The Spirit of Life

W. Carl Ketcherside

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

     What is "the law of the Spirit of life?" A law is a rule of action, a governing principle. In Christ Jesus the animating principle is the Holy Spirit and the life we share is the life of the Spirit. It is the Spirit who quickens. In this passage, W. E. Vine says, "The phrase 'the Spirit of life' is not subjective, 'the Spirit who has life;' but objective, 'the Spirit who gives life.'"

     In the physical body, the spirit is the vitalizing or animating principle. All that I am able to accomplish in physical existence is dependent upon that spirit. Without it the body is dead. By the same token, it is the Holy Spirit which makes possible my functioning as a spiritual being. Without the Spirit I am merely an automaton, a mechanical doll, a puppet, going through religious motions, but with no real life or power. It is possible to have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof (2 Tim. 3:5). This is the state of millions. They are dolls, not children. They toy with life but have never really lived!

     What is "the law of sin and death?" It is the principle which is described in the previous chapter, by which evil exercises dominion over the desires and prompts one to sin even against his own wish. It is described as "sin that dwelleth in me" (7:17), overpowering the will and rendering personal resolve as helpless. "I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me" (7:21). Paul declares, "This is in continual conflict with my conscious attitude, and makes me an unwilling prisoner to the law of sin and death. In my mind I am God's willing servant, but in my own nature I am bound fast, as I say, to the law of sin and death."

     Barclay says that Paul is here describing "an experience which is the very essence of the human situation." He declares, "He felt himself to be a split personality. It was as if two men were inside the one skin. He felt himself pulled in two directions. He knew himself to be a walking civil war. He was haunted by this feeling of frustration, the ability to see what was good, and the inability to do it; this ability to recognize what was wrong, and the inability to refrain from doing it."

     I know, both from personal experience and from observation, the frustration which comes from trying to find your way out of the labyrinth which sin has constructed. I know how, when one is bounded and harassed by his own inner compulsions, he resorts to false bravado and arrogantly seeks to throw his weight around to project an image which is really a shadow. No one is a bigger hypocrite than the preacher who leaves the impression that he has thought out all of the

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answers to the problems of life, while on the inside he is a seething mass of his own unfulfilled desires, some of which would hardly bear exposure to the light.

     Paul said, "It is an agonizing situation, and who on earth can set me free from the clutches of my own sinful nature?" Human nature can take a lot of beating and we keep trying. Preachers, counsellors, doctors, psychologists, astrologers, soothsayers--we frantically run here and there every time an acquaintance mentions a new guru. In reality, none of these can help. They bring temporary relief because we have to talk and anyone who will listen provides respite from the ghastly emptiness within. But inevitably we have to go back home, and we are not fit for ourselves to live with.

     There's no use getting a new moral prescription. Morality is simply trying to live up to a code, whether devised by one's own thinking or dreamed up by someone else. But we cannot free ourselves. And no one on earth can free us. Not until we come to realize the staggering implications of this fact will we ever be free. We can listen to sermons every Sunday morning from now on and be no better off. Sermons can be preached to prisoners. They can also be preached by slaves. We need to be free from ourselves. The old man of sin is a rotting, decaying putrefying corpse to which we are chained.

     "The law never succeeded in producing righteousness--the failure was always the weakness of human nature. But God has met this by sending his own Son Jesus Christ to live in that human nature which causes the trouble. And, while Christ was actually taking upon himself the sins of men, God condemned that sinful nature" (8:3).

     This is a fascinating statement of two things--the utter incompetency of law and the magnificent provision of grace which stops at nothing in the rescue mission of the ages. The law could only succeed in condemning man even while seeking to condemn sin. It could never produce a right relationship with God, for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

     Law demands absolute obedience in every particular if it is to justify. There can be no deviation, not even in the slightest issue. Perfection in conformity is demanded and the very moment one falls short he is under condemnation. Thus, before one can keep law he must be perfect, but in such a state he would need no law. The giving of law is postulated upon man's weakness, and he is thus condemned by the very thing which was to save.

     The lower nature makes it impossible for man to achieve righteousness by law-keeping. Regardless of how powerful law may be, man is powerless to obey it in perfection. He continually suffers from remorse, guilt and fear, as he lives in the three dimensions of time--past, present and future. There was no need for God to repeal one law and then impose another. What was needed was a transformation of nature. God did not send a new law. He sent his Son. The first covenant was one of law. The second was a person.

     Jesus adopted our human nature. He emptied himself and took upon him the form of a slave. He was made in the likeness of man. He was tempted in all points as we are. He tested the strength

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of law and triumphed over it. He fulfilled the law and in doing so earned the right to adopt men unto himself rather than adapt them to the demands of law. Because he was sinless he could take our sins and he did so. By his own blood he purchased our freedom from the guilt of sin.

     It is sin which is now under condemnation, not persons who are in Christ. They are free from condemnation, being declared guiltless in Him. What does this mean to me? It means the difference between slavery and liberty. I am no longer under the dominance of sin. Sin is now the prisoner in the dock. I am free! The culprit who sought to destroy me has been apprehended and found guilty. I have been declared guiltless. Praise God that sin no longer has dominion. Its reign has been broken. It has been dethroned, disgraced and degraded.

     "That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" (8: 4).

     The righteousness of the law is the state or condition at which the law aimed. Law was intended to provide justification by creating a code of conduct to which a man must subscribe and by unremitting obedience earn the right to be guiltless. But there was "a fly in the ointment," and a flaw in the system. It was human nature, the lower nature, in which dwelt no good thing. The will was there "but how to perform that which is good I find not."

     It was for this reason that the law which was intended to work good actually became an instrument of death. As we learned before, the very prohibitions of the law became suggestions and invitations to sin. What God did was to send Jesus to redeem us from the power, as well as from the guilt and consequences of sin. In order to accomplish this our old man of sin was crucified and we were made partakers of the divine nature, a nature which rises above the need of law.

     Through this means, the righteousness which the law attempted to produce was made possible. The law was a failure because the lower nature was a failure. We were elevated to another and superior plane in which we were no longer under the dominion of the flesh and sin could not exercise dominion over us. On this spiritual plane, and through the power of the Spirit, man was able to attain unto justification.

     "For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit" (8:5).

     There are two kinds of persons who will read what I am writing. One is described as "after the flesh;" the other "after the Spirit." They may both have their names on the same church roster. Indeed they may be husband and wife. Those who are after the flesh live in the domain of the corrupt human nature. They are directed and controlled by it in every phase of existence. It determines what their reaction will be to any facet of life. They respond on the animal level.

     The word for mind is phroneo. It means to think, to set the mind in a certain direction. It is not mere acting upon impulse or casually. Instead, it involves reflection and determination. Those who are governed by the flesh have surrendered themselves to the lower nature. They are guided by the things of the flesh.

     In Galatians 5 there is a catalog of the things of the flesh. Included in the works of the flesh are sexual immorality, impurity of mind, sensuality, worship of false gods, witchcraft, hatred, quarreling, jealousy, bad temper, rivalry, factions, party-spirit, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like that. Satan has cleverly disguised some of these and deadened our sensibilities to them.

     "For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace" (Romans 8:6).

     I know a man who lives in a moral sewer. The fingers of his mind grope in the muck and he feeds his soul on slop and garbage. Every sentence he utters is

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sprinkled with profanity. There is nothing sacred to him. He will twist any statement in his warped mind and give it a suggestive slant. His throat is an open sepulcher. The poison of asps is under his lips. His mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.

     One day a friend said to me, "What will happen to a man like that when he dies?" I replied, "He is already dead." We make a mistake when we always equate death with the cessation of the intake and expulsion of air through the nostrils, or the failure of a muscular organ to palpitate. There can be an insensitivity of the heart to the purer things of life. Rigor mortis of the soul can occur while fleshy tissue walks about. God speaks of those who have "hardening of the heart" even when there may be no hardening of the arteries.

     There is a lower level of the human nature in which one exists as in a state of living death. It is a penal colony in the dark jungles of corruption. Here the understanding is darkened and the dwellers are alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart. Being past feeling they give themselves over to lasciviousness and work all uncleanness with greediness.

     Death is a separation, a disintegration, an alienation from life, and one who is alienated from the life of God is dead in trespasses and sins. He walks according to the evil ways of this present age. He obeys the commander of the spiritual powers of the air, the spirit now at work among God's rebel subjects. This is the realm of sensuality where men obey the promptings of their own instincts and notions. It is a fearsome valley of the dead, and over it hangs the dark cloud of God's impending dreadful judgment. One who is given over to self-indulgence is dead while he lives (1 Timothy 5:6).

     I am not so irrational as to think that this is a dominion without a ruler or a kingdom without a monarch. The "kingdom of darkness" has its sovereign as does "the kingdom of light." There are evil ones, but there is also "an evil one." "We know that we are God's family, while the whole godless world lies in the power of the evil one" (1 John 5:19). "Everything the world affords, all that panders to the appetite, or entices the eyes, all the glamour of its life, springs not from the Father but from the godless world. And that world is passing away with all its allurements, but he who does God's will stands for ever more." This I believe!

     The evil one has no greater weapon at his command than confusion of terms and values. The faithful prophets have always known this and cried out against it. "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter" (Isaiah 5:20). It is noteworthy that in this context there are five specific woes pronounced.

     One is against syndicates, combines and monopolies, organized to build houses and apartments so close together that there is no room for privacy and meditation (verse 8). Another is against those who turn day and night into feasting coupled with hard drinking and blaring music (11,12). Another is against those who are so tied to sin that they openly flaunt it while challenging God to do anything about it (18, 19).

     The fourth is against intellectual snobbery which causes its victims to parade their learning as the ultimate in wisdom and prudence (21). The last is against those who brag about their ability to hold liquor, and who concoct new recipes for mixing their whiskey, wine and vodka

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(verse 22), and defend the wicked for political prestige. Human nature has not changed, and for this reason the need and nature of the prophetic message has not changed.

     But I hold that in our day the most deceptive trick employed by "the dark ruler" is to confuse the minds of men as to what constitutes freedom. By this they are led to feel that they are free to sin, while sin is the greatest enslaving force of the universe. The flattering of the ego by a false use of the word "free" is the very technique employed by the spider to entice the fly into his death lair. Men who heed the siren call to this freedom are free only to die. To be carnally minded is death--death by one's own choice, suicide!

     To be spiritually minded is life and peace. To be "spiritually minded" is not simply to think nice things, but to live on the upper level where the Spirit controls. It is to be in the dominion of the Spirit. It is to be made new in mind and spirit, to put on the new nature of God's creating, which shows itself in the just and devout life called for by the truth. It is important to see that it is not merely cleaning up the old life, but the reception of a new nature, a complete transformation. Man can no more create himself again than he could create himself originally. Creation is a work of God, not of creatures.

     To live on this new level is to be constantly renewed in the image of the Creator and to come to know God. It is to be incorporate with him, and thus to pass beyond the reach of the elemental spirits of this world, to be no longer subservient to the flesh and its demands. Having been raised to life with Christ, we are enabled to aspire to the realm above, that is still higher, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

     In this present thought-realm one is able to project his thoughts still higher, being freed from the quicksand which formerly sucked at his feet. One who is being pulled into the mire can only concentrate on the mire. The apostle writes, "Let your thoughts dwell on the higher realm, not on the earthly life. I repeat, you died; and now your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is manifested, then you too will be manifested with him in glory" (Col. 3:3,4). The reason the spiritually minded have life is because in the Spirit they have Christ, and Christ is our life!

     They also have peace, peace with God. This is also through Christ. It is his peace, and we share in it. "Let Christ's peace be arbiter in your hearts: to this peace you were called as members of a single body. And be filled with gratitude." An arbiter is an umpire, one who rules and regulates the game. Those who are not in Christ are playing without a referee. They are also playing without a ball, and merely kicking each other.

     The field of action is the heart. When decisions must be made the peace of Christ makes them. When peace blows the whistle it is always right and just. Peace settles things and inner serenity is the result. There is no taking a chance, no losing the game, no failure to score. There is no remorse, no weeping in the dressing-room, no second-guessing, no wishful thinking. In Christ one cannot lose. "If God is on our side, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31). "It is God who pronounces acquittal: then who can condemn?" (verses 33,34).

     "Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." So reads Romans 8:7.

     We have already learned that "the flesh," as Paul uses it, does not refer to the physical body composed of tissues and cells, and carrying out its various organic functions designed to exhibit life. Now we must learn that "the carnal mind" does not refer to the brain with its cells and convolutions. The flesh and the carnal mind are the same. They are terms used to designate the lower nature, which is under captivity to sin. It describes man as a sometime unwilling slave condemned to do the bidding and bow to the whims of a harsh and cruel master.

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     On the plane of this servitude one cannot rescue himself. That which is righteous is always beyond his grasp. Man is like Tantalus, condemned to stand in a stream whose waters always receded when he stooped to drink, while the fruit on the branches dangling above always remained just out of reach. There was ever the growing intensity of agony created by the sense of helplessness and futility. "I discover this principle, then: that when I want to do right, only the wrong is within my reach" (Romans 7:21).

     It is at once apparent that on this level of hatred, recrimination and growing bitterness, a mind incapable of thinking its way out of the predicament, stymied in every move, will be at enmity with God. Driven by passion, motivated by lust, and with only wrong within reach, there will be only depraved reason. In such a state there is no recognition of or subjection to God.

     Here is a description of what the carnal mind, alienated from God and shrouded in a dark curtain of blackness, produces. "Thus, because they have not seen fit to acknowledge God, he has given them up to their own depraved reason. This leads them to break all rules of conduct. They are filled with every kind of injustice, mischief, rapacity and malice; they are a mass of envy, murder, rivalry, treachery and malevolence; whisperers and scandalmongers, hateful to God, insolent, arrogant, and boastful; they invent new kinds of mischief, they show no loyalty to parents, no conscience, no fidelity to their plighted word; they are without natural affection and without pity."

     It is specifically declared that those in this condition are not stupid or unlearned fools. Quite the contrary, they are informed in the lore of this passing age. But "their thinking has ended in futility, and their misguided minds are plunged in darkness. They boast of their wisdom but they have made fools of themselves." The carnal mind is a misguided mind, that has sought to eliminate God from his universe, a mind that postulates existence and order without a Creator, and ends up creating disorder which threatens its own existence!