As the Dawning Light

The Christian walk has stages that give account of an uninterrupted progression.

Gonzalo Sepúlveda

"But the path of the righteous is as the dawning light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day" (Proverbs 4:18).

The apostle Paul tells us that those who live in the New Covenant are transformed with ever increasing glory into the same image of the Lord (2 Cor. 3:18). In another part he exhorts us to be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord (1 Cor. 15:58). He also teaches that believers should cease to be children and grow toward the stature of a mature man (Ef. 4:14). Likewise, Proverbs show us that the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn that shines ever brighter unto the perfect day.

The starting point

In Paul's epistle to the Romans, we find man in his lowest condition, then we see him as more than a conqueror and it finishes with a Body of believers that unanimously glorify God (Rom.15:6).

Romans 1:29 says: "Being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity; whisperers…"That is how God sees man; full of sin.

We go now to Romans 3:24 "... Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus …" In His great love, God intervened by sending His Son to the world to save us. The gospel was preached to us and we believed. Blessed miracle of God: this sinful man is now justified before Him!

Blessed is the man that has come to this point. If somebody has taken this step at least, then we give thanks to the Lord for it (Rom. 4:7)

Now we advance to chapter 5:"Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace… (Rom. 5:1). This man, once crowded with wickedness, now has peace. He who didn't have any fellowship with God, has now entered through faith, and is steadfast! He has the hope of the glory of God. "And hope putteth not to shame; because the love of God hath been shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit which was given unto us." (v. 5). We didn't have the Holy Spirit, but today we do. The love of God already floods us. This is what is happening as we go forwards; we see something more and we take hold of it.

In the rest of the chapter 5 we are told that we are justified and rooted in Christ. We have left Adam and we are positioned firmly in Christ.

Those who, in their experience, have only arrived up to chapter 5 of Romans have basically known two aspects of the Christian life, that is: the cleansing of their sins by Christ's blood and their position in Christ. We now need to advance. What else does the Lord have for us?

Dealing with the believer

In Romans 6 and 7, we will see that God, in Christ, dealt with the believer's person, not only with their actions. "For he that hath died is justified from sin. But if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him." (Rom. 6:7-8). Here, our death in Christ is related to sin, and in the chapter 7 it is related to the law: "Wherefore, my brethren, ye also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ; that ye should be joined to another, even to him who was raised from the dead, that we might bring forth fruit unto God." "But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that wherein we were held... (Rom7:4, 6) The Lord not only washes us of our sins, but rather He deals with us as a sinner. Therefore, to advance on this path, we must take hold of the work of the cross.

Our beautiful Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross so that his death was also our death. Up to chapter 5, you don't have any problems, because all things are on the plane of faith in Christ's blood and in imputed righteousness; that is to say, we are declared righteous, the Father transfers us from Adam to Christ, without us doing anything; we only believe and everything is ours!

But when we still fight, and sin, sanctity, and the law continue being a problem, and we are not able to reflect the glory of the Lord, then we are only on halfway along that path. I stress that there are no magic recipes for the victory of the Christian. We don't become spiritual men simply because some great leader placed his hands on us.

May the Lord help us to understand His Word and also our crises as believers. Why do some advance and others not? Why are there some brothers who, when seeing them after a long period of time, do we find them edified, grown up and strengthened, while others remain stagnated? This is how the Lord sees us, and the church suffers. We look for an escape, but the Lord doesn't offer anything but the cross.

It is indispensable that we see one other as in Christ, dead to sin and dead to the law. Sin is everything that we don't have to do and the law here represents everything that we must do to please God. Now, why does God's salvation in Christ already include our death in both senses mentioned? The answer is simple: God knows us very well. Because of the fall, man knew evil, but could not avoid it. He also met good, but he could not do it. Therefore, man's salvation must imperatively solve such a problem and that is in fact what was achieved through the death and resurrection of our Lord.

Dead to sin and dead to the law. Is this difficult to understand? It would appear so, especially when we trust that in "our strength" we will be able to conquer sin and to complete the Holy law of God; then the interior conflict that Paul tells us about in Romans 7 will happen to us.

An unavoidable crisis

There is a personal crisis that is both yours and mine here, which is absolutely unavoidable; a great pain is produced when I am faced with my own reality. Then I reach this conclusion: "In me no good thing dwells." Blessed is the brother or sister who, guided by the Holy Spirit, ends up saying this! It is an advancement toward maturity! On the other hand, every time you praise yourself, exhibit your kindness and defend your good intentions, you are in fact trying to justify your flesh alone; you believe that you are not like the man of Romans 7, and that something good dwells in you. Therefore, you refuse to die. Your "self" is intact. Perhaps you spend years ignoring the cross and that is the reason for your spiritual stagnation. Christ doesn't have an expression in your life, only you appear, with your kindness and your defects, but not Christ. Therefore, there is no spiritual growth and the failures and frustrations annul your testimony as a son of God.

Many Christians refuse the cross; they don't want to die. Their experience doesn't go beyond Romans 5. Their sins have been forgiven, but the "sinful man", the author of unrighteousness, continues to stand firm in his own opinion (which is not that of Christ). To begin to be spiritual, mature in Christ, the Holy Spirit has to take us to the experience of "in us, nothing good dwells." We have to come to the point where we evaluate our reality very clearly: we are still too alive! This crisis is unavoidable. It is a conflict with oneself.

In the life of Job, there are two scenes that illustrate this crisis. Before he was broken, he said: "If I have walked with falsehood, And my foot hath hasted to deceit, Let me be weighed in an even balance, That God may know mine integrity." (Job 31:5-6). But at the end, when the man sees the light of God, he exclaims: "Wherefore I abhor myself, And repent in dust and ashes." (Job 42:6)

The glorious reality of Roman 8

"There is therefore now no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus..." (Rom. 8:1). "For the mind of the flesh is death; but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace" (8:6)

Woe to me, if I justify my flesh! The Lord will deal with me, the Spirit of the Lord will deal with the flesh all the same, and the conflict with my "self" will take place, either in the house, in the church, in work, or faced with a temptation. Dear brothers, this is more serious than we imagine. Because if we are carnal Christians, we will fall; temptations will conquer us and we will be a source of continuous conflict for all that surround us.

Take note of a detail here; it says: "The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God:" (Rom. 8:16). In Romans chapter 3 man's "spirit" is not mentioned. Only recently has the believer's spirit begun to operate; only recently is there a deep work done within. Romans 7 is still at the level of the "soul", because the "self" is my soul; that which is essentially man's personality. That is where all the conflicts are generated. The resources of "my soul" are not enough to please the heart of God, this is only "of my flesh" (it is very clear in the NT that these references to the 'flesh' do not refer to the physical body).

Blessed is the deliverance that was operated on Christ's cross! My soul basically had two tremendous problems: the sin that it could not avoid and the law that it could not complete. When discovering this, Paul exclaims: "Wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?" This judgment upon himself is what happens after the subjective operation of the cross. From now on, my "self" will begin to draw back (this is its death); it will no longer take the initiative against sin (because it is impotent), nor will it hurry to promise the fulfillment of the demands of the law of God (because it cannot complete them). Now it cries out for "Somebody" to deliver it, and then it begins to discover that that "Somebody" is Christ Himself who already freed it from sin and the law when He included us in His crucifixion.

Now the "believing man's spirit" begins to manifest itself. Up to this point, it was oppressed by the arrogance of the soul; but now the Holy Spirit will have freedom to give it the testimony of the will of God. It will begin to live by the Spirit, and to be strengthened with power (Ephesians 3:16). Only then does the spiritual man that we so yearn to be appears, and which Paul mentions in 1 Cor. 2:15. The flesh has begun to give way to the spirit, which, in communion with the Spirit of God, will drive the believer toward all the glories of the New Covenant.

Dear brothers and sisters, it shouldn't appear that being Christian is about leading a life of deprivations and restrictions, and that that is all that there is to it. It is true that we deprive and restrict ourselves (that is, concerning the old life), but the glorious freedom of the sons of God is greater! We are free from sin, we love the brothers, we can preach the gospel, we serve God; in short, to live Christ's life is our most blessed privilege.

And to achieve that fullness, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. Let us note that in Romans 8:26 there is no super-man, but rather it says: "And in like manner the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity...." Here we discover that spiritual people are weak. And in that weakness, they cling to the One who can help, and if they become more than conquerors, it won't be by their own merit, but by Him who loved them.

When our spirit begins to function, inspired and strengthened by the Spirit of God, how easily we understand each other, how we love each other! Then we ascend to a new plane; we no longer walk in jealousies or divisions of the flesh (Gálatas 5:20), but in the glorious fellowship of Romans 12:3-5, where we see, not just a victorious individual, but Christ's Body working harmoniously. And finally, as Romans 15:6 says, "With one accord ye may with one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. May this be true of us.