(See letter of 1909/04/15)

Romans 7 and Romans 8

Wherever I come into contact with believers who have learned to serve God in the Spirit and have been liberated from serving Him in a legalistic manner, it is evident that they think they have skipped over Rom. 7 and into Rom. 8. They believe they have been liberated so they no longer can do anything wrong. Consequently, they also feel like they are excused from judging themselves. All of this leads straight into false liberty.

The people who have started spreading this pernicious doctrine most likely do not realize what they have done. However, the truth is that these false doctrines have put down roots among the liberated Christians in our country, roots that go much deeper than people realize.

I have asked friends who sincerely believe this doctrine if they have ever done anything wrong after receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit and being freed from the law. However, they cringe and are reluctant to answer. They know very well that at times they have done things that they shouldn’t have. They don’t dare to be honest enough to admit it, because it doesn’t match up with the liberation doctrine they have been taught, or with having skipped over Rom. 7 into Rom. 8.

All sin is in the world because of lust. Now the question is whether people love sin or hate it. A thief loves to steal and a miser loves to hoard, so we cannot say that the thief and the miser are doing what they hate; they are doing what they love, and thus they come under the curse of the law.

It is a different matter for someone who has been liberated through the law and has died from the law. If they end up doing something wrong, then they hate it, because the law, which is holy, righteous, and good, is against it. God hates it and so does a person who has been freed from the law. Thus God and the brother or sister are in complete agreement on this point. And when they by the Spirit put to death this deed—which the Scriptures call a “deed of the body”—they shall live.

I would really like to meet a person who can say that they are free from sometimes doing things that they hate. But if they do what they hate, then they are still in Rom. 7. I think a person like that ought to humble themselves and acknowledge that the jump to Rom. 8 was somewhat premature. Freedom consists of the realization that we didn’t recognize our utter depravity before. But now we have learned to recognize it and have understood that the flesh cannot be subject to the law of God. We give up trying to sanctify that which cannot and should not be sanctified. This struggle was a glorious liberation. God has taken my mind and my will out of the flesh and placed them in the Spirit. Rom. 7:5 and 8:9. This does not make the flesh pure, for there is still no good thing dwelling there. Rom. 7:18. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed me from the law of sin and death. That means that my mind is freed from the flesh, in which sin is condemned (Rom. 8:3), and is placed in the Spirit (Rom. 8:9), where there is no condemnation. Rom. 8:1. For when we were in the flesh, we felt that we were condemned along with the sin that is condemned in the flesh; but now in the Spirit we feel free, along with the Spirit.

The apostle Paul was also liberated from the law, but that didn’t make him lawless; because he was not without law toward God, he was under law toward Christ. And despite forgetting those things which are behind and with zeal reaching forward to those things which are ahead, even so he had to acknowledge: “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.” Phil. 3:12.

Let us be so honest toward God, ourselves, and our neighbor that we acknowledge it and judge ourselves when we have done something wrong. For it is only those who have received the Spirit who can by the Spirit put to death the deeds of the body.

“Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” Rom. 8:12-13.