After we realize that we have died with Christ, we must also see that we no longer have anything to do with the law. Because we are dead, we are freed, discharged, from the law (7:6). Do not go back to the law. To go back to the law means to make up your mind to do good. Whenever you make up your mind to do good, you are returning to the law. If you pray, “O God, help me to be humble from now on,” you are going back to the law. Although you are praying to God, you are not going to God; you are going to the law. Consider a husband who repents for not loving his wife. He makes up his mind to love his wife from now on and asks the Lord to help him love his wife. This prayer indicates that he is going back to the law. I can assure you that he will not be able to love her. The more he tries to love her, the more he will fail to love her. He will find himself in Romans 7, in the situation of not doing what he wills to do, but of doing what he does not will to do (7:19). Although you may will to love your wife, you cannot do it. You may will never to lose your temper, but eventually you lose your temper more than ever. Why? Because by going to the law you are going to the wrong source. You have not yet realized that you are an utterly hopeless and helpless case. We need to reject ourselves and say to the self, “Self, I don’t trust in you. Self, don’t make up your mind to do anything. You are not able to do anything.” Whenever a husband is tempted to make up his mind to love his wife, he should immediately say, “Satan, get away from me. I will never try this. Instead, I shall reject the self. My self must go.”
Do not make up your mind to do good. Paul said, “To will is present with me, but to do the good is not” (7:18). Paul went on to say, “For the good which I will, I do not; but the evil I do not will, this I practice” (7:19). Therefore, in the next verse he concluded, “But if what I do not will, this I do, it is no longer I that do it but sin that dwells in me” (7:20). As we pointed out, this was Paul’s experience before he was saved, but nearly all Christians pass through it after they are saved. If we do not have such an experience, we shall not be exposed to the uttermost and shall not realize how hopeless we are.
Perhaps even today you have made up your mind to do good. It is so natural, so easy, to will. When you were somewhat cold toward the Lord, you did not make up your mind to do good for Him. But after you are revived and come back to the Lord, you immediately make up your mind to do good. Every time you make up your mind to do good, you make a commandment, a self-made law, for yourself. These are not the laws given by Moses; they are the laws enacted by the self. Nevertheless, the principle is the same. Whether it is a law given by Moses or a law made by the self, you will end up being exposed.
Many years ago I used to pray, “O Lord, I don’t want to lose my temper with my wife. I want to be a good husband and love my wife all the time. Lord, help me to love her.” According to my experience, I have never received an answer to such a prayer. In fact, the more I prayed about losing my temper, the more I lost it. If you do not pray in this way, you may not lose your temper for a week or two. But if you pray about it, you will lose your temper very soon afterward. In the past years many sisters have come to me and said that they prayed about having a good attitude towards their husbands and children, but that on the very day they prayed, their attitudes were worse than ever. When people asked me such questions in the early years of my ministry, I was the same as they were. Speaking doctrinally, I told them that this was to help them to know what they are. This is merely doctrine to us until one day we are forced to realize that we are absolutely no good. Once we see this, we shall never again make up our mind to do good. Instead, we shall go to Romans 8.
In Romans 8 we find something very simple. Forget about making up your mind to do good. The mind should be a submissive wife, but it presumes to be the husband. In chapter seven Paul said clearly, “With the mind I myself serve as a slave the law of God” (v. 25). Such a mind is too independent. The mind should be a female, but it presumes to be a male. In chapter eight we see that we should simply walk according to the spirit (8:4). But what about our mind? The mind must be set upon the spirit (8:6). We need to walk according to the spirit and set our mind upon the spirit. This is sufficient. Do not make up your mind to do good or pray that the Lord will help you to do good. Forget all such religious concepts. We need to walk, behave, and have our being according to the spirit and continually set our mind upon the spirit. Then we shall have freedom, and the indwelling Christ will impart life into every part of our being, even into the weak members of our mortal body (8:11). Our whole being will then be infused with the divine life. This is not a matter of doing good, of keeping the law, or of fulfilling the requirements of the law. It is a matter of life lived out of our spirit. This life will do even more than fulfill the righteous requirements of the law. When we behave, walk, and have our being according to the mingled spirit and when we set our mind upon the spirit, not allowing the mind to act on its own to do anything, we enjoy the imparting of life by the indwelling Christ. We enjoy the salvation of God and the sanctification that comes from being saturated with His life.