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THE PROBLEM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
by Ray Shelton
There are two problems about the Holy Spirit:
A. His person: Who is the Holy Spirit?
B. His work: What is the work of the Holy Spirit?
B. Theological Analysis.
Augustine and much of Roman Catholic theology conceives of the Christian life as a process of earning eternal life by the good works which the Christian is enabled to do by the grace that was infused or imparted at baptism and renewed by the other sacraments. This conception of the Christian life is clearly legalistic. And it was this conception that the Reformers and Reformed theologians rejected as unbiblical. But by retaining a basically legalistic understanding of Christ’s work of salvation and justification, it was difficult if not impossible for them to understand the Christian life and sanctification in any other than legalistic terms. The practical matters of the Christian life are definitely affected by the theory of salvation and, behind that, the theory of the need of salvation. Since man’s relation to God was conceived in legalistic terms, that is, that all men are under the law and that man’s relationship to God is determined by the law, not only is sin understood legalistically as breaking the rules, the transgression of the law as the divine standard of perfection in thought, word, and deed, but righteousness is also understood legalistically to be the keeping of the rules, a conformity to the law in thought, word, and deed; namely, moral perfection. Since, according to this legalistic conception, man was created under the law and for the law, man’s highest good and final goal is this moral perfection; this legal righteousness. To stand spotless and without blame before the law was thought to be the Christian’s ultimate hope. So the Christian life and sanctification was conceived by most Reformed theologians as growth and progress toward this moral perfection. Of course, it was not to earn eternal life. For all our moral progress, they said, we are still sinners, sinning in thought, word and deed. And at the same time legally righteous with the imputed righteousness of the merits of Christ — simultaneously righteous and unrighteous, saint and sinner.
Chapter 7 of Romans was interpreted by most Reformed theologians as the normal Christian life. They said that because the Christian after conversion still has a sinful nature, he will have an unending struggle with indwelling sin. His sinful nature (which is subject to sin) is in constant warfare with his renewed nature (which is subject to God’s law). Even though he wants to keep God’s law, he finds himself being compelled by his sinful nature to do the very things he hates. Although justified (declared righteous through the imputed merits or righteousness of Christ) and thus assured of salvation, there is still no deliverance from his sinful nature until he dies. He will finally be delivered from his sinful nature when he will be raised from the dead in the last day with an incorruptible body completely free from the presence of the sinful nature. Thus most Reformed theologians interpreted the 7th chapter of Romans as the normal Christian life.
Although some Christian theologians interpret this struggle of Romans chapter 7 as the normal Christian life, other Christian theologians reject this interpretation of the Romans 7 experience and teach either a second work of grace that eradicates the sinful nature from the Christian, delivering him from the Romans 7 experience, or the suppression of the works of the flesh (sinful nature) by the power of the Holy Spirit. But in either case the Christian is still left under the law as a rule and standard of life and the “walk in the Spirit” is interpreted as nothing more than Spirit-empowered law-keeping. The Holy Spirit is given to the Christian to empower him to keep the law and to make him morally perfect, conforming to the divine standard given in the law. This legalistic interpretation of the Christian life is the source of many of the psychological problems that Christians have today. Legalism has either of two psychological effects on the person in bondage to the law. He becomes either self-righteous or afflicted with a guilt complex.
1. This self-righteousness is a special form of pride which is the chief by-product of idolatry (Psa. 40:4). It is most often connected with the externalization and detailed extensions of the law. It expresses itself in the attitude of the Pharisees who keep the minutiae of the law but overlook the spirit of the law (Matt. 15:1-19). Also the legalist is not only self-righteous but sits in judgment on others who do not conform to the law and has little place for mercy. He becomes like the god he acknowledges and worships — the law. When he is shown mercy, he does not in turn show mercy to those in his debt (Matt. 18:23-35).
2. The second psychological effect of legalism is a guilt complex. If the legalist does not become self-righteous, then he usually becomes afflicted with a guilt complex. This psychological effect is most often connected with the quantitization of the law. Since he cannot know the precise amount of merit attached to each good deed or how much he has acquired, a legalist has no certainty. In addition, no matter how well he has lived, it is always possible for him to slip into a terrible sin whose demerit will outweigh all his merit. As a result of this uncertainty the legalist is led to look constantly within himself to see whether he measures up to the divine standard, the law, which he has chosen as his ultimate criterion. If he believes himself constantly falling short of this standard, he will develop a guilt complex.
This second psychological effect of legalism is the most common among Christians who have been misled into legalism. Because of the intense desire placed by God in the believer to please God, the Christian entrapped in legalism internalizes the law, applying it not only to external actions but to every thought and motive as well as every word and deed. Because of the sin resulting from legalism (legalism itself is sin — the sin of idolatry of the law), the guilt accompanying this sin is added to all the imagined guilt of the evil thoughts and motives resulting from close, detailed introspection. The result is often a very intense guilt complex bordering on the neurotic. Because of the widespread legalistic teaching in Christian churches, it is not surprising that so many Christians are afflicted with such guilt complexes.
The moral and ethical result of legalism is the moral dilemma: the contradiction between what man is and what he ought to be. Since man falls short of the ideal of moral perfection, the standard of righteousness, the law, he is faced with the disparity between the real and the ideal self, between what he is and what he ought to be. The Christian statement of this dilemma is given classic expression by the Apostle Paul in his famous analysis of the experience of the man under law in Romans chapter 7 — “The good that I would , I do not. And the evil which I would not, that I do.” (Rom. 7:19) This predicament has led the legalistic theologians to conclude that sin is intrinic to human nature. Rabbinic Judaism, for example, developed the theory of the evil nature or “yetzer hara.” Augustine used the doctrine of original sin (originale peccatum) or inherited inborn sinful nature to explain why men always fall short of the divine standard. But this doctrinal expedient of the sinful nature is unnecessary since the moral dilemma can be explained by the fact that a false god always betrays its worshippers into the very opposite of what they expected from the false god (Isa. 44:9, 10; 45:16, 17, 20, 21). The man under law who practically deifies the law (Rom. 7:22, 25) and looks to it to save him from sin and give him life (Rom. 7:10) finds that the law cannot save him, but on the contrary discovers that the law arouses sin and becomes the opportunity for sin which results in death (Rom. 7:5, 8-11).
A legalistic Christian theology requires the doctrine of an inherited sinful nature. It says that if man did not have an inherited sinful nature, he would be able to do good works and then he could save himself by his meritorious good works. Thus it must teach that man must have an inherited sinful nature otherwise he could save himself. But this is not why man cannot not save himself. Man cannot save himself because he is dead and he cannot make himself alive, not because he is not able to do meritorious works. A legalistic Christian theology does not understand this. As long as Christian theology thinks of salvation legalistically as something earned by merits, it will need the doctrine of original sin to explain why man cannot save himself.
But this doctrinal expedient is unnecessary since the legalistic dilemma can be explained by the fact that a false god always betrays its worshiper into the opposite of what he expects (Isa. 44:9-10; 45: 16-17, 20-21). The legalist who deifies the law and looks to it to save him from sin and give him life, finds that the law cannot save him but on the contrary discovers that the law arouses sin and becomes the opportunity for sin which results in death (Rom. 7:5, 8-11).
God’s wrath is directed against the idolatry of the law, legalism, as against any other idolatry. But the wrath of God is doubly directed against legalism because in addition to the wrath of God being against idolatry in any form (Rom. 1:18-25; 2:8), the failure to do the law in spite of having and trusting in the law brings the wrath of God (Gal. 3:10; James 4:17). Legalism cannot remove the wrath of God but causes wrath (Gal. 3:10; note that the “works of the law” are the meritorious works of legalism). Since the law cannot make alive ( Gal. 3:21) neither can legalism as an distortion of the law make alive. On the contrary, it causes death (Rom. 7:10). But since the law cannot make alive, legalism cannot produce righteousness either ( Gal. 3:21); it cannot take away sin. Likewise legalism cannot produce righteousness nor take away sin, but rather legalism causes sin (Rom. 7:5, 8, 11, 13). Thus legalism stands under a threefold Biblical indictment: it cannot remove wrath, sin or death because it cannot produce peace with God, righteousness or life. There is no salvation by the law or by legalism.
B. Biblical Theology of Holy Spirit.
God accomplishes this salvation through Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit. Having raised Jesus from the dead and having exalted Him to His own right hand to be both Lord and Christ (Acts 2:33, 36; Eph. 2:20-22; Phil. 2:9-11), God has sent the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:33) to bring life to men (John 3:5-8) by revealing personally to them (John 15:26) Jesus as their Savior who died for them and as their Lord who was raised for them (Rom. 10:9-10; Titus 3:4-7; II Tim. 1:9-10). When a man responds to this revelation in the preaching of the Gospel by turning from his false gods (in repentance) and turning to the true God (I Thess. 1:10), acknowledging Jesus as his Lord (by faith), he is saved (Acts 2:38; 16:31). Apart from God and His grace revealing Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit in the preaching of the Gospel, a man will not repent and believe (conversion) (John 6:44, 65; 16:7-11). Baptism is an outward sign of this inward work of God’s grace (Rom. 6:3-4). This decision of faith involves at least three elements.
First, faith is the acknowledgment of the Lordship of Christ and allegiance to Him as Lord.
“9 Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For one believes with his heart unto righteousness, and he confesses with his mouth unto salvation.” (Rom. 10:9-10 ERS)
Unless one believes that Jesus is risen from the dead, Jesus cannot be his Lord. One must believe that Jesus is risen from the dead, in order to acknowledge and to confess Jesus as his Lord. Faith in general is not just belief that certain statements are true but is the commitment of one’s self and the giving of one’s allegiance to something or to someone as one’s own personal ultimate criterion of all his decisions, intellectual and moral. Saving faith in Jesus Christ is the commitment of one’s self to Jesus Christ as one’s own personal ultimate criterion (“My Lord and my God,” John 20:28). In that decision of faith, the living person, the resurrected Jesus Christ, not just what He taught, becomes our ultimate criterion of the true, the good, and the beautiful (John 14:6). As He is our living Lord, His will becomes the ultimate criterion of all our decisions, intellectual and moral. By the Holy Spirit, His will is personally communicated to us (John 14:15-17, 26; 15:26; 16:12-15; II Cor. 3:17-18; I John 2:26-27).
Second, faith is identification with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
As our Savior, He died for us and was raised up from the dead for us (II Cor. 5:14-15). So in faith we say,
“His death is my death; His resurrection is my resurrection.”
“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (Gal. 2:20; see also Rom. 6:5-11; Eph. 2:4-6; Col. 3:1-4)
Baptism is the outward sign and symbol of this identification and participation with Christ in His death and resurrection (Rom. 6:3-4; Col. 2:12).
Third, faith is the reception of life in Christ. Jesus said,
“Truly, truly I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life; he does not come into judgment but has passed from death to life.” (John 5:24; see also John 3:36; Rom. 5:17)
Having in the decision of faith identified ourselves with the death and resurrection of Jesus and having acknowledged the resurrected living Jesus as Lord, we have also received spiritual life. For Jesus Christ is this life, and to have Him is to be spiritually alive to God.
“11 And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 He who has the Son has life; he who has not the Son has not life.” (I John 5:11-12)
This life is fellowship with God. When we received Jesus as our Lord and our Savior, fellowship with God is restored (I John 1:3) and we are reconciled to God (II Cor. 5:18). We are born again (John 3:3; Titus 3:5) and have become new creatures in Christ Jesus (II Cor. 5:17).
But this decision of faith is only the beginning of the Christian life. Being made alive in Christ we have become members of His body (I Cor. 12:12-13). Not only is our fellowship with God restored, but also our fellowship with our fellow man. The barrier is removed and we are no longer separated and alienated from one another (Eph. 2:19). We are no longer spiritually isolated from one another. All those who have acknowledged Jesus Christ as Lord and have received Him as their life, together form a new community or society, His body, of which He is the head (Col. 1:18). In His body we know the reality of God’s love and are able to love one another because He first loved us (I John 4:11, 19) and has poured His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which He has given to us (Rom. 5:5). Since the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:2), when we received life in Christ, we also have received the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:9).
The Christian life is a life of fellowship and communion with God the Father through Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit (I Cor. 1:9; II Cor. 13:14; I John 1:3). Through Jesus Christ we have access in one Spirit to the Father (Eph. 2:18; Rom. 5:2; Heb. 10:19-22). God speaks to us through the written and spoken Word of God and we speak to Him in prayer. The Christian life is also a walk of faith. It not only begins in faith, but it continues in faith (Col. 2:6). The walk in the Spirit is the walk of faith (Gal. 2:20; 5:25). Faith in the Father who loves me; faith in Jesus Christ with whom I have died and have been raised to new life; faith in the Holy Spirit who dwells within me. The Christian life is also a life of being transformed into and conformed to the image of God (Rom. 8:29; II Cor. 3:18). The resurrected God-man, the Son of man, Jesus Christ, is the image of God (Col. 1:15; II Cor. 4:4). By the last Adam, the man from heaven, man is being restored to the image of God. In faith, we have put on the new man which is being renewed according to the image of Him who created him (Col. 3:10; Eph. 4:23-24).
The Christian life is the present tense of salvation. We have been saved from death unto life, from sin unto righteousness, and from wrath unto peace. But this salvation is not yet complete. It has begun for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:24), and it is still continuing (I Cor. 15:2; see also I Cor. 1:18 and II Cor. 2:15). But it is not yet finished. With hope we await its completion (Rom. 5:9; 8:25; Gal. 5:5). We are in between the times: the time of His first coming and the time of His second coming. Our spirits are now alive to God and to those in Christ, but our bodies are still spiritually dead (Rom. 8:10). Our bodies are still subject to the spiritual and physical death that came from Adam’s sin. Only by the quickening power of the Holy Spirit of God who dwells within us can we now experience physical healing and control of the passions and desires of the flesh (Rom. 8:11-13). This salvation of the body from death is not now total or complete and will not be until Jesus returns. But neither is the salvation from sin to righteousness complete. The faith that we have in God who raised Jesus from the dead, this faith is “about to be reckoned” to us for righteousness, even as Abraham’s faith was reckoned (Rom. 4:23-24). But our righteousness is not complete. Our faith is weak, and not all things that we do are done according to trust and faith in the true God. We have many hangovers from our existence in death apart from Christ. This old man must be put off (Eph. 4:22-24; Col. 3:5-10) with its many evil practices. This can be done by the power of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Gal. 5:16-17, 24) as we walk in the Spirit by faith. The Christian can sin but he does not have to sin. The Christian is dead to the slavery of sin with Christ and alive to God in Christ (Rom. 6:1-10). He is to reckon it to be true and yield his members not to sin but to God as instruments of righteousness (Rom. 6:11-13). Temptations to sin still exist, but God has provided a way of escape (I Cor. 10:13).
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 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. 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?” (Rom. 6:15) Paul answers again with a denial and with his own question,
“15b May it never be! 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. 6:15b-16)
Then Paul thanks God that they (his readers) who were 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 it consequences (the wages of sin is eternal death) and the slavery to God and its consequences, sanctification, and its end, eternal life (eternal life is the gift of God in Christ Jesus our Lord, according to Rom. 6:23b).
In chapter 7 of his letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul discusses the Christian’s relationship to the law. This discussion actually begins with the statement in 6:14 (“you are not under law, but under grace.”) which raised the question in 6:15 (“What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?”) and its answer in 6:16 through 6:23. Then Paul says that the Christian is not under law because he has died with Christ to the law (Rom. 7:1-6).
Then Paul discusses the experience of one who is under law. The man in Romans 7:7-24 is the Christian under law. This is not where the Christian should be — he is not under law ( Rom. 6:14) because he is dead to the law (Rom. 7:4, 6). The Christian life depicted in Romans 7 is an abnormal (or subnormal) Christian life; there is no mention of the Holy Spirit in Rom. 7:7-24; the law has taken the place of the Holy Spirit. Such defeat and despair are not characteristic of the normal Christian life depicted in Romans 8 and elsewhere in the New Testament.
For the Christian to be under law is for him to be under the dominion of the law and to be a slave of the law (Rom. 7:25b); this slavery to the law would be equivalent to an idolatry of the law which is basically what legalism is. The Christian becomes entrapped in this legalism when he believes the legalistic teaching that a Christian’s relationship to God depends upon his submission to the law and he has accepted the legalistic claim that the law is the way to be delivered from the dominion of sin. But the law does not deliver from the dominion and slavery of sin, but rather the passions of sin are aroused or energized by the law (Rom. 7:5). The law is not thereby sin (Rom. 7:6), but sin finding opportunity in the commandment “Thou shalt not covet” works all kinds of covetousness (Rom. 7:7-8). The law, instead of delivering from the dominion of sin, leads instead to the enslavement to sin (7:14, 25). Instead of leading to life as legalism promises, the commandment leads to death (7:10). Sin uses the commandment as an opportunity to come alive or active (7:9, 11). The man under law wants to do what is right, but he cannot do it (7:18). Thus legalism leads to the moral dilemma: the contradiction between what man is and what he ought to be (7:19). The end is defeat and despair. In verses 21 to 23 Paul gives the conclusion of his analysis of this dilemma.
“21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil is present with me. 22 For I delight in the law of God according the inner man, 23 but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and taking me captive to the law of sin which is in my members.”
There are three laws operating in this experience.
1. The first law is the law of sin (verse 21). Since sin is not what the man under law wants to do, he concludes that sin must dwell in the members of his body rather than in his real inner self (7:17-20).
2. The second law is the law of God (verse 22) which the man under law delights in, which he agrees with his mind is right, good and holy (7:12, 16); this is “the law of the mind” referred to in the next verse.
3. The third law is the “another law” in verse 23. The Greek word heteros, translated “another,” means “another of a different kind;” not allos – “another of the same kind.” This is a law different from the first two laws; it wars against the law of the mind, which is the law of God, and brings the man who is under law into captivity to the law of sin. What is this third law? In the next verse we find a clue. “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death?” (7:24) The law of death is this third law, this other law. And this is confirmed in Romans 8:2 (NAS), which says, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.” The law of death brings the man under law into captivity to the law of sin. Death leads to sin; that is, “because of which [death] all sinned” (Rom. 5:12d).
The law separates the man under law from God; this is practically the same as spiritual death. And the man under law sins because he is practically spiritually dead. For the Christian to place himself under law is like placing himself in spiritual death; the law has taken the place of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus and it has the same results as spiritual death — spiritual death produces sin. Romans 7 is not the normal Christian life but is the abnormal or subnormal experience of the believer under law. But if the Christian falls into this legalism, there is deliverance. “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (7:25a).
There are three steps that may be found in Romans 7:25b through 8:4 for deliverance from legalism:
Step 1 – The recognition that legalism is the problem (Rom. 7:25b):
“So then, on the one hand, I myself with my mind am a slave to the law of God, but on the other hand, with my flesh to the law of sin.” ERS To be delivered from legalism one must recognize that he himself is a slave to the law and a slave to sin, that is, that he is under law and sin has dominion over him ( Rom. 6:14).
Step 2 – Deliverance from condemnation (Rom. 8:1):
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” NAS God delivers from legalism through His word of unconditional love which says that there is no condemnation to those in Christ. This is a word of grace and places the Christian back under grace. Legalism conditions God’s love by our sins. God says that His love is unconditioned by our sins. Therefore God does not condemn us for our failure under 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 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. In the next verse (Rom. 8:3) Paul says that the law of God is unable to make righteous; it does not have that power of action. And, as Paul 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.
“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)
According to Rom. 8:2, the law or the power of action of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus frees us from the law or power of action of sin and of death. Since death leads to sin, the Spirit delivers from sin by giving us life in Christ which is deliverance from death. The law is not able to do this – it cannot make alive; it is through the death of Christ (Rom. 8:3) who put an end to sin’s reign over us (“condemn sin in the flesh”) by his death for us (Rom. 6:6-10). The result (Rom. 8:4) is that the righteous acts of the law are fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. To walk after the flesh is to try to do the righteous acts of the law by human effort (“the flesh”). The believer must not do it that way. By walking after the Spirit 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.
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).
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; the law of sin not only describes what sin does, it is power of action of sin. 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” (phroneo) indicates a “conscious spiritual orientation of life,” an attitude or disposition of the will. 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. 5:12d, all men sin because they are spiritually dead. And 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 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 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 one 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 spiritually 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 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. 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.”
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.
The doctrine of the sinful nature was introduced into Christian theology by Augustine in the early fifth century A.D. to explain why man can not save himself by his meritorious works. Instead of denying that salvation has anything to do with meritorious works, Augustine assumed that salvation is by meritorious works and he taught that since the fall because of his inherited corrupt or sinful nature, man cannot do meritorious works to earn salvation apart from the grace of God. But Augustine assumption is wrong. According to the Scriptures (Eph. 2:8-9; Rom. 4:4-5), salvation is not by meritorious works, and the doctrine of the sinful nature is unnecessary to deny that man can save himself. According to the Scriptures, man cannot save himself because he cannot make himself alive, not because he cannot do meritorious works. The law cannot deliver one from death or sin, neither can the law produce life or righteousness Gal. 3:21). There is no salvation by the law.
The sinful nature is not needed to explain why man cannot save himself, because the law was not given by God for salvation. God gave the law, not for salvation from sin, but for the knowledge of sin (Rom. 3:19); that is, to show what should be man’s right personal relationship to God and to his fellow men (Deut. 6:5; Lev. 19:18; Matt. 22:37-40). This knowledge does not save man but only shows man what he ought to be but it cannot make him to be that. Salvation is only through Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit, not by the law and by human self-effort (the flesh). Jesus Christ is Life, and he who has Him has life and is alive to God (I John 5:11-12). Neither is the sinful nature needed to explain the struggle and defeat in Romans 7; the Christian cannot live by the law any more than can he be saved by the law. The law cannot produce righteousness because it cannot make alive; as the Apostle Paul says in Gal. 3:21:
“Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not; for if a law had been given which could make alive, then righteousness would indeed be by the law.”
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 the 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).
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’s nature is good. So accordingly all men’s choices are sin because their nature is sinful. And the grace of God must enable the will of man if he is going to do meritorious works to earn his salvation. This efficient grace is received through the sacraments.
The Protestant Reformers rejected this teaching that grace is given by the sacraments to enable the will of man to earn his salvation by meritorious works and taught that salvation is by grace through faith and that the grace of God regenerated the believer, giving him a new nature, by which he can do good works, but not to earn salvation and eternal life (Christ had earned this for them by His active obedience), but to show that they are saved and regenerated. According to their teaching, the believer has two natures, a sinful nature and a new nature, and the experience recorded in Romans 7 was interpreted as the struggle between these two natures. This legalistic explanation of salvation and of the Christian life leaves the believer under 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 Scripture that there is deliverance
“24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body this death? 25a 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 is being under law. According to Rom. 6:14, sin has dominion over the believer when he is under 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 for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Rom. 8:1).
Under law, the law condemns those who sin; it does not deliver those under law from the dominion of sin. But God by His grace 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 — it produces sin.
Wesley, while recognizing that there was deliverance from the Roman 7 experience, misunderstood that deliverance as an eradication of the sinful nature. He did not recognize that the cause of the Roman 7 experience was being under 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 law and have sinned by transgressing that law) as was the explanation of Augustine and of the Prostestant Reformers. And his explanation of salvation was also legalistic: he believed that the passive obedience of Christ’s death paid the penalty of men’s sin and the active obedience of Christ’s good works earned for us eternal life which is imputed to our account when we believe. Also his concept of Christian Perfection and Holiness was also a legalistic misinterpretation of the Christian Life as sinless perfection.
Legalism is a temptation and an obstacle to the walk in the Spirit by faith. As good and right as the law is (Rom. 7:10), this law is not man’s highest good, and observing the Ten Commandments is not man’s righteousness. God Himself is man’s highest good, and trust in and love for God is his righteousness. This love fulfills the law (Rom. 13:8-10), which a legalistic living by the law does not do. Man’s basic problem is not “Are you keeping the law?” but “Which god are you trusting?” Is it the true God or is it a false one? This is not just the problem of the non-Christian and the unbeliever but also the problem of the Christian. Many psychological problems that Christians have are the result of a divided loyalty. They are trying to hang onto the true God and a false god at the same time. This double-mindedness, this divided faith (James 1:7-8) makes a Christian psychologically and morally unstable and hinders his walk with the Lord.
And strange as it may seem, this is the situation behind the Romans 7 kind of experience of many Christians. As we observed above, the experience of Romans 7 is the experience of the man under law. And if a Christian is having this kind of experience, it is because he has placed himself under law which God says he is not under, for he is under grace ( Rom. 6:14). He is attempting to serve two masters at the same time: the law and the Holy Spirit. And it cannot be done ( Gal. 5:18). It only creates psychological and moral problems: guilt on the inside and sin and failure on the outside. Being indwelt by the Holy Spirit, the Christian does not need to walk by the law but by the Spirit. The Christian’s goal is not moral perfection but the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23). The Apostle Paul’s question in Galatians 3:3 is particularly relevant and right to the point: “Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?”
Paul’s obvious answer to this rhetorical question is “No“. For “as you… have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him” (Col. 2:6). By faith they have received Christ so they walk in Him by faith in Him. This walk is not the striving for moral perfection. Moral perfection is perfection by the flesh, by the works of the law, and is contrary and opposed to the fruit of the Spirit and the righteousness of faith (Gal. 5:19-21). The weakness, if not the error, of most Christian preaching and teaching is that it is an exhortation of the Christian to perfection by the flesh, by the works of the law. Having begun in the Spirit, the Christian is urged to seek moral perfection. The Holy Spirit is brought into this kind of preaching, if at all, as the source of power to enable the Christian to keep the law. This Spirit-empowered law-keeping is not what Paul means when he speaks of “walking according to the Spirit” (Rom. 8:4; see also Gal. 5:16, 25). To walk by the Spirit is to be led by the Spirit, and if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law:
“But if you are led by the Spirit you are not under the law.” (Gal. 5:18).
To walk according to the Spirit is to make all one’s decisions with reference to the Holy Spirit as He personally guides, fills and empowers the believer. The walk in the Spirit is the moment by moment walk of faith and personal trust in the God who personally by His Holy Spirit reveals and communicates Himself along each step of that walk. The “normal” Christian life is this walk according to the Spirit and not a legalistic Spirit-empowered law-keeping, but a biblical Spirit-filled law-fulfillment by love (Rom. 8:4; 13:10). Christian legalism not only ignores the clear statements of the Scriptures that the Christian is not under law ( Rom. 6:14), but also 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; Gal 2:19)
Not only is the Christian dead to sin 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.
“But now we are discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive, so that we serve not under the old written code
but in the new life of the Spirit.” (Rom. 7:6)
The Christian has passed from under the reign of death and sin unto reigning in life in Christ Jesus (Rom. 5:17). The law was the rule in the dispensation of death (II Cor. 3:6-7); the letter kills and the law condemns. The Holy Spirit is the rule of life in the new dispensation of life (II Cor. 3:17-18). Since the Spirit gives life (II Cor. 3:6), the dispensation of life is the dispensation of the Spirit (II Cor. 3:8), the Era of the Spirit. Since the Christian has passed from death to life, he has passed from the rule of the law to the rule of the Spirit. The law as the rule of Christian life has no place in the Era of the Spirit. And if the law has no place in the Era of the Spirit, legalism as an idolatry and misunderstanding of the law has no place in the Era of the Spirit either.