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THE SPIRIT OF GOD IN THE BELIEVER

I have the desire, with the help of the Lord, to say something as to the Spirit of God, and the importance of the service of the Spirit of God to each one of us, to enable us to enter into the things which the love of God has given to us. There can be nothing more important, from that point of view, than the section of Scripture I have read, because I am sure that no mind or heart would be satisfied merely with the light of what God proposes, but would desire to have the blessing that He has in His heart for us. No one, getting the light of God’s thoughts for us, would wish to stop short of actually entering upon them in enjoyment and power. Moreover, there is not only our side of the matter, but there is that which is more important, God’s side of the matter. It must be grievous to the heart of God if He has those who are sons according to His thoughts and desires, and yet He fails to receive from them the response of sons. Sonship is properly for the pleasure of God; primarily it is for that purpose, and the pleasure of God is secured now spiritually by our filling out that position by the Holy Spirit who gives us ability to cry, “Abba, Father”, not merely as taking up the words, but as having the spirit and feelings proper to those words.

Chapters 6, 7 and 8 of the epistle to the Romans are of the greatest interest. Chapter 6 brings the Father before us. He is presented as having raised up Jesus from among the dead by His glory. The result of that, as we apprehend it, is this, that recognising that all that has come to pass in Christ, in His death and resurrection, is for us, we appropriate it by faith, and being committed to it in baptism, we take it up, understanding with our minds that Jesus, having died, has died to sin, but in that He lives, He lives to God. In the light of this we take account of ourselves as dead to sin, but as being alive unto God in Christ Jesus. This is the first thing, we are to reckon ourselves dead to sin but alive to God, in the light of the fact that death has actually taken place in Christ. He has actually died out of this world of sin, and is actually living to God; what has come to pass in Christ is God’s mind for us. So we are to reckon ourselves dead indeed to sin, but alive to God. You will understand that the world can have no claim upon a dead man, it can have no appeal to him. The man who dies, passes, by death, out of this world. He escapes its grip, and is by death entirely removed from its influences. That is exactly what is presented to us in the gospel; the Lord Jesus, having died to sin, is alive to God, and we appropriate that as God’s mind for us. So that we reckon ourselves dead indeed to sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus. When I say, “dead to sin” I mean to the whole principle of pleasing ourselves, for the world around is a system which is built up on the principle of man doing his own will.

Chapter 6 is God’s side of the matter. In chapter 7 we have Christ’s side of the matter. We are delivered, by the death of Christ, from the principle of law as a means of life. It says, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and of death,” Romans 8: 2. If a man who is under the law dies, by death he escapes from the demands of the law, and in the appropriation of the death of Christ for us, we escape from any idea of being subject to law, for law applies to man in the flesh. And so Christ, by His death, has delivered me from the principle of the law as a means by which I am to live, and in the place of it Christ Himself becomes the One by whom I am to be regulated. I become dead to the law by the body of Christ that I might be to Another, to Him who is raised from among the dead that I might bear fruit to God.

The death of Christ thus in chapter 6 makes clear my position in regard to the world, and His present position in the presence of God makes clear that I am alive unto God in Christ Jesus, and my whole life now is to be taken up on that principle, that I am living to God. In chapter 7 Christ is brought in as the One at whose disposal and under whose influence I hold myself.

In chapter 8 we come to a most important matter, and that is the subject of power, because although I might take up what is presented in chapters 6 and 7 in my mind, and have desires to move according to it, I find that there is no power for it outside of the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God comes in in chapter 8 in order to give me the power for those things which the mind has taken up according to chapters 6 and 7. If we put the three chapters together, we come to this extraordinary and most impressive position, that the whole Godhead, the Father, the Son and the Spirit, are all engaged in the deliverance of the believer. How urgent is this matter of real deliverance for the Christian; that he should be in this world in the presence of sin and all its influences, in victory, and available for the pleasure and service of God! In view of that, the whole Godhead, so to speak, enters into the matter. Chapter 6 is God, chapter 7 Christ, and chapter 8 the Holy Spirit.

The exercises which are depicted in chapter 7 of this epistle have in mind to bring us to the recognition that we are, in fact, shut up to the power of God for deliverance from the power of sin working in the flesh. The apostle says of the law, “So that the law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good,” Romans 7: 12. He says, “For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am fleshly, sold under sin,” verse 14.

That is what he discovered. The more he sought to keep the law, the more he discovered the powerlessness that marked him. “The law had said, Thou shalt not lust,” verse 7, and immediately lust sprang up in his innermost being. He felt the authority of the commandment, as it applied itself to his conscience, but immediately sin revived, and he died. And so as he moved, with the most sincere desires to do what was right, he found out his inability to fulfil those desires. He had desires to do what was right, but all the time he was doing what was wrong, condemning himself for it, but finding no deliverance from this hopeless position in which he was. And so one great result of it is that he begins to analyse what is really the position, and he comes to this; he says, “For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man,” verse 22. He comes to recognise that there is a work of God in his soul which shows itself in having delight in the law of God, at any rate in an abstract way. This is a most encouraging thing, for no man naturally delights in the law of God, but the soul discovers that as the result of the work of God, there is in him that which is in affinity with Christ Himself. The language of Christ Himself, as coming into this world was, “Behold, I come, in the volume of the book it is written of me - To do thy good pleasure, my God, is my delight, and thy law is within my heart.” Psalm 40: 7, 8. And so, the apostle describing these experiences, comes to this point. He says, “For 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,” Romans 7: 22, 23. He had previously come to it that it was not himself, but sin that dwelt in him. He was beginning to distinguish between what he calls “I myself”, and the flesh that was within him. “For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, good does not dwell: for to will is there with me, but to do right I find not,” verse 18. It is most important to come to that point, to learn to distinguish “I myself”, what I am as a subject of the work of God, from my flesh which is sinful and will remain sinful right to the end of life here. You remember that when the people of God came out of Egypt, they thirsted for water. God told Moses to take the rod with which he had smitten the waters of Egypt, and God Himself would stand upon the rock, and Moses was, with that rod, to smite the rock upon which Jehovah was standing. A remarkable figure, that Jehovah was to stand upon the rock, and Moses was to smite the rock, and as he did so, the waters flowed. It is, as we have been seeing, that God would provide, by way of nothing less than the death of His own Son, the smiting of Christ, that the Spirit might be given to His people, that we might receive the Spirit. It was God’s intention that all life, satisfaction and power should be found in the Spirit, and it is not to be found anywhere else.

So the result of this experience in chapter 7 is that he cries, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of this body of death? I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I myself with the mind serve God’s law; but with the flesh sin’s law,” verses 24, 25. He turns away from himself to God. He understands that the only power for deliverance is in God, “I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.” That is what we come to in chapter 8, for the Spirit is a divine Person. It is God come in in power to meet the position. It is through Jesus Christ, our Lord; that is to say, nothing can come to us save through Him. The rock had to be smitten before the waters could flow. Christ has had to go that way. Also we need to come under the authority of Christ.

for you remember that following on the smitten rock there was the conflict with Amalek. Amalek represents Satan working through the flesh, upon the flesh. Joshua is told to take men and go and fight against Amalek. Amalek was not to be surrendered to, nor were any terms to be made with him. He was to be fought against. And Moses said, “tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand... And it came to pass when Moses raised his hand, that Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed,” Exodus 17: 9 - 11. But when Moses’ hands became heavy Aaron and Hur stayed up Moses’ hands, and a complete victory was gained. Moses with the rod of God in his hands, represents Christ on high, but also as exerting the element of authority over our souls. There is no weakness in Christ, I need not say, but through lack of dependence the authority of Christ over our souls may become weak. And if the authority of Christ over our souls becomes weak, then Amalek gains an advantage. But if the authority of Christ in our souls is maintained, then victory is ours. So it is a question of the power of God, the Spirit of God, the only power by which victory can be secured, linked with the authority of Christ being maintained over our souls.

Now we return to chapter 8. It is to be noticed how many ways the Spirit of God is spoken of. He is spoken of as “the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus”, “God’s Spirit”, the “Spirit of Christ”, the “Spirit of him that has raised up Jesus from among the dead”, and then as the “Spirit of adoption”. That is a very full presentation of the subject of the Spirit. And for our encouragement, I would again recall that it starts at the end of chapter 7, with the man who is feeling his utter powerlessness over the power of sin in his flesh. It leads right up to a man who is able to say, “Abba, Father”. We can see what possibilities lie in this chapter - the utmost misery, as knowing nothing of deliverance in the beginning, and the utmost dignity in sonship at the end. Hence, it may well stimulate us to desire to know more of what it is to be fully yielded personally to the Spirit of God, so that we may be brought into the liberty and dignity proper to us as sons.

The apostle says, “There is then now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus,” Romans 8: l. The words that follow, according to the authorised version, should not be in that verse. They come in at the end of the fourth verse, “who do not walk according to flesh but according to Spirit.” “There is then now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus.” No condemnation can possibly attach to those in Christ Jesus. But the Spirit of God goes on to say, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and of death,” verse 2. The apostle is beginning to show that in his experience, in the power of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, he was made entirely free from the law of sin and death. That means there would be no consciousness in his own soul of condemnation. Of course, objectively, the position is absolutely settled; there could be no possibility of condemnation, because it is “in Christ Jesus”. That is where God has placed us, by His grace. If we have received the Spirit of God, that is where we are set, “in Christ Jesus.” But the mind of God has in view that we should be conscious of “no condemnation.” As we are clear in our minds, remembering to distinguish between the “I myself” and “the sin that dwelleth in me”, one can thus divorce oneself from the latter and take account of oneself according to what I am, as in Christ Jesus. That is not law in a legal sense; it is simply the regulating principle of my life, that I am to be marked by the control of the Spirit, the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus; that is, I am now set up in another Man, the Man Christ Jesus. The Spirit of God will hold me true to that, and will hold me under the influence of that Man, the Man in whom God’s pleasure is found in the fullest degree, a Man who has been here for the holy pleasure of God. The Spirit of God keeps one in the light of the position in which one is set in Christ Jesus. As under the influence of that Man, and the control of the Spirit, the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, I am set free from the law of sin and death. There is the possibility of abiding in Christ, and in Christ we have One who is incapable of being corrupted. It is a most comforting thing, that in Christ Jesus we have a Man who is absolutely incorruptible. The Lord could say, “for the ruler of the world comes, and in me he has nothing,” John 14: 30. Thank God for that! The Spirit of God will hold our hearts, if we are prepared to have them held in relation to the Man Christ Jesus, and as held and formed under His influence, there is no reason why we should fall under the power of any corruption. It is the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. And then Paul goes on to say, “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, having sent his own Son, in likeness of flesh of sin, and for sin, has condemned sin in the flesh,” verse 3. God is encouraging us to come to the same judgment of the flesh and sin in the flesh, as He has come to, so that we do not look for good from the flesh, or attempt to improve it, or expect it to improve or alter as we get older. God has condemned sin in the flesh. He did it in the Person of Christ. He sent His own Son, the expression of His love, in order that, with that before our hearts, we should definitely come to the judgment of the flesh as He has come to it. It is intended to confirm us in the position that we can only now live according to God in the Spirit. He has condemned sin in the flesh, “in order that the righteous requirement of the law should be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to flesh but according to Spirit,” verse 4. He goes on to say, “For they that are according to flesh mind the things of the flesh; and they that are according to Spirit, the things of the Spirit,” verse 5.

What a wide expanse there is opened up to us when we think of the things of the Spirit! It is not only Christ, although Christ indeed is enough to fill any mind and heart, but then there are the things that stand connected with Christ, “for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God,” 1 Corinthians 2: 10. It says of the servant whom Abraham sent forth to find Rebekah, that “all the treasure of his master was under his hand,” Genesis 24: 10. The whole of the treasure of his master was in his hand. Think of the wealth the Lord has opened up in ministry during the last 100 years or more, and the more we come into it, the more we feel we are only touching the fringe of divine things. We may rest assured that there is inexhaustible satisfaction in the things of the Spirit.

It goes on, “For they that are according to flesh mind the things of the flesh,” verse 5. The mind of the flesh is death, that is what it is morally. Which of us does not know from experience that the mind of the flesh is death? “But the mind of the Spirit is life and peace. Because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God; for neither indeed can it be: and they that are in flesh cannot please God,” verse 6. 7. That is a most absolute statement and should entirely confirm us in the understanding that flesh never can be anything but corrupt and sinful, and that the only outlet from it lies in the Spirit of God, whom we have received. And so, having thus stressed it, the apostle goes on to say, “But ye are not in flesh but in Spirit, if indeed God’s Spirit dwell in you; but if any one has not the Spirit of Christ he is not of him,” verse 9. It has well been said that “in Christ” is a question of status, and is in contrast to being “in Adam”; but “in Spirit” is a question of power, and that is why the Spirit of God here stresses that it is God’s spirit. It is divine power. The apostle says at the end of chapter 7, “O wretched man that I am; who shall deliver me out of this body of death? I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.” He realises that no one but God can deliver him. The Spirit, viewed as God’s Spirit, stresses the idea of divine power. Then it says, “but if any one has not the Spirit of Christ he is not of him,” verse 9. The Spirit of Christ stresses the idea of character. That is to say, it is Christ who is seen in one who is controlled by the Spirit. The apostle says in a most challenging way, “if any one has not the Spirit of Christ.” That is a most challenging thing for me to face. Am I marked by the Spirit of Christ? It is a challenging thing for every brother and sister to face. If one discovers one is not marked by it, one must get to God about it to discover why it is that the Spirit of Christ not coming out in expression; because, after all, God does not want to see the features of the first man characterising His sons. It is a question of the features of Christ that God looks for in His sons, in the assembly. And the apostle goes on to say, “but if Christ be in you, the body is dead on account of sin, but the Spirit life on account of righteousness,” verse 10. Christ is in us by the Spirit, and the body being held in the acceptance of death becomes the vehicle for life in the Spirit to work out in practical righteousness. And the Spirit of God goes further. It says, “But if the Spirit of him that has raised up Jesus from among the dead dwell in you, he that has raised up Christ from among the dead shall quicken your mortal bodies also on account of his Spirit which dwells in you,” verse 11. The Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead! I often think of that. Have you ever thought of the millions who lay in their graves when Jesus lay in His grave? Millions lay there, including many who had figured largely in this world’s history, and in their day had been applauded as great men. Well, the Father, for His own glory, raised up from among all those millions, one Man, Jesus. He left the millions in their graves. Why was that? It was just to show the delight He has in Jesus, and that all that man accounts great, or important, or to be desired, is of no value in the sight of God, unless it is what has been learned of Christ and has taken character from Christ. God raised up Jesus from among the dead. He does not intend to have any other man before Him but Jesus, and those who take character from Jesus. And now the Spirit of Him who has done that dwells in us. That means that the more scope He is given by us, the more He will bring our hearts into line with what He has done. We shall increasingly learn to delight in Jesus, and to repudiate all that is not of Christ. Christ being in us, God takes account of us as those who are after Jesus. We are of His order. “But if the Spirit of him that has raised up Jesus from among the dead dwell in you, he that has raised up Christ from among the dead shall quicken your mortal bodies also on account of his Spirit which dwells in you.” The Spirit has taken possession of our bodies, dwelling in us. We go on further still, “So then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to flesh, for if ye live according to flesh, ye are about to die; but if, by the Spirit, ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live,” verses 12, 13.

What a comfort it is to know that we are under no obligation to the flesh. We are under an obligation to God to keep the flesh in its place of death, but we are under no obligation whatever to the flesh. We owe nothing to it. If it is allowed any place at all, it will rob us of our liberty, and God of His portion from us. Therefore, we are debtors not to the flesh. Let us have our minds definitely made up in that direction. “For if ye live according to flesh, ye are about to die,” - that is, die in a moral sense - “but if, by the Spirit, ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live; for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God,” verses 13, 14. Immediately we come to this point through the recognition of the Spirit, we are led right on, not in a fitful way, now and then, and then lapsing into periods of moral death and distance from God, and lack of liberty. There is no such thought in God’s mind for us, but to come to this point, that our minds are fully in accord with God, and our desire, henceforth, is to recognise the Spirit of God. How great is the grace, that this divine Person, co-equal in the Deity with the Father and the Son, should deign to take up His dwelling in us. Think of the privilege of this! “for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.”

“For ye have not received a spirit of bondage again for fear, but ye have received a spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father,” verse 15. That is the direction in which the Spirit of God moves. But here we come to it on experimental lines, that we have now come to the point that we recognise the sinful worthlessness and incurability of the flesh, but we rejoice in the fact that we are no longer in flesh, but in the Spirit, and, as led by the Spirit of God, we have become characteristically and consciously, sons of’ God. What a privilege it is to have liberty with God, to be able to move into the presence of God any time of the day or night in the consciousness of complete acceptance and relationship! In the Spirit we have liberty, and, even greater still, are able to merge with the saints in assembly, and have part in the response of sonship, in the praise of God, which Christ Himself loves to give expression to in the assembly, response which takes character from the Son, and is filled out by the saints in the spirit of sonship. We have the consciousness in our hearts that we love the Father, not only that the Father loves us, but that we love Him, and we cry, “Abba, Father”. Think of the privilege of that! All that is possible now. We are in touch, by these things, with the eternal day. It is specially important that these things can be known and enjoyed in the very scene where Satan’s corrupting and defiling influences are getting worse and worse every day. But in the very presence of the flesh, and in spite of these things, we can have part in this great moral triumph, that in superiority to sin and the flesh, we can be here for the pleasure of God, as His sons.

While what I have been saying is mainly on individual lines, you can see how it issues in assembly privilege and service. Assembly response to God is characteristically the response of sons. It takes character from Him who is the Son, and the language in which it is expressed is the language of the Son of God, “Abba, Father”.

It is wonderful indeed that human hearts such as we have, should be capable, by the Spirit of God, to express themselves in the very same language, and the same, affections and feelings, as found expression in Christ as Man.

Then it goes on to something else. It says, “The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are children of God,” verse 16. We are sons of God, peculiarly for the pleasure of God, and sonship properly belongs to heaven. The condition of sonship is a glorified condition like Christ. This very chapter makes it clear that the condition of sonship is a glorified condition, for it says later on, “awaiting adoption, that is, the redemption of our body.” Adoption is sonship. It is the same word, the same thought. Sonship is viewed in its completeness, and from that point of view, because we are still awaiting sonship in its fulness, it necessitates a glorified body. The place of sonship is heaven, and the condition of sonship is full conformity to Christ. But in the power of the Spirit of adoption, we may enjoy deliverance from the flesh, and liberty with God, and development in the holy feelings of affection that are proper to sons.

Then there is also the thought of children. “The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are children of God,” verse 16. If we are conscious that we love God, the Spirit bears witness to us that that is evidence that we have been born of God. You remember what it says in the first chapter of John’s gospel, “He was in the world, and the world had its being through him, and the world knew him not,” verse 10. There is no power in the natural man to respond to the presentation of God to him. But there were those who received Him. “But as many as received him, to them gave he the right to be children of God, to those that believe on his name; who have been born, not of blood, nor of flesh’s will, nor of man’s will, but of God,” verses 12, 13. That is a most striking statement. If we have believed on the name of the Son of God, it is evident that we have been born of God. So the Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God. John’s epistle speaks of two generations as alive in this world, the children of God, and the children of the devil, and conditions in the world are rapidly becoming such, that the two generations are becoming more and more clearly marked out. It is a great thing to recognise that we are children of God, born of God. We are of God, and it is of the utmost importance that we should keep ourselves. It is urgent that we should be mindful of these things, because of the testimony’s sake. It is a question of those who are born of God, being in the world in testimony to God, bearing the moral features of God, not marked by features of the wicked one. Therefore, as the world becomes increasingly evil, there is all the more urgent need that everyone who is born of God should keep himself. We have the power to do so, so that the wicked one may touch us not.

Think of the immensity of the privilege attaching to us. Christ is God’s appointed Heir of all things, and we, as children of God, are heirs of God. And not only heirs of God, but joint heirs with Christ. The assembly is going to take up everything of Christ’s. “The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are children of God.” That involves heirship of God, and joint heirship with Christ.

God would impress upon us the importance and value of the Spirit of God, first as power in order that we may be completely superior to the influences of sin working through the flesh, and then as witness; and, with the two combined, we become more and more conscious of the dignity attaching to us, and the wealth that belongs to us. We are sons of God and heirs of God. That places us in a greater position than the greatest person could ever be in in this world.

May the Lord help us to understand the service and support of the Spirit of God to a much greater degree, so that, as a result, the service of God in the assembly may be more enhanced, and we may be preserved in victory, as a testimony in this world.

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