Lessons on Portions of the Word.
Zion's Advocate, August 1899, Vol. 38, No. 8.
"But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness." -- Romans vi. 17, 18.
Those who believe that salvation from sin is conditional try to construe this text so as to make it teach that doctrine. They argue that the sinner is made free from sin in the act of obeying that form of doctrine mentioned. The order suggested by this argument is, 1st, to hear of the form of doctrine; 2nd, to believe it; 3rd, to obey it; 4th, to be delivered from sin. This belief affords a plea for the notion of modern Missionism and Meansism, for the unavoidable conclusion is that all who die without hearing the "form of doctrine" are lost, and that the primary cause of their being lost is the failure of those who know the form of doctrine to deliver it to them. The startling cry is therefore raised, "Give your money to send the gospel to the heathen! Thousands are dying every day and are lost because we withhold the gospel from them!!" According to this doctrine the unenlightened are forever damned and punished because of the stinginess and disobedience of the enlightened! And still its advocates charge us with teaching a doctrine that implies that God is unjust!Instead of teaching that the children of God had been made free from sin in the act of obeying the form of doctrine, this passages teaches that they had continued to be the servants of sin until made free from it, after which they had become servants of righteousness. The constant tenor of ones conduct shows what master he serves, for he is evidently the servant of the one to whose service he habitually yields and addicts himself, in whose work he delightfully spends his strength. The saints addressed by the apostle had been the servants of sin, the willing devoted slaves of it. They were then in a state of bondage, and it is a bad feature of that bondage that the captivated ones are delighted with their captivity. Their very affections are so captivated that they love sin rather than holiness, and their understanding is so confused that they "call evil good, and good evil; they put darkness for light, and light for darkness; they put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter." If they had been left to make themselves free from such a state, they never would have become free, but in this they were passive as the verb, "being made free," indicates.
In addition to having been the willing slaves of sin, they had been condemned by the righteous Judge as violators of his holy law, and were held as accountable criminals with the just sentence of condemnation standing against them. From this helpless state of bondage and servitude they had been made free. The justice of the law had been satisfied by their Redeemer, who had died for them "while they were yet sinners," by whose death they had been "reconciled to God," and by whose life they would ultimately be saved. The Captain of their salvation had opened the prison doors and set the captives free. He had taken away the stony heart and given an heart of flesh, and had poured the healing balm of his grace into their wounded souls. He had delivered them from the power of darkness and translated them into his own blessed kingdom.
After having thus been made free from sin they had become the servants of righteousness by obeying the form of doctrine. The doctrine was the efficacious, propitiatory, and vicarious death of Christ and his glorious and triumphant resurrection, all resulting in the death of his chosen people to sin and their resurrection to a new life. This doctrine is presented most touchingly and beautifully by the apostle in the fore part of the chapter. The form of that doctrine is shown in baptism which is a sublime representation of the very doctrine itself. This form they had obeyed, thus proving they had been made free from sin by becoming the servants of righteousness. The adverb "then," in the sentence, "Being then made free from sin," is not in the original. The Greek word tote, from which that word would be translated, is not there. We are not to understand Paul to teach that he thanked God that they were the servants of sin, but that he thanked God that though they had been the servants of sin yet they had obeyed the form of doctrine and thus proved that they had been made free from it. But the poor child of God feels the motions of sin in his members, and complains still that sin so dwells in him that he cannot do the things he would. This causes him to fear he has never been made free from sin, for he reasons that if he were free from it he would not be so often captivated by it, and brought down into the dark valley of despondency. The dominion of sin does not consist in being distressed and harrassed by its hated service. Being made free from sin means a release and deliverance from its power and dominion, and not an entire exemption from its attacks and struggles for the victory. There is quite a difference between habitually living in the enjoyment of sin as its willing slave, and being distressed by its ravings in our corrupt nature. Once the child of God knew not the hateful nature of sin, but he can now say with Watts,
"I hate the tempter and his charms,
I hate his flattering breath."
He often cries out now, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" he now bemoans the hardness of his own heart, and longs to feel the softening, melting power of the dear Saviour's love. He pleadingly sings,
"Oh! for a glance of heavenly day,
To take this stubborn stone away,
And thaw with beams of love divine
This heart, this frozen heart of mine."
In darkness and barrenness of mind he sometimes, perhaps often, wanders, but he feels there is
"an aching void, this world can never fill."
He sometimes bewails his poverty, and thinks that he is the poorest of the poor. He appears to himself utterly worthless, and wonders at the rich mercy of God in preserving him. Others, he thinks, are so much better than he is, that he feels unworthy of their esteem and fellowship. He can join them in singing,
"Poor and afflicted, Lord, are thine,
Among the great unfit to shine."
Yet when he looks about him and sees so many running on in hot pursuit of sinful pleasure, he realizes that they are blind and deaf. He is not, he knows, altogether as they are. If a blasphemous oath is hard by him it strikes to his very heart, and he can but pity the poor wretch who uses the very breath that God gives him in taking his dear name in vain. Here is the striking difference. The sinner who has been made free from sin hates it, hates it in his own depraved nature, for a warfare is going on between the spirit and the flesh; while the captivated sinner is so controlled in his affections that he cares not for God nor his holy word.
J. R. D.
Copyright c. 2005. All rights reserved. The Primitive Baptist Library.
