OCTOBER 5TH, 1892

OCTOBER 5TH, 1892

The questions which you have heard raised are not very formidable ones. As regards my having said that Christ died to law — I have heard it said ever since I came into fellowship — Christ was made under law. He bore the curse in being hanged on a tree, and by death He passed out of its application and curse, and in resurrection He entered on a condition of life as man to which law does not apply. “The law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth”, and Paul had died to law in being crucified with Christ. I do not pretend to speak with inspired accuracy, but I think to say that “Christ has died to law” sufficiently expresses one’s sense of the truth. I suppose the objector would hardly say He has not died to law.

As to the other question, the thought of Christ living in him is, it appears to me, individualised by Paul. I admit the title of every believer to reckon himself alive to God in Christ; and in his having the Spirit of Christ, Christ is his life, and in principle it is true that Christ is in him, as he is in Christ; but what I understand by Christ living in Paul is that he was so practically in the realisation of death to all that in which flesh lives, that Christ in the power of the Spirit was the spring in him of affections, thoughts, desires, of all in which life morally consists. I do not think this is true of every christian. I do not think it was so with the Galatians, but it is the proper christian state.