Chapter # 7 Paragraph # 3 Study # 2
November 13, 2016
Humble, Texas
(050)
1769 Translation:
14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.
15 For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.
16 If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that [
it is] good.
17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but [
how] to perform that which is good I find not.
19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
22 For I delight in the law of God after 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 shall deliver me from the body of this death?
25 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.
1901 ASV Translation:
14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.
15 For that which I
do I know not: for not what I would, that do I practise; but what I hate, that I do.
16 But if what I would not, that I do, I consent unto the law that it is good.
17 So now it is no more I that
do it, but sin which dwelleth in me.
18 For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me, but to
do that which is good [
is] not.
19 For the good which I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I practise.
20 But if what I would not, that I do, it is no more I that
do it, but sin which dwelleth in me.
21 I find then
the law, that, to me who would do good, evil is present.
22 For I delight
in the law of God after the inward man:
23 but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members.
24 Wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of
the body of this death?
25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I of myself with the mind, indeed, serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
- I. Paul's Explanation.
- A. "For" we know...
- B. The content of our "knowledge".
- 1. "The Law" is "spiritual".
- a. This descriptive term is used of issues of "spirit" as a contrast to issues of "flesh".
- b. It does not, necessarily, refer to "good" issues; there is such a thing as "spiritual wickedness in high places" (Ephesians 6:12).
- c. It does, necessarily, refer to issues that are distinct from "fleshly" things.
- d. The term points, decidedly, to those factors that are uniquely "spiritual" in the sense of being essentially "spiritual" as in "God is spirit" so that His worshippers must worship in "spirit" and in truth. Non-human creatures of "personality" are "spirits" (angels and demons) whose realm of function is in that higher realm of existence known to us as metaphysical and beyond physical. Man is, for a time, "lower" than "angels" (Hebrews 2:7-9). This puts man, in his "soul-focused" body, "lower"; but the redeemed, when they receive their "spiritual" bodies (1 Corinthians 15:44), shall "judge" angels (1 Corinthians 6:3). At that point, they will be "higher".
- e. That "The Law" is "spiritual" means that its primary realm of application is above the physical realms that capture the attention of those of us who live in a heavily "fleshly" realm. This "spirituality" is defined in our context as "revelational" in terms of revealing the essential (spiritual) truth rather than some "shadow" reality of the physical realm (such as the blood of bulls and goats).
- 2. "I" am "fleshly".
- a. Peter says that "fleshly" lusts war against the "soul", thus pitting the body against the soul in its appetites (1 Peter 2:11).
- b. Paul explains himself by saying that the "I" that is "fleshly" is such because "I have been sold under The Sin".
- 1) At this point, we have to begin to seriously wrestle with Paul's use of "I". He has already split our "humanness" into "parts", all of which can be called "I" even though these segmented "I" identities do not refer to the current total human being, especially the believer. He said that we were like a married couple made up of a "wife" identity and an "old man/husband" identity; one, yet two. Both are "I" in their respective contexts. Paul's famous claim to the Galatians, "I live, yet not I" indicates this reality. Indeed, in this very paragraph he uses "I" to describe the entity that "sins" and then abruptly (twice) says, "...it is no longer 'I' ". So, we are on guard against simply assuming that "I" means either this or that. Each use of "I" has a very specific "identity" meaning.
- 2) In this text Paul indicates the same truth that he declared in 1 Corinthians 15:46; namely, that there is a distinctive temporal framework in which the issues are worked out. The bodies in which we dwell are temporal and unredeemed (we, with groanings, await the redemption of our bodies ((Romans 8:23)), and we have to live by faith in God's provision of His Spirit to give life to these "dead" bodies (Romans 8:10-11).
- 3) To be "sold under The Sin" is also further explained by the bondage of "inability" to the degree that "I" want to do what is right, but "I" do what is wrong. Paul is, obviously, discounting the promised Spirit and merely describing the person who is regenerated, but not empowered. Thus, there is a real "I" that is sold under The Sin and there is a real "I" that is completely delivered from The Sin. It is ours to discover what he is teaching.
- a) There is no denial here of all that Paul has already said about our position under grace and totally independent of the power of Law.
- b) But there is an explanation here of what it means to be "alive", yet "dead" because of the resurrection of "The Sin" because of a reversion to "law". This is a critical issue of our text/context. Paul is dealing with his "Sin was resurrected and I died" experience, not his life under grace by faith.
- c) In other words, there is a very real process in place that is exclusively dependent upon whether, or not, a person is living by faith in grace. Those who "live by the Spirit are to walk by the Spirit". If they do, they "live"; if they do not they "die". If they do, they are not functioning as "sold under The Sin" any longer; if they do not, they function as under that bondage. At issue is the same reality described by Paul in Romans 8:13 where he says that the Spirit can mortify the deeds of the body so that "we" live. In other words, one can be dominated by the demands of the body and die, or one can be dominated by God's indwelling Spirit and live.
- c. In Paul's theology of "fleshliness" he makes some illuminating revelations.
- 1) In both Romans 7:14 and 15:27 there is a contrast between "spiritual" and "fleshly".
- 2) In Romans 8:5-6 he makes "fleshliness" a matter of Mind-Set: where is the fixation of the mind? on "flesh" or on "spirit"?
- 3) In 1 Corinthians 3:1 he says the Corinthians are "fleshly" because they are "babes" in Christ. The strong implication is that "fleshliness" is a mind-set that is fixated upon base impulses.
- 4) In 1 Corinthians 9:11 he calls monetary issues "fleshly" as opposed to "spiritual" issues of truth for a relational universe.
- 5) The point is that "spirituality" and "carnality" are issues of specific focus of goal and method: the goal is either dominated by the body or the soul; the method is whatever is seen as a way to fulfill the lusts of the body or the soul. Peter's comment that the "fleshly" lusts war against the "soul" is significant: the "soul" is a false focus as is the body of flesh. In 1 Corinthians 15:44 Paul uses "soul-focused" to describe the current physical body and contrasts it with the coming "spirit-focused" body. The Point: "fleshly" means over-focused upon either physical lusts or soulish lusts. Adam, Paul says, "became unto a living soul" (literal translation) and Christ, the last Adam, "a life-producing Spirit". The point is that Adam's "sin" was a "soul-focused" failure where he put his "possession" of Eve as his "soul mate" before the will of the Living Spirit (God). Thus, being "sold under The Sin" simply means that he was enslaved to The Sin by means of his "soul-focused" mentality.