We’ve been doing some road repair recently. Specifically, the Roman Road to Salvation has some deep potholes that need fixing. Our understanding of Romans 6:23 was one of the areas needing major attention. But much more work needs to be done.
The Roman Road moves on to Romans 5:8 which states, “But this is how God demonstrates his own love for us: the Messiah died for us while we were sinners.” Romans 5:1 is often used as well: “Therefore, since we’ve been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus the Messiah.”
So, the Roman Road has declared “all have sinned have fallen short of God’s glory” and “the wages of sin is death.” But thankfully, through faithfulness to Jesus, we have been “justified.” Justified is a huge Bible word. It basically means we’ve been declared “in the right” in God’s eyes. Justified is often a courtroom (or forensic) term. When someone has been accused of wrongdoing, the judge weighs the evidence. If the evidence indicates that the defendant has indeed committed the crime, then the judge ought to pronounce that person guilty. They have acted wickedly by stealing, assaulting, murdering, or whatever. But if the evidence indicates the defendant has done no wrong, then the judge must proclaim them innocent. The Biblical way of making this declaration would be to say that this person is “righteous.” In other words, they have done nothing wrong, but have instead acted righteously. When someone is “justified” by the court, they have been declared “righteous.” In fact, in the Bible the word for righteous and the word for justified are the same word. So, through faith in Jesus, we are “justified” or declared righteous in God’s sight.
The Roman Road then moves on to Romans 8:1, where Paul says, “Therefore, there is no condemnation for those who are in Jesus the Messiah.” Very easy, right? We put our faith in Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross, and we’re “justified” – set right with God – and thereby assured of our salvation! And this transaction has nothing to do with our “works” or behavior or conduct. It’s all about what Jesus did on the cross! Well, get out your shovels, because the Roman Road again needs serious repair here. And the first thing to note is the troubling fact that the Roman Road has not even let Paul finish his sentence! One of the best ways to confuse yourself is by taking little bits and pieces of Paul’s writing out of context, and then trying to paste them together into a coherent system. That’s a recipe for problems. Let’s try and sort it out.
OK, “There is no condemnation for those who are in Jesus the Messiah.” But why is there no condemnation? What does Paul say? Does he go on to declare, “There is no condemnation because of Jesus’ sacrificial death upon the cross! By placing your faith in Jesus death we receive forgiveness of our sins. And what’s more, this has nothing to do with our behavior. It’s all about Jesus’ work on the cross!” Christians using the Roman Road often assume exactly that. But, just as we saw in Romans 6:15-23, what Paul actually writes is much different – and far more interesting – than what most evangelicals he think he should have written.
Let’s let Paul finish his own sentence. “There is no condemnation for those who are in Jesus the Messiah, because through Jesus the Messiah, the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.” I’ve put the word because in italics to remind us that Paul is offering an explanation for why there is no condemnation. And the most basic thing he says is that “the law of the Spirit of life” has set him free from “the law of sin and death.” What on earth does he mean by that?
The first thing we must understand is what Paul means when he uses the word “law.” (Greek: nomos) Paul was a first century Jew, a Pharisee who had completely committed himself to the study and observance of the Torah. When he writes “law,” he is always referring to the Torah, the covenant law God gave to the nation of Israel at the foot of Mount Sinai. It’s very important to recognize that Paul never uses the word “law” as a general term for proper human behavior. Many readers and interpreters of Paul assume that when he writes about “the law,” he’s referring to some kind of universal moral code. This is simply not the case. Rather, the Torah was very specifically the covenant law that bound the people of Israel to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So, when Paul is talking about “the law,” he very specifically means the Jewish Torah. At this point, we must also address another vital Pauline phrase: “the works of the law.” If “the law” refers to the Jewish Torah, then “the works of the law” also denotes obedience to the Torah. So when Paul talks about “works of the law,” he is not talking about a general code of proper human conduct. Sometimes when Paul is writing quickly and densely, he abbreviates “works of the law” to “works.” But when Paul is writing about “works,” he has not left behind the fact that he’s discussing the Jewish Law. Understanding these principles is utterly essential for grasping Paul’s thought regarding “faith” and “works.”
There is also a second key for comprehending Paul’s understanding of “the law.” The law, or the Torah, was given by God, through Moses, to the children of Israel. The children of Israel were the physical descendants of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jacob was of course renamed “Israel” after wrestling with God. (Israel means “he struggles with God”) In Paul’s mind, the Torah was given to “Israel according to the flesh.” To most readers, this innocent looking phrase is simply an elaborate way of denoting that the nation of Israel was comprised of the physical descendants of their forefather Jacob/Israel. But for Paul it carries much more significance. The term “flesh” (Greek: sarx) contains an entire world of meaning. To understanding the term “flesh,” we’ll have to (very briefly) jump back to the garden of Eden.
In the garden, mankind enjoyed fullness of life by living according to God’s wisdom. But when mankind sinned by turning away from God’s wisdom, they were doomed to die. When Paul talks about “flesh,” he is thinking about the predicament of mankind. The human race is sinful and rebellious. And because of our sin, our bodies are wearing out, decaying, wasting away, and ultimately will be dissolved in death. Please remember that in Biblical thought, God called Israel to represent all of humanity before him. God desired that by following the Torah, Israel would become his image-bearers and thereby demonstrate his loving purposes for humanity to all the nations. But there was a problem which Paul clearly recognized: Israel was just like the rest of humanity. They were “fleshly,” that is, sinful and rebellious, and therefore condemned to decay and ultimately die.
So when we are reading Paul, we must always bear in mind that the elements we have discussed above always belong together. When Paul is writing about “the law,” he’s referring to the Jewish law, the Torah. The very same law that was given by Moses to Israel on Mount Sinai. And the people who received the law were “Israel according to the flesh.” They were sinful, rebellious and therefore headed for death. The same applies when Paul talks about “works,” or “works of the law.” Again, this is not a catch-all phrase meaning “things we do,” or human behavior, or a general code of conduct, or a universal moral standard. It specifically denotes Torah given to Israel according to the flesh. For Paul, it is a package deal: works, works of the law, Torah, Israel, and flesh. The whole problem with Israel under the Torah was that Israel was “fleshly,” sinful and rebellious. In fact, Paul spends the entirety of Romans chapter 7 depicting the plight of Israel according to the flesh under Torah.
Again, the problem with the covenant wasn’t the behavior demanded by the Torah. In Romans 7:12, Paul writes, “the Torah is holy; and the commandment is holy, upright, and good.” Like all gifts from God, the Torah is good. The Torah commanded Israel to love God with all her heart, mind, soul, and strength. It called her to worship the one true God alone and to live in obedience to him. The Torah rightfully outlined the kind of proper conduct which would lead to flourishing and life. As someone steeped in the Torah, Paul knew that obedience to the law would impart life. He no doubt had meditated deeply upon passages like Leviticus 18:4-5, “You must obey my laws and be careful to follow my decrees. I am the LORD your God. Keep my decrees and laws, for the man who obeys them will live by them.” Or Deuteronomy 30:15-16, where God says to the people of Israel, “See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the LORD your God, walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.”
Jesus would have fully agreed that obedience to the Torah would bring life. For example, the gospel of Luke records a fascinating encounter when an expert in the Torah stood up to test Jesus. This legal expert inquires, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus replies, “What is written in the Torah? How do you read it?” The lawyer responds by quoting two commands at the heart of Torah: “Love the Lord your God with all you heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind” and “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus fully affirms this response, “You have answered correctly. Do this and you will live!” At this point, some readers might be wondering if Jesus didn’t get the memo. Did he really just tell this person that obedience to the law, the Torah would lead to eternal life? Isn’t Christianity not about what we do, but what Jesus has done? Yet, here Jesus is, plainly saying “Do this, and you will live.” Some evangelicals might be tempted at this point to accuse Jesus of improper theology! But Jesus believed that he was the fulfillment of the Torah, not it’s abrogation.
The Apostle Paul would have heartily agreed. In Romans 3:31, Paul writes,”Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.” Like Jesus, Paul grasped the crucial notion that the kind of human behavior commanded in the Torah was essential for salvation. If we can’t sort this out, we are at risk of throwing out Leviticus 18:4-5, Deuteronomy 30, and the entire Old Testament while we’re at it. Happily, we won’t have to do that! But it will take another blog before we can fully understand why Paul thought that “the Torah of the Spirit of life” was the reason why “there is no condemnation for those who are in Jesus the Messiah.”
