The Cross and the Person of Christ # 11

The Cross and the Sinful Body of the Flesh

Up to chapter 7 everything circles around and centers in the Cross. The Cross is the great issue toward which everything is intended to lead. The Apostle steadily and thoroughly works his way to that climax. All that is in those seven chapters finds its end in the position set forth in the words of chapter 6:3-11, and especially in verses 3, 5, 6: "...all we who were baptized into his death ... we have become united with Him in the likeness of his death ... our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away." Until this has become a position established and entered into, the revelation of a life in the Spirit is not touched upon. But when this has become basic, then we have all that follows about the Spirit's presence and work.

"Ye are ... in the Spirit, if ... the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. But if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his" (8:9).

"The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and death" (8:2).

"The mind of the spirit is life and peace" (8:6).

And so on.

Here, then, the specific emphasis is upon the fact that, for the presence and work of the Holy Spirit in the believer and the "Body" to be really known, the whole body of sin (the man out of Christ being a sinful creature and lying under judgment and condemnation) must be - not reformed, remedied, improved, educated to better things - but crucified and buried; not just sins being taken away or pardoned, but "himself" put away. As a man he must depart from God's sight, his good (?) and his bad. He belongs by nature to a race which no longer stands in the light of God's intention. God has departed from that race, and has made a "new creation." Christ in resurrection is the "firstborn among many brethren." He is "the last Adam," meaning that as the first of a new race, a new humanity, finality is with Him; there will be no need of another. This "last Adam" stepped back - so to speak - and before becoming in resurrection the "firstborn from the dead," He gathered up all the race of the first Adam and representatively took it into the full judgment of God-forsakenness, crying "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" That is God's ultimate mind toward the whole race in the first Adam. We are called upon to recognize that, to take a position and make a declaration that we accept Christ's death as our death and His burial as our burial. The New Testament says that that is the declaration which baptism makes, or that that declaration is made in baptism.

While very much more ought to be said on this whole matter, we will gather it up in this inclusive observation, that the position in "Romans" is God's foundation, and it is all-comprehensive. A Holy Spirit-governed life will be brought back to the implications of the Cross as the end of the old man. There will be one basic crisis, but through the years there may be many crises in which we have to refer back to the original  inclusive position fresh issues which have been raised as we could bear to know them. The final position which the Cross establishes and to which the Holy Spirit works is that all shall be - in every direction and connection - Christ only, and not ourselves in any respect. Thus we are led to the next specific application of the Cross as in the First Letter to the Corinthians.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 12 - "The Cross and the Natural Man")