Jottings

by J. Miller | Category: Jottings | Jan 1951

Deliverance from this body of death (Romans 7.24, 25) will come in the coining again of the Lord, when the groan of the believer will cease for ever (Romans 8.28), except, of course, the groaning which may take place at the judgement-seat of Christ (Hebrews 13.17), when accounts may be given with groaning and not with joy; but that apart, when the believer's body knows redemption from sin's consequences, then will come the time of perfect rest and happiness. Though bodily deliverance waits the Lord's coming, the soul or person of the believer is already delivered from condemnation. "There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus".(Romans 8. 1) The believer is legally free from the law of sin and of death, such a law as is still in his members (Romans 7. 28), for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made him free.

Then we are told in Romans 8.8: "For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, condemned sin in the flesh We have in Romans 8.3, 8, three laws in view, (1) the law of sin and death under winch we were condemned, and which is yet m our members, (2) the law of Moses which was weak through the flesh, that carnal condition in which all men are prior to regeneration, (3) the law of the Spirit of life which has made us free from the law of sin and of death.

Christ knew nothing of sin in the flesh; He inherited at birth no such condition as we who by natural generation were conceived in sin and shapen in iniquity (Psalm 51.5). He was holy, guileless and undefiled in His human nature (Hebrews 7.26). He came in the likeness of sinful flesh (or flesh of sin). In consequence of this He not only condemned sin in the flesh, but also was able to offer Himself for sin, neither having sin in the flesh nor did He commit sin.The object of the coming of Christ and of our being justified through faith in Him is "that the ordinance (just requirement) of the law (of Moses) might be fulfilled in us who walk not after (or according to) the flesh but after (or according to) the Spirit." What is the requirement of the law of Moses? The answer is, as the Lord showed the lawyer, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God" and, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself" (Matthew 22.36-40). "On these two commandments," saith the Lord, "hangeth the whole law, and the prophets." Paul says, "Love... is the fulfilment of the law"(Romans l3.10).

The flesh can never fulfil what the law required ; only persons whose mode of life is governed and controlled by the Spirit can ever fulfil the law's demand in any measure. Who is there who does not feel, within, his own helplessness before the true meaning of the law of God? The Pharisees, as the Lord showed, turned to mere externals: " "Ye tithe mint and rue and every herb, and pass over judgement and the love of God: but these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone" (Luke 11.42).

The word "walk" in verse 4 means, the manner of life of an individual or to follow a particular course of life and conduct.

Paul goes on to say, "For they that are after (according to) the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after (according to) the Spirit the things of the Spirit" (verse 5). "After" (Greek kata) means "the course along which an action proceeds," and is in "accordance" or "conformity" thereto. So that those whose lives are according to flesh (there is no definite article before flesh in the Greek) mind the things of the flesh, and in contrast, those whose life springs from and is governed by the indwelling Spirit of God mind the things of the Spirit.

Then Paul shows us the fearful character of the mind of the flesh, the flesh signifying the utterly corrupt nature that is still in our mortal flesh, of which Paul wrote in chapter 7.18, "I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing." Paul says, "The mind of the flesh is death; but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace." Spirit in verses 4, 5, 6, and 9 should be printed with a capital "S," as in the A.V., not with a small "s" as in the R.V. Spirit here is not the human spirit, nor yet is it merely the disposition of the believer, but is the Holy Spirit, as in verses 9, 10 and 11.

After Paul stated in Roman 8.6 the character of the mind of the flesh, that it is death, he amplifies this by the words," Because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be" (verse 7). The mind of the flesh is the source whence every detestable, discordant thought, feeling and desire springs. It never can be changed in its character or attitude to God. When sin entered the human race through Adam's act of eating the forbidden fruit, it changed the entire attitude of man to his Creator. Instead of running to God when he heard His voice in the Garden of Eden he fled from God to hide himself from His presence. Love for God had soured and become bitter; the leaven of sin had done its deadly work. Death instead of life became the whole bent of the human mind. Cain is a witness to this change, and to the stern and dread reality of inherited sin by natural birth. The flesh hates God, and will not be subject to His law. The entire history of Israel illustrates the force of this, and there is no better illustration of it than in that Israelite, Paul himself. At one time, when of Israel after the flesh (1 Corinthians 10.18), he had confidence in the flesh, and, in the list he gives of things which were the sole support of himself and his co-religionists at that time, he says that he was "as touching the righteousness which is in the law, found blameless" (Philippians 3. 3-7). "Blameless" (amemptos) has more particularly to do with one's conduct amongst men, as see Luke 1.6; Philippians 2.15, 3.6; 1 Thessalonians 3.18, 2.10, 5.28. Paul lived, according to the standard of the Pharisees, a blameless life, but he was nevertheless a religious bigot, a blasphemer, a persecutor and injurious (1 Timothy 1.18), as he himself says. Re was with his fellow-Jews "living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another" (Titus 3.8), such was the state of Jewish society then and also now, and the Gentiles are not one whit different. However educated and polished in manners men may be, and however well groomed religiously they may be, the flesh in them is the same as in the irreligious and uncultured. The poet has said "Polite to man, to God most rude."

It was to the cultured, religious, but blind Nicodemus, that the Lord said, "Ye must be born anew," and, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that "which is born of the Spirit is spirit." Paul further adds, "And they that are in the flesh cannot please God." The words "in the flesh" are used in two senses in the New Testament. The words are frequently used of the life we live in mortal flesh on earth. Paul speaks of "That life which I now live in the flesh" (Galatians 2.20),

"As many as have not seen my face in the flesh" (Colossians 2.1). See also Colossians 2.5; Philemon 16; 1 Peter 4.1, 2, 6, etc. But here in Romans 8.8 "in the flesh" describes that corrupt and sinful nature which was in the flesh from birth, and which on becoming alive slew the sinner, as is described in Romans 7.11, and from that moment the sinner is in the flesh. Nothing but a divine deliverance can bring the sinner back to salvation and life. Such a deliverance is described in Ephesians 2.1-10. At this time of quickening, when we were quickened together with Christ, raised and seated with Him in the heavenlies, we were delivered from the flesh, for Paul goes on to say, "Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you" (verse 9). We are in the flesh as to the fleshy organism of our bodies, but we are not in the flesh as to the corrupt nature which overwhelmed us and slew us. We are no longer dead in sins. We are in Christ and in the Spirit. Though we are not in the flesh, the flesh is still in us, that is, in that part of us which is called "my flesh." Paul speaks of "sin which dwelleth in me. For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing" (Romans 7.17, 18). Then Paul says, "But if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His" (verse 9). The Spirit of Christ is the same Spirit as the Spirit of God, even the Holy Spirit.

J. Miller | Jan 1951
Jottings