“THE BODY IS DEAD.”

The Apostle explains that in the case of these New Creatures in Christ, from the divine standpoint the body is treated as dead, but the spirit, or mind, is treated as alive. It is the New Creature which God recognizes, to which he purposes to give a new spirit-body in due time – in the first resurrection. It is necessary that this thought be clearly fixed in our minds, in order that we may continually realize our peace toward God and his favor and sympathy toward us in Christ.

If we lose sight of the fact that God regards (judges) us from the standpoint of the will, if we get to thinking of ourselves and God’s estimate of us as according to the flesh, we are sure to get proportionately into darkness and confusion and discouragement.

Here is where I was making my mistake, and what helped to get back on track. I was considering how I could never overcome all my faults and prove worthy, but the Lord showed me that it is not in our flesh that we are to gain the victory, this is impossible in our present condition. As new creatures God does not judge us according to what we can accomplish in our flesh he knows the flesh is not amenable to his law, and so he has agreed to judge us according to the will, the spirit or mind.

But let us not forget, on the other hand, that the spirit, or will, is counted alive because of its righteousness, because it is in harmony with God. Let us, therefore, never be slack in respect to the will, or intention, governing the conduct of our lives, but remember that any laxity will mean the proportionate loss of spiritual life. To will right is always possible to us, and nothing less than an absolutely loyal will could be acceptable to God in Christ.

However, as the Apostle explains in Verse 11, if God’s spirit animates us, the result will surely be that these bodies which we reckon dead, and which God graciously reckons dead, will be so quickened, so energized, so controlled by the new mind, the holy mind, the spirit of our new nature, that they will become actively “quickened” – toward righteousness, toward the service of the Lord, the service of the truth – in doing good unto all men as we have opportunity, especially to the household of faith.

This is only what we should expect, too, for the spirit of God is powerful in whatever way it be applied. As an illustration of its power, the Apostle points us to our Lord Jesus and his literal death, and how God’s holy spirit raised Jesus from the dead in his resurrection. The thought is that this power of God thus exercised on behalf of the Lord Jesus, and which he promises so to exercise in the close of this age on behalf of all the faithful members of the body of Christ, indicates a power of God by which, if we avail ourselves of it, the new nature will find strength to conquer, to keep the flesh under, and, more than this, to make it active, energetic in the service of righteousness.

The Apostle is not here speaking of the future resurrection of the just – the completion of the first resurrection as spirit beings. He is speaking of the figurative resurrection, which the Lord’s consecrated people experience in this present time. As he elsewhere expresses it, “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above;” and again, “You hath he quickened [made alive, resurrected figuratively] who were dead in trespasses and sins…and hath raised us up together, and made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”  Col 3:1; Eph 2:1,6

The sum of the matter, then, is that we who are New Creatures find that we do not owe anything as New Creatures to the flesh; that all of our advantages and blessings have come to us along other lines. (Your flesh did not earn you the right to become a new creature, your flesh was not righteous, no! it was the Lord’s righteousness imputed to you because of your consecration that earned you this right.)

We ought, therefore, to ignore the flesh and its desires and appetites, and ought to walk as strictly after the spirit as possible in all of our affairs. Do we ask why? One answer is here given in 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.”

We who have received the grace of God, who have heard of his mercy and love, and have been accepted in the Beloved, have counted all our earthly interests as sacrifices, that we might have share with Christ in the sufferings of this present time and in the glory that shall follow. For us to live after the flesh would mean to die in the most absolute sense – the Second Death – because we have had the full benefit of the ransom already imputed to us.

There is hope for the world, which knows, as yet, comparatively little or nothing of the grace of God, which has not tasted, has not seen, etc. – there is hope for the members of this class that under the Kingdom rule they will be caused to see clearly, and may then respond obediently to the divine arrangement; but if we (the consecrated) sin wilfully after that we have received a knowledge of the truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sins for us – therefore, there would remain no future hope for us. But, on the other hand, let us hope that few of those who have accepted the grace of God are disposed to draw back unto perdition; but are rather disposed to go on and to secure the end of their faith, – glory, honor and immortality, joint heirship in the Kingdom. To us who are thus minded the Apostle’s words are encouraging, when he says, “If ye, through the spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.”

The conditions upon which we may continue our relationship to the Lord, and our hope for a share in the glories of the first resurrection are thus definitely stated to include mortification of the deeds of the body – restraining the fleshly inclinations, putting them to death, crucifying them, using them up in the service of the Lord and his cause. Such mortification of the deeds of the body, such a battle against the weaknesses of the flesh, is what the Apostle elsewhere speaks of as the “warfare,” when he tells us that the flesh wars against the spirit, and the spirit in turn wars against the flesh, for the two are contrary, and will be opponents to the end of life; and if the spirit has been willing, and has fought to the best of its ability against the weaknesses of the flesh, the Lord will count the victory complete, through the merit of the Redeemer.

We are not to think of this as being the warfare of a fleshly will against a spiritual will, nor the battling of the old nature against the new nature. These are erroneous conceptions, not in accord with the Scriptural delineations. We cannot have two wills and yet be in Christ. We cannot serve two masters.

The matter must be decided – it must be settled before we are accepted to membership in the body of Christ. Hence it is, that a full consecration of all that we have and are is necessary to membership in Christ. Henceforth there is only the one will, the will of Christ.

As for the will of the flesh, we do not own it to be ours; we ignore it, we oppose it – WE are the New Creatures; the will of the flesh and, in general, the flesh, are contrary, and thus reckoned by the Lord as well as by us as dead; we must keep the body under – keep it dead; we must not allow a fleshly will to assert itself in us.

This does not mean that we can hinder a fleshly desire, but there is a vast difference between a desire and a will. Our flesh may desire various things which we believe the will of God would oppose, but our wills will not consent. Even though through weakness of the flesh an error might have been committed, the will could not have consented so long as it was loyal to the Lord. The new will may have fallen temporarily into a stupor and so have come under the power of the flesh for a time, but as surely as it was the new will it never consented to sin and never approved of it.

This, then, is the guide by which we may know our true position, not only at the beginning of the race, but to the end of it; viz., if we are led by the spirit of God – if that is the direction in which we are following, if that is what we are seeking – then we are sons of God; he owns and accepts all who have come unto him through Christ, and who are trusting in the merit of the wedding garment, and who continue in this attitude of heart. These will continue to be owned of the Lord as sons to the end of the present journey, to the end of the present time of sacrifice; and beyond he will own them as his sons in the first resurrection, giving them the suitable spirit bodies he has promised them.  (Rom 8:14;2 Tim 2:11,12;1 John 3:2).