Romans 6 - 10
6:1 What then shall we say? Shall we continue in disconnection from God, that grace might abound? 2 It does not happen! We who died to all disconnection from God, how could we still be living inside of it? 3 Or are you ignorant that those who have been immersed into Christ Jesus have already been immersed into His death? 4 Therefore, we were buried together with Him through immersion into death, so that just as Christ was raised out from the dead through the glory of Father, so we also should walk inside of newness of life.5 For as we have become grown and fused together as one with His same death, so also, we will be fused as one with His same resurrection. 6 Knowing this, that our old self was crucified together with Him, so that the body of separation from God might be separated from us, since we are enslaved to falling short no longer. 7 Indeed, the one who has already died [with Christ] has been made just and innocent, far away from falling short. 8 Moreover, if we died together with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him, that is, share the same life with Him. 9 For we know that Christ, having been raised out from the dead, dies no more; death no longer rules over him. 10 Because He died, He died to all disconnection from God once for all; because He lives, He lives connected to and fused together with God. 11 In exactly the same way, you also consider, reckon, speak yourselves to be truly dead to any and all sin or falling short of God, and reckon and speak yourselves as living connected to and fused together with God inside of Christ Jesus.
12 Do not, therefore, allow any falling short of God to rule in your mortal body, into listening to or considering its desires. 13 Neither set forth your members as weapons of injustice [against others] but place yourselves as connected to and fused together with God as fully alive out of the dead and place your members as weapons of justice [towards others], connected to and fused together with God. 14 Falling short of God will not rule you, for you are not under the authority of law, but under grace.
15 What then? Shall we disconnect from God because we are not under the authority of law, but under grace? It does not happen! 16 Are you not aware that to whom you place yourselves as slaves into hearing what is spoken, slaves you are to whom you give heed, whether falling short into death or hearing His voice into being made just and innocent? 17 Give thanks to God that, although you once were slaves of falling short, yet now you have given answer out from your heart to what you have heard, that is, to the form of teaching into which you were placed. 18 Having been made free, moreover, far away from falling short, you have become slaves to justice. 19 I speak of you as humans because of the weakness of your flesh, for as you once placed your members as slaves of impurity and lawlessness into lawlessness, so now place your members as slaves of justice into holiness and utter devotion to God.
20 For when you were slaves of falling short, you were free from justice, that is, no thought of being just ever entered your mind. 21 What fruit did you have, then, in the things of which you are now ashamed? Indeed, death is the completion of those things. 22 Now, however, having been made free far away from all disconnection from God, and even more than that, having become slaves connected to and fused together with God, you possess your fruit into being made holy and devoted and the completion as age-unfolding life. 23 Indeed, the payment for falling short is death; but the grace of God Himself is age-unfolding life inside of Christ Jesus our Lord.
~ Paul has just established that through our already completed union with the death of Christ, we no longer have any relationship whatsoever with either the law or sin through the law. Now, Paul inserts a parenthesis, a “what if” regarding the law standing against us. He has two purposes in doing so. His first purpose is to show us how ineffective the law is. And his second reason is to place us into a God-intended despair, into knowing that God never intended us to live by our own human performance. The huge problem is that readers of the Bible do not ground themselves in verses 1-6 before rushing ahead into verses 7-24, and thus falsely assume that Paul is now giving us the formula under which we live as Christians, this constant awfulness between practice and desire. Paul was doing no such thing.
7:1 Or are you ignorant, brothers and sisters (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law rules a man only during the time he is alive? 2 The married woman, then, is bound by law to her living husband, but if her husband should die, she is free from the law to that husband. 3 If her husband were still alive, she would be called an adulteress if she joined herself to another man, but if the husband should die, she is free from the law, and does not become an adulteress if she marries another man. 4 In the same way, my brothers and sisters, you also have already been put to death to law through the body of Christ so that now you belong to another, that is, to the One who was raised out from the dead, so that we should bear fruit [bring forth life] as connected to and fused together with God. 5 While we were in the flesh, the desires of separation from God were energeoing in our members through the law to bring forth fruit to death. 6 We have been separated away from the law, however, having died to that which held us back from God, in order to serve now in newness of spirit, not in oldness of letter, that is, not in any written law.
c. Paul is clearly speaking separately from our being made free from sin by our shared death with Jesus, as he has already so powerfully established.
d. Jesus said it this way, “The Son of Man can do nothing of Himself.” — God did not create man with the ability to do good in himself, but only as filled with God.
7 What then shall we say? Is the law sin? It cannot be! You see, I could not have known sin, that is, my disconnection from God, except through law. Indeed, I would have not known coveting, if the law had not said, “You will not covet.” 8 Falling short, however, by taking its opportunity through the commandment, achieved inside of me all covetousness; for apart from law, falling short is dead, that is, it has no existence. 9 I once lived apart from law, however; then, the commandment actively came and made falling short live again, and thus, I died, that is, in the wrong way. 10 And the commandment that was supposed to put me into life, proved instead to put me into death. 11 Indeed disconnection from God, having taken its opportunity through the commandment, completely deceived me and then, through the commandment, killed me. 12 So, indeed, the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.
13 Has that which is good, then, become death to me? That cannot happen! Falling short, however, so that it might be seen by me as disconnection from God, produced its death through that which is good, so that sin might appear exceedingly sinful to me through the commandment. 14 We are aware that the law is spiritual; but I am fleshly, having been sold under all falling short. [c] 15 Indeed, I do not know what I produce. For I do not perform what I want, but I perform what I hate. 16 And if I perform what I do not choose, I agree together with the law that it is good. 17 Yet now I am no longer the one producing the performance but the falling short which dwells inside of me. 18 Indeed, I know that nothing good dwells inside of me, that is inside of my flesh [separate from God]. The desire is present with me but producing good is not. [d] 19 For the good that I want to do, I don’t; but what I don’t want to do, this evil I keep on doing. 20 If, then, I do what I do not want to do, it’s not me doing it, but sin, that is, disconnection from God, dwelling inside of me. [e]
e. Paul, having written Galatians 2:20 just a few months earlier, is giving here the antithesis to “Christ, not I,” which is not, actually, “I, not Christ,” but rather, “Sin, not I.”
f. “This body of death” is the Greek practice of chaining a murdered body to the back of the murderer so that he cannot be free of what he has done.
21 So I find the practice, that, in spite of my desiring to do good, evil is right there alongside of me {the tree of the knowledge of good AND evil}. 22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward person. 23 I see, however, another practice inside my members, warring against the practice of my mind, and making me captive as a prisoner of war to the practice of falling short existing in my members. 24 Oh me, oh my, I am a wretched man! Who will draw me [to Himself] out of this body of death? [f] 25 Grace and thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So, then, I myself with the mind serve God’s law, but flesh serves the practice of falling short.
~Now, just as Paul left our complete death to the law in order to set forth the reality of “Sin, not I” in a life separate from full faith in Christ, and having clearly placed Jesus as the One rescuing us out of such an horrific way of thinking and living, so now Paul returns us absolutely and with force to the complete freedom from all falling short of God in which we live inside of Jesus.
~ God did not create human flesh for the law, that’s why He told Adam not to partake of the law, of word on the outside of him. God created human flesh to be filled with Christ, not to live by its own power.
g. We do not include the remainder of what is called verse 1 because we know that those words were placed there falsely during the Middle Ages.
h. That is, living inside of the tree of life is a reality far different from living inside of the tree of doing good AND doing evil.
i. The picture is that of Jesus taking all sin into Himself.
j. Picture the story of Br’er Rabbit and the tar baby – what you attack is what you get
8: 1 There is now NO condemnation to those who are inside of Christ Jesus. [g] 2 For the law of the Spirit of life inside of Christ Jesus has made you free far away from the law of sin and death. [h] 3 For, in contrast to this powerless law, that is, something that has no ability to produce life, in that it was weak through the flesh, God Himself sent His Son in the likeness of fleshy falling short, and encompassing sin all the way around , and brought His entire judgment upon sin in the flesh, that is, He neutralized and eliminated it, 4 so that the pronounced justice of the law should be made complete and full inside of us, not according to fleshy walking, that is, not by outward human performance, but according to the finest details of Spirit. 5 Indeed, those who exist according to flesh, think about and out of the flesh, [j] those however who exist according to Spirit think out of the Spirit. 6 For death is the thought of the flesh, but life and peace are the thought of the Spirit. 7 Because the thinking of the flesh, that is, the thinking of separation from God, is alienation inside of God; it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can it be. 8 More than that, those who exist in flesh, that is, those who rely on themselves, are not able to please God.
9 BUT YOU DO NOT exist inside of flesh, that is, inside of fake human performance, but INSIDE OF Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells inside of you. And if anyone does not possess the Spirit of Christ, he is not His anyway. 10 But if Christ is inside of you, then, although the body is subject to death through [your former] falling short; in complete contrast, the Spirit [k] is life through just innocence. 11 More than that, if the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus out of the dead dwells inside of you, then the One who raised Christ Jesus out of the dead will also continuously and actively give life to your dying bodies through His Spirit dwelling inside of you.
k. He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit with Him (1 Corinthians 6:17)
At this point, Paul has dispensed with the entire issue of sin and death. He is now turning us entirely around, so that we will no longer waste time on the issue of "sin in the flesh," but will rather now give ourselves to that great purpose of God that Paul is about to set before us. This is Paul's these coming up, the great rendition of his gospel. Paul will build just a bit more as he turns us away from ALL disconnection from God and towards God through us.
l. As if the flesh separates you from God.
m. We connect this statement directly with Hebrews 10:22, that our physical bodies ARE already made clean by God.
n. Do you see how powerfully Paul has turned us utterly away from sin in the flesh and set our eyes entirely on union with Jesus, sharing His passion, sharing His glory? Now, for Paul’s primary thesis, the essence of the gospel he taught, verses 18-30.
o. Referring to God as well as creation.
12 So then, brothers and sisters, we owe nothing to the flesh, to live according to flesh, that is, either subduing it or pursuing it, either way. 13 For if you live according to the flesh, [l] you are about to die, that is, about to return to living separated from Christ in your imagination; if, however by the Spirit, you put to death, that is, put to the one death of Christ, the actions and functions of the [physical] body, you will live. [m] 14 For those who are led and carried by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery again into fear, but you have received the Spirit of placement and setting forth as sons, inside of whom we cry, “My Daddy, the Father!” 16 The Spirit Himself shares witness together with our spirit, that we are children born out from God. 17 And if children, then also heirs, heirs indeed of God, and joint-heirs together with Christ; if indeed we share together with His suffering that we might also share together with His glory. [n]
18 For I reckon, I speak, I place to my account, that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy and have no value compared towards the glory ready to be unveiled inside of us. 19 For the earnest expectation, the eager anticipation of the creation awaits intently for the unveiling, that is, removing the cover from off of the sons of God. 20 Indeed, the creation was made subject to vanity and purposelessness, not willingly, [o] but through being subjected on the basis of the hope 21 that creation itself will also be made free from the slavery of decay into the freedom and liberty of the glory of the children birthed out from God. 22 Indeed, we are aware that the entire creation groans together and travails together until now. 23 Not only that, but even we ourselves, possessing the firstfruit of the Spirit, we also groan inside ourselves, eagerly expecting the placement and setting forth as sons, that is, the redemption of our body. 24a Indeed, we were saved in this hope.
24b Hope that is being seen outwardly, however, is not hope; for if one sees something outwardly, for what is he hoping? 25 If, on the other hand, we hope for what we do not see, we expect it eagerly through steadfastness. 26 In the same way, the Spirit also joins as help together with our weakness; for we are not aware of the things that are necessary for us to pray, but the Spirit personally brings us in line with Father for the sake of others, with inexpressible groanings. 27 Even more than that, the One who is actively searching hearts, that is, to know present needs, is aware of the thinking of the Spirit, because, according to all the details that are God, He joins us together with God – as on the Mercy Seat – for the sake of the holy ones.
28 We are fully aware that those who love God are synergeoing with God, that is, energeoing together with God, directing all things into goodness; these are those who are being called and summoned according to His pro-thesis, that is, His set-forth purpose. 29 Because those whom He pro-knows, that is, whom He knows inside Himself as part of Himself, He also pro-determined them symmorphosed with the image of His Son, into Jesus being the firstborn among many brothers and sisters, that is, of His same kind, born of the same womb. 30 Even more than that, those whom He pro-determined, these He also called; and those whom He called, these He has already made fully just and innocent; and even more than that, those whom He made just and innocent, these He has already fully glorified.
| We know moreover that those who are actively loving God are synergeoing together with God to turn with purpose all—all things, all entities, all circumstances, all moments—into pure and intrinsic goodness, that is, into the knowledge of God. These are those who are continuously being called as and by the precise details of God’s Pro-Thesis, His set-forth purpose from the beginning, the Blueprint of His House, the Lord Jesus. Because, these who are summoned out from God’s Pro-knowing, knowing God’s knowing of them, God Pro-Determined them, with all the passion of His Being, to be symmorphosed with, merged together with, sharing one form with the image of His Son, the revelation of Father, into the reality of Christ Jesus being the firstborn among and in MANY brethren, the first one of our kind. Even more than that, those whom God has seized in His Pro-Determination, God also first called them (out from His Pro-Knowing); and those whom God called, God also first justified them, placing them into incorruptible sinlessness, that is, into Christ; and even more than that, those whom God justified and made pure and holy, God also glorified them, placing them out into His creation as His image and likeness, God revealed through them now. |
– What follows, now is the obvious reality that flows out from Romans 8:28-30.
p. Same word and concept as Galatians 2:20 – having traded Himself for us
38 For I am persuaded and filled full with confidence that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things at hand, nor things about to happen, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing has the ability to separate us away from the love of God inside of Christ Jesus our Lord.
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9:1-5 I speak the truth inside of Christ. I am not lying, my consciousness bearing witness together with me inside of the Holy Spirit, that my grief is great and unceasing sorrow in my heart. I could indeed with myself to be a curse, separated from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my relatives according to the flesh, who are Israelites, whose is the appointment as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the law giving, and the service, and the promises, whose are the patriarchs and of whom is the Christ according to the flesh, God being over all, blessed into the ages. Let it be so.
6-13 It is not as though the word of God has failed, however; indeed, not all who are out of Israel are Israel, nor because they are the seed of Abraham are all children; rather, “In Isaac your offspring will be named.” That is, the children of the flesh are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are accounted into the seed. For the word of promise is this: “At this time I will come, and there will be to Sarah a son. More than that, Rebecca also, by one intercourse with Isaac our father, [the twin boys] not yet indeed having been born nor having done anything good or bad, that according to election, the purpose [prothesis] of God might remain or continue, not out of works, but out of the One calling, it was said to her, “The greater [older] will serve the lessor [younger].” As it has been written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
14-18 What then will we say? Is there injustice in the presence of God? Never may it be! Indeed to Moses He says, “I will show mercy to who whomever I might show mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I might have compassion.” So then, it is not of him choosing nor of him running, but of God who is showing mercy. Indeed, the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very [reason] I have raised you up, so that I might prove My power in you, and so that My name should be published abroad in all the earth.” So then, to whom He wants, He shows mercy and whom He wants, He makes inflexible.
19-24 You will say to me, then, “Why then, does He still find fault? Indeed, what is the point of him who is resisting?” But rather, O man, who are you answering against God? Will the thing formed say to the one having formed it, “Why have you made me like this?” Or does the potter not have authority over the clay, out of the same lump to make one vessel into honor and value and another into dishonorable use? If God, moreover, wanting to show set opposition and to make known His power, bore in much patience the vessels of opposition having been designed for ruin and loss. And that He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared out from Himself into glory? Whom He has called, not only we who are out from the Judeans, but also those out from the other peoples?
25-29 As He says also in Hosea, “I will call those who are not My people, ‘My people,’ and she who has not been loved, ‘Has been loved.’ And it will be that, in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,’ there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’ Isaiah also cries for the sake of Israel, “Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only the remnant (those left behind or rejected) will be saved. This word indeed, “bringing to completion and swiftly determining,” the Lord will perform upon the earth. And as Isaiah said previously, “If the Lord of the Hosts had not left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom and like Gomorrah we would have compared.”
30-33 What then shall we say? That the peoples not aggressively pursuing righteousness, have seized hold of righteousness, the righteousness, moreover, that is out of faith. Israel, however, aggressively pursuing the law of righteousness, did not arrive into the law. Why? Because it was not out of faith, but as out of works, they stumbled over the stone of stumbling. As it has been written, “Behold I set forth in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense; and the one believing upon Him, will never be put to shame.”
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10:1 Brothers and sisters, indeed, the good pleasure of my heart and my prayer towards God for their sake [the natural Jew] is into salvation. 2 For I bear witness concerning them, that they have a zeal of God, but not according to personal knowledge, that is, acknowledgement. 3 Indeed, being ignorant of God’s just rightness, and seeking to establish and make a stand upon their own fake rightness, they have not placed themselves under the just rightness of God. 4 For, indeed, Christ is the completion and the perfect fulfillment of the law into the purpose of everyone who believes being made just, right, and innocent.
5 For as Moses writes of the “rightness” which is out of the law, “The man who does it will live inside of it.” 6 But the just innocence which is out of faith speaks in this way: “You should NOT say inside your heart ‘Who will go up into heaven?’” that is, to bring Christ down. 7 Or, “‘Who will go down into the place of the dead?’” That is, to bring Christ up out from the dead. 8 But what says it? “The word, that is, Christ, the Word God speaks, is near you here and now, inside of your mouth and inside of your heart”; that is, the word of faith, persuasion, and confidence which we proclaim. 9 That, if you speak the same word in your mouth, that is the Lord Jesus, and hold confident faith and persuasion inside your heart that God raised Him out from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For the heart persuades into just innocence; and the mouth speaks the same word, speaking Christ into salvation. 11 As the Scripture says, “No one persuaded and confidenced upon Him will be put to shame.” 12 Nor is there any difference between Judean and Greek; for the same Lord of all is rich with purpose into all those calling upon Him. 13 For all who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
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14-15 How then can they call into Him whom they have not believed? Moreover, how shal they believe on Him of whom they have not heard? Moreover, how shall they hear apart from someone speaking publicly? Moreover, how shall they speak publicly, if they are not sent? As it has been written, “How beautiful are the feet of those proclaiming good news of peace, of those proclaiming good news of intrinsic and inherent goodness.
16-21 But not all listened to the good news. Indeed, Isaiah says, “Who has believed our report?” So faith is out of hearing, and hearing through the speaking of Christ. But I ask, “Did they not hear?” On the contrary, “Their sound has gone out into all the earth and their words into the limits of human habitation.” But I ask, “Did Israel not know?” First Moses says, “I will provoke you to jealousy through those not a people; through a people without understanding I will provoke you to anger.” Isaiah, moreover, is very bold and says, “I was found by those not seeking Me; I became visible to those not enquiring after Me.” To Israel, however, he says, “All day long, I have stretched out My hands to a people unpersuaded and speaking against [anti-word].”