INDIANAPOLIS DECEMBER 1925, READING (1)
INDIANAPOLIS DECEMBER 1925, READING (1)
Romans 5:5; Romans 8:1 - 17; Exodus 17:1 - 8; Numbers 21:16 - 25
RSS The exercise of the local brethren here was that we might have something on the truth of the assembly, leading into the first two chapters of Colossians and Ephesians.
GWH-n Colossians is intermediate, lying between the marvellous truth of reconciliation and the glory of Christ in the first chapter, and reconciliation and all that follows upon it would greatly help the entering into the purpose of God in Ephesians; and I am sure every one of us would greatly desire not only to be intelligent, but to answer at the present time to the mind of God in the purposes of His love. It would seem that in Colossians it is Christ all in all — the wonderful provision for the believer in passing from earth to heaven entering into his heavenly privilege. We will never be afforded the privilege again, as we have been hearing in our brother’s prayer, of answering to the mind of God in a hostile scene, and I am sure we all greatly desire to answer to that now.
RSS You wished to say a word on the Spirit?
JT Yes, to link on the epistle to the Romans with what has been suggested. The Spirit is only mentioned once in Colossians, and not to call attention to Himself, but to say that there was love in the Spirit; chapter 1:8. In order to understand Colossians and Ephesians we have to learn how to acquire territory. The Israelites began to acquire territory before they actually entered into Canaan. As we see in this chapter they took the [p. 228] cities and dwelt in them. Otherwise, these scriptures, great as they are, will only be light to us, presenting what is in the mind of God for us, but we have not acquired anything subjectively.
RSS ‘These scriptures’ — to which do you refer?
JT Colossians and Ephesians. Romans involves acquirement of territory — not indeed territory that one has to live in permanently, but nevertheless there is the principle of acquiring and living in what you have acquired, which is more than simply having the light of the thing.
WM Would the acquirement be seen in Romans 8, and the enjoyment in Romans 5:5?
JT I think Romans 5 is from the side of administration. The love of God is shed abroad in the heart by the Spirit and becomes the basis, I think, of what follows. So there are those who love God in chapter 8. There I have acquired something. The love has become active in the believer — he loves God.
WM You view chapter 5 from the divine side and chapter 8 from our side?
GWH-n Yes, In the fifth administratively the love of God is shed abroad in your heart (chapter 5:5); in chapter 8:28, “All things work together for good to them that love God”.
JT Yes, the love of God has become active in them, and I think that would correspond somewhat with Numbers 21.
WM Do you mean we come into life before we reach actual heavenly territory?
JT Just so. We have to learn to live, and to live in acquired territory. They lived, as you will observe, “Israel took all these cities, and Israel dwelt in all the cities of the Amorites”.
WM That is, while they were still in the wilderness.
JT Before they actually entered Canaan. Before we come to Colossians we have to learn war, and in [p. 229] learning war to overcome, and in overcoming to take possession, and in taking possession to dwell in the thing that we acquire by our own prowess.
AFM Would that be life in connection with power rather than in connection with privilege? They acquired territory on the wilderness side of the Jordan.
JT Quite. The Spirit is life — power in the soul.
GWH-n So that in possessing territory the believer would say here upon the earth, “What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31). He has already possessed.
JT Just so. There is the sense of victory. In Romans 8 there is no thought of defeat, so that the believer is in that way prepared for what Colossians opens up, and particularly Ephesians, because Ephesians is conflict.
A.M.H. What is territory?
JT It largely lies in love. Romans 8 opens up the purpose of God for the individual believer, and entering into this by the Spirit is the acquirement of territory.
AMH So that the territory suggested in Romans is the mind and love of God towards you.
JT And that one answers to them. Romans is not Canaan; it is what takes place in the believer — the displacement of the flesh by the Spirit. By the Spirit he says, Abba, Father, and he loves God. Formation has taken place. Where the difficulty lies with most believers is in the want of formation.
Ques What is set forth in the digging of the well?
JT Fleshly hindrances are removed, and the Spirit is formally recognised; from that point there is a going forward. There had been a going forward earlier in the chapter and there is reference to the wars of the Lord, but no acquired territory — no conflict and therefore no acquired territory, and hence [p. 230] no dwelling.
AFM Would you just say a word about the connection between Romans 5 and Exodus 17?
JT Well, the early part of Romans contemplates the judgment of God. Exodus 17 is the Spirit given from the standpoint of the judgment of God on man, borne vicariously by Christ. God said that He would be there at the rock Himself and Moses was to have the rod with him. It is a question of divine authority. I look at the Holy Spirit as the wealth of heaven come administratively, but then I ought to look at Him too as come, and only come, on the ground of the sufferings of Christ — that it cost Him the smiting of God.
Rem The smitten rock was the type of this.
JT Numbers 20 speaks of the rock also, but there should have been no smiting. It was rather the question of the character of the dispensation. The Holy Spirit is given in answer to speaking — it is a question of speaking, but we have to learn before that that it cost the sufferings of Christ. He was smitten.
Rem “They drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:4).
JT Just so. What is emphasised in this chapter (Exodus 17) is smiting. Even in the conflict later the rod of God is in the hand of Moses. It is a question of the authority of God.
JB-t Is there not a connection between the Red Sea and the smiting of the rock?
JT Yes, it is all a question of divine authority, and what is due to God. The Red Sea is death dealt with, but the smiting of the rock is more Christ Himself. The smiting of the Red Sea is God disposing of death in the resurrection of Christ; but the smitten rock involves the sufferings of Christ and hence it touches the heart — that the Lord had to be smitten. If I have the Spirit, the Lord had [p. 231] to be smitten.
AMH It appeals to one’s affections — that the Lord has not only suffered to extricate us from Egypt, but He had to suffer in order that the Spirit might be given, the Spirit which would lead us into what is of God. He stands upon the rock here.
JT Going out of Egypt was not a question of thirst. Here it is thirst; they murmured and complained against Moses because they thirsted. Of course the dividing of the Red Sea typifies the death and resurrection of Christ, but it was to destroy him who had the power of death and to deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
Ques Has a believer to know the love of God come into his soul and filling it before he can make any headway?
JT Yes, “Tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope; and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us” (Romans 5:3 - 5). All that, I think, corresponds with Exodus 15, Exodus 16 and Exodus 17, but Numbers 21 has to do with chapters 7 and 8. Chapters 6, 7 and 8 present the truth from our side. Chapter 8 shows the believer taking possession of divinely-given territory.
Ques Is it important to apprehend in the beginning in some measure the sufferings of Christ as the ground on which the Spirit is given It is. It touches the heart to know that He had to be smitten. It was to meet the need of the soul, but then, the need of the soul being met by the Spirit, brings in another thing, and that is the enemy attacks. Satan attacks now through the flesh, so that the young believer begins to learn war. This is where he begins to learn it. God would not lead the Israelites by the way of the Philistines because they had not learned war, but now they have got to learn [p. 232] it; they can not escape doing so. That is a most important thing for young believers — that you cannot escape learning war, but you begin it in yourself.
AFM That is Amalek. That is very important. There is no outside attack until what is inside is overcome.
GAT When do I get the Spirit and the power to meet this as a young believer?
JT It is when you get the Spirit that the attack comes. It was after the rock was smitten and the people drank that Amalek attacked. You are already furnished, but the thing is to see the power and to know the combination of circumstances under which it is used; first, Moses takes the rod and goes to the top of the hill. It is still the rod of God.
GWH Reference here is to the rod with which he smote the river. That is not the sea, because it does not appear that he smote the sea, but he went out and smote the river. “Behold, I will smite with the rod that is in mine hand upon the waters which are in the river” (Exodus 7:17), and that is the allusion, I thought, here. I wondered what was the significance in alluding to it that way.
JT I think it is a question of divine authority.
GWH Exercised over the river in the first case.
AMH The death of Christ changes the whole aspect and now the people thirst. They had been brought by the same rod through the Red Sea, but now the supplies no longer meet the requirements.
EGMcA Is that because we are on new territory? It needs a different kind of supply.
AMH You have got the beginning of another life to satisfy.
AL Is Numbers 21 connected with life in the believer?
JT It is. The thought of life is introduced earlier in the chapter. He who looks lives.
AL He is not said to be [p. 233] cured.
JT No, he lives, and then he moves forward and we have a reference to the book of the wars of the Lord (verse 14), meaning that there is a book in which military records are kept, exploits recorded. It is an encouragement to the believer that note is taken of the war. And then Beer comes into evidence and the Holy Spirit is, in type, formally recognised by a song.
AL It is striking that both in Romans and in Numbers ‘springing’ is the thought. There seems to be the springing up of life — the springing up to eternal life in Romans, and here “Spring up, O well”, so that immediately they begin to move toward the land.
JT That is a great point, I think. The life is taken account of earlier in the chapter and then the principle of the springing up, and a song; now the believer sees that he has a power whereby he may cope with all comers.
AL And that power is said to be in him.
WM Turning back to Exodus 17 again, do you think the introduction of Joshua would correspond with Galatians — that it is hardly the normal work of the Spirit, but a necessity work — the Spirit is against the flesh?
JT Yes, I think that there you come in contact with Christ for the first time as the Leader into Canaan. You are becoming accustomed to what will develop later into more extensive warfare. The knowledge of Joshua from this point of view has to be acquired early.
WM At the very beginning evidently.
JT It is a great thing, Christ known as the spiritual Leader, so that, although Galatians is not a normal condition, you have got sight of Joshua and that leads to what is normal.
WM He appears very briefly on the scene here.
JT If you get a sight of Joshua an element is introduced that serves you later. It will come in later, because Joshua is the hidden leader — Christ [p. 234] known in a hidden way as the spiritual Leader of His people to put them into possession of their divine inheritance.
AFM I notice there is a book in connection with Exodus 17. It says, “And the Lord said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua, for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven” (verse 14).
JT These are the elements that enter into the beginning of conflict in the believer. He has got his eye on Joshua, but then there is Moses with the rod. He has got the rod of God in his hand on high. There is Aaron and there is Hur. These all enter into the beginning of conflict in the believer. He learns war under the most favourable circumstances.
Rem You were saying that the Spirit sheds the love of God abroad in our hearts. He shows you that God is for you.
JT You see the believer is learning. Joshua has come into his view and then the announcement of what is recorded in the book. That is a permanent thing to be referred to later. Anything recorded in a book is to be referred to later; it remains and the record is that Jehovah will make war with Amalek from generation to generation (verse 16). There the believer is set up on the principle of warfare, and there is to be no cessation of it. War with Amaek is to go on and God is doing it, so that there is no possibility of defeat; hence “Joshua discomfited Amalek”; then the altar is reared up, meaning, “The Lord my banner” (verse 15). Therefore, I fight on those lines and there is victory.
WM Evidently the Galatians were tired of the conflict and wanted a quicker way out of it.
EGMcA Who do you say Amalek represents?
JT I think it is Satan attacking me through the flesh.
AFM My flesh or that of [p. 235] somebody else?
JT My own flesh. The conflict begins in the believer.
RSS Is that Galatians 5?
JT Galatians indicates, as our brother remarked, an abnormal state. They should have gone on to heavenly conflict. There it is “The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other; so that ye cannot do the things that ye would” (Galatians 5:17). That is a poor state if it continues. Note, the flesh lusteth — it is active; this does not mark a spiritual person; he puts to death his members which are on the earth — he has it done.
RSS But is Galatians 5:17 not true of us?
JT No doubt, but it is not a victorious state of things; it does not indicate the thing as it is in this chapter. A banner is set up. The Galatians had not the banner up. They were admitting the flesh; they were allowing it and making provision for it, and that was not the banner. God was warring with that thing from generation to generation and they were not warring with it.
WM Reducing the energy of the Spirit to the lowest possible place.
JB-t There was no sense of victory.
JT They were recognising the flesh instead of warring against it. The Spirit was against it, so that they should not do the things they desired. It was a question of living and walking by the Spirit.
JB-t You were speaking about Satan being behind the flesh. Sometimes one is apt to look at the flesh without the enemy who is behind it — the power of Satan, would you say?
JT Just so.
EGMcA You remarked earlier that the rod with which Moses smote the rock represented the authority of God. How do you connect that with the Spirit being given to me? I would like to get hold of how [p. 236] I recognise the authority of God over me before I come to the place where I begin to follow voluntarily.
JT That is most important, because there is a sense of wholesome fear in the soul as you recognise the authority of God. It preserves us from looseness and lawlessness; that it is not simply that the Holy Spirit in me is endeavouring to check the flesh, but I am responsible to God that the flesh should be checked and I have got a fear if it is not.
AL So that in Numbers they were digging and singing. There was power and joy in it.
JT And it was at the direction of the lawgiver. The principle of law or authority is always there.
AL That scripture quoted in Galatians is not normal Christianity, is it?
JT That is what I thought. It is an abnormally low state of things. The apostle says, “They that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts” (Galatians 5:24). That is normal Christianity. What I have crucified has no power to act.
AL We have to recognise that “Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4). If we have to meet Amalek, he is a weak person compared with the Spirit of God. We want to be in the digging line as well as in the singing line.
JT There is the authority of God in Moses’ rod, but then there is alongside of that the uplifted hands of Moses, and with that the grace of the priest. There is intercession and the grace of the priest in Aaron, and then there is personal purity in Hur. All these things combined set the believer out in the most favourable circumstances in war.
AFM And Joshua as leader.
JT Yes. He has come in as the spiritual leader of the people.
AMH Aaron and Hur suggest our laying hold of what is found in the Lord. There the saints begin to apprehend what can be received from [p. 237] the Lord.
JT Aaron would no doubt suggest the grace that the soul is conscious of in all this, but with all that, you need personal purity.
AMH “Lifting up holy hands” (1 Timothy 2:8) and all that sort of thing. I like what you said about fear. It is an element we perhaps do not give enough attention to. His authority and power are exercised in government. Apart from that, we would drift into thinking that the Spirit is going to carry us through things without exercise on our side.
JT I think it brings a moral element into the soul.
GAT A great many are very clear as to forgiveness of sins, but not so many are clear about this question. If you raise the question as to whether they have got the Spirit, they are not just so clear in answering. Why is that?
JT I think very few understand conflict. No doubt there is the working of the flesh, but the combination of things that God has instituted whereby I am to meet all this is not understood, so that Exodus 17 is most important for young Christians.
AMH No doubt this conflict also comes to some extent from without, that is, the enemy manoeuvres things to appeal to us, or to bring about a state of fear and discouragement. Especially would he cause us to fear, perhaps, to confess the Lord. Then we do not find salvation; we do not get the help of the Spirit.
AFM It would help the older ones of us, too, if we saw that this warfare does not cease.
JT I think the banner that is reared up would mean that I am on that line of warfare. God will make war with Amalek — it is God announcing that He will not admit of Amalek. He will help the saint at all times against Satan working through his flesh. You can count on God. Even the oldest of us have to humbly admit that the thing is there; that Satan [p. 238] attacks us through the flesh. Well, God says, I will help you.
AL Is Amalek not rather different from the flesh in us? Is it not in connection with the children of Israel in their progress toward the land? Is Amalek not God’s enemy?
JT He is, but he represents that feature of Satan’s operations — he works through the flesh.
AL I see that, only I thought the flesh lusting against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, was rather different from Amalek.
JT In the type it is Satan acting through the flesh. He comes in early in the believer’s history. Many do not admit it, you know. Many of us do not admit the constant conflict there is and the defeats, not seeing that God has provided a combination of things which insure victory if they are adhered to. The first is the authority of God as we have in Romans 7:25: “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord”. It is through Jesus Christ our Lord. Deliverance is in that way.
HBW Do you think that it is the mind of the Lord that we should be educated in warfare in this way — not an offensive, but defensive warfare, so that we might learn the resources? Then do you think we would go on, perhaps, to offensive warfare?
JT That is the thing, I am sure, so that the young believer graduates into “A good soldier of Jesus Christ” (2 Timothy 2:3).
HBW I thought perhaps the Lord allowed the enemy to come up so that we could prove all He could be for us.
JT Obviously. Then you discover all these things — the authority of God over your soul that keeps you in His fear. You say, It is the flesh, but nevertheless I am responsible and I may suffer if I do not judge it. But then there is the priestly grace of Christ, and I think Hur would be purity. The [p. 239] element of purity, or holiness, is always present, so that you begin to abhor the thing that is there.
RSS Prayer is frequently connected in Scripture with that condition of soul. “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me” (Psalm 66:18). Is it not rather remarkable that Exodus 17 and Numbers 21 both come in answer to murmuring? They chided with Moses because they had not water to drink, and then Numbers 21 begins much in the same way. They were discouraged, and God’s answer to all that was the gift of the Spirit.
JT So that when you come to Numbers 21 the discouragement by the way brings out speaking against God and against Moses. This is a most serious situation and comes in at the end of the wilderness. It shows how incorrigible the flesh is after all this experience of warfare with it. It nevertheless is there and we have to see that it is dealt with — not only that I have power to compete with it, but that it is dealt with judicially. The thing itself is dealt with by God. Not simply is He warring with it; He is dealing with the thing effectively and finally in the uplifting — not now of His rod, but the uplifting of the Son of man. He reminds us in Numbers 21 that the thing has to be dealt with in relation to the source whence sin originated, not simply what man is, but the source, because the allusion is to Genesis 3. Now we are going back to the beginning. You see, in Numbers 21 we are going back to the beginning of things. “The devil sinneth from the beginning”, John says (1 John 3:8). We have got to go back to the source of the thing and see whence it has come.
AFM What are these fiery serpents? “The Lord sent fiery serpents among the people” (Numbers 21:6).
JT I suppose they would represent the power of Satan in a most effective way, to bring home to the people what sin is. How few of us have any idea of [p. 240] what sin is! I do something — well, I have done that and it is right that I should own it, but what is sin, and whence is it? These are questions that have to be faced.
AFM Here it is that Israel is bitten. I suppose it is an important time in our histories when we realise what that bite is.
JT And whence it is.
WM It is more the origin of it.
EGMcA Would you say that in Exodus 17 I might be occupied by overcoming things in myself, but when I come to Numbers 21 I begin to see what sin is from God’s side?
JT You gradually come to see it in relation to God.
WM Do you not think that the point in question is the assurance of complete victory? The conditions of victory are established by the death of Christ, and with the priesthood of Aaron, the purity of Hur, and the power of Joshua on the scene, conditions are established to insure victory. In Numbers it is more experimental.
JT Just so. They realise what sin is — a most important thing — so the Lord in John brings this in, because He would have the believer clear as to everything. He is born anew, but then He says, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up” (John 3:14). That takes up this passage here and Genesis 3. He groups these things together in teaching Nicodemus. Nicodemus ought to have known, of course, but he did not, and the Lord is grouping things together to show how God has dealt with sin in its source. The thing is dealt with not only in what I may have proved in myself, but what it is in itself. God has dealt with sin according to what it is in itself, you see, going back to the source of it.
WM The whole element is dealt with.
AL [p. 241] You say that this refers to the serpent?
JT That is the reference. It is to take you back to Genesis 3.
AL Moses in the wilderness lifted up the serpent. We get back to the source of sin and the one in whom it existed.
JT So that the believer now, you see, has come into the light of the Spirit in Numbers 21. He has arrived, typically, at an understanding of what sin is in its enormity — God taking it back to its source — and that it is dealt with effectively in the Son of man lifted up.
AL And the striking thing is that the one who lived is the one who looked. First of all they were bitten. We have to be bitten, have we not? We have to know what the serpent’s bite is.
JT You have to feel the thing in its terribleness. When Moses spoke to the Lord of the people not believing him (Exodus 4:1), the Lord said, “What is that in thine hand?” “Cast it on the ground” (Exodus 4:2,3). Moses released his hold on the rod; it went on the ground and it became a serpent — a terrible thing. There the thing is; it is before your eyes in its enormity. It is not simply that man is wicked; the thing is there in its nakedness. The thing that I am tempted by is there before my eyes in its awfulness.
AMH That is the thing that has been condemned so that all our activity might be found in divine things.
JT That was what I was thinking; when we come to see what sin is in itself and that we have been an instrument of it, we loathe ourselves. 1 Timothy 1:13 shows how Paul judged himself in this way.
WM And so freedom from it lies in the Spirit.
AFM If you follow the type further, the next thing is, “Put now thine hand into thy bosom” (Exodus 4:[p. 242] 6).
JT There you get the other thing. You get at the heart of God, for the Spirit of God does not leave us simply with what is negative, so then the next thing is, “Put now thine hand into thy bosom”. Well, he puts it into his bosom and he pulls it out. It is leprous — a most hideous thing. God shows us what sin is in its activity in the serpent and in its hideousness and uncleanliness in leprosy.
WM It comes out in a leprous hand.
JT Yes, think what an awful thing it is — God presenting it before your eyes in its worst features!
WM A serpent and a leper are two of the worst things you can think of.
JT The next thing is he puts it in again and takes it out and “It was turned again as his other flesh” (Exodus 4:7). The bosom would speak of love. John’s gospel brings out the heart of God. God is the source of all that is good and blessed, whereas Satan is the source of all that is wicked, so we see the two things in their workings.
AMH God wants us to have a hand. We ought to have power here, but the power of the Spirit — not the power that is directed by Satan. In regard to activities, we are not to be influenced by evil. God has judged the whole state of sin in the flesh (Romans 8:3).
JT It comes out here. As you say, if I take my hand out of the bosom, that hand is to be an evidence of what is within. I know God now; I know his heart; I love Him, and my hand is used accordingly.
AMH In sending His Son, the love of God is expressed.
JT John says, “The only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him” (John 1:18). That is the heart of God; the Son has declared Him as in His bosom.
AMH Do you think we have these two elements to help us? First, the authority of God operative in [p. 243] your conscience. If the conscience is not regulated, a man would go wrong, but we are not all conscience. We have a heart, and there you need the love of God to take possession. Do you think those two things would be a safeguard — authority bearing on the conscience and the love of God satisfying the heart?
JT So here it is, “God sending his own Son”; very touching!
AMH “In the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh”.
JT The Spirit is the power henceforth. You have the heart of God now. He has dealt with sin in its source — “sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh”. It is condemned in the flesh, and now the Spirit is brought out in Romans 8 as the power — like the hand brought out of the bosom. Then He works in that relation, bringing out what is good and blessed.
AMH So you exercise in relation to God what is produced in the Spirit.
EGMcA Then is it not this power that I become occupied with and so take territory?
JT That was what I was thinking. In the passage we read it says, “Ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father”. That is what the believer is saying. Now that involves that I have acquired territory; I have come into relationship with God and I know it. It is not simply light to me; I am crying “Abba, Father”. In Galatians 4:6 it says, “God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father”. The Spirit Himself says it there, but in Romans we say it by the Spirit. It is from our side, and that is what I take to be acquired territory. I am now dwelling in the thing I have come into subjectively.
HD The Spirit is the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of adoption; (chapter 5:15).
[p. 244] Having the Spirit involves that you are like Christ and you enjoy divine love in the relationship of sons to the Father.
JT In Romans 8 I not only see that God is my Father, but by the Spirit of adoption I am crying, “Abba, Father”.
WM It is stupendous.
AL That is also connected with life.
JT Well, you are brought into the family; you are consciously in family relationships.
GAT Does this refer to those who are advanced or does it refer to young Christians?
JT I think this is the normal way in which the believer as a believer comes into the truth, comes into acquired territory. He learns to acquire territory.
JB-t The soul would begin with the love of God shed abroad in the heart.
JT That is the basis subjectively of what follows.
AFM Do we have to go through Romans 5 to 8 before we are conscious that we have the Spirit?
JT Yes; we are thus characterised by Him. Chapter 7 is very important, because it is where we learn to deal with things inside of us.
Rem The difficulty with young believers would come in there.
JT The seventh is perhaps the most complex of all Scripture, but it is intelligible because of the things that are within me. Understanding this chapter, I deal with sin in my members with authority; I know what it is, and that God has condemned it. Deliverance is through Jesus Christ our Lord.
EGMcA Do we not get help in chapter 8 in the word ‘we’? As a young Christian I might be occupied with my struggle as an individual, but “We cry Abba, Father”. It was the children of Israel who took possession of the cities. God brings me in His love in touch with those where His love is known and [p. 245] enjoyed.
AMH The young believer draws his support from that source; the Spirit is given and he is replenished. I mean in that way he is able to go into the conflict, knowing there is both food and water here before him.