But let us hear further words from the seventh chapter of Romans. The apostle goes on to say, "For _when we were in the flesh_, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto _death_. But now _we are delivered from the law_, being dead [or, having died] to that wherein we were held: _that we should serve_ in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter."[9]
[9] The rendering of Romans vii. 6 in our authorized version is manifestly erroneous, inasmuch as it teaches that the law is dead, which is not true. "The law is good, if a man use it lawfully." (1 Tim. i.) And again, "The law is holy." (Rom. vii.) Scripture never teaches that the law is dead, but it teaches that the believer is dead to the law--a totally different thing.
But further, ἀποθανοντες cannot possibly apply to the law, as any well-taught school-boy can see at a glance; it applies to us--believers. Were it the law, the word would be ἀποθανοντος.
Here, again, all is as clear as a sunbeam. What means the expression, "When we _were_ in the flesh"? Does it--can it mean that we _are_ still in that condition? Clearly not. If I were to say, When I _was_ in London, would any one understand that I am in London still? The thought is absurd.
But what does the apostle mean by the expression, "When we were in the flesh"? He simply refers to a thing of the past--to a condition that no longer obtains. Are believers, then, not in the flesh? So Scripture emphatically declares. But does this mean that they are not in the body? Assuredly not. They are in the body as to the fact of their existence, but not in the flesh as to the ground of their standing before God.
In chapter viii. we have the most distinct statement of this point.--"So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. _But ye are not in the flesh_, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you." Here we have the statement of a most solemn fact, and the setting forth of a most precious, glorious privilege. "They that are in the flesh _cannot please God_." They may be very moral, very amiable, very religious, very benevolent; but they cannot please God. Their entire position is false. The source whence all the streams flow is corrupt; the root and stem whence all the branches emanate are rotten--hopelessly bad. They cannot produce a single atom of good fruit--fruit that God can accept. "They cannot please God." They must get into an entirely new position; they must have a new life, new motives, new objects--in a word, they must be a new creation. How solemn is all this! Let us weigh it thoroughly, and see if we understand the apostle's words.
But on the other hand, mark the glorious privilege of all true believers. "_Ye are not in the flesh._" Believers are no longer in a position in which they cannot please God. They have a new nature--a new life, every movement, every outflow, of which is agreeable to God. The very feeblest breathing of the divine life is precious to God. Of this life, the Holy Ghost is the power, Christ the object, glory the goal, heaven the home. All is divine, and therefore perfect. True, the believer is liable to err, prone in himself to wander, capable of sinning. In him (that is, in his flesh,) dwelleth no good thing. But his _standing_ is based on the eternal stability of the grace of God, and his _state_ is met by the divine provision which that grace has made for him in the precious atonement and all-prevailing advocacy of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thus he is forever delivered from that terrible system in which the prominent figures are, "Flesh," "Law," "Sin," "Death"--melancholy group, most surely!--and he is brought into that glorious scene in which the prominent figures are, "Life," "Liberty," "Grace," "Peace," "Righteousness," "Holiness," "Glory," "Christ." "For _ye are not come_ to the mount that might be touched"--that is, the palpable mount--"and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard, entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more: (For they could not endure that which was commanded, 'And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart:' and so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, 'I exceedingly fear and quake:') but _ye are come_ unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, the general assembly, the church of the first-born [ones] which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than Abel." (Heb. xii.)