Romans 7

Chapter 7. Sanctification Through Death and ResurrectionIn the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. (Romans 6:11-13)An this chapter, the apostle begins the third section of his epistle. In the first section he gave us the picture of sin; in the second, of salvation through the righteousness of God and the atonement of Christ, received by faith, and brings us into a state of justification. In the third section, he deals with sanctification. He begins by asking: “Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?” (Romans 6:1). And he answers the question at the very outset by a tremendous “By no means!” (Romans 6:2). We will notice that from this time he uses the singular number in speaking about sin. In the earlier picture he spoke of our sins—our acts of sin. “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). But now he speaks of sin, the state and character of evil from which all our acts spring, as the miasma exhales from a fetid marsh, as the water flows from an unclean fountain. Justification deals with our sins, but sanctification deals with our sin. God can forgive sins, but sin He can never forgive nor tolerate. It must be destroyed and removed, and the very idea of continuing in sin is met at the threshold by the solemn “By no means!” (Romans 6:2), which requires from every follower of Christ that “holiness [without which] no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14). But how is this deliverance from sin to be brought about? The answer involves three points, which the apostle unfolds in these three chapters.

1. We are sanctified, not by the improvement of the old nature, but by its death and the resurrection life of the Lord Jesus Christ, instead.
2. We are sanctified, not by our old master, the law, or by any efforts or struggles of our own, but by the free gift and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and through union with Christ alone.
3. We are sanctified by the indwelling life and power of the Holy Spirit in us and filling our spirit, soul and body with the life of Jesus Christ. It is on the first of these points that we shall dwell at present, as it is unfolded in the first portion of the sixth chapter of Romans. In developing this thought, the apostle presents a number of points with great logical force and clearness. Baptism
4. The principle of death and resurrection is set forth in the symbol of Christian baptism. “Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” (Romans 6:3). This, then, is the true meaning of baptism. It is the appropriate symbol of death and resurrection, and not only of death, but of a death so definite and final that it is followed by burial, so that the old life is out of sight forever, and we are detached from it as thoroughly as the soul is separated from the body that lies in the grave. Nature
5. The same principle is again set forth in the symbol of planting. “If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection” (Romans 6:5). This is Christ’s own chosen figure to represent His own resurrection. “Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds” (John 12:24). Nature is full of this principle of death and resurrection. Every springtime reiterates it, every harvest springs from it, every flower and tree proclaims it. The little seed must disappear, corrupt and die, and out of its bosom come the germs of life and fruitfulness. That is God’s parable of true spiritual life. The Cross
6. The death of Jesus Christ on the cross laid the foundation of our death and resurrection. When He was offered up on Calvary, it was not only for our sins, but for our sinfulness. In Him we were recognized by God as hanging on that cross with Him, and dying when He died, so that His death represents our death, and when we recognize it, appropriate it and identify ourselves with it, it becomes the same as if we had been crucified and our old life had gone out with His. “For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been freed from sin” (Romans 6:6-7). Appropriating Faith
7. There must be, on our part, a definite appropriation of Christ’s death for our sanctification, and a committal of ourselves to Him in death and resurrection. While the death of Christ is available for all who will claim it, it is effectual only to those who do claim it. It is necessary, therefore, that we make this an actual fact in our experience and yield ourselves unto death with Christ; then it becomes a fact in our life and the Holy Spirit makes that which we have reckoned, real in our own experience. There must be a definite planting of the seed in the ground. There must be an actual yielding of the life to be crucified with Christ. There is a moment when we consent to die and pronounce sentence of death upon ourselves, and then God executes it and reckons it to us when we have claimed it for ourselves. Now it is assumed by the apostle that we do this in our baptism. This is the real meaning of baptism in its deepest significance, and it is taken for granted that all who are baptized enter into this experience. The fact is, however, that many do not take in baptism all that it really means and it becomes to them only an acknowledgment of salvation and a confession of Christ for the forgiveness of sins. In the divine plan, sanctification is closely connected with justification and assumed as immediately following it. The fact is that in the Christian life of many persons it comes at a later period. But this is not God’s intention and, therefore, the New Testament assumes that sanctification is to accompany or immediately follow the first action of faith. This is what really did occur with the first disciples on the day of Pentecost. As soon as they had received Jesus, they also received the Holy Spirit, and this should be the experience of all Christians. But with many persons this is not their experience. They are baptized into Christ for the forgiveness of their sins and at a later period they come to receive the Holy Spirit as their Deliverer from indwelling sin. In this chapter, however, it is spoken of as something immediately connected with their baptism and to which that act committed them. In any case, it is a definite act and must have a clearly marked point of time in the experience of every sanctified soul. Beloved, have we thus passed sentence of death upon ourselves? Have we committed ourselves to death with Christ? Have we made that definite and complete surrender which brings to us the power of His death and separates us from our former self? Dead to Sin
8. Through this definite act of committal and the effect of Christ’s death, which it appropriates, we become dead to sin. Now let us understand exactly this Scriptural expression. It is not said that sin is dead—by no means. Sin is very far from dead. It surrounds us on every side like the dark and murky atmosphere, like an overflowing flood. But we are dead to sin. What is dead? Is it a part of us? Is it one of our natures that is dead? Is it some principle in us that is dead? Is it the evil in us that is dead? No, you are dead, the whole of you. The old man as an individual—the person—is as if he were not the same person any more, but had passed out of existence and another person had been born from above and dropped right out of heaven to earth instead. “I have been crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20)—not my sin or my sinful nature, but “I,” the old man, the former individual. Both good and bad have died alike, my strength and my weakness, my sin and my self-sufficiency, my good qualities and my bad; and “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). Reckoning
9. The act of self-surrender must be followed by the attitude of reckoning. Having taken this position, we must adjust ourselves to it and henceforth abide in it. We must not be everlastingly getting crucified over again and going through a continual reconsecration and recrucifixion, but we must count it once for all done and finished, and we must steadily reckon that it is so, in spite of how it might seem. Here is the very crucial point and secret of its power. It is in the reckoning that the secret of our strength will always be found. And so we read: For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 6:9-11) Here it is very plain that the apostle recognized our crucifixion as being as definite and complete as Christ’s, and accepted once for all; that we are not to be always getting crucified, that there is a fatal power in the doubting to bring back the old man to life. Now we are touching here an important and extraordinary principle, both in nature and in grace. We become what we count ourselves. Let even a child begin to consider itself base and wicked and it will soon grow reckless and bad. There is a strange story in modern fiction of a man who lived two lives, one mean and horrible and the other noble and lofty. At certain times a spell was thrown over him and he considered himself another man, and while that consciousness was upon him he acted like this man in every way, and was just as base, sordid and vile as his ideal. He feared this awful influence, and when it came upon him he was filled with horror and dismay and tried in vain to resist it. At other times he counted himself the other man; then he was noble, just the opposite of his former self. “For as [a man] thinketh in his heart so is he” (Proverbs 23:7). The consciousness of guilt degrades a man. The fear of evil paralyzes the soul. The sense of innocency elevates the purpose. Let that woman feel that she is a true wife, and all her womanhood is exalted. But let the thought come into her mind that she is degraded and in a wrong relationship; let her find that she is not a wife, and immediately the consciousness of wrong defiles her and fills her with shame and every temptation of sin. Therefore God has fortified us in our new life by the spirit of faith against the power of evil. He allows us to take a stand in Christ, and then the Holy Spirit makes it an actual experience, and gives us faith to hold fast to it, and abide in the consciousness of it, that it may cleanse and elevate our whole being. “But,” you say, “how can I reckon myself dead, when I find myself continually filled with the old thoughts, suggestions and incitements to sin?” Ah, beloved, it is just here the power of reckoning comes in. When the old self seems to return, refuse to recognize it as yourself, and that attitude will destroy it. When the corpse insists on rising from the grave and thrusting itself upon your consciousness, let the wand of faith wave over it and bid it back to its grave, and it will return to its place in the cemetery of the soul. We know that in modern spiritualism the faces of the dead sometimes seem to return and speak to their friends in living tones, and thousands of the dupes of spiritualism believe that these faces are really alive and represent the fathers, mothers and friends who have died. But we know this is not true. The man who died a year ago is still in his grave, and were you to go out to yonder cemetery you would find his dust. This is a delusion painted by the devil on the mind. Treat it as an illusion and it will vanish; but talk to it, believe it, and it will stay and have the same influence upon you as if the dead man were really before you. So when your old self comes back, if you listen to it, fear it and believe it, it will have the same influence upon you as if it were not dead; it will control you and destroy you. But if you will ignore it and say, “You are not I, but Satan trying to make me believe that the old self is not dead. I refuse you, I treat you as a demon power outside of me, I detach myself from you!” If you treat it as a wife would her divorced husband, saying: “You are nothing to me; you have no power over me. I have renounced you; in the name of Jesus I bid you hence”—lo! the evil things will disappear, the shadow will vanish, the wand of faith will lay the troubled spirit and send it back to the abyss, and you will find that Christ is there instead, with His risen life to back up your confidence and seal your victory. Satan can stand anything better than neglect. If you ignore him he gets disgusted and disappears. Jesus used to turn His back upon him and say, “Get behind me, Satan!” (Matthew 16:23). So let us refuse him, and we shall find that he will be compelled to act according to our faith. In the early annals of the Church, Mr. Jamieson tells us, there was a beautiful Christian girl in Antioch whom a wicked man sought to seduce. For this purpose he employed a magician and sent him to practice upon her mind his devilish arts and throw over her the spell of unholy thoughts and passions. This wicked man himself became enamoured of the fair Christian maiden and, proving false to his employer, tried to win her for himself; and by some diabolical dealing he succeeded in injecting into her mind thoughts, feelings and imaginations to which she was an utter stranger. She found, to her horror, that she was entertaining thoughts and feelings from which her pure inner spirit recoiled but was utterly unable to cast out. Gradually she became discouraged and wondered if her own heart was growing impure under this hideous influence which almost mastered her and made her reckless. At last she went in her distress to her pastor, the good Bishop of Antioch, and told her story. Then he told her this was not her sin at all and explained to her that it was simply a temptation of the evil one; that these feelings were not her own but entirely foreign to her, and that if she so treated them they would have no power over her. He instructed her to refuse them and treat them as the thoughts of Satan or of some other mind, and stand against them in the consciousness of her own purity and innocence. As she did so she found the visions vanished; the Holy Spirit filled her and she rose to a strength she had not known before. Soon the man who had been exercising his vile arts upon her was quite broken down and came to her and confessed his sin and told her that from the moment when she took her new stand that he felt that his power was broken and that a mightier power was crushing him. Beloved, “this is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith” (1 John 5:4). Let us abide in our reckoning and God will make it real. The Life Side
10. But we must not be always dealing with death. Sanctification is not merely the death of the old but the resurrection life of the new. And so we read also, “If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection” (Romans 6:5). “Just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life” (Romans 6:4). “In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:11). The death is for a moment, but the life is forevermore. The death is one act, the life is a perpetual succession of acts and experiences. Some people are always living in the atmosphere of the cemetery, and carrying about with them the smell of the mold. God would have us get through with the death, as Jesus did, and dwell in the life forevermore, “For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him” (Romans 6:9). Just as we have to yield ourselves to the death by a definite act and follow it up by a constant attitude of reckoning, so we must take Christ as our life by a definite appropriation and must retain Him by continual recognition. It is not that we feel ourselves living, because the life is not in our feelings. “For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3). We do not always feel it or say it. We just have it laid up in Him and transferred to us, and we are continually counting upon it and claiming it, going forth in dependence upon it, reckoning upon it as we would draw upon our bank and expect the draft to be honored; and as we do so, we find that the life is supplied to us through Him, and we are enabled to overcome in all the situations of our life. Yield
11. There is yet one more step in this beautiful progression, and that is the habitual yielding of ourselves to God in the new attitude of dependence and obedience. “Offer yourseves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments [or, weapons] of righteousness” (Romans 6:13). Now the yielding spoken of here is not at all the act of surrender by which we consecrate ourselves to God to be sanctified. That is all presupposed as over and past. We have now come into the attitude of death and resurrection. The yielding is subsequent to this and its true consequence. We have become united to Christ in His death and resurrection, and we should now simply act accordingly in all the details of life as they come to us from day to day. As a wife who has been married to her husband now takes a new attitude and yields herself to him in obedience and affection, so we, now standing to Christ in a new relation, habitually, constantly, moment by moment, yield ourselves to Him for each member in detail to be used for His will, service and glory. Now this is not yielding ourselves that we may be crucified, that we may be purified, that we may be chastened, that we may accept the sword which cuts deep into our being; but it is yielding ourselves as those that are already dead—and now alive from the dead—for self-forgetting service and holy obedience. It is a very different thing to yield yourself that you may die, and to yield yourself as one that is alive from the dead. The one is yielding yourself to the surgeon’s knife for the operation, the other is volunteering as a soldier for service and duty. God wants us in the attitude of service, and out of the attitude of self-consciousness. There is nothing more distressing than to be continually watching your sanctification and nursing your spiritual state, or superintending your growth and living in the hospital of an invalid experience. And there is nothing so wholesome as leaving yourself with Christ, pressing on in self-forgetting service to glorify God and save others. The very expression used here, “weapons,” implies the opposite of a subjective state. Our attitude is an aggressive one. We have taken the sword of God into our own believing and consecrated hands, and yielded ourselves unto Him to possess us, fill us and make the best of us. We are going forth at His command, in His will, for His glory, and the very unselfishness of the whole situation has in it the most sanctifying and elevating power. Beloved, so let us die, so let us live, so let us reckon, so let us yield, so let us prove all the fullness of this wonderful divine method of sanctification through death and resurrection by Jesus Christ our Lord.