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Monday, 17 June 2013

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

There are many viewpoints as to who Paul is speaking about in this verse when he says “I.” As we’ve seen, he used the term previously, not specifically speaking of himself, but as a way of showing the struggle which exists in all people.

Some scholars look at what he is saying in this verse as any individual’s struggle against sin under their own power – be it Jew under the law or gentile who simply understands man’s depravity and his wars with the unwritten code. Others see it as the difficult struggle of those who have called on Jesus and yet continue to struggle with sin in their lives. This would be those ranging from “carnal” Christians – meaning those who are saved and yet are immature in their faith and practice, all the way to those who are fully mature but not yet completely sanctified; they still struggle with the “old Adam” in their life.

The debate about who Paul is referring to is actually unnecessary. It was demonstrated in verse 9 that Paul was using the term “I” in regards to his humanity. He used “coveting” as a means of demonstrating the conflict which arises, but coveting doesn’t cover the entire law; it was used to represent any commandment in the law and thus any law.

He hasn’t changed tracks in his thoughts and the “I” in this verse follows along the same line. The law God gave to Adam and Eve was spiritual, but they were in innocence. When they ate of the fruit, they attained the knowledge of good and evil, sin revived in them, and they died. Since that time, the knowledge has caused a war in the members of humanity. When a good law is given – be it conscience or be it the Law of Moses – the war rages.

All that God has done is good and the “law is spiritual.” However, we as humans are “carnal, sold under sin.” This is an inherited state. We aren’t born to fall; we are born fallen. When we see a good law, our carnal selves war with it because of our sin nature.

Life application: As you progress in your Christian life, maturing from infancy to maturity, you will continue to struggle with sin. Although it’s natural, it is also something you can overcome, but not in yourself. The struggle we’re told about is a struggle between our earthly selves and that which is spiritual. By being filled with the Spirit, we allow the spiritual side to reign. We will continue to learn and develop this in the chapters ahead.

Lord, when I am tempted to do something I shouldn’t do and I follow through with it, my conscience gets seared a little bit. Each time… a little bit more. I can see how the things that once appalled me are now a part of my daily life. Renew my mind Lord. Help me to see my failings for what they are and then help me to remove them from my life. I know that through the power of Your Spirit this can happen! Amen.

Tuesday, 11 June 2013

But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead. Romans 7:8

The words in today’s verse hit at the heart of the depravity of man and at the immense glory of what must surely be realized in the work of Christ. In the previous verse we were shown that we would not have known sin except through the law. Using coveting as an example, it was demonstrated that we wouldn’t even know what it meant to covet unless we were told to not do it.

“But sin” – the excitation of this act; the wicked principle in the heart – takes its “opportunity by the commandment.” Once the commandment was given, the heart was stirred into an act of rebellion by presuming it could do the very thing it was instructed to not do. In the Garden of Eden there was no sin; all was holy. There existed a state which never was before and which could never be again. There was free will, but there was no commandment which could excite sin into being.

However, the commandment was given, ” Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Genesis 2:16, 17

Once the words were spoken, it produced in man an evil desire, to do the very thing he was instructed to not do. Edgar Allen Poe would call it “the imp of the perverse.” The very thing that shouldn’t be done suddenly springs to life and wants to do that thing. When a new law is introduced in a land, the first thing that happens is for people to think about breaking that law or devising ways to get around it. But before the law was introduced, there was no impetus for doing the very thing which they are now intent on doing. In other words, “apart from the law sin was dead.”

To now look at this from the other side of the cross, we can see the immense glory of our state in Christ. A corporate body of law was given to Israel, a law based on God’s standards of righteousness and holiness. With the introduction of this law, sin took the opportunity and produced all manner of evil desire. The only way to be relieved from this was by grace through faith that God’s provisions for the sins committed would remove the sin. These included sacrifices and a Day of Atonement.

Even the sacrifices became sinful though when they were made without the faith which necessitated them in the first place. However, in a beautiful demonstration of God’s righteousness, mercy, love, justice, truth, holiness, and grace, a promise was made throughout the time of this law that God would provide a final Sacrifice which would, once and for all, handle the sin-debt which was excited into being through the law. Jesus came and lived His life under this body of law without sinning and then He gave His life as an offering and an exchange for those of us who cannot do so.

As He fulfilled the law, when He died, the law died with Him for those who trust in Him (through faith in His work). Because we are dead to the law, we are dead to sin. This is what Paul was speaking about in Romans 6:14, 15. The law has no power over us. Therefore, let us not sin because we are not under law, but under grace.

Life application: There is a struggle going on in each of us. The laws which exist around us are given and when they are introduced, we now have a standard by which we will be judged and a premise by which we are to conduct ourselves. But the law, when given, can also incite us to wrongdoing by the giving of the law. Does this make the law the cause of sin? No, it only shows us that we are prone to sin. In our weak and fallen state, we need a release from life’s temptations and it is found in Jesus. Let each of us look to Him for strength against this war which wages in our lives.

I am dependent on You, O God, completely and entirely, for strength against the war which wages in my life. Those things I know I shouldn’t do, these are the things which tempt me. Grant me Your wisdom to decide on the right course to take, and grant me Your strength to endure that course. In myself I am weak, but through You I am strong. Thank You Lord. Amen.

Monday, 10 June 2013

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.” Romans 7:7

Again, as he has done several times already, Paul asks a rhetorical question to help us think an issue through. This is possibly asked in response to someone who was trying to defend the law as still being in force, even after Christ’s work was accomplished. His question begins with, “What shall we say then?” It is certainly asked as a result of his statement in verse 5 – “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.”

“Ok Paul, if what you said is true and the law arouses these sinful pleasures in us, then ‘is the law sin?’ Is the law insufficient to justify us or allow us to grow in sanctification? Is its design to make those under it worse people than before it was introduced?”

And his answer is the same as it has been five times already to such similar questions, “Certainly not!” If the law is sin, then God, who authored the law, authored sin! The issue is one of misunderstanding where the evil lies. It is in man, not in the law. To show that this is true, he states, “On the contrary…” This demonstrates that the thought which is presented is actually the opposite of what is correct. “The law isn’t sin, the opposite is true. And in support of this, I present that ‘I would not have known sin except through the law.'”

Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden. There were, let’s say, 100 types of trees around them. If God has said nothing about the trees, then what they did with the trees wouldn’t matter. If He said, “You can climb any tree you want, but you cannot cut any down,” then that would have been the law. They would sin only if they cut a tree down. But this wasn’t a law that was given and so no sin could result if they did. The law was that they couldn’t eat of a particular tree’s fruit. If he hadn’t given that law, then there would be no sin for eating the fruit. Introducing a just law isn’t sinful. It simply demonstrates what sin is (or will be if the law is broken).

However an unjust law could be the cause of sin. God created Adam and Eve as beings needing food and water. If He told them they were not allowed to eat or drink, then the law would be unjust. How could sin be imputed in this instance? The law would, in fact, cause sin. But this isn’t the case. The law is good, reasonable, and correct. The same is true with the Law of Moses as Paul will now demonstrate when he says, “I would not have known sin except through the law.” This is exactly what was demonstrated concerning Adam and Eve. The law given to them wasn’t sin, but the sin was in them, waiting to be aroused. Paul continues, “For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.”

Although the principle applies to any part of the law, whether of the Ten Commandments, or some other precept found throughout it, Paul chooses the last of the big ten. And, he only cites the basic premise of the commandment, not the entire commandment as was given in Exodus 20. The rest of it mentions things that can be coveted, such as “your neighbor’s house.” His citing of the opening portion is intended to include all coveting, something that wouldn’t be a sin unless we were told that to covet was sinful. Only when coveting is identified as coveting, and that it is wrong, can we know that coveting is sin.

Life application: When God gives a law, it is always just, righteous, and attainable. Nothing that we are asked to do by Him is sinful. Instead, sin is brought about by our knowledge of and failure to obey His law. Therefore, it is imperative to know what God expects and then to adhere to that.

How grateful I am to You, O God, for the work of Jesus who fulfilled the law on my behalf. I know that if I strayed in one part of Your law, that the whole law was broken. The weight of it all was so heavy, but then came Jesus. He did what I could never do and now I am free through Him. Truly His yoke is easy and His burden is light upon me. Thank You for Jesus.  Amen.

Sunday, 9 June 2013

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. Romans 7:6

“But now”… We are introduced to a contrast from the preceding verse which said – “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.”

The law, which aroused in us sinful passions, is behind us. We “have been delivered from” it. The law should no longer arouse these things because we are dead to it. As it says, “having died.” There is a dispute as to the meaning of “having died.” Is it the law that died to us, or we who died to the law? Some manuscripts imply one and some the other. The answer is that the law is in full effect for those who have not come to Christ. Therefore, those who have received Christ have died to it. We have died with Christ and are raised with Him – free from the law.

The law held us captive and we were slaves to it, but when we died with Christ – as Paul has so precisely detailed in the previous chapters – we were released from its bonds “so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.” This theme will be reintroduced by Paul on several occasions in his epistles. The “oldness of the letter” is speaking of that which was written down; the law. It was received on tablets of stone and it bound the people of Israel to sin by showing them their utterly sinful nature. Now that we have died to the law through Jesus (because Jesus fulfilled the law, including His death which was in fulfillment of it) we should serve in newness of the Spirit.

In 2 Corinthians 3:1-18, a detail of the difference between the “letter” and the “Spirit” is given. Paul says there that “the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” As a real, tangible example of this, it was noted in Exodus at the giving of the law that 3000 who disobeyed received the wages of their sin and died (Exodus 32:28). However, at the giving of the Spirit on Pentecost, 3000 received the gift and were saved (Acts 2:41). This wasn’t an arbitrary pattern, but one set in the pages of the Bible specifically to show the difference – death from the law, or death to the law and life through the Spirit.

We who have called on Jesus now have the Spirit and we may walk in that new state. There is an eternal hope which cannot be taken away and the evidence is our placement in Christ; free from the bondage of the law, and thus free to serve our new Master.

Life application: We have died to the law, so heed the words of Paul from Colossians 2:20-22 –

“Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations— ‘Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,” which all concern things which perish with the using—according to the commandments and doctrines of men?'”

What the law bound you to is gone. Live for Christ, and do not reintroduce the law to which you have died.

Oh most glorious Heavenly Father! You have given us freedom through Christ. He fulfilled the law which was contrary to us and then He gave His life as our Substitute. Now, we are set free from its bonds. We have died to it through His death and so we can now walk in newness of the Spirit. Because this is so, help our walk to be one which is pleasing to You. Lead us and guide us all our days. Amen.