Year 2, Day 30: Romans 7

Recapping

Paul gives us an argument here in Romans 7 that is often misunderstood.  The reason that it is often misunderstood is because the theology we glean from the prior chapters is often not tight.  In order to truly get what Paul is saying in this chapter, we must fully grasp the argument that Paul has established before.  So let’s recap.

Under Christ, we are slaves {not even servants!} to God.  In Christ, we are crucified with Christ to life and death.  We are given a new life and a new agenda.  We are no longer governed by the ways of this world and should no longer be governed by the desires of this world.  As God’s slaves, we are slaves to righteousness and should pursue that which righteousness pursues.

What Is the Purpose of the Law?

Having very loosely recapped the past chapter or two, we are now ready for what Paul says in chapter 7.  Paul says we are free from the law.  Now, this does not mean that we can toss the Hebrew Scriptures.  Certainly not!  If nothing else, the fact that nearly every book in our New Testament has at least one quotation from the Hebrew Scriptures tells us that Paul is not telling us that the followers of Jesus Christ can ignore the Hebrew Scriptures.  In fact, Jesus Christ Himself tells us that he came not to abolish the law but to fulfill it.  So Paul is certainly not telling us that we can ignore the Hebrew Scriptures.

Rather, what Paul is saying is that if we are doing righteousness then the law has no affect on us.  See, the Law’s primary focus was to be a mirror to us as Christians and point out our sinful nature.  Having seen our sinful nature, the Law then points us to Christ.  But once we have seen Christ and truly received the gift of salvation, then we no longer need to be directed to Christ!  In fact, if we are doing righteousness then we no longer need to have the mirror there to illustrate how sinful we are!  This is why Paul tells us that those who are in Christ are free from the Law.

The part of us that is obedient to God and Christ truly does not have a need for the Law.  The part of me that is disobedient has every need for the Law in order to point me back to Christ.

Speaking of My Sinfulness

Having said that, let’s also re-introduce reality.  I am not perfect.  I am not a person who only does things that are righteous in God’s eyes.  I do have sin in my life.  I do need to confess my sins and be reminded that I need the Law to remind me of my perpetual need for Christ.  So while in the ideal world the follower of Christ has no need for the Law; the fact that I am living both in the Kingdom of the World and the Kingdom of Heaven means that I still have need for the Law.  This is why the Hebrew Scriptures make such a prevalent appearance in our New Testament.  As Martin Luther says, we are “simul justus et peccator” – simultaneously saint and sinner as it is often translated.  The saint in me has no need for the Law, only Christ.  The sinner in me has every need for the Law to remind me who I really am and to drive me back to Christ.

Conflict Between the Ideal and Reality

To close this blog, I think it is important to have a discussion about the conflict that Paul talks about in the last half of this chapter.  It is the conflict that was prevalent in the end of my last paragraph.  “When I do right, evil lies close at hand.”  “I do not do what I want to do, but I do the very thing that I do not want to do.”  Both of these questions lift up Paul’s struggle – every true Christian’s struggle – with his nature.  We want to be Christ’s; but so often we are the world’s.  Ugh.

It’s not very helpful, but welcome to life, right?  We are not perfect and never will be this side of the resurrection into eternal life.  We want to do right, but we won’t perpetually do right this side of death.  It is a struggle that rages within us at our very core.  Like our planet – which has a molten core churning about its inside that creates the magnetic field of the earth – we too have an inner churning that creates a field around us.  Sometimes that field is helpful and full of righteousness; sometimes that field is destructive and driven by our sinfulness.  But we are in a struggle – in a war – and that struggle exists in the very core of our being.

So who can save us?  If all of us have this struggle, then we are indeed wretched!  We are a pitiable race.  But thanks be to God that He saw fit to give us Jesus Christ.  Thanks be to God that His salvation has come to us a free gift which relies on no part of our character.  There is grace indeed.

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