Romans redux (chs.7b-8)
We now come to the most disputed section in all of Romans among commentators.
Ever since Augustine, in order to counter Pelagianism, switched his view of what ch.7 is depicting (and Luther and many other of the Reformers followed suit), well-meaning Christians have read this section as Paul depicting the ongoing struggle of the Christian with indwelling sin. This led to Luther’s famous “At the same time sinner and justified” concept that has come to be the traditional (though not universal) view among many readers.
However, seeing Rom.7 as Paul describing the normal Christian experience is fraught with difficulties from an exegetical standpoint and, more than that, was NOT how the earliest Christians (who spoke Koine Greek and picked up on Paul’s rhetorical nuances) read and interpreted this passage!
Up until the time of Augustine, the passage was seen as Paul rhetorically depicting the struggle that humans experience as they fail to live up to what they know they should do on a daily basis. Paul echoes the sentiments of various well-known pagan authors who noted this common human dilemma:
“Desire persuades me one way, reason another. I see the better and approve it, but I follow the worse.” Ovid, Metamorphoses 7.19–20
“What I wish, I do not do, and what I do not wish, I do.” Epictetus, Discourses 2.26.4
“For the good I am wanting [to do] I am not doing, but evil I am not wanting, this I am practicing! ” Paul, Romans 7.19
This moral dilemma, felt by both Jews who weren’t living up to the full ethics of Torah, and Gentiles who weren’t living up to the full ethics of conscience, is not the end, however! For the Good News that Paul is declaring to the Christians at the heart of the Empire is that the Messiah who has beaten death itself has inaugurated a new age–an age where God’s people are filled with God’s Spirit and through Him are able to finally walk in the victory and freedom that until now has been unobtainable due to the captivity wrought by the first human’s sin (see the last section for Paul’s discussion of this point).
What Paul is discussing is the slavery to sin we experienced when one WAS in the flesh with the slavery to God one experiences NOW as they are in the Spirit:
————-
7:5 For when we were in the flesh, sinful desire was working through Law in your members to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we have been released from the law, dying to that which was controlling us, so that we might be slaves in newness of Spirit and not oldness of written code.
7 ‘What therefore are we saying? Is the law sin?’
May it never be!
But I would not have known sin except through Law. For I would not have known desire if the law had not said,
“Do not covet.” (Exod 20:17; Deut 5:21)
8 But sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of desires. For apart from Law, sin is dead.
9 Now I once lived apart from Law, but the commandment came, sin came to life 10 and I11 died. So I discovered that the commandment unto life was [actually one] unto death! For sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, enticed and killed me through it!
12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good. 13 Did that which is good, then, become death to me?
May it never be!
But sin, in order that it might be revealed as sin, is producing death in me through what is good, so that sin might become utterly sinful through the commandment. 14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, having been sold into slavery under sin. 15 For what I am doing I am not understanding. For I am not practicing what I want; rather, I am doing what I hate!
16 But if I am doing what I don’t want, I am agreeing with Law, namely that [it is] good. 1718 For I know that good is not dwelling in me, that is, in my flesh. For the wish [to produce it] is present in me, but good is not [able] to be produced. 19 For the good I am wanting [to do] I am not doing, but evil I am not wanting, this I am practicing! 20 But if I am doing what I am not wanting [to do], no longer am I performing it, but sin dwelling in me. But now it is no longer me that is producing it, but the sin that is dwelling in me.
21 So then, I am finding Law–[Namely,] that [though] I am wanting to do good, evil is right there with me! 22 For I am joyfully agreeing with the law of God according to my inner self. 23 But I am seeing a different law in my members waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that is in my members.
24 I am a miserable person! Who will rescue me from this body of death?!
(25 But thanks to God through Jesus The Messiah our Lord!)
Therefore I am a slave to Law of God with my mind, but to the law of sin with my flesh.
8:1 Therefore now there is no condemnation for the ones who are in the Messiah Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in the Messiah Jesus set you free from the law of sin and death.
3 For concerning sin, God Himself [did] what was impossible for those who were weakened by the flesh [to do] under Law by sending the Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. He condemned sin in the flesh 4 so that the righteousness of Law might be fulfilled in us, who are not walking according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
5 For those who are living according to the flesh are thinking about things of the flesh, but those living according to the Spirit [are thinking about] things of the Spirit. 6 For the mindset of the flesh is death, but the mindset of the Spirit is life and peace, 7 because the mindset of the flesh is hostile to God, for it is not submitting to the law of God, nor is it able to! 8 And those who are in living in the flesh are not able to please God.
9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God is dwelling in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of the Messiah, this person is not His.
10 But if the Messiah is in you, your body is dead through sin, but the Spirit is life through of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of the one raising Jesus from the dead is dwelling in you, the one who raised the Messiah from the dead will also make your dead bodies alive through his Spirit who is dwelling in you.
12 So then, brothers (and sisters), we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh 13 (for if you live according to the flesh, you are about to die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live). 14 For as many as are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. 15 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery [leading] again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship, by whom we are calling out, “Abba, Father!” 16 The Spirit himself testifies alongside our spirit that we are children of God. 17 And if children, then also heirs—heirs of God on the one hand but also fellow heirs with the Messiah—if indeed we are suffering with him so we may also be glorified along with him!
18 For I am reckoning that our present sufferings are not worthy [of comparison] to the glory that is about to be revealed to us. 19 For it is with eager expectation of the revelation of the sons of God that creation is eagerly awaiting. 20 For the creation became subjected to futility (not willingly but through the one subjecting it) in hope 21 that creation itself will also be freed from the slavery of corruption into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
22 For we know that all creation is groaning and suffering agony together thus far. 23 Not only this, but we ourselves, having the firstfruits of the Spirit, are also ourselves groaning inwardly, eagerly awaiting adoption, [that is] the redemption of our bodies.
24 For in hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for something he sees? 25 But if we are hoping for what we don’t see, we are eagerly awaiting it through perseverance.
26 In the same way, the Spirit also is coming to our aid in our weakness, for we don’t know what might be necessary for us to pray for, but the Spirit himself is interceding [on our behalf with] inexpressible inward groanings. 27 And the One searching the heart knows the mindset of the Spirit, because according to God He is pleading on behalf of the saints.
28 And we know that He is working everything together for good to the ones loving God, to the ones being called according to his plan, 29 because those whom He knew in advance He also predestined [to be] conformed to the image of his Son, in order for Him to be the firstborn among many brothers (and sisters). 30 And those He predestined, these He also called; and those He called, these He also justified; and those he justified, these He also glorified.
31 ‘What, therefore, are we saying to these?’
If God is on our behalf, who is against us?!
32 Indeed, the One who did not spare His own Son, but handed Him over on behalf of us all—how will He not also, along with Him, freely give us everything?
33 Who will bring accusations against God’s chosen ones??
God is the one who justifies!
34 Who is the one condemning??
Messiah Jesus is the one who died (and more than that, he was raised!), who is also at the right hand of God, who also is pleading on our behalf!
35 Who will separate us from the love of the Messiah? [Will] Suffering…or distress…or persecution…or famine…or nakedness…or danger…or sword?? 36 As it has been written,
“On account of you we are being put to death all day long;
We have been reckoned as sheep for slaughter.” (Psa 44:22)
37 But in all these things we are completely conquering through the One loving us!!
38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor rulers,
nor things present, nor things about to be,
nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth,
nor anything else in creation
will be able to separate us from the love of God in the Messiah Jesus our Lord!
——————-
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by James-Michael Smith's Disciple Dojo – JMSmith.org » Romans redux … | michaelspieles.com on Aug 27, 2010 at 8:50 pm
“Messiah who has beaten death itself has inaugurated a new age–an age where God’s people are filled with God’s Spirit and through Him are able to finally walk in the victory and freedom…”
Jesus not only beat death, and inaugurated a new age, He defeated the CAUSE of death, which is the sin-nature passed on from Adam, and active in all people (except for Jesus). I fully subscribe to the Reformer’s beliefs on this passage, that even the Christian life is a struggle in sanctification or maturity, which, as Roman’s 8 subsequently reveals is also, like our justification was when we first believed, complete in Christ Jesus.
The belief that Romans 7 is a pre-conversion description logically leads to the idea of Christian perfectionism and the really destructive legacy of pietistic legalism–deluding people in thinking they DON’T sin daily (or hourly), and that therefore God somehow is in our debt for our being good….(a short definition of legalism).
I know also that in spite of my trust and love for Jesus, I personally struggle daily with sin–and often fail–(a description of Paul’s struggle in Romans 7) and must walk wholly in His mercy all the time. This self-aware struggle is mercy too, as it saves me from the delusion of my own self righteousness–constantly pushing me to the mercies of God in our Lord Jesus. Simul justus et peccatur!
One of the greatest mercies of all will be found in the next life, when all struggle with sin will be past–and no possibility of falling again into sin will be reality. This is also a great comfort to me for Christians I love who have died…they have NO struggles or frustrations anymore!
To put it in theological terms the 3rd use of God’s law (Christian ethics) constantly brings me back to the 2nd use of God’s law (my desperate need of mercy in Christ) and hence always leads me away from myself, back into the arms of Jesus.
by Ralph Davis on Aug 28, 2010 at 3:37 pm
Ralph, thanks for commenting and sharing your view. Allow me to challenge a few points in what I hope to be a respectful manner (as this is an in-house debate and we are unified in Christ even if we differ in secondary matters):
1. Seeing Rom.7 as the experience of one apart from Christ does not in any way lead to Perfectionism. The earliest interpreters who read it this way, such as Chrysostom, never taught Perfectionism. Perfectionism comes from the erroneous belief that the Sin nature/flesh/sarx is destroyed in the life of the believer. This is not what Paul is teaching here (or anywhere else in the NT). What is being taught is that upon salvation the believer is FREED from Sin’s mastery over his/her life. The person freed from Sin’s grip still wars against sin until his/her dying breath (this is what Perfectionists seem to miss); HOWEVER, the sin they are battling is no longer part of them or their true identity. It is rather their former captor who is trying to reclaim its freed slave.
2. The person in Rom.7 is “a slave to sin” plain and simple; no amount of exegetical maneuvering can erase this fact. The person in Rom.6 and Rom.8, however, is “freed from sin”; again, this is clearly and explicitly spoken in both chapters. Therefore, one must redefine every key term Paul is using throughout this section in order to argue that the person in Rom.7 is the same as the one in 6 & 8.
3. While it is comforting to read Rom.7 as describing the Christian life whenever we are living in sin, a true Sola Scriptura approach would demand that we let the meaning of the text determine our everyday experience rather than vice versa. Luther got it wrong by reading this as validating his own struggle with sin as an Augustinian monk and, while it was a relief to him and helped free him from legalism, it was eisegesis nonetheless. One does not need to believe we are still slaves to sin (what Rom.7 is describing) in order to avoid the error of legalism.
4. From the little time that I have spent with you in person, I must say that I don’t believe you sin every hour. I think you, and most of my Reformed friends who hold to the Augustinian/Lutheran view of Rom.7 as describing the present Christian life, are confusing temptation with sin and assuming that since you experience the former on an hourly basis, you must be guilty of the latter. I challenge this. If you really do sin every hour, then I would urge you to stop! Seriously, stop. If you cannot stop sinning for even an hour of the day, then how can you in any way claim to have any degree of freedom in Christ, particularly the freedom so clearly described in Rom.6 and Rom.8 (as well as Galatians, John, 1John, 1Peter…etc…)? I don’t say this in a holier-than-thou way; I say it as simply as the NT puts it, “We died to sin! How can we continue in it any longer??”
I think the traditional Reformed/Lutheran view of Rom.7 as the present Christian life and as Christians being people who sin every day of their lives no matter what sounds very humble and pious, but in actuality is a denial of one of the most foundational aspects of Jesus’ death and resurrection–that of securing actual, real, tangible freedom for His followers (through their constant abiding in Him via the Holy Spirit) from the power of sin.
The person in Rom.7 cannot in any way be free from sin (he says so himself!)…if that is Paul describing the normal Christian life, then he is spiritually schizophrenic at best.
Fortunately though, by listening to the earliest Christians (again, those who SPOKE KOINE as their native language–unlike Augustine–and who were therefore able to pick up on his rhetorical nuances) and by carefully following Paul’s overall argument that runs throughout chs.5-8, we can see that the Augustinian/Lutheran method of interpreting this section, which is widely (though NOT universally held by Reformed interpreters; Hoekema is a notable example of a Reformed NT scholar who has come to see that Rom.7 is not a description of the Christian life!) is an example of unfortunate eisegesis that obscures one of the greatest truths of the Gospel: that those who are in Christ are no longer bound as slaves to sin and no longer need to serve sin in any way.
It’s a lifelong battle that only our death or Jesus’ return will end, but it is a battle with an external enemy, not an inward sinful part of our nature that we are unable to deny for an hour, much less for a day.
For a fuller treatment of this issue and how it relates to sanctification in general, as well as a survey of the various views, both Reformed and Arminian, and what I believe is a more Biblically sound approach, see: https://jmsmith.org/downloads/A-Doctrine-of-Biblical-Perfection.pdf
Again, I hope this is received in the manner in which I am writing it; that is, respectfully and in a friendly tone! I appreciate all such interaction and welcome when we are able to challenge one another within the Church in a way that does not undermine the unity we share as part of the same Body. 🙂
Blessings, brother!
JM
by jm on Aug 28, 2010 at 11:48 pm
Here are a few links that give more good info on why Rom.7 is not Paul’s normal Christian life depiction:
http://bostonbiblegeeks.wordpress.com/2010/08/28/keener-on-romans-77-25
http://zetountes.blogspot.com/2010/08/in-my-review-of-keeners-romans.html
by jm on Aug 30, 2010 at 1:51 am
Romans 7 is Paul’s polemic against the efficacy of Torah. He is refuting Jewish claims (Psalm 2, Psalm 119, Proverbs, etc) that the Torah’s instruction will convert the soul and produce the good fruit of righteousness. Paul says that instead, Mr. Sin, the evil alien living in their soft tissue, will find in the Torah an opportunity to magnify sin.
It helps when reading the passage to know that sin is personfied, so you would say, for example..
“But [Mr.] sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law [Mr.] sin was dead.”
You get the idea.
Paul believed that the body (the clay part of man, or the “flesh”) was at war with the breath part of man (commonly referred to as “the spirit” – though it is really just the breath). “The flesh (clay part) lusteth against the spirit (the breath part) and these two are contrary to one another (at odds).”
by WoundedEgo on Sep 1, 2010 at 1:18 am
WoundedEgo,
I do agree that Sin is personified in this section (as it is in many places throughout Scripture), but I disagree with the body/spirit duality that you’re suggesting Paul had in mind (nor do I think this section is limited in scope to Torah–as the parallels from other Greco-Roman authors demonstrates). His use of “sarx” is more than just referring to simple embodied flesh; which is why it’s often translated as “sin nature” (I think this is a bit of an interpretive leap, but one that’s in the right direction).
Thanks for the comments though!
by jm on Sep 1, 2010 at 3:02 am
>>>…but I disagree with the body/spirit duality that you’re suggesting Paul had in mind
What, then, is “this body of death”?
http://bible.cc/romans/7-24.htm
>>>(nor do I think this section is limited in scope to Torah–as the parallels from other Greco-Roman authors demonstrates).
Paul is clearly specifically discussing the way that the Torah empower “Mr.” Sin:
http://bible.cc/romans/7-9.htm
And since only Jews are beholden to the law of Moses, clearly he is discussing the way that Torah acts within the Jews.
>>>His use of “sarx” is more than just referring to simple embodied flesh; which is why it’s often translated as “sin nature”
Would you read it say that “Mr. Sin” resides within his “sin nature”? Then why does he refer to his “members” and his “body” as well as “the flesh?”
>>>(I think this is a bit of an interpretive leap, but one that’s in the right direction).
It is a leap, and misguided one. Some people are just too clever when they read the scriptures.
by WoundedEgo on Sep 1, 2010 at 4:59 pm
WoundedEgo,
The “body of death” is the entire way of life that the person who is mere sarx apart from being indwelled by the Spirit finds himself/herself trapped in as a slave to Sin. It’s not the material body per se that is evil (contrary to gnostic/platonic thought), rather, it is the lack of the Spirit dwelling within the person and which inevitably means slavery to Sin.
by jm on Sep 2, 2010 at 6:10 pm
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