CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 7
Chapters 6, 7 and 8 show the way of deliverance. Apart from what we get in these chapters there could not be a way of deliverance. This chapter really applies to all, Jew or gentile; for though the gentile is not formally under the system called law, yet as knowing it, he is under it practically as a principle of subjection to God. We are not, as christians, under the first covenant, but we are duly subject to Christ. Christ is law to us, so the apostle speaks: “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ”. We are not off the ground of individual responsibility in this epistle. New creation is involved in chapter 8: 1, but the idea in these chapters is hardly that of new creation, but that you are brought to walk in moral superiority to the whole scene of death here, as the Lord did. It is like Peter leaving the boat to walk on the water to Jesus. These chapters depict what the christian is to be here. The law from which we are delivered is the bond which existed, at all events for the Jew, under the first covenant; but when we come to the new bond, the gentile is just as much in it as the Jew. It is “the law of liberty”, and in the new bond, the righteous requirements of the old bond are carried out in the power of the Spirit.
[p. 79] There are three steps in deliverance. The first is (to use the figure of Peter leaving the boat) that you leave the ship (earthly religious order) to walk on the water. The second is, that you experience the sympathy of Christ, and the third is, that He stretches forth His hand to rescue you in your weakness. Romans 6 is that you leave the ship, that is, you leave that which recognises the man that was for another Man, namely, Christ in resurrection, and you take up a position of death to sin. Then what you experience is, that you have the sympathy of Christ — that is chapter 7; you have His sympathy the moment you take up a position apart from sin down here. But that is not all; in chapters 7 and 8 you have His outstretched hand, that is, His Spirit, and His hand draws you to Himself. What we see in Peter was not exactly failure, but infirmity. This comes out in the end of chapter 7, the sense of utter weakness. What in this chapter shows that you have the sympathy of Christ is the idea that you are married to another (verses 4); a woman naturally has the sympathy and support of her husband. You go to Christ in chapter 6, the reason being that you are going to be in the likeness of His resurrection; there is another Man in view, and you go to Him; the effect is that it completely changes your attitude down here, you are apart from sin; you do not continue in sin; you become servants of righteousness; but that results from leaving the boat to go to Christ. While on the road to Christ you are walking on a sea of moral death. Then His sympathy comes in and His hand.
Going to Christ is the way of deliverance from sin; you take the ground that you are going to be in the likeness of His resurrection, and in the meantime you count yourself alive to God in Him; you do not acquiesce in the course of things here, but there is a complete change of attitude with regard to it; dead to sin, you are servants of righteousness, It is a [p. 80] serious position to take up, for you had been servants of sin, accustomed to acquiesce in it; but in taking up this serious position you have the sense of the sympathy of Christ, that is the first thing; then you make the discovery that there is no inherent strength in you, and that brings home to you the necessity of His hand; you can do nothing but by His power. The sense of what He is to you comes out in “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord”, but in the next chapter we have “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and of death”. The answer to the sense that you have no inherent strength is the Spirit.
Strictly speaking, in the experience detailed in the latter part of this chapter, the apostle goes back to the time “when we were in the flesh”. Not many learn the lesson of weakness in that way now; nine out of ten have to learn it after they have believed the gospel, but the lesson has to be learnt in order that it may get its answer in chapter 8 — that it may be felt how absolutely necessary the power of Christ is. It may seem a little obscure, but in reality the point we are considering runs side by side with the change of priest in Hebrews. Aaron was the first priest, and law and priest are inseparably connected. Israel received the law under the Aaronic priesthood. If there is a change of law there is a change of priest, and if there is a change of priest there is a change of law, the law is identified with the priesthood. The priest has gone and the law with him, and a new priest has come in. It is no longer the time of “the law going before”, there is a “disannulling” of this, and “the bringing in of a better hope by which we draw nigh to God”. The priest sympathises with our infirmity. It is not conflict in chapter 7, but rather the discovery that there is no moral strength in you, that “in me, that is in my flesh, dwells no good thing”. Galatians 5: 17 shows that the Sprit and flesh are antagonistic,
[p. 81] that the one will not tolerate the other. Those who have believed the gospel pass through the experience of chapter 7 in a modified way; strictly speaking it refers to a man who has not got the Spirit — “when we were in the flesh”. The chapter comes in the history of most people where it is placed; you learn that it is hopeless to look for anything in yourself, but there are two things you get in chapter 8 — the Spirit is the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, and the Spirit of sonship. Thus Christ by His Spirit draws us to Himself, but it is as a Man of another order.
If we take the analogy of the history of Israel, chapter 3 corresponds to the blood in Egypt; chapter 4 (the resurrection of Christ) to the Red Sea; chapter 6 to the bitter waters of Marah. Chapter 7 is the priesthood, only it is a contrast to what went before, hence it carries us beyond Israel’s history, for there being a change of priest there is a consequent change of law. Chapter 8: 3 is the antitype of the brazen serpent, and we have the spirit of Balaam at the close, “Who is he that condemneth?”. But it is difficult to attempt to carry out these types strictly, for you cannot bring the christian to mount Sinai. Israel received the law at mount Sinai as the revelation of God’s will under the Aaronic priesthood, while we are come to mount Zion. But the point now before us is that having come to another system you come to another priest. Aaron could compassionate the people, but he could not sympathise or succour. Christ sympathises and succours.
Aaron could not sympathise because he was encompassed with infirmity, he was not himself out of the circumstances. Christ has been into them, but He is now out of them, and consequently He can sympathise. This chapter shows that we are married to Him, and so get His support to bring forth fruit unto God.
The early part of the chapter applies to the Jew primarily as knowing the law, and in a secondary [p. 82] sense to us, on the principle of the epistle to the Hebrews; that epistle was written to people who had been under law, but it brings in the light of christianity and so applies to us. Going back to the type, Aaron passed away before the brazen serpent. No doubt this paved the way for the change. We have another Priest and another law. Christ is law to us.
In order really to sympathise, one must be oneself out of the condition in which sympathy is needed. Aaron was in the same condition as the people. Christ has been in the conflict with sin, but now is out of it, and He can sympathise with us who are in it. God can compassionate, but does not sympathise. Christ took the place of weakness down here, that He might be able to sympathise — the very thought that He can sympathise is support. If a person conscious in himself of infirmity realised the sympathy of Christ, he would feel support, but it must be as not acquiescing in the course of things down here, but as a servant of righteousness, then you get the sympathy and the succour, for He draws you to Himself.
There is power in chapter 8, for all is of the Spirit, and you are drawn to Christ in the place of power where He is, and in the Spirit you get life and sonship. Christ is in glory, and the effect of that is to draw you into the light of Himself where He is. In the end of chapter 7 the man under law has made the discovery that there is nothing good in him, nothing to be improved, that all is hopeless; and in his infirmity he realises the sympathy and succour of Christ. You do not get sympathy of Christ with will, but it is yours in the sense of infirmity. The moment you take up that position you have Him on your side. He Himself walked on the water, but another thing, He encouraged Peter to walk on the water. Infirmity came in with Peter, not sin. He was afraid when he saw the wind boisterous, but that is not sin. We have in our minds too much limited the idea of priesthood. Priesthood [p. 83] really covers all that Christ is on our side. There is a contrast between Christ as Mediator and as Priest; the Mediator represents what He is on God’s side, but the Priest all that He is on our side.
In verse 20, you come to the point of discerning between good and evil. It is a complete analysis of the state, that with my mind I serve God’s law, but with the flesh, sin’s law. The light is breaking in; my mind approved something better, “I consent unto the law that it is good”. Still there is death in us, utter moral weakness, you give up all hope in yourself, man is no good. This lesson has to be learnt, and when it is learnt, you would not find those who have learnt it standing out for proprieties and that sort of thing. What would mark them would be the desire to get out of sight, only rejoicing in the portion they have in Christ, not seeking to present a fair appearance here. It is no good to attempt to reinstate yourself down here, the only thing now is to get to Christ’s side, and the effect of that is to make you small — nothing, but it makes you superior to anything here. There is another thing that we have to take account of, that the Spirit is a formative power in us. He draws to Christ, and thus you are built up in Him in divine affections. A great hindrance is in not being content to be nothing; if you are in conflict with sin, you do not want to be great. One sees the Lord walking on the waters, how He went through the world divinely superior to everything, but what are we in the conflict of good and evil? Absolutely no good at all, and the best thing is to get out of sight here, but in doing so to get to the Lord. If we have the sense of being nothing, but are conscious that we have everything in Christ, we shall not be satisfied till we reach Him.
Job learnt the lesson of his nothingness when he said, “Behold I am vile”, or as J.N.D. translates it, “I am nothing”. He came to the point, “I abhor myself”. He had not the Spirit; but, owing to the [p. 84] state of things in which we are, most of us learn this after we have believed the gospel and received the Spirit, for it must be learnt. There are two things with regard to man, death is upon him, and death is in him; and it is more painful to know that death is in you than even that death is upon you. In the former case you are absolutely worth nothing at all. “Sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me”. “I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing”, that is death. It is what the apostle meant when he said the law had killed him. “I through law have died to law”. It brought home to him the sense of moral weakness — of total inability for good. The fact is each one has to say I am nothing; for whatever we may be externally, or whatever appearance we may keep up, we are nothing. Marah was the brackish water of the Red Sea, and the Israelites had to drink it, and down here we have to accept death. A great many thank God for the death of the Lord who have not apprehended it in connection with the waters of Marah. Verse 25 is really a step forward. Everything is perfect on God’s side. Up to the Red Sea and the going over, all was on that side, but after that the other side had to be learnt, and it is not fully learnt until you are over Jordan. In chapters 6, 7 and 8 you are past the Red Sea, and the point is that you should be free to enjoy the grace which the Lord has made known, and in which He has come out. You must have the subjective side. Without it there would be a great defect — incomplete knowledge of Christ, for you would not know what He is on our side. Peter saw the Lord walking on the water, and he wanted to go to Him. The Lord encouraged Him to leave the ship. Peter volunteered, and then became afraid when he saw the wind boisterous; the wind is the influence of Satan agitating the waters, but it is then that the Lord stretches forth His hand and succours him.
[p. 85] Referring to verse 25, the mind is the apprehension of the man; there is an inner man which serves the law of God, that is, there is the work of God through which one consents to the law that it is good. We want a more distinct sense of the attitude the christian has taken up according to God, and at the same time more sense of Christ with us in the conflict, that Christ feels with us — that we are married to another, and get His sympathy and support, that we have come under the power of His affection. If we have but little sense of weakness we have a feeble sense of the sympathy of Christ. Saints have but a poor sense of what it is to leave the boat. They are hindered by many things, education, providence, etc., hence they do not leave the boat to walk on the water to go to Christ.
The end of the chapter shows that the law works no deliverance, the only hope is in being married to another. You must bring Christ in, for there is nothing else for you but to accept the hand of Christ, that is, His Spirit, and the power of His Spirit is to draw you to Himself. There was a great difference between Abraham and Lot. A lady was once telling J.N.D. that he did not know what it was to enter into the fearful conflict with evil down here, and he called her attention to the fact that while Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom, Abraham was on the mount interceding with God, If you take up the conflict in a worldly way, you will get under the power of sin. If you keep up a certain status, and go into society with the idea of bearing testimony, you will fall under the power of the world, you will not be free of it. Others are in danger of being cut off by the Amalekites, who fell upon the weak and the stragglers. Your only chance is to be clear altogether.