THE BODY OF SIN ANNULLED
The body of sin has been condemned in the death of Christ, in order that it might be annulled in the believer, that he should no longer serve sin. “Knowing this, that our old man has been crucified with him, that the body of sin might be annulled, that we should no longer serve sin”. In this chapter and the next, sin is personified as a master we have served, like the task-masters of Egypt who held the people of God in sore bondage. The annulling of sin is destroying its power in the believer. It is not that sin is eradicated (we shall carry it with us as long as we are in our present bodies), but the power of it is broken. To expect it to be eradicated is a delusive hope. On the other hand, to say, or think, that we must needs sin because we still have the principle of sin in us, is to confess that we are still the slaves of sin. The apostle says, “Ye were bondmen [slaves] of sin”, a past experience, “but have obeyed from the heart the form of teaching into which ye were instructed”, “having got your freedom from sin [that is, from its tyranny], ye have become bondmen to righteousness”. Again, “sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under law, but under grace”. So that instead of yielding the members of our bodies instruments of unrighteousness to sin, we are to yield our bodies to God as alive from among the dead, as those who have been set free from the power of sin. “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to obey its lusts”, Rom 6: 12-22.
In chapter 7: 7-24, we have the experience of one who is born again, but not yet delivered, not having received the Spirit. With such an one there are new desires, divine instincts, but no power. How many there are in this condition. In such the proper effects of the death of Christ have not been realised; the body of sin had not been annulled.
The first thing is to see that it has been condemned once for all in the death of Christ. “Him who knew not sin, he has made sin for us” (2 Cor 5: 21); He bore the judgment of sin on our behalf, and in doing so satisfied the righteous claims of God. “God, having sent his own Son, in the likeness of the flesh of sin, and for sin [that is, as a sacrifice for sin], has condemned sin in the flesh”, Rom 8: 3. Therefore we should know “that our old man has been crucified with him”. Mark, it is not in us, but in Him, who died for us. It was God’s act: having condemned it in Christ, He does not any more identify us with that which He has condemned. I am no longer in Adam, or in the flesh, I am in Christ before God in the same favour in which Christ is. But if sin was condemned in Christ, it was that it might be annulled in me. To understand what this means we must consider what the power of sin is as experienced in one born again, but still under law.
Until a man is born again he has no consciousness of the power of sin; he is its willing slave. There are two senses in which the power of sin is realised: in its killing power, and its dominating power. The man says, “I was alive without law once; but the commandment having come, sin revived, and I died”. Again, “sin, getting a point of attack by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me”. “Sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me”, Rom 7: 9, 11, 13. This is always the first effect of the knowledge of sin. It brings the sentence of death into the conscience. The soul feels worthy of death, and nothing else, and fears that he will ultimately perish. This is the killing power of sin. Now the answer to this is the death of Christ; it killed Him when made sin and dying for me. He having on the cross identified Himself with me as a sinner, bore the judgment which I deserved as my substitute, so that it can never bring me into judgment. Having part in His death I am entitled to reckon myself to have died to sin, and to be alive to God in Christ, Rom 6: 10, 11. Death has terminated my life as in Adam in the flesh in sin, now I live in a new condition in Christ. “There is then now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus”, chap 8: 1. Thus the soul is delivered from the killing power of sin.
But there is another aspect of the power of sin to be realised, usually at a later stage of soul history, namely, the dominating power of sin, in other words, that sin is my master. Naturally I was a slave to sin. A man who is born again, while hating that which is evil and approving that which is right, finds himself utterly powerless against sin, or to accomplish that which is good. “For I do not practise the good that I will; but the evil I do not will, that I do”, Rom 7: 19. The flesh is weak. So he exclaims, “I am fleshly, sold under sin”, v 14. Again, “I delight in the law of God according to the inward man: but I see another law in my members, warring in opposition to the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which exists in my members”, Rom 7: 23. He finds sin to be a law to him; law in the sense of a governing principle, always working in one direction, to death, “the law of sin and death”. In the consciousness of this bondage, and of his utter inability to deliver himself, he cries out, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of this body of death?”, v 24. Thus the soul comes to an end of all hope in connection with itself. Clearly in such a case the power of sin is not annulled. All this is very profitable experience, however painful it may be, bringing us to realise the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and the futility of our own efforts to deliver ourselves. It is a serious lesson to be learnt that “in me, that is, in my flesh, good does not dwell”, v 18, and more. “The flesh is enmity against God”, Rom 8: 7. There is no power to produce anything for God, nothing that God can work upon. These lessons are not learnt all at once, they have to be learnt in the school of experience. We see in the case of Peter how in the early part of his history he learnt the sinfulness of the flesh (Luke 5: 8), but he had yet to learn the weakness of the flesh, Luke 22: 33, 34.
Now the way in which we are delivered from the dominating power of sin is in the appropriation of the Deliverer, whom God has raised up for us in the person of Jesus Christ our Lord. In the beginning of chapter 7 the apostle speaks of Christ as the new husband, in contrast to the old husband, the law. “Ye also have been made dead to the law by the body of the Christ, to be [married] to another, who has been raised up from among the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God”. As we appreciate the living One in this way we come under the mighty influence of His love, and find power in Him to support us in every condition of our responsible life, He has a powerful hand to support us. When the soul realises his helpless condition and cries out for deliverance, the Spirit turns his eye away from himself to the Deliverer. He confesses Jesus Christ Lord, and receives the Spirit and is free. In receiving the Spirit, he comes under another law, greater than the law of sin and death, “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus”. As we yield to this new law, we are set free from the law of sin and death, Rom 8: 2. This is realised as we abide in Christ, and draw upon the resources we have in Him, and so bring forth fruit to God.
The Spirit is the power of Christ in the believer: we call upon the Lord, and He supports us by His Spirit, who dwells in us. We see this illustrated in the case of Peter walking on the water: when he began to sink he called upon the Lord, and He stretched out His all-powerful hand and upheld him. In the power of Christ he could walk on the water. We need to call upon the Lord continually. It is thus we get the victory over the power of sin and are maintained in practical righteousness. This is how the body of sin is annulled in us. This supposes continual self-judgment, continually reckoning ourselves dead to sin, If we fail it is because we forget the Lord, or grieve the Spirit of God. We have continually to disallow the flesh, and thus make room for the Spirit. There is no lack of power ever available for us in the Lord.
From Goodly Words vol 9 (1931)