GENERAL CONFERENCE.
BATTLE CREEK, MICH., 1891.
BIBLE STUDY.
LETTER TO THE ROMANS
BY ELDER E. J. WAGGONER
Notice how perfectly that figure of marriage is carried out. We are
represented as the woman. The husband is the head of the family; and so
Christ is our head, and we yield ourselves to him. We are one with him.
What a precious thought it is, that we are one flesh with Christ! In
this we see the mystery of the incarnation appearing again...."There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ
Jesus, 
who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law
of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of
sin and death. 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: That the righteousness
of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but
after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things
of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the
Spirit." (Romans 8:1-4).
But was it your memory alone that enabled you to remember those sins that
you did confess? Who quickened and spurred up your memory? It was the
Spirit of God that showed those sins to you. Now are we going to charge
God with doing a partial work? He sent his Holy Spirit to show you those
sins. Shall we say then that he kept back a part of them, that he did
not reveal to us? He showed us just 
what he wanted us to confess, and
when we have confessed them, we have met the mind of the Spirit of God,
and we are free.
Sins that stand out prominent,—they stand for our whole sinful nature,
and we know that our whole life is of that same sinful character. So the law as it is in the person of Christ is the law of the Spirit of
Life. So he takes the life of Christ and gets the perfection of the law
as it is in Christ, and serves him in spirit, and not in the oldness of
the letter. Thus he is delivered from bondservice to the law to freedom
in it. There is a wonderful amount of rich truth in that,—"The law of
the Spirit of Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and
death." vs.2.
Christ says, "If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father,
will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give
him a serpent? . . . If ye then being evil, know how to give good gifts
to your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy
Spirit to them that ask him?" (Luke 11:11,13). Make a personal application of that text.
When you kneel down to pray for the Spirit of God, which is all
powerful and will cleanse from all sin, quote that to the Lord.
Our union with Christ and with His righteousness, may be and should be
just as close and complete as
our union has been with sin.
