Last week I wrote Why The Struggle of Romans 7 Should Not be Applied to the Christian Experience. I tried to answer comments but couldn’t get to everything. This post is an attempt to expound upon the previous post and answer a few questions.
1. Context of Romans
According to Ambrosiaster, a church father who lived in the fourth century, a group of Jewish Christians founded the church in Rome. The church included Gentile Christians too. But the focus and context of the letter of Romans seems to be Jewish Christians.
In 1:3 Paul refers to Jesus as appealing to Jews (also 2:9),
regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David.
In 1:16 he gives his philosophy of Jew first, then Gentiles,
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.
In 2:17 he speaks directly to Jews as the recipients,
Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and boast in God.
Paul goes on to speak about the inability of Jews to keep the Mosaic law.
The Jewish recipients of Romans related to wanting to keep the law as good. They knew the futility of trying to keep the law perfectly.
2. What’s the Struggle of Romans 7?
The struggle of Romans 7 is not sin in general. It’s not the flesh vs. Spirit struggle he writes about in Galatians. Paul writes from the perspective of one who desires to keep the law but can’t.
Verses 1-6 clearly refer to Jews who understood what it meant to keep the law. Then he applies the gospel to them,
But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code
Verses 7-13 give the purpose of the law. The law was good and holy serving its purpose of exposing sin. Without the law a Jew would not have known what was sin and what was not.
Verses 14-16 introduce the answer to Paul’s question (v. 13),
Did that which is good, then, become death to me?
There is no indication that Paul is talking about anything other than the Mosaic law.
So then, how does this apply to a non-Jewish Christian? I’ve never met a Christian who said they struggled keeping the law! Have you?
How do vv. 24-25 fit?
What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
At the end of Paul’s argument he leaps with hope! Who can save the Jew, whose greatest attempt to keep the law ends in futility? Verse 25a is the answer. The conclusion: the Jew wants to keep the law and in his mind he is there. But he is unable in his flesh.
On one hand it’s hopeless (apart from Christ). On the other hand it’s filled with hope because of Christ! Notice how this flows right into chapter 8, which continues the topic of salvation, not sanctification.
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
3. Jesus.
Some comments referred to Jesus’ comment in Matthew 5:17,
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
What did Jesus mean?
Jesus lived BEFORE the cross as a Jew under the law. He was the only person who could ever perfectly keep the law. This is essential to the whole gospel. Jesus HAD to keep the law perfectly. i.e. “fulfill them” as stated in Matt 5.
Everything changed at the cross
This is not meant to be exhaustive. For serious study I recommend reading carefully through the entire books of Hebrews and Galatians. Here is a list of passages that clearly state that everything changed at the cross.
Hebrews
If perfection could have been attained through the Levitical priesthood—and indeed the law given to the people established that priesthood—why was there still need for another priest to come, one in the order of Melchizedek, not in the order of Aaron? 12 For when the priesthood is changed, the law must be changed also. (vv. 11-12)
The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless 19 (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God. (vv. 18-19)
By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear. (v. 13)
The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. 2 Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. 3 But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins. 4 It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. (vv. 1-4)
Galatians = if you live by the law you have to keep the whole law PERFECTLY! Faith and law are opposed to one another!
The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, it says, “The person who does these things will live by them.” 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.” (vv. 12-13)
Why, then, was the law given at all? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was given through angels and entrusted to a mediator. (v. 19)
Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. 24 So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. 25 Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. (vv. 23-25)
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
2 Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised [i.e. law], Christ will be of no value to you at all. 3 Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. 4 You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. 5 For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. (vv. 1-6)
Those who want to impress people by means of the flesh are trying to compel you to be circumcised. The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ. 13 Not even those who are circumcised keep the law, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your circumcision in the flesh. (vv. 12-13)
Keeping any law is in opposition to what the Apostle Paul writes in NT.
5. Flesh vs. Spirit
The struggle that EVERY Christian has with sin is one that rages between living in the weak sinful flesh, and living with the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.
Victory over sin will not be final or complete until this body of death is done away with (rf 1 Cor 15, 2 Cor 5), but we can experience a life filled with love, peace, joy, and growth. The next post will walk through that process.