Well lets get this here horse galloping again, eh?
(Sorry this is a looong one...better just print it out and be done with it! I don't want to waste anyone's time about where I see the Lord on this so, I'm gonna give the full gamut right off!)
Let the person who is seeking for victory over sin be as soundly convinced that no amount of effort, of intensive study of the Word of God, of church attendance, activity in missionary lines, devout prayers and the liberal giving of offerings, is going to cause the carnal mind to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit. This is not the way, for the "carnal mind . . . . Is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." it is as sure that this is so as it is true that the thorn bush is not subject to the law of producing apples neither indeed can be.
Therefore, any person who, while still retaining the carnal mind, is attempting to keep the law of God to bring forth the active fruits of the Spirit is attempting an absolute impossibility. Not until that carnal mind is dealt with so that its power is broken, can the person begin to keep the law of God. The axe must be laid at the root of the tree. There is no other way.
There are those in the religious world today who think that the solution to the problem is to do away with the law. A little careful thought will show that this cannot be. An ignorant man thought to do away with the heat problem by breaking the thermometer, but when he had done that it did not change the heat or lessen the problem. The problem was still there in the unchanged and unabated heat. What he had lost was an accurate means of knowing how hot it really was.
So likewise, if the law is taken away it will make no difference to the sin. It will still be there. What will have happened is that man will be without an accurate gauge by which he can know what the sin is.
In the earlier part of Romans seven this truth is well expressed in the illustration of the marriage. Here it is clearly shown that there is no need to change the law. It is perfect and in no need of change. What needs to be changed is the individual for there is the problem.
"Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man." Romans 7:1-3.
The situation here is one with which all are familiar as all understand the law of marriage. While the woman is legally married to her husband, the law will condemn as adultery any attempt which she might make to marry another man. But should the husband be dead, then the very same law which formerly condemned her marriage to another will now condone it. A change has taken place but it has not been in the law. It has been in the woman. She has changed from being a married woman to being a single woman.
This is equally true in the spiritual realm. In fact, Paul has not here launched into a dissertation on the marriage question, but has rather used the marriage law as an illustration of the spiritual marriage with Christ.
"Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to Him Who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God." Romans 7:4.
There is not the slightest hint in this verse of any change being made in the law, but there is a clear reference to a change being made. It is to be made in the individual. He must become dead so that he can be married to another, even Christ, for He is the One Who is raised from the dead.
The whole purpose of the work of Jesus Christ is to save from sin, as it is written, "Thou shalt call His name JESUS: for He shall save His people from their sins." Matthew 1:21.
To be saved from sin is to be saved from lawbreaking for sin is lawbreaking as it is written, "Sin is the transgression of the law." 1 John 3:4. Lawbreaking is disobedience. Therefore, to be saved from lawbreaking is to be saved into obedience.
It is clear, then, that neither the putting forth of the supreme effort of the will, nor the doing away of the law is the solution to the problem.
Having seen then what the solution is not, we turn to what the solution really is. The solution lies in the eradication of the old nature and its replacement with the new nature altogether. There is nothing more clearly taught in the Scriptures than this. Consider the clarity of this verse as a statement of it.
"And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh: That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God." Ezekiel 11:19, 20.
In language as plain as it can be, the Lord states that He will take the old sinful, stony heart out of their flesh and give them a new heart in its place. He does not say that he will give them a new heart along with the old. This is not the message of the verse. Note it carefully for it states that the old will be taken out of their flesh and a new spirit and a new heart will take the place of the old.
All this is done for a purpose. It is done to achieve certain results. It is done "that (for the intent or purpose) they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God."
How clearly we saw that in Romans seven the very reason as to why the intended servant of God could not do that which he desired to do was because he still had the old carnal mind in him ruling over him as a master. It has been emphasized that the presence of this power is the problem for this man. Now it is to be seen that the Lord knows that this is the problem and that the only solution to the problem is to remove the offender and replace it with a new heart altogether.
To return to Christ's illustration of the thorn bush, we find the same answer there. In the garden the thorn bush is standing green and flourishing but useless as a fruit-producer. It stands in the way, occupies good soil and tears the clothes of those who pass by. So the gardener has a problem. He wishes to have good fruit such as apples or oranges, but he has a thorn bush. He knows that the only solution is to tear the thorn bush from its place in the dust of the earth, and to replace it with a good tree. Then he knows that in due time he will obtain good fruit for the very simple reason that he now has a good tree.
So likewise, the man of Romans seven desires to bring forth the good works of the law in the form of the fruits of the Spirit, which are love, joy, peace, and so on. But he has an evil nature within which is the fountain, not of loving obedience, but of hatred, pride, jealousy and the like. His predicament is the same as that of the gardener with the thorn bush and the solution is the same. That evil nature must be uprooted from the human body made of the dust of the earth and replaced with a nature born from above. Only thus can he be a child of God and only thus can be brought forth the good fruits of the Spirit.
This truth is stated again and again in the Scriptures so that the repeated witnesses of it will leave no doubt in the mind of any as to the way of deliverance from sin's terrible power. "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. 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 for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Romans 8:24.
God sent His Son into the world to condemn sin in the flesh. A very important distinction needs to be recognized here. The actions of sin can well be termed the sins of the flesh, while the indwelling power of the stony heart or the carnal mind, is the sin in the flesh. Now notice that Jesus did not come to do a superficial work of merely condemning the sins of the flesh. He came to condemn the sin which is in the flesh and which as such is the very root of the problem and the cause of the continual defeat experienced by all those who still possess this inner evil power.
Why did He come to condemn the sin in the flesh? It was that, once it had been condemned, "the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."
Over and again the message is the same. The old is condemned, it is eradicated and removed so that a certain objective may be fulfilled. That purpose is that we might be placed where we can live the life of the righteousness of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
When Jesus came and effected the condemnation of the sin in the flesh, to what did He condemn it? Did He condemn it to be placed under subjugation and control? Did He condemn it to exile? Did He condemn it merely as a declaration of disapproval? He condemned it to none of these. He condemned it to death, a death which became effective through the result of His death and resurrection.
Nowhere is the truth of this more plainly stated than in Romans 8:1-6.
"What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin."
Verse six is the climax of the argument contained in these verses. While the previous verses have made it plain that those who are in Christ Jesus, and are therefore God's true children who have justification and therefore have a title to the kingdom above, have died and been raised as He died and was raised, this verse specifically tells what it is that has died.
But before attention is turned to that which must die before we are set free from sin, let the force of the message of the previous verses be seen. The message here is that only those who have died can live. It is another way of saying that the old must go before the new can come in. Death always takes away the old. Resurrection brings in the new.
In its strongest terms in this passage, this truth is expressed in verse 5, "For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection."
The first part of this text is a conditional clause. “If we have been planted in the likeness of His death. . . .” This is to express the great truth that unless this condition is fulfilled the rest cannot follow, for only those who have died with Christ can in turn live with Him. That is to say, only if the old has been taken away can the new come in. First, the thorn bush must be removed before the apple tree can take its place. They cannot and they do not grow in the same spot.
Now what is Paul saying in these verses? Is he uttering some high-sounding but meaningless rhetoric or are these real words about real experiences? When he states that we have to die with Christ, what does he mean by this? Do we have to actually die, or is this merely some change in mental attitude or the like?
That which makes it difficult for folk to believe that this is to be an actual death is the failure to distinguish between the sinful flesh and the sinful carnal mind, which is otherwise called the stony heart, the old husband and the sin master. Because the average person thinks of the sinful nature as being the flesh, and because we know that a person does not terminate this earthly life in order to be born again, it is assumed that this is only a make-believe death. They imagine it to be something which is merely reckoned or attributed to the person but actual in the life of Christ.
Now it is entirely true that the person who leaves behind the experience of Romans seven and becomes a truly resurrected child of God, does not die physically. He has the same flesh and blood, as a converted man, as he had while out in the world. There has been no death and no change there. Sinful flesh is mortal flesh. From this no one will be delivered until the great resurrection morning when Christ descends to call His people to their heavenly home.
But he dies, for, if he does not, then he cannot be in Christ. What then dies? The answer lies in verse 6. "Knowing this that our old man is crucified with Him. . . .” Here is something which is termed "our old man". What does this expression mean? Who or what is the old man? To make sure that we understand, the next part of the verse tells us that the old man is crucified, "that the body of sin might be destroyed. . . ." Paul could well have written as follows: "Knowing this that our old man is crucified with Him, that the old man might be destroyed. . . ." But instead of using the term "the old man" the second time, he uses the other name, "the body of sin". Thus we are helped to know that the "old man" and "the body of sin" are one and the same thing.
In Romans 7:24, it is there called "the body of this death", which is also another way of expressing that which in the same chapter he had earlier called the "law of sin". From the study already given in this publication, we now know that the "old man", the "body of sin", the "body of death" and the "law of sin" all refer to that third factor, the carnal mind, which is "not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be."
This is the thing which is crucified to death in the life of those who pass from being unconverted to being converted. This is that which must be done away with by death so that a new life can be resurrected in the place of the old.
Let no misunderstanding be entertained about the fact that this is to be an actual death. Crucifixion is not exile. It is not merely being placed in prison for lifelong incarceration. It is not being chained up or put under control. Crucifixion is a form of death. Its purpose is to put to death, and those who crucify are not satisfied until this result is achieved.
Therefore, when Paul says that the old man is crucified, he means that it is put to death. To make certain that this meaning is caught by the reader, he says that he is crucified so that the body of sin might be destroyed. When something is destroyed, then it simply ceases to exist. Its life history is ended. It is no more.
In each of the other texts and illustrations, we saw that this work is all accomplished for a very definite purpose. It is that the person might pass from disobedience to obedience, from complaining that he cannot do that which he desired to do, to having the righteousness of the law fulfilled in his life. So in this verse, the old man is crucified, the body of sin is destroyed, “that henceforth we should not serve sin."
Nature is a wonderful illustrator of gospel truth. The truth then of this verse will be seen with greater force if we substitute the thorn bush situation for the old man, and then read the verse as it would apply to the gardener who desires to have good fruit but has instead a thorn bush. He tears it out and replaces it with the apple seedling. Then he says:
"Knowing this, that the old tree has been torn out by the roots that the thorn bush might be destroyed, that henceforth it should not produce thorns."
No one will have the least difficulty in seeing that this principle operates in nature and how it operates there. See the same principles of operation in the spiritual world and the understanding will be equally clear in respect to this work of soul cleansing as a preliminary to victory over the sin problem.
[This message has been edited by Ben (edited 08-14-2002).]