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BIBLICAL THEOLOGY OF PAUL’S LETTER TO THE ROMANS
In chapter 6 of his letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul discusses the Christian’s relationship to sin. This discussion was occasioned by the objection that was raised to Paul’s teaching concerning the grace of God. In Rom. 5:20, Paul had said,
“And the Law came in that the transgression might increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more”.
Misunderstanding his statement, Paul’s opponents asks (Rom. 6:1), “Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase?” Paul answers them (Rom. 6:2) with a denial and with his own question,
“May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?”
This question introduces Paul’s discussion of the Christian’s relationship to sin. The Christian’s relationship to sin is that the Christian has died to sin with Christ. And this is what Christian baptism pictures and symbolizes. The Christian has died to sin with Christ and baptism pictures this. And it also pictures burial with Christ and the believer’s resurrection with Christ. His death is their death and His resurrection is their resurrection (Rom. 6:3-4). They have died to sin with Christ and they have been made alive to God with Christ (Rom. 6:5-10). They are to reckon or consider themselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus (Rom. 6:11). And stop letting sin as a slave master have dominion over them, not presenting the member of their bodies to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but as those alive from the dead to present their members to God as instruments of righteousness (Rom. 6:12-13). For sin as a slavemaster shall not have dominion over them, for they are not under law, but under grace.
“For sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under the law, but under grace.” (Rom. 6:14).
This declaration leads to Paul’s discussion of the relationship of the Christian to the law. But before he does that, Paul answers another objection to his teaching concerning the grace of God, “Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?” Paul answers again with a denial and with his own question,
“6:15c May it never be! 6:16 Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slave for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?” (Rom. 6:15c-16)
Then Paul thanks God that they (his readers) who were once the slaves of sin, have obeyed from the heart the form of teaching to which they were committed (Rom. 6:17), his teaching of the grace of God. “and having been freed from sin, you have become slaves of righteousness.” (Rom. 6:18 NAS) In the rest of chapter 6, Paul explains the slavery of sin and its consequences (the wages of sin is eternal death) and slavery to God and its consequences, sanctification, and its end, eternal life (“eternal life is the gift of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Rom. 6:23).
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.
“7:4 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 …. 7:6 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. 7:4, 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 7:7-24 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.” (Rom. 7:21-23)
There are three laws operating in this experience.
1. The first law is the law of sin (verse 21). Since sin is not what 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.” 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 — sin. Romans 7 is not the normal Christian life but 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 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.” (Rom. 7:25b-8:4 ERS)
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). Before anyone can be delivered from legalism he must acknowledge he is under law
(“I myself am enslaved with the mind to the law of God”) and that as such he is a slave to sin. That is, he must come to see that not only is the law, which depends upon human effort (“the flesh”), powerless to deliver from the slavery to sin, but that the law becomes the occasion for sin to make him its slave (“sold under sin”).
Step 2 – Deliverance from condemnation (Rom. 8:1):
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” NAS
Paul says elsewhere, “The law works wrath” (Rom. 4:15). This wrath which the law works is condemnation. Nothing holds believers in bondage under the law more than the fear of condemnation. Real and imagined guilt hangs like a cloud over mind and consciences of most believers. But they are not under law and there is no condemnation for their failures under the law. The believer is in Christ Jesus and there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. 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.
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).
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 relationship to God and to his fellow man. It provides guidance for man’s actions in his relationship 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. The law of sin is the power of sin acting to make one sin. The law of death is the power of death acting to make one dead. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus is the power of Spirit acting to make one alive in Christ Jesus.
In the next verse (Rom. 8:3) Paul says that the law of God does not have that power of action. But God did what the law could not do. What could the law not do? It could not stop sin. Sin as a slave master could not be stopped by the law from exercising its dominion over the believer who under law sought to be set free from the law of sin, the power of sin acting to make him sin. The law was powerless to set free from the law of sin. As Paul showed in the previous chapter (Rom. 7:7-24), it was one thing to want not to sin, but it was another actually not to sin. Why could the law not stop sin? Because the law is weak through the flesh. The law relies upon human effort to do its commands. And human effort (“the flesh”) is powerless to overcome the law of sin, the power of sin acting to make one sin. Legalism, in its overabounding confidence in the law, believes that the law has the power to stop sinning. It argues, “Does not man have the power to choose not to sin?”
The fallacy of this legalistic argument is that it is one thing to choose not to sin but it is another thing to implement that choice. And man does not have that power; through the flesh the law is weak. This weakness of the law limits it and makes it unable to stop sin and to set free from the law of sin. God never intended that the law should save from sin; the purpose of the law is the knowledge of sin (Rom. 3:20; 7:7). God did not give the law so that by the works of law man could be justified or saved; not because man cannot do them because of his sinful nature, but because the law was never given for that purpose. Salvation by meritorious works of the law is excluded in principle as a way of salvation. Paul is here not saying that because of his sinful nature the law is not able to set free man from the law of sin, but that the law itself is powerless to set free man from the law of sin. It was not the purpose of the law to do that. God did not give it that power. Christian legalism by insisting that the law had this purpose says that the flesh here is the sinful nature to explain why the law is powerless accomplish that purpose. The sinful nature is not the reason for the powerless of the law, but it is the law itself that is powerless to stop sin and to set free from the law of sin and from the law of death. Since the law depends upon human effort (“the flesh”) and since human effort cannot make alive, the law is weak through the flesh. As Paul says 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. According to Rom. 8:2, 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 the law of sin by giving us life in Christ which is deliverance from death. God does what the law cannot do; He sets the believer free from the law of sin by setting him free from the law of death.
God did this through the “sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh.” (Rom. 8:3). In this phrase, Paul is referring to the incarnation, that is the Son of God becoming a man. In contrast to the Apostle John’s statement in his gospel (“The word became flesh and dwelt among us,” John 1:14), Paul here says that God sent His Son “in the likeness of sinful flesh.” Because Paul uses the phrase “sinful flesh,” rather than just the word “flesh”, he uses the word “likeness” to describe how the Son of God became man. Paul’s use of this word “likeness” here does not mean that Paul believed that Son of God did not become a true man, but that when the Son of God became flesh, He was without sin, that is he was not under the slavery of sin like the rest of mankind. The phrase “sinful flesh,” or literally, “the flesh of sin,” means the flesh under control and slavery of sin as a slave master. It does not mean that man has a sinful nature, that is, that man is inherently sinful so that he sins because his nature is sinful, but rather that man is “under sin” as slave master (Rom. 3:10). The word “flesh” (=human nature) here is qualified by the word sin because human nature is not inherently sinful.
But God sent His Son, not only “in the likeness of sinful flesh,” but also “for sin.” By this phrase, Paul is referring to the death of Jesus on the cross. This phrase might simply mean that Jesus’ death was concerned with or about sin (peri hamartia), but because this Greek phrase is used in LXX to translate the Hebrew word which means “a sin offering” (Lev. 6:25, 30; Heb. 10:6, 8), this phrase may also refer to the sacrificial character of Jesus’ death; it was “for a sin offering”. God by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and through his death “for a sin offering” “condemned sin in the flesh,” that is, put an end to the dominion of sin as a slave master over the believer. This is the only place in his letters that Paul uses this phrase “condemned sin in the flesh” to describe the death of Christ. The closest that Paul comes to this phrase is in Rom. 6:6: “in order that the body of sin might be annulled, that we might no longer be enslaved to sin.” The phrase “the body of sin” is equivalent to the phrase “sin in the flesh.” The flesh is the body; and “sin in the flesh” is the body under the slavery and control of sin as a slave master. The flesh is not the sinful nature, not the nature that makes man sin, nor the tendency to sin. The body and its desires are not sin nor sinful. Sin as a slave master may enslave the body and use its desires to do sins; but that does not make or mean that the body or its desires are sin or sinful in themselves (God created them).
This condemnation is not the condemnation of the sinner, but of sin as a slave master; sin as slave master is stopped from exercising its dominion in the flesh, over the body. The Greek word, katakrino, translated “condemned,” literally means “to judge down, to judge against.” This is the first function of a Biblical judge (Psa. 75:7): to put down the oppressor, who in this verse is sin, the slavemaster. God exercises the second function of a Biblical judge: to lift up the oppressed, by setting him free from the law of sin through the power of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. By the Spirit, God makes alive. 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.
“6:6 Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin; 6:7 for he who has died is freed from sin. 6:8 But if we believe that we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 6:9 knowing that Christ having been raised from the dead. no more dies, death no more has dominion over Him. 6:10 For the death He died, He died to sin, once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 6:11 So also you should reckon yourselves indeed to be dead to sin, but also alive to God in Christ Jesus.” (Rom. 6:6-11 ERS).
The result is that “the righteous acts of the law are fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit.” (Rom. 8:4). The Greek word, dikaioma, translated “righteous acts,” here means acts of righteousness, concrete expressions of righteousness (see Rev. 15:4; 19:8; Rom. 5:16, 18). It can also mean a declarations of what is righteous, that is, a decrees, an ordinances (see Luke 1:6; Rom. 1:32; 2:26; Heb. 9:1, 10). Here in Rom. 8:4 it seems to have the former meaning. It is the righteous acts of the law that are fulfilled, and not just an observing of the decrees or ordinances of the law. Those who walk according the Spirit do not just keep the law but actually do the righteous acts of the law. The purpose of condemning sin in the flesh was 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. To walk after the flesh is to try to do the righteous acts of the law by human effort (“the flesh”), to live up to the standard of the law. That is what Romans 7 was all about and its result was failure and despair. The believer must not do it that way.
And walking according to the Spirit 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 it is Spirit-filled law-fulfilling by love (Rom. 13:8-10; Gal. 5:14). It is to be led by the Spirit (Gal. 5:18), making all one’s decisions with reference to the Holy Spirit as He personally guides and fills the believer with God’s love. The walk after 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 and His love along each step of that walk. By walking after the Spirit, the believer will do the righteous acts of the law. He will love God with all his heart, soul, mind and his neighbor as himself (Matt. 22:37-40). Thus by love he will fulfill the righteous acts of the law. And it is by walking after the Spirit, that the believer 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. This fulfillment of the righteous acts of the law is not Spirit-empowered law-keeping. It is to walk by the Spirit and to walk by the Spirit is to be led by the Spirit, and if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law:
“But if you are led by the Spirit you are not under the law.” (Gal. 5:18).
The interpretation of Romans 7 as the Christian struggle with the sinful nature is a legalistic misinterpretation of Romans 7. This misinterpretation considers the normal Christian life as under law and the sinful nature as the explanation why the Christian cannot keep the law. The flesh is considered to be the sinful nature.
The Apostle Paul, like the other New Testament writers, never use the Greek word sarx, usually translated “flesh”, to mean the sinful nature in the sense of that in man which makes him sin, that is, that man sins because he has a sinful nature. When the Apostle John wrote, “The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:14), he clearly was not saying that the Son of God became a sinner by nature and had a sinful nature. Clearly he means that the Son of God became a human being, a man. Paul uses the Greek word translated “flesh” (sarx), like the rest of the New Testament writers (The word occurs 151 times in the Greek New Testament.), with the following different meanings.
1. The soft tissue of the body (Rom. 2:28; I Cor. 15:39; Col. 2:13),
2. The body itself (II Cor. 12:7; Gal. 4:13-14; Eph. 2:15; 5:29; Col. 1:24),
3. The physical union of man and woman (“one flesh” I Cor. 6:16; Eph. 5:31),
4. Human body contrasted with the human spirit
(I Cor. 5:5; II Cor. 7:1; Col. 2:5; Rom. 7:18),
5. Man or human being (Rom. 3:20 and Gal. 2:16 quoting Psa. 143:2;
I Cor. 1:29; John 1:14; “flesh and blood” Gal. 1:16 and Eph. 6:12),
6. Human life on earth (Gal. 2:20; II Cor. 10:3a; Phil. 1:22, 24; Col. 2:1),
7. Human nature (Rom. 6:19; 8:3; II Cor. 4:11; I Tim. 3:16),
8. Human (“according to the flesh” Eph. 6:5; Col. 3:22;
“body of flesh” Col. 1:22; 2:11) or worldly (II Cor. 1:17; 10:2, 3b),
9. Human descent or relationship, kin (Rom. 9:3; 11:14),
10. Human point of view (I Cor. 1:26; II Cor. 5:16),
11. Human contrasted with divine (Rom. 1:3; 9:5; Philem. 16),
12. Unsaved (“in the flesh” Rom. 7:5; 8:8-9),
13. That which is not God or of God (Gal. 5:13-24),
14. Anything that is an object of trust instead of God
(Isa. 31:1-3; Jer. 17:5; Rom. 8:4-7; Phil. 3:3, 4;
Compare Phil. 3:19; Col. 3:2). [1]
The Greek word sarx usually translated “flesh” in our English translations (KJV, RSV, NAS) is incorrectly translated in the New International Version (NIV) as “sinful nature” in Rom. 7:18, 25; 8:3, 5, 8, 9, 12, 13; Gal. 5:13, 16, 17; Eph. 2:3. In Romans 7, Paul never identifies the flesh (sarx) with the sinful nature. And neither is “the indwelling sin” in Romans 7:17, 20 the sinful nature. Paul explains in 7:18 what “indwelling sin” is; it is that “the good does not dwell in [him], that is, in [his] flesh.” The “flesh” here is that part of man that is not spirit (see 4 above).
Neither is “the law of sin” in verses 7:23, 25 and 8:2 the sinful nature; Paul defines “the law of sin” in verse 21: “So I find it to be a law that when I want to do the good, evil is present with me.” The law of sin is not the sinful nature; it describes what sin does, and it is not its cause. See the discussion of the “law of sin” in step 3 of the deliverance from legalism. And also in Romans 8, Paul never identifies the flesh with the sinful nature. In Romans 8:3 the word sarx “flesh” is qualified by the word “sin”, because the flesh is not inherently sinful. The flesh here is human nature (see 7 above) and can be designated as sinful only when one chooses to sin (Rom. 6:16-18).
The Greek word sarx in Romans 8:4-7, 12-13 designates anything that is an object of trust instead of God (see 14 above) and is not the sinful nature. This use of sarx in verse 5 is just Paul’s way of saying that “those according to the flesh,” put their trust in something other than the true God, that is, “set their minds on the things of the flesh.” The word translated “set the mind on” indicates a “conscious spiritual orientation of life,” an attitude or disposition of the will. [2] See Paul’s use of this word phroneo in Rom. 12:16; Phil. 2:2, 5; 3:15; Col. 3:2; see also Matt. 16:23. This orientation toward the flesh, to that which is not God who is spirit, is what we have been calling the basic sin of idolatry (Isa. 31:1-3; Jer. 17:5; Phil. 3:3-4, 19). This is not the sinful nature and it is misleading to call it that. Those who are according to the Spirit, on the other hand, put their trust in the true God; they are oriented to the things of the Spirit. Since the god in whom one trusts is one’s ultimate criterion for all his choices, a person will choose those things that are in agreement with his ultimate criterion; his attitude and disposition will be oriented toward the things of his god. If his god is a false god (the flesh), he will be oriented toward the things of that false god; if his God is the true God (the Spirit), he will be oriented toward the thing of the true God.
The phrase “in the flesh” in Romans 8:8-9 is clearly equivalent to “unsaved” as in Rom. 7:5 (see 12 above); it is opposite to being in the Spirit which is to be saved. Paul used this phrase “in the flesh” previously in Rom. 7:5 to refer to their condition before they turned to Christ and were saved. It is equivalent to being “unsaved” and is the opposite to being “in the Spirit” (see verse 8:9). Those who are in the flesh cannot please God, because they do not have faith in the true God. “And without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb. 11:6).
This doctrine of the sinful nature is nowhere taught in Scriptures. None of the Scriptures usually cited in support of this doctrine (Psa. 51:5; Job 14:4; Eph. 2:3) says that man since the fall has a sinful nature, that is, that man sins because he is a sinner by nature. According to Rom. 5:12-15, all men sin because they are spiritually dead. Death is not the sinful nature. These are two totally different concepts. The sinful nature is the nature of man that is sinful and the nature of man is what man is – that which makes man what he is and what he does. The nature of anything is that essence of the thing that determines what it is and how it acts. The sinful nature is that nature of man, because it is sinful, makes him sin. Death, on the other hand, is a negative relationship of separation. Physical death is the separation of man’s spirit from his body, spiritual death is the separation of man’s spirit from God, and eternal death (“the second death,” Rev. 20:14) is the eternal separation of man’s spirit from God. Spiritual death is the opposite of spiritual life, which is to know personally the true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent (John 17:3). That is, spiritual death is not to know the true God and Jesus Christ He sent. Knowledge is a relationship between the knower and that which is known; it is not a nature nor the property of a nature. It should be clear now that death is not the sinful nature. A relationship is not a nature. According to the Doctrine of Original Sin, the sinful nature causes death, but this does not mean that death is the sinful nature. Nowhere in the Scriptures does it teach this doctrine. Man’s nature is neither sinful nor good, it is what a man chooses it to be. If one chooses to follow a false god, then his choices will be sinful. On the other hand, if chooses to follow the true God, then his choices will be righteous and good. And a man makes the choice of his god, upon the basis of whether he knows the true God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent, or not. If he does not know the true God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent, he will choose a false god; that is, he sins because he is dead (Rom. 5:12d “because of which [death] all sinned”). And all men are sinners because they sin by choice (not that they sin because they are by nature sinners) and they sin because they are spiritually dead. Psa. 51:5, which says,
“Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me,”
means either that David’s birth was a act of sin (that is, his birth was illegimate, which it was clearly not) or that he sins from birth as Psa. 58:3 says:
“The wicked go astray from the womb, they err from their birth, speaking lies.” (See also Isa. 48:8)
Job 14:4, which says,
“Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? There is none,”
means that righteousness can not come from the unrighteous and that a sinner can only bring forth sin; from the context it does not seem to be referring to the birth of a sinner. None of these passages says that man has a sinful nature or why man sins from birth. Paul explains that in Romans 5:12d: “because of which [death] all sinned.” In Eph. 2:2-3 Paul says,
“2:2 In which [sins] you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. 2:3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lust of our flesh, indulging the wishes of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.” (Eph. 2:2-3).
The “flesh” here is the body, which Paul contrasts with the mind; “the wishes of the flesh and of the mind.” The NIV totally mistranslates this phrase as “the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts.” The RSV correctly translates it: “the desires of body and mind.” Also Paul says, “we were by nature children of wrath”, not “by nature sinners”. Paul is here not saying why men sin, but only that men are naturely objects of God’s wrath, since they have sinned.
ENDNOTES FOR THE FLESH AND THE SINFUL NATURE
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; it is the gift of God, 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 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 God and trust in Him. 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 isolates the Christian from God (spiritual death) and the 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).
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. These views 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 on His side initiates the personal relationship and a man on his side must choose to enter into that personal relationship by faith, trusting God and His love; man’s act of faith is his response to God’s act. 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. This personal relationship has nothing to do with earning something by meritorious works. Neither is the grace of God an enabling of the will 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 and sustaining the relationship and faith is man’s side in response to God’s grace.
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 obscure and distort this Biblical view of salvation and of the Christian life.
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. They assert 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. Thus Calvinism’s view of salvation is also 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 do it for him. Not only is the grace of God the work of God but so is faith, since salvation is “by grace through faith.”
“2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it [salvation] is the gift of God; 2:9 not of works, lest any man should boast.” (Eph. 2:8-9 ERS)
According to the Calvinistic doctrine of Irresistible 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. On God’s side, God gives (“by grace”) salvation and on man’s side (“through faith”) man chooses to receive that gift. 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.
According to the Protestant Reformer’s 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.
“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), 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 to 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, 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).
The law separates the believer who is under law from God; this is practically the same as spiritual death. Thus 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 — 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 all have sinned by transgressing that law) as was the explanation of Augustine and of the Protestant Reformers. His concept of Christian Perfection and Holiness was also a legalistic misinterpretation of the Christian Life.
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