n that I am! who shall
deliver me out of the body of this death?" Rom 7, 24. Now we see what
is meant by the statement, "The flesh lusteth against the Spirit."
The flesh must be dragged along and compelled by the spirit to
obediently follow, in spite of its resistance and trembling. It must
be forced into submission until it is finally overcome. Just so the
mother so deals with the child that is fretful and restless that she
constrains it to sleep.

29. Paul says, "Knowing this, that our old man was crucified"--that
is, we know that, in soul and spirit, we are already dead unto
sin--"that the body of sin might be done away." The meaning is:
Because the body does not willingly and cheerfully follow the spirit,
but resists and would fain linger in the old life of sin, it is
already sentenced, compelled to follow and to be put to death that
sin may be destroyed in it.

30. He does not say that the body is destroyed as soon as a man has
been baptized and is become a Christian, but that the body of sin is
destroyed. The body which before was obstinate and disobedient to the
spirit is now changed; it is no longer a body of sin but of
righteousness and newness of life. So he adds, "that we should no
longer be in bondage to sin."

"But if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with
him; knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more;
death no more hath dominion over him. For the death that he died, he
died unto sin once; but the life that he liveth, he liveth unto God."

31. Here he leads us out of the death and grave of sin to the
resurrection of spirit and body. When we die--spiritually unto sin,
and physically to the world and self--what doth it profit us? Is
there nothing else in store for the Christian but to die and be
buried? By all means yes, he says; we are sure by faith that we also
shall live, even as Christ rose from death and the grave and lives.
For we have died with him, or, as stated above, "we have become
united with him in the likeness of his death." By his death he has
destroyed our sin and death; therefore we share in his resurrection
and life. There shall be no more sin and death in our spirit or body,
just as there is no more death in him. Christ, having once died and
been raised again, dieth no more. There is nothing to die for. He has
accomplished everything. He has destroyed the sin for which he died,
and has swallowed up death in victory. And that he now lives means