THE GOSPEL OF GOD
Meditations in St. Paul's Letter to the Romans
THE CONTINUING APPLICATION OF THE LAW

"We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin."
Romans 7:14.

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WE come know to verses 14 to 25 of chapter 7 of Romans, and to one of the most argued over passages in the Bible, and one over which there has been most disagreement, and this controversy still continues today, with vehemently held different interpretations. I don't propose to go into any of these different interpretations of the meaning of Paul's teaching here, but just express what I see as the meaning. I don't do this with any sense of superiority that I have understood the Apostles meaning, where so many others have misunderstood it, but because in my reading of these many conflicting views of what Paul is expressing here, I have only become more confused, and found an unhelpful spirit growing within me as I reacted to views which I felt were flawed.

On the other hand when I read these verse as they stand, I find myself empathising with their content, and have no difficulty with them. However when I come to the details then I do find I have difficulties, and I am unable to say that the understanding I have of the passage as a whole is not without difficulties for me when I look at details and particular words, and phrases. What I have found in my reading is that all of the commentators and writers I have perused all seem to have the same problem.

This first sermon will be more of an introductory one in which I hope to lay the foundation of the way I believe the passage needs to be approached. In other words we shall be looking at the whole from the point of view of how we ought to explore the wood, and view the trees.

PAUL'S CONTINUING PURPOSE

Paul is continuing to explain the place of the Law of God in the life of the Christian. He has explained the place of the law in the way we have been brought to Christ, and so now in these verses before us he is seeking to view the continuing work of the Law in the ongoing life of the believer.

When we appreciate this we will also appreciate that these verses apply to all believers at the various stages of their Christian life, whether they have just begun, or whether they have been Christians for many years. These verses apply to the Christian whose spiritual life is in its early stages, where there may be little spiritual growth, and also to the older Christian, who through much walking with the Lord, has grown in holiness and in closeness to the Lord. What is true of us all is that the Law of God still has a place in our lives and development, and still has an effect on our living and thinking, in various degrees, and at different times, in our spiritual development.

What is true now for the one who has new life in Christ is, as Paul puts it in the last paragraph of this chapter, that we are slaves to the Law of God in the sense that we have it written on our hearts as the way God lives and wants us to live, and so we want, with all our hearts, to live like this too. This is in line with the teaching in the Old Testament, in Jeremiah and Ezekial, where these prophets have reflected that when the Law of God was applied to the lives of the Jews from outside them, it never brought about any change, so God revealed to them that he would do an new thing, and write the Law on their inner being, and write it on their hearts. In other words new life would be given whereby in the inner being of us we would not only approve the Law of God but want to keep it.

This has nothing to do with the fact that we know that we can't save ourselves through keeping the Law and that through Christ and his work for us we accounted righteous completely in God's sight forever. This work of the Law has nothing to do with our salvation, but our expression of that salvation in our lives. What is true of the believer is that they have the Law now written on their hearts within them, and there is compulsive desire to live its precepts and ways completely.

The Law, in this respect, in the life of the Christian is both a joy and a trial, and this is what the Apostle is dealing with here. The Law is a joy because it reflects to us the life which comes from God, and because we have in our new life a great desire to conform to this life. It is a trial because it brings sorrow and discomfort to our living because we fall short of this perfection all the time, and this trial does not grow less as we progress in holiness, but rather grows worse. Eminent Christians down the ages have all testified to the fact that, as they have grown in holiness and in closeness to God through Christ, they have felt their sins and sinfulness all the more. The reason for this is that the nearer we get to God, the more light of God's perfection illuminates our being, and so it is with greater clarity that we see the sin that still remains in our mortal body, and the more particular we are about sin, and perceive sins we hardly regarded before as terrible evil, because this is how we see God views even the smallest failing. I am not surprised to hear Paul speaking of the Christian, therefore, as wretched, and bemoaning the fact that so much sinning still remains.

UNDERSTANDING THE CHRISTIAN CONDITION

We come now to where I think much of our difficulties concerning the Christian life, and our understanding of this passage of Scripture, arises. It is the true nature of what has happened to us when we received salvation and new life in Christ. We certainly would not have so much difficulty over the dualism which Paul holds forth in this passage if we faced the truth of the nature of our salvation.

Let us observe this dualism that appears in these verses as Paul seeks to explain the action of the Law on the life of the believer. Notice how Paul speaks here in the first person, and so is identifying, as a Christian, with what he is saying. This assures us that Paul is speaking about Christian experience, and because Paul was identifying with it in this way, we can't come to any other conclusion than that he felt he was expressing his own experience. In other words Paul was feeling the truth of what he was saying in his own experience even at the time of writing, and as he looked back over his Christian life, at every stage he could say that he had known the truth of these words.

Now to this apparent dualism. Paul commences by speaking about the whole person. He speaks of a conflict going on within the Christian. He speaks of wanting to do good as the Law of God revealed, but at the same time finding that, however much he desired to do good, evil was present and he found that he was doing what he did not want to do, and that which he did not really desire to do. Then in verse 17 we have the first example of this dualism. He explains the dilemma which he is experiencing as the result of sin living in him and not from himself. Paul repeats this conception in verse 20.

From this experience Paul comes to a conclusion that he has what he calls his inner being (v.22), which delights in the Law of God, and he also has another law or principle, which is not the Law of God, residing in his body, but distinguished from his body, and this is waging war in that part of him, his mind, which is where he made his decisions. When he speaks of the mind where the conflict rages, he speaks of the law of his mind, which is the Law of God which the inner being approves, but this is contradicted by another law or principle, which Paul describes as the law of sin. So we have the inner being which causes the mind to delight in the Law of God, and there is the law of sin, another set of ideas and actions, which also impinges on the mind, which is totally opposed to the law of God in his mind. This causes him to do wrong, and this evil principle is at work in his members, so exciting them towards corruption that he is overcome often by their influence, even though, from his inner being, he finds a law in his mind which hates these desires and deplores the actions which follow from them.

But notice all the time that Paul speaks of the whole person acting whether it is in the wrong actions or in the good actions. Paul perceives two parts in him which make up the whole. He always feels himself to be one person, but the whole person is seen to act in totally different ways at different times. There is no suggestion that Paul perceives the Christian life as total defeat. What Paul is expressing is the reaction of the Christian, in our condition while we still remain on the earth, to the Law of God and to the will of God, and although there is victory over sin, and an increase in holiness, and this can be perceived in the life of the believer, yet the believer is still troubled all the time with the conflict between the flesh and the Spirit, and feels his or her sinnership more and more as we grow closer to the Lord.

THE NATURE OF NEW BIRTH IN CHRIST

Let me now come to the understanding of new birth in Christ that has grown upon me over recent years, which I have spoken of before, and mentioned continually. I repeat it all again here, because I have found in my life that it takes me a very long time to grasp a concept which is so different to the thinking I had been conditioned in from past experience and teaching.

Everywhere in the New Testament where the subject of New Birth is spoken of it is described in terms of creation and resurrection to a new life. I have come to appreciate that we have to give this revelation its fullest meaning. In 2 Corinthians 5:17 Paul speaks of this new creation - Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone and the new has come. When we listen to Paul in Romans 6 we hear him speaking of dying with Christ, and being raised to new life in Christ. When he hear Jesus speaking to Nicodemus in John 3 we hear him telling Nicodemus that this birth is totally new, and brought about by the Holy Spirit and is different to the fleshly birth by which we have life in this world. Then in the verse I so often quote, which was such a great revelation to me about 10 or more years ago, in which we read Paul is seeking to urge us to holiness, he speaks in Ephesians 4:24 of a new creation which is our experience in Christ, which was created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. From this we must take to heart the revelation which is so plain to me now, that our new birth was a new creation and a new life, which is a life which conforms perfectly to the character of God, and in this new life, we are not only accounted as righteous by God but have been created holy like God, as Adam was when he was created in paradise. It is because of this holy creation that God dwells within us by his Spirit, and we have fellowship with God, and possess eternal life. It is the fruit of the work of Christ whereby we are justified freely from all our sins, and accounted righteous in the sight of God.

However whenever Paul speaks of our lives here on earth as Christians, he speaks of the flesh, and our fallen nature still being present, and there is no suggestion that there is any change here in anyway. The flesh is still corrupt as it has ever been, and this corruption resides in our bodies, but it is only in our bodies that we can express the new creation that is our privilege and gift in Christ, and this brings the conflict we know. Because of this there will always be this conflict during the remaining time we live this earthly life, and we shall always know the warfare that exists between the flesh and the spirit, and this will never end until we are taken into glory at the time we leave this earthly life through physical death. It is at that moment that the completion of our redemption will be realised, because this earthly body in which corruption still resides can't leave this earthly environment. Then we shall be given a new resurrection body, and the conflict will end.

This does not mean that we live a defeated life, but that we will always know this conflict which Paul speaks of in Romans 7, and grieve over our sense of sin within. As a whole person we live, and through our new creation we love the Law of God with all our heart, but the flesh working in our body, and influencing the decisions of our minds, will always be with us, and even though by the Holy Spirit we are enabled to mortify this corrupt affections, we will never lose the misery of this corruption within us, which causes us to cry out in wretchedness.

CONCLUSION

I have only really touched on this reality of our Christian life and living, but I hope it is enough so that as we approach our study together of these verses in Romans 7 we will be able to see our way forward without too much contradiction.