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Romans 6-8
Issues of Life
and Death
Psalm 131:1-3 Resting Humbly in Peace
1.Song of The Steps Of David* “Yahweh, my heart isn’t haughty, nor my eyes lofty; nor do I concern myself with great matters, or things too wonderful for me.2.Surely I have stilled and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with his mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.3.Israel, hope in Yahweh, from this time forth and forevermore.Observation
131:1-3.(*See note on Ps 120) This is the third psalm of the triad, following the pattern of the Step Psalms: affliction (129); trust (130) followed by peace (131). “Of David” is perhaps reminiscent of David's humble childlike dependence upon God. In Hezekiah's life, it would be an appropriate response to God sparing his life and instructing Isaiah to heal him (last post cf Isa 38). The fact that God had answered his prayer, and intervened in his life was not the cause of pride, but rather humility. Hezekiah was rewarded for his hope in God (130:5) and exhorts Israel to hope in Him as well.
Application
God answers and blesses us for His glory and the benefit of others, not for us to become prideful.
Prayer
God, thanks that You graciously answer my prayers and bless, may I always depend upon You and encourage others to hope in You. Amen.
TMS 2 Corintians 5:17 A New Creation
Bill Blurb: Last post concluded the Proverbs of the Day, and this one introduces verses from the Topical Memory System (TMS). I was originally planning on doing NT “proverbs” but I “reckoned” that it would be more profitable for folks to better understand verses they've already memorized. For those of you unfamiliar with the TMS, it's 60 verses selected to help people remember what the Bible teaches about key topics of the Christian life. These are really useful for renewing one's mind (see comments Romans 12:1-2) especially if you understand and meditate (think through implications for applications) on them. It's the only way I know to experience the metamorphosis from being a carnal caterpillar to a spirituality successful butterfly. I'll be using the NKJV text, except where noted.
17.Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.
Observations
Everyone who believes in Jesus as their Savior is forgiven, born again, and has a new life (John 1:12; 3:16), as well as a capacity to know and serve God. What you were doesn't matter; what counts is what you are becoming as you live your new life.
Two verses from the context are worth noting:
2 Cor 5:15 “and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.”
2 Cor 5:21 “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
Being “in Christ” is not just a term for being a Christian. A good translation which accounts for most of the contextual usages of the phrase, would be “in union with Christ.” Those who abide (Jn 15) and obey (Jn 14) would fit this category. The old person which we were, has gone. All things “have become” new (perfect tense, happened in the past with continuing results up to the present). Those who don't abide in Christ and go back to their old ways, aren't living the new life. But, by abiding in Christ, one experiences a new life, drawing on His life. See Romans 6-8 below for help.
Application
If you are abiding in Christ, your life should be new and shiny; what is past, is past, it's time to live the new life.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, thanks for giving me new life in Christ; may I live it to the fullest. Amen.
Romans 6-8 Issues of Life and Death
These are some of the most important chapters for believers in Jesus to understand and master, because they tell justified believers how to be righteous, sanctified, and glorified. They are not about justification by faith, nor getting forgiveness, nor believing that Jesus died for your sins. Paul's audience already believed that (see chapter 1) and those topics were already discussed in chapter 3-5.
Getting a running start by understanding Romans 5 on DailyTruthbase.blog will help with Romans 6. Knowing Romans 6 will help with Romans 7. Most people do not understand these chapters because they read them with too many theological/sermonic preconceptions, and then don't read them with the contextual preconception. Thus they wind up having Romans 7 clearly contradict Romans 6. The net result is they live defeated lives and are not sanctified, nor holy, nor righteous. Part of the difficulty lies in the fact that Paul uses different meanings for righteous, grace, salvation, life, death, etc. There is a righteousness that all justified believers possess, by believing that the Father accepts Christ's death as their substitute, but there are elements of righteousness (being rightly related to God) that Paul will say are gained by obedience.
These three chapters are prefaced by the conclusion in 5:20 “The Law came in besides, that the trespass might abound; where sin abounded, grace abounded more exceedingly; 21 that as sin reigned in/by death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
The context of chapter 6 is not just what Paul wrote in the first five chapters, and not just Gospels-Acts, but the OT. The Law (Genesis-Deuteronomy) sums up the Law's teaching about life and death, the key items in this section, with
Deuteronomy 30:6 And Yahweh your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. 9 The LORD your God will make you abound...the LORD will again rejoice over you for good as He rejoiced over your fathers, 10 if you obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this Book of the Law, and if you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. 14 But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it. 15 "See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, 16 in that I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the LORD your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess. 19 I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; 20 that you may love the LORD your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them."
See comments on Dt 30.
Life is blessing, reward, and rulership or dominion, being the preeminent nation. Death is cursing, and loss of sovereignty and dominion. The land was given to Israel as an act of God's grace. Enjoying the land was dependent upon being obedient and righteous (doing what was right in God's sight). If you don't grasp that, you need to pay a little more attention next time you read the OT. Adam and Eve “died” the day they disobeyed. They were still walking around, playing hide and seek with God, and talking to Him. The thing that changed, is they lost their glory (were naked 2Cor 5:3), and holiness/relationship with God, and immortality (right to live forever). Our relationship with Christ reverses the effects of the Fall, by saving us in three progressive stages: first, from the lake of fire through the payment of the death penalty for our sin (justification Rm 3:23 this is the past action of God toward those who believe); then our relationship with God is restored and grows as we grow in holiness (or sanctification Rm 6-8a); finally, we are restored to pre-Fall glory (glorification Rm 6b).
Enough theology, on to the text.
Romans 6 Free to Be Righteous
1.What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?2.Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?3.Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?4.Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.5.For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,6.knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.7.For he who has died has been freed from sin.8.Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,9.knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him.10.For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.11.Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.12.Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.13.And do not present/yield your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present/yield yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.14.For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.15.What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not!16.Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?17.But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered.18.And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.19.I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness.20.For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.21.What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.22.But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.23.For the wages of sin is death, but the gracething of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.Observations
6:1-4.See the sermon on Truthbase.net which explains most of the text. Since we've been united with Christ in His death and resurrection, we should walk in newness of life, not the old way. The old has died, the new has come. To make this a reality in our lives we need to understand and implement verse 11.
6:5-10.
We have been freed from enslavement to sin, which means it has no power over us. The chains were broken when we believed. Now we live to serve God not sin. Those who don't are like those who went back to serve their old masters after the Emancipation Proclamation and US Civil War freed them. Don't pick up the chains and put them back on. Remember these verses when you get to chapter 7. You are no longer under the control of sin.
6:11-14.
To “reckon” is to account or conclude that it is true, the state of reality, even if you can't see it. If you were dead to sin, you wouldn't be tempted by it, much less succumb to it. I eventually, and unpleasantly discovered that I am allergic to green peppers. I eat them and get sick. I liked the taste. I'll grill them for my family. But they no longer have any appeal to me. I am dead to them. I used to love New York Super Chunk Fudge Ice Cream. Then one day my doctor told me my cholesterol was getting too high. I haven't bought it since. I still love the taste, but I don't love the idea of a heart attack. I envision myself eating a spoonful and I see myself in an ambulance on the way to the hospital. So I'm dead to NYSCF, and alive (still). See application below. Victory can be yours. See “It Ain't Gonna Reign No More” on Truthbase.net.
6:15-21. Whatever we habitually do becomes our identity. If we yield ourselves to sin, we become sin's slave, and that results in death (loss of dominion, rulership, reward, and glorification). Obedience leads to righteousness (sanctification not justification), which results in holiness (verse 19). Use the same dynamic that you used for sin, and flip it around to become holy (dwell on it, consider benefits and consequences, and then embrace it, and don't let go).
6:22-23.
Don't misunderstand verse 23 because you don't understand verse 22. We who have been set free from sin (justification), by our union with Christ, and who have become slave of God (reckoning self to be dead to sin and alive to God), have the fruit of holiness or sanctification, and the result of that holiness is reward, dominion in the Messianic Age (eternal life). That's the conclusion of the chapter, verse 23 just gives the justification: the wages/consequence of sin is death (loss of dominion), but the gracething (charisma is the word for grace with the “ma” = “thing” suffix, a bestowal of grace/power/glory) dominion of the Age, in union with knowing Jesus the Messiah as our Lord.
Application
Reckon yourself dead to sin, and you won't let it reign over you. If you are busy presenting yourself to do God's will throughout each day, you won't be able to do Satan's will.
Prayer
God thanks for Your grace that effects my forgiveness, empowers my sanctification, and rewards my service; may I live my life in union with the Lord Jesus, serving You. Amen.
Romans 7 Freed for Fruitful Service
1.Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives?2.For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband.3.So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man.4.Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—— to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.5.For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. (s/b parallel to bear fruit)6.But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.7.What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! We should not say that the law is sin. On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, "You shall not covet."8.But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead.9.I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.10.And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death.11.For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me.12.Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.13.Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! That which is good has not become death to me But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful.14.For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.15.For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.16.If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good.17.But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.18.For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find.19.For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.20.Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.21.I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.22.For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.23.But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.24.O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?25. I thank God——through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.Observations
7:1-25.This passage vies with Luke 17:21 (kingdom is within you) as the most damaging-to your-Christian-life misquoted (ripped shrieking from context) verse in the Bible. Ephesians 2:1 (you’re dead) would round out the trinity of untruth.
Sooooo….remember the context and truths of the previous chapter (and fit it in with the next chapter while you’re at it). Memorize Romans 7:6 (or at least refresh your memory of it multiple times as you work on this passage. Location…location…location….Context…context…context!!!!
7:1-6 We have been delivered from the law by our death and union with Christ, so that we are no longer under its enslaving domination (sin...death). So now, we are free to be fruitful for God, not bear fruit for death. We should no longer serve sin, but now serve in newness of the Spirit (cf. 6:4).
7:7-24.
Paul reflects on his former enslavement to sin before he met Christ (pre-conversion, as noted in the reading guide above in verse 15). He speaks in the historic present for vividness, and brings Christ into the picture at the end of the chapter, as his deliverer. Before he embraced the law as the guide for his life (as a child) he was alive, but then “died” when he could not keep the demands of the law. The death he's talking about here is powerlessness or lack of temporal dominion. He was blameless regarding the Pharisaical interpretation of the law, externally, but he zeros in on covetousness, the one internal commandment. The first commandment is an internal and outward one, and difficult to measure. But coveting is something he knew he did. Paul wanted to do what was right but his body (put for the flesh) didn't cooperate. Sin was dwelling (controlling) him, and he didn't want it to. He was defeated and enslaved, the opposite of what he had stated as the “normal” Christian life in Romans 6, and the beginning of this chapter. What he was lacking was the Spirit of Christ, which the next chapter will explain.
7:24-25.
He finishes his retrospective view of his enslavement with a plea for deliverance. Who will deliver Him from this body that causes death? Note carefully what he says. He thanks God that He is delivered though His relationship with Jesus Christ. Then he reflects back on the condition he had experienced: serving the law of God with his mind, and the law of the sin with his flesh/body. This is the thing from which he has been delivered, by His relationship with Christ, the futility of trying to serve God with just the law. In the next chapter Paul will show how the Spirit gives him the power to live in the freedom he outlined in chapter 6. Those who think this chapter is the normal Christian experience, are ignoring the context of the two surrounding chapters, the beginning of this chapter, and the bulk of the NT epistles, and most of the gospels for that matter. They wind up doing the devil's work, rather than bearing fruit for God.
Application
God delivers us from powerlessness over sin though our relationship with our Lord, Jesus the Messiah, so we can bear fruit for Him.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, thanks for the power you provide so I can be victorious over sin, and do what's right in Your sight. Amen.
Romans 8 Putting to Death the Deeds of the Flesh and Living
1.There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.2.For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.3.For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh,4.that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.5.For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.6.For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.7.Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.8.So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.9.But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.10.And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.11.But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.12.Therefore, brethren, we are debtors - not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.13.For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.14.For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.15.For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father."16.The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,17.and if children, then heirs, heirs of God BUT co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we co-suffer with Him, that we may also be co-glorified together.18.For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.19.For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.20.For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope;21.because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.22.For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.23.Not only that, but we also who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.24.For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees?25.But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.26.Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.27.Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.28.And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called/elect/choice according to His purpose.29.For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.30.Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.31.What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?32.He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?33.Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.34.Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.35.Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?36.As it is written: "For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter."37.Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.38.For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,39.nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.Observation
8:1-39.The key thing to note is the role of the Holy Spirit in setting us free from the law of sin (the governing principle) and resultant death, by giving us the power to be victorious. When we walk according to the revelation and prompting and power of the Spirit, we will not face condemnation/judgment when we appear before Christ's judgment seat (2Cor 5:9-10). The requirements of the law are only filled in those who walk in obedience (verse 4). Those who quench the Spirit, and do not allow Him to live/dwell in them have no union or abiding relationship with Christ now, nor part in Christ’s future kingdom. The ones who are controlled/led by the Holy Spirit are the heirs/sons of the Kingdom. Everyone born of God is a child of God, but (the conjunction in verse 17 is “de” indicates that what follows is similar but different) only those who co-suffer with Christ will be co-glorified. No pain, no gain. But the present temporal suffering far outweighs the glory we will get if we endure (see 2Cor 4-5). Redemption and glorification of our bodies is the processes of adoption/becoming heirs of the kingdom. This is the hope in which we were justified. We don't have it yet, but await it. All creation (cursed earth included) await the revelation of the sons of God, when the Messiah will rule on earth. This is God's plan in predetermining that there will be a group of people to share in the Messiah's glory and reign. His loyal love will bring that about for those who love Him and respond to His call/invitation. Note comments above in verse 29 in the text. Nothing can separate us from that love, except ourselves.
Application
Submit to the revelation and leading of the Holy Spirit in conforming you into the image of Christ, so you will share in the Messiah's glory.
Prayer
God thanks for graciously providing all I need to please You and enjoy all Your blessings. Help me respond in faithful obedience to all You want me to do. Amen.
Digging Deeper
Outlines are on Blogspot
Romans 6 exegetical outline
Romans 7 exegetical outline
Romans 8a (vv. 1-13) exegetical outline
Romans 8b (vv.12-25) exegetical outline