CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 6
To the end of chapter 5 we have had the objective side, that which is presented for faith; in this and the two following chapters we get the subjective side, that which is effectual in believers in the power of the [p. 69] Spirit. In the one case the truth is from God man-ward, and in the other we see what is from man Godward. It is not the old or first man which enjoys the light that has come out in the earlier chapters. God has presented Himself, and the revelation is complete; but you must have a man that can enjoy the light of the revelation. In chapter 3 the first man is completely dealt with in God’s righteousness, but in so dealing with man in the Person of Christ, God has revealed Himself — His righteousness is declared. In chapter 4 we have the glory of His power, and in chapter 5 His administration through Jesus Christ our Lord; thus the light of God has come out. Then the next question is, how man can live to God, how are we going to enjoy the light of this revelation? There are two things manifestly, two principles, in Scripture, one is revelation, the other is approach; but they are not equivalent. Revelation stands good for every family, but every family is not granted the same ability and privilege of approach.
God has now come out in a way in which He was never known before; Adam as God created him never knew God in this light. To enjoy God in this light there must be a man of a new order; these three chapters (6, 7, 8) solve this point exactly, and two things come out in the three chapters concurrently; one is the elements of what is formative in the believer, and concurrent with that, deliverance. The first thing we have to recognise is that there is only one man before God, for there is only one man out of death, all else are under death, therefore to be alive it must be in that one man, for He only is out of death. The first element then is to count yourself alive to God in Him. The second is that Man is law to you, and not the ten commandments; and the third is, that the Spirit of that Man dwells in you. Those are the three formative elements. Concurrent with that you get deliverance — from sin, from law, and from the power [p. 70] of the flesh. Deliverance and the formative work of the Spirit go hand in hand. You realise deliverance in proportion as you are built up. Risen together with Christ in Colossians really means full deliverance, and quickened together with Him means that you are formed in the divine nature, these go concurrently. So here, you count yourself dead to sin, but concurrent with that alive to God in Christ Jesus. So you have put off the old man and put on the new. All this illustrates the principle, that formative work and deliverance go hand in hand. Deliverance is realised by each in proportion to the work of the Spirit in us. It can be mentally known, only according to the work of the Spirit in a man. Deliverance is deliverance, or it is not worth much — only a term; and it has to be maintained.
Verse 6 states what has been effected for God in order that a certain result might be obtained. “Our old man has been crucified with Christ, in order that the body of sin might be annulled”; the old man has been dealt with in order that God might communicate the Spirit. It is true that there is no mention of the Spirit in the verse, but the annulling of the body of sin is the outcome of the Spirit being there. The old man has come under condemnation with the sin that attached to it, in order that the Spirit might be communicated to the believer; that the body of sin might be annulled, that we should no longer be in bondage to sin. What belongs to the Spirit of God is liberty. Verse 6 gives what is accomplished for God — God condemned sin in the flesh. This is the fulfilment of the type of the brazen serpent. In the death of Christ every type was accomplished. When Christ died, death, in all that death meant, was before God. And so in the type of the passover, all was under the eye of God in the blood. The blood witnessed to judgment having been already executed, therefore the destroying angel could not touch the Israelite. So in [p. 71] chapter 3 everything is accomplished for God, but all is to be administered through Christ. It made room for the introduction of the glory of God in resurrection, and administration is committed to the One who is risen. It laid the ground for the reign of grace. The brazen serpent was for entering into life; God could not bring it in, in the case of Israel, until after the close of the thirty-eight years of testing; but when brought in, it coalesces with the Red Sea and the blood in Egypt. There is no exact type in the Old Testament of God dealing with sin in the abstract. The New Testament is greater in its scope than the Old.
The “we” of verse 2 are those who have died to sin. It is in that sense hypothetical — such of us who have. Such of us who have died to sin, how shall we live any longer in it? It really sets forth proper christian position in respect of sin. It shows the impossibility, it is more than inconsistency, of those who have died to sin living any longer in it. The statement in this verse is hypothetical, not absolute. We may call it “experimental”, and if not so it means nothing. When we come to verse 6 you count yourself dead, and alive in Christ Jesus, you cannot take up one side without the other. If you do not count yourself alive to God in Christ Jesus, you will not count yourself dead to sin. Few of us realise the state of things as regards this world — that there is but one Man out of death. People would think very differently about the world and the course of things down here if they realised that there is one Man out of death, and all else are dead. And that Man is the only point of life, for “if one died for all, then were all dead”. They were dead before, and the death of Christ proved them to be so; but there is one Man out of death, and we can reckon ourselves alive to God in Him. This is all the effect and power of the Spirit. This chapter answers to the type of the bitter waters of [p. 72] Marah. They have to be drunk, but the tree has been cast into the waters; that is, Christ has come into death, and has thus made known God’s love, and the bitter waters have become sweet. Christ has died to sin literally and lives to God. He has taken that ground, not that He needed to take it for Himself, but He has taken it so as to furnish a ground for us. Through the Spirit’s power the christian lives in a life that is outside of flesh, but it is a serious thing to live in a scene where all are found to be dead, and only One is actually out of death — that is Christ.
We have the elements in these chapters. This sixth chapter simply introduces us to what is initial. The point we reach here is, that you count yourself alive to God in Christ Jesus.
The force of the words in verse 3, “unto his death”, is that in baptism you are identified with His death, not only so, but buried with Him, put out of sight. No man is prepared to accept death until he sees that Christ came into death; His having come there changes the whole aspect of it. How could any man think to accept death until Christ came into it? it would be ruin to him. We see how Hezekiah and saints in the Old Testament clung to life here in this world. But when Christ came into death, Satan must have seen that it was all up with his power, because if Christ went into death He must surely come out of it. He could not be holden of death. It is important to see that when God takes up man down here, He takes him up where he is. Death is upon man. That is the position of man. How is he going to have to say to God, or how is God to have to say to him, but through death? You are still alive actually, but you are buried with Christ by baptism unto death, so that no more of you shall be seen. There is an end of us as to what we were in this world.
The glory of the Father is the new platform, the starting-point of everything; the glory of the Father [p. 73] claimed Christ when He had gone into death. It is the ground of our walk. “That like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also should walk in newness of life”. The great point in the resurrection is, not simply that the believer may be conscious that he is justified, but that in the extremity of his weakness he may know the power of God. We have limited ideas of God’s purpose in the gospel, the great point with God is that man should be delivered from the bondage of sin; and it is the righteousness of God which really sets a man free not only from the guilt of sin but from the bondage of sin; this comes out in the latter part of this chapter. The first part of the chapter shows how you are going to be maintained in the position, but the latter part of the chapter shows how you have been set free at the outset, that is by the righteousness of God. “Being made free from sin” is a positive statement, and you have become the servants of righteousness. A man gets the sense of it when he submits to the righteousness of God. In preaching the righteousness of God, if you got the true idea of it, you would see that the presentation of God’s righteousness is not merely that a man may be justified, though that is the beginning, but that he may be set free from the bondage of sin. The object of God in the gospel is to establish links between the soul and Himself, and in order to establish such links He must break the bondage. He sees man held in bondage, and His thought is to set man free in order to form links between that man and Himself. The first is by righteousness, and the second by resurrection, for if a man apprehends the power of God coming in to take a Man out of death and to give Him glory, he says, I can hope in God. While I realise my own weakness I can hope in God who raises the dead. In that way the link of hope is formed between the soul of man and God. Thus God is not only free to carry out His own [p. 74] purposes, but He has brought man to the point where he can receive everything He has to give him. We arrive so little at the true thought of God; our great idea is that man shall have forgiveness of sins, and perhaps the gift of the Spirit; but God’s thought is that man should be delivered from the bondage in which he is, and that a link may be formed between his soul and Himself. So with Israel, not only “I am come down to deliver them”, but God will bring them to Himself.
Verse 7 is a statement that any man who is dead is justified from sin. You could not talk of the activities of sin in a man who is dead. Suppose a man executed for murder, it is all over with him, he is out of the scene of sin’s activity, he is justified from sin. J.N.D. used to say you could not charge a sinful will and evil lusts on a dead man.
It is a very great point to apprehend where you begin anew, “alive to God in Christ Jesus”. It is our beginning that we have in this chapter. Our beginning is undoubtedly very small, a reckoning is not a very great beginning, but that is all that you have in this chapter. Man, naturally, is on the line of Adam, but the christian counts himself alive to God in Christ Jesus. The reckoning is doubtless made by the power of the Holy Spirit, for the preceding chapter supposes the presence of the Spirit in the believer, the love of God is shed abroad in the heart. We do not get the Spirit mentioned in this chapter, for it presents contrasts; so too in the next chapter, the contrast is that you have become dead to law, but Christ has become law to you. Then in chapter 8 the Spirit is in contrast to the flesh. In this chapter the contrast is between sin and God. Faith is not prominent here, because the truth refers to the state of the believer. We are not usually called on to believe anything about ourselves. In the objective part of the epistle we have faith, “access by faith”, etc., but [p. 75] on the subjective side it is knowing and reckoning. The wonderful thing is that in reckoning yourself alive to God in Christ Jesus, you can take account of God in His righteousness. You can dare to be before God in the presence of His righteousness. In Christ man lives to God according to the righteousness of God, and so the christian can reckon. This subjective side in chapter 6 is based upon the objective truth of chapter 3, for if you reckon yourself alive to God, it is according to His righteousness. To get the complete thought of deliverance you must take the three chapters together. The subject is divided into chapters, but it is really all continuous. In this chapter you are attached to God, in the next you are attached to Christ — married to another — and in the succeeding chapter it is not that you are attached to the Spirit, that could not be, but you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, and the Spirit is life. Chapter 7 is that that Man is law to us, and in chapter 8 His Spirit is life in us.
We have to a large extent avoided, I think, drinking the waters of Marah. It has been pointed out many a time that they were the brackish waters of the Red Sea. Not the waters of Jordan, but of the Red Sea. They set forth the death that is upon man here: wherever you look, in every direction you see that death is upon man, but man cannot, dare not, drink the waters of Marah, because apart from Christ he has nothing beyond; but the tree having been cast into the waters they have become sweet, because Christ’s death is the way out of death into life. It is Christ coming into death which has opened the way into life. When we see that, there is no difficulty in accepting death, for it becomes deliverance to us, it is our servant, and on the other side we reckon ourselves alive to God in Christ Jesus. The soul can now take account of God in His righteousness, and, as set free from the bondage of sin, we are the fruit of His [p. 76] righteousness according to the purpose of His love. It is a point of vital moment that we can reckon ourselves alive to God in the presence of His righteousness. The point of declaring His righteousness was not merely that the believer might be justified, but that be might be delivered from the bondage of sin. Bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus is the outcome of drinking the waters of Marah; that is undoubtedly the working out of it.
Jordan does not come into Romans. We get it in Colossians. It involves change of place, and so brings in resurrection. We get death in view of resurrection. Israel came up out of Jordan with the ark of the covenant — the type of risen with Christ. The ark of the covenant went into Jordan first, but the people followed it out of Jordan as risen together with Christ. It is transplanting you on to heavenly ground, not, as in the Red Sea, to bring you into the wilderness, but you leave the wilderness and take heavenly ground in association with the ark of the covenant. In the epistle to the Romans we are looked at as in individuality, not in the place of association with Christ. Romans does not really conduct us beyond the plains of Moab. In the first part of chapter 8 you have the brazen serpent (verses 3), and in the latter what corresponds to Balaam’s effort to curse met by the God that justifies His elect. When we come to chapter 8 we shall see that the teaching is not of what is wrought in you, but that you have everything in the Spirit, you are not a debtor to the flesh. These chapters do not give us exactly the formative work of the Spirit, but the elements of it. It is elementary in that sense; for instance, in this chapter you get the thought of the second Man — that is an element, and you reckon yourself alive in Him. Then in chapter 7 Christ is law to us — that is another element, but then it is only stated as an element, it has to be made good in the soul. The great point in chapter 8 is that you are not [p. 77] a debtor to the flesh, but that you have everything in the Spirit. The beauty of these chapters is in that they give you what is true of every christian, for every christian has the elements, but every christian has not the formative work of the Spirit. We see this in the Galatians, they had all the elements, but after all Christ was not formed in them. All was theirs, but it was not wrought out in their souls by the Holy Spirit. They had come to Christ Jesus, they had begun with that Man. The Son of God had been brought before them by the apostle as One who loved them and gave Himself for them, and they had the Spirit, so that they certainly had all the elements.
Verse 8, “If we be dead with Christ we believe that we shall also live with him”. If you have died with Christ, it is the proof that you have faith, you would not accept death if you had not faith that you would live with Him.
Verses 12 - 14. It is a great comfort that we have a statement of that kind, “sin shall not have dominion over you”. It is a very encouraging statement, because grace is grace. Grace comes in to prevent a man from being brought again into bondage to sin. We are not left to our own resources, but should come boldly to the throne of grace to obtain mercy and find grace for seasonable help. The service of the priest and the throne of grace is that you should not sin. It is well to remember what we have had before, that it is of the last moment to see that the great object which God has in the gospel is the forming of links between the soul and Himself. In order to do this He delivers man from bondage, and then links the soul with Himself that man’s hope may be in God. Man must be a pardoned sinner, but the end of God is that he might be set free, and the soul, in all the sense of its weakness, be linked with the power of God. And it is a wonderful thing to be able to dwell in the presence of the righteousness of God, and not [p. 78] to be appalled by it, for He has made it known that He might deliver us from the bondage of sin, but not for our own will, but to be in bondage to God, and that is the most blessed thing that a man can be brought to.
We have to look these two great elements in the face — one is bondage, and the other weakness, both the effect of sin. It is a great thing to take them into account, and to see how God has ordered everything: in regard to the one — to deliver, and in regard to the other — to give hope.