In this chapter we will still be in the book of Romans for the Body of Christ. So far, from the book of Romans we have picked up two main points: the organic union and the sonship for the Body of Christ. In this chapter we need to pick up another point after the organic union and the sonship. Chapter 12 begins with these words: Present your bodies. But do you think that your body is okay for you to present to the Lord? In other words, what kind of body do you have? When you talk about presenting your body in chapter 12, you have to go back to see what kind of body you have. By considering the entire book of Romans, you can realize what kind of body you have. Our body is first mentioned in 6:6. Before this verse the book of Romans considers the body as flesh. But in 6:6 the body is called definitely the body. But here it is not a good one but rather the body of sin. Let us read Romans 6:6: “Knowing this, that our old man has been crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be annulled, that we should no longer serve sin as slaves.” This verse indicates that when we are crucified with Christ, the body of sin is annulled, unemployed; it loses its job. It has nothing to do. Why is the body unemployed? Because it is a body of sin, and God would never employ a body of sin. When you present your body to God, are you going to present a body of sin? What kind of body shall you present?
Today in Christianity there are a lot of revival meetings. In many revival meetings an altar call may be given based upon Romans 12, exhorting people to present their body. But I am afraid that they do not consider what kind of body they have. Do they have a body good for presenting to God? What kind of body do you have? Is it a body without sin or a body of sin? Because it is a body of sin, how could you present such a thing to God? It means a lot for Romans 12:1 to tell us to present our body to God. But you have to realize that Romans 12:1 does not come until eleven chapters have been passed through. After eleven chapters have been concluded, the body that can be presented to God can be a living sacrifice. Of course, the body of sin can never be a living sacrifice to God.
Romans 7 also mentions our body. Let us read verse 24: “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death?” This verse mentions the body of death. Which is better: the body of sin or the body of death? Of course, neither of these is good, but which is worse?
You have to see that sin is initial; death is ultimate. At the initiation, it is sin; at the consummation, it is death. Death comes out of sin. Sin brings forth death. No doubt, the consummation is worse than the initiation. Sin is a kind of sickness, and death is a kind of dying. So the consummation is worse. You cannot say that one is better. Rather, you would have to say that one is bad, and the other is worse. Sin in your body makes you very active. Sin energizes a sinner’s body to sin. It makes your body very active, like a wild horse, so that you can hardly bridle it. Many fallen people cannot bridle their body. Because sin energizes their body to such an extent, they cannot control it.
Death, on the other hand, does not energize; it weakens. Death weakens your body in keeping God’s word and in keeping God’s commandments. God’s commandment says that you should not be covetous, but when you try not to be covetous, something is within you weakening you. That something is death.
Our body was and still is a real problem. It has two things within it—sin and death. Sin causes the trouble, energizing you to do bad things, and death weakens you to the uttermost. Let me illustrate it in this way: After coming home from work, you tell your wife that you are very tired. Even at the dining table you are so tired that you cannot give a word of grace. So you ask your wife to speak a word of grace. You are too tired. But later when a telephone call comes, you are able to talk for a lengthy time. Once the phone call comes, something within you rises up to energize your tired body to talk on the phone for a long time. Yet when you needed to pray before the meal, something within you weakened you almost to the point of death. Sometimes the saints have felt so tired that they could not come to the meeting. They felt that they should stay home to rest. But they could testify that even when they stayed home, they did not rest. Rather, they did many things.
We have to see that these two things, sin and death, are all the time working within us. One energizes us to do the negative things, while the other weakens us in doing the positive things. Sometimes you may have told your wife that you did not have the time or you did not have the energy to talk with her, but if you became angry with her, you had sufficient energy to talk to her. This means that you have death weakening you, and you have sin energizing you. Both of these two are in our body. So the body is a body of sin and a body of death.
With such a body, what can you do to please God? Whatever this body does cannot please God; it can only please itself. A body of sin and death can do nothing to please God. After Romans 6, which mentions the body of sin, and after Romans 7, which mentions the body of death, you come to chapter 8. Chapter 8 also mentions the body, saying, “If you live according to the flesh, you must die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the practices of the body, you will live” (v. 13). This indicates that all the practices of the body should be killed. Whether sin is energizing your body or whether death is weakening your body, the practices of your body have to be put to death. You have to kill the practices of your body by the indwelling Spirit. This verse mentions both the flesh and the body. It says that if you live according to flesh, you must die, but then it says that you need to put to death the practices of the body. What are the practices of the body? That is the flesh. These two matters, the flesh and the practices of the body, are synonyms. They are used interchangeably. The flesh equals the practices of the body, and the practices of the body equals the flesh. Of course, to put to death means to mortify, to kill. So we have three verses with three different terms: the body of sin in 6:6, the body of this death in 7:24, and the practices of the body in 8:13. These three verses are very crucial, describing your body in such a manner. It is of sin, it is of death, and it is of practices that cannot please God and must be put to death.
Chapter 8 also has another good verse concerning the body: “We ourselves also, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan in ourselves, eagerly awaiting sonship, the redemption of our body” (v. 23). Once you realize that your body is a body of sin and death, you would groan, and you would earnestly expect for your body to be redeemed. Once you realize that you have a body that can do nothing to please God, you would groan, and you would expect to be redeemed. You can do nothing to help your body; your body needs redemption.
Some, realizing that their body needed to be dealt with, have practiced asceticism. Asceticism is mainly to deal with this body of sin, of death, and of bad practices in a severe way. But in Romans Paul is not speaking concerning asceticism. God’s salvation does not need asceticism. Actually, Paul does not say that our body needs to be put to death but that the practices of our body need to be put to death. He makes a distinction between the body and the practices of the body. Our body needs to be redeemed, but the practices of our body need to be put to death. To try to put your body to death is asceticism, a kind of suicide. According to human history, asceticism has been taught in many places. It was taught not only among the Greeks but also by the Chinese, the Japanese, and the Hindus. In many places asceticism has been taught. This means to deal severely with your sinful body.
But the Bible never tells us to deal with our body; it says to put to death the practices of our body. This is the way to understand the Bible. Even some Christians have tried to deal with their body in a way of asceticism. For example, a gambler who became a Christian eventually cut off one of his hands, trying to stop his gambling. But even after cutting off his hand, he could still use his arm to gamble. So, to cut off the hand is a kind of asceticism. The Bible does not encourage us to do this. The Bible says to put to death the practices of your body. Do not deal with your body. You have to wait for your body to be redeemed. But you have to deal with the practices of the body. But how can you deal with the practices of your body?
The Bible says, “By the Spirit you put to death the practices of the body.” The confirmation is in the next verse, which speaks of being led by the Spirit. We should not commit a kind of spiritual suicide to practice asceticism over our body. But we have to realize that a kind of salvation has been infused and transfused into our being, that is, the indwelling Spirit. The indwelling Spirit is our salvation. Whenever your body wants to practice something, you have to turn to your spirit and let the indwelling Spirit do something. The work of the indwelling Spirit will surely put that practice of your body to death. This is to be led by the Spirit.
In the last chapter we mentioned that there is a difference between walking according to the spirit and being led by the Spirit. The difference is this: to walk according to the spirit is somewhat general, but to be led by the Spirit is very specific. We have two things dwelling within us: one is sin, and one is the Holy Spirit. Our body energized by the indwelling sin is very diligent. It is altogether not lazy or idle or dormant. Our body is always active. However, the Bible does not ask us to deal with our body but rather with every activity of the body, every practice of the body, by the Spirit’s leading. When we deal with every practice of the body, every activity of the body, that is actually to be led by the Spirit. The Spirit leads us all the time to deal with our body’s practices. From morning to evening the indwelling Spirit always leads us to put to death the practices of our body.
You may say that you are walking according to the spirit, but then a time comes when you are desirous to exchange an unpleasant word with your wife. That is the time for you to be led by the Spirit. This means to let the Spirit kill your exchanging tongue, your word-exchanging activity. Sometimes even if you try to be quiet, your wife would somewhat be used to stir up the practices of your body to speak something. Yet you have to be led by the Spirit to put to death the practices of your body. Regardless of how much you walk according to the spirit, you have to kill every practice of the body by being led by the indwelling Spirit. Every time you kill a practice of the body by the Spirit, that is actually being led by the Spirit.
This would mean that you are no more simply a child of God but a son of God. If you do not kill the practice of exchanging unpleasant words with your wife, this means that you remain in your childhood. But if, by the Spirit, you kill one practice of the body after another, it is a sign that you are no more a child but a growing son. This is the way to grow. To grow is to kill every practice of your body by the Spirit. To grow is to be led by the Spirit. This corresponds with Romans 6:6. If you kill every practice of the body by the Spirit, your body is eventually unemployed. It is spontaneously fired. It has nothing to do. It is only a fired body that is good for you to present to God. You must present an unemployed body to God. If your body is still so much employed by many things, you cannot present that body to God. If you present to God a body that is fully occupied by many items, there is no room for God to come in to use you. Your body is already fully employed by your daily practices.
Suppose a missionary goes to a mission field, yet he exchanges unpleasant words with his wife every day. Do you think he is really employed by God? Yet he is there working on the mission field for God. He may present such a busy body to go to the mission field to do some mission work for God, but actually that is not a real service to God. You can never enter into the Body life by presenting such a busy body to God. The proper presenting of your body is a matter of presenting a body that is unemployed, that has been fired, that has lost every employment. When you offer such a body to God, this offering or this presentation may usher you into the Body life. You can enter into the Body life only by presenting an unemployed body to the Lord. If you present a busy, employed body, you have no way to enter into the practicality of the Body of Christ.
As you can see, this is more practical than the organic union, and this is more practical than the sonship. This is a matter of having an unemployed body to present to the Lord. Do you really have a body that is unemployed? By what is your body employed? I do not think your body is that much employed by sin, but probably it is employed by many other things. In so many other things you are not led by the Spirit. When you read the newspaper, that may be a practice by the body not led by the Spirit. If you pick up a newspaper and read it not under the leading of the Spirit, that is a practice of the body. We have to be led by the Spirit daily to such an extent that we have no practice of the body apart from being led by the Spirit. In other words, if the Spirit does not lead us, we would do nothing. This is a matter of God’s economy. If the Spirit does not lead you, whatever you do is a practice of the body. By this you can see that although you say you walk according to the spirit, actually you do not. The real walking according to the spirit is to be led by the Spirit.
Many Christians do not walk according to the spirit. A few may walk according to the spirit, but they are not led by the Spirit. They walk according to the spirit, but they are led by ethics or other things. Whatever is ethical, they have the boldness to do. Whatever is not ethical, they would not do. This means that they are not led by the indwelling Spirit; they are led by ethics. Most Christians today are led not by the Spirit but by morality. Before speaking a word, they would consider whether or not that word is true or false. This means that they are led by ethics, by morality. The crucial point is this: Is it the Spirit leading you to say a certain thing? Even if you are going to speak the truth but it is not the Spirit leading you to speak, you should not speak. We have to be led not by ethics, not by morality, but by the Spirit. Although we may say that we walk according to the spirit, actually in the practical practices of our body we are led by good standards, by ethics, by what is right, by morality, and not by the Spirit.
Do you realize who are the most troublesome members in the Body of Christ? The most troublesome members in the Body life are the most ethical ones. If you are so ethical, you will just kill yourself in the Body life. You will have no share in the Body life. A self-righteous person is simply a person who is led in everything by ethics. An ethical person can hardly know anything of the Spirit’s leading. Many believers are very good, moral, righteous, ethical, and right in many things. But within they are condemning others. They condemn the elders, and they condemn other brothers and sisters. Only they are the righteous ones. Such persons have no way to be actually and practically in the Body life. All their right practices are the practices of the body. This means that they are walking not according to the spirit but according to the flesh. You may say that they are walking according to the good flesh. Those who are not right, not ethical, and not moral are living according to the bad flesh. But both good flesh and bad flesh are of the same source. One fruit may be rotten and the other perfect, but both are sour fruit. One may be so ethical, so right, so righteous, so moral, so good, but altogether according to the flesh. Another may be bad to the uttermost according to the flesh. You have to see that the source is the same. In Romans 8:13 Paul does not say that you should kill the sinful deeds of the body. He says that by the Spirit you should kill all the practices, whether good or bad. As long as it is a practice of the body, you have to kill it.
You have to see that if you are not a person all the day long killing every activity of your body by the indwelling Spirit, you cannot have a practical share in the Body of Christ. You may think that you are in the Body, but actually you are not. You are still by yourself. I admit that this is a kind of hard word, but I would not cheat you. For nearly nineteen hundred years the Lord has been unable to have the practical and actual Body life in an adequate way. Even today where is the practical Body? It is only when you and I are willing by the indwelling Spirit to put every practice of our body to death that we are actually and practically in the Body of Christ. At that time we can present an unemployed body, a fired body, a released body, to God. Then we will be a person fully edified and fully qualified to have the Body life.
So far we have covered the matter of the organic union, the sonship, and now the unemployed body, a body that is good for us to present to God. Whatever sacrifice you are going to offer to God must be unemployed. If your body is so much occupied and employed and yet you offer it to God, that will be a kind of cheating.
