R0MANS  7 


1 Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?

It was taken away by Christ dying, which placed him beyond its operation.

When he is dead, it has no further jurisdiction. It was only ordained for living mortals. When Christ hung lifeless on the cross, it had no further hold on him. When he rose from the dead, he was a free man. This is Paul's argument:

"Ye (who have been baptised into the risen Christ) are become dead to the law by the body of Christ (in his death) that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead" (Rom. vii. 4).

It is in this connection that the force is apparent of Paul's declaration that Christ, in his death, "blotted out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross" (Col. ii. 14); and further, that those who are in Christ are "no longer under the law, but under grace" and are to 

"stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage" (Gal. v. 1).

There were two purposes in the establishing of the law, that ended in Christ. Paul informs us that one was that sinful man might be manifest to himself, and that every mouth might be stopped in the conviction of his own helplessness.

"The law entered that the offence might abound" (Rom. v. 20): that sin "might appear sin, work death by that which is good" (vii. 13), "that every mouth might be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God" (iii. 19).

The other was, that what the law could not do for man left to himself, God in His love and grace might do, in sending His own Son, who should "magnify the law and make it honourable" in its complete observance, and who should then, in further and loving obedience, remove it out of the way in surrendering to the death of the cross, by which the curse of the law should come on him, for all who should come unto God by him.

The law during the time it was in force completely accomplished these two things. First, Peter declared that Israel had found it a yoke which neither his generation nor their fathers were able to bear" (Acts xv. 10). Secondly, Jesus, who could challenge the Jews on the score of his perfect fulfilment of it, saying, "which of you convinceth me of sin?" (Jno. viii. 46), appeared just before it had run its course, putting away sin by the sacrifice of himself, and in rising again, laid the foundation for the salvation of all those who have faith in him as the Lamb of God.

Nazareth Revisited Ch 3



The law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth


In this illustration Paul develops the principle of that which "dominates" mankind. The Gr. word kurieuo indicates to "have lordship over." In Rom. 6:9 "death" is shown to have dominion, and in ch. 6:14 "sin" likewise, for they are two masters whose power in the lives of the unenlightened leads them inevitably to oblivion.

Now he introduces a further principle: the "dominion" of law. In fact, the presence of llaw and the inability of sinful mankind to perfectly fulfil it, indicates the power of both "death" and "sin." Hence, in 1Cor. 15:56 Paul joins all three together:

"the sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. "

However, when death has finally claimed its victim by the sting of sin, brought into action through the operation of law, it ceases to assert any further "lordship" over man to condemn him.

Similarly, the Lord Jesus Christ was bound by the law of condemnation into which he was born, but when he died as one who perfectly obeyed the divine law, and therefore was without moral blemish, he obtained a title to resurrection, and, through immortality, he passed out of the jurisdiction of the law.

Those who are baptised "into his death" (Rom. 6:3) do likewise,and are typically released from the "condemnation" (8:1) otherwise resting upon them (cp. Col. 2:14) having passed from the constitution of sin into the constitution of righteousness.

The Christadelphian Expositor



4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

When Christ rose after thus bearing the curse of the law, the law had expended its cursing power on him, and was therefore "taken out of the way" in him, so that all who put on his name and came under his authority in faith and baptism were "free from that law" This is Paul's argument in Rom. 7:1-4.

The pith of it is in the assertion of verse 4," Ye are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead"; and in the further statement in verse 6, "We are delivered from the law, that (law) being dead wherein we were held". Therefore, as he says in Rom. 6:14, and substantially in Gal. 4 (the whole chapter), "Ye are not under the law, but under grace" (or favour), being recipients of the kindness of God in the forgiveness of sins for Christ's sake, and participating jointly with Christ in the heirship of the good things wrought out by the righteousness of Christ.

But though the covenant of Sinai is thus "done away in Christ ", it is not done away in the sense of abolishing the excellent rules of action which that covenant enjoined. The new law in Christ, which believers come under, revives those rules in a stronger and more efficient form.

Paul is very clear on this point, in which he is supported by the highest demands of reason. He enquires, "Shall we sin (that is, shall we do the things that the law forbids), because we are not under the law, but under grace ?" (Rom. 6: 15). He meets the suggestion with an emphatic "God forbid". "Being made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness" '(verse 18).

Law of Moses Ch 3




Dead to the law by the body of Christ

The Greek diet means "through". When Christ died, the law no longer had power over him, and that same principle similarly applies to those who are scripturally baptised into his death (ch. 6:3), in that they are no longer "bound" to the inevitability of condemnation.

The "body of Christ" describes the physical body of a condemned nature which represented "our sins" that the Lord bare on the tree of sacrifice (1Pet. 2:24).This action of a sinless man provided the basis for his resurrection, and thus the Lord entered into the state or condition of immortality. Such was only possible by the destruction of the evil propensities of the flesh, called "the diabolos" in Heb. 2:14.

Paul now shows that this action dramatised what must be done in us (Gal. 5:24)! The old man of flesh (Rom. 6:6) has become dead, and the law, which restricted the liberty of the flesh, as the marriage bond does that of a wife or husband, is no longer operative.

With the death of the old man, the "New Man" of faith comes into being (Col. 3:10; Eph.2:15; 4:24), and is at liberty to "marry", thus becoming united with Christ. Observe how this conclusion must affect the Jew (cp. v. 1). If he refused to take advantage of release from the bonds of the law which Christ provided (cp. Heb. 10:26), he was left with no alternative but to continue his struggle to attain justification through obedience to the law!

Thus Paul challenges his belief by claiming that the convert to Christ must become dead to two things: (1) to sin and the sinful ways of the flesh; and (2) to the principle of attaining salvation through the law

The Christadelphian Expositor



Married to another

Thereby coming under the law and control of another. Usage of the word "ye" changes the original illustration of vv. 1-3 into a more personal matter for every believer.

Paul uses the symbology of a "woman" to represent our consciousness and reasoning processes, because when our mental faculties are harmonized with the Christ-mind, this transforms us into the Bride of Christ.

This "second marriage", however, is only approved if the first "husband" be dead. Paul's analogy demands that the former way of life contracted by the believer (whether that be to a form of law, as in the case of the Judaisers; or to the ways of the world, as in the case of the Gentiles) be completely put to death.

The Christadelphian Expositor



What Paul is doing is showing by analogy that the law represented the "husband," and the Jews represented the "woman," the key point being that freedom from one relationship of law allows a person to establish a new one. This is the very point Paul makes in Rom 7:4! The bondage of law was done away through Christ's death and resurrection.

What Paul is saying in verses 1-4 is: 1) The Jews were bound to the law - "A married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives." 2) But, the Jews were found to be adulterous to God - "She will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive." 3) Now free from the law because we are not under the law, but under grace - "But if her husband dies, she is released from the law of the husband." 4). Now they are in a new relationship and bound to Christ - "if she marries another." 5) In Christ, they are no longer adulterous - "she is not an adulteress."

Some of the Jews were trying to have it both ways! Paul illustrated how the Jews may transition from under the law and be joined to Christ without being treacherous to Moses. You cannot be "married" to both (see 2Cor 11:2).

To believe otherwise, was to indict Jesus, himself, as an adulterous husband to all the Jews (woman/bride) who accepted him! In this case, it is the death of the New Testament testator, but it still illustrates how the Jews may come out from under the law (former husband that "died."), and now be married to Messiah.

"But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter" (Rom 7:6).

Sis Valerie Mello [in isolation, TN, USA] Comment added in 2011



5 For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.

THE TWO PRINCIPLES.


"With the mind I myself serve the Law of God; but with the flesh the Law of Sin."

Although a sinner may have been "delivered from the power of darkness," or ignorance; and have been "translated into" (Col. 1:13) the hope of "the Kingdom of God and of his Christ" (Rev. 11:15), by faith in the divine testimony and baptism into Christ -- yet, if he turn his thoughts back into his own heart, and note the impulses which work there, he will perceive a something that, if he were to yield to it, would impel him to the violation of the divine law.

These impulses are styled "the motions of sins" (Rom. 7:5). Before he was enlightened, they "worked in his members," until they were manifested in evil action, or sin; which is termed, "bringing forth fruit unto death." The remote cause of these "motions" is that physical principle, or quality of the flesh, styled, indwelling sin, which returns the mortal body to the dust; and that which excites the latent disposition is the law of God forbidding to do thus and so; for,

"I had not known sin; but by the law."

Now, while a righteous man feels this law involuntarily at work in his members, the law of sin, or of nature within him, he also perceives there a something which condemns "the motions of sins," and suppresses them; so that they shall not impel him to do what he ought not to do.

The best of men, and I quote Paul as an illustration of the class, are conscious of the co-existence of these hostile principles within them.

"I find," says he, "a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me."

Yes; the principle of evil, and the principle of good, are the two laws which abide in the saints of God so long as they continue subject to mortality.

Elpis Israel 1.4.



The motions of sins

The word "motions" is an Old English expression for "emotion" (see margin), meaning simply the passions, the evil affections, the corrupt desires. The Diaglott has: "those sinful passions" from the Gr. pathema.

A person who allows himself to be ruled by the emotions of the flesh carries with him three cogent arguments against obeying God: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (1 Jn. 2:16).

These sinful passions rule those dominated by the Adamic constitution. Not knowing the way of righteousness, the sinful passions of the flesh can only produce Sin whose wages are death (ch. 6:23).

The same Greek word pathema is used for the "affections" (sinful passions) which must be crucified (Gal. 5:24). The word is also used commonly for the "sufferings" of Christ, and is so rendered eleven times out of 16 occurrences.

The Christadelphian Expositor



7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? [Let it not be!]. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.

Is the law sin?


The Law, says Paul, was "Holy, just and good" (Rom. 7:12). He says it was "ordained unto life" (Rom. 7:10). Like David (Psa. 119:77, 97), he said he "delighted in the Law" (Rom. 7:22). But elsewhere he calls it a "ministration of death" (2 Cor. 3:7), a "ministration of condemnation" (2 Cor. 3:9) and a "yoke of bondage" (Gal. 5:1). He notes this apparent paradox...

Can we blame the Law for sin and death, and the failure of man to attain to the life which was ordained by the Law? In both cases he immediately answers, "God forbid!" or more correctly, "Let it not be!" Do not entertain such a God-dishonoring thought, for the Law was a holy ordinance of God. He says,

"We know the Law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin."

The Law was ordained to life. It was man who failed. The Law had its perfect fulfillment in Christ. It was designed for him, and he for it. But the Law could not give life to even a perfectly righteous man without first an atoning death. This arose from a condition previous to the Law, which the Law itself was powerless to correct. At the very moment of birth, the Law recognized the condemnation that man was born into, and the penalty already due.

Even for the birth of Jesus, Mary must be unclean 33 days and then offer a sin offering-

"A pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons."

Those turtledoves had no efficacy except in the sacrifice they foreshadowed. 

"The Law made nothing perfect,"

 but it signified the way by which perfection must come.

It may be said that even Christ himself came under the curse of the Law, for

"Cursed is everyone that hangeth upon a tree" (Gal. 3:13).

Bro Growcott - We know that the law is spiritual



11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.

'Weakness,' both mental and physical, is an original element of animal nature; as 'power' is of the angelic. Adam's nature was 'very good' as an animal nature; but still it was weak, and, therefore, deceivable and terminable.

This weakness is founded in the unfitness of air, electricity, blood, and food, to maintain organised dust or flesh, in life and power for ever. The life principles being weak, the flesh is weak in all its operations, mental and physical.

The life of the angelic nature or spiritual body is not manifested on animal principles, but by the direct action of God's Spirit on dust, so organised as to be adapted to its operations. It is, therefore, strong.

When Adam's weak nature began to think and act independently of the divine law, its weakness, before an undefiled weakness, became evil in its workings and deteriorating in its effects; and acquired the name of sin from its having brought forth sin, or transgression of law.

The undefiled weakness of the flesh, enticed and deceived by sophistry from without, is in few words, the definition of the original temptation.

The law of God was weak through the flesh (Rom. 8:3), and not through the strength of the serpent. Had the flesh been strong, the serpent would have been powerless with all his sagacity. But the weakness, thrown into a ferment by serpent subtilty, became beguiling, and the beguiling subtilty, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived them, and by it, slew them.—(Rom. 7:11.)

The Christadelphian, Dec 1873



12 Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.

I will be sanctified in them that approach unto Me


He took hold of a nation for Himself. See what He did with them? First of all, having delivered them with His own naked hand, manifest in direct works of power, in the destruction of Egypt, and their own miraculous rescue from mortal peril, He

"humbled them and proved them."

He led them in a great and terrible wilderness and taught them. What did He teach them? Science? No. Of what good to show them how He has made things? Political economy? No. The art of legislation, which being interpreted means self-government by count of human wills, whether wise or foolish? No, no, man is not capable of self-government. See what a miserable pass it has brought him to after 6,000 years fair experiment.

He requires the government of God. He requires God to tell him what to do, and to compel him to do it by power governmentally applied. What God taught Israel was the art of worshipping God and serving man. This was the essence of the Law of Moses. It was taught in many rites and ceremonies, but this was the thing taught. God was in all things and in every way to be exalted as an object of reverence and fear, and love on the basis of fear. Holiness was the perpetual exhibition.

"I, the Lord thy God am holy." "Thou shalt fear before Me."

It is the lesson of circumcision: of presentation to the Lord; of the purifications presented in the various recurring uncleanlinesses of life; of the sacrifices and offerings in the various relations of experience; of the incessant ablutions connected with approaches to the sanctuary.

The pith of all these things is brought to bear on us in Christ - the Holy One of God. The righteousness of the Law was fulfilled in him, and Paul declares it is fulfilled in us if we walk not according to the flesh but according to the spirit.

Holiness or consecration to God, is the first principle of righteousness; just as God is the first principle or idea of the Spirit.

Seasons 2.26.



13 Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.


The intellectualism of the serpent had been transferred to the man. The serpent system of ideas and mode of thinking had become characteristic of the man, whose lustful nature, inflamed to rebellion by the serpent's reasoning, came to occupy the same relation to the word of the Deity in all after ages, that the original speaking beast did before the fall of man.

All the primeval serpent, or any other kind of serpent, has had to do with serpentine developments since that important crisis has been merely as the expressive and appropriate symbol of the nature of man.

The serpent, then, is the reasoning of the flesh, which is inseparable from it, and tends only to death. This is human nature, and styled by Paul in Rom. 8:3, sarx hamartias, SIN'S FLESH, in which, in ch. 7:18, he says, "dwelleth no good thing."

In its original creation, this flesh, like the serpent, was "very good" of its kind. It had its affections and desires, which, like the affections and desires of other creatures, were innocent and harmless; and the man would not have known sin in the gratification of them, except the law had said, Thou shalt not eat of the tree.

There would have been no scope for the serpent's speculation if no law had been enacted; for without the law his doctrine could have no existence. The serpent's reasoning was sin in conception.

"Sin is the transgression of law,"

and this transgression was originally conceived in the brain of the serpent, and by reasoning on false premises, was transferred into the woman's, where, taking occasion by the commandment ordained for life, and in itself holy, just and good, it wrought in her all manner of intense and unlawful desires. Had she been contented to believe the Deity, and to obey the commandment, her course would have resulted in life eternal.

But, instead of this, she found the commandment to be for death; because the reasoning of the serpent, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived her, and by it slew her. Thus, the serpent's reasoning which she adopted as her own, worked death in her by the good and just and holy law, by which, when the reasoning was perfected in transgression.

Human Nature displayed itself as an exceedingly great sinner - kath' huperbolen hamartolos.

Eureka 12.14.



Human nature winces at a faithful reflection of its undraped deformity and hideousness.‭ ‬It is part of the word's mission to so reflect it-the law was given that sin might appear sin.‭

The law teaches man,‭ ‬in no uncertain tones,‭ ‬that naturally he has no standing in the sight of God-that he is utterly defiled,‭ ‬both physically and morally.‭ ‬The lesson may not be pleasant,‭ ‬but it is wholesome and necessary,‭ ‬and will have the effect of enkindling,‭ ‬in those who are right-minded,‭ ‬gratitude to God for the means of escape from this body of sin.

TC June 1887



17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

‬The only change effected by baptism is one of relationship.‭ ‬We still have‭ "‬this body of death‭" ‬to contend with,‭ ‬we still have a law of sin in our members,‭ ‬and men are just as prone to sin after baptism as before.‭ 

‬Seeing then that believers often pass through a probation of greater duration than Christ's entire mortal existence,‭ ‬it would be obviously inconsistent with divine principles that absolute perfection should be required.‭ ‬God recognises human frailty,‭ ‬and provides a means of forgiveness,‭ ‬apart from which salvation would be impossible.

TC March 1896.



Sin that dwelleth in me 

There is very much in our daily life at present to pull down the structure of faith reared in our minds by the Word understood and believed. A built-up state of mind is a comfortable state of mind. The opposite state of mind is a tormenting state of mind - the being uncertain or in doubt with regard to anything important to us.

The built-up state is a thing of conditions; that is, it is the result of powerful reasons before our mind. To feel the built-up state strongly, we must see clearly the reasons that produce it. When sight is dim, people put on glasses to improve the sight. This we do in the present case by the reading and rehearsal of the facts connected with the truth of God. But sometimes there is dust on the glasses. In this case the sight may not be much improved - perhaps made weaker.

The first thing is to rub off the dust. The dust takes various shapes. One form of it is connected with our own individual feelings. We are all burdened in mind and body - some in one way, some in another. Each man knows the plague of his own heart, and the distress of his own particular infirmity. In this connection we are liable to make two mistakes. We are liable to suppose that other people are not afflicted as we are, because we do not feel other people's troubles, and because those other people if they are of the truly civilized stamp, act habitually on the commandment to hide our troubles.

But the second mistake is the more obscuring kind of dust. And that is the mistake of allowing our troubled feelings make us think the Truth less true than when we are comfortable and bright. We must take firm ground against ourselves here. We must say to ourselves - Now, remember, the Truth in no way depends upon you or your feelings. It was true before you were born, and cannot be altered in any way by what you may feel.

You may feel depressed, and sometimes as if the Truth were far away, but remember that the Truth is a thing outside of you altogether - a thing independent of you. In a sense you have nothing to do with it. Your feelings belong to those native infirmities of constitution which entitle you to disown them, and say, - it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me." Your dull and tinged feelings are mere dust on the glass, which you must wipe off while you try to look at the great and glorious things of God.

Bro Roberts - This present evil world



18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

Adam's nature was created "very good" (chapter and verse, Gen. 1:31). In the days of Paul, Adam's nature as handed down to his children had ceased to have any good in it and had become mortal, (chapter and verse, Rom. 7:18-23; 1 Cor. 15:53; 2 Cor. 5:4), or "dead because of sin" (chapter and verse, Rom. 8:10).

Consequently, somewhere between the one state and the other, a change had taken place. There is no difficulty in fixing the "when" and the "where." Paul says it was by one man that sin entered the world, and death by sin (Rom. 5:12), and that sentence came at that time upon all men to condemnation.

The Christadelphian, Oct 1898




Experience proved the correctness of these descriptions.‭ ‬A child left without training unfolded evil and not good.‭ ‬Cut off absolutely from contact with man,‭ ‬it grew up a savage.‭ ‬All good in man came from without,‭ ‬not from within.‭ ‬It was only in proportion as men came within the power of enlightenment from without that they rose above the animation natural to flesh and blood.‭

‭TC June 1896. p210.



It is Flesh that Thinks

If the entire man die, mind and body, how can he arise from the dead again? Easily enough. The personal pronoun "he" is defined by Paul to be "flesh." His words are, "In me, that is, in my flesh;" (Rom. 7:18;) and when this "me" thinks, he styles the thinking, το ψζονημα της δαρχος, to phronema tēs sarkos, the thinking of the flesh. No flesh, no thinking. This is the law of our nature.

Quadrupeds think because they have brain-flesh. When this flesh operates under ventricular excitation, "instinct" is manifested, as in the case of calves, babies, &c.; and when stimulated to action by ideas from without, "reason" is developed in proportion to the higher or lower order of the mechanism of that particular kind of flesh. Mind is a noun of multitude, and stands for brain-manifestations. Press upon the brain, and there is no mind; remove the pressure, and thought and the expression of it return.

If the creature die, the brain ceases to act, and mind ceases; renew his life, and its action is renewed, and mind is again manifested. Take the dust of Abraham, and in building him up again, let his new brain be formed exactly like the old one, and his new brain will have the old recollections, and think in the old faithful manner; (Rom. 4:18-22;) in other words, Abraham will reäppear as he was over three thousand years ago. After rebuilding him thus, transform him "in the twinkling of an eye," and you have Abraham as he will be for ever.

The order, then, is this: First, to be born in the usual way. If, after this, the subject grow up under ordinary influences, his brainflesh will manifest only the phenomena common to the pious metaphysics of the schools; or those characteristic of mere non-sectarianism. But we are tracking a man into the kingdom of God; therefore we shall not trouble ourselves now about the metaphysicians, pious or positive.

"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it."

This training of the brainflesh, when conducted upon scriptural principles, moulds it to a conformity with the ideas of the Bible. It thinks scripturally, and, therefore, spiritually; and its scriptural thinking is styled το ψγονημα του πρευηατος, to phronēma tou pneumatos, the thinking of the Spirit. Brainflesh thus trained thinks in a direction diametrically opposite to brainflesh trained under popular influences. The former is a spiritually-thinking, and the latter a fleshly-thinking brain. They are contrary one to another.

Every "heir of the kingdom" has had these two kinds of brainflesh. Before his enlightenment and subjection to the obedience of faith, he has a fleshly-thinking brain, which is the sport of all sorts of crotchets and vagaries, and always leaves its owner on the disobedient side of "the Law of Faith." But in the process of enlightenment this crotchetty brain becomes exorcised of the demons that possessed it; and it becomes the abode of the gospel of the kingdom, which being heartily believed, Christ therefore dwells there, and it becomes a spiritual brain.

Its spirituality increases in the ratio of its increasing understanding of the word of the kingdom. In the ratio of this is its participation of the divine nature.

Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come, April 1854



MAN IN LIFE AND IN DEATH

It is not, then, "the breath of lives" that thinks and is immortal, and the real man, as the heathen imagine. On the contrary, it is the flesh that thinks after life is given to it by respiration of the air.

Metaphysicians deny that matter can, or rather does, think; but Paul, under the inspiration of the same Spirit of Wisdom that moved Job and Moses, convicts them of ignorance and untruth. He says that matter does think; for flesh is matter; and he affirms, that

"the thinking of the flesh (το φρονημα του σαρκοσ) is enmity to Deity; for to the law of the Deity it is not subordinated, nor indeed can be"—Rom. 8:7.

Now, the reason of this perverseness of thought is found in the nature of the "me" which thinks. This "me," or thinking I in the objective case, has in it no good thing: "in me (that is," says Paul, "in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing"—Rom. 7:18: no wonder, then, that left to its native ignorance, it always thinks in the wrong direction when treating of divine things.

The cerebral flesh is the thought elaborating organization of the Adam—the "I" which is fleshly,

"sold under sin."

Its thoughts are therefore Sin's thoughts, which are in constant and direct antagonism to the teaching of the Word.

Such, then, is the thinking of the world's "divines" and philosophers. It is the thinking of Sin's flesh which is too proud and self-conceited to be "taught of God." There is no good thing in it. It is all redolent of flesh; and, therefore, those who walk in the flesh and after its lusts, hear it with delight.

"They are of the world," says John; therefore speak they of the world, and the world hears them."

The thinking of Sin's flesh is the popular thinking of the day. On the subject of immortality the world and its spirituals are all agreed; and in their concord all give the lie to God.

Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come, Jan 1860



20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

Sin, in the primary and completest sense, is disobedience. In this sense, there was no sin in Christ.

But there is the source of disobedience? In the inclinations that are inherent in the flesh. Without these, there would be no sin. Hence it is (because they are the cause of sin) that they are sometimes spoken of as sin. As where Paul speaks in Rom. 7 of "Sin that dwelleth in me" and "The motions of sin in my members" etc.

These inclinations are so described in contrast to the Spirit nature in which there are no inclinations leading to sin. It is only in this sense that Christ "was made sin", which Paul states (2 Cor. 5:21). He was made in all points like to his brethren, and therefore of a nature experiencing the infirmities leading to temptation: "Tempted in all points like them but without sin". All this is testified (Heb. 2:17; 4:15).

He has also come under the dominion of sin in coming under the hereditary power of death which is the wages of sin. He was in this sense made part of the sin-constitution of things, deriving from his mother both the propensities that lead to sin and the sentence of death that was passed because of sin.

He was himself absolutely sinless as to disobedience, while subject to the impulses and the consequences of sin.

THE BLOOD OF CHRIST - 'Sin in the Flesh'



21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.

While we are in the flesh, the natural mind is ever with us, spontaneously generating its own godless maxims, principles and feelings. Unless we oppose to these the constant antidote of Scripture reading, the natural mind will obtain the ascendant, even after we have known the way of righteousness.

Seasons 1: 44.



What is wrong?


...at present man's energies are dissipated in hate and cruelty and selfishness and desire for power and dominion over his fellowman.

Clearly there is something wrong with man. We know within ourselves there is something wrong with man. If we are thoughtful, we shall have noticed within ourselves natural impulses which, on a larger scale, we can perceive are the cause of all man's trouble and sorrow.

PRIDE, envy, selfishness, greed, inconsiderateness, impatience, irritability—all these, to some degree, we perceive naturally working within ourselves.

We are injured, and immediately anger wells up, and we desire to retaliate and destroy. These things, developed to their logical conclusion, are the causes of murder and war.

Now these things we find within ourselves. We do not put them there. We discover them there, rooted in our natures. Often we sincerely regret the reactions they lead us to. We show by this that we recognize their undesirability.

We realize that kindness and patience and unselfishness would make a much happier world. But we find that these things do not come naturally. They are contrary to our natural impulses. So our own experience corresponds exactly with what Paul says

Bro Growcott - BYT 4.31



22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:

Thus, mankind in whom the truth is not, being the Seed of the Serpent, the flesh of sin, is their natural parent. This is "their father the Devil, whose lusts they do."

But when the truth obtains entrance into a serpent-man, or sinner, and makes a lodgment in his understanding and affections, a power gets possession of him, and generates there "a new man," styled also "the inward man;" so that a Christadelphian, or brother of Christ, is not what he appears to be in the eyes of ordinary men.

The serpent-world of sinners does not know them. To the eye of sense they appear as serpent-men. Their outward man differs nothing from the seed of the serpent; while their inward man is beyond the range of the perceptions of the serpent-man, or sinner.

It is this new man of the heart, within the old man of the flesh, which constitutes an individual a saint, a son of the Deity, and a brother of Christ.

Collectively, the saints or brethren of Christ, constitute his woman or spouse; they are, therefore, styled the Seed of the Woman. This arrangement distributes mankind into two unequal and opposite classes - THE SERPENT-WORLD, and the Woman-Seed; the former, being based upon a lie; the latter, upon the truth.

Eureka 12.14.



23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

Sin is a disease

"The law of sin in our members, warring against the law of our mind."

Offences, transgressions, are the symptoms of that disease. The Law of Moses was given so that the symptoms would become obvious and identifiable, so that man may recognize his diseased condition, and seek unto the Great Physician.

We are not under the Law of Moses, but still it serves the same purpose for us as for them. We know we could not perfectly keep that holy Law any more than they could. There were many great and godly men of the Jewish race, but none of them -- except Jesus himself -- could obey that Law of God to perfection.

Bro Growcott - BYT 1.11



24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

Your distress,‭ ‬then,‭ ‬at the imperfections of your attainments as children of God is no cause of despair.‭ ‬In its own proper place it is a ground of hope.‭ ‬It is a proof of the right kind of sensibility-and the token of a due sense of human insufficiency,‭ ‬and the loftiness of the Divine standard.‭ ‬It is,‭ ‬indeed,‭ ‬part of the righteousness that commends a man to God:‭ ‬for all is righteousness that He is pleased with,‭ ‬and He is pleased with modesty and a sense of inferiority on the part of children of the dust.‭ ‬There is forgiveness for His fainting,‭ ‬erring children,‭ ‬who are not such in presumption,‭ ‬pride,‭ ‬or habit.

...Are we marred,‭ ‬then,‭ ‬with many blemishes‭? ‬It is right that we should be distressed on their account:‭ ‬but let not the distress go to the point of despair.‭ ‬I have known some do this.‭ ‬The past has been so unsatisfactory to them that they have lost heart and given up trying.‭ ‬This is a mistake.‭ ‬It is best to accept no failure except at Christ's own hands at the judgment.‭ ‬It is better to die trying than to make condemnation sure by falling out of the ranks altogether.

‭ ‬It is better to renew our ways again and again than to settle in the bog of self-condemnation.‭ ‬The words of Christ are gracious and encouraging:‭ "‬Him that cometh to me,‭ ‬I will in no wise cast out.‭" "‬Repent:‭ ‬do the first works.‭" "‬I stand at the door and knock.‭ ‬If any man will open the door,‭ ‬I will come in.‭" ‬There is forgiveness after baptism.‭ ‬If there were not,‭ ‬there would be no hope for a living soul.

Exhort 280 TC 10/1896