Volume 13 Number 643
“For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” Romans 8:6
NOW if these words be applied to the real Christian, they are true; the Christian knows, as far as experience is concerned, that to be carnally minded is death, though not fatal. Fatal death can never be the portion of those that are born of God, for they are passed from death unto life, and can never come into condemnation; nevertheless, to be carnally minded is death, and every Christian's experience has a great deal of this. It is this that leads to the meaning of the apostle's words when he says, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” It is this that leads the Christian to understand that scripture that “The flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. These are contrary one to the other, that he cannot do the things that he would.”
The Christian also knows that to be spiritually minded is life and peace, but only when the blessed Spirit is pleased to quicken and beget in him again and again a lively hope and throw into his mind immortal rays that can never fade away; it is only then that we feel sure that God is our God for evermore, and the work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever.
Yet this is not the meaning of the apostle here, for by looking into the general drift of the apostle's meaning you will see that he is giving a description of two opposite characters. They that are in the flesh cannot please God. Then he goes on to say that the carnal mind is not subject to the law of God; neither indeed can it be, for the carnal mind is enmity against God. They that are in the flesh cannot please God. These are the persons called carnally minded; and, on the other hand, they that walk after the Spirit are the persons called spiritually minded.
Now our text is simple, and at the same time vitally important; and I am convinced that none but the Spirit of God can enable us to enter upon it in a way that can be of any use to our souls. I am sure that God alone can enable you to hear his word with any profit, and it is a great thing to go to the house of God with a desire that God will be there, not to see what sort of a man the minister is, whether he is a good speaker, whether he is a clever man, or whether he is talented, but to lose sight of the whole, having no desire but to hear the word of God, however humble the minister's gifts may be, and to go away profited in a way that shall go with us all our journey through; then we shall lose sight of the man in the Master, and listen to the glad tidings of the glorious gospel of the living God.
In our text, then, there is in the first place something to fear, and that is death, and that arises from carnality of mind; secondly, something in which to hope, life and peace, and that must arise from spirituality of mind.
First, then, something to fear. To be carnally minded is death, and the connection shows what is here meant by being carnally minded, that it is to be in a state of enmity to God and his truth and remember that hostility to God's truth arises from ignorance. There is a great deal, I admit, that is willful about men, because not knowing the truth in reality, they do in some measure rise into some sort of knowledge, therefore, they know it to be wrong. If they had known the Lord of life and glory, they would not have crucified him, therefore, it is from blindness. But let us look into that carnality or state under which all are by nature reckoned. This epistle is enough to make one ashamed of human nature and mortal existence. The apostle in the beginning of this epistle gives a very black account of the most revolting crimes and practices that the heathen followed. Now, my hearers, ever remember that all these revolting acts first arose from their own wicked nature. Had we been in their place, left under the same darkness that they were, and subjected to the same influences that they were, we, having the same nature, should have followed the same revolting courses, all these evils are in us. However, a gracious God, by the power of his providence, restrains us as a nation from such revolting and dreadful things; the heart of every man is nevertheless deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, and none can know it. No one knows what he could be capable of, if left to himself. The apostle, therefore, passing by the Jews who had the letter of God's word, he found that could do no vital good, that nothing but the grace of God could do this; then he comes to the conclusion, “Are we better than they? No, in no wise, for we have before proved that both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin.” Then he brings in this solemn declaration, that “there is none righteous, no, not one.” And what are some of the threatening's connected with these characters (for in and by nature we are all alike) but to show that there is something to fear? “There is none righteous, no, not one.” And it is said that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Now put these two together: first, that there is none righteous, no, not one; and that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God, consequently not one soul could be saved on the ground of anything that he could do. The unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God, then death and eternal banishment from God must follow, and that often takes place by means that I shall presently refer to. It is very difficult, then, for anyone to get to heaven, for they that are in the flesh cannot please God. They may give all their goods to feed the poor, and their body to be burned at the last on behalf of some supposed charity, but if un-regenerated and in a state of enmity to God's truth, not having love or charity, it is all nothing; therefore, apart from regeneration, “except a man be born again,” all his doings in God's estimation, however they may appear in the estimation of men, in God's estimation his best doings as well as his worst, all savor of the flesh, “There is none good, no, not one.” None but God's people can get to heaven; none can be good, on the ground of anything they themselves can do. There is none that understands; no natural man has any understanding of the truth of God: “This is a people of no understanding, therefore he that formed them will show them no mercy, and he that made them will show them no favor;” therefore, no man without understanding, heartfelt, soul felt understanding of God's truth, can get to heaven. None righteous! A fearful state of things, that it certainly is. “There is none that seeks after God.” There are thousands that seek after him, but no one in a right way, in a way that will give essential peace.
Men seek to get to heaven and to obtain eternal life by means and objects which will fail; many thousands shall seek to enter in and shall not be able, it is God's own testimony, not mine. It is written, “Many shall strive to enter in, and shall not be able: for the way of peace they have not known; destruction and misery are in their ways, and there is no fear of God before their eyes;” and yet they do not see this destruction, and do not see their misery; and if we are not brought out of this ignorance into a consciousness of our lost condition, and led in the name of Jesus Christ to seek the Lord, then we certainly must be lost.
To be carnally minded is death and eternal banishment from the living God, death now and hereafter. Now, through the ignorance that is in them, banishment from the presence of the living God hereafter, to live an eternity of woe when time shall be no more. Let me just say to you that know not the Lord, that never tremble at God's word, let me remind you (as well as Christians also, of what they have escaped from) of the sudden way that destruction sometimes comes upon ungodly men, that is if you are living in that state without Christ and without God in the world. Truly your state is awful to the last degree. Little did the ancient world think, just as they were becoming men renowned in wickedness, and forming all their plans of luxury and wickedness, little did they think what a mighty flood would descend upon the earth and would engulf them there! That is a solemn circumstance indicative of the destiny of all those that hate the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, all that believe not the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Little did the people think that fire should come down and destroy the cities of the plain. “For a man to come and tell us that fire and brimstone would rain down, why, we never heard of such a thing. This Lot is telling us that it will rain fire and brimstone! Why, really, all our philosophers and all our wise men would have known if such a thing were possible. They tell us that there is no law to be found in nature by which it is possible for fire and brimstone to come down; therefore, as there is no philosophical law in nature by which it can come, we believe it will not come.” But Lot said it should come, angels said it should come, and the Lord said it should come, and it did come. I mention this to show what vast magazines of vengeance the Lord has at command and can set the whole in motion by one blast of his lips. It is an awful thing to be carnally minded, in a state of ignorance, and at enmity against the gospel of God. Little did Pharaoh think that destruction was following him in the way that it was. He was all in, glee, imagining that he should very easily conquer these Israelites; but there was a God then, the same as there is now by whom actions are weighed. Korah, Dathan, and Abiram rose against the priesthood, and in what way could they have sinned greater than to rise against God's priesthood? for a man to rise against the priesthood of Christ, and it is an awful truth that the eternal priesthood of Christ is one of the most offensive things that is found in the gospel. Out of the many thousands of chapels and churches in the so-called Christian world, there are but very few that can bear the setting forth of the eternal priesthood of Christ. Most call these “Antinomian doctrines,” and I don't know what all. Such is the present state of the so-called Christian world. Little did they think that the ground should cleave asunder and swallow them up. “And they go down to Egypt for help, but both he that is helped and he that helps shall all fail together, says the Lord of hosts.”
Again, passing by a great many circumstances, little did Nebuchadnezzar think of the way that he should be brought down. He was brought to acknowledge that “the Most High rules in the kingdoms of men.” Haman little thought of the way in which he should come to his destruction. He has had gallows erected fifty cubits high. Little did he think that he himself should be exalted on that bad eminence and held up to the execration of all those whom he would have destroyed.
Therefore, we see that the solemn judgments of God are all in favor of his people and against his foes. “To be carnally-minded is death.” Little did Judas think of the way that he should come to his end. I believe that he hated the truths of the gospel with all his heart. He cared for nothing but the bag and that which was put therein. He cared not for the poor. There are some hypocrites in our day who care for the poor, but he cared not even for the poor. He had a hard heart. Little did he think that he should be so left to himself to come to such an awful end.
I will not go into the question as to whether it is possible for a child of God to be left in insanity so as to commit self-destruction. I need not remind you of Ananias and Sapphira, and, indeed, a great many more, all showing what a fearful thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God. To be carnally minded in a state of sin and ignorance is death. The apostle describes the beginning of it. “By one man's offences many became sinners, judgment came upon all unto condemnation.” If we are living in a state of hostility to God, it does not matter what we may have on our side, there is a great deal that we may have, but it matters not one bit; we may acquire worldly riches and honor's, but be assured of this, “he will disappoint the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise.” “But fear not, you worm Jacob; I will make you a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth; and you shall thresh the mountains.” To be carnally minded, then, as in our text, will mean to be in a state of ignorance of Jesus Christ and of our state by nature, and totally unconscious of it; and every circumstance into which we enter there is not one that may not be our destruction. The very things that we hope to get so much from may be our destruction. One of old thought himself very happy faring sumptuously every day; we find that very soon “in hell he lifted up his eyes.” Another pulls down his barns to build greater, and said to his soul, “You have much goods laid up for many years;” but the answer is, “You fool, this night your soul shall be required of you; then whose shall these things be?” Such is our state by nature; truly great is the misery of man! When we look into the history of the Bible, and when we look at the world now with its twelve hundred millions of inhabitants, the eternity to which they are approaching, the death that they are involved in, and the judgment that hangs over their heads, how solemn a scene! God grant that we may feel more and more the force of these solemn matters, and more deeply what the Lord has delivered those from, that do know his name; that our souls, on the one hand, may tremble, and, on the other hand, praise him that gives ns a hope in his salvation.
Now, secondly, notice the other side. To be spiritually minded is life and peace. Now take a twofold view of this spiritual-mindedness. First, the object of this; and secondly, the nature itself, substantially considered, of this spirituality of mind. Now let us take away the word spiritual and put another in its place, just for the sake of being clear, and bringing out what appears to me to be the apostle's meaning. I know those that are born of God see so much of their own carnality that they fall into this very error; that with the general view of this text, come and say, “I am not spiritual;” but if you take away the word spiritual and put another word to bring the matter into a more tangible sort of form, I think if you are alive from the dead you will be able to recognize your spiritual mindedness. Have it this way to be gospel-minded is life and peace; that is, having a mind towards God's gospel. The apostle says, “If the ministration of death written and engraved in stone be glorious, much more shall the ministration of righteousness” (meaning that righteousness which makes everything right between us and God) “be glorious.” Therefore, to be gospel-minded is life and peace, for life and peace is found in the gospel, and nowhere else.
Now let us just have a word here as to the object: notice it first, essentially, and second circumstantially, having a mind towards this gospel, and what kind of a mind that is, is for me to describe presently; in short, to have a mind inseparably connected with eternal life and peace. Indeed, there are plenty of places where we see the beauty of the gospel, but I take only one, in order to be concise, and they are all summed up in this beautiful and expressive one, therefore, I am sure that every man who knows what he is as a sinner will have a liking towards that one and look towards that. And what is it? why, that which the apostle says David describes that, “blessed is the man unto whom God imputes righteousness without works.” We will quote the words as they are in the thirty-second Psalm. “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputes not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile. Blessed is the man unto whom God imputes righteousness without works,” and all the blessedness of the gospel lies here, in God himself putting our sins on Christ and setting the Savior's work to our account. Say you, What's that you are talking about? God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing unto them their trespasses. What! to be brought to know that my sins are put to the account of the Savior, and he is spoken of as putting away sin by the sacrifice of himself, therefore the whole work of the a Holy Ghost is to take (not of the things of Moses, but) of the things of Christ, and reveal them unto us; so that, whatever a poor sinner's needs may be, however full of wounds and bruises, and the poor creature seems like a fading leaf, why he is the very person just suited to the Lord Jesus Christ; and this is the way the tidings come to some poor creature who, perhaps, has been running through ten thousand formalities. When he hears this gospel, you may take the whole of these formalities; he wants none of them anymore. It is simply to believe in Jesus Christ.
The apostle puts it in another place most beautifully. By Christ Jesus, brethren, this glorious Man, is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. Then if I get rid of my sins, it is by the imputation of them to Christ; it is to him that believes on Me; he that believes is justified from all things from which he could not be justified by the law of Moses. Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and that by him all that believe are justified from all things. But, says some poor creature, I want to believe right to lay hold of the blessed tidings; the poor thing knows he cannot be justified in any other way; it must be from first to last from all things, and this sets the soul free, so that it goes bounding over the mountains of Zion, and runs where it likes within the limits of God's everlasting kingdom; and a great kingdom it is, infinitely larger than this world. It runs up Jacob's ladder and gets what it can there, then it runs away and gets into the green pastures and gets what it can there; then it crosses over to the fountains and refreshes itself there; then, it goes to the banqueting-house and gets what it can there. You don't know what privileges these people have; the devil comes chuckling to the poor maniac, that man in there among those tombs. I have got his senses fast enough, and I will keep them if I like. But he is the accuser of the brethren, and all their enemies shall be found liars unto them.
Having a mind towards the gospel, then, and conscious of your state as a sinner, and having no other hope but the mediation of the Lord Jesus Christ, remember what he says, “Him that comes to me I will in no way cast out;” and if the soul is led to him in the way that I shall presently describe he will not reject it. So, to be spiritually minded is to be minded towards the gospel. Oh, say you, it's very easy then; but you have not come off free yet.
Then, secondly, not only towards the gospel thus essentially, but to be gospel-minded towards it circumstantially. I mean as if you were to get into a whale's belly to cry to God to bring you out again you know what I mean. I mean if we get into any trouble like Paul and Silas, when they got into prison they prayed to God, and while they were praying God turned their prayer into praises, they saw the prison open, and came out very comfortably. Therefore, to be gospel minded circumstantially will mean to look to the Lord in all our troubles; and as God led the patriarchs and all the saints of old, so he remains the same, and follows us to the end in all circumstances. Poor Jacob going off to Padan-aram, “I don't think the Lord will go with me; I must go by myself. I told lies and deceived my father; ah, well, I will go to sleep, and I don't care whether I wake again or not. I am a poor solitary creature; nothing but my staff in my hand.” What a poor creature you are, Jacob! I dare say you will be glad enough if I come to you. How can I expect it, Lord? But, Jacob, I love you; and because I love you I will come to you. And the Lord came to him, and I dare say he expected to hear all about what he had done; but not a word about Jacob, “I am with you.” Yes, but you will not stop long, Lord. Oh yes, I will; I am with you in all places whithersoever you go. Bless the name of the Lord, he will. What a God is our God! But I should like to come back again into this land after things get a little quieter. I will bring you back into this land, I will. Jacob, arise and anoint your pillow, for this is God's house. It is a great thing to be enabled to make God our hope in tribulation, in crooked circumstances, in providence. He will hear you though he seems to delay, and by many mysterious circumstances and crosses seem to try you, and after you have prayed you seem to have prayed yourself farther into trouble; but by and by, when the case is desperate, and you think there is no hope at all, then the Lord appears. What a good thing it is to trust in the Lord! To be gospel-minded in the circumstantial sense is life and peace here; and having life and peace here, the Lord is with us in all places whithersoever we go and will bring us with safety to our Father's house, and we shall be enabled to bear testimony with Jacob, “With my staff I passed over this river, and now I am become two bands.” You may boast of your riches sometimes and please yourselves with your own doings, but it is he that gives riches and honor. Now then, therefore, understand it is the Lord your God that gives you power to get wealth. You did not after all get the land by your own sword, but the Lord God by the light of his countenance bestowed his gifts upon you. May God enable us to honor him with our substance and all that we have! and them that honor me I will honor.
But let us come to a definition of spirituality of mind, and I want you to follow me very close here, and I cannot help it if I leave some of you a little behind; if I can get three things, that is all I want. First, I want a living desire after the things of God, that is the first thing I want. To be spiritually minded is to have in the first place a living desire after the things of God, so that as day after day rolls along, this mind remains, that it is time to relax from the things of time and sense, and reflect on eternal matters, and begin to wonder if my convictions are those of a real Christian, and if my longings after God are those of a real Christian; what a dreadful thing for me to be lost! “Search me, O God, and try me, and see if there be any wicked way in me.” I profess to be in the way that leads to life everlasting, but is it the desire of my soul? “Whom have I in heaven but you?” I desire to call no man on earth master or father in these eternal things, but to worship God alone as a God of salvation. A living desire, this “hope deferred makes the heart sick; but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life.” The Lord looks upon the heart, and sees all your griefs, sorrows, troubles, doubts, and fears.
Now I want something else. Do you now and then read the Bible and say, “The desire of my soul is unto your name”? can you say that? Can you say that “one thing have I desired, and that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord.” Yes, you really can say that!
In the next place, have you ever heard the gospel in a way that describes your experience, and felt sometimes a sentence or two, and perhaps the main part of a discourse, and at the end of the sermon say in your mind, “I do think I shall get to heaven now; if it is but smoking flax and a bruised reed, the Lord has promised not to quench the one nor break the other:”
“Those feeble desires,
Those wishes so weak.
'Tis Jesus inspires,
And bids you still seek.”
All this is gospel-mindedness, because it convinces us of our old Adam state, and law state, and that we have no other way of escape but by the gospel. A living desire after it, and that comes into practice by bringing you to walk in Zion's ways, and to seek the Lord. Yes, and love the habitation of his house and the place where his honor dwells. Do you know what, it is to say, “One thing have I desired, and that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord forever”? in time of trouble his tabernacle shall hide me till the storm is over past, and I will sing praises unto the Lord our God. That is one thing I want. To be gospel-minded is life and peace.
In the next place I want fixedness of purpose of heart, we must have no wavering. He that wavers is like the waves of the sea. You may waver as to whether you are interested in it or not; in that matter you may be full of tossing to and fro until the dawning of the day; in that sense we all know what it is to stagger and be at our wit's end, but that is not what I mean. One of old said, “My heart is fixed.” Now can you come and say that you are really conscious of your lost condition, and that nothing can save you but that gospel that is after a covenant ordered in all things and sure; can you truly say that your mind is made up to have this or nothing and renounce all other-hope, determined if you perish to perish here, reject all other ways, that God keeping you, you will have no other foundation, no other man to reign over you but the God-man, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace? Can you say in your minds that God keeping you, you will move from anything rather than that? It is a great matter to be decided, both for time and eternity too. The man who is a sort of weathercock, twisting and turning every way, and trying to please everybody, and would be high doctrine if he thought he could get more customers than by being low, in fact, there are some persons in our day who would be both high and low, and by being both they are double hypocrites in Zion (by profession) and everywhere else, there is no fixedness about them; but if you are born of God, your heart is fixed upon God's gospel, and God keeping you, you would rather move from anything than God's gospel, “My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed.” And I can tell you this fixedness of heart is needful; you will meet with plenty of things that will shake you about, and if you are not well founded upon the Rock of ages you will say as the rain descends, I cannot bear this; the winds will blow (false doctrines); if you are founded upon the rock you will not go with these winds: the man who digs deep and lays hold of the hope set before him. By and by the cloud is gone, the rain is all over, the soul rises and rejoices that it stood fast in the storm.
Blessed is the man that endures temptation, the Lord has promised that those who love him must have tribulation. Why, bless you, we should have plenty of this cold clay profession at the Surrey Tabernacle if the Lord did not preserve and keep us as a church and people. We have some cold clay professors who say, Well, it's rather a respectable chapel, I think I shall join them; but we will try you first and put you to the touchstone; we must know what you are made of first, we must know who you are and what you belong to first, we must search you well. But I don't like that; then stop till you do. To be spiritually minded is to have a living desire after God and eternal things, fixedness of mind, fighting as it were with sword in hand, and never think of putting off the armor till the last enemy lies dead at your feet, that is what I want, spiritual mindedness and gospel desire, and I want perfection of heart too. O dear, say some, you will leave us all behind together. Do not be uneasy, I am not going to do any such thing; if you are not perfect, we will not have you. Dear me, I am a very imperfect creature, I am not talking about creature perfection, I am a sinner, an imperfect sinner. I do not believe you are an imperfect sinner. But I want perfection of heart. Do you approve of God blessing his people with all spiritual blessings? Oh yes, perfectly. That's a perfect heart. Do you approve of what Jesus Christ has done? With all my heart. Do you approve of the blessed truths of the gospel? With all my heart. Are you willing to give the Lord all the glory? With all my heart. You do? These men came to David with perfect hearts, then what follows? They could keep rank. The Lord made their hearts bold as lions. He made their feet like roes, so that they could stand fast and run through troops; so, it is, those that are of a perfect heart the Lord will strengthen. I like good-hearted men in the gospel sense; Wesleyans may have their fleshly perfection as long as they like; a man that is born of God has perfection of heart: this spiritual mindedness, this living desire, this fulness of approbation is life and peace.
Now there are many more things that I intended to say connected with this part of the subject, but I must hasten. “Life and peace.” Now the words life and peace as used in the Scriptures, first, life is used in a threefold sense. First, there is heart regeneration; secondly, there is life experience in the Lord's people; thirdly, eternity of life. Now the word peace, as spoken of in the Scriptures. First, I just run through the word peace; the word peace sometimes means reconciliation: you have he reconciled. Therefore, to have peace will mean reconciliation to God. Secondly, peace is a word that means not only reconciliation, but also security. “You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you;” do not you see that that is the meaning of the word peace there, that of security. Put another word in its place. You will keep him in perfect security whose mind is stayed on you, that brings out the fulness of the meaning. Open you the gates, that the righteous nation that keeps the truth may enter in. You will keep him in perfect peace, that is, in perfect security, whose mind is stayed on you; the man whose hope and trust is in the Lord he will keep in security. In the third place, it will sometimes mean plenty: that their land should bring forth plenty, that the Lord would lay no famine upon them that have this peace. “Not as the world gives give I unto you.” It will sometimes also signify redemption: “Mark the perfect man and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace.” Life and peace in all its senses; and how is spiritual minded life and peace first known? First evidentially by this desire, this decision, this full approbation of God's truth, and do not pass over, one point; if you have not a particle of peace, still, if you have this gospel mind, this gospel mind is life and peace evidentially, having not life and peace itself, but the evidences of it, therefore, life and peace evidentially do not let us exclude that idea, for does not this gospel-mindedness lead into it? How many times has the peace of God been unto us as rivers of water in a dry place!
Then it is life and peace prospectively, and with this idea I shall close. I should like to say a great many more things and must say a great many more too in few minutes. Now let us just run with the apostle through the latter part of this chapter and trace him from point to point, we shall find him a very pleasant companion; yon will like his company to walk along with. The apostle speaks in this way: “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” He is a God of providence as well as a God of grace. He that spared not his own Son: here is life and peace prospectively. He that spared not his own Son, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things. Now go on again; I am speaking now of life and peace prospectively. There is something living before us; it stands thus: “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?” The apostle says it is God that justifies: who shall lay anything to their charge? They are complete in the Savior, accepted in him; they are exempt from all condemnation. Who shall lay anything, to the charge of God's elect? it is God that justifies.
Then the apostle asks another question and puts difficulties opposed to it out of the way, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” I will, says the devil. I will, says poor, feeble old conscience. I will, says one and another; and well they might with little difficulty. But then he says it is God that justifies. And how do you think we are to get into this blessed position here spoken of as life and peace? Being justified by faith, we have peace with God. Let us go on again. Suppose you bring something to their charge, who is he that condemns? If we discover a fourfold difficulty, we get over the first, it is Christ died in order to uncondemn. He loved us unto the death; yes, rather is risen in order to condemn and destroy death by his resurrection, and is even now at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us; and what must we do with the second difficulty? Here God's power to justify rises above the enemy's power to condemn.