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CHAPTER 7
THE BIBLICAL DOCTRINE OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE
CONTINUED
What is the relationship of the Christian to sin? Because the Christian has died with Christ and has been raised with Him into new life to God, he is no longer a slave to sin but to God and to righteousness (Rom. 6:1-10). He is to reckon himself to be dead to sin with Christ and alive to God in Christ (Rom. 6:11). He is therefore to stop letting sin reign as a slave master in his mortal body to obey its desires (Rom. 6:12 ERS). Neither is he to present the member of his body as instruments of unrighteousness to sin as a slave master but he is to present himself to God as one who has been brought him from death to life and the members of his body to God as instruments of righteousness.
“6:11 So you also must reckoned yourselves to be dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. 6:12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their desires. 6:13 Do not yield your member to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but yield yourselves to God as men who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments of righteousness.” (Rom. 6:11-13 ERS)
According to this passage, and others, the Christian does not have to sin and should not sin. Christ has saved him from sin as well as from death. Christ has set him free from the slavery of sin. He can sin but he does not have to sin. He does not have a sinful nature that makes him sin or because of which he will sin. He is free to sin or not to sin. And if a Christian sins, it is because he chooses to sin, not because his sinful nature makes him do it. But why do Christians choose to sin? The scriptural answer to this question is twofold:
(1) because he yields to the temptations of the world (I John 2:15-17), of the desires of the flesh (James 1:13-14) and of the Devil (I Cor. 7:5), or
(2) because he is “under law” (Rom. 6:14 ERS); that is, he is trying to live or walk by the law. This is legalism and in Romans 7 Paul explains what happens when a Christian becomes entrapped in this legalism. He is under law and sin has lordship over him.
“For sin shall not have lordship over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” (Rom. 6:14 ERS).
That is, if you are under law, sin will have lordship over you. And legalism puts you under law and sin as a slave master has lordship over you. Therefore, legalism causes sin and when legalism tries to solve this problem of sin in the Christian life, it fails. Then it tries to explain its failure by blaming sin on the sinful nature. The real cause of the problem is not the sinful nature but the legalism, that is, being under law. The Christian will sin when he is placed under law ( Rom. 6:14 ERS and Rom. 7:18-19). The doctrine of the sinful nature contributes to this problem. Christians, who believe that they have a sinful nature, expects that they will sin; and, of course, they will do what they expect to do. Again, Christians do not have a sinful nature and they do not have to sin. The temptation to sin is not sin and the tendency to sin is not the sinful nature; the desires of the body are not inherently sinful. God created them and placed them in man’s body. But man must not become a slave to them. God in Christ’s death and resurrection has provided deliverance from the slavery to them. God has given us His Spirit to implement this deliverance.
Let us now examine the Biblical theology of Romans 7.
“7:7 What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet, if it had not been for the law, I should not have known sin. I should not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’ 7:8 But sin, finding opportunity in the commandment, wrought in me all kinds of covetousness. Apart from the law sin lies dead. 7:9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died; 7:10 and the very commandment which was for life I found to be death to me. 7:11 For sin, finding opportunity in the commandment, deceived me and by it killed me. 7:12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good. 7:13 Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! It was sin, working death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. 7:14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin. 7:15 I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 7:16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. 7:17 So then it is not longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me. 7:18 For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. 7:19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. 7:20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me.” (Rom. 7:7-20 ERS)
Although some Christian theologians have interpreted this struggle of Romans chapter 7 as the normal Christian life, other Christian theologians reject this interpretation of the Romans 7 experience and teach either a second work of grace that eradicates the sinful nature from the Christian, delivering him from the Romans 7 experience, or the suppression of the works of the flesh (sinful nature) by the power of the Holy Spirit. But in either case, the Christian is still left under the law as a rule and standard of life and the “walk in the Spirit” is interpreted as nothing more than Spirit-empowered law-keeping. According to this teaching, the Holy Spirit is given to the Christian to empower him to keep the law and to make him morally perfect, conforming to the divine standard given in the law. This legalistic interpretation of the Christian life is the source of many of the psychological problems that Christians have today.
Legalism has either of two psychological effects on the person in bondage to the law. He becomes either self-righteous or afflicted with a guilt complex.
1. This self-righteousness is a special form of pride which is the chief by-product of idolatry (Psa. 40:4). It is most often connected with the externalization and detailed extensions of the law. It expresses itself in the attitude of the Pharisees who keep the minutiae of the law but overlook the spirit of the law (Matt. 15:1-19). Also the legalist is not only self-righteous but sits in judgment on others who do not conform to the law and has little place for mercy. He becomes like the god he acknowledges and worships — the law. When he is shown mercy, he does not in turn show mercy to those in his debt (Matt. 18:23-35).
2. The second psychological effect of legalism is a guilt complex. If the legalist does not become self-righteous, then he usually becomes afflicted with a guilt complex. This psychological effect is most often connected with the quantitization of the law. Since he cannot know the precise amount of merit attached to each good deed or how much he has acquired, a legalist has no certainty. In addition, no matter how well he has lived, it is always possible for him to slip into a terrible sin whose demerit will outweigh all his merit. As a result of this uncertainty, the legalist is led to look constantly within himself to see whether he measures up to the divine standard, the law, which he has chosen as his ultimate criterion. If he believes himself constantly falling short of this standard, he will develop a guilt complex.
This second psychological effect of legalism is the most common among Christians who have been misled into legalism. Because of the intense desire placed by God in the believer to please God, the Christian entrapped in legalism internalizes the law, applying it not only to external actions but to every thought and motive as well as every word and deed. Because of the sin resulting from legalism (legalism itself is sin — the sin of idolatry of the law), the guilt accompanying this sin is added to all the imagined guilt of the evil thoughts and motives resulting from close, detailed introspection. The result is often a very intense guilt complex bordering on the neurotic. Because of the widespread legalistic teaching in Christian churches, it is not surprising that so many Christians are afflicted with such guilt complexes.
The moral and ethical result of legalism is the moral dilemma: the contradiction between what man is and what he ought to be. Since man under law falls short of the ideal of moral perfection, the standard of righteousness, the law, he is faced with the disparity between the real and the ideal self, between what he is and what he ought to be. The Christian statement of this dilemma is given classic expression by the Apostle Paul in his famous analysis of the experience of the man under law in Romans chapter 7 —
“For the good that I would do, I do not. But the evil which I would not, that I do.” (Rom. 7:19 ERS) This predicament has led the legalistic theologians to conclude that sin is intrinsic to human nature. Rabbinic Judaism, for example, developed the theory of the evil nature or “yetzer hara.” Augustine used the doctrine of original sin (originale peccatum) or inherited inborn sinful nature to explain why men always fall short of the divine standard. But this doctrinal expedient of the sinful nature is unnecessary since the moral dilemma can be explained by the fact that the law cannot make alive and therefore cannot produce righteousness ( Gal. 3:21). The purpose of the law is the knowledge of sin (Rom. 3:19), not salvation. To attempt to live the Christian life by the law is to misuse the law and is to place the Christian under the law. The man under law, who looks to it to save him from sin and give him life ( Rom. 7:10), finds that the law cannot save him, but on the contrary discovers that the law arouses sin.
“While we were in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit to death.”
(Rom. 7:5 ERS)
Thus being under law becomes the opportunity for sin which results in death ( Rom. 7:8-11). Thus legalism (being under law) produces the opposite from what it intended. This is like other forms of idolatry; a false god always betrays its worshippers into the very opposite of what they expected from the false god (Isa. 44:9, 10; 45:16, 17, 20, 21). The man under law, who practically deifies the law ( Rom. 7:22, 25b) and looks to it to save him from sin and give him life ( Rom. 7:10), finds that the law cannot save him, but on the contrary he discovers that the law arouses sin ( Rom. 7:15) and becomes opportunity for sin which results in death ( Rom. 7:8-11).
And not only that, but also since death (primarily spiritual death) leads to sin (Rom. 5:12d ERS), the man under law is practically in spiritual death (the law separates him from God), and sin is the result of that death. This is what the Apostle Paul concludes at the end of his discussion of the legalistic struggle in Romans 7.
“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 to 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.” (Rom. 7:21-23 ERS)
There are three laws presented here in this passage. 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 ( Rom. 7:17-20).
1. 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 ( Rom. 7:12, 16), and is “the law of the mind” in the next verse 23.
2. 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 but warring against the law of the mind — the law of God — and bringing the man under law into captivity to the law of sin. What is this third law? In the next verse 24, we get a clue.
“Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death” (Rom. 7:24).
The law of death is this third law, this other law. And this is confirmed in Romans 8:2 which says,
“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and of death.” (Rom. 8:2 NAS)
The law of death brings the man under law into captivity to the law of sin. That is, death leads to sin; “because of which [death] all sinned” (Rom. 5:12d ERS). “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law” (I Cor. 15:55 ERS).
No sinful nature is necessary to explain the moral dilemma; the man under law sins because he is practically spiritually dead; the law separates him from God. And the law cannot make alive ( Gal. 3:21). For the Christian to place himself under the law is the same as placing himself in spiritual death; it has the same results — sin. For the Christian under law, the law has taken the place of the Holy Spirit; the law thus separates the Christian from God. Romans chapter 7 is not the normal Christian life; it is the struggle of the man under law, entrapped in the bondage of legalism. And if the Christian falls into this legalism, there is deliverance. “Thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 7:25a).
There are three steps for deliverance from legalism that may be found in Romans 7:25b through 8:4.
“7:25b So then, I myself am a slave to the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin.” 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. 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. 8:3 For what the law could not do, in that it is weakened through the flesh, God Himself, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and concerning sin, condemned sin in the flesh, 8:4 in order that the righteous acts of law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” (ERS)
1. 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 lordship over him ( Rom. 6:14 ERS).
2. 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 from death (Rom. 8:2 NAS) and thus from wrath which is condemnation.
3. Step 3 – Deliverance from sin and 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.
a. The first 5 books of the Old Testament, the Pentateuch (Matt. 12:5; Luke 2:23-24; 16:16; 24:44; Rom. 3:21b).
b. 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)
c. 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).
d. The Ten Commandments, the Decalogue (Exodus 20:1-17; Deut. 5:6-21; Matt. 5:18), sometimes improperly called the moral law.
e. 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).
f. 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.
g. Any commandment regulating conduct ( Rom. 7:7, 8-9).
h. A principle or power of action (Rom. 3:27; 7:21, 23, 25b; 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. 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 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.
Legalism makes a problem of the Christian life because the law separates us from God and leads us to trust in ourselves and our good works rather than in Him. This is the practical effect of the legalistic theory of Christ’s death — it does not work. Where is the victory of Christ’s resurrection in the struggle of Romans 7? Only as we are delivered from being under the law (we died to the law in Christ’s death: Rom. 7:4) and are set free from the law of sin and of death by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus ( Rom. 8:2 NAS), do we experience the resurrection victory of Christ over sin and death.
The Christian life is not Spirit-empowered law-keeping, that is, being under the law and coming up to standard of the law by the power of the Spirit. For the believer is not under law ( Rom. 6:14) because he is dead to the law ( Rom. 7:4, 6). Thus the walk according the Spirit is not Spirit-empowered law-keeping, but Spirit-filled law-fulfilling by love ( Rom. 8:4; 13:10); it is a joyful walk filled with the Spirit, trusting Him who loves us and gave Himself for us. And is a law necessary when we love and trust God? The law is for those who do not love and trust God — though it will not save them — the law cannot make them alive and it cannot produce righteousness.
“Is the law against the promises of God? Certainly not; for if a law had been given which can make alive, then righteousness would indeed by the law.” (Gal. 3:21).
For if the law could make them alive as the legalist tries to tells us — then Christ died in vain (Gal. 2:21). Salvation is not by works of the law — in any way, shape or form. Salvation is by grace — God’s love in action to make us alive in Christ through faith, through trust in Him who loves us and gave Himself for us.
God accomplishes our salvation through Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit. Having raised Jesus from the dead and having exalted Him to His own right hand to be both Lord and Christ (Acts 2:33, 36; Eph. 2:20-22; Phil. 2:9-11), God has sent the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:33) to bring life to men (John 3:5-8) by revealing personally to them (John 15:26) Jesus as their Savior who died for them and as their Lord who was raised for them (Rom. 10:9-10; Titus 3:4-7; II Tim. 1:9-10). When a man responds to this revelation by turning from his false gods (repentance) and turning to the true God (I Thess. 1:10), acknowledging Jesus as his Lord (faith), he is saved (Acts 2:38; 16:31). Apart from God and His grace revealing Jesus Christ to him by the Holy Spirit, a man will not repent and believe (conversion) (John 6:44, 65; 16:7-11). Baptism is an outward sign of this inward work of God’s grace.
There are three tenses of salvation:
1. the past tense of salvation – “we were saved”
(Rom. 8:24; Eph. 2:5, 8; II Tim. 1:8; Titus 3:5);
2. the present tense of salvation – “we are being saved”
(I Cor. 1:18; 15:3; II Cor. 2:15);
3. the future tense of salvation – “we shall be saved”
(Matt. 10:22; Rom. 5:9; compare Rom. 13:11; I Thess. 1:10; Heb. 9:28).
In the past tense of salvation which occurs at conversion, salvation occurs in a decision of faith. This decision of faith involves at least three elements.
1. First, faith is the acknowledgment of the Lordship of Christ and allegiance to Him as Lord.
“9 Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For one believes with his heart unto righteousness, and he confesses with his mouth unto salvation.”
(Rom. 10:9-10 ERS)
Unless we believe that Jesus is risen from the dead, He cannot be our Lord. Faith in general is not just belief that certain statements are true but is the commitment of one’s self and giving of one’s allegiance to something or someone as one’s own personal ultimate criterion of all decisions, intellectual and moral. Saving faith in Jesus Christ is the commitment of one’s self to Jesus Christ as one’s own personal ultimate criterion (“My Lord and my God,” John 20:28). The living person, the resurrected Jesus Christ, not just what He taught, becomes our criterion of the true, the good, and the beautiful (John 14:6). As our living Lord, His will becomes the criterion of all our decisions, intellectual and moral. By the Holy Spirit, His will is personally communicated to us (John 14:15-17, 26; 15:26; 16:12-15; II Cor. 3:17-18; I John 2:26-27).
2. Second, faith is identification with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. As our Savior He died for us and was raised for us (II Cor. 5:14-15). So in faith we say, “His death is my death; His resurrection is my resurrection.”
“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (Gal. 2:20; see also Rom. 6:5-11; Eph. 2:4-6; Col. 3:1-4)
Baptism is the outward sign and symbol of this identification and participation with Christ in His death and resurrection (Rom. 6:3-4; Col. 2:12).
3. Third, faith is the reception of life in Christ. Jesus said,
“Truly, truly I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life; he does not come into judgment but has passed from death to life.” (John 5:24; see also John 3:36; Rom. 5:17)
Having in the decision of faith identified ourselves with the death and resurrection of Jesus and having acknowledged the resurrected living Jesus as Lord, we have also received spiritual life. For Jesus Christ is life, and to have Him is to be spiritually alive to God.
“11 And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 He who has the Son has life; he who has not the Son has not life.” (I John 5:11-12)
Fellowship with God is restored (I John 1:3) and we are reconciled to God (II Cor. 5:18). We are born again (John 3:3; Titus 3:5) and have become new creatures in Christ Jesus (II Cor. 5:17).
But this decision of faith is only the beginning of the Christian life. Being made alive in Christ, we have become members of His body (I Cor. 12:12-13). Not only is our fellowship with God restored, but also our fellowship with our fellow man. The barrier is removed and we are no longer separated and alienated from one another (Eph. 2:19). We are no longer spiritually isolated from one another. All those who have acknowledged Jesus Christ as Lord and have received Him as their life together form a new community or society, His body, of which He is the head (Col. 1:18). In His body, we know the reality of God’s love and are able to love one another because He first loved us (I John 4:11, 19) and has poured His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which He has given to us (Rom. 5:5). Since the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus ( Rom. 8:2), when we received life in Christ, we also received the Holy Spirit ( Rom. 8:9).
The Christian life is a life of fellowship and communion with God the Father through Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit (I Cor. 1:9; II Cor. 13:14; I John 1:3). Through Jesus Christ, we have access in one Spirit to the Father (Eph. 2:18; Rom. 5:2; Heb. 10:19-22). God speaks to us through the written and spoken Word of God and we speak to Him in prayer. The Christian life is also a walk of faith. It not only begins in faith, but it continues in faith (Col. 2:6). The walk in the Spirit is the walk of faith (Gal. 2:20; 5:25). Faith in the Father who loves me; faith in Jesus Christ with whom I have died and have been raised to new life; faith in the Holy Spirit who dwells within me. The Christian life is also a life of being transformed into and conformed to the image of God (Rom. 8:29; II Cor. 3:18). The resurrected God-man, the Son of man, Jesus Christ, is the image of God (Col. 1:15; II Cor. 4:4). By the last Adam, the man from heaven, man is being restored to the image of God. In faith, we have put on the new man which is being renewed according to the image of Him who created him (Col. 3:10; Eph. 4:23-24).
The Christian life is the present tense of salvation. We have been saved from death unto life, from sin unto righteousness, from wrath unto peace. But this salvation is not yet complete. It has begun for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:24), and it is still continuing (I Cor. 15:2; see also I Cor. 1:18 and II Cor. 2:15). But it is not yet finished. With hope, we await its completion (Rom. 5:9; 8:25; Gal. 5:5). We are in between the times: the time of His first coming and the time of His second coming. Our spirits are now alive to God and to those in Christ, but our bodies are still dead.
“But if Christ is in you, although your bodies are dead because of sin, your spirits are alive because of righteousness.” (Rom. 8:10).
Our bodies are still subject to the spiritual and physical death that came from Adam’s sin. Only by the quickening power of the Holy Spirit of God who dwells within us can we now experience physical healing and control of the passions and desires of the flesh.
“8:11 If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will make alive your mortal bodies also through His Spirit which dwells in you. 8:12 So then, brethern, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh — 8:13 for if you live according to the flesh, you about to die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the practices of the body, you will live.” (Rom. 8:11-13 ERS).
This salvation of the body from death is not now total or complete and will not be until Christ returns. But neither is the salvation from sin to righteousness complete. The faith that we have in Him who raised Jesus from the dead, this faith is “about to be reckoned” to us for righteousness, even as Abraham’s faith was reckoned (Rom. 4:23-24). But our righteousness is not complete. Our faith is weak, and not all things we do are done according to trust and faith in the true God. We have many hangovers from our existence in death apart from Christ. This old man must be put off (Eph. 4:22-24; Col. 3:5-10) with its many evil practices. This can be done by the power of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Gal. 5:16-17, 24) as we walk in the Spirit by faith. The Christian can sin but he does not have to sin. The Christian is dead to the slavery of sin with Christ and is now alive to God in Christ (Rom. 6:1-10). He is to reckon this to be true and yield his members not to sin but to God as instruments of righteousness (Rom. 6:11-13). Temptations to sin still exist, but God has provided a way of escape (I Cor. 10:13).
Legalism is a temptation and an obstacle to the walk in the Spirit by faith. As good and right as the law is ( Rom. 7:12), this law is not man’s highest good, and observing the Ten Commandments is not man’s righteousness. God Himself is man’s highest good, and trust in and love for God is his righteousness. This love fulfills the law ( Rom. 13:8-10), which a legalistic living by the law does not do. Man’s basic problem is not “Are you keeping the law?” but “Which god are you trusting?” Is it the true God or is it a false one? This is not just the problem of the non-Christian and the unbeliever but also the problem of the Christian. Many psychological problems that Christians have are the result of a divided loyalty. They are trying to hang onto the true God and a false god at the same time. This double-mindedness, this divided faith (James 1:7-8) makes a Christian psychologically and morally unstable and hinders his walk with the Lord.
And strange as it may seem, this is the situation behind the Romans 7 kind of experience of many Christians. As we observed above, the experience of Romans 7 is the experience of the man under law. And if a Christian is having this kind of experience, it is because he has placed himself under the law which God says he is not under, for he is under grace ( Rom. 6:14). The man under law is attempting to serve two masters at the same time: the law and the Holy Spirit. And it cannot be done ( Gal. 5:18). It only creates psychological and moral problems: guilt on the inside and sin and failure on the outside. Being indwelt by the Holy Spirit, the Christian does not need to walk by the law but by the Spirit. The Christian’s goal is not moral perfection but the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23). The Apostle Paul’s question in Galatians 3:3 is particularly relevant and right to the point: “Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?”
Paul’s obvious answer to this rhetorical question is “No“. For “as you… have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him” (Col. 2:6). Moral perfection is perfection by the flesh, by the works of the law, and is contrary and opposed to the fruit of the Spirit and the righteousness of faith (Gal. 5:19-21). The weakness, if not the error, of most Christian preaching and teaching is that it is an exhortation of the Christian to perfection by the flesh, by the works of the law. Having begun in the Spirit, the Christian is urged to seek moral perfection. The Holy Spirit is brought into this kind of preaching, if at all, as the source of power to enable the Christian to keep the law. This Spirit-empowered law-keeping is not what Paul means when he speaks of “walking according to the Spirit” ( Rom. 8:4; see also Gal. 5:16, 25). To walk by the Spirit is to be led by the Spirit, and if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
“But if you are led by the Spirit you are not under the law.” (Gal. 5:18).
To walk according to the Spirit is to make all one’s decisions with reference to the Holy Spirit as He personally guides, fills and empowers the believer. The walk in the Spirit is the moment by moment walk of faith and personal trust in the God who personally by His Holy Spirit reveals and communicates Himself along each step of that walk. The “normal” Christian life is this walk according to the Spirit and it is not a legalistic Spirit-empowered law-keeping, but a biblical Spirit-filled law-fulfilling by love ( Rom. 8:4; 13:10).
Christian legalism not only ignores the clear statements of the Scriptures that the Christian is not under law ( Rom. 6:14), but also the equally clear statements of the Scriptures that the Christian is dead to the law.
“Likewise, my brethren, you 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 to God.” (Rom. 7:4; Gal 2:19)
Not only is the Christian dead to sin but he is also dead to the law. Through Christ’s death, he has died to sin and to the law, and now in the resurrected Christ he is alive to God.
“But now we are discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive, so that we serve not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit.” (Rom. 7:6)
The Christian has passed from under the reign of death and sin unto reigning in life in Christ Jesus (Rom. 5:17). The law was the rule in the dispensation of death (II Cor. 3:6-7); the letter kills and the law condemns. The Holy Spirit is the rule of life in the new dispensation of life (II Cor. 3:17-18). Since the Spirit gives life (II Cor. 3:6), the dispensation of life is the dispensation of the Spirit (II Cor. 3:8), the Era of the Spirit. Since the Christian has passed from death to life, he has passed from the rule of the law to the rule of the Spirit. The law as the rule of Christian life has no place in the Era of the Spirit. And if the law has no place in the Era of the Spirit, legalism as an idolatry and misunderstanding of the law has no place in the Era of the Spirit either.
1. BEING FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT.
2. THE BAPTISM WITH THE SPIRIT.
3. MISUNDERSTANDING OF THE BAPTISM WITH THE SPIRIT.
True Christians (not nominal Christians, in name only) have the Holy Spirit. True Christians have accepted Christ and put their faith in Him and His death and resurrection. And as such, they have received the Holy Spirit. He is the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus ( Rom. 8:2). To be born again and to be alive to God is by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit does this by revealing Christ and convicting (convincing) the unsaved of their need for Christ (John 16:7-11); The Spirit presents Christ to the unbeliever in the preaching of the Gospel. To receive Christ is also to receive the Holy Spirit. Paul says in Romans 8:9 to the believers at Rome,
“But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. If anyone have not the Spirit of Christ, this one is not his.” (Rom. 8:9)
To be “in the Spirit” is to be saved, and to be “in the flesh” is to be unsaved ( Romans 7:5). But not everyone who has the Spirit dwelling in him is filled with Spirit; some are not “walking according to the Spirit”, but “according to the flesh” ( Romans 8:4; Gal. 5:16, 25). And to walk according to the flesh is to attempt to live the Christian life by human self-effort alone apart from the Spirit of God; such ones attempt to live up to the divine standard in the law. Thus they are under law and thus experience only defeat and frustration ( Rom. 6:14 ERS and Rom. 7:18-19). They are trying to do what only the Holy Spirit can enable them to do. To be under law is to walk according the flesh (by human self-effort). To walk according to the Spirit and to be led by the Spirit is not to be under law ( Gal. 5:18). Those who walk according the Spirit bring forth the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit cannot be had apart from the Spirit; no human effort can produce that fruit. But those who walk according the Spirit fulfill the law without being under law.
“13:8 Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. 13:9 The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery, You shall not kill, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,’ and any other commandment, are summed uup in this sentence, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 13:10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” (Rom. 13:8-10).
The goal is not moral or sinless perfection (conforming to the divine standard in the law) but love: love of God and love of our neighbor. This goal can be reached only if one is filled with the Spirit (Eph. 5:18-20).
And a Christian is filled with the Spirit if he has been baptized with the Holy Spirit. The baptism with the Holy Spirit has been misunderstood as the second work of grace that eradicates the sinful nature. This is not what the phrase means in the New Testament. The phrase “to baptize with the Holy Spirit” was first used by John the Baptist (Matt. 3:11; Mark 1:8; Luke 3:16; John 1:33) of Him Who was to come after John, that is, the Christ or Messiah. Luke reports in Acts that the risen Jesus said,
“John baptized with water, but before many days you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 1:5).
This is obviously a reference to the coming of the Holy Spirit at the first Pentecost, of which Jesus also said,
“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
This baptism with the Holy Spirit was an empowerment for service, to be His witnesses. Later, Peter refers to Pentecost as the baptism with the Spirit when he explains what happened at the conversion of Cornelius, the centurion:
“11:15 As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning. 11:16 And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 11:17 If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God?” (Acts 11:15-17).
How did Peter recognize that Holy Spirit had fallen on them and that they had received the gift of the Spirit? Because the same thing happened to them that happened to Peter and the others at Pentecost, they spoke with other tongues or languages (Acts 2:4; 9:44-47). This sign of the baptism with the Spirit of Cornelius, and those with him, was also the sign to Peter, and those with him, that the Spirit was also given to the Gentiles. Luke also refers to the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost as being filled with the Spirit;
“2:3 And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them. 2:4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:3-4).
This coming of the Holy Spirit to them, which is the baptism with the Spirit, is the initial in-filling of the Spirit. Later, they were again filled with Spirit (Acts 4:31). We believe that each believer, like these first believers, may be baptized with the Spirit as the initial in-filling of the Holy Spirit and may be refilled with the Spirit as the Spirit sees fit. Paul exhorted the Ephesian believers to be filled with the Spirit (Eph. 5:18). If anyone objects to the use of the phrase “baptized with the Spirit” to refer to this initial filling of the Spirit, I will not quibble with him, as long as he recognizes that Christian believers should be filled with the Spirit and that there must be a first filling of the Spirit which may occur at conversion or later. Whether one speaks in tongues at this first filling of the Spirit, which one may do as the Spirit leads, is between him (or her) and the Spirit. But I will tell you that if anyone makes an issue with God of not speaking with tongues, he may not be filled the Spirit until he yields. This yielding to the Spirit is the necessary condition for being filled with Spirit. Paul makes it clear in his letter to Romans that presenting our bodies and its members to God is the logical implication of our acknowledgment of Jesus as Lord and Savior ( Rom. 6:13; 12:1-2); and that includes presenting or yielding one’s tongue. This does not mean that the Christian believer has become morally perfect or that he must first clean up his life before he can be filled with the Spirit; the Holy Spirit will take care of cleaning up the believer’s life after he is filled with the Spirit.
One more point; speaking in tongues at the initial filling of the Spirit is not the gift of tongues of which Paul speaks in I Cor. chapters 12 to 14. While all believers may speak in tongues at the initial filling of Spirit, not all have the gift of tongues and the accompanying gift of interpretation of tongues. The Spirit distributes the gifts of the Spirit as he wills (I Cor. 12:11). As Paul makes clear in I Cor. 12, the gifts of the Spirit are manifestations of the Spirit in the body of Christ for the common good (I Cor. 12:7). The empowering of the gifts and ministries of the Spirit are to be concrete expressions of love for one another in the body of Christ and those outside. The preaching of Gospel should be accompanied by signs and wonders:
“3 It [the so great salvation] was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard him, 4 while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his own will” (Heb. 2:3-4).
The gift of tongues is not the speaking in tongues at the baptism of the Holy Spirit. But this is not the only misunderstanding of the baptiam of the Holy Spirit. At the beginning of the twentieth century during the Pentecostal outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the baptism of the Holy Spirit was misunderstood to be the Holiness second work of grace that was believed to eradicate the sinful nature in the Christian. There were other Pentecostals that rejected this Holiness interpretation of the baptism of the Holy Spirit; they believed that the baptism of the Holy Spirit supressed or overcame the sinful nature so that believer who had received the baptism of the Holy Spirit could live a victorious Christian life – Spirit-empowered law-keeping. Neither of these interpretations of the baptism of the Holy Spirit are Biblical; man and the Christian does not have a sinful nature. Man sins because he is spiritually dead; “because of which [death] all sinned.” (Rom. 5:12d ERS) – not because he has a sinful nature. And Christians experience the lordship of sin when they are placed under law and are not under the grace of God ( Rom. 6:14 ERS). They sin, not because they have a sinful nature, but because they have been practically placed back into spiritual death. Since there is no sinful nature that causes the believer to sin, then the baptism of Holy Spirit is not the eradication or supression of the sinful nature. But since the Christian sins when he or she is put under law ( Rom. 7:23), the baptism of the Holy Spirit may also be a deliverance from being under law to being under grace.
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Rom. 8:1 NAS)
God delivers believers from being under law through His word of unconditional love which says that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. This is a word of grace and places the Christian back under grace. Being under law 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 being under law and places us back under grace. For in His love, by His grace, God delivers us from the law of sin and of death by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ ( Rom. 8:2 NAS) and thus from wrath which is condemnation ( Rom. 8:1 NAS). This deliverance by the opeation of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has been misinterpreted as an eratdication of the sinful nature. But the law of sin and of death is not the sinful nature. The law of sin is the operation of sin as a slavemaster and the law of death is the operation of death which separates man from God. The law of death brings the man under law into captivity to the law of sin ( Rom. 7:23). That is, death leads to sin [“because of which [death] all sinned” (Rom. 5:12d ERS).
“The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law” (I Cor. 15:55 ERS)]. No sinful nature is necessary to explain the Romans 7 experience; the man under law sins because he is practically spiritually dead; the law has taken the place of the Spirit, and the law separates him from God. And since the law cannot make alive ( Gal. 3:21), it cannot therefore cannot produce righteousness. For the Christian to place himself under the law is the same as placing himself in spiritual death; it has the same results — sin. For the Christian under law, the law has taken the place of the Holy Spirit; the law thus separates the Christian from God, and that is spiritual death.
Romans chapter 7 is not the normal Christian life; it is the struggle of the man under law, entrapped in the bondage of legalism, of being under law. And if the Christian falls into this legalism, there is deliverance.
“Thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 7:25a).
This deliverance often takes place with the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The baptism with the Holy Spirit is the initial infilling with the Spirit. And if the believer is in bondage under the law, then he or she will be set free from this bondage when they are filled with the Spirit. But since the Christian life is often misinterpreted as living by the law, then the spirit-filled believer is often placed back again under law. And then the believer sins, and some interpret these sins as the lost of salvation and the need to be saved again. Among some other, this fall into sin is interpreted as an expression of sinful nature of the believer who has yielded to his sinful nature rather than living according to his new nature. Both these teachings misunderstand the reason for the fall into sin and do not recognize that the cause of the sin is being under law ( Rom. 6:14 ERS).
Being under law does not mean that the law is the cause of sin. As Paul points out in Romans 7:7-12, the law is good but for the man under law, sin uses the law as an opportunity to become active. And this law of sin becomes active because of the law of death ( Rom. 7:23). The law of God is not the law of sin, but being under the law allows the law of sin to become operative. And the law of sin becomes operative because the being under law allows the law of death to become operative. For the law cannot make alive ( Gal. 3:21, but brings death ( Rom. 7:10). Deliverance from the law of sin is by the deliverance from the law of death and deliverance from the law of death is by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus ( Rom. 8:2 NAS). 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. 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 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. Romans chapter 7 shows us the failure of this way. Only as we are delivered from being under the law (we died to the law in Christ’s death: Rom. 7:4) and are set free from the law of sin and of death by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus ( Rom. 8:2 NAS), do we experience the resurrection victory of Christ over sin and death. The Christian life is not Spirit-empowered law-keeping, but Spirit-filled law-fulfilling by love ( Rom. 8:4; 13:10); it is a joyful walk filled with the Spirit, trusting Him who loves us and gave Himself for us. And is a law necessary when we love and trust God? The law is for those who do not love and trust God — though it will not save them — the law cannot make them alive and it cannot produce righteousness ( Gal. 3:21). But by walking after the Spirit the believer will fulfill the righteous acts of the law. He will love God with all his heart, soul, and mind, with his whole being, and he will love his neighbor as he loves himself. And this walk in the Spirit is possible only by being filled with the Spirit.