Godbey's Commentary - Acts - Romans - Enter His Rest

him, methinks I see his neck elongated, with horrific projecting jaws, and venomous, forked tongue;
his arms, absorbed, disappear; his posterior members consolidated into a great, huge tail. Now falling
on the ground, he crawls away, a loathsome, narcotic, hissing serpent, to be hated and slaughtered
by the whole human race. Thus, you see, the snake originated out of the transformation resulting
from sin. Evil can not emanate from good. Hence God never made a devil, a sinner, nor a snake. The
brazen serpent in the wilderness by the divine order resembled the fiery serpents which invaded the
camp and slew their multitudes. Why? Because the brazen serpent symbolized Christ, who was to
take the form of man in order to save us. John the Baptist and Jesus both called the people a
generation of vipers, i.e., “children of rattlesnakes.” Hence we received the diabolical venom through
the serpent, thus imbibing the snake nature and becoming a race of snakes. It takes a rogue to catch
a rogue. Consequently the commonwealth never makes much headway against a gang of thieves till
some of them turn State’s evidence; then they get them quickly. So our blessed Savior took the form
of our “sinful flesh” that He might save us from our sins. As symbolized by the brazen serpent, He
became a snake that He might find and save us snakes. The wonderful condescension of redeeming
love “Condemned sin in the flesh.” The condemnatory sentence must precede the execution of a
criminal. As our Savior has perfectly kept the law for the whole human race, thus condemning the
sin in carnality, therefore the gospel sword is sent out into all the world to execute the sentence of
guilt against the man of sin in every human heart throughout the whole world. Thus, you see, it is
our work to slay the man of sin without mercy. Therefore the true gospel has in all ages met the
bitterest opposition, because nothing loves to die. Snakes fight awfully for their lives. Christ turned
snake as symbolized in the wilderness, i.e., He took the form of us snakes, found them all, and
passed sentence of death on them. Hence ours is truly a snake-killing business throughout. The twoedged
sword of the gospel is sent into the world to cut off every snake head. Snakes are very scary.
Hence you must have the perfect love which casts out fear, if you would make headway killing the
snakes. Carnal cowards tinker along and let the snakes live.
4. “In order that the righteous judgment of the law may be fulfilled in us who walk not after the
flesh but after the Spirit.” The righteous judgment of the law is, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die”
(Ezekiel 18:4). Hence the sin-principle in every heart must die. God’s method with sin is
extermination. That is always done in “those who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”
When your walk is mixed you never get sin destroyed. It is only those who are solidly out and out
for God who get sin exterminated.
5. “For those who are according to the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, and those who are
of the Spirit the things of the Spirit.” God is calling all to heaven; and Satan, the “god of this world”
(2 Corinthians 4:4), is offering us this world as he did Jesus. The body is earthy and destined soon
to go back to it. We have our choice to live for this world or heaven. We get just what we live for.
If we live for this world, we leave soon, and are liable to at any moment, unprepared for heaven.
Hence Satan, whose subjects we are, takes us to hell. The divine order is, first God, then the human
spirit, then the mind or soul, and finally the body. Satan reverses the order, putting the body first,
then the mind, and the immortal spirit is neglected altogether. In that case you have the world here
and hell hereafter. Man is a three-story building, consisting of body, mind and spirit. The latter. i.e.,
the third story, is where our King erects His throne. when we are true, ruling the mind through the
spirit, the body through the mind and our life through the body Satan reverses the divine order in the
human spirit down in the mud then the mind, and finally the body, i.e. the hog element of our nature,