Slave or Free?

Slave or Free?

Romans 6:15-23

The Troubling Question

As he has earlier in Chapter 6 (verse 1) and still earlier in Chapter 3 Paul again in verses 15-18 asks if we may continue to sin, since we are, as he has said, free from the law and under grace. The question must be an important one, or Paul would not have placed so much importance on it. Why was it so important? In his first reference to it (Chapter 3, verse 8) Paul says that he has been “slanderously quoted” and some claimed that this was, in fact, what he was saying. We can easily see why this is so. On the one hand, Paul was saying to the Jews that they were, in fact, free from the interpretation of the law that they had lived with all their lives. It is difficult for us who have not lived under that interpretation to understand what a burden the law was to them. It told them in detail how to dress, how to eat, how to worship. In fact, it controlled nearly every detail of their lives from the time they were born until their death, and even included the details of how their bodies should be prepared after death. To be free from such a law must have been very liberating, indeed.

From the Greek perspective, what Paul seemed had to say about this life and the next must have fit well into their philosophy of dualism, which had been interpreted to say that this life is not real, but only a projection of reality. In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, he likened our interaction with the world around us to those seeing shadows on a cave wall. We can only experience the table in front of us through our perceptions; we cannot experience the table itself. Further, the table itself is not real, but an example of the idea of “table”. Paul himself is very clear that there is nothing in this life that we can do to obtain the next life. What, then, does it matter what we do in this life?

In our modern times, in Evangelic churches, we have the great promise of John 3:16 and we stress that time of conversion as the turning point in a Christian’s life; but after that, then what? Are we to go on sinning, as Paul rhetorically asks? How should our belief affect our actions?

Slaves to Righteousness

Paul uses slavery as a metaphor both for our former condition and for our current situation. Again, in modern times we are not used to the idea of slavery, but it was predominant in the time of Paul. In the Roman world, a slave was considered a living tool, completely at the mercy of the slave owner. Some were slaves because of their birth, being of a certain class or race, still others were slaves as the result of political upheaval, when own country was completely overtaken by another. But when Paul says “you offer yourselves to someone” he was talking about yet another form of slavery, one in which, for financial reasons, a person would sell himself into slavery, more or less of his own choosing.

Paul says we had offered ourselves as slaves to sin, but we have become slaves to righteousness. Paul makes it clear that the change is due to our own choice (if not to our accomplishment) when he says that we “wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which [we] were entrusted.” It is important to note that it is we who have been entrusted to the teaching, and not the reverse. Paul had been a Pharisee, a Jew of Jews, and as such had been entrusted with a complex oral tradition of law that the Pharisee was expected to keep and pass on to those that follow.

The words of Jesus our not ours, they are not entrusted to us. Though heaven and earth may pass away, the words of Jesus will remain (Luke 21:33). The word of God is not entrusted to us, but we have been entrusted to the Word. (John 1:1-5)

The Wages of Sin

In verses 19-25, Paul continues, as he says, “using human terms” in his metaphor of slavery. Paul says that he uses this metaphor because we “are weak in [our] natural selves,” or, as the RSV puts it, because of our “natural limitations.” This may mean that he is using an imperfect example because of our inability to understand, or that he is using the example of bodily enslavement because of the “weakness of [our] flesh” as the NKJV says.

Paul adds two thoughts to his metaphor in this passage. First, he says that our slavery to sin was “ever increasing,” indicating that sin leads to more sin. The appetites of our worldly existence are never satiated, because what we want we cannot achieve. In contrast, Paul says we are now slaves to righteousness, and we have the promise of our Lord that, in contrast to our earthly desires, those who hunger and thirst after righteousness will be filled (Matthew 5:6). So, Paul contrasts the fruit of wickedness, which is more wickedness, to the result of righteousness, which he says “leads to holiness”, the result of which is eternal life.

The RSV calls this process that leads to holiness “sanctification” and the nature of this word has the feel (so I am told) of the original Greek. The word “sanctify” means to make holy and the compound suffix “-ification” indicates a process. The word “sanctification” is from the Latin. The original Greek is hagiasmos, and the ending asmos is indicative of a process. We do not in, any sense of the world, “achieve” holiness. We are undergoing the process of sanctification, as God makes us holy.

The second idea that Paul introduces in this passage is the idea of the “wages” and the “gift”. There is, as is often the case, something lost in the translation from the Greek. The word Paul uses that is translated “wages” is a word for a soldier’s pay, in salary, rations, or other benefits. In contrast, the word which is translated “gift” is charisma. We know that word in a different sense, but the Latin donatovum is more familiar: it is the source of our word “donation”. On special occasions, the emperor would give a “gift” to the army that was totally unearned, and it is this word for “gift” that Paul uses. Paul is saying that all we can achieve through our own endeavor is death, but we have been given the completely unearned gift of eternal life in Christ.

Slave or Free?

Paul is somewhat apologetic of his use of slavery as a metaphor, but it is certainly a Biblical idea. Christ tells us “No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and despise the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and wealth.” (Luke 16:13) We are perhaps more familiar with the KJV “You cannot serve both God and mammon.” This word “mammon” is the Greek adoption of an Aramaic word, and it means wealth, not in the sense of some amount of wealth, but in the sense of wealth personified, that is, it means the whole idea of wealth.

Before Paul used the analogy of slavery Jesus used very similar words. In John 8:34-36, Jesus says that whoever commits sin is a servant of sin. How then can we be free? We can be free if the Son makes us free. Paul wants us to consider what this means for our daily living, and says that we should be slaves to righteousness, submitting ourselves to the process of sanctification. Jesus says that we must “hold to” or “continue in” His teaching. “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32)

Shall We Go on Sinning?

Shall We Go on Sinning?

Romans 6:1-14

What Shall We Say, Then?

In Chapter 6, Paul returns to the present to consider how the gift of God should change our lives. In verses 1-4, he presents an option we are supposed to recognize as ridiculous, when he asks if we should go on sinning. He is back to arguing both sides of the case, when he suggests that we should continue in sin, so that grace may continue. Paul calls on the symbolism of baptism to say that we have followed Christ in his death and resurrection, raised to a news life, so that our former ways must end.

The idea is a preposterous one, of course, and one we would we would not consider today. We would not, for example, think that we can continue to live as we like, as long as we come to church on Sunday – most Sundays, anyway. We would not believe that we can compartmentalize our lives between the sacred and the secular, and think that what we do in the one has no effect on the other. We would not seek gain for ourselves at the cost of the poor and oppressed. Or would we?

The Body of Sin

In verses 5-7, Paul goes on to say that we are free from sin, because our old self is dead. But is that the way it seems? Does it feel like we are free from sin, or that sin still has a hold over us? Is there something wrong with those of us who still feel captive to sin? In the next chapter, we will read that Paul himself remained a slave to sin, “What I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” (7:14b) So how can he say we are free from sin?

When Paul says that we are dead to sin, he did not mean that we will never sin again, but that we are free from the obligation of sin. We have been raised to a new life, and Paul is clear that this new life should be different from our old life. How can the new life be different if we still sin? The first difference is that we know we are sinners. This knowledge must change our lives, but the change is in what we desire, and not what we achieve.

Death no Longer Has Mastery

We must remember, in reading verses 8-10, that when Paul says “we believe that we will also live with him” he is not making some weaker statement than when he says we known that Christ was raised from the dead. As we have seen, the English words “believe” and “faith” are both translated from the same Greek root, as the verb form and the noun form, respectively. When he says we believe this and we know that, he is not talking about something we are still skeptical of, that might be true and might not, but something we know by faith to be true and certain.

Later on, Paul will tell us that “the wages of sin is death.” (6:23a) Here, Paul says Christ paid that debt for us that we might be saved from death. This is a promise for the future, when we will follow our Lord through death into the eternal presence of God, but it is also a promise for the present, for eternity has already begun, and we have begun our eternal life in Christ. The life we once lived, we lived to sin, now we must live to God.

Instruments of Righteousness

The transition in verses 11-14 is characteristic of Paul. He can speak of lofty things; he can make strict, legal arguments, and then transition to simple, practical things. In this passage he gets down to basics: we must not let our bodies rule over us. If this immediately makes us think sins of a sexual nature, then Paul was right to admonish us, if that is where our minds are. But the body also wants food and comfort and security, and what it wants, it wants in excess. More is always better, where the body is concerned.

But Paul is not alone in the idea that we must die to self and control the appetite of our mortal bodies. In Matthew 16:24-26, the Lord himself tells us that we must each take up our cross and follow him. “What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?”

Paul exhorts us to offer our bodies as instruments of righteousness. How can the very instruments of wickedness become instruments of righteousness? In the same way that we mere humans can become children of God. It is his doing, and not ours.

The Gift Is not like the Trespass

The Gift Is not like the Trespass

Romans 5:12-21

Death through Sin

In this later half of Chapter 5, Paul deals with the theological issues of sin, death, grace, the role of the law, and the role of Christ. In studying this passage, we will find Paul’s general argument much easier to follow that his specific statements.

The difficulty in following Paul’s specific statements begins with the problem of simply understanding his grammar. If we look at verses 12-14, we see that Paul begins with one thought in verse 12, but does not quite complete it. He starts to tell us that sin, and through sin, death came into the world through Adam, but he begins this in a comparative way and never finished the comparison. The KJV treats all of verses 13-17 as a long, parenthetical thought. The NIV treats verse 12 simply as an unfinished sentence. However it is treated grammatically, Paul begins to make a comparison between Adam and Jesus, but follows another thought about the role of the law.

But what is it, exactly, that he says about the law? Before the law, he says, there was sin. But he seems to say that this sins did not matter, because there was no law, so sinners could not be held accountable. Nonetheless, everyone died, even those who did not “sin by breaking a command.” We could understand this as an argument based on the concept of “Original Sin”. In this idea, we are all sinners by nature, having inherited the sin from Adam (though, curiously, not from Eve).

Certainly, the story of the original sin (Genesis 3) tells us that sin changed the world. With the fall of man, all of nature fell. But did all humans inherit sin from Adam? The story of Cain and Able tells us that we sin by choice. In Genesis 4:7, the Lord says to Cain that he will be accepted if he does what is right. This implies that Cain knew what was right and would be held accountable for doing wrong, even though the law had not yet been given.

In fact, Paul himself has made this same claim for the Gentiles (Romans 2:14-16) who, he says, had the law written on their hearts. So how can he now say that the world was ignorant, and therefore not to be held accountable, before the law? We can address this question in different ways. The first, as has already been mentioned, is the idea of Original Sin, which says that we inherit Adam’s sin even if we do not sin ourselves. Again, this argument seems contrary to Paul’s statements here and previously (Romans 3:23) that we have all sinned.

We can also address the question by carefully parsing what Paul says. He says that all have sinned, and mentions “those who did not sin by breaking a command.” How could they break a command, if the commandments had not been given? So, perhaps he is speaking of those who sinned, but not by breaking the commands we know today.

Finally, we can address the question by remembering that when Paul, a Pharisee, speaks of the law, he means something quite specific and detailed. The Pharisees ritually observed a tradition of written and oral law, the extent of which is hard for modern Gentiles to understand. That law would certainly not be known to the Gentiles or to those who came before Moses, and those who did not know it could not be culpable for breaking it.

But, all of this is beside Paul’s main point, which is that sin brings death.

The Gift Is not like the Trespass

In verses 15-17, Paul goes on to contrast the gift of righteousness with the trespass of sin. The gift, he says, is not like the trespass. Here, we must understand that Paul is taking some poetic license when he says that “judgment followed one sin.” Paul was a careful student of scripture, and he knew that, in the garden, God found both Adam and Eve guilty of sin, and passed his judgment on the both of them. But Paul wants to compare the judgment that came through Adam (a symbol of the human race) to the redemption that comes through Christ.

“The gift is not like the trespass,” Paul says. Judgment comes as the result of the action of man but the gift is freely given. The trespass brings death, the gift brings life. There have been many trespasses, but the gift overflows to many.

One Man

In verses 18-19, Paul continues his comparison of Adam and Christ. This comparison is made more clearly and famously in 1 Corinthians 15:21-22: “As in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.” This is the same statement that Paul makes here: “For just as through the disobedience of the one man all were made sinners, so also through the obedience of one man the many will be made righteous.”

Again, we must be careful to understand Paul’s metaphoric usage of Adam. When he says we were all made sinners through his sin, does he mean that we would not be sinners if he did not sin? I know myself to be a sinner. If all humanity remained sinless before me, I would be Paul’s Adam. Like Adam, we are all subject to judgment for our sins. Through Christ, we are freed from that judgment.

Life through Grace

In the last verses of the chapter (verses 20-21) Paul returns to the law, saying that the law increases the trespass. Again, we must remember what the law meant to Paul. First, it had become an enormous burden, more than just a way of relating to God and each other, it had become a religion. Second, no matter how complete the law might become, or how carefully it might be followed, it is not the way to salvation – it will always show us as sinners, and the wages of sin is death. We only find life through grace.

While We Were still Sinners

While We Were still Sinners

Romans 5:1-11

Peace with God

Prior to Chapter 5, Paul has stated that, because of our unrighteousness, we are all subject to the wrath of God, but that, through faith in God, we can be made righteous and therefore escape that wrath. In verses 1-2, Paul goes on to say that, not only will we escape wrath, but we will be at peace with God.

As recorded in the Gospel of John, before Jesus is arrested, the last word of encouragement he has for his disciples is a wish that they might have peace. (John 16:33) He says that they can have peace, even though the world provides tribulation. Peace means more than an absence of hostility; it means security and safety. Paul says we stand in grace. The love of God is no fickle thing that is offered to us one day and withheld the next. Through the grace of God we have true security that this world cannot provide.

Hope

In verses 3-5, Paul goes on from faith to hope. Faith is fulfilled in the present; hope will be fulfilled in the future. Paul says that even our suffering leads to hope, and hope will not disappoint, but that is not our everyday experience. We have hopes for better health, for more money, for an easier life, and we are often disappointed.

Our experience with God is different from our experience with this world, because our experience with God is based on the love of God. Paul, speaking directly about the love of God for the first time in Romans, says that it is “poured out” into our hearts. The word Paul uses here is the same world Christ used at the last supper, when he said “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.” (Luke 22:20) This is the measure of God’s love, that he would sacrifice himself for us. We can place our hope in that love and never be disappointed.

While We Were still Sinners

In verses 6-8, Paul speaks directly of this sacrifice. He says that it happened at just the right time, while we were still powerless. The word that is translated as “powerless” also means “feeble” or “sick”. So, Paul at first says that God gave himself while we were not the whole, well beings we should be, and then later states plainly that it was while we were still sinners. We had no ability to help ourselves, and we were undeserving, but Christ gave his life for us, anyway. Who would do that? Paul says no one would do it. Somebody, he says, might give their life for someone special, but no one would do it for a powerless sinner. But God did.

Joy

In verses 9-11, Paul goes further to say that, in our former state, we were enemies of God. We were made in God’s image, and with the law written on our hearts. We knew right and wrong and we chose the latter. While we were doing that, God reconciled us to him. We were enemies of God by our choice; we are children of God by his choice.

Paul says we are not only reconciled, but we are saved. The word translated “saved” here is the same word that is used to mean “healed”. So, Paul says we were sick, and we have been made whole.

Because of this, Paul says we rejoice. As we struggle in this world it is easy to forget this joy. In this world, even for those of us who lead very comfortable lives, even happiness is rare, and true joy is just not to be found. But our hope is in the glory of God. Whatever happens in this life, that hope will not let us down.

Credited as Righteousness

Credited as Righteousness

Romans Chapter 4

The Covenant with Abraham

Having already stated that righteousness comes through faith in Jesus Christ, in Chapter 4, Paul provides the Old Testament roots of this New Testament idea.

In verses 1-3, Paul begins with Abraham, who, technically, at the time of this reference, was “Abram”. The story is in Genesis 15:1-6, where God first established a covenant with Abram. God told Abram his offspring would be as the stars in the sky. Abram believed God, and this belief was credited to him as righteousness.

As this statement is the basis of the chapter, we must carefully consider what it means. First, we must remember that, as used in this chapter, the words “faith” and “believe” are the same. While we do have the idea of “faith” in a totally abstract sense, as in “Baptist”, “Catholic”, etc. and of “beliefs” as tenets of such faith, that is not how the words are used here. Instead, “believe” is the verb form, and “faith” is the noun form of the same notion. “Faith” is the act of believing.

So, we have the two words defined in relation to each other, but what does “faith” mean? What does it mean “to believe”? The writer of Hebrews provides us with an elegant definition: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1) Paul also provides us with a definition later in this chapter. For now, let us consider that faith is personal proof. In this day of the scientific method, proof is something that is repeatable and observable. Faith is not scientific, it is personal, but it is proof, nonetheless.

And then there is the word “righteous”. It means to be morally just. We know that no one is just but God. The scripture says because Abram believed God, he was treated as though he were righteous.

Right there in the first book of the Old Testament we find God, with very New Testament ideas.

The Covenant with David

In verses 4-8, Paul brings David into the discussion. The passage that Paul quotes gives us a definition of what “credited as righteousness” means. David says that it means our sins are forgiven, covered up, and will never count against us.

Like Abram, the Lord made a covenant with David. The account is recorded in 2 Samuel 7. David wanted to build a temple for the Lord, but the Lord said he could not. Even though David’s sins were forgiven, he was not the man the Lord wanted to build his temple. Instead, the Lord promised David that his house and kingdom would endure forever. Even though David could not have foreseen how this promise would come true, He did believe the promise.

Circumcision

Paul returns to the topic of Abram/Abraham in verses 9-12, where Paul questions the role of circumcision. The question Paul asks is whether Abram was credited with righteousness before he was circumcised and became Abraham. The story of the institution of circumcision is given in Genesis 17. What the devout Jew noted about this scripture is in 17:14, where it says that any uncircumcised male has broken the covenant. What Paul wanted us to note is that this story comes after the covenant story. In 17:2 God says that it is in confirmation of the covenant, and in 17:11 that circumcision is only sign of the covenant. The question of circumcision meant more to Paul and his audience than it does to us today, but it is a part of his argument, so we must bear it in mind.

The Covenant with Moses

In verses 13-15, Paul again returns to the question of the law. There are two things we must note. First, Paul does not use the same “which came first” argument about the law as he did with circumcision. There are two reasons for this. First, Paul has already given it up, as he has said that even the gentiles have the law written on their hearts (2:15) that is, God’s law is a part of our nature as creatures of God created in God’s image. Second, the Jewish scholars would not have bought it, because they made the same sort of claim for Abraham. Since the law was so important, they wondered how Abraham and the rest of the patriarchs could have kept the law, and they came up with the idea that they had foreknowledge of the law.

The next thing we must note is that Paul seems to be completely dismissing the law, or even saying that the law is hostile to us. We must consider that Paul is only discussing the law in relationship to justification, that is, he is dismissing the law as a method of salvation. Put yet another way, he is dismissing the law as basis for a relationship with God.

The law was given as covenant with the people through Moses. There are two accounts of this covenant. In Deuteronomy, it is clear that the law is to be kept as part of a loving relationship with God (Deuteronomy 6:4-9). In Exodus, it is clear that the covenant was to lead the Israelites to be priests to the nations of the world (Exodus 19:5-6). If it was easier for the people to hold on to their special relationship to God than to be priests to other nations, and easier to write the law on their doorposts than their hearts, who can blame them?

Our Father Abraham

Everything is possible through God, Paul says in verses 16-17. It is God who “calls things that are not as though they were.” Paul says that Abraham was the first person of record to receive righteousness through faith, and as such he us the father of us all.

The New Covenant

In verses 18-25, Paul gives us a definition of faith. He says that though Abraham and Sarah were too old to expect children, Abraham was “fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.” Abraham, Moses, and David were great men through whom God accomplished great things, but they were only men, and they could not achieve righteousness through their actions. They were men of faith. Was their faith greater than ours? When God made his covenant with Abram, Abram’s first question was “How can I know?” (Genesis 15:8)

God is eager to make a covenant with each of us. Not a covenant of circumcision, or of law, but a new covenant through the blood of his son, Jesus. (Luke 22:20) If we believe in him, it will be credited to us as righteousness; our sins will be forgiven, covered up, and will never count against us.