The Death and Resurrection of God s Son, Law, People, and Creation Romans 7 8

1 The Death and Resurrection of God s Son, Law, People, and Creation Romans 7 8 These two chapters begin with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In the previous section of Romans 3:21 4:25 we observed that Paul wrote about Jesus death at the beginning, and then he wrote about the resurrection at the end. In chapters 5 6 we observed that he wrote about the death and resurrection of Christ within the same passages (5:5-11; 6:1-11). Paul continues to hold the death and resurrection together as he introduces this section of chapters 7 8. In 7:4, speaking about his Jewish brethren in the faith, Paul says, you also have become dead to the Law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. In this verse Paul is looking at the death and resurrection of Christ as a single atom under a microscope. Previously he has regarded this single atom as the single event that constitutes one Man s righteous act (5:18). This single atom is the righteousness of Faith that now justifies the people of God (3:21-4:25). This single atom is an act of marriage, that removed the old Law-Husband, and united God s people to the resurrected Christ-Husband (7:4). Now with a closer examination of all the internal details, and an explanation of the many ramifications, Paul will split the atom, so to speak, throughout chapters 7-8. He splits the atom of the single Christ-event, to reveal how His death and resurrection explodes a nuclear bomb of All-conquering Grace upon sin and death. In His holy war on behalf of His creation, God explodes and spreads His own love and grace to such an extent that everything is renewed and looks forward to that climactic resurrection. After 2000 years, creation is still feeling the shock waves of God s love that exploded outside the city of Jerusalem. As Paul explained in 5:12-21, everything led up to that initial and explosive reign of King Grace. Now Paul will look at that graceexplosion from the angle of God s Law. How did it affect God s Law? What did it mean about His people s fight against sin, and creation s hope? Since King Sin and Death are now overthrown, how are their minions subdued; and does God s Law have any taste of that sweet victory? These questions will be answered; but first notice the following outline which shows that Paul s themes are reflective of each other, he emphasizes a central point, and he encloses this entire section with the union that God s people have with the marital love of Christ. God s Fulfillment of His Old Covenant Law 7:1 8:39 a Death through Jesus Body; Married to Jesus Resurrected Body 7:1-4 b Work of the Good Old Law: To Arouse Sin & To Kill 7:5-12 c Body of Death that Died in Christ 7:13-25 d The Righteousness of the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ 8:1-8 c Bodies of Mortality that Live in the Spirit 8:9-17 b Work of the Spirit: To Produce Groans of Hope & To Help 8:18-30 a Death and Sufferings Can Not Divorce Us From Christ 8:31-39

2 We studied chapters 5 6 by first looking at its central section. In the same way we will first study chapters 7 8. The central themes of these entire sections demonstrate their similarity. The central point of chapters 5 6 was that the lordship-righteousness of Christ conquered the reign of sin and death giving us justification. Now in chapters 7 8 the central point is that the lordship-righteousness of the Law of the Spirit continues to conquer the remnants of sin and death within us through His work of sanctification. Paul moves from emphasizing the righteous act of God the Son to now highlighting the righteous work of God the Spirit. And, in this central section Paul elaborates on the newness of God s Law in the Spirit. I. The New Law A. The New Name of God s Law Paul first identifies the new name of God s Law as the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ (8:2). This corresponds to, and speaks of, the same Law of Faith which outlawed, and outdated, the Old Covenant works of the Jewish Law in which they once boasted (3:27). The entirety of chapter 7 has been leading up to this climactic newness of God s Law. For Paul even said earlier that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter (7:6). And from this newness found in the Law of the Spirit of Life, Paul will explain its ramifications within us. B. The New Law s Ability and Verdict The newness of this Law has a liberating ability. Paul say this Law has made me free from the law of sin and death. In times past, with the help of other commentators, I have understood this to simply be a reference to the Old Covenant Law under Moses. However, I now think it is more accurate to understand the law of sin and death as a reference to the failure of the Old Covenant. The Mosaic Law failed to conquer the law of sin and death. The Mosaic Law only magnified the law of sin and death. The entire era of the Mosaic Law was under the reign of King Sin and King Death (5:12-21). As a result, Paul simply says that the law of sin held him, and the people of God, captive (7:25). In that verse, Paul identifies the presence of sin as the law of sin. God s people during that time, including Paul before he was a Christian, were powerless against the captivity of the law of sin. Even the Mosaic Law of God merely rendered the verdict of death upon them all, identifying all of God s people as a body of death (7:24). Therefore, the law of sin and death (8:2) is the presence of sin that the Mosaic Law could not conquer, and the death penalty that it declared upon God s people. Now then, by the new Law of the Spirit of Life we are delivered from the captivity of sin. We are delivered from the indwelling law of sin and are enabled to conquer its remaining remnants. In addition to its empowerment, enabling us to reign in life, this new Law even renders the verdict of life upon us. When Paul says that the righteous requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us (8:4) the word for requirement is the same word for judgment in 1:32. In chapter 1, God gave the verdict of death to all those under His wrath. Now in chapter 8, God gives the verdict of life to all those who live according to

3 the Spirit. Thus, in summary, the new Law of the Spirit is able to free us from the indwelling law of sin and death; and it even renders its righteous verdict of life upon us. C. The New Law s Delight Paul says that those who are in the flesh cannot please God (8:8). God has no delight in them because they are not subject to the Law of God (8:7). Their fleshly mind is a death-mind (8:6). The point is that God s Law still condemns them, for they are enemies of God (8:7). Since God condemns them, then neither does God s Law have any delight in them. Paul explains the horrible condition of those who live according to the flesh, so that we can see our blessed condition of living according to the Spirit. As believers we are pleasing to God, for even the Law of God is pleased to pronounce life upon us. Even though our fleshly bodies will eventually die, God s Law declares that we are alive - which means there is a major difference in the body of death (7:24) before the time of Christ and our bodies that will now die in the Lord. II. The Body of Death vs. The Bodies That Will Die A. The law of sin and the deeds of the body As the former diagram of chapters 7 8 demonstrates, there is a correlation with both c sections. There are significant similarities and differences between these passages, and how they fit within the structure of these chapters helps us interpret the content. First, concerning similarities, we see that there is the presence of sin in both passages. In 7:13-25 the presence of sin is identified as the law of sin. In 8:9-17 the presence of sin is identified as the deeds of the body (8:13). Second, there is the emphasis on death. In 7:13-25 Paul articulates the complexities that make up the body of death. Then in 8:9-17 Paul speaks about our mortal bodies. Concerning differences, we first see that the law of sin was successful to capture God s people in 7:13-25. Whereas, the presence of sin in 8:9-17, is now continually being put to death by the Spirit. Interestingly, Paul does not mention the word law in 8:9-17. Nevertheless, I think it makes a lot of sense in regard to the deeds of the body that are being put to death to be synonymous with the law of sin mentioned in chapter 7. This helps us see that we are winning the battle that God s Old Covenant people had once lost. B. The Conquered versus the Conquerors The law of sin, before the time of Christ, was the evil presence of sin that once conquered the people of God. Yet, now the Spirit of God enables us to conquer that evil presence of sin. Of course, we cannot annihilate the presence of it in this life, yet we can mortify it and rule over it. All of this helps us understand that 7:13-25 concerns a conquered body of death that deserved the death penalty of God s indicting Law. Certainly Paul is talking about himself and any other person before the time of Christ. It was the time in which King Sin ruled and captured God s people under its law of sin. And for this reason we can

4 appreciate the transitional aspect of 25b So then, with the mind I myself serve the Law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. This is a summary principle statement that has application both before and after the time of Christ. Before Christ, when God s people were in the flesh (7:5) they served and were overcome by the law of sin. After Christ, now that God s people are in the newness of the Spirit (7:6), anytime we yield to the presence of sin, it can be said that we serve that indwelling law of sin. Of course, this is inexcusable for we now have the ability, verdict of life, and pleasure of God s Law of the Spirit to fight against sin, and not be enslaved by it. To capture the full scope of Paul s argument we can say that when sin is being subdued, we can refer to it as simply the deeds of the body, for Paul may also be saying that the very law of indwelling sin has been overthrown. This is all an attempt to help balance out the similarities and differences between the good, old, and weak Law of Moses; with the empowering, new, and conquering Law of the Spirit. III. The Brutal Marriage versus The Better Marriage A. The Works of the Old Law and the Law of the Spirit As we continue to spiral out from the center of Paul s central section, we first notice the purpose of the old Law in the first b section, in the above diagram. The Law of God gave commandments to point out sin. Yet, in pointing out sin the old Law brought death. Using the I, which includes Paul and the Old Covenant people of God, Paul says, sin revived and I died (7:9), I found to bring death (7:10), and it killed me (7:11), and was producing death in me (7:11). Obviously, the old Law worked death upon the people of God, so that they became a filthy body of death, from which they had no deliverance except the deliverance found in the One who became the Body of Death in their place on the cross. This brutal work of the old Law is a drastic contrast to the renewing work of the Law of the Spirit. In 8:18-30, the Spirit produces hopeful groans throughout creation, within ourselves, and helps us in prayers of intercession. This work of the Spirit is not a hope so as if the future were uncertain. The Spirit s work is a certain hope. It is a robust confidence that regards the present sufferings to have no comparison to the glorious inheritance that awaits the people of God. The Spirit s work now produces the first-fruits, looking forward to the final-fruit of the resurrection. The predestined goal that God has for us is the image of His Son that He might be the firstborn among many brethren (8:29). The Spirit s work now produces the first-fruits of resurrected spiritual life within creation, so that all creation even longs for the ultimate revealing of the sons of God in their physical immortality. The world in which the old Law once worked death, is the renewed world in which the Law of the Spirit now works life even within mortal bodies. B. The New Marriage In the beginning of this study, we pointed out that Paul affirms the new marriage that God s people have in Jesus Christ, the New Husband. This corresponds with the last part of these two chapters where Paul tells us that none of our sufferings can divorce us from Christ. Who shall separate us from the love of God (8:35), and, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus

5 our Lord. (8:39) We are married to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. (7:4) The narrative of history, the flow of this entire passage, is that God brought his people out of a brutal marriage, and joined them as a renewed bride to the resurrected Son of God. To explain this, Paul illustrates that the old Law was a husband, who ended up killing his wife making her into a body of death. There was a two-fold problem, the wife deserved to die because of her sinfulness. And the wife could not find another husband until the first Law-Husband died as well. Death is necessary for a wife to be released from her husband. And death is necessary as a punishment due upon a wicked wife. Contrary to many commentators on Romans 7:1-4, I think this is what Paul is implicitly and explicitly teaching. The first Husband in that passage represents the Old Law that had to die, in order for the people of God to be released from its dominion. Paul is implicitly teaching that the old Law has died in Christ, when he repeatedly emphasizes the need for that first Husband s death. 1 Unless that first Husband died the wife could not marry another. After that clearly implicit teaching, Paul explicitly and additionally says you also have become dead to the Law through the body of Christ. I stress the word also because I think this affirms the implicit teaching of the marital reality. Implicitly, the first Law-Husband died in the body of Christ. Now in addition to that (also) the people of God have become dead to the old brutal Law. Both died in the body of Christ on the cross - so that both would be renewed in Jesus resurrected body. Therefore, by the death of the first Law-Husband, God s people could legally marry Jesus in the Law of the Spirit. And the bride who became the body of death now lives with her new Husband even though their bodies will one day die. So we now have a certain hope. For in the Son of God s death and resurrection, God s Law, His people, and His creation have experienced that explosion of grace and love that anticipates the marriage supper of the Lamb. 1 In Col.2:14 Paul speaks about the Law being killed on the cross. having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us having nailed it to the cross. In Eph. 2:15, the Law of commandments was abolished in Jesus body.

6 Appendix I think the following structure and translation helps to capture all of Paul s implicit and explicit points in this passage. Interpretative Outline of Romans 6:23 7:6 bold print is my translation 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God A. death wages of sin, but our new Lord is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (disjunctive or ) 7:1 Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to B. as long as a person lives, the law lords over him those who know the law), that the law lords over a man as long as he lives? (disjunctive or ) 2 Or, for the woman under a husband, C. wife is bound to a living husband as long as the husband lives, she is bound by the law. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. D. husband s death releases wife from the law 3 So then, while her husband lives, E. living husband outlaws remarriage she will be called an adulteress, if she becomes another man s; but if the husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has become another man s. D husband s death frees wife from the law 4 Therefore, my brethren, you also have become C wife (you) have also died, as did your husband dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. B since you died (as wife of law); have your new Husband 5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions A death fruit of sin, but the new Spirit which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. 6 But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.