No More Trying
By Arthur J Licursi
Norman Grubb here touches upon some major truths regarding our walk as the new creation people of 2Cor 5:17. It is a 2nd crisis in our life. The first was, we came to know we needed to be saved. This 2nd crisis, often coming some 15-35 years later, is the realization that “we” cannot live the Christian life.
Romans 7:21 I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wishes to do good. (NASB)
“The human self never was and never can be an independent. It only imagined that it was so, in its unregenerate days; not knowing its inner satanic lord and master. But because of false imagination, we carry over into our redeemed life, into the new man, the instinctive idea that we can be a self-active for God now, and we go to it. … We try to pray, we try to love, we try to witness, we try to keep God’s commands, we try to study the Bible, and the wheels of our trying run pretty heavily. … And as we try, the very opposite of what we aim at takes hold of us, and we seem, to ourselves, more sinful than before we were saved
For we cannot be in a vacuum. If it is not Christ in us, then it is Satan; and when we do not abide in Christ according to Romans eight, and foolishly or ignorantly think we can live the Christian life under our own steam, then in our soul and body (our flesh when apart from the Spirit) there is the uprising of Sin (the self-loving spirit), and our helpless response to it.
Satan invades the self that is enticed away from Christ. He does not take over the inner citadel of the human spirit, which is in union with God’s Spirit of Christ; but he sends his soldiers over the walls and diverts attention to himself and claims some temporary footing.”
(Excerpt taken from the book “God Unlimited” by Norman Grubb
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Yes, all things are in fact made new in that our spirit, our core; our new man, is now already 100% regenerated by Christ’s indwelling life. But at regeneration our bodies, and our soul’s mind, were left untouched. Our soul is in the process of renewal (Eph 4:23), while our bodies await an exchange for a body incorruptible.
2 Cor. 4:16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward (body) man perish, yet the inward man (soul) is renewed day by day.
The man in Romans 7:21 (above) is a man who tries hard to keep God’s laws, and to keep the natural law called the “law of good” that is in every man’s mind (Rom 2:14-15), but he cannot make his life work, due to the power of “Sin” dwelling within his body members, and his misdirected efforts. His plight ends in utter frustration and the cry of his heart, seen as follows.
Romans 7:22-24 For I delight in the law of God (Mosaic law) after the inward (soul) man: 23But I see another law (of sin) in my members (the body), warring against the law of my mind (law of good and evil corresponding to the law of God), and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Earlier in Romans seven we see that, without question, man’s conscious effort to cooperate with “the commandment” is what precipitates the man’s failure and sinning.
Romans 7:8-13 But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. 9For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. 10And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. 11For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. 12Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. 13Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.
The commandment actually serves to stir and empower sin in man’s flesh, as seen here.
1 Cor. 15:56b the strength (power as dynamite) of sin is the law.
In the light of what has been stated, the answer then must be in a way of walking … that is free of the “law” or “commandment”, if it is to be successful. Romans 6:14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
Thankfully, Romans 8 follows Romans 7, having the answer touched upon by Norman Grubb when he stated, “when we do not abide in Christ according to Romans eight”. Yes, the key is to be “in Christ”, not only objectively with our life hid in Christ and saved from perdition, but also subjectively, as we practically “abide in our union with Him in our spirit” meaning to be “saved completely” (Rom 5:10, Gk. “sozo”). Christ, who is our new Christian life, abides in us since He has given us His Spirit to be in our human spirit (2Cor 3:18, 1John 4:13, 1Cor 6:17).
We should note that the mind of our soul is like the physical eyes of our body (Eph 1:17); the mind is the leading part of the soul that influences our will and what we choose. As we set our mind upon Christ within (see Philippians 4:8), to trust Him as our life, we then are “kept” by His life in us, from moment to moment, so long as we trust Him.
Paul gives us some practical guidance in this regard, as seen in Rom 8:5-7.
Romans 8:5-7 For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, 7because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so; (NASB)
We see from Paul’s statements here that we do have a part in “choosing” where we set our mind. As we set the mind upon the spirit union that we have with Christ as our life (Gal 2:20), we have it evidenced by life (His), peace, and rest in our soul as it flows from our spirit, which is always in union with Christ. Conversely, as we set our mind upon the flesh (the outer, even if it means trying to serve God by our will-power), we will have it evidenced by death to our soul (Rom 8:6). Our soul then becomes hostile to God and is not subject to the law of God (Rom 8:7).
The choice is clear, we are not to expend self-effort to fight sin in that is dwelling within our body members, but rather, when we perceive that we are being tempted to turn away to fear, anxiety, or gross sin, we must turn to Christ within. We can set our mind upon the spirit union that we have with Christ, and He then will live through us, overcomingly, however He wishes.
The question we face daily is, “Will we, as a soul self, trust Christ to live through us as we abide in the union we have with Him in our spirit?” Then, His limitless life is effectual, as our life.
Col. 1:27 to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
2 Cor. 1:9-11 But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead:
(Scripture are KJV unless otherwise stated and parenthesis & underline are added by writer) <END>
