Christianity Oasis Forum

[Netchaplain]

After the Passover the children if Israel came into the greatest pressure of trouble. All they underwent in Egypt was a little thing compared with what stared them in the face at the Red Sea. On all sides there were obstacles they could not surmount. Behind them the army of their foes, and before them only more certain death. But that which seemed to them merely the waters of death was precisely what God was about to make the path of life. Hence Moses’ rod was lifted up over the Red Sea, and at once the waters of death rose up on either side as walls, and the children of Israel passed through protected; so much the more because it was evident that God was for them.

Not so on the night of the Passover. God did not permit the destroyer to touch them, but the blood of the lamb, instead of showing God for them, was merely a protection that He was not against them. It was not yet God for them. There was no fellowship. He was outside of where they were. The blood interposed between Him and them. How could a soul be at ease and peace with God when that is the case? What I want is to be able to look into the face of my Father.

What I need and want is that He should be for me, and that I should rest in His presence. But just to have that which comes between myself and God removed would never give me solid comfort before Him, and, indeed, it ought not. Accordingly the subsequent circumstances proved the condition into which the children of Israel had fallen—a condition of anxiety, and dread, worse than they had ever known before.

And it is frequently so with the Christian. After being saved, there is often a coming into deeper waters than ever, and a growing realization of one’s own sinfulness. The sense of sin after we have come to the Savior* is far more acute and intense than when we fled for refuge at the beginning. Salvation is a great deal more than being kept safe. It means a complete clearance from all our foes—that brings us out of the house of bondage, and setting us free before the Father, to be His manifest people in the world.

At the Red sea it was the rod of judgment that was lifted up over the waters—it was that rod that smote the Egyptians with all the plagues. So it is in Romans. It is always righteousness. It is a question of turning righteousness against the people of God. But Christ has come, and by His Blood He has cleansed them, and by death and resurrection He has brought them out of the place over which judgment hung—completely outside. There is no judgment for them anymore. They see their sin, as well as their sins, completely dealt with in consequence of Christ’s having undergone God’s judgment. Therefore in Romans Six is the first place where sin in our walk is discussed; and in dealing with this question the Apostle shows that we died to sin, and that the gift of God now is eternal life. Sin cannot touch believers, for they are dead to it.

A further point is “law.” That, he shows, cannot touch believers either, and for this reason, that I have “been made dead to the law.” So in chapter Seven “we have been made dead to the law, by the body of Christ.” It is the death of Christ, and our death with Him, applied to both sin and law, that gives the believer his clearance. And now we are “married to another, even to Him who is raised from the dead.” So it is as wrong for a believer still to have a thought of being “under law” as for a woman to have two husbands at once. We are dead to the law that we should belong to Another. “Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should be married to another, even to Him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God” (Rom 7:4).

- Wm Kelly

Poster’s Opinion:

*”The sense of sin after we have come to the Savior”: The believer under the Blood Covenant has a blessing which has not existed before—the indwelling Spirit of God, which the Father and the Son uses to keep us doing Their “pleasure” (Phil 2:13 – a passage that I obviously use much but can never wear out). I believe one of the continuing lessons the Father has for us is the persistent-but-gradual revealing of our sinful nature (old man), which is in a manner commensurate with our learning ability so that we can increase our learning concerning the other continued lesson, which is His holiness.

The Father’s intention of this is never to discourage or punish us in any way, but to contrast the two (holiness/sinfulness) so that they can be clearly understood, thus learning the most important matter of all—His love for us. As we are shown an ever deeper understanding of the “old man” we can know that even though it remains it will never again incur guilt, nor regain its dominion it once had prior to our rebirth.

We continue to learn to walk more freely of serving it, which manner of life will always be more active than the former dominance of sin (the three sin sources are self, which is the old self; society, which are those who choose not to believe and has always consisted of the majority of mankind; Satan, who I believe has to utilize the old nature to temp us, which continues to occur to manifest God’s glory).