Created In God’s Image–Not Adam’s! (5 of 5)

Notes From Others

After now establishing the fact that the previous passages discussed in Romans 6:6, Colossians 3:9-10 and Ephesians 4:22-24 all agree with one another in unison of thought according to context and in accordance with normal “aorist” tense usage, I will now add John MacArthur’s and The Expositor’s Greek New Testament notes in my concluding remarks.

Without being redundant, I will not spend too much time with Expositor’s Greek New Testament, except to say that the two Greek prepositional phrases “according to” (Gk. kata), as noted in the Douay-Rheims translation of Ephesians 4:22, are also extremely helpful in pointing us in the right direction of understanding whether or not the old man is completely dead and severed from our lives, or only “half-dead” and someone still to be reckoned with.

Expositor's Greek New Testament notes that the “old man” according to “the former manner of life” who is “ever advancing in corruption” according to “the lusts of deceit,” simply put, cannot be us any longer. And it is blasphemous to think that out of the same spring can come forth both salt water and fresh water. Note what S. D. F. Salmond has to say on The Epistle to the Ephesians in the Expositor’s Greek New Testament,

The kata clause ["according to"] defines that in respect of which this putting off is to take effect, the preposition having here the general sense of “in reference to,” and not that of “in conformity with”….is the former unregenerate self in its entirety (cf. Rom. vi. 6; Col. iii. 9)…which waxeth corrupt. The present participle marks the corruption as a process that goes on, a condition that progresses. The point is missed by the “is corrupt” of the AV, but is well put by the “waxeth corrupt” (Ell., RV; cf. also Gal. vi. 8). The “corruption,” however, is to be understood as “destruction”. The old man is in a condition of advancing destruction or ruin…[1]

So, what this proves beyond all doubt is that this cannot be referring to the disposition of the “new man,” but only to the ever-advancing corruption of the “old man” who has been put-off as old clothing before we put-on as new clothing the new man in Christ. And, as such, this old man that we use to be doesn't get better, but only continually gets worse! And our lives before being in Christ were a testament to this fact. In contradistinction, the believer no longer ever-advances in corruption, but ever-advances unto further holiness and incorruption! Christ came to set prisoners free from sin not just positionally, but in a very real and practical manner as well. As I have said all along: This is the “freedom” for which Christ has set us free! It is freedom from no longer sinning.

Now John MacArthur doesn’t really add much more to the mix here other than just to substantiate everything that has already been said: that the truth that Paul was teaching in Ephesians, Colossians and Romans was,

To demonstrate the transforming nature of regeneration…that his readers heard and were taught at conversion….

It is important to note here [in Ephesians] that Paul is not exhorting believers to do these things....They are done at the point of conversion, and are mentioned here only as a reminder of the reality of that experience....Paul's reference to the old self...is consistent with gospel terminology in his other epistles. For example, Colossians 3 describes the fact of salvation using four verbs:....All four verbs are in the aorist tense in the Greek, indicating that they refer back to already completed action and must therefore refer to the same past event of salvation. In context [in Colossians], “laid aside” and “have put on” cannot be other than exact parallels to “have died” and “have been raised up,” which are clearly salvific in content….Paul is describing salvation to the Colossians exactly as he does to the Ephesians....[2]

MacArthur continues to note here on Ephesians 4:22,

The inescapable conclusion from what Paul says in Romans and Colossians is that salvation is a spiritual union with Christ in His death and resurrection that can also be described as the death of the “old self” [or, “old man”] and the resurrection of the “new self” [or, “new man”]….It is not addition of a new self to an old self. In Christ, the old self no longer exists (cf. 2Cor. 5:17). That is what the Ephesians heard and were taught according to the truth in Jesus (Eph. 4:21). The old self is the unconverted nature, described as being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit. The old self of the unbeliever not only is corrupt but is increasingly being corrupted (present passive), because it is the tool for evil desire which is controlled by deceit (cf. 2:1-3). The gospel invitation is to lay the old self aside in repentance from sin…[3]

Created In God's Image

Notice also that in Ephesians 4:24 it says that the “new man” is “after God created” in “righteousness and holiness of truth.” This is no trivial idea! The text says here, literally, that we have been created “like God.” It is not as the Darby translation suggests, that we are created in righteousness and holiness according to God or by God, as true as this may be, but that we are created just like God in all true righteousness and holiness. Thus the NIV renders it, “created to be like God;” the ESV, “after the likeness of God;” WEY, “created to resemble God;” WBS, “in the likeness of God;” and the ISV, “according to God’s image.” Expositor’s Gk. NT says: “like God…in conformity with the Divine likeness” (vol. 3, p. 344). Kenneth Wuest likewise says in his Word Studies of the Greek NT that the words “after God” mean, “according to what God is in Himself; that is, created after the pattern of what God is.”[4] And Lenski likewise writes here with regards to being created in God's image,

The new man resembles God in righteousness and in holiness. Both qualities are his because God declares him to be righteous in the judgment of justification, and because the new man then lives in righteousness and holiness. The latter never takes place without the former. Righteousness and holiness are the chief perfections of Adam in his original state [before the fall], in image Dei [or in God's image]. The restoration of the divine image in us most certainly includes our justification for Christ’s sake, the product of which is a righteous and holy life. The creation of the new man in us does not at once stop all our sinning…but it does place the new man in control of our life and our conduct. [5] (bracketed words mine).

Herman Ridderbos also writes here with regards to this image of God being created in us,

...this almighty and re-creating work of the Spirit enters into the existence of believers in a personal and individual way....This is apparent particularly from those passages which speak of being created or renewed after God’s image (Col. 3:10; Eph. 4:24). The new man is renewed after the image of him who created him, that is, of God (Col. 3:10). He has been created “after” (in conformity with) God (Eph. 4:24). Elsewhere Paul speaks of the image of Christ:...(1Cor. 15:49; cf. Rom. 8:29: becoming conformed to the image of God’s Son; 2Cor. 3:18: being transformed after the image of Christ from glory to glory)....The background of both conceptions [of being created and renewed] lies, of course, in Genesis 1:27.[6]

That which took place in Christ on the cross took place in us, not theoretically, and not just positionally, but practically as well. Christ’s real death on the cross to the old man was our real death on the cross to our old man. It has effected us inwardly in our very being here on earth. It is not just a matter of something that here must come about and be changed in the believer, but of that which has already been changed effectually to our old man in the death of Christ on the cross, with a resulting new man being created in us after God’s very own image and likeness according to Eph. 4:24 (and even Col. 3:10). Again, not corporately or positionally, but personally and internally (proving beyond all doubt that the new man is a new being created "in us," and not something done externally outside of us). And since the old man of who we use to also be internally was really condemned and put to death in Christ’s death on the cross, the body’s propensity to sin has lost its dominion and power over our lives (cf. Rom. 6:6b). In Christ’s death and resurrection, we have been transformed (a metamorphosis) into a completely new and radical way and order of living for our lives. It is the life and order of an entirely new creation in Christ―one “new man” in Christ! Christ is essentially that perfect new man in us; and as He is, so are we. And as said before, except for His deity, we are all one and the same in and through Him. This is thus the reason why John could say we are to walk even as Christ walked (cf. 1Jhn. 2:6). We are His "firstborn-ones" (literal Greek in Heb. 12:23) as the very sons of the living God, begotten by God Himself (1Jhn. 5:18). We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works (Eph. 2:10). We have no excuse to be anyone other than what we have been born and called to be in God’s army. As we think in our hearts about ourselves, so shall we live accordingly. And until we renew our minds with such ethereal knowledge about ourselves, we will only continue to remain as just sticks in the mud going nowhere fast. But the one who truly begins to grasp all of this as to who they no longer are anymore, only such a one will begin to arise to the occasion for which God has called them to: to walk even as Christ walked!

Just like the first man, Adam, Christ the second Adam transmits His image to those who belong to Him (cf. 1Cor. 15:49). Christ takes on a form in us (Gal. 4:19) in the same way that it can be said elsewhere that we have been created “in Him” (Eph. 2:10). To be created after the image of God is the equivalent of being transformed and reflecting the very image of Christ Himself. What we today possess in Christ is more than what Adam lost. Adam was only a developed man. And he remained on that plane, never possessing the life of God. But when we receive the Son of God, not only do we receive the forgiveness of sins, but we receive Christ's divine nature. In the new birth we possess what Adam did not have; for we receive the Life which he never had.

Expositor’s Bible Commentary goes on to note here,

In Col. 3:10 the new self is presented as being "renewed in the knowledge in the image of its Creator." Here [in Ephesians] it is simply "to be like God" as man was at first.[7]

Again, Ridderbos writes,

It is said at the same time that this creation after the image of God does not signify a return [merely] to the original image of God [created in Adam]. Rather, as the heavenly and life-giving Spirit Christ represents an entirely different order and mode of existence from Adam as the earthly and living soul...like the first Adam, he [Christ] transmits his image to those who belong to him....For this reason to be created after the image of God is the equivalent of bearing, reflecting, being transformed after the image of Christ[8]

Albert Barnes notes here also on Ephesians,

The idea is, evidently, that man is so renewed as to become ‘like’ God, or the divine image is restored to the soul. In the parallel passage, in Colossians Col 3:9, the idea is expressed more fully, ‘renewed in knowledge after ‘the image’ of Him that created him.’ Man, by regeneration, is restored to the lost image of God.”[9]

Jamieson, Fausset and Brown similarly add, “God’s image in which the first Adam was originally created, is restored to us far more gloriously in the second Adam, the image of the invisible God.”[10]

Lenski again adds here,

"According to God" signifies likeness. God is the model, the new man a copy, and the latter [new man] accords with the former [God]. The point of likeness is expressed by…righteousness and holiness.”[11] (bracketed wording mine)

And finally, Martyn Lloyd Jones, the former pastor of Westminster Chapel in London, exuberantly remarks in his commentary,

The Christian is not the “old man” improved. The Christian is not a man who is trying to be better than he once was. Not at all! Something absolutely new is put in at the center—“created”!…The Christian is entirely different! Absolutely new! We are to understand, then, that God has done in our souls the same thing as He did when He created the world and when He created man. The “new man” is indeed a new creation!…So that we find the apostle Peter saying that “we are partakers of the divine nature.” The truth is so staggering that we can scarcely receive it. And is not the Christian Church in the state she is today because we do not realize what we are and who we are?…And I am emphasizing it for this good reason: the realization of it is the high road not only to a true understanding, but to the true enjoyment of the Christian life. Indeed, I will go further. This is the high road to revival!

The new man, says Paul, is created; but he introduces the additional phrase “after God,” another very vital term!…Literally it means that the new man has been created by God after God’s own image; that what God has created and implanted in us is something that partakes of His own likeness. This is not my theory, scholars are all agreed that this is the only way of interpreting the expression “after God.” These words take us back to the first chapter of Genesis where we find God saying, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…”

What then is the new creation? What is the new man? What is this new thing that God creates and puts into us? Scripture tells us that believers have been created again after the image of God, and that they receive back the righteousness, holiness and truth which were lost through sin and the Fall…If only every true Christian in the world today realized that this new creation, this new man, this new being, was within him, the whole Church would be revolutionized! All our failures, all our sins, are ultimately to be traced to the fact that we do not realize as we should what God has done to us, and the character and the nature of the new man, the new life, that He has put within us.[12]

In Christ, we have all been truly created in God’s image! Do we hear what is being said about us here? Do we understand the ramifications of what this is really saying? And so the real million dollar question is: “Do we really believe this?” If we really do, then what is all this talk about the old man still being able to come down from the cross or raise his hand or arm from the grave and trying to assert his authority over us and pull us down to his level, as even Philip Ryken below falsely asserts of our old man (a.k.a., the sinful nature)? Ryken writes:

The trouble is that our sinful nature has a way of trying to climb back down from that cross. When it does, it is able to make a remarkably speedy recovery, partly because we have a way of helping it. We are sometimes tempted to remove the nails, help our old sinful nature down from the cross, and nurse it back to health.

This has to stop....Mortify your sinful nature. Put it to death! From time to time, whenever it shows signs of life, say, “Oh no you don’t! Don’t try to climb down from there. Get back up on that cross where you belong!” Then pound the nails in a little deeper. If you belong to Christ, you have crucified your sinful nature, with all its selfish desire. Do not resuscitate it. Do not give it CPR. Do not keep it on life support. Just leave it on the cross and let it die.

There are two sides to sanctification in the Christian life. One is mortification, the putting to death of the sinful nature. The other is vivification, the coming to life of the regenerate nature.”[13]

Is he serious?! I can't believe what I am reading here. John Murray counters such obtuse thinking by stating: “To suppose that the old man has been crucified and still lives or has been raised again from this death is to contradict the obvious force of the import of crucifixion.”[14]  And Paul similarly says in Romans 6 that when Christ died to sin on the cross, we died! Our old man was (past tense) CRUCIFIED (v. 6), or killed! Dead men no longer tell any more tales, let alone come down from a cross and reassert their influence and ways over our lives―HE'S DEAD! What Ryken is saying above is the exact same mindless babble that John Murray and John MacArthur have noted in this article of those who claim that we have two natures residing in us, and that, “when he [the believer] does well, he is acting in terms of the new man which he is; when he sins, he is acting in terms of the old man which he also still is,” and how that, “This interpretation does not find support in Paul’s teaching” (Murray).[15]  And again, “To argue that believers have both an old self and new self is to argue in effect that the believer’s soul is half regenerate and half unregenerate. There is no support for such a spiritual half-breed in Scripture” (MacArthur).[16]  Not that these guys are the last word on all of this―the Bible has been saying all along the very same things! The old man that we received in Adam, died; and a new man has been recreated in his place in Christ Jesus after God’s very own image and likeness.

Now the last time I ever heard of someone being “dead” they were not in any position any longer to come down from a cross, open an eyelid, or let alone raise their hands or arms from a grave to take hold of us and pull us down to their level. The “old man” can no longer stick his bony hands from out of the grave (let alone come down from a cross) and grab us by the ankles to pull us down to his level! Nor are we able to bring him down from the cross and resuscitate him to life. His death no longer has any inkling of ability whatsoever to produce any kind of sting in us! There is no longer any “old man/sinful nature” to assert his authority over us, only a “new man/new nature” created in God’s likeness and image that now has the upper hand; and bearing only fruit unto righteousness and true holiness.

We are crucified to the world, and the world to us! (cf. Gal. 6:14). Such a “world” and former way of life no longer has a hold on us. The cross is God’s declaration that all that was of the old creation, the old sinful nature, the old self or old man (or whatever else one might want to call it), has died. As Watchmen Nee has rightly said,

Nothing of the first Adam can pass beyond the Cross; it all ends there. The sooner we see that, the better, for it is by the Cross that God has made a way of escape for us from that old creation. God gathered up in the person of his Son all that was of Adam and crucified him; so in him all that was of Adam was done away.[17]

There is an old world (or realm) and a new world (or realm), and between the two is a tomb or grave. Like Noah and his family in the ark, we have been crucified to the world and the world to us. The old man, or world, died, and we no longer know any man after the flesh. And unless our eyes have been opened to SEE this wonderful truth, we will never believe that there is a great gulf fixed between who we are now in Christ and who we use to be before we were in Christ.

It has been said that sometimes an airplane pilot isn’t sure whether his plane is flying upside down or right side up. The only way he can really believe what is truly going on is to look at his instrument gauges in order to ascertain his present condition. By way of analogy, perhaps we can think of the Bible’s view of who we really are in Christ as the gauge by which we are to pattern our attitude and lives by. Keeping our eyes fixed on the Bible’s view of things will help us to remain focused on who we really are, and the course that we are to follow.

The analogy of Pharaoh and all his hosts who received a watery burial and grave is just another illustration of all this. All of the children of Israel in their uniting with Moses, through their baptism into him through the Red Sea, severed all ties once and for all from their former way of life. The great Leviathan, Pharaoh (Satan in our case), along with his taskmasters (or Satan's minions) were no longer Israel’s taskmasters! Indeed, they couldn’t be, for they were now all “dead.” Israel was entirely incapacitated to ever return again to their former way of life once the Lord caused the waters to return to their former state and condition. The example of Noah is just another illustration. All that was left for them to do was to go forward. All that is left for us to do now is to pick up our cross and go forward; crucifying the world, the flesh, and the devil unto ourselves. We have been imbued with the power and strength to do so. And it is by such a sure word of prophecy that we do run well. Who has hindered us from running this race? Who has bewitched us into believing that we “cannot do” that which we really want to do by telling us that we are still the Romans 7 man? I am of the opinion that such a persuasion is just simply not from above brethren.

The reason why we are baptized into Christ with the resulting waters of baptism is the fact that we too have recognized that in God’s sight we have died to our former way of life. How so? By a violent, ugly, death and crucifixion through Christ to our old, sinful man! By such a death “sin shall no longer be your master,” says Paul (Rom. 6:14). Our old “taskmaster” so-to-speak, has died. His ability to bring us under the mastery and servitude of his former ways is once-and-for-all severed. The ties that use to bind us are now broken. It’s over brethren! Do you see that! He’s over with! He’s dead! Our old man is DEAD! We do not become un-crucified from the cross at any point in our lives after having been crucified! We are a completely regenerated, recreated, new man and new creature in Christ never to return to our former manner of life again. Like Jonah in the belly of the whale, we have left the ship violently tossed with the waves where all is now peaceful, only to now be tossed upon the beach as the heralds of an evangel. All former relations have been severed. Our entire physical body has been “circumcised” with the inward spiritual circumcision of Christ within, in order for us to no longer serve sin in the members of our bodies.

When we talk about being made into the likeness of God’s image, of course this doesn’t mean we are God who is Omniscient, Omnipotent, and Omnipresent. We only know what He allows us to know; we have only the power that He empowers us with; and neither can we create. And we can only be in one place at one time. Truly, He alone is Almighty God, and there are no other gods besides Him. But have no doubt about it brethren, we have been created in His image or likeness that Adam had before the fall.

It is extremely important that we begin to realize this. When we do, it will change our lives and the way that we think about ourselves and who we really are now in Christ. You want a positive self-image? This is it brethren! It doesn’t get anymore positive than this! We are no longer the “old man” with His sinful propensities to control the flesh; but a “new man” created in Christ Jesus to control our flesh unto all holiness and righteous conduct. And it only stands to reason that this new man is without sin. Otherwise, we are all men most miserable and subject only to defeat, just like Paul says of the one in Romans 7. As was said earlier, our “new man” is not our problem, nor our “old man” (for he is dead and gone), but it is our flesh and our unrenewed minds which is our problem. Our newly created spirit-man, in God’s image no less, is not bent on sinning any longer. How can that holy thing which has been "born of God" and created in God’s image be sinful? Let me say that again: How can that holy thing which has been "born of God" and created in His image be sinful? Has God created the new man still imbued with sin? God forbid! Is he still a mixture of the old man and the new man tainted with just a little bit of leaven? Not on your life! “How shall he who is dead to sin, live any longer therein?” Paul cried! “You have died, and your life is now hid with Christ in God.” And so Paul continues, “Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires…offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life…offer the parts of your body to Him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master…” (Rom. 6:2, 12, 13, 14). You’re a new man! Believe it and receive it! Stand up, stand up for Jesus. Take up your bed and start walking!

Again, except for a handful of theologians (if you can call them that), a good many commentators and Greek expositors are almost all unanimous on what these texts in Romans, Colossians, and Ephesians are saying with regards to our new-found position and state of being in Christ. And it is almost unanimously exclaimed by all of Eph. 4:24, that we as believers, in Christ, have been restored to that original state of blessedness that Adam and Eve had before they fell in the garden of Eden; that image of God that the Bible says Adam and Eve were originally created in (cf. Gen. 1:27; 5:1).

For ages throughout Church history this truth has been affirmed by almost every stalwart man of faith in God. It is the truth, that what was lost in the fall, has now been restored to every single man and woman in Christ Jesus. And while this is all no less true, most of us will still not let go of the idea that there is still some little inkling of sin somewhere deep down inside of us all that keeps making us do what we really do not want to do. Many commentators of recent origin, and even in the past, have struggled over all of this, leaving many of us only still further confused—as they themselves have been—which has been plainly revealed in this discussion. But where now is this little leaven that tries to leaven the whole lump, I might ask? If the old sinful leaven of the unregenerate old man is dead, buried and removed from our temples forever, then where is this “little inkling of sin” or “leaven” residing at? Surely, it is not in the regenerate new man born of God and created in Christ Jesus after God’s own image, is it? And if it cannot be found there, then where is it? Many affirm this idea about the new man or new nature within us, but they still believe we have some inkling of the old man or old nature with sin still residing in us. But why not just go all the way? Why not just say we are completely one new man in Christ, created perfect in Christ with no sin? Why sell ourselves short? Christians have no problem in affirming this in a “part” of us, which they call "the new man," so why should they have a problem in affirming this in all of us if we are completely one new man in Christ?

Again, if the old man who is sinful is dead, and the new man created in Christ Jesus after God’s own image and likeness in all holiness and righteousness is not sinful—for God doesn’t create something sinful—then who or what is doing the sinning?

Because many have not been able to put a finger on all of this in identifying who the real culprit is, they have acquiesced to peer pressure and the blasphemous idea that the problem still lies somewhere in our “new man;” or even worst still, in the more insidious and incredulous idea that we as believers are a composite being made up of both the old man and the new man joined together in holy matrimony to the Lord, and who still yet want to sin. God forbid brethren!

Sadly, not a few Christians have fallen prey to these deceitful ideas; and it has only weakened many in the faith, blinding them to who they really are in Christ; and in essence making them ineffective witnesses for Christ. Many have a “woe is me” mentality; when, in reality, they should really be having an “I am” epiphany: “I am more than a conqueror through Him who loved me; I am a new creation in Christ Jesus; I am the light of the world and the salt of the earth just as Christ said we are; I am a city that is set on a hill, a light that is not shamefully hidden under a bushel; I am in God and He in me; and if He be for me, then who can be against me? I am no longer the man I use to be; I am a new man created in God’s image and likeness. I am no longer controlled by the sinful nature, but by the Spirit of God if the Spirit of God now lives within me (cf. Rom. 8:8-9, NIV '84 ed.). And just short of being God, I am in Christ and He in me.

Are you getting all of this brethren? The God-man resides in you. Again, as you recall, the apostle John has said we are “begotten of God” just as “He“ (Christ) is “begotten of God” (1Jhn. 5:18, see NASB). We in Christ, Christ in God, and God in us (cf. John. 17:21-22). Wow! If this doesn’t revolutionize your thinking, I don’t know what will! If after all this you still believe that there is some “little inkling” of the old man residing in you, some “little inkling of sin,” then go right ahead, believe that and remain defeated. Believe that you are still a "wretched man." Go on and believe that you will never amount to anything because of the sin that supposedly still dwells within you. Remain despondent and in despair affirming with many other brethren that you only keep on doing all those things that you really do not want to do because someone has duped you into believing that you are still the man in Romans 7, who cries, "I am carnal, sold as a slave to sin,"and “it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me….the evil that I do not want to do—THIS I KEEP DOING!” (Rom. 7:14, 17, 19).

That which Paul clearly says the law was “working” or “doing” (Gk. energeito) in the Jew in Rom. 7:5 before they were saved, he says it is really “doing” or “working” (Gk. katergazomai) in them in verses 15–20 (with the root "erg" meaning “work,” and with the added prepositional prefix “kata,” meaning, “work that is brought to a conclusion” or that is “effectual”). Twenty times is this word katergazomai used in the New Testament, six of which are used here in Rom. 7:8, 13, 15, 17, 18 and 20, with its root seen in verse 5. And as St. John also says, “Everyone who is not doing righteousness, is not of God” (1Jhn. 3:10, YLT). May John's words be the last words on all of this.

As A. T. Robertson notes of such a one being “sold” to do sin in verse 14 and thereon, he writes, “sin has closed the mortgage and owns its slave.”[18] He is a captive (Gk. aichmalōtizonta; a present participle) to sin in verse 23, as opposed to the Christian who now takes sin captive (Gk. aichmalōtizontes; also a present participle) in 2Cor. 10:5. And if it were not enough for Paul, as Saul, to say he was really “carnal” here with the adjectival form of the Greek sarx, which is sarkinos here in verse 14, he now expresses what he means with even stronger terms, by adding, “sold as a slave to sin,” or “sold under sin” in many translations. No thinking theologian doubts that to be “sold under sin” is to be understood here as being under the mastery and servitude of sin. The idea is parallel or akin to Rom. 6:20, where Paul speaks of Christians as being formerly, “slaves to sin.” “Slavery” is emphasized in Romans 6, being “sold” and placed “under” the servitude of sin is what is expressed in Romans 7. And so, being sold under servitude to sin, as a slave is under servitude to a master, is the key idea that is being expressed here by Paul.

As Everett Harrison notes in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary,

It is a graphic picture of many an action carried out by a slave, going through certain motions under the authority and direction of a master. If there appears to be obedience, it is really not a matter of volition, but something almost mechanical. Paul’s figure of slavery is cogent here, since he is forced to carry out what he does not want to do, what he really hates, whereas what he would like to do never seems to materialize (v. 15).[19]

After having said all that you would think that such individuals as Everett who talk like this about Paul as being a slave to sin would come to their senses and realize that this cannot be referring to Paul in his regenerate state in Romans 7. But in spite of this, many continue to argue just the opposite, even as Everett does elsewhere in his commentary! This is all just simply amazing to me!

In fact, so parallel in thought is this phrase in Rom. 7:14 with Rom. 6:20, that Charles Hodge is forced to say, based upon his theology that Romans 7 is speaking of Paul in his regenerate state, that:

From this kind of bondage [in Romans 6] believers are redeemed...But there is another kind of bondage [in Romans 7]. A man may be subject to a power which, of himself, he cannot effectually resist; against which he may and does struggle, and from which he earnestly desires to be free; but which, notwithstanding all his efforts, still asserts its authority. This is precisely the bondage to sin of which every believer is conscious. He feels that there is a law in his members bringing him into subjection to the law of sin; that his distrust of God, his hardness of heart, his love of the world and of self, his pride, in short his indwelling sin, is a real power from which he longs to be free, against which he struggles, but from which he cannot emancipate himself. This is the kind of bondage of which the apostle here speaks.[20]

To speak of such things as these concerning the Christian is blasphemous! They do not describe the lifestyle of the saint, but that of the sinner! If this is who we are, then we are no better off than the unregenerate. We are no different in any way, shape, manner or form except for the fact that we now have Christ standing up for us in the fray. Other than that, we are helpless, hopeless, and hapless! We are a people most miserable!

To be sure, this state of bondage as being “sold” passively (Rom. 7:14, Gk. perfect passive) as a slave to another was well-known among the Romans. The sale of slaves they saw daily on a routine basis, and there could be no mistaking what Paul was alluding to here. The Romans could completely identify with such language. They knew (as we too no less know), that a slave can never do what he wants to do of his own volition. That which he hates to do, he does it anyway under the absolute control of his master. “To be someone’s slave was to be his possession, bound to obey his will without hesitation or argument.”[21] Absolute and unconditional submission and obedience was to be rendered on the slave’s part. On the Master’s part there was a complete right of ownership: the right of life and death and the disposing of all of one’s goods; the right of issuing commands without a reason; and the right to expect that those commands be unreservedly obeyed. This is the state or condition that Paul describes he was in when under the law of sin and death, and not under grace. Sin was Paul’s (Saul’s) rightful master and legal owner, and Adam was the federal head that legally sold him and all of his posterity passively and continually headlong into this servitude, thus Paul's reason for using the perfect passive tense and voice. And in contradistinction to being passively sold under the mastery and slavery of sin, it is said literally in the Greek that Christ has now passively “bought” us as no longer slaves to anything or anyone else but unto Himself (cf. 1Cor. 6:20; 7:23). The analogy to pagan practices of buying and selling slaves, and not just to Hebrew practices of piercing one’s ear, could not be more striking here.

Two more times is this phrase “under sin,”in Rom. 7:14, that denotes being under the mastery and servitude of something or someone else, used elsewhere by Paul: once just earlier in Rom. 3:9, and one more time in Gal. 3:22. And in both cases it is unequivocally referring to all mankind under the rule and sway of sin prior to being in Christ. Here in Rom. 7:14, the Greek is hupo ten hamartian, and literally translated reads, “under the sin.” In Rom. 3:9, the Greek is pantas huph hamartian, and translated reads, “all under sin.” And in Gal. 3:22, the Greek is panta hupo hamartian, and translated reads, “everyone under sin.” So as one can very well see, we are talking about one and the selfsame thing here. The sin that Paul was describing himself “under,” all the world is under prior to receiving Christ. But according to Romans 6:18, Christians have “been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness." Interestingly, Rom. 6:14 equates being “under sin” or under “the dominion” of sin as being “under the law”: “For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under the law but under grace” (ESV). Ironically, the law only causes an unregenerate individual to sin all the more. It reveals one’s true colors for who they really are; that they are “under the sin” which we all inherited from our forefather, Adam, before coming to Christ!

And so Paul, as Saul, is saying that he answered to its every beck and call. Elsewhere Paul refers to this sin principle as the “old man” in Rom. 6:6; Col. 3:9-10 and Eph. 4:22-24. Paul’s inner conscience, held captive by this principle of sin ingrained in his very being, hated to do sin's bidding. But he was obliged to do it anyway. He was a captive audience so-to-speak. He was sin’s bondslave. And while God’s outward Law that was legally binding upon his conscience as an unrelenting Taskmaster was pulling him one way, his servitude to sin also as his legal and rightful owner was pulling him the other way. He was in a conundrum! He was, in fact, in servitude under two masters―the Law and sin![22] Something that Christ said we just cannot do until we come out from being under one and completely and unreservedly under the servitude of another. This “other” master is being under the complete servitude of Christ and His law. Those two former masters of the Law and sin have been taken completely out of the way by us dying to both, so that we may now be free to serve another out of an unreserved love, which is, namely, under the servitude of Christ.

The fourth century Christian writer, Ambrosiaster, wrote, “the one who is liberated from [the Mosaic Law] ‘dies’ and lives to God, becoming His slave, purchased by Christ,”[23]  and Romans 7:2-6 clearly illustrates this point. And as Leon Morris describes for us under Rom. 7:6,

We are delivered from the law because we have died to that by which we were held down. The imagery [of being “held down,” Gk. katecho, “to hold fast, bind, or restrain”[24]] may suggest that we were captives to the law and could not escape (cf. GNB, “held us prisoners”). The result [of our being released from being under the servitude of the law] is a new way of service. Paul’s verb [Gk. douleuein, present act. inf.; lit., “to be enslaved”[25]] takes us back to the imagery of slavery which he used so effectively at the end of the previous chapter [ch. 6]....To be free from the [slavery of the] law is to be free to render more wholehearted service [as slaves to God], service done in “newness of Spirit and not in oldness of letter.”[26]

Indeed, elsewhere, Paul actually calls the law a “yoke of slavery” (Gal. 5:1, Gk. zugo douleias; see also 4:3-9 for the same idea). And in Gal. 3:23, similar with Rom. 7:6 above of one being “held down” by the law, Paul again denotes, “before...faith came, we Jews were perpetual prisoners under the Law, living UNDER restraints and limitations...” (WEY).

Throughout Scripture, the Bible says that the unregenerate man is in a continual state of bondage and servitude “under sin” until the Son of God sets us free. But in no part of the sacred writings does it ascribe such a bondage and servitude to the redeemed, born-again saint. If you are in such a state or condition, then you are not a “saint,” but an “ain’t.” You are still in your sins! That’s what Jesus told the Pharisees, “Everyone who continually practices [present active part.] sin is the slave [doulos] of sin” (Jhn. 8:34, lit., trans.); and, “a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever” (v. 35). And this “sin” is exactly what Paul, as Saul, was saying he was practicing in Romans 7:15-19.

Now, for those who would say that it cannot be said of the unregenerate that they “delight in the law of God” in the inward man (Rom. 7:22), just look around at almost every unregenerate Jew and every courthouse in the nation. In every synagogue and in almost every courthouse are posted the ten commandments. Many an unregenerate are indeed delighting in God's laws. In fact, the Jews have enshrined the Law in their elaborate scrolls, and all the heathen of America have posted it up on their walls and have engraved it into their columns and buildings. But the good that they would―the good that they uphold and know to be right―they do not! They may do so for awhile, but sin eventually takes over and they fall prey to disobedience somewhere down the line.

So, unlike what Charles Hodge has said about the believer in his commentary on Romans 7 (whom he refers to as "they"), it is the unbeliever (not "the believer" as he says) who shows “distrust for God...hardness of heart...love of the world and of self...pride...in short his indwelling sin”; and it is “...a real power from which he” (and not us), “longs to be free, against which he” (and not us), “struggles, but from which he" (and not us), "cannot emancipate himself” (Romans, p. 230). I hope you are as flabbergasted as I am that Hodge would speak this way of us. We can, and do, emancipate ourselves from sin. It is "they," the unbeliever, who cannot do so, not "they" the believer! Once again, it is for freedom from sin that Christ has set us free. We are no longer enslaved under a yoke of bondage to sin. When are we going to begin to get this into our heads? If there was ever a time for renewed minds, brethren, this is it! And it is high time that we awake out of our lethargic and dead state and begin to put on the Lord Jesus Christ, no longer making any provisions for the flesh.

We are what we believe brethren. And instead of believing like this, we should be letting the mind of Christ be dwelling in us richly. Ask yourself this question: Did Christ think like this? Was this the mind of Christ? Is this the example, the legacy, and line of thinking and reasoning that He left behind for us to ponder upon and to be overwhelmed by? If it is, then we are indeed a people most miserable. On the other hand, if we are really whom Paul says that we are now that we are in Christ, then it stands to reason why he would talk the way he does, in telling us to think and walk the way that we should walk in Romans 6:

We died to sin; how can we who are dead live any longer therein to it?….Our old man was crucified with Him, so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been freed from sin….reckon yourselves dead to sin but alive unto God in Christ Jesus….For sin shall no longer have dominion over you, because you are not under the law, but under grace….Thanks be to God that, though you use to be slaves to sin…you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness….again, you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness” (vv. 2, 6, 11, 14, 17, 18, 22).

And all this agrees with what Paul says in Ephesians: that we have been created like God in all true “righteousness” and “holiness.” This is what Romans 6 above is affirming: that instead of being the old man that we use to be who was a slave to deceit (see also Tit. 3:3 in NIV, NAS, ESV) and all manner of unrighteousness, we are now a new man who has become a “slave to righteousness,” a “slave to God,” and all of which “leads to holiness.” We are no longer in a continual state of having been born into and sold passively under sin as slaves in order to do the sin that we inherited from Adam, “who was a type of Him who was to come” (Rom. 5:14); but we are begotten of God, having been once-and-for-all passively purchased by Christ as slaves (aorist passive in Rom. 6:18, 22) unto a continual state of doing that which is righteous, inherited from Christ who is our blessed Anti-type and Second Adam.


“Awake, awake, O Zion, clothe yourself with strength.
Put on your garments of splendor, O Jerusalem, the holy city.
The uncircumcised and defiled will not enter you again....
You were sold for nothing,
and without money you will be redeemed....
Come all you who are thirsty...
you who have no money, come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost....
our God...will freely pardon”
(Isaiah 52:1, 3; 55:1, 7)


Have we been sold for nothing? You bet we have! Romans 5:14-21 substantiates all of this by the one unrighteous act of Adam that we have all been no less sold passively as slaves unto and “under” the sin for which he sinned and subjugated all mankind unto. But we have also been redeemed without cost to us by the one righteous act of Christ, Romans 5:15-21 again substantiating in the Greek that we have all been no less redeemed passively from sin to become slaves now unto and “under” God’s grace. The Anti-type (Christ) matches the type (Adam) perfectly; except for the one (Adam) leads all in him under condemnation and sin, whereas the other (Christ) leads all in Him under justification and righteouness. Both are accomplished in us irrespective of any cost or effort on our part through these two federal heads. And Adam is no longer our federal head, Christ is.

Now, Watchman Nee writes about a woman in China whose husband had died, “but, becoming deranged by her loss, she flatly refused to have him buried. Day after day for a fortnight he lay in the house. ‘No,’ she said, ‘he is not dead; I talk with him every night.’ She was unwilling to have him buried because, poor woman, she did not believe him to be dead. When are we willing to bury our dead ones? Only when we are absolutely sure that they have passed away. While there is the tiniest hope that they are alive, we will never bury them.”[27]

That is the Christian’s problem. He or she doesn’t believe they are dead to sin. They are still in their minds, “just a sinner, saved by grace.” This is okay to say in recognition of who we use to be, even Paul acknowledged that much, but this is not who we are now in Christ. And Paul recognized this fact with just as much force and vigor. Contrary to popular opinion, Paul did not state that he was still a chief of sinners. He is only stating that when he was a sinner that he was then the chief of them, and he prefaces this thought by stating how he was just that before coming to Christ: “a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man” (1Tim. 1:13). But Paul had a completely different opinion of himself after he was saved and having served the Lord for awhile: “You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless we were among you who believed” (1Ths. 2:10). Paul was no longer a “chief sinner,” but now one of the chiefest of “saints, holy and beloved” (cp. Rom. 1:7; 1Cor. 1:2; Col. 3:12; Heb. 3:1; Eph. 3:5; 2Pet. 3:2, NAS). Nevertheless, it is always good to remember from whence we came. And so any so-called "blamelessness" that Paul says he had in Php. 3:6 before being in Christ was delusional at best! If not, then what need was there for Christ? In that case, Paul was already perfect! But Paul told us about the inward struggles that he was having with that “other” law in his members while being a Jew under the law and not under grace in Romans 7:5 and verse 23 that compelled him to do that which he did not want to do, and for which the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus set him free from in Romans 8:2f in order TO DO.

A righteousness and blamelessness that exceeded that of the scribes and Pharisees was what Christ was seeking after, and for which Paul in his unredeemed state just didn’t have. For all outward intents and purposes Paul “appeared” blameless on the outside to himself and to others, and thus the reason why he said in Php. 3:6, “as touching the righteousness of the law, blameless.” But, clearly, he was not “blameless” before God in the sense that Christ had spoken of, or even as Paul has asserted of himself above in 1Ths. 2:10 after being saved. He was inwardly a wolf masquerading as a sheep in sheep’s clothing; having a form of righteousness, but in all actuality denying the power thereof in his unholy conduct and lifestyle as a “blasphemer and a violent man,” as I recall him saying. In his former state he was one of those 99 sheep that Jesus spoke about who thought they were righteous (or blameless) in God’s sight, but indeed were not! Paul, in retrospect, could in fact say he was not!

Paul, as Saul, was “a blasphemer,” breaking the 3rd commandment. And, according to Christ, all Pharisees such as Paul also broke the 5th commandment with their traditions in not honoring their fathers and mothers (Mat. 15:3-9); “traditions” that Paul even said he too was “zealous for” in Gal. 1:14. Indeed, Paul was also a murderer, breaking the 6th commandment. And he even encouraged false testimony through false witnesses (Acts 6:11-14; 7:58), breaking also the 9th commandment. And if Paul, as Saul, was coveting all kinds of things from day one in Rom. 7:8 when he said the law was brought to bear upon his heart, then he was also guilty of breaking the 10th commandment against coveting before ever being saved. For it must not go unnoticed or without saying here that such “coveting” Paul said he no longer did as a believer in Acts 20:33, just a couple of months removed from when he wrote these words in his epistle to the Romans on his third missionary journey during his three month stay in Greece in Acts 20:3. So which was it? Was Paul covetous as a believer or as an unbeliever? Clearly, the latter is more preferable and to be understood here. And this makes all the more sense in light of the fact that in his epistles he says that covetousness is not to be named among those who have become saints. It would be hypocritical for Paul to speak against the coveting of others in 1Cor. 5:9-10; 6:9-10, if he himself was still a covetous person. In these verses above he tells believers not to associate with those who do in order to make them feel ashamed of their conduct. And he also says that those who keep practicing such things will “not inherit God’s kingdom,” the same thing he says of all those listed in Gal. 5:21.

In conclusion, we do not set out to “patch a wound” on what is now called the “the old man” and “old creation” which is “dead!” There is no one left “to patch;” there is nothing left of that “old man” to crucify. He has been completely crucified and eradicated from our lives! He is dead, buried and gone forever! Oh, brethren, get this Truth, and this Truth will set you free. You are no longer a caged bird. The door has been swung wide open in order for you to begin to fly. Just now start flying!

How could Paul say "mortify" or "put to death" something that has already been put to death in Romans 6:6? This troubled me for more years than I care to remember. But when I finally came to realize what is indeed dead, and what still needs to be put to death, then I finally began to get it! I finally began to realize not only who I really am now (a new man), but also who the culprit is that I still on a daily basis need to crucify—it’s my flesh! When Paul everywhere speaks of now putting to death, rather than having already put to death the old man, he is always speaking about mortifying the deeds of the fleshly members of our bodies. And we can now do it with the regenerated new man who resides within these fleshly temples called “our bodies.” Our bodies, also called “the flesh” (or sarx) in Scripture (see also Php. 1:20, 22 and 24 in NAS), is what we are to continually mortify and lay to rest. Our old man no longer has a hand to raise in trying to assert his sinfulness due to the fact that, again, dead men can no longer tell any tales, let alone assert any influence over our lives.

No, that “little leaven” and “inkling of sin” that tries to assert itself over us is our fleshly bodies which are indeed alive and strong, but no stronger than He who is in us! We now have the upper hand. If “He” who is so Mighty in us be for us, who can be against us? Those whom God calls, He justifies; those whom He justifies, He completely and most assuredly sanctifies and ultimately glorifies! Praise God! Just start believing it and receiving it! Just start walking by faith and start reckoning it to be so as Paul said in Rom. 6:11. I promise you, every sincere child of faith, in God, will bring forth the good fruit who begins to do so. If the “root” is holy (which it is), so too will it’s branches be. Just start taking one step at a time, one day at a time; for sufficient unto the day are the evils thereof. Don’t dwell on what you don’t have, dwell on what seems to be not as though it were. Now that is simple childlike faith! Foolishness to some, but the power of God to usward who believe! Such a doctrine does wonders, simply wonders for our faith!

Casting Down Vain Imaginations

Of all the truths that Satan would attempt to deceive us about, this weapon of our understanding is the most vital to him in destroying. He wants to have authority over us, and not the other way around. If he can get us to think that we are a bunch of has-beens and have-nots, rather than being the very sons of the living God that we are in Christ, then he has done his job and he has done it well. He has effectively paralyzed us; making us ineffective for God’s kingdom. If he can suppress such contemplations of this truth about ourselves in us, then all the rest is a piece of cake for him. It’s a walk in the park for him! Indeed, he has been doing a pretty good job of this so far. And if it were possible, he will try to deceive even the very elect!

From the very beginning it has always been for Satan to have the upper hand—to have authority over all. He wants us to be like him, not like God; and he will do everything in his power to get us to surrender our wills to the world, the flesh and to him. He wants us to resemble his image, not God’s; and he will throw out everything at us in his arsenal of weaponry to make sure that we do not bear the image of the heavenly, but remain earthly and carnal in our disposition. He is jealous of us all, and is as mad as can be; and he is doing everything in his power to get us to relinquish ourselves to him and to his ways.

Many Christians are not winning the battle for their minds because they have not been able to identify the real enemy and put their finger on the problem. And contrary to popular opinion, we are not our worst enemy. The enemy of our old man, which use to be one of our enemies, is no longer privy to us. We are freemen. All the Christian needs to do now is identify who the real enemies are—the world, the flesh, and the Devil—and start usurping authority over them instead of vice-versa. Believe it or not, the problem isn’t with us, it’s with the enemy of our souls.

Begin to see who you really are in Christ as opposed to who you no longer are; and then, and only then, will you begin to put your finger on the problem and begin to start dealing with it. But if you are told a pack of lies about yourself, and that you will never amount to anything, then you will never ever arise to the occasion for which God has called you to. Either you are still the chief and prince of all sinners or, like the apostle Paul, becoming the most chiefest and noblest of all the saints. “Holy and blameless” as I recall him saying. Not in an arrogant manner; but in all humility and humbleness of heart apprehending that for which we have all been apprehended of God for, to live righteous and holy lives before Him.

John MacArthur concludes here in his commentary under Eph. 4:24:

It is essential to expand the concept of the new self so that it may be understood more fully. The word new (kainos) does not mean renovated but entirely new—new in species or character. The new self is new because it has been created in the likeness of God. The Greek literally, “according to what God is”—a staggering statement expressing the wondrous reality of salvation. Those who confess Jesus Christ are made like God!….The image of God, lost in Adam, is more gloriously restored in the second Adam. [28]

And it is here at this venture that MacArthur states what was also noted earlier in this article:

So righteous and holy is this new self that Paul refuses to admit that any sin comes from the new creation in God’s image. Thus the language in Romans 6-7 is explicit in placing the reality of sin other than in the new self. He says, “do not let sin reign in your mortal body” (6:12) and, “Do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin” (6:13)….In those passages Paul places sin in the believers life in the body....he will not allow that new inner man to be given responsibility for sin. (ibid)

Did you just read what I read? Do you see what John MacArthur has just stated? Or, am I reading into his words something that is not really there? He just said, “So righteous and holy is this new self that Paul refuses to admit that any sin comes from the new creation in God’s image....Paul places sin in the believers life in the body….he will not allow that new inner man to be given responsibility for sin.”

That's a shocking statement! A “staggering statement,” as I recall him and Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones as saying with regards to us being created in God's image. But it only comes from the mind and mouth of all those who have truly seen the light on all of this; the light that turned on for John MacArthur, for myself and for many others mentioned in this article. Has it turned on for you? Do you “see” what all of us are seeing? Do you “hear” what the Spirit of God is saying to us? “You are clean!” So quit calling “unclean” what God has called “clean!”

One's own tradition's and self reasoning's have made the Word of God of none effect to them in this area of their lives. As such, they have not walked in the light as He is in the light. They have been in essence children of the night, groping about in the darkness as one who is still blind. And so my heart’s desire is that God will open your eyes to see how greater He is that is in you than he that is in the world. Awake from the dead, thou that sleepest, and Christ shall give thee light! Begin to take up your bed and start walking! Walk in this new-found freedom and revelation of who you really are in Christ; because as far as every true believer is concerned, we “no longer know any man after the flesh.”

Some Concluding Remarks

I’ve left you with a lot to chew on in this article. And if you come away with anything, it is my sincere hope and desire that you come away with the realization of who you really are now in Christ, and the fact that you are no longer who you use to be. You’re “absolutely new,” as Martyn Lloyd Jones has said. And if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, let it be with our thoughts continually “thinking on these things!”

Far from teaching sinless perfection, or that a Christian never sins, this article is only meant to put a finger on where the problem lies with regards to one sinning. The problem lies not in our newly created spirit-man, but in our flesh. Our flesh is our enemy! He’s the culprit! Or, he can be our friend as long as we bring him into compliance to the standards of our new man created in Christ’s image and likeness.

Like Paul said, “How can we who are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” (Rom. 6:2). Paul had caught the vision. And like myself he is trying to get others to run with it. Paul had learned the secret to one’s success in Christ. Satan no longer has us “under his thumb.” It’s the other way around! And we are now more than conquerors through Christ who loves us! The God of all the universe resides in these temples of ours, conquering and going forth to conquer. So, “do not be afraid, O Zion; do not let your hands fall limp. The Lord your God is in your midst, a victorious warrior...” (Zeph. 3:16-17, NASB). If God be so for us, then nothing, absolutely NOTHING, can come against us. By “a word” from His mouth all must obey Him. If He says, “go,” they must go. If He says, “come,” then they must all come; and no one can stay His hand or say to Him, “What doest thou?” No one! Just such a word of faith as this is nigh unto thee, in thy mouth and in thine heart. Just start to reckon it as so! By His stripes we are all healed from the wretched disease called “sin!” Now take up your bed and start walking!

Once for all, oh, sinner receive it,
Once for all, oh, brother believe it;
Cling to the cross, the burden will fall,
Christ has redeemed us, once for all!
—Philip P. Bliss

All Christians have to act on the truth of God. The responsibility is left entirely up to us. And we most definitely cannot act for others. It must be a deliberate act of our own will. And the gospel message is to always lead us to action. The paralysis of refusing to act leaves us exactly where we were before; but once we act, we are never the same again. It is the foolishness of the act that stands in the way of thousands of Christians who have been convicted by the Holy Spirit. And so they succumb to the world, the flesh, and the devil in doubt and unbelief because they don’t realize who they really are in Christ. The Deceiver has done his job, and he has done it well. But the moment we speedily make haste to act, that is the moment we come alive; everything else is just mere existence. The moment when I truly live is the moment when I begin to act and rise up and walk before God with every fiber of my being upon His Word alone. Not by sight, but by faith. Not by my feelings, but by my faith. Not by my fickle emotions that come and go, but by a faith that believes to the bitter end.

We must never allow a truth of God that is brought home to bear upon our souls to pass without acting upon it, not necessarily just physically, but with our mind and emotions as well. Because sometimes we cannot do anything physically but to just stand right where we are at. Isn’t that what Christ did before his accusers, as a lamb shorn before His shearers? Record that day of your own life with blood. The most weary saint who does business with Jesus Christ is immediately emancipated from his sins and his own self-centeredness the moment he acts by faith. All of the power of God moves on his or her behalf. We face the truth of God, confess we are wrong, then go back again to do what we did before. Again, we come up to it, and, again, we go back—until we learn that we have no business going back to what we use to do before. It is not who we are anymore. So we begin to forsake all for Christ who alone has the Words of Life. We “come clean” over some word of our redeeming Lord and begin to do business with Him. His word “come” to us means to begin to effectuate. “Begin to intermingle with Me instead of your former friends and way of life, and you will come to see that I am indeed, the way, the truth, and the life—indeed the bread of life!” “Come unto Me,” says our Lord, “all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest for your souls. Take my burden, for it is much lighter and easier to bear than what you have been overburdened with all of your life.”

The last thing we normally do is to come. But everyone who does “come” knows that at that moment the supernatural power of God invades his or her soul instantly. The dominating power of the world, the flesh, and the devil has been broken―rendered ineffective and paralyzed; not by our weakness in having done nothing, but by the fact that our act of faith has linked us on into God’s strength and redemptive power in our lives. In our frailty and weakness in beginning to believe, we are made strong. In our paralysis and numbness to all of life as we know it, we take up our beds; and in no sooner having done so do we find ourselves now beginning to actually walk. We are walking in the Spirit and in the power of His might.

There are two realms;
with each realm having its own mind;
and each mind having its own outcome.
By faith begin to walk in the new realm
with the mind of Christ.
Begin to walk in this Truth
 and your other "friend," mentioned earlier, will soon follow.

Footnotes:

[1] vol. 3, p. 342.
[2] The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, Ephesians, pp. 175, 176 (bracketed words mine for further clarification).
[3] Ibid., p. 177 (bracketed words mine).
[4] Wuest’s Word Studies in the Greek New Testament, Ephesians (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Pub., 1953), vol. 1, p. 111.
[5] The Interpretation of Galatians, Ephesians, and Philippians, p. 579.
[6] Herman Ridderbos, Paul: An Outline of His Theology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1975), pp. 224-225.
[7] vol. 11, p. 63.
[8] Herman Ridderbos, Paul: An Outline of His Theology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1975), p. 225. Quoted from the third and second paragraph, in that order.
[9] Barnes’ Notes on Ephesians.
[10] Jamieson, Fausset and Brown online bible commentary on Ephesians.
[11] The Interpretation of Galatians, Ephesians, and Philippians, p. 569.
[12] Darkness and Light, an Exposition of Ephesians 4:17-5:17, pp. 173-174, 175, 177-178.
[13] Reformed Expository Commentary, Galatians, pp. 238-239.
[14] Principles of Conduct  (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Pub., 1957), p. 212-213.
[15] Principles of Conduct  (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Pub., 1957), p. 212.
[16] The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, Colossians (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1992), p. 149.
[17] Watchman Nee, The Normal Christian Life, p. 89.
[18] Word Pictures in the New Testament, Epistles of Paul, vol iv, p. 369
[19] vol. 10, p. 82.
[20] The Geneva Series Commentaries, Epistle to the Romans, rprt. 1989, p. 230.
[21] John MacArthur, Slaves (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Pub., 2010), p. 17.
[22] For “slaves” to the law, see Rom. 7:1-6, 25; Gal. 4:3, 9, 24-25, 30-31; 5:1. For “slaves” to sin, see Jhn. 8:34-35; Rom. 6:16-17, 19-20; 7:14, 23, 25; Tit. 3:3; 2Pet. 2:19.
[23] Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, 81.3; 28.21-23, quoted in Eric Plumer’s critical notes on Augustine’s Commentary on Galatians, note 30, p. 153.
[24] Translated “captive,” “bound,” “held” in the ESV, NAS, and KJV. Translated “enslaved,” and “in bondage” in the ISV and WEY.
[25] Translated “serve” in most translations, but the Greek means the same as it does in Rom. 6:18-22. Having been freed from enslavery to the law and sin we are now enslaved to Christ as His slaves.
[26] The Epistle to the Romans (Pillar New Testament Commentary), p. 275. Words in brackets mine.
[27] Watchman Nee, The Normal Christian Life, pp. 92-93.
[28] The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, Ephesians, p. 178-179. (bold italics mine)