Sermon 12: Romans 8:1-16

  We must not forget that the only object that we should have in this study of the Bible is that we may be drawn nearer to God and that we may learn that the Word of God means just what it says and that what it says is the voice of God speaking to us individually.  Take the Word and build upon it.

  There is one thought that was mentioned last night that I wish to impress upon your minds.  Our union with Christ and with His righteousness may be and should be just as close and complete as our union has been with sin.  The figure of marriage shows that to be so.  We were held in union with sin--married to the old man--to the body of sin.  That was an unlawful connection, consequently the body of sin was a body of death to us, because we could not be separated from that body except by death.  That body and ourselves were identified--we were married; therefore we were one, and the body of sin was the controlling influence in that union; it dominated everything.

  Now Christ comes to us, and when we yield ourselves to Him He looses the bonds that have bound us to the body of sin.  Then we enter into the same intimate relation with our Lord Jesus Christ that we previously sustained with the body of sin.  We become united to Christ--married to Him--and then we are one.  And as in the other case, where the body of sin was the controlling influence, so in this second marriage, Christ is the controlling influence.

  Notice how perfectly that figure of marriage is carried out.  We are represented as the woman.  The husband is the head of the family, and so Christ is our head, and we yield ourselves to Him.  We are one with Him.  What a precious thought it is, that we are one flesh with Christ!  In this we see the mystery of the incarnation appearing again.  If we can believe that Christ was in the flesh, God incarnate in Christ, we can believe this--Christ dwelling in us and working through us--through our flesh, just the same as when He took flesh upon Himself and controlled it.  It is a mystery that we cannot understand, but we acknowledge it, and that gives us freedom.

  We sang tonight, "My Sin is Nailed to His Cross."  He says that our old man was crucified with Him.  That is true, but it is not raised with Him.  Christ came to minister, and not to be ministered unto, but He came to minister to us and not to be the minister of sin.  Therefore when we and the body of sin together are crucified with Christ and are buried together, we are raised up to walk in newness of life, but the body of sin remains buried, so we are free from it.  Now what follows?