SURVEY OF ROMANS

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This section of Romans changes direction in both tone and message, yet remains in contact with the overall message Paul has been developing.

The message of Romans so far has centered on the righteousness of God and the righteousness he gives to an undeserving people by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, showing no partiality to either Jew or Gentile.

Having discussed the great blessings in God’s rich righteousness, Paul now moves on to the ethical obligations of a righteousness centered on grace and faith in contrast to the righteousness many Jews sought in Torah keeping.

Paul’s stress on faith in Jesus in contrast to Torah raises many questions in the minds pf faithful Jews.
How can one be faithful when grace seems to leave people open to an abuse of grace as one turns away from Torah?

Christians today in a post modern culture face similar problems. In a world that is less prone to find fault with others, and which is uncomfortable with any absolutes, grace seems to cover a multitude of sins!

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, in the 1940’s accused Christians of selling grace cheaply in the market place by taking advantage of grace and neglecting the obligation Christians have to set higher standards of behavior and living counter to their pagan culture.

In answer to the interlocutor’s supposed yet representative question, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?” Paul answers ^“By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?”

Paul’s discussion that follows on Baptism explains that those who have been baptized and united with Christ have with Christ died to sin. That they will sin is obvious, but that they take advantage of grace and take sin lightly is beyond reason! Christians are no longer slaves to sin, to permit sin to reign in their lives. They are slaves to righteousness, and it is God who reigns in our lives through Jesus Christ.

Since baptism plays such a major role in Paul’s ministry and gospel, we now examine what he stresses about baptism in Rom 6:3-7 in which he makes these important comments on baptism:

2. You were also baptized into Christ’s death which is where atonement for sin took place.

3. In baptism we are buried with Christ into death, we die with Christ to our old life.

4. In baptism we are raised with Christ (because of the power of his resurrection) to a new life in Christ

5. After baptism we walk (live) in newness of life, not just a new life, but in a condition of newness.

6. Since we are united with Christ in a death like his we shall also be united with him in a resurrection like his.

7. A major point is that in baptism we are united with Christ; we experience in Christ his death, we experience in Christ his resurrection.

Our old man of sin is crucified with Christ so that our sinful nature is dead and destroyed so we are no longer enslaved to sin (Rom 3:9, under the power of sin).

We serve now as willing slaves of righteousness rather than as slaves to our own passions and sin.

Although the Torah is deeply spiritual and holy (Rom 7:12, 14), Christians are dead to the law as an entrance to righteousness, and alive to Christ as the only possibility of righteousness (Rom 6:11).

For more detailed study on baptism in the New Testament we recommend the materials on the web pages of the Center For Church Enrichment under the Topical Menu on Baptism and Acts 2:38, http://www.centerce.org.

2. In Christ, Slaves to Righteousness: Rom 6:15-23

Paul opens this argument with his familiar diatribe question put into the mouth of an interlocutor, "What then, Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace?"

Paul's answer is a resounding NO! "By no means", "NO. NO. No. Never think like that!"

He follows that with another of his familiar questions, "Do you not know" implying that they should know!

To whom you offer yourselves as obedient servants, to that one you become a slave!
If you obey sin, you become a slave to sin!

Since you have been united with Christ in baptism and have died in this baptism to sin, you cannot any longer be obedient to sin and offer yourself to sin!

Notice Paul's next comment in Rom 6:17!
"You have become obedient from the heart to that standard (tupos - form) of teaching to which you were committed!"
What form of teaching had they obeyed form the heart?
In the context of Rom 6 it can only be baptism!

Paul clarifies this point by stating that in this act of faithful obedience they had been set free from sin.
They now have become slaves of God (Rom 6:22)

Paul's final response is stunning!
The wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23)
The free gift of God's grace is eternal life in Christ!

Those baptized into Christ and consequently united with Christ are obedient to God and Christ, they are slaves of God!
Those obedient to sin are not slaves of God and righteousness, but are slaves to sin, and consequently will receive the wages of sin, namely, total ruin and death!

Rom 7:1-25 Continues Paul’s Discussion on the Christian’s Relationship with Law and Sin.

Paul develops his thought on the Christian’s relationship to sin and the law by with three arguments:

Paul relates his argument on the passing of the Torah as a guide for Christians to the Mosaic law of marriage.

(Teachers should beware being side tracked into a discussion here on divorce and remarriage. This is not the place Paul discusses such concerns. He is merely making an analogy to the Jewish custom regarding the marriage bond.)

The freed partner can marry again.
If the marriage bond is not broken by death, then the neither can remarry.

In this case, the Christian has died with Christ in baptism (Rom 6) and the marriage bond to the Torah has been broken.

The Jewish Christian, married (united) to Christ in baptism, cannot remain married to the Torah. To do so would amount to an adulterous relationship (Rom 7:3)!

Jewish Christians are in Christ are discharged from the law (Torah), dead to that which held them captive, and now serve in the new life of the Spirit, not the written code which kills (2 Cor 3:6).

Because the law working with sin kills Christians should not place the blame on the law (Torah).

It is the abuse of the law that is one problem (1 Tim 1:8), but the main problem is personal sin.

Although Paul sounds like he is speaking of h is own struggles, the context calls for a much greater setting.

When people want to do right as they know they should do, they find themselves failing, and end up doing what the did not intend doing.

The constant war between human sinful passions and conscience create an imbalance in one’s life.

These struggles with personal weakness, if left under the system of law (Torah) inevitably lead to frustration and guilt.

(Rom 7:23, 24) “For I delight in the law of God, in my inmost self, ²³ but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”

Fortunately, Paul answers his heart wrenching question, “Thanks be to God, this can be done through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

These thoughts lead Paul directly into Rom 8 which is perhaps the high point or climax of Paul’s theology!

Although the Torah law is good, holy, and spiritual, when used incorrectly, working with sin, it brings death, total ruin, and guilt.

For Christians (and in fact all humanity) knowing the divine instruction of “torah” and our own human weakness inevitably results in frustration and guilt.

The answer to those who cry out in frustration is that God through Jesus has provided relief from human weakness, sin, and guilt, and this relief is found in covenant relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ.

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