04.21. LESSON 21

LESSON 21

"So then, brethren, we are not debtors to the flesh, to live after the flesh: for if ye live after the flesh, ye must die; but if by the Spirit ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live." Romans 8:12-13 are the conclusion of Paul’s teaching on the two ways of life (Romans 8:1-13), dealing with the inveterate conflict between the flesh and the Spirit decreed by God at the beginning of human history when he cursed the serpent, saying: "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between her seed and thy seed." Not only Paul and his contemporary brethren, but also all Christians of all time, know by experience this deep, continual warfare between the flesh and the Spirit. In this conclusion, Paul reminds Christians that since "The mind of the flesh is enmity against God" (Romans 8:7), and an therefore never bring anything but death, they certainly owe it nothing. He also focuses the cardinal Christian truth that the flesh is such a curst, powerful, determined foe that only "By the power of the Holy Spirit" can Christians ever escape defeat and death.

Working of the Holy Spirit His workings in our behalf, according to Romans 8:1-39, are as follows:

In the only verse of Romans that mentions the Holy Spirit before this Spirit-filled Romans 8:1-39, is found another of his works in and for us, namely: "The love of God bath been shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit which was given unto us" (Romans 5:5). The context shows that this is the love of God for us. Of innumerable corroborative Scriptures, two must suffice. First, Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians: "That ye may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith ("According to your faith be it done unto you")... Now unto him that s able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be the glory." Second, Jews and Gentiles are a temple "builded together for a habitation of God in the Spirit" (Ephesians 2:21-22). The fact that these passages teach that God, Christ, and the Spirit all three reside in Christians sheds light on the nature of both God and Christianity. It took "The three-personal God" a long time to build his church. After working some 4000 years as Father, especially, he had things ready to proceed by working as Son, too, and therefore brought Christ actively into his redemptive scheme with the announcement, "This is my Son, my chosen; hear ye him." Finally, all things were ready for the Father and the Son working together as Spirit to proclaim on Pentecost, "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit saith." This method is suggestive of the method of the relay footrace.

Ever since Pentecost, the Spirit’s work has been the Trinity focused and at work saving men—the Father for us, the Son with us, and the Spirit in us. The Spirit’s saying "come" is the Trinity’s saying "come"; the Spirit’s dwelling in us is the Trinity’s dwelling in us. This mutual interdependence and essential oneness of the Trinity (though the three never merge into one Person) is implicit in all the Bible. Especially, is it taught explicitly in Christ’s farewell address to his apostles (John 13:1-38, John 14:1-31, John 15:1-27, John 16:1-33, John 17:1-26), and in Paul’s writings. By virtue of God’s drawing nigh to us in his Son and dwelling in us in his Spirit, we may become partakers of the divine nature, which is the end of the redemptive process for this age. By grace we are related to God in Christ through the Spirit.

Christ Dishonored To give the Spirit prominence over Christ, as some cults do, is a fatal perversion of the gospel. The verse, "No man speaking in the Holy Spirit of God saith, Jesus is anathema; and no man can say, Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy Spirit" (1 Corinthians 12:3), shows that one’s attitude toward Christ is the test whether or not he really possesses the Spirit. Just as Jesus declares and glorifies God, so the Spirit declares and glorifies Christ. "He (the Spirit) shall not speak from himself; but what things soever he shall hear, these shall he speak... He shall glorify me... All things whatsoever the Father hath are mine; therefore said I, that he taketh of mine, and shall declare it unto you" (John 16:13-15). God in the Son, in the Spirit, through the word is the cumulative divine order. The word as seed is "perfect and entire, lacking in nothing." As in nature, seed, under the genial powers of soil and sun, springs up and grows, man knows not how: "So is the kingdom of God" (Mark 4:26-29). In both the natural realm and the spiritual realm, seed, instead of being an end within itself, is an indispensable means unto harvest. To hostile Jews, Christ said: "Ye search the scriptures, because ye think that in them ye have eternal life; and these are they which bear witness of me; and ye will not come to me, that ye may have life" (John 5:39-40). Hence, doctrine about Christ does not give life; it takes Christ himself to do that. Of course, without seed it is equally impossible in nature and in religion to reap; nevertheless, the seed is not the harvest. Christians in whom the Lord dwells richly will be "filled with joy and the Holy Spirit" (Acts 13:52).

It is not necessary to explain "the mystery of godliness." Christianity cannot be proved rationally because it meets us above human reason and scientific measurement. If it is anything, it is superhuman and supernatural. If Christians lose the mystic element of their religion, they of necessity become mechanical, and run into a dead end. When men cease to wonder, they cease to worship and pray. Were everything known, where were the occasion or the need of faith? Faith and reward suffer no damage in either nature or religion when truth, though not fully understood, is believed and obeyed. By faith is human reason put to its divinest use.

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