CHAPTER 8
Verse 1 “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”
It is now true, from the spiritual standpoint, that there is nothing to condemn in those who are in Christ Jesus. The true response of a believer to God is based upon such knowledge. Now everything depends upon the work of Christ for the position into which His work sets the believer before God. God sees nothing to condemn in us. Paul is now presenting the positive spiritual conclusion which he had arrived at from his experience as set forth in chapter 7. This is the present answer which he found to his cry for deliverance. It is applicable to all who are in Christ Jesus.
The law of sin operates in our members. We have the body of this death at a natural level. This is true humanity as to our present experience in secular life. It is however not true spiritually. In God’s sight there is nothing to condemn us. We are alive in Christ in a spiritually perfect life. So also we must see ourselves; as God sees us, if we are to be profitable to divine purpose. We are in Christ Jesus, alive in this Man who has already entered into glory.
The latter half of the verse in the Authorised Version is excluded in later translations as it has no reliable basis.
Verse 2 “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”
In this spiritual position a new law operates. Paul describes it as the law of the Spirit of the life in Christ Jesus. In fact two laws are described in the first three verses:
a. The law of the Spirit of the new life
b. The law of the sin and the death, the law given by Moses literally interpreted.
For spiritual progress, it is crucial to realise and accept how these laws operate in the present stage of the outworking of divine purpose. The primary law is that of the Spirit of the new life. This is the law of God as in the previous chapter. It is the law which characterises our present service and governs the new life which Paul realised he possessed in Christ Jesus.
This chapter is particularly concerned with presenting the Holy Spirit and His present work by which divine purpose is now being realised. First, the Spirit produces new life in us. It is in this life alone that we live toward God for the sake of His eternal purpose. The Holy Spirit has for this become the Spirit of the life in Christ Jesus. He works in us according to this new law which makes us free from the law of sin. The Holy Spirit governed the life and work of the Lord Jesus in His life in the flesh, as in chapter 1:4. He was God in flesh and yet acted spiritually in the work He did under the governing influence of the Holy Spirit. We now possess His life and are governed by it by the law of the Spirit also.
Paul came to realise that this divine law freed him spiritually from life and service toward God in the flesh. He possessed and served God in a life which comprehended revealed, eternal truth by the Holy Spirit. Thereby he came to understand the law spiritually, for the law is spiritual and not natural in its interpretation. He comprehended the law godwardly and not manwardly. This freed Paul from the law of the sin and the death. Previously he had served God in the flesh, interpreting the law literally and in a naturalistic way, applying it to secular life and its works in the present world. Such life and service was spiritual failure and resulted in spiritual death. Divine purpose is not furthered by fleshly obedience to the letter. The new man in Christ is freed from such an interpretation of the law to serve in Spirit and in Truth.
Verse 3 “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.”
What the law, as Paul previously understood and interpreted it, could not do, God has done in Christ. The letter of the law was given to man in the flesh. This could not result in the outworking of divine purpose by natural power, no matter how devoted this became to the law conceived of as a fleshly ethic. The law was weak through the flesh. First that which is natural and afterward that which is spiritual, as in 1 Cor.15:46. The law of God was given to man in the flesh in the form of the letter. This did not by itself result in the coming of spiritual, eternal perfection. Ordinary human nature is weak in relation to ultimate eternal issues. The giving of the law to man in the flesh was intended by God to manifest this weakness. Yet it was also intended to lead to something better and more positive.
This was accomplished by God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. The letter of the law was really given to man so that Christ might come to obey and perfect it in the flesh. In the christian system we look back upon the fact that God sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. The Christ whom we own and obey was the Son of God sent by the Father into nature, into a form of the fleshly humanity which had received the letter of the law. He was sent in the likeness of sinful flesh and not in sinful flesh. He partook of human nature, sin apart. He subjected Himself at His coming to the limitations associated with being alive in the world in human likeness. He identified Himself, at the behest of the Father, with the humanity which had received the law and was found in spiritual failure in relation to it. Thereby He was responsible for perfecting the purpose for which God had given the law to man. In the case of Adam’s seed it had been the law of sin and death.
God has performed the eternal purpose for which He gave the law by the life and service of the Christ in the days of His flesh and by His dying in the flesh as a sacrifice for sin. He lived a life of holiness under the law and so justified and glorified God for giving the law to man. His life in flesh is a condemnation of sinful flesh. His perfection in flesh qualified Him to be the sacrifice of God for man in spiritual failure. He did not merely come to exemplify the perfections made possible by the giving of the law in an exemplary way. He died to the fleshly life in which He was uniquely spiritually perfect and did so for sin.
God has condemned the sin in the flesh. The sin in the flesh is the failure of man to effect the eternal purpose for which God gave the law. The success of Christ under the law is God’s condemnation of the sinful nature of every other man. Yet this work of Christ was for sin rather than for the sin. God has dealt with man’s sinful nature by sending His Son.
Verse 4 “That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”
By living in this life and being governed by the law of the Spirit, the righteous requirements of the law are fulfilled (aorist) in us rather than by us. Everything in Christianity is characterised by these two basic spiritual facts. We live in a new nature in which we know the law to be spiritual and the things of God to be spiritually discerned. By nature, the new nature, and in divine power, that of the Spirit, we live in the very life which in Christ did the work required by the law of Moses. We are delivered by God through the work of His Son, which is made effective in us by the Spirit. This is the basic condition and position from which the eternal power of God operates in us by the gospel. We have been set there by the operation of the three Persons of the Godhead. By divine work there is in us a nature which fulfils that which the law requires. The fulfilment is an accomplished act rather than a continuous process. It is what God has done in us and not, first of all, what we do for God. We must understand this basic situation if we are henceforth to be eternally purposeful to God.
Paul then characterises us, including himself, as being those who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. The Spirit has acted to free us. Then, ideally, He continues to act to lead us. In this position we enjoy – and from which we should proceed to serve God’s eternal purpose – a negative and positive way of acting is presented to us. The issue is how the law of the Spirit of the life in Christ Jesus in us continues to operate to make us walk before God in eternal service. A believer may be either carnal or spiritual in his subsequent response to God after having been brought into a condition and position of ‘no condemnation’ in Christ.
If we walk after the flesh as a way of responding to God we will not be walking in the nature by which the righteous requirements of the law are fulfilled in us. The flesh in Scripture means ordinary human nature. If we walk according to the letter of the law as if we still lived toward God in flesh, we shall fail spiritually.
Verse 5 “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.”
Paul uses the word ‘for’ frequently in this chapter, setting forth the implications of the christian position. They that are after the flesh presents believers in the carnal state which Paul had described in chapter 7:14. A believer is not ‘in’ the flesh but may walk ‘after’ it. The spiritual character and activity of those who are after the flesh is that they mind the things of the flesh. This is a believer who interprets the law literally and applies it to secular life in the world. The letter is natural but the eternal truth which it contains is spiritual. Those who respond to God in natural things and issues have their mind upon the flesh. In divine service they are obsessed with it.
They that are after the Spirit are those who have understood that to God they are alive in the new life produced by the Spirit in them. They respond to God accordingly. The Holy Spirit has things which He presents to us in the new spiritual realm. Those who are after the Spirit live and act godwardly entirely in a life which is capable of appreciating the things of the Spirit. This is the truth in its inward parts. The law is really the rule which governs the new life and its service to God. It is our true function and service to God in Christianity to mind the things of the Spirit. In our day we have a completed revelation of God, Genesis to Revelation, with which to be occupied in purposeful response to a God who has become the God of full revelation for the realisation of His eternal purpose. Thereby the righteous requirements of the law, spiritually apprehended, are fulfilled in us.
Verse 6 “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.”
The mind of the flesh is death. The mind of ordinary human nature is capable of seeing no further than the letter, that which is natural. This is spiritual death. It produces spiritually fruitless service to God’s eternal purpose in those who act in its power. We have been freed by the law of the Spirit in God’s sight and to faith’s reckoning. Spiritual failure is still possible on the part of believers however. Acting toward God by the mind of the flesh will produce this.
But the mind of the Spirit is life and peace. Life of the Holy Spirit is in us so that His mind may operate in us concerning the things which are of God. We will develop divine intelligence if we realise and accept the position into which the completed work of God has brought us. Then the continuing work of the Spirit will act unhinderedly in us. Consequently we acquire a mind which is capable of apprehending the things of God. This is accomplished in a realm of spiritual life and peace. This is the inheritance of the saints in light. We live in the realm in which God Himself lives and acts. The Lord Jesus revealed that the Spirit would take of the things which are His and reveal them to us. In possessing the mind of the Spirit we have a divine outlook upon the eternal things of God in the new creation. As a result we now enjoy all the peace and prosperity which God has secured for us by the work of Christ. “My peace I give unto you”.
Verse 7 “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.”
Paul now again speaks in terms of conflict. The mind of the flesh is enmity against God. The mind which regards only natural things militates against the eternal purpose for which God’s work in us and for us would have us act. The enemy which we are to guard against is the fleshly power in us which concerns itself only with worldly things. In our secular lives we live by the mind of the flesh. If we introduce this power into the spiritual realm we are introducing an enemy. We would thwart the realisation of the purpose of God whereunto we are called and gifted. By understanding the Word of God merely literally, in a way which men call critically, we are acting in a power which God has condemned, the sin of the flesh.
This mind is not subject to the law of God. The law of God is that which is spoken of in chapter 7:22. The law is spiritual and not natural. The mind of the flesh is not subject to that which is spiritual, eternal. Two deadly dangers present themselves to the people of God in the present day. First there is that which is called higher criticism. By it men regard the Word of God as merely the work of human genius. To such, spiritual things are merely human issues and values – natural goodness, truth and love. The other danger is that of Phariseeism or Puritanism. In this men apply eternal truth to secular life and activity in the present world. This form of responding to God is a denial of the fact that the mind of the flesh cannot be subject to the law of God. It must be accepted as a basis upon which true, spiritual response to God can be produced in us. The mind of the flesh is incorrigibly evil spiritually.
Verse 8 “So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.”
They that are in the flesh are not christians. They do not live by faith, not having the new nature. It is impossible for natural man to please God by means of the law or by means of Christianity as they understand it. God can have no pleasure – despite His completed work for men in their spiritual condemnation – in their life in the flesh, no matter how good their actions. The pleasure of the Lord cannot prosper in their hands. They cannot serve eternal purpose by the natural good of a devoted, religious, fleshly life.
Verse 9 “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.”
But ye are not in the flesh. This is the supreme spiritual fact which all believers should realise. Only from such a realisation can effective service result. A believer is not alive in the flesh toward God. And he must not respond as if he were. We have no power in us by nature to further His eternal purpose, even if we subject our natural powers to the rule of the letter.
In spiritual reality we are in the Spirit. Not only is the Spirit in us but we are also in the Spirit. We are in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, which has been formed on earth as a result of the completed and eternally effective work of God. We are alive in Deity in the realm in which Divine Persons live and act for the realisation of the promise. We live by the Holy Spirit in present possession of eternal life. Ideally, we also enjoy this life in the present time in the Spirit. The Spirit continuing to dwell in us is the characteristic feature which leads us to spiritual maturity. He is now described as “Spirit of God” to emphasise His Deity, His Person, not only His work.
Then He is described as “Spirit of Christ”. Christ still lives and acts in the world by His Spirit whom He sent forth. The work which He initiated in His life in flesh is thereby being completed. Here it is a question of being Christ’s or not being His. This is determined by men having or not having the Spirit. The Spirit has been sent forth to form a people who are Christ’s for the realisation of divine purpose. If any have not the Spirit of Christ they do not belong to Him. Such an order of humanity has not received the eternal virtue resulting from the giving of the Holy Spirit. They are spiritually purposeless in their life and work.
Verse 10 “And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.”
The next stage in this spiritual progression being presented by Paul is that Christ is in us by this divine operation on the part of His Spirit. In verse 1 we are presented as being in Christ. We are in Him before God and hence not in condemnation. Christ is in us while we are still in the world as to the outworking of divine purpose. Divine life is present and active in us even while we remain in natural weakness on earth. The Christ, who completed the work of redemption in His life in the flesh, continues to live and act for the realisation of the eternal purpose for which He performed that saving deed. He does so by His Spirit in us.
If Christ is in us then, ipso facto;
a. The body is dead because of sin, and
b. The Spirit is life because of righteousness.
The body is the body of sin and death as in the previous chapter. The sin is the sinful nature which enslaves our life in the flesh. In the previous chapter Paul had seen this as the enemy which prevented him attaining to perfection in the flesh. In chapter 7 he presents it as the body of this death. Now Paul had arrived at a spiritual state in which he saw it to be a dead body. The presence of Christ in us is spiritually incompatible with deadness toward God and His eternal purpose. Our present fleshly limitations are no spiritual obstacle once we perceive the spiritual facts of life. By the Spirit of the life of Christ Jesus in us, the body is dead. This is a basic doctrinal fact of the gospel. It is not a result which we must strive to accomplish, as Paul had done in his carnal days.
The Spirit is life because of righteousness. Righteousness, in contrast to sin and deadness, is characteristic of the new nature. God is righteous in giving us His life because of the saving work of Christ for us. Paul is now concerned with the work of God in us. Righteousness resides in us in the Person of the Spirit. We are the righteousness of God in Him. This is our true and only life in the new creation into which we have been introduced.
Verse 11 “But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you.”
The certainty of ultimate resurrection because of the operation in us of the power which raised Christ, is then presented by Paul. The Holy Spirit is now characterised as being the Spirit of Him, that is of God, who raised up Jesus from among the dead. ‘Jesus’ presents the Son of God as a man who lived and acted in humanity on earth. He assumed a natural form upon which the Spirit of God could act in His eternal power to accomplish God’s eternal designs in nature. He died as to His natural humanity so that in that state of natural deadness God could act upon Him in the fulness of His power and wisdom. Thus God has displayed, by the work of the Holy Spirit in a dead Jesus, that He has the power to accomplish eternal purpose. The great present practical effect for us is that this same Power already dwells in us. As yet He does not act in us at a natural level. The present work of God in us for divine purpose is spiritual, in the inner man in newness of life. This power shall continue to dwell until the time arrives when the purpose for which God is forming a people has been completed.
Then He will act upon us naturally also. God will use the same power by which He raised the Christ from among the dead upon our mortal bodies also. Now it is the Christ rather than Jesus. The Christ is the One whom God anointed by giving Him a resurrection body to be the firstborn of many brethren for His eternal purpose. The Spirit shall quicken – give life to – our mortal bodies. The natural form in which this new divine life exists and acts shall then also be transfigured to live in glory. That which is now necessarily mortal for the outworking of divine purpose shall then be swallowed up in life. In that day, as in the experience of the Christ when He had completed the work entrusted to Him in the flesh, we shall be made alive physically also out of present mortality. In this verse also, all the Persons of the Godhead are presented by Paul as being at work. In verse 2 and 3 this was so for us. Here it is the completion of God’s eternal work in us. Paul presents the Son, the Spirit and the Father acting upon the soul, spirit and body of the believer. This has to do with the past, present and future implications of salvation.
Verse 12 “Therefore brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.”
Paul now presents the spiritual obligations incumbent upon us, seeing these things are so. Therefore, brethren we are debtors. The debt is toward God but it is not to be met by the flesh and its powers. The Godhead, Father, Son and Holy Spirit have not acted for us and in us to make us debtors to the flesh. We are not dependent upon that which we are by nature for the service which we are to render toward such a God. We have been made brethren spiritually but not so as to live toward God after the wisdom and power of the old nature.
Verse 13 “For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.”
If ye live thus ye shall die. Paul now changes the pronoun to assert that he no longer lived toward God as he did in his carnal, spiritually immature days. Again, the living of which the spiritual man thinks is that of the new life in us. Paul thus calls upon believers to realise that in this form of life alone they live toward God for His eternal purpose. If otherwise, they are alive in a life in which they are about to die. It is temporal and hence not of eternal significance toward God and the present outworking of His purpose. A response to God in that nature merely represents a waste of divine provision. It renders His accomplished work vain and fruitless in the present time.
Paul then shows how we are profitably to use the divine power given to us. First of all this has to be used against the flesh. However, no more than Paul can we put to death the deeds of the flesh in a natural sense by our own devoted efforts. We can now, as Paul discovered, put these deeds to death in a spiritual sense by the Spirit. We do this by our present response to God. The Spirit in us gives us spiritual intelligence to realise the spiritual position into which the work of God has brought us. By Him we thereby mortify the deeds. The theologians tell us this verse means that, by divine power, we are to put to death all the base pursuits of the body in a literal, puritanical sense. This is a naturalistic, carnal interpretation of our debt to God and of the way in which we are to discharge it. It is obviously a natural impossibility anyway, as Paul would testify.
If by the Spirit we come to apprehend our spiritual situation aright and act accordingly, we shall live. We shall live toward God in true discharge of our debt in a life which is eternal and which can be of significance to divine purpose. As Christ acted by the Holy Spirit in the days of His flesh, so we are called upon to live by the same Spirit and not according to the flesh in us. We are not in the flesh. Ideally the flesh is not to act in us concerning things of the Spirit. We are not to interpret that which is of the Spirit, the Word of God, literally nor to apply it to secular life puritanically. Christianity is not a divine means to improve human nature and hence the world. This is a falsification of revealed truth. Practical holiness lies in the spiritual growth of the inner man.
Verse 14 “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.”
Having become our (new) life and having developed Christ in us, the Spirit now leads us to realise our true relationship with God as sons. He occupies us with heavenly things, with the truth in its inward parts. He leads us in the paths of righteousness according to His perfect knowledge of the will of God. He witnesses to our spirits. He intercedes for us in His perfect power to prevail with God.
“As many as” – the numbers are limited or defined by the response. The response to His leading is by the new manoriginally formed in us by divine activity. This life He develops in power by His leading. Consequently we live and act as sons of God. Sonship implies spiritual maturity, progressing from a carnal response to God, from mere childhood in divine things. He leads them to comprehend the Word of God progressively. This is a true and eternally purposeful response to God’s calling. So also the Lord Jesus in the flesh grew in wisdom and stature before man and God. Then He was led by the Spirit as to the service He rendered to His God. The nature and character of His Sonship was then on display. The Spirit is in us to form us anew, as children. He is in the world with us to lead us on in spiritual life and service as sons of God.
Verse 15 “For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.”
To bring out the character of our present salvation, and hence the true nature of our present service, Paul contrasts the present spiritual situation with that which obtained under the law. We received the Spirit unconditionally upon believing. This is the basic effect produced in us by God for His eternal purpose. He is in us and with us on earth. He will not be removed from us, as was possible in the case of Old Testament saints, e.g. David (Psalm 51:11). We have not received Him as the spirit of bondage, that of fleshly slavery to the letter of the law. The O.T. saints were through fear of death subject to bondage throughout their lives. Fear was a potent force in governing their life toward God. This was so until the Holy Spirit was given at Pentecost. He then proceeded to complete the divine revelation and thereby unveiled the spiritual mysteries which remained until the perfect system of access to God on earth, the christian system, was established. In this divine system we have received a Spirit of sonship. The reception of the Spirit by us is not again to fear in these new conditions, but unto spiritual liberty.
The Spirit is for us in the same way as that in which He led the Lord Jesus as a man on earth. By His power and leading He caused the obedient Christ to display on earth the reality of the relationship which He occupied with the Father. He was declared Son of God in power by the Spirit of holiness, chapter 1:4. We have received the Spirit of sonship whereby we cry ‘Abba, the Father’. The Lord Jesus chose to live, for the sake of the realising of divine purpose, by the leading of the Spirit, even though He was the Son of God in the flesh. Consequently
He has left us an example that we should follow after His steps. His example is of course spiritual, not natural or moral. This dependence upon and obedience to the Spirit is exemplified in the Garden of Gethsemane where He also cried “Abba, Father”. His intent was to glorify the Father by His service on earth. We cry ‘Abba, Father’ not as a slogan but in functional reality. We are led as sons of God to serve the Father, God fully revealed, by the leading of the Spirit, once we have acquired the necessary spiritual maturity.
Verse 16 “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.”
When we are led by the Spirit in obedience to the Father’s will, another aspect of His ministry takes place. He witnesses with our spirit. Now also, we enjoy the communion which exists between divine Persons. This is extended to us by the Spirit. We have, by the work of the Spirit, the communication of present blessing. God has produced in us a new spirit which is capable of appreciating the witness of the Holy Spirit. This is in contrast to man in creation and man under the law. Their failure was spiritual. The present work of the Spirit obviates this failure. Our spiritual success comes from His witness, i.e. He brings us into the sure knowledge that we are already children of God. We are so by faith and the Spirit bears witness to us that we have within us a spirit capable of appreciating revealed spiritual realities.
Verse 17 “And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together.”
We already have divine life and we know it to be so. The divine life thus begotten in man will yet inherit its true place in glory. Also, we are already heirs. In possession of this life we are, during the present time, being prepared spiritually for this inheritance of glory. We are heirs indeed of God. The just shall inherit the earth. This righteousness which fits us for such an ultimate function is of God and not of ourselves. God has produced in us a nature which is of the highest significance concerning the establishing of righteousness universally in creation. In this realm the present continuing work of the Spirit fits us for future reference.
We are joint heirs with Christ. By the effective work of the Spirit we see ourselves as having already been associated with Christ concerning His coming kingdom. Already we live in the Kingdom of God and of His Christ, spiritually. In the present time the Kingdom of God is spiritual, in mystery. The Heir to the throne has already assumed His place on that throne in heaven. We are joint heirs already with Him there, being prepared for its coming display and effective universal rule on earth.
At this point in the spiritual development, Paul introduces the subject of present sufferings. He has already shown that the eternal work of God must prosper and how this is being accomplished in us. The present time is the time of our spiritual growth unto spiritual perfection. It is also a time of present suffering at a natural level. Though we are children, sons and heirs, we are so in a life in the world in which we are subject to natural limitations. Because we now enjoy divine life in natural existence and imperfection, a spiritual opportunity of the highest magnitude is given to us. Now we are the sons of God in preparation. In the future we shall be sons of God in manifestation.
If indeed we suffer together (present tense) that also we be glorified together (aorist). The sufferings of Christ in this context are the sufferings which were associated with His being alive once in the world in the flesh, made subject to the limitations of a natural body. While he became spiritually perfect for God’s eternal purpose and was led by the Spirit, He lived in a body in which he hungered, thirsted, groaned and suffered physically, as upon the cross. He was crucified in weakness. Christ lived in such natural sufferings so that He might be the author and perfecter of the faith which we follow. We suffer with Him at this level, and not of course for sin. The ‘togetherness’ of sufferings is not in time, for His sufferings in the flesh are over. It is in likeness. We serve God spiritually in the new man despite present natural limitations. His deity was clothed, or veiled, in humanity. We live and act in the likeness also. In our case of course, divine life is conferred by divine righteousness. He was the only begotten Son. He did not become a Son as we do. He became a Man to pioneer a path for us, in human weakness and in divine power.
Christ, by His life and completed work in flesh, has already opened up for us a sure path to glory. It is not that we may or may not be glorified. The aorist tense presents the fact that we shall be glorified together. The present time of suffering together is a divine means to ensure this end. He has left us an example that we should follow after His steps. He lived in eternal Sonship in flesh, in a form in which He suffered. Thereby He entered into His glories, the glories which He acquired, rather than His inherited glories.
Verse 18 “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”
Paul then declares how he had come to reckon himself as he viewed this present stage of the outworkings of God’s eternal purpose. He had acquired the spiritual ability to regard the present in the light of the future. Paul had to suffer greatly in the flesh in order that Christianity might be established in the world. In human weakness he lived and acted for divine purpose in an imperfect world. He was exposed to, rather than spared from, suffering as a result. So also the church in Rome received the completed Scriptures in human weakness in hostility. For the realisation of His purpose in us God does not confer upon us natural power and gifts by which we can overcome present affliction. God is not intent upon modifying human suffering by the means which He has chosen for the realisation of His eternal purpose.
Yet Paul reckoned that present sufferings are not worth comparing with the coming glory. God’s end justifies the means which He has chosen. Present sufferings continue while those who are called are being prepared to ensure the coming of the reign of glory. God is accomplishing that which is incomparably greater than merely removing present sufferings. That which will be accomplished is the glory which is as yet necessarily hidden from a world which is unprepared spiritually to regard the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Once we are fully prepared we shall be glorified together with Christ. Then this glory shall be revealed to the world in a way in which it shall benefit from the revelation.
Verse 19 “For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.”
The issues in which we are now involved are the greatest in creation. By them the destiny of creation will be resolved. The earnest expectation of the creation awaits the revelation of the sons of God. The earnest expectation is that God will effect His purpose and promises to bless all creation. Thereby He will finally bring it into the state for which He originally created it.
This expectation of creation, that God will establish conditions of eternal peace and prosperity in it, awaits the revelation of the sons of God. This is the revelation of the glory into which we shall already have been introduced. Glory is the keynote of this section. Glory is the expression, or outshining of all the inward characters of the divine nature. In glory God shines forth in His love, truth, majesty, power, wisdom, holiness, righteousness, etc. Christ entered into the fulness of this glory in His resurrected form. This body of the Lord Jesus, acquired through death, was the first natural thing to enter into and bear that glory. We shall be glorified with Him in due course, verse 17. Then will take place the revelation of all that God has accomplished to ensure the establishing of His ultimate intentions in creation. The sons of God, perfected in such eternal glory, will be revealed to creation as the form in which divine glory will be perceived, unto blessing.
Verse 20 “For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope.”
Creation was made subject to vanity. It became purposeless in itself. Paul then reveals how this was in the outworking of divine purpose. God’s natural handiwork was made subject to futility. Not a power was to be found in it which could subject it to the divine design. Adam was called and gifted to replenish and subdue the earth. The fact that it had to be replenished declares that it had been already made waste and empty by anti-purposeful powers. The fact that Adam had to subdue it shows that chaos was already reigning. Yet God had not created it waste and void. Nothing waste and chaotic can come from the hand of God. Adam was called and gifted to act at the level in which living-soul life exists. He was not to become involved in the spiritual issues of good and evil which already existed in creation. He had not in himself the innate power to resolve these issues. He had not to partake of this tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When Adam by one act of disobedience involved himself in these issues he also became subject to the vanity. All is vanity and vexation of spirit. No purposefulness is to be found ‘under the sun’. Now that man in divine life has been manifested in Christ in creation and conferred upon others, the creation has obtained an earnest expectation and hope. This expectation will soon be realised by the revelation of a new glorified race which can subject creation to the rule of God. Thereby God’s glorious designs will be realised.
The creation was not made subject to the vanity of its own will. Creation did not will its involvement in futility. Men still act to rescue creation from the jungle and establish peace and prosperity in it. In his blindness man believes that the world was made for his own pleasure and purpose. Yet we believe in a God who can do and did exactly what He determined in His creation. Creation itself had no choice in the matter and this includes both the angels and men, whom God created for His own pleasure and purpose. Anti-purpose became the governing power in creation and it was so for the realisation of God’s eternal purpose. This was by reason of – or in accordance with the purpose of – Him who subjected it in hope. That which is created is not great enough to contain and apprehend the display of the fulness of divine glory. Only that which is eternal and uncreated can do this. The hope is that God will accomplish this by His own work. Meaninglessness is therefore seen as a necessary means to this end. God could only act in the fulness of His eternal love, wisdom, power, etc. in the circumstances brought about by the reign of vanity. God did not act or respond to some worth or merit in creation but wholly according to the dictates of His own nature and desires.
Verse 21 “Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.”
God so acted with the hope that creation itself also shall be delivered from corruption into the liberty of the glory. Now, as a result of what God has done in Christ and is doing in us, we are aware of this eternal hope. The hope is the coming of the eternal state which God has designed and not just the wish or desire in itself. Faith, hope and love in Scripture do not signify what they have come to mean in secular terminology. These conceptions have been debased in the minds of men who have not the knowledge of good and evil. The divine hope is already a reality in our experience. Now abides (goes on abiding) faith, hope and love. We have entered into and enjoy the hope in a spiritual sense, the highest sense of all.
The creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage, as we have already been, in receiving divine life in spiritual conditions in which we can enjoy this supreme blessedness to the full. The creation is now in bondage to a spiritual power from which there is no natural salvation. This bondage is one of corruption. The power of anti-purpose now corrupts natural life. It prevents present life from full fruition and in the end causes it to fade away. God will set it free into the liberty of the glory of the sons of God. This is the ultimate power and form of rule which shall reign in creation. Under it the creation will know eternal liberty and its effects. The glories which the sons of God will have received shall be revealed in creation for this result. The creation will flourish under the spiritual influences of such liberty. So creation will be introduced into higher blessing than could have resulted naturally if there had been no suffering nor vanity.
Verse 22 “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.”
Paul then declares what we instinctively know as the sons of God. The Spirit witnesses to us that we are the sons of God. So we know the groans and the eternal reason for their necessity. There is power in the gospel not only to liberate the saints in their present spiritual experience from the bondage of sin but also to release the whole creation. Liberty is now proclaimed and is effectively being enjoyed by us by the present experience which we have as a result of living in creation in its present state. We know that the groaning of creation is as purposeful and productive as a woman in childbirth. It groans together in all its parts, that is, in its present organisation. Providence and vanity are in conflict and creation still lives under the curse imposed by God. Thereby conditions exist in which God can perform His eternal work. In such conditions creation groans together and yet labours together. The present time is seen by us to be a preparatory state or stage in the unfolding of divine purpose.
Verse 23 “And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.”
Not only do we know the eternal significance of the state in which God’s creation is now found but we also know what God is doing about it. In the midst of this state we are those who have the firstfruit of the Spirit. The beginning of God’s eternal harvest has already been produced by the work continuing in us. Man alive in possession of the Spirit is God’s grand design in creation. In the last days the Spirit shall be poured upon all flesh. In the present time we live spiritually in the realm in which eternal blessing exists for man’s enjoyment. In the natural realm in which we live as ordinary mortals, we ourselves groan within ourselves. Again, Paul sets forth the present dichotomy between the spiritual and the natural. The world is as yet excluded from the spiritual blessings which God has given us by the Spirit. Even in our present experience we groan, despite this. The presence and power of the Spirit in us in no way makes us greater than others to overcome the trouble and problems associated with present life.
We have the firstfruits and are waiting for adoption. This sets forth the spiritual and natural facts of present life for us. We can do nothing but wait concerning the completion of divine purpose in creation. We cannot improve our natural state but know that we are waiting until God again intervenes at a natural level. Then God will adopt us into the realm of glory in bodily as well as in spiritual life. This is the redemption of the body. Redemption is from the bondage and groaning of the present. It is also into the eternal state in which God’s creation shall rest for ever. The adoption of that which was originally only natural into that which is eternal and heavenly has already taken place regarding the body of Christ. God has thus crowned Him with glory above His fellows. It will also be our experience who are involved in God’s work for the realisation of divine purpose. Here the singular “body” is used in order to emphasise the formation of the Bride of Christ that she may share His glory. Thus God will raise up out of nature and into glory that which He is now perfecting spiritually for His eternal purpose.
Verses 24/25 “For we are saved by hope; but hope that is seen is not hope; for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.”
We are saved in the hope. As stated, divine hope is the eternal state in which creation will ultimately rest. We are brought into this state spiritually already. We are saved (aorist), by God’s present work, into this divine hope. It is not that we hope to be saved. The salvation is an act complete in itself. Hope that is seen is not hope. That which is seen is natural. By the faith in us we look not upon the things which are seen in our present life and service toward God. We do not look or hope for natural salvation in the present time. That would be a contradiction of what we know in Christianity.
For what a man sees, why does he also hope for it? Paul poses this question in order to correct any false notion that Christianity is an end in itself. God has not given us the fulness of revealed truth in order that by it we may bring natural order out of chaos. The creation itself is involved in that for which God has established the christian system – the hope – on earth in the present time. That which is natural and physical as well as that which is spiritual is involved. It leads on to our resurrection and to the establishing of glory in blessing in creation thereafter. If in this life alone we have hope, we are of all men most miserable, 1 Cor.15:19.
In true faith we hope for that which we see not by natural faculties. We live in the hope and wait to see this hope being established universally in creation. Our hope is in God who raises the dead. Eternal power already operates in the gospel in us to give us spiritual insight, which creation now lacks. We hope, that is, we act in this eternal power and spiritual awareness. The knowledge which we have received causes us to respond aright to God’s present work for us. We see beyond that which is contained in, and governs, nature. By faith we see what God will accomplish by this work which He has initiated in Christ and in us. We act accordingly by devoting ourselves to the things which belong to the world to come.
With patience we wait for it. God Himself is a God of patience. For the sake of the future, He endures the state in which His creation is now found in its inherent vanity and groaning. So now we also regard the glories which shall follow the sufferings of Christ in nature. In the same patience which motivates God we wait for the coming glory. We wait until the time comes when God will have completed the present spiritual work which He performs in natural secrecy and in divine patience. Thereby we acquire divine patience for future reference.
Verse 26 “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities; for we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”
Likewise also the Spirit jointly helps our infirmities. By this other means also we have help as to our path on earth in our weakness. God is behind everything in creation, ensuring that no natural power will frustrate us in the service which we are called to perform. The Holy Spirit also is alongside us. Later Paul shows that Christ is above every power which might otherwise have stood between us and the realisation of our goal. Hence all things work together for good, i.e. eternal good. The Spirit does not by the present exercise of His spiritual power remove our infirmities. Present natural imperfections cause our infirmities. Within and without we are encompassed by powers over which we can exercise no control. Our deficiencies are the means of our obtaining divine help. This of course is a better state of affairs than if we were in charge of our circumstances and in control of our fleshly nature. The needs and sufferings are thus more than compensated for at a spiritual level by the Spirit developing intelligence in us. He also uses His eternal wisdom to control the powers which would otherwise wreck our usefulness.
Our intelligence is weak concerning the great powers and issues which dominate creation in its present chaotic state. As yet we have no knowledge of what we should pray for. We do not know what is best for us regarding worldly circumstances and inward desires. Spiritual progress is the only significant issue for us. Divine purpose in having a people is not served by our having the ability to tell Him what to do for us at a natural level so that we might serve Him better. The Holy Spirit has assumed this responsibility. This makes our possession of infirmities a positive spiritual advantage.
The Spirit Himself makes intercession for us. This is another work which the Spirit performs for the sake of God’s eternal purpose. He intercedes or pleads for us. That which happens to us in creation is therefore brought about by God’s response to the pleading of the Spirit, not by our willpower or natural influence. We are thus involved in the present labours of divine Persons in the present state of creation. The Spirit acts toward the Father on our behalf with groanings which cannot be uttered. Thus there is now in creation another sort of groaning in addition to the groanings of creation itself. The groanings of the new life in the new creation arise from the activity of the Holy Spirit. They are the growth pangs of the new creation, seeing that spiritual growth is in the present associated with natural weakness in the vessels which contain the divine nature. God, in the Person of the Spirit, is Himself still groaning in the midst of His groaning creation. For the sake of His purpose God still suffers more than men. These groanings cannot be uttered, or expressed, by any innate ability on our part. God is in charge of the eternal operation. This work proceeds in our spiritual favour and we are unconscious of it. We are conscious of our infirmities but are now also confident in the ability of the Spirit so that we can continue to live and act profitably in the spiritual realm.
Verse 27 “And He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.”
The present work of Christ in this respect is now introduced, completing the activity of the Trinity for us. The intercession of the Spirit for us is associated with what is happening in heaven. There is a man there who is the Son of God. He is, in official service, the intercessor who is still concerned with the formation and upbuilding of the new creation in the midst of the old. He knows the difference between the groanings of the Spirit and those of the old creation. He searches the hearts, distinguishing between the new nature and the old. He is One who knows what is of God and for divine purpose in the world. He knows what is in the mind of the Spirit, for He was once alive to it in the same path in weakness and suffering. He has now been glorified as a Man in heaven to bring about the purpose of God in creation. The realisation of divine purpose is secure because of the present ministry of Christ and not because of our present natural powers. He makes intercession for us who are saints in divine estimation. We are set aside by the work of God to further His present eternal counsels. He makes intercession for the saints according to God, not according to supreme natural good.
Verse 28 “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.”
We are consciously aware in our spiritual experience that all things work together for eternal good. We know this because we see and know in our experience the effects of this divine operation on earth for us and in us. The good is the conformity to the image of His Son. By divine operation, the new creation will be populated by a race of men who will eternally bear the image of His Son. The Father so loved the Son that He willed to produce a race exactly like him spiritually. The “all things” are the natural powers and issues which still befall us in our fleshly weakness in the world. These things befall us for the furtherance of the gospel. All things work together for eternal, not natural, good. We continue to suffer in creation but, by God’s present intentions, make the desired spiritual progress if we live and act in true awareness. Time and circumstances are the necessary means by which God will characterise the eternal state in which creation shall dwell.
These natural and spiritual facts are true of those who love God and are called according to His purpose. These are the conditions we are required to fulfil. God does the rest. We love the God of complete self-revelation. Divine love acts in us toward God Himself when we walk in this path of ultimate good. The purposeful calling of God is that those who love God be conformed to the image of His Son. God’s purpose is to bring many sons to glory.
Verse 29 “For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.”
Paul then shows how God is bringing these sons to glory. They are foreknown by God as Christ was foreknown as a man in the image of the invisible God. Foreknowledge is the work of God. He foreknew that there would be at the end of His activities men with Himself in blessing. He predestinated that those who would benefit from His work would by it be conformed to the image of His Son. Predestination has to do with the final state of those who are saved. It is not that God predestines some to heaven and some to hell. God has determined that there will be in His presence eternally a race of men who exactly bear the image of His glorified Son. From creation there will be raised into eternal glory, in bodily form, a people who are together made like the Son of God. God will then have many sons and not just one Son in His image. Spiritually perfect God-like beings will result from God’s finished work, for the establishing of His will universally in creation. God has determined that all who now receive life in Christ will bear His glorious image eternally. He will then raise them completely and eternally out of the natural realm, fitting them to live in glory.
Christ is the firstborn but as such has many brethren. He became a Man in flesh to become a Man in glory by means of death, resurrection and bodily ascension. He did so for God’s eternal purpose that He might be (might continue to be) the firstborn of many brethren. He was originally the only begotten Son. As a result of His completed work in the flesh, of the Spirit’s present work, and of God’s final work of glorifying us who are in Christ, He is the firstborn of many brethren. He is the image of the perfect race which shall result from God’s completed activity in the course of time.
Verse 30 “Moreover whom he did predestinate, them He also called; and whom He called, them He also justified; and whom He justified, them He also glorified.”
To bring about these eternal designs, God has issued His irresistible call. He has called those whom He predestinated. The call has gone forth by means of the Spirit and His effective power in the gospel. The sons and heirs respond to the call by the Spirit in them. Paul then shows how God is making the call secure and effective. God has saved us and called us with a heavenly calling. His call in Christianity has nothing to do with nature.
He has also justified those whom He has called. We are justified from what we were spiritually in nature, when the call of God evoked a response in our deadness. We are constituted righteous by divine work. This constitution lies in the possession of the life of Christ by us. We are already also glorified by God. We are justified from what we were and are glorified as to what Christ now is. By His already effective work, God has associated us with the glorified Christ, so that in effective reality we now live and act in the realm of glory, spiritually. We have been so acted upon by God already that we are made fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. This is God’s view of history. By Him we are already seen to be glorified. God knows the end from the beginning and is thus acting to secure the intended destiny of His saints. The past, present and future are already settled and we are involved in this irrevocable work.
Verse 31 “What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?”
Paul has thus shown that by the gospel we have arrived at an unassailable position spiritually, even if we still live in unalterable natural weakness. He then asks the question which he had previously asked in the course of his argument or revelation. “What shall we say then?” What possible objection could be raised to this christian position and state in which we are found by divine work? There is no need in this state of spiritual enlightenment to ask the question, “who shall deliver me?” Who or what can oppose us in such a path? If God be for us, as shown, who is against us? That “God is for us” is a definition of the essential facts of life. God is not only in us in the Person of Christ and with us in the Person of the Spirit but He is also for us amidst all that proceeds at the natural level. We are involved in the work by which God is proving Himself to be God in the world’s present transitional state. So our fleshly deficiencies and sinfulness are irrelevant as to the eternal purpose whereunto we are called by God.
Who is against us? Paul came to realise that the flesh which he saw and feared in himself was not an effective enemy. Its lusts do not thwart divine purpose. This is the knowledge which the possession of a spiritual mind confers upon us. That which the carnal mind viewed as being an enemy in the path is no enemy.
Verse 32 “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”
The extent to which God is for us can only be assessed by the greatness of the Person whom God has given up for us. God is a God who indeed has not spared His own Son. God did not spare His own Son from the sufferings resulting from the creation being found in its present state. This was because God had chosen to perform an eternal rather than a natural work in it. He sent His Son into it to suffer so that His grand designs might be realised. This displays the determination of God to effect His will. No price was too high for Him to pay. What can we say when we consider these eternal issues? Christ is here described as God’s own Son. In this passage the emphasis is on the Person and then upon the work of Christ the Son. He is presented as the image of God, the firstborn of many brethren, and now as God’s own Son. He was the Person whom the Father prized in the fulness of His love. He was the perfect object of divine affection in His eternal existence and co-equality with the Father. God possessed Him in an eternal sense, in the eternal sphere.
This eternal state of affairs was however ended in time, in the course of the outworking of divine purpose. God delivered Him up, unto death itself. To secure the objects and objectives which He desired, God has thus acted. One who lived wholly and solely in Deity came to live and suffer in humanity. In that state of human weakness He was caused by God to meet all the powers which stood between God and the realisation of His ultimate intentions for us. He delivered Him up for us all, that is, for the sake of a completed and perfected company.
Three things are involved. Firstly, God spared not His own Son. This sets forth His sufferings in the flesh for righteousness’ sake. Secondly, God delivered Him up. This sets forth His redemptive sufferings and death to acquire us. Thirdly, God has freely given. God has, in effect, relinquished the uniqueness of His relationship to His Son that others might also share it and the things which belong to it. “The all things” which God freely gives us with His Son are not the “all things” of verse 28. There it is all things which befall us in the old creation. Here it is the things of the new creation which cause our spiritual progress to the goal of conformity to the image of His Son. There is no question of our striving after conformity to this image. “The all things” which are the means of bringing this about are freely given us of God, as in 1 Cor.1:30. God now freely gives us all the spiritual blessings which resulted from His work for us in His Son. We are given all the things which once belonged to Deity alone, to be occupied with in our present life and service. Sanctification does not come from our own efforts but from our present enjoyment of God’s free gifts.
Verse 33 “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.”
We are now to regard ourselves as God’s elect. The results, which proceed from the power of God in the gospel to effect His eternal purpose in us, makes us God’s elect. God is now acting in us, just as He acted in Christ. He has elected to realise His eternal purpose in us who are mortals by fleshly reckoning. He has chosen to continue and perfect in us the eternal ends which He has made feasible by the work which He accomplished in His own Son. Election has to do with the realising of God’s hope in creation, not only with bringing certain people to heaven. The glorification of men is a means to an eternal end. Thus we are to see ourselves as being already perfected spiritually by God for these purposes for which He has chosen, called and gifted us.
If we are the present fruit of the work of God in creation, none can lay a charge against us. We are God’s handiwork and have not perfected ourselves spiritually. If there is a deficiency in us who respond aright, the deficiency would lie with God.
Verse 34 “Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.”
What about our sinful nature now? It had, in Paul’s carnal days, been seen as an intolerable load when he strove to perfect himself at a natural level for divine purpose. God is for us even in this, for it is He who justifies us. Who is great enough to condemn God’s present work and the effects which this has produced in us and for us? Such a one would be greater than God Himself and capable of effecting a greater work in creation!
God’s effective work cannot be undone. Before condemnation could be brought against us, the accuser would first have to find deficiency in the work of Christ. It is Christ that died. The man who was God’s anointed to accomplish the work upon which divine purpose is to be founded, is a Christ who has died. Christ having died for us has freed us from our previous condemnation. The emphasis is now upon the work of Christ for God and for us. Having died, He was raised up. His resurrection from the dead, and ascension, rather than His death in the flesh, is the work which characterises the position and state in which we now exist before God. His death and resurrection was to make Him the Man of God’s purpose at His right hand. That there was no deficiency regarding the work for which He died is proved by the fact that God raised Him up again from a death which was for us.
As a result, He continues to be even at the right hand of God. The right hand of God sets forth the power of God to effect His eternal purpose. This power has acted upon a dead Christ to raise Him up in glorified humanity beyond the reach of any power which acts in creation. In this place of divine triumph and eternal blessedness, He still continues to act on behalf of those who are His brethren on earth. He concerns Himself at the right hand of God with the cause of those who live and act in fleshly weakness on earth. The Spirit intercedes in heaven. Present weakness in the flesh will not rob us of ultimate glory.
Verses 35/36 “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
Nothing can separate Christ from the objects of His love. The love of the Christ is the power which binds us to Him, who has already entered into the glory. The eternal love which led Him to suffer and to die is the power that secures us eternally, and not merely our love for Him. We are now involved in the power which binds the Persons of Deity into a unity, that of eternal love. Hence a power greater than eternal unbegotten love in full display alone could separate us from the Christ.
Paul then considers the two sorts of power which can still act against us. In this verse he lists the various adverse earthly circumstances in which the believer might live and act for divine purpose. In verse 38 he sets forth the spiritual powers of evil which still act in creation in the present stage of the outworking of divine purpose.
Tribulation, distress, etc. set forth the powers which hostile evil in the present world of chaos could bring to bear upon those who deliberately reject natural power in the way in which they serve God. These powers are natural powers which at worst would destroy the body. They could terminate on earth the life in which we live in fleshly weakness. They could create natural fear in us to persuade us to desist from the spiritual way of life which meets with man’s disapproval.
It is clear from this verse that Paul has in mind the path of the just, suffering for righteousness’ sake. “For thy sake” we are being killed all the day long. This is according as it is written. Such experience confirms that which was endured by those who wrote holy oracles in natural weakness in a previous economy. It is according to God’s will and purpose that we still live in a life which is weak and susceptible to the greater power of those who believe in human wisdom and power. For the sake of God and the realising of His purpose, His Word was delivered in fleshly weakness by prophets whom He permitted to be killed by their opponents. The purpose of God owes nothing to natural, spiritually corrupt powers.
They were reckoned as sheep for slaughter. Their worldly opponents considered them to be fair game seeing that they lived by the Word of God which was committed to them. Such a life is lived in weakness and folly in the reckoning of the worldly minded. God did not intervene in their favour in this world. Thereby they were afforded the opportunity of attaining to a blessed resurrection.
Verse 37 “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.”
Men governed by evil and ignorance use these things in a conflict in which we more than conquer, despite apparent outward defeat. Truth thereby conquers, even if those who present it in spiritual power may be put to the sword. The Scriptures were written in such circumstances. So also men are spiritually enlightened by the preaching, men who were previously in purposeless bondage to evil. God substantiates the truth even by the manifested natural weakness of its exponents. Paul himself, for example, was bound but the Word of God is not bound by these things. Divine purpose triumphs in natural adversity. We more than conquer through Him who has loved us. Christ having loved us also empowers us spiritually, for the sake of the furtherance of divine purpose on earth. We do not conquer the power of the flesh in ourselves. We do not overcome the hostilities of the world by this spiritual power in us, which is profitable to God. We more than conquer spiritually in a world in which spiritual ignorance had previously conquered men.
Verses 38/39 “For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Paul then lists the spiritual powers which dominated human life on earth prior to the manifestation of the power of the gospel. Paul declares that he was persuaded by his own experiences in the present work of God that a power acted toward him in the pursuit of his calling which was greater than the greatest created powers and authorities. I am persuaded. He had come to realise that in the work he did for God he wrestled not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers. He had acted in supreme power in the spiritual realm to overcome the powers of death and life. Paul was given the task of establishing Christianity among the Gentiles in heathendom. God had given him the power to cause the knowledge of God to be known in every place. He had thereby succeeded in doing that which the circumcision had failed to do throughout the course of their service on earth.
He had found himself in conflict with spiritual powers which had hitherto separated men from God and His love. Now, however, the love of God has been poured forth in its eternal fulness in the gospel toward men who were under bondage to vanity. Paul, with the spiritual power of the message which he preached, was in conflict with the power of spiritual as well as natural death. Thanks be unto God who delivers us from so great a death, as in 2 Cor.1. The power of God acting in him, as a result of the love of Christ, had produced spiritual life in men under the authority of death. So also natural life is in itself a potential enemy to the progress of the gospel. Men who live only for that which this can now give them, are resistant to the love of God in Christ. This power also is broken down by the gospel when it is effectively preached.
Angels, principalities and powers are the spiritual beings who now reign in God’s providential government in creation. In this form of administration both good and evil act. Man to whom the power of divine love in the gospel is directed, lives in relative natural weakness and lack of knowledge and insight in this spiritual realm. He is unable to distinguish between good and evil at this level. He is unable to raise himself up spiritually. Now, however, through the gospel the power of God to effect His purpose by raising men to glory has already triumphed by the service of spiritual men. By this power, man can come to know God, despite the previous triumph of spiritual evil in the spiritual realm.
Things present and things to come had also been a hindrance to man and to the furtherance of divine purpose. Man is now involved in intractable natural problems and difficulties but neither these nor any distance, whether height – He is there for us, or depth – He has been there, nor any other thing in creation, can separate us from divine love. It is an unbreakable bond, an impossibility.