A Point of Law
I find it very interesting (and very sad) that we as Christians so often
miss that in fulfilling the law rather than abolishing it, Christ has
raised the standard, not lowered it. Can you imagine what how the people felt when Christ made the point that the law was a matter of spiritual disposition rather than mere physical action (or inaction, as the case be)?
"I knew I couldn't kill a man..., but not even be angry with him?!"
"Not only can I not sleep with that woman, but I can't even think about it?!"
"How am I supposed to give my coat to the very same guy who stole my clothes?"
"WHAT!? LOVE MY ENEMY?!"
In part, Christ was saying, "You need me more than you know."
Making and enforcing extraneous rules that we can keep (and is,
therefore, a lesser law)is our attempt to alleviate our own guilty
consciences and convince ourselves that we're not as bad off as we really are. But, here's the thing, the beauty of the law lays in the very fact that it is impossible for us to keep. We should rejoice in that fact,for such a great standard can only be satisfied by an even greater sacrifice. Christ has kept the law on our behalf, and by turning it into something that we can keep by our own power, we negate His work, we deny His power. As unregenerate sinners, we could do nothing but break the law, but having His righteousness imparted to us, we are guiltless. Our freedom in Christ is the freedom to not break the law, the freedom to not sin. We don't have to keep the law, but, in his amazing grace and mind blowing plan, our will is changed and we are made to want to keep it. Indeed, through Christ, we cannot break it.
This is how we can enjoy all of God's creation, by living in Christ Jesus. It is Christ's Spirit, dwelling within us, that keeps us from adultery, not our self control; It is the Spirit that keeps us from drunkenness, not our abstinence; It is the Spirit that allows us to live without anger, and to love our neighbor even when he is our enemy, not our compassion. And with the Spirit, we can be passionate, we can enjoy fine drink, and we can love those that hate us. But, too often we loose sight of God's grace and fall back on our own strength. Just like the Pharisees, we turn faith into religion, and, in the attempt to show ourselves to be blessed, we miss out on the blessings.
Just some thoughts.
posted by Ian @ 8:44 PM
6 comments
6 Comments:
I've been exegeting Romans 6 and I love how these verses turn out when you get all the little nuances in there (if I got it right ;)
6:2 ...We who died with reference to sin, how will we still live in (the sphere of) it?
6:6-7..knowing this, namely that our old man has been crucified together (with Christ) in order that the body of sin might be deprived of force
/influence, with the result that we (are) no longer to be serving as a slave to sin, for the one having died has been set free(declared/rendered righteous) away from sin..."
6:10-11 For what (death) He died, He died once for all time with reference to sin, but what (life) He is living, He is living with reference to God. And in this manner, as for YOU, on the one hand be reckoning/determining yourselves to be dead ones in reference to sin, but on the other hand (to be) living in reference to God (in the sphere of) Christ Jesus our Lord."
A good illustration - For a believer it's like a running car with the motor in neutral. Sin is still there, but it has been rendered idle, unless WE put the car in gear.
Debi,
Would you elaborate on/explain your car illustration? I want to make sure I understand it correctly.
Thanks,
Ian
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Romans 6 points out, a believer is no longer a slave to sin, yet still possesses a sin nature until glory. We transfer from being a bondslave to sin to being a bondslave to God. [I did a word study connected with translating this chapter and found we need to be careful NOT to equate our "old man" with our sin nature.] The "old man" (presalvation servant of sin) is dead, gone, handled by God at salvation. But, as Paul related his own experience in Romans 7, we still have a sin nature. The difference is NOW have a CHOICE whether or not to be obedient to God. (Prior to salvation we had NO choice; we were slaves to sin.)
The illustration (which, of course, will ultimately break down as all illustrations do)- we are like a car with the engine running but the transmission in neutral (having a sin nature, but not driven by/being a slave to it). It no longer drives us, has been rendered powerless/deprived of influence (tsl. of the Greek word), but we can still choose to sin. I didn't mean to imply that we can choose to place ourselves back under the bondage of sin. God destroyed that "old man". But as all believers, (including Paul in the very next chapter), experience, we still have a sin nature (but NOW we have a spirit that can relate to the HS in us, that can overrule it IF we are obedient). Like Paul I long to be completely obedient, but I am thankful for 1Jn.1:9 when I am not. [Forgiveness is always there in a Judicial sense, but our familial relationship with our heavenly Father is affected when we are disobedient...but that's another topic.]
Deb,
I'm not sure I'm with you on this one. Let me start off with a few questions. First, a Greek question: In chpt 6, when Paul says we have become bondslaves of righteousness, he uses a form of the same root (deo: bind, tie, knit, be in bondage, to wind) as he does when he says that we used to be bondslaves to sin. Now, as I see it, the use of the same root would make the thing (bondslavery) and the conditions of it the same. The difference, according to Paul, lays not in the bondage of bondslavery, rather in who/what we are bondslaves to, who our master is. So, my question is this: is there something in the Greek that would cause us to believe that while our past bondslavery to sin did not allow us a choice (we could only sin), our new bondslavery to righteousness does allow us a choice? I seem to think that the bondslave's duty/bondage to his master would only increase when his master becomes righteoussness and God, meaning, if anything, we would have less of a choice under slavery to God. Does that make sense? If we had no choice but to sin when in bondslavery to sin, why so we have a choice to not be righteouss while in bondslavery to righteousness?
I want to ask you about old man/sin nature and Paul's explanation of sin residing in the flesh, but let's start with the bondslave thing for now.
Thanks!
Ian
I wrote a paper on this for Romans class a few years ago that gives a much better presentation than can be given in this format. (I've mailed it to you to look at.) You are correct that we were bondslaves/servants to sin prior to salvation and after regeneration are bondslaves/servants to God (same word). Romans 6 is talking about a change of masters. For the believer his "body of sin" (old man) died with Christ (Romans 6:2,6,7,8; 7:4-6). That "old man" was our natural man, our unregenerate man, who was serving sin, mastered by sin. In the "old man" the sin nature had been "reigning" over him as a king (5:21) and enslaving him (6:6). He who has died with Christ has been set free from that bondage, servitude to the sin nature.
Does a believer still HAVE a sin nature? Yes. Is he still enslaved to it , must he serve it as his sovereign, his master? NO. He has a NEW master, sovereign whom he is to be obeying and serving "living (a new life) in union with Him" (6:8). Just as Christ died once...with reference to sin, but..is continually living with reference to God" (6:10) the believer is "IN THIS MANNER" to be reckoning/determining himself (6:11).
Can a believer still sin even though he is living in newness of life and serving God as a bondslave? Yes. My life certainly demonstrates that, all believers lives do, even Paul's (Rom.7). But the difference is we're not SERVING sin, it is not REIGNING over us. Now the Imperative Tense commands come in. (6:11) "be reckoning/determining" yourself to be acting as what you are, a bondslave of God, "be living in reference to God". and (6:12)"let not sin be ruling in your mortal body" as if it still had the authority over you. Those verbs are all Imperatives, commands, things we need to be doing because of our new position. Our Master/King has changed, now we need to adjust our obedience likewise. AND we are ABLE to not live continuously in a lifestyle of sin (Present Tense, showing progressive, ongoing kind of action - what Beth was talking about in 1John. We may sin, but we won't linger there because we have a new master. We have individual sins we seek forgiveness for, but we won't wallow in a continued lifestyle of progressive sin.[ As you may know, unlike English verbs that lay more stress on TIME of action, Greek verbs also lay stress on KIND of action- punctiliar or progressive.]
There, did that make it clear as mud? It is tough to handle this much on a blog. Just read through the flow of thought of Romans 6 several times and chew on it a while.
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