Chapter 9: The Meaning and Value of Romans Seven
We must return now to our study of Romans.
We broke off at the end of chapter 6 in order to consider two related subjects,
namely, God's eternal purpose, which is the motive and goal of our walk with
Him, and the Holy Spirit, who supplies the power and resource to bring us to
that goal. We come now to Romans 7, a chapter which many have felt to be
almost superfluous. Perhaps indeed it would be so if Christians really saw
that the old creation has been ruled out by the Cross of Christ, and an
entirely new creation brought in by His resurrection. If we have come to the
point where we really `know' that, and `reckon' on that, and `present
ourselves' on the basis of that, then perhaps we have no need of Romans
7.
Others have felt that the chapter is in the wrong
place. They would have put it between the fifth and sixth chapters. After
chapter 6 all is so perfect, so straightforward; and then comes breakdown and
the cry, "O wretched man that I am!" Could anything be more of an anticlimax?
And so some have argued that Paul is speaking here of his unregenerate
experience. Well, we must admit that some of what he describes here is not a
Christian experience, but none the less many Christians do experience
it. What then is the teaching of this chapter?
Romans 6 deals with freedom from sin. Romans 7
deals with freedom from the Law. In chapter 6 Paul has told us how we could be
delivered from sin, and we concluded that this was all that was required.
Chapter 7 now teaches that deliverance from sin is not enough, but that we also
need to know deliverance from the Law. If we are not fully emancipated from
the Law we can never know full emancipation from sin. But what is the
difference between deliverance from sin and deliverance from the Law? We all
see the value of the former, but where is the need for the latter? Well, to
appreciate this we must first understand what the Law is and what it does.
The Flesh And Man's Breakdown
Romans 7 has a new lesson to teach us. It is
found in the discovery that I am "in the flesh" (Rom. 7:5), that "I am carnal"
(7:18). This goes beyond the question of sin, for it relates also the matter
of pleasing God. We are dealing here not with sin in its forms but with man in
his carnal state. The latter includes the former but it takes us a stage
further, for it leads to the discovery that in this realm too we are totally
impotent, and that "they that are in the flesh cannot please God" (Rom. 8:8).
How then is this discovery made? It is made with the help of the Law.
Now let us retrace our steps for a minute and
attempt to describe what is probably the experience of many. Many a Christian
is truly saved and yet bound by sin. It is not that he is necessarily living
under the power of sin all the time, but that there are certain particular sins
hampering him continually so that he hears the full Gospel message, that the
Lord Jesus not only died to cleanse away our sins, but that when He died He
included us sinners in His death; so that not only were our sins dealt with,
but we ourselves were dealt with too. The man's eyes are opened and he
knows he has been crucified with Christ. Two things follow that
revelation. In the first place he reckons that he has died and risen
with the Lord, and in the second place, recognizing the Lord's claim upon him,
he present himself to God as alive from the dead. He sees that he has
no more right over himself. This is the commencement of a beautiful Christian
life, full of praise to the Lord.
But then he begins to reason as follows: `I have
died with Christ and am raised with Him, and I have given myself over to Him
for ever; now I must do something for Him, since He has done so much for me. I
want to please Him and do His will.' So, after the step of consecration, he
seeks to discover the will of God, and sets out to obey Him. Then he makes a
strange discovery. He thought he could do the will of God and he thought he
loved it, but gradually he finds he does not always like it. At times he even
finds a distinct reluctance to do it, and often when he tries to do it he finds
he cannot. Then he begins to question his experience. He asks himself: `Did I
really know? Yes! Did I really reckon? Yes! Did I really give myself to
Him? Yes! Have I taken back my consecration? No! Then whatever is the
matter now?' The more this man tries to do the will of God the more he fails.
Ultimately he comes to the conclusion that he never really loved God's will at
all, so he prays for the desire and the power to do it. He confesses his
disobedience and promises never to disobey again. But he has barely got up
from his knees before he has fallen once more; before he reaches the point of
victory he is conscious of defeat. Then he says to himself: `Perhaps my last
decision was not definite enough. This time I will be absolutely definite.'
So he brings all his will-power to bear on the situation, only to find greater
defeat than ever awaiting him the next time a choice has to be made. Then at
last he echoes the words of Paul: "For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh,
dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me, but to do that which
is good is not. For the good which I would I do not: but the evil which I
would not, that I practice" (Rom. 7:18,19).
What The Law Teaches
Many Christians are suddenly launched into
the experience of Romans 7 and they do not know why. They fancy Romans 6 is
quite enough. Having grasped that, they think there can be no more question of
failure, and then to their utmost surprise they suddenly find themselves in
Romans 7. What is the explanation?
First let us be quite clear that the death with
Christ described in Romans 6 is fully adequate to cover all our need. It is
the explanation of that death, with all that follows from it, that is
incomplete in chapter 6. We are as yet still in ignorance of the truth set
forth in chapter 7. Romans 7 is given to us to explain and make real the
statement in Romans 6:14, that: "Sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye
are not under law, but under grace." The trouble is that we do not yet know
deliverance from law. What, then, is the meaning of law?
Grace means that God does something for me; law
means that I do something for God. God has certain holy and righteous demands
which He places upon me: that is law. Now if law means that God requires
something of me for their fulfillment, then deliverance from law means that He
no longer requires that from me, but Himself provides it. Law implies that God
requires me to do something for Him; deliverance from law implies that He
exempts me from doing it, and that in grace He does it Himself. I
(where `I' is the `carnal' man of ch. 7:14) need do nothing for God:
that is deliverance from law. The trouble in Romans 7 is that man in the flesh
tried to do something for God. As soon as you try to please God in that way,
then you place yourself under law, and the experience of Romans 7 begins to be
yours.
As we seek to understand this, let it be settled
at the outset that the fault does not lie with the Law. Paul says, "the law is
holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good" (Rom. 7:12). No,
there is nothing wrong with the Law, but there is something decidedly wrong
with me. The demands of the Law are righteous, but the person upon whom the
demands are made is unrighteous. The trouble is not that the Law's demands are
unjust, but that I am unable to meet them. It may be all right for the
Government to require payment of 100 shillings but it will be all wrong if I
have only ten shillings with which to meet the demand!
I am a man "sold under sin" (Rom. 7:14). Sin has
dominion over me. As long as you leave me alone I seem to be rather a fine
type of man. It is when you ask me to do something that my sinfulness
comes to light.
If you have a very clumsy servant and he just
sits still and does nothing, then his clumsiness does not appear. If he does
nothing all day he will be of little use to you, it is true, but at least he
will do no damage that way. But if you say to him: `Now come along, don't idle
away your time; get up and do something', then immediately the trouble begins.
He knocks the chair over as he gets up, stumbles over a footstool a few paces
further on, then smashes some precious dish as soon as he handles it. If you
make no demands upon him his clumsiness is never noticed, but as soon as you
ask him to do anything his awkwardness is seen at once. The demands were all
right, but the man was all wrong. He was as clumsy a man when he was sitting
still as when he was working, but it was your demands that made manifest the
clumsiness that was all the time in his make-up, whether he was active or
inactive.
We are all sinners by nature. If God asks
nothing of us, all seems to go well, but as soon as He demands something of us
the occasion is provided for a grand display of our sinfulness. The Law makes
our weakness manifest. While you let me sit still I appear to be all right,
but when you ask me to do anything I am sure to spoil that thing, and if you
trust me with a second thing I will as surely spoil it too. When a holy law is
applied to a sinful man, then his sinfulness comes out in full display.
God knows who I am; He knows that from head to
foot I am full of sin; He knows that I am weakness incarnate; that I can do
nothing. The trouble is that I do not know it. I admit that all men
are sinners and that therefore I am a sinner; but I imagine that I am not such
a hopeless sinner as some. God must bring us all to the place where we see
that we are utterly weak and helpless. While we say so, we do not wholly
believe it, and God has to do something to convince us of the fact. Had it not
been for the Law we should never have known how weak we are. Paul had reached
that point. He makes this clear when he says in Romans 7:7: "I had not known
sin, except through the law: for I had not known coveting, except the law had
said, Thou shalt not covet". Whatever might be his experience with the rest of
the Law, it was the tenth commandment, which literally translated is: "Thou
shalt not desire ..." that found him out. There his total failure and
incapacity stared him in the face!
The more we try to keep the Law the more our
weakness is manifest and the deeper we get into Romans 7, until it is clearly
demonstrated to us that we are hopelessly weak. God knew it all along but we
did not, and so God had to bring us through painful experiences to a
recognition of the fact. We need to have our weakness proved to ourselves
beyond dispute. That is why God gave us the Law.
So we can say, reverently, that God never gave us
the Law to keep; He gave us the Law to break! He well knew that we could not
keep it. We are so bad that He asks no favour and makes no demands. Never has
any man succeeded in making himself acceptable to God by means of the Law.
Nowhere in the New Testament are men of faith told that they are to keep the
Law; but it does say that the Law was given so that there should be
transgression. "The law came in ... that the trespass might abound" (Rom.
5:20). The Law was given to make us law-breakers! No doubt I am a
sinner in Adam; "Howbeit, I had not know sin, except through the law: ...for
apart from the law sin is dead ... but when the commandment came, sin revived,
and I died" (Rom. 7:7-9). The Law is that which exposes our true nature.
Alas, we are so conceited, and think ourselves so strong, that God has to give
us something to test us and prove how weak we are. At last we see it and
confess: `I am a sinner through and through, and I can of myself do nothing
whatever to please God.'
No, the Law was not given in the expectation that
we would keep it. It was given in the full knowledge that we would break it;
and when we have broken it so completely that we are convinced of our utter
need, then the Law has served its purpose. It has been our schoolmaster to
bring us to Christ, that He Himself may fulfill it in us (Gal. 3:24).
Christ The End Of The Law
In Romans 6 we saw how God delivered us from
sin; in Romans 7 we see how He delivers us from the Law. In chapter 6 we were
shown the way of deliverance from sin in the picture of a master and his slave;
in chapter 7 we are shown the way of deliverance from the Law in the picture of
two husbands and a wife. The relation between sin and the sinner is that of
master to slave; the relation between the Law and the sinner is that of husband
to wife.
Notice first that in the picture in Romans 7:1-4
by which Paul illustrates our deliverance from the Law there is only one woman,
while there are two husbands. The woman is in a very difficult position, for
she can only be wife of one of the two, and unfortunately she is married to the
less desirable one. Let us make no mistake, the man to whom she is married is
a good man; but the trouble lies here, that the husband and wife are totally
unsuited to one another. He is a most particular man, accurate to a degree;
she on the other hand is decidedly easy-going. With him all is definite and
precise; with her all is vague and haphazard. He wants everything just so,
while she accepts things as they come. How could there be happiness in such a
home?
And then that husband is so exacting! He is
always making demands on his wife. And yet one cannot find fault with him, for
as a husband he has a right to expect something of her; and besides, all his
demands are perfectly legitimate. There is nothing wrong with the man and
nothing wrong with his demands; the trouble is that he has the wrong kind of
wife to carry them out. The two cannot get on at all; theirs are utterly
incompatible natures. Thus the poor woman is in great distress. She is fully
aware that she often makes mistakes, but living with such a husband it seems as
though everything she says and does is wrong! What hope is there for
her? If only she were married to that other Man all would be well. He is no
less exacting than her husband, but He also helps much. She would fain marry
Him, but her husband is still alive. What can she do? She is "bound by law to
the husband" and unless he dies she cannot legitimately marry that other
Man.
This picture is not drawn by me but by the
apostle Paul. The first husband is the Law; the second husband is Christ; and
you are the woman. The Law requires much, but offers no help in the carrying
out of its requirements. The Lord Jesus requires just as much, yea more (Matt.
5:21-48) but what He requires from us He Himself carries out in us. The Law
makes demands and leaves us helpless to fulfill them; Christ makes demands, but
He Himself fulfills in us the very demands He makes. Little wonder that the
woman desires to be freed from the first husband that she may marry that other
Man! But her only hope of release is through the death of her first husband,
and he holds on to life most tenaciously. Indeed there is not the least
prospect of his passing away. "Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one
tittle shall in no wise pass away from the law, till all things be accomplished
(Matt. 5:18).
The Law is going to continue for all eternity.
If the Law will never pass away, then how can I ever be united to Christ? How
can I marry a second husband if my first husband simply refuses to die? There
is one way out. If he will not die, I can die, and if I die the
marriage relationship is dissolved. And that is exactly God's way of
deliverance from the Law. The most important point to note in this section of
Romans 7 is the transition from verse 3 to verse 4. Verses 1 to 3 show that
the husband should die, but in verse 4 we see that in fact it is the woman who
dies. The Law does not pass away. God's righteous demands remain for
ever, and if I live I must meet those demands; but if I die the Law has
lost its claim upon me. It cannot follow me beyond the grave.
Exactly the same principle operates in our
deliverance from the Law as in our deliverance from sin. When I have died my
old master, Sin, still continues to live, but his power over his slave extends
as far as the grave and no further. He could ask me to do a hundred and one
things when I was alive, but when I am dead he calls on me in vain. I am for
ever freed from his tyranny. So it is with regard to the Law. While the woman
lives she is bound to her husband, but with her death the marriage bond is
dissolved and she is "discharged from the law of her husband". The Law may
still make demands, but for me its power to enforce them is ended.
Now the vital question arises: `How do I die?'
And the preciousness of our Lord's work comes in just here: "Ye also were made
dead to the law through the body of Christ" (Rom. 7:4). When Christ died His
body was broken, and since God placed me in Him (1 Cor. 1:30), I have been
broken too. When He was crucified, I was crucified with Him.
An Old Testament illustration may help to make
this clear. It was the veil of testimony that separated the Holy Place from
the Most Holy Place, and upon it were embroidered cherubim (Exod. 26:31; 2
Chron. :14) whose faces, by analogy from Ezekiel 1:10 and 10:14, included that
of a man as representing the human head of the whole natural creation (Psalm
8:4-8). In Old Testament days God dwelt within the veil and man without. Man
could look upon the veil, but not within it. That veil symbolized our Lord's
flesh, His body (Heb. 10:20). So in the Gospels men could only look upon the
outward form of our Lord; they could not, save by Divine revelation (Matt.
16:16,17), see the God who dwelt within. But when the Lord Jesus died, the
veil of the temple was rent from top to bottom (Matt. 27:51) as by the hand of
God, so that man could gaze right into the Most Holy Place. Since the death of
the Lord Jesus, God is no longer veiled but seeks to reveal Himself (1 Cor.
2:7-10).
But when the veil was rent asunder, what happened
to the cherubim? God rent only the veil, it is true, but the cherubim were
there in the veil and were one with it, for they were embroidered upon it. It
was impossible to rend the veil and preserve them whole. When the veil was
rent the cherubim were rent with it. And, in the sight of God, when the Lord
Jesus died the whole living creation died too.
"Wherefore, my brethren, ye also were made dead
to the law through the body of Christ." That woman's husband may be very well
and strong, but if she dies he may make as many demands upon her as he likes;
it will not affect her in the slightest. Death has set her free from all her
husband's claims. We were in the Lord Jesus when He died, and that inclusive
death of His has for ever freed us from the Law. But our Lord did not remain
in the grave. On the third day He rose again; and since we are still in Him we
are risen too. The body of the Lord Jesus speaks not only of His death but of
His resurrection, for His resurrection was a bodily resurrection. Thus
"through the body of Christ" we are not only "dead to the law' but alive unto
God.
God's purpose in uniting us to Christ was not
merely negative; it was gloriously positive -- "that ye should be joined to
another" (Rom. 7:4). Death has dissolved the old marriage relationship, so
that the woman, driven to despair by the constant demands of her former
husband, who never lifted a little finger to help her carry them out, is now
set free to marry the other Man, who with every demand He makes becomes in her
the power for its fulfillment.
And what is the issue of this new union? "That
we might bring forth fruit unto God" (Rom. 7:4). By the body of Christ that
foolish, sinful woman has died, but being united to Him in death she is united
to Him in resurrection also, and in the power of resurrection life she bring
forth fruit unto God. The risen life of the Lord in her empowers her for all
the demands God's holiness makes upon her. The Law of God is not annulled; it
is perfectly fulfilled, for the risen Lord now lives out His life in her, and
His life is always well-pleasing to the Father.
What happens when a woman marries? She no longer
bears her own name but that of her husband; and she shares not his name only
but his possessions too. "So it is when we are joined to Christ. When we
belong to Him, all that is His becomes ours, and with His infinite resources at
our disposal we are well able to meet all His demands.
Our End Is God's Beginning
Now that we have settled the
doctrinal side of the question we must come down to practical issues,
staying a little longer with the negative aspect and keeping the
positive for our next chapter. What does it mean in everyday life to
be delivered from the Law? It means that from henceforth I am going
to do nothing whatever for God; I am never going to try to please
Him. `What a doctrine!' you exclaim. `What awful heresy! You cannot
possibly mean that!'
But remember, if I try to please God `in the
flesh', then immediately I place myself under the Law. I broke the Law; the
Law pronounced the death sentence; the sentence was executed, and now by death
I -- the carnal `I' (Rom. 7:14) -- have been set free from all its claims.
There is still a Law of God, and now there is in fact a "new commandment" that
is infinitely more exacting than the old, but, Praise God! its demands are
being met, for it is Christ who now fulfills them; it is Christ who works in me
what is well-pleasing to God. "I came ... to fulfill {the law}" were His words
(Matt. 5:17). Thus Paul, from the ground of resurrection, can say: "Work out
your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God which worketh in you
both to will and to work, for his good pleasure" (Phil 2:12,13).
It is God that worketh in you.
Deliverance from law does not mean that we are free from doing the will of
God. It certainly does not mean that we are going to be lawless. Very much
the reverse! What it does mean however is that we are free from doing that
will as of ourselves. Being fully persuaded that we cannot do it, we
cease trying to please God from the ground of the old man. Having at
last reached the point of utter despair in ourselves so that we cease even to
try, we put our trust in the Lord to manifest His resurrection life in us.
Let me illustrate by what I have seen in my own
country. In China some bearers can carry a load of salt weighing 120 kilos,
some even 250 kilos. Now along comes a man who can carry only 120 kilos, and
here is a load of 250 kilos. He knows perfectly well he cannot carry it, and
if he is wise he will say: `I won't touch it!' But the temptation to try is
ingrained in human nature, so although he cannot possibly carry it he still
tries. As a youngster I used to amuse myself watching ten or twenty of these
fellows come along and try, though every one of them knew he could not possibly
manage it. In the end he must give up and make way for the man who could.
The sooner we too give up trying the better, for
I we monopolize the task, then there is no room for the Holy Spirit. But if we
say: `I'll not do it; I'll trust Thee to do it for me', then we shall find that
a Power stronger than ourselves is carrying us through.
In 1923 I met a famous Canadian evangelist. I
had said in an address something along the above lines, and as we walked back
to his home afterwards he remarked: `The note of Romans 7 is seldom sounded
nowadays; it is good to hear it again. The day I was delivered from the Law
was a day of Heaven on earth. After being a Christian for years I was still
trying my best to please God, but the more I tried the more I failed. I
regarded God as the greatest Demander in the universe, but I found myself
impotent to fulfill the least of His demands. Suddenly one day, as I read
Romans 7, light dawned and I saw that I had not only been delivered from sin
but from the Law as well. In my amazement I jumped up and said: "Lord, are you
really making no demands on me? Then I need do nothing more for You!"
God's requirements have not altered, but we are
not the ones to meet them. Praise God, He is the Lawgiver on the Throne, and
He is the Lawkeeper in my heart. He who gave the Law, Himself keeps it. He
makes the demands, but He also meets them. My friend could well jump up and
shout when he found he had nothing to do, and all who make a like discovery can
do the same. As long as we are trying to do anything, He can do nothing. It
is because of our trying that we fail and fail and fail. God wants to
demonstrate to us that we can do nothing at all, and until that is fully
recognized our disappointments and disillusionments will never cease.
A brother who was trying to struggle into victory
remarked to me, `I do not know why I am so weak.' `The trouble with you', I
said, `is that you are weak enough not to do the will of God, but you are not
weak enough to keep out of things altogether. You are still not weak enough.
When you are reduced to utter weakness and are persuaded that you can do
nothing whatever, then God will do everything.' We all need to come to the
point where we say: `Lord, I am unable to do anything for Thee, but I trust
Thee to do everything in me.'
I was once staying in a place in China with some
twenty other brothers. There was inadequate provision for bathing in the home
where we stayed, so we went for a daily plunge in the river. On one occasion a
brother had cramp in one leg, and I suddenly saw he was sinking fast, so I
motioned to another brother, who was an expert swimmer, to hasten to his
rescue. But to my astonishment he made no move. So I grew desperate and
called out: `Don't you see the man is drowning?' and the other brothers, about
as agitated as I was, shouted vigorously too. But our good swimmer still did
not move. Calm and collected, he remained just where he was, apparently
postponing the unwelcome task. Meantime the voice of the poor drowning brother
grew fainter and his efforts feebler. In my heart I said: `I hate that man!
Think of his letting a brother drown before his very eyes and not going to the
rescue!'
But when the man was actually sinking, with a few
swift strokes the swimmer was at his side, and both were safely ashore. When I
got an opportunity I aired my views. `I have never seen any Christian who
loved his life quite as much as you do', I said. `Think of the distress you
would have saved that brother if you had considered yourself a little less and
him a little more.' But the swimmer knew his business better than I did. `Had
I gone earlier', he said, `he would have clutched me so fast that both of us
would have gone under. A drowning man cannot be saved until he is utterly
exhausted and ceases to make the slightest effort to save himself.'
Do you see it? When we give up the case,
then God will take it up. He is waiting until we are at an end of our
resources and can do nothing more for ourselves. God has condemned all that is
of the old creation and consigned it to the Cross. The flesh profiteth
nothing! If we try to do anything in the flesh we are virtually
repudiating the Cross of Christ. God has declared us to be fit only for death.
When we truly believe that, then we confirm God's verdict by giving up all our
fleshly efforts to please Him. Our every effort to do His will is a denial of
His declaration in the Cross of our utter worthlessness. Our continued efforts
are a misunderstanding on the one hand of God's demands and on the other hand
of the source of supply.
We see the Law and we think that we must meet its
demands, but we need to remember that, though the Law in itself is all right,
it will be all wrong if it is applied to the wrong person. The "wretched man"
of Romans 7 tried to meet the demands of God's law himself, and that was
the cause of his trouble. The repeated use of the little word `I' in this
chapter gives the clue to the failure. "The good which I would I do not: but
the evil which I would not, that I practice" (Rom. 7:19). There was a
fundamental misconception in this man's mind. He thought God was asking
him to keep the Law, so of course he was trying to keep it. But God was
requiring no such thing of him. What was the result? Far from doing what
pleased God, he found himself doing what displeased Him. In his very efforts
to do the will of God he did exactly the opposite of what he knew to be His
will.
I Thank God!
Romans 6 deals with "the body of sin", Romans
7 with "the body of this death" (6:6; 7:24). In chapter 6 the whole question
before us is sin; in chapter 7 the whole question before us is death. What is
the difference between the body of sin and the body of death? In regard to sin
(that is, to whatever displeases God) I have a body of sin -- a body, that is
to say, which is actively engaged in sin. But in regard to the Law of God
(that is, to that which expresses the will of God) I have a body of death. My
activity in regard to sin makes my body a body of sin; my failure in regard to
all that is wicked, worldly and Satanic I am, in my nature, wholly positive;
but in regard to all that pertains to holiness and Heaven and God I am wholly
negative.
Have you discovered the truth of that in your
life? It is no good merely to discover it in Romans 6 and 7. Have you
discovered that you carry the encumbrance of a lifeless body in regard to God's
will? You have no difficulty in speaking about wordly matters, but when you
try to speak for the Lord you are tongue-tied; when you try to pray you feel
sleepy; when you try to do something for the Lord you feel unwell. You can do
anything but that which is related to God's will. There is something in this
body that does not harmonize with the will of God.
What does death mean? We may illustrate from a
well-known verse in the first letter to the Corinthians: "For this cause many
among you are weak and sickly, and not a few sleep" (1 Corinthians 11:30).
Death is weakness produced to its extremity - weakness, sickness, death. Death
means utter weakness; it means you are weak to such a point that you can become
no weaker. That I have a body of death in relation to God's will means that I
am so weak in regard to serving God, so utterly weak, that I am reduced to a
point of dire helplessness. "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me
out of the body of this death?" cried Paul, and it is good when anyone cries
out as he did. There is nothing more musical in the ears of the Lord. This
cry is the most spiritual and the most scriptural cry a man can utter. He only
utters it when he knows he can do nothing, and gives up making any further
resolutions. Up to this point, every time he failed he made a new resolution
and doubled and redoubled his will-power. At last he discovers there is no use
in his making up his mind any more, and he cries out in desperation: "O
wretched man that I am !" Like a man who suddenly awakes to find himself in a
burning building, his cry is now for help, for he has come to the point where
he despairs of himself.
Have you despaired of yourself, or do you hope
that if you read and pray more you will be a better Christian? Bible-reading
and prayer are not wrong, and God forbid that we should suggest that they are,
but it is wrong to trust even in them for victory. Our help is in Him
who is the object of that reading and prayer. Our trust must be in Christ
alone. Happily the "wretched man" does not merely deplore his wretchedness; he
asks a fine question, namely: "Who shall deliver me?" "Who?" Hitherto
he has looked for some thing; now his hope is in a Person. Hitherto he has
looked within for a solution to his problem; now he looks beyond himself for a
Savior. He no longer puts forth self-effort; all his expectation is now in
Another.
How did we obtain forgiveness of sins? Was it by
reading, praying, almsgiving, and so on? No, we looked to the Cross, believing
in what the Lord Jesus had done; and deliverance from sin becomes ours on
exactly the same principle, nor is it otherwise with the question of pleasing
God. In the matter of forgiveness we look to Him on the Cross; in the matter
of deliverance from sin and of doing the will of God we look to Him in our
hearts. For the one we depend on what He has done; for the other we depend on
what He will do in us; but in regard to both, our dependence is on Him along.
He is the One who does it all.
At the time when the Epistle to the Romans was
written a murderer was punished in a peculiar and terrible manner. The dead
body of the one murdered was tied to the living body of the murderer, head to
head, hand to hand, foot to foot, and the living one was bound to the dead one
till death. The murderer could go where he pleased, but wherever he went he
had to carry the corpse of that murdered man with him. Could punishment be
more appalling? Yet this is the illustration Paul now uses. It is as though
he were bound to a dead body and unable to get free. Wherever he goes he is
hampered by this terrible burden. At last he can bear it no longer and cries:
"O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me ...?" And then, in a flash of
illumination, his cry of despair changes to a song of praise. He has found the
answer to his question. "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom.
7:25).
We know that justification is ours through the
Lord Jesus and requires no work on our part, but we think sanctification is
dependent on our own efforts. We know we can receive forgiveness only by
entire reliance on the Lord; yet we believe we can obtain deliverance by doing
something ourselves. We fear that if we do nothing, nothing will happen.
After salvation the old habit of `doing' reasserts itself and we begin our old
self-efforts again. Then God's word comes afresh to us: "It is finished"
(John 19:30). He has done everything on the Cross for our forgiveness and He
will do everything in us for our deliverance. In both cases He is the
doer. "It is God that worketh in you."
The first words of the delivered man are very
precious -- "I thank God". If someone gives you a cup of water you thank the
person who gave it, not someone else. Why did Paul say "Thank God"? Because
God was the One who did everything. Had it been Paul who did it, he would have
said, "Thank Paul". But he saw that Paul was a "wretched man" and that God
alone could meet his need; so he said, "Thank God". God wants to do all, for
He must have all the glory. If we do some of the work, then we will get some
of the glory; but God must have it all Himself, so He does all the work from
beginning to end.
What we have said in this chapter might seem
negative and unpractical if we were to stop at this point, as though the
Christian life were a matter of sitting still and waiting for something to
happen. Of course it is very far from being so. All who truly live it know it
to be a matter of very positive and active faith in Christ and in an altogether
new principle of life -- the law of the Spirit of life. We are now going to
look at the effects in us of this new life principle.