DELIVERANCE AND ITS RESULTS
We desire to present to you a few simple thoughts in connection with this scripture. I think there is common agreement amongst God’s people who have a measure of light and understanding, that the Epistle to the Romans lays the foundation of Christianity. It presents the foundation in a twofold way—the foundation for faith which is objective, and the foundation subjectively. What we mean by subjectively is that which is connected with the indwelling and work of the Spirit of God in us. Speaking of this epistle, in the order in which the truth is presented, we have first—faith. From chapter 3 to verse 11 of chapter 5 you cannot fail to see that faith is very prominent; “believing”, that is, faith, is constantly spoken of. That is objective; it is what is presented from God to us. Then from the beginning of verse 12 of chapter 5 we do not hear any more about believing. From thence we get the subjective side.
There are two dangers from which we have suffered. The first is confusion; we have failed to distinguish between the two sides of Christianity, and that is serious, but it is equally serious to separate the one side from the other side, and that is the second danger. We may suffer from confusion—the lack of distinction—and we may suffer from separating one part from another. In scripture the two sides are never confounded and never separated.
Now this portion I have read is manifestly on the subjective side. In the first eleven verses of chapter 8 the Spirit of God is spoken of eleven times. There we are on the subjective side. It is no question in Romans 8 of receiving the Spirit, that is settled in chapter 5, where the Spirit is brought in. The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. But what is brought before us in chapter 8 is the good of the Spirit. It is not only that we have the Spirit abiding, and indwelling us, but we have the activities and workings of the Spirit within us. Do you ask, Can anyone have the Spirit and not be in the good of it? The first Epistle to the Corinthians is an answer to that. There is no doubt according to that scripture that the Corinthians were indwelt by the Spirit. It is positively stated that they had the Spirit, but they were not in the good of the Spirit. Paul said he could not speak to them as unto spiritual but as carnal. The Galatians also had the Spirit; the apostle tells them they had received the Spirit, not by the works of the law, but by the hearing of faith, yet they too were not in the good of the Spirit. If you are in the good of the Spirit you are not “stopped”. The apostle says, “Ye did run well; who stopped you?” If you are in the good of the Spirit you are moving on. I have no doubt there are souls now-a-days of whom the question might be raised: “Have ye received the Spirit?” for there is so little sign of it; but it is one thing to have the Spirit, and another thing to be in the good of the Spirit. The portion I have read shows what is involved in being in the good of the Spirit. Our souls cannot be built up in the superstructure of Christianity apart from the foundation being laid in this twofold way. We have spoken of what is laid with regard to faith, and it must also be laid with regard to what the Spirit would effect in our souls. God can only build us up on the foundation which this epistle presents. Hence its great importance. You may study Colossians and Ephesians, which are superstructure epistles; but unless you have the foundation—the twofold foundation which we have spoken of—though your mind may get occupied with what is in those epistles, you will not be able to appropriate it. One of the most disappointing things I have known is that I have got engaged with doctrines in various parts of scripture, and I have thought that I understood them; and then something happens and down one goes, and one finds out there is more foundation-work to be done in one’s soul before one can truly reach the superstructure. There is great need that the scriptural and moral foundations in Romans should be made good in our souls.
I read the closing verses of chapter 7 to show you that there is no division between chapter 7 and chapter 8, not even a paragraph. Now you must go through chapter 7 to reach chapter 8. I have met with those who said to me: ‘Oh, I am in Romans 7’, and I am inclined to reply, ‘I wish you were’. If you were ever really in Romans 7 you would not build your nest there. I have found people saying that who are fast asleep. You cannot go to sleep in Romans 7, but you must go through it before you reach chapter 8. You may listen to ministry, and read ministry, and as you read, it may command the assent of your heart, but all the time you may never have come to—“O wretched man that I am!” If you are trying to go on wholesale, as it were, you are not going on at all. Who does “I” stand for? It stands for Joseph Pellatt and for you. Do not say that good does not dwell in others. Do not get occupied with the flesh in others. What you must be brought to is the solemn consciousness of: “I know that in me ... good does not dwell”. Do you know it? “O wretched man that I am!” is the cry of a soul that has got to the end of itself. It is something like the woman in the gospel who had the issue of blood. She had means, and had spent it all, and was now worse instead of being better; she has come to the end. You can always tell when you get to the end of self, for when you do get there you will turn to Another. There was no difficulty in the case of that woman, she said, ‘I will go to Jesus, and touch the hem of His garment’. Why did she not go sooner? Because she had still money and doctors around her. It is a great thing when you come to the end of self and say, “who shall deliver me?” The passage reads strangely, as if uttered in one and the same breath. The soul looks out from itself for a Deliverer, and answers its own question—“I thank God”. We do not get through chapter 7 until we have got to the end of self. I only yielded when I could not hold out any longer. “O wretched man ... who shall deliver?” Then I can say, “I thank God”. Certainly, He is the Deliverer. He can deliver you. He is able to deliver you, but the question is—have you got there? Is your eye off everyone else? You are not then occupied with others; it is your own case. You are in earnest. In the last sentence of verse 25 we have an epitome of what is in the chapter, and what is true of every one who travels this road. Before that he tells us that his mind was all right, his will was right. What then was the matter? That miserable flesh was working—“I see another law ... warring against the law of my mind”, v 23. Though he was right in mind, this other law was too much for him, and he was conscious of it. The law in his members was too much for him, and it issues in the cry, “O wretched man that I am!” It is like a man going through a tunnel. I think he sees the end of the tunnel when he says, “I thank God”. But he is not out of the tunnel yet though he sees a point of light and is encouraged. But when he is out of the tunnel he bursts forth—“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus”.
Now this is the first effect of being in the good of the Spirit. Many of us know the doctrine; we have heard so much preaching about it that when we hear of people being “in Christ”, we say, ‘Of course’. But do you know what it is for the first time to apprehend spiritually in your soul what it is to be in Christ? The doctrine of it will not help you. We may be well posted in doctrine without being in the spiritual good of it. I remember the time when the Lord actually brought me to the end of myself, and to apprehend that I was in Christ. I hardly knew whether I was in or out of the body when I first knew it. The point is, “It is no more I”. You are always condemning yourself, but God is not condemning you. You say, “O wretched man!” but if you have been brought into it really, you are prepared for this—“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus”. That is the first result of being in the good of the Spirit; you come to know what it is to be in Christ.
That does not take place doctrinally. It is not that the preacher makes his point clear to you, but it is a real exercise of soul that you pass through, and then you come into the good of the Spirit, to the apprehension of being in Christ. “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free”, v 2. The man personified in Romans 7 is not free, he is in captivity to the law of sin. But the captivity is all passed when he is under the law of the Spirit of life. The Spirit of life hath made you free. You are in Christ, you have life in Christ; not in yourself, but in Him. The law of the Spirit is not a legal enactment, but a divine operation, and you are delivered, and positively in freedom—in liberty. If you have truly come to the Deliverer, you breathe the air of freedom, and then how little external circumstances amount to, how little it matters where I live, whether in a mansion or a hovel, whether I have a position in society or none. How insignificant everything becomes in comparison with this blessed liberty! Can you say, “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me FREE”? Oh, thank God for what was done on the cross! “Knowing this, that our old man has been crucified with him”. That is spoken of as common Christian knowledge, chapter 6: 6.
Now look at chapter 8: 3. What a wonderful statement! It is what was done by God in connection with the death of His own Son, “God, having sent his own Son”. How the Spirit would impress us with the dignity of the One who hung on Calvary’s cross! “God, having sent his own Son, in likeness of flesh of sin, and for sin, has condemned sin in the flesh”. What did He send Him for? “In order that the righteous requirement of the law should be fulfilled in us”—in you and in me. You must not divorce the work of Christ for us from the work of the Spirit in us. “What God hath joined let no man put asunder”. And you must not put asunder the work of Christ and the work of the Spirit of God. What did God do through the work on the cross? He condemned sin in the flesh. At the cross sin was dealt with and condemned once and for ever. What for? “That the righteous requirement of the law should be fulfilled in us, who ... walk ... according to Spirit”. By the death of God’s own Son God has condemned sin in the flesh, and what God had in view in doing this is now effected in us. We walk according to the Spirit, and fulfil the righteous requirements of the law.
God once took up man in the flesh. What does scripture say of man at the end of one thousand six hundred years of testing? “None righteous, no, not one”, Rom 3: 10. Now God has ended that order of man, and He has given us the Spirit, and by the Spirit the righteous requirement of the law is to be fulfilled in us. What is it? love. Now you can love God with all your heart and your neighbour as yourself. What a marvellous change! Have we troubles? Are there difficulties among the saints? Yes, and nine out of ten cases might be traced to the righteous requirements of the law not being fulfilled in us because of our not walking according to the Spirit.
Oh! these are the days of doctrines! Heads big as a bushel with inflated doctrines, and hearts shrivelled up. I do not want a big head, I want a big heart. When the righteous requirement of the law is effected in me by the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus there is no hindrance, the love of God is there.
I shall never forget hearing 1 Corinthians 13 spoken of by a dear brother. The suggestion was made, Put yourself, instead of love, ‘I suffer long and am kind’, &c. Oh, I went down on my knees and turned to the Lord. It would do you good to go down; we want the righteous requirement of the law—love, fulfilled in us. There is that blessed One—the exalted Man, look at Him! There He is in glory, and in Him I see the accomplishment of all that God requires in man, and I long to touch even the confines of moral correspondence to that Man, He has been here, and He could say, “Thy law is within my heart”, Ps 40: 8. The Spirit of that Man has come down, and would like to control us, and to lead us into correspondence to that Man. We are going to see Him. I might never cross the Atlantic again to see my wife, but I am going to see that Man. I am going to see Him. Are we cherishing that blessed hope? And when He is manifested we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is; but the Spirit would bring us now into moral correspondence with Him. He was the true ark of the covenant, and God’s law was written in His heart, and He answered to it in every thought, word and act. What an embodiment that Man was of the righteous requirements of the law! In every way God could look down with delight upon Him. No wonder that God should open the heavens upon Him and say, “This is my beloved Son” (Matt 3: 17), for that beloved Son could say, “I do always those things which please him”. John 8: 29.
It is our privilege to walk, though amidst much weakness, according to the Spirit, and not according to the flesh, and if we do, we shall walk in moral correspondence to that Man who filled the heart of God with delight, and who is now in His presence, to the ineffable delight of His heart.
Some people suppose that to be spiritual is something super extra. If you are not spiritual, you are according to the flesh; there are only two orders, “the mind of the flesh is death; but the mind of the Spirit life and peace”. We may have life and peace before us in a doctrinal way, but God’s thought is to make it real to us. He would have life and peace to be the spiritual atmosphere of our being, so that we might say—In the midst of death we are in life. In the midst of trouble we are in peace. The beauty and charm of eternal life is its contrast to sin and death, and while we are still in this scene of sin and death we can live in the sphere of eternal life. In all our circumstances here, and God’s people have many sorrows, the minding of the Spirit is life and peace. At home, not in the meeting only, but amid all your cares, spiritual condition makes you independent of all circumstances. You need not mind contrarieties or seek relief in recreation or pleasure. Life and peace is established by the Spirit of God in you, and is independent of all circumstances.
And what is the climax? “If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from among the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from among the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies”, v 11. It ends in the eternal actuality of Christianity.
May the Lord make it good in us!