Romans 9

Source of image: http://chrisedmondson.blogspot.com/2011/01/romans-righteousness.html

In Romans chapters one through eight, Paul thoroughly convinced us about man’s need and God’s glorious provision in Jesus Christ and through the Holy Spirit. Now, in Romans 9 through 11, Paul deals with the problem associated with the condition of Israel. What does it mean that Israel has missed its Messiah? What does this say about God? What does it say about Israel? What does it say about our present position in God? The question goes something like this: How can I be secure in God's love and salvation to me when it seems that Israel was once loved and saved, but now seems to be rejected and cursed? Will God also reject and curse me one day?

In chapter 9 Paul dealt primarily with God's dealings with Israel in the past, in chapter 10 with their present situation and in chapter 11 with His future plans for the nation.

Romans 9-11 is, by far, the most controversial section in Romans. In fact, I found several of the expositors whom I check in my studies avoid Romans 9 like the plague and skip right over it! In fact, many skip right over chapters 9-12!

(1) In the presence of Christ, I speak with utter truthfulness -- I do not lie -- and my conscience and the Holy Spirit confirm that what I am saying is true.

(2) My heart is filled with bitter sorrow and unending grief

(3) for my people, my Jewish brothers and sisters. I would be willing to be forever *cursed -- cut off from Christ! -- if that would save them.

• Some might have thought that Paul hated the Jews since he now preached a law-free gospel. Instead, he strongly affirms his love for his fellow Jews and overwhelming desire for their acceptance of their Messiah.
• Moses in Exodus 32:33: But now, please forgive their sin -- and if not, then blot me out of the record you are keeping."
• *cursed: The Greek word for "cursed" is anathema, which means "condemn to utter destruction".

(4) They are the people of Israel, chosen to be God's special children. God revealed his *glory to them. He made **covenants with them and gave his ***law to them. They have the privilege of worshiping him and receiving his wonderful ****promises.

• *glory: shekinah glory. The presence of the Holy Spirit in the wilderness, in the Tabernacle and in the Temple.
• **covenants: They had the covenants: the covenant of grace with Abraham in Genesis 12, and the covenant of circumcision as expressed in Genesis 17.
• ***law: They had the giving of the law on Mt. Sinai by God. The laws of all other countries and civilizations were man-created.
• ****promises: They had the promise to Abraham, the promise to Isaac, the promise to Jacob, the promise to David, the promise to the nation, the promise to Moses, and so on. They had all the promises.
  • Ephesians 2:12: In those days you were living apart from Christ. You were excluded from God's people, Israel, and you did not know the promises God had made to them. You lived in this world without God and without hope.

(5) Their *ancestors were great people of God, and Christ himself was a Jew as far as his human nature is concerned. And HE IS GOD, who rules over everything and is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.

• *ancestors: No other nation had such a list of ancestors - Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the twelve patriarchs, Joshua, the prophets, David, Solomon and the great leaders all through their history.

(6) Well then, has God *failed to fulfill his promise to the Jews? No, for not everyone born into a Jewish family is truly a Jew!

• Israel rejected Christ; God rejected Israel.
• *failed: God revealed that He had chosen Israel to be a kingdom of priests (Exodus 19:5-6). The Israelites were to function as priests in the world by bringing the nations to God (Isaiah 42:6). Israel failed to carry out God's purpose for it. The Greek word translated "failed" (ekpeptoken) means "gone off its course," like a ship. Paul proceeded to show that God would accomplish His purpose for Israel in the rest of chapters 9-11.

(7) Just the fact that they are descendants of Abraham doesn't make them truly Abraham's children. For the Scriptures say, "Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted," though Abraham had other children, too.

• Genesis 21:12: But God told Abraham, "Do not be upset over the boy and your servant wife. Do just as Sarah says, for Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted.
• John 8:38-44: I am telling you what I saw when I was with my Father. But you are following the advice of your father." "Our father is Abraham," they declared. "No," Jesus replied, "for if you were children of Abraham, you would follow his good example. I told you the truth I heard from God, but you are trying to kill me. Abraham wouldn't do a thing like that. No, you are obeying your real father when you act that way." They replied, "We were not born out of wedlock! Our true Father is God himself." Jesus told them, "If God were your Father, you would love me, because I have come to you from God. I am not here on my own, but he sent me. Why can't you understand what I am saying? It is because you are unable to do so! For you are the children of your father the Devil, and you love to do the evil things he does. He was a murderer from the beginning and has always hated the truth. There is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies.

(8) This means that Abraham's physical descendants are not necessarily children of God. It is the children of the promise who are considered to be Abraham's children.

• Luke 3:8: Prove by the way you live that you have really turned from your sins and turned to God. Don't just say, 'We're safe -- we're the descendants of Abraham.' That proves nothing. God can change these stones here into children of Abraham.
• Galatians 3:7: The real children of Abraham, then, are all those who put their faith in God.
• Romans 2:29: No, a true Jew is one whose heart is right with God. And true circumcision is not a cutting of the body but a change of heart produced by God's Spirit. Whoever has that kind of change seeks praise from God, not from people.
• The Jews thought of themselves as the elect of God and all others as the non-elect. They thought all Jews were going to heaven and all Gentiles to hell.
• Physical ancestry does not assure spiritual heritage. Many young people assume that they are saved because they grew up in a Christian home, born of Christian parents and went to their church; and, therefore, assume they're saved - yet they've never made a personal commitment to Christ and are lost - like Bill O'Reilly of Fox News who said, "Of course I'm a Christian. I was born a Christian."

(9) For God had promised, "Next year I will return, and Sarah will have a son."

• Genesis 17:19: But God replied, "Sarah, your wife, will bear you a son. You will name him Isaac, and I will confirm my everlasting covenant with him and his descendants.
• Genesis 18:10-14: Then one of them said, "About this time next year I will return, and your wife Sarah will have a son."Now Sarah was listening to this conversation from the tent nearby. And since Abraham and Sarah were both very old, and Sarah was long past the age of having children, she laughed silently to herself. "How could a worn-out woman like me have a baby?" she thought. "And when my master -- my husband -- is also so old?" Then the LORD said to Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh? Why did she say, 'Can an old woman like me have a baby?' Is anything too hard for the LORD? About a year from now, just as I told you, I will return, and Sarah will have a son."
• God did not choose to bless Isaac after his birth only because he was Abraham's son. Rather, He promised Abraham before Isaac's birth that He would provide and bless a son for the patriarch supernaturally. His unusual birth confirmed God's choice of Isaac, as the channel of special blessing, to his parents.

(10) This son was our ancestor Isaac. When he grew up, he married Rebekah, who gave birth to twins.

• Rebecca also had 2 sons; one of the flesh (Esau) and a son through whom the promises of God would flow (Jacob) whose name would be changed to Israel.

(11) But before they were born, before they had done anything good or bad, she received a message from God. (This message proves that God chooses according to his own plan,

• Paul does not speak about God’s choice of individuals but of His plans for nations. God chose Israel to be the vehicle of His revelation on earth, not Esau or any other people. The whole gist of Paul’s argument in these chapters is not about personal salvation but about God’s attitude toward those with whom He had made a covenant. Jesus told the Parable of the Tenants of a Vineyard as a prophecy of what God would do with Israel after they rejected their Messiah. He concluded with the words in Matthew 21:43: “What I mean is that the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation that will produce the proper fruit.”
• Election is hard to understand, let alone explain. We find that all through the Bible there are people who have been chosen out and called to do a certain thing for God. A very good example of that is John the Baptist who seemed to live for one purpose (to tell of the coming Messiah). God has elected that certain things will happen to get the job done that He wants done. We see in the verses above, that He chose Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to funnel the spiritual blessings to all the believers in the world.
  • Psalm 139:16: You saw me BEFORE I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.
  • Jeremiah 1:5: "I knew you BEFORE I formed you in your mother's womb. BEFORE you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my spokesman to the world."
  • Romans 8:29-30 KJV: For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.
  • Ephesians 1:11: Furthermore, because of Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he CHOSE us from the beginning, and all things happen just as he decided long ago.
  • 1 Peter 1:2: God the Father chose you long ago, and the Spirit has made you holy. As a result, you have obeyed Jesus Christ and are cleansed by his blood. May you have more and more of God's special favor and wonderful peace."
  • God knew from the foundation of the world who would choose to follow Him and who would not.

(12) not according to our good or bad works.) She was told, "The descendants of your older son will serve the descendants of your younger son."

• Genesis 25:23: And the LORD told her, "The sons in your womb will become two rival nations. One nation will be stronger than the other; the descendants of your older son will serve the descendants of your younger son."
• Galatians 4:28-29: And you, dear brothers and sisters, are children of the promise, just like Isaac. And we who are born of the Holy Spirit are persecuted by those who want us to keep the law, just as Isaac, the child of promise, was persecuted by Ishmael, the son of the slave-wife.
• Ephesians 2:8-9 (KJV): For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.
• Josephus tells us that under the Maccabeean John Hyrcanus, the independence of Edom was finally destroyed, they were forced to adopt the Jewish religion and they merged into the nation of Israel and disappeared as a people. Herod was an Edomite.

(13) In the words of the Scriptures, "I loved Jacob, but I rejected Esau."

• Malachi 1:2-3: "I have loved you deeply," says the LORD. But you retort, "Really? How have you loved us?"And the LORD replies, "I showed my love for you by loving your ancestor Jacob. Yet Esau was Jacob's brother, and I rejected Esau and devastated his hill country. I turned Esau's inheritance into a desert for jackals."
  • This was done only after Esau had despised his heritage.
• "As to 'Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated,' a woman once said to Mr. Spurgeon, 'I cannot understand why God should say that He hated Esau.' 'That,' Spurgeon replied, 'is not my difficulty, madam. My trouble is to understand how God could love Jacob!"
  • I don't know about you, but I must admit that I have trouble understanding why God loves me so much.
• Romans chapter 9 makes it abundantly clear that loving Jacob and rejecting Esau was entirely related to which of them God chose. Hundreds of years after Jacob and Esau had died, the Israelites and Edomites became bitter enemies. The Edomites often aided Israel’s enemies in attacks on Israel. Esau’s descendants brought God’s curse upon themselves. Genesis 27:29 tells Israel, “May many nations become your servants. May you be the master of your brothers. May all your mother's sons bow low before you. All who curse you are cursed, and all who bless you are blessed."”
• This was only to establish the birthright and the ancestral headship of the nation and had absolutely nothing to do with salvation! God had the right to choose through which individual the nation of Israel would be born. But because of that, it does not mean that Esau could not have been saved.
• Jacob and Esau were opposites. Jacob was chosen by God to receive the spiritual blessings bestowed on Abraham. Esau was rejected as heir to those promises. Jacob was the apple of his mother's eye; Esau was the apple of his father's eye. Esau was fond of the strenuous daring life of a hunter; Jacob was a quiet man living in tents. Esau lived for the moment; Jacob lived for the future. Jacob was responsible; Esau was not. Jacob misused God's blessings; Esau failed to take advantage of the blessings of God. Jacob spent most of his life misusing his natural abilities in an effort to bring the blessing of God to pass. Esau spent his life refusing to use his abilities in the service of God.
• Paul warns lest we become like Esau in Hebrews 12:16-17: "Make sure that no one is immoral or godless like Esau. He traded his birthright as the oldest son for a single meal. And afterward, when he wanted his father's blessing, he was rejected. It was too late for repentance, even though he wept bitter tears."
• God rejected Esau, not because of who he was, but because he did not regard his birthright as being very valuable. In fact, he thought so little of it that he sold it to his brother for a bowl of soup. The blessing of God through Abraham and Isaac then would come through the second son Jacob. From him, the 12 tribes of Israel would come. God did not just reject Esau without a cause. Esau turned his back on God when he sold his birthright.
• Even though descended from Esau, some Edomites probably received Christ a savior.

(14) What can we say? Was God being unfair? Of course not!

• In Romans 9:14-29, we encounter what may be the most difficult section in the entire Bible. This passage on predestination has been notoriously labeled a “pastor’s graveyard.” Paul’s words seem to contradict other passages that emphasize human responsibility.
• If this had been predestined, some would say this was unfair, but this was not predestined, only known ahead of time by God.
• As the lives of Ishmael, Esau and their descendants were lived out on the pages of the Bible and of history, God's wisdom in His choice was proven correct. Both of these men, along with their descendants walked in open hatred of God, His people and His Law. God's purpose was proven right by their performance.

(15) For God said to Moses, "I will show mercy to anyone I choose, and I will show compassion to anyone I choose."

• Exodus 33:19: The LORD replied, "I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will call out my name, 'the LORD,' to you. I will show kindness to anyone I choose, and I will show mercy to anyone I choose.
  • Out of all the Hebrews, God chose Moses to reveal Himself to in the burning bush and assign Moses to lead His people out of Egypt. Was it Moses' mother who saved Moses? Was it Pharaoh's sister (or daughter) who saved Moses? No, it was part of God's plan.

(16) So receiving God's promise is not up to us. We can't get it by choosing it or working hard for it. God will show mercy to anyone he chooses.

• It is not man's desire or effort that causes God to be merciful but His own sovereign choice. God is under no obligation to show mercy or extend grace to anyone. If we insist on receiving just treatment from God, what we will get is condemnation (3:23 - all have sinned).
• Charles Spurgeon: "I believe the doctrine of election, because I am quite sure that if God had not chosen me I should never have chosen him; and I am sure he chose me before I was born, or else he never would have chosen me afterwards; and he must have elected me for reasons unknown to me, for I never could find any reason in myself why he should have looked upon me with special love. So I am forced to accept that doctrine."
• 1 Peter 2:9-10: But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are a kingdom of priests, God's holy nation, his very own possession. This is so you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. "Once you were not a people; now you are the people of God. Once you received none of God's mercy; now you have received his mercy."
• Titus 3:5: He saved us, not because of the good things we did, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins and gave us a new life through the Holy Spirit.

(17) For the Scriptures say that God told Pharaoh, "I have appointed you for the very purpose of displaying my power in you, and so that my fame might spread throughout the earth."

• Exodus 9:16: But I have LET YOU LIVE for this reason - that you might see my power and that my fame might spread throughout the earth.
• God had mercifully spared Pharaoh up to the moment when He said these words to him, through six plagues and in spite of his consistent opposition to God. God did not mean that He had created Pharaoh and allowed him to sit on Egypt's throne, though He had done that too. This is clear from Exodus 9:16, which Paul quoted. The NASB translation makes this clear by translating Exodus 9:16, ". . . for this cause I have allowed you to remain." Pharaoh deserved death for his opposition and insolence. However, God would not take his life in the remaining plagues so his continuing opposition and God's victory over him would result in greater glory for God. Here is another example similar to the one in verse 15 of God not giving people what they deserve but extending mercy to them instead.
• God rejected Pharaoh and the Egyptians because of their lack of repentance. God had mercy on the king and citizens of Nineveh because they repented at the preaching of Jonah.
• In the Exodus account, Scripture records twenty times when Pharaoh's heart was hardened—ten times of which God hardened his heart and ten times of which Pharaoh hardened it himself. Understand, that when God hardened Pharaoh's heart, He was only confirming Pharaoh's own decision. Even though he saw miracles happening and heard God's Word very powerfully presented, he hardened his own heart again and again. It is not as if Pharaoh was on the brink of turning to God when God “hardened” his heart. No, not at all. The ten plagues, which were a sign of God’s judgment, should have awakened Pharaoh to his own sinful rebellion, but instead he continually hardened his own heart against the Lord. To say God “hardened” his heart means that God did not intervene but allowed him to go his own way in continued rebellion.
• Ironically, the illustration of the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart is applied to the nation of Israel after their rejection of the Messiah. Jesus’ emotional outburst over the fate of Jerusalem is proof of the fact that the people of Israel did not reject their Messiah because they had no choice in the matter:
  • Matthew 23:37: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God's messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn't let me.
  • Luke 19:41-43: “But as they came closer to Jerusalem and Jesus saw the city ahead, he began to cry. "I wish that even today you would find the way of peace. But now it is too late, and peace is hidden from you. Before long your enemies will build ramparts against your walls and encircle you and close in on you.

(18) So you see, God shows mercy to some just because he wants to, and he chooses to make some people refuse to listen.

• God was not unjust because He allowed the hardening process to continue. His justice demanded punishment. Similarly, a person may choose to drink poison or he may choose not to, but if he chooses to drink it, inevitable consequences will follow.
• Leon Morris, The Epistle to the Romans, page 361: "Neither here nor anywhere else is God said to harden anyone who had not first hardened himself."
• Paul did not mention the fact that Pharaoh hardened his own heart, which Moses stated in Exodus. Paul's point was simply that God can freely and justly extend mercy or not extend mercy to those who deserve His judgment.
• 1 Samuel 2:7-8: "The LORD makes one poor and another rich; he brings one down and lifts another up. He lifts the poor from the dust -- yes, from a pile of ashes! He treats them like princes, placing them in seats of honor. "For all the earth is the LORD's, and he has set the world in order."
• Proverbs 16:4 "The LORD has made everything for his own purposes, even the wicked for punishment."
• Joshua 11:20: For the LORD hardened their hearts and caused them to fight the Israelites instead of asking for peace. So they were completely and mercilessly destroyed, as the LORD had commanded Moses.

(19) Well then, you might say, "Why does God blame people for not listening? Haven't they simply done what he made them do?"

(20) No, don't say that. Who are you, a mere human being, to criticize God? Should the thing that was created say to the one who made it, "Why have you made me like this?"

(21) When a potter makes jars out of clay, doesn't he have a right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage into?

• It was not right for the Jews to tell God he had no right to make of them anything but that which was special and honorable. It was likewise not right for the Jews to tell God he was out of place to make of the Gentiles anything but that which was second class and dishonorable.
• Isaiah 45:9: "Destruction is certain for those who argue with their Creator. Does a clay pot ever argue with its maker? Does the clay dispute with the one who shapes it, saying, 'Stop, you are doing it wrong!' Does the pot exclaim, 'How clumsy can you be!'
• Isaiah 64:8: And yet, LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you are the potter. We are all formed by your hand.
• 2 Timothy 2:20-21: In a wealthy home some utensils are made of gold and silver, and some are made of wood and clay. The expensive utensils are used for special occasions, and the cheap ones are for everyday use. If you keep yourself pure, you will be a utensil God can use for his purpose. Your life will be clean, and you will be ready for the Master to use you for every good work.
• The major point Paul is making is that God has removed from Israel their favored nation status and granted it to Christians who came without respect of persons from every race, location and nation under heaven
• Israel had nothing to complain about since God had formed her for an honorable use.

(22) God has every right to exercise his judgment and his power, but he also has the right to be very patient with those who are the objects of his judgment and are fit only for destruction.

• The problem in verse 22 revolves around the objects of God’s wrath and the objects of His glory. It is generally felt that the principle that governs God’s treatment of either ought to be the same. That means that if the objects of God’s glory do not contribute to their own glorification, the objects of wrath cannot be held responsible for their own perdition either. It is obvious that a rigid application of this principle leads to great difficulty. Because it would mean that God would arbitrarily condemn people to hell, regardless of their disposition or behavior. This, we know, cannot be true. It would be inconsistent with the biblical testimony in 1 Timothy 2:4 that God “wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth.”
• 2 Peter 3:9: The Lord isn't really being slow about his promise to return, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to perish, so he is giving more time for everyone to repent.

(23) He also has the right to pour out the riches of his glory upon those he prepared to be the objects of his mercy --

(24) even upon us, whom he selected, both from the Jews and from the Gentiles.

• Ephesians 2:3-5: All of us used to live that way, following the passions and desires of our evil nature. We were born with an evil nature, and we were under God's anger just like everyone else. But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so very much, that even while we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God's special favor that you have been saved!)

(25) Concerning the Gentiles, God says in the prophecy of Hosea, "Those who were not my people, I will now call my people. And I will love those whom I did not love before."

• Hosea 2:23: "At that time I will plant a crop of Israelites and raise them for myself! I will show love to those I called 'Not loved.' And to those I called 'Not my people,' I will say, 'Now you are my people.' Then they will reply, 'You are our God!'"
• Paul saw an analogy between God's present calling of Gentiles and His future calling of Israel.
• Galatians 3:29: And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and now all the promises God gave to him belong to you.

(26) And, "Once they were told, 'You are not my people.' But now he will say, 'You are children of the living God.' "

• Hosea 1:10: Yet the time will come when Israel will prosper and become a great nation. In that day its people will be like the sands of the seashore -- too many to count! Then, at the place where they were told, 'You are not my people,' it will be said, 'You are children of the living God.'
• If God had said, “I’m only going to save the Jews,” he would still be fair because no one deserves to be saved. We couldn’t complain if salvation were limited to a small group if that’s what God had decided to do. Remember, no one can talk back to God. But he didn’t do that. These verses teach us that God opened the door of salvation to everyone! Hosea prophesied of a day when God would say to those who were not his people (that is, the Gentiles), “You are now my people.” God has opened the door of salvation to the world. Anyone who wants to can walk right in. Will there be any Jewish people in heaven? Absolutely. But not every Jewish person goes to heaven. These verses use the term “remnant,” which describes a smaller group out of larger population. Paul’s point is that we shouldn’t be surprised by Jewish unbelief because the Old Testament predicted it in several passages.

(27) Concerning Israel, Isaiah the prophet cried out, "Though the people of Israel are as numerous as the sand on the seashore, only a *small number will be saved.

• Isaiah 10:22: But though the people of Israel are as numerous as the sand on the seashore, only a few of them will return at that time. The LORD has rightly decided to destroy his people.
• Israel is returning to the land, but in unbelief - most are "secular".
• Isaiah 10:22-23 anticipated the depletion of Israel through Sennacherib's invasion. That was God's instrument of judgment. When Paul wrote, the believing remnant of Israel was within the church, as it is today.
• *small number:  A remnant in the KJV - those who by faith accept Christ as savior. The term "remnant" is used often in the OT Prophets to refer to those Israelites who were taken into exile, but would be brought back to the promised land by God. In Paul's use of the term, it refers to those Jews who had a faith relationship with God and/or those who heard the gospel and responded by faith to Christ. Simply being a physical Jew did not assure salvation.
• A mass conversion of Israel will occur in the future (Romans 11:25-32).
• Revelation 7:4-8: And I heard how many were marked with the seal of God. There were 144,000 who were sealed from all the tribes of Israel: from Judah - 12,000 from Reuben - 12,000 from Gad - 12, from Asher - 12,000 from Naphtali - 12,000 from Manasseh - 12, from Simeon - 12,000 from Levi - 12,000 from Issachar - 12, from Zebulun - 12,000 from Joseph - 12,000 from Benjamin - 12,000
• Romans 11:1-6: I ask, then, has God rejected his people, the Jews? Of course not! Remember that I myself am a Jew, a descendant of Abraham and a member of the tribe of Benjamin. No, God has not rejected his own people, whom he chose from the very beginning. Do you remember what the Scriptures say about this? Elijah the prophet complained to God about the people of Israel and said, "Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars. I alone am left, and now they are trying to kill me, too." And do you remember God's reply? He said, "You are not the only one left. I have seven thousand others who have never bowed down to Baal!" It is the same today, for not all the Jews have turned away from God. A few are being saved as a result of God's kindness in choosing them. And if they are saved by God's kindness, then it is not by their good works. For in that case, God's wonderful kindness would not be what it really is -- free and undeserved.

(28) For the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth quickly and with finality."

(29) And Isaiah said in another place, "If the Lord Almighty had not spared a few of us, we would have been wiped out as completely as Sodom and Gomorrah."

• Isaiah 1:9: If the LORD Almighty had not spared a few of us, we would have been wiped out as completely as Sodom and Gomorrah
• These 2 evil cities were destroyed by fire and brimstone. We know that God will not always look the other way. Sin of the same nature as that of Sodom and Gomorrah is rampant in the U. S. today. America's day of reckoning is coming.

(30) Well then, what shall we say about these things? Just this: The Gentiles have been made right with God by faith, even though they were not seeking him.

• At first glance, you may say, “What’s the point of all these Old Testament quotes?” They speak to one of the primary objections against predestination. Many people think that predestination means that only a few people will be saved. Nothing could be further from the truth. God has determined to open the doors of heaven to the whole wide world. Anyone who believes in Jesus can be saved. In Paul’s day that meant that salvation was not just for the Jews, it was also for the Gentiles. Today there are approximately 13 million Jews in the world out of a total population of 6.5 billion people (0.0769230769%). Who are the Gentiles? That’s everyone who isn’t Jewish, which is roughly 99.999% of the world.
• 1 Corinthians 6:9-11: Don't you know that those who do wrong will have no share in the Kingdom of God? Don't fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, who are idol worshipers, adulterers, male prostitutes, homosexuals, thieves, greedy people, drunkards, abusers, and swindlers -- none of these will have a share in the Kingdom of God. There was a time when some of you were just like that, but now your sins have been washed away, and you have been set apart for God. You have been made right with God because of what the Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit of our God have done for you.
• The Gentiles are saved, because they are not depending on their own righteousness to save them, but the blood of Jesus Christ.

(31) But the Jews, who tried so hard to get right with God by keeping the law, never succeeded.

• Israel as a whole hoped to gain righteousness by doing good works, but believing Gentiles obtained the prize by believing the gospel. Again, the contrast between law and faith recurs.

(32) Why not? Because they were trying to get right with God by keeping the law and being good instead of by depending on faith. They stumbled over the great rock in their path.

• The "rock" they stumbled over was Jesus. The Jews did not believe in him, because he didn't meet their expectations for the Messiah - and most of them still believe that he was not qualified.
• Israel's rejection of Jesus Christ did not make God unfaithful or unrighteous in His dealings with the nation. What it did do was make it possible for Gentiles to surpass the Jews as the main recipients of salvation.

(33) God warned them of this in the Scriptures when he said, "I am placing a stone in Jerusalem that causes people to stumble, and a rock that makes them fall. But anyone who believes in him will not be disappointed."

• Isaiah 8:14: He will keep you safe. But to Israel and Judah he will be a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall. And for the people of Jerusalem he will be a trap that entangles them.
• Isaiah 28:16: Therefore, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: "Look! I am placing a foundation stone in Jerusalem. It is firm, a tested and precious cornerstone that is safe to build on. Whoever believes need never run away again.
• Zechariah 12:10: "Then I will pour out a spirit of grace and prayer on the family of David and on all the people of Jerusalem. They will look on me whom they have pierced and mourn for him as for an only son. They will grieve bitterly for him as for a firstborn son who has died.
• 1 Peter 2:6-8: As the Scriptures express it, "I am placing a stone in Jerusalem, a chosen cornerstone, and anyone who believes in him will never be disappointed. " Yes, he is very precious to you who believe. But for those who reject him, "The stone that was rejected by the builders has now become the cornerstone." And the Scriptures also say, "He is the stone that makes people stumble, the rock that will make them fall." They stumble because they do not listen to God's word or obey it, and so they meet the fate that has been planned for them.
• Jesus in Matthew 21:42-44 quoting Psalm 118: Then Jesus asked them, "Didn't you ever read this in the Scriptures? 'The stone rejected by the builders has now become the cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous to see.' What I mean is that the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation that will produce the proper fruit. Anyone who stumbles over that stone will be broken to pieces, and it will crush anyone on whom it falls. "
• 9:30-33 is a summary of chapter 9 and the theme of chapter 10.

The clock was running for Israel and little time was left. In less than ten years, Rome was to destroy the city of Jerusalem, and the nation which said, “We will take responsibility for his death -- we and our children” (Matthew 27:25) was about to be judged. Israel had failed. They had failed under the old covenant, and they had rejected the new covenant. All of the promises God had made concerning Israel seemed to be in vain. Was it all over for Israel? Had God’s Word failed too? How could Israel’s present state be explained? Paul sets out to explain just that in these three chapters.

Chapters 9–11 are a package, and that the answer to the dilemma of the unbelief of Israel cannot be adequately answered by any one of these three chapters. Chapter 9 speaks to the unbelief of Israel by stating that God did not purpose to save all Israel. In other words, God didn’t choose those who disbelieve. In chapter 10 Paul presses on to state that neither did Israel choose God. In chapter 11 Paul shows how God purposed the unbelief of Israel to accomplish the salvation of the Gentiles, and that the hopes of the nation Israel are yet to be fulfilled, for the unbelief of Israel is neither complete nor permanent.

Romans 10:1-4: Dear brothers and sisters, the longing of my heart and my prayer to God is that the Jewish people might be saved. I know what enthusiasm they have for God, but it is misdirected zeal. For they don't understand God's way of making people right with himself. Instead, they are clinging to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law. They won't go along with God's way. For Christ has accomplished the whole purpose of the law. All who believe in him are made right with God.

NOTES:

• Unless otherwise noted, the scripture version used is the New Living Translation, copyright 1996, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois.
• Disclaimer: Source material for this study has been gleaned from many different sources. I have attempted to acknowledge these sources at romansoverview.blogspot.com/2012/12/romans-references.html
• Index to all our studies are at http://oakview-bible-fellowship.blogspot.com/

Romans 8

This chapter is the climax of Paul's argument begun in 1:18. It starts with "no condemnation" (legal standing) and ends with "no separation" (personal fellowship), and in between there is no defeat.

This chapter is more than just the answer to Romans 7; it ties together thoughts from the very beginning of the book.

Many commentators quote a German author by the name of Spener who many years ago said it this way: “If Holy Scripture was a ring, and the Epistle to the Romans a precious stone, Chapter 8 would be the sparkling point of the jewel.”

Martyn Lloyd-Jones: I make bold to assert that the great theme of chapter 8 is not sanctification. Sanctification is only a part of it. The great theme is the security of the Christian, the absolute certainty of the ‘final perseverance’ of the saints, and of the ultimate, complete and entire salvation of every one who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Four Freedoms in Romans 8:

1. Freedom from Judgment Romans 8:1-4
2. Freedom from Defeat Romans 8:5-17
3. Freedom from Discouragement Romans 8:18-30
4. Freedom from Fear Romans 8:31-39

Romans 5:21 (So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God's wonderful kindness rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.).

Romans 7:22-25: I love God's law with all my heart. But there is another law at work within me that is at war with my mind. This law wins the fight and makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God's law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.

(1) *SO now there is **NO CONDEMNATION for those who ***belong to Christ Jesus.

• *SO:
• This is connected with the closing verses of chapter 7 (and with 5:21 above). The apostle had there shown that the law could not effect deliverance from sin, but that such deliverance was to be traced to the gospel alone, Romans 7:23-25. It is implied here that there was condemnation under the law, and would be still, but for the intervention of the gospel. But this chapter is more than just the answer to Romans 7; it ties together thoughts from the very beginning of the book.
• **NO CONDEMNATION:
• Not ou, but oude, which is an even stronger negation in the Greek language.
• Grey Barnhouse’s translation for this verse in his commentary on Romans: The Greek here is almost startling in its declaration. Literally it would read something like this. “Not a whit therefore now of condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
• No condemnation (Greek katakrima, penal servitude) means that God will never condemn us to an eternity separate from Himself for our sins. The reason is that the believer is in Christ Jesus. We don’t receive condemnation because we don’t deserve condemnation; we certainly do deserve condemnation. The Savior has suffered the consequences of our sins as our substitute. He will experience no condemnation, and we will not either because we are IN HIM. WE ARE ETERNALLY SECURE!
• Romans 5:16,18 And the result of God's gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man's sin. For Adam's sin led to condemnation, but we have the free gift of being accepted by God, even though we are guilty of many sins. ... Yes, Adam's one sin brought condemnation upon everyone, but Christ's one act of righteousness makes all people right in God's sight and gives them life.
• John 3:18, 5:24: "There is NO JUDGMENT awaiting those who trust him. But those who do not trust him have already been judged for not believing in the only Son of God. ... "I assure you, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They WILL NEVER BE CONDEMNED for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life.
• 1 Corinthians 11:32: But when we are judged and disciplined by the Lord, WE WILL NEVER BE CONDEMNED with the world.
• On one hand, we are told that the believer will not come into judgment (John 5:24 and Romans 8:1) and on the other hand we are told that every believer will stand before the judgment seat of Christ (Romans 14:10). How can these two seemingly contradictory facts be understood?
  • The believer will never stand before God as JUDGE to be condemned for his sins and punished for his sins. This condemnation and punishment has already fallen upon Christ our Substitute (Romans 8). Remember, if the believer were to be condemned for only one sin, that would be enough to condemn him forever.
  • The believer will stand before the BEMA or judgment seat of Christ to give an account of how faithfully he has lived the Christian life since the day he was saved. The issue then will not be condemnation or no condemnation, but the issue will be REWARDS or loss of rewards (1 Corinthians 3:12-15). Loss of rewards does not mean loss of salvation. Even the most unfaithful Christian at the judgment seat of Christ "shall be saved" and not condemned.
    • 1 Corinthians 3:11-15: For no one can lay any other foundation than the one we already have -- Jesus Christ. Now anyone who builds on that foundation may use gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw. But there is going to come a time of testing at the judgment day to see what kind of work each builder has done. Everyone's work will be put through the fire to see whether or not it keeps its value. If the work survives the fire, that builder will receive a reward. But if the **work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builders themselves will be saved, but like someone escaping through a wall of flames.
  *belong to Christ Jesus: IN Christ Jesus in the KJV.
• The words "who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" in the KJV are not in many Greek texts in verse 1 but are in verse 4 in all Greek texts.
  • Spurgeon: “The most learned men assure us that it is no part of the original text. I cannot just now go into the reasons for this conclusion, but they are very good and solid. The oldest copies are without it, the versions do not sustain it, and the fathers who quoted abundance of Scripture do not quote this sentence.”
  • F.F. Bruce, Epistle of Paul to the Romans: "Those who use the Authorized or King James text will notice the addition of the words “who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” following the words “Christ Jesus” in verse 1. This is certainly an error…and it is worth pointing this out because, if the clause is retained, it suggests exactly the opposite of what the text actually says…what I am saying is that these words do not belong. If they did, our escape from condemnation would last only as long as our next faltering step or sin; then we would be back under condemnation again. Thank God, salvation is not like that! Salvation is from God. It is by God. What this says is that there is no condemnation for those who have been joined to Jesus Christ by God the Father through the instrumentality of the Holy Spirit."

(2) FOR the power of the life-giving *Spirit has **FREED you through Christ Jesus from the power of sin that leads to death.

• *Spirit: Chapter 8 uses the term spirit, pneuma, over 21 times while it is totally absent in chapter 7 (as well as chapters 3-6 and occurs only three times in chapters 1-2. Contrast that with the about 30 occurrences of "I, Me, Myself" in chapter 7.
• **Freed:
• That is, has delivered you from the predominating influence and control of sin. In the former state, you were under bondage, Romans 7:7-11. Now you are brought into freedom.
• We are free from the power of sin through the power of the Holy Spirit. Though he inevitably does, the Christian does not have to sin, because he is freed from sin’s control. We are free from the law of death; death no longer has any lasting power against the believer.
• Compare with Romans 7:24. The question was "Who shall deliver me?" The answer in Romans 8:2 is this: "Christ has already delivered me!" The last part of Romans chapter 7 was a description of a believer's struggling, failing CONDITION. In chapter 8 Paul encourages the believer to focus upon his perfect, unfailing POSITION in Christ Jesus! The more we believe God’s facts about our POSITION the more this will affect and change our actual CONDITION!

(3) The law of Moses could not save us, because of our sinful nature. BUT GOD put into effect a different plan to save us. He sent his own Son in a human body like ours, except that ours are sinful. God destroyed sin's control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins.

• The law can do many things. It can guide us, teach us and tell us about God’s character. But the law cannot give us the power to live pleasing to God.

(4) He did this so that the requirement of the law would be fully accomplished for us who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.

• Following the Spirit (walking in the Spirit in the KJV) means that the course, the direction, the progress of one’s life is directed by the Holy Spirit. It is a continued and progressive motion. When we veer from the path, the Holy Spirit tries powerfully to bring us back to the right path - but the Spirit cannot force us to follow Him.
• Spurgeon: “Observe carefully that the flesh is there: he does not walk after it, but it is there. It is there, striving and warring, vexing and grieving, and it will be there till he is taken up into heaven. It is there as an alien and detested force, and not there so as to have dominion over him. He does not walk after it, nor practically obey it. He does not accept it as his guide, nor allow it to drive him into rebellion.”

(5) Those who are DOMINATED by the sinful nature THINK about sinful things, but those who are CONTROLLED by the Holy Spirit THINK about things that please the Spirit.

(6) IF your sinful nature controls your MIND, there is death. But IF the Holy Spirit controls your MIND, there is life and peace.

• The battleground is in the mind!
• Paul gives an easy way for us to determine if we walk in the Spirit or walk in our sinful nature - to simply see where our mind is set.
• When our minds are set on the things of the flesh (carnally minded) we bring death into our lives. But walking in the Spirit brings life and peace.

(7) FOR the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God's laws, and IT NEVER WILL.

• The sinful nature (the flesh in the KJV) battles against God, because it does not want to be crucified and surrendered to the Lord Jesus Christ. It does not want to live out Galatians 5:24: Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. In this battle to tame our human sinful nature, the law is powerless.
• Spurgeon regarding the sinful nature: “It is not black, but blackness; it is not at enmity, but enmity itself; it is not corrupt, but corruption; it is not rebellious, it is rebellion: it is not wicked, it is wickedness itself. The heart, though it be deceitful, is positively deceit; it is evil in the concrete, sin in the essence, it is the distillation, the quintessence of all things that are vile; it is not envious against God, it is envy; it is not at enmity, it is actual enmity.”
• Newell on Romans 8:7: “Perhaps no one text of Scripture more completely sets forth the hideously lost state of man after the flesh.”

(8) That's why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God.

(9) But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them are not Christians at all.)

(10) Since Christ lives within you, even though your body will die because of sin, your spirit is alive because you have been made right with God.

(11) The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as he raised Christ from the dead, he will give life to your mortal body by this same Spirit living within you.

(12) SO, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation whatsoever to do what your sinful nature urges you to do.

(13) For if you keep on following it, you will perish. BUT if through the power of the Holy Spirit you turn from it and its evil deeds, you will live.

(14) For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.

• We are led as we cooperate with the leading!
• Where does the Holy Spirit lead us?
  • He leads us to repentance
  • He leads us to think little of self and much of Jesus
  • He leads us into truth
  • He leads us into love
  • He leads us into holiness
  • He leads us into usefulness
• Paul didn’t say, “As many as go to church, these are the children of God.” He didn’t say, “As many as read their Bibles, these are the children of God.” He didn’t say, “As many as are patriotic Americans, these are the children of God.” He didn’t say, “As many as take communion, these are the children of God.” In this text, the test for sonship is whether or not a person is led by the Spirit of God.

(15) SO you should not be like cowering, fearful slaves. You should behave instead like God's very own children, *ADOPTED into his family -- calling him "**Father, dear Father."

• *adopted:
  • Galatians 4:5: God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children.
  • Romans 8:15-17 (KJV): For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, ABBA, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:  And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
  • Ephesians 1:5: His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave him great pleasure.
  • "In the Roman world of the first century AD, an adopted son was a son deliberately chosen by his adoptive father to perpetuate his name and inherit his estate; he was no whit inferior in status to a son born in the ordinary course of nature.” (Bruce) Under Roman adoption, the life and standing of the adopted child changed completely. The adopted son lost all rights in his old family and gained all new rights in his new family; the old life of the adopted son was completely wiped out, with all debts being canceled, with nothing from his past counting against him any more.
• **Father, dear Father: Greek: Abba Patria. The word abba is the intimate family term for father that a baby would use to address its father. We would probably find its equivalent in the expression ‘daddy.’

(16) For his Holy Spirit speaks to us deep in our hearts and tells us that we are God's children.

(17) And since we are his children, we will share his treasures -- for everything God gives to his Son, Christ, is ours, too. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.

(18) Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will give us later.

• KJV: I RECKON that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

(19) FOR ALL creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are.

• Isaiah 11:6-9 describes this redemption of creation in that day: In that day the wolf and the lamb will live together; the leopard and the goat will be at peace. Calves and yearlings will be safe among lions, and a little child will lead them all. The cattle will graze among bears. Cubs and calves will lie down together. And lions will eat grass as the livestock do. Babies will crawl safely among poisonous snakes. Yes, a little child will put its hand in a nest of deadly snakes and pull it out unharmed. Nothing will hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain. And as the waters fill the sea, so the earth will be filled with people who know the LORD.

(20) Against its will, everything on earth was subjected to God's curse.

(21) All creation anticipates the day when it will join God's children in glorious freedom from death and decay.

• 2 Peter 3:7-13: And God has also commanded that the heavens and the earth will be consumed by fire on the day of judgment, when ungodly people will perish. But you must not forget, dear friends, that a day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day. The Lord isn't really being slow about his promise to return, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to perish, so he is giving more time for everyone to repent. But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and everything in them will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be exposed to judgment. Since everything around us is going to melt away, what holy, godly lives you should be living! You should look forward to that day and hurry it along -- the day when God will set the heavens on fire and the elements will melt away in the flames. But we are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth he has promised, a world where everyone is right with God.
• Revelation 21:1,5: Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. ... And the one sitting on the throne said, "Look, I am making all things new!" And then he said to me, "Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true."

(22) FOR we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.

• Because of man's sin in the Garden, the whole created universe, all that is in the universe, has been cursed. You will find this in Genesis 17:3.

(23) And even we Christians, although we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future *glory, also groan to be released from pain and suffering. We, too, wait anxiously for that day when God will give us our full rights as his children, including the new bodies he has promised us.

• *glory: When God made Adam originally in His image in the Garden, he had a measure of glory and, I believe, was clothed with the Shekinah glory. But when Adam fell, he lost his original glory, his original God-likeness, having been made in God's image - he found himself naked! And Romans 3:23 sums it up by saying this: "That man has sinned and come short of...what?...of the glory of God." But, because of Jesus Christ, God grants to us glory far beyond even the glory that was lost in the Garden.
• 1 Corinthians 15:53: For our perishable earthly bodies must be transformed into heavenly bodies that will never die.
• 2 Corinthians 5:1-5: For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down -- when we die and leave these bodies -- we will have a home in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long for the day when we will put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. For we will not be spirits without bodies, but we will put on new heavenly bodies. Our dying bodies make us groan and sigh, but it's not that we want to die and have no bodies at all. We want to slip into our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by everlasting life. God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit.
• Job 14:10-15: "But when people die, they lose all strength. They breathe their last, and then where are they? As water evaporates from a lake and as a river disappears in drought, people lie down and do not rise again. Until the heavens are no more, they will not wake up nor be roused from their sleep. "I wish you would hide me with the dead and forget me there until your anger has passed. But mark your calendar to think of me again! If mortals die, can they live again? This thought would give me hope, and through my struggle I would eagerly wait for release. You would call and I would answer, and you would yearn for me, your handiwork.
• Job 19:23-27: "But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and that he will stand upon the earth at last. And after my body has decayed, yet in my body I will see God! I will see him for myself. Yes, I will see him with my own eyes. I am overwhelmed at the thought!
• Psalm 17:15: But because I have done what is right, I will see you. When I awake, I will be fully satisfied, for I will see you face to face.

(24) Now that we are saved, we eagerly look forward to this freedom. For if you already have something, you don't need to hope for it.

(25) BUT if we look forward to something we don't have yet, we must wait patiently and confidently.

(26) And the Holy Spirit helps us in our distress. For we don't even know what we should pray for, nor how we should pray. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.

(27) And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God's own will.

(28) And we know that God causes EVERYTHING to *work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his **purpose for them.

• *work together is really one word-sunergon-in Greek. We get our English word synergy from it. And what is synergy? It is what happens when you put two or more elements together to form something brand new that neither could form separately. That’s what Paul means when he says that God causes all things to “work together." Many of the things that make no sense when seen in isolation are in fact working together to produce something good in my life. There is a divine synergy even in the darkest moments, a synergy that produces something positive. And the “good” that is ultimately produced could not happen any other way.
• **purpose: Romans 9:11: But before they were born, before they had done anything good or bad, she received a message from God. (This message proves that God chooses according to his own plan,

(29) FOR God KNEW his people in advance, and he CHOSE them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn, with many brothers and sisters.

• Ephesians 1:11: Furthermore, because of Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he CHOSE us from the beginning, and all things happen just as he decided long ago.
• Psalm 139:16: You saw me BEFORE I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.
• Jeremiah 1:5: "I knew you BEFORE I formed you in your mother's womb. BEFORE you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my spokesman to the world."

(30) And having CHOSEN them, he CALLED them to come to him. And he gave them RIGHT STANDING with himself, and he promised them his GLORY.

• Romans 8:29-30 KJV: For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.
• Foreknew --> Chosen --> Predestined --> Called --> Justified --> Glorified
• FOREKNOWLEDGE--Before the world ever was God knew me and God knew that I would belong to Him. This involves a special, loving relationship.
  PREDESTINATION--In eternity past God marked out a wonderful future for me, that I should be like His Son.
  CALLING--God brought me to Himself in a wonderful way, out of my darkness, into His marvelous light.
  JUSTIFICATION--God declared me to be perfectly righteous in His righteous Son, based upon the work on the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.
  GLORIFICATION--God will complete my salvation and in the mind and plan of God, it is as good as done!

(31) What can we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us?

(32) Since God did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won't God, who gave us Christ, also give us everything else?

(33) WHO DARES ACCUSE US whom God has chosen for his own? Will God? No! He is the one who has given us right standing with himself.

(34) WHO THEN WILL *CONDEMN US? Will Christ Jesus? No, for he is the one who died for us and was raised to life for us and is sitting at the **place of highest honor next to God, pleading for us.

• *CONDEMN: Back up to verse 1: NO CONDEMNATION
• **place of highest honor (at the right hand in the KJV). This was the place of the accuser: Zechariah 3:1: Then the angel showed me Jeshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD. Satan was there at the angel's right hand, accusing Jeshua of many things.

(35) CAN ANYTHING EVER SEPARATE US FROM CHRIST'S LOVE? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or are hungry or cold or in danger or threatened with death?

(36) (Even the Scriptures say, "For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.")

• Paul quotes from Psalm 44:22 in which the psalmist laments the suffering of the righteous, who have not abandoned God’s name, and yet are subjected to humiliation, defeat, and mockery. What Paul affirms in Romans is that such mockery and suffering are inevitably the lot of Christians.

(37) No, despite all these things, OVERWHELMING VICTORY IS OURS through Christ, who loved us.

(38) And I am convinced that NOTHING can ever *separate us from his love. DEATH can't, and life can't. The ANGELS can't, and the DEMONS can't. Our FEARS for today, our WORRIES about tomorrow, and even the POWERS OF HELL can't keep God's love away.

• *separate means to violently tear from, to completely divide

(39) Whether we are HIGH above the sky or in the DEEPEST ocean, NOTHING in all creation will ever be able to *separate us from the love of God that is revealed IN CHRIST Jesus our Lord.

• Psalm 139:7-10: I can never escape from your spirit! I can never get away from your presence! If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the place of the dead, you are there. If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, 1even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me.
• Romans 8:38-39 KJV: For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
• John 10:29: for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else. So no one can take them from me.
• 2 Timothy 1:12: And that is why I am suffering here in prison. But I am not ashamed of it, for I know the one in whom I trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until the day of his return.
• *separate: Romans chapter 8 began with NO CONDEMNATION and it ends with NO SEPARATION!

NOTES:

• Unless otherwise noted, the scripture version used is the New Living Translation, copyright 1996, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois.
• Disclaimer: Source material for this study has been gleaned from many different sources. I have attempted to acknowledge these sources at romansoverview.blogspot.com/2012/12/romans-references.html
• Index to all our studies are at http://oakview-bible-fellowship.blogspot.com/

Romans 7

While not possible in our 1-1 1/2 hour sessions, it would be best to study chapters 5-8 together without a break, because they are so interconnected. Therefore, we're going to read those chapters through together and then look at the following study on chapter 7before going on: Law - What Law? by Wil Pounds© 2008 at www.abideinchrist.com/messages/rom7v1.html which I highly recommend reading before going

The most important thing to remember from Chapter 6 is God gives us the power to overcome ANY AND ALL SIN.
What we need to do is harness that power.
In chapter 6, we died to SIN. In chapter 7, we died to the LAW.

Chapter 7 of Romans is on the frustration of “wanting to be better” and then failing.

Romans 7 is an expansion of Romans 5:20: God's law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God's wonderful kindness became more abundant.

Romans 6:15-23: So since God's grace has set us free from the law, DOES THIS MEAN WE CAN GO ON SINNING? Of course not! Don't you realize that whatever you choose to obey becomes your master? You can choose sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God and receive his approval. Thank God! Once you were slaves of sin, but now you have obeyed with all your heart the new teaching God has given you. Now you are free from sin, your old master, and you have become slaves to your new master, righteousness. I speak this way, using the illustration of slaves and masters, because it is easy to understand. BEFORE you let yourselves be slaves of impurity and lawlessness. NOW you must choose to be slaves of righteousness so that you will become holy.In those days, when you were slaves of sin, you weren't concerned with doing what was right. And what was the result? It was not good, since now you are ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom. BUT NOW you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life. For the wages of sin is DEATH, but the free gift of God is eternal LIFE through Christ Jesus our Lord.

(1) NOW, dear brothers and sisters -- you who are familiar with the *law -- don't you know that the law applies only to a person who is still living?

• People back then (and most today too) believed that obedience would bring salvation and acceptance by God or the gods. Grace is not license to break the law but offers forgiveness and power to live in righteousness free from the law which would then be unable to condemn them.
• *law:
  • The Greek wording here has no "the" before law. This means that Paul speaks of a principle broader than the Mosaic Law.
  • Matthew 5:17: "Don't misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to fulfill them.
  • Here is what Romans and Galatians say about the law:
    • "We are not under the law" (Romans 6:14; Galatians 5:18).
    • We are dead to the law (Romans 7:4).
    • We are delivered from the law (Romans 7:6).
    • Christ is the end of the law (Romans 10:4).
    • The law was our guardian and teacher to lead us until Christ came. So now, through faith in Christ, we are made right with God. But now that faith in Christ has come, we no longer need the law as our guardian." (Galatians 3:24-25).
    • "The law" has been abolished (Ephesians 2:15).

(2) Let me illustrate. When a woman marries, the law binds her to her husband as long as he is alive. BUT if he dies, the laws of marriage no longer apply to her.

•  Under the Old Testament law, a man has a right to divorce a wife, but a wife does not have a right to divorce a husband. (See Deuteronomy Chapter 24). The only way a wife could get out from under obedience to a husband was by his death. A great temptation to some wives, I'm sure.
• Think of Boaz and Ruth! While Ruth was married to Mahlon of Judah, she could not travel to a strange new land to meet, to know, to fall in love with and to marry Boaz, who was a type of Christ. Think of Ruth as us, Mahlon as the law and Christ as the one who loves us and frees us.

(3) SO while her husband is alive, she would be committing adultery if she married another man. BUT if her husband dies, she is free from that law and does not commit adultery when she remarries.

(4) SO this is the point: The law no longer holds you in its power, because you died to its power when you died with Christ on the cross. AND NOW you are united with the one who was raised from the dead. As a result, you can produce good *fruit, that is, good deeds for God.

• In Romans 6:3-8, Paul carefully explained that we died with Jesus and we also rose with Him, although Paul there only spoke of our death to sin. Now he explains that we also died to the law.
• Colossians 2:14: He canceled the record that contained the charges against us. He took it and destroyed it by nailing it to Christ's cross.
• *fruit: The aim of this joining (this "marriage"), he says, is that you "produce good fruit for God.", continuing the illustration using marriage. If you are in Christ, justified and married to your Savior, Jesus, you bear fruit for God. That means that new desires and attitudes and choices and actions grow like fruit from this all-satisfying relationship between you and your living "husband," Jesus Christ.

(5) When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced sinful deeds, resulting in death.

• The context suggests that Paul had pre-conversion days in mind in this verse.

(6) BUT NOW we have been *released from the law, FOR we **DIED WITH Christ, and we are no longer captive to its power. NOW we can really serve God, not in the old way by obeying the ***letter of the law, but in the new way, by the Spirit.

• Galatians 5:1,13,16: So Christ has really set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don't get tied up again in slavery to the law. ... For you have been called to live in freedom -- NOT freedom to satisfy your sinful nature, but freedom to serve one another in love. ... So I advise you to live according to your new life in the Holy Spirit. Then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves.
• *released from the law: Paul summarized verses 1-5 here. We died to the Law just as we died to sin (6:5). The same Greek word (katargeo - to render idle, unemployed, inactivate, inoperative) occurs in both verses. Christ's death as our representative changed our relationship to both sin and the law. It is as though God shifted the transmissions of our lives into neutral gear. Now something else drives our lives, namely, the Holy Spirit. Sin and the Law no longer drive us forward, though we can engage those powers if we choose to do so and take back control of our lives from God.
• The law does not justify us; it does not make us right with God. The law does not sanctify us; it does not take us deeper with God and make us more holy before Him.
• Some might think, “Yes, we were saved by grace, but we must live by law to please God.” Here Paul makes it plain that believers are dead to the law as far as it represents a principle of living or a place of right standing before God.
• “Believers are through with the law. It is not for them an option as a way of salvation. They do not seek to be right with God by obeying some form of law, as the adherents of almost all religions have done.” (Morris)
• Romans 2:15: They demonstrate that God's law is written within them, for their own consciences either accuse them or tell them they are doing what is right.
• Hebrews 10:16: "This is the new covenant I will make with my people on that day, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their hearts so they will understand them, and I will write them on their minds so they will obey them."
• Galatians 3:24: Let me put it another way. The law was our guardian and teacher to lead us until Christ came. So now, through faith in Christ, we are made right with God.
• If you are justified by faith, you are inhabited by the Spirit of Christ and he is not neutral or passive. He is at work in you to create a newness of mind and heart that loves and serves. Therefore, we will not sin that grace may abound. Sin will not have dominion over us because we are not under law, but under grace.
  • Philippians 1:6: And I am sure that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on that day when Christ Jesus comes back again.
• **Died: Galatians 2:20: I myself no longer live, but Christ lives in me. So I live my life in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
• ***letter: The "letter of the law" is a modern English idiom implying the details of a requirement be followed. But "letter" here is from the Greek gramma which means a note, a bill, writing or an epistle (a letter). Here we see it as the law that God wrote. It represents the old way of life without Christ. It is in contrast to serving "by the spirit." Thus, we cannot take this verse as license to ignore the specifics of divine requirements.

(7) Well then, am I suggesting that the law of God is evil? Of course not! The law is not sinful, BUT it was the law that showed *ME MY **sin. I would never have known that coveting is wrong if the law had not said, "Do not ***covet."

• *ME: Suddenly, the "a person", "we" and "us" changes to ME! Is Paul getting personal now, expressing his own experience and frustrations? Paul is now going through his own personal experience of the total inability of the law, obeying the law, reading the law, listening to the sages to overcome his natural impulses and sinful nature. Whether this describes Paul before he was saved when he was such an outstanding Pharisee or after, I can't tell. Paul. From his childhood, he knew the law. He knew it better than his contemporaries, took it more seriously than they, struggled desperately to keep it, declared in fact, that insofar as the law was concerned, he was perfect. In other words, until Paul met JESUS CHRIST on the road to Damascus, he did not know the law; he only thought he did. See Philippians 3:6:  "...I obeyed the Jewish law so carefully that I was never accused of any fault."
• Here we see the purpose of the law is to show us our sinfulness.
• Paul is referring to the Exodus 20:17:  "Do not covet your neighbor's house. Do not covet your neighbor's wife, male or female servant, ox or donkey, or anything else your neighbor owns."
• The law is like an x-ray machine; it reveals plainly what might have always been there, but was hidden before. You can’t blame an x-ray for what it exposes.
• **sin: Paul's use of "sin" in this paragraph shows that he was thinking of sin as a force within everyone, our sinful human nature. He was not thinking of an act of sin. It is that force or sin principle that the Law's prohibitions and requirements arouse. The basic meaning of the Greek word translated "sin" (hamartia) is "falling short." We see that we fall short of what God requires when we become aware of His laws.
• ***covet: Why did Paul pick this particular commandment? I wonder whether this was Paul's "besetting sin". Was this a problem he struggled with before Christ? Then, I wonder what it was that Paul coveted. Was it the recognition of others of how great and perfect he was?

(8) BUT sin took advantage of this law and aroused all kinds of forbidden desires within *ME! If there were no law, sin would not have that power.

• In American history, we know that the Prohibition Act didn’t stop drinking and our present "war against drugs" doesn't seem to be faring much better. In fact, Prohibition made drinking more attractive to people, because of our desire to break boundaries set by the commandment - it was now "cool" and "sophisticated" to go to a "speak-easy".
• The weakness of the law isn’t in the law - it is in us.

(9) I felt fine when I did not *understand what the law demanded. BUT **when I learned the truth, I realized I had broken the law and was a sinner, doomed to die.

• *understand: Paul was thoroughly educated in the law - he sat at the feet of Gamaliel. So, how could he not understand the law? He knew the words, he knew the interpretations by the great rabbis of his time, he could recite any verse from memory, he could read it in both Hebrew and Greek. But, to UNDERSTAND means to know why God implemented the law, why we have the natural inclination to sin, and the fact that it was impossible for him to meet the demands of the law! He said of himself before he knew Christ, "Concerning the law, perfect" - Philippians 3:6 (KJV). Yet, that only led to pride and persecution of the church - which he probably thought could make "a name for himself".
• **when Paul realized that the law applied deeper than the externals!
• Paul was relatively alive apart from the Law. No one is ever completely unrelated to it. However in his past, Paul had lived unaware of the Law's true demands and was therefore self-righteous (Philippians 3:6 above). His pre-conversion struggles were mainly intellectual (e.g., Was Jesus the Messiah?) rather than moral.
• Babies have no idea what “law” means. They have no concept of right and wrong. Can a baby be guilty of covetousness? of stealing?  of not keeping the sabbath? of not honoring their mother and father? They just want their bottles, blankets and clean diapers. But, they quickly exhibit their sin nature. So, what is the "age of accountability?" Do babies go to heaven since they're outside the law? What about a brain-damaged baby who becomes an adult barely functioning but without any concept of the law - of right and wrong, of God?

(10) SO the good law, which was supposed to show ME the way of life, instead gave ME the death penalty.

• Romans 6:23: For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.
• Let me paraphrase Paul’s line of thinking here:  “There was a time in my (Paul’s) life when I thought that I could get into heaven by being obedient to the law. After all, the Old Testament has a whole set of animal sacrifice rituals to perform when I sinned.  I thought that all I had to do is obey all of the laws. I studied all of the famous rabbi’s and their interpretation of the laws and how to obey them. I mentally put a “check” next to my name as I thought I was following them with a strict sense of obedience.”
• Walk down the street and ask people if they believe they are going to heaven. The most common answer will be “Yes, because I am a good person”. They will list the good things they have done with their lives. Many people mistakenly think of their life as an accomplishment list for God to accept and then let them into heaven. People tend to make their own list of right and wrong and live by those standards as opposed to God’s laws.

(11) Sin took advantage of the law and fooled ME; it took the good law and used it to make ME guilty of death.

• Paul figured out that no matter how hard he tried, how disciplined he became, he could never be perfect. No matter how hard he tried to please God by keeping the law, it was never enough - like a demanding husband or wife who's never pleased no matter what we do. Once Paul fully comprehended God’s standards for obedience, Paul realized he couldn’t do it.
• The law dealt with specific sins, but never dealt with the sin nature itself - the very source of the sins for which a sacrifice was required.
• Sin deceives us:
• Because sin falsely promises satisfaction.
• Because sin falsely claims an adequate excuse.
• Because sin falsely promises an escape from punishment.

(12) BUT still, the law itself is holy and right and good.

• Psalms 19:7: The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul. The decrees of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple.
• It’s not the laws themselves that are bad, just me. I have no problem with God’s laws themselves. They are a great set of rules in order to live a happy and productive life. My (Paul’s) problem is no matter how hard I try, I can’t obey them all of the time.  No matter how hard I push myself, I can’t do it.
• Here is a concluding reaffirmation of the answer to Paul's question in verse 7 (Is the law evil). Far from being sinful, the Law is holy. It comes from a holy God and searches out sin. It is righteous because it lays just requirements on people and because it forbids and condemns sin. It is good because its purpose is to produce blessing and life (verse 10).

(13) BUT how can that be? Did the law, which is good, cause MY doom? Of course not! Sin used what was good to bring about MY condemnation. So we can see how terrible sin really is. It uses God's good commandment for its own evil purposes.

• Spurgeon: "We need sin to appear sin, because it always wants to hide in us and conceal its true depths and strength. This is one of the most deplorable results of sin. It injures us most by taking from us the capacity to know how much we are injured. It undermines the man’s constitution, and yet leads him to boast of unfailing health; it beggars him, and tells him he is rich; it strips him, and makes him glory in his fancied robes.”
• Until Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, there was no knowledge of good and evil. Sin entered into the world through Adam.

(14) The law is good, THEN the trouble is not with the law but with ME, because I am sold into *slavery, with sin as MY master.

• *slavery: The Jewish reader would have thought of Joseph who was sold into slavery of Egypt by his own brothers.
• I Timothy 1:8-11: We know these laws are good when they are used as God intended. But they were not made for people who do what is right. They are for people who are disobedient and rebellious, who are ungodly and sinful, who consider nothing sacred and defile what is holy, who murder their father or mother or other people. These laws are for people who are sexually immoral, for homosexuals and slave traders, for liars and oath breakers, and for those who do anything else that contradicts the right teaching that comes from the glorious Good News entrusted to me by our blessed God.

(15) I don't understand MYSELF at all, for I really want to do what is right, but I don't do it. Instead, I do the very thing I hate.

• The law says: “Here are the rules and you had better keep them - or else!” But it gives us no power for keeping the law.
• It is a daily struggle for all of us. To live for Jesus, the spirit has to overcome the flesh.
• Galatians 5:17: The old sinful nature loves to do evil, which is just opposite from what the Holy Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are opposite from what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, and your choices are never free from this conflict.

(16) I know perfectly well that what I am doing is wrong, and MY bad conscience shows that I agree that the law is good.

(17) BUT I can't help MYSELF, because it is *sin inside ME that makes ME do these evil things.

• *sin: The sin nature.
• Is Paul denying his responsibility as a sinner? No. He recognizes that as he sins, he acts against his nature as a new man in Jesus Christ. A Christian must own up to his sin, yet realize that the impulse to sin does not come from who we really are in Jesus Christ.
• Paul was not trying to escape responsibility but was identifying the source of his sin, his sinful nature. Viewed as a whole person, he was dead to sin. Nevertheless the source of sin within him was specifically his sinful human nature that was still very much alive.
• Our problem with sin is complex. We are sinners not only because we commit acts of sin (chapter 3) and because, as descendants of Adam, we sin because he sinned (chapter 5). We are also sinners because we possess a nature that is thoroughly sinful (chapter 7). Jesus Christ paid the penalty for acts of sin, He removed the punishment of original sin, and He enables us to overcome the power of innate sin.

(18) I know I am rotten through and through so far as MY old sinful nature is concerned. No matter which way I turn, I can't make MYSELF do right. I want to, but I can't.

• Psalm 14:3: But no, all have turned away from God; all have become corrupt. No one does good, not even one!
• Galatians 5:24-26: Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. If we are living now by the Holy Spirit, let us follow the Holy Spirit's leading in every part of our lives. Let us not become conceited, or irritate one another, or be jealous of one another.

(19) When I want to do good, I don't. And when I try not to do wrong, I do it anyway.

(20) BUT if I am doing what I don't want to do, I am not really the one doing it; the sin within ME is doing it.

(21) It seems to be a fact of life that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong.

• C.S. Lewis: “No man knows how bad he is until he has tried to be good.”

(22) I love God's law with all MY heart.

• Paul knows that the “real self” is the one who does delight in the law of God.

(23) BUT there is another law at work within ME that is at war with MY mind. This law wins the fight and makes ME a slave to the sin that is still within ME.

• This natural inner force leading to evil, Paul says, is a law. He sees a law as a guiding or controlling element. This law in his body parts fights God's delightful law and makes him a captive of its evil ways. See Romans 8::
  • Romans 8:2: For the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you through Christ Jesus from the power of sin that leads to death.
• This is one reason for alcoholism and other drugs - to escape from reality. This is one reason so many men and women keep inordinately busy; they do not want to think about themselves. This is one reason people escape into pleasure, into society, into gossip, into soap operas, into "reality TV" shows. And when they are no longer able to hide, if they can afford it, they go to a psychiatrist. Or they may take their life. Paul is describing what man is like in the old Adamic nature, but in the next verses he is also showing us we need not any longer be bound; we have been released, emancipated by the power of GOD in JESUS CHRIST.
• Morris quoting Griffith Thomas: “The one point of the passages is that it describes a man who is trying to be good and holy by his own efforts and is beaten back every time by the power of indwelling sin; it thus refers to anyone, regenerate or unregenerate.”

(24) Oh, what a *miserable person I am! WHO WILL FREE ME FROM THIS LIFE THAT IS DOMINATED BY SIN?

• *miserable (wretched in the KJV): The ancient Greek word is more literally, “Wretched through the exhaustion of hard labor.” Paul is completely worn out and wretched because of his unsuccessful effort to please God under the principle of Law.
• No matter how hard Paul tried, he could not be perfect in keeping God’s commands. This is not based on a one-moment experience, but on years and years of his life trying to please God. We see something like this with driven (and often "successful") men who are still trying to please a father who died long ago - Randolph Hearst portrayed in the classic movie "Citizen Kane" is an example.
• We get frustrated because we want to please God. Yet, there are moments, or long periods where we ignore God. Further, there are issues in our life we try to solve through our own efforts instead of praying over them. In the end, we fail in our efforts.  In summary, “without God, we can’t”. That motto applies to every part of our life. We get frustrated when we fail on our own.
• This is Paul’s self-disgust because he couldn’t live up to his own expectations.
• Where Paul is going with this is the idea that, “The more we realize how depraved we are as human beings, the more we realize our dependency upon God for every aspect of our lives.”
• Legalism always brings a person face to face with their own wretchedness, and if they continue in legalism, they will react in one of two ways. Either they will deny their wretchedness and become self-righteous Pharisees, or they will despair because of their wretchedness and give up following after God.
• Spurgeon: “It was the custom of ancient tyrants, when they wished to put men to the most fearful punishments, to tie a dead body to them, placing the two back to back; and there was the living man, with a dead body closely strapped to him, rotting, putrid, corrupting, and this he must drag with him wherever he went. Now, this is just what the Christian has to do. He has within him the new life; he has a living and undying principle, which the Holy Spirit has put within him, but he feels that every day he has to drag about with him this dead body, this body of death, a thing as loathsome, as hideous, as abominable to his new life, as a dead stinking carcass would be to a living man.”
• What Christian has not felt the guilt and pain of doing things that he or she knows are wrong? We will never escape this battle with temptation in this life. Eugene Peterson recast Paul's thought in this verse as follows: "I've tried everything and nothing helps. I'm at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me?"

(25) Thank God! THE ANSWER IS IN JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD. SO you see how it is: In MY *mind I really want to obey God's law, BUT because of MY **sinful nature I am a slave to sin.

• * mind: the inner man - Hebrew nous.
• **sinful nature: the old nature.
• Dennis Davidson in "Battling Besetting Sin: "WATCHMAN NEE was once staying in a place with some twenty other Christian brothers. There was inadequate provision for bathing in the home where they stayed, so we went for a daily plunge in the river. On one occasion a brother got a cramp in his leg, and suddenly saw he was sinking fast, so Watchman motioned to another brother, who was an expert swimmer, to hasten to his rescue. But to Watchman's astonishment he made no move. Growing desperate Watchman cried out: "Don't you see the man is drowning?" The other brothers, as agitated as he was, shouted vigorously too. But the good swimmer still did not move. Calm and collected, he remained just where he was, apparently postponing the unwelcome task. Meantime the voice of the poor drowning brother grew fainter and his efforts feebler. In Watchman's heart he said: "I hate that man! Think of his letting a brother drown before his very eyes and not going to the rescue!" But when the man was actually sinking, with a few swift strokes the swimmer was at his side, and both were soon safely ashore. Nevertheless, when Watchman got an opportunity, he aired his views. "I have never seen any Christian who loved his life quite as much as you do," he said. "Think of the distress you would have saved that brother if you had considered yourself a little less and him a little more." But the swimmer, Watchman soon discovered, knew his business better than he did. "Had I gone earlier," he said, "he would have clutched me so fast and hard that both of us would have gone under. A drowning man cannot be saved until he is utterly exhausted and ceases to make the slightest effort to save himself." Do you see the point? When we give up the case, then God will take it up. He is waiting until we are at an end of our resources and can do nothing more for ourselves. God has condemned all that is of the old creation and consigned it to the Cross. The flesh profited nothing (John 6:63)! God has declared it to be fit only for death. If we truly believe that, then we shall confirm God's verdict by abandoning all fleshly efforts to please Him. For our every attempt to do His will is a denial of His declaration in the Cross that we are utterly powerless to do so. [Nee, Watchman. The Normal Christian Life. Tyndale House. Wheaton, IL. 1977. p 167f].
• The solution to this dilemma is not escape from temptation but victory over it. Look how the Muslim mean try to overcome temptation by making sure all women are covered from head to toe with a shapeless ugly black sack.
• Calvin calls Romans 7:25: “A short epilogue, in which he teaches us, that the faithful never reach the goal of righteousness as long as they dwell in the flesh, but that they are running their course, until they put off the body.”
• Paul shows that even though the law is glorious and good, it can’t save us - and we need a Savior. Paul never found any peace, any praising God until he looked outside of himself and beyond the law to his Savior, Jesus Christ.
• Paul continues to develop these thoughts in the next chapter:
• Romans 8:1-10: So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. For the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you through Christ Jesus from the power of sin that leads to death. The law of Moses could not save us, because of our sinful nature. But God put into effect a different plan to save us. He sent his own Son in a human body like ours, except that ours are sinful. God destroyed sin's control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. He did this so that the requirement of the law would be fully accomplished for us who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit. Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. If your sinful nature controls your mind, there is death. But if the Holy Spirit controls your mind, there is life and peace. For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God's laws, and it never will. That's why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God. But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them are not Christians at all.) Since Christ lives within you, even though your body will die because of sin, your spirit is alive because you have been made right with God.

This chapter is very important for several reasons:

1. It corrects the popular idea that our struggle with sin is only against specific sins and habits whereas it is also against our basic human nature.
2. Second, it shows that human nature is not essentially good but bad.
3. Third, it argues that progressive sanctification does not come by obeying laws (legalism) but apart from law.
4. It also proves that doing right requires more than just determining to do it.
5. All these insights are necessary for us to appreciate what Paul proceeded to explain in chapter 8.

Out of curiosity, I checked a few Jewish sites to see how they believe they're saved today. Here are some quotes:

• www.whatjewsbelieve.org/ (Rabbi Stuart Federow):
  • We don't need to be 'saved'; this is a Christian attitude and forms no part whatsoever of Judaism. We have no concept of 'original sin'. Judaism teaches that everyone who leads a moral life will reach heaven, whatever their religion.
    1. Jews believe that one person cannot die for the sins of another.
    2. We do not need a blood sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins.
    3. Jews believe that Jesus was not the messiah.
    4. Jews believe that Gd hates human sacrifices.
    5. Jews believe that one is born into the world with original purity. Jews do not believe in original sin.
    6. Jews believe that Gd is one and indivisible. Jews do not believe in a trinity.
    7. Jews believe in The Satan, but not in a devil. There is a difference between The Satan and the devil.
    8. Jews believe that Gd is Gd, and humans are humans. Gd does not become human nor do humans become Gd.
    9. Jews believe that "Jews for Jesus," "Messianic Jews," and "Hebrew Christians" are no longer Jews, even if they were once Jews.

NOTES:

• Unless otherwise noted, the scripture version used is the New Living Translation, copyright 1996, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois.
• Disclaimer: Source material for this study has been gleaned from many different sources. I have attempted to acknowledge these sources at romansoverview.blogspot.com/2012/12/romans-references.html
• Index to all our studies are at http://oakview-bible-fellowship.blogspot.com/