Teaching Notes ROMANS Chapters 6, 7 and 8
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Chapter 6. What Motive, then to Right Living?
If we are no longer under the Law, and Christ Forgives our
Sins, then why not continue to Sin? Keep on Sinning, and Christ
keep on Forgiving.
Paul answers that such'a thing is unthinkable. Christ died to
Save us from our Sins. His Forgiveness is for the purpose of
making us Hate our Sins.
We cannot be servants of Sin, and servants of Christ. We must
choose one or the other. It is not possible to please Christ. and
continue at the same time to live in Sin."
This does not mean that we can entirely overcome All our
Sins, and place ourselves beyond the need of His Mercy. But it
does mean that there are two essentially different Ways of Life:
the Way of Christ and the Way of Sin. In heart we belong to
one or the other, but not both.
Christ, the perfect embodiment of the Law of God, furnishes
us with the Motive, and supplies us with the Power, to struggle
on“ unto the attainment for ourselves of' that Perfect Holiness
which, by His Grace, ultimately shall be ours.
Chapter 7. Why the Law?
If we are no longed under the Law, why then was the Law
given? It was not given as a scheme of Salvation, but as a
preparatory measure, to educate Man‘ to see his Need of a Sav-
iour: to make us know the difference between Right and Wrong.
Not until we realize our Helplessness is there desire for, and
appreciation of, a Saviour.
Struggle between our Carnal and Spiritual Natures, 14-25. We
wonder if this is a picture of Paul’s own inner struggle.
In I Cor 4:4 he says He Knew Nothing Against Himself. Yet he must
have felt powerful impulses within his nature against which he
had a continuous desperate struggle. Else he could never have
written these words. His unspeakable Gratitude to Christ for
Deliverance from that against which he felt himself powerless
reminds one of Luther‘s Unbounded Joy when he realized all at
once that Christ could do for him what he had vainly struggled
'to do for himself. It is an illustration of the power of the Law
on an earnest soul depressed by inability to live up to it, and
the Relief found in Christ.
Chapter 8. The law of The Spirit
This is one of the Best Loved Chapters in the Bible *
The Indwelling Spirit, 1-11. In Christ, we not only have our Sins
Forgiven, but there is _also an impartation of a New Life. A New
Birth. Our natural Ще, so to speak, is Impregnated by the Spirit
of God, and a Baby Spirit, a Divine Nature, is born within us,
in a manner somewhat similar to that in which our physical life,
our Adam Nature, was started by our parents our Natural Life
from Adam. A New Divine Life from Christ.
This is a Reality within ourselves. We may not feel it nor be
conscious of. it. But it is there. We accept it as a matter of Faith.
There is within ourselves, beyond the realm of our Conscious
Knowledge, a Divine Life, the child of God’s Spirit, under His
loving care, working in stillness, ever unwearied; never ex-
hausted, to gain‚control of our Whole Being, and Transform us
into the Image of. God. This is the Life that Will blossom into
Immortal Glory in the day of Resurrection.
Our Obligation to the Spirit, 12-17. Walking after the Spirit
means that, while depending wholly and implicitly on Christ for
our Salvation, we still struggle to the utmost to Live up to His
Law. Paul is explicitly explicit that the Grace of Christ does not
release us'from doing everything in our_ power to Live Right.
~Walking after the Flesh means giving ourselves to the gratifica—
tion of our Fleshly Desires.
Our body is Flesh. Some Fleshly Desires“ are perfectly natural
and necessary. Some are Wrong. Those that are Wrong we must
abstain from altogether. The others We may enjoy, but be careful
to Keep our Affection Above the Border Line.
Suffering Creation, 18-25. The whole natural creation, including
ourselves, is groaning for a Better Order of Existence, to be
revealed in the day of God‘s-Completed Redemption, when the
Body of This Death, 7:24, shall receive the Freedom of Heaven’s
Glory, now in the various processes of creation. It is a .grand
conception of. the work of Christ.
Intercession of the Spirit, 26-30. Not only is the in-dwelling
Spirit our pledge of Resurrection and Future Glory, but through
His prayers in our behalf we are assured that God will make
Everything that might happen to us Work Together for Our
Good. We may' forget to Pray. The Spirit Never Does. God will
see _us through. Let us never forget to Trust Him.
The Inviolable Love of Christ, 31-39. He pied for us. Has For-
given us. Has given Himself to us in the person of His Spirit.
If we are His, no power ori earth or in heaven or in hell' can
prevent His bringing us to Himself in the Eternal Bosom of God.
This is one.-o£ the most magnificent passages in all the Bible.
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Romans 6 New International Version (NIV)
Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ
6 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with,[a] that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7 because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. 14 For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.
Slaves to Righteousness
15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! 16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
19 I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. 20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in[b] Christ Jesus our Lord.
Footnotes:
Romans 6:6 Or be rendered powerless
Romans 6:23 Or through
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Romans 7 New International Version (NIV)
Released From the Law, Bound to Christ
7 Do you not know, brothers and sisters—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives? 2 For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her to him. 3 So then, if she has sexual relations with another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man.
4 So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. 5 For when we were in the realm of the flesh,[a] the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. 6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.
The Law and Sin
7 What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”[b] 8 But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead. 9 Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. 10 I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. 11 For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. 12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.
13 Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! Nevertheless, in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it used what is good to bring about my death, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.
14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.[c] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature[d] a slave to the law of sin.
Footnotes:
Romans 7:5 In contexts like this, the Greek word for flesh (sarx) refers to the sinful state of human beings, often presented as a power in opposition to the Spirit.
Romans 7:7 Exodus 20:17; Deut. 5:21
Romans 7:18 Or my flesh
Romans 7:25 Or in the flesh
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Romans 8 New International Version (NIV)
Life Through the Spirit
8 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you[a] free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh,[b] God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.[c] And so he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
5 Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. 7 The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.
9 You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. 10 But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life[d] because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of[e] his Spirit who lives in you.
12 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.
14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.[f] And by him we cry, “Abba,[g] Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
Present Suffering and Future Glory
18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that[h] the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.
22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.
28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[i] have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
More Than Conquerors
31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”[j]
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[k] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Footnotes:
Romans 8:2 The Greek is singular; some manuscripts me
Romans 8:3 In contexts like this, the Greek word for flesh (sarx) refers to the sinful state of human beings, often presented as a power in opposition to the Spirit; also in verses 4-13.
Romans 8:3 Or flesh, for sin
Romans 8:10 Or you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive
Romans 8:11 Some manuscripts bodies through
Romans 8:15 The Greek word for adoption to sonship is a term referring to the full legal standing of an adopted male heir in Roman culture; also in verse 23.
Romans 8:15 Aramaic for father
Romans 8:21 Or subjected it in hope. 21 For
Romans 8:28 Or that all things work together for good to those who love God, who; or that in all things God works together with those who love him to bring about what is good—with those who
Romans 8:36 Psalm 44:22
Romans 8:38 Or nor heavenly rulers
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Some content adapted from Halley, Henry H., Bible Handbook, Grayson Publishing, Minneapolis, MN. © 1927 - 1959.
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Hugh C. Wood, Atlanta, Georgia
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