The
purpose of this Paper is to establish the scriptural fact that the believer's
body, and its members, are neither the source of sin, nor sinful.
Rather, that they are neutral, instrumental for either the
manifestation of the indwelling life of the sinful first Adam, or that
of the indwelling righteous Last Adam.
If
you want to have a little laugh, and possibly a little cry, ask several
leaders in your church to briefly explain Romans 6:6 to you.
Don't embarrass any of the rest of the congregation by asking them.
"Knowing
this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be
destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin"
(Romans
6:6).
The
fact of the matter is that the doctrine of Romans 6:6 is not only the most
important in the Bible concerning the Christian life, but it is also the most
difficult.
The key to its interpretation is that it must be considered as
positional truth.
The
doctrine, considered to be positional, will place the believer under grace,
and will result in correct experience. The
doctrine considered to be experiential, will place the believer under
law, and lead to erroneous experience.
Most
believers, including all within the Covenant and Charismatic realms, either do
not know of, or reject, the positional truth of the Word.
Hence they view Romans 6:6 as experiential.
They are forced to the conclusion that the old man, having been
crucified, is therefore annihilated, extinct.
It is astounding to think that these people fail to realize that death
always means separation, never annihilation!
We
can see an even more obvious and drastic error of the eradicationists when we
consider the following. The Lord
Jesus Christ, having been made to be
sin
for us (2 Corinthians 5:21), was condemned and crucified.
That death separated
Him
from our sin, and He arose in new-creation life.
Although crucified, He
was
not annihilated!
The
believer, prior to conversion, was in fallen Adam, the old man of flesh. That was his standing before God--it was the only life he
possessed. Hence in Adam, being
Adamic, he was "condemned already" (John 3:18; 1 Corinthians 15:22).
Therefore,
when the old Adamic man was crucified with Christ (Romans 6:6), he, the
believer, was also crucified with Him (Galatians 2:20).
That Calvary death separated him from Adam, and separated
him unto Christ. As a
result he was re-created in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17), and arose in Him in
resurrection life-newness of life, new-creation life (Romans 6:3,4).
The believer was crucified, but he was not annihilated!
The
eradicationist, dispensing with the old man, must account for the presence of
sin in the believer. He speaks of
the "characteristics" of the old man, our "remaining
humanness" or old sinful "habits and inclinations." With
the source of sin supposedly gone, they are now dealing only with symptoms.
They seek to develop new righteous habits to push out the old sinful
ones--all via legal effort.
For
the Covenantist, and the majority of believers, the law is relied upon for the
development of the new man. As
Martyn Lloyd-Jones erroneously put it:
The
Apostle Paul is justified in saying that the law, and each individual commandment,
is thoroughly good. Nothing can
be better for us than the keeping of the law.
"Yield your members as slaves to righteousness." Yes,
righteousness, to conformity to God's standard, conformity to God's holy law,
and to what man was originally.
What
the Apostle says is that as you yield your members as slaves of righteousness,
and as you go on living this righteous life, and practicing it with all your
might and energy, and all of your time and everything else, you will find that
you will become cleaner and cleaner, purer and purer, holier and holier (Romans
7, p. 269).
In
his advocating that the believer keep the law, Dr. Lloyd-Jones refers to
Paul.
But Paul said, "Not having mine own righteousness, which is of the
law,
but
that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God
through faith" (Phil. 3:9). Not
to mention Paul's teaching that "For I, through the law, am dead to the
law , that I might live unto God" (Galatians 2:19. See also Romans 7:6.) Now to look at Romans 6:6 more closely.
"Knowing
this, that our old man was crucified with Him."
This
knowledge is a "coming into knowledge," "a discriminating
apprehension of facts." There is but one way that we can know that
our old man was crucified with Christ 2,000 years ago on the Cross of Calvary,
and that is by the positional truth of the Word.
It is something that could never be known via experience.
For
example, positionally, our bodies were redeemed at the Cross. Experientially,
our bodies are yet to be redeemed, and are subject to sin and death. But at the Rapture, our bodies will experience their
positional status. "He that
raised up Christ from the dead shall also give life unto our mortal bodies by
His Spirit that dwelleth in you." "The Lord Jesus Christ, who
shall change our lowly body, that it may be fashioned like His glorious
body" (Romans 8:11; Philippians 3:21).
Positionally,
we are already glorified. "Whom
He justified, them He also glorified" (Romans 8:30).
Experientially, we are in a state of humiliation.
But, "when Christ, who is our life, shall appear [His second
advent to the earth], then shall ye also appear with Him in glory" (Col.
3:4).
Positionally,
we have been separated from, taken out of, fleshly Adam.
"Ye are not in the flesh" (Romans 8:9).
But experientially, for God's purposes, the fleshly Adam remains
within us, as believers. Paul
would not exhort us to put off that which is not in residence: "Put off
the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts."
"Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the [Adamic]
flesh" (Ephesians 4:22; Galatians 5:16).
Lust has a source--the indwelling, Adamic old man of flesh.
"That
the body of sin might be destroyed."
The
majority of believers, including all in the Covenant realm, consider "the
body of sin" to be the human body. This
concept will be touched upon below.
The
Greek word for "destroyed" is "katargeo", i.e.,
"annulled," "power broken." The verse says that our old
man has been crucified, not our body.
The old man is the Adamic life indwelling the body.
And
why was the old man crucified? As
far as the Christian life is concerned, the old man (the source of sin in the
life) was crucified "that henceforth we should not serve sin";
that sin would not reign in our mortal body.
We need no longer be dominated by the power of indwelling sin.
The
Christian life begins, and is continued, on the basis of faith alone.
Unless we exercise faith in the fact that the power of indwelling sin
was annulled at the Cross, we will continue under its power and reign.
Paul tells us to believe that the power of sin, as manifest in the body
of sin, was broken, nullified. We
are to reckon upon that truth, that henceforth we might not serve sin.
"Reckon ye also yourselves to have died indeed unto sin" (Romans
6:11).
As
Wm. R. Newell warns, unless you
are able to settle your faith upon the fact that the old man has been
crucified, and that you have died unto sin--of which the old man is the source,
the body of it--the law, which is the strength of sin, will dominate your
life.
Nearly
all theological teaching since the Reformation has failed to set forth clearly
our judicial [positional] end in death with Christ on the Cross. The fatal result of this terrible error is to leave the law
as claimant over those in Christ: for "law has dominion over a man as
long as he liveth" (Romans 7: 1).
Unless
you are able to believe in your very heart that you died unto sin with Christ,
that you were buried, and that your history before God in Adam the first came
to an utter end at Calvary, you will not get free from the claims of the Law
upon your life and conscience.
In
response to our faith in the fact that the old man has been crucified, and
that we have died unto sin, the Holy Spirit applies that work of the Cross to
the indwelling Adamic life, freeing us from its power and reign.
"Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the
[Adamic] flesh" (Galatians 5:16).
"Let
not sin, therefore, reign in your mortal body, that ye
should obey it in its lusts" (Romans 6:12).
It
is absolutely essential to realize that the mortal body is neutral: it
is neither sinful, nor righteous, of itself.
It is an instrument that either expresses the sinfulness of the first
Adam within, or which manifests the righteousness of the indwelling Last Adam.
The
body is the vehicle for the use of the old man, or the New. (1)
"Now then, it is no more I [the new man] that do it, but [the old man]
sin that dwelleth in me [the new man]" (Romans 7:17). (2)
"That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal
body." "So now also Christ shall be magnified in my body,
whether it be by life or by death" (2 Corinthians 4:10; Philippians
1:20).
Dr.
MacArthur, and Covenantists in general, having eradicated the old man, are
forced into the further error of assigning sin to the body.
They make the body the source of sin in the believer's life.
Paul
does not warn about sin reigning in our souls or spirits, but only about it
reigning in our bodies, because that is the only place in a Christian where
sin can operate.
It
is important to note that when he speaks of sin in the Christian's life, Paul
is always careful to identify sin with the outer corrupt body, not with the
inner nature (New Testament Commentary--Romans 1-8, pp.
337,418).
Dr.
MacArthur contradicts the Apostle Paul, who wrote, "Every sin that a man
doeth is outside the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against
his own body." "Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness
of the flesh and spirit" (1 Corinthians 6:18; 2 Corinthians 7:1).
James
states, "But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust.
When lust is conceived, it bringeth forth sin.
Wherefore, my beloved brethren, put away all filthiness and overflowing
of wickedness, and receive with meekness the engrafted Word, which is able to
save your souls" (1:14,21).
"Who
shall deliver
me from
the body of this death?' (Romans 7:24).
Here
Paul refers to "the body of sin" as "'the body of this death.
In his Romans 7 struggle against indwelling Adamic sin, Paul came to
realize that it was "no more I [new creation] that do it, but sin that
dwelleth in me" (vs. 17).
When
he came to rely upon Christ as his Deliverer ("I thank God through Jesus
Christ," vs. 25) from the power of indwelling sin, he said, "For the
law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of
sin and death" (Romans 8:2). Paul
did not consider his body as sinful, nor to be the power of sin in his life.
Rather,
he said, "Now the body is... for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.
"Know ye not that your bodies are the members of
Christ?" "What, know ye not that your body is the temple of
the Holy Spirit?" "Therefore, glorify God in your body."
"Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God."
"So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies" (1 Corinthians
6:13,15,19,20; Romans 12:1; Ephesians 5:28).
"If
Christ be in
you, the body is dead because of
sin" (Romans
8:10).
Our
bodies are positionally, but not as yet experientially,
redeemed. At present they are
subject to sin and death, and have no tendency toward God--they are neutral.
"But
if ye, through the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body"
(Romans
8:13).
The
(sinful) deeds of the body are the expression, the manifestation, of the
indwelling source of sin, the old man. Sinful deeds do not originate
in the body; they emanate from the old man--put off the old man with
his deeds" (Colossians 3:9).
Sinful
deeds are mortified "through the Spirit." Our reliance is to
be upon
the Spirit, as we count upon having died unto indwelling sin. We do not
struggle,
with the Spirit's help, to put sinful deeds to death. Our walk is
by
faith in the finished work of the Cross, by which the Spirit puts to death
the
sinful deeds at their source.
"I
keep my body under, and bring it into subjection" (1 Corinthians 9:27).
Paul
disciplined his body, and kept it under subjection to his new life, that it
might manifest the fruit of the Spirit, rather than the works of the flesh.
"In
whom [Christ] also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without
hands, in putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of
Christ" (Colossians 2:11).
Of
the totality of sin, the indwelling source, the Adamic old man, Paul now uses
a third description: First, it was "the body of sin" (Romans 6:6).
Then it was "the body of this death" (Romans 7:24). Here it is
"the body of the flesh."
The
circumcision made without hands was the cutting off, the separating death of
the Cross, where Christ, having been made to be sin, was cut off, separated by
death, from it. We, as believers, were positionally cut off from
fleshly Adam, having been identified with Christ in His death unto sin
(Romans 6:10; Galatians 2:20).
"Neither
yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield
yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and
your members as instruments of righteousness unto God' (Romans 6:13).
We
are to count ourselves to have died unto sin, and to be alive unto God.
Yielding unto God, our body and its members will not be instruments of sin,
but of righteousness. "For as ye have yielded your members servants
to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members
servants to righteousness, unto holiness" (Romans 6:19). As James
said, "The tongue is a little member...out of the same mouth proceed
blessing and cursing" (3:5,10).
"For
when we were in the flesh, the sinful impulses, which were by the law, did
work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death" (Romans 7:5).
"The
strength, of sin is the law" (1 Corinthians 15:56). Sin's source in
the believer is the Adamic life. If law provokes the flesh to act, it is
expressed via the members of the body; they are instruments of
manifestation, not the source.
"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'
(Romans
7:23).
In
verses 17 and 18 Paul said, "It is no more I that do it, but sin that
dwelleth in me. For I know that
in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing. "He says that
in his flesh, the Adamic life that continues to indwell his body and its
members, dwells no good thing--it is a law of sin.
There
are good things that dwell in the body of the believer as a new creation: the
Holy Spirit; and the life of the Lord Jesus Christ.
"From
where come wars and fightings among you?
Come they not here, even of your lusts that war in your members?"
(James 4:1).
Lusts
war in the body and its members, but their source is the Adamic flesh-life,
the "lusts of the flesh."
Mortify,
therefore, your members which are upon the earth" (Colossians
3:5).
We
are not to mortify, to put to death in actuality, the members of our body.
We are not Roman Catholics, or zealots of India.
We are to count upon our death to indwelling Adamic sin, the positional
sanctification that became ours at Calvary as identified with Christ in His
death unto sin (Romans 6:10)
We
are to reckon ourselves, as new creations in Christ, as having died unto the
old-creation Adamic life, which would manifest itself in our members as
"fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil desire, and
coveteousness," as well as "anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy
communication out of your mouth, lying, etc. (Colossians 3:5,8,9).
In
Colossians 3:9, Paul says, "Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have
put off the old man and his deeds." He does not say, "lie
not--since ye have mortified your members." Lying is a
characteristic of, a deed of, the Adamic
old
man. Count yourself separated from the source of sin, and in union with
the
Source of righteousness; and your
members will manifest righteousness
accordingly.
Nov.
1, 1996
Let
The Facts Of Your Position
OVERWHELM
The
Feelings Of Your Condition