THE KING’S BUSINESS
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that the indwelling Spirit will heal our present physical infirmities, but that is not the meaning of the verse as the con text makes perfectly clear. There is a sense in which the Holy Spirit, even now, quickens or invigorates our bodies, but it is not of that that Paul is here speaking. Friday, July 13 . -... .... Rom. 8 : 12 , 13 . Our obligation is not to the flesh to live after its promptings. If we do live after its promptings we shall die. Our obliga tion is to the indwelling Spirit of God, and by the power of this indwelling Spirit it is our privilege to mortify (i. e. make to die) the deeds of the body, i. e. the deeds to which the body prompts us. This put ting to death or making to die of the deeds of the body is a continuous process as the tense of the verb indicates. It is something that we are to do day by day. It is evident from this that, even when we are in the Spirit, -when we have passed ottt of the life of daily defeat, pictured in Rom. 7 :9-24 into the life of victory set forth in Rom. 8 , we still have the body with its promptings to evil. We have the Spirit and we have the body, and these two are contrary the one to the other (cf. Gal. 5:17). It is our privilege to. have daily victory over the body, but this victory is not in ourselves, it is in the power of the Holy Ghost. If we get to a place where we think the victory is in ourselves and get our eyes off of God and neglect prayer and the study- of the Word, we will have an awful fall. Nevertheless, while we have the body we do not need to be governed by it. It is our privilege through the Holy Spirit’s power to put its deeds to death every day and every minute (Gal. 5:16, 22, 23). The fact set forth in these verses that we still lave the: body is the thought that some are trying to express by saying that even in the life of victory we still: -have- the, ."carnal nature," but that is an unfortunate way of expressing it.. A “carnal nature” indicates a nature governed by. the flesh, but while we have the body ■and must.put its deeds to "death day i by
day by the power of the Holy Ghost, this certainly does not mean that our nature is governed by the flesh. Our nature ought not to be governed by the flesh but by the Spirit of God. On the other hand, those who talk about the “eradication of the car nal nature” are also unfortunate in their implication, for the way they' put it it implies that the body is gone, and we are beyond its temptations. The body is not gone, the body is here to the end of the chapter, and we must put its deeds to death day by day, but it is our privilege to do this every day and every hour. If we do thus put to death in the power of the Holy Spirit the deeds of the body, we “shall live.” Saturday, July 14 . Rom. 8 : 14 , 15 , The expression with which v. 14 closes, “Sons of God,” is full of wonderful mean ing, but we are so familiar with these won derful wor^s, “Sons of God,’’That we do not stop to weigh their meaning. If we did, they would fill our hearts with “joy unspeakable and full of glory.” There would be great shoutings among us if we took in the full import of these words. And who are “sons of God?” The Nth verse, tells us, “as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” What does it meah to be led by the Spirit of God? It means that we surrender the entire guidance and control of our life to the Holy Spirit. Are you thus led ?> Have you surrendered your whole life to the Holy Spirit’s control? If you have, you are a “son of God,” not merely a “child of God.” There is a clear distinction drawn in the Bible between a child of God and a son of God (see Gal. 4:1-6). A son is a child who has come to maturity. As long as we are under law, under ordinances and precepts, outside of us, we are children, children of God it is true, but nofle the less children, immature, in bondage to our pedagogue, the law (Gal. 4:1-3) ; but when we give bur lives up to the control not of laws and rules outride of us, but to the Person .who- dwells'.-within'.us,' .the Holy
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