"There is therefore now no condemnation to those which are in Christ Jesus"
(chap. 8). He does not here speak of the efficacy of the blood in putting
away sins (all-essential as that blood is, and the basis of all the rest),
but of the new position entirely beyond the reach of everything to which
the judgment of God applied. Christ had indeed been under the effect of the
condemnation in our stead; but when risen He appears before God. Could
there be a question there of sin, or of wrath, or of condemnation, or of
imputation? Impossible! It was all settled before He ascended thither. He
was there because it was settled. And that is the position of the Christian
in Christ. Still, inasmuch as it is by resurrection, it is a real
deliverance. It is the power of a new life, in which Christ is raised from
the dead, and of which we live in Him. It is-as to this life of the
saint-the power, efficacious and continued, and therefore called a law, by
which Christ was raised from the dead-the law of the Spirit of life in
Christ Jesus; and it has delivered me from the law of sin and death which
previously reigned in my members, producing fruit unto death. It is our
connection with Christ in resurrection, witness of the power of life which
is in Him, and that by the Holy Ghost, which links the "no condemnation" of
our position with the energy of a new life, in which we are no longer
subject to the law of sin, having died to it in His death, or to the law,
whose claims 'have ceased also necessarily for him who has died, for it has
power over a man as long as he lives. Christ, in bearing its curse, has
fully magnified it withal. We see, at the end of Ephesians 1, that it is
the power of God Himself which delivers; and assuredly it had need be
so-that power which wrought the glorious change-to us this new creation.
This deliverance from the law of sin and death is not a mere experience (it
will produce precious experiences); it is a divine operation, known by
faith in His operation who raised up from the dead, known in all its power
by its accomplishment in Jesus, in the efficacy of which we participate by
faith. The difficulty of receiving it is that we find our experience
clashing with it. That Christ has put away my sins, and that God has loved
me, is a matter of simple faith through grace. That I am dead is apt to
find itself contradicted in my heart. The process of chapter 7 must be gone
through, and the condemnation of sin in the flesh seen in Christ's
sacrifice for sin, and I alive by Him judging sin as a distinct thing (an
enemy I have to deal with, not I), in order to have solid peace. It is not
all that Christ has put away our sins. I live by Him risen, and am linked
with this husband, and He being my life-the true "I" in me, I can say that
I have died because He has. "I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I
live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." If so, I have died, for He has;
as one taken into partnership has the advantages belonging to that
acquired, before he was taken into it. That this is so is evident according
to verse 3. God has done it in Christ, the apostle says; he does not say
"in us." The result in us is found in verse 4. The efficacious operation,
by which we reckon ourselves dead, was in Christ a sacrifice for sin. There
sin in the flesh was condemned. God has done it, for it is always God, and
God who has wrought, whom he brings forward in order to develop the gospel
of God. The thing to condemn is indeed in us; the work which put an end to
it for our true conscious state before God, has been accomplished in
Christ, who has been pleased in grace, as we shall see, to put Himself into
the position necessary for its accomplishment. Nevertheless, through
participation in the life that is in Him, it becomes a practical reality to
us: only this realisation has to contend with the opposition of the flesh;
but not so as that we should walk in it.
One other point remains to be noticed here. In verse 2, we have the new
life in its power in Christ, which sets us free from the law of sin and
death. In verse 3, we have the old nature, sin in the flesh, dealt with,
condemned, but in the sacrifice for sin in which Christ suffered and died,
so that it is done with for faith. This completes the deliverance and the
knowledge of it.
The key to all this doctrine of the apostle's, and that which unites holy
practice, the christian life, with absolute grace and eternal deliverance
from condemnation, is the new position entirely apart from sin, which death
gives to us, being alive in Christ now before God. The power of God, the
glory of the Father, the operation of the Spirit, are found acting in the
resurrection of Christ, and placing Him, who had borne our sins and been
made sin for us, in a new position beyond sin and death before God. And by
faith I have part in His death, I participate in this life.
It is not only satisfaction made by Christ for sins committed, and
glorifying God in His work-the basis, indeed, of all-but the deliverance of
the person who was in sin, even as when Israel was brought out of Egypt.
The blood had stayed the hand of God in judgment; the hand of God in power
delivered them for ever at the Red Sea. Whatever they may have been, they
were for that time with God who had guided them to His holy habitation.
Moreover, the first verses of this chapter sum up the result of God's work
with regard to this subject in chapters 5:12 to the end, 6 and 7: no
condemnation for those who are in Christ; the law of the Spirit of life in
Him delivering from this law of sin and death; and that which the law could
not do God has done.
It will be remarked that the deliverance is from the law of sin and death:
in this respect the deliverance is absolute and complete. Sin is no longer
at all a law. This deliverance, to one who loves holiness, who loves God,
is a profound and immense subject of joy. The passage does not say that the
flesh is changed-quite the contrary; one would not speak of the law of a
thing which no longer existed. We have to contend with it, but it is no
more a law; neither can it bring us under death in our conscience.
The law could not work this deliverance. It could condemn the sinner, but
not the sin while delivering the sinner. But that which the law could not
do-inasmuch as it required strength in man, while on the contrary he had
only strength for sin-God has done. Now it is here that Christ's coming
down among us, and even unto death, is set before us in all its
importance-His coming down without sin unto us and unto death. This is the
secret of our deliverance. God, the God of all grace and of glory, has sent
Him who was the eternal object of His delight, His own Son, in whom was all
the energy and divine power of the Son of God Himself, to partake of flesh
and blood in the midst of men, in the position in which we all are; ever in
Himself without sin, but-to go down to the depth of the position in which
we were, even to death-emptying Himself of His glory to be a man, "in the
likeness of sinful flesh," and being a man humbling Himself unto death, in
order that the whole question of sin with God should be decided in the
person of Christ, He being considered as in our position [see note #42];
when in the likeness of sinful flesh He was made sin for us-"for sin," as
it is expressed (that is, a sacrifice for sin). He undertook to glorify God
by suffering for that which man was. He accomplished it, making Himself a
sacrifice for sin; and thus, not only our sins have been put away, but sin
in the flesh (it was the state of man, the state of his being; and Christ
was treated on the cross as though He were in it) has been condemned in
that which was a sacrifice of propitiation for the sinner.
The Son of God-sent of God in love-has come, and not only has He borne our
sins, but (He having offered Himself up freely to accomplish His will,
whose will He was come to do, a spotless victim) God made Him who knew no
sin to be sin for us. He has placed Himself, ever without sin (in Him it
was grace and obedience), in the place in which our failure in our
responsibility here below had set man, and, made in the likeness of men,
died to glorify God in respect of sin, so that we are discharged by the
cross from the burden on the conscience of the sin that dwells in us. He
takes on Himself before God the whole charge of sin (but according to the
power of eternal life and the Holy Ghost that was in Him)-offers Himself as
a victim for it. Thus placed, He is made sin; and in His death, which He
undergoes in grace, sin in the flesh is totally condemned by the just
judgment of God, and the condemnation itself is the abolition of that sin
by His act of sacrifice-an act which is valid for every one that believes
in Jesus who accomplished it. We have died with Him and are alive through
Him. We have put off the body of the flesh, the old man; we have become
dead to the law by the body of Christ, our old man crucified with Him, that
the body of sin might be annulled. I have no doubt that the full result
will be the putting of sin out of the whole scene of heaven and earth, in
that new heavens and new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. But here I
speak of the state of conscience in respect of the glory of God.
What a marvellous deliverance! What a work for the glory of God! The moral
import of the cross for the glory of God is a subject which, as we study
it, becomes ever more and more magnificent-a never-ending study. It is, by
its moral perfection, a motive for the love of the Father Himself with
regard to Jesus. "Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my
life, that I may take it again."
What a perfect work for putting away sin from the sight of God (setting
before Him in its stead that perfect work itself which removed the sin) and
for delivering the sinner, placing him before God according to the perfect
abolition of the sin and the value of that work in His sight! It is
possible we may have known the forgiveness of sins before we go through
Romans 7, and some have said that chapter 3 comes before chapter 7. But the
subjects are quite distinct. In the first part we have God dealing in grace
with the sinner as guilty for his justification, and that part is complete
in itself: "we joy in God." The second part takes up what we are, and
experiences connected with it; but the work of chapter 7 is always
essentially legal, the judgment of what we are, only hence in respect of
what is in us, not of what we have done-struggle, not guilt. The form of
experience will be modified. The soul will say, I hope I have not deceived
myself, and the like. But it is always law, and so the apostle gives it its
proper character in itself.
The practical result is stated in verse 4: "In order that the righteousness
of the law," its just requirement, "might be fulfilled in us who walk not
after the flesh but after the Spirit." We are perfect before God in Christ
without any righteousness by the law; but, walking according to the Spirit,
the law is fulfilled in us, although we are not subject to it. He who loves
has fulfilled the law. The apostle does not go farther in fruits of
righteousness here, because the question was that of subjection to the law
and man's fulfilling it. Grace produces more than this as in Ephesians,
Colossians, and elsewhere, reproduces the character of God, not merely what
man should be for God, but what Christ was. But here he meets the question
of law, and shews that in walking by the Spirit we so fulfil it.
In this new nature, in the life of resurrection and of faith, that which
the law demands is accomplished in us because we are not under it, for we
walk according to the Spirit, and not according to the flesh. The things
now in opposition are the flesh and the Spirit. In fact the rule, from the
yoke of which as a system we are set free, is accomplished in us. Under the
law sin had the mastery; being set free from the law, that law is fulfilled
in us. [see note #43]
But it is the Spirit working in us and leading us which characterises our
position. Now this character (for it is thus the apostle presents it) is
the result of the presence, the indwelling of the Holy Ghost in us. The
apostle supposes this great truth here. That is to say, writing to
Christians, the fact (for it was a fact that is in question here) of the
presence of the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, is treated as a well-known fact.
It publicly distinguished the Christian as the seal and mark of his
profession. The individual knew it for himself; he knew it with regard to
the assembly. But in the latter aspect, we leave it aside here, for
Christians individually are the subject. They had the Spirit; the apostle
everywhere appeals to their consciousness of this fact. "After that ye
believed ye were sealed." "Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law
or by the hearing of faith?" etc. It is the individual moral effect,
extending, however, to the resurrection of the body, which is here spoken
of. The two things are connected: the acknowledged fact of the presence of
the Holy Ghost; and the development of His energy in the life, and
afterwards in the resurrection of the believer. This had been seen in
Christ; resurrection itself was according to the Spirit of holiness.
We come then now into the practical effect, in the Christian on earth, of
the doctrine of death with, and life through, Christ, realised by the
dwelling in us of the Holy Ghost who has been given us. He is distinct, for
He is the Spirit, the Spirit of God; nevertheless He acts in the life, so
that it is practically ourselves in that which is of the life of Christ in
us.
We will examine the apostle's teaching briefly on this subject.
He introduces it abruptly, as characterising the Christian-"us, who walk
not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Those who are after the flesh
desire the things of the flesh; those after the Spirit, the things of the
Spirit. It is not a question here of duty, but of the sure action of the
nature according to which a person subsists; and this tendency, this
affection of the nature, has its unfailing result-that of the flesh is
death, that of the Spirit is life and peace. Because the affection of the
flesh is enmity against God. It has its own will, its own lusts; and the
fact that it has them makes it not subject to the law of God-which, on the
contrary, has its own authority-and the flesh cannot, indeed, be subject;
it would cease to exist if it could be so, for it has a will of its own
which seeks independency, not the authority of God over it-a will which
does not delight either in what the law requires. Therefore those who are
in the flesh, and who have their relationship with God as living of this
nature, of this natural life, cannot please God. Such is the verdict on
man, living his natural life, according to the very nature of that life.
The law did not bring him out thence: he was still in the flesh as before.
It had a rule for man, such ashe is as man before God, which gave the
measure of his responsibility in that position, but which evidently did not
bring him out of the position to which it applied. So that man being in the
flesh, the workings of sin were, by means of the law itself, acting to
produce death.
But the principle of the believer's relationship with God is not the flesh
but the Spirit, if the Spirit of God dwells in us. It is that which
characterises our position before God. In His sight, and before Him, we are
not in the flesh. This, indeed, supposes the existence of the flesh, but
having received the Holy Ghost, and having life of the Holy Ghost, it is He
who constitutes our link with God. Our moral existence before God is in the
Spirit, not in the flesh or natural man.
Observe here, that the apostle is not speaking of gifts or manifestations
of power, acting outside us upon others, but of the vital energy of the
Spirit, as it was manifested in the resurrection of Jesus and even in His
life in holiness. Our old man is reckoned dead; we live unto God by the
Spirit. Accordingly this presence of the Spirit-all real as it is-is spoken
of in a manner which has the force rather of character than of distinct and
personal presence, although that character could not exist unless He were
personally there. "Ye are in Spirit, if so be that Spirit of God dwell in
you." [see note #44]
The emphasis is on the word God, and in the Greek there is no article
before Spirit. Nevertheless it plainly refers to the Spirit personally, for
it is said "dwell in you," so that He is distinct from the person He dwells
in.
But the force of the thing is this: there is nothing in man that can resist
the flesh or bring man out of it; it is himself. The law cannot go beyond
this boundary (namely, that of man to whom it is addressed), nor ought it,
for it deals with his responsibility. There must be something which is not
man, and yet which acts in man, that he may be delivered. No creature could
do anything in this: he is responsible in his own place.
It must be God. The Spirit of God coming into man does not cease to be God,
and does not make the man cease to be man; but He produces divinely in the
man, a life, a character a moral condition of being, a new man; in this
sense, a new being, and in virtue of the cleansing by Christ's blood. He
dwells-Christ having accomplished the work of deliverance, of which this is
the power in us-in the man, and the man is in Christ and Christ in the man.
But having thus really a new life, which has its own moral character, the
man is, as such, before God; and in His sight, what he is in this new
nature inseparably from its source, as the stream from the fountain; the
believer is in the Spirit, the Holy Ghost being in consequence of Christ's
work active in, and the power of, the life He has given. This is the
Christian's standing before God. We are no longer in the flesh, but in the
Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in us. There is no other
means. And it is indeed the Spirit of Christ-He in the power of whom Christ
acted, lived, offered Himself; by whom also He was raised from the dead.
His whole life was the expression of the operation of the Spirit-of the
Spirit in man. "Now, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none
of his." It is the true and only link, the eternal reality, of the new life
in which we live in God.
We have to do with reality. Christianity has its realisation in us in a
conformity of nature to God, with which God cannot dispense, and without
which we cannot enjoy or be in communion with Him. He Himself gives it. How
indeed can we be born of God, unless God acts to communicate life to us? We
are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. But it is the
Spirit who is its source and its strength. If any one has not the Spirit of
Christ, if the energy of this spiritual life which was manifested in Him,
which is by the power of the Spirit, is not in us, we are not of Him, we
have no part in Christ, for it is thus that one participates in Him. But if
Christ is in us, the energy of this spiritual life is in Him who is our
life, and the body is reckoned dead; for if it have a will as being alive,
it is nothing but sin. The Spirit is life, the Spirit by whom Christ
actively lived; Christ in Spirit in us is life-the source of thought,
action, judgment, everything that constitutes the man, speaking morally, in
order that there may be righteousness; for that is the only practical
righteousness possible, the flesh cannot produce any. We live only as
having Christ as our life; for righteousness is in Him, and in Him only,
before God. Elsewhere there is nothing but sin. Therefore to live is
Christ. There is no other life; everything else is death.
But the Spirit has yet another character. He is the Spirit of Him who
raised up Jesus from among the dead. This God did with regard to the
Christ. If the Spirit dwells in us, God will accomplish in us that which He
accomplished in the Christ, [see note #45]
because of this same Spirit. He will raise up our mortal bodies. This is
the final deliverance, the full answer to the question, "Who shall deliver
me from this body of death?"
Observe here, that the Spirit is designated in three ways: the Spirit of
God, in contrast with sinful flesh, with the natural man, the Spirit of
Christ, the formal character of the life which is the expression of His
power (this is the Spirit acting in man according to the perfection of the
divine thoughts); the Spirit of Him that raised up the man Christ from
among the dead. Here it is the perfect and final deliverance of the body
itself by the power of God acting through His Spirit. Thus then we have got
the full answer to the question, "Who shall deliver me?" We see that
christian life in its true character-that of the Spirit, depends on
redemption. It is by virtue of redemption that the Spirit is present with
us.
In verses 10, 11, we have present death to flesh and sin, and actual
resurrection; only, since there is nothing but sin if we live of our own
natural life, Christ being in us, our life, we reckon even now, while still
living, our body to be dead. This being the case, we have that which was
seen in Christ (chap. 1:4)-the Spirit of holiness and resurrection from
the dead. We should observe how (thus far according to the force of the
expression, "the Spirit is life") the Person of the Spirit is linked with
the state of the soul here, with the real life of the Christian. A little
lower down we find Him distinct from it. We understand this: for the Spirit
is truly the divine Person, but He acts in us in the life which He has
imparted. "That which is born of the Spirit is spirit." Thus it is indeed
the Spirit who produces practical righteousness, good thoughts; but He
produces them in me so that they are mine. Nevertheless I am entirely
dependent, and indebted to God for these things. The life is of the same
nature as its source according to John 3, but it is dependent; the whole
power is in the Spirit. Through Him we are dependent on God. Christ Himself
lived thus. Only the life was in Him, and no sin in the flesh to resist it:
whereas, if God has given us life, it remains always true that this life is
in His Son. "He that hath the Son hath life." And we know the flesh lusts
against the Spirit, even when we have it.
But to proceed with our chapter. The apostle concludes thus exposition of
the spiritual life, which gives liberty to the soul, by presenting the
Christian as being thus a debtor, not to the flesh, which has now no longer
any right over us. Yet he will not say directly that we are debtors to the
Spirit. It is indeed our duty to live after the Spirit; but if we said that
we are debtors, it would be putting man under a higher law the fulfilment
of which would thereby be yet more impossible to him. The Spirit was the
strength to live, and that through the affections which He imparts-not the
obligation to have them If we live after the flesh, we are going to die;
but if by the Spirit we mortify the deeds of the body, we shall live. The
evil is there, but strength is there to overcome it. This is the effect
according to the nature of God and of the flesh. But there is another side
of the subject-the relationship which this presence and operation of the
Spirit gives us towards God Instead then of saying "legal debtors to the
Spirit," the Spirit Himself is our power, by which we mortify the flesh and
thus are sure of living with God; and we are the sons of God, being led of
the Spirit. For we have not received a spirit of bondage to be again in
fear (that was the condition of the faithful under the law), but a Spirit
that answers to our adoption to be sons of God, and this is its power-a
Spirit by which we cry, "Abba,
The apostle again connects the Spirit of God in the closest union with the
character, the spirit, which He produces in us, according to the
relationship in which we are placed by His grace in Christ, and of which we
are conscious, and which in fact we realise by the presence of the Holy
Ghost in us: He is in us a Spirit of adoption. For He sets us in the truth,
according to the mind of God. Now as to the power for thus, as to its moral
reality in us, it is by the presence of the Holy Ghost alone that it takes
place. We are only delivered from the law and the spirit of bondage in that
the Spirit dwells in us, although the work and the position of Christ are
the cause. This position is neither known nor realised except by the
Spirit, whom Jesus sent down when He had Himself entered into it in glory
on high as man. [see note #46]
But this Spirit dwells in us, acts in us, and brings us in effect into this
relationship which has been acquired for us by Christ, through that work
which He accomplished for us, entering into it Himself (that is, as man
risen).
The apostle, we have seen, speaks of the Spirit in us as of a certain
character, a condition in which we are, because He instils Himself into our
whole moral being-our thoughts, affections, object, action; or, rather, He
creates them; He is their source; He acts by producing them. Thus He is
practically a Spirit of adoption, because He produces in our souls all that
appertains to this relationship. If He acts, our thoughts, our affections,
act also; we are in the enjoyment of this relationship by virtue of this
action. But having thus identified (and it could not be otherwise) the Holy
Ghost with all that He produces in us, for it is thus that the Christian
knows Him (the world does not receive Him because it does not see Him, nor
know Him; but ye know Him because He is with you, and dwells in you:
precious state!)-when the Holy Ghost Himself is the source of our being and
of our thoughts, according to the counsels of God in Christ and the
position which Christ has acquired for us-the apostle, I repeat, having
spoken of the Spirit as characterising our moral existence, is careful to
distinguish Him as a person, a really distinct existence. The Spirit
Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. The
two things are equally precious: [see note #47]
participation in the Spirit, as the power of life by which we are capable
of enjoying God, and the relationship of children to Him; and the presence
and authority of the Spirit to assure us of it.
Our position is that of sons, our proper relationship that of children. The
word son is in contrast with the position under the law, which was that of
servants; it is the state of privilege in its widest extent. To say the
child of such an one, implies the intimacy and the reality of the
relationship. Now there are two things which the apostle lays open-the
position of child and its consequences, and the condition of the creature
in connection with which the child is found. This gives occasion for two
operations of the Spirit-the communication of the assurance of being
children with all its glorious consequences; and His work of sympathy and
grace in connection with the sorrows and infirmities in which the child is
found here below.
Having thus completed the exposition of the child's condition, he ends this
account of his position in Christ with a statement of the certainty of the
grace-outside himself-in God, which secures him in this position, and
guards him, by the power of God in grace, from everything that could rob
him of his blessing-his happiness. It is God who gives it him, and who is
its Author. It is God who will bring to a good end the one whom He has
placed in it. This last point is treated in verses 31-33. Thus in verses
1-11, we have the Spirit in life; in verses 12-30, the Spirit as a power
acting in the saint; in verses 31-33, God acting for, not in, us to ensure
our blessing. Hence, in the last part, he does not speak of sanctification.
The first point then we have to touch on in this second part is, that the
Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of
the family of God. That is to say, that as the Holy Ghost (acting in us in
life, as we have seen) has produced the affections of a child, and, by
these affections, the consciousness of being a child of God, so He does not
separate Himself from this, but, by His powerful presence, He bears witness
Himself that we are children. We have this testimony in our hearts in our
relationship with God; but the Holy Ghost Himself, as distinct from us,
bears this testimony to us in whom He dwells. The true freed Christian
knows that his heart recognises God as Father, but he knows also that the
Holy Ghost Himself bears His testimony to him. That which is founded on the
word is realised and verified in the heart.
And, if we are children, we are heirs-heirs of God and joint-heirs with
Christ. Glorious position in which we are placed with Christ! And the
witness of this is the first part of the Spirit's personal office; but this
has its consequences here, it has its character here. If the Spirit of
Christ is in us, He will be the source in us of the sentiments of Christ.
Now in this world of sin and of misery Christ necessarily suffered-suffered
also because of righteousness, and because of His love. Morally this
feeling of sorrow is the necessary consequence of possessing a moral nature
totally opposed to everything that is in the world. Love, holiness,
veneration for God, love for man, everything is essential suffering here
below; an active testimony leads to outward suffering. Co-heirs,
co-sufferers, co-glorified-this is the order of christian life and hope;
and, observe, inasmuch as possessors of the whole inheritance of God, this
suffering is by virtue of the glorious position into which we are brought,
and of our participation in the life of Christ Himself. And the sufferings
are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.
For the creature waits for the manifestation of the sons of God. Then shall
its deliverance come. For, if we suffer, it is in love, because all is
suffering around us. The apostle then explains it. It is our connection
with the creature which brings us into this suffering, for the creature is
subjected to misery and vanity. We know it, we who have the Spirit, that
all creation groans in its estrangement from God, as in travail, yet in
hope. When the glory shall set the children free, the creature will share
their liberty: it cannot participate in the grace; this is a thing which
concerns the soul. But glory being the fruit of God's power in outward
things, even the creature shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption
and partake in the liberty of the glory. For it is not the Will of the
creature which made it subject (it has none in that respect); but it was on
account of him who subjected it, on account of man.
Now the Spirit, who makes us know that we are children and heirs of glory,
teaches us by the same means to understand all the misery of the creature;
and through our bodies we are in connection with it, so that there is
sympathy. Thus we also wait for the adoption, that is, the redemption of
the body. For as to possession of the full result, it is in hope that we
are saved; so that meanwhile we groan, as well as understand, according to
the Spirit and our new nature, that all creation groans. There are the
intelligence of the Spirit, and the affections of the divine nature on the
one side; and the link with fallen creation by the body, on the other.
[see note #48]
Here then also the operation of the Holy Ghost has its place, as well as
bearing witness that we are children and heirs of God with Christ.
It is not therefore creation only which groans, being in bondage to
corruption in consequence of the sin of man; but we ourselves, who have the
first-fruits of the Spirit-which God has given in anticipation of the
accomplishment of His promises in the last days, and which connects us with
heaven-we also groan, while waiting for the redemption of our body to take
possession of the glory prepared for us. But it is because the Holy Ghost
who is in us takes part in our sorrow and helps us in our infirmities;
dwelling in us, He pleads in the midst of this misery by groans, which do
not express themselves in words. The sense of the evil that oppresses us
and all around us is there; and the more conscious we are of the blessing
and of the liberty of the glory, the more sensible are we of the weight of
the misery brought in by sin. We do not know what to ask for as a remedy;
but the heart expresses its sorrow as Jesus did at the grave of Lazarus-at
least in our little measure. Now this is not the selfishness of the flesh
which does not like to suffer; it is the affection of the Spirit.
We have here a striking proof of the way in which the Spirit and the life
in us are identified in practice: God searches the hearts-ours; He finds
the affection of the Spirit, for He, the Spirit, intercedes. So that it is
my heart-it is a spiritual affection, but it is the Spirit Himself who
intercedes. United to the creature by the body, to heaven by the Spirit,
the sense which I have of the affliction is not the selfishness of the
flesh, but the sympathy of the Spirit, who feels it according to [see note #49]
God.
What a sweet and strengthening thought, that when God searches the heart,
even if we are burdened with a sense of the misery in the midst of which
the heart is working. He finds there, not the flesh, but the affection of
the Spirit; and that the Spirit Himself is occupied in us, in grace, with
all our infirmities: What an attentive ear must God lend to such groans!
The Spirit, then, is the witness in us that we are children, and thereby
heirs; and He takes part in the sorrowful experience that we are linked
with creation by our bodies, and becomes the source of affections in us,
which express themselves in groans that are divine in their character as
well as human, and which have the value of His own intercession. And this
grace shews itself in connection with our ignorance and weakness. Moreover,
if after all we know not what to ask for, we know that everything works
together under God's own hand for our greatest good [see note #50] (v. 28).
This brings in, thirdly, another side of the truth-that which God does, and
that which God is for us, outside ourselves, to assure us of all blessing.
The Holy Ghost is life in us; He bears witness to our glorious position; He
acts in divine sympathy in us, according to our actual position of
infirmity in this poor body and this suffering creation; He becomes, and
makes us, the voice of this suffering before God. All this takes place in
us; but God maintains all our privileges by that which He is in Himself.
This is the last part of the chapter, from verse 28 or 31 to the end. God
orders all things in favour of those who are called according to His
purpose. For that is the source of all good and of all happiness in us and
for us.
Therefore it is, that in this beautiful and precious climax, sanctification
and the life in us are omitted. The Spirit had instructed our souls on
these points at the beginning of the chapter. The Spirit is life, the body
dead, if Christ be in us; and now He presents the counsels, the purposes,
the acts, the operation of God Himself, which bless and secure us, but are
not the life in us. The inward reality has been developed in the previous
part; here, the certainty, the security, in virtue of what God is and of
His counsels. He has foreknown His children, He has predestinated them to a
certain glory, a certain marvellous blessing, namely, to be conformed to
the image of His Son. He has called them, He has justified them, He has
glorified them. God has done all this. It is perfect and stable, as He is
who willed it, and who has done it. No link in the chain is wanting of all
that was needful in order to bind their souls to glory according to the
counsels of God.
And what a glory! what a position-poor creatures as the saved are-to be
conformed to the image of the Son of God Himself! This, in fact, is the
thought of grace, not to bless us only by Jesus, but to bless us with Him.
He came down even to us, sinless, in love and righteousness, to associate
us with Himself in the fruit of His glorious work. It was this which His
love purposed, that we should have one and the same portion with Himself;
and this the counsels of the Father (blessed be His name for it!) had
determined also.
The result of all for the soul is, that God is for us. Sweet and glorious
conclusion, which gives the heart a peace that is ineffable, and rest that
depends on the power and stability of God-a rest that shuts out all anxiety
as to anything that could trouble it; for if God be for us who can be
against us? And the way of it shuts out all thought as to any limit to the
liberality of God. He who had given His Son, how should He not with Him
give us all things? Moreover, with regard to our righteousness before God,
or to charges which might be brought against the saints, as well as with
regard to all the difficulties of the way, God Himself has justified: who
shall condemn? Christ has died, He has risen, and is at the right hand of
God, and intercedes for us: who shall separate us from His love? The
enemies? He has already conquered them. Height? He is there for us. Depth?
He has been there; it is the proof of His love. Difficulties? We are more
than conquerors: they are the immediate occasion of the display of His love
and faithfulness, making us feel where our portion is, what our strength
is. Trial does but assure the heart, which knows His love, thatnothing can
separate us from the love of God which is in Jesus. Everything else is the
creature, and cannot separate us from the love of God-a love of God, which
has entered also into this misery of the creature, and gained the victory
for us over all. Thus the deliverance, and liberty, and security of the
saints by grace and power are fully brought out.
We have thus in three ways God's being for us unfolded: in giving,
justifying, and no possible separation. Two triumphant questions settle the
last two points, on which the heart might easily raise questions. But the
two questions are put:-Who shall condemn? Who shall separate? Who shall
condemn when God Himself justifies? It is not said justified before God.
God is for us. The second is answered by the precious fact that in all that
might seem to do so, we have seen, on the contrary, His love proved.
Besides it is the creature which might tend to separate, and the love is
the love of God. The beginning of verse 34 should be read with 33.
We have advanced here to a fuller experimental state than in chapter 5,
following on what unfolds the exercises of a soul learning what it is in
itself, and the operation of the law, and what it is to be dead with
Christ, and to be alive through and associated with Him, and coming out, as
in Him before God, with the consciousness of God for it. But there is in chapter 5 more
of the simple grace of God, what He is in His own blessed
nature and thoughts, as above sin, towards the sinner. We have the
Christian's place more fully with God here, but what God is simply in grace
more fully in chapter 5. Chapter 5 is more what God is thus known through
the work of Christ; chapter 8 more our place in Christ before Him. Blessed
to have both!
