THE HOLY SPIRIT IN ROMANS
[p. 140] THE HOLY SPIRIT IN ROMANS
Romans 5:5; Romans 8:14 - 16; Romans 14:17; Romans 15:13
My wish in regard of this meeting is to help more particularly those who are younger among us. We have not especially thought of them in our meetings, for this has not been a young people’s conference. It had all grades in the family of God in view; for John, who is the family man, grades the saints fathers, young men and children, and these grades should be in mind in ministry. It is the last grade that I have in mind at this time, and for this reason I have selected Romans, which is particularly calculated to meet the needs of young believers.
My thought is to speak of the Holy Spirit as seen in this epistle; and what one would say to all, and especially to young believers, is that the best Friend we have on earth is the Spirit of God, answering to what is in heaven; for what is there is here in principle; we can never limit a divine Person. So that in the presence of the Holy Spirit here we have, as I said, our best Friend on earth. It is important that He should be regarded in a personal way, that believers should become acquainted with the Holy Spirit. The Lord in His communications of love to His own at the supper table in Jerusalem, ere He died, spoke much of the Spirit as another comforter; One who, by the term He uses, was to be understood as taking charge of the affairs of the saints here. He spoke of Him as the Spirit of truth, sent by the Father in answer to His begging for Him; He spoke of Him as sent forth in the Son’s name by the Father; He spoke of Him as proceeding forth from with the Father (meaning that He had perfect first hand knowledge of the Father’s thoughts about the Son; the Son being the subject of testimony, the Spirit should bear witness of Him); and then. He should send Him Himself; and as the Spirit of truth comes. He brings into this world a demonstration of righteousness, and of sin, and of judgment. You see,
[p. 141] therefore, a divine Person is here, and His functions are in relation to the saints. He is another Comforter.
Now I want to shew how He operates, as seen in this epistle, and first in regard to the hearts of believers. He is presented indeed earlier in relation to the Lord Himself as “the Spirit of holiness”; reminding us that what accompanies the gospel is the Spirit of holiness. He is also presented as the Spirit of life; the Spirit of God; the Spirit of adoption. All these designations are in relation to our souls- experience. A profitable address might be given on each of those designations; but I just mention them now, so that you may have in view the comprehensiveness of the Spirit’s functions and relations, as presented in this fundamental epistle. I say fundamental, because it is well to be grounded in the foundations; so that young people may have a basis for a superstructure which God will not fail to rear.
But I wish to speak about the Holy Spirit in relation to our hearts. The heart is a sphere in which you would expect Him to be especially interested, for God would secure His people through their hearts; through their intelligence, of course, but the highest intelligence is through the eyes of the heart; die spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God is through the “eyes of your heart”, (Ephesians 1:18). Hence the importance of recognising this first service of the Spirit. He knows that the end in view in the gospel is a heart matter; and so, in the type in Exodus that is what God would stress in speaking to His people. He says, “I have borne you on eagles- wings and brought you to myself”, (Exodus 19:4). This was after they had murmured. Jitter, they had complained after they had talked about going back into Egypt; God knowing well our proclivities and how the things of the world cling to us even after our conversions, delivers out of them, bearing us on eagles- wings to Himself. That is what marks His early dealings with the people after they had passed through the Red Sea, after [p. 142] they had sung of His victory. One complaint after another, but no reproofs, no punitive action on the part of God. It was the reign of grace; it was the era of grace.
Thus, in answer to their demand for water in their murmurings. God said to Moses, “Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock”. That is the idea. Instead of smiting the people, the rock was smitten; and “the rock was the Christ”. That touches the heart; it is intended to touch the heart; that He was smitten instead of me when I deserved it; when I had shewn by my wayward, rebellious and murmuring spirit that I deserved it, Christ was smitten. He was “stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted”, as we read. So that the Holy Spirit comes in type and the water flowed in order that the people might have another state.
And then immediately Amalek attacks them, and the whole divine system, we may say, is engaged to give victory to the believer; for that is the idea. Moses and Aaron and Hur and Joshua, are all actively engaged, so that the believer, as having the Holy Spirit, should prove His power. The intercession of Christ on high in Moses, and the skill of Christ as a Warrior in Joshua, are brought into action, so that the beginnings of the believer, as possessed of the Spirit, should be marked by victory; that the young believer should get a taste of it, and as he gets a taste, the thing will increase. That is to say, what began in the type in (Exodus 17) ended in Joshua, in the people being set in possession of the land. It was the same power, but in increased measure; and it is continually increasing, for there is no limit. It is a divine power here, given without measure.
It is a question, therefore, of capacity in the believer, and so in the type after this God says. Now I want you to be for Me, a chosen, priestly nation. He would have them for Himself, for Jehovah’s inheritance is His people; and that elevates the believer at once, for he is of [p. 143] the inheritance of God. You see how valuable the believer is to God; His heritage is His people, but then He would have His inheritance. Ephesians speaks of “the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints”. It is a marvellous thought! and directly it gets into the soul it elevates it.
The believer belongs to God; he is the inheritance of God. God says, Now I want your hearts, but I want to open up My heart to you, so that you may know what a God you have:
“In the desert God will teach thee
What the God that thou hast found,
Patient, gracious, powerful, holy,
All His grace shall there abound”. (76:6)
That is in the wilderness. We have to know that God, and so He sets about at Horeb to make Himself known to them. I do not say at Sinai, for that is a question of demand, but Horeb, the mount of God where the covenant was made; there they spent a long time, and God opened up His heart to them. That is the principle of it. I know it was but partial, for the death of Christ had to take place for the lull disclosure of the heart of God. “He spared not his Son”, we are told. He commends His love to us, as we are told in our chapter. He is so desirous that we might know it, and that it might be in our hearts. Think how God condescends to commend a thing that should never need to be commended the very best thing conceivable, the love of God! I am not speaking of persons, but of the love of God. What a thing it is! and God condescends to commend it to us; reminding us of how slow we are to value what is most excellent.
Philippians speaks of excellency, “That ye may judge of and approve the things that are more excellent”. It is a fine habit. God commends His love to us, “in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”.
[p. 144] But that is not enough. He intends that what He has commended should become resident in our hearts, and the Holy Spirit serves in that connection. He sheds abroad, says the apostle, the love of God in our hearts. Now this is most important for every young person, and for all of us, to have the consciousness of the love of God actually shed abroad in our hearts by the Spirit; a transaction by the Spirit of God; not simply coming to us, taking possession of us, sealing us, but bringing in this thing into our hearts, the love of God.
Now I pass on to chapter 8, a chapter, thank God, much read among us, and I hope understood; so that I do So intend to go into the details of the teaching relative to the Spirit, only that I would say that it answers in the types to (Numbers 21) and what follows. It is an experience well nigh forty years after that of which I have spoken. But it is not contemplated that this should be the case with us. It is well, however, to note the number of years that elapsed between Horeb and Beer, the well of which it is said, “Gather the people together, and I will give them water”. It is well to note that; so that we might not be ‘objective’, merely, in our apprehension of the truth; but that we may see that while the objective side is presented to us in the gospel, to be received on the principle of faith, the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures would teach us that a time — however short or long — elapses between that and the full formation in us that corresponds with it. That as God worked on the principle of time in (Genesis 1), so He works on the principle of time in our souls; for we are still in time. Hence we find in Genesis that life does not appear till the third day. We have light on the first day; and then we have the heavens on the second day, all of which is what I may call objective; that is, what is presented to me, something outside of me, but which is intended to affect me and govern me.
Then on the third day you have the dry land appearing.
[p. 145] Now the dry land alludes to what is subjective; because it is said immediately, that it is to bring forth of itself: “Let the earth cause grass to spring up”, etc. Of course, it needs the heat of the sun and the atmosphere; it needs water, although there is nothing said about rain until the flood; but it needs moisture. Thus on the third day that is, two days elapse, and then you have what we speak of as subjective, pointing to a result worked in us, a latent thing brought into existence by the work of God. No one should be content until he begins to realise the power of fruitfulness, of life operating. It begins at the new birth.
In this chapter, (Romans 8), we read of those who are “after the Spirit” or “according to Spirit”, as it should read. That includes the initial work of the Spirit the new birth. This chapter contemplates the possession of the Spirit by the believer. Before the Spirit worked in us we were “according to flesh”, and we thought only of the things of the flesh, but the work of God in the soul leads to thinking of the things of the Spirit; we are “according to Spirit”, we are that. That is not objective, it is the state of the person. Now these are most important and practical things, and I am speaking of them in connection with the lapse of time, with that principle as to God’s work in our souls. Two days would be a testimony as to the time needed, according to Genesis 1. Two days spiritually imply much; three implies ample testimony. Seven would be a complete exercise; so that we need not, dear young people, think of waiting for forty years for the subjective result. It should be practically immediate, but on the principle of lapse of time; and this is calculated to keep us humble and dependent, for we must wait on God.
I wish now to shew how the Holy Spirit in chapter 8 brings into evidence the sons of God. To be sons of God practically we need deliverance; and this book is to effect that. The experience of chapter 7, which perhaps [p. 146] is not much known by us, nor so much dwelt upon as it used to be, is essential. Every young believer should take that chapter up and work it out. It is, as it were, a problem. I know of no greater problem in the Scriptures than that chapter; but the greater the problem, the more the advantage when it is successfully worked out; and when this one is worked out the enemy has no more, advantage over you through the sin that dwelleth in you. You acknowledge humbly that it is there; but you have it kept under lock and key so to say. You have power to do it, for the Holy Spirit becomes like an armed official acting all powerfully against a criminal whose sentence is pronounced. He restrains it. If it acts, you know it acts, and judge it; you regard its action by itself, and you are not brought again into bondage through it. “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” is the cry, and the answer is immediate: “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord”. He has done it, but He does it by the Spirit. By His death, of course; for there could be no Holy Spirit for us, nor any deliverance save by the death of Christ; so that He is the Deliverer, and the Deliverer becomes the Husband, as we learn in chapter 7: 1 - 4.
But then chapter 8 is to shew how the thing is effected in detail. It is by the Spirit. The condemnation of sin in the flesh in the death of Christ having taken place, a mighty Power comes into the believer and takes up His residence there (for the idea is dwelling): “If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you”, and He takes up His residence unchallenged. It is a poor thing if the Holy Spirit has to contest for His presence in the believer every moment of the believer’s history. That will not do. The idea is that He is to reside, to have undisputed possession of the house, and if He does. He will give you a blessed time. Many of us know what wonderful times the Spirit of God accords us. The more latitude we give Him the better the time, the more enjoyment, the greater victory; “the Spirit is life”, and “the mind of the Spirit life and peace”. “God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh”. It is condemned. How the love of God enters into that, sending “his own Son”! It appears twice in the chapter. And what for? “That the righteous requirement of the law should be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to flesh but according to Spirit”.
Now that alludes in the types, as I said, to (Numbers 21), where you have the brazen serpent lifted up, as you will remember, and following on that the springing well; The two things stand out, the one condemnatory of sin in the flesh, and the other an active power of life, a well springing up: “Spring up, O well; sing ye unto it”. So there is movement towards Canaan in that chapter. It is a chapter to be noted specially for the suggestions of energy; and it is military; “the book of the wars of the Lord” is mentioned. How you would like to get into that book! Well, this is how we get into it, by recognising the Spirit, and as the Spirit takes full possession there is victory after victory, and no more murmuring. It is “the book of the wars of the Lord”, and then ‘brooks’ are mentioned there, and ‘poets’. It is a chapter full of stirring things, all of which have their answer in the condemnation of the flesh. God having dealt with it judicially in the death of the Lord Jesus; and in the recognition of the Spirit of God. It is victory! It is a chapter of buoyancy; and so the people go right on towards the land. It says there, that they go as far as “the top of Pisgah”. You say. That is a look into the land. No doubt, but what is stated there is “Pisgah, which looks over the surface of the waste”, (Numbers 21:20). It is a backward look, so that you may know better ‘the God that thou hast found’, not that you want to go back over it. No. The backward movement is over forever, but the backward look is that you may think of the God whose [p. 148] love and whose support you have proved, so you may love Him all the more. And that is what comes out in this chapter: “those who love God”. The wilderness brings out what God is to us in His love, and so we love Him, and there is nothing too good in His mind, for those who love Him. “Things which eye has not seen, and ear not heard, and which have not come into man’s heart, which God has prepared for them that love him”, (1 Corinthians 2:9). And so it is here. He has foreknown us, He has predestinated us. He has called us. He has justified us. He has glorified us those who love Him.
Now I wish to dwell on the thought of the sons of God. I have already anticipated it, but I will turn back to speak of deliverance, because we cannot enter into the idea or realise the thought of sons apart from deliverance. You may get the idea objectively, as I said, but to know it in the soul is another matter, and so “Because ye are sons”, we learn elsewhere, “God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father”. (Galatians 4:6). Now I touch sonship, “As many as are led, by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God”, verse 14. So in the type in Numbers, as I said, the movement is in the direction of Canaan. The backward look is just to enhance God in our minds and hearts, to review what He has been to us, but we are already moving, not by the light and guidance of the tabernacle now (that practically disappears for the remainder of the wilderness journey), it is a question henceforth of the power within. “As many as are led by the Spirit of God”, that is the power within, “beware sons of God”, verse 14. And so in the type, as they drew near to the Jordan, they were all sons; they were led typically by the Spirit of God; such are the sons of God. Moses took great pains to instruct them in the book of Deuteronomy that they might be characteristically that. “Ye are sons of Jehovah”, he says, and he tells them many things they are to do, so that they [p. 149] might go into the land in the dignity and liberty and intelligence and glory and refinement of sons; that they should be in it according to God.
That is (Romans 8) in a general way. Other things might be said about the Spirit. We have the first fruits of the Spirit; and moreover He witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God, a touching and precious thing. He tells us inwardly that we are children of God, verse 16. We have thus the comfort of being the objects of divine care here. The Holy Spirit reminds us of that. Be our circumstances severe, under pressure we may be, and what not, but the Holy Spirit would remind us touchingly in our spirits that we are children as well as sons; that we are children of God, and hence objects of the Father’s care in regard of every matter relative to us, in the wilderness. So that we may boldly say, “The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me”, (Hebrews 13:6). We may nestle in that knowledge under the Father’s wing, for love will do its best for us. “Behold what manner of love” (it is the manner of it) “the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God”, (1 John 3:1).
Then He intercedes for us, we are told, “The Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered”. Wonderful fact! there is perfect representation in that intercession of the needs of our souls, with groanings that cannot be uttered. God understands them all. So you see, dear young believer, what you have in the Spirit. You may not know how to pray as you ought to pray (the Lord teaches us how to pray, and we should learn from Him); but if we do not know, the Holy Spirit makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
Then God Himself searches our hearts; you see what interest heaven has in our hearts. “He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God”. And then “we do know” (by the knowledge we have of God) “that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to purpose”. All that is (Romans 8), and you can see how God brings you on gently, the Holy Spirit moving you inwardly, moving your affections and intelligence, so that you are moving towards Canaan. Egypt is behind forever. You go into Canaan by attraction, but in the power of the Spirit, not led by the hand any more. You are no longer a child to be led by the hand out of the land of Egypt we go into the land in the dignity of sons. You follow the ark through; you see it before you two thousand cubits ahead, in all its beauty and power Christ going into death. How admirable! how it touches the hearts of the saints as they see the Leader of their salvation going forward and dealing with death, so that it disappears from view. It is cut off in the height of its power, as the feet of the priests who carry the ark touch its waters. Hence, they went over by attraction, as I might say, in the dignity of sons, but as loving Christ. The apostle says, “If any one love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha”, as if he abhorred the thought, and pronounced a curse on any one that does not love Christ. So that we go over in the power of the Spirit of God as the sons of God following Christ, for He goes first. He is the Leader of our salvation. We go over Jordan as loving Christ; we are raised with Him by the faith of the working of God, and we are quickened with Him.
Now I want to say just a word about the kingdom. It is a drop, in a way, from what I have been speaking of, but the kingdom is a term that covers the whole position while we are down here. Although Romans shews that there is power in the Spirit to enter into Canaan, this being our place, yet the wilderness remains during our life in flesh and blood, but it is where the will and testimony of God are maintained, and the kingdom has its [p. 151] service in this connection. It is the guarantee for our protection and deliverance in view of the evil and the opposition that there is. It is not a question of dislodging the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Amorite; that is not the idea of the kingdom. That is a military matter; not but that the kingdom implies military power, for there was military order in the wilderness as in the land; but the order in the wilderness is much more pronounced, because it is to call attention to the permanency of the kingdom as here, as covering our position in this world.
So in chapter 14, after the apostle speaks about the authorities, “the powers that be” for whom we pray and whom God uses, he speaks about the kingdom of God; that is direct from Him. The kingdom of God is that in which God rules directly. The kingdoms of this world God uses, but He governs through them indirectly. Hence, the kingdom of God is brought in in chapter 14 over against meat and drink. By going in for the things that are common to men, that the flesh goes after, by going in for them without control, without spiritual intelligence, we may destroy the work of God. That is a serious matter; the work of God is most precious, and therefore ‘the weak brother’ must be handled carefully. But I cannot go into that; I only wish to shew you that the kingdom of God is over against these natural things, and that it is “righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit”.
Now that does not necessarily mean when we are together. The kingdom of God, as I said, is a permanent thing. In the types it is seen in Numbers in the ordering of the tribes militarily. Each man pitched by the standard of his father’s house, and they were all arrayed in relation to the tabernacle, and God dwelt in the tabernacle. That is to say, God dwelling there influenced the whole area of the tribes. The influence spread around from the dwelling of God to the whole [p. 152] camp; so that it was a kingdom, and Moses in a way was king in it. It is said of him that “he was king in Jeshurun, when the heads of the people and the tribes of Israel were gathered together”. Moses had acquired that place. He was not always fully owned, for rebellion after rebellion shewed itself, but I am speaking of the principle of Numbers, and it is the kingdom of God. It principle of Numbers, and it is the kingdom of God. It is a permanent institution in the wilderness, it is the rule of God as dwelling among His people; so that it applies to me in my house, in my business, as I walk in the streets. Whatever I do I am in the kingdom of God and under its protection.
But what is in view here is the enjoyment that there is in it; that it is an area in which there is righteousness, in which there is peace, and in which there is joy in the Holy Spirit; that ensures giving conditions even when we are not together. When we are together, we come on to a different plane; but living conditions are assured to us in the wilderness through the kingdom of God. Righteousness is the first thing, practical righteousness, of course. The righteousness of God is demonstrated in the epistle, and the answer here in us is practical righteousness; so that every man in Israel, from twenty years and above, had his own place in relation to the centre. That is the idea of righteousness; that you do not veer away from your appointed place, you are governed by the will of God. Moses the mediator being there conveys the will of God, and that is what comes out in Numbers. Every one occupies his place, he is in righteousness, and he stands in relation to his brethren and considers for them. He sees that the occupation of his assigned position is essential to the welfare of the whole. Everything is divinely ordered by God in the camp. It is the kingdom of God; and I occupy my assigned place. I am in righteousness. Then I am in peace. I do not quarrel with my neighbour if I occupy my assigned position; and then the Holy Spirit is at [p. 153] liberty to fill my heart with joy. I have got it always; in every relation of life it is granted to me by the kingdom of God “righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit”. You can see, as I have said, ‘the weak brother’ would be cared for in that. The powers that be will not care for him; weak people do not get much favour in the world; they are not much thought of; but in the kingdom of God every provision is made for the weak brother; he is not to be stumbled.
The last thing I had in mind is the rejoicing. Chapter 15 is full of energy, but I just refer to verse 13. “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Spirit”. I thought, dear brethren, that we could hardly finish our meetings with a better verse than this, because the Lord gives us good times in these ‘holy convocations’, but when we disperse we are apt to drop down, and not maintain the high spiritual level on which we have been, and it seemed to me this verse is very practical for us.
One might say much about the chapter. It is full of energy, as I said. It is the chapter in which the apostle speaks of the immense radius of his labours. “From Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum”, he says, “I have fully preached the gospel of Christ”. He was not a bit jaded. He says, I am going to come to you too. He was going to invade the Latin Empire, as he had covered the Greek Empire. He had that in mind, and he said he thought of going to Spain also. No conqueror ever operated with such energy as this. What a mighty work was his! “From Jerusalem, and in a circuit round to Illyricum” he had fully preached the gospel of Christ. One would have loved to have heard him. How well he did it! “If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost”, and then he speaks of the “radiancy of the glad tidings of the glory of the Christ, who is the image of God”. That was what shone out in [p. 154] his preaching. He fully preached in the East, and was ready to come on to the West.
The levitical energy that marks him in this chapter is most stimulating, and so you see the power in this word of his: “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that ye should abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit”. Well, let this mark us, dear brethren. It is a question of dependence on God, the God of hope; for as He has helped us during these three days. He can do more for us. He is not changed, He is the God of hope; He inspires hope, so that the thing is to go forth in hope; and then to be filled with “all joy and peace in believing” in the power of the Holy Spirit. May God grant it.