Wednesday 13 March 2024

The Law: a Harbinger of Death or Holy, Righteous and Good? (Romans 7:7-14)

“What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’ But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me” (Romans 7:7-11, ESV). 


In these verses Paul resumes the instructional method of question-answer in the first person, “What then shall we say?” (cf. 3:5-9, 27-31; 4:1, 9; 6:1-4, 15), switching from the plural (“we”) to the singular (“I”), with which the chapter began (vv. 1-4). Having forsaken the way of life “in the flesh” by dying to the law in order to serve “in newness of spirit” (vv. 4-6), the rest of the chapter addresses the struggle between “the spirit” wanting to do good and “the flesh” yearning to sin in both the past (vv. 7-13) and the present (vv. 14-25).


The Problem is Sin, Not the Law


Lest anyone gets the misguided impression that Paul is anti-law, he offers clarification here. The law, in revealing and enhancing “knowledge of sin” (3:19-20), was a gracious gift to Israel for guidance and protection (2:18; 7:12, 14; 9:4). Seeing that sin and death were realities long before the law made its appearance in history (5:12-14), the human predicament cannot legitimately be blamed on the law. “But sin seizes the opportunity provided by the law to what humankind’s curiosity as to what the commandment may be forbidding. In this way desire for the forbidden is stirred up and becomes an insatiable force, whose final outworking is death.”1


Paul notes in particular the Decalogue’s tenth commandment, “You shall not covet” (Ex. 20:17), probably because the basis of all sin has long been recognized as illicit desire (cf. Jas. 1:15). It is “the commandment,” which was meant to regulate righteous living, that became a channel of “death” (cf. v. 5). But the responsibility lies, not with the commandment itself or the One who gave it, but with sin and the human appetite to pursue it. 


When Paul says, “I was once alive apart from the law,” contextually (vv. 1, 7) and thematically (2:12, 18, 20; 3:20) this would be applicable to knowledge of the law. There was a time in his life when he was without this knowledge, i.e., in his infancy and early childhood (cf. 1 Cor. 13:11; 14:20).2 One is not conscience of any sinful inclination until one’s obedience is tested. As his learning capacity developed and he was “instructed from the law” (2:18), “sin came alive” and he “died” spiritually.


The Law is Good


“So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin” (Rom. 7:12-14). 


Even though the Mosaic law was not designed as a means of justifying sinners (3:20), during the centuries it was in force provisions were made for atonement and forgiveness,3 salvation was attainable,4 and one could even be counted “blameless.”5  Faith, love, and mercy were essential components,6 and it was beneficial to all who submitted to it.7 Therefore, Paul can readily describe the law as “holy and righteous and good” (cf. 1 Tim. 1:8), as well as “spiritual.” After all, it has emanated from God and is therefore a reflection of his holy, righteous, good character, “the embodiment of knowledge and truth” (2:20). 


Conclusion


The problem is “sin” and the weakness of human “flesh,” as the law openly exposes the true nature of sin. Any apparent negativity toward the law is in response to its misappropriation and abuse (vv. 10-11; 2:17-27; 8:3, 7; 9:31-32).8


--Kevin L. Moore


Endnotes:

     1 J. D. G. Dunn, Theology of Paul the Apostle 99.

     2 See Deut. 1:39; Isa. 7:16; 8:4; 28:9; Neh. 8:2-3; Ezek. 28:15.

     3 Lev. 4:20, 26, 31, 35; 5:13, 16, 18.

     4 1 Sam. 2:1; 2 Sam. 22:51; 1 Chron. 16:23; Psa. 3:8; 13:5.

     5 Luke 1:6; Phil. 3:6; cf. Acts 22:3; 26:4-5; Gal. 1:14. “Israel’s problem in the Old Testament was not with their inability to keep the law; it was with their choosing not to do so” (G. D. Fee and D. Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth [4th ed.]: 175, emp. in the text).

     6 Deut. 6:4-9; 10:12-21; Mic. 6:8; Hab. 2:4; Matt. 23:23.

     7 Deut. 6:24-25; 10:13; 12:28; cf. Psa. 78:1-7.

     8 Cf. Matt. 5:20-48; 23:1-39; Gal. 2:16, 21; 3:2-5, 10-13; 5:4.


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Wednesday 6 March 2024

From Law to Christ (Romans 7:1-6)

Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage.Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress” (Romans 7:1-3, ESV). 

Following the rhetorical “do you not know,” the seventh chapter of Romans opens with an address to those “knowing law,” which may be an allusion to the basic legal principle rather than to a specific law,1 although the Law of Moses appears to be the focus in vv. 4 ff. Paul has been tracing the Christian’s spiritual journey from a sinful past characterized by “death” (cut off from God) to a new life in Christ, illustrating the point with images of slavery and now marriage. Each situation has intrinsic obligations, and transitioning into a different status does not negate binding expectations but implements new ones. 


The Marriage Analogy


Marriage is a lifelong commitment.2 The death of a spouse severs the marriage bond and frees the widowed spouse to enter another union with an eligible marriage partner. Otherwise, if a woman is joined to another man while her husband is still living, “she will be called an adulteress.” Adultery involves voluntary sexual intercourse between a married person and someone other than his or her lawful spouse.3 But if the husband is dead, adultery is not committed in a second marriage.4 The illustration is intended to convey the same truth as the previous example of a freed slave committed to another master, from an old life to a new life.


Released from One and Joined to Another 


“Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code” (Rom. 7:4-6).


The “death” analogy continues from 5:12–7:3, as Paul speaks of dying to “the law” (vv. 4-6) and contrasts “life in the flesh” under the law (v. 5) with serving “in newness of spirit” (v. 6, ASV, KJV). The law itself is holy and intended for good, but fallible human distortion has made it an agent of sin (vv. 7-12). Paul and his Christian brethren had “died to the law” (vv. 4, 6), severing reliant ties so completely in Christ that there could be no return. The aorist ἐθανατώθητε (“you … died”) “is fixed by reference” to 6:3-6. “The aorist refers to the definite time at which in their baptism the old life (and with it all its legal obligations) came to an end.”5 This “death” is “through the body of Christ,” a probable allusion to his crucified and resurrected body, although perhaps inclusive of his emblematic body, the church.6


Flesh Vs. Spirit


In the first four verses of this chapter Paul contrasts himself (first person singular) with his reading audience (second person plural), but in vv. 4b-6 both are joined together with seven inclusive first person plurals. The pre-Christian experience is described as “living in the flesh.” The antithesis between “flesh” [σάρξ] and “spirit” [πνεῦμα] (7:5–8:18) has particular application to two mutually exclusive ways of living (cf. 8:4-5). Although there is a sense in which “flesh” and “spirit” can each be corrupted (2 Cor. 7:1; Eph. 2:3), the term “flesh” is typically used to categorize a selfish or worldly disposition estranged from God, while “spirit” generally conveys a spiritual disposition focused on the divine will. 


The problem of “sinful passions, aroused by the law” does not implicate God’s law, rather the weakness of the flesh informed and instructed by the law yet choosing to defy God anyway. People would not even know what “the passions of sins” were without the law (cf. v. 7). Paul continues from the previous chapter the terminology of “members” (cf. 6:12) and bearing “fruit for death” (cf. 6:21-22).


In contrast to “serving (as slaves)” [δουλεύειν] “the old way of the written code,” lit. the “oldness of [the] letter” [παλαιότητι γράμματος] (cf. 2 Cor. 3:6), we serve as slaves “in newness of spirit” [ἐν καινότητι πνεύματος] (cf. 8:4), which is not necessarily “the new way of the Spirit” (ESV). The πνεῦμα (“spirit”) of v. 6 is synonymous with τὸν ἔσω ἄνθρωπον (“inner being”) of v. 22 and νοῦς (“mind” or “will”) of vv. 22-25, whereby one is able to θέλω (“determine,” “wish,” “desire”), a verb used seven times in vv. 15, 16, 18, 19, 20 and 21. The contrast here is between the external “letter” [γράμμα] or written law-code and the internal “spirit” [πνεῦμα], fulfilling the long-anticipated new-covenant promise (cf. Jer. 31:31-34). 


Conclusion


The regulative principle that was supplied by the external law-code of the Jews has been superseded by something much better. Jesus Christ and his new covenant system are now available for all people, irrespective of race, nationality, social status, or gender (cf. Gal. 3:26-27; Heb. 8:6-13). 


--Kevin L. Moore


Endnotes:

     1 Whether Paul specifically has in mind Roman law (J. B. Lightfoot, Notes 300) or Jewish law (C. K. Barrett, Romans 135; J. D. G. Dunn, Romans 1:359) “is a question impossible to answer” (C. H. Dodd, Romans 100).   

     2 Marriage is the lawful union of a husband and wife (1 Cor. 7:2), ordained by God (Matt. 19:4-6) and consummated according to the legal system to which the couple is amenable, as long as it does not conflict with the divine will (Rom. 13:1-5; cf. Acts 5:29). But not all “marriages” are sanctioned by God, even if recognized by civil law (e.g., Mark 6:17-18; 10:11-12).

     3 The noun μοιχεία (John 8:3), the verb μοιχάω (Matt. 5:32; 19:9; Mark 10:11-12), and the verb μοιχεύω (Matt. 5:27; 19:18; Rom. 2:22) are all related. The secondary sense, used figuratively of spiritual adultery, is applied to the relationship between God and his erring people (cf. Jer. 3:6-9; Ezek. 16:32; Hos. 3:1; 4:12; Jas. 4:4), but when used with reference to a man and a woman, it refers to illegitimate sexual intercourse (cf. Lev. 20:10; 18:20; Deut. 22:22; Prov. 6:32; Matt. 5:28; John 8:3; Heb. 13:4).

     4 See K. L. Moore, “The Biblical Doctrine of Divorce and Remarriage: Part 2,” Moore Perspective (7 May 2015), <Link>, and Part 3 (14 May 2015), <Link>.

     5 J. Denney, “Romans” 637-38.

     6 Since this statement immediately follows the marriage analogy, it is not without significance that Paul uses a similar comparison in Eph. 5:22-33. Note also Matt. 9:15; John 3:29; Rev. 21:2-9; 22:17. 


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Wednesday 28 February 2024

Free from Sin, Enslaved to Righteousness (Romans 6:15-23)

“What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness” (Rom. 6:15-18, ESV).


Free to Obey


The chapter began with the rhetorical question, “Are we to continue [present tense] in sin,” followed by an emphasis on freedom. Here the question is repeated but slightly altered, “Are we to sin [aorist tense],” followed by an emphasis on servitude. The subtle difference may simply be between the habitual lifestyle of sin and any violation of the “law.” 


If the intention of the law was to direct people to live righteously in line with God’s will (cf. 2:17-18; 3:1-2; 7:7, 12, 14), and if “we are not under law,” are we then left with no standard of morality so that sin is reinvigorated? Once again Paul responds, “By no means!” Freedom from sin is not freedom to sin, which would otherwise be a total misconception of freedom “under grace” apart from the law. 


Although Christians are free from the old Mosaic system as a means of justification, it is entirely untrue that there are no obligations to the divine will under grace. Obedience continues to be inextricably linked to faith as a fundamental requisite within the new-covenant system of grace. In fact, the sixth chapter of Romans appears to be a concerted effort to reaffirm the essential role of “obedience of faith” (1:5; 16:26).1


To “present yourselves … as obedient slaves” is a willful choice of being completely devoted in service. The choice is between “sin” unto [εἰς] “death,” or “obedience” unto [εἰς] “righteousness.” Paul is thankful to God that the Romans have chosen the latter, involving the “standard” [τύπος] (cf. 5:14), “pattern” or “model,”2 of “teaching” [διδαχή], the body of doctrine mutually accepted and followed by first-century churches of Christ (16:16). This is “the doctrine [διδαχή] that you have been taught …” (16:17), the pattern of instruction “to which you were committed” [παραδίδωμι], “delivered” (ASV, N/KJV), “handed over” (CSB), “entrusted” (ISV, NASB 2020, NRSV); “has now claimed your allegiance” (NIV). 


The teaching of Jesus and the apostles, especially in terms of the demands of discipleship, the ethical requirements of the faith, and the principles that must guide believers in their relations one to the other and to the world became in time so definite and fixed that one could go from one area of the church to another and find the same general pattern. The law was a fixed, definite entity with precepts and prohibitions. Grace has its norms also.”3


This obedient faith emanated from the “heart” [καρδία], the physical, mental, and spiritual core and impetus of action,4 and was necessary for “having been set free from sin” (cf. v. 22; 8:2) and to “have become slaves of righteousness.”


Slaves to a New Master


“I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification” (Rom. 6:19).


Paul has been using the familiar analogy (“in human terms,” cf. 3:5; Gal. 3:15) of slavery in the Roman world5 to illustrate the past bondage to sin and current obligation to righteousness. Allusion to “your natural limitations” is lit. “your weakness of the flesh,” which Paul acknowledges for himself in the next chapter. While moral impediments may be suggested, it particularly conveys “the difficulties of apprehension, from defective spiritual experience, which prevent the understanding of its deeper truths.”6 This is not intellectual ineptness but limitations fostered by corrupt moral character (cf. 8:5-7; 1 Cor. 2:14; 3:1-3). Not only is this “weakness in the capacity to understand,” but “the proneness of self-deception and to forgetting the obligations imposed by grace.”7


In the past the Romans had given themselves over to “impurity” (cf. 1:24) and increasing “lawlessness” (cf. 4:7) but have now changed masters to “righteousness” (cf. 1:17) unto “sanctification.”8 The noun “sanctification,” used in Romans only here and in v. 22 (with its verbal form in 15:16), refers to the process of making or becoming holy, “set apart for God and separated by life and conduct from the unbelieving world …”9 It is cognate with the adjectival “holy” or “set apart,” as well as “holiness” and “saints” (1:7; 8:27; 12:13; 15:25, 26, 31; 16:2, 15).


While one is sanctified at the time of conversion (1:7), sanctification or holiness is to be maintained by holy living (6:1-2, 4), with complete and ultimate sanctification anticipated in the future (6:22). It is not uncommon for a distinction to be made between “sanctification” as an action or process, and “holiness” as the resulting state, but such a clear distinction between the two is less than certain. 


Wages of Sin Vs. Gift of God


“For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:20-23).


As former “slaves of sin,” so-called “freedom” was essentially “free in regard to righteousness,” when sin was the master rather than the righteous ways of God. Using agricultural imagery (cf. 1:13; 15:28), “fruit” (vv. 21-22) here refers to “the conduct of one’s life in the realm either of salvation or of damnation.”10 Fortunately the Roman saints are “now ashamed” (cf. 1:16) of their past sinfulness that led only to “death” (cf. 5:12–6:16), something earned and thus deserved as “wages.”11 Now, having been “set free from sin” (cf. v. 18), they have submitted themselves as “slaves of God” producing a different kind of “fruit,”12 namely “sanctification,” a new and holy way of life, “and its end, eternal life” (cf. 2:7; 5:21), which is unearned and undeserved as “the free gift of God” (cf. 5:15-16) “in Christ Jesus our Lord.” 


Conclusion


We are accountable for our own decisions and actions, as God allows us freedom to choose. He calls us to exercise our freedom responsibly by rendering ourselves completely to his will. He offers us freedom from ourselves and from the master of sin, so we may wholeheartedly obey him. We are thus free from sin’s control and free to obey God in humble service to his righteousness.


--Kevin L. Moore


Endnotes:

     1 C. K. Barrett, Romans 131. “Against those who might object that the abandonment of the law as a code of conduct (cf. 6:14, 15; 7:1-6) leads to license, Paul argues that the gospel itself provides sufficient ethical guidance for Christians. Through the renewal of the mind that the gospel makes possible, Christians can know and do the will of God (12:2) …” (D. J. Moo, Romans 746).

     2 Acts 7:44; 1 Cor. 10:16, 11; Phil. 3:17; 1 Thess. 1:7; 2 Thess. 3:9; 1 Tim. 4:12; Tit. 2:7; Heb. 8:5; 1 Pet. 5:3. In Gal. 6:16 Paul pronounces a blessing on those who walk according to the κανών (“rule” or “standard”), derived from a Semitic word for stalk or reed that came to be used for “measuring rod,” thus a “standard” or “rule.” The English word “canon” is derived from this word, referring to a list of titles of various works or the collection of documents themselves, in particular the biblical canon.

     3 E. F. Harrison, “Romans” 73.

     4 See Psa. 9:1; 13:5; 86:12; 111:1; 119:2, 7, 10, 34, 58, 69, 145; 138:1; Prov. 3:1; 4:23; Matt. 12:34-35; 15:18-19; 18:35; Eph. 6:6; Philem. 20; Heb. 10:22.

     5 During the first century AD approx. 16-20 percent were reportedly slaves within a population of about 60 million (W. V. Harris, “Towards a Study of the Roman Slave Trade” MAAR 36:117-40); some estimates are as high as 33-40 percent (K. R. Bradley, Slavery and Society 33). See K. L. Moore, “Households and Slavery,” Moore Perspective (24 July 2019), <Link>.

     6 W. Sanday and H. C. Headlam, Romans 169.

     7 H. Balz and G. Schneider, eds., EDNT 1:170; R. Mohrlang, Romans 106. 

     8 Cf. 1 Cor. 1:30; 1 Thess. 4:3, 4, 7; 2 Thess. 2:13; 1 Tim. 2:15; outside of Paul only Heb. 12:14; 1 Pet. 1:2. Compare 1 Pet. 4:1-5.

     9 R. C. Kelcy, Thessalonians 83.

     10 H. Balz and G. Schneider, eds., EDNT 2:252.

     11 Cf. Luke 3:14; 1 Cor. 9:7; 2 Cor. 11:8. 

     12 See also Gal. 3:22-23; Eph. 5:9; Phil. 1:11; Heb. 12:11; Jas. 3:17-18.


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