Set Free from Sin and Death—Lectionary Reflection for Pentecost 7A/Proper 10 (Romans 8:1-11)
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| Healing Window, Manchester Cathedral |
Romans 8:1-11 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
8 Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law—indeed, it cannot, 8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
9 But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, then the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.
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Our
lectionary journey through Romans continues on the Seventh Sunday after
Pentecost with a reading from Romans 8:1-11. The focus of earlier readings has
been on the problem of sin and the powerlessness of the law to enable God’s
people to overcome sin’s hold on our lives. In Romans 7, Paul confesses that he
can’t seem to do the things he knows are correct, but continually does the
thing he really doesn’t want to do. Something seems amiss in life. Augustine tells
a story in his Confessions about an encounter with a pear tree. He and a
group of his friends came upon a pear tree full of fruit, which they proceeded
to pick, even though the tree didn’t belong to them. They didn’t pick the fruit
because they were hungry but simply because it was there. It was the sense of
doing something forbidden that enticed them. Why is it that too often we find
ourselves in such a predicament? Why do we do the things we hate; that is, the
things we know to be wrong?
The lectionary reading from Romans
7 may end with Paul giving thanks to God in Jesus (Rom. 7:25a); we’re left
waiting for some good news. Fortunately, that good news comes in Chapter 8,
which is the reading for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost. Romans 8 opens with the words: “Therefore
there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” That is good
news for which Paul and all followers of Jesus can be thankful. The jury
verdict is in, and Paul, the foreman of the jury, declares that because of a
relationship with Jesus, a verdict of not guilty has been delivered.
In
previous readings we have heard words about the powerlessness of the Law to
assist people in overcoming sin. We read in Romans 7 that because we are of the
flesh, we are enslaved to sin, such that we do the things we know to be wrong. It’s
as if we are caught in a spider’s web or a fishing net and can’t break free.
But now we hear Paul say that there is a different law: the law of the Spirit of life in Christ, which sets us free from the law of sin and death.
Thus, there are two laws. One enslaves, and the other liberates, such that sin
and death no longer have control over our lives. While this is definitely good
news, it doesn’t mean that to be in Christ means we receive a perpetual
get-out-of-jail-free card, which grants us the freedom to do as we please. That’s
called antinomianism (no law). I don’t think that’s what Paul has in mind.
God’s expectations don’t change; it’s just that we are free from the past
missteps so we can start fresh.
Although
there have been lots of debates about the role of the law and the gospel, as
well as the role works play in the process of salvation, for Paul the issue
goes back to the question of how God views us. When Paul speaks of
justification by God’s grace, received through faith, he wants us to recognize
that God takes the first step in the relationship. We see this revealed in
verses 3-4, where Paul writes: “For God has done what the law, weakened by the
flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and
to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so
that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not
according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” God does what the law
can’t do because it is affected by the flesh by sending the Son “in the
likeness of sinful flesh.” By doing this, God deals with sin by Christ’s fulfilling
the law. Irenaeus developed a theory of the atonement known as recapitulation,
in which Jesus experienced a full human life from birth to death. As such, by
his faithfulness to God, staying in perfect relationship, Jesus overcame the
law of sin and death. Thereby freeing us from its power. Essentially, Jesus
broke the power of sin by living faithfully, something we seem incapable of
doing. We participate in this work of Christ by walking according to the
Spirit.
Paul
isn’t a dualist, which would suggest that God and an opposing force are equal
in power. However, he does speak in seemingly dualistic terms, contrasting flesh
and spirit. By flesh, he has the body partly in mind, but he is not a Gnostic.
The concern, as noted in chapter 7 of Romans, is that it is in the context of
the body that sin occurs. Thus, you can see a bit of frustration with the body.
So, in verse 5 Paul writes that those who live according to the flesh set their
minds on the things of the flesh, while those who live according to the Spirit
set their minds on the things of the Spirit. In other words, he identifies two different
orientations that lead to different outcomes. To set our minds on the things of
the Spirit is to choose to move in God’s direction, not away from God. As he
has been saying in previous chapters, to choose the way of the flesh is to
choose death, while the way of the Spirit leads to life (vs. 6). Thus, this is
a question of allegiance. In deciding in whom we place our allegiance is a
matter of life and death. Which path will you choose? To whom will we give our
allegiance? Will we choose a path that is open to the ways of God or is hostile
to God (vs. 7).
Hearkening
back to what Paul has already stated in Romans 6 concerning baptism, where he
reminds those who have undergone baptism that they have died to sin and have
been raised to new life in Christ (Rom. 6:1-11), he again reminds his readers
that they do not belong to the flesh but the Spirit because the Spirit of God
dwells within them (vs. 9). The presence of the Spirit is the seal that one
belongs to Christ, so to not belong to the Spirit means not belonging to God. In
his discussion of the problem of sin in chapter 7, Paul declares: “Wretched
person that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” (Rom. 7:24). Now
in chapter 8, he tells us that if Christ dwells in us, the body, though dead
due to sin, can experience life in the Spirit that leads to righteousness.
The
final verse offers a word about the future resurrection of the body. The body
may have been infected with death due to sin; however, this is not the final
verdict. Since the Spirit of the one who raised Christ from death dwells in us,
that same Spirit who dwells within us will give life to our mortal bodies.
Thus, in Christ there is victory over death, so that even the body can be
reclaimed. Thus, the law of the spirit of death doesn’t
have the final victory.
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