See Part One
Colossians 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
Last time we saw that our philosophy is our worldview – the lens through which we see the world. It encompasses our beliefs, our ethics and morals, and determines how we make our decisions. If you change a person’s worldview, you change the person. Becoming a Christian should change your worldview to be kingdom of God oriented. Romans 12:2 says not to be conformed to this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Under Grace, Not Law
Romans 6:14 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
Being under law is one of those philosophies that can cheat you of your reward. It’s not a philosophy of the world, but of the Old Covenant. It says “in order to be blessed by God, you have to do all these things”.
Under grace, we are already blessed because we believe in Jesus.
Ephesians 1:3 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,
Under grace, what you believe is more important than what you do.
A sinner (a person that does not know Christ) can perform righteous actions (good deeds), but that does not make them righteous.
A believer who is righteous (in right standing with God because of what they believe) can commit sin, but that does not make them a sinner (one who does not know Christ).
It bears repeating that grace is not a license to sin. Sin can have real life consequences – you can reap what you sow. If you commit adultery, can/will God forgive you? Yes. But you can destroy your marriage.
Those that take the attitude “I’m under grace so I can do anything I want” are abusing the covenant.
Can we put that whole question of blatant sin aside? The people I am talking to here are those that actively want to please God with their lifestyle – but like all of us, fall short in some areas. They want to do better than they are doing.
That is not to say we shouldn’t do what the Bible says and good works – on the contrary, we were created to do them (Ephesians 2:10). But the reason why we do them is different – it is not to earn favor with God, but because we already have favor with God.
Doing good things in order to gain favor with God is what the Bible called “works” in the New Testament. Over and over again we are told that salvation is by grace through faith (what you believe), and not by works (what you do). And most Christians get that.
But the trap that many Christians fall into is the one the Galatians fell in to – yes they were saved by faith in Jesus Christ, but to be really spiritual they had to keep the law – which is works based.
If your sense of well being – or we can call it the consciousness of your righteousness – depends on how you perform, you are always going to feel you fall short, in either commission (what you do) or probably more often in omission (what you don’t do). That is, “I didn’t do enough” – I didn’t pray enough, or read my Bible enough, or I missed that opportunity to witness to someone – therefore God is disappointed with me. We have that constant sense of low level guilt and shame.
It then becomes easy to identify with Paul in Romans 7:
Romans 7:14-23 14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.
15 For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.
16 If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good.
17 But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find.
19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.
20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
21 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.
22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.
23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
The Romans Progression
Romans 6 through 8 reveals a tremendous progression for spiritual growth.
Romans 6 Dead to sin
The main concept of Romans 6 is that we are identified with Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection.
Romans 6:5-10 5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,
6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
7 For he who has died has been freed from sin.
8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him.
10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
The result of having died with Christ, is that we have died to sin. What? I’m dead to sin? How come I’m still sinning?
We stumble over that, and don’t quite get it. So we go on to chapter 7, and see Paul talking about how sin causes him to do what he doesn’t want to – and identify with that.
And we have missed the whole point of Romans 6.
The key is in this verse:
Romans 6:11 11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The work reckon is rendered as consider in other translations. It’s actually an accounting term – to credit to the account of. It is the same word that is used in Romans 4, where it says “…. and Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”
We need to do that reckoning or accounting ourselves. I am dead to sin. It is not on the basis of our behavior, but on the basis that we have died, been buried, and are raised with Christ.
Speak that over yourself often. I am dead to sin and alive to God. It will take quite a lot to overcome the performance mindset in your belief. You have to do this first, before you will be able to successfully do the next verses:
Romans 6:12-14 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.
13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
Why will sin not have dominion over you? Because you are under grace.
Romans 7 Under the law
We’ve already listed a passage from Romans 7. But why would Paul start talking about being under the control of sin in chapter 7, when he had just established that we are no longer under the dominion of sin in chapter 6?
You have to understand the context and audience that Paul is speaking to in Romans 7. He starts out here:
Romans 7:1 1 Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives?
So who is his target audience? Those that are under the law. Remember in Romans 6:14 Paul said we are not under the law but under grace.
What Paul is doing in Romans 7 is describing his life as a Jew trying to keep the Law of Moses. He bemoans the fact that although he wants to do good, he does not find it in his power to do so.
But notice even in his frustration, he does not identify with the sin, but with the part of him that wants to do good. He does not call himself a sinner.
Romans 7:17 17 But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
Romans 7:21-24 21 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.
22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.
23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
Verse 24 has a fascinating story behind the phrase “this body of death”. It refers to a Roman practice that was used to punish traitors to the state. We know the Romans did not have any prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishments. I heard this in a sermon years ago, and found it referred to in footnotes on this verse in Darby’s translation.
For the vilest of traitors, they would take the prisoner, and a freshly killed corpse, and lash that corpse to the back of the prisoner with ropes. Then they would chain his arms and legs up in a cell so he couldn’t move, and leave him there. The corpse would rot, and spread gangrene into the prisoner. But they would go mad in the process.
Now we don’t know if this was a common practice, or if it was done just once, but every Roman that read Paul’s letter would understand what “this body of death” meant, and Paul’s desperate plea for someone to set him free. And Paul gives the answer in the next verse:
Romans 7:25 25 I thank God–through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
Romans 8 Set free from the law of sin and death
Because our Bibles are set forth in chapter and verse, we have a tendency to disconnect the thoughts of the previous chapter when a new chapter begins. But Paul’s original writings were one continual letter. So the thoughts of the first verses of Romans 8 should be tied directly to the last verses of Romans 7.
In the last verse of Romans 7 he speaks of the law of sin. But notice what he says in Romans 8:
Romans 8:1-2 1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
There is a difference between condemnation and conviction. Both come with the realization that you have done something wrong, But condemnation attacks your identity – you are an awful person because you did this. This isn’t just something you did this is who you are. Shame is an integral part of condemnation.
Conviction is still the realization that you did wrong, but it always provides the hope of a way out. Forgiveness is available, and help.
Hebrews 4:16 16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
You need mercy when you’ve done wrong. This invitation to come to the throne of grace is specifically for when we have done wrong and need help to stop.
The progression of Romans should be from chapter 6 directly into chapter 8. The frustrating loop of Romans 7 is not meant to apply to us as Christians under grace.
Transformation
Romans 12:1-2 1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Verse 1 has to do with first, your attitude of wanting to live for God with a life pleasing to him – submitting to God.
Secondly, presenting your body as a living sacrifice is concerning your behavior.
But you can’t stop there, because you will come to the conclusion that to get better you have to try harder. Performance based. And that will lead to frustration.
Romans 12:2 tells us that transformation – changing for the better – doesn’t come from trying harder, but by renewing the mind. By changing how and what you think and believe.
This is why I said it is more important what you believe than what you do.
(For more on transformation see my series on Where Real Transformation Comes From)
There are multiple levels of belief. There is a surface level agreement, but then there is believing something in the core of your being. In Bible school they talked about believing in your head, which they gave the term mental assent, versus believing in your heart – which is the core of your being.
Mental assent are the things you have decided you believe. It is not a bad thing, all beliefs have to start there. But to transform you, it has to be deeper.
Hope is an indicator, a gauge. Steve Backlund of Igniting Hope Ministries says “Any area that is not glistening with hope is an area where you are believing a lie instead of the truth.”
Ex: financial prosperity. You get an unexpected expense, and all of a sudden you are full of anxiety. So you might believe at one level that God wants you to prosper and meet all your needs, but at another level you don’t really believe that He is going to take care of you.
Having hope would say “I don’t know how He’s going to do it, but God is going to get me through this”. Even then there are levels of hope: you can have “survivor hope” – I’m going to live through this – or you can have “thriver hope” – God is going to cause me to thrive! Which do you think God wants us to have?
Romans 15:13 13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Fortunately, just as there are levels of belief, there are also levels of doubt. If you think of it, doubt is belief – it is just believing the wrong thing.
A danger is taking the attitude, – “Oh, I doubted. Now I won’t receive anything from God” (taken from James 1), then giving up. You can have thoughts of doubt in your head, but still have faith in your heart.
What do you allow to motivate you? You can have doubts screaming in your head, but if you combat them with the Word of God, and don’t act on them – then you really have faith.
The devil can feed you thoughts. Even Jesus had to deal with this. After He was baptized in the Jordan by John, and the voice came from heaven announcing, “This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased”, Jesus went into the wilderness where the devil came to tempt Him. And what was the temptation? “If you are the Son of God…..” It was to doubt who He was, His identity, that the Father had declared over Him.
That is one of the main areas the enemy attacks us in also – our identity.
Progress not Perfection
So you did something wrong (or didn’t do something right) and didn’t measure up. So have we all.
Being under law means we have to be perfect. If you fail, you are a failure. Guilt, shame, and condemnation.
Bring under grace means even when we fail, there is hope for the future to do better. Go to the throne of grace to obtain mercy (forgiveness) and grace to help!
God is more interested in your progress than your perfection.
Are you doing better than you did before? Are you progressing? Then that is a cause to celebrate!
The attitude you take when you slip will determine your success in the future.
If you ignore it – don’t acknowledge it and try to sweep it under the rug, make excuses that other people do it – then you will not gain the power to overcome.
If you side in with condemnation – what kind of Christian are you doing this again – you will lose hope and give up.
But if you acknowledge the sin – confess it – and repent, which means to change your thinking, you build hope for the future. What do you change in your thinking? You take the Romans 6 attitude – I am dead to sin – rather than the Romans 7 attitude – I am in bondage to sin.
If you are making progress – i.e., you are going longer between the times when you misstep – then you celebrate it and thank God that it will be even longer the next time.
