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THE MISUNDERSTANDING OF SALVATION
The Augustinian doctrine of original sin is legalistic because it presupposes a legalistic understanding of sin and death. According to the legalistic point of view, all sin is a transgression of the law, a crime, and death is always the punishment for those crimes. Death is always the result of or, in legalistic terms, the penalty of sin; death is the just reward of our sins. But the Augustinian doctrine of original sin is also legalistic because it assumes a legalistic understanding of salvation. Augustine used the doctrine of original sin to establish the need for salvation. Why does man need to be saved? Augustine answered that man needs to be saved because he is a sinner by nature. By this he meant that man is not able not to sin and not able to do meritorious good works because he has inherited a sinful nature from Adam. Man needs the grace of God to enable him not to sin and to do good works by which he can earn eternal life as a reward for his meritorious good works. The doctrine of original sin was Augustine’s answer to Pelagius’s assertion that man was able not to sin and able to do good works to earn eternal life by natural grace. Augustine said that man needs special grace because he lost the natural grace and is now, since the fall, a sinner by nature. Although man needs this special grace to enable him to do good works, men are still saved by good works. Augustine nowhere questions this legalistic conception of salvation. He like Pelagius assumes that salvation must be earned, but since we are sinners by nature, Augustine said that we need God’s special grace to enable us to do so. Thus salvation as well as the need for salvation were understood legalistically.
At the Reformation, the Protestant Reformers opposed the teaching of the Roman church which since the time of Augustine taught that by the grace of God which is infused into man at baptism and renewed by the sacraments, a man is able to do good works to earn eternal life. The Reformers agreed with Augustine that man cannot earn eternal life because of his sinful nature but they rejected the idea that grace was something infused into a man to make it possible for him to earn eternal life. Grace, they said, is God’s unmerited favor, and eternal life was a gift to be received by faith. But, they said, this eternal life was earned by the active obedience of Christ during his life on earth. This “merits of Christ” is imputed to the believer’s account when he first believes in Christ. Thus salvation was for them still ultimately and fundamentally by meritorious works. It is true that they said that salvation was not by our works and that eternal life was a gift to be received by faith. But salvation was still by works — not by our works but by the meritorious works of another, Jesus Christ. It was a vicarious salvation by works. Thus salvation as well as the need for salvation were still understood legalistically.
This classical Protestant explanation of salvation, like Augustine’s and the Roman church’s, mixes grace and works, which the Apostle Paul says cannot be done or grace will no longer be grace (Rom. 11:6). Paul very clearly teaches that salvation is not by works ( Eph. 2:8-9; Titus 3:5). Salvation is by grace through faith. Man cannot be saved by his good works; he cannot earn salvation by his works. This is the clear and explicit teaching of Scripture. But not only is salvation by grace but it is also not by meritorious works. Salvation by grace and salvation by meritorious works are mutually exclusive and opposing ways of salvation.
“But if it is by grace, it is no longer by works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.” (Rom. 11:6)
Thus salvation by grace and salvation by meritorious works must not be mixed. The result of such a mixture is that the strong dynamic Biblical concept of God’s grace as God’s love in action is reduced in Augustine’s and the Roman church’s theology to the idea of something infused into man by the sacraments which makes it possible for him to earn eternal life or in Protestant theology it is reduced to the weak idea of grace as unmerited favor. Grace is no longer grace in these theologies.
Salvation is not by meritorious works, not because a man is not able to do them, but because God does not deal with mankind on the basis of the merit scheme. As Jesus made clear in his parable of the householder (Matt. 20:1-16), God does not act toward us on the basis of our merit but on the basis of His generosity. And because God does not treat mankind according to their desserts, but according to His love, He often puts the least deserving before the more deserving. “The last will be first and the first last.” (Matt. 20:16; 19:30; Mark 10:31; Luke 13:30)
Legalism misinterprets 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). According to this view, for God to do otherwise He would be unrighteous and unjust. Absolute justice, which according to this legalistic point of view is the eternal being of God, is said to require and demand, of necessity, the reward of meritorious good works and the punishment of sin.
But the righteousness of God is not the justice of God, but is God acting to set man right with God Himself and is synonymous with salvation. Very often in the Old Testament it is the action of God for the vindication and deliverance of His people; it is the activity in which God saves His people by rescuing them from their oppressors.
“In thee, O Lord, do I seek refuge; let me never be put to shame; in thy righteousness deliver me!” (Psa. 31:1)
“In thy righteousness deliver me and rescue me; incline thy ear to me, and save me!” (Psa. 71:2)
“143:11 For thy name’s sake, O Lord, preserve my life! In thy righteousness bring me out of trouble! 143:12 And in thy steadfast love cut off my enemies. and destroy all my adversaries, for I am thy servant.” (Psa. 143:11-12)
Thus the righteousness of God is often a synonym for the salvation or the deliverance of God. In the Old Testament, this is clearly shown by the literary device of parallelism which is a characteristic of Hebrew poetry. [1]. Parallelism is that Hebrew literary device in which the thought and idea in one clause is repeated and amplified in a second and following clause. This parallelism of Hebrew poetry clearly shows that Hebrew poets and prophets made the righteousness of God synonymous with divine salvation:
“The Lord hath made known His salvation: His righteousness hath he openly showed in the sight of the heathen.” (Psa. 98:2 KJV)
“I bring near my righteousness, it shall not be far off, and my salvation shall not tarry; and I will place salvation in Zion
for Israel my glory.” (Isa. 46:13 KJV)“My righteousness is near, my salvation is gone forth, and mine arms shall judge the people; the isles shall wait upon me, and on mine arm shall they trust.” (Isa. 51:5 KJV)
“Thus saith the Lord, keep ye judgment and do justice [righteousness]: for my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed.” (Isa. 56:1 KJV; See also Psa. 71:1-2, 15; 119:123; Isa. 45:8; 61:10; 62:1)
From these verses, it is clear that righteousness of God is a synonym for the salvation or deliverance of God. The righteous acts of the Lord, or more literally, the righteousnesses of the Lord, referred to in Judges 5:11; I Sam. 12:7-11; Micah 6:3-5; Psa. 103:6-8; Dan. 9:15-16, means the acts of vindication or deliverance which the Lord has done for His people, giving them victory over their enemies. It is in this sense that God is called “a righteous God and a Savior” (Isa. 45:21 RSV, NAS, NIV) and “the Lord our righteousness” (Jer. 23:5-6; 33:15-16).
There is a difference between the righteousness of God in the Old Testament and that in the New Testament. In the Old Testament, the righteousness of God is the vindication of the righteous who are suffering wrong (Ex. 23:7). God vindicates the righteous who are wrongfully oppressed. In the Old Testament, the righteousness of God requires a real righteousness of the people on whose part it is done. In Isa. 51:7, the promise of deliverance is addressed to those “who know righteousness, the people in whose hearts is my law.” Similarly, in order to share in the promised vindication, the wicked must forsake his ways and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and return unto the Lord (Isa. 55:7). In the New Testament, the righteousness of God is not only a vindication of a righteous people who are being wrongfully oppressed (this view is in Jesus’ teaching in Matt. 5:6; 6:33; Luke 18:7), but it is also a deliverance of the people from their own sins; it is also the salvation of the ungodly who are delivered from their ungodliness (trust in a false god) and unrighteousness. The righteousness of God saves the unrighteous by setting them right with God Himself through faith (Rom. 1:17a).
The righteousness of God is not opposed to the love of God nor does it condition it. On the contrary, it is a part of and the proper expression of God’s love. It is the activity of God’s love to set right the wrong. In the Old Testament, this is shown by the parallelism between love and righteousness.
“But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon those who fear him, and His righteousness to children’s children.” (Psa. 103:17). (See also Psa. 33:5; 36:5-6; 40:10; 89:14.)
God expresses His love as righteousness in the activity by which He saves His people from their sins. In His wrath, He opposes the sin that would destroy man whom He loves. In His grace, God removes the sin: the grace of God is the love of God in action to bring salvation (Titus 2:11; Eph. 2:8). The grace of God may properly be called the righteousness of God. For in His righteousness, God acts to deliver His people from their sins, setting them right with Himself.
The righteousness of God is God acting in love for the salvation or deliverance of man. This righteousness of God has been manifested, that is, publicly displayed, in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (Rom. 3:21-22). God was active in Jesus Christ, particularly in His death and resurrection, for salvation (Acts 4:12; I Thess. 5:9; I Tim. 2:10; 3:15; Heb. 5:9). Because He is the act of God for our salvation, Jesus Christ is the righteousness of God (I Cor. 1:30). The gospel or good news is about this manifestation of the righteousness of God. The gospel tells us about God’s act of salvation in the person and work of Jesus Christ (I Cor. 15:3-4; Eph. 1:13).
END NOTES
What is the grace of God? 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.
“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 our failures,
made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)” (Eph. 2:4-5 ERS).
According to these verses, the grace of God is God’s love in action. And God’s grace is more than just His favor; it is His love acting to do something good for us. The parallelism between the phrase in the last part of verse 5, “(by grace you have been saved)” and the phrase in verse 4 and in the first part of verse 5, “God…out of the great love with which He loved us…made us alive together with Christ”, shows that the grace of God by which we are saved is God’s love acting to make us alive together with Christ.
That is, this salvation by the grace of God is salvation from death to life. And since this salvation from death to life is by the love of God, then the grace of God that saves us is God’s love in action to save us. Now God’s love in action to save us is more than His favor. And since God’s love in action to save us is more than His favor, then the grace of God is more than just His favor. That is, the grace of God is God’s love in action, not just His favor. And because He loves us, He has acted to save us from death to life.
“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, 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 is another person in God for Him to love. These three persons of the Godhead love each other (John 3:35; 5:20; 15:9-10; 17:23-26; 14:31). And 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 man fell from the image of God because of sin, 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 (Col. 1:15), 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 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; it 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).
In Eph. 2:8-9, Paul contrasts this salvation by grace with salvation by works.
“2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, 2:9 not as a result of works, that no one should boast.” (Eph. 2:8-9 NAS)
What is salvation by works? Salvation by works is a salvation that is earned; it is merited.
“4:4 Now to the one who works his wages is not reckoned according to grace [as a gift], but according to debt [something owed since it was earned]. 4:5 But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness.” (Rom. 4:4-5 ERS).
The works that are supposed to earn salvation are more than just good works (good deeds or acts); they are meritorious works; they are good deeds that earn salvation. Each good work is regarded as having a certain quantity of merit attached to it; when the good work is done, the merit is imputed or reckoned to the account of the person performing the act. Correspondingly, each evil or bad work is regarded as having a certain quantity of demerit or negative merit (penalty) attached to it so that the demerit is reckoned to the account of the person doing the evil work (sin). At the final judgment each person’s account is balanced — the merits and demerits are weighed against each other. If the merit outweighs the demerit, that person is saved — he has earned eternal life. If the demerit outweighs the merit, that person is condemned — he is punished eternally for his sins. This merit scheme underlies and is implied by all teaching that salvation is by works.
The Bible very clearly teaches that salvation is not by works ( Eph. 2:8-9; Titus 3:5). Salvation is the gift of God, by His grace received through faith. Man cannot be saved by his meritorious good works; he cannot earn salvation by his works. This is the clear and explicit teaching of Scripture. Salvation by grace and salvation by meritorious works are mutually exclusive and opposing ways of salvation.
“But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would longer be grace.” (Rom. 11:6)
Now, if we ask why man cannot be saved by his works, that is, what is the reason man cannot earn salvation by his meritorious works, the usual answer given to this question is that man apart from God’s grace is not able to do good works by which he can earn salvation. Man, it is usually said, is not only not able to do good works, but he is able only to sin apart from the grace of God.
Now, the curious implication of this answer is that if a man were able to do good works — able not sin — then he could earn salvation and be saved by his meritorious works. Salvation would then be by works. This implication is made explicit in the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church since the time of Augustine in the early fifth century, that by the grace of God, which is infused into a man at his baptism, and renewed by the sacraments, he is able to do good works by which salvation (eternal life) may be earned. Accordingly, salvation is ultimately and fundamentally by works even though the grace of God makes possible the meritorious works.
It was this teaching that the Protestant Reformers opposed. They rejected the idea that grace was something infused into man to make it possible for him to earn salvation. Grace, said the Reformers, is God’s unmerited favor, and salvation (eternal life) was a gift to be received by faith. But, the Reformers also said, that eternal life was earned by the active obedience of Christ during his life on earth. This “merits of Christ” is imputed to the believer’s account when he first believes in Christ. Thus salvation is still ultimately and fundamentally by meritorious works. It is true that they said that it was not by our works and it was a gift received by faith. But salvation was still by works — not by our works but by the meritorious works of another, Jesus Christ. Christ by his active obedience has earned for us eternal life. It is a vicarious salvation by works. This explanation of salvation like the earlier Roman Catholic explanation mixes grace and works, which Paul says that cannot be done or grace will no longer be grace ( Rom. 11:6). And as it turned out in the history of Protestantism, the strong dynamic concept of God’s grace as God’s love in action is reduced to the weak idea of grace as unmerited favor. The Protestant Reformers redefined grace as unmerited favor to counter the Roman Catholic explanation that by the sacraments the grace of God makes possible the meritorious works by which salvation (eternal life) may be earned.
The doctrine of the sinful nature was introduced into Christian theology by Augustine in the early fifth century A.D. to explain why man can not save himself by his meritorious works. Instead of denying that salvation has anything to do with meritorious works, Augustine assumed that salvation is by meritorious works and he taught that since the fall, because of his inherited corrupt or sinful nature, man cannot do meritorious works to earn salvation apart from the grace of God. The grace of God which is infused into man’s will by the sacraments enables him to earn eternal life. But Augustine’s assumption is wrong. According to the Scriptures ( Eph. 2:8-9; Rom. 4:4-5), salvation is not by meritorious works, eternal life is not earned by meritorious works, and the doctrine of the sinful nature is unnecessary to deny that man can save himself. According to the Scriptures, man cannot save himself because he cannot make himself alive, not because he cannot do meritorious works. The law cannot deliver one from death or sin, neither can the law produce life or righteousness.
“Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not; for if a law had been given which could make alive, then righteousness would indeed be by the law.” (Gal. 3:21)
There is no salvation by the law. The sinful nature is not needed to explain why man cannot save himself, because the law was not given by God for salvation. God gave the law, not for salvation from sin, but for the knowledge of sin (Rom. 3:19); that is, to show what should be man’s right personal relationship to God and to his fellow men (Deut. 6:5; Lev. 19:18; Matt. 22:37-40). This knowledge does not save man but only shows man what he ought to be but it cannot make him to be that. Salvation is only through Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit, not by the law and not by human self-effort (the flesh). Jesus Christ is Life, and he who has Him has life and he is alive to God (I John 5:11-12).
One of the implications of Augustine’s doctrine of the sinful or corrupt nature of man is that salvation is entirely the work of God (monergism), since man, because of his sinful nature, is totally unable to do good works in order to earn salvation by them. According to Augustine, 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. Thus salvation is a monergism, where God does all that is needed to earn salvation, not a synergism, where God’s act of grace enables the will of man to earn salvation, as was taught by the later Roman Church.
Furthermore, in Augustine’s teaching, grace is reduced to something that enables the human will to do good works so that it can earn salvation. These views of Augustine concerning salvation follow from his view of human nature as sinful or corrupt. The Calvinist Reformers denied this view of grace and sees the grace of God as the unmerited favor of God in which God gives to the elect the righteousness or merits earned for them by Christ’s active obedience. That is, God in Christ has earned for them the salvation that they themselves cannot earn because of their sinful nature. But the Calvinist is wrong; righteousness is not merits but is a right personal relationship to God through faith.
“4:4 Now to the one who works his wages is not reckoned according to grace [as a gift], but according to debt [something owed since it was earned]. 4:5 But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness.” (Rom. 4:4-5 ERS).
And God puts man into this right personal relationship to Himself by His grace, not by vicarious meritorious works that was earned for them by another. The grace of God is not just the unmerited favor of God, but it is the love of God in action to save man from death to life.
“2:4 But God who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, 2:5 even when we were dead in our failures, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)” (Eph. 2:4-5 ERS).
Calvinism’s view of salvation like Augustine’s is monergistic, that is, God alone is active in salvation, because it believes that since man’s nature is sinful and man does what his nature is, then all the acts of man are sinful and he cannot do any righteous act to earn salvation. Therefore, God alone must earn it for him. Calvinism, denying the Augustinian view that man does these meritorious acts by the grace of God that man receives from God through the sacraments, asserts that God alone does these meritorious acts through the active obedience of Christ; Christ has earned salvation for us. God alone is active in man’s salvation. Not only is the grace of God the work of God but so also is faith, since salvation is “by grace through faith” ( Eph. 2:8). According to Calvinism, the faith that receives the gift of God is also the work of God. The Calvinistic doctrine of Irresistible Grace teaches that God gives the elect a new nature by which they can believe and thus be saved. Thus not only is salvation by grace but so also is faith the gift of God. But the phrase in Eph. 2:8, “and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God”, refers not to faith but to salvation. In the Greek of this verse, the demonstrative pronoun translated “that” agrees in gender (masculine) with the verbal participle translated “have been saved”, and not with the noun translated “faith” which is feminine. Salvation is the gift which God has given and is received by man’s faith. And this faith does not earn this salvation by meritorious works. For faith is not a meritorious work.
“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)
Salvation is not by meritorious works, not because a man is not able to do them, but because God does not deal with mankind on the basis of the merit scheme. As Jesus made clear in his parable of the householder (Matt. 20:1-16), God does not act toward us on the basis of our merit but on the basis of His generosity. And because God does not treat mankind according to their desserts, but according to His love, He often puts the least deserving before the more deserving. “The last will be first and the first last.” (Matt. 20:16; 19:30; Mark 10:31; Luke 13:30)
The Apostle Paul in opposing salvation by works refers to meritorious works as “the righteousness of the law” (Rom. 10:5; Phil. 3:6, 9) and as “the works of the law” (Rom. 3:20; 4:2-5; Gal. 3:2, 5, 10). The law was legalistically considered to be the standard by which the merits of good works can be determined. This is a distortion of the Mosaic law and is a characteristic of legalism.
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 denied 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 for salvation. Since man’s relationship 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, that is, 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, both a saint and a sinner.
Chapter 7 of Romans (verses 7 through 24) 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 of the presence of the sinful nature. Thus most Reformed theologians interpreted the 7th chapter of Romans as the normal Christian life. According to their teaching, since the believer has two natures, a sinful nature and a new nature, the experience recorded in Romans 7:7-24 is interpreted as the struggle between these two natures. This explanation of Romans 7 leaves the believer with no deliverance from this struggle, contrary to the clear teaching of Scirpture that there is deliverance:
“7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body this death? 7:25a 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 being under law. According Rom. 6:14, sin has dominion over the believer when he is under the law and the deliverance from the dominion of sin is to be under grace.
“For sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under the law, but under grace.” (Rom. 6:14)
The grace of God (God’s love in action) delivers the believer from the dominion and slavery of sin by placing the believer back under the grace of God. God does this by not condemning the believer who is in Christ Jesus.
“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” (Rom. 8:1).
Under the law, the law condemns those who sin; it does not deliver those under the law from the dominion of sin. But God does not condemn them but places them back under grace and delivers them from the dominion of sin (“the law of sin”) and of death (“the law of death”) by the operation of the Spirit (“the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus”).
“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.” (Rom. 8:2).
The law separates the believer who is under law from God; this is practically the same as spiritual death. Thus the believer under law sins because he is practically spiritually dead. For the Christian to place himself under law is like placing oneself in spiritual death; the law has taken the place of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus and it has the same results as spiritual death — it produces sin.
Wesley, while recognizing that there was deliverance from the Roman 7 experience, misunderstood that deliverance as an eradication of the sinful nature. He did not recognize that the cause of the Roman 7 experience was being under the law ( Rom. 6:14), not the sinful nature. And he did not recognize this cause because his explanation of the need for salvation was legalistic (all men are under the law and have sinned by transgressing that law) as was the explanation of Augustine and of the Prostestant Reformers. And 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 Holiness as Christian Perfection was also a legalistic misinterpretation of the Christian Life as sinless perfection.
Thus, although some Reformed theologians interpret this struggle of Romans chapter 7 as the normal Christian life, other Reformed theologians reject this interpretation of the Romans 7 experience and teach the suppression of the works of the flesh (sinful nature) by the power of the Holy Spirit. But in this case, the Christian is still left under the law as a rule and standard of life and the “walk in the Spirit” is interpreted as nothing more than Spirit-empowered law-keeping. According to this teaching, the Holy Spirit is given to the Christian to empower him to keep the law and to make him morally perfect, conforming to the divine standard given in the law. This legalistic interpretation of the Christian life is the source of many of the psychological problems that Christians have today.
Legalism has either of two psychological effects on the person in bondage to the law. He becomes either self-righteous or afflicted with a guilt complex.
1. This self-righteousness is a special form of pride which is the chief by-product of idolatry (Psa. 40:4). It is most often connected with the externalization and detailed extensions of the law. It expresses itself in the attitude of the Pharisees who keep the minutiae of the law but overlook the spirit of the law (Matt. 15:1-19). Also the legalist is not only self-righteous but sits in judgment on others who do not conform to the law and has little place for mercy. He becomes like the god he acknowledges and worships — the law. When he is shown mercy, he does not in turn show mercy to those in his debt (Matt. 18:23-35).
2. The other 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 theologian 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).
And not only that, but also since death (primarily spiritual death) leads to sin (Rom. 5:12d ERS), the man under law is practically in spiritual death (the law separates him from God), and sin is the result of that death. This is what the Apostle Paul concludes at the end of his discussion of the legalistic struggle in Romans 7.
“7:21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil is present with me. 7:22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inner man, 7:23 but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and taking me captive to the law of sin which is in my members.” (Rom. 7:21-23 ERS)
There are three laws presented here in this passage.
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 (Rom. 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 (Rom. 7:12, 16); this is the law of the mind in the next verse.
3. The third law is the “another law” (heteros — another of a different kind; compare with allos — another of the same kind) — a law different from the first two laws but warring against the law of the mind — the law of God — and bringing the man under law into captivity to the law of sin. What is this third law? In the next verse, we get a clue.
“Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death” (Rom. 7:24).
This third law, this other law, is the law of death. And this is confirmed in Romans 8:2 (NAS, margin) which says,
“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and of death.”
The law of death brings the man who is under law into captivity to the law of sin. That is, death leads to sin, “because of which [death] all sinned” (Rom. 5:12d ERS). “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law” (I Cor. 15:55).
Paul uses the word nomos [law] here in Rom. 8:2 in the way that the Greeks and Romans did; they believed that the law had 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 power bring about what action that 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” in Rom. 8:2. 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 of the Spirit of life is the power of the Spirit of God acting to make one alive, and thus freeing from the law or power of action of death and of sin. The law of death is the power of death acting make one spiritually dead. The law of sin is the power of sin acting to make one sin. In the next verse (8:3), we see that the law of God is unable to make righteous, because it did 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; it does not have that power action either.
No sinful nature is necessary to explain the moral delimma; the man under law sins because he is spiritually dead; the law separates him from God. For the Christian to place himself under the law is practically like placing himself in death; it has the same results — sin. For the Christian to be under law, the law has taken the place of the Holy Spirit; the law thus separates the Christian from God. Romans chapter 7 is not the normal Christian life; it is the struggle of the man under law, entrapped in the bondage of legalism. If the Christian falls into this legalism, there is deliverance. “Thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 7:25a).
There are three steps for deliverance from legalism that may be found in Romans 7:25b through 8:4:
“7:25b So then, I myself am a slave to the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin.” 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 8:3 For what the law could not do, in that it is weakened through the flesh, God Himself, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and concerning sin, condemned sin in the flesh, 8:4 in order that the righteous acts of law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” (ERS)
Step 1 – The recognition that legalism is the problem (Rom. 7:25b): “So then, on the one hand, I myself with my mind am a slave to the law of God, but on the other hand, with my flesh to the law of sin.” ERS To be delivered from legalism one must recognize that he himself is a slave to the law and a slave to sin, that is, that he is under the law and sin has dominion over him ( Rom. 6:14).
Step 2 – Deliverance from condemnation (Rom. 8:1): “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” NAS God delivers from legalism through His word of unconditional love which says that there is no condemnation to those in Christ. This is a word of grace and places the Christian back under grace. Legalism conditions God’s love by our sins. God says that His love is unconditioned by our sins. Therefore, God does not condemn us for our failure under the law but delivers us from under law and places us back under grace. For in His love, God delivers us from sin and death (Rom. 8:2) and thus from wrath which is condemnation.- Step 3 – Deliverance from sin and death (Rom. 8:2): “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you freefrom 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. 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 death is power of death acting to make one dead. The law of sin is the power of sin acting to make one sin. Since death leads to sin (Rom. 5:12d ERS), the Spirit delivers from sin by giving us life in Christ which is deliverance from death. The law is not able to do this, 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. 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 according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. To walk according to the flesh is to try to do the righteous acts of the law by human effort (“the flesh”) to conform to the norm or standard of the law. The believer must not do it that way. He must walk according to the Spirit. And to walk according to the Spirit is to walk in love. And love fulfills the law (Rom. 13:8-10) and the righteous acts of the law.
Legalism makes a problem of the Christian life because the law separates us from God and leads us to trust in ourselves and our good works rather than in Him. This is the practical effect of the legalistic theory of Christian life — it does not work. Where is the victory of Christ’s resurrection in the struggle of Romans 7? Only as we pass out from under the law (we died to the law in Christ’s death – Rom. 7:4) and are set free from the law of sin and of death by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:2), do we experience the resurrection victory of Christ over sin and death.
The Christian life is not Spirit-empowered law-keeping, that is, being under the law and coming up to standard of the law by the power of the Spirit. For the believer is not under law ( Rom. 6:14) because he is dead to the law ( Rom. 7:4, 6). Thus the walk according the Spirit is not Spirit-empowered law-keeping but Spirit-filled law-fulfillment by love (Rom. 8:4; 13:10); it is a joyful walk in the Spirit, trusting Him who loves us and gave Himself for us. And, is a law necessary to make us love and trust God? The law is for those who do not love and trust God — though it will not help them — it cannot make them alive — it cannot produce righteousness (Gal. 3:21). For if the law could make them alive as the legalist tries to tells us, then Christ died in vain (Gal. 2:21).
Salvation is not by works of the law — in any way, shape or form. Salvation is by grace — grace is love in action; and God’s grace is God’s love in action to make us alive in Christ through faith ( Eph. 2:4-5; 8-9), through trust in Him who loves us and gave Himself for us.
And the Christian life is also by grace through faith. 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 by 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); He is the last Adam. And 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).
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 relationship 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 or allowed himself to be placed under the law which God says he is not under, for he is under grace (Rom. 6:14).
“For sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under the law, but 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 Galations 3:3 is particularly relevant and right to the point: “Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?”
Paul’s obvious answer to this rhetorical question is “no“. For “as you… have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him” (Col. 2:6). Moral perfection is perfection by the flesh, by the works of the law, and is contrary and opposed to the fruit of the Spirit and the righteousness of faith (Gal. 5:19-21). The weakness, if not the error, of most Christian preaching and teaching is that it is an exhortation of the Christian to perfection by the flesh, by the works of the law. Having begun in the Spirit, the Christian is urged to seek moral perfection. The Holy Spirit is brought into this kind of preaching, if at all, as the source of power to enable the Christian to keep the law. This Spirit-empowered law-keeping is not what Paul means when he speaks of “walking according to the Spirit” (Rom. 8:4; see also Gal. 5:16, 25). To walk by the Spirit is to be led by the Spirit, and if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law (Gal. 5:18).
“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; it is Spirit-filled law-fulfillment by love (Rom. 8:4; 13:10). 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 by love. 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 (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 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.” 7:6 But now we are discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive, so that we serve not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit.” (Rom. 7:4, 6; Gal 2:19)
Not only is the Christian dead to sin but dead to the law. Through Christ’s death, he has died to sin and to the law, and now in the resurrected Christ, he is alive to God. The Christian has passed from under the reign of death and of 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.
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