Chapter 10: The Path of Progress: Walking In The Spirit
Coming now to Romans 8 we may first summarize
the argument of our second section of the letter from chapter 5:12 to chapter
8:39 in two phrases, each containing a contrast and each marking an aspect of
Christian experience. The are:
Romans 5:12 to 6:23: `In Adam' and `in Christ'.
Romans 7:1 to 8:39: `In the flesh' and `in the Spirit'.
We need to understand the relationship of
these four things. The former two are `objective' and set forth our
position, firstly as we were by nature and secondly as we now are by
faith in the redemptive work of Christ. The latter two are `subjective' and
relate to our walk as a matter of practical experience. Scripture makes
it clear that the first two give us only a part of the picture and that the
second two are required to complete it. We think it enough to be "in Christ",
but we learn now that we must also walk "in the Spirit" (Rom. 8:9). The
frequent occurrence of "the Spirit" in the early part of Romans 8 serves to
emphasize this further important lesson of the Christian life.
The Flesh And The Spirit
The flesh is linked with Adam; the Spirit
with Christ. Leaving aside now as settled the question of whether we are in
Adam or in Christ, we must ask ourselves: Am I living in the flesh or in the
Spirit?
To live in the flesh is to do something `out
from'[13] myself as in Adam. It is to derive strength from the old natural
source of life that I inherited from him, so that I enjoy in experience all
Adam's very complete provision for sinning which all of us have found so
effective. Now the same is true of what is in Christ. To enjoy in experience
what is true of me as in Him, I must learn what it is to walk in the Spirit.
It is a historic fact that in Christ my old man was crucified, and it is a
present fact that I am blessed "with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly
places in Christ" (Eph. 1:3); but if I do not live in the Spirit, then my life
may be quite a contradiction of the fact that I am in Christ, for what is true
of me in Him is not expressed in me. I may recognize that I am in Christ, but
I may also have to face the fact that my old temper is very much in
evidence.
What is the trouble? It is that I am holding the
truth merely objectively, whereas what is true objectively must be made true
subjectively; and that is brought about as I live in the Spirit.
Not only am I in Christ, but Christ is in me.
And just as physically a man cannot live and work in water but only in air, so
spiritually Christ dwells and manifests Himself not in `flesh' but in `spirit'.
Therefore if I live "after the flesh" I find that what is mine in Christ is, so
to say, held in suspense in me. Though in fact I am in Christ, yet if I
live in the flesh -- that is, in my own strength and under my own direction --
then in experience I find to my dismay that it is what is in Adam that
manifests itself in me. If I would know in experience all that is in Christ,
then I must learn to live in the Spirit.
Living in the Spirit means that I trust the Holy
Spirit to do in me what I cannot do myself. This life is completely different
from the life I would naturally live of myself. Each time I am faced with a
new demand from the Lord, I look to Him to do in me what He requires of me. It
is not a case of trying but of trusting; not of struggling but of resting in
Him. If I have a hasty temper, impure thoughts, a quick tongue or a critical
spirit, I shall not set out with a determined effort to change myself, but,
reckoning myself dead in Christ to these things, I shall look to the Spirit of
God to produce in me the needed purity or humility or meekness. This is what
it means to "stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work
for you" (Exod. 14:13).
Some of you have no doubt had an experience
something like the following. You have been asked to go and see a friend, and
you knew the friend was not very friendly, but you trusted the Lord to see you
through. You told Him before you set out that in yourself you could not but
fail, and you asked Him for all that was needed. Then, to your surprise, you
did not feel at all irritated, though your friend was far from gracious. On
your return you thought over the experience and marveled that you kept so calm,
and you wondered if you would be just as calm next time. You were amazed at
yourself and sought an explanation. This is the explanation: the Holy
Spirit carried you through.
Unfortunately we only have this kind of
experience once in while, but it should be a constant experience. When the
Holy Spirit takes things in hand there is no need for strain on our part. It
is not a case of clenching our teeth and thinking that thus we have controlled
ourselves beautifully and have had a glorious victory. No, where there is a
real victory there is no fleshly effort. We are gloriously carried through by
the Lord.
The object of temptation is always to get us to
do something. During the first three months of the Japanese war in China we
lost a great many tanks and so were unable to deal with the Japanese tanks,
until the following scheme was devised. A single shot would be fired at a
Japanese tank by one of our snipers in ambush. After a considerable lapse of
time the first shot would be followed by a second; then, after a further
silence, by another shot; until the tank driver, eager to locate the source of
the disturbance, would pop his head out to look around. The next shot,
carefully aimed, would put an end to him.
As long as he remained under cover he was
perfectly safe. The whole scheme was devised to bring him out into the open.
In the same way, Satan's temptations are not primarily to make us do something
particularly sinful, but merely to cause us to act in our own energy; and as
soon as we step out of our hiding-place to do something on that basis, he has
gained the victory over us. If we do not move, if we do not come out of the
cover of Christ into the realm of the flesh, then he cannot get us.
The Divine way of victory does not permit of our
doing anything at all -- anything, that is to say, outside of Christ. This is
because as soon as we move we run into danger, for our natural inclinations
take us in the wrong direction. Where, then, are we to look for help? Turn
now to Galations 5:17: "The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit
against the flesh". In other words, the flesh does not fight against us but
against the Holy Spirit, "for these are contrary the one to the other", and it
is He, not we, who meets and deals with the flesh. What is the result? "That
ye may not do the things that ye would."
I think we have often understood that last clause
of this verse in a wrong sense. Let us consider what it means. What `would we
do' naturally? We would move off on some course of action dictated by our own
instincts and apart from the will of God. The effect then of our refusal to
act out from ourselves is that the Holy Spirit is free to meet and deal with
the flesh in us, with the result that we shall not do what we naturally would
do; that is, we shall not act according to our natural inclinations; we shall
not go off on a course and plan of our own: but shall find instead our
satisfaction in His perfect plan. Hence we have the principle: "Walk by
the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh" (Gal. 5:16). If we
live in the Spirit, if we walk by faith in the risen Christ, we can truly
`stand aside' while the Spirit gains new victories over the flesh every day.
He has been given to us to take charge of this business. Our victory lies in
hiding in Christ, and in counting in simple trust upon His Holy Spirit to
overcome in us our fleshly lusts with His own new desires. The Cross has been
given to procure salvation for us; the Spirit has been given to produce
salvation in us. Christ risen and ascended is the basis of our salvation;
Christ in our hearts by the Spirit is its power.
Christ Our Life
"I thank God through Jesus Christ"! That
exclamation of Paul's is fundamentally the same as his other words in Galations
2:20 which we have taken as the key to our study: "I live; and yet no longer I,
but Christ". We saw how prominent is the word `I' throughout his
argument in Romans 7, culminating in the agonized cry: "O wretched man that
I am!" Then follows the shout of deliverance: "Thank God ... Jesus
Christ"! and it is clear that the discovery Paul has made is this, that
the life we live is the life of Christ alone. We think of the Christian
life as a `changed life', a `substituted life', and Christ is our Substitute
within. "I live; and yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in me." This life is
not something which we ourselves have to produce. It is Christ's own life
reproduced in us.
How many Christians believe in `reproduction' in
this sense, as something more than regeneration? Regeneration means that the
life of Christ is planted in us by the Holy Spirit at our new birth.
`Reproduction' goes further: it means that new life grows and becomes manifest
progressively in us, until the very likeness of Christ begins to be reproduced
in our lives. That is what Paul means when he speaks of his travail for the
Galations "until Christ be formed in you" (Gal. 4:19).
Let me illustrate with another story. I once
arrived in America in the home of a saved couple who requested me to pray for
them. I inquired the case of their trouble. `Oh, Mr. Nee, we have been in a
bad way lately', they confessed. `We are so easily irritated by the children,
and during the past few weeks we have both lost our tempers several times a
day. We are really dishonoring the Lord. Will you ask Him to give us
patience?' `That is the one thing I cannot do', I said. `What do you mean?'
they asked. `I mean that one thing is certain', I answered, `and that is that
God is not going to answer your prayer.' At that they said in amazement, `Do
you mean to tell us we have gone so far that God is not willing to hear us when
we ask Him to make us patient?' `No, I do not mean quite that, but I would like
to ask you if you have ever prayed in this respect. You have. But did
God answer? No! Do you know why? Because you have no need of patience.'
Then the eyes of the wife blazed up. She said, `What do you mean? We do not
need patience, and yet we get irritated the whole day long! What do you
mean?' `It is not patience you have need of', I answered, `it is Christ.'
God will not give me humility or patience or
holiness or love as separate gifts of His grace. He is not a retailer
dispensing grace to us in doses, measuring out some patience to the impatient,
some love to the unloving, some meekness to the proud, in quantities that we
take and work on as kind of capital. He has given only one gift to meet all
our need -- His Son Christ Jesus, and as I look to Him to live out His life in
me, He will be humble and patient and loving and everything else I need -- in
my stead. Remember the word in the first Epistle of John: "God gave unto us
eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath the life;
and he that hath not the Son of God hath not the life" (1 John 5:11,12). The
life of God is not given us as a separate item; the life of God is given us in
the Son. It is "eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 6:23). Our
relationship to the Son is our relationship to the life.
It is a blessed thing to discover the difference
between Christian graces and Christ: to know the difference between meekness
and Christ, between patience and Christ, between love and Christ. Remember
again what is said in 1 Corinthians 1:30: "Christ Jesus ... was made unto us
wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption." The
common conception of sanctification is that every item of the life should be
holy; but that is not holiness, it is the fruit of holiness. Holiness is
Christ. It is the Lord Jesus being made over to us to be that. So you
can put in anything there: love, humility, power, self-control. Today there
is a call for patience: He is our patience! Tomorrow the call may be for
purity: He is our purity! He is the answer to every need. That is why Paul
speaks of "the fruit of the Spirit" as one (Gal. 5:22) and not of `fruits' as
separate items. God has given us His Holy Spirit, and when love is needed the
fruit of the Spirit is love; when joy is needed the fruit of the Spirit is joy.
It is always true. It does not matter what your personal deficiency, or
whether it is a hundred and one different things, God has one sufficient answer
-- His Son Jesus Christ, and He is the answer to every human need.
How can we know more of Christ in this way? Only
by way of an increasing awareness of need. Some are afraid to discover
deficiency in themselves and so they never grow. Growth in grace is the
only sense in which we can grow, and grace, we have said, is God doing
something for us. We all have the same Christ dwelling within, but revelation
of some new need will lead us spontaneously to trust Him to live out His life
in us in that particular. Greater capacity means greater enjoyment of God's
supply. Another letting go, a fresh trusting in Christ, and another stretch of
land is conquered. `Christ my life' is the secret of enlargement.
We have spoken of trying and trusting, and the
difference between the two. Believe me, it is the difference between Heaven
and hell. It is not something just to be talked over as a good thought; it is
stark reality. `Lord, I cannot do it, therefore I will no longer try to do it.'
This is the point where most of us fail. `Lord, I cannot; therefore I will
take my hands off; from now on I trust Thee for that.' I refuse to act;
I depend on Him to act and then I enter fully and joyfully into the action He
initiates. It is not passivity; it is a most active life, trusting the Lord
like that; drawing life from Him, taking Him to be my very life, letting Him
out His life in me.
The Law Of This Spirit Of Life
"There is therefore now no condemnation to
them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the
Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made free from
the law of sin and death" (Rom. 8:1,2, A.V.).
It is in chapter 8 that Paul presents to us in
detail the positive side of life in the Spirit. "There is therefore now no
condemnation", he begins, and this statement may at first seem out of place
here. Surely condemnation was met by the Blood through which we found peace
with God and salvation from wrath (Rom. 5:1,9). But there are two kinds of
condemnation, namely, that before God and that before myself (just as earlier
we saw there are two kinds of peace) and the second may at times seem to use
even more awful than the first. When I see that the Blood of Christ has
satisfied God, then I know my sins are forgiven, and there is for me no more
condemnation before God. Yet I may still be knowing defeat, and the sense of
inward condemnation on this account may be very real, as Romans 7 shows. But
if I have learned to live by Christ as my life, then I have learned the secret
of victory, and, praise God! "there is therefore now no condemnation". "The
mind of the spirit is life and peace" (Rom. 8:6), and this becomes my
experience as I learn to walk in the Spirit. With peace in my heart I have no
time to feel condemned, but only to praise Him who leads me on from victory to
victory.
But what lay behind my sense of condemnation?
Was it not the experience of defeat and the sense of helplessness to do
anything about it? Before I saw that Christ is my life, I labored under a
constant sense of handicap; limitation dogged my steps; I felt disabled at
every turn. I was always crying out: `I cannot do this! I cannot do that!' Try
as I would, I found that I "cannot please God" (Rom. 8:8). But there is no `I
cannot' in Christ. Now it is: "I can do all things in him that strenghtheneth
me" (Phil. 4:13).
How can Paul be so daring? On what ground does
he declare that he is now free from limitation and "can do all things"? Here
is his answer: "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free
from the law of sin and of death" (Rom. 8:2). Why is there no more
condemnation? "For ...": there is a reason for it; there is something
definite to account for it. The reason is that there is a law called "the law
of the Spirit of life" and it has proved stronger than another law called `the
law of sin and death". What are these laws? How do they operate? And what is
the difference between sin and the law of sin, and between death and the law of
death?
First let us ask ourselves, What is a law? Well,
strictly speaking, a law is a generalization examined until it is proved that
there is no exception. We might define it more simply as something which
happens over and over again. Each time the thing happens it happens in the
same way. We can illustrate this both from statutory and from natural law.
For example, in this land, if I drive a car on the right hand side of the road
the traffic police will stop me. Why? Because it is against the law of the
land. If you do it you will be stopped too. Why? For the same reason
that I would be stopped: it is against the law and the law makes no
exceptions. It is something which happens repeatedly and unfailingly. Or
again, we all know what is meant by gravity. If I drop my handkerchief in
London it falls to the ground. That is the effect of gravity. But the same is
true if I drop it in New York or Hong Kong. No matter where I let it go,
gravity operates, and it always produces the same results. Whenever the same
conditions prevail the same effects are seen. There is thus a `law' of
gravity.
Now what of the law of sin and death? If someone
passes an unkind remark about me, at once something goes wrong inside me. That
is not law; that is sin. But it, when different people pass unkind remarks,
the same `something' goes wrong inside, then I discern a law within -- a law of
sin. Like the law of gravity, it is something constant. It always works the
same way. And so too with the law of death. Death, we have said, is weakness
produced to its limit. Weakness is `I cannot'. Now if when I try to please
God in this particular matter I find I cannot, and if when I try to please Him
in that other thing I again find I cannot, then I discern a law at work. There
is not only sin in me but a law of sin; there is not only death in me
but a law of death.
Then again, not only is gravity a law in the
sense that it is constant, admitting of no exception, but, unlike the rule of
the road, it is a `natural' law and not the subject of discussion and decision
but of discovery. The law is there, and the handkerchief `naturally' drops by
itself without any help from me. And the "law" discovered by the man in Romans
7:23 is just like that. It is a law of sin and of death, opposed to that which
is good, and crippling the man's will to do good. He `naturally' sins
according to the "law of sin" in his members. He wills to be different, but
that law in him is relentless and no human will can resist it. So this brings
me to the question, How can I be set free from the law of sin an death? I need
deliverance from sin, and still more do I need deliverance from death, but most
of all I need deliverance from the law of sin and of death. How can I
be delivered from the constant repetition of weakness and failure? In order to
answer this question let us follow out our two illustration further.
One of our great burdens in China used to be the
likin tax, a law which none could escape, originating in the Ch'in
Dynasty and operating right down to our own day. It was an inland tax on the
transit of goods, applied throughout the empire and having numerous barriers
for collection, and officers enjoying very large powers. The result was that
the charge on goods passing through several provinces might become very heavy
indeed. But a few years ago a second law came into operation which set aside
the likin law. Can you imagine the feelings of relief in those who had
suffered under the old law? Now there was no need to think or hope or pray;
the new law was already there and had delivered us from the old law. No longer
was there need to think beforehand what one would say if one met a likin
officer tomorrow!
And as with the law of the land, so it is with
natural law. How can the law of gravity be annulled? With regard to my
handkerchief that law is at work clearly enough, pulling it down, but I have
only to place my hand under the handkerchief and it does not drop. Why? The
law is still there. I do not deal with the law of gravity; in fact I
cannot deal with the law of gravity. Then why does my handkerchief not
fall to the ground? Because there is a power keeping it from doing so. The
law is there, but another law superior to it is operation to overcome it,
namely the law of life. Gravity can do its utmost but the handkerchief will
not drop, because another law is working against the law of gravity to maintain
it there. We have all seen the tree which was once a small seed fallen between
the slabs of a paving, and which has grown until heavy stone blocks have been
lifted by the power of the life within it. That is what we mean by the triumph
of one law over another.
In just such a manner God delivers us from one
law by introducing another law. The law of sin and death is there all the
time, but God has put another law into operation - the law of the Spirit of
life in Christ Jesus, and that law is strong enough to deliver us from the law
of sin and death. You see, it is a law of life in Christ Jesus -- the
resurrection life that in Him has met death in all its forms and triumphed over
it (Eph. 1:19,20). The Lord Jesus dwells in our hearts in the person of His
Holy Spirit, and if we let Him have a clear way and commit ourselves to Him we
shall find that He will keep us from the old law. We shall learn what it is to
be kept, not by our own power, but "by the power of God" (1 Peter 1:5).
The Manifestation Of The Law Of Life
Let us seek to make this practical. We
touched earlier on the matter of our will in relation to the things of God.
Even older Christians do not realize how great a part will-power plays in their
lives. That was part of Paul's trouble in Romans 7. His will was good, but
all his actions contradicted it, and however much he made up his mind and set
himself to please God, it led him only into worse darkness. `I would do
good', but "I am carnal, sold under sin". That is the point. Like a
car without petrol, that has to be pushed and that stops as soon as it is left
alone, many Christians endeavour to drive themselves by will-power, and then
think the Christian life a most exhausting and bitter one. Some even force
themselves to say `Hallelujah!' because others do it, while admitting there is
no meaning in it to them. They force themselves to be what they are not, and
it is worse than trying to make water run up-hill. For after all, the very
highest point the will can reach is that of willingness (Matt. 26:41).
If we have to exert so much effort in our
Christian living, it simply says that we are not really like that at all. We
don't need to force ourselves to speak our native language. In fact we only
have to exert will-power in order to do things we do not do naturally.
We may do them for a time, but the law of sin and death wins in the end. We
may be able to say: `To will is present with me, and I perform that which is
good for two weeks', but eventually we shall have to confess: `How to perform
it I know not'. No, what I already am I do not long to be. If I "would" it is
because I am not.
You ask, Why do men use will-power to try to
please God? There may be two reasons. They may of course never have
experienced the new birth, in which case they have no new life to draw upon; or
they may have been born again and the life be there, but they have not learned
to trust in that life. It is this lack of understanding that results in
habitual failure and sinning, bringing them to the place where they almost
cease to believe in the possibility of anything better.
But because we have not believed fully, that does
not mean that the feeble life we intermittently experience is all God has given
us. Romans 6:23 states that "the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ
Jesus our Lord", and now in Romans 8:2 we read that "the law of the Spirit of
life in Christ Jesus" has come to our aid. So Romans 8:2 speaks not of a new
gift but of the life already referred to in Romans 6:23. In other words, it is
a new revelation of what we already have. I feel I cannot emphasize
this too much. It is not something fresh from God's hand, but a new unveiling
of what He has already given. It is a new discovery of a work already done in
Christ, for the words "made me free" are in the past tense. If I really see
this and put my faith in Him, there is no absolute necessity for Romans 7 to be
repeated in me -- either the experience or the conduct, and certainly not the
tremendous display of will-power.
If we will let go our own wills and trust Him, we
shall not fall to the ground and break, but we shall fall into a different
law, the law of the Spirit of life. For He has given us not only life but
a law of life. And just as the law of gravity is a natural law and not the
result of human legislation, so the law of life is a `natural' law, similar in
principle to the law that keeps our heart beating or that controls the movement
of our eyelids. There is no need for us to think about our eyes, or to decide
that we must blink every so often to keep them cleansed; and still less do we
bring our will to bear upon our heart. Indeed to do so might rather harm than
help it. No, so long as it has life it works spontaneously. Our wills only
interfere with the law of life. I discovered that fact once in the following
way.
I used to suffer from sleeplessness. Once after
several sleepless nights, when I had prayed much about it and exhausted all my
resources, I confessed at length to God that the fault must lie with me and
asked to be shown where. I said to God: `I demand an explanation'. He answer
was: `Believe in nature's laws'. Sleep is as much a law as hunger is, and I
realized that though I had never thought of worrying whether I would get hungry
or not, I had been worrying about sleeping. I had been trying to help nature,
and that is the chief trouble with most sufferers from sleeplessness. But now
I trusted not only God but God's law of nature, and slept well.
Should we not read the Bible? Of course we
should or our spiritual life will suffer. But that should not mean forcing
ourselves to read. There is a new law in us which gives us a hunger for it.
Then half an hour can be more profitable than five hours of forced
reading. And it is the same with giving, with preaching, with testimony.
Forced preaching is apt to result in preaching a warm gospel with a cold heart,
and we all know what men mean by `cold charity'.
If we will let ourselves live in the new law we
shall be less conscious of the old law. It is still there, but it is no longer
governing and we are no longer in its grip. That is why the Lord says in
Matthew 6: "Behold the birds ... Consider the lilies". If we could ask the
birds whether they were not afraid of the law of gravity, how would they reply?
They would say: `We never heard the name of Newton. We know nothing about his
law. We fly because it is the law of our life to fly.' Not only is there in
them a life with the power of flight, but that life has a life has a law which
enables these living creatures quite spontaneously and consistently to overcome
the law of gravity. Yet gravity remains. If you get up early one morning when
the cold is intense and the snow thick on the ground, and there is a dead
sparrow in the courtyard, you are reminded at once of the persistence of that
law. But while birds live they overcome it, and the life within them is what
dominates their consciousness.
God has been truly gracious to us. He has given
us this new law of the Spirit, and for us to `fly' is no longer a question of
our will but of His life. Have you noticed what a trial it is to make an
impatient Christian patient? To require patience of him is enough to make him
ill with depression. But God has never told us to force ourselves to be what
we are not naturally: to try by taking thought to add to our spiritual
stature. Worrying may possibly decrease a man's height, but it certainly never
added anything to it. "Be not anxious", are His words. "Consider the lilies,
... they grow." He is directing our attention to the new law of life in
us. Oh, for a new appreciation of the life that is ours!
What a precious discovery this is! It can make
altogether new men of us, for it operates in the smallest things as well as in
the bigger ones. It checks us when, for example, we put out a hand to look at
a book in someone else's room, reminding us that we have not asked permission
and have no right to do so. We cannot, the Holy Spirit tells us, encroach thus
upon the rights of others.
Once I was talking to a Christian friend and he
turned to me and said: `Do you know, I believe that if anyone is willing to
live by the law of the Spirit of life, such a man will become truly refined.'
`What do you mean?' I asked. He replied: `That law has the power to make a man
a perfect gentleman. Some scornfully say: "you can't blame those people for
the way they act; they are just country folk and have no educational
advantages". But the real question is, Have they the life of the Lord within?
For I tell you, that life can say to them: "Your voice is too loud", or,
"That laughter was not right", or, "Your motive in passing that remark was
wrong." In a thousand details the Spirit of life can tell them how to act, so
producing in them a true refinement. There is no such inherent power in
education.' And yet my friend was himself an educationalist!
But it is true. Take the example of
talkativeness. Are you a person of too many words? When you stay with people,
do you say to yourself: `What shall I do? I am a Christian; but if I am to
glorify the name of the Lord, I simple must not talk so much. So today
let me be extra careful to hold myself in check.'? And for an hour or two you
succeed -- until on some pretext you loose control and, before you know where
you are, find yourself once again in difficulty with your garrulous tongue.
Yes, let us be fully assured that the will is useless here. For me to exhort
you to exercise your will in this matter would be but to offer you the vain
religion of the world, not the life in Christ Jesus. For consider again: a
talkative person remains just that, though he keep silent all day, for there is
a `natural' law of talkativeness governing him (or her!), just as a peach tree
is a peach tree whether or not it bears peaches. But as Christians we discover
a new law in us, the law of the spirit of life, which transcends all else and
which has already delivered us from the `law' of our talkativeness. If,
believing the Lord's Word, we yield ourselves to that new law, it will
tell us when we should stop talking -- or not start! -- and it will
empower us to do so. On that basis you can go to your friend's house for two
or three hours, or stay for two or three days, and experience no difficulty.
On your return you will just thank God for His new law of life.
It is this spontaneous life that is the Christian
life. It manifests itself in love for the unlovely -- for the brother whom on
natural grounds we would not like and certainly could not love. It works on
the basis of what the Lord sees of possibility in that brother. `Lord, You
see he is lovable and You love him. Love him, now, through me!' And
it manifests itself in reality of life -- in a true genuineness of moral
character. There is too much hypocrisy in the lives of Christians, too much
play-acting. Nothing takes away from the effectiveness of Christian witness as
does a pretense of something that is not really there, for the man in the
street unfailingly penetrates such a disguise in the end and finds us out for
what we are. Yes, pretense gives way to reality when we trust the law of
life.
The Fourth Step: "Walk ... After The Spirit"
"For what the law could not do, in that it
was weak through the flesh, God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful
flesh and as an offering for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the
ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit" (Rom. 8:34).
Every careful reader of these two verses will see
that there are two things presented here. They are, firstly, what the Lord
Jesus has done for us, and secondly, what the Holy Spirit will do in
us. "The flesh" is "weak"; consequently the ordinance of the law cannot be
fulfilled in us "after the flesh". (Remember, it is again here a question not
of salvation but of pleasing God.) Now, because of our inability God took two
steps. In the first place, He intervened to deal with the heart of our
problem. He sent His Son in the flesh, who died for sin and in doing so
"condemned sin in the flesh". That is to say, He took to death
representatively all that belonged to the old creation in us, whether we speak
of it as `our old man', `the flesh', or the carnal `I'. Thus God struck at the
very root of our trouble by removing the fundamental ground of our weakness.
This was the first step.
But still "the ordinance of the law" remained to
be fulfilled "in us". How could this be done? It required God's further
provision of the indwelling Holy Spirit. It is He who is sent to take care of
the inward side of this thing, and He is able to do so, we are told, as we
"walk ... after the Spirit".
What does it mean to walk after the Spirit? It
means two things. Firstly, it is not a work; it is a walk. Praise God, the
burdensome and fruitless effort I involved myself in when I sought `in the
flesh' to please God gives place to a blessed and restful dependence on "his
working, which worketh in me mightily" (Col. 1:29). That is why Paul contrasts
the "works" of the flesh with the "fruit" of the Spirit (Gal. 5:19,22).
Then secondly, to "walk after" implies
subjection. Walking after the flesh means that I yield to the dictates of the
flesh, and the following verses in Romans 8:5-8 make clear where that leads me.
It only brings me into conflict with God. To walk after the Spirit is to be
subject to the Spirit. There is one thing that the man who walks after the
Spirit cannot do, and that is be independent of Him. I must be subject
to the Holy Spirit. The initiative of my life must be with Him. Only as I
yield myself to obey Him shall I find the "law of the Spirit of life" in full
operation and the "ordinance of the law" (all that I have been trying to do to
please God) being fulfilled -- no longer by me but in me. "As
many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God" (Rom. 8:14).
We are all familiar with the words of the
benediction in 2 Corinthians 13:14: "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all". The
love of God is the source of all spiritual blessing; the grace of the Lord
Jesus has made it possible for that spiritual wealth to become ours; and the
communion of the Holy Ghost is the means whereby it is imparted to us. Love is
something hidden in the heart of God; grace is that love expressed and made
available in the Son; communion is the importation of that grace by the Spirit.
What the Father has devised concerning us the Son has accomplished for us, and
now the Holy Spirit communicates it to us. When therefore we discover
something fresh that the Lord Jesus has procured for us in His Cross, let us,
for its realization, look in the direction that God has indicated, and, by our
steadfast attitude of subjection and obedience to the Holy Spirit, keep wide
open the way for Him to impart it to us. That is His ministry. He has come
for that very purpose -- that He may make real in us all that is ours in
Christ.
We have learned in China that, when leading a
soul to Christ, we must be very thorough, for there is no certainty when he
will again have the help of other Christians. We always seek to make it clear
to a new believer that, when he has asked the Lord to forgive his sins and to
come into his life, his heart has become the residence of a living Person. The
Holy Spirit of God is now within him, to open to him the Scriptures that he may
find Christ there, to direct his prayer, to govern his life, and to reproduce
in him the character of his Lord.
I went, late one summer, for a prolonged period
of rest to a hill-resort where accommodation was difficult to obtain, and while
there it was necessary for me to sleep in one house and take my meals in
another, the latter being the home of a mechanic and his wife. For the first
two weeks of my visit, apart from asking a blessing at each meal, I said
nothing to my hosts about the Gospel; and then one day my opportunity came to
tell them about the Lord Jesus. They were ready to listen and to come to Him
in simple faith for the forgiveness of their sins. They were born again, and a
new light and joy came into their lives, for theirs was a real conversion. I
took care to make clear to them what had happened, and then, as the weather
turned colder, the time came for me to leave them and return to Shanghai.
During the cold winter months the man was in the
habit of drinking wine with his meals, and he was apt to do so to excess.
After my departure, with the return of the cold weather, the wine appeared on
the table again, and that day, as he had become accustomed to do, the husband
bowed his head to return thanks for the meal -- but no words would come. After
one or two vain attempts he turned to his wife. `What is wrong?' he asked.
`Why cannot we pray today? Fetch the Bible and see what it has to say about
wine drinking.' I had left a copy of the Scriptures with them, but though the
wife could read she was ignorant of the Word, and she turned the pages in vain
seeking for light on the subject. They did not know how to consult God's Book
and it was impossible to consult God's messenger, for I was many miles away and
it might be months before they could see me. `Just drink your wine', said his
wife. `We'll refer the matter to brother Nee at the first opportunity.' But
still the man found he just could not return thanks to the Lord for that wine.
`Take it away!' he said at length; and when she had done so, together they
asked a blessing on their meal.
When eventually the man was able to visit
Shanghai he told me the story. Using an expression familiar in Chinese:
`Brother Nee', he said, `Resident Boss[14] wouldn't let me have that drink!'
`Very good, brother', I said. `You always listen to Resident Boss!'
Many of us know that Christ is our life. We
believe that the Spirit of God is resident in us, but this fact has little
effect upon our behaviour. The question is, do we know Him as a living Person,
and do we know Him as `Boss'?