Romans 7:1-6 “Freedom”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹Or, brothers, are you being ignorant (for I am speaking to ones knowing law) that the law is ruling over the man upon how long a time he is living? ²For [instance], the married woman is bound to the living husband by law, but if the husband should die, she is released from the law of the husband. ³Then, therefore, [while] the husband [is] living, she will be called an adulteress if she should belong to another husband, but, if the husband should die, she is free from the law [so that] she is not an adulteress belonging to another husband. ⁴Thus, my brothers, you also were put to death to law through the body of Christ in order that you might belong to another, to the One raised out of dead ones, that we might be fruitful to God. ⁵For when we were being in the flesh, the passions of the sins which [were] through the law, were being energized in our members into bearing fruit to the death. ⁶But now we are released from the law, having died to that which we were being bound, so that we are serving in newness of spirit and not [in] oldness of letter.

In chapter 7, Paul delves deeply into the hopelessness of legalism. As I have often observed, we humans are incorrigible legalists. “Religions” around the world are invariably all about each one’s unique assortment of rules. We see the extreme cases like the Amish or like Hasidic Jews, but I fear the Evangelical church itself ends up being characterized not by their love for Jesus but rather for their own unique (and in their minds important) set of rules and standards and principles and such.

Reducing “religion” to rules is a very comfortable environment for us all. If we just “keep the rules,” then we’re good. All our rule-keeping friends applaud our exemplary job of rule-keeping, we all pat each other on the back, and life is good. We can meet together on Sunday morning, all approve of each other, and go away satisfied that we are quite successful in our “religion.”

In my opinion, a major point of the entire Old Testament is to showcase the total failure of legalism. The Jews began their relationship with God by telling Moses, “All that the Lord commands us, we will do!” “Just give us the rules and watch us keep them!” Of course, the words had barely left their lips before they were casting a golden calf and worshiping it. Their entire history was one of nearly total failure. By the time Jesus came, they had completely reduced Judaism to an extremely complex set of rules which they demanded everyone keep. They were so far from the heart of God, they even crucified their own Messiah.

On this side of the Cross, we can mock at the ridiculousness of the Pharisees’ rule-keeping and hypocrisy, but what I want to suggest is that, until we repent, we’re no better than them. Just because we think our rules are better than theirs doesn’t change the fact that we are legalists just like them. What is missing in all cases is the Lord Himself. Legalism is when “religion” is about rule-keeping and not about entering into a very real and very personal relationship with the God of Heaven. That is what I mean by “repenting.” At some point, each one of us must come to grips with this very question. Which will it be? Will I allow my “religion” to be, in reality, just my own seemingly admirable set of rules, or will I actually enter into a very real relationship with this Jesus?

I want to say that, for me, chapter 7 in Romans seems almost like we’re beating a dead horse. It seems like Paul has been assaulting legalism practically since the book opened. I wish we could say, “Okay, we’ve got it. Let’s move on.” However, Paul knows human hearts better than me and just how incorrigible our legalism really is. And so he devotes one more entire chapter trying to convince us of its complete hopelessness.

He already stated clearly we are not under law, but under grace. If at this point, we are still saying, “But, but, but…,” then we do, in fact, need to read Romans 7. From Romans 8 on, we will look at the glorious freedom of genuinely born-again people. However, if we have not repented of our legalism, we’ll never really understand what the rest of this book is about.

Note, Paul’s opening point in this chapter is that we have died to the law. Died. Someone once asked an old hillbilly, “How dead is dead?” He replied, “Plumb dead.” Dead is dead. Yes, we were born under law and its rule (and condemnation) over us was just as inescapable as marriage. To be married is to be married, but when the spouse dies, that marriage is no longer binding on us. Paul uses this illustration, I think, just because it is so obvious and undeniable and the analogy to law itself equally undeniable.

In v.4, he then draws his conclusion that you and I died in Christ and so we are no longer bound under law. Just in case we are tempted, like Lot’s wife, to “look back,” Paul reminds us in v.5 that living under law was a slavery that itself brought us only living death. Then all around that in vv.4 and 6, he inserts what it is we’ve been freed to. In the middle of all this discussion of dying to the law, Paul inserts an explanation of what that freedom actually means.

“Freedom” in the Bible is never freedom to “do as we please.” As we were reminded in chapter 6, there are only two alternatives. We either embrace the Lord and His place over us and with us, or we must by default serve sin and therefore self-destruct. In v.4, he says we died to the law in order that we might belong to another–the One raised from the dead—to the end we bear fruit to God. We were freed from the law and the chains of sin that we might climb in the lap of a wonderful heavenly Father.

Understanding that, we can begin to understand what he means when he concludes v.6 by saying we now serve “in the newness of the Spirit, not in the oldness of the letter.” Interestingly, it can be translated as either “in newness of the Spirit” or “in newness of spirit.” Personally, I don’t think it really makes any difference. Jesus said “they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” The whole idea comes down again to this simple question, “Are you just a rule-keeper, or have you entered into a real, personal relationship with God?” Rule-keeping is “the oldness of the letter.” What God has called us all to is something far better—a spiritual newness, a real heart relationship where we care what God thinks because we love Him. For us, His law becomes simply an expression of His heart, that which He desires for us, His wise and best way to live, and we actually want to live that way.

In the rest of this chapter, Paul has to go back and spend one last extended discussion of the hopelessness of our miserable legalism. Hopefully, by this point, we’ve all already clearly seen the difference and chosen instead to live in this “newness of the Spirit,” but for anyone still hesitant to give up their attachment to rule-keeping, the rest of this chapter just heads downhill.

Lord help us all. What He has provided for us really is a wonderful freedom to enjoy love and peace. It’s ours to decide whether we will.

 

Romans 6:13,14 “Righteousness Pondered”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹³No longer be presenting your members [as] tools of unrighteousness to the sin, but present yourselves to God as ones living out of dead ones and your members [as] tools of righteousness to God, ¹⁴for sin will not rule over you (pl.), for you (pl.) are not under law but under grace.

Before I progress on into chapter 7, there is one more thing I’ve been pondering since studying chapter 6 some time ago, and that is this business of “righteousness.” In v.13, the Lord wants us to present our members to Him as “tools of righteousness.” He wants us to be “righteous.”

On the one hand, we might glibly respond, “Well, of course.” However, I think there is a point of confusion here that perhaps rarely gets acknowledged or decisively answered. That is the problem where we started, that we are not righteous. This is the whole point of the Gospel, all the way back to 3:19,20: ^“Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.” At that point in our Bible, any true believer acknowledges, “Yes, it is true. I am not righteous. I never have been and, no matter how hard I may try, I never will be.” To be right means to do right, to have done right, to continue to do right, and how do we know what “right” is? The Law tells us. It is the standard of “right.” 

But we’ve already concluded that the Law only condemns us, precisely because we cannot keep it, precisely because we are not righteous! “Through the law is the knowledge of sin.” Law only condemns. Again, at this point, any true believer cries out, “Jesus!” That is the whole point of the Gospel, the great “But now” of Romans 3:21,22. “But now a righteousness of God without law has been made known… This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.” Hallelujah. We revel in the wonderful truth that Jesus paid the debt of my sin and now the Lord has forgiven my sin and declared me righteous.

That’s all well and good (actually wondrously great!), but then we pass on to the reality of our everyday lives. It is still true, even as a born-again, Spirit-indwelt person, that I am not righteous. I am still a sinner. I still fail constantly. If the standard is that God wants me to be righteous, then I’m in big trouble. I still can’t. If the judgment seat of Christ is still about me “measuring up,” I’m still in trouble.

So I came to Jesus because I’m not righteous and cannot be, but now He wants me to be righteous. Hmmmm. Seems I have a problem here.

What is the answer?

I believe the answer is to be found in understanding there is a HUGE difference between legal righteousness and what I will call grace righteousness.” Legal righteousness is simply that—here’s the rules and you should keep them. Here’s the rules and, if you keep them perfectly, you are righteous. If you fail in the tiniest point, you have failed completely and are hence unrighteous. “Whosoever shall kep the whole law and offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” If keeping the law is what we mean by “righteousness,” then I would suggest there still is no answer. If that is the standard in any way, then we’re all still back in 3:19,20, guilty and condemned. We’re still hopeless failures.

However, 6:14 tells us “You are not under law but under grace.” What does that mean? I want to suggest that it means there is a righteousness that is not legal, that there is such a thing as grace righteousness. What do I mean? The Law says to us, “Do this and live,” then mocks as we die because we cannot. Grace says, “Live and do this!” In other words, grace first gives us life, then enables us to do it. Grace starts with a love relationship between me and my Father. Grace starts with me being indwelt by the very Holy Spirit of God. Grace starts with me knowing that, whether I succeed or fail, I will still be eternally loved. Grace knows that Jesus already paid the penalty of all of my sin. Grace means that, when I hear what the Lord desires of me, because He loves me, I want to do it. Grace means I already know I can’t but that He can through me, and so I say, “Help me, Jesus. Somehow, by your grace, right at the moment when I need to say the right thing, do the right thing, help me.” Then when I actually did succeed at something, there’s no pride in it. There’s no patting myself on the back. There’s only the thankful, praising heart that says to the Lord, “You are wonderful. Thank you, thank you, thank you for helping me.”

That’s grace righteousness. Not me “succeeding,” but rather me the branch “abiding in the Vine,” knowing that, “without Him, I can do nothing,” but that in Him and by His power, I can actually be and become who He wants me to be, actually be fruitful for Him, actually rise above my selfish, petty, fearful, proud self.

Please understand what I am saying, you and I can live righteous lives. Righteous still means right. It still means to live right. That is still God’s desire for you and me. But it is only possible under grace. This is exactly what He means when He says, “Sin shall not be your master, for you are not under Law but under grace.” Grace enables me to actually do right, but also is there with loving arms to catch me when I fall. Grace allows me to try.

Can I suggest one of the best illustrations of grace is a loving parent teaching their little child to walk. Grace encourages the child to try. Grace holds their little hands and in fact holds them up at first until the child begins to be able to stand themselves. Grace keeps saying, “You can do it!” and cheers even the slightest success. Grace is there to care when they stumble and help them up again, and grace just keeps loving until the little child actually takes that first step on their own. Does the parent want the child to walk? Of course, but it is not the cold, harsh legal, “Do it or else!” It is the wise and good love that wants the very best for you and me and will stay with us until in fact it is accomplished. “He who has begun a good work in you will continue it, until the Day of Jesus Christ.”

Grace righteousness.

May God help us all today to draw near to His heart, to strive to walk minute by minute in constant fellowship with Him, knowing all while that, though we fail, He’ll still love us, but if we succeed, it will always be to His glory. And through it all, what are the gifts we’ll enjoy? “Love, joy, peace, patience…”

May we all live grace righteousness today!

 

Romans 6:16 “The Choice”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹⁶Do you not know that to whom you are offering yourselves [to be] servants into obedience, you are servants to whom you are obeying, whether of sin into death or of obedience into righteousness?

I have been studying in the book of Esther for the last several months since I was looking at this chapter in Romans. As I related back there, I left the chapter a little frustrated because it seemed so much like the things Paul was saying were so obvious, that the “objections” he was answering were so ludicrous, I struggled to draw out the benefit.

However, there was one of the verses in chapter 6 that particularly seemed absurdly obvious to me, verse 16, which I would paraphrase as “To whomever you offer yourselves as servants, that’s whose servant you’ll be!” At first pass, that made me want to say, “Duh.” That’s like saying, if you paint your house white, it will be white. Duh. If you offer yourselves to be someone’s servant, that’s whose servant you’ll be. Duh.

What I want to record is that, being away from the passage and having time to live it, it struck me that it is, in fact, a very helpful verse! As it turns out, it is, as I suspected, a statement reflecting a measure of rather enormous stupidity. However, that stupidity isn’t a problem with Paul’s writing or his logic. The problem is entirely us! What do I mean? What I mean is this: Throughout our days, we are constantly faced with the choice to do right or to do wrong, to think or speak rightly or wrongly, to look at right things or look at wrong things. What each of those choices comes down to is “Whom will you serve?”

The very simple truth of Romans 6:16 would tell us, “Whomever you choose to serve, that’s whose servant you’ll be.” That should be patently obvious to us, yet it obviously is NOT! We think we can dally with sin but then choose to set it down whenever we wish. We think we can rehearse ugly, negative thoughts “for just a minute,” then “get back to” right thinking. As a man, it seems like I could look at pornography “for just a minute,” then put it aside and “get back to” keeping my mind and my eyes in the right place.

That is where the real “duh” happens. How could we be so stupid? “Whomever you choose to serve, that’s whose servant you’ll be.” We need to realize that, when I volunteer myself to allow any sin, I am making myself a servant of that very sin. I will become its slave. As the old saying goes, “Sin will always take you further than you wanted to go, hold you longer than you wanted to stay, and cost you more than you wanted to pay!”

Yes, the statement is logically (even ludicrously) obvious, but, since I am such a stupid sinner, it actually turns out to be VERY helpful. Indeed, you and I need to be very aware that our choices are not just momentary or temporary. They are choices to be a slave to sin (which will kill us) or a slave to God (which will bring love and joy and peace). For myself, the Lord has helped me all my adult life to stay away from pornography. However, one of the challenges to me today is that, everywhere I try to go on the internet, they are constantly flashing pictures of beautiful women, usually wearing less clothes than any woman ought to wear anywhere except at home with her own husband. The “lure” I would say is about 100x what it used to be.

What I found since last studying Romans 6 is that this simple verse helps me, in spite of the lure, to make good choices. “Whomever you choose to serve, that’s whose servant you’ll be.” The choice for any man to linger and look isn’t just a choice whether to enjoy it “for a minute.” To make that choice is to head down the path of slavery. A man does not know just how far that slavery will take him or what it will cost, but that is exactly the choice. I suspect our evil souls are probably all saying, “Oh, it’s not that bad!” Then I would ask, is this not the Serpent’s old line, “You shall not surely die…” And oh yes, they did, and oh yes, you and I will.

Anyway, that helps me a lot to constantly remind myself, it’s really that simple, “Whomever you choose to serve, that’s whose servant you’ll be.” I would think that truth could even help a person who say had a serious addiction. I’m sure it is extremely painful to break addictions, but what if that person minute by minute by minute practiced this simple dictum, “Whomever you choose to serve, that’s whose servant you’ll be.” I wonder if it wouldn’t help to realize every single little choice to give in to that addiction, is a choice to go on being its slave? And then, that same help would be available no matter what sin we might “struggle” with.

So the Lord actually showed me that after I’d put away my study of Romans 6. I wanted to record it for two reasons: 1) Just because I find it so helpful, and 2) Just to give God the glory that, in fact, what He says in the Bible is always helpful, even if us worms “don’t get it!” It really is that simple. Duh. We need to realize, that is the choice: “Whomever you choose to serve, that’s whose servant you’ll be.”

Esther 10:1-3 – “It Matters”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹And the king Xerxes set a tax upon the land and the islands of the sea, ²and the all of the doings of his authority and his might and the declaration of the greatness of Mordecai whom the king had caused to grow, the not of them ones written upon the book of the matters of the days of the kings of Media and Persia, ³because Mordecai the Jew [was] second to King Xerxes and great to the Jews and one pleased to the many of his brothers, one seeking good to his people and speaking peace to the all of his descendants.

I’d like to record a thought which grows out of the timeline in this story. As I lamented in the last post, ancient records are notoriously undependable and seemingly always subject to debate, but from everything I have read, I see no reason to doubt that the Ahaseurus of this book is the Xerxes who reigned from 486-465 BC. I find Dr. John Whitcomb’s calculation of dates to be at least plausible, so I am willing to assume the following to be worthy of consideration:

Again, this Xerxes reigned 486–465 BC. In the third year of his reign (483 BC), he repudiated Vashti: chap. 1. In the seventh year (479 BC), he married Esther (2:16), so it would have been 478 BC when Esther was taken into the harem and started the one-year beauty treatment program. It was then in the twelfth year (474 BC) (3:7), Haman issued his evil decree, was hanged, and Mordecai issued his.  Whitcomb says the 3:7,12, “the 13^th day of the first month (Nisan), in the twelfth year of Xerxes” would have been April 17, 474 BC and the second decree from 8:9, the “the 23^rd day of the third month, Sivan,” would be June 25, 474 BC, or two months and ten days later. This would also have been the date when Haman was hanged and Mordecai elevated to Prime Minister. The decree was to be carried out on “the 13^th day of the 12^th month, Adar,” so it would have been March 7, 473 BC.

To summarize:

486 BC – Xerxes begins reign

483 BC – Vashti deposed

478 BC – Esther taken into harem

479 BC – Esther becomes queen

April 17, 474 BC – Haman’s evil decree issued

June 25, 474 BC – Esther pleads, Haman hanged, Mordecai

                elevated

March 7,8, 473 BC – Days of Purim

465 BC – Xerxes’ reign ends

What particularly strikes me about this timeline is, in reality, how short it is. That is the point I wish to ponder. When I read the book of Esther and particularly when I read this last chapter about Mordecai’s greatness in the palace and the good job he did, I am left with that feeling of “and so they all lived happily ever after.” I feel a sense that all of this took place over a very long period of time.

Yet Xerxes himself only reigned 21 years total. Before his death, Esther would have been his queen for only 13 years, and Mordecai his prime minister for only 9 years. The world has lost any records of what happened to Esther and Mordecai when the next king took over. If Esther was 16 when Xerxes married her, she would have been only 30 years old at his death. Being exceptionally beautiful, one could only assume the new king pulled her into his harem, but it would be very doubtful that he would retain her in the office of queen. Usually, when the king goes down, all his closest advisors go down with him, so it is unlikely that Mordecai would have continued as prime minister (although not impossible, as we saw with Daniel). One also wonders how the Jewish people fared without Mordecai’s influence.

So much we don’t know, yet I note how surprisingly short this entire timeline is.

But, then again, is that not the reality we all live in?

What is our life? Is it not a vapor that appears for a little while, then vanishes away?

The plain, simple fact is that, just like Esther and Mordecai, our opportunity to do good in this world is at best very brief. In a world without God, one would even wonder what’s the point of it all? Mordecai had 9 years to do good for the Jewish people. Even if, like Daniel, he survived the change of royalty and perhaps served for 40 years, still, that would seem a drop in the bucket of human history. No matter how long he served, he had no control whatsoever over those who would follow him and how they would treat his Jewish people. In spite of Mordecai’s sacrifices and good work, there was still, in the future of the Jewish people, a Holocaust to be suffered.

Again, I would ask, in a world without God, what’s the point? How easy it would have been for Esther and Mordecai to say, “Hey. We made it to the top. We have all the wealth and luxury to live ourselves in a dream world. Why should we risk any of that, so we can do good for a very short time to a bunch of people we don’t even know? Forget it! If it’s all for a very brief time, we’re going to make sure we grab all the pleasure we can!”

Can I suggest that, if you choose to live in a world without God, you really have no reason to do anything but look out for yourself? I will even go so far as to say, you’re a fool if you waste your life, if you sacrifice your own pleasure and happiness, to do good to a bunch of other people who will be here today and gone tomorrow.

That is…in a world without God.

Enter the Lord. Enter the truth that all of this does matter, that it is all a part of a grand and glorious plan, that, though like Esther and Mordecai, my opportunity may be brief, yet what I do or don’t do is recorded and remembered. What if the people around me aren’t just overgrown amoebas careening along in some arbitrary evolutionary accident? What if each of them is, like me, an eternal soul, created by and loved by the God who is running this universe and guiding it along in a very deliberate and good plan?

What if I can live with the words ringing in my head, “And whatever you do, do it with your whole heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving” (Col. 3:23,24)? What if I hear Him say, “Do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased” (Heb. 13:16)? What if my Hero and example in life is Jesus who “laid down His life for His friends”?

Ah, can anyone see that, though brief, what Esther and Mordecai did, the risks they took, the personal sacrifices they made, all the good they did was in fact very important—in fact, eternally important, and that precisely because this is NOT a world without God. Our God is quite real, quite present, and that very acknowledgment on our part is precisely what makes my life and yours worth living! I can and should do all I can to bless the people around me precisely because there is a God and He cares!

He loves people and I should too. He wants to do them good and so should I. This is my chance. Even if it’s short, that’s okay, because they matter. The period of time covered by the book of Esther is barely a blip in the course of human history, yet what they did mattered.

In this world with God, we never need ask, “What’s the point?” He makes our world matter.