(Romans 7:4)

“Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.” Rom. 7:4 [Emphasis added].

Once we have died to the law, we belong to someone else. Who did we belong to before that time? We belonged to ourselves, because we were in the flesh; and the sinful lusts, which were awakened by the law, had the effect in our members that we bore fruit unto death. Verse 5. However, now we are no longer our own. We have come into the body of Christ, and we belong to Him who died and rose again for us. Even though we are dead to the law through the body, we are not dead in the body of Christ. We know that our old man is crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer serve sin. Rom. 6:6. The body of sin is gradually destroyed after we have come into the body of Christ, after we have been set free from the law and after the old man has been crucified with Him. We follow the laws of the Spirit of life in our bodies, and consequently we grow up in the body. While we were in the flesh, we were subject to the Law of Moses, the outward law; but in the body of Christ we are subject to the law of the Spirit. The Law of Moses condemned the old man, while the law of the Spirit condemns sin in the flesh.

We are to be baptized with the Holy Spirit, but this alone is not enough. This same Spirit requires things of us. These requirements are the laws and life-giving power of the Spirit. The baptism of the Spirit is a baptism of grace, but when the demands are met, it becomes a baptism of righteousness. Between grace and righteousness the fire reigns—the same fire with which Christ was baptized. In other words, the demand is in the fire, which consumes sin in the flesh. We are born again by water and Spirit, but after we are born again, the Spirit unites with the third witness—the blood. 1 John 5:7-8. This is the witness that testifies of sacrifices in the Spirit, since Jesus offered Himself in the power of an eternal Spirit and was raised up through the blood of the eternal covenant. Heb. 13:20.

We have been born by water and Spirit, and we are born from above of the incorruptible seed through the Word of God, which lives and abides forever. This shows that the Word was already flesh when we were born again, because the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Since sin remains in the flesh even after the new birth, and we still receive the Word through the Holy Spirit, the flesh that is the Word in Him will become flesh in us by acknowledgment in the spirit. A word is just a word before it is fulfilled; however, when it is fulfilled, then it is completed. Nevertheless, the Word was considered and reckoned to be Word before it was completed, since God’s foreknowledge in the Spirit of truth testified through the holy prophets about the sufferings and death of Christ and the subsequent glories, and He considered things that did not exist as though they did.

Similarly, when we are born again, our flesh is permeated with the law of sin; but God said that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent’s head. For this reason, this Word is to be reckoned as flesh until it has been completed, because it is perfected in Christ. Because Christ’s faithfulness was so perfect, God could beforehand speak words and testify in the Spirit of truth as though the work had already been completed. Our faithfulness in the Spirit makes us partakers in the glories of Christ. However, even if someone is unfaithful, Christ remains faithful, and through His faithfulness the body of sin is already destroyed in Him. Unfaithfulness is most harmful to the unfaithful person himself, unless it is destroyed in him by the work of Christ.

It is through the obedience of faith, for which Paul received apostleship (Rom. 1:5), that we receive the Word in the Holy Spirit (1 Thess. 1:6) and come into the most perfect ministry in the Spirit. When God is able to reveal His will for us, and we, by faith, are able to understand it, we have come into a very unrestrained and perfect relationship with Him. Then God is able to speak to us wherever we are—walking along the street, at our workplace, in the meetings—and He has a willing servant in flesh to carry out His will. The Law of Moses could never accomplish this. A person in this position of faith and obedience can expect his prayers to be answered, because he does the will of God and is pleasing to Him. The person who does not do God’s will places himself outside of the kingdom where God reigns and His will is done. Sanctification is the process where we are reeducated according to God’s will, where the law of the Lord presses into the depths of our spiritual life and reshapes our entire being into the image of His Son. The sufferings of Christ are painful to the flesh, but they are extremely profitable. They lead to the death that gives way to life—eternal life. God’s ways are amazing, and who can understand them? Only those to whom the Lord is pleased to reveal them. He who has God’s commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Jesus Christ; and he who loves Him will also be loved by the Father, and Christ will manifest Himself for him. John 14:21. This revelation comes by the Spirit of truth—that Spirit which takes those things that are His and declares them to us.

If you have received the Spirit of God, be attentive and obedient to that Spirit. He will then reveal to you the mysteries of Christ, for the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.