Romans 7:7-12

What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. 9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. 10 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

The Gift of Knowledge. The law does something very helpful for us. It lays out for us the way of life and the way of death. Once I drove a 2 ton truck loaded with construction material over a septic tank. The result wasn’t pretty. Of course, I didn’t know the tank was there. No one did. But a map that said ‘drive here’ and ‘don’t drive here’ would have been helpful. That’s what the law does. It points out the proverbial septic tanks of life. That’s good knowledge to have, and it may seem like that is all that we need, but it's not.

The Problem of Knowledge. Note that Paul doesn’t say the law makes us sin. He says the law informs us to what is sin. And armed with that knowledge, we not only break the law but are compelled to break it more and more. At first this sounds like a bit of an overstatement. Would I really covet less if I didn’t know that it was wrong? I know the cookie jar explanation (i.e. when you tell a child not to take a cookie from the cookie jar, you actually increase the temptation to do so), but it seems a little juvenile. But Paul’s argument is far from juvenile and shows deep and sophisticated insight into the human psyche.

Surprise Attack. Armed with the law it would seem sin doesn’t stand a chance. But the assault of sin is hardly ever frontal. It “deceives” as Paul says. The law keeps sin front and center in our minds. Take coveting for example. Of course, coveting is always there, but the law points it out. And suddenly with the gift of its knowledge I see coveting not only in a few isolated instances, but all over the place. Surprised by my own transgression, I dig in my heels. Coveting must go. But it doesn’t go at all, and soon I start coveting those who seem not to struggle with coveting. Then guilt starts taking root. Perhaps, I am a seriously flawed and sinful person. But there is an alternative. Who is to say that this “no coveting” law is the best way. There are many happy coveters in the world. I may even begin to resent God for making such an impossible rule. I may grow so resentful that not only do I give myself over to coveting, but I begin coveting with a vengeance. Now this is merely one path sin may take.

What’s Wrong With Me. This is the thought the text is driving into my heart. How can I be so messed up, that good information actually becomes my downfall. I was just having a discussion with someone about a person destroying their life with alcohol and drug addiction. “Some people,” I said, “have become so messed up that helping them actually hurts them.” I retract that statement. The truth is all people, all of us, are so messed up that the holy help of the law actually hurts us.

Ways Not To Be Missional

Jonathan Dodson is starting a new blogging series on ways not to missional. He starts with "event-driven evangelism." Read it here.

Lessons From Topsail

My wife and I celebrated our 10th anniversary this past week by taking a trip alone to Topsail Island, NC. We rented a condo built right on the beach and overlooked the ocean. Though I took a week sabbatical from all serious study, I learned quite a bit a bit on this trip. Here is just one reflection.

A Great Day. I’ll never forget last Thursday. The day began with me taking pictures of the sunrise over the ocean at 7am. As it turned out, I was far too sleepy for the task and all the horizons were slanting up. Then I had breakfast on our deck overlooking the ocean, took some more pictures of a shrimping boat I thought our kids would enjoy, and read a bit. Shortly after Jen and I were on the beach. We played like children in the waves. Jumping over them, into them, getting pummeled by a good many of them. We reclined in our beach chairs with a good book in hand as the rising tide licked at our feet. We took small walks through the cool water and sand collecting shells and shooting pictures of crabs. For dinner we drove to a local seafood market, bought some shrimp caught that morning, took it back to our room and grilled some shrimp kabobs.

Not Enough. It was a great day. One of the funnest days I’ve had in a long time. But it wasn’t enough. I wanted more. Not that I’m complaining. I was flooded with perpetual gratitude that day that God would blend wind and water, sun and sky into such a glorious experience, that I have a wife who didn’t feel too adult to splash like a child in the foaming waves. And as I read in the midst of the ocean tide, sipping Sobe, and stealing glances at my beautiful wife, I constantly thought, “Can it get much better than this?” But at the same time, there was something sad about the experience. Sad because it had to stop. As it turns out, sun, wind, sand, waves, shells, and even my wife, though rapturously delightful, are also thoroughly exhausting. My frame came to the end of itself and could take no more.

“We shall be like him, because we shall see him as He is.” I gained a greater insight into this statement this past week. If the power and splendor of the ocean is too much for my frame to contain, then how much more its Creator. The tricky thing about joy is not that there is so little to be had. Even in this fallen world, wonders of delight abound all around us. The problem is that we cannot endure. They are too much for us. We think we grow bored, but in reality we are often just weary and spent. And if we were placed in the arena of unceasing pleasure, we would not be pleasured unceasingly. If there was no escape, pleasure would turn to torture. As the waves and wind break the rocks into specks of sand, so they would break us, pulverize us. What then would the infinite splendor of God do were we admitted into his presence?

“We shall be like him, because we shall see him as He is.” There are several layers to this statement, but one layer is certainly this. Only as we are transformed spiritually, morally, physically into a splendor ourselves could we enter into his splendor and find life rather than death. So I long for the day, when I stand in the seas and not grow weary, and when I can stand in the gaze of its Maker and pulsate with his unremitting pleasure.

Romans 7:1-6: Part 2

Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? 2 For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. 3 Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress. 4 Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. 5 For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. (Romans 7:1-6)

A Bad Marriage. So what is the deal with Paul’s opening example of marriage? My guess is that this marriage is a bad one. That was not exactly an uncommon occurrence, and still isn’t. But in a culture where parents chose the spouse of their children, there were certainly plenty of Abigails legally bound to Nabals (see 1 Samuel 25). And here Paul points out that so long as the dud husband is alive, the wife has no choice but to be his wife. Prenups, no fault divorce, even divorce for that matter were virtually none existent for women.

Til Death Do Us Part. Sinners and the law make a bad marriage. They would completely bomb on the Newlywed Game. They are tragically incompatible. The law isn’t sleeping around on us; it just makes a really bad spouse. We may or may not be sleeping around on the law, but regardless we need a better marriage. However, apart from death we are legally bound to the law. We are faced with only two choices. One we try our best to stay faithful to the law, or two we run off with someone else.

A Bad Spouse. So why does the law make such a bad spouse? Living with the law is like living with a husband who perpetually points out your mistakes, uncovers your shame, and exposes your deepest flaws. And it does all that without a shred of mercy. So the law undresses our faults, and when we reply, “Okay, so I’m screwed up. I’m sorry. Can you forgive me” the law doesn’t just shrug and walk away. No, the law looks directly into our eyes and says, “I can’t do that . . . (long awkward pause). I can only give you what you deserve. I can only damn you.” Mercy simply isn’t part its repertoire.

Bad Fruit. So when messed up people are bound to the law, they end up conceiving some bad offspring. Demands without grace produces guilt and shame, which in turn produces isolation, anger, bitterness, hopelessness, fear, and pride. But again there is nothing wrong with the law itself. In reality, the law is nothing more than wedding vows. Wedding vows are great at forming the proper context of a lifelong relationship, but it is impossible to have a relationship with vows. Our main problem is that we are separated from the true spouse. We are simply left with vows. The damning, condemning vows that speak nothing but obligation, that give us no hope for redemption, that never speak a word of forgiveness.

The True Husband. Our hope is not in keeping the vows. Even if we do really good at adhering to them, we still don’t have the husband. Yet unless the vows are kept there can be no marriage. So Paul says that the answer to this dilemma is that in Christ we can die to the law. We can be set free from its legal obligation. Not that the obligation has vanished. Far from it. But the true husband has come. He has kept the vows on our behalf. He has died under the law’s cursed damnation. And only in our new relationship with him can we hear the most blessed words ever spoken to the guilt-ridden, “I forgive you.”

The Pharisee and Me

Great short post from Ray Orlund

The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: “God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.” (Luke 18:11-12)

What was wrong with the Pharisee?

There was a lot right with him. He really didn’t do those bad things. He really did those good things. And he gave glory to God for it all: "God, I thank you . . . ."

So, what was wrong with him?

Just this. He sincerely believed he was “not like other men.”

Thank God I’m not like that Pharisee!

Romans 7:1-6: Part 1

Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? 2 For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. 3 Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress. 4 Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. 5 For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. (Romans 7:1-6)

Yesterday was Labor Day, which means that along with a little barbecuing, some family time, and (at least in my home) the US Open, there was the annual Jerry Lewis telethon. Its not that I don’t have any heart for “Jerry’s kids,” but I have an almost impulsive repugnance for telethons. And I don’t just mean Jerry’s telethon. I pretty much despise all telethons in every form they come in. They generally provoke from me audible groans and sighs. Until recently I hadn’t given a lot of thought why this is, but then I realized the issue. Telethons are about the law.

Telethons and the Law. The universal strategy of telethons are as follows. First, explain to people what they should do (i.e. give their money to this obviously worthy cause). Second, keep them off balance by reminding them of their moral superiority one instant and then piling up layers of guilt in the next. “Americans are the most giving people in the world,” we’re told. Then we’re shown some tear jerker of a story and asked, “How can you not give to help X?” Subtext: “You are good enough to give what is necessary, and you’re an incredible jerk if you don’t do it.”

Universal Strategy of Law Alone. Such methodology should not surprise us. It’s what every charity, parent, teacher, etc. uses to push those in their sphere of influence to do the right thing. But this message is the message of the law. Here’s what I mean. God’s law by itself simply provides us with commands, rules, and instructions. The law is not bad in and of itself, as Paul makes clear later in Romans 7. But ripped from the story of God’s saving work, the law merely leaves us with a command and the implicit expectation that we can and should keep it. Does such a strategy work? Paul’s answer, and I think any deep thinking persons answer, is a resounding “no.” Living under the law produces the fruit of death (7:5).

The Delusion of Obedience. That seems a little bit extreme especially considering the fact that telethons raise millions of dollars every year. But they do so because salving our conscience with a small monetary gift is relatively easy. We can walk away assured that we are better people. But are we better? Or has our gift simply created a delusion of goodness that blinds us from our real problems. My marriage may be wreck. I may say spiteful things every day to my spouse. But obviously I’m not the problem. I give to Jerry’s kids. That takes some heart and real love. My wife just doesn’t see the good in me. How can I not get frustrated with her. So does the contribution reveal my goodness, or does it simply provide a rationale for my own anger and bitterness? Thinking these thoughts may be a little disturbing, but once we start down this path we are heading in the right direction.

Real Joy

Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. (Psalm 51:8 )

“Joy” and “Gladness” refer to more than just a delighted spirit or an internal yet calm satisfaction. These Hebrew terms are used in connection with singing, festive eating and drinking, playing instruments, dancing, frolicking, stamping the feet, clapping hands, etc. It is quite a raucous kind of joy. The kind that bubbles up and overflows into jubilant outward expressions. It’s the kind of joy at a wedding reception, or when you see your son hit his first home run. The psalmist wants more than just a warm feeling, or a sense of calm content. He wants a party. He wants singing, dancing, shouting, clapping. He is now morose and melancholy. Perhaps, even desperate and despairing. But he calls for foot-stomping joy.

Why are we so reserved in our joy? Why do we not seek to make our hearts, minds, bodies overflow in boundless enthusiasm and jubilance? Why do we not have a raucous, hooting, and hollering joy flooding our souls and spreading to our mouths, and feet, and hands? I think we feel it irreverent and ridiculous. But what is more irreverent or more ridiculous than knowing the God of the universe, feeling the power of his salvation, knowing the freedom of his cleansing from the bondage of sin, and not hoot and dance? Irreverent is the polite, shallow smiles of our Sunday mourning services. Ridiculous is hollow slap-stick remarks so characteristic of Christian entertainment. Fake joy or shallow goof-offs are the respectable forms of raucous joy. But this is not that kind of joy, because it’s based on something real. Joy for joy’s sake is no joy at all. Joy that arises in order to have joy in and of itself is empty. That’s why modern Christian joy is so emaciated. We want to be happy, and so we are happy, or at least we try to make ourselves such, just to say that we are happy. But real joy has a real object. It rejoices in a thing. Like a man rejoices in his lover, or a boy over his ice cream cone. We have the grandest of all objects, God. No amount of physical display is too much. You just can’t make too much of God. But you can make far too little.

Busy Christianity

Busyness is something I've been thinking about a lot lately. So I was greatly encouraged by these thoughts from Kevin DeYoung. Here is his conclusion.

A cross, yes. Jesus said we would have to carry one of those. But a cross that kills our sins, smashes our idols, and teaches us the folly of self-reliance. Not a burden to do the impossible. Not a burden to always do more for Jesus. Not a burden of bad news that never lets up and obedience that is always out reach.

No doubt some Christians need to be shaken out of their lethargy. I try to do that every Sunday morning and evening. But there are also a whole bunch of Christians who need to be set free from their performance-minded, law-keeping, world-changing, participate-with-God-in-recreating-the-cosmos shackles. I promise you, some of the best people in your churches are getting tired. They don’t need another rah-rah pep talk. They don’t need to hear more statistics and more stories Sunday after Sunday about how bad everything is in the world. They need to hear about Christ’s death and resurrection. They need to hear how we are justified by faith apart from works of the law. They need to hear the old, old story once more. Because the secret of the gospel is that we actually do more when we hear less about all we need to do for God and hear more about all that God has already done for us.

Romans 6:15-23

What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:15-23)

The Wrong Kind of Free. You’ve heard the expression, “Freedom isn’t free.” I have a good number of America’s “greatest generation” in my church, so I hear it a lot. And of course it’s true. The freedoms of press, speech, religion, self-government, etc. came to this country at the price of much blood shed. A sad fact of history is that it rarely comes in any other way. Yet freedom at the cost of blood shed is still freedom; however, freedom at the cost of slavery is not. Of course, a free slave is an oxymoron, but that is what we all are according Paul. If you are a slave of sin, then you are free to righteousness. If you are a slave to righteousness, then you are free to sin. Such language seriously challenges our assumptions about freedom. Can there be a freedom that is no freedom at all? Can there be a slavery that is really freedom?

Free to Righteousness. What exactly does it mean to be “free of righteousness.” Perhaps Paul means something like “contamination.” A “slave of sin,” which he says we all once were or currently are, is free from the contamination of righteousness. Righteousness does not creep into his life like a healing gangrene and spread its life-giving aroma. No, the natural man is absolutely free of such health, absolutely free from moral good. This might sound like an overstatement. Certainly, even apart from Christ, we are not entirely free of moral good. Even a rapist may send his mother a card on her birthday. But as I said in my last post, Paul is not concerned with good and evil merely at the level of the will. Evil is more than an action or a choice, and so is good. The fruits of righteousness are not the fulfilling of a moral obligation. They are love, joy, peace, patience, etc. That is, they are matters of the heart and soul. So for example, the natural man, the man apart from God’s grace, can perform an act of kindness, but he does so because of what sociologists call reciprocity. He gives because he knows that he will be given to, because he knows he needs to be given to. Others are really tools of the self. You give to receive. His motives are completely free from the contamination of righteousness.

The Wages of Sin. Romans 6:23 is oft quoted by Christians to non-Christians in hopes that they will see the dangers of living life their own way and the hope found in the gift of salvation. However, it is important to note that Paul is addressing believers, and Paul’s point is not primarily about the punitive effects of sin. His focus is on the fruit of sin. He is not thinking of the court room but of the garden. The problem of sin is not merely the problem of a guilty verdict (though that is his point in Romans 3:19-20); it is also the problem of a putrid fungus eating away at the life of a fruit-bearing tree. Sin produces death. God’s punishment is simply condemning it to face its own demise.

The Free Gift of God. But righteousness is not like sin. Self-destruction comes to us as the product of who we are as slaves of sin. Righteousness and the life that follows is not produced by us. It is given to us. Jesus, and Jesus alone, is the producer. Thus, Paul sets before us two roads. One is to walk in our efforts fighting for our own freedom from the authority of God. This is the road of shame with a destination of death. The second road, and God help us never to cease being amazed that there is a second road, is the road of Jesus’ efforts and the healing product of those efforts freely given to us. Is not the choice obvious? And if you do not wish to make the obvious choice, then at least admit that you are not free.

Romans 6:12-14

Finally back to Romans.

12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

“Let not sin reign.” That phrase should immediately signal to us that Paul’s notion of sin is quite different from ours. Sin is lying, hurting, gossiping, lusting, etc. Sin is about doing. Doing bad things. It’s a convenient theory. Reduce the amount of naughty things you do and the better you are. Then we read Paul, and Paul says, “Let not sin reign in your mortal bodies.” How exactly does an act “reign” over us? It doesn’t. But Paul isn’t talking about mere acts, for he says, “Let not sin reign . . . to make you obey their passions.” Sin is rather personal here. It is a power, a force with desires and passions. Sin isn’t just the results of our poor choices; sin is the cause of them. Sin is the desires that lie behind the choices we make.

Farewell Self-effort. This is literally a life-changing discovery. Becoming a better person can no longer be considered a battle of self-effort. Self-effort is about the strength of the will, but here we find that the will itself is corrupt. The will is not an independent force that we can muster against any and all that opposes the good. The will is subservient to the values and desires of the heart. The heart says, “I want something sweet,” so the will says “Let’s go to Starbucks.” The hearts declares, “But I’d rather not put on some extra weight,” and so the will says, “Make it a skinny.” It is not the reverse. The will does not say, “Heart, desire something sweet, so I can choose Starbucks.” The will doesn’t desire. The will chooses, and the will always chooses what the heart wants. You might think, “Not always. I really didn’t want a decaf, sugar-free, skinny latte, but I choose it.” True enough, but all you are saying is that you valued your appearance or your health (or both) more than you valued the enjoyment of fat and sugar. Therefore, gritting your teeth and marching forward in the determination to do better simply isn’t going to get the job done. You want to fight with the will, but the will is a slave to the heart. And if the heart is crooked, the will will be crooked also.

Under Grace. When you read Paul’s command, “Do not present your members to sin . . .”(8:13) you immediately conclude Paul is instructing you to toughen your will. And if sin were simply a bad choice, that would be sufficient. But as we have seen sin isn’t just a bad choice; it is distorted desires behind the choice. So although Paul gives a command, which seems like an appeal to self-effort, he looks elsewhere for the power to keep that command: “Sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace”(8:14). “Law,” I think, refers merely to self-effort. But we are not under the demands simply to perform; we are under grace. Grace says you don’t have to perform because Christ already did. It says you are accepted even when you fail. The law by itself keeps us under the delusion that we can do it if we just try hard enough. Grace frees us from the delusion and tells us we can’t. The law by itself enhances the dominion of sin by enslaving us to the soul-destroying cycle of effort, failure, condemnation, guilt, effort, failure, condemnation, guilt, ad nausea. Grace frees us, for Christ took our guilt, absorbed our condemnation, paid for our failure, and redeems our efforts. The pursuit of righteousness then is no longer an effort of futility. Rather, under grace it is a pursuit in which we have nothing to loose and everything to gain. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Fight Clubs

Jonathan Dodson just released his booklet on accountability partners entitled Fight Clubs . It is a very gospel-centered, well thought out guide to accountability relationships. These relationships are essential for everyone, but most accountability relationships I have been in focus primarily on law and not grace, on our effort (or failure) and not on Christ's work. To me, this is must reading. You can download it for free here.

Connection Tools

Steve McCoy offers some great advice on how to connect with others. What I like about his advice is that he uses generosity, thoughtfulness, and self-giving as the means to make connections with people. I tend to be introverted like him, so I need avenues of kindness to win people over.

Home Grown Worship Music

Austin City Life, a church plant in Austin, TX and pastored by a friend (Jonathan Dodson) has recently released a worship album. I've known about this album for some time, but I haven't had a chance to check it out. I like to support churches in creating good music, but unfortunately many churches don't do it very well. ACL, however, has created a short but excellent collection of songs, and all but two are originals. The first song "In Your Name" is rare blend of gospel and mission, and local mission at that. You can read Steve McKoy's review or just go listen to it and download yourself.

World Christianity

Challies has an interesting post about Mark Noll's new book The New Shape of World Christianity. Looks like a really interesting read. Here are some interesting facts from the book.

This past Sunday it is possible that more Christian believers attended church in China than in all of so-called “Christian Europe.” Yet in 1970 there were no legally functioning churches in all of China; only in 1971 did the communist regime allow for one Protestant and one Roman Catholic Church to hold public worship services, and this was mostly a concession to visiting Europeans and African students from Tanzania and Zambia.

This past Sunday more Anglicans attended church in each of Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda than did Anglicans in Britain and Canada and Episcopalians in the United States combined—and the number of Anglicans in church in Nigeria was several times the umber in those other African countries.

This past Sunday more Presbyterians were at church in Ghana than in Scotland, and more were in congregations of the Uniting Presbyterian Church of Southern Africa than in the United States.

The past Sunday more people attended the Yoido Full Gospel Church pastored by Yongi Cho is Seoul, Korea, than attended all the churches in significant American denominations like the Christian Reformed Church, the Evangelical Covenant Church or the Presbyterian Church in America.

This past Sunday the churches with the largest attendance in England and France had mostly black congregations. About half of the churchgoers in London were African or African-Caribbean. Today, the largest Christian congregation in Europe is in Kiev, and it is pastored by a Nigerian of Pentecostal background.

This past week in Great Britain, at least fifteen thousand Christian foreign missionaries were hard at work evangelizing the locals. most of these missionaries are from Africa and Asia.

For several years the world’s largest chapter of the Jesuit order has been found in India, not in the United States, as it had been for much of the late twentieth century.

Same Old Story

The battle over worship music is nothing new. Hymns were once the contemporary, cutting edge music rejected by many churches. Now they are the tradition, and the wars continue. May God help us to keep the gospel at the center of our churches.