NIV
靈修
新聞
貼圖
為教會
The believer is not only dead to sin, but dead to the law. This is a deeper truth, giving us deliverance from the thought of a life of effort and failure, and opening the way to the life in the power of the Holy Spirit. "Thou shalt" is done away with; the power of the Spirit takes its place. In the remainder of this chapter (vii. 7-24) we have a description of the Christian as he still tries to obey the law, but utterly fails. He experiences that "in him, that is in his flesh, dwelleth no good thing." He finds that the law of sin, notwithstanding his utmost efforts, continually brings him into captivity, and compels the cry: "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" In the whole passage, it is everywhere "I," with¬out any thought of the Spirits help. It is only when he has given utterance to his cry of despair that he is brought to see that he is no longer under the law, but under the rule of the Holy Spirit (viii. 1, 2). "There is therefore now no condemnation," such as he had experienced in his attempt to obey the law, "to them that are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death." As chapter vii. gives us the experience that leads to being a captive under the power of sin, chapter viii. reveals the experience of the life of a man in Christ Jesus, who has now been made free from the law of sin and death. In the former we have the life of the ordinary Christian doing his utmost to keep the commandments of the law, and to walk in His ways, but ever finding how much there is of failure and shortcoming. In the latter we have the man who knows that he is in Christ Jesus, dead to sin and alive to God, and by the Spirit has been made free and is kept free from the bondage of sin and of death.Oh that men understood what the deep meaning is of Romans vii., where a man learns that in him, that is in his flesh, there is no good thing, and that there is no deliverance from this state but by yielding to the power of the Spirit making free from the power of bondage of the flesh, and so fulfilling the righteousness of the law in the power of the life of Christ!
There is no doubt about it. The fear of the LORD leads to virtuous habits, and these prevent that waste of life which comes of sin and vice. The holy rest which springs out of faith in the LORD Jesus also greatly helps a man when he is ill. Every physician rejoices to have a patient whose mind is fully at ease. Worry kills, but confidence in God is like healing medicine.
Christ himself is the builder of his spiritual temple, and he has built it on the mountains of his unchangeable affection, his omnipotent grace, and his infallible truthfulness. But as it was in Solomons temple, so in this; the materials need making ready. There are the “Cedars of Lebanon,” but they are not framed for the building; they are not cut down, and shaped, and made into those planks of cedar, whose odoriferous beauty shall make glad the courts of the Lords house in Paradise. There are also the rough stones still in the quarry, they must be hewn thence, and squared. All this is Christs own work. Each individual believer is being prepared, and polished, and made ready for his place in the temple; but Christs own hand performs the preparation-work. Afflictions cannot sanctify, excepting as they are used by him to this end. Our prayers and efforts cannot make us ready for heaven, apart from the hand of Jesus, who fashioneth our hearts aright.
We have many things in our possession at the present moment which can be shaken, and it ill becomes a Christian man to set much store by them, for there is nothing stable beneath these rolling skies; change is written upon all things. Yet, we have certain “things which cannot be shaken,” and I invite you this evening to think of them, that if the things which can be shaken should all be taken away, you may derive real comfort from the things that cannot be shaken, which will remain. Whatever your losses have been, or may be, you enjoy present salvation. You are standing at the foot of his cross, trusting alone in the merit of Jesus’ precious blood, and no rise or fall of the markets can interfere with your salvation in him; no breaking of banks, no failures and bankruptcies can touch that. Then you are a child of God this evening. God is your Father. No change of circumstances can ever rob you of that. Although by losses brought to poverty, and stripped bare, you can say, “He is my Father still. In my Fathers house are many mansions; therefore will I not be troubled.” You have another permanent blessing, namely, the love of Jesus Christ. He who is God and Man loves you with all the strength of his affectionate nature—nothing can affect that. The fig tree may not blossom, and the flocks may cease from the field, it matters not to the man who can sing, “My Beloved is mine, and I am his.” Our best portion and richest heritage we cannot lose. Whatever troubles come, let us play the man; let us show that we are not such little children as to be cast down by what may happen in this poor fleeting state of time. Our country is Immanuels land, our hope is above the sky, and therefore, calm as the summers ocean; we will see the wreck of everything earthborn, and yet rejoice in the God of our salvation.
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:
Abraham and David understood the place of no transgression where sin is not imputed to us. When Abraham believed, it was reckoned to him as righteousness. He was reckoned or judged to be in Christ and therefore dead to sin and alive to Christ. David had committed grievous sins but was able to proclaim, ‘Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute sin’.
Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans, ‘Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus’. Because God reckons in this manner toward us, we can also reckon in this way toward ourselves. We can stand confidently and consider ourselves ‘alive to God’. Although the Lord knows that we still have sin, He does not attribute it to us and neither should we. He deals with the cause of our sin and then calls us forward. There is now no place for condemnation.
The dimension of the cross which both Abraham and David experienced was fully realised at Calvary. Jesus, who knew no sin, became the embodiment of sin for us. He descended all the way to the place of destruction and the land of forgetfulness. He was cursed by the law and reviled by Satan. The body of sin was judged according to the law and destroyed. However, Christ continued to entrust Himself to the Father and was brought back from the dead by the blood of the Everlasting Covenant. As He drew near again to the Father, we who were once afar off have also been brought near, in Him. Our names have been remembered and are included in the new man that He has created in Himself.
The new creation is both individual and corporate. Firstly, Christ Himself is the singular new creation. He is the Lamb of God who has made peace by His blood and brought Jew and Gentile into one body. He has abolished
all enmity in His flesh, making the two into one new man. This corporate
new creation, the one new man, is Christ the Head, along with the many members of His body. The one new man includes all who belong to Him. We are the members of His body; we are His administration. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything, but we must walk by the rule of the new creation. He is compelling us to follow Him and walk by this rule, and accordingly, peace and mercy will be upon us. We remember the words of Jesus, ‘Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you’. And concerning mercy, the Lamb has been set forth as the Mercy Seat in His own blood. He is our merciful and faithful High Priest and He is the Lamb.
When the Lamb is standing as if slain, it is Christ seated at the right hand of the Father along with all of those who are alive from the dead in Him. This does not refer to the resurrection of the last day. It is all those who are ‘in Him’, and standing up with Him by the power of an indestructible life. This is the exanastasis which the apostle Paul so vigorously pursued. The psalmist understood this when he spoke of the ‘sheep of His pasture’. These are the ones over whom God the Son spreads His tabernacle. They are ‘in Him’ and ‘of Him’. On the great Day of Atonement, He will present to Himself a bride. This is the Lamb’s wife.
Timothy belonged to the order of five in an apostolic company with Paul. He was an apostle. Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, ‘If Timothy comes, see that he may be with you without fear; for he does the work of the Lord, as I also do. Therefore, let no one despise him. But send him on his journey in peace, that he may come to me; for I am waiting for him with the brethren.’ Paul continued, ‘Concerning our brother Apollos, I strongly urged him to come to you with the brethren’. Apollos was a travelling teacher. This brother is another type of messenger in the one corporate messenger. We are very familiar with the authority of the messenger, but there is also another authority. It is the emerging authority in a firstfruits house from which eldership comes. It is this authority of a firstfruits house that Paul attributed to Stephanas. ‘You know the household of Stephanas, that they were the firstfruits of Achaia’. This household had devoted and addicted themselves to the deaconing of the saints. And accordingly, Paul directed the Corinthians to be subject to such men. This included Stephanas, Fortunatus and Archaicus who appeared to all be worthy firstfruits houses. Paul rejoiced over the coming of these men because they supplied what was lacking on the part of the Corinthians. These men with their houses were also devoted to serving the five ministries. They were the connection between the messenger dimension and the local communion. They taught and established the koinonia, not at the communion table, but in their own house. Then they brought that fruit to the one table. They are the branches on the vine of the lampstand church in a local place.
Some of us have ambitions and have made plans for our lives, but the Lord has ‘blown’ on them. Alternatively, some of us had no ambitions and the Lord has directed us into successful enterprises. Who knows what the individual naming of a person is. That is the secret of the Father, found only by participating in the fellowship of offering. Difficult circumstances will befall our lives. The fiery trial will come upon us. This brings the issue of the stony ground to the fore. Tribulation and affliction will arise because of the word on sonship. In all these things, we remember that the Lord is sovereign; the Spirit is leading; the Spirit has come! When the Spirit takes hold of us and our life is being separated, He is bringing us into the pathway of peace. The predestination God planned for us is now being achieved and, through all kinds of troubled ways, we finally arrive at our sonship. We must accept that, once we have committed ourselves to Jesus Christ as Lord, the Father has accepted our commitment to become a son of God. He then opens the pathway to achieving this goal by making us a disciple of Jesus Christ. By following Christ, we fulfil the plan that God predestined for our life. Our feet, as disciples, will tread on the pathways that belong to the body of Christ. God separates us to our work, so that everything about us becomes centred on the Lord Jesus. We must commit our way to the Lord, and trust that He is ordering our pathway and securing us relationally within the body of Christ, so that our predestination to sonship will be fulfilled.
