Taken with editing from The Free Church Pulpit, vol 3. In 1847, when this sermon was published, Williamson was Free Church minister in Dunkeld, Perthshire.
Romans 8:1-4. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh; that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
The first verse of this chapter is evidently an inference from something going before, as the word therefore indicates. In the preceding chapters, the Apostle demonstrates the sinfulness and guilt of man, and his inability to erect for himself a platform of acceptance. And he demonstrates the sublime doctrine of justification by faith in the merits of Christ alone. In establishing the doctrine of justification by faith, he considers the change made in the sinner’s legal position. By relying upon Christ as the Lord his righteousness and the Lord his strength, the law ceases to have any claim against him as a covenant of works, though it is still his standard as a rule of life. And the believer – no longer under the law but under grace – is acquitted and accepted by the Divine Lawgiver, for he has been invested with a righteousness manifested without the law which is, in all respects, conformable to its highest demands. Hence, the Apostle concludes, “there is now” – that is, when the claims of violated law have been satisfied by their Surety – “no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus”.
But this opening verse is also a distinct statement, and the Apostle adduces several arguments in the remaining verses of the chapter to prove it. The proposition to be proved is, “There is no . . . condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus”; and the proof is their deliverance from the law as a covenant of works – for its demands have been fulfilled by their Surety and covenant Head – the indwelling of the Spirit, the fact of their adoption, their predestination to eternal life, the provision made for their growth in grace, the mission of Christ on their behalf, and the immutability of God’s love towards them, from which nothing shall be able to separate the believing soul. Let us now proceed to examine these verses more particularly.
“There is therefore now”, says the Apostle, “no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” We have three distinct topics to consider: (1) The people described: “them which are in Christ Jesus”; (2) Their distinguishing character: they “walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit”; (3) What is said of them: “there . . . is no condemnation” to them.
1. The people described.
It is said that they are in Christ Jesus. But what is meant by this? It is to be savingly united to Him as their covenant Head. It is, as John states, to have fellowship with Him – to be united to Him as the branch to the vine, as the superstructure to the foundation, as the members to the body. The origin of this union is to be traced to the sovereign love of God. This is abundantly evident from Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians, where he says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ; according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world”.
Do you ask me the reason for this love? No reason can be assigned by any human being but that so it seemed appropriate to the infinite Jehovah. We cannot find the reason of this surpassing love in anything in the sinner or done by him, for he is vile and guilty, and therefore justly exposed to the righteous displeasure of Jehovah. It was when he lay in his blood that God showed him mercy. It was when he was guilty that God pardoned him. It was when he was without help that the everlasting arms of love encircled him. It was when he was diseased that the life-giving influences of spiritual renovation were breathed into his soul.
Ask the woman notorious for sin, who met the Lord in Simon’s house and was drawn to Him by the cords of love, what was the reason of this distinguishing affection, and she will say, The great love wherewith He loved me. Ask Manasseh, whose hands were red with the blood of God’s own people, why he was brought unto union with the Redeemer, and he will point to sovereign love; he will tell you that God will have mercy upon whom He will have mercy. Ask Saul of Tarsus, the destroyer of God’s heritage, why he was brought into the glorious relationship which subsists between Christ and his soul, and he will reply, The sovereign love of God, that He might show forth the exceeding riches of His grace, in His kindness towards us through Christ Jesus.
The language of the redeemed on this subject is one: “By the grace of God I am what I am”. The origin of this union is to be found in the free, sovereign love of God alone, abasing the proud and exalting the humble, casting down the mighty from their seats and elevating the lowly in heart, pouring the stream of life into the polluted soul of the publican and passing by the whited sepulchre, erecting its mercy seat in the path of the outcast, and filling that soul with holy amazement at the fulness and freeness and magnanimity of its distributions.
We may now ask, How is this glorious union brought about? It is by God the Holy Ghost. And it is effected both passively and actively. This view of the matter will enable us to see both the part which the Divine Spirit takes in forming this glorious union, and the part which is proper to the soul that is the subject of it. It is effected passively when, in a day of power, the Spirit convinces the soul of sin and of righteousness – shows it both its danger and Christ’s ability and willingness to save, and thus unites Christ to the soul. And it is effected actively when the sinner, thus convinced, enlightened and quickened, in the exercise of faith inwrought by the Spirit, receives the Redeemer now brought nigh and exclaims, “Lord, I believe!” “My Lord and my God!” And thus the union is consummated by the mutual consent of both parties: (1) by the Spirit on the side of Christ, and (2) in the exercise of an appropriating faith on the side of the sinner.
Thus not only does Christ abide in the soul, but the believing soul also abides in Him. There is a mutual union – Christ united to the soul by the Spirit, and the soul united to Christ by faith. Now the union by faith on the part of the sinner is the result of the previous union by the Spirit on the part of Christ. The Spirit first comes to the soul – brings Christ nigh to it; convinces it of sin; enlightens it in the knowledge of Christ, the glorious object now presented to it; works faith in it. And the quickened soul, in the exercise of this faith, apprehends and appropriates the Redeemer, exclaiming: This God is my God; He is all my salvation and all my desire; He is mine, and I am His. So the formation of the union is no less gracious than its origin is sovereign. Thus you will perceive how this faith is the act of a living, not a dead, soul – of a soul quickened by the energy of the divine Spirit. So far from there being anything meritorious in the faith which apprehends Christ, it is the product of the Spirit’s work in the soul.
The union of the soul to Christ being thus completed by the mutual consent and will of both parties, the believer can truly exclaim, “Not only is my Beloved mine, but also I am His”. Hence, in reference to this mutual union, Christ is said to be in believers and believers to be in Christ, He to dwell in them and they in Him. And hence the Lord Himself, when addressing His disciples, says, “Abide in Me and I in you”. This view of the matter is in perfect accordance with John’s declaration: “We love Him because He first loved us”, for our love is the effect of His love being first shed abroad in the soul; and His love is the originating cause of ours to Him, and its motive. Thus in every possible view of the matter, and at every step in the process, the believer may justly declare, “By the grace of God I am what I am.”
Doubtless this view of the matter is highly offensive to those who prefer their virtues to the graces of the Spirit, and talk with complacency of the power and purity of a fallen nature. But it is no part of the design of God’s revelation to praise a heart which is the foul cage of every unclean bird, to induce a man to believe that he is something when he is nothing – that he is pure when he is vile; that he is rich and increased in goods, when he is poor and miserable and wretched and polluted – to enable any puny worm of the dust, shivering in the rags of a polluted righteousness, to exclaim, Mine own hand has got me the victory.
Those who confide in the dignity and capabilities of a sinful nature have objected that this places man in a truly humiliating position. We admit it. It is one great design of the gospel scheme of recovery that it should do so. It is intended to abase the carnality of unrenewed nature, to transform the wisdom of the world unto foolishness and its might unto weakness, to bring down the pride of the unregenerate heart from the heights of its self-sufficiency and cause it to exclaim with the publican: “God be merciful to me a sinner”. It is intended to wither every gourd of creature confidence and creature strength, and to render it eternally and infallibly true that it is not by might nor by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord of hosts, that this great and marvellous work is begun, sustained, carried on and consummated.
2. The character of those who are savingly united to Jesus.
“They walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit.” “If any man be in Christ” says the Apostle, “he is a new creature.” A complete change has taken place; they have passed from death unto life. New principles of action have been infused into their souls; the relish for sin has lost its power and a relish for holiness has been implanted instead. The expression walking, as used here, does not refer to an isolated act but to habitual conduct. Therefore the meaning of the passage is that those who are in Christ Jesus regulate their lives, not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
How are we to understand the term flesh as used here? It is the unrenewed and unsanctified nature, as opposed to the regenerate and sanctified nature. By the expression Spirit we are to understand the renewed heart, the sanctified soul, or, better, the Spirit of God – God the Holy Ghost – dwelling in the renewed heart as in a temple. “Know ye not,” says the Apostle, “that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” The meaning of the passage therefore is that those who are in Christ Jesus do not regulate their walk according to the lusts and impulses of a corrupt nature, but according to the guidance of the Spirit, whose office in the economy of the gospel is to apply the benefits of the redemption purchased by Christ and to carry on and consummate the work of sanctification in the soul.
It is then characteristic of the ransomed of the Lord that they do not walk after the flesh but after the Spirit. So we affirm that regeneration and union to Christ are invariably connected; that there is both a change of nature and a change of state; that when a man is regenerated and justified, infallible provision is also made for him to advance in the divine life; that when he is united to Christ, he does not walk after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Now you are not for a moment to suppose that the Apostle affirms here that the believing soul never yields to the suggestions of the flesh. Such an affirmation would run counter to all experience. Indeed he informs us in the preceding chapter: “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”. While the believing soul may yield to the suggestions of the flesh, he does affirm that the believing soul does not habitually walk after the flesh; walking after the Spirit is the general characteristic of his life and the great end at which he constantly aims. Although sin may still harass him, and cause him to walk unevenly in the paths of new obedience, it no longer has dominion over him. Thus, though he falls, he shall rise again.
How do you stand in this matter? Are you walking after the flesh or after the Spirit? Is your treasure on earth or in heaven? Are your affections set on things above, or concentrated on a perishing world? Are you crucifying the flesh or fulfilling its lusts? Are you walking after the flesh? If so, you are not in Christ Jesus, for if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. God never united a soul to the Redeemer and then left it to wallow unrestrainedly amid the impurities of sin and the lusts of a polluted nature. God never conferred a robe of justifying righteousness without providing one of sanctifying purity. God never gives a new name without a new heart and a new nature.
If you walk after the flesh, you are not in Christ Jesus, for if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. This man is yet an outcast – an alien, a slave of sin, in bondage to Satan. Unless you have the characteristics of a Christian, you are not united to Christ; and if not united to Him, you are under condemnation. We do not say that you will be under it, but that you are now under it. A sentence of wrath has gone forth against you, and the Lord is not slack concerning His threatenings. A thousand years are as one day to Him who is from everlasting, and delay in executing His purposes does not affect their infallible certainty. While you walk after the flesh you are out of Christ, and out of Christ you are necessarily under condemnation.
It is true that you may be altogether ignorant of your guilty and perilous condition, but that is one of the saddest features of your case. Yours is one of the most appalling and hopeless positions which an immortal responsible being can occupy outside the world of spirits. Better far to be a homeless outcast upon earth than to be wrapped in carnal security. Better far to have the soul torn by the throes of pungent conviction than immersed in the stagnation of spiritual death. Guilt and spiritual blindness go together. Dim eyes and delusive perceptions are characteristics of the unregenerate, as well as hard hearts and polluted souls.
You feel that you are not under condemnation! Was it ever otherwise? Look at the vale of Siddim. Were the impious, God-forgetting children of Belial who lived there conscious of their perilous condition? They laughed Lot to scorn. They treated his warnings as the dreams of lunacy. They walked after the flesh and were therefore under condemnation. But did their carnal security ensure their safety? Did their lack of concern about danger prove a preventive against it? Their destruction by fire and brimstone from heaven answers the question. The rich man in the parable did not feel that he was under condemnation; but his unconcern was annihilated for ever when in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments.
Nothing can be more foolish than to imagine that, because you are unconscious of your danger, all is well. It is the object of the god of this world to blind the soul, to cause it to walk securely on the borders of hell, to keep the scales on the eyes till they fall off in the fire that is never quenched, to steel the heart till the first pang is inflicted by the gnawing of the worm that never dies. It is the masterpiece of his policy, the perfection of his stratagems, to send souls down to hell with a lie in their right hand. If you are walking after the flesh, you are under condemnation, and your lack of concern cannot in any way affect the solemn declarations of God’s Word.
But while those who are out of Christ walk after the flesh, those who are in Christ walk after the Spirit. Is this your character? Do you walk after the Spirit? Is the same mind in you which was in Christ Jesus? Have you put off the old man with his corrupt affections and lusts, and put on the new man, which after Christ Jesus is renewed in knowledge and righteousness and true holiness? Do you press forward in the Christian race, panting after the beauty of holiness and a greater conformity to your exalted Head?