Notes on Romans 6-8

by Grant Thorpe

Paul had spoken about a world in which death had reigned (or sin, through death). But now, those who knew God's grace would exercise dominion (or grace would, through justifying these people). Believers in Christ actually knew the love of God-to them and flowing in them-and they lived in anticipation of a resurrection. Paul was not concerned to tell us what the world would look like under this new reign, but he did tell us about the new dynamics of personal living which would reveal the reigning of God's grace in the world.

Paul's critics had said (3:8) that he taught people to do evil so that good (God being gracious) would result from it. They were cynical about a God who would be faithful in the face of their unfaithfulness. It appeared to them that their strenuous efforts to do good would not be recognised. In fact, Paul showed that their conduct was bad-false accusation, and for this, they stood condemned.

A similar question was posed now-within the community of believers. Because God's approval had been given to those who believed in Christ rather than to those who fulfilled the law, Christians may have wondered what moral reasons remained for doing good. Doing good to earn favour (rather than for love of God) is a powerful motive and dies slowly. The church needed to be tutored in the new dynamic of holiness -based on God's approval already given.

Chapter six

6:1-11 So Paul argued as follows. The reason for doing good is not to gain favour with God. We already have that. Rather, our conduct depends on our having been baptized-not as a ceremony but as a sign of our union with Christ and his saving deeds. We have already encountered death-in Christ. We have already come to life and expect to be raised from physical death. God's purpose in all this is to destroy our past life of hostility to him and the present dynamics of that sinfulness. In fact, sin cannot enslave us anymore because of our being justified (v. 7, usually translated 'freed'). It was the crushing weight of guilt that had kept us as slaves. Now, sin has lost its awful power over those who know they are not condemned by God, but rather, approved. Because death has no more control over a person who has died and been raised, it has no more power over those who are one with Christ. They are free to live to God. If this is how God reckons our life to be, that is how we must reckon it to be.

6:12-14 How will this work out? Paul said, don't let sin have any power that Christ has stripped from it. As people awakened to the real world of being related to God, serve God! Sin is not in charge. Grace is.

6:15-23 He asked his question about sinning again-it needed to be answered well. If you sin you are still a slave, and you will die. But Christians are obedient to God. Paul didn't say they should be obedient because they had already believed and this was obedience from the heart, to God, as he revealed himself in the gospel. So he said : 'All the powers you once devoted to sin, use them for God. What reward do you expect from these two ways? Sin's reward is wages-death. The reward for obedience is a gift-of life.'

Prayer

Father, may I not be amazed at the high duty given to me-to be your devoted servant, but amazed at the baptism that has united me with your Son. With this new day, let me see my life as you see it-buried but risen again to be in your presence. Let me see the grace of this new regime again and again. As I began in the obedience of faith in your Son, so let this day be filled with faith in him by turning from every false way. And as I began by receiving righteousness as a gift, now let me be a slave to that gift-that all things may be sanctified and lead to eternal life. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

Chapter seven

7:1-6 Paul still wrestled with the Jewish mind, which is also the mind of the natural person without grace. If you have died in Christ, as with marriage, you are free to belong to another way of being justified. This is so that God may actually have the fruit of godly living from us. Living under law as a way of justification actually stirred us up to evil and held us captive. Our conscience wedded to law is a tyrant; it never ceases accusing us, or excusing us, and keeps us distant from God. Only death can separate its hold on us and free us to live in the new way opened up by the Spirit's coming.

7:7-13 Paul said his problem was not the law itself. In fact, it was holy, good and spiritual, but it served to stir up and expose sin for what it was. Without the law (whenever that was) he had been able to ignore sin, but when he tried to keep the law as a way of 'living', it turned on him and exposed the extreme extent of his sinfulness.

7:14-25 Paul moved from the past to the present-as if to say that what he found out about himself in the past was the revelation of what he always would be in himself. Only a person already justified in Christ could have such clarity about himself. He stood as a new 'I' in Jesus Christ, looking at the old 'I' with its miserable behaviour. He acknowledged responsibility for what he had become, but knew that this was not how things were in Christ and not how they would remain. He would be saved from this present body of death.

Prayer

Lord, may the certainty of my being joined to Christ live in my heart and mind. I really have been put to death in him, and, in him, really made alive to live to you. By your Son's cross, my conscience has been released from its morbid recounting of the past and its fretful scheming for the future. Thanks be to God! Father, as it remains that, of myself, I do not do what I want to do, may this serve to turn me from using false energies to prove myself, and may it cause me to glory in your Son and his salvation. Through Jesus Christ, Amen.

Chapter eight

8:1-4 Paul spoke now of a battle, but waged in a different way-without condemnation, and by the power of the Spirit. We are free of the condemnation that has been on the race since Adam (5:16, 18) and free of the dynamics of sin and death (7:11, 23-24). This is by the new way of the Spirit; it is life in Christ Jesus. It is based on what God did in Christ-sin was condemned in him. All of the claim which the law had on us for the past, and all of its claim for the future is fulfilled for us and in us as we live by the leading of the Holy Spirit.

8:5-8 Paul had no time for the old way of the flesh-whether it was Jewish self righteousness or the licentiousness of the Gentile world. Either way led to death and was hostile to God.

8:9-17 Paul was writing to the church at Rome and said that they were of the Spirit-they had received him with Christ, and even in a body still characterised by sin, they could rely on the Spirit for life and resurrection. Given all this, they had no obligation to the flesh but every power necessary-in the joy of sonship-to say no to sin and to endure to the end.

8:18-30 The way from the present to the coming glory was for Paul a splendid, though painful, journey. The creation around us together with the creation that we are is still in pain, but is destined to share the glory of God's children. But in this waiting and as we pray, the Spirit of God opens up to us the very heart of God for his creation. Everything along the way fits the plan for the end-that we should be transformed to be like the one in whom we live.

The confidence for this is always the Father giving us Christ and Christ always at work for us; it is God being our justifier and the assurance-because of justification-that nothing can separate us from this love of God. It just does not depend on us but on him, and so, our hearts are freed to worship.

Prayer

Father, may the joy of your salvation touch every day, and every pain, and every duty, and every sin. Let the past be enough for giving way to the flesh, or for trusting in the flesh to produce some good. Your Son has dealt with my sin; your Spirit can lead me in all the new ways that lead on to glory. Especially, by that Spirit, and in Jesus name, I exult in your love that is on me forever.