was irrevocably committed to sin. So he gave up--to see himself wholly in Christ (who now lived in Him) and to walk not by the Law, even in the supposed powers of the quickened life--but by the Spirit only: in whose power alone the Christian life is to be lived.

PAUL’S STRUGGLE NOT CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE

It is of the utmost importance clearly to see that the great struggle of the latter part of Romans 7:1-25 is neither a purely Jewish one, nor a normal Christian walk, nor a necessary Christian experience.

It is not a purely Jewish struggle. Jewish struggles are set forth in the Psalms, and are a conflict with outward enemies, or the questioning cry (as in Psalms 88:1-18) as to why God seems far off, or even, for the present, seemingly against the supplicator (typically--the Remnant in the Last Days). But not even in the deepest Psalm of trouble is there ever a hint of two natures within the struggler! (For example. Psalms 10:1-18, or Psalms 88:1-18, or Psalms 77:1-20, or even such Psalms as Psalms 51:1-19, Psalms 32:1-11.)

Neither is this struggle a normal Christian experience. For, (1) there is no mention of Christ until the legal struggle is ended in self-despair,--and, (2) There is no mention whatever of the Holy Spirit--whose recognized presence and power make possible proper Christian experience: which is "walking by the Spirit." That it is not a normal Christian walk, we have also shown from Paul’s own triumphant life. And that it is not a necessary Christian experience, is seen from the fact that Paul is, in this struggle, occupied with the Law,--under which God says believers are not! (Romans 6:14.) The complete Gospel believed, makes such a struggle unnecessary and indeed impossible. For the gospel reveals (as in Romans 6:1-11; Romans 7:1-6, and all Romans 8:1-39) (1) that we died with Christ and are now alive unto God in Christ Risen; (2) that those under Law were made dead to and discharged from the legal economy; (3) that the Holy Spirit indwelling the believer has taken over the conflict with the flesh; and is the whole power of a triumphant walk; (4) that therefore there is no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus, and no separation from God’s love to those in Him!

Doubtless we often see other Christians having a Seventh-of-Romans struggle, and shall easily find ourselves falling into such a struggle. But as the gospel concerning our death with Christ both to sin and to the legal principle becomes clear to us, and our faith therein becomes strong; and our reliance upon the Holy Spirit becomes more constant, we shall walk as Paul did:--"Thanks be unto God who always leadeth us in triumph in Christ." The path of faith is the most hateful path possible for the flesh. Faith gives the flesh no place--leaves no "part" for man’s will and energy. The flesh will go to any degree of religious self-denial, or self-inflicted sufferings--anything but death! But faith begins right there: we died with Christ, we live in Him! We have no righteousness, no strength,--and desire none: Christ is our righteousness, and "when we are weak, we are strong."

Thus the walk of simple-hearted faith is indeed in another realm from the struggle of Romans Seven. God give us to have faith "as a little child," a cloudless, unmixed vision, as had Paul at last! When the demand, however, arises in our hearts that we be what we find written in the Epistles, the effect is the same exactly as in Paul’s case as regards the discovery of powerlessness. The "Holiness" people call it, as we said, "becoming convicted for holiness." The conscience becomes suddenly awakened. We see that we have been content with a righteous standing, without a really holy walk. If we have seen that we died with Christ; and are properly instructed, we shall, upon such awakening,

(1) Know that there is deliverance in Christ for us, whether we are yet able, or not, in living faith to reckon that we are dead unto sin and alive unto God.

(2) We shall be, or become, willing to have God show us how, or wherein, we are still holding fast to any sin, or any indulgence of the flesh.

(3) We shall be brought, by God’s grace, to agree to the sentence of death that has already been pronounced on this particular thing, when our old man,--all our old self, was crucified with Christ.

(4) Then we shall enter into the place of reckoning ourselves dead to sin, and to this darling sin, and to all sin,--as God commands His saints who have died with Christ.

(5) We may have, if necessary, a struggle here: as James shows:

"Ye adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God(James 4:4)? . . . God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble(1 Peter 5:5). Be subject therefore to God; but resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you(James 4:8)!" And now see his following words:

"Cleanse your hands, ye sinners"--those saints indulging known sin. "And purify your hearts, ye doubleminded"--those believers who have been half for the world, while half for heaven. "Be afflicted, and mourn and weep." (Not that God is unwilling, but that we are!) "Let your laughter" (which has been the fool’s laughter of this condemned world!) "be turned to mourning, and your joy" (which has been the joy of worldlings, not of heaven-bound saints) "to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall exalt you!(James 4:8-10)" This is the path for worldly Christians. Not that the grace of God is insufficient: but they have been rejoicing with a condemned world! And they must come out of that, though in bitterness.

However, the bitterness need not be,--if we are willing! "If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the fruit of the land(Isaiah 1:19)." And nothing will persuade our hearts like the goodness of God, in the gift of His Son, and the work of the cross, already accomplished on our behalf.

Whether, then, it be a soul under law, or one in greater light: there will be the discovery of our own utter powerlessness, and of deliverance--from sin and self, in our Lord Jesus Christ! And this is the object of the revelation of Paul’s great struggle,--not mere information, but application of these lessons to ourselves. For if we go through Chapters Six and Seven unexercised of soul, how shall we learn the blessed walk in the Spirit of Chapter Eight? For "the flesh" is there--in Romans 8:1-39 --all unchanged! And unless we practically learn,--learn for and regarding our own selves--the great lesson that in ourselves, in "the whole natural man," there is no good; that even when we will to do good, evil is yet present, and dominant! and that help for us, for our very selves, must come from without: unless we learn this holy self-despair; we will not enter into actual spiritual deliverance in Christ: but will only be "puffed up" by our study. For mere knowledge "puffeth up." But we all know that Paul was not puffed up when he cried, "O wretched man that I am!" And if Paul found a body of death to be delivered from, you and I have that same body of death! And we too must be brought to say, "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." It may be that you will be found like the remarkable case below, related by Mr. Finney [163] : and be ready to step immediately into any new revelation of blessing in Christ [164] It should be a true illustration of every believer!

[163] In his remarkable Autobiography Mr. Charles G. Finney relates the case of a lady who had always been marked for simplicity and uprightness of spirit. She had been, when a young woman, very highly regarded, but when she heard the gospel, she believed it, immediately entering fully into the admission of her guilt before God, and trusting Him implicitly on the ground of the shed blood of Christ, But in Mr, Finney’s meetings she heard that God had commanded her to yield herself to Him and be filled with the Holy Spirit. She instantly complied again. And her husband came to Mr. Finney saying, "I cannot understand my wife. She was the most perfect creature I ever knew, when we were married. Then she was converted, and has been absolutely exemplary ever since. But she says now that at your meeting the other night she yielded herself in a new way to God; and I myself can see the most astonishing change, but cannot account for it at all." (We relate from memory.) This was a case of simplicity of heart and mind, perhaps not often found. Since the work on the cross, anyone can appropriate just as simply the whole benefit of Christ’s work.

[164] But if you find yourself not spiritual, not even ready of heart to become so, can at least pray the prayer Mr. F. B. Meyer--of blessed memory! taught so many: "Lord, make me willing to be made willing!" There is a blessed walk in the Spirit for you! Believe that. And cast yourself upon the grace of God! He will bring it to pass!