"IN CHRIST" - A NEW STATE
“IN CHRIST” — A NEW STATE
The brother who proposed this chapter said what was before him was God’s work in man, and the corresponding responsibility.
Ques What is “In Christ Jesus”?
FER It represents the work of God in us. “If any one be in Christ there is a new creation”. Up to chapter 5 we have the work of God for us, but here, in chapter 8, it is the corresponding work of God in us which becomes the foundation of Christian walk. My walk is according to my state, and my state is according to what God has effected in me. State does not affect the light of God’s purpose in Christ. The object of God’s work in us is that we might answer to God’s purpose in Christ. “In Adam” represents man’s natural state. “In Christ” represents a new state. If it be new creation it must be new state. There are two distinct springs in a Christian, either the flesh, that is himself, or the Spirit of God. We never could answer to what has been done for us save by the work done in us. Condemnation, in verse 1, is taken up from the end of chapter 7. There is condemnation there, a sense of knowing what is right and admitting it, and yet not being able to carry it out, and this brings a sense of condemnation. In human things people admit what is right and do not carry it out, and in that way they condemn themselves. What we get in chapter 8 is the effect of an indwelling Spirit: the Spirit is life. Chapter 7 is the utmost that can be reached by man as man, and that even as being born again. Then in contrast to that, we get in the beginning of chapter 8, “There is ... no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus”. The statement, “There is ... no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus”, must be taken in an absolute way without any condition of walk, and therefore the latter part of verse 1 is better omitted. It is spurious. We are in Christ by the Spirit. “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death”. The condemnation spoken of in verse 1 is in the sense of self-condemnation. Light (which is what we get up to chapter 7) tends to condemn, but there is no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus. What forms Christian state is the Spirit. Every one who has the Spirit is in Christ. The Galatians had the Spirit and so were in Christ, but Christ was not formed in them. The mischief has been that “in Christ” has been made a question of standing. I think it is a mistake. If you come to Headship Christ is the Head of every man. He is not Head of a race. Christ is Head of every man, but there are those distinguished among these who have received the Spirit of Christ. Christ is the Head of every man, and I cannot see where the thought of standing can come in. Christ is also looked at as Head of the body, and also Head of all principality and power, Christ became Head of every man when He had accomplished redemption, and He has taken up that place with the object of imparting living water to those who believe. He does not impart living water to every one, only to those who believe, and what we get in this chapter is the effect of having received living water.
Ques Is there no such thing as standing then?
FER Well, I do not understand what it means, that is all I would say. In verse 2 it is “hath set me free”. In verse 1, “no condemnation to them”. Why? When it is a question of being delivered you must individualise it, “hath set me free”.
Ques How is life looked at here?
FER Well, the Spirit is life. We cannot get actual quickening until Christ comes, and meanwhile the Spirit is life. John 20 is the communication of the Spirit of life. “He breathed into them”. We cannot speak of life until Christ came, and life could not be except by the Spirit of life. “I am come that they might have life”. The beginning of the communication of life was in John 20.
Ques What is the difference between the Spirit of life and the Holy Spirit?
FER It is only a difference of idea, it is the same Spirit. He is sometimes called the Spirit of God, and “the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus”. The “Spirit of him that raised up Christ from the dead” is also called the Holy Spirit. There is a difference between the Spirit of life and the law of it. The sun is one thing and the law of the sun is another. There is the law of gravitation, but that is distinct from the sun itself. Many Christians have received the Spirit of life and do not come under the rule of it. The well in them does not spring up. The rule, the principle of it is that you appreciate Christ, you have done with flesh. You prefer Christ to self-gratification. It is a great point to come under the law of the Spirit of life, then you get the “springing up”. The divine way of putting things right here is the introduction of a new Head. Adam died, man became lawless. He was left without a Head, and then God sets to work to put things right by bringing in a new Head who takes up the liabilities under which man lies. When we appreciate Him we come under the rule of the Spirit of life. We have to condemn what God has condemned. The whole state of man has been condemned in the cross, and we have come to that mind too. John never speaks of the flesh in a moral sense as Paul does in this chapter. The flesh is used here in a technical way, in a moral way. Here we get “The mind of the flesh ... is not subject to the law of God; for neither indeed can it be”. That last statement is one of the most terrible in Scripture. The “law” does not refer to the ten commandments, but is law in the sense of rule or principle of God.
[p. 129] Man was left without a Head when Adam died, and they were lawless for that reason.
Ques Are there not two Heads in Romans 5?
FER Yes, but they are Heads to the same people. Adam was head, and now Christ has come in as Head to the same race to which Adam was head. This chapter (Romans 8) is contrasting flesh and Spirit. In chapter 5 Adam and Christ are contrasted. Now we have a Head (a better Head than Adam) for He has accomplished redemption, and can impart living water. There is a new race as a question of state. The difference between a Christian and an unconverted man is that the Christian has bowed to the Head. Christ is Head to you both, but the Christian who has accepted the Head has received His Spirit. Christ will eventually be the Head of a race which will derive from Him, but meanwhile the race is sifted by the new Head being presented. In 1 Corinthians 15 it is not Headship at all, it is state; “in Christ shall all be made alive”. The first thing the Spirit of life brings in is liberty. Then you get ability to walk according to God. There is a new generation morally, but a new generation is not in virtue of standing and a Head, but a question of having received the Spirit and state. Christ is the Head of every man. When we accept that we receive the Spirit, and the reception of the Spirit puts you in God’s house and the body of Christ. The new generation is all dependent upon the Spirit. Faith recognises Christ as Head, and then we receive the Spirit, and it is the reception of the Spirit which makes all the difference. We accept Christ as Head for righteousness, and then we receive living water.
The living water springs up to bring about what is according to God, that you should be the servant of righteousness unto holiness, that you may reach God’s end which is eternal life. Depend upon it, the Spirit makes all the difference. That is what comes out in the ten virgins; [p. 130] Matthew 25.
AP There is nothing between the flesh and the Spirit.
FER “Springing up” is an energy on the part of the Spirit, but the Spirit may be overlaid. Timothy was exhorted to lay hold on eternal life. He needed a little stirring up to spiritual energy.
AP Our part is to give the Spirit a free hand.
FER Up to verse 11 the Spirit is spoken of as life, after that it is as witness. The flesh and the Spirit cannot go together, and it is consequent upon the condemnation of sin in the flesh that the Spirit is imparted.
Ques What is the substance of the truth in the world?
FER I believe it is the work of the Spirit. It is what is effectuated in saints, and Christianity in its proper character is limited by the work of the Spirit. The Spirit is spoken of in two ways in the chapter: first, as the Spirit of life, and then, secondly, as the Spirit of sonship, and in the latter sense the Spirit is more witness. “Sons” and “children” are almost used interchangeably. If they are led by the Spirit of God they are sons of God. The Spirit witnesses they are the children of God. The Spirit indwells that He may lead. The idea is, if we are indwelt by the Spirit we are led by the Spirit. From verse 11 the great point is the Spirit of sonship. The Spirit of God has come down to identify us with God’s Son. He is the Spirit of God’s Son. The witness identifies those who are the sons of God with the Son of God. Children is more the idea of a new generation here. The generation is really “born of God”. God has no less a thought for us than that of children, sons of God. “Ye are all God’s sons by faith in Christ Jesus”. The apostle in that way could put it before the Galatians, although they did not understand much about it. Here we get the Spirit of sonship; in Ephesians we get the reality of sonship; in Galatians [p. 131] we get the light of sonship. People who have received the Spirit must have some sense of being sealed. The epistle to the Galatians introduces a very large thought — that it is the thought of God to associate the saints with an entirely new system of which Christ is the Head and Centre. It would help people greatly to see that God has opened the door out of the present system that we might be attached to Christ who is the beginning of another system. We can only find out what Christ is by the Spirit of God. The Christianity around is not Christianity at all; all sorts of worldly ways are incorporated into it, there is nothing of the Spirit about it.
It is a very wonderful thing to think that the Spirit is life. The Spirit has taken that place in regard to Christians. He is life in view of righteousness. Think what poor things we are! but we have the Spirit as life in view of righteousness. We thus love God and love Christ and love one another. The body is held as “dead because of sin”. The Spirit is life in the believer. It is “not I, but Christ liveth in me”. It is in view of righteousness in a practical way. The Spirit is in you in order that the body may be dead, that is, that it is not held as the vehicle for lust, etc. It is a very wonderful thing that poor and feeble as I am and liable to death, yet the Spirit in me is life because of righteousness.
The Spirit is our life, and we are waiting for the coming of the Lord when our mortal bodies will be quickened. When Christ is manifested as the life-giving Spirit then we shall be quickened. The outward man perishes, but it is wonderful that the Spirit is life, and that at any moment our mortal bodies may be quickened, and then the body will not be held dead, but it will be very much alive. The body will then in no wise hinder, but will be capable. Meanwhile we are to be capable in affection and to know the Spirit as life.