book_d2lconcl
CONCLUSION
Because God so loved us, He has acted in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the salvation of man from death, sin and wrath. Since wrath is caused by sin (Rom. 1:18) and sin by death (Rom. 5:12d ERS), salvation is basically from death to life and then from sin to righteousness and then from wrath to peace with God.
Thus there are three aspects of salvation:
1. reconciliation is salvation from death to life;
2. redemption is salvation from sin to righteousness; and
3. propitiation is salvation from wrath to peace.
These three aspects of salvation were historically accomplished through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ
This threefold act of God for the salvation of man is the righteousness of God, God acting to put or set us right with Himself. This righteousness of God (salvation) has been manifested (publicly displayed) in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (Rom. 3:21-26). The gospel tells us about this act of God, about this manifestation of the righteousness of God. But the gospel not only tells us about salvation, it is the power of God unto salvation (Rom. 1:16). In the preaching of the gospel, the righteousness of God is being continually revealed or actualized (Rom. 1:17). That is, in the preaching of the Gospel, God exerts His power for the salvation of men by bringing them to faith in Jesus Christ (Rom. 1:16). And this faith is righteousness, the righteousness of faith (Rom. 4:3-5); it relates the believer rightly to God.
God contemporaneously and personally is accomplishing this salvation through the Holy Spirit. After raising Jesus from the dead and exalting Him to His own right hand to be both Lord and Christ (Acts 2:33, 36; Eph. 1:20-22; Phil. 2:9-11), God sent the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:33) to give life to men (John 3:5-8) by revealing Jesus to them (John 15:26) personally as their Savior who died for them and as their resurrected, living Lord. This revelation takes place in the preaching of the Gospel of God concerning Jesus Christ, His Son. When one responds to this revelation by turning from his false gods (repentance) and turning to the true God, acknowledging Jesus as Lord (faith), he is saved (Acts 16:31).
In this act of faith, man is delivered from death, sin and wrath to life, righteousness and peace with God. This is only the beginning. There are three tenses of salvation:
1. the past tense — “we were saved”
(Rom. 8:24; Eph. 2:5, 8; II Tim. 1:8; Titus 3:5),
2. the present tense — “we are being saved”
(I Cor. 1:18; 15:3; II Cor. 2:15),
3. and the future tense — “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 at conversion, 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). In the present tense of salvation, we are now 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). This is the present tense of salvation.
But there is still a future tense of salvation: we shall be saved when Christ returns to reign (Rom. 8:23). When He returns, we will bear the image of the man of heaven — Christ (I Cor. 15:47-49). For “when he shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.” (I John 3:2) At the second coming of Jesus Christ (Acts 1:9), our bodies will be resurrected if we die before He comes (I Thess. 4:14-17), or they will be transformed into ones like His resurrected body if we are alive at His coming (I Cor. 15:51-52; Phil. 3:20-21; I John 3:2). Thus will physical death be replaced with physical life as spiritual death was replaced with spiritual life when we first repented and believed (at conversion). What was begun at conversion will be brought to completion (Phil. 1:6) at Christ’s coming, the day of Jesus Christ. Spiritual life will become eternal life — eternal fellowship with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (Rev. 21:3). We shall reign with Him (II Tim. 2:12; Rev. 20:4) and be with Him (I Thess. 4:17; Rev. 22:4) forever. We shall be His people, and He shall be our God (Rev. 21:3, 7). Thus will man be restored to the image of God. And our salvation from death (both spiritual and physical) unto life, from sin (idolatry — trust in false gods) unto righteousness (trust in the true God), and from wrath to peace with God will be completed. Praise God!
“2:4 But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which He loved us, 2:5 even when we were dead in offenses, made us alive together with Christ, (by grace you have been saved)” (Eph. 2:4-5 ERS).
According to these verses, salvation from death to life is by the grace of God and the grace of God is God’s love in action. God’s grace is more than His favor; it is His love acting to do something good for us. And because He loves us, He has acted to save us.
“God is love” (I John 4:8, 16). This love is not just an attribute of God; it is what God is in Himself. Before God ever created anything outside of Himself and thus created beings for Him to love outside of Himself, love existed in God. Since love is the choice of a person to do for another person that which is good for him, then a person cannot love without another person to love. Love involves a relationship to another person. And since God has made Himself known as three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, there are other persons in God for them to love. These three persons of the Godhead love each other (John 3:35; 5:20; 15:9-10; 17:23-26; 14:31). Thus God is love in Himself because these three persons love each other. God created beings outside of Himself not because He needed objects for His love (these already existed within Himself) but because of the abundance of His love that existed within Himself. Love is creative and this is true in the supreme sense of God Himself. Creation and salvation are the overflow of the love of this triune personal God of love. When the first man, Adam, sinned and fell from the image of God, God provided a way to take away man’s sin and to restore him to the image of God. This involved God sending His Son to become man to die for him. But God raised His Son from the dead. And in this resurrected God-man, Jesus Christ, the Son of man, who is the image of God, man is being and shall be restored to the image of God. God provided this salvation because He is love. This “so great salvation” (Heb. 2:3) is the outflow of His superabundant love.
“4:9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 4:10 In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
(I John 4:9-10 ERS)
The love of God is the source of our salvation from death, from sin and from God’s wrath. God did not have to love; there was no nature or inner necessity that caused God to love. God has freely and sovereignly chosen to be love. His choice determined the good. The good is what God wills. And it is not whimsical or arbitrary because it is God who has willed it. “Thy will be done on earth as in heaven.” (Matt. 6:10, etc.) God’s will is not determined by His nature; His nature is His will; He is what He chooses to be (Deut. 32:39; Isa. 45:7; 46:8-11). And God has chosen to be love and He has revealed that choice in the history of children of Israel and supremely in Jesus Christ, His Son (John 3:16; I John 4:9-10). The true God is a God of sovereign love, not of sovereign justice. God does not have to fulfill any condition before He can act in His love to save us; God’s love is truly free and does not have to satisfy a supposed divine justice before He can act in love. God can freely forgive man’s sin because He is not bound by any prior conditions in His nature. And according to the Scriptures, He will forgive when a man will repent and turn from his sin (Ezek. 18:21-23,32; see also Ezek. 33:11).
God is the source of our salvation. “Salvation is of the Lord” (Jonah 2:9 KJV. See also Genesis 49:18; Exodus 14:13; I Sam. 2:1; I Chron. 16:23; II Chron. 20:17; Psa. 3:8; 9:14; 13:5, etc.). This is so because God is a God of love (Psa. 13:5; 85:7; 86:13; 98:3; 119:41). And the grace of God is God’s love in action; His grace is His love acting to do something good for us, to save us. Thus the grace of God brings salvation.
“For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.” (Titus 2:11 NIV).
This salvation is by the grace of God, which is God’s love in action in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
“2:4 But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, 2:5 even when we were dead in offenses, made us alive together with Christ, (by grace you have been saved)” (Eph. 2:4-5 ERS).
Man needs to be saved because man is spiritually dead. Man is separated and alienated from God. He does not know God, and because he does not know the true God, he turns to false gods — that which is not God — and makes these into his gods ( Gal. 4:8). Man’s basic sin is idolatry — trust in a false god, and he sins (chooses these false gods) because he is spiritually dead — separated from the true God (“because of which [death] all sinned,” Rom. 5:12d ERS). This separation is not the result of a man’s own personal sins. He received this spiritual death, along with physical death, from Adam, from his first parents.
What is the origin of sin? The Biblical answer is twofold:
(a) sin had its historical origin in the act of Adam which is called the fall, and
(b) sin has its immediate, contemporary and personal origin in the spiritual death which along with physical death spread upon the whole race because of Adam’s act of sin.
The classical passage of Scripture that sets forth this twofold origin of sin is Romans 5:12.
“Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death passed unto all men, because of which all sinned:–” (Rom 5:12 ERS)
The historical origin of sin is the fall of Adam — the sin of the first man. Adam’s sin brought death, and this death has been spread throughout the whole human race, to all Adam’s descendants (Rom. 5:12). This is why man needs to be saved. He is dead spiritually and dying physically. He needs life — he needs to be made alive — to be raised from the dead. This spiritual death inherited from Adam is the personal, contemporary origin of each man’s sin. This is what the last phrase of Rom. 5:12 says; “because of which [death] all sinned”, not “because all sinned”. By not translating the relative pronoun in the Greek of the last clause of the verse, the English translation “because all men sinned” in RSV and other modern translations is incomplete, if not wrong and misleading. These translations makes Paul appear to contradict what he says in this verse and the next two verse; that is, it makes Paul appear to say death spread unto all men because of their sins instead of Adam’s sin. Paul clearly says in Rom. 5:12 that death spread unto all men because of Adam’s sin. And in the next two verses Paul clearly says that death reigned between Adam and Moses over those who had not sinned after the likeness of Adam’s transgression. Between Adam and Moses there was no law that made death the consequence of their personal transgressions.
“5:13 sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. 5:14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.” (Rom. 5:13-14 RSV)
But if the relative pronoun is translated, then the inconsistency is removed. In the Greek, the relative pronoun clearly refers back to the word “death” in the previous clause; that is, “because of death all sinned.”
The death that spread unto all men as the result of Adam’s sin was the condition or the reason why all men sinned. That is, all men sinned because of death.
But how is that possible? How can all men sin because of death? What is death? Death is separation and that there are three kinds of death;
1. physical death which is the separation men’s spirit from their body when they physically dies,
2. spiritual death which is the separation of men’s spirit from God, and
3. eternal death which is the eternal separation of men from God.
The death that spread unto all men from Adam’s sin is physical and spiritual death. All men are born spiritually dead and are going to die physically. It is this spiritual death that is the condition or ground for all men sinning. But how can men sin because of spiritual death? What is sin? The analysis of human freedom shows that every man must have a god. By the very constitution of his freedom, man must have an ultimate criterion of decision. That is, behind every decision as to which thing a man should do or think, there is a reason, a criterion of decision. And the ultimate reason for any decision, practical or theoretical, must be given in terms of some particular criterion, an ultimate reference or orientation point in or beyond the self or person making the decision. This ultimate criterion is that person’s god. Thus every man must then choose something as his god. If he doesn’t choose the true God as his ultimate criterion of decision, he will choose a false god. He will choose some part or aspect of reality as his god, deifying it.
“They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator.”
(Rom. 1:25)
The choice of a false god and the consequent personal allegiance and devotion to it is what the Bible calls idolatry. An idol does not have to be an image of wood, stone, or metal. It may be money, wealth, power, pleasure, education, the family, mankind, the state, democracy, experience, reason, science, the moral law, etc. An idol is a false god, and a false god may be anything, which may be good in its proper place, that takes the place of the true God, anything a person chooses as his or her ultimate criterion of decision, exalting it as God. It is any substitute or replacement for the true God in a person’s life.
Since a false god usurps the place of the true God in a person’s life, idolatry is the basic sin. This sin is directly against the true God; it is a direct insult to Him and an affront to His divine majesty. No more serious sin could be imagined than this one. Since it is the most serious sin, it is therefore the most basic. This is the main reason that idolatry is the first sin prohibited by the Ten Commandments.
“Thou shalt have no other gods besides me.” (Exodus 20:3)
Thus idolatry is the basic sin, not pride; pride is not even mentioned in the Ten Commandments. Idolatry is also the basic sin because this sin leads to other sins. It leads to other sins since a person’s god, being his ultimate criterion of decision, will determine the choices he or she will make. The choice of a wrong god will lead to other wrong choices. That is, the idol that a person sets up in his heart (Ezek. 14:35) will affect the character and quality of his whole life. Idolatry is therefore the basic sin.
Now we can understand how death leads to sin. If a man is spiritually dead, separated from the true God, and since he must choose a god, he will usually choose a false god. Thus all men sin because of death. This is what another passage of Scripture says — Gal. 4:8,
“Formerly, when you did not know God, you were in bondage to beings that by nature are no gods.” (Gal. 4:8)
Not to “know God” personally as a living reality is to be spiritually dead; spiritual death is the opposite of spiritual or eternal life which is to know the true God and Jesus Christ whom He sent. Not to know the true God personally is to be spiritually dead. And a person is “in bondage to beings that are no gods”, when he chooses them as his gods. He chooses them because he does not know personally the true God, that is, because he does not have life, because he is spiritually dead. The true God is not a living reality to him. And lacking this personal knowledge of the true God as a living reality, a person does not have the reason for choosing the true God as his ultimate criterion of decision. God Himself is the only adequate reason for choosing Him. He cannot be chosen for any other reason than Himself. For then He would not be God but rather that reason for which He is chosen would be god to that person. Only a living encounter with the true and living God can produce the situation in which God Himself may be chosen. God Himself is the only condition for the choice of Himself by a person. Thus apart from a personal revelation of God Himself, a person will usually choose as his god that which seems like God to him from among the creation around him or from the creations of his own hands or mind. Man does not necessarily have to sin, but he usually will. Spiritual death is not the necessary cause of sin but is the basis or condition of the choice of a false god. (The Greek word translated “because” in the last clause of Rom. 5:12 means “on the basis of” or “on the condition of.”)
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 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. Jesus said in His great intercession prayer,
“And this is eternal life, that they know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast 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 should be clear now that death is not the sinful nature. A nature is not a relationship. And death as negative relationship is not the sinful 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 that death is the sinful nature. Neither does the Scriptures teach that man’s nature is sinful. Man’s nature is neither sinful or good, it is what a man chooses it to be. If he chooses to follow a false god, then his choices will be sinful. On the other hand, if he 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 ERS). And all men are sinners because they choose to sin (not that they sin because they are sinners, by nature).
But if they receives life, if they are made alive to God, men will then be saved from sin. By removing the cause of sin — spiritual death — by giving him spiritual life, God delivers man from sin. If each man receives by faith that gift of spiritual life, he or she will be made alive to God. For just as sin flows from death, so righteousness — trust in the true God — flows from life. Thus salvation is primarily from death to life and then secondarily from sin to righteousness. And since God’s wrath — God’s opposition to sin — is caused by sin (Rom. 1:18), then the removal of sin brings with it also the removal of wrath. No sin, no wrath. Salvation is then also from wrath to peace with God (Rom. 5:1).
By His grace, God has made us spiritually alive from the dead together with Christ in His resurrection from the dead, thus saving us from sin to righteousness and from wrath to peace with God by His grace. Reconciliation is the representative aspect of His act of salvation from death to life, redemption is the liberation aspect of His act of salvation from sin to righteousness, and propitiation is the sacrificial aspect of His act of salvation from wrath to peace with God.
The Gospel tells us about this act of God for our salvation in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (I Cor. 15:3-4). And in the preaching of the Gospel, God exerts His power for the salvation of men by bringing them to faith in Jesus Christ (Rom. 1:16-17). By faith, the hearers of the Gospel receive the gift of God’s grace, the salvation from death to life. Thus this Gospel is the Gospel of the grace of God, the Good News of God’s act of love for our salvation from death to life in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
This salvation is not by the law. The following statements will summarize our discussion concerning the Law and the distortion of the law called Legalism.
A. WHAT IS THE LAW?
The law is God’s conditional covenant with Israel; it is different from the unconditional covenants of grace with Noah and Abraham. The law was given to clarify man’s relationship to God and to his fellowman. The law intensifies wrath, gives knowledge of sin, but cannot produce righteousness because it cannot make alive.
“Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not; for if a law had been given which could make alive, then righteousness would indeed be by the law.” (Gal. 3:21)
That is, since the law cannot make alive, it cannot take away sin. There is no salvation by the law.
1. Legalism is a distortion of the law of God and a misunderstanding of it.
2. In its fullest form, legalism consists of four distortions of the law.
a. Legalism absolutizes the law of God by making the law into ultimate reality. This may be done either by making the law stand by itself apart from and above God or by identifying God with the law: “God is law.”
b. Legalism depersonalizes the law of God by making the law into a thing that is over man and between God and man.
c. Legalism quantitizes the law of God by attaching to the law’s commands and prohibitions various quantities of merit and demerit.
d. Legalism externalizes the law of God by making the law regulate the outward acts and conduct rather than the inner decisions and orientation of the will.
3. Legalism misunderstands sin as just a breaking of the law and/or falling short of the standard of moral perfection contained in the law.
4. Legalism misunderstands the righteousness of God as justice, that is, as that principle of God’s being that requires and demands the reward of good work (comformity to the Law) because of their intrinsic merit (remunerative justice) and the punishment of every transgression of the law with a proportionate punishment because of its own intrinsic demerit (retributive justice).
5. Legalism misunderstands death as the necessary penalty for sin.
6. Legalism misunderstands God’s wrath as necessary divine retribution.
7. Legalsim misunderstands salvation as eternal life earned by meritorious works.
But according to the Scriptures, meritorious works are opposed to grace (Rom. 4:4; 11:6) and salvation is a gift by grace through faith, not by works.
“2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that [salvation] is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 2:9 not as the result of works, that no one should boast.” (Eph. 2:8-9 ERS)
C. WHAT IS CHRISTIAN LEGALISM?
1. Christian legalism misunderstands the personal origin of sin in the doctrine of original sin; that is, sin is an inherited sinful nature. This doctrine was developed by Augustine during the Augustinian-Pelagian controversy to explain why man can not be saved by meritorious works, and was expanded by Calvinism as the imputation of the sin of Adam to all his descendants.
2. Christian legalism misunderstands salvation as either grace infused by the sacraments in order to be able to earn eternal life by meritorious works (the Roman Catholic doctrine), or as the imputation of Christ’s righteousness; that is, the merits earned by Christ’s active obedience that is imputed to the account of the believer by God’s grace (God’s unmerited favor) (the Orthodox Protestant doctrine).
3. Christian legalism misunderstands Christ’s death as a vicarious penal satisfaction, a paying of the penalty of sin to satisfy God’s justice by the passive obedience of Christ (His death) in our stead.
4. Christian legalism misunderstands the Christian life as a struggle of the new nature with the sinful nature (the flesh), misinterpreting Romans 7 as the normal Christian life.
The flesh is not the sinful nature. The Apostle Paul, like the other New Testament writers, never uses the word “flesh” (sarx) to mean the sinful nature in the sense of that in man which makes him sin, that is, that man sins because he is a sinner by nature. Man does not sin because he is a sinner, but he is a sinner because he sins by choice, not by nature. In the New Testament the Greek word sarx translated “flesh” never means sinful nature. When the Apostle John wrote, “The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:14 NAS), he clearly was not saying that the Word 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 word “flesh” (sarx), like the rest of the New Testament writers, (the word “sarx” 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. The body contrasted with the human spirit (I Cor. 5:5; II Cor. 7:1; Col. 2:5),
5. Man or human being (Rom. 3:20 and Gal. 2:16 quoting Psa. 143:2;
I Cor. 1:29; Gal. 1:16 and Eph. 6:2 “flesh and blood”;
Rom. 7:18; John 1:14),
6. Human life on earth (Gal. 2:20; II Cor. 10:3a; Phil. 1:22, 24; Col. 2:10),
7. Human nature (Rom. 6:19; 8:3; II Cor. 4:11; I Tim. 3:16),
8. Human (Eph. 6:5; Col. 3:22 “according to the flesh”; Col. 1:22; 2:11)
or human life (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 (Rom. 7:5 “in the flesh”; 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, 12, 13; Gal. 5:13, 16, 17; Eph. 2:3. In Romans 7 Paul never identifies the flesh (sarx) with sinful nature. And neither is the “indwelling sin” in Romans 7:17, 20 the sinful nature. Paul explains in verse 18 what indwelling sin 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).
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 in these verses is the body, which he 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 here is not saying why men sin, but only that men are naturely objects of God’s wrath, since they haved sinned.
ENDNOTES FOR “THE FLESH AND THE SINFUL NATURE”
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 the believer’s 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).
“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).
They are to reckon or consider themselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus (Rom. 6:11). And they are to 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 law, but under grace.” (Rom. 6:14)
This declaration leads to Paul’s discussion of the relationship of the Christian to the law.
In chapter 7 of his letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul discusses the Christian’s relationship to the law. This discussion actually begins with the statement in 6:14 (“you are not under law, but under grace.”) which raised the question in 6:15 (“What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?”) and its answer in 6:16 through 6:23.
Then Paul says that the Christian is not under law because he has died with Christ to the law (Rom. 7:1-6). Then Paul discusses the experience of one who is under law. The man in Romans 7:7-24 is the Christian under law. This is not where the Christian should be — he is not under law ( Rom. 6:14) because he is dead to the law ( Rom. 7:4, 6). The Christian life depicted in Romans 7 is an abnormal (or subnormal) Christian life; there is no mention of the Holy Spirit in Rom. 7:7-24; the law has taken the place of the Holy Spirit. Such defeat and despair are not characteristics 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.
The Christian life depicted in Romans 7 is an abnormal (or subnormal) Christian life; it is the subnormal experience of a believer under law. For, according to the Scriptures, the believer is 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)
And the believer is also dead to the law ( Rom. 7:4, 6). And if the believer is under law, there is deliverance from this subnormal Christian experience of being under law (Rom. 7:21-25a).
“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. 7:24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body this death? 7:25a Thanks to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Rom. 7:21-25a ERS).
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)
“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”).“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.
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 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).
Christian legalism not only ignores the clear statements of the Scriptures that the Christian is not under law ( Rom. 6:14), but also ignores 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)
“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)
“For I through the law died to the law, that I might live to God.” (Gal 2:19)
Not only is the Christian dead to sin ( Rom. 6:6-11), but is also dead to the law. Through Christ’s death, the believer has died to sin and to the law, and now in the resurrected Christ he is alive to God. 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.