A Study of the Epistle to the Romans
Preservation: Kept Securely in Christ Jesus
Our New Assurance
The thirty-first verse is a conclusion of the first eight chapters of Romans and not merely of this chapter.
"What shall we say to those things?" He means everything that has gone before - our condemnation, our justification, our sanctification, and our glorification. The last word he used was "glorified." Now he says, "What are we going to say?" That is a searching question. What are "you" going to say this day to these things? Shall we say, "Well, that is interesting. I am glad that it is that way. But I am going to go on living as I have always lived. Certain things I like to do, and I am going to keep on doing them"? If you do say that, you do not know God! No true Christian can be brought into the presence of these truths without having them grip his heart and lead him in the path of righteousness.
But that is not principally what Paul intends to talk about now. There are four questions here:
"If God be for us, who can be against us?" The answer: "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him freely give us all things?" (v. 32).
"Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?" That is to say (and he is issuing the challenge to a universe), "If there is any man, any angel,and demon who can bring forth a charge and lay it at the door of God's elect, let him stand up!" There is no answer. Why? Because "it is God that justifieth" (v. 33). Who is the man then that can bring a charge against God's elect when the very word "elect" shows that you can never do it? This is a foretaste. God has declared them righteous; no other man can undo it.
"Who is he that condemneth?" Anybody can issue a charge, but there is only one who has the authority to condemn. God has committed all judgment into the hand of - whom? The Son of God! (John 5:22). There is not a being - not even the Father nor the Holy Spirit - no angel or archangel - there is only one person who can condemn any man. That is Jesus Christ! The only person in the world who can condemn you died for you! Even right now He is at the right hand of God, making intercession for us. How can He condemn us? It is impossible!
"Who shall separate us?" He is thinking now of those "present sufferings." Some say that present sufferings have a tendency to separate us from God. But these things cannot separate the true believer. Paul is talking about his own personal experience here too. He suffered every one of those things except the sword, and he was yet to suffer that at the hands of Caesar. For we are told that he lost his head on the Appian Way at the hands of the Roman governor. Not only can these things not separate us from Christ, but that is not all. In every one of them "we are more than conquerors." Are "we" that? No, let us finish it - "through Him that loved us." A French translation says, "Nay, we are conquerors and beyond, through Him that loved us!"
He goes on to his final paean of praise! A Christian may take those words upon his lips without the least shadow of presumption. "I am persuaded that nothing shall be able to separate me from the love of God!" Now he is going to search the universe for anything that could possibly separate us. He goes to the realm of death - he looks at it, he searches it. He says, "There is nothing that that can separate us." He turns then to the realm of life. He finds nothing there. He looks to the angelic or spiritual world. He finds nothing there among the good angels. He regards the other side - the principalities, representing satan and all his hosts. There is nothing there!
He then begins to examine "things present." In all the vast realm of "things present" he finds nothing! Then he peers out into the future, "things to come." Who knows what those three words comprehend? Judgment - the ages of eternity! But he says, as he looks through the ages of eternity, "There is nothing there!"
But he does not stop. He scans the entire universe - the heights and depths of the universe. He finds nothing there!
One would have thought that Paul had covered everything, but lest he may have missed something, he says, "There is no creation that is able to separate us from the love of God." Do you know what he means when he says that? He is considering the future, imagining the present creation passed away. he is anticipating that perhaps there will be infinite creations - on and on through the ages of eternity! He says, "They all come up, as far as the prophetic eye can reach, and there is nothing in it all that can possibly separate us."
And he closes the passage as it began - "in Christ Jesus!"
~Alva J. McClain~
(continued with - "The Exhibition of Divine Sovereignty in Election")
Sunday, July 7, 2013
A New Creation in Christ
You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit – fruit that will last. (John 15:16 NIV)
The new creation is in Christ. It is not in you, and not in me, and never will be. All that it will mean in time, and in eternity will be through our spiritual union with Christ. All God's fullness is in Christ. We shall receive all that fullness, and enjoy it in a practical out-working. But this, while we are yet here in time, will ever be by faith's union. In eternity, where the reception of that fullness will be unhindered, the work of faith, though not its fruit, will have passed. But we shall never be absorbed in Christ in the sense that we become so many Christs. It will still be Himself as distinct Who is to be glorified. We shall never be glorifying ourselves, neither shall we be glorified by others as though we were Christ. Christ is not some great widespread essence, which is going to become the constitution of a great multitude, so that that multitude becomes a Christ in essence. It will ever be true that Christ remains apart in His Person, though manifested in His glory and in His excellence in the saints, and we shall still, therefore, be worshiping Him as objective and distinct in His own Person from ourselves.
Perhaps that hardly needs saying. But it is very important that we should recognize that forever God has bound up everything with His Son, and that nothing will ever be had or enjoyed apart from Christ, while for this present life that is only by faith in the Lord Jesus. The object of this present emphasis is to seek, as the Lord will enable, that there shall be an emancipation from ourselves; for that occupation, that
~T. Austin-Sparks~
Saturday, July 6, 2013
The Gospel of God's Grace # 56
A Study of the Epistle to the Romans
Preservation: Kept Securely in Christ Jesus
Our New Life
The Spirit of God has been scarcely mentioned in the book of Romans. Yet our new life is the Spirit of God.
The contrast between those who "walk after the flesh" and those who "walk after the Spirit" is not a contrast between two kinds of Christians. We talk about the Christian who walked after the spirit and the Christian who walks after the flesh. But God never talks that way. The contrast here is between Christians and non-Christians. Christians walk after the spirit; non-Christians walk after the flesh. Look at verse 9: "But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be the Spirit of God dwell in you." Then, is there a question as to whether the Spirit of God dwells in every Christian?
"If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." Every Christian has the Spirit of God, and if he has the Spirit of God, he is not in the flesh, because to be in the flesh is death, and we have passed from death to life. The Christian is the one who is in the Spirit. No Christian is in the flesh. It is an impossibility.
Many Christians like to pamper themselves, to excuse their sin. They say, "We are not saints. We cannot walk on that high level where we ought." So they try to bring in two classes of Christians. But there is only one. The flesh, however, remains in the Christian, although the Christian is not in the flesh. He may feel that way, when he does not yield to God. But he does not go under a law or fixed rule. In such circumstances God can bring him out.
If Christ is in you, what about you? "The body is dead." The body is not dead because Christ is in you. It is dead in spite of the fact. Because Christ is in you, what about the spirit? "The spirit is life because of righteousness." What is he teaching you? He is simply teaching that the body we have is not redeemed yet in the final sense. It is still subject to sickness and to death. It is true that if Christ is in you, even though the body is dead, the spirit is not: "the spirit is life." What about the body? Will we lose it? Not at all. "He shall quicken your mortal bodies." We have lie in the spirit now; we shall have life in the body at His coming.
Our New Relations
We are "sons of God," "children," "joint heirs" (vv. 14-17). On the judicial side, God adopted us as a son with every legal right as a son. But He was able to do more than go through a legal ceremony of putting us into His family. He actually gave to us His own Spirit, so that we are in His family by nature, and we are so conscious of this that we call Him "Father."
Our New Hope
Paul personifies all of nature. He says the whole of nature is looking for just one ting, and that is "the manifestation of the sons of God"!
There are three classes, or three realms, that groan: First, the creation groans, waiting for release from the endless cycle of corruption. Then, "we ourselves groan"; the believer groans because he is still in the body. He groans, waiting for that day. Not only that, but even the Holy Spirit groans (v. 27).
Have you ever noticed that no matter how happy nature may seem to be, there is a kind of minor note that runs through it - the cries of the animals, the moaning of the sea? This is the result of the curse. Someday the curse will be removed. This removal is associated with "the manifestation of the sons of God."
Our New Help
The word "infirmities" is better read in the singular - "infirmity." We have an infirmity. In the midst of the suffering of this life, we do not know how to pray as we ought. Paul prayed three times for the removal of a thorn. Then the Lord admonished him and said in effect, "Paul, you are praying wrong" (2 Corinthians 12:7-9). But the Spirit of God knows how to pray! He knows what the will of God is: "He maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered."
Here is an instance in this connection which illustrates what Paul is saying. The great saint Augustine had been a very wicked man in his youth, but he was later converted. Augustine was greatly loved by his mother, Monica, who was a Christian and had a heavy burden on her heart for her son. She learned that he was leaving home and going to Italy, so she prayed that God would not let him go, because she feared he would get into worse sin there. That was her special request. But God did not answer. Augustine went to Italy and he was converted there. His mother did not know how to pray as she ought, so God did not answer her special request in order that he might answer his life-long request. God knows our aspirations and He answers in His own way.
Our New Knowledge
There is one thing we do know:
"We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. (8:28-30).
God foreknew us, predestinated us, called us, justified us, glorified us. But earlier, in the verse preceding is a statement of what we know: "We know that all things work together for good ... to them that re called according to His purpose." His eternal purpose comes first, then foreknowledge, then predestination.
Then God breaks forth in time. God did all the above before we were created, but then we came. Whom He predestinated, He calls (we are on the earth now), He justifies. Now he is ready to swing over into another eternity, but instead of saying He will glorify them - "He glorified" - all past. These six words are the six golden links which bind the believer to the two eternities - the eternity that is past in the purpose of God, and the eternity that is future in glory with Him!
Look back in the eighteenth verse, then forward to the thirtieth. Notice the development of that theme, so that it may be said that Paul has been talking about the glory in contrast with the suffering, until he comes to the last word of the thirtieth verse.
~Alva J. McClain~
(continued with # 57 - "Our New Assurance")
Preservation: Kept Securely in Christ Jesus
Our New Life
The Spirit of God has been scarcely mentioned in the book of Romans. Yet our new life is the Spirit of God.
The contrast between those who "walk after the flesh" and those who "walk after the Spirit" is not a contrast between two kinds of Christians. We talk about the Christian who walked after the spirit and the Christian who walks after the flesh. But God never talks that way. The contrast here is between Christians and non-Christians. Christians walk after the spirit; non-Christians walk after the flesh. Look at verse 9: "But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be the Spirit of God dwell in you." Then, is there a question as to whether the Spirit of God dwells in every Christian?
"If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." Every Christian has the Spirit of God, and if he has the Spirit of God, he is not in the flesh, because to be in the flesh is death, and we have passed from death to life. The Christian is the one who is in the Spirit. No Christian is in the flesh. It is an impossibility.
Many Christians like to pamper themselves, to excuse their sin. They say, "We are not saints. We cannot walk on that high level where we ought." So they try to bring in two classes of Christians. But there is only one. The flesh, however, remains in the Christian, although the Christian is not in the flesh. He may feel that way, when he does not yield to God. But he does not go under a law or fixed rule. In such circumstances God can bring him out.
If Christ is in you, what about you? "The body is dead." The body is not dead because Christ is in you. It is dead in spite of the fact. Because Christ is in you, what about the spirit? "The spirit is life because of righteousness." What is he teaching you? He is simply teaching that the body we have is not redeemed yet in the final sense. It is still subject to sickness and to death. It is true that if Christ is in you, even though the body is dead, the spirit is not: "the spirit is life." What about the body? Will we lose it? Not at all. "He shall quicken your mortal bodies." We have lie in the spirit now; we shall have life in the body at His coming.
Our New Relations
We are "sons of God," "children," "joint heirs" (vv. 14-17). On the judicial side, God adopted us as a son with every legal right as a son. But He was able to do more than go through a legal ceremony of putting us into His family. He actually gave to us His own Spirit, so that we are in His family by nature, and we are so conscious of this that we call Him "Father."
Our New Hope
Paul personifies all of nature. He says the whole of nature is looking for just one ting, and that is "the manifestation of the sons of God"!
There are three classes, or three realms, that groan: First, the creation groans, waiting for release from the endless cycle of corruption. Then, "we ourselves groan"; the believer groans because he is still in the body. He groans, waiting for that day. Not only that, but even the Holy Spirit groans (v. 27).
Have you ever noticed that no matter how happy nature may seem to be, there is a kind of minor note that runs through it - the cries of the animals, the moaning of the sea? This is the result of the curse. Someday the curse will be removed. This removal is associated with "the manifestation of the sons of God."
Our New Help
The word "infirmities" is better read in the singular - "infirmity." We have an infirmity. In the midst of the suffering of this life, we do not know how to pray as we ought. Paul prayed three times for the removal of a thorn. Then the Lord admonished him and said in effect, "Paul, you are praying wrong" (2 Corinthians 12:7-9). But the Spirit of God knows how to pray! He knows what the will of God is: "He maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered."
Here is an instance in this connection which illustrates what Paul is saying. The great saint Augustine had been a very wicked man in his youth, but he was later converted. Augustine was greatly loved by his mother, Monica, who was a Christian and had a heavy burden on her heart for her son. She learned that he was leaving home and going to Italy, so she prayed that God would not let him go, because she feared he would get into worse sin there. That was her special request. But God did not answer. Augustine went to Italy and he was converted there. His mother did not know how to pray as she ought, so God did not answer her special request in order that he might answer his life-long request. God knows our aspirations and He answers in His own way.
Our New Knowledge
There is one thing we do know:
"We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. (8:28-30).
God foreknew us, predestinated us, called us, justified us, glorified us. But earlier, in the verse preceding is a statement of what we know: "We know that all things work together for good ... to them that re called according to His purpose." His eternal purpose comes first, then foreknowledge, then predestination.
Then God breaks forth in time. God did all the above before we were created, but then we came. Whom He predestinated, He calls (we are on the earth now), He justifies. Now he is ready to swing over into another eternity, but instead of saying He will glorify them - "He glorified" - all past. These six words are the six golden links which bind the believer to the two eternities - the eternity that is past in the purpose of God, and the eternity that is future in glory with Him!
Look back in the eighteenth verse, then forward to the thirtieth. Notice the development of that theme, so that it may be said that Paul has been talking about the glory in contrast with the suffering, until he comes to the last word of the thirtieth verse.
~Alva J. McClain~
(continued with # 57 - "Our New Assurance")
Hatred Stirs Up Dissension
Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers all transgressions. (Prov 10:12)
Rehearse your troubles to God only. Not long ago I read in a paper a bit of personal experience from a precious child of God, and it made such an impression upon me that I record it here. She wrote:
“I found myself one midnight wholly sleepless as the surges of a cruel injustice swept over me, and the love which covers seemed to have crept out of my heart. Then I cried to God in an agony for the power to obey His injunction, ’Love covereth.’
“Immediately the Spirit began to work in me the power that brought about the forgetfulness.
“Mentally I dug a grave. Deliberately I threw up the earth until the excavation was deep.
“Sorrowfully I lowered into it the thing which wounded me. Quickly I shoveled in the clods.
“Over the mound I carefully laid the green sods. Then I covered it with white roses and forget-me-nots, and quickly walked away.
“Sweet sleep came. The wound which had been so nearly deadly was healed without a scar, and I know not today what caused my grief.”
“There was a scar on yonder mountain-side,
Gashed out where once the cruel storm had trod;
A barren, desolate chasm, reaching wide,
Across the soft green sod.
“But years crept by beneath the purple pines,
And veiled the scar with grass and moss once more,
And left it fairer now with flowers and vines
Than it had been before.
“There was a wound once in a gentle heart,
Whence all life’s sweetness seemed to ebb and die;
And love’s confiding changed to bitter smart,
While slow, sad years went by.
“Yet as they passed, unseen an angel stole
And laid a balm of healing on the pain,
Till love grew purer in the heart made whole,
And peace came back again.”
~L. B. Cowman~
Friday, July 5, 2013
The Gospel of God's Grace # 55
A Study of the Epistle to the Romans
Preservation: Kept Securely in Christ Jesus
The little word "is" is not in the Greek. Literally it reads "Therefore now no condemnation." There cannot be now, nor ever, any condemnation. That is the initial proposition he starts out with - "No condemnation." That is our new position.
He passes on quickly to give us the evidence that there is no condemnation. "The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death."
There is a law, just like the law of gravitation that operates all the time, in the spiritual world. Paul says that the law of the spirit of life has freed him from the law of sin and death. He does not say that it freed from sin and death, but from the law of sin and death. That is important, because he is talking about actualities here. Can a believer sin? Can he die? Yes. If the Lord does not come we shall die. But the point is that sin and death can never hold the law as a fixed law (like the law of gravitation that operates all the time). Christ has broken the law of sin and death forever! He has rendered that law inoperative in its final sense. Your body may be separated from your spirit, but God says He will raise that body some day and it will again be joined with your spirit. So the law cannot any longer exercise full authority over you.
That is the evidence of our new position, the evidence that there is no condemnation.
Paul shows us the cause, the ground, of our position in verse 3. He is not talking about the law he mentioned in the second verse. The law in verse 3 is the law of Moses. "For what the law could not do." It could not justify us; it could not sanctify us. "It was weak through the flesh." Nothing was the matter with the law - it was holy and good - but our flesh was weak and therefore the law could not justify nor sanctify. So God sent his Son, but did Paul say in sinful flesh? No. The apostle is accurate. He said, "In the likeness of sinful flesh." There was never any sin in Him. "And for sin" is a technical phrase from the Old Testament. That little phrase means as a sin offering, so that we might actually read it: "God sending His Son as an offering for sin, condemned sin in the flesh." At the Cross He condemned it forever. "Therefore there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus."
There are some people who teach that Jesus Christ, by His life, condemned sin in the flesh, that He came in the flesh and yet lived without sin and therefore condemned it. But how does that help us? They have ignored that little phrase, "As an offering for sin."
Is the result license? To live as you please? Not by any means, but rather, "that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us." It does not say that we might fulfill the law, but that it might be fulfilled in us. We are passive; God is the actor. The only thing we need to do is "walk not after the flesh but after the spirit"; and while we are doing that, God fulfills the law in us. There are people (and I have been guilty of it myself) who say that when we are Christians, God gives us the power to overcome sin. He does not. God does not give the Christian power to overcome sin. If He did, you would surely be self-righteous, proud, and self-sufficient. God comes into you and overcomes sin as you yield to Him. The moment you do not yield to Him, you are in the much and the mire. Why does He do that? He does that to make us cling to Him in trust - second by second, moment by moment, hour by hour. This is so that our praise and boasting will not be about ourselves, but about the Lord (1 Corinthians 1:29-31).
~Alva J. McClain~
(continued with # 56 - "Our New Life")
Preservation: Kept Securely in Christ Jesus
The little word "is" is not in the Greek. Literally it reads "Therefore now no condemnation." There cannot be now, nor ever, any condemnation. That is the initial proposition he starts out with - "No condemnation." That is our new position.
He passes on quickly to give us the evidence that there is no condemnation. "The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death."
There is a law, just like the law of gravitation that operates all the time, in the spiritual world. Paul says that the law of the spirit of life has freed him from the law of sin and death. He does not say that it freed from sin and death, but from the law of sin and death. That is important, because he is talking about actualities here. Can a believer sin? Can he die? Yes. If the Lord does not come we shall die. But the point is that sin and death can never hold the law as a fixed law (like the law of gravitation that operates all the time). Christ has broken the law of sin and death forever! He has rendered that law inoperative in its final sense. Your body may be separated from your spirit, but God says He will raise that body some day and it will again be joined with your spirit. So the law cannot any longer exercise full authority over you.
That is the evidence of our new position, the evidence that there is no condemnation.
Paul shows us the cause, the ground, of our position in verse 3. He is not talking about the law he mentioned in the second verse. The law in verse 3 is the law of Moses. "For what the law could not do." It could not justify us; it could not sanctify us. "It was weak through the flesh." Nothing was the matter with the law - it was holy and good - but our flesh was weak and therefore the law could not justify nor sanctify. So God sent his Son, but did Paul say in sinful flesh? No. The apostle is accurate. He said, "In the likeness of sinful flesh." There was never any sin in Him. "And for sin" is a technical phrase from the Old Testament. That little phrase means as a sin offering, so that we might actually read it: "God sending His Son as an offering for sin, condemned sin in the flesh." At the Cross He condemned it forever. "Therefore there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus."
There are some people who teach that Jesus Christ, by His life, condemned sin in the flesh, that He came in the flesh and yet lived without sin and therefore condemned it. But how does that help us? They have ignored that little phrase, "As an offering for sin."
Is the result license? To live as you please? Not by any means, but rather, "that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us." It does not say that we might fulfill the law, but that it might be fulfilled in us. We are passive; God is the actor. The only thing we need to do is "walk not after the flesh but after the spirit"; and while we are doing that, God fulfills the law in us. There are people (and I have been guilty of it myself) who say that when we are Christians, God gives us the power to overcome sin. He does not. God does not give the Christian power to overcome sin. If He did, you would surely be self-righteous, proud, and self-sufficient. God comes into you and overcomes sin as you yield to Him. The moment you do not yield to Him, you are in the much and the mire. Why does He do that? He does that to make us cling to Him in trust - second by second, moment by moment, hour by hour. This is so that our praise and boasting will not be about ourselves, but about the Lord (1 Corinthians 1:29-31).
~Alva J. McClain~
(continued with # 56 - "Our New Life")
Follow the Holy Spirit's Leading
Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit's leading in every part of our lives. (Galatians 5:25 NLT)
Satan is a great master of strategy, and one of his favourite lines is that of pushing things to extremes. Among the Galatian believers, he had sought to push legalism to an extreme. But now he is thwarted along that line; Paul wins the battle – there is no doubt about it. What is the enemy's next line of attack? “Very well then,” he says, “if you won't have the law, then don't have any law; discard all law. You are no longer under law, you are under grace – you can do as you like! Just behave as you like; just carry on as you like; you must know no limitations, no restrictions. Any kind of restriction is law – repudiate it! Go to the other extreme – licence instead of law!” I believe that, if Paul were alive today, he would be just as vehement against this as he was against the other: for here is a work of Satan indeed. If Satan cannot bind by the law, and change the whole nature of things in that way, he will seek to dismiss all law and make us wholly lawless.
But remember, if this Letter to the Galatians is the letter of the liberty of the Spirit, it is also the letter of the government of the Spirit. We are only free when we are governed. In George Matheson's well-known words, that we sometimes sing: “Make me a captive, Lord, and then I shall be free.” A paradox – but how true. We are not free when we are giving way to licence, when we take liberty that far. No: this Letter, and the Letters to the Romans and to the Hebrews, are not documents of lawlessness. Even if they do set aside the whole of the Jewish system, they do not introduce a regime of lawlessness. But they do most clearly bring in the life and government of the Holy Spirit. Remember – no child of God who is governed by the Holy Spirit, who is really living a life in the Spirit, will infringe any Divine principle. Indeed, a life governed by the Holy Spirit will be the more meticulously careful about spiritual principles.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
Thursday, July 4, 2013
The Gospel of God's Grace # 54
A Study of the Epistle to the Romans
Series of Contrasts
Something that enters more deeply into the chapter is a series of contrasts.
The first contrast occurs in the second verse: "the law of the Spirit of Life" over against "the law of sin and death" (vv. 1-4). "In the flesh" and "in the Spirit" (vv. 5-13) are two further contrasts. Next is "the spirit of bondage" and "the spirit of adoption" (vv. 14-17). "Present sufferings" and "future glory" are set against one another (vv. 18-25).
What we do not know and what we do know (vv. 26-30) are a further contrast. We do not know "how to pray as we ought," but we do know that "all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose."
God for us; no one against us (31-39).
But there is still another viewpoint for an outline, and that is to take the key statement: "No condemnation." View the chapter as setting forth the theme "in Christ Jesus," and then we might say that in Christ Jesus:
1. There is no condemnation.
2. There is no defeat.
3. There is no fear.
4. There is no despair.
5. There is no calamity.
6. There is no adversary.
7. There is no separation.
There is no condemnation. Why? Because Christ died for us!
There is no defeat. Why? Because the Spirit of God indwells!
There i no fear. Why? Because God has become a Father to us!
There is no despair. Why? Because we know that our very sufferings reap the glory! How could there be despair?
There is no calamity. Why? There is no calamity that can overtake us in Christ, because, "We know that all things work together for good."
There is no adversary. Why? Because God is for us! Nobody can be against us!
Last, there is no separation in Christ. Why? Because God, in Christ, has set His love upon us!
New Things
There is a phrase that occurs twice in the first section: "in Christ Jesus." Our new position is in Christ Jesus so we will call the first section "our new position."
Our new life. "For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life" (v. 6). Look at verse 10: "If Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness." The idea of life runs all through this section, so it shall be called "our new life" - the Spirit of God (vv. 6-13).
Our new relation. Verse 14 says that we are sons of God. "The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God" (v. 16). There, then, we have "our new relation" (vv. 14-17).
Our new hope. Verse 19 speaks of "the earnest expectation." The last word of verse 20 is "hope." That is almost like expectation in thought. Hope is what you look for. "In hope we were saved" (v. 24). All through this section appears the idea of hope. So verses 18-25 may be entitled "our new hope" - "the hope of glory."
Our new help. Beginning at verse 26: "And in like manner the Spirit also helpeth." Let us call this section "our new help" (26-27).
Our new knowledge. "And we know" (v. 28). We know something. We are going to call this "our new knowledge" (vv. 28-30).
Our new assurance. "What shall we say to these things?" (v. 31). Read also verse 38. We have our new assurance (vv. 31-39).
Paul said in his second letter to the Corinthians, "If any man be in Christ Jesus, he is a new creation; old things are passed away; behold all things are become new" (2 Cor. 5:17). "In Christ Jesus" everything is new. We have a new position, a new life, a new relation, a new hope, a new help, a new knowledge, and a new assurance.
New Things
Our New Position
Let us consider our new position as set forth in verses 1 to 4: "There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus." Be sure to put a period at this point, if one is not there in your Bible. The remainder of that verse does not belong to the original. You may ask, "How did it get in?" Look at the end of verse 4: "Who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." It is the same phrase. Back in the early church, scribes copied the Scriptures by hand, it must be remembered that scribes were subject to error. Perhaps a scribe read the verse as it was in the original and thought to himself, "If I leave it that way, folks are apt t take it that way and live in sin. I must protect God a little bit." And so he may have added that phrase in the margin; and then another scribe concluded that it had been accidentally omitted and placed it in the text. On the other hand, the scribe may have had a wandering eye, and accidentally picked up and repeated the clause in verse 4. Nevertheless, since that time archaeologists have found many older manuscripts and not one has that clause in it. It is essential that this clause be excluded, for it is not a part of the Word of God. What God has intended to do in this chapter is to give an assurance, and He point us to Christ Jesus. The moment we look at that last phrase we look inward, and the moment we look inward we lose assurance. The only thing that s necessary is that we be in Christ Jesus. If we are in Him we can then say, without the slightest feeling of presumption, "There is therefore now no condemnation."
~Alva J. McClain~
(continued with # 55)
Series of Contrasts
Something that enters more deeply into the chapter is a series of contrasts.
The first contrast occurs in the second verse: "the law of the Spirit of Life" over against "the law of sin and death" (vv. 1-4). "In the flesh" and "in the Spirit" (vv. 5-13) are two further contrasts. Next is "the spirit of bondage" and "the spirit of adoption" (vv. 14-17). "Present sufferings" and "future glory" are set against one another (vv. 18-25).
What we do not know and what we do know (vv. 26-30) are a further contrast. We do not know "how to pray as we ought," but we do know that "all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose."
God for us; no one against us (31-39).
But there is still another viewpoint for an outline, and that is to take the key statement: "No condemnation." View the chapter as setting forth the theme "in Christ Jesus," and then we might say that in Christ Jesus:
1. There is no condemnation.
2. There is no defeat.
3. There is no fear.
4. There is no despair.
5. There is no calamity.
6. There is no adversary.
7. There is no separation.
There is no condemnation. Why? Because Christ died for us!
There is no defeat. Why? Because the Spirit of God indwells!
There i no fear. Why? Because God has become a Father to us!
There is no despair. Why? Because we know that our very sufferings reap the glory! How could there be despair?
There is no calamity. Why? There is no calamity that can overtake us in Christ, because, "We know that all things work together for good."
There is no adversary. Why? Because God is for us! Nobody can be against us!
Last, there is no separation in Christ. Why? Because God, in Christ, has set His love upon us!
New Things
There is a phrase that occurs twice in the first section: "in Christ Jesus." Our new position is in Christ Jesus so we will call the first section "our new position."
Our new life. "For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life" (v. 6). Look at verse 10: "If Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness." The idea of life runs all through this section, so it shall be called "our new life" - the Spirit of God (vv. 6-13).
Our new relation. Verse 14 says that we are sons of God. "The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God" (v. 16). There, then, we have "our new relation" (vv. 14-17).
Our new hope. Verse 19 speaks of "the earnest expectation." The last word of verse 20 is "hope." That is almost like expectation in thought. Hope is what you look for. "In hope we were saved" (v. 24). All through this section appears the idea of hope. So verses 18-25 may be entitled "our new hope" - "the hope of glory."
Our new help. Beginning at verse 26: "And in like manner the Spirit also helpeth." Let us call this section "our new help" (26-27).
Our new knowledge. "And we know" (v. 28). We know something. We are going to call this "our new knowledge" (vv. 28-30).
Our new assurance. "What shall we say to these things?" (v. 31). Read also verse 38. We have our new assurance (vv. 31-39).
Paul said in his second letter to the Corinthians, "If any man be in Christ Jesus, he is a new creation; old things are passed away; behold all things are become new" (2 Cor. 5:17). "In Christ Jesus" everything is new. We have a new position, a new life, a new relation, a new hope, a new help, a new knowledge, and a new assurance.
New Things
Our New Position
Let us consider our new position as set forth in verses 1 to 4: "There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus." Be sure to put a period at this point, if one is not there in your Bible. The remainder of that verse does not belong to the original. You may ask, "How did it get in?" Look at the end of verse 4: "Who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." It is the same phrase. Back in the early church, scribes copied the Scriptures by hand, it must be remembered that scribes were subject to error. Perhaps a scribe read the verse as it was in the original and thought to himself, "If I leave it that way, folks are apt t take it that way and live in sin. I must protect God a little bit." And so he may have added that phrase in the margin; and then another scribe concluded that it had been accidentally omitted and placed it in the text. On the other hand, the scribe may have had a wandering eye, and accidentally picked up and repeated the clause in verse 4. Nevertheless, since that time archaeologists have found many older manuscripts and not one has that clause in it. It is essential that this clause be excluded, for it is not a part of the Word of God. What God has intended to do in this chapter is to give an assurance, and He point us to Christ Jesus. The moment we look at that last phrase we look inward, and the moment we look inward we lose assurance. The only thing that s necessary is that we be in Christ Jesus. If we are in Him we can then say, without the slightest feeling of presumption, "There is therefore now no condemnation."
~Alva J. McClain~
(continued with # 55)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)