"The Life-giving Spirit. Rom. viii. 1-14" The Present Truth 19, 21.
E. J. Waggoner
Rom. viii. 1-14
In the sixth chapter of Romans we learn that the believer is buried with Him by baptism into death, and rises to walk with Him in newness of life. The old life, called the "body of sin" and the "old man," is done away with, and the new man takes its place. This new man is the Spirit of God. "Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you." Rom. viii. 9. "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" 1 Cor. 3.16.
It is by the Spirit that the promise of Christ is fulfilled, that He would dwell with the believer. "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you." John xiv. 18. "I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth." R.V. xvi. 17. "The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things." John. xiv. 26. It is the Spirit that animates and controls the body of Christ, the church, and it is the Spirit that operates every member and every gift, dividing to every men severally as He will. 1 Cor. xii. 11. The Spirit was the life of Adam. "The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life: and man became a living soul." Gen. ii. 7. The Spirit of God was in the breath that He breathed into Adam. "If He set His heart upon Himself [margin], if He gather unto Himself His Spirit and His breath; all flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust." Job xxxiv. 14, 15, R.V. "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the Spirit return unto God who gave it." Eccl. xii. 7. "Thou hidest Thy face, they are troubled: Thou takes away their breath, they die, and return to their dust. Thou sendest forth Thy Spirit, they are created." Ps. civ. 29, 30. In this passage, the words breath and spirit are the same in the Hebrew, so that man's breath is God's Spirit. Stephen prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit" (Acts vii. 59), and then fall asleep.
It is plain from the record in Genesis that Adam was a union of the breath of God with the dust of the earth, and the result was a living soul. Adam was filled [322] with the Spirit, and as long as the Spirit ruled the dust all was well, but the time came when the dust wanted to rule the Spirit, and disobey God for some supposed advantages. It saw something pleasant to the eyes and good for the taste, and disobeyed God in order to eat the forbidden fruit. This fall from righteousness is undone in Christ, and when we are again made new creatures, the Spirit rules in us, and once more our bodies are yielded as temples of the Spirit. God did not withdraw His Spirit and His breath from Adam till he had opportunity to repent and turn from his sin, but, in the majority of cases, instead of being acknowledged by men as their life, God's Spirit has to strive for any place at all in sinners. Gen. vi. 3.
There is wonderful power in the Spirit of God. In the beginning it moved upon the face of the waters. Gen. i. 2. It garnished the heavens. Job xxvi. 12. It is the life of every creature: "all in whose nostrils was the breath of the Spirit of life." Gen. vii. 22. The Spirit filIs the universe. "Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there: if I make my bed in Sheol, behold, Thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me." Ps. cxxxix. 7-9. This is the power and fullness that the Spirit brings into the believer, when it is made welcome and given control of the life.
All that we can do is to reckon ourselves by faith dead unto sin, but alive unto God. We have never lived the life of the Spirit, and do not know how to live it. If we should try to do so, we could only live the carnal life. Neither can we die to sin. If we will allow the Spirit free course in us, it will live its own life, and mortify, or put to death, the old man. Rom. viii. 14. The law of the spiritual life in Christ is what makes us free from the law of sin and death. Verse 2. Where our own efforts are an utter failure, the Spirit of God fulfills the righteousness of the law in us as simply as it grows flowers on a rose bush, and fruit on an apple tree.
That which has hindered the righteousness being fulfilled in us, has been that we have pushed the Spirit to one side, ignoring it, and have ignorantly gone about to establish our own righteousness, and do God's work for Him. When we come to ourselves, and recognise that we are only the dust of the ground, and that God did not make us to live independently of His Spirit, and did not plan any other kind of existence for us than to be filled with His Spirit, we will cease to try to run our own lives, and will yield our members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
People speak of the "Spirit-filled life" as though it were a special experience, reserved for a comparative few. But the Spirit filled life is the normal life. The life that is not fully yielded to the Spirit, and experiencing the working of its mighty power, is an abnormal, mis-shapen life, perverted and abused. So that we need not question whether God will bestow His Spirit upon us in answer to prayer. We were created to be temples for the Holy Ghost, perfectly adapted to its powers and functions, and the only thing that hinders us from the fullness of the Spirit is the unwillingness to die to self, and let the Spirit control the dust of the earth as God appointed. When we are willing to accept God's plan for our lives, and yield to His Spirit, it will be our memory, our teacher, (John xiv. 26), it will make our prayers effectual (Rom. viii. 26, 27), it will make us obedient to the truth, unto unfeigned love of the brethren (1 Peter i. 22), it will do the world-wide work of the Gospel (John xvi. 8), and will fill us with joy in affliction. 1 Thess. i. 6.
"So then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh: for if ye live after the flesh, ye must die; but if by the Spirit ye mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are sons of God." Rom. viii. 12-14.
