Romans 8:1-17

"Go away! And never come back. Go Away! And never come back!"

Gullum in The Two Towers

These were Gullum's words [Lord of the Rings] to his alter ego. Unfortunately, Gullum was unable to successfully dismiss the wicked side of himself that wanted nothing else but to claim his "precious" [the ring] for his own at the expense of all else.

There is a similar struggle we find Paul communicating to the Roman believers at the end of chapter 7 in Romans. The believers took pride in their flavour of following God to the point of holding it over the heads of those who they felt did not quite measure up. Paul points out in chapter 7 that the reality of putting stock in oneself in order to connect with God is actually a very unreliable way to connect to God. His desire is to convey to the believers that their internal arguments of who is better than the other and who has more right to be connected to God than the other is to give in to the vicious circle of being trapped by sin in a continual inability to keep the law of God.

"In my mind I really want to obey God's law, but because of my sinful nature [flesh] I am a slave to sin." [7:25b]

This final statement summarizes the result of trying to follow God on our own. We are incapable of fulfilling the law because sin holds us hostage to our inability to keep the law. The only way out is for someone to free us from this vicious circle. This sets up what Paul says in chapter 8:

"But now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. For the power [Law] of the life-giving Spirit has freed us through Christ Jesus from the power [law] of sin and death." [8:1-2]

Jesus - through his birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension - has set us free from the vicious circle. Paul says God's plan to free us centered on the person of Jesus who became human by entering into our human condition. "He condemned sin in the flesh." What Paul means by this is that while living in our human condition, Jesus continually said no to sin and remained faithful to the Father. The result is that Jesus' life frees us from sin. We are now free to live in relationship with God having His Spirit enable us to keep God's law.

In vv.5-10, Paul conveys that there continues to be an issue of control that we need to be aware of. Because God will never breach our freedom of choice, we are free to choose how then we want to live. We can live according to the "flesh" [sinful nature says the NIV/NLT] which in Paul's definition means "live like God does not exist and Jesus never came" and therefore be controlled by sin or we can live according to the Spirit and so live like God is our Father and Jesus has freed us to be in relationship with God.

There is a very important statement made in verse 8: "...those who are still under the control of their sinful nature [flesh] can never please God." This is a loaded statement. Initially, if read out of context, the impression is that we can't please God if were bad. It is only when we are pure and holy that we can please Him. Given the context, this is certainly not what it means. In context of chapter 7 - what Paul is saying is that we can never please God by trying to connect with Him on our own. It becomes a vicious circle that creates alienation rather than relationship. The way we can please God is by leaning on His Spirit and trusting in what Jesus did and continues to do to us and for us. This is what the Christian life is all about. In the following verse Paul confirms this: "But you [Roman believers] are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you." The implication is that to be controlled by the flesh [sinful nature] is to not be living the Christian life at all. [This is an injunction on Paul's part in reference to the behaviour of the Roman believers in creating the separation and tension in their own community. That tension would not exist if they spent their energy on living the Christian life. What they have actually done is give in to the "flesh" and have not been living "christianly" at all.]

Vv. 10-11 are the most encouraging of all. Remember to be careful in terms of how the translation of the bible that you read interprets these verses. Again, paying attention to the context and to the fact that Paul is a Jew both in mind and heritage, verse 10 reads this way:

"Since Christ lives within you, your body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is alive through righteousness."

What Paul basically is saying is that although your body is dead, the Spirit of God - because of God's righteousness [specifically evident in His restoring relationship with us through Jesus] is alive. In verse 11, he continues to point out that the Spirit alive in you is the same Spirit that was able to raise Jesus from the dead. Since Jesus is the "first fruits" or the "forunner" of what we will be in our bodies, we can trust that the same Spirit will bring life to us as well.

Vv.12-17 clinch the discussion on leaning on God's Spirit for strength to live the Christian life by affirming that when we lean on the Spirit and trust in Jesus we are part of an incredible family that affirms who we are - the humanity that God desires us to be! In the NT, being a follower of Jesus was defined in terms of "belonging." Paul confirms this by stating that, "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God!" [vs.14] As children we have the pleasure of having a relationship with God the Father as Jesus did while on earth. We can affectionately call him our "Dad" knowing that He loves us and accepts. us. The goal of being in such a family is to live in the freedom of all the privileges that come from belonging to it. Spending time and energy to make ourselves acceptable before God disqualifies us from this family, not in the sense that God doesn't love us but in the sense that we are focusing on the wrong thing. Actually we are focusing on a thing [the law] rather than on a relationship. The story of the prodigal son sets this in the best context in terms of the reaction of the older brother to the father's kindness toward the prodigal son by throwing a party upon his return. The older brother was furious with the father. He felt that he had been more faithful than the prodigal and the father never threw a party for him. The father's response in this parable is a clue as to what our relationship is like with the Father: "All that I have is yours!" In other words, he could have thrown a party anytime because everything the father owned was also his and he had the freedom to live in it.

We need to stop beating ourselves up in terms of not being able to measure up to God's law. This is not why God gave the law in the first place. The law was His instruction to people so that they might live close to Him. God through Jesus and the strength of His Spirit working in us has made it possible for us to be connected to God and live in the freedom that this connection brings.

This week think about the following:


Questions:

What does being a follower of Jesus look like?

Describe what a community of believers should look like given Paul's description of the character of the Christian life?

What are the obstacles to your living in the freedom of this incredible relationship that we have with God ?

Romans 7:1-24

In order to understand Romans chapter 7, there are three different settings that Paul addresses in the chapter which once they are noticed make it much easier to see Paul's transition. We lose these settings because the words are translated into our English and we miss the clues in the Greek language Paul wrote the letter.

Chapter 7:1-6

Paul uses the analogy of death in marriage as an example to help us understand how the death of Christ has freed us from the law. The setting Paul addresses is life after salvation. The focus is on living free from the obligations of the law. Paul tries to help the readers realize that after accepting Christ as their Lord and savior, they are no longer obligated to keep the law in order to maintain a relationship with God. Jesus has freed them from such obligation [which is not a successful way of following God as we find out later in the chapter] so that they can truly live life in relationship with Christ.

Chapter 7: 7-13

In this section, Paul outlines the impossibility of being able to keep the law. The reason its impossible is that the sin in us takes advantage of the obligation of the law and so holds us prisoner. We are incapable of keeping the law and its obligations. It is impossible for anyone to keep the law because human beings are sinful and sin will always have the upper hand by taking advantage of our inability to keep law and so keep us distant from God. The setting is life before accepting Christ. Paul will now continue in this setting to show how vicious life under the law truly is.

Chapter 7:14-24

Remember that the Roman believers were taking stock in their ability to come close to God through their behaviour, racial background and all around ability to be able to get themselves close to God. Paul breaks this boastful facade by pointing out that life under the law is a vicious circle of sin taking advantage of the law and so becoming a law in itself, incapacitating us and keep us from good. It is not about observing and so being able to then be in relationship with God but it actually effects the opposite - by trying to obey it we fail and fall into condemnation. Living under the law is subjecting oneself to this cycle of punishment.

Application:

The wrong assumption about this passage is that believers have continually come to this passage to justify their feelings of inadequacy and incapability of drawing close to God and of doing good. We need to remember that Paul did not write this with such a pretense. He wrote it to describe what life under the law apart from Christ is truly like. He's not rolling in his own self-pity.

Is it wrong to feel like we don't measure up and we can't do good? I don't think its wrong. To say that Paul doesn't address our failings as believers doesn't mean that such feelings are not legitimate. In fact we do fall down at times in our desire to follow Christ. One of the best passages for helping us work through such feelings is Psalm 19. In this passage David talks about hidden and unknown sins asking God how one can make sense of it and asking for God's help in overcoming them. That should be our response to such feelings and I encourage you to go to Psalm 19 everytime you feel like you've failed in following Christ. God's goal is to pick us up, dust us off and help us on the road again.

Getting back to chapter 7, the only way to live free from condemnation is to live in light of the law of the Spirit of Life that has come our way through what Jesus has done both to us and for us. Its in this place that we continue to live as followers of Christ, under the strength and power of God's Spirit, not under our perceived ability to stay close to God through obedience to the law. That is a vicious pit of condemnation that we can never get out of.

Questions:

1. Think of what it feels like to live under the weight of rules and laws that are impossible to keep? Recall stories in your past that created feelings of inadequacies and not measuring up.

2. Talk about the power of Jesus in your life. Do you have a healthy view of the power of Jesus life to free you from your own adequacy before God?

3. Think a bit about what "The Law of the Spirit of Life" might mean in anticipation of the passage for next week [ch.8:2].

Romans 6:15-23

Oppressive vs. Benevolent Master

I often find myself thinking about my Dad. He passed away on June 28, 2004. At times I miss him dearly and emotions still take me by surprise but there a times where I remember his life and realize the great teaching moments they were for me personally. One example were the employers my Dad had throughout his career as an Electrician. In particular, I remember his first employer upon establishing himself in Toronto. His name was Artley Greenbaum and he owned Sescolite Lighting on Castlefield Road in Toronto. I remember him as a very generous man. He was very good to my Dad. There were times that he would pass by the shop where Dad was the foreman and slip a $100.00 into Dad's pocket. Back in the late 60's early 70's, a hundred dollars was big money - in fact one full week of pay. It wasn't part of the employee contract or the rate of pay that Dad agreed to work for. It was simply a gesture of care towards my Dad for who he was.

In contrast, I remember other employers Dad had where a union was needed to negotiate any kind of pay increase at all. I remember in the late 70's during a particularly difficult time when Dad's union decided to strike and he went without pay for 3 months. I remember Dad saying he could never make up that loss of income, even by doing odd jobs on the side. I recall how oppressive the situation was for Dad and how it affected us as a family.

When I think of these two opposing employers in my Dad's life, I compare Dad's relationship to those employers to what Paul the Apostle is saying in this later part of chapter 6 in Romans. There are certainly two types of masters we can serve. We can serve under an oppressive Master or live in relationship to a benevolent, loving master. In a very certain way, the door has been opened to us to live in personal relationship to a very loving and benevolent master. Jesus made this possible by the life He lived and the life that he gave for us. Taking up his resurrected life again he took it up for all of us so that we might live in open loving relationship with God the Father. In a relationship with a benevolent loving master, benefits come from no obligation or contract agreement. Much like that extra $100.00 my dad's employer would slip into his pocket, Paul describes the fruit of this relationship as a "gift!" [verse 23 "...but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord."]

The Truth of the Matter between Us and God

It isn't about rule keeping that makes one holy and so destined to eternal life. It's about "people keeping" - God keeping us and we staying within the vacinity of God's people keeping - choosing to live within the boundaries of God's loving benevolence toward us.

This relationship frees us from sin taking advantage of the law and holding us prisoner. [Paul will go into detail about this in chapter 7] Trying to live a holy life by meeting the law's requirement is a vicious circle of struggle and failure. Working for law results in letting sin produce death in us. It's the equivalent of working for an oppressive employer: eventually the relationship will wear you down. Holiness is linked to righteousness which is exemplified by Jesus as living in loving relationship with God the Father. This is what it means to be "holy" - living in open and loving relationship with God without hinderance. The framework that makes us holy is our attachment to God through Jesus. This is where the gift lies. This relationship is extended to us where Jesus draws the circle of relationship with God to include us. It's a gift. It's not then about working for it but about living in it!

The Roman believers were making it about how they worked for holiness not about living in the freedom that comes from God's gift of relationship through Jesus. They must have been criticizing Paul's "freedom" point of view. The evidence is found in verse 15:

So since God's grace has set us free from the law, does this mean
we can go on sinning? No way! Don't you realize whatever you choose to obey
becomes your master?

By choosing to be holy by following the law the master of this system ends up being sin. Sin takes advantage of the law and undermines our relationship with God by condemning us. This is a slavery that is oppressive and destructive. Paul says, "Living in the freedom of Christ apart from the law is not allowing sin to master us any more." In fact, Paul is confident that by living free of the law, a life lived "in Christ" is a life that is free to be what God desires it to be. It is not a life that takes advantage of Christ by indulging in sin so that grace may abound all the more.

Back to the Analogy

I don't think my Dad ever intended to leave his first employer who was so good to him. Circumstances caused our family to move away from Toronto and for Dad to change jobs. His next employer would be more distant, de-personalizing and difficult at times. One thing my Dad didn't do was take out his frustrations on his own family. To us he was benevolent, kind and loving. He would never endanger that relationship because he cared for us.

I don't think any one of us would want to endanger the loving relationships we have. Living in the freedom Christ has given us is not to put us in danger of creating distance between us and God by deliberately sinning. In fact, when we come to know the life-giving freedom that Christ gives we will not want to distance ourselves from Him but rather feel free to draw closer. The system of law keeping to be closer to God does not allow for this freedom. The moment we fall, there is alienation and distance. Apart from the law is a freedom to remain in relationship with Christ in the good and the bad with the outcome being a life drawn closer to God through every experience.

Questions to consider:

Assess what system you've been living under? [keeping the law to be accepted or living in the freedom of the relationship Christ has given us]

If you struggle with the "law" system [whether in the past or right now] how can you change this?

Think of what your life can be if you serve a loving, benevolent master?