We finished our last lesson half way through Romans, chapter 7, where Paul began to use the first-person pronoun “I” a lot. He was using a rhetorical technique called “prosopopoeia,” where he writes to represent, not himself, but the typical experience of every Jew when confronted by the Law.
In Romans 7:5-6, Paul contrasted life under the Law (Old Covenant) with life in the Spirit (New Covenant). In Romans 7: 7-12, he described what happened when the Law “came” to Israel, using past-tense verbs. Now, using present-tense verbs, Paul delves into the person’s experience of living under that Law.
Paul’s use of “I” is not to describe his experience but to convey the “impossibility” of life under the Law. With precision, Paul focuses on the Jewish Christian’s understanding of the Old Covenant, which he understood as a way to earn God’s favor through holy living.
Life under the Law, the Old Covenant, Part 1
In Romans 7:14-23, Paul uses a two-part pattern three times:
- The dilemma: The gap between wanting to do something but not being able to achieve it
- The underlying problem: Why the person doesn’t achieve what he wants
Read Romans 7:14
- What does “for we know” indicate about what Paul is going to say next?
“spiritual”: This use of “spiritual” goes back to vs. 10, where the Law “promised life,” in the life of the world to come (contrasted with the “Spirit” who gives life: Romans 8:9, 11; 2 Corinthians 3:6b, 17-18). The Law is also spiritual because it came from God.
“sold under sin”: Sell, Greek, piprasko. The verb itself means “sell,” but it refers specifically to the selling of slaves in 11 of its 24 uses in the Septuagint. Paul further emphasizes the slave imagery by using the preposition “under” (hupo).
Read Romans 7:15-17
- What is the dilemma?
- Why is “I” unable to do what he wants to do?
- 17 starts out with “so now.” How does that further affirm that “I” is a slave of sin?
Life under the Law, the Old Covenant, Part 2
Read Romans 7:18-20
“I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out”: literally, “for to will the good lies at hand to me, but to carry [it] out does not.” We have a picture of the “I” being able to pick up what he wants to do but lacks the power to do anything with it.
“the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing”: want, Greek, thelo. This is not a deliberate decision of the free will (boulesthai), but an inclination toward something within someone. Here, Paul is referring to the inclination toward sin for the sinful nature.
- What is the dilemma?
- What keeps the “I” from doing what is right?
Life under the Law, the Old Covenant, Part 3
In Romans 6, Paul used the institution of slavery to teach that everybody has a master. Is your master sin or God? Yet, Paul also used military comparison. He did so through hoplon, a soldier’s weapon, in Romans 6:13 (“instrument”) and opsonion, “military wages,” in Romans 6:23. In these verse, Paul switches to military metaphors once more.
Paul’s use of military metaphors become more significant when we remember the usual fate of prisoners of war in ancient times was to be sold into slavery.
Read Romans 7:21-23
- What’s the dilemma?
- What keeps the “I” from doing what is right?
- What is this “other law,” which wages war against the law of the mind?
- What is now obvious about being able to follow God’s Old Covenant in such a way that one then earns God’s favor?
The Solution to earning God’s favor through the Law
Read Romans 7:24-25a
- What is the “body of death”?
- The solution to being imperfect lies not in trying harder, but in whom?
Read Romans 7:25b
- In this verse, how does Paul switch from “I” representing everyman to “I” representing him?
“I myself”: Greek, autos ego. Paul adds “myself” to show he is now referring to himself in this verse. See also Romans 9:3, 15:14; 2 Corinthians 10:1, 12:13.
- If Paul is, present tense, serving the law of sin, what does that mean for all Christians living in this fallen world?
If everyone serves the law of sin, whether Christian or non-Christian, sin condemns us all (not the law but sin). Paul has shown to the Jewish Christian, with his work-righteous mindset, that he too stands condemned.
Life in the Spirit
Read Romans 8:1
“no condemnation”: This translation isn’t strong enough. Paul literally wrote, “nothing [is] condemnation.”
- Instead of sin condemning someone, what reality exists for “those who are in Christ Jesus”?
- Following Paul’s train of thought and the last time he explained how someone is brought into Christ, how does someone become “in Christ Jesus”? (Romans 6:3)
- If someone is in Christ Jesus through baptism, why did Paul have to teach the Jewish Christians for two chapters about repenting from their works-righteousness? (Matthew 28:19-20)
- What are the implications of having to teach the Jewish Christians about relying on Christ and not themselves?
Read Romans 8:2
- What sets someone free from sin’s condemnation?
- What doesn’t set someone free from sins’ condemnation?
- How can the Spirit of life set someone free?
- What does this teach us about the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives as Christians?
Read Romans 8:3-4
- Who did what the Law could not do?
- If Paul went on for two chapters reinforcing that what we do isn’t good enough, what then doesn’t fulfill the righteous requirement of the Law?
Excursus: The Law’s righteous requirement being fulfilled in us
Because we are in Christ Jesus (and He is in us), the righteous requirement of the Law becomes fulfilled in us. Jesus does the fulfilling, which is why Paul used the passive voice. Our holy living and the righteousness we bring do not fulfill the requirement of the Law because they are not good enough. However, what Christ does for us is good enough! When we are in Him, we have what He gives us.
Being “in Him” means we are not relying on ourselves but on what Jesus does for us. If we are looking to something other than Christ, that “something other” will always fail us.
Now, we understand why Paul went on for two chapters about the work-righteousness inherent in the Jewish Christians’ worldview. For when they were relying, in part, on what they did for their status before God, they weren’t relying on Christ. It’s all or nothing.
The reality for us all is that we all “serve the law of sin” (Romans 7:25) because we all have a sinful nature. This state of being turns the Christian life into—not trying harder and harder to be good—but always being brought back into what Christ did and does for us. Only in Him, is the righteousness of the Law fulfilled in us.
Our sinful acts and thoughts are the symptoms of an inclination, of being bent toward sin, not the problem. Remember Paul’s earlier use of thelo for “want.” Thelo is not a deliberate decision of the free will, which would have been boulesthai, but an inclination within someone.
Thus, the solution for our sin problem does not lie in doing better, because the inclination would still be there. The solution lies in something outside ourselves (Christ) who will remove this inclination from us and replace it (the resurrection of the body).
This links back to what Paul said about baptism. Romans 6:3-5:
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk [peripateo] in newness of life.
This walking in newness of life is free from such sinful inclinations. Until then, with physical bodies, we walk according to the Spirit, which is the Spirit pointing us to Christ and the righteousness we have in Him. Romans 8:4: “… the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk [peripateo] not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
————–
- What’s another way of saying, “Walking according to the Spirit”?
Romans 8:1-4 shows us the Holy Spirit is the antidote to sin dwelling within us because the Spirit connects us to Christ. Christ is our righteousness, the Solution to our lack of righteousness highlighted in Romans 7:7-25.
Next week, in Romans 8:5-17, we’ll see how the Spirit empowers the good works Paul earlier described in Romans 6. We may not get to Romans 8:18-39, where Paul shows the Spirit is the “first fruits” of the Christian’s hope, which he earlier described in Romans 5:1-11.
