CHAPTER 8

THE BIBLICAL DOCTRINE OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE

In this chapter the Biblical doctrine of the Christian life will be presented. Since Christians are called saints or holy ones in the Scriptures, the Biblical doctrine of the holiness of God will be presented. It will be shown how the holiness of God has been misunderstood by Christian legalism by showing what the Bible teaches about the holiness of God. This misunderstanding of the holiness of God will lead to a discussion of the misunderstanding of the Christian life and of Romans chapter 7, where Paul deals with the law and the Christian. Finally, the Biblical doctrine of the Christian life will be presented. Since the Christian life is a life filled with the Holy Spirit, particular emphasis will be place on the work of the Holy Spirit in relation to the Christian.

THE HOLINESS OF GOD

According to the legalistic understanding of God's being, the holiness of God like His righteousness is misunderstood in terms of the law. Holiness is understood legalistically as conformity to the law, moral perfection and sinlessness. The holiness of God is therefore the eternal conformity of God's will and mind to His being which is law. He always thinks and acts in conformity to His holy being. It is impossible in the very nature of God for Him to do otherwise. According to these theologies the absolute holiness of God is the purity and moral perfection of His being. It is accordingly the fundamental and essential attribute of God or, more exactly, the consummate and infinite moral perfection of all the attributes taken together. Each attribute has its perfection; holiness is the infinite moral perfection of the whole together. It is not one attribute among others but the total moral perfection of the Godhead that sets Him transcendently apart from and above all the creatures. As such holiness is the regulative principle, norm and standard of all of them. Accordingly God's love is holy love; His power is holy power; His will is a holy will. They are holy because He always acts consistent with His essential being which is law. Thus the holiness of God is understood legalistically.

According to the Scriptures God is holy (Lev. 11:44-45; 19:2; 20:26; 21:8: Josh. 24:19; I Sam. 2:2; 6:2; Psa. 22:3; 99:3,5,9; Isa. 5:16; 6:3). He is the Holy One of Israel (I Kings 19:22; Psa. 71:22; 78:41; 89:18; Isa. 1:4; 5:24; 10:20; 16:6, etc.). But the Scriptures do not understand holiness legalistically. The root meaning of the Hebrew word (qodesh, a noun, and qadosh, an adj.) as well as the Greek word (hagios) which is translated holy is "separation." It has both a positive and negative sense; it refers positively to what is God's and negatively to what is not man's. Something that is holy is not only separated from common or human use but is separated to God. Hence with respect to persons and things it means dedicated or consecrated to God. This is clear from the phrase "holy unto the Lord" (Lev. 27:9, 14, 21, 23, 30, 32). It does not basically mean "sinless" or "morally perfect." This may be seen from the use of the term to describe things as well as persons. In the Old Testament some things described as holy are the ground (Ex. 3:5; Josh. 5:15), the ark of the covenant (II Chron. 35:30), the vessels of the tabernacle (I Kings 8:4), and the place where they rested (I Kings 8:6,8,10). Since things cannot sin, they cannot be sinless. But they are holy. Things and people are holy in virtue of their relation to God Himself; whatever is separated unto and consecrated or dedicated to a deity or deities is holy apart from its ethical or moral purity. This non-ethical meaning is clear from the use of the term to describe male and female temple prostitutes of some pagan gods (qedeshim, masculine, and qedeshoth, feminine, Deut. 23:17-18; II Kings 23:7). As the titles indicate they were sacred ministrants attached to Canaanite cults of the deity of fertility. They were holy in virtue of their relation to the deity. It does not refer to their moral character. Of course there are moral and ethical implications of the worship of the true God. But this meaning is secondary and subordinate in the concept of holiness. What is primary and foremost is the separation unto God. "You shall be holy to me; for I the Lord am Holy, and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine." (Lev. 20:26)

In what sense is God holy? In the Old Testament there are three senses in which God is holy.

  1. God is holy in the sense that He is separated from His creation.
    11 Thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker:
    "Will you question me about my children,
    or command me concerning the work of my hands?
    12 I made the earth and created man upon it;
    it was my hands that stretched out the heavens,
    and I commanded all their hosts." (Isa. 45:11-12)

    For thus says the high and lofty One,
    who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:
    "I dwell in the high and holy place,
    and also with him who is of a contrite and humble spirit,
    to revive the spirit of the humble,
    and to revive the heart of the contrite." (Isa. 57:15)
    (See also Psa. 99:1-3,5,9; Isa. 6:1-5; 17:7; 41:20; 54:5)

    God is holy in the sense that He is separated from all He has created. He is not to be confused or identified with His creation. Even though He is near the humble and contrite, He is not to be pantheistically identified with Nature. He is not Nature but Nature's God, the Creator.

  2. The second sense in which God is holy is related to this first sense. He is holy in the sense that He is separated from all false gods; He is not like any other god.
    "18 To whom then will you liken God,
    or what likeness compare with Him?
    19 The idol! a workman casts it
    and a goldsmith overlays it with gold,
    and casts for it silver chains.
    20 He who is too impoverished chooses for an offering wood that will not rot;
    he seeks out a skilled craftsman to set up an image that will not move...
    25 To whom then will you compare me,
    that I should be like him?
    says the Holy One.
    26 Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these?
    He who brings out their host by number,
    calling them all by name;
    by the greatness of his might,
    and because he is strong in power, not one is missing."
    (Isa. 40:18-20, 25-26)
    God is not like the wooden idol made by the craftsman; He is the Maker of all things.
    "Have you not known? Have you not heard?
    The Lord is the everlasting God,
    the Creator of the ends of the earth."
    (Isa. 40:28)
    God is holy in the sense that He is separated from all false gods.
    "7 In this day men will regard their Maker,
    and their eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel;
    8 they will not have regard for their altars,
    the work of their hands,
    and they will not look to what their own fingers have made,
    either the Asherim or the altars of incense." (Isa. 17:7-8)
    It was in this sense that Isaiah was overwhelmed with the holiness of God during the vision in the temple (Isa. 6:1-5). Isaiah feels the contrast between the true God and all the false gods that his people are worshipping. The worship of the true God by the seraphim brings conviction to Isaiah of the uncleanness of his lips and of the people's in the midst of which he dwelt. With their lips they worshipped and praised false gods, not the King, the Lord of hosts. Seeing the Lord, Isaiah recognizes the awful character of idolatry. "Woe is me! For I am lost!" God is holy because He is the Creator of all things; He is not to be confused with any of them; this distinguishes Him from all false gods.

  3. But God is also holy because He is the Savior, the Redeemer.
    "Fear not, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel!
    I will help you, says the Lord;
    your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel." (Isa. 41:14)

    "For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior."
    (Isa. 43:3)

    In many places the Holy One of Israel is called your (our) Redeemer (Isa. 43:14; 47:4; 48:17; 49:7; 54:5). This also distinguishes the true God from all false gods.
    10 "You are my witnesses," says the Lord,
    "and my servant whom I have chosen,
    that you may know and believe me and understand that I am He.
    Before me no god was formed,
    nor shall there be any after me."
    11 "I, I am the Lord, and besides me there is no Savior."
    (Isa. 43:10-11)

    6 Thus says the Lord,
    the King of Israel and his Redeemer,
    the Lord of Hosts:
    "I am the first and the last;
    besides me there is no god."
    7 "Who is like me? Let him proclaim it,
    let him declare and set it forth before me.
    Who has announced from of old the things to come?
    Let them tell us what is yet to be."
    8 "Fear not, nor be afraid;
    have I not told you from of old and declared it?
    And you are my witnesses!
    Is there a God besides me?
    There is no Rock; I know not any." (Isa. 44:6-8)
    (See also Isa. 45:5-6,14,18-19,21-22; 46:9.)

    Of those who worship false gods Isaiah says,
    "16 All of them are put shame and confounded,
    the makers of idols go in confusion together.
    17 But Israel is saved by the Lord with everlasting salvation;
    you shall not be put to shame or confounded to all eternity."
    (Isa. 45:16-17)
    The Lord says through the prophet Isaiah,
    20 "Assemble yourselves and come, draw near together,
    you survivors of the nation!
    They have no knowledge who carry about their wooden idols,
    and keep on praying to a god that cannot save.
    21 "Declare and present your case;
    let them take counsel together!
    Who told this long ago?
    Who declared it of old?
    Was it not I, the Lord?
    And there is no other god besides me,
    a righteous God and a Savior,
    there is none besides me."
    (Isa. 45:20-21; see also Hos. 13:4)
    The true God is holy because He alone can save and deliver. He alone has the power. He alone has unlimited freedom; He alone can and will save because He alone is love.

God is holy because He is love. This truly set Him apart from all false gods. The true God is holy because He is love. That which sets God apart from all other gods and also from all creatures is that feature which is most characteristic of God Himself, His love. God has freely and sovereignly chosen to be love. His choice determines the good. The good is what God wills. And it is not whimsical or arbitrary because it is God who has willed it. "Thy will be done on earth as in heaven." (Matt. 6:10, etc.) God's will is not determined by His nature; His nature is His will; He is what he chooses to be (Deut. 32:39; Isa. 45:7; 46:8-11). And God has chosen to be love and He has revealed that choice in the history of the children of Israel and supremely in Jesus Christ, His Son (John 3:16; I John 4:9-10). The true God is a God of sovereign love, not of sovereign justice or holiness.

And since a person becomes like the god he worships (Psa. 115:4-8; 135:15-18), a Christian becomes like the God of love he worships and serves, and this sets him apart from the world. Love is that which makes Christians saints, holy ones (John 13:24-35).

Sanctification is the act of God by which man is separated from the worship of a false god and is dedicated to the true God. The term is not basically a moral or ethical concept. The idea of sanctification is soteriological before it is a moral concept. The idea of sanctification, which word has the same root as holiness in the Greek and Hebrew, is first of all a religious term and secondarily a moral term. It does not mean basically sinless or morally perfect. To be sanctified is to be dedicated to God. The RSV correctly translates the verb as "consecrated" in I Tim. 2:21. Sanctification denotes first of all the soteriological truth that the Christian belongs to God. Paul uses the term to denote another way of looking at salvation (I Cor. 1:30). Justification emphasizes the right personal relation to God, whereas sanctification emphasizes belonging to the true God rather than to a false god. The view that justification designates the beginning of the Christian life while sanctification designates the development of that life through the internal work of the Spirit is an oversimplification of the New Testament teaching and obscures an important truth. As we will see in the next section, the legalistic interpretation of justification distorts the relationship between it and sanctification. The word "sanctification" occurs only once in Romans (6:22) and is significantly omitted from the steps leading to glorification in Romans 8:30. This is because sanctification is just the other side of justification, and need not also be mentioned when the other is.

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 of salvation. Since man's relation 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; namely, 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, saint and sinner.

Chapter 7 of Romans 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 from the presence of the sinful nature. Thus most Reformed theologians interpreted the 7th chapter of Romans as the normal Christian life.

Although some Christian theologians interpet this struggle of Romans chapter 7 as the normal Christian life, other Christian theologians reject this interpretation of the Romans 7 experience and teach either a second work of grace that eradicates the sinful nature from the Christian, delivering him from the Romans 7 experience, or the suppression of the works of the flesh (sinful nature) by the power of the Holy Spirit. But in either 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. 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 second 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 moral and ethical result of legalism is the moral dilemma: the contradiction between what man is and what he ought to be. Since man falls short of the ideal of moral perfection, the standard of righteousness, the law, he is faced with the disparity between the real and the ideal self, between what he is and what he ought to be. The Christian statement of this dilemma is given classic expression by the Apostle Paul in his famous analysis of the experience of the man under law in Romans chapter 7 -- "The good that I would , I do not. And the evil which I would not, that I do." (Rom. 7:19) This predicament has led the legalistic theologians to conclude that sin is intrinic to human nature. Rabbinic Judaism, for example, developed the theory of the evil nature or "yetzer hara." Augustine used the doctrine of original sin (originale peccatum) or inherited inborn sinful nature to explain why men always fall short of the divine standard. But this doctrinal expedient of the sinful nature is unnecessary since the moral dilemma can be explained by the fact that a false god always betrays its worshippers into the very opposite of what they expected from the false god (Isa. 44:9, 10; 45:16, 17, 20, 21). The man under law who practically deifies the law (Rom. 7:22, 25) and looks to it to save him from sin and give him life (Rom. 7:10) finds that the law cannot save him, but on the contrary discovers that the law arouses sin and becomes the opportunity for sin which results in death (Rom. 7:5, 8-11).

And not only that, but also since death (primarily spiritual death) leads to sin (Rom. 5:12d), 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.

"21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil is present with me.
22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inner man,
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)
There are three laws presented here in this passage.
  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), the law of the mind.
  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). The law of death is this third law, this other law. And this is confirmed in Romans 8:2 which says, "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death." The law of death brings the man under law into captivity to the law of sin. Death leads to sin; all sinned because of death (Rom. 5:12d). "The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law" (I Cor. 15:55).
No sinful nature is necessary to explain the moral delimma; the man under law sins because he is spiritually dead; the law separates him from God. For the Christian to place himself under the law is practically like placing himself in death; it has the same results -- sin. For the Christian under law, the law has taken the place of the Holy Spirit; the law thus separates the Christian from God. Romans chapter 7 is not the normal Christian life; it is the struggle of the man under law, entrapped in the bondage of legalism. And if the Christian falls into this legalism, there is deliverance. "Thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. 7:25).

In Romans 7:25b through 8:4 there may be found three steps for deliverance from legalism:

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 the law of 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 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 relation to God and to his fellow man. It provides guidance for man's actions in relation 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. Thus the law of the Spirit of life is the power of the Spirit of God acting to make one alive, and thus freeing from the law or power of action of death and of sin. 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. 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.
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. Since death leads to sin, the Spirit delivers from sin by giving us life in Christ that is deliverance from death. The law is not able to do this; 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 is that the righteous acts of the law are fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit (Rom. 8:4). To walk after the flesh is to try to do the righteous acts of the law by human effort ("the flesh"). The believer must not do it that way. By walking after the Spirit he will fulfill the righteous acts of the law. He will love God with his heart, soul, and mind, with his whole being, and he will love his neighbor as he loves himself.

The interpretation of Romans 7 as the Christian struggle with the sinful nature is a legalistic misinterpretation. This misinterpretation considers the normal Christian life as under law and the sinful nature as the explanation why the Christian cannot keep the law and has this struggle. The flesh is considered to be the sinful nature.

The sinful nature is not needed to explain the struggle and defeat in Romans 7; the Christian cannot live by the law any more than he can he be saved by the law. The law cannot produce righteousness because it cannot make alive (Gal. 3:21). Only a real personal relationship to God through Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit can produce righteousness, that is, the right relation to God and to man. The law cannot make alive to God; that is, the law cannot produce a real personal relationship to God of love and trust in God. To try to live the Christian life by the law separates and isolates the Christian from God (spiritual death) and the attempt by human self-effort (the flesh) to live up to standard of the law results in failure and sin. As right and good is the law, God did not give it as a means of salvation nor as the way to live the Christian life by it. So all attempts to do so will fail, as Romans 7 shows. The sinful nature is not the cause of this failure but the wrong use of the law. Romans 7 shows what happens when the law is used wrongly. The solution to this problem is not to try harder, but to abandon this wrong use of the law and to turn to God's way of the Christian life; that is, to walk according to the Spirit by faith (Gal. 5:25), and not according to the flesh (human self-effort) by the law (Rom. 8:4).

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 Christ's death -- 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) and are set free from the law of sin and death by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, 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-fulfilling by love; it is a joyful walk filled with 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 it 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.

THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE

God accomplishes His salvation through Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit. Having raised Jesus from the dead and having exalted Him to His own right hand to be both Lord and Christ (Acts 2:33,36; Eph. 2:20-22; Phil. 2:9-11), God has sent the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:33) to bring life to men (John 3:5-8) by revealing personally to them (John 15:26) Jesus as their Savior who died for them and as their Lord who was raised for them (Rom. 10:9-10; Titus 3:4-7; II Tim. 1:9-10). When a man responds to this revelation by turning from his false gods (repentance) and turning to the true God (I Thess. 1:10), acknowledging Jesus as his Lord (faith), he is saved (Acts 2:38; 16:31). Apart from God and His grace revealing Jesus Christ to him by the Holy Spirit, a man will not repent and believe (conversion) (John 6:44,65; 16:7-11). Baptism is an outward sign of this inward work of God's grace.

The decision of faith involves at least three elements.

  1. First, faith is the acknowledgment of the Lordship of Christ and allegiance to Him as Lord.
    "9 Because, if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord
    and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead,
    you will be saved.
    10 For man believes with his heart unto righteousness,
    and he confesses with his lips unto salvation."
    (Rom. 10:9-10 ERS)
    Unless Jesus is risen from the dead, He cannot be Lord. Faith in general is not just belief that certain statements are true but is the commitment of one's self and giving of one's allegiance to something or someone as one's own personal ultimate criterion of all decisions, intellectual and moral. Saving faith in Jesus Christ is the commitment of one's self to Jesus Christ as one's own personal ultimate criterion ("My Lord and my God," John 20:28). The living person, the resurrected Jesus Christ, not just what He taught, becomes our criterion of the true, the good, and the beautiful (John 14:6). As He is our living Lord, His will becomes the criterion of all our decisions, intellectual and moral. By the Holy Spirit His will is personally communicated to us (John 14:15-17,26; 15:26; 16:12-15; II Cor. 3:17-18; I John 2:26-27).

  2. Second, faith is identification with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. As our Savior He died for us and was raised for us (II Cor. 5:14-15). So in faith we say,
    "His death is my death; His resurrection is my resurrection."
    "I have been crucified with Christ;
    it is no longer I who live,
    but Christ who lives in me;
    and the life I now live in the flesh
    I live by faith in the Son of God,
    who loved me and gave Himself for me."
    (Gal. 2:20; see also Rom. 6:5-11;
    Eph. 2:4-6; Col. 3:1-4).
    Baptism is the outward sign and symbol of this identification and participation with Christ in His death and resurrection (Rom. 6:3-4; Col. 2:12).

  3. Third, faith is the reception of life in Christ. Jesus said,
    "Truly, truly I say to you, he who hears my word
    and believes him who sent me has eternal life;
    he does not come into judgment
    but has passed from death to life."
    (John 5:24; see also John 3:36; Rom. 5:17)
    Having in the decision of faith identified ourselves with the death and resurrection of Jesus and having acknowledged the resurrected living Jesus as Lord, we have also received spiritual life. For Jesus Christ is life, and to have Him is to be spiritually alive to God.
    "11 And this is the testimony,
    that God gave us eternal life,
    and this life is in his Son.
    12 He who has the Son has life;
    he who has not the Son has not life."
    (I John 5:11-12).
    Fellowship with God is restored (I John 1:3) and we are reconciled to God (II Cor. 5:18). We are born again (John 3:3; Titus 3:5) and have become new creatures in Christ Jesus (II Cor. 5:17).
But this decision of faith is only the beginning of the Christian life. Being made alive in Christ we have become members of His body (I Cor. 12:12-13). Not only is our fellowship with God restored, but also our fellowship with our fellowman. The barrier is removed and we are no longer separated and alienated from one another (Eph. 2:19). We are no longer spiritually isolated from one another. All those who have acknowledged Jesus Christ as Lord and have received Him as their life together form a new community or society, His body, of which He is the head (Col. 1:18). In His body we know the reality of God's love and are able to love one another because He first loved us (I John 4:11,19) and has poured His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which He has given to us (Rom. 5:5). Since the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:2), when we received life in Christ, we also received the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:9).

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).

The Christian life is the present tense of salvation. We are being saved from death unto life, from sin unto righteousness, from wrath unto peace. Salvation is not yet complete. It has begun for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:24), and it is still continuing (I Cor. 15:2). But it is not yet finished. With hope we await its completion (Rom. 8:25; Gal. 5:5). We are in between the times; the time of His first coming and the time of His second coming. Our spirits are now alive to God and to those in Christ, but our bodies are still dead (Rom. 8:10). Our bodies are still subject to the spiritual and physical death that came from Adam's sin. Only by the quickening power of the Holy Spirit of God who dwells within us can we now experience physical healing and control of the passions and desires of the flesh (Rom. 8:11-13). This salvation of the body from death is not now total or complete and will not be until He returns. But neither is the salvation from sin to righteousness complete. The faith that we have in Him who raised Jesus from the dead, this faith is "about to be reckoned" to us for righteousness, even as Abraham's faith was reckoned (Rom. 4:23-24). But our righteousness is not complete. Our faith is weak, and not all things we do are done according to trust and faith in the true God. We have many hang-overs from our existence in death apart from Christ. This old man must be put off (Eph. 4:22-24; Col. 3:5-10) with its many evil practices. This can be done by the power of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Gal. 5:16-17,24) as we walk in the Spirit by faith. The Christian can sin but he does not have to sin. The Christian is dead to the slavery of sin with Christ and alive to God in Christ (Rom. 6:1-10). He is to reckon it to be true and yield his members not to sin but to God as instruments of righteousness (Rom. 6:11-13). Temptations to sin still exist, but God has provided a way of escape (I Cor. 10:13).

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 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, but a biblical Spirit-filled law-fulfilling by love (Rom. 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)
Not only is the Christian dead to sin but dead to the law. Through Christ's death he has died to sin and to the law, and now in the resurrected Christ he is alive to God.
"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 Christian has passed from under the reign of death and sin unto reigning in life in Christ Jesus (Rom. 5:17). The law was the rule in the dispensation of death (II Cor. 3:6-7); the letter kills and the law condemns. The Holy Spirit is the rule of life in the new dispensation of life (II Cor. 3:17-18). Since the Spirit gives life (II Cor. 3:6), the dispensation of life is the dispensation of the Spirit (II Cor. 3:8), the Era of the Spirit. Since the Christian has passed from death to life, he has passed from the rule of the law to the rule of the Spirit. The law as the rule of Christian life has no place in the Era of the Spirit. And if the law has no place in the Era of the Spirit, legalism as an idolatry and misunderstanding of the law has no place in the Era of the Spirit either.

END

Copyright 1989, Ray Shelton