When I first got saved, I remember reading Romans 7 and understanding it just as Paul meant it. At that point my reading of the Word was exclusively with myself and the Holy Spirit guiding me in understanding. I would find out much later that the established church of our day was locked into an entirely different meaning of Romans 7, and this understanding was universally excepted and still is, and in my opinion, wreaks havoc. I have since found that almost every Bible teacher teaches here what he or she has been taught, rather than teaching what is there. And almost every believer accepts what these teachers have taught them, rather than letting the Word reveal itself to the heart through serious study.
I remember in a Bible study some years later presenting the possibility to a group that Paul was saying something completely different. It was NOT well received. Many years later I remember reading the complete works of Oswald Chambers and found that he taught it exactly as I understood it. I believe that without the proper understanding of Romans 7, the Christian walk can be confusing.
I think that extreme calvanism has played a part in this distortion. I agree with someone who once said, stay away from isms… they are always man made. If we read WAY back, we find that Chambers was right. And I mean way back to Polycarp, John’s student, Turtulian, Iraneus (sp?) St. John of the Cross, St. Bernard of Clairveux (whom Calvin loved to quote, and Spurgeon and almost every other fabulous, Spirit led teacher of the Word) and so many others. I could list many.
I don’t see that Paul is telling the believer that he will always do what he does not want to do. This is a relatively contemporary concept that was absent until maybe Calvanism, I’m not entirely sure of the timing.
I would like to point out just a couple of things to hopefully show that we might need to look at Romans 7 in a new light…the light of the Holy Spirit, who teaches perfectly His own thoughts, His own truth.
We see that Paul has let us know here in Romans (this is one of my favorite books) that this is his gospel. He says it. If John is the gospel according to John, then Romans is the gospel according to Paul. Paul was given the task of unpacking the gospel. Jesus stated it, Paul explained what was stated.
Paul knows he is getting into very complex territory here. But he has seen something that he must communicate to his brethren. It is why he was born, and his love for the Lord and the Lord’s people insists that he do it. So, Paul establishes himself as one having the authority to teach such things. He even says, “I magnify my office” (that is the office of apostle…someone who has seen the Lord and is sent with a message) in order to hopefully open ears to what he has to say. Romans is the gospel. It is the story of the fall of man, the death of God in the flesh to atone for that fall, and the salvation of God’s precious creation, mankind exclusively and only by grace through faith and NOTHING else. Paul is speaking with the authority given him by God and he has to make this authority known, so we will “listen up”.
Now, Peter tells us that some things in the Word of God are HARD to understand. This is maybe one of the hardest. But it is critical to understand it. I would like to make just a couple of points very briefly to maybe spark the thought of the possibility that Paul is indeed saying something far different than what the contemporary church ( maybe the last several hundred years?) has thought.
In Chapter 6 we see that he has built his point up to a crescendo of sorts. He explains that the one redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, should live no longer in sin. He needs to be dead to sin. In chapter 7 we see Paul explain who he was BEFORE Jesus got hold of him. He says that before salvation he has one nature, after salvation, two natures (we know these to be the old and the new man). The two war against each other. But he says up until a point only (we will look at this point); that all the new man wants to do, he doesn’t do (the good things) and all that the new man doesn’t want to do, he does.
But then he finishes up this lengthy thought with this: “who shall save me from this body of death!” Then he answers himself…Christ Jesus!
Now let’s glance at what Christ Jesus does for him, or enables him to do. Because it is OUR doing IN Him. He won’t do it for us. If we wait around for Him to do it, it’ll never get done. He mentions a couple of things that are important to look at. He mentions his mind and that it is captive by sin.
Skip to Romans 12. Paul is telling us that we MUST be transformed by the RENEWING of our mind (this is the mind of Christ, by the way). We will see in 2 Corinthians 10:5 that it is done by taking every thought captive that sets itself up against the knowledge of God and making it obey Christ.
Maybe next, we will show how the mind of Christ is developed and not given at salvation. This is explained in 1 Cor. 1-3, very clearly…we have not understood it today.
So, in Romans 7, Paul says the mind is captive (this is the believer, but the still carnal believer), in 2 Corin. he says we must then take captive our thoughts and MAKE them obey Christ. Paul says in Romans 7 that his mind is what is captive. In Romans 12, he insists that we must be transformed by RENEWING our mind.
In Romans 12, Paul says if we will do this, and it is done by offering ourselves as a LIVING sacrifice on God’s altar, we WILL be a pure and holy sacrifice unto God.
Now, Paul gives us a critical picture here of the altar of God. Remember that only a lamb with no spot is allowed on the altar. So, a believer who is still hanging on to sin and self rule, is filled with spots and CANNOT get on God’s altar. He is indeed covered in the blood but his spots remain in a current sense until he dies to self rule. (He who saves his life will lose it, he who loses his life will save it…) “Seek ye FIRST the Kingdom of God and His RIGHTEOUSNESS…” Why is the believer told to seek His righteousness? God finds us, we don’t find him. A critical truth is hidden here.
We are not discussing salvation here, this is a foregone conclusion. We are discussing maturity, holiness, blamelessness. The newly saved believer is blameless in a future sense, yes. That is because Jesus completes every work He begins. But Paul is beseeching (fervently pleading or begging) BELIEVERS, not unbelievers, to present themselves holy by renewing their minds, so they CAN be placed on His altar. If Paul were referring to the lost here, he would be preaching a works gospel. But he is speaking only to the saved, the indwelt. The unsaved CANNOT renew their minds. And the saved, evidently need to do something here.
Now, in order to present ourselves pure and holy to God, a death MUST occur. Jesus stated it, remember, now Paul explains it here. Jesus already was the dying Lamb, the slain Lamb. But we are also sheep. Because He already died on that altar, we don’t have to literally die…that would accomplish nothing. But we must have a death. It is death to sin. When we are dead to sin, there is NOW and now only no spot IN thee. Paul says we now can offer ourselves as a LIVING sacrifice on His altar. The sacrifice is death to the old man.
When trying to reconcile when this spotlessness happens in an actual sense, we have to look at the entire word to discern it. We also are wise to keep this truth in mind, and it is mentioned right here in Romans, of course. The Holy Spirit speaks of things which are not, as though they were. Why? Because if it will one day be, it already IS to Him. God lives in and speaks from the eternal now.
I will submit that God does not call a new believer, or a rebellious believer, spotless, who is still not yet walking by the Spirit. He will one day be spotless, this is inevitable. But until he has died to self and sin and God has declared it so (death frees us from sin Rom. 6:7), this is either actual physical death or death to our own will that comes against God, he walks in the flesh…always fighting the flesh, until it also is made holy. A believer’s rebellion is the only obstacle to this death. He is ruled by his soul still which is filled with me, myself and I and all I feel and want and touch and taste, etc. The soul and body are fleshly until they are made spiritual. This is the believer. His spirit is infused with God. But the soul and body are still under the control of the old man…he is a divided house, double-minded. But Jesus is away building us a house, right? This is it!
Remember Jesus saying two things to the woman caught in adultery: He expressed her salvation because she simply looked to Him (remember the pole in the desert), “Woman, neither do I condemn you” and her sanctification,or maturity, or death to self rule, “Now, go sin no more”.
People will rise only to the heights they believe are possible. But the authority of the Word of God overwhelmingly says and demands even, that we can and must be done with sin. God does not require of us what He has not equipped us for. But the Holy Spirit dwelling within the believer is all that is needed to walk in His fullness. But self must step aside first, and allow single-minded devotion and obedience to God to reign in his heart. Freedom is known at this point. The deliverance from this body of death Paul mentioned, is for here and now and not just then and there. Remember that in 1 Corinthians 3, we see believers arriving in Heaven having sent nothing ahead of them. Some will have sent much fruit, and some will have sent none. Both are saved, both in Heaven forever. The one barely saved, thinks he cannot here and now die to sin.
If every believer is dead to sin at salvation, and literally has to die to nothing (calvanism), then why are there believers in Heaven who barely got there? Jesus said believers must abide in Him to produce fruit ( fruit being a complex concept and not just good deeds). Some believers will arrive in Heaven having no fruit whatsoever. They were their own masters, living in the soulish flesh, ruled by emotions and refusing to submit to God, exercising their own will above God’s. How is a believer who always fights sin and the flesh free? He isn’t yet. He will be in Heaven, but what he doesn’t know because Satan has hid this from him, is that he CAN be free now. Not free TO sin, but free FROM sin.
Jesus will not look at them and say like He says to the Bride, there is no spot IN you, until they are freed from the body by actual death. But we can be free from the body of sin and death now, if we will allow our spirits to penetrate the soul and then the body. Jesus spoke of it in John 17, when He asked that each believer be one (body, soul and spirit agreeing, not a divided house, but single minded) and then hidden with Christ in God. In this instance, Jesus is NOT asking for the unity of the whole church, but the unity of each individual believer…He says sanctified, one in Him.
Now Satan has been very clever. He knows what the Holy Spirit is up to in every generation. He works his deception accordingly. The holiness doctrine is one that surfaces to confuse every time the Spirit decides to resurface this topic to His beloved church. The holiness doctrine teaches that we must obsess over outward things like speech, possessions OR the lack of them, what we eat, where we go etc., who we see, how often we attend church, how active we are in the many, many busy activities that are present today in the church but were absent in the first church…it goes on and on. It is binding, restrictive, of the flesh and has no resemblance to God Himself.
True holiness is rare and free and pure and simple and sweet and clean and lovely.
The fruit of the Spirit is all these things, and guess what…against these lovely things, there is no law!!!
I hope that sparks some consideration and maybe a new look at Romans 7.
The Lord bless you and keep you today!
Love,
Cheryl