"As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance." In Eph. 5:6 we read, "Because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Thus we have the two classes spoken of in Scripture, according to their abiding and essential character. " Children of obedience," as it is in this verse in Peter (R. V.), and " children of disobedience" in Ephesians. The one class includes those who are " dearly beloved " (i Pet. 2:ii); the other class, those upon whom cometh the "wrath of God." That is, all children of God-all believers, are called "children of obedience," for this is their character as born of the Word; for it is " in obeying the truth " (5:22) they were "born again by the word of God " (5:23).
This is of course linked with their practice too. As children of obedience by nature, so also their lives were to be in holiness, not according to the former lusts. They were children of obedience by nature, they were therefore to show themselves to be such in their daily life.
That the nature and the practice are thus connected, like the tree and its fruit,-the tree good and the fruit good" (Matt. 12:33), is indorsed in Paul's doctrine in Rom. 6:15,-"What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace ? Far be the thought! Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" But nevertheless Paul equally with Peter declares the believer to be by nature (the new nature) a servant of righteousness and of God. "But God be thanked that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness." Now the way we became free from sin, and servants of righteousness, was by death with Christ when we believed; " our old man crucified with Him (5:6), that the body of sin might be destroyed (annulled), that henceforth we should not be in bondage to sin (as Israel to Pharaoh). For he that is dead is freed (justified) from sin." Thus the sinner is made free, like a slave set free, when converted to God. The death and resurrection of Christ have made him a free man, ended the old, and brought him into a new and perfect standing before God in Christ. Free as to his standing by Christ's work ; free as to the state of his soul when he has obeyed the form of doctrine as set forth in this chapter.
Therefore we conclude that Christians-all Christians are spoken of in these scriptures as " children of obedience " and " servants of God " and " servants of righteousness." This they are to begin with ; this they are essentially in their very nature, before practice can be spoken of, before exhortations can be given. The old nature is still in the Christian, since he is to have " no confidence in the flesh" (Phil. 3:3). And this flesh "lusts against the Spirit" (Gal. 5:17). And the new nature is there, the good tree, which constitutes him a "child of obedience," a servant of God and of righteousness, by the life (eternal) which he possesses as born of God.
Unless there can be fruit without the tree that bears it, let us not deny the two natures in the Christian. He fails-there is a nature that produced that:he loves God's people, and serves them-there is a nature that produced that. "The mind of the flesh is enmity against God" (Rom. 8:7), but the believer, by the new nature, delights in the law of God " (Rom. 7:22). "Sin in the flesh " (Rom. 8:3) is the root of the Christian's failures ; but he is free from its power, and by the Spirit can deny its lust, and rejoice in the Lord, and obey God. But let him not forget the flesh is in him, or trust it for a moment; unless it is right for the jailer to open the prison-door for a desperate criminal, and right for the citizens to declare him king. He may have policy enough to hide his hand, but he is a criminal nevertheless, and worthy of judgment, and not of a throne.
The Lord deliver His people from doctrines that lead to confidence in the flesh, rather than to confidence in His Word-the truth that sets free !
Therefore the apostle does not mean in Rom. 6:16 that one who is a servant of God may become a servant of sin, and be on the way to perdition ; but that a certain line of life shows that some are in reality on the way to death and judgment, whereas a different line of life- "obedience unto righteousness" shows that such are "servants of God."
Such passages are often read with gross carelessness, and made to suit doctrines destructive of Christian liberty and real holiness.
And it may be well here to ask the reader's attention to this point. In this passage we have been considering (Rom. 6:16), and in many others (such as Jno. 15:, Rom. 8:13., Heb. 6:, i Jno. 1:6-8), what is presented is not two ways in which children of God may walk, but two different lines of life and conduct, manifesting two different classes of people. In the one case, whatever they profess, their life shows they do not know God; in the other, the life manifests reality. The end of the one course is judgment, the end of the other, reward and blessing. How alone good fruit can be produced (that is, by the new birth,) is not spoken of in such passages. Results-works only-are spoken of, to the end that the conscience may be reached, and the careless one aroused.
Only let the connecting verses be read, and the reader will often find the meaning to be just the opposite of what a careless reading had already gleaned.
But we are not to fashion ourselves according to the former lusts in our ignorance. And we do fashion ourselves in one way or the other, and our characters are being developed in evil or in good. The "former lusts" suggests, or calls to mind, the "old sins" from which we have been cleansed, as in the second epistle (1:9), and the "old leaven" of i Cor. 5:, and also the origin of the term "leaven" itself,-that is, what is left, what belongs to the old.
For us old things are passed away, and all things are become new. We are linked indeed with the things that are eternal and glorious, since the same words are used, in Rev. 21:45, as to the eternal state. "The former things are passed away, . . . behold, I make all things new."
We were once in ignorance and darkness, but now we have been brought to God, and into His marvelous light, and because He is holy, we are to be holy in all our life and conduct.
This is a solemn appeal to the Christian, and calls for a deep-toned character of life. Our God is a consuming fire. Let us have grace whereby we may serve Him acceptably, with reverence and godly fear.
What the natural man hates-the holiness of God-the obedient heart delight sin, however conscious of daily failure.
Our God is "glorious in holiness." (Ex. 15:) May we ever remember who it is that has redeemed us, and so govern our lives. E.S.L.