Spirit as the personal energy of that life, so that the Spirit be comes the Almighty Agent within the believer, securing him wholly, making effective in experience that deliverance to which Paul r e f e r r e d when he wrote, “ 0 wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of thi s death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 7:24-25). Not only is there forgiveness for sin’s guilt, but there is grand and glorious deliverance f r om sin’s guilt, but there is grand and glorious deliverance from sin’s power. The deliverance is through Christ Jesus our Lord, but it is the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus who makes the deliverance a present experi ence. Deliverance from sin’s present dominion is as revolutionary as regeneration. This present deliv erance from the control o f sin is a covenant blessing each believer should enjoy. Compa r a t i v e l y speaking, on l y few Christians know by experience that Christ’s death made complete deliverance from the power of indwelling sin possible, and that the Holy Spirit is waiting to make that deliver ance actual. Romans, chapter six, has been called the charter of the Chris tian’s liberty. We have the won derful words, “ free from sin” three times in this chapter. To be free from sin means also, that we become servants of righteousness; it also mean that we become the servants of God. Turn to Romans 6 and read verses 7, 18, 22. In order that you may know this blessed del iverance you must “ reckon yourselves to be dead in deed unto sin.” Realization be comes a fact by appropriation. The law of sin and death does not cease to operate when a per son is regenerated; however, an other law comes into operation. This law of life is stronger than than the law of sin. In our natural state, we are at the mercy of the law o f sin and death, but by vir tue of our union with Christ and
cle, the glory of which fills our hearts with ever increasing won der as we cry, “ Behold what man ner of love the Father hath bes towed upon us that we should be called the sons of God.” Someone might say, “ Sir, this sounds won derful, but how may I know and have this blessed experience?” This experience is stated in dif ferent ways, but each in a sim plicity of language that even a child can understand. In John 1 :12, we read, “ But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth upon him” (John 3:36). The Holy Spirit, as the Spirit of Life, imparts to the one who accepts Jesus Christ as a personal Saviour, the very life of God. This impartation of the divine nature takes place when a person is born anew, or born from above. Not only does the Holy Spirit bring about the miracle o f regeneration, the Holy Spirit also RELEASES. “ For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death” (Rom. 8:2). These words express the experience of believ ers only. It is not the cleansing of the flesh, not the improvement o f the life of self, not the refine ment of the old Adamic nature. It is the deliverance from the law of sin and death. Blessed release! “The law” in both occurrences here indicates “a given principle acting uniformly.” The law o f sin and death is the power working in our unredeemed bodies, against which we are, apart from the pow er of the Holy Spirit, absolutely helpless. Another law has come in, thank God! Not only has the be liever life in the living Christ, but to him has been given the Holy
As the “ Spirit of Life” the Holy Spirit REGENERATES. Apart from regeneration all men are spiritually dead in their trespasses and sins. It matters not what cultural or spiritual advan tages may be ours by natural gen eration, we need to be bom again. In fact, one cannot be a member of the Church which is the Body of Christ without the new birth. When a person is willing to exer cise repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, as the “ Spirit of Life” imparts to the one who was spirtually dead, the life o f Christ, w'hich is eternal life. We hear a great deal about the “ divine spark” and we are told by many that regeneration is the fanning to a flame of that divine spark which is already in us. No such spark exists, for “That which is bom of the flesh is flesh, and that which is bom of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3 :6). The Holy Spirit does not lift the nat ural life to a higher plane. His method is not reformation but regeneration, the miracle of a new creation. A man may possess the bright est intellectual life; he may have an unblemished moral character; his conduct may be unimpeach able; he may display the most amiable qualities of disposition, and yet know nothing of what it means to be made anew by the Spirit of Life. Without the new birth we can no more enjoy the life of God than can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard its spots. The most erudite person, and the most attractive p e r s on a lity , reaches no higher than the nat ural and earthy. To know the operation o f the Spirit of Life in the experience of regeneration is to be possessed of another breath, the breath of a new nature; it is the translation o f the spirit into another and in finite sphere; it is possessing un created and eternal life ; it is par taking of the divine nature. Stu pendous mystery, matchless mira
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