1. Romans 7:1,14,21-25; 8:3 states: "Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?...for we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. ... I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: 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. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 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 them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:..."
2. I've got a robust and violent conscience, o reader. Mine is the type that wails obscenities, tears its robes apart, and, dragging up the dregs of my sins, smears them all over the pages of Scripture like the margarita I spilled over 1 Peter this past Tuesday. My conscience condemns me and demonstrates how I fall short of all the commands of Christ in Scripture. And I am struck dumb, for the accusations are true and right; I can only confess my guilt and trust the goodness and grace of my covenant redeemer.
Yet so often do I find myself echoing the words of Pastor George Scipione: "I am the chief of sinners, for the sins that I've committed stand against me and no one else, and no one else's sins testify against me."
Indeed, Paul, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
3. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord, for there is therefore now NO CONDEMNATION to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit (7:25-8:1).
Jesus is better than legalism and self-righteousness that comes with an overly-loud conscience. Paul continues in Romans 8 by explaining how Jesus is the one who delivered him from the body of death: Jesus was sent in the flesh to condemn sin (v3), the very weapon which my lawful conscience bears against fearful me. Furthermore, because "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death," (v2) not only are we "not in the flesh," but we are "in the Spirit" (v9).
Jesus is better than hyperbole, though, and we don't literally have to cut off our sinning "members" as He commanded in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5:29-30, Rom. 7:18-23). For if we have the Spirit of Christ (8:9-10), then we're being renewed in the inner man (2 Corinthians 4:16), though "the body is dead because of sin" (Rom. 8:10). Not only is He sanctifying our spirits, but we are promised with a bodily resurrection and restoration modeled after that of Christ's, our guarantee and firstfruits (8:11).
The gospel is clearly one of liberty and exodus from the bondage of sin, and Paul reminds us that our Jesus is better than a mere saving Lord: not only have we not received the spirit of bondage again to fear and guilt and an angry conscience, but we have instead received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, "Abba, Father." This is the clincher for my agitated conscience: the judge is my father who pardons me and points to the cross that powerfully attracts my guilt.
Paul ends this half of his letter to the Romans with a few rhetorical questions which pierce my jealous and accusatory conscience through and through:
a. If God be for us, who can be against us?
b. How shall he not with [deliverance of the obedient Jesus] also freely give us all things?
c. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect?
d. Who is he that condemneth?
e. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
A guilty conscience cannot be against me, innocence and righteousness accompany the living Spirit Jesus promised, my past cannot add sins when God has acquitted, Jesus intercedes even for my stubborn conscience's sake, and not even my worst sins can separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus my Lord.
2. I've got a robust and violent conscience, o reader. Mine is the type that wails obscenities, tears its robes apart, and, dragging up the dregs of my sins, smears them all over the pages of Scripture like the margarita I spilled over 1 Peter this past Tuesday. My conscience condemns me and demonstrates how I fall short of all the commands of Christ in Scripture. And I am struck dumb, for the accusations are true and right; I can only confess my guilt and trust the goodness and grace of my covenant redeemer.
Yet so often do I find myself echoing the words of Pastor George Scipione: "I am the chief of sinners, for the sins that I've committed stand against me and no one else, and no one else's sins testify against me."
Indeed, Paul, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
3. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord, for there is therefore now NO CONDEMNATION to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit (7:25-8:1).
Jesus is better than legalism and self-righteousness that comes with an overly-loud conscience. Paul continues in Romans 8 by explaining how Jesus is the one who delivered him from the body of death: Jesus was sent in the flesh to condemn sin (v3), the very weapon which my lawful conscience bears against fearful me. Furthermore, because "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death," (v2) not only are we "not in the flesh," but we are "in the Spirit" (v9).
Jesus is better than hyperbole, though, and we don't literally have to cut off our sinning "members" as He commanded in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5:29-30, Rom. 7:18-23). For if we have the Spirit of Christ (8:9-10), then we're being renewed in the inner man (2 Corinthians 4:16), though "the body is dead because of sin" (Rom. 8:10). Not only is He sanctifying our spirits, but we are promised with a bodily resurrection and restoration modeled after that of Christ's, our guarantee and firstfruits (8:11).
The gospel is clearly one of liberty and exodus from the bondage of sin, and Paul reminds us that our Jesus is better than a mere saving Lord: not only have we not received the spirit of bondage again to fear and guilt and an angry conscience, but we have instead received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, "Abba, Father." This is the clincher for my agitated conscience: the judge is my father who pardons me and points to the cross that powerfully attracts my guilt.
Paul ends this half of his letter to the Romans with a few rhetorical questions which pierce my jealous and accusatory conscience through and through:
a. If God be for us, who can be against us?
b. How shall he not with [deliverance of the obedient Jesus] also freely give us all things?
c. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect?
d. Who is he that condemneth?
e. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
A guilty conscience cannot be against me, innocence and righteousness accompany the living Spirit Jesus promised, my past cannot add sins when God has acquitted, Jesus intercedes even for my stubborn conscience's sake, and not even my worst sins can separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus my Lord.
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