III. The Believer and the Isolation of the Evil Nature
ONE reads in medical advertisements, of a certain remedy which attacks the common cold germ in four ways. God attacks the sin in the human race in three ways. First, He justifies the believing sinner, that is, He removes the guilt and penalty of the person’s sin, and bestows a positive righteousness, even Jesus Christ Himself, in whom the believer stands guiltless and righteous before God’s law for time and eternity. Second, He sanctifies the person in that He breaks the power of the in-dwelling sinful nature and imparts His divine nature, thus freeing the individual from the power of sin and enabling him to live a life pleasing to God, doing this at the moment the sinner puts his faith in the Lord Jesus as Saviour. This act is followed by a process which goes on during the believer’s life as he yields himself to the ministry of the Holy Spirit, who eliminates sin from his life and produces a life in which the Christian virtues are present. Third, He glorifies the believer in that He transforms his physical body at the time when the Lord Jesus comes back to take out His Church, making that body immortal, perfect, and free from indwelling sin. It is concerning the second of these phases that we wish to speak now.
When the medical profession speaks of a disease germ that has not yet been isolated, it means that that germ has never been identified and thus isolated from those germs which are known. Since that germ has never been identified, medicine has not been able to discover a remedy for it. Once the germ has been isolated, a remedy can usually be found. It is so in the case of the believer. The Christian who has never isolated the evil nature, that is, V 22, p 76 who has not discovered the truth of Romans 6 where God through the apostle Paul describes the inner change which occurs at the moment he is saved, and also the Christian’s adjustment to this inner change, does not have consistent victory over it. But when in the Christian’s thinking, this matter is cleared up and this nature isolated, he has the remedy which will enable him to gain consistent victory over sin in his life.
The Scriptures are very clear as to the identity of the evil nature which indwells an individual as he is born into this world. One only has to glance at such portions as the following, in order to appraise the character of this sinful nature: “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5): “There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; their feet are swift to shed blood; destruction and misery are in their ways; and the way of peace have they not known; there is no fear of God before their eyes” (Rom. 3:9–18): “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings” (Gal. 5:19–21). The Bible has thus isolated the germ called sin, identifying it as the fallen nature received from Adam. This nature remains in the individual even after God has saved him, as we learn from I John 1:8, “If we up and say that we are not constantly having sin (the evil nature), ourselves we are deceiving, and the truth is not in us.” God, in salvation breaks the power of this sinful nature over the believer, but leaves it in him as a disciplinary measure. When the believer refuses its behests, and says a point blank NO to it, he glorifies God, defeats Satan, and grows in spiritual strength and stature. If the believer expects to gain consistent victory over this nature, he must know two things: V 22, p 77 first, what God has done in his inner being with regard to that nature; and second, what adjustments it is necessary for him to make in relation to it. These two things Paul takes up in Romans 6.
Paul’s presentation consists of two questions and their answers The two questions are as follows: “What therefore shall we say? Shall we who profess to be Christians, continue to sustain habitually the same relationship to the evil nature which we sustained before we were saved, in order that God’s grace might abound in thus forgiving our sins?” (Rom. 6:1): “What then? Shall we commit occasional acts of sin because we are not under the uncompromising rule of law, but under the lenient sceptre of grace?” (Rom. 6:14). The above consists of translation plus paraphrase. Neither of these questions ever occurred to Paul, for he knew grace. They were asked him by some person who had listened to the great apostle preach on grace, a person who did not understand the implications of God’s grace, but who lived under law. Paul answers the first question in verses 2–14, by showing that it is a mechanical impossibility for the believer to sustain the same relationship habitually to the evil nature which he sustained before he was saved. He answers the second question by showing that the believing sinner has changed masters, before salvation, having Satan as his master, and since grace has wrought an inward change, having God as his master.
The key to the understanding of Romans 6 is in the definite article which precedes the word “sin” of verse one in the Greek text. A rule of Greek syntax refers the sin mentioned in this verse back to the sin mentioned in 5:21. In the latter verse, sin is looked upon as reigning as a king, and it is clear that the reference here is to the sinful nature, not to acts of sin. Thus, the sinful nature is spoken of in 6:1 and throughout the chapter where that word occurs. When Paul says, “What shall we say then?” he refers back to his statement in 5:20, “Where sin abounded, grace was in superabundance, and then some on top of that.” Paul’s questioner had listened to him preach on that text and had approached him as follows: “Paul, do you mean to say that God is willing to forgive sin as fast as a man commits it? If that V 22, p 78 is the case, shall we who profess to be Christians, continue to sustain the same relationship to the evil nature which we did before we were saved, thus allowing acts of sin to enter our experience, thus allowing God to forgive those sins and display His grace?” The question thus simmers down to the relationship of the sinful nature to the Christian.
Paul’s first answer is, “God forbid, away with the thought, let not such a thing occur.” His second answer is, “How is it possible for such as we who have once for all been separated from the power of the sinful nature, to live any longer in its grip?” Paul speaks of the Christian as being dead to sin (A.V.) Death is not extinction but separation. The Christian has died to sin in the sense that God in supernatural grace, while leaving the sinful nature in the believer, has separated him from it. There has been a definite cleavage, a disengagement of the person from the evil nature. The evil nature is a dethroned monarch. Before salvation, it was the master of the individual. Since salvation, the believer is its master. When the believer begins to see this truth, he has isolated the nature, identified it in its proper character, and has within his grasp the remedy for it. It is the unknown and unseen enemy which is hard to fight. The Christian who has not isolated the evil nature, fights sin in the dark, and ignorant of the fact that the sinful nature is no longer his master, continues to obey it more or less because he has no knowledge of how to gain victory over it. We have here the emancipation proclamation issued by God in which the Christian has been released from slavery to the evil nature, but like many slaves after the Civil War, who were ignorant of Abraham Lincoln’s emancipation proclamation, and who continued in the service of the slave-master, so Christians who are ignorant of Romans 6 continue to be slaves of the indwelling sinful nature to the extent that they are not gaining consistent victory over sin.
Paul was in this very situation before he came to know the truth of Romans 6. He says, “I am carnal, sold under sin, for that which I do, I do not understand, for what I would, that I do not, but what I hate, that I do” (Rom. 7:14, 15). Paul knew he was saved, but he did not understand his Christian experience. V 22, p 79 The very thing he wished to do, namely, good, he did not do, and the very thing he did not want to do, namely, sin, he did do. He was struggling in his own strength to keep from sinning and to do what was right. He found that human endeavor was not equal to the task. Many Christians are in a like situation. The truth in Romans 6 enables the believer to gain consistent victory over the indwelling sinful nature. The first fact that Paul brings out is that the sinful nature has had its power over the believer broken. The believer before salvation was absolutely the slave of the evil nature. But since grace has separated him from its power, he does not need to obey it. When he learns this, he learns that he has the power to say a point blank NO to it. This is one great step in the battle which he wages against indwelling sin. And the beautiful thing about it all is that the more he says NO to it, the easier it is to withstand it, until it becomes a habit with him to say NO to its behests. Thus, it is a matter of breaking the bad habit of saying YES to the evil nature and forming the good habit of saying NO.
In addition to breaking the power of the evil nature, God imparts His own divine nature to us. We have this truth given us in Paul’s words in verse 4, “Even so we also should order our behavior in the power of a new life imparted.” This new nature gives the Christian both the desire and the power to do God’s will, and the desire and the power to refuse to obey the evil nature. Paul gives us this precious truth again in Philippians 2:12, 13, “Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only but now much more in my absence, carry to its ultimate conclusion your salvation with fear and trembling, for God is the One who is constantly putting forth energy in you, imparting to you both the willingness and the ability to do His good pleasure.” Since the Christian does not have to obey the evil nature, and since he has the desire to obey God, Paul says it is a mechanical impossibility for him to sustain habitually the same relationship to the evil nature which he did before salvation. This means that he gains consistent victory over sin. And the beautiful thing about it all again is, that the more often the Christian says YES to the admonitions and commands of the divine nature, the V 22, p 80 easier it becomes to say YES, until it becomes a habit to do so. Thus, the Christian life is also a matter of forming the good habit of obeying the Word of God.
These two supernatural changes wrought in the inner being of the believing sinner at the moment he puts his faith in the Lord Jesus, namely, the breaking of the power of indwelling sin and the imparting of the divine nature, were accomplished, Paul tells us, by the believing sinner being baptized into Jesus Christ. The law of cause and effect requires that every effect must have an adequate cause. Since the breaking of the power of indwelling sin and the impartation of the divine nature are operations which only God can perform, this baptism must be, not water baptism, but Holy Spirit baptism. The word “baptize” is the, English spelling of the Greek word, not its translation. The Greek word itself means “the introduction or placing of a person or thing into a new environment or into union with something else so as to alter Its condition or its relationship to its previous environment or condition.” It refers here to the act of the Holy Spirit introducing or placing the believing sinner into vital union with Jesus Christ in order to alter that person’s condition and environment. Before salvation, the sinner stands in the First Adam as his federal head. In that position, he receives the position which the First Adam had as the result of the fall, namely, guilty before God’s law, possessing a fallen nature, and unrighteous in his thoughts, words, and deeds. His physical body becomes subject to death. But all this is changed when the Holy Spirit takes him out of his first position, and places him in the Last Adam, Jesus Christ. The result is that this believing sinner stands in his new federal Head, absolutely righteous before God’s law, the power of indwelling sin broken, and the divine nature imparted. What a contrast this environment and condition is to the previous one he occupied. This introduction into Jesus Christ occurred potentially in the mind and purpose of God at the time the Lord Jesus hung on the Cross of Calvary, the results of which become operative in the life of the believing sinner when he places his faith in Jesus as Saviour, and the Holy Spirit in answer to his faith, places him in the Lord Jesus. V 22, p 81
Paul has answered his hearer’s question, namely, “Shall we who profess to be Christians, continually sustain the same relationship to the sinful nature which we had before we were saved?” He declares that to be an impossibility, and for the reason that the power of the sinful nature has been broken and the divine nature imparted. As a result of the first operation of God’s supernatural power, the believing sinner is not compelled to obey the evil nature anymore. As a result of the second operation, he does not desire to obey that nature anymore. When a person does not have to do something that he does not want to do, he does not do it. Furthermore, the imparted divine nature makes the Christian hate sin and love righteousness, and gives him both the desire and the power to say NO to that nature which before salvation enslaved him. The divine nature also gives the Christian the impelling motive and the power to do God’s will. Thus, it is mechanically impossible for a Christian to live a life of habitual sin as he did before he was saved.
We now offer an expanded translation plus paraphrase of Romans 6:1–4 which we have been treating. The reader should know that the author has left behind in his workshop, the intricate technicalities of Greek grammar and syntax, and has offered his reader the results of his study of the Greek text in a translation that uses more words than a standard translation in order to bring out more truth, and has added explanatory paraphrase, doing all this in an effort to bring out the truth most clearly and most simply.
Translation and paraphrase: What therefore shall we say? Shall we who profess to be Christians, continue to sustain habitually the same relationship to the evil nature which we did before we were saved, in order that this aforementioned grace might abound? Let not such a thing take place. How is it possible for such as we who were once for all separated from the indwelling sinful nature, any longer to live in its grip? Or, are you ignorant that we who were introduced into vital union with Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit, into a participation in his death were introduced? Therefore, we were entombed with Him through this aforementioned introduction into His death, in order that, just as V 22, p 82 there was raised up Christ out from among the dead through the glory of the Father, thus also we in the energy of a new life imparted might order our behavior.
Paul is a master teacher. In verses 1–4 he has brought to the reader two outstanding facts, namely, that the power of indwelling sin was broken and the divine nature implanted in the believing sinner at the moment God saved him, with the result that he is free from the sinful nature and its power, with the obligation to remain free from it, and that at the same time the divine nature was implanted with the result that he was given both the desire and the power to do God’s will. These two propositions, the inspired apostle repeats in slightly different language in verses 5–10. He says, “For in view of the fact that we are become those united with Him with respect to the likeness of His death, certainly also we shall be those united with Him with respect to the likeness of His resurrection.” The future here is the future of logical result. Paul is not here speaking of the future physical resurrection of the believer, but of his past spiritual resurrection when he placed his faith in the Saviour. The believing sinner’s identification with Christ in His death, breaks the power of the indwelling sinful nature. His identification with the Lord Jesus in His resurrection, imparts the divine nature. This results in what Paul tells us in verse 6, the expanded translation and paraphrase of which is as follows: Knowing this, that our old, decrepit, outworn, useless self, that person we were before we were saved, was crucified with Him, in order that the physical body which at that time was dominated by the sinful nature, might be rendered inoperative in that respect, to the end that we are no longer rendering an habitual slave’s obedience to the sinful nature, for the one who has been once for all separated from the sinful nature, stands in a permanent relationship of freedom from it.
Let us use a rather simple and homely illustration to make this clear. It is that of a machine shop, in which there is a turning lathe operated by means of a belt which is attached to a revolving wheel in the ceiling of the room. When the workman wishes to render the lathe inoperative, in other words, wishes to stop it, he takes a pole and slides the belt off from the wheel, thus disengaging V 22, p 83 the turning lathe from the revolving wheel which heretofore had driven it. That turning lathe is like the human body of the sinner, and the revolving wheel in the ceiling, like the evil nature. As the wheel in the ceiling makes the turning lathe go round, so the sinful nature controls the body of the sinner. And as the machinist renders the lathe inoperative by slipping off the belt which connected it with the wheel, so God in salvation slips the belt, so to speak, off from the sinful nature which connected it with the physical body of the believer, thus rendering that body inoperative so far as any control which that nature might have over the believer, is concerned.
The Christian is exhorted to maintain that relationship of disconnection which God has brought about between him and the indwelling sinful nature. However, God has not taken away the Christian’s free will, and does not treat him as a machine. It is possible for the Christian by an act of his will to slip the belt back on, connecting himself with the evil nature, thus bringing sin into his life. But, he is not able to do this habitually, and for various reasons. In the first place, it is not the Christian’s nature to sin. He has been made a partaker of the divine nature which impels him to hate sin and to love holiness. In the second place, the minute a Christian sins, the Holy Spirit is grieved, and that makes the believer decidely uncomfortable, spiritually. God also sends suffering and chastening into his life as a curb to sin. All these things taken together, preclude any possibility of the Christian taking advantage of divine grace. Thus, Paul has answered his hearer’s question again, namely, that the believing sinner’s death with Christ has disengaged that person from any connection with his indwelling sinful nature, resulting in that person’s body being rendered inoperative so far as any control which the evil nature might exercise over it, is concerned. And he finishes the demonstration by saying, Now, since we died once for all with Christ, we believe that we will also live by means of Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised out from among the dead, no longer dies. Death over Him no longer exercises lordship, for the death which He died, to the aforementioned sin He V 22, p 84 died once for all, but the life which He lives, He lives with respect to God.
Now, to return to our illustration. The better machine shops no longer operate their machinery by means of a ceiling wheel, but by an individual electric motor installed beneath each machine, thus introducing a new source of power. Just so, God, when He saves a sinner, installs a new source of power, the divine nature. Before salvation, the sinner lived his life in the energy of the evil nature. After salvation has wrought its work in him, he has had the power of that nature broken, and he has at his disposal a new source of energy, the divine nature. The evil nature produced sin in his life. The divine nature produces righteousness. But here our illustration breaks down. No illustration is ever expected to walk on all fours, for the material or human can never perfectly illustrate the spiritual. However, like a dog on three legs, it gets there just the same.
The owner of a machine shop, when installing the electric motor, removes the ceiling wheels and does not use them anymore. He has a superior and more economical arrangement. But God, when He imparts the divine nature, leaves the evil nature in the believer, however, with its power over the individual broken, and for the reasons mentioned above. Hence, the Christian, being a free moral agent, having his will set absolutely free, must choose between living his life in the energy of the evil nature or in the power of the divine nature. He is not a machine, geared to the divine nature in such a way that he must live his life in its energy whether he wills it or no. His will is poised between the two, and he has the responsibility of refusing the behests of the evil nature, and obeying the urgings of the divine nature. The Christian never acts alone. He acts and speaks in the energy of the evil nature or in the power of the divine nature. The responsibility of the Christian in relation to these two natures, Paul takes up in 6:11–14.
And now to use another illustration. Here is Mr. Nomechanic. He is no mechanic. He does not know the first thing about machinery. He purchases a fine automobile, receives instructions how to operate it, and drives off. After a few months, he notices V 22, p 85 that the engine becomes overheated easily, stalls in traffic, and misses as he climbs hills. He takes the car back to the dealer, complaining that it is not working well, although it is a new automobile. The dealer asks him how often he has the car serviced, and discovers that the owner has never had a mechanic adjust the engine, brakes, and other mechanical parts. The car ran, but the owner did not obtain the most efficient service from it because he did not have it oiled and greased at regular intervals.
When God installs the divine nature in the inner being of a believing sinner, that nature operates, and produces the Christian graces in the life of the person. There is always a change for the better in the life of the person who receives the Lord Jesus as Saviour. And that change can only be accounted for by the fact that God has imparted His divine nature to the individual, at the same time breaking the power of the indwelling sinful nature. This shows clearly that there is an actual change in the inner spiritual being of the sinner whom God saves. But the point is, that the divine nature does not work at its highest efficiency in the life of the believer unless that person adjusts himself to it, unless he does something about it. That new nature is not a perpetual motion machine grinding out a Christian life in the person, irrespective of what that individual does. Like the owner of the automobile, who obtained the best results from his car after he had it serviced regularly, so the Christian can only expect to have the divine nature operate at its peak efficiency when he is properly adjusted to it. It is concerning this adjustment that we will now speak.
The first adjustment, Paul says, the believer should make, is to reckon himself dead to sin and alive to God. That is, he is to reckon or count upon the fact that the power of the indwelling sinful nature is broken and the divine nature is implanted. The Greek word translated “reckon” is logizomai (λογιζομαι). We get our word “logic” from it. The word means “to reckon, compute, calculate, to take into account, to make account of.” Now, to count upon the fact that the power of the sinful nature is broken and the divine nature implanted, does not make those things so. Those facts are true, whether the believer counts upon their actuality or not. But living one’s life on the basis of or in consideration of V 22, p 86 those facts results in their beneficial results in the life. Likewise, when the believer does not take these facts into account, disastrous results follow.
Now, to use another homely illustration. There is a party game in which a blindfolded person is brought into the room, and made to stand on a table board which rests on some books on the floor. Two young men lift the board about a foot, and warn the young man not to bump his head against the ceiling. Thinking that he is near the ceiling, he loses his balance and falls off. He lost his balance and fell because he reckoned himself where he was not. Just so, a Christian who fails to count upon the fact that the power of the sinful nature is broken in his life, fails to get consistent victory over it, with the result that he lives a mediocre Christian life. He reckoned himself where he was not.
Another young man is blindfolded and stood on the board. He knows the game. When the board is lifted and he is warned not to bump his head against the ceiling, he remains perfectly straight and maintains his equilibrium, because he reckoned himself where he was. And so it is with a Christian who counts upon the fact that the power of the sinful nature is broken. He knows that he does not have to obey it, and that he has the power to say NO to it, and he turns his back on it and does what is right.
And so it is with the Christian who does not count upon the fact that the divine nature is implanted in his inner being. He goes on living his Christian life as best he can in the energy of his own strength, with the result that he exhibits an imitation Christian experience, not the genuine thing. But the believer who counts upon the fact that he is a possessor of the divine nature, ceases from his own struggles at living a Christian life, and avails himself of the power of God supplied in the divine nature. So the first adjustment the Christian should make is that of counting upon the fact that the power of the indwelling sinful nature is broken and the divine nature imparted, and order his life on that principle.
When he does this, he will be obeying Paul’s instructions in verses 12 and 13. The first one is, “Stop allowing the sinful nature to reign as king in your mortal body, with a view to V 22, p 87 obeying its (the body’s) cravings.” We have offered the translation and paraphrase without troubling the reader with all the technicalities of the Greek grammar and syntax involved. Before salvation had wrought its inner work in the believer, he as an unsaved person, was the slave of his indwelling sinful nature. That nature reigned as king in his life. Now, Paul says, after the person is saved, he is to stop allowing this evil nature to lord it over him. The very fact that Paul commands such an action, tells us that the believer is able to obey it. The shackles which had heretofore bound him to it, have now been stricken off. The connecting belt has been shunted off. His will is absolutely free. He has the ability to say a point blank NO to this fallen nature. And, yielded to the divine nature, he has the desire and power to do so. His will in itself does not give him the desire nor power to refuse to obey the behests of that nature. His will is free, unshackled, and in a position to say NO to the sinful nature. But the desire to say NO, and the ability to put that NO into action, are derived from the divine nature. Therefore, the believer’s responsibility is to keep himself living habitually in the control of the new nature. This involves a constant attitude of opposition to the evil nature and a constant dependence upon and yieldedness to the divine nature.
The Greek grammar involved makes it absolutely sure that the cravings (lusts) spoken of here refer to those of the human body, not those of the evil nature. While these cravings find their source in that nature, yet Paul refers them to the body, and for the following reason. The evil nature is an unseen, intangible thing, very real, but not visible. Consequently, to keep a sharp lookout for the cravings that issue from it would be like fighting an enemy in the dark. But to watch the cravings of the human body, is practical and has promise of success. For instance, the Christian should watch what his eyes look at, his ears hear, and his tongue speaks, where his feet carry him, and what his hands do. The cravings of the members of his body are the things to be carefully scrutinized and weighed. Those cravings which bear the stamp and impress of the evil nature are not to be satisfied. The technique is to count upon the fact that the power of the V 22, p 88 evil nature has been broken, that it is a dethroned king, and say a point blank NO to it. As the Christian makes a practice of this, he finds how easy it really becomes to say No, until it becomes so habitual that the action becomes automatic. It is like turning off the radio. The Christian has the same power over the evil nature that he has over his radio. When an undesirable program suddenly comes in, he can turn the radio off and say, “There you are. You are not my master. I am yours. You cannot bring that evil trash into my life.” The believer can learn to treat the evil nature the same way. One must treat it rough. When the Christian comes to believe what God has said about the fact that the power of the evil nature over him is broken, and that instead of being his master, the believer is its master, he will act upon this truth, and find how easy it is to give the evil nature, in the language of today, the brush-off. He turns a cold shoulder to it. Our blessed Lord did not gain the victory over Satan in the wilderness by merely quoting Scripture to him. He gained the victory by having obeyed that Scripture He quoted all down the years of His life, so that when the temptation came, He had reserves of spiritual strength stored up in His inner spiritual being by means of which He said a point blank NO to the devil. The Christian life can become just that way. While never free from temptation nor the onslaught of Satan, yet the believer can move through life like a ship on an even keel, riding out the storms of temptation because he has reserves of power that will enable him to plow through heavy seas without being tossed about by them. What a gyroscope is to a ship, so these reserves of spiritual power are to a Christian.
When the believer counts upon the fact that the power of the indwelling sinful nature is broken, and operates his life on that principle, he stops allowing that nature to reign as a king in his life. But he does something else. He obeys Paul’s admonition, “Stop putting your members as weapons of unrighteousness at the service of the sinful nature.” He not only refuses obedience to its sinful behests, but he refuses to put his eyes, ears, tongue, mind, hands, and feet at its service, in order that the fallen nature might use these as weapons of unrighteousness in the battle of Satan V 22, p 89 against God. The Christian is in a warfare. Paul sees him as a soldier of Jesus Christ fighting in the armies of righteousness. When the Christian puts his members at the service of the sinful nature, he is guilty of high treason, fighting against his own Captain, the Lord Jesus.
Instead of putting his members at the service of the indwelling sinful nature, the believer is exhorted by Paul as follows: “But put yourselves once for all at the service of God, as those who are living ones out from among the dead, and your members, put them once for all at the service of God as weapons of righteousness.” It is a matter of substitution. To keep from putting our members at the service of the sinful nature, we should refuse to do so, and at the same time put them at the service of God by yielding them by a once for all act to God. When the second act becomes automatic, that is, when an habitual yielding to the divine nature becomes so ingrained in our being that it is easier for us to yield to it than to the evil nature, the Christian has come into what is called the victorious life. And that is what Paul is talking about when he says, “For (then) the evil nature shall not lord it over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” But why is this so? What is there in the fact that a Christian is not under law but under grace, that gives him victory over the evil nature? The answer is found in the following bit of verse.
“Do this and live, the law commands,
But gives me neither feet nor hands.
A better word the gospel brings,
It bids me fly, and gives me wings.”
Law neither gives the desire nor the power to do God’s will. Grace sweetly exhorts and gives both the desire and the power to do His good pleasure. The Christian therefore has God’s guarantee that if he obeys the instructions for victory over sin and for the living of a Christian life found in Romans 6:1–13, the indwelling sinful nature will not exercise autocratic control over his life. V 22, p 90
Paul has answered his listener’s first question, namely, “Shall we who profess to be Christians, continue habitually to sustain the same relationship to the totally depraved nature that we did before we were saved in order that grace may abound?” He showed that it was a mechanical impossibility to do so, inasmuch that God broke the power of the indwelling sinful nature and implanted the divine nature. Since the power of the evil nature is broken, the believer does not have to sin, and since the divine nature is implanted, he does not want to sin, and has both the desire and the power to live a life pleasing to God. Paul has shown his questioner that it is impossible for a Christian to live a life of habitual sin. Now, the person who asked the first question, asks another. It is this. “What then? Shall we sin once in awhile, since we are not under law but under grace?” That is, if grace makes it impossible for a Christian to sin habitually as he did before he was saved, will not grace permit him to sin once in awhile? Of course, the person who asked this question did not understand grace. Arthur S. Way, in his excellent translation of the Pauline epistles, has read this person’s mind well. He translates and paraphrases; “ ‘Ah then’, my opponents will cry, ‘we may safely sin, since we are not under the uncompromising rule of the law, but under the lenient sceptre of grace.’ ” The person was right in saying that law is uncompromising, but wrong when he thinks that grace is lenient with a Christian, and will allow a life of planned, occasional sin.
Grace is stricter than law ever was. When God abrogated the Old Testament law, He brought in a far more efficient deterrent to evil when He sent the Holy Spirit to indwell Christians. While law can only take notice of general rules of human behavior, the Holy Spirit notices the slightest sin and deals with the details of particular sins in the believer’s life. A few motorcycle policemen with their motors tuned up, are a far better deterrent to speeding than a placard placed along the road giving the speed limit. The Holy Spirit is grieved at the slightest sin in the Christian’s life, and turns from His work of causing that believer to grow in grace to that of convicting that person of his sin. Grace V 22, p 91 expects the highest type of Christian life. It gives both the desire and the power for that life. If it is not forthcoming, grace chastens the Christian and makes it so uncomfortable for that person, that he forsakes his sin, confesses it, and is restored to fellowship with his Lord and Saviour.
In answering the question, namely, “What then. Shall we who profess to be Christians, live a life of planned, occasional sin, because we are not under the uncompromising rule of law but under the lenient scepter of grace?” Paul says: Do you not know that to the one to whom you put yourselves at the service of as slaves resulting in obedience, slaves you are to the one to whom you are rendering obedience, whether it be slaves of the evil nature resulting in death, or obedient slaves resulting in righteousness? But thanks be to God, that whereas you were at one time slaves of the evil nature, now you obeyed out from the heart a type of teaching to which you were handed over. And having been liberated from the evil nature, you became slaves of righteousness. I am using human terminology because of the limitations of your human nature, for, just as you put your members as slaves at the service of uncleanness and lawlessness resulting in lawlessness, thus now, put your members once for all as slaves at the service of righteousness resulting in holiness. For when you were slaves of the evil nature, you were those who were free with respect to righteousness. Therefore, what fruit were you having then, of which now you are ashamed? For the consummation of those things is death. But now, having been set free from the evil nature, and having become slaves to God, you are having your fruit resulting in holiness, and the consummation, life eternal. For the pay which the evil nature doles out is death. But the gratuitous gift of God is life eternal which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (translation and paraphrase, Rom. 6:16–23).
The key to the understanding of Paul’s answer is in the various meanings of the Greek word translated “servants.” The word is doulos (δουλος). We will follow Paul’s argument as we look at these meanings. The question he is answering is as to whether God’s grace allows for a life of planned, occasional sin. The word V 22, p 92 speaks of one who is born into a condition of slavery. The Greeks had a word for a free man captured in war and made a slave. But this word (doulos (δουλος)) refers to one who has by birth inherited his position and condition of slavery. When Adam fell, he contracted an evil nature which has been passed on to the human race because he is its federal head. This fallen nature has been handed down by birth to every individual human being. That is what David meant when he said, “In sin did my mother conceive me” (Psalm 51:5). Thus, by human birth a person receives a nature that makes him a sinful creature with sinful desires, incapable of anything else except sinful acts. He loves sin because he has a nature which causes him to do so. That is the condition of the unsaved person. But in the believer, the power of this evil nature has been broken, and it is no longer the nature of that individual to love sin. Instead, he hates it. The divine nature has been implanted, which nature gives him the desire and the power to do God’s will. He loves righteousness now. It is his nature to do what is right. The Christian has changed masters because he has changed natures. How ridiculous, Paul says, it is to ask such a question as to whether a Christian may live a life of planned, occasional sin. In view of these tremendous inner changes, he is not the slave of sin anymore, but the loving bondslave of God. He does not have to sin anymore, and he does not want to sin. It is his nature to do what is right.
The word refers to one who is bound to another in bands so strong that only death can break them. Before salvation wrought its supernatural work in the believer, he was bound to Satan in a bond so strong that only death could break it. That bond was a common nature, totally depraved. He loved what the devil loves, namely, sin, and hated what the devil hates, namely, righteousness. His identification with the Lord Jesus in His death broke the bands which had bound him to Satan as his slave, and his identification with Him in His resurrection, resulted in the impartation of the divine nature. Now it is the believer’s nature to hate sin and to do God’s will. But to live a life of planned, occasional sin demands that the believer possess the totally V 22, p 93 depraved nature as his own nature, and that that nature reign as king in his life. But that is an impossibility, for he is now the willing love-slave of the Lord Jesus, possessing the divine nature as the governing nature in his inner being. And as such he is bound to his new Master in hands which only death can break. And since Christ is his life (Col. 3:4), and Christ never dies, he will never die and be separated from Christ, to lose his divine nature and receive again the evil nature, which latter nature could be the only thing that would give him the desire to live a life of planned, occasional sin.
The word doulos (δουλος) means “one whose will is swallowed up in the will of another.” Before salvation, the individual’s will is swallowed up in the will of Satan. After salvation, his will is swallowed up in the sweet will of God. Paul argues that since the believer’s will is swallowed up in the sweet will of God, that that would preclude any life of planned, occasional sin.
The word means “one who serves another to the disregard of his own interests.” Before salvation, the person serves the devil to the disregard of his own interests. He keeps on in sin no matter how grievous the consequences. After salvation, the properly taught, Spirit-filled believer, serves the Lord Jesus with an utter abandon that says, “Nothing matters about me, as long as the Lord Jesus is glorified.” Do you think, Paul argues, that such a person who loves and serves the Lord Jesus that way, would ever think of living a life of planned, occasional sin?
And so, Paul has answered the person’s second question, “Shall we who profess to be Christians, live a life of planned, occasional sin because we are not under law but under grace?” by showing that when the sinner is saved, he changes masters, and by reason of the fact that he has changed natures. It is the nature which determines what master the individual serves.
This finishes our discussion of the subject, “The Believer and the Isolation of the Evil Nature.” There is one more thing to be said, however. The divine nature is not the only spiritual source of power indwelling the believer which he has at his disposal. In this Age of Grace, the Holy Spirit has come to take up His permanent residence in him for the purpose of causing him to V 22, p 94 grow in the Christian life, enabling him to gain consistent victory over sin and live a life pleasing to God. The reader is urged to add to his knowledge of the divine provision for living the victorious life, and thus come to live a life on the highest Christian plane, by studying the author’s work on the ministry of the Holy Spirit, in Untranslatable Riches from the Greek New Testament.
Kenneth S. Wuest, Wuest’s Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: For the English Reader, vol. 22 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 75–94.
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