In this message we need once more to look into the first fourteen verses of Romans 8. As we have pointed out in the past, verse 14 is a conclusion of this portion of the Word. It is the result of the preceding thirteen verses. We know that this concluding verse is mainly on one matter, that is, the leading by the Spirit of God. The matter of leading is the crucial point in this concluding verse.
Now we have to see all the points in these verses, both on the negative side and on the positive side. Every point is a component of the leading. The leading by the Spirit is composed with all these points. Some are negative, and some are positive. Whether they are negative or positive, all are components for the composition of the leading by the Spirit. Although a number of messages have been given on this verse, still we need to see all the components, all the composing items, of this matter of leading.
Romans 8:1 says that “there is now then no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” This is the opening verse. In the concluding verse, verse 14, the crucial point is leading, and in the opening verse the crucial point is condemnation. If you have the leading, that means, practically speaking, you are out of condemnation. Although you may consider that verse one stands by itself, yet you cannot isolate it. You have to connect it to the following verses. Don’t think that as long as you are in Christ, then there is no condemnation. It is a conditional matter. It is not an unconditional fact that there is no condemnation. What are the conditions? The conditions are in the following verses. If the following verses are not fulfilled in you, the condemnation is still there. If verses 2 through 14 are not being fulfilled in you, you are not in Romans 8. You are in Romans 7.
Romans 7:24 reads, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death?” Then he gives the answer in verse 25: “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve as a slave the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.” Are you going to get out of the condemnation? Then you must be in Christ. This kind of being in Christ is not the initial stage. The initial stage of being in Christ is for salvation. It is not for a kind of victorious deliverance such as what Paul needed in Romans 7.
Romans 5:10 tells us that through His death we have been reconciled to God, but after that, we are being saved in His life. So Romans 8 indicates a kind of being in Christ conditionally. This is not the first stage, the initial stage, of being in Christ. This is the continuous stage of being in Christ.
To be in Christ is a positional matter. Positionally speaking every believer who has been redeemed by the blood of Christ and who has been regenerated by the Holy Spirit is in Christ. This is a matter of position. But you still may be defeated and sinful, even as that sinful brother was in 1 Corinthians 5. He was a brother, and he was in Christ, but at that time he was in Christ only positionally. Experientially and actually he was out of Christ. Surely he was not living in Christ.
But Romans 8:1 does not refer to that kind of being in Christ. It does not refer to the initial stage of being in Christ. Romans 8:1 refers to the following stage of being in Christ which is modified by verses 2 through 13. If you have all the following verses fulfilled, then you are in Romans 8:1. Spontaneously, you also are in Romans 8:14. As long as you are under the leading by the Spirit of God, there is no condemnation to you. But if you are not under the leading by the Spirit of God, you are still under condemnation. You have to cry that you are still a wretched man.
Verse 2 begins with the word “for” to tell us why there is no condemnation in Christ. It is because of the law of the Spirit of life. Here you have three components: the law, the Spirit, and life. These three words may be considered as the first three letters of the alphabet used to compose the word leading. Here we may consider that the law is A, that the Spirit is B, and that the life is C. The following verses contain the rest of the letters.
In the latter part of the verse there are three negative letters of the alphabet: the law, sin, and death. Now we have three positive letters and three negative letters. In verse 3 there is a fourth letter of the negative alphabet, the flesh.
The fourth positive letter of the alphabet is in verse 4: “That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to flesh, but according to spirit.” In this verse we have to pick up the word spirit with a small letter s. This is our spirit with the Spirit added to it. This is the mingled spirit.
Verse 5 also begins with the word “for”: “For those who are according to flesh mind the things of the flesh; but those who are according to spirit, the things of the Spirit.” In this verse firstly we have to pick up “the things.” Here it mentions not only the flesh, but the things of the flesh. This is the negative E in our alphabet. In this same verse we need to pick up also the positive E in our alphabet: the things of the Spirit.
In verse 6 is another component, another letter of the alphabet, the mind. Is this positive or negative? It depends upon where it is set. If the mind is set on the flesh, this is a negative mind. But if the mind is set on the spirit, this is a positive mind. So we can add the mind set on the flesh to our list of negative letters of the alphabet, and we can add the mind set on the spirit to our list of positive letters. Then there is the matter of life and peace. So we may add peace to our alphabet on the positive side.
Verse 7 speaks of the mind set on the flesh being enmity against God. Enmity becomes another letter of the negative alphabet. Enmity is something against God. In verse 9 there is another component, another letter, of the alphabet, the Spirit of God. Notice that the Spirit of life in verse 2 is a letter, and that the Spirit of God in this verse is another letter. In other words now you have God. In verse 2 you have life only, the Spirit of life. But now you have God. Of course this is another positive letter. Verse 9 gives us another component, the Spirit of Christ. You have both the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ.
In verse 10 is another negative letter of the alphabet: “The body is dead.” Here the body is negative because it is a dead body. Because of sin it is dead. In verse 11 is the One who raised Christ Jesus from among the dead. This is another positive component. It is not a small thing for Paul to speak of the One who raised Christ Jesus from among the dead. Even if Paul had simply said the Spirit of God dwells in you there would have been no fault. But he speaks in a more complicated way, a more significant way: “the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from among the dead” (lit.). The One is a positive component, and the word dead is another negative item. The Lord Jesus was raised from among the dead.
Verse 12 says that we are debtors. Debtors are not neutral. Surely debtors are on the negative side. In verse 13 there are the practices of the body, another negative item. Finally in verse 14 there are the sons of God. Of course this is a positive item. If you mean business to know and to realize what is the leading of the Spirit, you must get into these twenty-two items. Firstly, try to get into the negative items. In the Bible night comes first, and then the day follows. For example in Genesis 1 there is evening first, and then there is morning (Gen. 1:5, 8). That is one day. So firstly get into the evening, into the night, that is, the negative items. Then get into the day, that is, the positive items.