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We may safely take these terms as revealing most truly an essential aspect of
sanctification. It must be in "newness of life". Anything savouring of death brings
defilement, as we may learn from the type of Numb. 19: 16:--
"And whosoever toucheth one that is slain with a sword in the open fields, or a dead
body, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days."
So all must be cleansed from "dead works" before any progressive sanctification is
possible.
Having reached this great feature of truth, here we must stay. Sanctification demands
newness of life--how then can anyone think of "continuing in sin" that grace may
abound? We may all take to ourselves the words of the apostle, making them a prayer
where we cannot state them as an experience:--
"I am dead to the law (as Rom. 6:, `dead to sin'). I have been crucified with Christ
(as Rom. 6:, `the old man was crucified with Him'), nevertheless I live, yet not I, but
Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the
Son of God (`newness of life') Who loved me and gave Himself for me" (Gal. 2: 19, 20).
#41.
Sanctification.---Second a Condition. Union (6: 1-14).
pp. 76 - 78
The first item in the doctrine of sanctification which we have established is "newness
of life". True, "death to sin" must precede this new life, but death to sin is not
sanctification, any more than a good concrete foundation is a dwelling house. Power for
sanctification is life, and the study now before us is to discover from the passage as to
what that life is, and how its power may be received and its effects:--
"For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in
the likeness of His resurrection: knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him,
that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he
that is dead is freed from sin" (Rom. 6: 5-7).
The R.V. alters the reading "planted together" to "become united with", and this is
undoubtedly the meaning. "Planted together" would truly describe a field of wheat, but
each plant would nevertheless be independent: the word sumphutos used here indicates
something more intimate, more akin to "grafting" than "planting". The word is used in
the LXX of Amos 9: 13 for "melt", and is employed by Xenophon to describe the
"growing together" of man and horse known as the "Centaurs" of ancient myth. The
R.V. margin is closest of all to the truth of the passage, and is the rendering of Alford:--
"If we have become united with the likeness of His death, so shall we be also with His
resurrection."