Extract from
by James H. McConkey
A. The
Way of Death (The Death of Jesus Christ) or Victory over the Dominion of Sin
“How can we, that are DEAD TO SIN, live any longer therein?” (Rom 6:2)
i. Jesus Christ not only died FOR SINS but He also died TO SIN.
- “For in that He died, He DIED UNTO SIN once,” and death, which represented the only dominion of sin over Him, “hath NO MORE DOMINION OVER HIM”
ii. Every believer has been baptized into this death of Jesus Christ TO SIN.
- “So many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized INTO HIS DEATH” (Rom 6:3)
- Clearly it does not mean that we are literally dead.
- “Of God are ye IN CHRIST JESUS” (I Cor. 1:30)
- And because we are thus joined to Jesus Christ though we are alive, yet the power and efficacy of our Lord Christ’s death become ours by virtue of our union with Himself.
- It is manifestly not our death, but our union with Christ in HIS death to which Paul refers when he says we are “dead to sin.”
iii. Every believer is commanded to reckon himself dead to sin THROUGH JESUS CHRIST.
- “Reckon ye also YOURSELVES to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God THROUGH JESUS CHRIST our Lord” (Rom 6:11)
- “reckon yourselves dead to sin” is a command.
- “Of God are ye in Christ Jesus.” And you are just as much in Him now as you every will be in this present life. So, in this sense, all Christians are dead to sin.
- “How can WE that are dead to sin?” He is speaking of all believers. He declares that all of us who were baptized into Him were baptized into His death.
iv. Reckon yourself DEAD TO SIN does not mean THAT SIN IS DEAD IN YOU.
- It does not say “Reckon that sin is dead in you.” It does say “Reckon yourselves dead to sin.”
v. Reckon therefore not upon THE BANISHED PRESENCE of sin as a principle but upon THE BROKEN DOMINION OF SIN as a master.
- In all the eighty-seven verses of Rom 6-8 chapters devoted to the subject of victory over sin, the word “cleanse” does not once occur, neither is there any mention anywhere of victory over sin as being an act of cleansing.
- God’s remedy for the flesh is not cleansing, but crucifixion; not the fuller’s soap, but the spikes of the cross, - not sinlessness of nature, but holiness of walk.
- All the terms of defeat in the sixth of Romans are pictures of the SLAVERY of sin, while all its terms of victory are terms of deliverance from the dominion, mastership, and slavery of sin.
a. That henceforth we should not be slaves to sin (Rom 6:6)
b. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body (Rom 6:12)
c. For sin shall not have dominion over you (Rom 6:14)
d. To whom ye yield yourselves bond-slaves (Rom 6:16)
e. Ye were the bond-slaves in sin (Rom 6:17)
f. Being then emancipated (made free) from sin (Rom 6:18)
g. And become bond-slaves to God (Rom 6:22)
- Therefore “dead to sin” does not mean that sin is dead in you. Neither does it man that there is never any response to sin in you. What it does mean is that just as the dominion of the law was wholly broken over that man who died and then rose again; and just as the dominion of death was forever broken over Jesus Christ who died and rose again; so the dominion of sin over you has been forever broken by your union with Christ in His death.
vi. Begin to RECOGNIZE and you will begin to REALIZE
- Realize what? The power of CHRIST’S DEATH (not ours) in breaking the dominion of sin.
- Because He died “death hath no more dominion over Him” and because of our union with Him “sin shall not have dominion over you,” even though it is present in you.
- Our “reckoning” ourselves dead to sin through Jesus Christ does not make it a fact. It is already a fact through our union with Him. Our reckoning it to be true only makes us begin to realize the fact. It is counting on something which IS true in Christ.
- And as we count upon it we begin to realize it. As we reckon we realize.
- For reckoning is not imagining a fiction. It is counting upon a fact.
vii. Remember that it is not THE UNDERSTANDING of reckoning but THE PRACTICE OF IT which brings victory.
-
We do not understand the
mystery of atonement. But when we believe in Jesus Christ we receive the
blessing of it. We cannot understand the mystery of an indwelling Christ. Paul
said it was not known to the prophets of old. But when we received Jesus Christ
it became our glorious possession (
- So note this important fact. It is the practice of reckoning ourselves dead to sin through Christ, not the understanding of the mystery of it which makes this great truth real in our lives.
- God commands us to reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive unto God through Jesus Christ. And it is obedience to a command not the understanding of a mystery which brings it into the realm of our experience.
- To know its power, we must obey it. We must treat it not as a doctrinal fiction but as a divine fact.
- On the strength of God’s clear Word, I count myself dead to you through Jesus Christ. However conscious I am of your presence, you shall not have dominion over me just as death no longer has dominion over my Lord.
viii. Victory will come as you BELIEVE IN YOUR DISCHARGE through Jesus Christ.
- He that is dead HAS HIS DISCHARGE (lit) from sin (Rom 6:7)
- Sin has done its worst in putting the Lord to death. Death has no more dominion over Him. And because the believer is united to Him in the likeness of His death sin shall no longer have dominion over him. For “he that is dead is freed from sin.” That is, he “has his discharge.”
ix. Victory will come as you CLAIM YOUR EMANCIPATION through Christ.
- But now being EMANCIPATED (made free) from sin (Rom 6:22)
- To be set free by some one else is one thing. TO REALIZE OUR FREEDOM is another.
- Do not let us doubt emancipation because we have not yet realized and experienced it. For the former is the act of the emancipator. It is true entirely apart from any attitude, feeling, or experience of yours. Your unfaith cannot nullify it; your faith does not establish it.
- Because it is the act of another. That unfaith or faith of yours does vitally and tremendously affect the realization of emancipation in your life and walk. But it does not affect in the slightest degree the FACT of emancipation. For the FACT of emancipation is dependent wholly upon the ACT of the emancipator, “GOD, sending His own Son, CONDEMNED SIN IN THE FLESH.” God signed this great emancipation proclamation.
x. The failure of faith is the failure of freedom.
- They do not see that the emancipation of a slave is one thing, and the cleansing of a slave’s life and walk is another. They do not see that while the slave has something to do with the latter, the former is wholly and only of God. “Being therefore set free from sin” is God’s glorious Emancipation Proclamation fro them. But they remain as veritable slaves as though it had never been uttered. For they do not believe it.
The first secret, therefore, of victory over sin for the Christian is clear. It is this. STEP OUT ON BELIEVING GROUND. Begin to count yourself, that is to reckon yourself dead to sin through our Lord Jesus Christ. Let this reckoning of faith be intelligent. Understand that this death to sin does not mean an inner state of deadness but does mean broken dominion. Say to sin, “I am conscious of the pull of your presence, but you shall not have dominion over me.” Meet all the assaults of sin with this steadfast attitude of faith. Soon you will find this reckoning of faith issuing into the realization of experience. You will discover that the cross of Christ has as surely broken the dominion of sin for you as it has cleansed away the guilt of your sins. You will realize that THE WAY OF DEATH, the death of our blessed Lord, has brought victory over THE DOMINION of sin. And now you will be ready to press on to THE WAY OF LIFE which will bring you victory over THE LAW of sin.
B. The
Way of Life (The Life of Jesus Christ) or Victory over the Law of Sin
“The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” (Rom 8:2)
i. Paul’s wondrous secret of victory, the secret of his marvelous, triumphant, Spirit-filled life in Christ, is found in his message to the Galatians, in one short revealing sentence of four words. Here it is --- “CHRIST LIVETH IN ME”
a. The Indwelling Christ is our LIFE
- The pathway here below is dusty and toilsome. The besetments of sin are fierce and unrelenting. The treacherous weakness of the flesh is ever present with us. But our life is hid with Christ in God. Yea, and most wonderful of all “Christ is our life.”
- “Christ liveth in me,” and I live by faith in Christ.
- In the blood we have the way of death, or victory over the dominion of sin. In the water we have the way of life, or victory over the law of sin.
- Christ in us, therefore, is literally our spiritual life, and it is as this life of the living Christ within us becomes the law of our life that we are made free from the law of sin and death. For the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit.
b. The Indwelling Christ is our HOLINESS
- “And for their sakes I sanctify myself” (John 17:19)
- He was coming into us sons of God to live out His own life in us.
- And if we were to be made holy in truth then that life which entered into us must be what it was, and what He kept it, namely a perfectly spotless, holy, sanctifying life upon which we could draw and which would constitute our holiness, as distinct from the defiling stream of death which has flowed down to us from the first Adam.
- Believer has no innate holiness of nature in himself. Jesus Christ within us is our holiness, and He alone. We are indeed called to holiness of walk. But the only sinlessness of nature within us which we can ever possess here is the holiness of Christ Himself dwelling in us.
c. The Indwelling Christ is our POWER
- “And he breathed upon them and said receive ye the Holy Ghost.” It was the earnest of Pentecost; the fore-breathing of His own spirit; the pledge of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus which should make us free from the law of sin and death. What all our own struggles and self efforts cannot do to break the power and fetters of sin, the law of a new life in Christ Jesus will do for us if we only yield ourselves to Him and learn His secret.
ii. “I LIVE BY FAITH”
He is not here talking of salvation by faith but of living his life by faith in an inliving Christ.
a. The Faith which BELIEVES
- It is the faith which takes God’s simple word that the living Christ is dwelling in every one of His children.
- “Christ in
you, the hope of glory.” (
- “That Christ should dwell in your heart by faith.” (Eph 3:17)
- It is no longer I, but Christ that liveth in me.” (Gal 2:20)
- I in them, and thou in me.” (John 17:23)
- “Whether ye be in the faith.” (II Cor 13:5). That is, whether you are believers, whether you are saved by faith in Jesus Christ.
- How do you know that Jesus Christ is dwelling in you by His Spirit? You BELIEVE He’s there and He IS there.
b. The Faith which YIELDS
- Paul was one who had faith enough in Jesus Christ to trust Him with himself, his life, his all, and yield himself to the doing of His will. Is that where your faith in the inliving Christ fails? Perhaps it is not so much that you have not let Christ in, but that you do not let Him out! That is you have not trusted Him enough to place your life wholly in His blessed keeping and let Him work out through you that part of His great purpose of service and suffering which He has ordained for you from before the foundation of the world (Eph 2:10). The mighty throb, and pulse of power in a giant steam boiler cannot possibly manifest itself if it has no engine yielded to it through which it may work. So you shut off the throb and thrill of the indwelling Christ’s life and power if you do not trust Him with the faith which yields.
- “He that believeth in me out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water,” said Christ. But that river of victory and power from the indwelling Christ cannot flow forth if we will not trust Him with the faith that yields.
- So when Paul said, “the life I live, I live by faith,” he meant not only the faith which trusts the indwelling presence of Christ, but the faith which yields its life to Him. We cannot know the outflow of His victory-life and power unless we trust Him enough to give Him our lives.
c. The Faith which DRAWS
- Hourly dependence in the living and indwelling Christ.
- It is with the faith which draws upon the indwelling Christ. It so opens our innermost lives to Him that His stream of life and power can flow into it and through it even as the pulsing waves of power from the wireless instrument flowed into the midnight power system at whatever point it was open to that instrument.
- This step-by-step life; this day-by-day, and need-by-need life is the last great secret of victory for the believer to learn. By His tender love and patient grace we may learn it even as His own stumbling, faltering, failing disciples came to know it when the indwelling Christ became theirs.
C. The Way of Consecration or Victory over the Choice
of Sin
“Present your bodies a living sacrifice.” (Rom 12:1)
- “Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin; but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.”
- “Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or obedience unto righteousness?”
- God beseeches him to do it (Rom 12:1) but He does not force it. “Choose ye this day whom ye will serve” in the Old Testament ahs its counterpart in “ Present your body a living sacrifice” in the New.
i. The burnt-offering was an offering unto THE LORD.
- “If any man of you bring an offering unto the Lord” (Lev 1:2)
- It is not primarily an offering unto any calling, ministry, nor service, however high and noble, but first of all an offering unto the Lord, leaving wholly to Him the time, place, and character of our life-work.
- It is yours to give your life to God in consecration apart from any calling however high or noble. Then it is God’s to show you your place of life service.
- “Will you please tell me in a work,”said a Christian woman to a teacher, “what your idea of consecration is?” Holding our a blank sheet of paper the teacher replied, “It is to sign your name to the bottom of this blank sheet of paper and let God fill it in as He will.”
ii. The burnt-offering was of THE WORSHIPPER’S BEST.
- “The Son of god who loved us and gave Himself for us.” Nothing less than that from us will satisfy His great heart of love.
iii. The burnt-offering was AN ATONING OFFERING.
- “In His own body He bore our sins upon the tree.”
- The burnt offering, besides being a type of Christ’s offering of Himself, is also a picture of the believer’s consecration.
- Not only was my past unsaved life under the blood, but also my formal, nominal Christian life. All my coldness and indifference; all my failure to be a burnt offering for God; all my neglected opportunities and wasted years; all these were under the blood.
- How gracious and tender is the love of God toward His children! As soon as we give our lives to Him He forgets all our indifference, coldness, failures and shortcomings, and receives our consecration with as loving a heart as though we had all our lives been His devoted and faithful servants. This is why the burnt offering was an atoning offering. In it we realize that not only the unsaved life, but the unconsecrated life is under the blood.
iv. The burnt-offering was AN OFFERING OF IDENTIFICATION.
- In the sin-offering the laying on of the hand signified the identification of the worshiper with the offering. The sin of the worshiper was transferred to the offering, and the blamelessness of the offering transferred to the worshiper. This was true of us and Christ in the sin offering. Our sins were transferred to Him, and His righteousness to us. “He was made sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
- Now what does the onlaid hand mean in connection with the burnt offering? Simply this. The believer in his consecration identifies himself with the Lord Jesus in doing the will of God, which is what the burnt offering stands for.
-
Let us not disappoint Him in
His plan, for He has no other. Let us yield these lives of ours to Him, that we
may enter into the joy of His precious will for them. Then His message to us
shall be the same as His word to Daniel. “Thou shalt stand in they lot.” For
all time and all eternity we shall realize that we are in the place that He has
chosen for us, and He is having the supreme joy of carrying out His great
purpose through these humble lives of ours. This is what “seek ye first the
Consecration then is one of the great key points of victory over sin. Thousands of Christians mark that crisis as the hour of momentous victory in their lives. Nor could it well be otherwise. For the stream of God’s victory runs deep in the channel of God’s will. And as consecration is a placing the whole life in alignment with the will of God it of necessity brings a great manifestation of the power of God in victory. Therefore if you would know another great secret of triumph over sin find it here in the act of consecration. Do not complicate nor involve it. Make it a simple, definite, final abandonment of your life and all to Jesus Christ. God’s one supreme requirement of you is THAT IT BE SINCERE. Without this He can do nought for you. With this all else will come into line with His great purpose of victory for your life. It is the greatest open secret of the triumphant life, on the human side. It is a golden key which God puts into your hand to unlock one of His choicest treasure-chambers of victory. “BEING MADE FREE from sin” – that is the work of God. – “ And BECOME SERVANTS to God” – that is your own Spirit-led, Spirit-empowered step which “by the mercies of God” you are besought to take. See to it that you do not miss taking it. For it places your hand in God’s, to walk with Him in the way of triumph over “the sin that doth so easily beset us”.
D. The
Way of Cleansing or Victory over the Practice of Sin
“Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (II Cor 7:1)
- The Christian has been washed from the guilt of sin by the Blood of Jesus Christ. But, as he goes his way he must cleanse his daily life from the practice of sin. And wherewithal shall a young man cleanse the way? “By taking heed thereunto according to Thy Word.” So as the Word of God, which is the mirror of revelation of His will, reveals to the believer his own practice of sin, he is to cleanse himself from all filthiness of the flesh, and is to perfect his holiness in the fear of God. Day by day, as the Word of God reveals these shortcomings and shows him where his life falls short of the holiness which God requires of him as revealed in His Word, he is to cleanse his life according to that Word. That is, because he has given himself in consecration to do the will of God, he is to cleanse himself from the practice of anything in his life which falls short of that will. Here is where multitudes of believers fail. They have accepted by faith their emancipation from the slave-mastership of sin by the cross of Christ. They have yielded themselves in consecration to God to become His servants. They have wonderful manifestations of the presence and power of God in their innermost souls. But by and by this begins to fade. They begin to talk of a lost experience. They say the joy of Christ and the peace of Christ which once they knew has fled away and they do not understand why. Would you know the explanation? They have failed to learn the last great secret of victory over sin. They do not confirm their practical daily life to the revealing and cleansing Word of God.
- “If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body” is God’s Word in Rom 8:13.
- We are to turn over the boards and planks on top of which we have been walking our pathway of life; let the sunshine of God’s Word shine in upon the hideous creeping things of the Flesh which are underneath our life walk; and then we are day by day to “do to death” the whole loathsome brood which has lost us the throne of our spiritual power even as the Flesh with its disobedience lost Saul his. There is nothing so hateful to God as sin. Yet there is nothing so common as to hear it palliated by men who are the “sons of God” and are called to “walk worthy of Him.”
i. Sin in the Members
- “Yield your members servants to righteousness” (Rom 6:19)
- Sin uses the eyes.
Sights we ought not to gaze upon may come under the range of our eyes without any volition of our own. But it is the second look that counts. There is a clear border line between things which thrust themselves upon our vision, and things which we choose to look upon. The one is innocence; the other is sin.
- Sin uses the mind.
Not only keep your own lips clean from the shady story, but stop another man when he starts to tell you one. Guard that mind with care from every avenue of defilement. And in your quiet hour beware that your imagination is not suffered to become the dwelling place of sinful thoughts and imagery.
- Sin uses the lips.
- Other sins.
There is the sin of anxious care. There is the sin of covetousness. There is the sin of murmuring against God and His providential dealings in our lives, of which the Isralelites were so heinously guilty. There is the sin of indulging in some form of the fleshly lusts which war against the soul. Keep doing to death these practices of the body until they have no place in your life and in your walk.
ii. The Secret of Failure
- With multitudes of Christians their failure of victory is right here. Their lost victory is this victory of mortification. They have learned to reckon themselves dead to sin through our Lord Jesus Christ. They have given themselves in a real consecration to Him. They have known most blessed and definite manifestations of His presence and power. But here they have stopped. They fail in the progression of victory; in the practical victory in their daily lives. What they need is to bring to bar before God every sin revealed to them by the Spirit and the Word of God; to lay down the straight edge of that Word alongside of those daily lives; and then with steady, unflinching hand and heart, to keep “doing to death” that practice of sin which has become a habit in their members until they have it in triumph under their feet, and its power and practice passes out of their daily lives.
iii. Perfecting our Holiness
- Sinlessness of nature is one thing, and is not ours to possess. But victory over the practice of sin in our lives is another thing, and every child of God is expected to realize it. To attempt to justify our failure of victory over sin by saying that no man can be perfect is much of a quibble. It is a kind of spiritual smoke-screen to conceal the humiliation of our daily defeat. Let us be honest enough to discern and acknowledge this vast difference between sinlessness of nature and holiness of walk. The Apostle John makes it beautifully clear. “If any man say that he hath no sin he deceiveth himself.” “But these things I write unto you, little children, that ye sin not.” In other words, if any man says that he is sinless, that is, has no sinful nature, he deceiveth himself, says John. But every believer is called to victory over the practice of sin, that is, to a holy walk in Christ Jesus.
iv. A defiled temple
- The believer’s body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. It is to be kept clean from the practice of sin. If it is not, its glory is dimmed and the Spirit’s victory through it is marred and hindered.
v. The Call to Mortification
- The secret dalliance with sin ends in the open shame. The backward look toward the abandoned land of the flesh still brings the Lord’ sharp rebuke, “Remember Lot’s wife”. Job’s Old Testament teaching “I have made a covenant with mine eyes,” finds its counterpart in Paul’s, “Yield not your members.” The break with sin in the heart of the believer must be real if the indwelling Christ is to be a realization. When sin is still cherished as a sweet, even though forbidden morsel under the tongue; when there is a lingering grasp instead of a cleanly broken one; when the imagination wanders in pathways which we have closed to our feet; when the flesh though discrowned is not yet despised and spurned; in short wherever a man has not pressed the issue of separation to the bitter end, and made the break with sin clean-cut, absolute, and all-comprehensive, then let him look to himself, for he will surely drink of the bitter cup of defeat.
E. The
Way of Resurrection or Victory over the Death of Sin
“Death is swallowed up in victory” (I Cor 15:54)
“Christ in You the Hope of Glory” (
F. The
Sidelights of Victory
i. The Incontestable Facts of Victory
- It is an incontestable fact of the Word that God founds His teaching of victory over sin upon the death of our Lord Jesus Christ (Rom 6:1-14)
- It is an incontestable fact of the Word that Jesus Christ, having dies, death hath no more dominion over Him. “Death hath no more dominion over Him” (Rom 6:9)
- It is an incontestable fact of the Word that all believers have been baptized into this death of our Lord Jesus Christ and hence baptized into this broken dominion of sin over them, even as death’s dominion is broken over Him. “So many of us were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death. For sin shall not have dominion over you.” (Rom 6:3,14)
- It is an incontestable fact of the Word that God calls all believers, therefore, to reckon themselves dead to sin through this, their union with the Lord Jesus Christ in His death. “Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin … through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Rom 6:11)
- It is an incontestable historical fact that the vast majority of believers fail to experience this great second work of the Cross, the broken dominion of sin, evidently because they fail to believe and appropriate it with the same simplicity with which they believe and appropriate its first great work, the remission of sins.
ii. The Sin Trio
- The Christian has a trio of foes arrayed against him in this matter of victory. They are the world, the flesh, and the devil. All of these have been judged; but none of them destroyed. All of them have been condemned; but all are still here.
- This mighty trio of deadly foes, the world around us; the devil without us, and the flesh within us, have all been judged, all “brought to nought” by the mightier One who lives within us, and the believer has the right to claim steady victory over them all. Yet let us remember that they are still here, and let us cease not to “watch and pray lest ye enter into temptation”.
- The Flesh Leads Us Away from God. “Every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust.” (James 1:14)
- The Lusts of the Flesh Corrupt the Life Yielded to Them. “Having escaped the corruption which is in the world through lust.” (II Peter 1:4)
- The Lusts of the Flesh Fashion the Fleshly Life. “”Not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance.” (I Peter 1:14)
iii. Reckon Yourselves Dead
- It might seem a self-evident and commonplace fact to say that the believer is not literally dead. Yet it is important to note that death as applied to the believer is different from death as applied to his Lord. Our Lord Jesus Christ actually died. His spirit left His body and took its flight. And that is physical death. For the believer, it is not his own death, but his union with Jesus Christ in His death. And because he is baptized into that death, the power of that death becomes his in victory over sin. It is striking how this expression “reckon” exactly fits the great truth here taught.
iv. Victory Cannot Come through THE LAW, because of the Weakness of THE FLESH.
- The Law indeed is holy, and just, and spiritual. But it cannot triumph over the “law of sin and death” which is arrayed against it. Nothing but “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” can make us free from this law of sin and death. He, and He alone, can supply the victory of life and cause us by His blessed Spirit to “walk in newness of life”.
v. The Body of Sin.
- It may mean our mortal body considered as the instrument of sin and hence called “the body of sin”. Paul makes this clear in Rom 6:19, where he calls upon the believers who have been using their members as servants to uncleanness and iniquity so now to use those same members as servants unto righteousness and holiness. A body then which could be used as an instrument of sin, if the owner to chose, could well then be called “a body of sin”.
- It may mean the flesh considered as the dwelling place of sin, and hence called the “body of sin”. For the flesh is looked upon in the Word of God as the dwelling place of sin. When Paul wishes to say that in him there dwelleth no good thing, he is careful to say “in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing”. In Rom 8:3 we are told that God sent His own Son “in the likeness of sinful flesh, or flesh of sin”. In the same passage the Word states that God condemns “sin in the flesh”, thus stating clearly that the flesh is the dwelling place of sin. In Rom 7:25 Paul says, “so then with the mind I myself serve the Law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin”. These passages seem clearly to make the flesh the dwelling place of sin, and therefore this expression, “the body of sin”, can be well applied to the flesh as the place in which sin dwells.
vi. Yielding, --- an Act and a Process.
- Yielding is both an act and a process. The act of yielding or consecration is like the soldier’s act of signing his allegiance to his government. His act is done once and for all. Then all the rest of his time of service is simply a conforming of his life of service to this act of allegiance. The fact that this service may not be at all times perfect, and consistent with his oath of allegiance, does not vitiate the sincerity nor the validity of that allegiance. So the marriage vow is an act of loving devotion. The residue of life is simply a process of conformity in loving fellowship to the act of devotion at the marriage ceremony. The failure of wife and husband to conform their lives to this act of loyalty to each other does not for one moment vitiate that act. The yielding or Rom 12:1 is a definite act of consecration to God. So also is the yielding of Rom 6:16 an act. But in Rom 6:19, Paul is evidently speaking of that continuous yielding of our members to righteousness which we once gave to sin and to iniquity. So do not let the believer be distressed with the idea that he is not a consecrated man because at times his life falls below the level of a perfect consecration. A break in the process of yielding does not destroy nor nullify the sincerity and value of the act of yielding in the eyes of God. It simply calls for that confession which brings the life back under the cleansing blood of Christ.
vii. Not Responsible for THE EXISTENCE of the Flesh.
- Child of God needs to remind himself of this, that however responsible he is for walking on the flesh, he is not responsible for its existence. Not any more than for the tone of his voice, or the color of his eyes, or for his own physical stature. All these have come down to him by ancestral inheritance. He himself is in no wise accountable for them. So then in his distress at these revelations of the innermost flesh of sin let the believer remember this distinction between the existence of the flesh for which he is not accountable, and the yielding and walking in the flesh for which he is. Such revelations of evil in the natural heart even in the holiest moments of life are simply the clearest proof of what the Word of God says, namely, that “in me, that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing”. Where, then, does innocence end and responsibility begin in this matter of the presence of sinister thoughts in our hearts? Luther put it very clearly in that homely illustration of his about the birds. “We are not responsible for the birds flying about our heads, but we are responsible for letting them build their nests in our hair.” This exactly pictures the truth. The mere existence of these evil thoughts and imaginings even in the holy hours of our lives is not a matter of personal guilt. But when we open the door of the heart to them, and choose them, and willfully entertain their presence, then we pass from the place of innocence into that of personal guilt which needs confession and the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ as truly as any other act of committed sin.
viii. The Two Extremes
- The child of God needs to guard himself against swinging away form the error of an absolute sinlessness of nature, to the other one of a constant sinfulness of walk of life. The latter is just as unscriptural and just as disastrous as the former. The experience of occasional defeat is certainly that of every Christian, and God has His remedy for it in confession and the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ. But the experience of constant defeat is certainly one that is dishonoring to the Lord Jesus Christ, and inconsistent with the triumphant life in Him to which the Gospel of Jesus Christ calls all of God’s children. Most of us would admit that at times we fall into acts of sin. “But how can we that are dead to sin live and longer therein?” is a very different proposition. And there can be only one answer to that interrogation in the light of that other teaching, -- “Let use cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” This indeed teaches no sinlessness of nature, but it does teach a steadily progressive cleansing of the believer’s walk in holiness with his Lord until it reaches the highest state of completeness to which it can be brought through the Word of God, and the Spirit of God.
ix. THE LIKENESS of His Death
-
Christ was literally raised
from the dead in that his flesh and blood body was glorified by being
transformed into a spiritual body of glory. Now this is not true of the
believer’s body. Therefore we are, as yet, united to Him only by the LIKENESS
of His death, and resurrection with Him. “If ye then be risen with Christ” (
x. Holiness Syllogisms
- “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves” (1 John 1:8) “In Him is no sin” (1 John 3:5) “Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not” (I John 3:6) Every man has a sinful nature within him, and deceives himself if he denies it. But in Jesus Christ there is no sin whatever, and even though we are men and women with sinful natures we may abide in Him as He commands us. And this is the secret of victory over sin.
- “In me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing” (Rom 7:18) “For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Col 2:9) “Christ liveth in me” (Gal 2:20) Mine is a fallen nature; it is marred and stained with sin, and in my natural man, the man after the flesh, there dwelleth no good thing. But in Jesus Christ dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and that Christ liveth in me. Therefore all my life and fullness and spiritual power must come form abiding in Him who is God’s fullness.
- We have no holiness of nature in ourselves. The fullness and the victory that is in Jesus Christ alone. We get that victory by abiding in Him who is the only holy life within us. Thus we are warned against the danger of trusting in the flesh which means spiritual disaster, and are turned toward the real secret and source of triumph over sin which is Himself and Himself alone, dwelling in us and living through us. Only this double attitude of distrust in ourselves and constant trust in Him can lead us into the place of real triumph in the Christian life.
xi. A Great Text
- The whole subject of victory is set forth by the Holy Spirit through Paul in one illuminating verse which is a masterpiece of condensation. It is Rom 6:22. Let us marshal its clauses singly and in order. “But now being made free (set free) from sin” – Emancipation. “And become servants to God” – Consecration. “Ye have your fruits unto holiness” – Purification. “And the end everlasting life” – Jesus Christ.
- The first clause shows that which has been done by God in emancipation. The second clause shows the act of the believer in consecration, so highly essential in the believer in order that God may work out, in and through him, His way of emancipation. The third clause shows the daily life of purification and holiness which is set forth in that text already quoted “Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh, and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” This is the daily fruit of holiness which the Lord works out through the believer, as the latter yields his members to him. And what is the climax of it all as shown in the fourth clause> “Everlasting life.” But eternal life is to know God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. (John 17:3) And thus we have the beautiful teaching that the climax and outcome of our growth in holiness and the end of it all is an ever increasing revelation of the knowledge of Jesus Christ in our inner souls. The perfecting of our holiness in the fear of God brings the perfecting of the manifestation of Him who is the Holy One within us. It was this which was the passion Paul’s heart, and which he voiced in the great longing of his soul to know Jesus Christ, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings. He laid aside all weights and counted all things but loss for the surpassingness of thus knowing Jesus Christ. That Christ came not only that we might have life, at regeneration but that we might have it more abundantly as our life goes on growing in grace and the knowledge of Him. And by the perfecting of our holiness through the power of His Spirit He deepens and enriches that abounding life which is supremely the revelation of Himself who alone is Life.