ROMANS 5 AND 6 (NOTES OF A READING)
ROMANS 5 AND [p. 505] 6 (NOTES OF A READING)
Romans 5: 18 - 21; Romans 6: 1 - 14
CAC I think it would be good if the brethren said a little more about the “one righteousness” and the “obedience of the one”, and particularly as it would appear that these things are the basis of what follows in the epistle.
Ques What is involved in “one righteousness”?
CAC Well, I thought it related to all that had come in by the first “one man” It is clearly in contrast to the “one offence”. The one offence had its bearing towards all and resulted in condemnation, but the one great act of righteousness has been accomplished.
Ques Would that be the death of Christ?
CAC I thought it referred to what was accomplished on the cross. It does not say, one obedience, it is “the obedience of the one” which leaves room for the introduction of the whole obedience of Christ.
Ques Would “becoming obedient even unto death, and that the death of the cross” (Philippians 2: 8) be the whole obedience?
CAC Yes. It seems to me the “one righteousness” clears everything that came in by the first man to the perfect satisfaction of God and to His glory; but “the obedience of the one” brings in all that is perfect and positively delightful to God.
Rem The whole principle of sin will be eradicated from God’s universe, leaving righteousness as the foundation of blessing.
CAC Yes. God would call our attention and the attention of all men to the “one righteousness”, because it is towards all men. God would have all men to be interested in it.
Rem Death came in as the penalty of offences, and so life came in as the answer [p. 506] to righteousness.
CAC It is remarkable that is in view, showing what the effect will be if we take right account of the “one righteousness”, so that we have changed our headship. I suppose all present have changed their headship, and if so we come in for all the value of what is connected with the new Head.
Ques Is there any distinction between this righteousness and that in the third chapter — “righteousness of God”?
CAC It is not quite the same thing, as far as I understand. “Righteousness of God” stands in contrast to any righteousness of men. It is a righteousness that is revealed, purely of God, and made available through infinite grace for men who had none. God provides a righteousness altogether of Himself. But this righteousness is one definite act, standing alone, and it is our great lesson-book in regard to everything that came in by Adam.
Ques Is it by this one righteousness that the righteousness of God has become available to those that believe?
CAC Well, I think the matter is looked at here in its practical moral effect; that is, those who learn the import of the one righteousness see that all that came in by the first man has been fully judged to the satisfaction and glory of God. Sins are judged, sin condemned, the penalty borne, and God intends we should come into line with that; and so we arrive at this great terminus, “justification of life”. That is, we do not go on with one single thing that God has judged by that one act of righteousness. We have to judge everything in the light of it; there is no moral recovery to God until we do. It is a stupendous thing morally to be set in the light of that one act of righteousness so that we come into line with that one act of righteousness accomplished by our one Head. We see that everything that is distasteful and abhorrent to us has been judged by that one righteousness; and the practical result is that those who come into the light of it cannot go on with what they have judged. None of us does. Justification of life is the end in view.
Rem “Leading captive every thought into the obedience of the Christ” (2 Corinthians 10: 5).
CAC Yes, that goes on to the positive side, “the obedience of the one”. All that Adam brought in has been dealt with by “one righteousness” to God’s perfect satisfaction and therefore to ours.
Ques Would you explain being “constituted righteous”?
CAC That is most important, because the negative side alone would not set us up, the consciousness of being divinely cleared of what Adam brought in. Our Head has not only dealt with that, but every element pleasing to God has been brought in by Him. He has filled it up in perfection, and as having a vital link with Him we are constituted righteous. Our link with Adam constituted us sinners — a very real thing — but by the obedience of the One many are constituted righteous. The believer as having changed his head receives impressions from Christ, and this obedience brought in by Him enters into every fibre of his being and constitutes him righteous.
Rem “If any one be in Christ, there is a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5: 17).
CAC Yes, surely. This is a positive principle which is delightful to God and a perfect contrast to Adam; and as we look up with reverence and affection to Christ as Head we derive from Him. So no believer thus is happy except as moving on the line of obedience. What makes us miserable is doing our own will.
In the new creation all things are of God. The old things have passed away and all things are of God. It is an order of things viewed abstractly where everything is of God, and we are privileged to view such a condition of things. But here it is a moral reality. Our link with Christ is according to grace, and it is more real than our link with Adam.
Rem The thief on the cross had ‘changed his man’.
CAC The thief morally parted with himself, for he says, “We indeed justly, ... but this man has done nothing amiss” — he changed over. So he became the solitary witness at Calvary that stood out in clear distinct testimony to Christ; there was no one else at that moment.
Ques Do we take a definite stand here that we have changed our man?
CAC Well, there is no other way of being constituted righteous but by coming under the headship of Christ so that we become affected by it, and we take character from Him as the obedient One. It is a moral change, not merely that the believer is counted righteous. So the obedience of the One covers His whole life from the manger to the cross. The new principle of obedience was carried through to perfection, and there was no way in which it could shine in which it did not shine — of course it includes His death.
Rem It has been said that Adam was greater after the fall than in innocence.
CAC That is so, because Adam was invested in what could not be spoiled, nothing could spoil the coats of skin. These great matters lie at the foundation of all that follows in these chapters. They are worked out in detail in the next three chapters. I think chapter 5 presents things from the divine side, and shows the divine intent — justification of life and our being practically righteous; that is, man is recovered to God in the place where he was so dishonouring to God. It is not taking him to heaven.
Ques Would you explain “justification of life”?
CAC I think it is that the life of the believer as having come under the headship of Christ takes on such a character that no charge can be brought against him. It is a moral result reached, and not perhaps reached in five minutes (in the actual working out of the thing he requires to go through chapters 6, 7 and 8), but it is the divine end.
Ques Is it a right to live?
CAC Yes, I think so; no charge can be brought against him. Of course it is the work of God, like Balaam’s answer to the charge against Israel, “What hath God wrought!” — not “thought”; and what He will effect in Israel, and in His saints now as far as they have come under the reign of grace, is the result of the kingdom of God. It is possible for it to be reached in the assembly now. Fancy the grace of God bringing us under a Head in whom obedience has been worked out in perfection! You can see how believers are viewed as having died to sin. They have seen it exemplified in obedience in Christ, and they have passed over to that side of things; morally they have parted with sin. If a believer sins he knows he has got away altogether from the true place where grace has set him; and he goes down into the dust and breaks his heart over it. It is only as this is brought to fruition that we are really recovered to God in the place where we dishonoured Him. It is the end in view. We want to see that it is now that we are to be in the justification of life; nobody should be able to lay a finger on a spot. It means I am judging everything that God has judged in that one act of righteousness. When we come to the actual working out of it we all feel rather small. Grace teaches us to live “soberly, and justly, and piously in the present course of things” (Titus 2: 12), and there is no room there for sin! And God is working for His own standard, to secure His pleasure; and it is a greater thing that He should secure it now than that He should secure it in heaven where there is no world or sin or flesh to oppose. After being in it all in Adam, we get clear of it all by our link with Christ.
In this way all the hindrances are eliminated that prevent us from enjoying eternal life.
Rem Perhaps some of us are perplexed as to eternal life, what it is!
CAC I dare say we are: we had better go in for it!
Ques Is it the conscious enjoyment of the knowledge of God?
CAC Yes, and undisturbed by sin. We are living in the enjoyment of what came in by Christ.
Rem “This is the eternal life, that they should know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent” (John 17: 3).
CAC And there is no room for sin there. The believer, brought outside the sphere of sin by the link with Christ and giving his new Head His right place, is unhampered. Eternal life is the crowning thing in the kingdom.
Ques Can it be touched individually?
CAC I think we might touch it on an occasion like this; we might touch it in abstraction for a minute or two outside the sphere of sin and death. John is rather particular to use the singular number in speaking of eternal life; it is always ‘he’ (he does not say ‘they’), showing it can be enjoyed individually and enjoyed as the divinely given portion of a number. It is the same thing with sonship.
All this underlies being “dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus”. So the question is raised, Are we to continue in sin? Paul will not hear of such a thing. No saint on earth would hear of such a thing! How could he, having got clear of the whole sphere of sin by the death of Christ? It is not anything in ourselves. If I have part in the death of Christ I am saved from the whole sphere in which sin operates. He was in that sphere, though He knew not sin and in Him sin was not; He died to it, and I believe in that sense His death was a relief to Him. “For he that has died is justified from sin”. You cannot charge with sin a man who is dead.
Rem We can do the same.
CAC Is that not the thought? Christ has died to sin; all His links with the sphere of sin are gone. “In that he has died, he has died to sin once for all; but in that he lives, he lives to God” — so we are to the pleasure of God in the life of another Man. He simply defines the christian position without any explanation. We often have so many explanations that we darken counsel by words without knowledge (Job 38: 2). It is good to see that we have been baptised to Christ and to His death, so as to have part in Christ and in His [p. 511] death; and outside of that we have nothing at all, so we had better come into it!
Rem To be baptised to Moses in the cloud and in the sea would mean we accept it.
CAC Yes, and to accept it as the blessed truth of God. So as to the life we formerly lived we are buried, we are as finished with it as if we were actually buried, and all we have to think of is the will of God — you cannot have any mixed position. I suppose nearly all of us have to learn the truth of it long after our baptism. It is burial with Him unto death so that as Christ was raised up from among the dead by the glory of the Father, we also should walk in newness of life. So there is something of the glory of the Father about every believer walking in newness of life.
Ques Why is it “the Father” — not ‘God’?
CAC All the actings of grace are on the line of the enjoyment and satisfaction of God and His saints. It is like a little bit of John dropped down into Paul. It sets forth the extreme pleasure of the Father to take Him out of the place where He had gone in obedience. The Father’s love embraces Him and takes Him out. And that is the pattern for the believer. In chapter 6 He is the pattern for us, the divine pattern for men. I am to walk in newness of life patterned by His resurrection.
Ques Is that why it is “Jesus Christ” in chapter 5 and “Christ Jesus” in chapter 6?
CAC Yes, the fifth chapter is evidently the last Adam — the new Head; in the sixth it is the second Man — it is the pattern.