How Jesus and Paul Loved the Law

What has been the effect of antinomian Christianity on spiritual formation?

Antinomian Christianity is Christianity which is lived “against the law.” In this view we are not only made right (justified) with God apart from the law, we are made right by avoiding disciplined action according to the law. “It amounts to rejecting [the law] entirely except in so far as it may be done to you by God, passively.”1

With such a relationship to the law, antinomian Christianity has a spiritual formation without any form. Such Christianity must rely on “grace as formless spurts of permissiveness that thrust the law aside.”2 Without the form of the law to guide and structure our spirituality, we are left with a grace that merely allows disobedience and empty living. The formation of our spirit is not based on the revelation of God’s guidance for all of life, but on emaciated superstitions that reduce life with God to mere service to humanity, a “get-out-of-hell-free” card, or a really good worship service show.

Why did Paul “love” the law? (Note Romans 7:22)

Paul loved the law because it made him “conscious of sin” (Ro. 3:22), his great enemy which sought to enslave him to “impurity and ever-increasing wickedness.” (6:19-20) He loved the law which was so “holy, righteous, and good” (7:12) that sin wanted to deceive him and make “the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually [bring] death.” (7:1-0-11) The law helped Paul to see and know sin as his great enemy bent on deceiving and killing him. The law also explained, taught, and illustrated a life of willing “slavery” to God in “true righteousness and holiness” (Ep. 2:24), the very essence of eternal living of a life like God’s. (Ro. 6:23)

Why is the law so important even today?

Sin is still our greatest enemy and we are in need of guidance and teaching more than ever. With the loss of the knowledge of morality in favor of a vague sympathy for morality, we find ourselves cut adrift, “infants [in knowledge], tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.” (Ep. 4:14) We are more afraid of law than of sin, more afraid of guilt than of wrongdoing. So, we find ourselves unable to grow in grace and have called such stagnancy the inevitable cost of being fallen human beings. Our world and our lives look quite pagan, without hope and without God (Ep.2:12). The law supports us and can bring hope and God’s presence through a grace that actually brings knowledge and overcomes sin.

How do law and grace go together?

The law is direction and guidance, which is a grace in itself, but it is not complete. The law points to the fullness of grace found only in Jesus. As Dallas Willard said, “The law is the course of rightness, not the source of rightness.” When law is taken as ultimate in our life with God (“The Bible says it, so I will do it!”), we find our willpower is insufficient to keep the law, so “what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” (Ro. 7:15) This is because our will is no match for sin coming at us in obsessive desires. (vv. 18-20) When the law is not ultimate, but subordinate to the grace through Jesus in his abiding Spirit, it becomes a powerful ally, able to not only identify sin, but able to bring new desires that overcome sin from a new nature operating in and around us.

Why is the law so important to the soul and its restoration?

More and more we are finding that recovery of physical function after injury must include the right kind of activity and effort of the affected areas. Apathy makes injuries much harder to heal or even permanent. Similarly, our souls cannot heal without the right kind of effort in their injured and fragmented areas. “The law was given as an essential meeting place between God and human beings in covenant relationship with him, where the sincere heart would be received, instructed, and enabled by God to walk in his ways.”3 This “meeting place” is one where delighting in the law will bring integration and healing to the soul by God’s grace supplied by Jesus, our Teacher. The efforts to delight in the law may seem small and indirect, but will help the soul as nothing else can. Where there is healing and help for the soul, God’s kind of life flows through our life and our being making what is impossible for any person possible with God.

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1Willard, Dallas. Renovation of the Heart: Putting On the Character of Christ (p. 213). The Navigators. Kindle Edition.

2Ibid, 215.

3Ibid, 212.

Because I Follow Jesus

I am absolutely miserable! Is there anyone who will deliver me from this body where sin and death reign so supremely? I am thankful to God for the freedom that comes through our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One! (Romans 7:24-25, The Voice)

Belonging

The "wretched man" (ESV) that Paul expounds on in Romans 7 is his effort to identify with his "brothers and sisters well versed in the law" in verse 1. It reflects some of Paul's experience from his past and present in his struggle against self-justification.

Paul begins by explaining that a person may either belong to the law or belong to Christ (vv. 1-4).  A person who belongs to the law justifies his life by the law. The law is his reason for doing or not doing certain things in his life. When asked why he has certain habits or practices he will cite the law. His ability to explain the law will prove whether his action is for God or not.

A person who belongs to Jesus seeks to follow him, to remain as close to Jesus as possible. Following Jesus is the reason for her actions and his intentions. Jesus justifies her rather than her ability to explain the law. Her actions will be supported by her Lord or not. By his voice she stands or falls. She will probably also have reasons from the law, but these are supportive to her interactive relationship with Christ.

We cannot belong to both law and Christ. In the end we will seek our justification from one or the other. One is based in prayer and living with Jesus. The other is based on having the correct views about God and being able to defend a viewpoint. One of them is at the bottom of our hearts. That is our justification. When we belong to Jesus we not longer seek our justification through the law: "my brothers and sisters, in the same way, you have died when it comes to the law because of your connections with the body of the Anointed One. His death - and your death with Him - frees you to belong to the One who was raised from the dead so we can bear fruit for God." (v.4, The Voice)

Flesh and Spirit

A person who belongs to self-justification will find themselves "living in the flesh," that is, by their own wits and abilities. (vv.4-12) The law arouses self-defensiveness, which only increases worry and fear. Such motivations only lead to evil (Psalm 35, Matthew 6). Sin gets the upper hand and seems like the only way out, since it is so natural for us to do. We find in the face of law, we pretend or even lie about ourselves in order to escape what the law requires and yet seem like we are justified in our actions. This is the inevitable outcome of living in the flesh, by our own wits and abilities.

Jesus justifies and releases from the law anyone who belongs to him. The law's requirements are still before them, but instead of generating worry and fear, they bring hope and anticipation. The law no longer imprisons him because he knows he cannot obey it without Jesus, so he "dies" to such an obedience to the law. Instead he serves in a "new Spirit-empowered life." Jesus gives grace so that obedience is possible by asking him for help instead of trying to manage on our own.

The bad fruit generated through trying to obeying the law is pretense and disobedience to God. The good fruit grown for God is real obedience to him through following Jesus and depending on him every step of the way. The law becomes a promise of what God will do in those who follow Jesus rather than a punishment for those who cannot keep it. Those who follow Jesus can truly see "the law is holy; and its commandments are holy, right, and good" (v.12) instead of suspecting that the law is sin or that that God sent the law to destroy people. (v.7, 13)

The Role of Trials

The heart of this problem is that the law is spiritual, that is, from the Spirit and that we are on the flesh, which is enslaved to sin, that is, a life without God (vv.13-20) This is like oil and water. As long as the law is spiritual and I am not, the two will always come apart. So when I try to obey the law with my own wits and abilities, I will always find myself compelled to disobey it for some very good reason. It will just make sense to lie or pretend or just do it this one time. The natural abilities of humanity are not enough for the law. In the end they will separate just like oil and water. Good intentions are not enough. We need more powerful that comes from outside of us into our hearts.

Sin lives in us as long as we live by our own abilities. Sin is resistance to God. The flesh cannot be used to get to God. It cannot be removed. It must be sacrificed. Our natural abilities find their place when they are surrendered to God. They are put to death when we refuse to rely on them. We rely on Jesus instead. Our natural abilities are meant to serve, not rule.

The war inside each person is the war of temptation (vv.21-25). Temptations are the law of the flesh on its own. Inevitable as gravity. Mere human ability is enslaved to wrong-doing because it is powerless to resist. Temptation is the door for Jesus to enter our lives. In trials we realize our inability and can rest in his ability. This is the law of God. We serve God's law by being delivered from a body that cannot save itself by Jesus, who saves us from all trials and temptations.

In the face of trials and temptations, then, the law is spiritual. It points the way. We are unspiritual and of the flesh if we merely try to figure how to do what the law says on our own. Jesus died so we can become spiritual, born from above, immersed in the Spirit, saved by him, and then train to the law with Jesus as our Teacher, submit to the law with Jesus as our Lord, and delight in the law with Jesus as our dear Friend.

Justification

Self-justification comes from a person who belongs to a law or religion rather than a living Lord. It grows a disposition of resistance to God evidenced by hidden vices and contempt for other people as one struggles to obey by her own power. Self-justification fails in trials and temptations, ending up with a person doing what she does not really think is right. Justifying oneself is a temptation in itself, because it ignores the reality and presence of God.

Justification from Jesus comes to those who belong to him and have abandoned self-justification based on the law or religion. It grows a disposition of loving surrender to God. When one justifies his life by saying, "It's because I follow Jesus," usually the outcomes will not be disputable. The fruit of that person's life will indicate who or what they are following. A life of virtue and compassion flow from Jesus. Trials are the place of salvation for a person who belongs to Jesus, one sure place where he will discover a truly Spirit-empowered life, one of mercy and grace, one full of light - love, truth, and power from God.

How I Cannot Help Myself

Romans 7, The Law of Sin and Death

In trying to sum up Romans 7, I think Paul points to this law: I do what I hate.  This inconsistency and lack of integrity in my heart is "business as usual" when I live "in the flesh," that is, by my own status and abilities, only.  Paul calls this the law of sin and death.  The death he describes is one of guilt and condemnation, although I do not think this excludes physical decay, as I note Paul's discussion later in chapter 8.

I unpack this law by identifying the parts of me that contribute to this way of life.  If I do what I do not want to do, then it is not I, but sin living in me that is at work.  I can see why this idea of Paul's might be used as an excuse for continued sin in my life.  It almost sounds like it is inevitable.  It is, "in the flesh."  This is the "natural" state of a person apart from the Spirit.  Paul is not promoting self-resignation here, but pointing out the enslavement of the will.  This is one of the indicators of this law of sin and death, this life in the flesh: enslavement to sin.

Another contributor to this way of life is the body indwelt by sin.  Sin is located in the members of the body most specifically.  I can see how this has encouraged a poor view of the body even to the extent of body hatred or mistreatment.  After all, Paul cries out in desperation, "Who will save me from this body of death?"  And yet what has happened is that the body has been offered to the wrong master.  In short, my body ends up full of sinful habits.  Things "come naturally" to me because my body has been trained to do certain things without thinking or directly willing them.

The mind is also affected by this law of sin and death.  Although I may be taught by God's laws and have some desire to do them, I find that sin takes these very good things and converts them into evil desires.  A mind without such knowledge is "dead to sin" in that it remains unaware of sin's active presence, but "death reigns" (Romans 5) even with this lack of knowledge.  Unfortunately, even with the knowledge, I may not "dead to sin," but find that sin produces death in me by taking such knowledge and deceiving me.  How does sin deceive?  It takes the knowledge of the law and produces evil desires.  I hear about what is wrong or forbidden and then I long for it.  The mind is darkened.  It becomes a place where even what is good becomes a snare because my desires remain opposed to God.  Whatever I think becomes rationalization for doing what sin in me desires rather than reasons to trust and follow Jesus.

The law of doing what I hate, then, shows that my will in enslaved by sin, my body is inhabited by sin, and my mind is darkened by sin.  The law of sin and death is that when I take on sin, I die.  I cannot overcome sin through choosing not to sin, sin my will is enslaved.  My will is enslaved by my sin-inhabited body, which by habit and training opposed my good choices with evil desires.  My mind remains darkened because the desires of sin rule and pervert my thoughts and feelings into rationalizations.  Sin rules in me through desires that inhabit my body, enslave my will, and darken my mind.

This is not how I am to live.  Romans 6 makes it clear that living enslaved to sin is not what God intends for his children.  Baptism is a picture of the death that I must enter so that I might find resurrection in my life.  I am not only looking forward to being raised form the dead, I am supposed to live a life raised from the death that sin brings in a new life in this age.

Romans 8 describes the freedom from this death, this condemnation that sin brings.  I am set free from the law of sin and death by the law of the Spirit and life.  As sin brings death, the Spirit brings life.

Lord, I see that I cannot cope with sin or fight sin, I must lay myself out to die so that sin my be removed from my being and so that I may live a new life.  Let this immersion into death be done to me, so that I might be raised into your love and light, Father.  Increase my trust in you.  I fear leaving sin behind at times, but have found such hope in your work in my life.  Let me never try to manage sin.  It needs to die.  By your grace.  Amen.