Romans 7
This is my third post in a short series. Read the first two: “The Beast at Your Door” and “The Beast in Your House.”
I am still “chewing” what I have “bitten off” in Romans: Paul’s teaching on sin.
In addition to the sinful actions that we humans commit, there is an evil power at work in the world. I’m using all caps to name it: SIN. It is a practically irresistible force that will dominate and eventually destroy us. It is like a hostile beast that has attacked and invaded.
The SIN power has invaded our flesh – the physical body and its needs and desires. SIN works through these needs and desires to generate actions that are disobedient to God and harmful to our very identity and purpose. Since we center our lives, for the most part, on our body and its needs and desires instead of our spirit, we generally cooperate with the SIN power. Yet we still desire to live differently – do good, do right. We then find, as Paul wrote, “for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I do the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin that dwells in me” (Romans 7:18-20).
This leads Paul to ask, “Who shall rescue me from this body of death? (Romans 7:24).” Since my flesh is weak and corrupted by SIN, and SIN is destroying me, who is going to get me free? Who is going to enable me to escape the beast?
The apostle understood that he could not rescue himself. Of course not; how can we rescue ourselves from our own weak bodies? We can’t leave our bodies; we can’t discard our flesh. Furthermore, we can’t beat the beast that holds us prisoners. It’s too much for us. “In the flesh, I serve the authority of SIN” (Romans 7:25). I have illustrated the SIN power with the One Ring in J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings.” In that story, Gandalf tells Frodo of the futility of anyone thinking they can overcome the evil in the Ring: “Neither strength nor good purpose will last…sooner or later the dark power will devour…” That’s where we are with SIN in our flesh. So, who will rescue?
Paul knew. He wasn’t just wondering or hoping or hypothesizing. He knew. “I give thanks to God because of Jesus the Messiah our Lord” (Romans 7:25). God rescues through who Jesus is and what he has done.
The Messiah took on the evil spiritual powers throughout his life and completed their defeat with his death. Colossians 2:15 explains,
“And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”
The Message translation says, “He stripped all the spiritual tyrants in the universe of their sham authority at the Cross and marched them naked through the streets.” The authority of SIN and Satan and the Law and oppositional empires was broken. Thanks be to God – we can be freed from the tyrant, we can escape the beast.
Escaping the beast has two parts, two levels. But first, let’s look briefly at two important corollaries of SIN’s defeat. One, it means forgiveness is not all there is to salvation. In Christ our sinful actions are forgiven; our guilt is taken away. But guilt is not our only problem. We live under the authority of a power – SIN – which dominates and destroys. In Christ we have the opportunity to experience freedom from that power. Salvation is more than forgiveness.
The second corollary to SIN’s defeat is having confidence that SIN in us does not ruin our relationship with God. You see that in Paul. He essentially said, “I do sinful things that I don’t want to do and then don’t do righteous things that I do want to do” (Romans 7:14-25). But he never hints at having a poor relationship with God. He follows up with, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus…” (Romans 8:1). Certainly, if we continue to live with an oppositional defiance to God, we will not experience a peaceful and joyful relationship with him, and he will discipline us out of love (Hebrews 12:4-13). But the reality that we have an ongoing battle with the SIN that’s in the flesh (Romans 7:23) does not mean that we are “in trouble” with God. Even though this power has its influence on us, we still are God’s children and live a love relationship with him.
Now, let’s see the two levels of experiencing escape from the beast. First, let’s jump ahead to the ultimate final escape. That will be the resurrection of our bodies. Read all about it in 1 Corinthians 15:12-58. This is the hope we have for complete victory over the SIN power that inhabits and corrupts our flesh. Paul goes on in Romans 8:11:
“And if the Spirit of the one raising Jesus from the dead lives in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will restore your mortal bodies to life through his Spirit living in you.”
Our bodies that have been enslaved, managed, and destroyed by SIN will be raised and renewed, completely and eternally free from that power that has overwhelmed us. We will forever live in God’s universal Kingdom as his children and co-workers.
Now, the second level of escaping the beast. This is the freedom we can experience in our lives now: living by the Spirit. Read all about it in Romans 8:5-17 (note: if the Bible version you read uses the term “sinful nature” please substitute the correct word, “flesh”.) Being “in Christ Jesus” we can live with a different focus; we can center ourselves in God’s Holy Spirit with our spirits. So the flesh is no longer the primary, leading part of our human nature. Then SIN does not dominate. The Spirit leads us to live as God’s own children. “Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 6:19). Instead of having SIN controlling, enslaving, deceiving, corrupting, and killing in our bodies, we can have the Spirit teaching, empowering, sanctifying, enlivening, and enabling us in our bodies to live with God’s presence.
In that Romans 8 section, Paul points out that we have an obligation but it’s not to the flesh. We don’t have to live according to the flesh. We need to live according to the Spirit instead. I think this indicates that we have an active part in this relationship. The Spirit is not going to just take over and make everything hunky-dory or way cool or dope. We have to take action – set your minds on the Spirit. “Worship in spirit and in truth,” Jesus said. Consciously and intentionally center your mind on interaction with God. With humility, surrender, and faith, align your spirit with God’s Spirit. Then there is “life and peace” (Romans 8:6).
Escaping the beast, finding freedom from SIN working in our flesh, gives a deeper meaning to Paul’s instruction at the beginning of Romans 12. Being assured that God mercifully makes us his own (chapters 9-11), “present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice…” I’ve always looked at that as meaning all that you are, all that you do in your body, and probably can be taken that way. Yet he says very specifically “your bodies.” After teaching that SIN works in our flesh, now he guides us to present our bodies to God. Offer your weak, corrupted, dying flesh to God for him to take it and make it holy and acceptable.
Conclusion of this series
I’ve shared with you that I was drawn into a study of Romans 7 and what is said about sin. It’s different from how I have understood sin itself and what has been interpreted as a sin nature. Because of what Paul said sin does, I now see that sin is not only our own disobedient, unrighteous thoughts and actions. Because of how humans are made, it is incorrect to say we have a sin nature that was added onto the human character and passed on from generation to generation. Instead, there is a real power that is called sin that originates outside of us and comes into us, as God told Cain, “sin is lurking at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it” (Genesis 4:6-7). This sin power is able to energize feelings, thoughts, and actions in a person’s physical body and its needs and desires. While it is not all-powerful, it is practically irresistible so it will dominate us and cause chaos and corruption in all of a person’s life. Mercifully, Jesus the Messiah has taken on and defeated this power with his life, death, and resurrection. We will have final victory with our own resurrection based on Christ’s resurrection. We can experience freedom (though not yet total) by God’s Holy Spirit coming into us and re-orienting how we construct our lives – with our spirit interacting with God’s Spirit.
I haven’t mentioned it yet, but I want to point out that in this teaching on the power of sin, Paul does not say anything about Satan. So I don’t think we can explain the sin power as Satan personally tempting and deceiving and controlling a person. It is a force that exerts hostile influence within us. Maybe Satan is the source of this sin power, but that’s not clear to me.
I think that this concept of a real power can help to explain the unrighteousness, the wrongness, the evil that we all experience in ourselves and see all around. Perhaps we can understand more clearly how we can act so immorally, maliciously, dishonestly, etc. Maybe being aware of this power can help us deal with it better, in line with God’s knowledge and purposes.
Our Western worldview, which has tried to eliminate any idea that there is a metaphysical or spiritual reality, will not accept such an understanding. It will be seen as nothing but silly superstition which has no scientific evidence. But maybe it could help some people to entertain the possibility that we are dealing with something beyond physical matter to explain so much evil and suffering in the world. It may even give someone hope – in that humans are not nothing but dirty, rotten sinners who can’t get our act together because we’re completely broken. We are broken, yes, but there is something else that is not us and that we can resist and that will eventually be conquered.
I would love to receive any feedback from anyone who has read this. Am I off track from the Bible’s message? Am I making too much of the things which Paul says that sin does? Was he only personifying sin as a tool for communication? Am I missing other Biblical teaching that better explains all this? Please leave your comments. Thanks for reading.
Notes:
– For an explanation of where the idea of “sinful nature” comes from see this online article: Origins of the Idea of Sinful Nature, Skip Moen. I don’t know much about the author, so I am not recommending his entire website, but this article is kind of eye-opening.
– After I wrote this series, I came across a book called The Beast That Crouches At The Door by Rabbi David Fohrman. I haven’t read it yet but it may be worth checking out. It’s available on Amazon.