An Opposing Law

A true believer feels an opposing law in his members. When a sinner comes first to Christ, he often thinks he will now bid an eternal farewell to sin: now I shall never sin any more. He feels himself already at the gate of heaven. However, a little breath of temptation soon discovers his heart, and he cries out, “I see another law.”

1. Observe what he calls it, “another law,” quite a different law from the law of God; it is a law clean contrary to it. In verse 25 he calls it a “law of sin,” a law which commands him to commit sin, which urges him on by rewards and threatenings. In Romans 8:2 it is called “the law of sin and death,” a law which not only leads to sin, but leads to death, eternal death: “the wages of sin is death.” It is the same law which in Galatians 5:17 is called “the flesh”: “the flesh lusteth against the spirit.” It is the same which in Ephesians 4:22 is called “the old man,” which is wrought according to the deceitful lusts; the same law which in Colossians 3:5 is called “your members”: “mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth.” The same is called in Romans 7:24 “the body of this death.”

The truth then is that in the heart of the believer there remain the whole members and body of an old man, or old nature; there remains the fountain of every sin that has ever polluted the world.

2. Observe again what this law is doing, namely warring. This law in the members is not resting quietly, but is always fighting. There can never be peace in the bosom of a believer. There is peace with God, but constant war with sin. This law in the members has got an army of lusts under him, and he wages constant war against the law of God. Sometimes, indeed, an army is lying in ambush, and they lie quietly until a favorable moment comes. So in the heart the lusts often lie quietly till the hour of temptation, and then they war against the soul. The heart is like a volcano, sometimes it slumbers and sends up nothing but a little smoke, but the fire is slumbering all the while below and will soon break out again.

There are two great combatants in the believer's soul. There is Satan on the one side, with the flesh and all its lusts at his command; then on the other side there is the Holy Spirit, with all the new creature at His command. And so “the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” Is Satan ever successful? In the deep wisdom of God the law in the members does sometimes bring the soul into captivity. “Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God,” and yet he was led captive: Noah “drank of the wine, and was dranken.” Abraham was “the friend of God,” and yet he told a lie, saying of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” Job was a perfect man, one that feared God and hated evil, and yet he was provoked to curse the day wherein he was born. And so with Moses, and David, and Solomon, and Hezekiah, and Peter, and the apostles.

Have you experienced this warfare? It is a clear mark of God's children. Most of you, I fear, have never felt it. Do not mistake me. All of you have felt a warfare at times between your natural conscience and the law of God. But that is not the contest in the believer's bosom. It is a warfare between the Spirit of God in the heart and the old man with his deeds.

If any of you are groaning under this warfare, learn to be humbled by it, but not discouraged. First, be humbled under it. It is intended to make you lie in the dust and to feel that you are but a worm. Oh! what a vile wretch you must be, that even after you are forgiven and have received the Holy Spirit, your heart should still be a fountain of every wickedness! How vile that in your most solemn approaches to God, in awfully affecting situations, you should still have in your bosom all the members of your old nature. Let this make you lie low.

Secondly, let this teach you your need of Christ. You need His precious blood as much now as you did at the first. You can never stand before God in yourself. You must go again and again to Him to be washed. Even on your dying bed you must hide under Jehovah, our righteousness. You must also lean upon Christ. He alone can overcome sin in you. Cleave closer and closer to Him every day.

The feelings of a believer during this warfare are threefold:

1. He feels wretched. “O wretched man that I am” (Romans 7:24). There is nobody in this world so happy as a believer. He has come to Christ and found rest. He has the pardon of all his sins in Christ. He has a near approach to God as a child. He has the Holy Spirit dwelling in him. He has the hope of glory. In the most awful times he can be calm, for he feels that God is with him. Still there are times when he cries, O wretched man! When he feels the plague of his own heart, when he feels the thorn in the flesh, when his wicked heart is discovered in all its fearful malignity, ah, then he lies down, crying, “O wretched man that I am!”

One reason of this wretchedness is that sin discovered in the heart takes away the sense of forgiveness. Guilt comes upon the conscience, and a dark cloud covers the soul. How can I ever go back to Christ? he cries. Alas! I have sinned away my Savior. Another reason is the loathsomeness of sin. It is felt like a viper in the heart. A natural man is often miserable from his sin, but he never feels its loathsomeness; but to the new creature it is vile indeed. Ah! brethren, do you know anything of a believer's wretchedness? If you do not, you will never know his joy. If you know not a believer's tears and groans, you will never know his song of victory.

2. He seeks deliverance. “Who shall deliver me?” In ancient times, some of the tyrants used to chain their prisoners to a dead body, so that wherever the prisoner wandered he had to drag a putrid carcass after him. It is believed that Paul here alludes to this inhuman practice. His old man he felt to be a noisome, putrid carcass, which he was continually dragging about with him. His piercing desire was to be freed from it. Who shall deliver us? You remember once, when God allowed a thorn in the flesh to torment His servant, a messenger of Satan to buffet him, Paul was driven to his knees. “I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.”

Oh, this is the true mark of God's children! They of the world have an old nature; they are all old men together. But it does not drive them to their knees. How is it with you, dear souls? Does corruption felt within drive you to the throne of grace? Does it make you call on the name of the Lord? Does it make you say, like the importunate widow, “Avenge me of mine adversary”? Does it make you, like the Canaanitish woman, cry after the Lord Jesus? Ah, remember, if lust can work in your heart and you lie down contented with it, you are none of Christ's!

3. He gives thanks for victory. Truly, we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us, for we can give thanks before the fight is done. Yes, even in the thickest of the battle we can look up to Christ and cry, “Thanks be to God!” The moment a soul groaning under corruption rests the eye on the Lord Jesus, that moment his groans are changed into songs of praise. In Christ you discover a fountain to wash away the guilt of all your sins. In Christ you discover grace sufficient for you, grace to hold you up to the end, and a sure promise that sin shall soon be rooted out altogether. “Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art Mine.”

Ah, this turns our groans into songs of praise. How often a psalm begins with groans and ends with praises! This is the daily experience of all the Lord's people. Is it yours? Try yourself by this. If you know not the believers' song of praise, you will never cast your crowns with them at the feet of the Lamb. Dear believers, be content to glory in your infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon you. (1813-1843)

The Perfect Law of God

Jehovah's perfect law Restores the soul again; His testimony sure Gives wisdom unto men;

The precepts of the Lord are right, And fill the heart with great delight. The Lord's commands are pure, They light and joy restore; Jehovah's fear is clean, Enduring evermore; His statutes, let the world confess, Are wholly truth and righteousness.

They are to be desired Above the finest gold; Than honey from the comb More sweetness far they hold; With warnings they Thy servant guard, In keeping them is great reward.

His errors who can know? Cleanse me from hidden stain; Keep me from wilful sins, Nor let them o'er me reign; And then I upright shall appear And be from great transgression clear.
Psalter 38

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