Set Free (part 2)

The Scriptures tell the story of how the Creator God of Israel wanted to free a family of people beyond national Israel from the effects of sin and death.  However, this could not be accomplished because the law that was meant to help accomplish this thing, and which would have allowed the covenant people to live as lights to the nations (blessed by their God, being a blessing to the world, and causing all peoples to glorify their God) was unable to be kept by those to whom it was given. 

Again, the Scriptural narrative points to the fall and man having lost the ability to be the creature that the Creator had created him to be.  Even when Israel may have sincerely believed that their law was being kept with a rigorous and scrupulous minutiae (or primarily the big three --- circumcision, reverence the sanctuary,  keep the Sabbaths --- were being upheld), in the years following the return from the Babylonian exile, through the time of Christ, this purpose of God for the world through His people was still left unaccomplished, because the intention of the law was being weakened through flesh.  It was not being used as a means of attracting the nations, in full display of the blessings of providence, but instead was being used to keep Israel separate from the nations. 

In that time, by and large as indicated by the historical record of that post-exilic, pre-Christ period, Israel was looking to its own house, looking for its own messiah, its own restoration, its own deliverance from exile through a new exodus, and its own new kingdom through which they would be set above all nations.  They were looking for and expecting their God to act on their behalf, and only on their behalf, so as to set the world right according to their view.  Because of that, the provisions of the law were being used as boundary markers and walls of separation.  Essentially, Israel was unwilling to carry out God’s purpose and plan for the law, which was to magnify Him before all peoples because of the blessings that He would bestow upon His people for their adherence to it.  Instead, they took that which was intended to make them a light to the world and essentially hid it under a basket.     

In Jesus’ day, and no less in Paul’s day, with the law having been turned into a boundary marker that separated Israel from the surrounding nations, Paul insists that the Creator God necessarily and effectively relieved the condemnation for sin which was death, “By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh” (Romans 8:3b).  Here, we note Paul’s use of “Son of God” terminology, bearing in mind the introduction of his letter, in which he sets forth the Gospel message, writing about the Son “Who was a descendant of David with reference to the flesh, Who was appointed Son-of-God-in-power according to the Holy Spirit by the Resurrection from the dead” (1:3b-4a).  This descent from David, appointment to King-ship (Son of God being a royal, kingly term for Israel’s messiah, and not necessarily the second person of the Trinity), and Resurrection from the dead, therefore showed Him to be “Jesus Christ our Lord” (1:4b).  Better said, He was shown forth to be Jesus, the anointed one of God (Christ/Messiah), Who is now the Lord of all the earth, with all authorities and powers subject to Him. 

Returning to the eighth chapter of Romans, it is found that “concerning sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteous requirement of the law may be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (8:3b-4).  One must carefully work through Paul’s thought process.  To begin, one is required to get a firm grasp on “sin” as it is here presented.  Sin is that which causes one to be less than fully human.  Sin is that which defeats a human being from bearing God’s image and thus not reflecting His glory into the world.  As has been said, among other things, His own glorification was the Creator God’s intention for those that He created to bear His image, so as to steward and remind the creation of its God at all times.  The law was given to aid His covenant people in this endeavor, but when given this opportunity, Israel failed.