Bishop's Epistle: Then and Now

Then and Now

The Victorious Christian

... So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. 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. Romans 7:25 - 8:1

That was then, but this is now. O Glory to the Lamb!

In Romans chapters 7 and 8 Paul contrasts the life of one under the Law and the believer whose life is in Christ Jesus. For the one under the Law, before the New Life of the Holy Spirit is manifested there is no victory and much condemnation. Such a one knows the Law and has a mental ambition to keep it. but is unable because there has been no nature change in the soul/spirit. The study of the “Law” has engraved it into the mind, but the heart is powerless to actually desire it. The Apostle remembers his life in such a state and writes of it in the "the historical present."

(though he is speaking of his past life, he is writing in the present tense) in this manner:

Romans 7:14-24

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. 24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? (NKJV)

Paul, disappointed with the failure of his life as lived under the Law asks a desperate question (continuing to write in the “historical present”): “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” He now has the answer that none before Calvary could have known: “I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

In the second part of v25 the Apostle sums up his past life as it was lived under the Law by writing: “So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.” Dear disciple, notice that Paul writes of “then;” he is reflecting on a time in his past. The very next strokes of his quill scratches onto his parchment: “There is therefore now no condemnation ...” He writes of “Then” and “Now.” “Then” there was much condemnation. Notice how he wrote of his condemnation: “... but I am carnal, sold under sin. ... For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. ... For I know that in me ... nothing good dwells; ..., but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. ..., that evil is present with me, ... 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?” But as to Paul’s condition “Now” he has this to say: “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.”

The Apostle goes on in what is our chapter 8 to describe the victorious overcoming life of a Christian. We fail, at times, to remember that the New Testament books were not divided into chapters and verses originally. The Epistles, like Romans, were letters written by godly men to give instruction and encouragement to persons or church groups. So our ch 7 and ch8 must not be divided into separate subjects. It is all one topic for the writer. In ch 8 he contrasts the life of the Spirit filled believer to the life of the one attempting to live according to the Law of Moses while in the Old Testament economy. He has shown, in ch 7, the impossibility of a victorious moral life.

One can never hope to understand Paul’s teaching from chapter 7 unless chapter 8 is studied in tandem with it. Many Bible teachers in the evangelical camp like to teach ch 7 without considering ch 8. In doing this an entirely false doctrine is fostered upon Christianity. The teaching that Paul is speaking of the life of the Christian in ch 7 is patently false.

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. 3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. 7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. 8 So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. 10 And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

The "I" pictured here is the quintessential unregenerate person, who has knowledge of the law of God, senses true guilt for sinfulness, longs for deliverance, but is without the grace of Christ to overcome sin. In contrast, the Christian "under grace," infused with the love of God, is victorious over sin and "ceases to sin."

Apostolically Speaking

☩ David Ignatius