Fundamental Truths of Salvation

By Edward Dennett

Chapter 8

DELIVERANCE.

MANY who have been awakened, quickened, and who may even be under the sure protection of the blood of Christ, are yet without a clear knowledge of salvation. They have sometimes a " good hope ” that they are saved, but then sin breaks out within them in such overwhelming power, that, thereby made to know the utter corruption of their sinful hearts, they are plunged back into uncertainty and distress. They are thus deprived of the fulness of the blessing which belongs to all who believe in Christ, owing to ignorance (oftentimes through bad teaching) of the two natures, and of the provision which God has made in Christ for indwelling sin, as well as for sins. In other words, they have never learned that complete deliverance is to be found in Christ, both from the guilt of sin and from our sinful nature, so that the believer can say,“ There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.... For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. " (Rom. viii. 1-2.) The truth on this subject is specially unfolded in the epistle to the Romans, from chapter v. to the end of chapter viii. This section has been described by another as follows: “ Hitherto the great truth of the remission of the believer's sins has been fully set forth, closing with the blessed privileges which belong to the justified man, but still in that connection, the expiatory efficacy of the blood of Jesus, and this displayed in His resurrection. Precious as it all is, it is not every thing the believer wants. He may be miserable in the discovery of what he finds within himself; and if he know not the truth that applies to his difficulties on this score, he is in danger of yielding to hardness on one side, or of bearing a burdened spirit of bondage on the other. How many saints have never learnt the extent of their deliverance, and go mourning from day to day under efforts which they would be the first to confess unavailing against their inward corruption! How many settle down callously balancing their faith in the forgiveness of their sins by the blood of Christ as a set -off against a plague which they sup pose must needs be, and, of course, with no more power over it than those who are honestly, but in vain, struggling to get better. Neither the one nor the other understands the value to them of the sentence already executed on the old man in the cross, nor their own new place before God in Christ risen from the dead. This it is the Spirit's object to unfold in what follows."

The sentences italicised in the above extract find a striking confirmation in chapter vii., where we have a quickened man, one who has been born again, not knowing his deliverance from law, struggling and groaning under the burden of his indwelling sin, so much so that he cries, “ I am carnal, sold under sin. " (v. 14); and again, “ I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? ” (vv. 22-24.) This is precisely the condition of many who are termed anxious souls. It is the felt contrariety of their state to all that they had longed for and hoped which leads them to doubt whether they are saved.

How then has God met this need of the soul? There can be only one answer to this question: it is in the death of Jesus Christ. For not only did He, as we have seen, bear our sins in His own body on the tree, but He was also made sin for us (2 Cor. v. 21); yea, “ God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.” (Romans viii. 3.)

The application of this truth is expounded in Romans vi. Having shown in the previous chapter that “ where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord ” (vv. 20–21), the apostle proceeds, “ What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also [in the likeness] of [His ] resurrection: knowing this, that our old man is crucified with [ Him ], that the body of sin might be destroyed (annulled), that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed” (justified, in margin) “ from sin.” (Rom. vi. 1–7.)

If now we give attention to the words which we have emphasized by italics, we shall under stand the whole subject. (1.) We are here taught that we have part in Christ's death: we were baptized into (or unto) His death;" “ our old man is crucified with Him. ” (vv. 3–6.) This is on the principle of substitution, a principle which finds a striking illustration in the following familiar incident. During the days of Napoleon I., young man was drawn as a soldier, but having some means, he purchased a substitute, who went in his stead to fight the battles of his country. The substitute was soon killed, and not long after a decree for another conscription was issued. It so happened that the same young man was drawn for the second time, but he pleaded that he was a dead man. When asked what he meant by such a plea, he answered that, since his substitute had been killed, he himself ought to be regarded as dead. The case, from its singularity, was carried before the courts of law, and, after examination and trial, it was ruled that the young man was dead before the law of conscription, on the ground of the death of his substitute. So with us, if we are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. We can plead that we have died in the person of our Substitute, that in Him the whole judgment and condemnation due to our sin and sins have been borne and exhausted. (2.) We are consequently “ dead to sin " (v. 2); and being dead, we are "freed (justified) from sin. ” (v. 7.) That is, our Adam nature — the seat of indwelling sin-our old man, has been judicially judged by God in the death of Christ; so that the penalty has already been paid, our doom so completely met, that before God we are regarded as judicially dead, and being dead we are justified from sin - cleared from all charge on account of it, completely delivered from it, through our death in the death of Christ.

The practical consequences of this truth are given in the succeeding verses. “ Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him: knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over Him. For in that He died, He died unto sin once: but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God in " (not through) “ Christ Jesus our Lord. Let not sin there fore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof,” etc. (vv. 8–12.) We are thus reminded, by implication at least, that we have part not only in the death of Christ, but also in Him as risen. “ For if we be dead with Him, we believe that we shall also live with Him (v. 8); and this is confirmed and enforced by the fact, that “ in that He died, He died unto sin once: but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God. ” (v. 10.)

Then follow the practical exhortations.

1. We are to reckon ourselves dead to sin. The very terms of the exhortation indicate the truth; for if we were actually dead, we could not be told to reckon ourselves so. What we are then to do is to take God's estimate of ourselves. Having judged us, as to our Adam nature, in the cross of Christ, He holds us as having met our judgment, and consequently to be dead in His sight. This is His judicial estimate of every believer as to the old man; and this judicial estimate is to be the estimate of our faith. What God declares we are to believe, and to believe spite of all appearances or experiences to the contrary; and since He holds us to have been crucified with Christ, we are to reckon ourselves dead to sin. This will explain many otherwise difficult expressions in the Scriptures. “ I am " (or have been “crucified with Christ. ” (Gal. ii. 20.) “ If ye be dead” (or have died) “ with Christ,” etc. (Col. ii. 20); these, and all such, setting forth the truth here considered, that God regards all believers as having died with Christ, and therefore as having in Him borne the condemnation of sin. And this truth is to be our vantage - ground in the presence of temptation. We should remember in the presence of all solicitations to sin, that our old man has been crucified with Christ, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. (Rom. vi. 6.)

Thus our place before God determines our responsibility; and hence if I yield to sin, I contradict in fact that I have died with Christ; for sin argues, evidences one alive in the flesh and acting in the flesh. On the other hand, taking God's estimate of myself to be true for faith, I cannot let sin reign in my mortal body, that I should obey it in the lust thereof. I reckon myself to be dead to sin, and therefore delivered from it by the death of Christ; and thus my peace is undisturbed because I know that the flesh which I still have in me, and which, if not kept in the place of death, would break out at any moment in unbridled lusts, has already been judged, and condemned on the cross.

2. But we are also to reckon ourselves as alive unto God in Christ Jesus our Lord. This, as be fore said, implies our resurrection with Christ although this truth is not here formally stated --because it is only as being in the risen Christ that we can be alive unto God. In the Colossians we find this aspect fully developed, the apostle making the fact of our being risen with Christ the ground of a practical appeal: “ If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead ” (or have died), "and your life is hid with Christ in God.” (Col. iii. 1-3.) It is not only therefore that we have been crucified with Christ, but in Christ we passed through death; for “ God hath raised us up together" with Christ. (Eph. ii. 6.) This was typified by the passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea. In type “ the Red Sea is evidently the death and resurrection of Jesus, and of His people in Him; God acting in it, in order to bring them into death to sin, and to deliverance from it, by death, where He had brought them in Christ, and consequently beyond the possibility of being reached by the enemy. We are made partakers of it already through faith. Sheltered from the judgment of God by the blood, we are delivered, by His power which acts for us, from the power of Satan, the prince of this world. The blood keeping us from the judgment of God was the beginning. The power which has made us alive, through Christ, has made us free from the whole power of Satan, who followed us, and from all his attacks and accusations. We have done with Egypt and the world. ”

God who gave the blood to screen us,
     God looks down in perfect love;
Clouds may seem to pass between us,
     There's no change in Him above.

Though the restless foe accuses,
     Sins recounting like a flood;
Every charge our God refuses:
     Christ hath answer'd with His blood.

In the refuge God provided
     Though the world's destruction lowers
We are safe - to Christ confided,
     Everlasting life is ours.

And, ere long, when come to glory,
     We shall sing a well -known strain,
This — the never - tiring story,
     Worthy is the Lamb once slain!"

Two things have to be carefully noted. It is in Christ that we are alive unto God; and secondly, our being so is to be a matter of faith: we are to reckon ourselves so. We are alive in Christ really and actually; but this is not the thought here presented. We are also in this respect to take God's estimate, spite of all the contradictions to it within and without. Since God regards me as dead to sin, and alive unto Him in Christ Jesus, I am to reckon myself so; His estimate being the foundation of my faith and confidence, as well as the measure of my responsibility.

We are thus before God brought through the death and resurrection of Christ out of our old state and standing altogether, into a place and sphere where the flesh has no entrance- a deliverance so complete that not only is it said, “ There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, " but also, “Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be the Spirit of God dwell in you.” (Rom. viii. 1, 9.) Such is our perfect standing before God in Christ as risen from the dead.

3. We shall now be in a position to understand the concluding exhortation of the passage cited; viz., " Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. " (Rom. vi. 12, etc.) We have here the contrast between our standing before God in Christ Jesus and our practical condition. He holds us, as we have seen, as dead to sin; but this exhortation supposes the presence of sin in the believer. Now it is in the understanding of this contrast, and its practical consequences and responsibilities, that the solution is found of the difficulties which are so often encountered at the outset of the Christian life, and which indeed in many cases keep believers in bondage for years, if not throughout the whole of their lives. It behoves us to be the more careful that our statements, in summing up the teachings upon this subject, are according to the word of God.

(α) Indwelling sin will always be present in the believer. Though he has a complete deliverance before God, the flesh in him remains un changed; so that he will ever have to say, “ In my flesh dwelleth no good thing." He must therefore never expect any amendment in the character of the flesh. What it was before his conversion it will be after, until he departs to be with Christ, either at His coming or through death. (Rom. vii. 18; viii. 1-13; Gal. iii. 16–26.) (β) The presence of indwelling sin does not affect our perfect standing, our complete acceptance, be 90 FUNDAMENTAL TRUTHS OF SALVATION. fore God in Christ Jesus; for God regards us as dead to sin. This is His judicial estimate of us, and consequently He looks upon the sin in us as already judged in the death of Christ. Thus sin in the flesh has been condemned. (Rom. viii. 3.) Its motions therefore within me, if I do not yield to them, cannot for one minute obscure even my enjoyment of the love of God; for I reckon the flesh in me as judged, according to His own estimate. It is thus not only that my standing is unalterable, but also my peace, my communion, is undisturbed. (γ) My responsibility is measured by God's estimate. If He regards me as dead to sin, I have to do the same; and therefore I must not allow sin to reign in any mortal body, that I should obey it in the lusts thereof. For if I were to allow sin to reign, I should practically contradict God's estimate of me as dead to it. I have thus to keep myself in the place of death, to mortify my members which are upon the earth (Col. iii. 5), because I am dead with Christ. Here then is the whole secret. I cannot rid myself of the foe. But God has judged it, and I have simply to act according to that judgment; to keep it in that place of death where He has already put it. Hence we are not told to expel sin, to root it out, to cast it away from us, as moralists, and even divines, ignorant of the Scriptures, sometimes exhort us to do; but we are told not to let it reign; i.e. it must be kept under, in the place and under the sentence of death which has been passed upon it.

" Ah! " you exclaim, “ here is my difficulty. How am I, a poor feeble creature, to do this thing?” It is thus that unbelief ever speaks. Look at David in the presence of Goliath. Does he feel the impossibility of coping with such a powerful adversary? Nothing of the kind. His one conviction was that “ the battle was the Lord's; ” that Goliath was the Lord's enemy, and hence that the Lord would that day deliver him into his hand. (1 Sam. xvii. 45–47.) He thus measured his foe by the strength of the Lord; and by that measurement Goliath dwindled down before him into a puny dwarf, yea, into utter impotence and nothingness. So should it be with us. Granted that indwelling sin is strong and active, yet He who tells us to reckon ourselves to be dead to it, has supplied the power to enable us to comply with the exhortation. He has given us the indwelling Spirit, and if we " through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, we shall live ” (Rom. viii. 13); if “ we walk in the Spirit, we shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. ” (Gal. v. 16.) The Spirit of God is therefore our strength in this warfare, the all sufficient power given to enable us to keep sin from reigning in our mortal body.

The completeness of our deliverance is thus not even touched by the presence of indwelling sin. God has judged it in the death of Christ; we are brought clean out from under its power through the resurrection of Christ; and we have the power, in the Holy Spirit dwelling in our hearts, to keep it where God has put it, under judgment and death. Blessed be His name! We can therefore, like Israel, stand upon the resurrection side of our Red Sea, and sing, “ The Lord is my strength and song, and He is become my salvation. ” (Exodus xv. 2.)

“O Lord! Thou now art risen,
     Thy travail all is o’er;
For sin Thou once hast suffered
     Thou liv'st to die no more.
Sin, death, and hell are vanquished
     By Thee, the Church's Head;
And, lo! we share Thy triumphs,
     Thou First -born from the dead.

“Into Thy death baptized,
     We own with Thee we died;
With Thee, our Life, we're risen,
     And shall be glorified.
From sin, the world, and Satan,
     We're ransom'd by Thy blood;
And here would walk as strangers,
     Alive with Thee to God. ”

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