ROMANS 5 (NOTES OF A READING)
[p. 498] ROMANS 5 (NOTES OF A READING)
CAC God has given all men to know how much can come in by one man, and that should prepare men to understand the gospel.
Ques You mean how God came in to meet the situation?
CAC Well, it is by introducing another Man, but the very experience of men should prepare them to understand what an immensity of moral results flow from one man.
Ques Does that apply to both lines?
CAC To the Adam line.
Ques Does it not apply to the other?
CAC Yes, but we do not begin with the other. Paul does not begin with Christ, but Adam. The first should prepare us for the other. That which is natural comes first, and all mankind has had experience of that. It is a matter of experience by every human being; we have all experienced what has come in by one man.
Rem Through one man came a scene of lawlessness; through one Man a scene of righteousness can be brought to pass.
Ques Why is there a break in the epistle just here?
CAC Because he has brought us to the highest point in the eleventh verse — boasting in God. But then the Spirit of God takes up this great question of headship, and it is most important for all men. Every man, woman and child is involved in the matter. All have come under sin and death, and how have they come under it? By means of the headship of Adam.
Ques How would you apply it to an unbeliever?
CAC I should like him to realise first of all what the headship of Adam resulted in. If he refused it, I should have [p. 499] nothing more to say to him. He cannot refuse it — that he has come under sin and under death; and it is all traceable to Adam who was fallen before he took up his headship. He is perhaps the most remarkable type of Christ in the Scriptures, “the figure of him to come”; that is, in the very fact that he was head of a race and transmitted certain consequences to every member of his race, he is a figure of Christ.
Ques This is working out things on the principle of headship?
CAC Is it possible for anyone to understand the gospel unless they understand headship?
Ques What does the acknowledgment of the headship of Christ involve?
CAC Any human being realising what he has come into as under the headship of Adam would be extremely concerned as to the raising of the question whether there is any possibility for him to come under any other headship. Headship should be presented to men. It is by both Peter and Paul. Peter preached, “God has made him ... both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2: 36) — Lord and Head. Paul too. The great act of favour on God’s part is that He has brought in another Head, and we ought to tell that to men very plainly in the gospel.
Rem John the Baptist said, “The axe is applied to the root of the trees” (Luke 3: 9).
CAC And he spoke of a coming One for whom he was preparing. The One he heralded would cause men to be vitally linked up to Himself; He baptised with the Holy Spirit.
It is most important to see that God’s great act of favour shall be “as the offence” (verse 15). That is, the act of favour has as wide a bearing as the offence on all the thousands of millions of the human race, on the whole human race, and no one can get out of it, or deny it, if he is in his senses. God, being what He is, is not content to let things rest there, with His creatures under sin and death. It is all reconciled under [p. 500] another Head. It is another one Man, and God would concentrate our thoughts on that one Man — a new Head in place of Adam.
Ques “The act of favour” — does it involve the death of Christ?
CAC I think it does, and the accomplishment of righteousness, all that was brought to pass in the death of Christ. The presence of the Lord on earth without His dying — He might have gone back to glory — would have been the condemnation of everybody, because it would be manifest that all men were utterly unlike Him.
So that “one righteousness” which we get lower down (verse 18) is most important. There is “one man” and “one righteousness”. It no doubt refers to His death and all that was accomplished there for the glory of God.
Rem “The offence of one” referred to Adam’s sin, all were tainted by the same sinful condition.
CAC Yes, clearly. In contrast to that we get the grace of God and the free gift in grace, and it has abounded to the many. God made Himself known through grace, despite the very conditions that man was in, and showed His grace was greater than man’s sin.
Rem “Where sin abounded grace has overabounded”.
CAC Yes, that is a lovely word. If God has been defeated, He is not God at all! God has done something more wonderful than stopping all the evil of men: He has brought in this new Head, in whom His grace is perfectly set forth. Mr. Raven said you could speak to any man in the street and ask whether he had answered to his Head, because it is by divine appointment. God has brought in a Head for man in place of Adam who lost his title to it, and Christ has it. Men turn away from the favour of God and all God has in His heart to give, if they refuse Him. It is all there, it cannot be denied! Why should I refuse to believe what is so blessed — that God is favourable to me? O! it is wonderful; the more I think of the gospel, the more wonderful it is to me. There is [p. 501] the perfect favour of God shining out in Jesus Christ — it is there.
Ques Is the reason why we are so slow to enjoy our privileges, that we do not see this truth?
CAC Our hearts are most averse to taking in what God really is; we are very slow to do so, but it is there to be taken in! God has brought in this new Head and provided the gift of righteousness.
Rem It all has the setting of a gift.
CAC That is how God is presenting Himself, and all that is needed for man and to make him happy, He is willing to provide on the principle of gift. And God works in certain souls to make them appreciative of it.
Rem “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that says to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water” (John 4: 10).
Rem The woman in Luke 7 gladly takes up the new position under Christ.
CAC She greatly appreciated the creditor. The element of self-righteousness is in our flesh and it stands in the light of all God is in His light, in our souls. He is dealing with His creature on the principle of gift. “The free gift of righteousness”, it says. Every man’s heart ought to be touched that God has provided this free righteousness, when he had none of his own.
Rem We are more inclined to think of Christ than of being brought to God; it is to bring us to God.
CAC It is so, and must be so; there would be no Christ at all but for the free giving of God. His presence here and death on the cross are all entirely of God. When we see the favourableness of God towards us it is astonishing to a sinner, and very hard to take in.
Rem The chapter brings in the thought of sin. God has lost man and is recovering him.
CAC He has undertaken to do everything, to remove [p. 502] everything in the way of His creature’s blessing, and He has the free gift of righteousness, so that he may be set up in righteousness perfectly before God.
As unbelievers we practically exhibited we were under the headship of Adam, because at that time we ignored the new headship. It is for men to understand this, whether they believe or not. God has introduced this new Head. If their eyes are open to the gain of it they receive it; you cannot think of anyone seeing it without receiving it. See all that has come in by Him! Men close their eyes to it. God is doing all He can to open men’s eyes to see it. Satan blinds their eyes. “In whom the god of this world has blinded the thoughts of the unbelieving” (2 Corinthians 4: 4). Christ is there in His headship for every human being. His headship is on the line of blessing, what is available to His creature on that line. His headship here is entirely on the line of blessing, the fulness of grace and blessing that is in Him as the divinely appointed Head.
Ques Is this to demonstrate the attitude of God to men at the present time?
CAC You can preach Christ, that all grace and blessing come through Him and are found in Him, whether men are interested or not. You would like to make them interested, would you not? The gospel brings out the state of man as nothing else does; for if God is revealed in grace and truth, and declared from the bosom of the Father, and men are unmoved, it shows the terrible state of the fallen creature. Verse 16 shows the act of favour is of many offences unto justification — that though men on their part have many offences, the act of favour provides justification for them. God is the Justifier, He is that for all men. There is a beautiful note to justification: ‘It is the state of accomplished subsisting righteousness before God, in which justification places us’. That is very fine. Justification places us in a position of accomplished subsisting righteousness, the fruit of the death of Christ. It can never be changed or [p. 503] modified; and that is the status in which the believer is placed before God. The righteousness of the believer is not a changeable thing at all.
Ques “Justification” and “justification of life” — what is the distinction between the two?
CAC One is the fruit of God’s justifying grace, and the other is the result of deliverance. That is, he speaks of reigning in life — you are no longer under bondage to sin, Satan’s power or the law. The believer reigns in life through Jesus Christ; he is set in the supremacy of life. He receives the abundance of grace, and of the free gift of righteousness, he is set up in all the wealth of grace, and the result of that is there is a reigning in life by Jesus Christ. But in order to get that practically there must be the working out of the next three chapters.
Ques Why is there the absence of the Spirit still? It is not said to be in the power of the Spirit, I mean.
CAC He has spoken of the Spirit earlier in the chapter; what he is dwelling upon is what is administered through the Lord Jesus Christ; and if we see the wealth of the supremacy of grace, we are in the enjoyment. A man in the sense of God’s supremacy of grace would never lose his temper. If he does, it is because he has got out of it, and that is more serious than losing his temper. When we are in the gain of the grace administered by the one Man, we do not sin. Such a man is lifted into a region far above the level where sin moves — he has justification of life. It is a life that cannot be changed with sin; and that is the life of the believer. “For we all often offend”, as James says — we all know it. It is a shame for a believer to sin. In order to be in the supremacy of life you need deliverance from sin and the law and the flesh. The power of it all is the joy of grace. If we lost it we should be in bondage. If in the joy of grace we shall not give place to the flesh; it is a thing we are ashamed of, we do not want to gratify it in any way. Reigning in life is a position of supremacy, and justification of life is that there is nothing seen in a [p. 504] believer that is not suitable to a justified man. If I sin I am contradicting the whole position. I am saying I am without a spot with God, and bringing in many spots. Justification of life is a life unchangeable with sin. “Which of you convinces me of sin?”, the Lord said (John 8: 46). We do not want to say we do not walk as He did. The natural result of being justified by faith and by blood etc. is justification of life; it is a practical thing showing what justification brings about. Paul was good outwardly but had to learn what was in his flesh; we all have to learn, however nice we are outwardly, that we belong to Adam — that miserable stock! We need to keep our souls in the sense of grace, and all that is unfolded in these chapters, because if we get away from it we have no power to stand against our own flesh or the world. And this is God’s thought for all men — not only believers — that they should be delivered from the power of sin and move on the line of righteousness; and He has brought in His own righteousness that we might be practically righteous.
Then the last verse, “So also grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”. That is, it brings us into the spiritual joy of the believer, because eternal life is looked at here as the blessing of the gospel. So the kingdom of God is “righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit” — all this now. And as we move on these lines in righteousness in a practical sense, there is the enjoyment of blessing outside the reign of sin and death, and we enjoy it particularly when together.