Review of the book of Romans
Index to Part Two
Romans 3 v. 21-31 ~ (God’s final initiative)
Romans 4 v 1- 24 ~ (Righteousness is given by faith)
Romans 5 v 1- 11 ~ (the Joy of faith!)
Romans 5 v 12- 21 (Adam & Christ metaphor)
Romans 6 v 1- 23 ~ (Identification with Christ)
Romans 7 v. 1-6 ~ (The way of love versus the way of law)
Romans 7 v 7-25 ~ (Why did God introduce the way of law?)
4. God’s Way to bring humanity to salvation
Romans 3 v. 21-31 ~ (God’s final initiative)
22We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are! 23For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. 24Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. 25For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood (to achieve this).
Having stated the bankruptcy of empty religion while acknowledging the value of God’s rules to expose the sinfulness and hopelessness of our human condition (ch. 3 v.20), Paul goes on to give the good news of salvation from our hopelessness through Christ (ch. 3 v.24ff). He points out that the Jewish people should have been expecting a more excellent way, a way of salvation that actually works, rather than a pseudo-salvation that depends on doing the right thing! Paul says the Jews should have known this, because Moses and the prophets wrote about these things (ch. 3 v.21).
In this passage Paul says (ch.3 v.22) that God’s final initiative is to make people right with God through their faith in Jesus Christ. God does this in his mercy because God has accepted Jesus’ perfect sacrifice for human sin and released us from the penalty that sin deserves (ch.3 v.25). But it is God’s righteousness not ours that saves us! And just to make sure his readers don’t think this is just for Jews, Paul states this way of salvation is for non-Jews just as much as for Jews: ‘There is only one God, and he makes people right with himself only by faith’, i.e. their trusting in God’s initiative (Romans 3 v30).
Food for thought: For Paul after his conversion, all the Hebrew temple rituals had symbolic meaning pointing forward to the coming of the Christ. The ancient prophetic writings (Old Testament) prophesied of a new thing that God would do through his Christ: this would be far more effective than the works and writings of a prophet. The various sin offerings prescribed by Moses become metaphors for the salvation that God would bring through the Christ at the right time.
This new ‘salvation’ would not be by a prophet giving more laws and regulations from God (for example such as those given to the Muslims in the holy Koran by the prophet Muhammad or later by Islamic scholars in compiling the Hadith and the Sharia law). The prophet Jeremiah quotes the Lord God saying to the Israelites, ‘This is the new covenant I will make on that day, I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts (Jeremiah 31 v.33, NLT).’ The prophet Isaiah predicted that God’s holy Servant (the Christ who would come) would in his own body bear the consequences that all human sin deserves and that no sinful human can bare: ‘the Lord God laid on him (God’s righteous servant) the sins of us all (Isa.53 v.5,6 NLT)’ and ‘my righteous servant will make it possible for many to be counted as righteous for he will bear all their sins (Isa.53 v.11 NLT).’
So the coming of God’s final solution for human sin is predicted by Moses and the Hebrew Prophets as God’s righteous initiative and it is inclusive of all humanity. There is no limitation in the prophetic writings as to who will benefit so it follows that it is universal and is received by faith: Paul elaborates this point further in chapter 4. It is worth noting here that the universality of God’s initiative through the Christ means that no repetition of God’s initiative for the human race will ever be required. It was not the Messiah’s message that is vital, but rather what God did in and through the Messiah that is of eternal benefit to the human race!
Challenge: Do we trust fully in God’s final initiative to save us from our sins and to enable us to live righteous lives?
Romans 4 v 1- 24 ~ (Righteousness is given by faith in God’s initiative)
1’.. What did Abraham discover about being made right with God? 2If his good deeds had made him acceptable to God, he would have had something to boast about. But that was not God’s way. 3For the Scriptures tell us, “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.” 5..people are counted as righteous, not because of their work (good deeds), but because of their faith in God who forgives sinners.
21Abraham was fully convinced that god is able to do whatever he promises. 22And because of his faith God counted him as righteous. 23And when God counted him as righteous, it wasn’t just for Abraham’s benefit. It was recorded 24for our benefit, too, assuring us that God will also count us as righteous if we believe in him, the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.
In this chapter Paul elaborates further on this vital theme of faith, and he argues that God’s promise in making Abraham the ‘spiritual’ father of the whole earth because of his faith is the touchstone for everyone in every age to becoming ‘righteous’ in God’s sight: God had declared Abraham righteous as a result of him just believing in God’s initiative. ‘So the promise (of God) is received by faith. It is given as a free gift (Rom.4 v.16 NLT).’
Paul argues that all Christians (at least) are counted righteous in God’s sight because of their faith in God’s initiative in Jesus Christ, viz. that ‘He was handed over (to the Romans for crucifixion) to die because of our sins, and he was raised to life to make us right with God (Rom. 4 v25 NLT).’
Paul again drives the point home that it is not for any outward sign or obedience on our part that we are declared righteous (ch.4 v10-12). The example Paul argues from is that of Abraham’s circumcision. Paul says that Abraham was counted ‘righteous’ in God’s sight because of his faith before he was circumcised and that his circumcision was merely an outward sign of that righteousness, i.e. Abraham’s obedience in observing this outward sign (required of him and his descendents) was not pertinent to him being counted righteous, but a demonstration of it.
Because God had acquitted Abraham of all his previous un-righteousness, Abraham showed his love for God by undergoing circumcision. The Christian equivalent would be converts who through faith in Jesus Christ are counted righteous in God’s sight and who then sensing God calling, joyfully submit to Christian baptism to declare their allegiance to Christ. The declaration does not make the converts Christians, but it is an integral part of the process.
Food for Thought: Both Jews and Muslims look to Abraham as their patriarch: this is because he was the physical father of both the Hebrew and Arab peoples. Moses and the Hebrew prophets spoke about him (Jewish scriptures) and the Arab prophet Muhammad spoke about him (Koran). The sinless prophet Jesus speaks about Abraham several times in the New Testament (Ingil), e.g. in the following statements to his Jewish opponents:-
‘If you are the true (spiritual) children of Abraham, you would follow his example (John8 v39).’ Jesus was refuting the false ‘righteousness’ that the Jews claimed based merely on their descent from Abraham. Jesus told them they were the ‘spiritual children of the devil’ because they were trying to kill him, whereas if they were the spiritual descendents of Abraham they would be ‘spiritual children of God’ and so would love Jesus who was showing them the truth of God (John 8 v 47) And,
‘Your father Abraham rejoiced as he looked forward to my coming’ ....‘Before Abraham was, I am! (John 8 v56, 58).’ Jesus here was claiming not only to be the Messiah, but also to be the ‘Word of God’ incarnate. This so infuriated his Jewish hearers that they attempted to kill him there and then.
This teaching about true righteousness (in God’s sight) not being based on culture nor on religious observance, but rather being based on faith, is central to both Jesus and Paul’s teaching. The difference is observable in the practice of the different world faiths. In strict Judaism, Islam, Buddhism & Hinduism apostates are dealt with harshly. Islamic Sharia law prescribes the death sentence for apostates and even though Islamic states rarely carry out executions for apostasy family members have frequently murdered their own apostates in honour killings.
Families of all these world religions frequently totally ostracise those of their children who convert from the faith they are brought up in. The reason for this is clear. It is because their children have dishonoured the family pride in their culture. In other words, cultural pride and honour are of central importance to these religious adherents.
In contrast, the prophet Jesus turned this concept of religious pride and honour upside down. He taught his disciples to love their enemies and to pray for those who persecuted them: no room for religious pride and honour here! True Christians will never ostracise an apostate from Christianity to another religion, but with tears and pain will continue to show their children love.
This difference of emphasis between religions where righteousness is founded on faith in God’s initiative, rather than founded on religious good deeds, is further evidenced in the whole concept of martyrdom.
For example Islamic martyrs are those who die in the cause of jihad war, i.e. the physical struggle for the supremacy of Islam. This is an honour based concept. Whereas those considered Christian martyrs are those who have died because they have refused to deny their faith (usually under torture or threat of being murdered). This is a faithful servant concept.
All these examples demonstrate the truth of what the prophet Paul and Jesus Christ taught, viz., that being right in God’s sight is not a matter of religious culture or practice, but is rather a matter of belief in God’s initiative to rescue people from their sins.
Faith is a belief in God’s initiative on our behalf and this faith is stronger than all the guilt that results from a failure to live up to God’s standards! This sort of faith is based on the actions taken by another on our behalf and in promises that can be relied on, viz., God’s initiative to save all people from their sins and in God’s promises that he will do this for us!
It is relationship with God (by our faith) that comes first and then our obedience to God and not the other way round! The reason Paul gives is that for God to declare us righteous in God’s sight, the initiative can only ever come from God: it can never be as a result of our obedience.
Having said that, Paul later emphasises that if our faith is genuine, it will result in love and obedience, for example, for Christians an open confession of allegiance to Christ and the showing forth the love of God to other people by our words & deeds (through testimony and in observing the sacraments, church attendance, almsgiving, good works, etc).
Challenge: Do we openly demonstrate our commitment to Christ and allow God’s love to work through us?
Romans 5 v 1- 11 ~ (the Joy of faith!)
1Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. 3We can rejoice too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us to develop endurance. 4And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.
Paul outlines the outcome of faith for those who abandon their pride and exercise real faith in God! The first outcome is ‘peace with God (ch.5 v1).’ Next we have ‘confidence in God’ as well as a strong and ‘joyful hope of eternity’ (sharing God’s glory)! This joy, Paul says, means that we will confidently face trials and persecutions and with God’s help, we will persevere in the face of them, and this perseverance in turn will develop strength of Christian character in us (ch.5 v.3-5)! This will further reinforce our confidence in God to save us eternally.
We are confident because the love, with which God’s Holy Spirit fills us as a result of faith, proves how very much God loves us (ch5 v.5).
At this point Paul lapses into a eulogy about God’s wonderful love for all people in sending Christ Jesus to die for our sins. ‘But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners (Rom.ch.5 v8 NLT)!’ Paul continues, ‘So if God did that while we were still sinners, how much more will God do for those who believe God’s initiative and enter in a new relationship with God!’
Challenge: Love is a belief that is stronger than fear: love takes actions because of faith in another. The love of God drives out all fear, and our love for God should be based on our faith in God’s initiative in Christ on our behalf! Is it?
Both Peter (1 Peter v3-9) and James (James 1 v2-4) write in a similar manner as Paul about trials and persecutions producing strength of character. How do we fare under trials and persecutions? Do we allow God’s love and joy to enter our minds and actions? The joy of the Lord is your strength!
Romans 5 v 12- 21 (Adam & Christ metaphor)
15But God’s act of grace is out of all proportion to Adam’s wrongdoing. For if the wrongdoing of that one man brought death to so many, its effect is vastly exceeded by the grace of God and the gift that came to so many by the grace of that one man, Jesus Christ.
17For if by the death of that one man death established its reign, through a single sinner, much more shall those who receive in far greater measure God’s grace, and his gift of righteousness, live and reign through the one man, Jesus Christ.
18It follows then that as the issue of one misdeed was condemnation for all men, so the issue of one just act is acquittal and life for all men. For as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. (NEB)
Paul’s intention in these verses is to magnify Christ and to set what was seemingly achieved in a minor province of a small corner of planet earth, in its rightful context, i.e. the universal context of God’s creation and salvation plan. The metaphor he creates is to compare the supposed consequence of the Adam & Eve’s sin in the Garden of Eden (if we take Genesis literally) with the consequence of Jesus Christ’s obedience to God on the cross of Calvary. This metaphor (viz. ‘Adam is a symbol of Christ,’ ch.5 v14b) is not easily understood to non-Jewish minds, and as with all metaphors it has its limitations and has in this case led to misuse (refer food for thought)!
For this metaphor to work we first need to accept that since Paul is not talking about guilt being transferred to us from Adam (that would be inconsistent with the clear OT teaching that Paul was familiar with), but rather that he can only be talking about our pre-disposition to sin being passed through the human race (how that mechanism might work is not clear, nor is it explained in Scripture).
Christ has not abolished physical death on planet earth and we all still have to pass through death! Paul only claims in his epistles that the sting of death is removed by Christ, so for his comparison between Christ and Adam to work, physical death can’t come into the equation. So when Paul states sin and death came to all humankind as a result of Adam’s one disobedience (a notion that appeals to the YEC paradigm, but see F for T), he either is thinking that Christians won’t die a physical death (which is unlikely) or he is thinking that Adam’s sin brought about a ‘spiritual’ death for all humankind. If you assume this death is a spiritual death (and not a physical one), we have a direct comparison with what Christ achieved for the human race through his one act of obedience, viz. that all humankind are made righteous in God’s sight! Put at its simplest, Paul is claiming ‘Christ made all righteous just as Adam made all unrighteous!’
The two major short-comings of Paul’s metaphor are that he does not explain precisely how Adam makes all unrighteous and in contrast how Christ makes all righteous. Paul states in Rom.5 v18, that ‘Christ’s one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone (NLT).’ Paul is claiming that ‘righteousness’ is given to all by God’s graceful action through Jesus death for the sins of the world: however the metaphor needs qualifying at this point, since all people have to receive this God given righteousness in order to benefit from it; and it only works because God’s Spirit enables this benefit! So as Paul has presented in chapters 3 & 4, each person has to exercise faith in God’s initiative and God’s Spirit works in them to produce the benefit.
Equally Paul’s statement in Rom.5 v.16 that Adam’s sin led to the condemnation of the whole human race also needs heavily qualifying! The Genesis text only implies condemnation of Adam, Eve and the talking snake, so what is this condemnation Paul is inferring? Paul’s illustration implies that Adam’s sin automatically brought God’s condemnation on the whole human race, but Paul clearly does not believe that was literally true since there are good Old Testament scriptures that state everyone is condemned for their own sins and not those of their predecessors. So the transferred guilt of Adam and Eve is ruled out (Paul may be countering this false notion in Ch.5v.13, when he states that without God’s law there is no guilt, i.e. Adam’s condemnation can’t be transferred to us).
So, when Paul speaks about ‘condemnation of the whole human race’ is he talking about humankind falling into a general ‘lack of intimate relationship with God’ that Adam and Eve had supposedly enjoyed before they were cast out of the Garden of Eden? Paul writes earlier (Rom ch.2) that those ignorant of the law are nevertheless guilty of not being perfect, based on their own natural perception of what is right and wrong, and (in Chapter 3) he states that all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory (i.e. including all those who never knew the law that God gave to the Jews)’! So Paul may be saying that we all inherit the same tendency to sin (as Adam and Eve demonstrated) because we are all human, but we are each guilty for our own failing to love God and others. However such an understanding means that Paul is actually thinking about a spiritual death and not a physical death, whereas the Genesis account doesn’t make this distinction.
Paul was aware of the popular error in respect of the assumption for example that sickness is the result of sin: as was exemplified when the disciples asked Jesus, ‘Who sinned that this man was born blind; the man himself or his parents?’ Christ’s answer was, ‘None one has sinned to cause this – the blindness exists to show God’s glory in him being healed of it.’ Without going into Jesus response, the point is clear. Sickness and physical death are not a direct consequence of sin! They may be brought about in a particular case as a result of someone’s sin, but are not some sort of Divine punishment!
This proves that Paul is merely using the Genesis text metaphorically to promote his comparison and so it follows that he is not necessarily claiming that all physical death came about as a result of Adam’s sin. Genesis does not make such a claim (it is our false Platonic reasoning that thinks so - see my article on this NT theology). Paul appears to make the inference in Rom.5v12, but he only does this to make a contrast with Christ. The essence of what Paul says is: Adam sinned and has passed on that tendency to all humanity; God’s judgement on Adam was to hold back on the grace for eternal life (the Tree of life); i.e. until this life is now offered to all through Jesus Christ. It may be that Paul believed in a literal Adam, though it is apparent that some first century Jewish scholars, and certainly the early Christian church fathers understood the book of Genesis to be God-given metaphor (as opposed to literal fact) that teaches us important truths about our relationship (or lack of it) with God.
If we take the Genesis story as allegorical as the Christian Church Fathers did, then the lack of distinction between a spiritual and physical death resulting from Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden becomes immaterial: in a modern context it could only imply a spiritual death or more plainly a general lack of intimate relationship with God (as NLT translates the contrasting benefit from Christ). Nor is it material as to how such spiritual death is passed to through the human race, so the allegorical Genesis storey is merely describing the human condition and predicament, rather than telling us literally how or why we are as we are!
Today we have a deeper scientific understanding than 2000 years ago, but nevertheless a similar comparison as Paul makes can be readily made and accepted regardless of what view you may take over the scientific explanations. There are obvious short-comings with Paul’s literal comparison that Paul was well aware of, however it is a useful idea because it paints for us a grander more universal picture of what God has done for us in Christ Jesus.
Food for thought: Today we might make a similar comparison as Paul makes, but using different language. We could say for example that ‘Christ’s achievement is pertinent to the whole human race, just as the first human genes are also pertinent to the whole human race!’
People are born with a natural pre-disposition to selfishness which is not a pre-disposition that is compatible with the spiritual relationship God intends to bring us all into. This does not make God capricious since he provides the means for us to develop. Just as we are all born to pass through physical death however, God intends for all to come into an eternal spiritual relationship with him through Christ such that we are all then transformed into beings that show his love and will enjoy that relationship after physical death.
Sadly Paul’s Adam/ Christ comparison has brought about some seriously detrimental misunderstandings amongst Christian believers in recent years. For example some Christians (technically Young Earth Creationists, YEC) in total opposition to Darwin’s theory of Evolution have argued strongly that the Genesis story must be read by Christians as literal fact (rather than God given metaphor).
This is only a recent stance in Christendom and is supposed to protect the Christian faith against Secularism, which it utterly fails to do! For the detail of what YEC stands for and why I consider it to be biblically in error please refer to my Creation article.
Christians claim that through Jesus Christ they will inherit eternal life after their physical death, so clearly Christ’s achievement has not removed the necessity that Christians to suffer physical death on planet earth! This being so, Christ did not reverse the norm of physical death, and so if we accept Paul’s Adam/ Christ comparison as meaningful, then it can not apply to physical death (it can only apply to spiritual death and the possibility of some future resurrection).
Paul makes it clear in Romans chapters 6 and 7 that he is in fact talking about sin causing us spiritual death and not physical death. For example he states, ‘At one time I lived without understanding of the law. But when I learned the command not to covert, for instance, the power of sin came to life, and I died (Rom.7 v.9-10).’ Clearly Paul did not mean he was physically dead, but that he had died spiritually!
The understanding that Genesis is to be taken as metaphor also applies to the NT doctrine of the ‘Fall’, i.e., we need to be saved by God from our inherited self-centred-ness by God’s grace (because that is the only way we could have been created to be capable of experiencing and growing in God’s love) and we need to persevere in that grace of God with the sure hope of eternal life after physical death.
Challenge: Are we guilty of turning what Scripture intends as metaphor into hard doctrines that destroy people by condemning them, either for their lack of faith or for their sins, even though God’s love is so great that he wants to bring all into relationship with him through Christ?
Romans 6 v 1- 23 ~ (Identification with Christ means death to sinning!)
1Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? 2Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?
4For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.... 6We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. 7For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin.
11So you should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus. (NLT)
Paul deals with a common caricature of the Gospel, viz. that God’s salvation means we can enjoy sinning and repenting as much as we like because it enhances God’s grace to us. The caricature is rather like a wife claiming that in living adulterously with other men, she increases the love her husband shows her each time she says she is sorry. But applied to God this falsity does not stand up to scrutiny: for a start, God’s grace can’t be perfected! When we sin we spurn God’s grace and if we only feel remorse when we sin, then we haven’t repented. This is because repentance involves grabbing hold of God’s grace in such a way that we are changed and come to love God. And if we haven’t repented then we are not enjoying God’s salvation!
Paul tackles this real behavioural problem (both in the church of his day and down the ages to now) by teaching the true meaning of Christ’s cross and of Christian baptism (Rom.6 v1-23). God’s initiative in providing us salvation by faith is not to give us licence to sin, nor to lead us into slavish observance of religious rules, but rather to lead us into a new kind of life, that of serving God joyfully, freely and with thankful hearts.
The Apostles (particularly Peter & Paul) teach the importance of Christian baptism for believers both as an initiation into the faith and as a sacrament to enable them to continue in the life of faith. Jesus Christ’s terrible sacrificial death on a roman cross to enable all to come into relationship with God calls for response. Christ identified with all human sin in order to save us from sin which alienates us from God. Those who would follow Christ are called to identify with Christ in his death: this means we are to consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to the new relationship of loving and serving God (in serving others) that Christ died to save us into. We can’t serve sin and God! We can only live by faith in Christ’s sacrifice for us if we actively turn from all self-serving attitudes and lifestyle (thus taking up our cross) and actively look to God’s Spirit to lead us through life.
This identification with Christ’s cross and our own cross and with Christ’s eternal life in us by God’s Spirit (Ch.6 v.11) is what is intended in Christian baptism: hence reminding ourselves of the true meaning of our baptism becomes a sacrament, viz. a means of God’s grace working in us day by day. There is no way that a self-serving life which evidences no true repentance is benefiting from God’s means of salvation through Christ (Ch.6 v.2, 15): in fact a so called Christian who lives like that is in effect ‘trampling the cross of Christ under foot’, as the writer of the book of Hebrews says (Heb.10 v29).
Food for thought: Jesus called all who would follow him, to take up their cross day by day: we will do this as we identify with the meaning of Jesus sacrificial death for us. We too are called to live sacrificially; on the one hand by not living in a self-serving manner, and on the other by actively seeking to follow God’s Spirit in showing God’s sacrificial love to all those within our ken. This may lead to suffering if we stay true to Christ, but that is what we are called to!
Challenge: Is this our daily practice? How does it affect our behaviour towards our families; our employer/ employees; our pastimes; our neighbours; our friends; our lifestyles?
Romans 7 v. 1-6 ~ (The way of love versus the way of law)
4So my dear brothers and sisters, this is the point: you died to the power of the law when you died with Christ. And now you are united with the one who was raised from the dead. As a result, we can produce a harvest of good deeds for God. 5When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death. 6But now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power. Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit!
Paul is a Jew brought up under strict Judaism; as such he has experienced his nature rebelling against the boredom of a lifestyle controlled by rules and regulations. To him the Jewish law shows up what is right and wrong, good and bad behaviour in God’s sight, but merely knowing that did not help him want to walk the way of God’s love for others; instead he found it aroused sinful passion within him and seemed to entice him to do wrong. Hence he has struggled against what he knows are sinful desires (i.e. contrary to God and without regard for other people). In this section he argues for escape from the old way to please God, by becoming wedded to the new way to love God and other people.
Paul starts with the analogy of marriage (Rom ch.7 v2,3): In the absence of divorce, a woman or man is legally bound to their marriage partner as long as either one is alive. If their partner dies (or they are divorced) they are free to re-marry. Similarly Paul says those brought up in the way of trying to be righteous in God’s sight by obeying God’s commandments and following religious rules and regulations (e.g. the Jewish nation before Christ came) are bound to that system for as long as that system is valid.
Paul then claims that Christ has brought in a radically new and different way to please God that has cancelled out the old way of obeying religious laws and regulations! All those who accept God’s new way of making people righteous through faith in God’s gift of Christ, have in effect died to the old way (Rom ch.7 v.4), and so are now free of slavishly following rules and regulations and failing in the process: we are now free to be righteous in God’s sight and serve God by living in the Holy Spirit of God (Rom ch.7 v.6).
Romans 7 v 7-25 ~ (Why did God introduce the way of law?)
7Well then am I suggesting the law of God is sinful? Of course not! In fact it was the law that showed me my sin.
9When I learned the command not to covet, for instance, the power of sin came into my life, and I dies. So I discovered that the law’s commands, which were supposed to bring life, brought spiritual death instead.
21I have discovered this principle of life – that when I want to do right, I inevitably do hat is wrong. 22I love God’s law with my heart (and mind). But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me.
24Who can deliver me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? 25Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Paul’s letter to the Romans has so far has implied that ‘righteousness’ based on obeying the Law of Moses can’t save the Jews, and in this passage he seems to enter a diatribe in response to a virtual objector who might ask, ‘why would God have ever introduced a system of righteousness based on rituals and rules, if it was never any good in the first place?’
Paul had answered that question in an earlier letter to a different audience, when he used the illustration of a Roman child’s guardian slave who was responsible for taking the child to school: ‘The Law of Moses’, Paul says, ‘is like the slave who brings the child (the Jews) to learn the more excellent and true way of righteousness which is found in Christ (Galatians ch.3 v24).’
However in his letter to the Romans, Paul takes a different tack. He exaggerates to make his reply when he says he would have never known that coveting is wrong, if the law had not said ‘coveting is wrong,’ and it is true that the Law does shines a light into our conscience so that we become more sensitive to what we might otherwise have been slow to deduce for ourselves.
Paul in effect says, the plus side of the Ten Commandments is they help us to think about what is right and wrong, but then Paul goes on to say that the down side is that knowing them enflamed his natural desire to do the wrong (Rom ch.7 v10)!
Paul says, ‘the trouble is not with the Law...the trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin! (Rom.7 v.14 NLT)’ The point he is making is that although he might naturally sin by coveting, by knowing that particular commandment, he was sinning in more open defiance of his (now) stronger conscience than he would otherwise have been; and so he knows he is the more strongly condemned by his conscience than otherwise! Paul recognised that in defying his conscience he was defying God. Hence he says that the commandment killed him (Rom ch.7 v11), because it clearly brings him under God’s judgement and that is spiritual death.
This predicament in turn drives him to cry out for help (Rom ch.7 v24)! And his answer rings out, ‘Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom ch.7 v25).’ So the guardian slave (the Law) has done its job for Paul. He has now moved on to Christ’s way of salvation!
Food for thought: Paul makes it plain that it is sin within us that kills us spiritually and this is precisely what he was referring to in chapter 5 when he contrasted Adam with Christ. There he was claiming Adam had passed on to us the propensity to sin based on us knowing what is right and wrong, whereas Christ passes on to us the propensity to be righteous by means of God’s Spirit working in us. So being naturally human (viz. being in Adam as it were) we die spiritually when we are exposed to God’s righteousness, but being Spirit filled (viz. being in Christ as it were) we live in the righteousness God inspires within us.
Challenge: Do we balk at what our conscience tells us is right, or do we allow our conscience to lead us to Christ who is our only hope for salvation? Christ in us is our hope of glory, so let us walk by His Spirit!
Am I wedded to a ‘system’ that I trust will save me; or am I wedded to ‘Christ living in me’ to save me from sin and for eternal life?
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