e, all suggest the idea of constant advance
against hindrances, which yet, constant though it is, does not reach
the goal here. And this is our noblest earthly condition--not to be
pure, but to be tending towards it and conscious of impurity. Hence
our tempers should be those of humility, strenuous effort, firm hope.
We are as slaves who have escaped, but are still in the wilderness,
with the enemies' dogs baying at our feet; but we shall come to the
land of freedom, on whose sacred soil sin and death can never tread.

CHRIST CONDEMNING SIN

'For what the law could not do, in that it was weak
through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin
in the flesh.'--ROMANS viii. 3.

In the first verse of this chapter we read that 'There is no
condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.' The reason of that
is, that they are set free from the terrible sequence of cause and
effect which constitutes 'the law of sin and death'; and the reason
why they are freed from that awful sequence by the power of Christ
is, because He has 'condemned sin in the flesh.' The occurrence of
the two words 'condemnation' (ver. 1) and 'condemned' (ver. 3) should
be noted. Sin is personified as dwelling in the flesh, which
expression here means, not merely the body, but unregenerate human
nature. He has made his fortress there, and rules over it all. The
strong man keeps his house and his goods are in peace. He laughs to
scorn the attempts of laws and moralities of all sorts to cast him
out. His dominion is death to the human nature over which he
tyrannises. Condemnation is inevitable to the men over whom he rules.
They or he must perish. If he escape they die. If he could be slain
they might live. Christ comes, condemns the tyrant, and casts him
out. So, he being condemned, we are acquitted; and he being slain
there is no death for us. Let us try to elucidate a little further
this great metaphor by just pondering the two points prominent in
it--Sin tyrannising over human nature and resisting all attempts to
overcome it, and Christ's condemnation and casting out of the tyrant.

I. Sin tyrannising over human nature, and resisting all attempts to
overcome it.

Paul is generalising his own experience when he speaks of the
condemnation of an intrusive alien force that holds unregenerate
human nature in bondage. He is writing a page of his own
autobiography, and he is sure that