(Chap. 8:1-11)
I SUPPOSE that it would be impossible to find two portions of Scripture which are a greater contrast to one another than the close of the seventh of Romans and the opening verses of the eighth. The seventh chapter describes the experience of a quickened soul under law, in bondage, struggling, defeated and miserable; whilst the eighth of Romans brings before us the full, complete Christian state as in Christ and not in the flesh, and winds up at the end of the chapter with a song of deliverance and praise. The seventh of Romans closes with a groan of bondage and misery (except the last verse, which really describes the delivered soul), and the eighth finishes up with a burst of praise. There could not be a greater contrast.
Now, it is important to see that the seventh chapter does not describe the experience of an unconverted man. Evidently in that chapter there is a new nature, for we read: “I delight in the law of God after the inward man.” An unconverted man would never use such an expression as that. He may sometimes fear the consequences of his sin, he may sometimes dread the judgment to come, but he loves his sins. He never troubles himself about the law of God except for the fear of judgment. It could never be said that an unconverted man delighted in the law of God after the inward man. He does nothing of the kind. So that evidently there is a new nature there; but the one described in the seventh of Romans is, in his experience, under the law. Is that the Christian state? Certainly not. The sixth of Romans tells us so: “Sin shall not have dominion over you; for ye are not under the law but under grace.” So that the seventh of Romans, whilst it is the experience of one who has a new nature, is not the experience of one who is in the full Christian place. You may say, “That seems a great puzzle to me; it seems neither one thing nor the other, if you say it is neither the experience of a Christian nor yet of an unconverted man.” It is the experience of one that has the new nature, but as to his conscious standing before God, is still in the flesh. Now a Christian is not in the flesh.
What are we to understand by being in the flesh? It is not the same thing, of course, as being in the body. We are all in the body so long as we are on the earth, but the seventh of Romans in the fifth verse says, “when we were in the flesh.” There are people, then, alive in their bodies on the earth but who are not in the flesh. Look what it says in the ninth verse of the eighth chapter: “Ye are not in the flesh.” That is, ye Christians. What, then, is the meaning of being “in the flesh?” It is evidently here put in contrast with being “in Christ Jesus.” What are we to understand by being “in the flesh” and being “in Christ Jesus”? I believe that to be “in the flesh” means that we stand before God according to the responsibilities of the first Adam; and to be “in Christ Jesus” means that we stand before God according to the acceptance of Christ Jesus, the last Adam.
Now, the Bible is just the history of these two men; the first Adam and his failure, and the last Adam and His perfection; and every man, woman, and child stands before God connected with one or the other. If I stand before God connected with the first Adam, the distance from God of the first fallen Adam is the measure of the distance in which I stand. If I stand before God in Christ Jesus, His acceptance is the measure of mine. And so, when we come to this eighth chapter, we find these words: “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” Have you ever been struck with that word “therefore “?
“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” It does not say, “There is no condemnation to them for whom Christ died.” That is perfectly true, but it is not what is said here. Nor does it say, “There is no condemnation for those whose sins have been blotted out.” That also is perfectly true, but that is not what is said. “There is therefore now,” and mark that word “now”; it is a truth which a believer may apply to himself while in this world. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.”
There are three things told us in verse 2. The Christian is in a new position, he has a new life, and he has a new power. These three things belong to every one who is a Christian in the full sense of the word; and, as I said at the beginning, the eighth chapter of Romans unfolds the full Christian position in contrast to the state of bondage under the law. Three things, then, are stated of the Christian, and, if you are a Christian, these three things are true of you.
Perhaps you have not yet laid hold of them, and so much the more reason why you should do so now. First of all, you stand before God in a new position. What was your old standing? In the flesh. What did that mean? That the measure of your distance from God was the distance of fallen Adam. Now you are in Christ, and what does that mean? That the measure of His acceptance is the measure of yours. You are brought by God into a new place. Taken out altogether from the old Adam state and brought into a new one. Not merely your sins forgiven, that is blessedly true, but it is not all the truth, sins forgiven, transgressions blotted out; true, but beyond and above all that there is something added, “in Christ Jesus.” A new place, a new position, brought out of the old standing, brought into a new one; and is there any possibility that there should be condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus? None whatever. Before any one who is “in Christ Jesus” could possibly be condemned, Christ Jesus must be condemned. You see it puts the Christian into a place where condemnation is out of the question. Who can condemn? The accuser may roar of “ills that I have done,” but he cannot condemn. My own heart may sometimes condemn me, but God does not. Before God could condemn a single one who is in Christ Jesus, He must condemn the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and that is impossible. We are taken out of the old position and standing, and brought into a new one. He has put the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ into a new position before Him, and He says that, in that position, in Christ Jesus, condemnation is out of the question.
But not only are we in a new position, we have a new life and a life that is not under bondage; a life that is connected with a Christ who has died and risen. The life that we have as Christians is not a life struggling under law, but it is linked up with a risen Christ, and all that is behind Christ is also behind us. And what is behind Him? Death and judgment, and the whole question of sin. You see what it brings the believer into.
In this connection we might look at the twentieth of John. When the Lord goes into the midst of His gathered disciples, He says, “Peace be unto you.” Now that is the portion of every child of God since the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. But not only that, He breathed on them, and that recalls to us the scene when God, having made Adam, He “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.” It is only one who was God who could do what is described here; He breathes upon His disciples to whom He had just spoken the words, “Peace be unto you”; and having so done, He says, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” The Holy Ghost as a Divine Person, did not come until the day of Pentecost, forty days afterward; what was it then that the Lord communicated to His disciples at this time? I believe it was His own life in the power of resurrection. As we see it in the tenth of John, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” There is a difference between “life” and “life more abundantly.” The life itself, I need hardly say, is the same in each case, for it is Christ; but it is seen in different conditions. Just the difference that we see between the struggling, the bondage, and the misery of the seventh of Romans, and what we get presented in the second verse of the eighth chapter, life in liberty and power. For not only has the Christian a new life, but he has also a new power. There was no power in the seventh chapter, nothing but weakness; the very thing described there is lack of power; there is desire to do good, but never the power to accomplish it. But the moment we come to the eighth of Romans we get a thing of which we have not even a mention in the seventh chapter. Read through the seventh, and you will not find even once any mention of the Spirit of God; come to the eighth, and in the first sixteen verses you find it mentioned fifteen times. And this is the very power of which we find the need in the seventh chapter. In the seventh chapter, weakness; in the eighth chapter, power. And what is the power? The law? The law has power to slay or to condemn, but no power to deliver; but here we come to a truth which brings us into liberty. “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” Here is liberty, and in that verse you get these three great truths brought together—the new place, the new life, and the new power.