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May 19, 2013 |
| Freedom From Sin | ||
Christians sometimes find themselves recognizing that sin snaps at their heels every day trying to cause them to fall. We can feel deluged by the attacks of sin upon us. And sometimes we do fall. So Christians can be excused for sometimes wondering where exactly is that freedom from sin that I was promised.
Non-Christians live under a great weight of sin but are largely unaware of it. A few of them realize that something is wrong in their lives and try to compensate in various worldly ways. They try to bring in happiness with alcohol, drugs, or a great host of worldly pleasures. Or they distract themselves from it by filling their time with worldly activities. Others just accept that feeling as the normal state of life. It's all they've ever known since they were children.
But the new Christian quickly finds that he is living in a body, mind, and ego that is sold to sin. It is packed with sinful desires and even the things that it must desire to survive are out of control. He finds himself like an allergic person standing in a field of pollen or perhaps more like a person who has lived his life like a fish in a swamp but who now surfaces as a new creature only to discover the repugnant sights, sounds and smells of the swamp he lives in.
In Romans 7 Paul describes this very situation. But a lot of people have trouble with these verses because Paul is writing artfully, as he often does. Paul's skill with his language is better than most of us with our language. In this case he is using an implied verb tense called Historical Present. "Sometimes the historical present is used to make a past event more vivid: 'I am walking down the street and a car runs off the street right in front of me and crashes into a restaurant window.' This is using present tense to describe a past event. This is how people commonly talk and it is very effective."1
Because many people don't realize Paul is using this verb tense they are confused when they see Paul saying that "for it is easy for me to delight in the good, but I am unable to perform it" (v. 18). When Paul says this he is talking about the past but he is using the present tense to make it more vivid to the reader.
14 For we know that The Written Law is spiritual but I am carnal and I am sold to sin.
15 For that which I committed I did not understand, neither was it anything that I chose, but I was doing what I hated.
16 And if I did what I did not choose, I testify of The Written Law that it is excellent.
Paul is talking about his life prior to becoming a Christian when he was a slave to sin. In verse 14 above he uses the Historical Present tense. The reader is supposed to recognize when he says "I am sold to sin" that this cannot be true and understand that Paul is using this verb tense. In verse 15 Paul switches back to past tense to confirm that he is talking about the past. Paul will be jumping back and forth between past tense and historical present tense in the following verses.
These changes in verb tense are not preserved in most other translations. Instead they are written in historical present tense only. That eliminates one of the clues Paul left to show the literary technique he was using and most people miss the other one, "I am sold to sin".
Now that we can see the literary technique that Paul is using we can look for the point that he is making. He is describing how he did things he did not understand, but he hated. The things that he did were not things that he chose to do but he did them without thinking, being a slave to sin. Then he summarizes by saying that because he did these things not by choice but because he was a slave to sin he can testify now that the law, which showed him what sin was, is an excellent law.
Now he jumps back into historical present tense.
17 But now it is not I who am committing this, but sin that dwells within me.
18 For I know that good does not dwell within me, (but this is in my flesh), for it is easy for me to delight in the good, but I am unable to perform it.
Paul says he knows now that it wasn't him who was doing those things but it was the sin that dwelt within him and controlled him. And he knows that nothing good lived (or lives) in his fleshly body. He wanted to do good but he was unable to do it.
He makes an important clarification here – good does not dwell in his flesh. He will come back to this as he begins to distinguish between the flesh and the inner man.
Now he jumps back to past tense.
19 It was not the good that I wanted that I did, but the evil that I did not want to do, that I did. 20 And if I did the thing that I did not want, it was not I doing it, but sin that dwelt within me.
In these verses he restates what he said in verses 17 and 18. He wanted to do good but did evil instead. But he recognizes that he did what he did not want to do. From this he sees that he was not in control; something else was in control. That something was sin, which dwelt within him.
If think this means we are not responsible for the sinful things we do, be careful to understand that Paul is not saying that. Just because sin rules in our lives instead of righteousness does not free us from responsibility. We make the choice as to who will rule. If sin overwhelmed the voices of good within us and we chose to follow, it was still us that chose.
Now he jumps to historical present tense to make a conclusion from what he has said so far.
21 I find, therefore, a law agreeing with my conscience which wants to do good, because evil is near me. 22 For I rejoice in the law of God in the inner person.
23 I saw another law in my members that makes war against the law of my conscience and takes me captive to the law of sin that is in my members.
24 I am a wretched man. Who will deliver me from this body of death?
25 I thank God by Our Lord Yeshua The Messiah. Now therefore, I am a Servant of The Law of God in my conscience, but in my flesh, I am a Servant of the law of sin.
Paul presents his conclusion, his finding, from what he has experienced and discussed. His conscience guided him to want to do good, since evil was always near. His conscience operated in accordance with a law and that law is the law of God. But there was another law at work in the outer parts of his body, a law that was (and is) at war with, and conquered, the law of his conscience and therefore ruled him.
Paul finishes by describing how horrible this situation was. The law told him what was good but sin, working in his body, made sure it killed him. He is a good man trapped within evil. And he cries out – who will get me out of this intolerable situation. Then he answers his own question. Because of the Messiah he can follow the law of God which is in his conscience, even though his body still follows the law of sin. By this he means his conscience is no longer conquered by his body. His body still has all the sinful desires but he follows his conscience, which guides according to the law of God.
In these verses we see Paul making an argument to teach the new reader. Most of us have been in the church for long enough to understand what he is describing but I'm going to go through it again.
His argument is this. As a Jew living under the law Paul found that he wanted to do the good which the law prescribed but he found himself unable to do it. From this he recognized that something else was in control, which was sin. From that he recognized that there is flesh, which is sold to sin (a slave to sin), living by the law of sin and there is an inner man with a conscience, living by the law of God, which wants to do good. But because of the weakness of the body towards sin, sin was able to conquer the conscience and rule, with the result being death. But now the Messiah makes it possible for the conscience to rule.
1 There is therefore no condemnation to those in Yeshua The Messiah who do not walk in the flesh.
2 For The Law of The Spirit of Life which is in Yeshua The Messiah has freed you from the law of sin and of death.
In the past verses in this lesson Paul has been talking about the state of a Jewish man who is under the law, having been circumcised into that covenant. In the very last verse of those he begins to talk about the Christian man, whether he was Jew or Gentile makes no difference. Both Jew and Gentile have a conscience, but the Jew also had the law. But because of the weakness of the flesh to sin, the law became condemnation instead of righteousness.
But now for those who are in Christ and who choose not to walk in the ways of the flesh, the law does not condemn us when we stumble and fall. We live under grace. As it says in 1 John 1 9 But if we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and he will purge us from all our evil.
But more than grace or forgiveness we have the Messiah. We are in him and he is in us. This results in a very different relationship than was available before with only the conscience or with both the law and conscience. We spoke of the weight of sin earlier in the lesson. "The Christian, unlike the average non-Christian, is not indifferent to the weight of sin. He is actually hypersensitive to it. Having come to Jesus Christ, his senses are awakened to the reality of sin. His sensitivity to sin intensifies as he matures spiritually."2
This then is freedom from sin at this time. We have a heightened sensitivity to sin that serves as an early warning and a stronger warning. And with that comes a stronger desire to live righteously.
And something new comes with that relationship, something that was not available to those who lived by conscience alone, something that was only available via priests or prophets to those who were under the law. We can know his specific will for us and follow that.
At this time freedom from sin means constantly being at war with your own body. But it's a war we can win. We now have defenses, armor if you will, that are adequate to the task. The inner man wins the battle by choosing and by faith, and the foundation of that is the Word. The inner man lives righteously, the foundation of which is also the Word.
But, another kind of freedom from sin is coming. At that time we will put off these bodies of sin and death and put on new spiritual bodies. These new bodies will be our helpers rather than our enemies. I for one will say Amen and Hallelujah to that.
1 Dave Bauscher, translator for Aramaic NT
2 http://www.gty.org/resources/positions/P13/freedom-from-sin