THE THREE ASPECTS OF SALVATION

Many modified Calvinist saw that the penal satisfaction theory of atonement is Biblically inadequate because it does not include the Biblical doctrine of the believer as being in Christ. They saw that the Apostle Paul, after setting forth the truth of justification through faith in Christ's death for us in chapters 3 through 5 of Romans, went on to set forth in chapter 6 of Romans the believer's identification with Christ's death. In chapters 3 to 5, they believed that Paul presented Christ's death as for us; but in chapter 6 they believe that Paul presented our death with Christ. According to their interpretation, in chapter 6 of Romans our justification is no mere formal or legal transaction (although it is essentially a legal matter), but that it is an union with Christ. In justification, God declares the ungodly just by the imputation of the righteousness earned by Christ's active obedience during His life before the cross where in His passive obedience Christ paid the penalty of our sins. This legal declaration and imputation is made apart from a real and deep life-union of the believer with Christ. In chapter 6 of Romans, Paul sets forth our identification and our union with Christ in His death which our baptism pictures as the likeness of Christ's death and burial. Since we have been united to Christ crucified, our position must be one of death "in Him". The death of Christ for all involves the death of all. We therefore died in Christ to sin. Paul asks (in Rom. 6:1),
"Shall we therefore continue in sin?" Perish the thought.
"In Christ" and "in sin"? What an ethical contradiction!
Christ dying for my sin involves inevitably my death with Christ to sin. Christ in His incarnation being identified with us as a man, having taken upon Himself the penalty of our sin, He took us unto Himself, making us one with Himself. Thus we believers are legally and ethically involved in Christ. We have been sentenced to death in Christ for our sins, and at the same time we have automatically died to sin with Christ. As an old theologian put it, I am "born crucificed" (that is, when I was born again) [1].

Thus, according to this interpretation of Romans, there are two aspects of salvation that are presented in first eight chapters of Romans. First, the forgiveness of our sins, and second, our deliverance from sin. In the first part of Roman chapters 1 to 5:11, we are presented with the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ shed for salvation (Rom. 3:26); in the second part, chapters 5:12 to end of chapter 8, we are introduced to a new idea in 6:6 that we have been "crucified" with Christ. Thus an aspect of Christ's representative work involves our union with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. In the first part of Romans, the Blood deals with what has been done for us, and in the second part the Cross deals with what we are [2].

As we saw above, this view of the atonement is a legalistic interpretation of Christ's death. The penal substitutionary theory is a legalistic misunderstanding of the sacrifical aspect of the death of Christ. This view attempts to combine the Biblical doctrine of our death and resurrection with and in Christ with the legalistic penal substitutionary theory. It leaves the believer under law and is unable to deliever the believer from the slavery of sin.

"For sin shall not have dominion over you:
for you are not under the law, but under grace."
(Rom. 6:14).

END NOTES

[1] L. E. Maxwell, Born Crucified
(Chicago, Illinois: Moody Press, 1945), pp. 16-17.

[2] Watchman Nee, The Normal Christian Life
(Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1957, 1979), pp. 14-15.

FROM WRATH TO PEACE

In the first part of Romans 1:18 to 3:31, Paul explains that the wrath of God is against man's sin.

"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men,
who suppress the truth in unrighteousness."
(Rom. 1:18)

The Biblical concept of the wrath of God should be thought of as the stern and settled personal reaction of God's love against sin in man. That is, God's wrath must be understood in terms of God's love. Love is that decision of a person loving to act for the good of the person loved. It is not just an emotion, an easy-going, good-natured sentimentalism or good feeling of attraction or fondness for someone. But rather it is a decision of the will. But since the will involves the emotions as well as the intellect, that is, the total person, love is a strong and intensive concern for the well being of the person loved. And it is because of this concern that love may be pictured as a purifying fire, blazing out in fiery wrath against everything evil that hinders the loved one from being the best (Psa. 119:74; Prov. 3:11-12; Heb, 12:5-10; Rev. 3:19). Because of this intense love which is jealous for the good of the loved one, God hates everything that is evil in man (Psa. 5:5; 11:5; Prov. 6:16-19; Jer. 44:4; Heb. 1:13; Zech. 8:16-17). Hence the wrath of God is not opposed to His love. But rather it is the reverse side of His love. God's wrath is the direct personal opposition of His love to the sin that would destroy man whom He loves.

Now that God has redeemed us from sin by the death of Christ, we are also delivered from the wrath of God. The death and resurrection of Christ is not only deliverance from sin but is also deliverance from the wrath of God.

"Since, therefore, we are now justified by his blood,
much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God"
(Rom. 5:9).

"God put forth Jesus Christ as a propitiation through faith in His blood"
(Rom. 3:25 ERS).

Neither could the Old Testament sacrifices reconcile man to God; they could not make man alive to God ( Gal. 3:21). But through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, man can be made alive and reconciled to God and his sins can be taken away. And then since there are no sins to cause wrath, the wrath of God is turned away. No sin, no wrath. Thus Christ's death is the perfect sacrifice for turning away God's wrath because by it man is redeemed from sin. Christ's death is a propitiation because it is a redemption; it is both a propitiation and a redemption.
Propitiation is the sacrificial aspect of Christ's work of salvation from wrath to peace with God, and
redemption is the liberation aspect of Christ's work of salvation from sin to righteousness. And it is a propitiation and a redemption because it is a reconciliation to God.
Reconciliation is representative aspect of Christ's work of salvation from death to life. By being made alive to God, death, the cause of sin, has been removed, and one is thus set free from sin; and by being liberated from sin, which is the cause of wrath, wrath is removed.

END NOTES FOR FROM WRATH TO PEACE

[1] Leon Morris, The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross
(Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1956), p. 181.

SALVATION NOT BY WORKS

In Eph. 2:8-9, Paul contrasts this salvation by grace with salvation by works.

"^2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith;
and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God,
^2:9 not as a result of works, that no one should boast."
(Eph. 2:8-9 NAS)

"^4:4 Now to the one who works his wages is not reckoned according to grace [as a gift]
but according to debt [something owed since it was earned]
^4:5 But to the one who does not work,
but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly,
his faith is reckoned for righteousness." (Rom. 4:4-5 ERS).

The Bible very clearly teaches that salvation is not by works ( Eph. 2:8-9). Salvation is the gift of God, given by His grace and received through faith. Man cannot be saved by his meritorious good works; he cannot earn salvation by his works. This is the clear and explicit teaching of Scripture. Salvation by grace and salvation by meritorious works are mutually exclusive and opposing ways of salvation.

"But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works;
otherwise grace would no longer be grace." (Rom. 11:6)

Now, if we ask why man cannot be saved by his works, that is, what is the reason man cannot earn salvation by his meritorious works, the usual answer given to this question is that man apart from God's grace is not able to do good works by which he can earn salvation. Man, it is usually said, is not only not able to do good works, but he is able only to sin apart from the grace of God.

Now, the curious implication of this answer is that if a man were able to do good works -- able not sin -- then he could earn salvation and be saved by his meritorious works. This implication is made explicit in the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church since the time of Augustine in the early fifth century, that by the grace of God, which is infused into a man at his baptism, and renewed by the sacraments, he is able to do good works by which salvation (eternal life) may be earned. Accordingly, salvation is ultimately and fundamentally by works even though the grace of God makes possible the meritorious works.

It was this teaching that the Protestant Reformers opposed. They rejected the idea that grace was something infused into man to make it possible for him to earn salvation. Grace, said the Reformers, is God's unmerited favor, and salvation (eternal life) was a gift to be received by faith. But, they said, that eternal life was earned by the active obedience of Christ during his life on earth. This "merits of Christ" is imputed to the believer's account when he first believes in Christ. Thus salvation is still ultimately and fundamentally by meritorious works. It is true that they said that it was not by our works and it was a gift received by faith. But salvation was still by works -- not by our works but by the meritorious works of another, Jesus Christ. Christ by his active obedience has earned for us eternal life. It is a vicarious salvation by works. This explanation of salvation like the earlier Roman Catholic explanation mixes grace and works, which Paul says that cannot be done or grace will no longer be grace ( Rom. 11:6). And as it turned out in the history of Protestantism, the strong dynamic concept of God's grace as God's love in action is reduced to the weak idea of grace as unmerited favor.

Salvation is not by meritorious works, not because a man is not able to do them, but because God does not deal with mankind on the basis of the merit scheme. As Jesus made clear in his parable of the householder (Matt. 20:1-16), God does not act toward us on the basis of our merit but on the basis of His generosity. And because God does not treat mankind according to their desserts, but according to His love, He often puts the least deserving before the more deserving. "The last will be first and the first last." (Matt. 20:16; 19:30; Mark 10:31; Luke 13:30)

The Apostle Paul in opposing salvation by works refers to meritorious works as "the righteousness of the law" (Rom. 10:5; Phil. 3:6, 9) and as "the works of the law" (Rom. 3:20; 4:2-5; Gal. 3:2, 5, 10). The law was legalistically considered to be the standard by which the merits of good works can be determined. This is a distortion of the Mosaic law and is a characteristic of legalism.

THE MISUNDERSTANDING OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE

Augustine and much of Roman Catholic theology conceives of the Christian life as a process of earning eternal life by the good works which the Christian is enabled to do by the grace that was infused or imparted at baptism and renewed by the other sacraments. This conception of the Christian life is clearly legalistic. And it was this conception that the Reformers and Reformed theologians denied as unbiblical. But by retaining a basically legalistic understanding of Christ's work of salvation and justification, it was difficult if not impossible for them to understand the Christian life and sanctification in any other than legalistic terms. The practical matters of the Christian life are definitely affected by the theory of salvation and, behind that, the theory of the need for salvation. Since man's relationship to God was conceived in legalistic terms, that is, that all men are under the law and that man's relationship to God is determined by the law, not only is sin understood legalistically as breaking the rules, the transgression of the law as the divine standard of perfection in thought, word, and deed, but righteousness is also understood legalistically to be the keeping of the rules, a conformity to the law in thought, word, and deed, that is, moral perfection. Since according to this legalistic conception man was created under the law and for the law, man's highest good and final goal is this moral perfection, this legal righteousness. To stand spotless and without blame before the law was thought to be the Christian's ultimate hope. So the Christian life and sanctification was conceived by most Reformed theologians as growth and progress toward this moral perfection. Of course, it was not to earn eternal life. For all our moral progress, they said, we are still sinners, sinning in thought, word and deed. And at the same time legally righteous with the imputed righteousness of the merits of Christ -- simultaneously righteous and unrighteous, both a saint and a sinner.

Chapter 7 of Romans (verses 7 through 24) was interpreted by most Reformed theologians as the normal Christian life. They said that because the Christian after conversion still has a sinful nature, he will have an unending struggle with indwelling sin. His sinful nature (which is subject to sin) is in constant warfare with his renewed nature (which is subject to God's law). Even though he wants to keep God's law, he finds himself being compelled by his sinful nature to do the very things he hates. Although justified (declared righteous through the imputed merits or righteousness of Christ) and thus assured of salvation, there is still no deliverance from his sinful nature until he dies. He will finally be delivered from his sinful nature when he will be raised from the dead in the last day with an incorruptible body completely free of the presence of the sinful nature. Thus most Reformed theologians interpreted the 7th chapter of Romans as the normal Christian life. According to their teaching, since the believer has two natures, a sinful nature and a new nature, the experience recorded in Romans 7:7-24 is interpreted as the struggle between these two natures. This explanation of Romans 7 leaves the believer with no deliverance from this struggle, contrary to the clear teaching of Scirpture that there is deliverance:

"^7:24 O wretched man that I am!
who shall deliver me from the body this death?
^7:25a I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord!"
(Rom. 7:24-25a KJV).

John Wesley (1703-1791) in the 18th century recognized that there was deliverance from the Roman 7 experience, and he put forth the teaching that there was a second work of grace (the first work of grace was conversion), which he called entire santification, that would eradicate the sinful nature, cleansing from inbred sin and enabling those experiencing this work of grace to live without conscious or deliberate sin (Christian Perfection). But his explanation of this deliverance as the eradication of the sinful nature assumes that the struggle of Roman 7 is caused by the sinful nature. This assumption is wrong; the cause of the struggle is not the sinful nature, but being under law. According Rom. 6:14. sin has dominion over the believer when he is under the law and the deliverance from the dominion of sin is to be under grace.

"For sin shall not have dominion over you:
for you are not under the law, but under grace." (Rom. 6:14)

"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus."
(Rom. 8:1).

"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus
has set you free from the law of sin and of death." (Rom. 8:2).

Wesley, while recognizing that there was deliverance from the Roman 7 experience, misunderstood that deliverance as an eradication of the sinful nature. He did not recognize that the cause of the Roman 7 experience was being under the law ( Rom. 6:14), not the sinful nature. And he did not recognize this cause because his explanation of the need for salvation was legalistic (all men are under the law and have sinned by transgressing that law) as was the explanation of Augustine and of the Prostestant Reformers. And Wesley's explanation of salvation was also legalistic: he believed that the passive obedience of Christ's death paid the penalty of men's sin and the active obedience of Christ's good works earned for us eternal life which is imputed to our account when we believe. Also his concept of Holiness as Christian Perfection was also a legalistic misinterpretation of the Christian Life as sinless perfection.

Thus, although some Reformed theologians interpret this struggle of Romans chapter 7 as the normal Christian life, other Reformed theologians reject this interpretation of the Romans 7 experience and teach the suppression of the works of the flesh (sinful nature) by the power of the Holy Spirit. But in this case the Christian is still left under the law as a rule and standard of life and the "walk in the Spirit" is interpreted as nothing more than Spirit-empowered law-keeping. According to this teaching, the Holy Spirit is given to the Christian to empower him to keep the law and to make him morally perfect, conforming to the divine standard given in the law. This legalistic interpretation of the Christian life is the source of many of the psychological problems that Christians have today.

Legalism has either of two psychological effects on the person in bondage to the law. He becomes either self-righteous or afflicted with a guilt complex.

1. This self-righteousness is a special form of pride which is the chief by-product of idolatry (Psa. 40:4). It is most often connected with the externalization and detailed extensions of the law. It expresses itself in the attitude of the Pharisees who keep the minutiae of the law but overlook the spirit of the law (Matt. 15:1-19). Also the legalist is not only self-righteous but sits in judgment on others who do not conform to the law and has little place for mercy. He becomes like the god he acknowledges and worships -- the law. When he is shown mercy, he does not in turn show mercy to those in his debt (Matt. 18:23-35).
2. The other psychological effect of legalism is a guilt complex. If the legalist does not become self-righteous, then he usually becomes afflicted with a guilt complex. This psychological effect is most often connected with the quantitization of the law. Since he cannot know the precise amount of merit attached to each good deed or how much he has acquired, a legalist has no certainty. In addition, no matter how well he has lived, it is always possible for him to slip into a terrible sin whose demerit will outweigh all his merit. As a result of this uncertainty the legalist is led to look constantly within himself to see whether he measures up to the divine standard, the law, which he has chosen as his ultimate criterion. If he believes himself constantly falling short of this standard, he will develop a guilt complex.

   This second psychological effect of legalism is the most common among Christians who have been misled into legalism. Because of the intense desire placed by God in the believer to please God, the Christian entrapped in legalism internalizes the law, applying it not only to external actions but to every thought and motive as well as every word and deed. Because of the sin resulting from legalism (legalism itself is sin -- the sin of idolatry of the law), the guilt accompanying this sin is added to all the imagined guilt of the evil thoughts and motives resulting from close, detailed introspection. The result is often a very intense guilt complex bordering on the neurotic. Because of the widespread legalistic teaching in Christian churches, it is not surprising that so many Christians are afflicted with such guilt complexes.

"The good that I would, I do not.
And the evil which I would not, that I do." (Rom. 7:19)

And not only that, but also since death (primarily spiritual death) leads to sin (Rom. 5:12d ERS), the man under law is practically in spiritual death (the law separates him from God), and sin is the result of that death. This is what the Apostle Paul concludes at the end of his discussion of the legalistic struggle in Romans 7.

"^7:21 So I find it to be a law that
when I want to do right, evil is present with me.
^7:22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inner man,
^7:23 but I see in my members another law
at war with the law of my mind and
taking me captive to the law of sin which is in my members."
(Rom. 7:21-23 ERS)

1. The first law is the law of sin (verse 21). Since sin is not what the man under law wants to do, he concludes that sin must dwell in the members of his body rather than in his real inner self (Rom. 7:17-20).
2. The second law is the law of God (verse 22) which the man under law delights in, which he agrees with his mind is right, good and holy (Rom. 7:12, 16); this is the law of the mind in the next verse.
3. The third law is the "another law" (heteros --
   another of a different kind; compare with allos --
   another of the same kind) -- a law different from the first two laws but warring against the law of the mind -- the law of God -- and bringing the man under law into captivity to the law of sin.
   What is this third law? In the next verse we get a clue.

   "Wretched man that I am!
   Who will deliver me from the body of this death" (Rom. 7:24).

   This third law, this other law, is the law of death.
   And this is confirmed in Romans 8:2 (NAS, margin) which says,

   "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus
   has set me free from the law of sin and of death."

   The law of death brings the man who is under law into captivity to the law of sin. That is, death leads to sin,
   "because of which [death] all sinned" (Rom. 5:12d ERS).
   "The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law" (I Cor. 15:55).

"Is the law then against the promises of God?
Certainly not; for if a law had been given which could make man alive,
then righteousness would indeed by the law." (Gal. 3:21)

There are three steps for deliverance from legalism that may be found in Romans 7:25b through 8:4:

"^7:25b So then, I myself am a slave to the law of God with my mind,
but with my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin."
^8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.
^8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus
has set you free from the law of sin and of death.
^8:3 For what the law could not do,
in that it is weakened through the flesh,
God Himself, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh
and concerning sin, condemned sin in the flesh,
^8:4 in order that the righteous acts of law might be fulfilled in us,
who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." (ERS)

Step 1 - The recognition that legalism is the problem (Rom. 7:25b):

"So then, on the one hand, I myself with my mind am a slave to the law of God,
but on the other hand, with my flesh to the law of sin." ERS
To be delivered from legalism one must recognize that he himself is a slave to the law and a slave to sin, that is, that he is under the law and sin has dominion over him.

"For sin shall not have dominion over you:
for you are not under the law, but under grace."
(Rom. 6:14).

Step 2 - Deliverance from condemnation (Rom. 8:1):

"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." NAS
God delivers from legalism through His word of unconditional love which says that there is no condemnation to those in Christ. This is a word of grace and places the Christian back under grace. Legalism conditions God's love by our sins. God says that His love is unconditioned by our sins. Therefore God does not condemn us for our failure under the law but delivers us from under law and places us back under grace. For in His love God delivers us from sin and death (Rom. 8:2) and thus from wrath which is condemnation.

Step 3 - Deliverance from sin and death (Rom. 8:2):

"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death." NAS
Paul here says that "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" has set him and his readers free from "the law of sin and [the law of] death." Paul, like other New Testament writers, uses the Greek word nomos (usually translated "law") in several different ways. The following are some of them.

1. The first 5 books of the Old Testament, the Pentateuch (Matt. 12:5; Luke 2:23-24; 16:16; 24:44; Rom. 3:21b).
2. The whole Old Testament (Rom.3:19 referring to the passages quoted in Rom.3:10-18 which are not just from the Pentateuch; John 10:34, quoting Psa. 82:6; I Cor. 14:21, quoting Isa. 28:11)
3. The Mosaic covenant that God made with the children of Israel (Exodus 24:1-12; Rom. 2:12; 3:19; 4:13-14; Gal. 3:17-18).
4. The Ten Commandments, the Decalogue (Exodus 20:1-17; Deut. 5:6-21; Matt. 5:18), sometimes improperly called the moral law.
5. All the commandments of God, ceremonial as well as the Ten Commandments; all statutes and ordinances of the law of Moses (Luke 2:22; John 7:23).
6. Teaching, instruction, guidance (Rom. 2:17, 18, 20, 23, 26); compare this with the meaning of the Hebrew word Torah which has the same meaning. As such it is that content of God's revelation (the Word of the Lord, Deut. 5:5; Psa. 119:43, 160) which makes clear man's relationship to God and to his fellow man. It provides guidance for man's actions in relationship to God and to his fellow man.
7. Any commandment regulating conduct (Rom. 7:7, 8-9).
8. A principle or power of action (Rom. 3:27; 7:21, 23, 25; 8:2).

This last use is the way Paul uses it here in this verse (Rom. 8:2). The Greeks and the Romans believed that the law had the power to force compliance with the law (Cicero, Laws, II, 8-10). In their view the law was a principle or power of action which could by its action bring about what the law prescribed; it was not merely a description of or prescription for some action; the law made the action occur. This is the sense in which Paul speaks of "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" and of "the law of sin" and of "the law of death." These are not merely descriptions of how the Spirit or death or sin acted; they are powers that act and bring about certain actions. The law or power of action of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus frees us from the law or power of action of sin and of death. The law of death is power of death acting to make one dead. The law of sin is the power of sin acting to make one sin. Since death leads to sin, the Spirit delivers from sin by giving us life in Christ which is deliverance from death. The law is not able to do this, In the next verse (Rom. 8:3) Paul says that the law of God is unable to make righteous; it does not have that power of action. And, as Paul says in Gal. 3:21, righteousness is not by the law because the law cannot make alive; the law does not have that power action either. it is through the death of Christ (Rom. 8:3) who put an end to sin's reign over us ("condemn sin in the flesh") by his death for us (Rom. 6:6-10). The result ( Rom. 8:4) is that the righteous acts of the law are fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. To walk according to the flesh is to try to do the righteous acts of the law by human effort ("the flesh") to conform to the norm or standard of the law. The believer must not do it that way. He must walk according to the Spirit. And to walk according to the Spirit is to walk in love. And love fulfills the law (Rom. 13:8-10) and the righteous acts of the law.

Legalism makes a problem of the Christian life because the law separates us from God and leads us to trust in ourselves and our good works rather than in Him. This is the practical effect of the legalistic theory of Christian life -- it does not work. Where is the victory of Christ's resurrection in the struggle of Romans 7? Only as we pass out from under the law (we died to the law in Christ's death: Rom. 7:4) and are set free from the law of sin and death by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:2), do we experience the resurrection victory of Christ over sin and death. The Christian life is not Spirit-empowered law-keeping, but Spirit-filled law-fulfillment by love ( Rom. 8:4; 13:10); it is a joyful walk in the Spirit, trusting Him who loves us and gave Himself for us. And is a law necessary to make us love and trust God? The law is for those who do not love and trust God -- though it will not help them -- it cannot make them alive -- it cannot produce righteousness ( Gal. 3:21). For if the law could make them alive as the legalist tries to tells us, then Christ died in vain (Gal. 2:21). Salvation is not by works of the law -- in any way, shape or form. Salvation is by grace -- God's love in action to make us alive in Christ through faith, through trust in Him who loves us and gave Himself for us. And the Christian life is also by grace through faith.

The Christian life is a life of fellowship and communion with God the Father through Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit (I Cor. 1:9; II Cor. 13:14; I John 1:3). Through Jesus Christ we have access in one Spirit to the Father (Eph. 2:18; Rom. 5:2; Heb. 10:19-22). God speaks to us through the written and spoken Word of God and we speak to Him in prayer. The Christian life is also a walk of faith. It not only begins in faith, but it continues in faith (Col. 2:6). The walk in the Spirit is the walk of faith (Gal. 2:20; 5:25). Faith in the Father who loves me; faith in Jesus Christ with whom I have died and have been raised to new life; faith in the Holy Spirit who dwells within me. The Christian life is also a life of being transformed into and conformed to the image of God (Rom. 8:29; II Cor. 3:18). The resurrected God-man, the Son of man, Jesus Christ, is the image of God (Col. 1:15; II Cor. 4:4). By the last Adam, the man from heaven, man is being restored to the image of God. In faith we have put on the new man which is being renewed according to the image of Him who created him (Col. 3:10; Eph. 4:23-24).

Legalism is a temptation and an obstacle to the walk in the Spirit by faith. As good and right as the law is (Rom. 7:10), this law is not man's highest good, and observing the Ten Commandments is not man's righteousness. God Himself is man's highest good, and trust in and love for God is his righteousness. This love fulfills the law (Rom. 13:8-10), which a legalistic living by the law does not do. Man's basic problem is not "Are you keeping the law?" but "Which god are you trusting?" Is it the true God or is it a false one? This is not just the problem of the non-Christian and the unbeliever but also the problem of the Christian. Many psychological problems that Christians have are the result of a divided loyalty. They are trying to hang onto the true God and a false god at the same time. This double-mindedness, this divided faith (James 1:7-8) makes a Christian psychologically and morally unstable and hinders his relationship with the Lord.

And strange as it may seem, this is the situation behind the Romans 7 kind of experience of many Christians. As we observed above, the experience of Romans 7 is the experience of the man under law. And if a Christian is having this kind of experience, it is because he has placed himself or allowed himself to be placed under the law which God says he is not under, for he is under grace ( Rom. 6:14). He is attempting to serve two masters at the same time: the law and the Holy Spirit. And it cannot be done (Gal. 5:18). It only creates psychological and moral problems: guilt on the inside and sin and failure on the outside. Being indwelt by the Holy Spirit, the Christian does not need to walk by the law but by the Spirit. The Christian's goal is not moral perfection but the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23). The Apostle Paul's question in Galations 3:3 is particularly relevant and right to the point: "Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?"

Paul's obvious answer to this rhetorical question is "no". For "as you... have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him" (Col. 2:6). Moral perfection is perfection by the flesh, by the works of the law, and is contrary and opposed to the fruit of the Spirit and the righteousness of faith (Gal. 5:19-21). The weakness, if not the error, of most Christian preaching and teaching is that it is an exhortation of the Christian to perfection by the flesh, by the works of the law. Having begun in the Spirit, the Christian is urged to seek moral perfection. The Holy Spirit is brought into this kind of preaching, if at all, as the source of power to enable the Christian to keep the law. This Spirit-empowered law-keeping is not what Paul means when he speaks of "walking according to the Spirit" (Rom. 8:4; see also Gal. 5:16,25). To walk by the Spirit is to be led by the Spirit, and if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law (Gal. 5:18). To walk according to the Spirit is to make all one's decisions with reference to the Holy Spirit as He personally guides, fills and empowers the believer. The walk in the Spirit is the moment by moment walk of faith and personal trust in the God who personally by His Holy Spirit reveals and communicates Himself along each step of that walk. The "normal" Christian life is this walk according to the Spirit and not a legalistic Spirit-empowered law-keeping; it is Spirit-filled law-fulfillment by love ( Rom. 8:4; 13:10).

Christian legalism not only ignores the clear statements of the Scriptures that the Christian is not under law ( Rom. 6:14), but also the equally clear statements of the Scriptures that the Christian is dead to the law.

"Likewise, my brethen, you 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 to God."
(Rom. 7:4; Gal 2:19)

"But now we are discharged from the law,
dead to that which held us captive,
so that we serve not under the old written code
but in the new life of the Spirit." (Rom. 7:6)

THE CONCLUSION TO THE PROBLEM

In conclusion, the following statements will summarize our findings concerning the problem of the origin of sin and the problem of the Christian life.

1. The origin of sin is twofold:
   1. the historical origin of sin is the sin of Adam, the Fall of man,
   2. the immediate, contemporary and personal origin of the sin for each of Adam's descendants is the transmitted death from Adam to his descendants (Rom. 5:12d ERS).
2. The analysis of human freedom shows that man must have a god as the ultimate criterion of his choices.
3. Because man is spiritually dead and does not personally know the true God as a living reality, he choses a substitute for the true God as his god. Man sins because he is spiritually dead (Rom. 5:12d ERS).
4. Man has not lost his freedom to choose as the result of the Fall of man in the sin of Adam; he is able not to sin. But since he cannot make himself alive to God, he cannot save himself.
5. Salvation is basically and primarily from death, both spiritual and physical; salvation from death is man's primary need.
6. Because salvation is basically and primarily from death, salvation from sin (trust in a false god, idolatry) is secondary and, since man sins because of death, the result of salvation from death is salvation from sin.
7. Salvation is not something to be earned by meritorious works but is the gift of a personal relationship with the true God - spiritual life - to be received by faith.
8. Because the law cannot make alive ( Gal. 3:21), salvation by meritorious works is in principle not possible and is non-biblical; man cannot earn salvation because salvation is a gift of God received through faith.

   "^2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith;
   and that not of yourselves, it [salvation] is the gift of God,
   ^2:9 not as a result of works, that no one should boast."
   (Eph. 2:8-9 ERS; see also Titus 3:5).

9. The problem of original sin is a pseudo problem arising from a misunderstanding of the Biblical teaching concerning the origin of sin and the need for salvation. This misunderstanding arises from legalistic concept of salvation as something to be earned by meritorious works and a legalistic misinterpretation of Scripture, particularly of Rom. 5:12 ERS and of Rom. 7:7-24.
10. The sinful nature was introduced into Christian theology to explain why man could not save himself by his meritorious works. Since man cannot save himself by his meritorious works even if he could do them (salvation is not something that can be earned by meritorious works but is a gift), the doctrine of the sinful nature is unnecessary and unbiblical. The sinful nature is not taught in the Scriptures.
11. The sinful nature is not needed to explain the defeat of the man under law described in Romans 7:7-24. Sin has dominion over the man who is under law ( Rom. 6:14) because being under law he is separated from the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus and he is in spiritual death (the law has taken the place of the Spirit) and he sins because he is in this spiritual death (Rom. 5:12d ERS). The law of death makes him captive to the law of sin ( Rom. 7:21-23).
12. There is deliverance from the Romans 7 experience (Rom. 7:25a) and there are three steps of that deliverance as is given in Rom. 7:25b-8:4.

    Step 1 - The recognition that legalism is the problem (Rom. 7:25b):

    "So then, on the one hand, I myself with my mind am a slave to the law of God,
    but on the other hand, with my flesh to the law of sin." ERS
    To be delivered from legalism one must recognize that he himself is a slave to the law and a slave to sin, that is, that he is under the law and sin has dominion over him ( Rom. 6:14).

    Step 2 - Deliverance from condemnation (Rom. 8:1):

    "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." NAS
    God does not condemn us who are in Christ for our failure under the law
    but delivers us from under law and places us back under grace by this word of no condemnation in Christ Jesus.

    Step 3 - Deliverance from sin and death (Rom. 8:2):

    "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death." NAS
    The law or power of action of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus frees us from the law or power of action of sin and of death. The law of death is power of death acting to make one dead. The law of sin is the power of sin acting to make one sin. Since death leads to sin, the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus delivers from sin by giving us life in Christ Jesus which is deliverance from the law of death and thus from the law of sin.

13. The "normal" Christian life is the walk according to the Spirit by faith and not a legalistic Spirit-empowered law-keeping; it is the Spirit-filled law-fulfillment by love ( Rom. 8:4; 13:10).