A Commentary on Romans 6-8

I had the privilege this morning to fellowship with Isaac Yoder, a dear brother in Christ, for our first men's accountability meeting. I was inspired by my friends in Florida, who mentioned an accountability meeting, and also by a desire in my heart to allow the Holy Spirit to use young Christian men to confess their sins one to another, and to keep each other accountable in order to continually put to death the deeds of the flesh, and live the life of the spirit.

Our discussion this morning, without any planning or study guides, led us from Romans 6 to Romans 8 as we discussed the nature of sin, and how a Christian is to deal with it. I was so affected by this discussion, that I felt compelled to share it with you all, in an expanded form.

We opened by reading Romans 7:5 :

"For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death."

We are born as slaves to sin and unrighteousness, but Christ demonstrated his love towards these slaves to sin in that he gave His life to save them from sin.(Romans 5:8) It is the purpose of Christ's incarnation and atonement to deliver us from sin!

So, if Christ died to deliver us from sin, are we to stop sinning completely when we are saved? Is that how we know we are saved? Of course not! Sin is not merely an act o transgression. There is a power of sin which works against us, even when we become one of God's children, especially when we are one of God's children. When we accept Christ into our hearts through repentance and faith, we are JUSTIFIED by Christ. We are delivered from the guilt of sin, but the whole of our Christian life is a process of being SANCTIFIED, in which we grow to be more like Christ, and remove the grip of sin's power from our hearts. So, how do we do this? How do we remove sin's power from our lives? This leads us to Romans 6, and the beginning of our perusal through these 3 chapters.

You have become a Christian. You are now free from the guilt of sin! Whatsoever sins you have committed, grace has abounded all the more on your behalf. So, as Romans 6:1 says, "Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?"

By no means! When we begin this journey as Christians, we must begin to identify with Jesus Christ. All that He did on this earth, we must do in our own lives(in a spiritual sense). We must share in His suffering to share in His resurrection.

"...Don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been set free from sin."(Romans 6:3-7)

So we must die to our sin, and bury our flesh, so that we can live a new life through Christ. Now we can count ourselves "dead to sin but alive to God on Christ Jesus."(v. 11) So we must die to our sins. How? We must first find the source of sin. Romans 6:12 says "Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires." How does sin reign in our bodies? By making us obey our evil desires. So how are we waylaid with sin? Through the desires of our body! The greatest enemy is not the world, or Satan, but yourself. Ephesians 4:22 says, "You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its DECEITFUL DESIRES..."

This is a very interesting choice of words, because it show us exactly how our desires can overcome us. Our desires are DECEITFUL. Hebrews 3:13 reiterates this: "But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin's DECEITFULNESS." SO the root of sin is this: We obey our evil desires and sin, when we believe a lie. When we justify ourselves, or when we refuse to believe what Scripture teaches, we allow sin to come in and rain temptation upon us. Every sin can be traced back to a lie. And every lie can be exposed by the truth of God's Word.

This is all in answer to those who wish to stray from God's law in the Christian walk. But how do we answer those who hold too strictly to God's law? G.K. Chesterton said, and I'm paraphrasing here, that idolatry is essentially when someone begins to apply more value to the symbol of a thing, than the very thing it symbolizes. The Pharisees displayed this all to clearly. They had studied and "perfected" the law for so long, that they had begun to place more sustenance in the rules and regulations they had created to uphold God's law, then to the God who had given the law. The law itself is but a schoolmaster, to lead us to Christ(Galatians 3:24), and as Paul said in Romans 7:1, "the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives?" The apostle then gave us an example of a wife whose husband has died. If she has a relationship with man while he is alive, it is adultery. But if she marries another man after her husbands death, it is acceptable, because she is only bound to him as long as he is alive.

"So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code."

This does not exempt us from recognizing what God hates and what God loves. He does not change, and still hates the same things. But the ceremonies, and the rituals, and all the strict codes God employed in order to separate the Israelites and to allow them to approach Him(through temporary blood sacrifices), have been fulfilled by Christ, who shed His blood once for all. We no longer need a priest, for we are all priests (1 Peter 2:5) who may boldly approach the throne of grace(Hebrews 4:16).

The rest of Romans 7 points us to the Law's true purpose; to show us our wickedness before a holy God. The law in itself is not sinful. But sin uses the law to cause death to us. Twice in this chapter, we see the phrase, "sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment..." Before we hear the law, we believe what we are doing is ok, or justifiable, to a certain extent. "For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting."(Romans 7:7-8) Then verse 13 asks and answers the question, "Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! Nevertheless, in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it used what is good to bring about my death, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful." The law is given us to show us that we have broken it and we are utterly sinful! Through the law, the pride we had in our own power to do and be good is now broken, and we come to the realization that we are wicked, filthy sinners who have no chance to stand before a holy and just God unpunished.

As Christians, we look at the law, and all seems hopeless. As Paul said, " So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?" (Romans 7:21-24) But our hope is found in "...God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!" In Christ, we are slaves to God's law, but in the flesh, we are slaves to sin. We cannot save ourselves, and neither can we sanctify ourselves. It is only through the power of God that we can ever hope to defeat sin.

So through Christ we have been cleansed from sin, and can now live in the spirit. We have a choice: To live in the flesh, and obey our evil desires, or to live in the Spirit, and expose our desires in the light of Christ! "But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you."(Romans 8:10-11) In Christ we now have power to overcome sin, and to make the choice to live in the Spirit. With that power comes a responsibility: "...we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God."(Romans 8:12-13) The Spirit testifies that we are God's children, and so we, as God's children, live under this obligation to folow the Spirit, "if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory."(Romans 8:17)

Indeed, as Christians we will suffer. We have come from the darkness of sin into the light of Christ, from a pit of lies and deceit into God's truth. There is no doubt that the world and the devil will attack us with all it's might and our flesh will attack us with even more. This life is a fight until the end. It is a fight to the death, and if you stand strong until the end, then you will be sure to share in God's glory. From the moment of salvation to your old age, when you've retired and are casting away the labors of this earth, when you feel as if you have finished the race, you must be all the more ready to come against the desires of your flesh until the end.

It all seems so depressing. I was asking myself yesterday, "Would you rather live a short and painful life in which you did the right thing, or a long and prosperous life in which you did just enough good to get by?" The answer we give is really where our heart lies, in the spirit of in the flesh. It's easy to get discouraged and to want to give up, but all hope is not gone. Romans 8 doesn't end at verse 17.

"I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God."(vv.18-21)

God used the law on purpose, to hurt us and break our pride. He uses trials and tribulations, judgments and calamities, to point us to Him. Why? Why is God so mean? We ask this because we are looking at the present. If we saw the future, where the trials and judgments that hurt us now led us into the way of life, which saved us from the deadly future we once had, we would thank God for his mercy.

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified." (Romans 8:28-30)

Knowing this, that no matter what, those whom God has called into Him will be glorified in Him, we can say to the hard road ahead of us, to the world which will come against us, the devil who will accuse us, and to our desires which will seek to deceive us, "If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?....For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."(Romans 8:31-32; 38-39)

Don't give up, don't give in to sin; we have been called to this narrow road, and we must pick up our cross daily. God never promised it would be easy(in fact he promised the opposite); He just promised it would end in life.

I pray that this would help you understand the nature of sin, and how we as Christians should deal with it. My discussion this morning has truly opened my eyes to my responsibilities, the difficulties I must face, and the glory that is to come.

In the name of Christ,

Levi Gray