“ Is it worthwhile?” One day on the very verge of despair he cries out for deliverance, “ Oh! wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” What seems like his utter down fall is really his hour of deliver ance. He had to come to the end of Romans 7 before he could enter into Romans 8. Are you living in Romans 7 today? Do you wish to know the way out? We must condemn the flesh. God condemns the flesh as altogether sinful. He sees “ no good thing” in it. We must accept God’s estimate of the flesh and act accordingly. This seems easy, but it is very dif ficult. God’s standard is very ex acting. He says there is “no good thing” from the center to the cir cumference of the flesh. He con demns its innermost desires (Eph. 2:3) and its outermost deeds (Col. 3:9). The first step that Paul took to life on the highest plane was to condemn the flesh and “ to have no confidence” in it (Phil. 3 :3 ,4 ). Let us put the flesh to a test. Take the most God-like thing in human life, which is love, and place the purest specimen of it in your life alongside of 1 Cor. 13, which is God’s love. Is it always long-suffering with no trace of im patience or irritability? Is it always kind with no rudeness or harsh ness? Does it never seek its own through selfishness or jealousy? Does it think no evil but is always without uncharitableness and sus picion? Has your flesh never broken down under this divine test? God asks us to condemn even the cross- section as unclean and untrust worthy. We must consent to the cruci fixion of the old man. God has al ready crucified the old man, but we must give our hearty consent to the transaction and consider it an accomplished fact. This was the second step Paul took to life on the highest plane. He said, “ I have been crucified with Christ” (Gal. 2 : 20 ) . Have you consented to your cru cifixion with Christ? There can be no reservations, no holding back part of the price. The whole “ I” must be reckoned crucified. God asks you to put your signature to this statement, “ I have been cruci fied with Christ.” If you have never done so, will you do it now? END.
By Ruth Paxson Two Kinds of Christians T here are two kinds of Chris tians, easily identified and clearly distinguished from
than of almost any verse in the Bible. It tells me that sin is not merely an act or an attitude; but it is an absence. It is what I do not do that I know I should do. Who then is without sin? In every believer is that old na ture that can do nothing but sin. Inherent within it is a threefold inability: it cannot know, obey or please God. Also in every believer is a new nature which cannot sin. Inherent within it is a threefold capacity: it can and does know, obey and please God. The co-existence of these two diametrically opposed natures in one person inevitably necessitates conflict. It is the age-long conflict between Satan and Christ with the Christian’s life as the battleground. The conflict is personalized in Ro mans 7. Christ had come into Paul’s life to possess and control it. But another contests his right. Romans 7 is the picture of a Christian tom to pieces by this conflict and baf fled and discouraged beyond words. It is this conflict which staggers many a young Christian and often causes a total eclipse of faith or a gradual backsliding into the world. The first step into the Christian life was taken because his conscience was awakened to the evil of his doings. His chief concern was for his sins. He sought Christ as his Saviour that he might have forgive ness of sins. In the realization of forgiveness he experienced great joy and began witnessing for Christ. But soon he finds himself doing the same things again; the evil habits persist; worse than all, joy in Christ lessens, the heart grows cold and is utterly discouraged. But his love for God is not al together quenched. Something in him cries out for God, while an other something contests every inch of God’s claim and control. He strives against, sin, prays for re lease and makes every effort in his own strength to get victory. He comes to the place where he says,
each other. The question may he asked, “How can there be two streams from one fountain-head which flow so widely apart?” Every Christian is conscious of a duality within himself. Part of him wants to please Christ, part of him wants to satisfy every demand of self. Part of him longs for the rest of the promised land, another part lusts for the onions, leeks and garlic of Egypt. Part of him grasps Christ, part of him grips the world. There is a law of gravitation which pulls him sinward while at the same time a law of counteraction pulls him Christward. The scriptural explanation of this duality is that every believer has within him two natures: the sinful, Adamic nature; and the spiritual Christ nature. In 1 John 1:8 we have a clear unfolding of this truth. If any Christian, how ever full-grown, says he has no sin and is entirely freed from his old nature, he deceives himself. He does not deceive his family or his friends, least of all does he deceive God. He only deceives himself. In the next verse God makes provision for the sins of Christians. The “ sins” mentioned here are those of saints. If there is “ no sin,” then the be liever “ cannot sin.” Every stream, however tiny, must have a source. The Apostle John knew well that some people longing after holiness would be tempted to go beyond Scripture, so he uses very drastic language by way of warning. “ If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us” (1 John 1:10). The gross, fleshly sins may have gone from us, but what of the hid den sins of the spirit; the harsh judgment, the secret irritability, the wrong attitude, the unkind thought. Then what of the sins of omission. I am more afraid of James 4:17
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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