The New Life

^
Flesh and Spirit.
So long as there are still in the Christian strife and
envy, the word of God calls him carnal. He would
indeed do good, but he cannot : he does what he
would not, because he still strives in his own strength
and not in the power of the Spirit.
The flesh remains under the law, and seeks to obey
the law. But through the flesh the law is powerless,
and the endeavor to do good is vain. Its language
is : "I am carnal, sold under sin : to will is present
with me, but to do that which is good is not. " '
This is not the condition in which God would have
*'
his child remain. The word says : It is God that
worketh in you, both to will and to work."* The
Christian must not only live by the Spirit, but also
walk by the Spirit. He must be a spiritual man, and
abide entirely under the leading of the Spirit.' If he
thus walks, he will no longer do what he would not.
He will no longer remain in the condition of Romans
vii., as a new-born babe, still seeking to fulfill the
law, but in Romans viii., as one who through the
Spirit is made free from the law with its commandment,
"do this," which gives no power, but brings
death, and who walks, not in the oldness of the letter,
but in the newness of the Spirit.*
There are Christians that begin with the Spirit, but
end with the flesh. They are converted, born again
1 Rom. vii. i8 ; i Cor. iii. 3 Gal.
;
v. 15, 26.
2 Rom. iv. 14, 15, vii. 4, 6, viii. 3, 8 ; Gal. v. 18, vi. 12, 13 Heb.
;
vii. 18, viii. 9, 13.
8 Rom. viii. 14; i Cor. ii. 15, iii. i ; Gal. vi. i.
* Rom. vii. 6, viii. 2, 13.
The Dutch version has— " and to accomplish."
—Tr.
119