Week 7

This week we find ourselves at a sort of crossroads. We’ve come along the path with Paul and understand that we are sinners. We also understand that our main issue is that God has a case against us. We’ve come to know about Jesus and that through His death, we can be reconciled to God. But here we find an intersection where this Gospel truth meets my responsibility. Last week, we ended the discussion with the question: shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Which is to say, the further down the road of grace we go, the more we can sin. Nothing could be further than the truth. Let’s see how Paul reacts to this question.

Romans 6:1-4 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any loner in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

Paul’s rhetoric might be difficult to understand at this point. His response involves a discussion about baptism, which sounds like a quick lane change. It really isn’t, though. To our evangelical ears, it is difficult to discuss baptism without talking about physical water. Whatever our convictions or understanding may be about water baptism, it must be admitted that this is not Paul’s concern in the current discussion. In 1 Corinthians 10:1-2, Paul even refers to a “dry” baptism: “I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.” In other words, Paul refers to the Israelites crossing the Jordan on dry land to be a baptism. So, Paul’s failure to enter water into the discussion of baptism is not abnormal. Back to our study.

Paul is telling us that if we think we should keep sinning, we don’t understand what has happened.

Question: What does Paul mean when he says we were baptized into Christ’s death?
Answer: We receive the benefits of the death of Christ (reconciliation) without having to suffer the consequences of our sins (hell and damnation).

We can consider this to be a rudimentary understanding of baptism. Let’s go with Paul here. If we have benefited from His death by being buried with Him through baptism, Paul says we also have benefited from His life by being raised from the dead with Him (through baptism). You cannot have the death of Christ without the resurrection of Christ. The argument Paul is addressing (shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?) is an attempt to undergo a half baptism. That is to benefit from Christ’s death without benefiting from His life. Such a scenario is not an option according to Paul. Thus he tells us that to be buried with Christ is also to be raised with Him. The result: walking in newness of life.

Romans 6:5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be I the likeness of His resurrection…

Again, we cannot choose a one-sided baptism. Either we die and rise with Christ, or we just die. There is no such thing as a half baptism.

Romans 6:6-7 …knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin.

Now, if we asked the question posed in 6:1, Paul is bursting our bubbles. We have no choice but to cease from sin. Here, Paul begins to talk about the old man versus the new man.

Question: Is our old man destroyed (read verse 6 again before looking at the answer)?
Answer: No.

The New King James Version says that the old man (or body of sin) is “done away with.” A better translation is “rendered inoperative,” or “rendered powerless.” The idea is that our old man is no longer living our life. That is, we are no longer slaves to sin. The “me” that was controlled by its desire to sin is now powerless. The new “me,” the one raised with Christ, is now driven by a force much stronger. This of course doesn’t mean I cannot sin.

Let’s contrast the old and new man. Before I was raised with Christ, I was subject to my every whim. I had no reason not to sin. If sin was avoided, it was only to avert getting caught. In other words, I was sin’s slave. Now, since being raised in Christ, there is a stronger power within me making me a new creation, or a new man. Now, the ultimate goal is not to see how much I can sin without getting caught, but to simply not sin at all. To be freed from sin means to be freed from the power of sin, not the presence of sin.

Romans 6:8-10 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.

Before he moves on, Paul makes a final point on the life and death of Christ: death has no dominion over Him. Remember, we receive the benefits of His resurrection without undergoing His suffering and death. That is, death no longer has dominion over us because it has no dominion over Him. This is good news indeed.

Romans 6:11-12 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus or Lord. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey in its lusts.

As Paul continues to answer the question posed in verse 1, he reminds us of the doctrine of the two captains: what applies to one applies also to many. Just as Christ died and rose from the dead, we should consider ourselves to have done the same thing. His point is that this should produce fruit. The fruit is not letting sin reign in our mortal bodies. He’s taken many verses to answer that one small question which is a resounding “No!”

Romans 6:13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

Later, in Romans 13:14, Paul tells us to, “make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.” This is a perfect summery for Paul’s instruction on not sinning. It might be important to note here that the point of Paul’s instruction on the doctrine of grace is for the purpose of our discipleship. If our learning of grace does not produce in us the fruits of righteousness, it is indeed pointless. Remember that God wants us to become who we really are in Christ.

The remainder of chapter 6 reiterates the concept of being a slave to sin. You can read this for a deeper understanding. For our purposes, we’ll move on to chapter 7.

Chapter 7

The Analogy of Marriage

Romans 7:1-6 Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man. Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another––to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.

Despite its length, this passage is quite simple. Paul gives us the example of marriage. Evidently, the Jewish law stated that marriage is a done-deal until the husband dies. Should a divorce or separation occur, the wife is still required, by law, to honor the marriage by not marrying another man as long as her husband is alive. This is another principle: the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives.

But the Christian is faced with a peculiar problem: I have undergone death but remain alive. How does this new principle apply to me?

Paul picks up the analogy in verse 4. He tells us that our husband was the law and that we died to the law “through the body of Christ.” The analogy is just as peculiar. Christ fulfills the law and its requirements becoming our greater than our husband (the law). If we are baptized in Him, because of His death, our husband, the law, has died and we are free to marry. But as we said before, we can’t have His death without His resurrection. Therefore, He who is greater than the law becomes our husband, Christ.

Romans 7:7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.”

At this point, Paul anticipates his audience’s logic. If my husband was the law and I was always sinning under it, then the law must be sinful. In other words, if I revered the law prior to my baptism in Christ, and tried to keep it, thinking it was good only for it to die to me and I to it, what was wrong with it in the first place? You can understand why many Jews stumbled at Paul’s teaching. Simple logic would lead anyone to this conclusion. Paul, again, reacts in the negative.

To put the snake on the table, Paul is illuminating the purpose of the law. We would not know what sin was were it not for the law. The law teaches us how far removed from God’s holiness we really are. Because of it, we know what is good. Let’s skip to verse 12.

Romans 7:12 Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.

So, coming full circle, we were married to a husband we could never please. Therefore, it was a grace that we die to that husband and him to us that we might be remarried to a husband of grace.

Romans 7:13 Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good. So that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful.

The problem is not with the law. As Paul just told us, the law is holy, just, and good. The problem, as he states in v. 13 is the sin in us that was producing death. Again, we are conscious of our ailment. It might be supposed that we would be better off in ignorance if sin is not imputed where the law doesn’t exist (5:13). Apparently this is not the case. Apparently, according to Paul, it is better that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. Why might this be?

Let’s liken sin to a disease that will most likely kill us. We are in pain and are suffering but we don’t know why. We could go to the doctor and see if he can diagnose is and treat it or we could take our chances and just suffer through it. Most of us would seek a diagnosis and treatment in hopes of healing. We can probably agree that to opt for ignorance would be foolish, especially if we saw a commercial for a drug that would fix our problem easily.

This is the same situation. Man is faced with a slew of existential problems that result in pain and suffering. The law is the diagnosis and the gospel that Paul is teaching is like the drug commercial. To claim that the law, which is good, has become death to me would be like saying I will die of my disease because I was diagnosed. This is foolish. A diagnosis doesn’t cause us to die. Disease causes us to die. Paul is saying that we need to be informed (or diagnosed) of our disease so that we know to take the treatment (the Gospel) when it is prescribed.

Romans 7:14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.

Here, Paul introduces a tension between the spiritual and the carnal. He elaborates.

Romans 7:15-16 For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good.

Again, this is the Christian’s peculiar struggle. There is a tension between what is good and what is not good. If the law is good, then why do I act in opposition to it? Spiritually, I know what is good. Carnally, I act in opposition to what I know to be good. The explanation for this follows.

Romans 7:17-18 But now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find.

Paul teaches us a simple fact: sin dwells in our flesh. We ought not to regard ourselves slaves to sin because of this. Remember that we have died to sin and that our old man is rendered powereless. Even so, Paul finds a new law at work, which he states a few verses down. Verses 19-20 reiterate the previous verses. Let’s skip to verse 21.

Romans 7:21-23 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members.

By now, we might get frustrated because it feels like Paul flops back and forth. In one passage, it sounds like he says we should sin that grace might abound. Then he says we should not sin at all. Then he says we aren’t under the law. Then he seems to say we need to keep the law. Now he’s telling us that if we sin, it isn’t really we who are sinning. What are we to do with this? If Paul were in the room with us, we might go to him and shake his shoulders demanding a clear explanation of things. I imagine his response would be something like this: welcome to the club!

This passage should bring us much comfort. If we’ve been following Paul for the last couple of chapters, we’d understand that our situation was hopeless because we couldn’t keep the law, which is good and holy. We’d understand that even though we are reconciled to God through the death of Christ, we have also been raised with Him in newness of life. Therefore, we are to cease from sin. However, our reconciliation and righteousness are due to Christ’s fulfillment of the law, not our attempts to keep it. At the end of the day, we are left to rely on Christ completely for both reconciliation and righteousness, yet we have the responsibility to cease from sin. Welcome to the Christian life. We are not alone when we throw our hands up. Paul joins us.

Romans 7:24-25 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God––through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.

Paul laments the tension with us. How wretched are we? If we live in this tension for very long, we, too, will thank God through Jesus Christ for our deliverance from this body of death.

One last note. Verse 25 mentions that with our flesh, we serve the law of sin. I hope that we’ve been listening to Paul this whole time. We do well to heed all of his words. Taking this verse out of context, it is easy to develop a Gnostic lifestyle that says, since I can’t help but serve the law of sin in my flesh, therefore, I’ll live a holy life in mind, and continue in sin in the flesh. If this logic is adopted, the reader hasn’t wisely considered the rest of Paul’s teaching.

It is also easy to be confused by verse 25 because it seems to contradict Paul’s earlier teaching in 6:14: “For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” Let me make two final points: 1) that teaching was introduced prior to 7:14 where he makes a distinction between the spiritual and carnal, and 2) such a service with the flesh to the law of sin is not a forced service. One can imagine an American driver on and English street. He is under English law although he might habitually submit to American rules. So it is with the Christian who serves the law of sin in the flesh. Remember, the admonition form Paul is to “not let sin reign in your mortal bodies (6:12).”

We’ve covered a lot of ground for one week but we are back on track. In week 8, we’ll look at chapter 8, which continues this discussion further. Until then, I encourage you to walk back through chapters 6 and 7. Follow Paul’s train of thought until it is clear in your mind where he is going and why. This is a lot to swallow so take your time.