Join Colin Cook as he takes you through the intricate teachings of Romans Chapter 7, unraveling the complexities of the law and its intended purpose. Discover the tension between the law and faith, and how being dead to the law through Christ offers both liberation and insight into a deeper spiritual journey. In this episode, we explore the paradox that believers face – the ongoing struggle with sin and the promise of grace found only in Christ.
So we’re coming near to the end of Romans chapter 7, this chapter on the law and learning by faith in Jesus how to be dead to the law, delivered from it, an astonishing idea to many Christians who think that the law is given by God as a way to righteousness. No, it isn’t. Romans chapter 7, as I said yesterday and will just review today, makes it very, very clear that the law arouses sin, chapter 7, verse 5, that it produces in human beings all manner of evil desire, that’s verse 8, and that it brings about death, that’s verse 10, and and that it deceives us and produces death through the law. That’s verse 13. And if you live by seeking to know your relationship with God through law, then you will experience in searingly cruel mental states… the experience of doing what you hate and not doing what you feel you must do. And so you will be like Paul when he says, For the good that I will to do I do not do, but the evil I will not to do that I practice. It’s bad news if you relate to God as if you were accepted by him only if you’re a law keeper. Paul then says, O wretched man that I am. Can you believe it that a saved, delivered, converted, born-again Christian, Paul, can say, O wretched man that I am? Because, you see, we know that our righteousness is in Jesus Christ, that our natural humanity is wretched. We are not people who trounce about saying that I’m proud of who I am, I’m proud of this and I’m proud of that. No, we want to be humble. We want to recognize that our humanity is wretched and broken, but we don’t crawl about in cringing so-called humility. We simply accept a reality that our humanity doesn’t have the legs to stand up on and that Jesus is our life and our righteousness. So Paul says in verse 24, O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? Now people have misinterpreted that and they say, there you are, Paul’s going to present to us a way to be delivered from this wretched humanity. Listen, The wretched humanity that we live in will not disappear until Jesus comes and we put on immortality and incorruptibility. That is made clear in 1 Corinthians 15. Then in what sense are we delivered from this body of death? Well, Paul says, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Through him we are delivered because he takes the judgment of this wretched humanity of ours and he dies for that humanity so that even though we continue to live in it, We are not charged for its sinfulness. We are not condemned by it. Thus Paul is able to say, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord, so then with the mind I myself serve the law of God. Now here’s a paradox. He’s just talked about being dead to the law. but he’s talking about his mind in faith to Jesus Christ, which trusts that Christ is the righteousness that the law demands, not we ourselves. So then, with the mind I serve, myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh, that is, with my natural humanity, without Christ, I serve the law of sin. It’s an incredible conclusion, but it makes it very, very clear that Paul is not talking about a deliverance in this life from the humanity that we live in. That’s called holy flesh that people used to believe in a hundred or so years ago, and some people still do, and I have to tell you they are fanatics, but I’m not judging them by that. I’m just saying it is a fanatical idea. called holy flesh, that we do not fall trap to. But we recognize that though we’re in a broken, fallen humanity, It is no longer charged against us, because in my mind I know that I am serving the law of God by serving Jesus Christ in whom I trust by faith as my righteousness. That is the service of the law of God. The law of God does not point to itself, because if we were to follow the law of God, we would simply end up with passions all the more strong than ever. But serving Christ and trusting him as our righteousness, that is the service of the law of God. The law of God does not point to itself. It points to Christ. So then having said all that, we move to chapter 8, but it’s not a new chapter, or rather it’s not a new theme. Remember that the chapter headings and divisions are not in the original language or writing style. They were provided by the translators, and sometimes they’re a mistake. And so chapter 8 is not really a separate section yet. It will come to a separate section, but verses 1 through 4 or so are really a continuation of chapter 7. And we know that simply from the first verse. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Notice the therefore? What is the therefore therefore? It is there to sum up all that Paul has said in chapter 7. Because if we are no longer alive to the law, if we are delivered from the law, if we are dead to the law, there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Ah, how beautiful this is! Because, you see, the whole point of Christian life is the joy of knowing that Jesus has taken the burden of our humanity upon himself. that he has been judged for it, that he has been condemned for it on the cross, and that he rises on our behalf with a new humanity, so that we are counted as living in his resurrection now, and so that we will actually live in his resurrection when Jesus returns and our bodies put on immortality. And not only are we counted as living his resurrected life now, but the Holy Spirit makes it to some degree, that is incipiently, if you want a technical word, to some degree, the Holy Spirit makes it real now. We call that incipient firstfruits. We have the firstfruits of the resurrection now. So there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. You see, being in Christ Jesus is an act of faith. But that faith is not our faith. It is God’s gift of faith to us. And we trust that he is our righteousness, that he is our judgment, so that our humanity has been judged, and therefore we are righteous in him, and he is our resurrection. We need to identify in the way that Paul identifies himself. Galatians 2, verse 20, you remember? I am crucified with Christ. It’s an odd kind of way of identifying ourselves with Christ, but it means I died with him. Well, wait a minute, I wasn’t there at the cross. I wasn’t there when Jesus lived, and at least, and at the most, I wasn’t there crucified with him. In literality, no. But in counting us, and the word count is to reckon, God reckons us, numbers us in Jesus. You remember, it says in Isaiah 53, Jesus was numbered, counted among the transgressors. Well, just as Jesus was numbered among the transgressors, we are numbered among the righteous. Jesus was numbered among the transgressors, but was not a transgressor. We are numbered among the righteous but are not actually righteous. But we’re numbered among them as if we were. It’s as if you have a bunch of beautiful, well, a bunch of marbles, and some of them are rather dull and scratched, and there’s another bunch over here that are beautiful and pure and so bright without a scratch on them, totally clean and very, very colourful. And God takes us from the dirty, scratched ones and numbers us among the clean, beautiful ones, the colorful ones. That’s what we are. We’re numbered among them. We’re numbered in the life of Christ, which is unscratched, which is beautifully polished, which is colorful in all its glory. So, therefore, There is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Now, you know, when you think of this, and you think of it in terms of your own life, how are you living the life of no condemnation? Do you go about morbid and morose most of the time because you feel that you don’t measure up, because you’re doing a job at work that you’re not really qualified for and the boss sees it and senses that you’re not up to par? Do you live in a family where you feel that your spouse does not feel you are pulling your load or that you are not being supportive enough to the family and the children? Do you have these endless senses of inadequacy and therefore condemnation? Well, faith, in the circumstances that you are in right now, without changing any circumstances, faith tells you that there is no condemnation for your life. It is almost impossible to believe it, because you would surely think that the condemnation would go away once you do improve your work performance, once you do become a more faithful and supportive spouse. When you do take care of the children in a better way, you’d think all this would change only when circumstances change. But that is not what the gospel tells you. You are in the situation where there is no condemnation even though you are falling terribly short. And believing that is going to be an enormous contradiction of your mind. But believe it. Go ahead and contradict your mind because your mind has been enslaving you since the day you were born. because it’s a fallen mind, just as your body is a fallen mind. But faith is a gift from God. It comes from the outside, and it starts setting up an opposing territory in your brain, a territory which is full of the glory and the grace of God. That’s how you can live. You can live without condemnation. Thank you for joining me today. This is Colin Cook. You’ve been listening to my program, How It Happens. 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