Romans ~ Part 20

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As I’ve stressed in my previous post, our journey to comprehend the profound significance of Sha’ul’s Letter to the Romans is not just a study but a crucial cornerstone of our faith.

The Freedom from Death ~ Part 1

This chapter crowns the first half of the book of Romans, resolving the issue raised in chapter 7 and solving humanity’s overriding problem, sin. The answer is Ruach HaKodesh (literally, Spirt the Holy), who is in us if we live in union with Messiah Yeshua. In vv. 5–13 Sha’ul expands on what living in union with Him means. Romans 8 has been called the most beautiful chapter in the Bible. It begins with “no condemnation” (v. 1) and ends with no separation from God (v. 39). Whereas 7:14–25 describes the new man about the law, chapter 8 describes the new man about the Ruach HaKodesh and His work in and through the new man.

No Condemnation

¹ Therefore, there is no longer any condemnation awaiting those who are in union with the Messiah Yeshua.

This “therefore” is weighty; it sums up the first seven chapters and means: “Because of who Yeshua is and everything he has done in history on behalf of sinners.”

² Why? Because the Torah of the Spirit, which produces this life in union with Messiah Yeshua, has set me free from the “Torah” of sin and death. ³ For what the Torah could not do by itself because it lacked the power to make the old nature cooperate, God did by sending His own Son as a human being with a nature like our own sinful one [but without sin]. God did this in order to deal with sin, and in so doing, He executed the punishment against sin in human nature,

The Believer’s freedom comes from Yeshua’s incarnation and His work as the sin offering and by the Ruach’s operation in providing life. The Second Person of the Trinity, the Son, took on humanity. He did not cease to be God but took on a real human nature (without sin) and became the perfect offering. He fulfilled the law’s demands in His life and death and broke sin’s power in a human body on the cross.

⁴ so that the just requirement of the Torah might be fulfilled in us who do not run our lives according to what our old nature wants but according to what the Spirit wants.

Messianics can now live a new way of love. Love is the fullness of the Torah (Romans 13:10). They can live freely in keeping with the Spirit.

⁵ For those who identify with their old nature set their minds on the things of the old nature, but those who identify with the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. ⁶ Having one’s mind controlled by the old nature is death, but having one’s mind controlled by the Spirit is life and shalom. ⁷ For the mind controlled by the old nature is hostile to God because it does not submit itself to God’s Torah—indeed, it cannot. ⁸ Thus, those who identify with their old nature cannot please God.

In Romans 6:11, Sha’ul proposed a radical solution to humanity’s problems: “Consider yourselves to be dead to sin but alive for God, by your union with the Messiah Yeshua.”  The present verses explain the radical psychology underlying his radical solution. The primary psychological fact of life—more profound than any analysis of id, ego, and superego; or of genetic, physiological, behavioral, environmental, or educational conditioning; or birth traumas, complexes, sexual experiences, interpersonal communication, family background or games people play—is that the sinful “old nature” is utterly irredeemable. This is why no self-help measures, psychotherapeutic methods, educational programs, environmental changes, or resolutions to improve can enable us to please God; all of them are based on having the mind controlled by the old nature, which is death rather than by the Spirit, which is life and shalom—not only “peace” but “tranquility, safety, well-being, welfare, health, contentment, success, comfort, wholeness and integrity,” in short, everything secular and popular psychology promise but cannot deliver. This is why Yeshua said, “You must be born again from above” (Yochanan 3:7), and Sha’ul wrote, “If anyone is united with the Messiah, he is a new creation—the old has passed; look, what has come is fresh and new!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). If there were no new nature, Sha’ul’s psychology would offer the most pessimistic picture of the human condition—as he admits (1 Corinthians 15:16–19). But since there is a new nature, only Sha’ul’s solution of letting one’s mind be controlled by it through the Ruach offers any real hope to humanity; all other psychologies offer palliatives and ultimate failure. Verses 7–8 explain why this is so. These two verses also undergird the claim that Sha’ul highly regarded the Torah.

Ruach Gives Life

⁹ But you, you do not identify with your old nature but with the Spirit—provided the Spirit of God is living inside you, for anyone who doesn’t have the Spirit of the Messiah doesn’t belong to him. ¹⁰ However, if the Messiah is in you, then, on the one hand, the body is dead because of sin; but, on the other hand, the Spirit is giving life because God considers you righteous. ¹¹ And if the Spirit of the One who raised Yeshua from the dead is living in you, then the One who raised the Messiah Yeshua from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit living in you.

Believers are in a new realm, for the Spirit indwells them. The Spirit’s presence is the mark of Christ’s ownership. The Believer’s physical body will still die because of sin’s effects (unless the Lord returns before death; 1 Co 15:50–57). The pledge and promise of the Spirit is that He will raise us as He did Jesus. Now, the Spirit provides life and righteousness.

Duty to Live by the Ruach

¹² So then, brothers, we don’t owe a thing to our old nature that would require us to live according to our old nature. ¹³ For if you live according to your old nature, you will certainly die; but if, by the Spirit, you keep putting to death the practices of the body, you will live.

Freedom brings an obligation. If a person lives according to the old nature, death is his destiny. The Ruach activates the Believer to stop doing the sinful deeds of the body. He can mortify the flesh and its activities, and he lives.

¹⁴ All who are led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons.

The leading of God’s Spirit is His providential sanctification (Ps 23:3). It is expected to all sons, is constant, and will bring the believer to glory (Rom 8:17). The leading of the Spirit is not mystical direction or ecstasy. The Spirit’s empowerment is to mortify fleshly desires (v. 13).

¹⁵ For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to bring you back again into fear; on the contrary, you received the Spirit, who makes us sons and by whose power we cry out, “Abba!” (that is, “Dear Father!”). ¹⁶ The Spirit himself bears witness with our own spirits that we are children of God; ¹⁷ and if we are children, then we are also heirs, heirs of God and joint-heirs with the Messiah—provided we are suffering with him in order also to be glorified with him. ^[1]

The Ruach is not an agent of bondage but is instead the means of our adoption into God’s family. By the Ruach, we have a consciousness that God is our Father. It is the mark of a Believer to cry out to his Father in prayer. The Ruach also assures us of our status and our salvation. All God’s children are His heirs and coheirs with Yeshua. We are joined to Him in suffering and our future destiny as He is in glory (1 Timothy 3:16; Hebrews 1:3; 2:7, 9–10), so we will be glorified with Him.

In our next post, we continue to examine the theme: The Freedom from Death.

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^[1] Romans 8:1–17.