Continuing in his train of thought, and highlighting the
struggle of the old age, Paul writes “For I don’t understand what I am
doing. For I do not do what I want---instead, I do what I hate. But
if I do what I don’t want, I agree that the law is good. But now it is no
longer me doing it, but sin that lives in me. For I know that nothing
good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For I want to do the good, but I
cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but I do the very evil I
do not want. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer me doing it
but sin that lives in me” (7:15-20).
We must resist the temptation to reductionism, hearing this
as Paul’s personal, spiritual experience. Instead, because Paul operates
within a story that shapes his theology, his soteriology, his ecclesiology, his
sociology, his politics, his economics, his psychology, his philosophy, and his
missiology (though we don’t pretend that these are necessarily separate
categories for Paul), we must hear Paul echoing the plaintive cry of all those,
prior to the cross and against the powers at work in the old age, that have
been called to carry the covenant and to reflect God’s glory into the
world.
Understanding the voice by which he cries, we hear him
continue on to say “So, I find the law that when I want to do good, evil is
present with me. For I delight in the law of God in my inner being.
But I see a different law in my members waging war against the law of my mind
and making me captive to the law of sin that is in my members. Wretched
man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?”
(7:21-24) The answer, not just for Paul as an individual, but for all
that have been called to bear the divine image and to carry the covenant
banner, comes with the Christ and the cross, as Paul (as we are continually
mindful of who it was that carried the title of Lord, along with the city to
which Paul sends this letter) exclaims: “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ
our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with
my flesh I serve the law of sin” (7:25).
The true self, which is the true human being of a renewed
humanity animated by the Spirit of God, has come to life with Christ in the new
age of the Spirit, in which the true law of God (love and sacrifice as manifested
by Jesus) is served. The flesh of the old age died with Christ on the
cross. This epic struggle, though it may not always appear to be the
case, has now been set right in the new age of life in the Spirit, which, among
other things, does away with the law and its covenant boundaries and creates a
united humanity as a new family of God, capable of rightly bearing the divine
image and of reflecting the glory of God into the world. As we attempt to
understand the various components of Paul’s thinking, picking apart various
statements so as to gain an appreciation of Paul’s insights into what is
accomplished by the work of God in Christ, we do not lose sight of the bigger
picture that is being conveyed to the body of believers, which is the wholesale
unity of those believers under one Lord as they serve as ambassadors of the
kingdom of God.
This brief foray into the seventh chapter, as we have
continued to find Paul encouraging a unified family of God, facilitates a more
nuanced (and perhaps better appreciated) understanding of what can be found in
the eighth chapter. While we consider the over-riding corporate (people
of God) application as opposed to the individual (person of God) application of
Paul’s communication, along with Paul’s giving voice to the failed covenant
bearers from the beginning, the contrasting presentation of the ways of the old
age versus that of the new age allows us to make eminently more sense of “For
those who live according to the flesh have their outlook shaped by the things
of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit have their outlook
shaped by the things of the Spirit. For the outlook of the flesh is
death, but the outlook of the Spirit is life and peace, because the outlook of
the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to the law of God, nor is
it able to do so. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God”
(8:5-8).
With this being said and now better understood, we again
hear Paul addressing the congregation, saying “You, however, are not in the
flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you”
(8:9a). What will be the evidence that the Spirit of God is living in
them corporately? One such piece of evidence will be the lack of any
division between Jew and Gentile. Those who want to continue to maintain
these divisions, continuing to insist on adherence to certain traditional
provisions as marks of justification (covenant participation), rather than
recognizing belief in Jesus as the sole necessity for covenant participation (justification),
and thus perpetuate a divided humanity (and ultimately a fractured messianic
banqueting table) are those that maintain the outlook of the flesh. Those
that rightly embrace the sole covenant provision that brings and indicates
justification, are those that have the outlook of the Spirit, and are
participants in the kingdom of God (life and peace). Consequently, “if
anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, this person does not belong to Him”
(8:9b). Those that want to hold to old covenant markers (old
age/flesh/death) do not participate in the kingdom whose head is Christ the
Lord.
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