Amazing Grace (4 page)

What is inward sin? Inward sin is a law of the flesh
(Romans 7:23, 25b). What is law? A law is that which happens always and forever
the same. For example, a law of the country says that he who kills must pay
with his life, that whoever kills must himself be killed: if you kill this
year, you will pay with your life, and if you kill next year, you must still
lose your life. This law being passed will never change so long as such law
remains in effect. Likewise, gravitation is a law—in this case a law of nature.
If you drop an object, it immediately falls down. It does not matter if you are
in Peking, Tientsin, Shanghai, England or the United States. Once you drop any
object, it falls to the ground at once. Such, then, is what law is. Because it
never changes, it is therefore called a law.

How does sin, generically speaking, become law? It is
because there is a regular pathway or track to all our sinful acts. Every time
people scold you, you feel unhappy within you. It does not matter if you are
scolded in the morning or in the evening, today or tomorrow or the day
following. On all three hundred and sixty-five days of the year, you will feel
unhappy when scolded. The same is true that you feel elated when people praise
you, that you feel high when praised on any and all of the three hundred
sixty-five days of the year. The same emotional reaction happens on every one
of the days of the year. So, too, is our sin a law, for every sin works in us
the same. Our sin is something special. In the world there are all kinds of
doctors, but I have never met a doctor of sin. It is because a person can
commit the same sin or sins, but not all the sins. How strange it is that there
is no new discovery in sin. It is always one or two sins which bother you and
subdue you. A harsh person is harsh in all things and will not let go easily. A
proud man is forever proud. A bad-tempered person will always lose his temper.
Sin is a law to us. It controls us and causes us to commit the same sin over
and over again. It is rare for anyone to commit one kind of sin today and
another kind of sin tomorrow, and still another kind the day after that.

There is one kind of sin which each of us always commits.
If one of us is twenty years old, that particular sin will have followed him
for those twenty years. If one of us is fifty, the same sin will have bothered
him for all of his fifty years. Unless we all are delivered, the same
particular sin will follow us throughout our lifetime. And that is what Paul
called the inward sin. Such sin cannot be resolved simply by forgiveness
because a person commits the same sin after forgiveness. We each of us may be
saved, but even after being saved, sin continues to follow us.

Even Paul had a sin (that of coveting) which followed him
(cf. Romans 7:7c). In spite of his determination to forsake it, he continued to
commit this sin. He mightily resisted, but he could not be delivered. Later on,
he cried out, “Wretched man that I am!
who
shall
deliver me out of the body of this death?” (Romans 7:24) The Romans had an
extraordinary kind of punishment. If a man had killed another person, the dead
body (Paul’s “body of death”) would be bound to the murderer, face to face,
hands to hands, torso to torso, and feet to feet. When he sat, the corpse also
sat. When he walked, the corpse would, too. Wherever he went, the corpse would
be there with him. There was no way of escape. Paul declared that his sin was
like a corpse which accompanied him every which way, because it was attached to
him.

Do we realize that there is a kind of sin that, like a
corpse, follows us all the time and every which way and gives us no rest?
Unless we become aware of this, there can be no deliverance. For sure, God will
cause us to see the evil of the sin nature in us—that it is as miserable as
that attached corpse, and we must be delivered from it. Some people know
forgiveness of sins through the blood, but they do not know there is a sin
nature in them which compels them to do what they have detested doing
repeatedly.

The Bible reveals two different ways for dealing with
sin. The sin before God is to be solved by the blood; but the sin in the flesh
is to be dealt with through the cross. The effects of the blood and the cross
are totally different according to the Scriptures. Blood is for God, and it is
outward and objective in its effect; cross is for men, it being inward and
subjective in effect. The Bible only tells of calling people to be crucified
with Christ; it has not called us to shed blood with Him. Let us understand
that the outward sin is settled by Christ alone while man does nothing, whereas
in dealing with the inward sin it depends on the power of the cross to
eliminate the old man (Romans 6:6a).

Romans 6:6 mentions
these three
things: first, the old man; second, the body of sin; and third, bondage to sin.
So, there
are
sin, old man, and body brought into
view. How can we cease our being in bondage to sin? Sin is like a master who is
highly influential. The word sin here is cast in singular number in both Greek
and English. It therefore has reference to the sin within, an active force
within to motivate and push a person to commit sins. Some have served sin for
several decades without being freed. Even though it has sometimes been
resisted, it always ends up in defeat. Sin is powerful, yet we cannot blame it
for our sins. Who is to be blamed but our old man? This old man is that which
is passed down to us from fallen Adam.

Do we recall how we sin? When we sin, we sense we should
not sin, yet there is a force within us pushing us to do so. For instance,
suppose someone says something unpleasant to you; something in you impels you
to quarrel with him. Such is illustrative of how the sin within works in us:
here you are, a Christian; for you to quarrel is not commendable, but you
cannot help but quarrel for you feel suffocated within; and you feel released
after you quarrel: so, within you there is a master who gives an order (your
old man), the steward (
your self
or soul) agrees, and
passes on the order to the body to carry it out.

Sin is but a force which impels you from within, but it
is your old man who wills to sin.
Once a brother told me that
if he continued to be patient, his stomach would burst.
This exemplifies
how severe is the temptation within. One has an opinion, the other agrees. One
feels compelled, and the other does it. Hence, the body is the organ to carry
out the opinion or order; for without the body, no act of sin can be carried
out. The body is therefore like a figurehead who does whatever is commanded of
it. The Bible appropriately calls it the
body of sin since
all unrighteous acts come
out of the body. It is the eyes of the body
that focus upon unrighteous scenes; the brain which thinks up improper
thoughts; the hands that perform evil acts; and the feet which walk to sinful
places. Each and every sinful action is carried out by the body. Hence, the
Bible tells us that it is the sin nature that proposes, the old man that
agrees, and the body that executes. With the cooperation of these three, man
commits sin.

How can we be delivered? The Holiness Christians among
God’s people claim that God has eradicated the root of sin, and hence the
Christian will never sin again. The Chinese declare that since all bad acts are
done by the body, then a person should ill-treat his body and control it till
whatever is evil sees not, hears not, speaks not, and moves not; and thus the
body is tightly bound. Unfortunately, this method does not work, for one may
put one’s body under the tightest control, but he cannot control his heart from
thinking and proposing evil.

At one time there were two Christians living together.
One was an aunt and the other was her niece. One day someone unjustly scolded
the aunt. The aunt simply smiled, not having been stirred up outwardly at all.
When the niece heard and observed all this, she greatly admired her aunt. After
the scolder left, she said to her aunt, “Though he scolded you and not me,
nevertheless, his scolding of you set my head on fire.” “Do you really think,”
responded
the aunt, “that I was not burning? The fire burnt
fiercely within me also.” Many assume that if they do not sin outwardly they
are victorious. That is just not so.

God does not deal with the body of sin, nor does He
crucify the root of sin. His work is not done outside the body; rather, He does
His work inside the body by dealing with the old man. This old man likes to be
a slave to sin, so God crucifies the old man.
For sin tempts
and compels, and the old man also loves to be slave to sin; and thus these two
elements cause the body to sin.
Paul said, “Knowing this, that our old
man was crucified with him [Christ]” (Romans 6:6a). What is crucified is the
old man. The verbal phrase “was crucified” is cast in the past tense, and
hence, it is an event forever done. Our old man is not
going
to be crucified with the Lord, nor will it
be
crucified in the future; to the
contrary, it is
already
crucified.
When Christ was crucified on Calvary, our old man was included in His
crucifixion. When Christ died, the old man died simultaneously with Him.

Suppose a sinner wants to be saved tonight, so he prays
to God, saying: “O God, have mercy on me! Please cause the Lord Jesus to shed His
blood for me to redeem me of my sins.” Were you to hear it, you would undoubtedly
tell him that such prayer is wrong, for how can anyone ask God to cause the
Lord to shed His blood? His blood has already been shed for the sinner. All the
latter need do is
ask
God to give him faith to
believe, for by faith the sinner will be saved. Instead of asking the Lord to shed
His blood for him tonight in order to redeem him of his sins before God, the sinner
must believe that His blood has already been shed. He need only believe and he
will be justified. Likewise, faith must be exercised by the Christian towards this
matter regarding the old man. Let us not ask God to crucify our old man, for
the Lord has declared that the old man has already been crucified. Just as
redemption and forgiveness are past events, so also is the old man crucified a
past event.

If we believe in the forgiveness of our
sin because the Lord himself has already made that possible, then the crucifixion
of our old man is also already realized for us through believing that the Lord
has already crucified our old man with Him.
By looking
at either the Greek or English translation of Romans 6:6a we know and are
assured that the crucifixion of the old man is a past event—that our old man has
already been crucified.
Yet knowing this accomplished fact alone is not
sufficient, it has to be believed as well. If we believe that our old man has
been crucified, then we should praise God, declaring: “Praise Him, I am dead.”

Now as the old man was crucified, “the body of sin” was “done
away” (Romans 6:6b). In the original Greek, the word translated in English as “done
away” actually means “unemployed.” Originally, the business of the body of sin
is to sin. The mouth, for example, is for scolding people and the brain is for thinking
up unclean thoughts. But if the old man has
died
,
the
mouth can
no longer scold, nor the brain conjure
up unclean thoughts. And thus both the mouth and the brain become unemployed.
Although the sin within still impels you to sin, there is no longer the old man
to
respond,
for the Lord’s new life within you cannot
sin because it has no love for sin. Hence the body is unemployed.

In Tientsin there was a man who loved to play cards. His
two hands were naturally used to play cards. But after he believed in the Lord,
his two hands were now unemployed. This is an illustration of what Paul has
here declared: that once the old man within was crucified, the body without became
unemployed. And thus a person is kept from sinning and is no longer a slave to
sin. Although the sin within may tempt and temptation is still present, a dead
person will not sense it and hence there is no reaction. Such, then, according
to the Scriptures, is the effective work of the cross which can be every
Christian’s experience.

The efficacious work of the cross is totally different
from that of the blood. The blood was shed by our Lord for the remission of
sins before God. We absolutely have no part in it. For us to be crucified with
Christ is not for sins, it is for getting rid of our old man. The Bible says
that “the blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth us from all sin” (I John 1:7b). This
passage tells us that the blood of Christ is for cleansing us of our sins, but
it does not say that the blood is for cleansing the old man, or for cleansing
us, or for cleansing the flesh. That is because all these are dealt with by the
cross (Galatians 2:20, 5:24). None of these is cleansed by the blood; rather,
they are all crucified: “they that are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh
with the passions and the lusts thereof” (Galatians 5:24). Here we can readily
see that the flesh is not washed by the blood. Yes, our outward uncleanness can
be washed with blood, but our inward flesh and old man cannot be so washed. Instead,
the flesh and the old man must be crucified.

Every time the Bible speaks of the cross, it refers to
self (or the flesh) and the old man. The cross in Scripture never points to
sin. Sin needs to be washed with the blood, but the old man must be dealt with by
the cross. Do we now see the Lord’s full salvation here?

We all know that China today forbids the smoking of
opium, and its supply in the possession of her citizens, if discovered by the
governmental authorities, will be confiscated and disposed of. Opium comes from
one or more secret opium factories and is those factories’ sole product. Our
old man can be likened to the opium factory. The latter can produce opium every
day; so that even if the authorities are able to confiscate the factory’s daily
production of opium on any given day, the opium factory can still continue to
produce more and more of its illegal product. In like manner, though our
outside sin may be washed by the blood, soon afterwards our old man will
nonetheless continue to commit sin. Hence, whereas the blood “confiscates,” as
it were, the sin committed outwardly, it is the cross which gets rid of the old
man that commits the sin. The work of the cross cannot be likened to the
authorities who dispose of the opium factory’s daily supply of its product but
likened to those who successfully bomb the factory to extinction. Once the
factory has been destroyed, opium will not be produced anymore. Once the cross has
eliminated the old man, sin can no longer be committed.

What is meant by the cross? We will recall that when the Jews
rejected the Lord, they cried out: “Crucify him!” (John 19:6) This was followed
by another cry: “Away with him” (John 19:15). The cross is a total putting
away. They got rid of the Lord by using the cross. Similarly, today the Lord
gets rid of our old man with the cross. Blood is for the remission of sins;
cross is to rid us of our old man. Once our old man is gotten rid of, there is
full salvation. Christ’s blood is objective in its effect for the remission of
our sins; cross is subjective in its effect for the elimination of the old man so
that we can be emancipated from sin.

All issues of salvation are resolved on the basis of “faith.”
All the necessary works of salvation have been accomplished by God. His word
tells us that we have been crucified with Christ (Galatians 2:20). Perhaps you
do not have faith and hence doubt that there is such provision. You are still you;
you do not feel any differently. But do please recall the event of your initial
salvation: you as a sinner believed in the Lord’s blood that washed away your sins,
and you were instantaneously saved. So, also, as you now believe in the cross,
you can immediately praise God, saying: “Thank God, my old man is dead!”
[†]