The Reign of Sin

We now come to a further exhortation:"Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye
should obey it in the lusts thereof" (verse 12). The truth underlying this command is that in our
natural state the inward evil principle lords it over us completely. The whole person is carried
away by selfish pursuits and pleasures, and from this bondage the gospel delivers us, bringing us
under a new Master, Jesus the Lord.

To Him we are called to yield ourselves as those who are alive from the dead. We are not free
agents in the sense of being "our own," but we are His who died for us and rose again. We cannot
plan to serve the Lord today or tomorrow as it may suit us. In such matters self has no right to
rule or to decide. We are delivered from its reign, and Christian service is but to give Christ His
own.

Yielding Ourselves and Our Members

From verse 13 we gather that there are two divisions in the act of surrender. The act is to apply
to the person as a whole, and to the various separate powers he possesses. "Neither yield ye your
members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin; but yield yourselves unto God, as those that
are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God."

We have then to present self, that is, to present the entire being, spirit, soul, and body. This we
offer to Him as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable, our reasonable service. The whole entity is
Hi&, and we "yield ourselves to God as those that are alive from the dead."

This act may be called consecration or dedication, or whatever you please. But in fact it
constitutes the heart’s response to the living Lord from the initial stage of its history. Saul of
Tarsus from the dust said, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" In self-abnegation he placed
himself unreservedly at the Master’s disposal. This surrender was, of course, in principle at first,
but he followed on in that attitude of heart, schooling and educating himself physically and
morally to do the will of God in all things, all his members subjugated and working together
harmoniously to this common end.

Justification of Life

The apostle brings in practical righteousness as the outcome of such service as this, "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?" "Being then made free from sin ye became
the servants of righteousness." "Now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness."

In the previous chapters of this Epistle the apostle treats of that judicial righteousness which we
receive through faith. But the accompanying effect upon the believer is to make his conduct
righteous also. Righteous actions or "works" are the evidence of inward faith. So James instructs

us. He says, "Faith without works is dead," and he refers to the case of Abraham. "Was not
Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?" (James
2:20,21).

Now the patriarch believed God some forty years before the sacrifice of Isaac. It was a settled
thing between God and him. God promised; Abraham believed God; and He counted it to him for
righteousness (Gen. 15:6). But this righteousness of faith was to be demonstrated before men, and
on Mount Moriah Abraham’s life was justified by his actions.

Fruit unto Holiness

"But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto
holiness, and the end everlasting life" (verse 22). Holiness implies separation to the service of
God. The vessels of the tabernacle and of the temple were holy, for they were used exclusively
in the worship of Jehovah. When Belshazzar used them at his revels, the judgment of God fell
upon the impious king.

Believers are holy vessels belonging to God, and placed here in the world for His service. Filled
with Christ, what use may we not be to thirsty souls? The result of our yielding ourselves up as
bondslaves to God will be "fruit unto holiness."

It involves an error to think of holiness only from its negative side; for it implies much more than
the absence of sin. Consideration of this aspect alone leads to a morbid state in which there is
often a long and unavailing struggle to attain to this condition. The whole truth is that holiness is
positive as well as negative. It expresses itself in an absolute devotion to God. The holy are His
instruments. When God takes hold of a man, the divine touch makes him holy.

We are therefore to yield ourselves to God as those that are alive to Him, not keeping back a part
like Ananias and Sapphira, whose devotion was a pretense and abomination to God. Such fruit was
not unto holiness.

Sin’s Wages and God’s Gift

The apostle concludes this section with the weighty declaration, "The wages of sin is death, but
the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (verse 23). This is one of the few
instances of the mention of eternal life in the writings of Paul. In John the subject abounds both
in his Gospel and in his Epistles. The two apostles, however, are in no sense in opposition to one
another, but were inspired to record different views of the same blessing of God for man through
His grace.

Paul shows us eternal life in its activities in the justified person_the new life which is in a risen
Saviour. Instead of corruption and death which are the wages of a life of sin, God bestows eternal
life through Jesus Christ. Through the grace of God, we are justified by faith, for Jesus the Lord
was delivered for our offenses and raised again for our justification; and that great sacrifice made
way for us to be delivered from the bondage in which we were once held to the evil inclinations

of our nature.

This then is the new life which God gives. He has made us free to live to Him and to serve Him
in the name of Jesus Christ.

(From Bible Treasury, Vol. 9N.)

"Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto
obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 1:2).

It is essential for the true character of our path as Christians that we should lay hold of what this
obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ was. The character of Christ’s obedience was different from
legal obedience. If my child wants to do something, and I forbid it, and the child promptly obeys,
I speak of its ready obedience. Christ never obeyed in this way; He never had a desire checked
by an imposed law. It was never needed to say to Him, "Thou shalt not," when He willed to do
something. He acted because the Father willed it. That was His motive, the only cause of His
acting. He lived by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God. When there was none,
He had nothing to do. Hence the will of God, whatever it was, was His rule.

This is the true character of the obedience of Jesus Christ and of our obedience as Christians_that
the will of God is the reason, the motive, for doing a thing. We are sanctified to the obedience of
Jesus Christ, to obey as He obeyed. When Satan came and said to Him, "Command that these
stones be made bread" (Matt. 4:3), He answers, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every
word … of God" (verse 4). His actual Me, as carried out in conduct, flowed from the Word of
God, which was His motive for doing it; if He had not that, He had no motive. If I have no motive
but, my Father’s will, how astonishingly it simplifies everything! If you never thought of doing
a thing unless it was God’s positive will that you should do it, surely three-quarters of your
questions and perplexities would at once disappear! This is the practical truth as to ourselves; yet
we clearly see that such was the obedience of Christ.

This, too, is the principle of real godliness, because it keeps us in constant dependence upon God,
and constant reference to God. It is an amazing comfort for my soul to think that there is not a
single thing all through my Me in which God as my Father has not a positive will about me to
direct me; that there is not a step from the moment I am born (though while we are unconverted
we understand nothing about it) in which there is not a positive path or will of God to direct me
here. I may forget it and fail, but we have in the Word and will of God that which keeps the soul,
not in a constant struggle against one thing and another, but in the quiet consciousness that the
grace of God has provided for everything_that I do not take a step that His love has not provided
for. It keeps the soul in the sweet sense of divine favor and in dependence upon God, so that like
David we can say, "Thy right hand upholdeth me." Moses does not say, "Show me a way through
the wilderness," but "Show me now thy way" (Exod. 33:13). A man’s ways reveal what he is;
Gods way shows what He is.

In its path the heart gets separated more and more intelligently to God, and gets to understand
what God is. If I know that God likes this and likes that along my path, it is because I know what
He is; and besides its being the right path and causing us thus to grow in intelligent holiness of
life, there is godliness in it too. The constant referring of the heart affectionately to God is real
godliness and we have to look for that. We have it perfectly in our Lord:"I knew," He says, "that
Thou hearest Me always" (John 11:42). There is the confidence of power and reference to God
with confiding affection. If I know that it is His path of goodness, His will that is the source of

everything to me, there is then the cultivation of a life consistent in its ways with God; communion
is uninterrupted because the Spirit is not grieved. This is the obedience of Jesus Christ, to which
we are set apart.

(From "The Path and Character of the Christian," in Collected Writings , Vol. 16.)

If a child habitually neglected its father and did not take the trouble of knowing his mind and will,
it is easy to foresee that when a difficulty presented itself this child would not be in circumstances
to understand what would please its parent. There are certain things which God leaves in
generalities in order that the state of the individual’s soul may be proved. People would like a
convenient and comfortable means of knowing God’s will; but there exists no means of
ascertaining it without reference to the state of our own soul.

We sometimes seek God’s will, desiring to know how to act in circumstances in which His only
will is that we should not be found in them at all. If conscience were really in activity, its first
effect would be to make us leave those circumstances. It is our own will which has set us there,
and we should like nevertheless to enjoy the comfort of being guided of God in a path which we
ourselves have chosen. Such is a very common case.

Be assured that if we are near enough to God, we shall not be at a loss to know His will. In a long
and active life it may happen that God, in His love, may not always at once reveal His will to us.
He does this that we may feel our dependence, particularly when we have a tendency to act
according to our own will. However, "if . . . thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of
light" (Matt. 6:22); from this it is certain that if the whole body is not full of light, the eye is not
single. You will say, That is poor consolation. I answer it is rich consolation for those whose sole
desire is to have the eye single and to walk with God.

"If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world. But if a
man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him" (John 11:9,10). It is always
the same principle. "He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of
life" (John 8:12). You cannot exempt yourself from this moral law of Christianity. "For this cause
we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be
filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that ye might walk
worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the
knowledge of God" (Col. 1:9,10). The mutual connection of these things is of immense importance
for the soul. The Lord must be known intimately if one would walk in a way worthy of Him; and
it is thus that we grow in the knowledge of God’s will. "And this I pray, that your love may
abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; that ye may approve things that are
excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ" (Phil. 1:9,10). Finally,
it is written that the spiritual man "judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man" (1 Cor.
2:15).

It is then the purpose of God, and a precious purpose, that we should be able to discern His will
only according to our own spiritual state. Our business is to keep close to Him. God would not
be good to us if He permitted us to discover His will without that. It might be convenient just to
have a director of consciences; we should thus be spared the discovery and the chastisement of
our moral condition. Thus, if you seek how you may discover the will of God without that, you
are seeking evil; and this is what we see every day. One Christian is in doubt, in perplexity;
another, more spiritual, sees as clear as the day, sees no difficulty, and ends by understanding that

it lies only in the other’s state of soul. "He that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar
off" (2 Peter 1:9).

As regards circumstances, I believe that it is possible_ though not preferable_for a person to be
guided by them. This is what is meant by being "held in with bit and bridle" (Psalm 32:9).
However, the promise and privilege of him who has faith is, "I will instruct thee and teach thee
in the way which thou shalt go:I will guide thee with Mine eye" (verse 8). God who is faithful
has given the promise of directing us thus_near enough to God to understand by a single glance
from Him. He warns us not to be as the horse and the mule which have no understanding of the
will, thoughts, or desires of their master. It is needful to hold them in with bit and bridle.
Doubtless even that is better than to stumble, fall, and run counter to Him who holds us in; but
it is a sad state, and such it is to be guided by circumstances. Undoubtedly it is merciful on God’s
part so to act, but very sad on ours.

There must now be drawn a distinction between judging what one has to do in certain
circumstances, and being guided by them. He who allows himself to be guided by them always
acts in the dark as to knowing the will of God. There is absolutely nothing moral in it; it is an
external force that constrains. Now it is very possible that I may have no judgment beforehand of
what I shall do:I know not what circumstances may arise, and consequently I can make no
resolutions. But the instant the circumstances are there, I judge with a full and divine conviction
what is the path of God’s will and of the Spirit’s intention and power. That demands the highest
degree of spirituality. It is not to be directed by circumstances, but to be directed by God in them,
being near enough to God to be able to judge immediately what one ought to do as soon as the
circumstances are there.

As to impressions, God can suggest them, and it is certain that in fact He does suggest a thing to
the mind; but in that case the propriety of the thing and its moral character will be as clear as the
sun at noonday. In prayer God can remove from the heart certain carnal influences, which, being
destroyed, leave room for certain other spiritual influences taking all their place in the soul. Thus
He makes us feel the importance of some duty which perhaps had been entirely obscured by
preoccupation caused by some desired object. I do not doubt that God often makes impressions
on our minds when we walk with Him and listen to His voice.

Another important point which must be made is that a person should never act without knowing
the will of God. The will of God ought to be the motive as well as the rule of our conduct; and
until His will is in activity, there is an absence of any true motive for ours. If you act in ignorance
in this respect, you are at the mercy of circumstances. It is true that God may turn all to the good
of His children; but why act when we are ignorant what His will is? Is the necessity of acting
always so extremely pressing?

On the other hand, if I do something with the full certainty that I am doing the will of God, it is
clear that an obstacle is no more than a test of my faith, and it ought not to stop me. It stops us
perhaps through our lack of faith; because, if we do not walk sufficiently near to God in the sense
of our nothingness, we shall lack faith to accomplish what we have faith enough to discern. When
we are doing our own will or are negligent in our walk, God in His mercy may warn us by a

hindrance which arrests us if we pay attention to it. God may permit, where there is much activity
and labor, that Satan should raise up hindrances, in order that we may be kept in dependence on
the Lord.

Now let us examine whether Scripture does not present some principle suitable to direct us. Here
evidently spirituality is the essential thing_is everything. The rule that we should do what Jesus
would have done in such and such a circumstance is excellent, where and when it can be applied.
But are we often in the circumstances where the Lord was found?

Next, it is often useful to ask myself whence comes such a desire of mine, or such a thought of
doing this or that. I have found that this alone decides more than half of the difficulties that
Christians meet with. If a thought comes from God and not from the flesh, then we have only to
address ourselves to God as to the manner and means of executing it, and we shall soon be
directed.

I have communicated to you on this subject all that my mind can furnish you with at this moment.
For the rest, remember only that the wisdom of God conducts us in the way of God’s will:if our
own will is in activity, God cannot bend to that. That is the essential thing to discover. It is the
secret of the life of Christ.

(From Collected Writings, Vol. 16.)

What is the scope of the will of God? How can we know what the Lord’s own will is? How are
we to be maintained in this pathway? These questions arise from a genuine desire to know how
to put into practice some of the great truths of Scripture. We learn from many passages in the New
Testament that the one great aim and object of our Eves should be to do the will of God.

The scope of God’s will reaches up to the highest point of His purposes in Christ, and down to
the smallest detail of our lives. "It begins in heaven and reaches down to the kitchen," according
to Spurgeon. In the first we are lifted up to Christ where He is; in the second He is brought down
to us where we are. The first sets forth the favor in which we are in Christ before God; the
second, the grace that there is for us in Christ for all the vicissitudes of the life of faith and
obedience below. It is Christ either way; we in Him on the one hand, He for us and in us on the
other. We are instructed as to the first in the early or doctrinal parts of such Epistles as those to
the Ephesians and Colossians; as to the latter, in the practical parts of these and other Epistles.
Indeed, we cannot leave out any part of the Word if we are to stand perfect and complete in all
the will of God.

But the exercises that lead to our questions Me more on the side of our daily life, and our desire
to please God in all things and to know His will in matters about which the Word gives no special
direction. "To begin well is half the battle," is an old saying, and it is certainly that and more in
this matter. To begin with the desire to do His will is to begin well. How often we wish that the
thing that we would like was His will for us. Our desire is for our own will, and we pray, perhaps
eagerly and often, that it might be so. A little girl one night added to her usual prayer, "And
please, God, make Manchester the chief city in Great Britain." "Whatever made you pray like
that?" asked her mother. "I said it was in my exam paper today," answered the tearful and
doubtful little maid, "and I want it to be." Yes, often we want a thing to be, and want it so
passionately that we are not in a fit state of mind and heart to learn what the will of God is about
it.

"If any man will do His will he shall know . . ." There we must begin; and we do begin there
when we understand that God’s will for us in everything springs from His great love; that it is not
against us at any point, but is against everything that would be harmful to us. This is proved in
the Epistle to the Romans. There we are able to trace out all the way that God has taken to bless
us, and we have to exclaim at the end of the review, God is "for us; who can be against us? He
that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also
freely give us all things?" (Romans 8:31,32). Can we trust a love like that? a love that would stop
at nothing when our good was in view? Then let us trust it fully and say, The will of God is
"good, and acceptable, and perfect" (Romans 12:2). But to prove it there must be subjection to
God. But is subjection difficult when it is perfect love that asks for it? "Yield yourselves unto
God, as those that are alive from the dead" (Romans 6:13) is such a reasonable exhortation that
the heart that knows His love responds to it naturally and at once.

Granted then the willing mind to be subject to God, and that confidence of heart that trusts Him
and leaves the consequences with Him, since He sees the end from the beginning and cares for

us with a Father’s love and care, the next thing needed is nearness to Himself. If we walk with
God as Enoch and Noah and Abraham did, we shall become conversant with His will even when
it has not been definitely expressed. We can understand this in natural things. I knew a boy who
when asked to do certain things said, "No, my father would not wish me to do that." Yet his father
had expressed no will as to the matter at all. The lad knew his father’s thoughts through
companionship with him and did not require a definite word on the matter.

Psalm 32:8,9 shows us God’s way of leading us. "I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way
which thou shalt go; I will guide thee with Mine eye." But such guidance calls for nearness to God
and that sensitiveness of soul that responds to His instruction. If we are not near Him we are like
the horse and the mule that do not know their owner’s will except by the check and pull of the bit
and bridle. This life of nearness to God and obedience to His will was perfectly portrayed for us
in the Lord’s life on earth. He is our pattern.

We are maintained in this path by the grace and company of the Lord Himself, and apart from
Him we could not tread it. It is the path for those who are alive from the dead, and as soon as we
step into it we find that we have a traveling companion. He hath said, "I will never leave thee, nor
forsake thee" (Heb. 13:5). "Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me" (Psalm
23:4). Cultivate the thought of the Lord as your traveling companion in the path of faith and
obedience to God’s will, and the sufficiency of His grace for you in it will not be a doctrine only
but a blessed experience. He comes down to us in all the sufficiency of His grace to keep us from
stumbling in the path of God’s will, and at the end of it He will present us faultless before the
presence of His glory with exceeding joy, and to Him be glory and majesty, dominion and power,
both now and forever. Amen.

(From Help and Food, Vol. 50.)

Scripture is clear on the point that it is not only possible for man to learn the will of God, but it
is His desire for us not only to learn but to do His will (see Rom. 12:2; Eph. 5:17; Col. 1:9; 4:12;
Heb. 13:21). It was this-the desire to do God’s will_that ever characterized the Lord Jesus in His
sojourn on earth (Matt. 26:42; John 4:34; 5:30; 6:38; Heb. 10:7,9).

What, then, is the will of God? We might begin by saying that it is in large measure revealed to
us in His Word. We are specifically told that it is God’s will for "all men to be saved, and to come
unto the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. 2:4); that none "should perish, but that all should come
to repentance" (2 Pet. 3:9); that every one that "believeth on Him may have everlasting life" (John
6:39,40); that believers should be brought into relationship with Himself as sons (Eph. 1:5); that
we "should abstain from fornication" (1 Thess. 4:3); that we should be subject "to every ordinance
of man" (1 Pet. 2:13); and that we should give thanks in everything (1 Thess. 5:18). Throughout
Scripture we find commandments given by God to His people; we find statements of those things
with which God is well pleased; and we find many details of the Me of One who always did the
will of His Father. Thus, an excellent and necessary foundation for finding the will of God is
obtained by becoming thoroughly familiar with God’s revealed Word through daily reading,
memorizing, meditating, and making it our own through practicing it in our daily lives. Many
questions as to God’s will for our lives would disappear if we took more pains to become
acquainted with the written Word.

However, we all come to face decisions for which the Bible does not give definite instruction. For
example, (a) whom does the Lord want me to marry? (b) where should I go to college and what
course of study should I take up? (c) should we go to the mountains or to the seashore for our
vacation this year? A general principle for such situations, which has been mentioned once and
again in the preceding articles and which we repeat here for emphasis, is that we must be emptied
of our own desires and preferences before we can begin to look for God to reveal His will for us.
Even in matters where a clue may be found in the Bible as to God’s will for a given situation or
decision, if we turn to the Bible with our own desires in the forefront, we will most likely end up
doing what we wanted to do in the first place, and will have twisted Scripture to fit our
preconceived notions.

Along with emptying ourselves of our own will and preferences, we must take care not to overly
restrict our possible alternatives. Consider again the three questions asked at the beginning of the
previous paragraph. The first one (a) should only be asked in conjunction with the more basic
question, Is it God’s will for me to marry at all? (see 1 Cor. 7:25-40). Similarly, a more basic
question to (b) would be, Is it God’s will for me to go to college in the first place? And finally,
even though we may have spent our vacations either in the mountains or at the seacoast for the
past twenty years, we need to determine, on our knees, whether the Lord wants us to go to either
place; perhaps to attend a Bible Conference or to conduct a vacation Bible School or to visit shut-
ins is His will for our next vacation. Suppose, now, that we are truly emptied of our own will and
preferences. How, in matters other than those specifically addressed in God’s Word, are we to
recognize God’s will for us? It is impossible to give a definite formula as to this since God uses
a variety of means of communicating His mind to us, and the means He uses in communicating

to one person may differ from those He uses for another. It has been pointed out in preceding
articles in this issue that these various means include God’s Word, impressions He puts in our
minds, circumstances, and comments, advice, and counsel given by other persons. Let us rest
assured that if we are desirous of knowing and doing God’s will and are in a proper spiritual state
(for example, emptied of our own will, having a spirit of self-judgment, and obedient to the light
and direction which God has given us thus far), we shall surely recognize God’s will for our lives.

With regard to circumstances, again it must be emphasized that while God may on occasion use
circumstances to show clearly His mind when our own will is absent, it was never intended that
we should put ourselves at the mercy of circumstances (Psa. 32:9). A typical example of this
would be to decide, without first conferring with the Lord, to go on a picnic or to a ball game or
whatever, and then as an afterthought to ask the Lord to prevent us by sending bad weather if it
is not His will that we should go. While the Lord may, graciously, prevent us from going our own
way at times, let us not have the presumption to assume that He will always do so. The Lord
wants us to learn to look to Him for counsel before we make up our own mind.

We need likewise to be cautioned against relying on circumstances in the matter of Biblical
doctrines. I once met a believer who had formed a very strong opinion on a certain doctrinal
point, and justified his position by saying that he had asked the Lord to strike him sick if he was
wrong on that point. Since the Lord had not done so, he took this as conclusive evidence that he
had to be right. Thus he had closed his mind to any possibility of receiving further spiritual light
on the subject.

This leads us, finally, to the matter of "putting out the fleece" to test whether one has the mind
of the Lord (see Judges 6:36-40). It is important to notice that prior to the test involving the
fleece, Gideon had received a clear, often repeated, definite message from the Lord as to what he
was to do (verses 11-21). If he had had more faith he would not have needed confirmation with
the fleece. Yet, God honored Gideon’s desire to know for certain whether he had the mind of the
Lord and thus He responded in a confirmatory way to Gideon’s tests.

The principle for us would seem to be that God encourages our seeking to confirm what we feel
to be His messages to us in the first place. It has been well stated by another:"The boldness of
faith, even when it seems to need confirmatory signs, never offends our gracious God" (S. Ridout
in Lectures on the Book of Judges). In the present day, the Lord may not so much use miraculous
signs as with Gideon to confirm His will, but perhaps more He uses the power of the Holy Spirit
indwelling us to burden our hearts and minds as to what He would have us to do.

May the Lord grant us an increasing desire to know and to do His will in every aspect of our
lives.