CHAPTER 8

^[p. 86] CHAPTER 8

It is evident that chapter 6 is the real starting point of the christian’s experimental history; the introduction of baptism shows that. The moral force of that chapter is that the believer is for Christ, and in chapter 7 Christ is for him; in this chapter he is in the hand of Christ. In chapter 6 he declares for Christ, he has accepted the end of the first man, and he counts himself alive in Christ. As the prophet Hosea says, “Thou shalt not be for another man, so will I also be for thee”; you declare for Christ and then find that Christ is for you — that is chapter 7; but not only so, you find that Christ has got you in His hand in order to draw you to Himself. Chapter 8 draws you to the light of purpose. But you must have everything clear on the righteousness side, before you can touch purpose. Here we only get to the edge of it, and then the chapter closes with the thought of the love of God in Christ. The expression, “In Christ” is taken up from the sixth chapter. You have got as far there as reckoning yourself alive to God in Christ Jesus. Here the apostle just brings you to purpose, but does not open it up so as to carry us on to what is corporate. If you get Christ’s power, as in this chapter, it is to bring you into the light of God’s purpose which is revealed in Himself. Ephesians begins from that side with the light of purpose. “In Christ” is in contrast with “in Adam”; it is so put elsewhere, “As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive”. There is a strong contrast between the end of chapter 7 and the beginning of chapter 8, “Who shall deliver me out of this body of death?”. He cries to be delivered out of that condition in which He was, he thanks God that he has reached the Deliverer. He it is who takes you out of the old. Then in chapter 8 you get “In Christ”, though the thought is not developed. It does not carry you quite as far as new ^[p. 87] creation. What you are brought to is virtually to say, “Adam will not do, death is on all that is of Adam”, and the only ground to take is that of life in Christ Jesus. The great mass of us have really known very little of the waters of Marah, we look upon life here as agreeable, and there lies the weakness of our apprehension. Death is man’s proper portion as the fruit of sin, but Christ has come into man’s portion and place; that is, the tree has been cast into the bitter waters of death, and the waters have become sweet, but that does not at all alter the position of things down here; the aspect and bearing of things to the christian is that he accepts death, reckons himself dead, and sees that there is life only in Christ. Christ has come into death to show us the way out of the whole state of things which is dominated by sin. The question had been raised, “Shall we continue in sin?”, not exactly ‘continue sinning’. It is where you live, and so positional. It is a great thing in a person’s history when he comes to the apprehension that death is upon man, and upon everything here, and while realising that, he declares for Christ, that he is for Him. The Ethiopian eunuch is an illustration. He saw the situation, that if Christ’s life was taken from the earth, then there is no life here upon earth — not for God or else Christ would not have died. His death proved that all were dead. The eunuch’s affections are led to that point. There is more in baptism than people sometimes think. It means leaving the course of things down here and going forth to the Lord. When a man comes under the influence of divine love, he is constrained, he is conscious of obligation to Christ. He goes forth to Him, and because of His death you have no obligation to the world. You preach the gospel not as a question of obligation to man, but as constrained by the love of Christ. You are absolutely for Christ. This means walking in moral superiority to everything here, not ^[p. 88] trying to stem the tide of evil, but being for Him. His love constrains you, so that whatever He may appoint is your work. If it is a question of love for souls — whose love for souls is it? — the love of Christ — the love of God? Christ is the motive, and the obligation is to Him, and not to man. If you find a christian who is worldly, that man feels instinctively that he is under an obligation to the world, because the world tolerates him. We ought to be prepared to be discountenanced by the world. When this is so then we find Christ is for us. “No condemnation” is not exactly condemnation on the part of God, but the sense of condemnation in one’s own soul. The law was a ministry of condemnation. If the soul has not taken its place as in Christ, it must be under the sense of condemnation, because it thinks that God regards it according to its own state. When you come to experience, deliverance is a very serious thing. Chapter 8: 1 is the contrast to the law; the law was the ministry of condemnation. Then what gives force to the statement that there is no condemnation follows, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death”. The law brought sin home to a man, but now you are on another line, the old line is closed, you are in Christ, and there is no condemnation on that line. What you get afterwards is that the old state has been condemned already. “God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh”. You have got into practical deliverance, that is, deliverance in power from the state to which condemnation applied. As long as anybody, as to their sense of things, is married to the first husband, and you may get christians in that state, there is plenty of condemnation; they need to see that that bond is done away through the body of Christ. Christ’s hand draws us into the light of purpose, and it is impossible that there should be any condemnation in the line of God’s purpose. The whole question of sin and righteousness, of good and evil, has been resolved; sin has been put away, and righteousness vindicated and established, and now God has come out to establish His purpose, and there can be no condemnation on that line.

In chapter 8 we have the third aspect of the death of Christ, in order that God might form us in a new state; we do not get the new state in chapter 6, it is only reckoning there; but chapter 8 introduces the new state. The brazen serpent aspect of the death of Christ presents the question of man’s state, in order that the believer may be set up in a new state. Life is in the new state, and sonship, and the latter part of the chapter brings in the purpose of God. “Whom he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified”. These three chapters — 6, 7 and 8, must be taken together; the truth is given in detail, but the detail has to be put together in a person’s soul; you cannot analyse them in your soul, though you can regard them separately in your mind. Christ is for the believer, but that is not all the truth, the believer is in His power, and His power draws you into the light of the purpose of which He is the expression.

The character of death is now entirely changed, instead of being the expression of God’s judgment, it is now, through Christ having been into it, the expression of His love, and He has thus made a way through it to Himself The power of the enemy lay in death being the judgment of God, but the power of the enemy is completely broken, and the death of Christ has become the way to God. “Dead to sin” in chapter 6 does not bring in the brazen serpent, but the bitter waters of Marah. The sixth chapter hangs on baptism. It is the acceptance of death, whether for yourselves or for your children; if your children ^[p. 90] are baptised, you have no right to bring them up for sin or for the world. You have not the type of the brazen serpent brought in until the question of law had been brought in. The brazen serpent is the answer to mount Sinai, so you must have chapter 7 first, and chapter 8: 3 is the answer to it. Of course the death of Christ was before God from the outset in all its fulness, but experimentally the law must come before the brazen serpent. As long as any one has an idea that God is dealing with him on the ground of state, he will be legal; the only way to be free is to see that God has condemned the old state in order to form you in a new state. The new state is of the Spirit. It is wonderful what you get in this chapter. First, Christ in you, then the Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, then eventually we have the redemption of the body. After that is the light of God’s purpose, and it ends with “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?”.

The love of God is seen in that He sent His own Son; so in chapter 5 the death of Christ is the expression of God’s love; but here the point is that He sent Him in the likeness of sinful flesh; hence the state has been condemned with the sin that dominated it. It hardly goes so far as John 3, for there we have the opening up of the whole range of divine love; here the truth is more limited, because it is the question of our state; the second verse is connected with the truth of John 4, the well of water springing up in the believer. In principle that was fulfilled in John 20. The Lord breathed on the disciples and said, “Receive ye the Holy Spirit”. But there is something further than this in John 4. Many have received the Holy Spirit in whom He is hardly a well of water springing up to everlasting life. The Spirit springing up brings you into the light of God’s purpose. So here if Christ is in you the body is dead, but the well is springing up, “the Spirit is life”. Then lower down the Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are God’s children. It is wonderful to be in the hand of Christ, and so drawn into the light of God’s purpose, of which He is the expression; “Predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son”.

In the end of chapter 5 you get the consciousness that grace is reigning, and anyone can understand that the first thing that comes to a man is the light of divine grace. He is enlightened by the light of God, but when you consider what we are down here, does not a man need to be put on a new line? If we take into account what we are and have been, we must feel the necessity of it. These chapters put you on a new line, and then you come into the full enjoyment of the light, both of the grace of God and of His purpose. It is a great thing to be put into a line, a line on which we can get the full enjoyment of these things, and we are put into that line in an exceedingly blessed way. It is the line of Luke 15. The best robe was put on the prodigal that he might be in the enjoyment of his father’s thought about him. It made no change in the father’s thought about him, which was as great at the beginning as at the end, but it changed the prodigal’s thought. It will actually be realised in our being conformed to the image of God’s Son, but we are morally conformed now.

This epistle does not take us off the ground of responsibility. Verse 4 is that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit; but what we see in this chapter is that the Spirit can carry us a great deal farther than any question of responsibility. Outwardly we do not get beyond it while here, but the Spirit witnesses with our spirit that we are the children of God; that is not outward, but with our spirit; so that while fulfilling outwardly the righteous requirement of the law, the soul has a secret which is a great ^[p. 92] deal beyond that. People may see one walking on the water, but they do not see the hand and power that upholds him. The soul has a secret, but no one can explain it, and it supports us in suffering with Him. “If so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together”.

There are two things that we each need to know; first, what it is to be in the light of divine grace, and secondly, to be in the sense of our own proper relationship with Christ. Both these things will have to be taught to Israel; they are abiding now without king or prince, without a sacrifice, without an image or ephod or teraphim, without false gods or true; but they will learn the grace of God, and their relationship to God, and we have to learn the same two things. It is interesting to see in the history of the children of Israel that the priesthood changes before the brazen serpent is introduced. Aaron is stripped and Eleazar is clothed. Living affections are brought in, so that the heart may have the sense of grace. The power of life comes in and the sense of Christ’s grace.

Strictly speaking, chapter 7 refers to the law, that is the first husband; you are freed from the law to be to Another. He has brought the first bond to an end, that He may be a bond to you. We are under law to Christ, but it is that we may be supported by Him, a thing the law could not do, it gave no help. Priesthood is on the line of support. The law ministered condemnation, but what we get in the priest is support, it is involved in our being married to Another. We get His support, and then we learn His power, and that His power is the servant of His love. He makes you conscious of His interest in you, and then makes known to you that His power is at the disposal of His love.

We get three spheres presented in the course of the epistle to the Romans; there is the revelation sphere,

^[p. 93] the dispensational sphere, and eventually the governmental sphere. In chapters 3 to 8 the full light of God comes out, with the consequence resulting from it; in chapters 9 to 11 we have the course of dispensations on earth; and in chapter 13 the sphere of government in man’s hands. From chapters 3 to 5 the full light of God’s revelation in grace is brought in; and chapters 6 to 8 give us the necessary consequences of it in us. The first thought is that God has come out, and the second that man goes in; the one is the necessary consequence of the other. The dispensational part (chapters 9 to 11) begins with Abraham and ends with the ultimate restoration of Israel. Then there is the government of God in the world, and christians have to be subject to the powers that be. The kingdom of God in Romans is looked at in a moral rather than in a dispensational way; it is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

In chapter 8 we come to purpose; the reason of that is that, considering what God is in His love, there must be the sovereignty of purpose. If God reveals Himself in love, there is the purpose of His love, because of what God is. All is for the satisfaction of His own heart, and there could not be response in us if it were not made known. Purpose is connected with what is revealed in Christ, “Whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren”. The expression, as well as the revelation, of God’s purpose is in Christ. The cry of Abba, Father, is really the response to the love that has come out in the revelation of purpose. You cannot have greater light as to God than comes out in chapter 5, but the point in chapter 8 is that you are conducted to Christ, in whom is the expression of divine purpose; you thus find yourself in the full light of divine love in Him who is the full expression of God’s purpose, and then one can say, nothing “^[p. 94] shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”.

The Spirit first of all, up to the end of verse 13, sets you free; then you are brought into the proper domain of the Spirit. There are two things about the flesh which commonly hinder us, as shown in the case of Israel in the book of Numbers; there are the reminiscences of Egypt, and indisposition for the land; all that has to be overcome in the power of the Spirit. You must get this freedom first, not but that a person may see the purpose of love, but entering into it is another thing. It is painful to think of our indisposition to be conducted into the purpose of God; no one who knows anything about himself will deny that. How is it? Flesh is flesh; the two great hindrances of Israel were, they remembered the leeks of Egypt, and they did not believe the report of the spies concerning the land; the fact is, it is much more difficult for man to believe in goodness than in evil. He naturally knows the latter, but not the former. In Numbers we have the people tested under the law, that is, they were under that system; they were put under it after the breakdown in Exodus, but with the name of the Lord given to them, as gracious and merciful, but who would by no means clear the guilty; this serves the more to bring out the flesh, and its provocation of the Lord acting towards them in longsuffering mercy. When we come to the serpent of brass, the flesh had been proved, and under the system of law it had not one bit altered; the wilderness was the day of provocation. Flesh never serves God’s law; the conclusion come to at the close of chapter 7 is an important point. “With the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin”; that is always the case, an unvarying principle that with the flesh man serves sin’s law; but the great thing is that the mind is set free from the flesh, and it is with the mind that we serve God’s law. If the flesh moves at all it is sin, and the flesh is your natural self; what is free from yourself is your mind, and with your mind you serve God’s law, not with the flesh; it is with the renewed mind. As to oneself in chapter 7 the conclusion come to is that it is no longer “I” the individual dissociates himself from the sin that dwells in him; and that is one of the most important points for a man to come to; the work of God is apprehended; there is the “inward man”; and in the next verse we have “the law of the mind”, the mind is evidently connected with the inward man. The crucial point is the mind, there it is that the christian is free; the mind is free and connects itself with the new man. The spiritual mind in chapter 8 is another word, rather the purpose of the Spirit.

Chapter 8 is an unfolding of what the christian has in the Spirit rather than of what is wrought by the Spirit in the christian; the Spirit is looked at through the chapter as the power of Christ in the christian which draws him to Christ. The work of the Spirit is to fill you with Christ, all has to be wrought in the soul in order that it may be good in yourself. If you take the case of the Corinthians, they had the Spirit, but there was but little wrought in them. The apostle had laid a good foundation, and others had built on it “wood, hay and stubble”. They had the Spirit, so too had the Galatians; and theirs is a still stronger case, for of them the apostle said, “I travail again in birth until Christ be formed in you”. It was wonderful that the Spirit should have come down upon Christ, that there might be set forth, in the power of the Spirit, all that was morally beautiful in a man, so that we might see it; we do not see it in ourselves but in Him.

“If any man have not the Spirit of Christ” refers to the Spirit as a Person; so the Spirit is life “because of righteousness” must refer to the Spirit as a Person, and it results in practical righteousness. There are ^[p. 96] three characters given here of the Spirit — the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead. The Spirit comes in thus in connection with the whole history of a christian. If the Spirit of God is in you, you are not in the flesh; the Spirit of Christ is more characteristic, life comes out in the christian and is of the Spirit, the christian is not a mere attempted imitator of Christ, but what is produced in him is of the Spirit; then the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead assures to you the climax, the quickening of the mortal body. The great thought in view is conformity to Christ. It is a most interesting point to see how the christian is connected with Christ, Christ will surely bring you to Himself. We find at the close of the chapter — “Nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” — this shows very clearly that Christ has so laid hold of you to draw you to Himself, that nothing can take you out of the region of His love. That is the only way in which you can be above the influence of things here. Otherwise you do not know the road at all, for supposing that a person enters into all the light of the earlier chapters — the question arises, is God going to leave him down here in the midst of the darkness with all this light? What is the road going to be? Christ answers it, I am going to draw you to Myself.

As to the difference between “Sons” and “children” — sonship is not developed in this chapter, we have the Spirit of sonship, and the expectation of sonship in the redemption of the body. Sonship is conformity to Christ in glory, the Spirit of sonship never came until Christ was in glory. The Spirit is the Spirit of God’s Son; you could hardly apply the term ‘child’ to Christ, nor could you quite connect the Spirit of God’s Son with the thought of “children”, but the Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are God’s children. When you speak of sons, you identify them with Christ as the Firstborn among many brethren, but you can hardly bring Christ in with us as children. The idea of children is apparently confined to what we are while here, sonship is in connection with the glory; when we are completely in the likeness of Christ, sonship comes out according to the divine counsel. We are not yet in heaven, but down here in the place of children, and as children we share Christ’s rejection; but the Spirit is the Spirit of sonship in the believer now. So in Galatians we read, “Because ye are sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts”. In the previous chapter Paul had said, “Ye are all the sons of God, by faith, in Christ Jesus”; that is, they were in the light of God’s pleasure. The glory of the children of God is sonship — that is conformity to Christ in glory. It is a wonderful place to be in before God, in the scene from which Christ has been rejected; and accepting the rejection the compensation you get is the affection of the Father; the Father’s love rests upon saints here because they love Christ and are in the place of Christ’s rejection. Sonship is in that we are associated with Christ by divine counsel where He is, there is no rejection there; we are now in the full light of divine purpose. “Children” is more in the enjoyment of the Father’s love down here. “Sonship” is connected with — “Them that love God”. Abba, Father, is a cry of real love. But in 1 John 3 we have, “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the children of God”. As has been often said, John brings God to you here, Paul carries you up to God according to His will. “Therefore the world knoweth us not”; the idea of rejection comes in at once, as here in verse 17, “If we suffer with him”. It is a blessed thing to carry with you the secret of the Father’s love in the world from which Christ has been rejected. People do not ^[p. 98] much enjoy the love unless they accept the rejection. Sonship is what you are to God according to His purpose; and it is in the assembly that we really touch it. There you have the consciousness of association with Christ in the Father’s presence. The reason that things are flat in our meetings is that this is but little realised — the priests are starved. Our relation to the sanctuary is that of priests, it is only in that character that we can have to do with the sanctuary. Now the priest has nothing of his own — no inheritance — he is contributed to by the common people and the levites, and if they do not contribute, he is necessarily starved. The believer is all three, he is priest, levite, and common person; and it is important to see whether we get in our individual experience such an appreciation of Christ and of His sacrifice as will contribute to the priest, for it is only as priests that we are identified with the sanctuary; the common people were not to draw nigh. Sonship is clearly identified with priesthood in the epistle to the Hebrews. If you would exercise priestly functions you must take care that the priest is fed, or there will be no worship. The levite also has to contribute to the priest. His work as levite is in service. But if a servant has a good time in service, he has to take care that the priest gets his tithe of it. Numbers 18 is most interesting as bringing out the truth as to the christian, whether looked at in the light of a common person, or of a levite, or of a priest. But all are contributory to the priest; every believer is a priest; the priesthood, though it belongs to the sanctuary, is not confined to those who take part in the meetings. It would be well if every brother so realised his priesthood that he did draw nigh; on the other hand it is vain for people to think that they are going to have good meetings, when in their individual path and life they are not with the Lord and seeking to serve Him.

“^[p. 99] The earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God”. The Spirit as dwelling down here gives you a sense of the true state of things in this scene. “The creature” is all that which is under the bondage of corruption. We cannot say from Scripture that the brute creation came under death through man’s sin, but it is quite certain that the whole creation suffers in consequence of the state of man; the fall of all was involved in the fall of man; creation suffered with its head. But you cannot put the rest of creation quite on the same footing with man. Creation has been subjected to vanity in hope. That can hardly refer to Adam’s doing because it has been subjected in hope. At first sight “on account of him that has subjected it” might seem to refer to Adam, but it is hardly the occasion of the being subjected to vanity that is in view, but the actual subjection by One who has subjected it in hope. Creation will be brought into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. A very different order of things will obtain in the millennium from that which we see around us, even for the brute creation. We have very little idea of what will be when everything on earth is administered from heaven, when all the blessing of heaven’s beneficence is known on earth. He opens His hand and satisfies the desire of every living thing (Psalm 145: 16), and that is what is natural to God. There are many terrible things that occur in this world, and God allows them, but these are not what is natural to God. All is out of course here.

It is a great study for any christian to find out what he has in the Spirit. Undoubtedly the Spirit has His own way of working, and His object is to draw you to Christ — not to Christ simply as Saviour, but as the blessed expression of divine purpose, that is, the purpose of God’s love. Then the man is in the Spirit’s own domain. The Spirit is not now occupied ^[p. 100] with setting the believer free, because he is free; and he is in the place where the Spirit can unfold all that is of Christ.