Carnal or Spiritual

Life On The Highest Plane

That God has made ample provision in Christ for each person to live his life on the highest plane is evident from our previous studies. But that every believer does not exercise this privilege needs no argument. We feel how far short of it we ourselves fall and we observe the low spiritual level upon which other lives are lived. A casual perusal of Paul's letters to the churches will reveal the fact that there is more than one kind of Christian. In the sixth  through the eighth chapters of Romans this truth is clearly taught.

Romans six is the hub of life on the highest plane. Deep spirituality emanates from a spiritual apprehension, appropriation and assimilation of the truth of this chapter. In this divine revelation God gives us the spiritual seed from which the full-blown flower - a life in growing conformity to the image of Christ - springs. Here man is delivered from the sphere of darkness, death and bondage; here he leaves behind the old servitude to sin and becomes the servant of righteousness; here he comes out from under the yoke of the law to live under the reign of grace; here he witnesses the crucifixion of the old man to make way for the control of the new nature; here God tells the believer that he not only need not sin but that he may be holy. Romans six tells us plainly that God has made full provision in Christ for lifting the sinner from the lowest depths of life on the plane of the natural to the highest heights of life on the plane of the spiritual.

Romans seven and eight each pictures the life of a Christian but the difference in likeness to the pattern set in Romans six is so great as to lead one to think that there are surely two kinds of Christians.

Romans seen pictures a life of storm, stress and struggle; a life of defeat and discouragement crowned with despair. Romans seven is the divine photograph of an eager Alpine climber. He starts at the base (Romans 6) of the majestic snow-capped Jungfrau and aspires to scale its highest height (Romans 8). He has studied a guide-book about Alpine climbing and confident of his own strength and ability he presumes to ascend without a guide. After hours upon hours of toilsome climbing, ignorant of the way, floundering in masses of ice and snow, worn out with his effort to ascend the steep and dangerous path, he sinks down exhausted and filled with despair and in darkness of the night that has overtaken him cries out for deliverance (Romans 7:24).

In Romans seven we find the believer acknowledging that the law of God is holy, just and good, and admitting that it should be obeyed. A part of him longs to keep it, even strives to do so in his own strength, while another part of him resists. How to conquer in this conflict he does not know. He knows that he need not sin and resolves that he will not but he goes on sinning. His will functions but he is baffled in knowing how to fulfill its decree to be holy and to do good. He wills and he works to reach the plane of the spiritual but is unsuccessful and inevitably must fail for a man cannot sanctify himself any more than he can save himself.

Romans eight pictures discernment after delusion; conquest after conflict, sunshine after storm. The despairing cry of the Alpine climber has been heard by an unseen Guide Who has climbed all the way with him. Unwilling to intrude where not wanted, He has remained silent, but the moment He hears the cry for help He flashes light upon the midnight darkness of the traveler's path, He points out the way, He even lifts the weary traveler up and enables him to overcome every difficulty of the way and to reach the goal of his aspiration. The "I" used more than thirty times in Romans seven is displaced by the "Holy Spirit" who in that chapter is not mentioned once. The mountain is the same, the path is no less difficult or dangerous. But the difference between Romans seven and eight is the difference of a Guide who knows the way and can enable the traveler to reach the top.

Romans eight reveals as clearly as does Romans seven that there is a conflict on within every believer which never ends as long as one dwells on earth, but it reveals the way of victory. It removes the delusion that the believer can fight the enemy in his own strength and gives spiritual discernment of God's gracious provision of the means of victory. Romans eight lifts the believer above the clouds of discouragement into the clear sunlight of abiding peace and rest because it assures him at the beginning that "In Christ" there is no condemnation by God as regards his past, and at the end that "In Christ" there is no separation from God as regards his future, and all the verses in between proclaim the perfect provision made "In Christ" for victory over every enemy within and without as regards the present (Romans 8:2-34). The Father has given unto every believer the Spirit of His Son to guide him on life's pathway.

Romans 8:1, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."

Romans 8:35-39, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?  As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

There are, then, two kinds of Christians clearly named and described in Scripture. It is of the utmost importance that every believer should know which kind of Christian he is and that, after knowing, he should determine which kind he wishes to be. Let us read these verses from Paul's letter to the Corinthian Church, and note the names he gives to these two classes. One he addresses as carnal, the other as spiritual Christians.

1 Corinthians 3:1-4, "And I brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.  I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to hear it, neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal; for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and division, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?

~Ruth Paxson~

(continued with - "The Marks of the Carnal Christian")