Sam Rahberg
08/08/03Paper #1
Romans Chapter 7
Paul's letter to the Romans is a thunderstorm of insights into the Christian faith. In sixteen short chapters, he has named the pillars of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ, underscored the consistency of God's salvation acts, corrected ill-conceived questions, and painted a picture of what life lived by the Spirit could be. At the heart of this powerful book is a lynchpin vignette that connects God's mysteries in Christ to real life. Romans chapter seven propels us into the Christian mystery of dying to the law through the body of Christ and being raised to live in this world while the law remains.
Chapter seven opens with a clear example of the law's function in this world and then draws the parallel to God's work in Christ. That parallel has a mysterious twist.
Do you not know, brothers and sisters…that the law is binding on a person only during that person's lifetime? Thus a married woman is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives; but if her husband dies, she is discharged from the law concerning the husband. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man, she is not an adulteress.
In the same way, my friends, you have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God (Rom. 7:1-4, NRSV).
Naturally, the law binding two people only applies until one of them dies. Paul and his companions could have identified any number of widows who had lost their husbands and remarried. No one would begrudge them the right to make a new home with another spouse. The same is true for our day. On the other hand, we would be hard pressed to find a spouse who died, rose, and remarried. That is, in fact, the proposition that Paul makes in verse four, "you have died to the law." You have not been released from the marital vows because your spouse has died but because you yourself have died. More than that, you have been raised "so that you may belong to another," namely Jesus Christ, who has been raised before you. The mystery is this: while you have died to the law in Christ, you have also been raised right back into this world where the law remains. That is the equivalent of belonging to another, free from the marital law that first bound you, even though your previous husband lives.
At first glance, this apparent conflict poses a serious dilemma. After examination, Paul leads us to appreciate the dilemma as an essential mystery. Christians live in this world and yet are exempt from the law. Such a dynamic is made possible only by death and resurrection in Jesus Christ (7:4), thereby leading Paul to the conclusion that "we are slaves not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit" (7:6). This new life of the Spirit is not aimless. We have been raised to life in this world, apart from the law, for a purpose. If it were not so, humans would simply be rescued from the law by dying and waiting in graves for the Second Coming. God has raised us with Christ to bear good fruit and witness to the Gospel for those who are still captive to the law (much like Paul is doing in his letter to the Romans). The mystery and license of living redeemed in this world hinges on a life changing experience--death to the law and resurrection to new life of the Spirit.
According to the remaining verses of chapter seven, the new life of the Spirit and noble purpose associated with it are made difficult by confusion regarding the law and sin. "What then should we say? That the law is sin?…Did what is good, then, bring death to me?" (7:7, 13). It may appear to some, Paul is convinced, that the law is to blame for human sinfulness. "By no means!", he responds. Although Christians were held captive by the law (7:6), it is not as if they were victims. No, Paul says, "the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good" (7:12). The trouble is that Christians are sinful and so being are unworthy to stand in the light of the law. The law reveals the inability of all humanity to live up to its responsibilities because of sin's disease. Thus it is not the law itself, but the sin within that is the actual enemy.
Paul himself wrestled with the mystery of new life of the Spirit in the face of his own sinfulness as he confesses, "I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate…For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do" (7:15,19). Even though Christians have died to the law and have new life, sin remains in their new lives. Sin should lie dead apart from the law (7:8) but Paul's personal testimony is evidence to the contrary. This man of great faith and insight reveals the depths of his own struggle to cope with the mystery of dying to the law and yet living within a world where temptations abound. How much more are common believers weighted by such tensions? At least for now, it is obvious that weakness is not erased by new life of the Spirit. There is a great discrepancy between the person that Paul wants to be and the person that he actually is. This is true for all people who cry with him, "Wretched man that I am! Who will save me from this body of death?" (7:24). Who can bridge this great discrepancy? Jesus Christ alone is able.
God's great wisdom has left Christians in the world for the purpose of witness as seen in the result of Paul's conversion. His encounter with the Risen Jesus did not remove him from the world, but charged him with a mission. His preaching and teaching are in fact the good fruit that he was raised to bear (7:4). With conviction and compassion he speaks to the struggles of those around him with words like, "Do you not know, brothers and sisters…" and "In the same way, my friends…" (7:1, 4). Acknowledging that nothing good dwells in him (7:18) opens the door for other sinful people to place their trust in the Lord. One day, that sinfulness will be fully erased, and on that day, the delight in the law of the Lord (7:22) will be made perfect and untainted. The Lord will reveal the end of all struggles both internal and external. Until then, he has not left Christians alone in their weaknesses. Christians are raised to belong to Christ, bound by a new marriage of grace. For eternal salvation and daily strength, Paul proclaims, "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (7:24).
Paul was encouraging Romans to stand firm in the midst of Christian mysteries, not the least of which is dying to the law through the body of Christ and being raised to live with purpose in this world. This much is certain, that as long as we remain with sin in this present world, we can never rely on the law for salvation. Instead, we trust in him who has been raised from the dead, to whom we now belong by the mystery of our own resurrection, in order that we may bear fruit for God (7:4).