There are many times that I have been all set to share something
on a Sunday morning, but faced some kind of delay in getting that far, and the
following week, discovered some insights that would make my sharing of these
things all the better. This is what is happening as I try to move from Romans 7
to Romans 8.
This morning I learned something crucial to understanding
what Paul is saying in Romans 8. It encouraged me about how God works everything
together for good in the lives of his children, and it also helped me see how
looking at these things this week is going to help our church family walk
together in the Spirit.
For a long time, I have thought of Romans 7 as a focus on
life in the flesh/sark,[1] and
Romans 8 a focus on life in the Spirit. Each chapter was like a separate box,
and we needed to be in one or the other. With that boxed-in approach, it seemed
like Paul could only have been writing Romans 7 in reference to his
non-Christian life, and Romans 8 in reference to the Christian life. The Romans
8 life was to replace the Romans 7 life, simple as that.
HOWEVER… Paul is not talking as though the believer
completely cuts ties with the flesh upon our conversion. While we do not
support churches that say that someone can be a “carnal” Christian who has no
desire to live a righteous life in Christ Jesus, neither do we believe in
sinless perfection in this earthly lifetime. We know that the flesh/sark is a
constant tag-along for Christians, both because Scripture shows that in so many
ways, and because we have seen so many examples of that very thing.
So, what is the real contrast between Romans 7 and Romans 8?
It seems to be more about cutting ties with the law, something we can do, than
cutting ties with the sark/flesh, something we cannot do until heaven.
What stood out today was Paul’s declaration at the end of
the chapter, “So then, I myself serve the
law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.”[2]
What I suddenly realized is that THIS is the Christian life that needs the life
in the Spirit Paul teaches in Romans 8. In other words, the Christian life is
not a choice between having the flesh, or having the Spirit. We have both. We
have a mind that wants to serve the law of God, we have the flesh that wants to
serve the law of sin, and we have the Spirit who leads us to cry out, “Abba! Father!”[3] instead of doing what the flesh
prefers.
When I go back to Paul’s earlier summary, “But now we are released from the law,
having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of
the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code,”[4] I
see that the contrast is not between the Spirit and the flesh, but between the
Spirit and “the old way of the written
code.”
Paul has not been telling us that we can live without the
battle between the mind that wants to serve God’s law, and the flesh that wants
to serve the law of sin. He has been telling us that we are able to live
completely free of the written code that condemns us as sinners. Paul has
already explained how the law keeps stirring up our flesh to do sinful things.
Instead of the written code that gives sin so much opportunity to stir up the
flesh to sinful passions, we have “the
new way of the Spirit.”
In other words, we do not handle the dichotomy between the
mind that seeks God’s law, and the flesh that serves the law of sin, by trying
to follow the written code. That only gives sin something to work with to stir
up the sinful desires of the flesh. Instead, we are able to handle the
mind/flesh dichotomy by life in the Spirit.
This is really helping me to see that the contrast is not
between the Spirit and the sark, but between the Spirit and the written code.
Which one makes us righteous? If it is the written code, we are helpless
because sin uses the written code to stir up our sarks (our flesh) to sin. If
it is the Spirit, there is no written code to judge us.
Suddenly the first line of Romans 8 takes on a huge new significance
to me. It says, “There is therefore now
no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (8:1). Why is it that
there is no condemnation? Is it because we no longer have that mind/flesh
dichotomy where the mind wants to serve the law of God, and the flesh wants to
serve the law of sin?
No, it is because “the
law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin
and death” (8:2). You see, it is not that the Spirit has set us free from
the flesh, or from the mind/flesh battle. It is that the Spirit has set us free
from the “law of sin and death”.
Everything Paul has said about how sin takes advantage of the law to stir up
the sinful passions of the flesh is met in this amazing transformation, that we
are no longer under the law of the “written
code,” but under “the new way of the
Spirit.”
Why is this so encouraging? Because we don’t even need to
try to stop the battle between the mind that wants to serve the law of God, and
the flesh that wants to serve the law of sin. That will be there our whole
earthly life. Instead, we are to serve in the new way of the Spirit so that the
law does not give our flesh any encouragement to sin.
I can hardly wait to see what happens going through Romans 8
with that view, that it is about the glorious way that the life of the Spirit
makes the law powerless against us any longer. The life of the Spirit, or the “new way of the Spirit,” is what saves
us from bondage to the mind/sark dichotomy. It is while that battle is always
in effect that, if we turn to the Holy Spirit, “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who
loved us.”[5]
How is it that we are more than conquerors? Is it because we
no longer have the dichotomy between the mind that serves the law of God, and
the sark that serves the law of sin? No, it is because we now do our conquering
in “the new way of the Spirit,”
rather than by trying to be righteous by “the
old way of the written code.” As soon as the written code is removed, being
fully satisfied by the death of Jesus Christ, sin has nothing to work with, and
believers in Jesus Christ keep being conformed to the same likeness of our Lord
Jesus Christ “from one degree of glory to
another,”[6]
which, Paul adds, “For this comes from
the Lord who is the Spirit.”
When Paul says, “Wretched
man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”[7]
and then adds, “Thanks be to God through
Jesus Christ our Lord!”[8] he
is concluding this whole focus on how the answer to our battle is not by trying
to measure up to the written code. The answer is found in Jesus Christ our
Lord, and it is applied into our lives by the presence of the Holy Spirit.
I have seen the good and the bad of churches trying to work
through differences. Some handle things according to laws, and rules, and give
sin all kinds of room to make them do things in the flesh that they would never
think of when their mind is set on Christ. No matter how good their intentions,
or how right they believe they are (which is always the case in the flesh),
they bear the fruit of the flesh.
Others, who have the same problem of the mind seeking to
serve the law of God, and the flesh seeking to serve the law of sin, keep
bringing everything to their life in the Spirit. Even though they may struggle
with insecurities about what is the right thing to do, they remain true to
seeking God by his Spirit, they hear his voice speaking to them through his
word, they see things that God is doing, and they join him in his work. Even
when severely outnumbered, they still evidence the fruit of the Spirit, since
they are living according to the new way of the Spirit.
I do know this much, that handling things only in the flesh
will guarantee failure, while relying on the Spirit to lead us in God’s will
guarantees victory. The mind/flesh battle will still be in effect, but we will
win the battle in the Spirit.
© 2015 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard
Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
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