rog5
THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD
The law of God intensifies the wrath of God against sin: “For the law works wrath” (Rom. 4:15a ERS). With the introduction of the law, sin becomes a transgression (parabasis, a going aside, a deviation, hence, a violation) of the law. “But where there is no law neither is there transgression” (Rom. 4:15b ERS). A transgression of the law is sin, but sin is more than just a transgression of the law and it may exist where the law of God does not exist. “For until the law sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed when there is no law” ( Rom. 5:13 ERS). In the period between Adam and Moses, before the law was given, there was no law. But in this period before the law “sin was in the world.” Men were sinning. Sin existed where the law did not exist. From the Biblical point of view, sin must be understood and defined in terms of God and not in terms of the law. Sin is any choice that is contrary to faith in the true God – “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin” (Rom. 14:23 KJV). A transgression of the law is sin but sin is not just a transgression of the law. The KJ version mistranslates the statement in I John 3:4: he hamartia estin he anomia. It should be translated “sin is lawlessness” (RSV, NEB, NIV) not “sin is the transgression of the law” (KJV). The Greek word anomia basically may mean either “no law” or “against law.” Hence, it means “anarchy” or “rebellion.” “Freely translated v.4 would then be to the effect that ‘he who commits sin is thereby in revolt against; indeed, sin is nothing but rebellion against God.'” [1]
All men have sinned because they are spiritually dead. This is what the Apostle Paul says in the last clause of Romans 5:12: “because of which [death] all sinned.” Spiritual death which “spread to all men” along with physical death is not the result of each man’s own personal sins. On the contrary, a man sins as a result of spiritual death. He received this death from Adam, from his first parents. According to Romans 5:12-14, all men have received spiritual and physical death from Adam.
“5:12 Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death passed unto all men, because of which all sinned: – 5:13 For until the law sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed where there is no law. 5:14 But death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned after the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.” (Rom. 5:12-14 ERS).
The historical origin of sin is the fall of Adam – the sin of the first man. Adam’s sin brought death – spiritual and physical – on all his descendants (Rom. 5:12, 15, 17). This death inherited from Adam is the personal, contemporary origin of each man’s sin (Rom. 5:12d ERS). Because he is spiritually dead, not knowing God personally, he chooses something other than the true God as his God; he thus sins.
The law came in alongside in order that the transgression might abound (Rom. 5:20b). Thus through the law sin became exceedingly sinful (Rom. 7:13b). “Since through the law comes the knowledge of sin” (Rom. 3:20b; see also Rom. 7:7b), the law shows what sin is and thus makes clear the true character of sin and that the basic sin is idolatry (Exodus 20:3-6; Deut. 5:7-10; 6:13-15; 8:19; 11:16-17; 29:24-27; 30:17-18). But this does not mean that sin is to be defined in terms of the law. The law just exposes its true character. The law not only reveals what sin is but also God’s direct opposition to man’s sin, that is, the wrath of God which is the curse of the law.
“Cursed is every one who continues not in all things that are written in the book of the law, to do them.”
(Gal. 3:10 ERS; see also Deut. 27:26; 29:27).
Thus the law brings the wrath of God, not directly by means of an inevitable moral process of cause and effect, but indirectly by showing what is God’s personal reaction to man’s sin. What is the law? The term “law” is used most often in the Bible, especially in the New Testament (Matt. 5:18) and Christian theology, to refer to the Ten Commandments, the Decalogue (Exodus 20:1-17; Deut. 5:6-21), sometimes improperly called the moral law. Sometimes it is used to refer to the whole law of Moses, ceremonial as well as the Ten Commandments, statutes and ordinances (Luke 2:22; John 7:23). Sometimes it is also used to refer to the first five books of the Old Testament, the Pentateuch (Matt. 12:5; Luke 2:23- 24; 16:16; 24:44; Rom. 3:21) as well as the whole Old Testament (John 10:34, quoting Psa. 82:6; I Cor. 14:21, quoting Isa. 28:11). The Hebrew word for law, torah, means direction, guidance, instruction, teaching. As such it is that content of God’s revelation of Himself which makes clear man’s relationship to God and to his fellowman. It provides guidance of man’s actions in relationship to God and to his fellowman. Thus it is the Word of the Lord (Deut. 5:5; Psa. 119:43, 160). It is first of all about God’s act of redemption of Israel from Egypt (Ex. 20:2; Deut. 5:6; Psa. 119:174 parallelism) and then about Israel’s obedient response to this act (Ex. 20:3-17; Deut. 5:7-21). The law is the covenant that God made with the children of Israel through Moses (Ex. 24:1-12). The commandments of the law are based upon the grace of God who provided redemption from Egypt (Deut. 4:37-40; Psa. 119:146) and are the terms of God’s covenant with His people (Ex. 19:3-8; Deut. 5:1-3). In contrast to the covenants with Noah (Gen. 9:8-17) and with Abraham (Gen. 15:12-18; 17:1-14), which were covenants of sheer grace, the Mosaic covenant is conditional. God made unconditional promises to Noah and Abraham of what He would do. The blessings of these covenants were unconditional. The blessings of the Mosaic covenant are, on the other hand, conditioned upon obedience (Deut. 28:1-14) and the curses upon disobedience (Deut. 28:15-20; 30:1-20). These conditions are given in the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20:3-17; Deut. 5:6-21) and other statutes and ordinances.
What is the difference between law and grace? The difference is not: rules and no rules. The difference is in the relationship of the blessing to obedience. In a covenant of the law, the bestowal of the blessing is conditioned upon obedience; obey in order to be blessed (Ezek. 18). In a covenant of grace, the blessing is bestowed unconditionally to bring about obedience: obey because you are already blessed (John 13:34; Eph. 4:32; Titus 2:11-12; I John 3:3; 4:11,19). Grace appeals to the unconditioned prior bestowal of the blessing as the grounds of obedience. Law, on the other hand, appeals to obedience as the ground of the bestowal of the blessing.
The Mosaic covenant is not pure law but is based on the grace of God who graciously provided redemption for the children of Israel and who in free grace chose to establish His covenant with them. This redemption by God from Egypt is the grounds of the appeal for obedience to the terms of the covenant which are stated in the Ten Commandments.
“20:2 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 20:3 You shall have no other gods before Me.” (Ex. 20:2-3 NAS)
This is the order of grace; obey because you are already blessed. But the Mosaic covenant is not pure grace because the blessings of the covenant are conditioned upon Israel’s obedience.
“30:15 See, I have set before you this day life and good, death and evil. 30:16 If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you this day, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in His ways, and by keeping His commandments and His statutes and His ordinances, then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you are entering to take possession of it. 30:17 But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, 30:18 I declare to you this day, that you shall perish, you shall not live long in the land which you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. 30:19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore, choose life, that you and your descendants may live, 30:20 loving the Lord your God. obeying his voice, and cleaving to him; for that means life to you and length of days, that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.”
(Deut. 30:15-20)
This is the order of law. Obey in order to be blessed. The Mosaic covenant is a mixed covenant of grace and law. What is the purpose of the law? Being a clarification of man’s relationship to God, the purpose of the law is to expose the nature of sin (Rom. 3:20; 7:7b) and God’s reaction to man’s sin in the form of wrath (the curse of the law; see Rom. 4:15; Gal. 3:10). Therefore, to the question: “Why the law?” Paul answers in Gal. 3:19: “It was added because of transgressions,… until the seed [Christ, Gal. 3:16] should come to whom the promise had been made.” (cf. Rom. 5:20) Until Christ came, the Jews were kept under the law (Gal. 3:23) as a tutor (Gal. 3:24) who guarded the immature child until he became a mature son (Gal. 4:1-2). Therefore, the law was a temporary arrangement (Heb. 7:18; 9:9-10). The Mosaic law was given only to Israel (Deut. 4:7-8, 32-33,36; Psa. 147:19-20). From Adam to Moses there was no law ( Rom. 5:13-14), and the Gentiles do not have the law (Rom. 2:14, twice).
The Scriptures, and in particular the Apostle Paul, do not teach that there is a law of nature, lex naturae, after Stoic fashion. In Romans 2:15 Paul does not say that the Gentiles have “the law” (ho nomos) written on the heart, but that “the work of the law” (to ergon tou nomou) is written on their hearts. In this passage, Paul is not talking about having the law but about keeping or fulfilling the law. In the context, Paul is contrasting the Jew who has the law but does not keep it with the Gentile who does not have the law but does what the law commands. Having the law is not sufficient. “For not the hearers of the law are righteous with God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.” (Rom. 2:13 ERS). It is these particular actions of the Gentiles, which are in harmony with the law, that Paul is referring to when he says that the work of the law is written on their hearts. For it is from the heart, where the decisions are made, that the work of the law comes. Grammatically, the word “written” (grapton) agrees with the word “work” (ergon), and not with the word “law” (tou nomou). The work, not the law, is written on the heart. For if Paul had said that the law was written on the heart, he would be saying that the Gentiles had the law in a more intimate way than the Jews had it. The latter had it written only on the tables of stone or in a book. Moreover, Paul would also be saying that the Gentiles had the law written on their hearts which provision was only promised in the new covenant.
“But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” (Jer. 31:33)
But in the preceding verse (Rom 2:14), Paul specifically says that the Gentiles do not have the law.
“2:14 For when Gentiles, not having the law, do by nature the things of the law, these, not having the law, are a law to themselves, 2:15 who show the work of law written in their hearts.” (Rom. 2:14-15a ERS)
And he says it twice in that one verse alone that Gentiles do not have the law, so that there will be no misunderstanding. We must be careful not to read into Paul any Stoic-like concept of the law of nature, lex naturae, that is the exact opposite of what he here intended or meant.
The conscience does not contain an absolute standard of right and wrong as implied in the Stoic law of nature. The standard that conscience uses to judge the action of the will is relative to the ultimate criterion that the person has chosen. That is, the god that a person has chosen and worships supplies the standards of the conscience. This is why not every person has the same feelings of guilt or responsibility for his decisions or actions (I Cor. 10:28-29; 8:7). The conscience can be modified (seared or hardened, I Tim. 4:2) by rejecting the judgments of the conscience (I Tim. 1:19-20). And a weak conscience can be made strong by the increase of knowledge (I Cor. 8:7). The fact that everybody’s conscience has a standard does not mean that all have the same standard. There is not in everyone’s conscience a universal standard, lex naturae. [Note that the double genitive absolute phrase in Rom. 2:15b, “their conscience bearing witness and their conflicting thoughts accusing or even excusing”, is a grammatically independent clause. It should be taken with the sentence that follows, which is the usual syntax, and not with the preceding subordinate clause. It should be translated as follows:
“2:15b As their conscience bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accusing or even excusing, 2:16 on that day God will judge the hidden things of men according to my gospel, through Christ Jesus.” (Rom. 2:15b-16 ERS)
This makes good sense if the Stoic teaching concerning the law of nature in the conscience is not read into the context.] Can man keep the law? Yes, he can; that is, man is able to choose to do what the law commands.
“30:11 For this commandment which I command you this day is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. 30:12 It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will go up for us to heaven, and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 30:13 Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us, and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 30:14 But the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.” (Deut. 30:11-14)
But man does not do it (Rom. 3:10-12; Jer. 4:22; Psa. 10:4; 14:1-3; 53:1-3). Why? Because he is spiritually dead (Eph. 2:1), and he sins because he is spiritually dead ( Rom. 5:12d ERS). The law cannot make alive and thus cannot produce righteousness.
“Is the law then against the promise of God? Certainly not; for if a law had been given which could make alive, then righteousness would indeed be by the law.” (Gal. 3:21)
Although the law is God’s revelation of Himself, the Word of the Lord (Deut. 5:5; Psa. 119:43, 160), it contains only a knowledge about God and not a personal knowledge of God. But more basically, this knowledge is only about God’s act of redemption of the children of Israel from bondage in Egypt, and not of the salvation of man from death and sin. The situation of man spiritually has not been altered by this act of God or the giving of the law. Man is still spiritually dead. Therefore, because the law contains only the knowledge about a national, political-sociological act of God and not about God’s act of salvation from death, nor a personal revelation of Himself to the heart of man that makes him alive; the law cannot make alive. On the contrary, the law presupposes the possession of life and righteousness. The keeping of the law only guarantees the continuance of life (Lev. 18:5; Deut. 30:18-20; Ezek. 18:5-9, 21-23, 27-28; 20:11; Luke 10:27-28) already possessed. The choice between life and death in Deut. 30:15-20 is the choice between physical life and physical death, not between spiritual life and spiritual death, which choice is only presented under grace in the preaching of the gospel. The choice of faith in Jesus Christ is the choice of spiritual and eternal life in Christ, for He is the life (I John 5:11-12). Of course, it is also the choice of physical life and the resurrection from physical death at His second coming. The law could not make alive physically, spiritually, or eternally, but only guaranteed the continuance and elongation of physical life ( Deut. 30:18-20).
This is what the law cannot do; it cannot make men alive. As Paul says in Gal. 3:21;
“…for if there had been a law given which could make alive, verily righteousness would have been by the law.” (Gal. 3:21)
That is, since the law cannot make alive, righteousness cannot be by the law. And since the law cannot make alive, salvation therefore cannot be by the law. The righteousness of the law, the merits earned by keeping the law, is a false righteousness, dirty filthy rags (Isa. 64:6; Phil. 3:7-9; Rom. 10:3-4). Just as trust in a false god is sin, so trust in the true God is righteousness (Rom. 4:3-5). And just as sin flows from death, so righteousness flows from life. The law cannot give life. And because the law cannot remove death, it also cannot remove sin. And since it cannot make alive, it cannot produce real righteousness.
What the law could not do, God has done through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, His Son. God has made us alive to Himself in the resurrection of Jesus and set us free from the slavery of sin. Since the basic sin is idolatry (trust in a false god) and sin is a slavery to a slave master (John 8:34), the false god is the slave master. We were all slaves of sin, serving our false gods when we were spiritually dead, alienated and separated from the true God, not knowing him personally. But we have been set free from this slavery of sin through the death of Christ. Jesus entered into our spiritual death and died our death. His death is our death. Now when a slave dies, he is no longer in slavery; death frees him from slavery. So we likewise have been set free from the slavery of sin having died with Christ. We have died to sin with Christ (Rom. 6:1-7). But now Christ is alive, having been raised from the dead, and we have been made alive to God together with Him in His resurrection. His resurrection is our resurrection. We are no longer slaves of sin but have become slaves of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Now that we are alive to God in Him, we have become slaves of righteousness (Rom. 6:17-18). For just as death produces sin, so life produces righteousness. Since we have passed from death to life, we have been saved from sin to righteousness (I Peter 2:24).
From the Biblical point of view the law has three serious weaknesses (Rom. 8:3).
1. The law cannot remove the wrath of God but causes wrath (Rom. 4:15; Gal. 3:10; the curse of the law = the wrath of God). And the law cannot remove the wrath of God because
2. it cannot take away sin (Heb. 10:1-4, 15-18). Not only is the law unable to take away sin, but it causes sin (Rom. 7:5, 8, 11, 13). This is not because the law is evil (on the contrary, it is holy, righteous and good, Rom. 7:12), but because
3. the law cannot make alive ( Gal. 3:21). The law cannot deliver man from the death that has been passed to him from Adam ( Rom. 5:12, 15, 17). On the contrary, it brings death (Rom. 7:10-11, 13). The law makes death, primarily physical death, the result of personal sins (Ezek. 18:4, 20; Deut. 24:16; Isa. 59:2) and superimposes this relationship of death-because-of-sin upon the more basic relationship of sin-because-of-death ( Rom. 5:12d ERS; Gal. 4:8). But the law did not change this more basic relationship; man sins because of spiritual death. And the law cannot remove this death, and therefore cannot remove sin. Also, since the law cannot make alive, it cannot produce righteousness ( Gal. 3:21) and therefore peace with God (Rom. 5:1). Christ is the end of the law for righteousness (Rom. 10:4) because He alone can and did remove death and does make alive and thereby righteous.
The law has therefore a threefold weakness: it cannot remove wrath, sin or death because it cannot produce peace, righteousness or life. There is no salvation by the law.
END NOTES
The following statements will summarize our discussion concerning the Law and the distortion of the law called Legalism.
A. WHAT IS THE LAW?
The law is God’s conditional covenant with Israel; it is different from the unconditional covenants of grace with Noah and Abraham. The law was given to clarify man’s relationship to God and to his fellowman. The law intensifies wrath, gives knowledge of sin, but cannot produce righteousness because it cannot make alive.
“Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not; for if a law had been given which could make alive, then righteousness would indeed be by the law.” (Gal. 3:21)
That is, since the law cannot make alive, it cannot take away sin. There is no salvation by the law.
B. WHAT IS LEGALISM?
1. Legalism is a distortion of the law of God and a misunderstanding of it.
2. In its fullest form, legalism consists of four distortions of the law.
a. Legalism absolutizes the law of God by making the law into ultimate reality. This may be done either by making the law stand by itself apart from and above God or by identifying God with the law: “God is law.”
b. Legalism depersonalizes the law of God by making the law into a thing that is over man and between God and man.
c. Legalism quantitizes the law of God by attaching to the law’s commands and prohibitions various quantities of merit and demerit.
d. Legalism externalizes the law of God by making the law regulate the outward acts and conduct rather than the inner decisions and orientation of the will.
3. Legalism misunderstands sin as just a breaking of the law and/or falling short of the standard of moral perfection contained in the law.
4. Legalism misunderstands the righteousness of God as justice, that is, as that principle of God’s being that requires and demands the reward of good work (comformity to the Law) because of their intrinsic merit (remunerative justice) and the punishment of every transgression of the law with a proportionate punishment because of its own intrinsic demerit (retributive justice).
5. Legalism misunderstands death as the necessary penalty for sin.
6. Legalism misunderstands God’s wrath as necessary divine retribution.
7. Legalsim misunderstands salvation as eternal life earned by meritorious works.
C. WHAT IS CHRISTIAN LEGALISM?
1. Christian legalism misunderstands the personal origin of sin in the doctrine of original sin; that is, sin is an inherited sinful nature. This doctrine was developed by Augustine during the Augustinian-Pelagian controversy to explain why man can not be saved by meritorious works, and was expanded by Calvinism as the imputation of the sin of Adam to all his descendants.
2. Christian legalism misunderstands salvation as either grace infused by the sacraments in order to be able to earn eternal life by meritorious works (Roman Catholic doctrine), or as the imputation of Christ’s righteousness; that is, the merits earned by Christ’s active obedience is imputed to the account of the believer (Orthodox Protestant doctrine).
3. Christian legalism misunderstands Christ’s death as a vicarious penal satisfaction, a paying of the penalty of sin to satisfy God’s justice by the passive obedience of Christ in our stead.
4. Christian legalism misunderstands the Christian life as a struggle of the new nature with the sinful nature, misinterpreting Romans 7 as the normal Christian life.
The doctrine of the sinful nature was introduced into Christian theology by Augustine in the early fifth century A.D. to explain why man can not save himself by his meritorious works. Instead of denying that salvation has anything to do with meritorious works, Augustine assumed that salvation is by meritorious works and he taught that since the fall, because of his inherited corrupt or sinful nature, man cannot do meritorious works to earn salvation apart from the grace of God. The grace of God which is infused into man’s will by the sacraments enables him to earn eternal life. But Augustine’s assumption is wrong. According to the Scriptures ( Eph. 2:8-9; Rom. 4:4-5), salvation is not by meritorious works, eternal life is not earned by meritorious works, and the doctrine of the sinful nature is unnecessary to deny that man can save himself. According to the Scriptures, man cannot save himself because he cannot make himself alive, not because he cannot do meritorious works. The law cannot deliver one from death nor from sin, neither can the law produce life or righteousness.
“Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not; for if a law had been given which could make alive, then righteousness would indeed be by the law.” (Gal. 3:21)
Since the law cannot make alive, there is no salvation by the law. The sinful nature is not needed to explain why man cannot save himself, because the law was not given by God for salvation. God gave the law, not for salvation from sin, but for the knowledge of sin (Rom. 3:19); that is, to show what should be man’s right personal relationship to God and to his fellow men (Deut. 6:5; Lev. 19:18; Matt. 22:37-40). This knowledge does not save man but only shows man what he ought to be but it cannot make him to be that. Salvation is only through Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit, not by the law and not by human self-effort (the flesh) to earn it. Man is spiritually dead and the law cannot make him alive ( Gal. 3:21). But the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus makes alive those who are spritually dead when they receive by faith the risen Jesus Christ as their Lord and their God. Jesus Christ is Life, and he who has Him has life and is alive to God (I John 5:11-12).
One of the implications of Augustine’s doctrine of the sinful or corrupt nature of man is that salvation is entirely the work of God (monergism), since man, because of his sinful nature, is totally unable to do good works in order to earn salvation by them. Not only is the grace of God the work of God but so is faith, since salvation is “by grace through faith” ( Eph. 2:8). According to Augustine, the faith that receives the grace of God is also the work of God. This monergism totally eliminates the human will from any part or place in salvation. Augustine understood the human will, not as a choice between sin and righteousness, but choice according to one’s nature: the choice of sin if one’s nature is sinful, the choice of righteousness if one nature is good. So accordingly all men’s choices are sin because their nature is sinful. And the grace of God must enable the will of man if he is going to do meritorious works to earn his salvation. This efficient grace is received through the sacraments.
The Protestant Reformers rejected this teaching that grace is given by the sacraments to enable the will of man to earn his salvation by meritorious works and taught that salvation is by grace through faith and that the grace of God regenerated the believer, giving him a new nature, by which he can do good works, but not to earn salvation and eternal life (Christ had earned this for them by His active obedience), but to show that they are saved and regenerated. According to their teaching, the believer has two natures, a sinful nature and a new nature, and the experience recorded in Romans 7 was interpreted as the struggle between these two natures. This legalistic explanation of salvation and of the Christian life leaves the believer under the law, and under the dominion of sin.
“For sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under the law, but under grace.” (Rom. 6:14).
And this legalistic explanation of Romans 7 also leaves the believer with no deliverance from this struggle, contrary to the clear teaching of Scirpture that there is deliverance.
“O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Rom. 7:24-25a KJV).
John Wesley (1703-1791) in the 18th century recognized that there was deliverance from the Roman 7 experience, and he put forth the teaching that there was a second work of grace (the first work of grace was conversion, justification), which he called entire santification, that would eradicate the sinful nature, cleansing from inbred sin and enabling those experiencing this work of grace to live without conscious or deliberate sin (Christian Perfection). But his explanation of this deliverance as the eradication of the sinful nature assumes that the struggle of Roman 7 is caused by the sinful nature. This assumption is wrong; the cause of the struggle is not the sinful nature, but being under law. According Rom. 6:14, sin has dominion over the believer when he is under the law and the deliverance from the dominion of sin is to be under grace. The grace of God, God’s love in action ( Eph. 2:4-5), delivers the believer from the dominion and slavery of sin by placing the believer back under the grace of God. God does this by not condemning the believer who is in Christ Jesus.
“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” (Rom. 8:1).
Under the law, the law condemns those who sin; it does not deliver those under the law from the dominion of sin. But God does not condemn them but places them back under grace and delivers them from the dominion of sin (“the law of sin”) and of death (“the law of death”) by the operation of the Spirit (“the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus”).
“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.” (Rom. 8:2 ERS).
The law separates the believer under law from God; this is practically the same as spiritual death. And the believer under law sins because he is practically spiritually dead. For the Christian to place himself under law is like placing oneself in spiritual death; the law has taken the place of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus and it has the same results as spiritual death — it produces sin.
Wesley, while recognizing that there was deliverance from the Roman 7 experience, misunderstood that deliverance as an eradication of the sinful nature. He did not recognize that the cause of the Roman 7 experience was being under the law, not the sinful nature. And he did not recognize this cause because his explanation of the need for salvation was legalistic (all men are under the law and have sinned by transgressing that law) as was the explanation of Augustine and of the Prostestant Reformers. And Wesley’s understanding of salvation was also legalistic (Christ’s death paid the penalty of sin and justification is the imputation of Christ’s righteousness [merits] to the believer’s account). And his concept of Christian Perfection and Holiness was also a legalistic misinterpretation of the Christian’s relationship to the law.
In chapter 7 of his letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul discusses the Christian’s relationship to the law. This discussion actually begins with the statement in 6:14 (“you are not under law, but under grace.”) which raised the question in 6:15 (“What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?”) and its answer in 6:16 through 6:23. Then Paul says that the Christian is not under law because he has died with Christ to the law (Rom. 7:1-6).
Then Paul discusses the experience of one who is under law. The man in Romans 7:7-24 is the Christian under law. This is not where the Christian should be — he is not under law ( Rom. 6:14) because he is dead to the law (Rom. 7:4, 6). The Christian life depicted in Romans 7 is an abnormal (or subnormal) Christian life; there is no mention of the Holy Spirit in Rom. 7:7-24; the law has taken the place of the Holy Spirit. Such defeat and despair are not characteristic of the normal Christian life depicted in Romans 8 and elsewhere in the New Testament.
For the Christian to be under law is for him to be under the dominion of the law and to be a slave of the law (Rom. 7:25b); this slavery to the law would be equivalent to an idolatry of the law which is basically what legalism is. The Christian becomes entrapped in this legalism when he believes the legalistic teaching that a Christian’s relationship to God depends upon his submission to the law and he has accepted the legalistic claim that the law is the way to be delivered from the dominion of sin. But the law does not deliver from the dominion and slavery of sin, but rather the passions of sin are aroused or energized by the law (Rom. 7:5). The law is not thereby sin (Rom. 7:6), but sin finding opportunity in the commandment “Thou shalt not covet” works all kinds of covetousness (Rom. 7:7-8). The law, instead of delivering from the dominion of sin, leads instead to the enslavement to sin (7:14, 25). Instead of leading to life as legalism promises, the commandment leads to death (7:10). Sin uses the commandment as an opportunity to come alive or active (7:9, 11). The man under law wants to do what is right, but he cannot do it (7:18). Thus legalism leads to the moral dilemma: the contradiction between what man is and what he ought to be (7:19). The end is defeat and despair. In verses 21 to 23 Paul gives the conclusion of his analysis of this dilemma.
“7:21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil is present with me. 7:22 For I delight in the law of God according the inner man, 7:23 but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and taking me captive to the law of sin which is in my members.”
There are three laws operating in this experience.
1. The first law is the law of sin (verse 21). Since sin is not what the man under law wants to do, he concludes that sin must dwell in the members of his body rather than in his real inner self (7:17-20).
2. The second law is the law of God (verse 22) which the man under law delights in, which he agrees with his mind is right, good and holy (7:12, 16); this is “the law of the mind” referred to in the next verse.
3. The third law is the “another law” in verse 23. The Greek word heteros, translated “another,” means “another of a different kind;” not allos – “another of the same kind.” This is a law different from the first two laws; it wars against the law of the mind, which is the law of God, and brings the man who is under law into captivity to the law of sin. What is this third law? In the next verse we find a clue. “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death?” (7:24) The law of death is this third law, this “other law”. And this is confirmed in Romans 8:2 (NAS), which says,
“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.” (Rom. 8:2 ERS).
The law of death brings the man under law into captivity to the law of sin. Death leads to sin; that is, “because of which [death] all sinned” ( Rom. 5:12d). The law separates the man under law from God; this is practically the same as spiritual death. And the man under law sins because he is practically spiritually dead. For the Christian to place himself under law is like placing himself in spiritual death; the law has taken the place of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus and it has the same results as spiritual death — spiritual death produces sin. Romans 7 is not the normal Christian life but is the abnormal or subnormal experience of the believer under law. But if the Christian falls into this legalism, there is deliverance. “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (7:25a).
There are three steps that may be found in Romans 7:25b through 8:4 for deliverance from legalism:
Step 1 – The recognition that legalism is the problem (Rom. 7:25b):
“So then, on the one hand, I myself with my mind am a slave to the law of God,
but on the other hand, with my flesh to the law of sin.” ERS
To be delivered from legalism one must recognize that he himself is a slave to the law and a slave to sin, that is, that he is under the law and sin has dominion over him ( Rom. 6:14).
Step 2 – Deliverance from condemnation (Rom. 8:1):
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” NAS
God delivers from legalism through His word of unconditional love which says that there is no condemnation to those in Christ. This is a word of grace and places the Christian back under grace. Legalism conditions God’s love by our sins. God says that His love is unconditioned by our sins. Therefore God does not condemn us for our failure under the law but delivers us from under law and places us back under grace. For in His love God delivers us from sin and death (Rom. 8:2) and thus from wrath which is condemnation.
Step 3 – Deliverance from law of sin and of death (Rom. 8:2):
“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.” NAS Paul here says that “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” has set him and his readers free from “the law of sin and [the law of] death.” Paul, like other New Testament writers, uses the Greek word nomos (usually translated “law”) in several different ways. The following are some of them.
There are three laws operating in this experience.
- 1. The first 5 books of the Old Testament, the Pentateuch (Matt. 12:5; Luke 2:23-24; 16:16; 24:44; Rom. 3:21b).
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2. The whole Old Testament (Rom.3:19 referring to the passages quoted in Rom.3:10-18 which are not just from the Pentateuch; John 10:34, quoting Psa. 82:6; I Cor. 14:21, quoting Isa. 28:11)
3. The Mosaic covenant that God made with the children of Israel (Exodus 24:1-12; Rom. 2:12; 3:19; 4:13-14; Gal. 3:17-18).
4. The Ten Commandments, the Decalogue (Exodus 20:1-17; Deut. 5:6-21; Matt. 5:18), sometimes improperly called the moral law.
5. All the commandments of God, ceremonial as well as the Ten Commandments; all statutes and ordinances of the law of Moses (Luke 2:22; John 7:23).
6. Teaching, instruction, guidance (Rom. 2:17, 18, 20, 23, 26); compare this with the meaning of the Hebrew word Torah which has the same meaning. As such it is that content of God’s revelation (the Word of the Lord, Deut. 5:5; Psa. 119:43, 160) which makes clear man’s relation to God and to his fellow man. It provides guidance for man’s actions in relation to God and to his fellow man.
7. Any commandment regulating conduct (Rom. 7:7, 8-9).
8. A principle or power of action (Rom. 3:27; 7:21, 23, 25; 8:2).
This last use is the way Paul uses it here in this verse (Rom. 8:2). The Greeks and the Romans believed that the law had the power to force compliance with the law (Cicero, Laws, II, 8-10). In their view the law was a principle or power of action which could by its action bring about what the law prescribed; it was not merely a description of or prescription for some action; the law made the action occur. This is the sense in which Paul speaks of “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” and of “the law of sin” and of “the law of death.” These are not merely descriptions of how the Spirit or death or sin acted; they are powers that act and bring about certain actions. Thus the law or power of action of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus frees us from the law or power of action of sin and of death. In the next verse (Rom. 8:3), Paul says that the law of God is unable to make righteous; it does not have that power of action. And, as Paul indicates in Gal. 3:21, righteousness is not by the law because the law cannot make alive; the law does not have that power action either.“Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not; for if a law which could make alive, then righteousness would indeed be by the law.” (Gal. 3:21)
According to Rom. 8:2, the law or the power of action of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus frees us from the law or power of action of sin and of death. Since death leads to sin, the Spirit delivers from sin by giving us life in Christ which is deliverance from death. The law is not able to do this – it cannot make alive; it is through the death of Christ (Rom. 8:3) who put an end to sin’s reign over us (“condemn sin in the flesh”) by his death for us (Rom. 6:6-10). The result (Rom. 8:4) is that the righteous acts of the law are fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. To walk after the flesh is to try to do the righteous acts of the law by human effort (“the flesh”). The believer must not do it that way. By walking after the Spirit he will fulfill the righteous acts of the law. He will love God with his heart, soul, and mind, with his whole being, and he will love his neighbor as he loves himself.
The doctrine of the sinful nature was introduced into Christian theology by Augustine in the early fifth century A.D. to explain why man can not save himself by his meritorious works. Instead of denying that salvation has anything to do with meritorious works, Augustine assumed that salvation is by meritorious works and he taught that since the fall because of his inherited corrupt or sinful nature, man cannot do meritorious works to earn salvation apart from the grace of God. But Augustine assumption is wrong. According to the Scriptures ( Eph. 2:8-9; Rom. 4:4-5), salvation is not by meritorious works, and the doctrine of the sinful nature is unnecessary to deny that man can save himself. According to the Scriptures, man cannot save himself because he cannot make himself alive, not because he cannot do meritorious works. The law cannot deliver one from death or sin, neither can the law produce life or righteousness ( Gal. 3:21). There is no salvation by the law.
The sinful nature is not needed to explain why man cannot save himself, because the law was not given by God for salvation. God gave the law, not for salvation from sin, but for the knowledge of sin (Rom. 3:19); that is, to show what should be man’s right personal relationship to God and to his fellow men (Deut. 6:5; Lev. 19:18; Matt. 22:37-40). This knowledge does not save man but only shows man what he ought to be but it cannot make him to be that. Salvation is only through Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit, not by the law and by human self-effort (the flesh). Jesus Christ is Life, and he who has Him has life and is alive to God (I John 5:11-12).
Neither is the sinful nature needed to explain the struggle and defeat in Romans 7; the Christian cannot live by the law any more than can he be saved by the law. The law cannot produce righteousness because it cannot make alive; as the Apostle Paul says in Gal. 3:21:
“Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not; for if a law had been given which could make alive, then righteousness would indeed be by the law.” (Gal. 3:21)
The law cannot make alive to God; that is, the law cannot produce a real personal relationship to God of love for and trust in God. Only a real personal relationship to God through Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit can produce righteousness, that is, the right relationship to God and to his fellow man. To try to live the Christian life by the law separates the Christian from God (in spiritual death) and the attempt by human self-effort (by the flesh) to live up to standard of law results in failure and sin. As right and good is the law, God did not give the law as a means of salvation nor to live the Christian life by it. So all attempts to do so will fail, as Romans 7 shows. The sinful nature is not the cause of this failure but the wrong use of the law. Romans 7 shows what happens when the law is used wrongly. The solution to this problem is not to try harder, but to abandon this wrong use of the law. And to turn to God’s way of the Christian life; that is, to walk according to Spirit (by faith), and not according to the flesh (human self-effort) (Rom. 8:4; Gal. 5:25).
The gospel of our salvation is the gospel of the grace of God (Acts 20:24). The salvation announced in the gospel of God is salvation by the grace of God. This stands in opposition to salvation by works; salvation is not by the works of the law (Rom. 3:20; Eph. 2:8-9; Titus 3:5; etc.). Paul contrasts this salvation by grace with salvation by works in Eph. 2:8-9.
“2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, 2:9 not as a result of works, that no one should boast.” (Eph. 2:8-9 NAS)
A salvation by works is earned; it is merited.
“4:4Now to the one who works his wages is not reckoned according to grace [as a gift] but according to debt [something owed since it was earned] 4:5But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness.” (Rom. 4:4-5 ERS).
The works that are supposed to earn salvation are more than just good works (good deeds or acts); they are meritorious works; they are good deeds that earn salvation. Each good work is regarded as having a certain quantity of merit attached to it; when the good work is done, the merit is imputed or reckoned to the account of the person performing the act. Correspondingly, each evil or bad work is regarded as having a certain quantity of demerit or negative merit (penalty) attached to it so that the demerit is reckoned to the account of the person doing the evil work (sin). At the final judgment each person’s account is balanced — the merits and demerits are weighed against each other. If the merit outweighs the demerit, that person is saved — he has earned eternal life. If the demerit outweighs the merit, that person is condemned — he is punished eternally for his sins. This merit scheme underlies and is implied by all teaching that salvation is by works.
The Bible very clearly teaches that salvation is not by works ( Eph. 2:8-9; Titus 3:5). Salvation is the gift of God, by His grace received through faith. Man cannot be saved by his meritorious good works; he cannot earn salvation by his works. This is the clear and explicit teaching of Scripture. Salvation by grace and salvation by meritorious works are mutually exclusive and opposing ways of salvation.
“But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would longer be grace.” (Rom. 11:6 NAS)
Now, if we ask why man cannot be saved by his works, that is, what is the reason man cannot earn salvation by his meritorious works, the usual answer given to this question is that apart from God’s grace man is not able to do good works by which he can earn salvation. Man, it is usually said, is not only not able to do good works, but he is able only to sin apart from the grace of God.
Now, the curious implication of this answer is that if a man were able to do good works — able not sin — then he could earn salvation and be saved by his meritorious works. This implication is made explicit in the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church since the time of Augustine in the early fifth century, that by the grace of God, which is infused into a man at his baptism, and renewed by the sacraments, he is able to do good works by which salvation (eternal life) may be earned. Accordingly, salvation is ultimately and fundamentally by works even though the grace of God makes possible the meritorious works.
It was this teaching that the Protestant Reformers opposed. They rejected the idea that grace was something infused into man to make it possible for him to earn salvation. Grace, said the Reformers, is God’s unmerited favor, and salvation (eternal life) was a gift to be received by faith. But, they said, that eternal life was earned by the active obedience of Christ during his life on earth. This “merits of Christ” is imputed to the believer’s account when he first believes in Christ. Thus salvation is still ultimately and fundamentally by meritorious works. It is true that they said that it was not by our works and it was a gift received by faith. But salvation was still by works — not by our works but by the meritorious works of another, Jesus Christ. Christ by his active obedience earned for us eternal life. It is a vicarious salvation by works. This explanation of salvation like the earlier Roman Catholic explanation mixes grace and works, which Paul says cannot be done or grace will no longer be grace ( Rom. 11:6). And as it turned out in the history of Protestantism, the strong dynamic Biblical concept of God’s grace as God’s love in action ( Eph. 2:4-5) is reduced to the weak idea of grace as unmerited favor. The Protestant Reformers redefined grace as unmerited favor to counter the Roman Catholic explanation that by the sacraments the grace of God makes possible the meritorious works by which salvation (eternal life) may be earned.
Salvation is not by meritorious works, not because a man is not able to do them, but because God does not deal with mankind on the basis of the merit scheme. As Jesus made clear in his parable of the householder (Matt. 20:1-16), God does not act toward us on the basis of our merit but on the basis of His generosity. And because God does not treat mankind according to their desserts, but according to His love, He often puts the least deserving before the more deserving. “The last will be first and the first last.” (Matt. 20:16; 19:30; Mark 10:31; Luke 13:30)
The Apostle Paul in opposing salvation by works refers to meritorious works as “the righteousness of the law” (Rom. 10:5; Phil. 3:6, 9) and as “the works of the law” (Rom. 3:20; 4:2-5; Gal. 3:2, 5, 10). The law was legalistically considered to be the standard by which the merits of good works can be determined. This is a distortion of the Mosaic law and is a characteristic of legalism.
Furthermore, in Augustine’s teaching, grace is reduced to something that enables the human will to do good works so that it can earn salvation. These views of Augustine concerning salvation follow from his view of human nature as sinful or corrupt. The Calvinist Reformers denied this view of grace and sees grace as the unmerited favor of God in which God gives to the elect the righteousness or merits earned for them by Christ’s active obedience. That is, God in Christ has earned for them the salvation that they themselves cannot earned because of their sinful nature. But the Calvinist is wrong; righteousness is not merit but right personal relationship to God through faith.
“4:4Now to the one who works his wages is not reckoned according to grace [as a gift] but according to debt [something owed since it was earned] 4:5But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness.” (Rom. 4:4-5 ERS).
And God puts man into this right personal relationship to Himself by His grace, not by vicarious meritorious works earned for them by another. The grace of God is not just the unmerited favor of God, but it is the love of God in action to save man from death to life.
“2:4 But God who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, 2:5 even when were dead in our failures, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)” (Eph. 2:4-5 ERS).
According to these verses, the grace of God is God’s love in action. And God’s grace is more than just His favor; it is His love acting to do something good for us. The parallelism between the phrase in the last part of verse 5, “(by grace you have been saved)” and the phrase in verse 4 and in the first part of verse 5, “God…out of the great love with which He loved us…made us alive together with Christ”, shows that the grace of God by which we are saved is God’s love acting to make us alive together with Christ. That is, this salvation by the grace of God is salvation from death to life. And since this salvation from death to life is by the love of God, then the grace of God that saves us is God’s love in action to save us. Now God’s love in action to save us is more than His favor. And since God’s love in action to save us is more than His favor, then the grace of God is more than just His favor. That is, the grace of God is God’s love in action, not just His favor.
And because He loves us, He has acted to save us from death to life.
Calvinism’s view of salvation is monergistic, that is, God alone is active in salvation, because it believes that since man’s nature is sinful and man does what his nature is, then all the acts of man are sinful and he cannot do any righteous act to earn salvation. Therefore, God alone must earn it for him. Calvinism, denying the Augustinian view that God does these meritorious acts by the grace of God that man receives from God through the sacraments, asserts that God alone does these meritorious acts through the active obedience of Christ; Christ has earned salvation for us. God alone is active in man’s salvation. Not only is the grace of God the work of God but so is faith, since salvation is “by grace through faith” ( Eph. 2:8). According to the Calvinistic doctrine of irresistble grace, the faith that receives the grace of God is also the work of God. But the phrase in Eph. 2:8, “and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God”, refers to salvation and not to faith. In the Greek of this verse, the demonstrative pronoun translated “that” agrees in gender (masculine) with the verbal participle translated “have been saved”, and not with the noun translated “faith” which is feminine. Salvation is the gift which is received by faith, not earned by meritorious works. Even though faith is the act or choice of man, it is not a meritorious work which can earn salvation.
The Protestant Reformers rejected the Roman teaching that grace is given by the sacraments to enable the will of man to earn his salvation by meritorious works and they taught that salvation is by grace through faith and that the grace of God regenerated the believer, giving him a new nature, by which he can do good works, but not to earn salvation and eternal life (Christ had earned this for them by His active obedience), but to show that they are saved and regenerated. According to their teaching, the believer has two natures, a sinful nature and a new nature, and the experience recorded in Romans 7 was interpreted as the struggle between these two natures. This legalistic explanation of salvation and of the Christian life leaves the believer under the law, and under the dominion of sin ( Rom. 6:14). And this legalistic explanation of Romans 7 also leaves the believer with no deliverance from this struggle, contrary to the clear teaching of Scirpture that there is deliverance:
“7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? 7:25a I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Rom. 7:24-25a KJV)
The views of Augustine and Calvinism, as well as Welsey’s, totally depersonalize salvation, grace and faith. The Biblical view, on the other hand, is totally personal and dynamic; the grace of God is God’s love in action to bring man into a personal relationship with God Himself and faith is man choosing to enter into that personal relationship. Spiritual and eternal life is this personal relationship between God and man, where the grace of God is God’s side of the relationship and faith is man’s side of the relationship. God initiates the personal relationship and a man must choose to enter into that personal relationship by faith, trusting God and His love. Salvation is not a monergism, where God does all that is needed to earn salvation, nor is it a synergism, where God’s act of grace enables the will of man to earn salvation. Salvation is God’s act where the grace of God initiates the personal relationship and man’s act of faith is the response to God’s act. This personal relationship has nothing to do with earning something by meritorious works. Neither is the grace of God an enabling of man to do meritorious works, nor is the faith of man a meritorious work. Grace and faith are just the two sides of the personal relationship between God and man; grace is God’s side initiating the relationship and faith is man’s side of the personal relationship in response to God’s grace receiving the gift of life that God’s grace gives.
The Christian life is the continuation of this personal relationship where the believer walks by faith and acts upon the basis of God’s sustaining grace and the personal guidance and empowering of the Holy Spirit. Grace and faith are relational concepts and are not just properties of either God or man. The grace of God is God acting in His love toward man and faith is man choosing to trust God and His love. Because of their underlying legalism, the views of Augustine and the Protestant Reformers obscured and distorted this Biblical view of salvation and of the Christian life.
Salvation by works is one aspect of legalism which attempts to understand the relationship between God and man in terms of the law. Legalism is not just having a lot of do’s and don’ts, rules and regulations. It is a misunderstanding of the rules and regulations and of the law of God. The law of God is not legalism; it was the covenant relationship between God and the people of Israel. In the Old Testament, Israel was not saved by meritorious works of the law; they were not under the law but in a covenant relationship to God (see the Greek of Romans 2:12 and 3:19). Legalism attempts to put all men under the law; that is, to define man’s relationship to God in terms of the law. And in particular, legalism attempts to put the Christian under the law (contrary to Rom. 6:14).
Legalism is the cause of many problems in the church. It is the cause of a dead orthodoxy and a cold, unloving Christianity. To correct these effects of legalism there have arisen in the church various movements such as pietism, the evangelical awakening, the deeper life movement, revivalism, etc. None of these movements went to the source of the deadness, coldness and unlovableness but often just reinforced the cause — legalism. The great outpouring of the Spirit starting at the beginning of the twentieth century has been constantly burdened and limited by the frequent relapses into the same legalism. And the source of the legalism in practice is the legalism of the theology. Practical legalism is the result of theological legalism. The problem is not too much theology but bad theology, legalistic theology. This theological legalism has misunderstood the Gospel of our salvation. With the present move of the Spirit, the time has come to remove the cause of this practical legalism by clearing the theological legalism out of our theology and again recovering the Bibical understanding of the Gospel of our salvation. Such a theological renewal should be the natural accompaniment of the move of the Spirit of God today and could produce a reformation comparable to the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century. This paper is an attempt to contribute to such a theological renewal.