I PETER 4.4-7 (BEEBE)

We have always regarded the passages proposed for consideration among the most obscure and hidden parts of the Scriptures, and what we now venture to write upon the subject, is humbly submitted to the consideration of our readers with much hesitation and trembling. Brethren will read our remarks carefully, and compare them with the infallible standard of truth, and wherein they may find our views at fault, kindly point out to us the more excellent way, and their faithful words shall not break our bones, but be an excellent oil.

In the first passage proposed, the apostle, after having spoken of the two distinct elements personally identified in the Christian, namely, the flesh and the spirit, and has drawn the line between them according to the doctrine of Christ, that that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit, proceeds to enforce the exhortations with which all the apostolic writings abound: to mortify the deeds of the flesh, and crucify the old man with his lusts, and put on the new man which, after God, is created in righteousness and true holiness. These exhortations are urged in our text and its connection from the consideration that Christ has suffered for us in the flesh, that we are crucified with him, that the body is dead because of sin, that we are dead, and our life is hidden with Christ in God, and although dead with Christ, nevertheless we live; yet not we, but Christ liveth in us; and the life which we now live in the flesh, we live by the faith of the Son of God, who hath loved us, and given himself for us. - Gal. ii. 20. Forasmuch then as Christ has suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same mind; for he that hath suffered in the flesh, hath ceased from sin; that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. 

He then particularizes the manner in which those saints had formerly wrought the will of the Gentiles, in the abominations which now characterize the ungodly. “Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess,” &c. When the saints are called by grace, and become followers of God, as dear children, the world thinks it strange that they should thus renounce, and turn away from their idolatrous and fleshly pursuits, their doctrines and commandments, and become a circumcision which worships God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. The world has instituted so great a variety of worldly religions, so carnal, so popular, so agreeable to every fleshly passion, and so pleasant to every fleshly palate, that they can see no necessity for singularity, or for embracing an unfashionable kind of religion. They are offended that their splendid delusions should be rejected, exposed, and forsaken; and therefore they speak evil of the saints. 

For if any man will live godly in Christ Jesus, he shall suffer persecution; they shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for Christ’s sake. But they are amenable to him who is ready to judge the quick and the dead. They are held strictly accountable to him, and whosoever shall offend one of them, shall find that it was better for him that a millstone was hanged about his neck, and he cast into the midst of the sea. By the quick and the dead, are meant the living and the dead. It applies to quickened sinners, for God shall judge his people; and it also applies to sinners who are dead in sins, for God shall judge the world in righteousness, at the last day, by that man whom he hath appointed. And to Christians, it applies, both in regard to the inward and the outward man, the body that is dead by reason of sin; and the spirit which is life because of righteousness. - See Romans viii. 10.

We come now to the sixth verse, which reads thus: For, for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit. There must always of necessity be a cause for the production of an effect. A cause is therefore stated for the preaching of the gospel, namely, that they unto whom it was preached, might be judged according to men in the flesh. Here we find the cause in the purpose of God, and not in the resolutions of mission boards, nor in the wisdom, power, or contributions of men. It was and is preached to answer the precise end for which God designed it, and the accomplishment of that object it cannot fail to secure. But it was preached also to them that are dead. If we understand this declaration to mean those of former ages, under the old dispensations, it was true, for the gospel was preached in types, and set forth in shadows of good things to come, from the days of Abel, in the firstling of the flock, the unblemished lamb which he offered in sacrifice to God, and by Noah, in the building of the ark, and the souls which were saved, as by water, in a figure of like signification to that of baptism under the gospel dispensation; and those unto whom it was so preached, are literally dead. 

And they are judged according to men who are now in the flesh, unto whom it is preached, but who have no ear to hear, heart to love, receive or understand it. Thus, when Abel preached, Cain was wroth, and slew him, showing his carnal or fleshly propensity, the latent enmity of his carnal mind was roused, and the murderous lusts of the flesh broke forth. Men now in the flesh answer to their type, “Woe unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain.” When Noah, who was a preacher of righteousness, was engaged in building the ark, he was resisted, mocked, and ridiculed by those unto whom he presented the figure of salvation; so, under the present dispensation, Stephen testified of men in the flesh. As their fathers did, so did they always resist the Holy Ghost. Not that they could, or ever did hinder the accomplishment of the Spirit’s work, but they opposed, and contended against it. But all these references, and illustrations, seem to be designed to enforce the admonition and exhortation to the saints, who are called on to crucify the old man, with its affections and lusts, and to arm themselves with that mind which the adorable Redeemer evinced when he suffered in the flesh for us, that he might bring us unto God. If we are subjects of the new and heavenly birth, we have in our carnal, corrupt, and depraved nature, all the elements of men in the flesh. 

Our fleshly minds are the same in all respects as the carnal minds of other men; not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be; and so far as they are concerned, they are judged according to men in the flesh. To Christians, it was said, “If ye sow to the flesh, ye shall of the flesh reap corruption,” for the fleshly soil is incapable of yielding any other crop. Paul is very clear on this point in the eighth chapter to the Romans. “Therefore, brethren,” says he, “we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh, for if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” The two natures which struggle in every saint on earth, are opposite each other; the contrast is presented under the names by which they are designated, as flesh and spirit, old man and new man, outward man and inner man, corruption and incorruption, mortal and immortal, death and life, sin and holiness, &c., and each is traced in Scripture to its seminal or progenitive origin. That which is called flesh is of the earth earthy; was made of the dust of the earth, subsists on the productions of the earth, cleaves to the earth, and is destined to return to the earth; it is earthly, sensual, and devilish, and all its productions are according to their corrupt source. 

The new, spiritual, inner man, is born of God; its life is hidden with Christ in God, and only appears when Chri8t, who is our life, appears. It is heavenly, and can only subsist on heavenly food, on him who is the true Bread; eating the flesh, and drinking the blood of him who came down from heaven, nor can it subsist on any other food. It is a life which we live in the flesh, but it is not the flesh, nor is it of the flesh. It is eternal life; it is immortality, and it shall never perish. It is born of God, and cannot sin, because it is born of God. It is born of the Spirit, and therefore it is spirit. And when this earthly house of our tabernacle shall be dissolved and fall, the spiritual, immortal, eternal life shall survive; it cannot die. The dust in dissolution shall go back to its original element; and when that judgment which came upon all men unto condemnation, and which has passed upon us, as judged according to men in the flesh, shall have been executed, a glorious resurrection of the bodies of all the saints awaits them. That spiritual, divine, and heavenly life, which we now have in Christ, shall quicken, animate, and stamp immortality upon our rising bodies, so that though now judged according to men in the flesh, though now imprisoned, and held fast for the time being, in the bondage of corruption, so that we have to cry out, O, wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? We can, through grace triumphing over the flesh, with the apostle, add, I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with my mind, (the spiritual, heaven-born man,) I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh, the law of sin. Thus while in our flesh, we are judged according to men in the flesh, we live according to God in the spirit. After God, this new man has his creation in righteousness and true holiness; created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we shall walk in them. 

According to God, that is, according to his purpose, design, and spiritual sustenance afforded, we live; and as our immortal life is an emanation from God, it aspires to holiness, purity, and godliness; above all things desiring to show forth his praises and to glorify God in our bodies, and in our spirits, which are his.

Middletown, N.Y. Feb. 1, 1855.
Elder Gilbert Beebe Editorials Volume 3 Pages 164 - 170