Bible Heaven/Bible Heaven.iso/online/mhcc03/v04950

Text File | 1994-03-02 | 14KB | 239 lines

04954
 #7-13 There is no way of coming to that knowledge of sin, which
 is necessary to repentance, and therefore to peace and pardon,
 but by trying our hearts and lives by the law. In his own case
 the apostle would not have known the sinfulness of his thoughts,
 motives, and actions, but by the law. That perfect standard
 showed how wrong his heart and life were, proving his sins to be
 more numerous than he had before thought, but it did not contain
 any provision of mercy or grace for his relief. He is ignorant
 of human nature and the perverseness of his own heart, who does
 not perceive in himself a readiness to fancy there is something
 desirable in what is out of reach. We may perceive this in our
 children, though self-love makes us blind to it in ourselves.
 The more humble and spiritual any Christian is, the more clearly
 will he perceive that the apostle describes the true believer,
 from his first convictions of sin to his greatest progress in
 grace, during this present imperfect state. St. Paul was once a
 Pharisee, ignorant of the spirituality of the law, having some
 correctness of character, without knowing his inward depravity.
 When the commandment came to his conscience by the convictions
 of the Holy Spirit, and he saw what it demanded, he found his
 sinful mind rise against it. He felt at the same time the evil
 of sin, his own sinful state, that he was unable to fulfil the
 law, and was like a criminal when condemned. But though the evil
 principle in the human heart produces sinful motions, and the
 more by taking occasion of the commandment; yet the law is holy,
 and the commandment holy, just, and good. It is not favourable
 to sin, which it pursues into the heart, and discovers and
 reproves in the inward motions thereof. Nothing is so good but a
 corrupt and vicious nature will pervert it. The same heat that
 softens wax, hardens clay. Food or medicine when taken wrong,
 may cause death, though its nature is to nourish or to heal. The
 law may cause death through man's depravity, but sin is the
 poison that brings death. Not the law, but sin discovered by the
 law, was made death to the apostle. The ruinous nature of sin,
 and the sinfulness of the human heart, are here clearly shown.

04961
 #14-17 Compared with the holy rule of conduct in the law of God,
 the apostle found himself so very far short of perfection, that
 he seemed to be carnal; like a man who is sold against his will
 to a hated master, from whom he cannot set himself at liberty. A
 real Christian unwillingly serves this hated master, yet cannot
 shake off the galling chain, till his powerful and gracious
 Friend above, rescues him. The remaining evil of his heart is a
 real and humbling hinderance to his serving God as angels do and
 the spirits of just made perfect. This strong language was the
 result of St. Paul's great advance in holiness, and the depth of
 his self-abasement and hatred of sin. If we do not understand
 this language, it is because we are so far beneath him in
 holiness, knowledge of the spirituality of God's law, and the
 evil of our own hearts, and hatred of moral evil. And many
 believers have adopted the apostle's language, showing that it
 is suitable to their deep feelings of abhorrence of sin, and
 self-abasement. The apostle enlarges on the conflict he daily
 maintained with the remainder of his original depravity. He was
 frequently led into tempers, words, or actions, which he did not
 approve or allow in his renewed judgement and affections. By
 distinguishing his real self, his spiritual part, from the self,
 or flesh, in which sin dwelt, and by observing that the evil
 actions were done, not by him, but by sin dwelling in him, the
 apostle did not mean that men are not accountable for their
 sins, but he teaches the evil of their sins, by showing that
 they are all done against reason and conscience. Sin dwelling in
 a man, does not prove its ruling, or having dominion over him.
 If a man dwells in a city, or in a country, still he may not
 rule there.

04965
 #18-22 The more pure and holy the heart is, it will have the
 more quick feeling as to the sin that remains in it. The
 believer sees more of the beauty of holiness and the excellence
 of the law. His earnest desires to obey, increase as he grows in
 grace. But the whole good on which his will is fully bent, he
 does not do; sin ever springing up in him, through remaining
 corruption, he often does evil, though against the fixed
 determination of his will. The motions of sin within grieved the
 apostle. If by the striving of the flesh against the Spirit, was
 meant that he could not do or perform as the Spirit suggested,
 so also, by the effectual opposition of the Spirit, he could not
 do what the flesh prompted him to do. How different this case
 from that of those who make themselves easy with regard to the
 inward motions of the flesh prompting them to evil; who, against
 the light and warning of conscience, go on, even in outward
 practice, to do evil, and thus, with forethought, go on in the
 road to perdition! For as the believer is under grace, and his
 will is for the way of holiness, he sincerely delights in the
 law of God, and in the holiness which it demands, according to
 his inward man; that new man in him, which after God is created
 in true holiness.

04970
 #23-25 This passage does not represent the apostle as one that
 walked after the flesh, but as one that had it greatly at heart,
 not to walk so. And if there are those who abuse this passage,
 as they also do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction,
 yet serious Christians find cause to bless God for having thus
 provided for their support and comfort. We are not, because of
 the abuse of such as are blinded by their own lusts, to find
 fault with the scripture, or any just and well warranted
 interpretation of it. And no man who is not engaged in this
 conflict, can clearly understand the meaning of these words, or
 rightly judge concerning this painful conflict, which led the
 apostle to bemoan himself as a wretched man, constrained to what
 he abhorred. He could not deliver himself; and this made him the
 more fervently thank God for the way of salvation revealed
 through Jesus Christ, which promised him, in the end,
 deliverance from this enemy. So then, says he, I myself, with my
 mind, my prevailing judgement, affections, and purposes, as a
 regenerate man, by Divine grace, serve and obey the law of God;
 but with the flesh, the carnal nature, the remains of depravity,
 I serve the law of sin, which wars against the law of my mind.
 Not serving it so as to live in it, or to allow it, but as
 unable to free himself from it, even in his very best state, and
 needing to look for help and deliverance out of himself. It is
 evident that he thanks God for Christ, as our deliverer, as our
 atonement and righteousness in himself, and not because of any
 holiness wrought in us. He knew of no such salvation, and
 disowned any such title to it. He was willing to act in all
 points agreeable to the law, in his mind and conscience, but was
 hindered by indwelling sin, and never attained the perfection
 the law requires. What can be deliverance for a man always
 sinful, but the free grace of God, as offered in Christ Jesus?
 The power of Divine grace, and of the Holy Spirit, could root
 out sin from our hearts even in this life, if Divine wisdom had
 not otherwise thought fit. But it is suffered, that Christians
 might constantly feel, and understand thoroughly, the wretched
 state from which Divine grace saves them; might be kept from
 trusting in themselves; and might ever hold all their
 consolation and hope, from the rich and free grace of God in
 Christ.
04973
 * The freedom of believers from condemnation. (1-9) Their
 privileges as being the children of God. (10-17) Their hopeful
 prospects under tribulations. (18-25) Their assistance from the
 Spirit in prayer. (26,27) Their interest in the love of God.
 (28-31) Their final triumph, through Christ. (32-39)

 #1-9 Believers may be chastened of the Lord, but will not be
 condemned with the world. By their union with Christ through
 faith, they are thus secured. What is the principle of their
 walk; the flesh or the Spirit, the old or the new nature,
 corruption or grace? For which of these do we make provision, by
 which are we governed? The unrenewed will is unable to keep any
 commandment fully. And the law, besides outward duties, requires
 inward obedience. God showed abhorrence of sin by the sufferings
 of his Son in the flesh, that the believer's person might be
 pardoned and justified. Thus satisfaction was made to Divine
 justice, and the way of salvation opened for the sinner. By the
 Spirit the law of love is written upon the heart, and though the
 righteousness of the law is not fulfilled by us, yet, blessed be
 God, it is fulfilled in us; there is that in all true believers,
 which answers the intention of the law. The favour of God, the
 welfare of the soul, the concerns of eternity, are the things of
 the Spirit, which those that are after the Spirit do mind. Which
 way do our thoughts move with most pleasure? Which way go our
 plans and contrivances? Are we most wise for the world, or for
 our souls? Those that live in pleasure are dead, #1Ti 5:6|. A
 sanctified soul is a living soul; and that life is peace. The
 carnal mind is not only an enemy to God, but enmity itself. The
 carnal man may, by the power of Divine grace, be made subject to
 the law of God, but the carnal mind never can; that must be
 broken and driven out. We may know our real state and character
 by inquiring whether we have the Spirit of God and Christ, or
 not, ver. 9. Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. Having
 the Spirit of Christ, means having a turn of mind in some degree
 like the mind that was in Christ Jesus, and is to be shown by a
 life and conversation suitable to his precepts and example.

04982
 #10-17 If the Spirit be in us, Christ is in us. He dwells in the
 heart by faith. Grace in the soul is its new nature; the soul is
 alive to God, and has begun its holy happiness which shall
 endure for ever. The righteousness of Christ imputed, secures
 the soul, the better part, from death. From hence we see how
 much it is our duty to walk, not after the flesh, but after the
 Spirit. If any habitually live according to corrupt lustings,
 they will certainly perish in their sins, whatever they profess.
 And what can a worldly life present, worthy for a moment to be
 put against this noble prize of our high calling? Let us then,
 by the Spirit, endeavour more and more to mortify the flesh.
 Regeneration by the Holy Spirit brings a new and Divine life to
 the soul, though in a feeble state. And the sons of God have the
 Spirit to work in them the disposition of children; they have
 not the spirit of bondage, which the Old Testament church was
 under, through the darkness of that dispensation. The Spirit of
 adoption was not then plentifully poured out. Also it refers to
 that spirit of bondage, under which many saints were at their
 conversion. Many speak peace to themselves, to whom God does not
 speak peace. But those who are sanctified, have God's Spirit
 witnessing with their spirits, in and by his speaking peace to
 the soul. Though we may now seem to be losers for Christ, we
 shall not, we cannot, be losers by him in the end.

04990
 #18-25 The sufferings of the saints strike no deeper than the
 things of time, last no longer than the present time, are light
 afflictions, and but for a moment. How vastly different are the
 sentence of the word and the sentiment of the world, concerning
 the sufferings of this present time! Indeed the whole creation
 seems to wait with earnest expectation for the period when the
 children of God shall be manifested in the glory prepared for
 them. There is an impurity, deformity, and infirmity, which has
 come upon the creature by the fall of man. There is an enmity of
 one creature to another. And they are used, or abused rather, by
 men as instruments of sin. Yet this deplorable state of the
 creation is in hope. God will deliver it from thus being held in
 bondage to man's depravity. The miseries of the human race,
 through their own and each other's wickedness, declare that the
 world is not always to continue as it is. Our having received
 the first-fruits of the Spirit, quickens our desires, encourages
 our hopes, and raises our expectations. Sin has been, and is,
 the guilty cause of all the suffering that exists in the
 creation of God. It has brought on the woes of earth; it has
 kindled the flames of hell. As to man, not a tear has been shed,
 not a groan has been uttered, not a pang has been felt, in body
 or mind, that has not come from sin. This is not all; sin is to
 be looked at as it affects the glory of God. Of this how
 fearfully regardless are the bulk of mankind! Believers have
 been brought into a state of safety; but their comfort consists
 rather in hope than in enjoyment. From this hope they cannot be
 turned by the vain expectation of finding satisfaction in the
 things of time and sense. We need patience, our way is rough and
 long; but He that shall come, will come, though he seems to
 tarry.

04998
 #26,27 Though the infirmities of Christians are many and great,
 so that they would be overpowered if left to themselves, yet the
 Holy Spirit supports them. The Spirit, as an enlightening
 Spirit, teaches us what to pray for; as a sanctifying Spirit,
 works and stirs up praying graces; as a comforting Spirit,
 silences our fears, and helps us over all discouragements. The
 Holy Spirit is the spring of all desires toward God, which are
 often more than words can utter. The Spirit who searches the
 hearts, can perceive the mind and will of the spirit, the
 renewed mind, and advocates his cause. The Spirit makes
 intercession to God, and the enemy prevails not.