New Testament Archives - Page 195 of 204

Romans 27: Christians On Paper (8:5-14)

Christ Church on July 19, 2009

Introduction

So what is the difference between those who are simply called by God’s name, and those who really belong to Him? This is a question that arises in both covenants, and it is answered (in principle) the same way for both. The Jews had drifted into the error of externalism, and Paul is here cautioning the new Israel against committing the same error. The difference between formalism and the reality is the work of the Holy Spirit.

The Text

“For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit . . .” (Rom. 8:5-14)

Summary of the Text

The Spirit had been at work in the times of the older covenant, but He had not been poured out so extensively. At the same time, the nature of the border between the Spirit’s active work within the covenant and His absence within the covenant remains the same. There were true Jews, and Jews who just had the outside of the thing (Rom. 2:28). There are Christians like that also.

You have the mind of the kind of person you are. The fleshly mind belongs to the flesh; the spiritual mind belongs to the Spirit (v. 5). To veer off to the left like that is death, while to be spiritually minded is life and peace (v. 6). The carnal mind is hostile to God, and cannot help being hostile to God (v. 7). Notice that this hostility is evidenced through its refusal to be subject to the law of God (v. 7)—indeed, note its inability to be subject to it. This is why those who are in the flesh cannot please God (v. 8); they can’t want to please God. But this is not the condition of the Roman Christians (v. 9), unless . . . Paul says that they are in the Spirit if the Spirit is in them. If the Spirit is missing from a man, that man does not (ultimately) belong to Christ. It does not matter how many times he has been baptized. Baptize him until he bubbles, but his carnal mind is still there seething (v. 9). But if Christ is in a man, then the Spirit within him is life because of resurrection-righteousness, justification- righteousness (v. 10). This is true even though a true Christian’s body will still die because of sin. But not to worry, even though we will die, we will be raised—if the Spirit that raised Jesus is in us (v. 11). Our obligations, therefore, are not to the flesh (v. 12). We owe the flesh nothing. If you live as though you owed the flesh something, you will die (v. 13). The contrast to this is to mortify the deeds of the body through the power of the (indwelling) Spirit. If you do that, you will live (v. 13). Who are the true sons of God? They are the ones in whom the Spirit is at work, leading them in mortifying the deeds of the body (v. 14).

Objective Realities

Certain things are true independent of us. We are male or female, regardless of what we think. Our parents are our parents, whether or not we like it. We are baptized or we are not, and our baptism always means the same thing (union with Christ in His death) whether or not we approve of that meaning. These are objective realities. A Jew was a Jew, whether or not he was a true Jew inwardly (Rom. 2:28). A Christian is a Christian, and he was baptized on a certain date with other people watching. The covenant, and all its attendant obligations, is an objective thing. Someone might say that if we have to be born again in the heart, then what value is there in being this kind of a Christian? The Pauline answer is “much in every way.” This is not the answer given by those who like to float

around in the invisible church, like dust motes in a sunbeam. While rejecting their approach, we must also say that, when it comes to the final question, all these privileges (which are genuine and real), together with five bucks, will get you a frappuccino.

Those Who Walk

Why is this? A man consists of more than his obligations, and his covenantal identity. At the center, we are defined by our loves and our hates, and this is what Paul is addressing here. The flesh does what? It minds the flesh (v. 5), it seeks death through a carnal mind (v. 6), it hates God (v. 7), it chafes under the law of God (v. 7), it is uninterested in pleasing God (v. 8), and it rejects the ownership of Christ (v. 9). Those who are characterized by this fleshly mind, circumcised or not, baptized or not, church fixture or not, are those who die. Are they a kind of Christian? Sure . . . the kind that goes to Hell.

The Spirit’s Leading

But at the same time, we must not make the mistake of thinking that if we have any struggle with the flesh, we must be unconverted. Thinking you are completely above the fray actually means that you are deep in sin. Remember our earlier illustration—weed patch, true garden with three foot weeds, and true garden with weeds the size of your thumbnail. This last category is described here (v. 13). Mortify the deeds of the body—the sense is continuous, ongoing. This is something we are all called to daily, and the Spirit is the one accompanying us, leading us to those weeds, pointing them out. “There, that one.” The true sons of God are those who are doing this (v. 14). The Spirit’s leading here is not directional (right or left), but rather moral (right or wrong). True sons have weeds to pull, and true sons pull them.

The True Evangelical

If churchmen are not evangelicals, they will destroy the church. Ironically, if evangelicals are not churchmen, they will destroy the church also. We insist upon being both. You must be baptized and you must be born again. If you have true, evangelical faith, you don’t set these things at odds with each other. You don’t love the woman while refusing to put a ring on her finger. You don’t put a ring on her finger while refusing to love her. Here’s a radical idea, kind of crazy when you think about it—why not both? Why not have a beautiful ceremony and treat her right? You are more than a Christian on paper if the Spirit is in you.

Romans 26: No Condemnation (8:1-4)

Christ Church on July 12, 2009

Introduction
So what is the state of the wretched man now that he has been brought into Christ? What is the birthright of the new Israel? We now see Paul begin to develop his teaching of the Holy Spirit’s work throughout this chapter, and the glorious result of that work, which is the phrase no condemnation.

The Text
“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Rom. 8:1-4)

Summary of the Text
Paul has given us a vision of the gospel, a vision with global sweep. The problem of sin is a deep and abiding one, for Jew and Gentile both (Rom. 1-3). God promised the salvation of the world through Abraham (Rom. 4:13), and He has fulfilled that promise by giving us a new way of being human through Christ, the last Adam (Rom. 5: 14). Such a message is too good to be true; there has to be a problem. So Paul starts answering objections. Won’t this lead to moral licentiousness (Rom. 6:1)? No, because there is no way to receive Christ without receiving His death, and all that that means (Rom. 6: 3. Doesn’t this mean that God has cast aside His Torah, which He Himself had commanded Israel to treasure (Rom. 7:7)? No, He told them to treasure it, and also to understand what it was for. He gave the Torah so that sin might become utterly sinful, so that He might deal with it in the cross. Therefore, what do we find? First, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (v. 1). How does Paul define those who are in Christ? He defines them as those who walk after the Spirit, not after the flesh (v. 1). Now the law of the Spirit of life (in Christ Jesus) has set me free from the law of sin and death (v. 2). Remember that the sin principle deep within every Jewish and Gentile heart is an opportunist. It takes advantage of the Torah, or natural revelation, or both, and creates the law of sin and death. The law of the Spirit strikes off these chains. For what the Torah could not do (make us righteous), God did by sending His Son as a vicarious sin-substitute (v. 3). The Torah was unraveled by our weakness, not its weakness. God condemned sin in the flesh of Christ (v. 3). He did this so that the righteousness of the Torah (already vindicated by Paul) might be fulfilled in us who walk according to the Spirit, not according to the flesh (v. 4).

Understanding the Laws
There are four ways to think of “law” in these four verses. The first is the law of the Spirit of life (v. 2). The second is the law of sin and death (v. 2). The third is the Torah (v. 3). The third is the law of love, the law that expresses the righteousness of the Torah (v. 4). Paul uses one word to describe all of them (nomos), and so we must be careful not to be wooden in how we seek to understand him.

Those Who Walk
As we will see more clearly when we get to chapter 11, Paul does not assume that every baptized Christian automatically understands these things. These things must be taught, insisted upon, and the body of Christ must be discipled in terms of this gospel. The way Paul teaches, he is heading off a carnal Israelite approach to the Torah within the Christian Church. Notice that he uses nomos to refer to the objective, external presentation of something (like the Torah, or for us, the Bible), but he also readily uses it to describe an abstracted principle, taken from such objective gifts. This means that the book of Romans (if the law of sin within us has its way) can be turned into a death-dealing Torah just as Deuteronomy was. But if we read it rightly, it is crammed full of the words of life. So we should make a point to describe this “right understanding” that is so important. What does it

look like? For those who have this grace, there are three things found in this passage. The first is no condemnation. The second is that they are free from the law of sin and death. And the third is that the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in them. That’s it—guiltless, free, and holy. Not guilt-ridden, bound, and uptight.

But the Rules Are Good
But, we object, the rules that we find in Scripture, and which we derive from Scripture, are good. Yes, they are. And they should be descriptive of our lives. But sin remains the opportunist that it has always been. The libertine objects to the rules of the legalist, but often (not always) the legalist’s rules are actually pretty reasonable on paper. The legalist usually lives longer than the crack-head, and good for him. But does he enjoy his life? “If you eat these bran muffins with oak sawdust filler, you will live twenty years longer.” But if that is what I have to eat, then why do I want to live for twenty more years? The Spirit objects to the rules of the legalist, not because he is so holy, but because he isn’t. He falls short of his own rules because there is an opportunist living in his heart, just like everybody else’s. Nothing carved in stone, or written on paper, not even by God, can deal with this. In order to deal with it, God had to give us His Spirit, and to make us fit to receive the Holy Spirit, His Son had to die.

There Is No Condemnation Because There is Condemnation
Paul begins by saying there is no condemnation for those in Christ. This is not because the need for condemnation was waived, but rather because the necessary condemnation is past. It has already occurred. God sent His Son “in the likeness of sinful flesh” (v. 3), and to deal with all that sin, condemned sin in the flesh (cf. 2 Cor. 5:21). The death of Jesus was the condemnation of sin—yours and mine. You are a desperate sinner on death row. If the governor puts off your day of execution, you still have a problem. “When shall I be executed?” Temporary good news is “the governor granted a stay, putting it off six months. This kind of gospel good news says that your day of execution was yesterday. “It’s done. Let’s go.”

Romans 25: Wretched Man (7:13-25)

Christ Church on July 5, 2009

Introduction
We have seen that the apostle Paul continues to answer the question created by the gospel of grace. Gentiles are under sin. Jews are under sin. They are both under sin. God promised to remake the world through Abraham, and God did this by sending a final Adam. This glorious message can be twisted and distorted in various ways, and so Paul has to answer objections. Won’t this introduce moral chaos? No. Won’t this render the Torah as a superfluous moral distraction? No, not at all. The Torah had a pivotal role to play in our salvation, as we will see.

The Text
“Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful . . .” (Rom. 7:13-25).

Summary of the Text
Paul’s purpose here is two-fold. He intends to vindicate the Torah (v. 12), and also to show how the Torah worked within Israel to reveal and exacerbate the reality of sin (3:20; 5:20; 7:13). Was the problem the Torah itself? God forbid (v. 13). The point was to have sin use the Torah in order to grow up to its full wicked maturity (v. 13). More on this shortly. Paul then continues to illustrate the problem of Israel in the vividness of a first- person narrative—Israel’s Torah is spiritual, but Israel is not (v. 14). Israel is a slave—to sin, and to Rome because of sin. The national ideals are good, but they don’t really get done (v. 15). The hypocritical failure reveals the goodness of the standard (v. 16). The national conscience doesn’t want to go that way, but the national “id” has other ideas (v. 17). So Paul comes to a conclusion—Israel is in the flesh, and cannot do what Israel knows is right (v. 18). The good remains undone; the evil is pursued and embraced (v. 19). Don’t blame the Torah, and don’t blame Israel’s conscience—there is something deeper going on (v. 20). That deeper thing is a law deeper than Torah, responding to it (v. 21). Israel really does delight in the Torah “in the inward man” (v. 22). But that is not all; there is another law there as well—it is the law of sin, using the law of God, in order to plunge Israel into exile and captivity (v. 23). Wretched man! Who will deliver (v. 24)? Paul thanks God for the Messiah, the new Israel (v. 25), and then sums it all up again. With the theological conscience, Israel was right to bind the Torah to itself (v. 25). And Israel was then right to be dismayed to find that this lawful binding resulted in spiritual disaster for Israel (v. 25).

Three Qualifications
The first qualification is that Paul is not describing this problem as a detached theological spectator. He is certainly talking about Israel (because he is discussing Israel throughout the entire epistle). But he himself was right in the thick of this problem; he was not one of the glorious exceptions of grace that we find described elsewhere (Heb. 11). He was a Hebrew of Hebrews (Phil. 3:5), and to personify Israel’s problems in his own unconverted voice was not at all a stretch. Because of this we find that law and grace are always relevant categories.

Second, the Reformed doctrine of sanctification including a genuine internal moral struggle is correct. While it is not found here in Romans 7 (which way overstates the problem), that doctrine is found and well-grounded in Galatians 5. Too often Reformed exegetes take this as a description of the process of sanctification because those who deny it are usually theological perfectionists, which is clearly an error.
And third, to apply this to Israel in this way does not make this an irrelevant passage for us to meditate on. As Paul would say, God forbid. We are Christians, and in various places Paul tells us that as the new Israel we are called to learn the lessons that the old Israel failed to learn. We will see this clearly when we get to chapter 11 (cf. 1 Cor. 10). And God willing, that lesson is one that we will in fact learn.

Further Development
Paul is simply digging deeper here. Romans 7 is simply the next pass at Romans 2:17-24. Romans 8 is the next pass at Romans 2:28-29, which explains why he needs to address the same, identical question at the beginning of chapter 3 and at t he beginning of chapter 9. “What is the point of being a Jew, then?”

Many Adams
Israel received the Torah, and then failed to keep it, meaning that Israel was another failed Adam. The fact that Christ was the final Adam should not blind us to the fact that Scripture shows us a series of Adams—founders who fail, founders who fall. Think of Noah, for example, or Solomon. Think of Israel, adopted at Sinai and given the very words of life. What did they do with this? They did what every Adam still in the flesh must do—they rebelled against those words of life and turned them into instruments of death. So it was not the case that Israel successfully escaped from Adam while the Gentiles did not.

Exceedingly Sinful
Why did God want sin to grow to its full maturity? Why did God give a Torah that He knew sin would take full advantage of? Why did God deliberately grow sin up to its full height? He did this so that He could deal with sin once and for all. Israel was a greenhouse, enclosed by Torah’s glass, and heated by the sun of God’s holiness, so that the most noxious weeds could grow up to their worst potential, in stark contrast to the sign outside that proclaimed it a greenhouse full of rare and exquisite orchids.

God did this so that He could deal with sin foundationally. Just as He did not send Israel into Canaan until the iniquity of the Amorites was full (Gen. 15:16), so He did not send the new Israel into our Canaan until our evil had reached its full maturity. When Jesus collided with sin, He met it in full force. When Jesus took it all onto Himself, He took the full measure of it.

Romans 24: Two Lines (7:7-12)

Christ Church on June 28, 2009

Introduction
We are now on the threshold of a vexed portion of the book of Romans. Christians have long divided over whether Paul is describing his pre-Christian life or his post-conversion life. Is the description of anguish in Romans 7 characteristic of the Christian life? Or is it a decription of his experience prior to what happened on the Damascus road? If pre-conversion, then why the present tense? Why the delight in God’s law? And if post-conversion, then why does he describe himself as a slave to sin when in the previous chapter he already insisted that this is precisely what Christian are not—slaves to sin? Fortunately, these are not the only two options.

The Text
“What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good . . .” (Rom. 7:7-12).

Summary of the Text
When we get bad news, a very common reaction is to blame the messenger. But the messenger did not create the bad situation; he has only told you about it. The doctor did not create your cancer; he just informed you of it. The law did not create sin in us; rather the law informs us of the presence of that sin (3:20), and inflames that tendency to sin (5:20; 7: 5). But the law itself is not sin. This is the first misconception that Paul heads off (v. 7). God forbid that we say the problem is in the law. On the contrary, it was the law that informed me where the problem actually was. I would not have known what lust was had the law not revealed it by prohibiting it (v. 7). Sin is an opportunist, and used the commandment to create in me all manner of concupiscence (v. 8). Without the law, sin has nothing to push against, nothing to rebel against (v. 8). Once I was alive before the law came, but in the human soul it is as though sin is dehydrated—just add the water of the law (v. 9). When sin lives, man dies (v. 10). The commandment, the Torah, bound me to the old man, to Adam, and I bore children of death (v. 10). Sin, using the Torah, lied to me, and through that lie, slew me (v. 11). So don’t blame the law for any of this—the law is holy. The commandment is holy, just, and good (v. 12).

Everyman or All Men?
Now in the past when we have taught against individualism, this has not been done in order to reject the importance of individuals . Each one of us is fashioned in the image of God, and we go to Heaven or Hell by ones. There are no group rates. At the same time, when we are saved, one at a time, or we remain lost, one at a time, this is inseparable from an organic union with one of two Adams—the first Adam or Christ.

This means that Paul is not giving what we would call a “personal testimony.” This is not autobiographical, at least not in the first place. He is speaking of himself as a representative unconverted Israelite. He is telling Israel’s story, and he is explaining why Israel had such trouble under the Torah. At the same time, he is not telling Israel’s story in such a way as to exonerate himself. He was typical—zealous for God, but without knowledge (Rom 10:2). We are not addressing here the problem of generic unconverted men (although there are some related issues involved in that), but rather are dealing with the problem of Israel , a problem that is woven throughout this entire letter.

Unregenerate Israel
Israel was a valley of dry bones, and the prophet Ezekiel had declared that one day the bones would be brought to life again. God would make Israel to live again. This had begun to happen on the day of Pentecost, but to change the illustration, the first century was a time when the dead wood branches were going to be cut out, and the remnant of faithful Israel was going to welcome the believing Gentiles as they were grafted in alongside the believing Jews. Paul has here selected himself (during his unbelief) as a personification of unbelieving Israel, and this is a remarkable identification. Paul had been an insolent man, a blasphemer, and persecutor of the church, and he had done all this believing that God actually wanted this behavior from him.

The Remnant
So is this about unconverted Israel, or unconverted Paul? It is both, and has to be both, wrapped up together. For example, Paul says something about himself (v. 9) that was not applicable to Israel. He says he was personally alive before the commandment came, but when it came, sin revived and he died. But before the law came into human history, we in the human race were not alive—death reigned from Adam to Moses (Rom. 5: 14). That is a detail that has to be individual. But the overall picture cannot be separated from the themes of his larger argument.

Two Lines
This does not mean that David, and Samuel, and Isaiah, and Elizabeth, and John the Baptist, and Mary, the Lord’s mother, were all “bearing fruit unto death.” These were faithful Jews, who lamented the condition of Israel generally, and who looked forward to the time when Israel as a whole would be renewed. They walked by faith, in line with their father Abraham, who is also our father. Saul of Tarsus was not one of their number.

Paul teaches both in Romans and Galatians that once the covenant was established, there were two lines in that covenant. He makes the point multiple ways. Once Abraham is called, the sons of Abraham gather to take pride of place. But wait . . . Abraham had two sons, Isaac and Ishmael, and only Isaac was the child of promise. Very well then, let us gather to take pride of place in Isaac. But Isaac had two sons also—twins even—and they were named Jacob and Esau. Do you really want to start boasting of your lineage from Jacob? Those who do so are only demonstrating that they don’t get it.
In Galatians the same point is made by using the figures of Sarah and Hagar. These two women are two covenants. Hagar corresponds to Sinai, and Sarah corresponds to the heavenly Zion, the free woman, the free Jerusalem. Now as evangelical Christians we want to heed this warning. We do not want to define ourselves right out of any need for it. Paul teaches us two things that we must remember. The first is that the new Israel will not end up as the old Israel did. The second is that this will be true because we heeded the warnings, not because we didn’t need to.

Romans 23: Our Second Husband (7:1-6)

Christ Church on June 21, 2009

Introduction
Remember that the apostle has laid out the gospel for us, and he is now answering objections. The universal problem is set forth in the first three chapters, and then the glorious gospel in chapters four and five. Beginning in chapter six, he starts anticipating and answering objections. The first is that if we are justified apart from the law, won’t that result in moral chaos? No, Paul says, for we have died with Christ in our baptisms. Now we come to the objection that about the length of the Torah’s dominion. Wasn’t the law supposed to be permanent?

The Text
“Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? . . . ” (Rom. 7:1-6).

Summary of the Text
Paul starts here by identifying who he is addressing—those who know and care about the Torah (v. 1). If we are justified by faith alone, then what is the role of the law? The first question here has to do with the extent of the Torah’s authority. The second question, addressed in the rest of chapter seven, has to do with the point of the Torah. If it did not justify, then what was it for then? Now Paul’s point here is that the Torah does not have authority over men who have died (v. 1). We have to follow him closely here because his illustration is a complex one. A woman is bound to her husband by the Torah as long as he is alive, but his death releases her (v. 2). She is guilty of adultery if she marries another man with her first husband still alive, but if he has died, she is free to remarry (v. 3). In a similar way, we are dead to the Torah because of the body of Christ (v. 4). This frees us to marry another—that one being Jesus, the one who rose from the dead. This was done so that we could be fruitful before God (v. 4). When we were “in the flesh,” married to the old man, the Torah stirred up the “motions of sins,” and the result was “fruit unto death” (v. 5). So now that we have remarried, we are delivered from that Torah, that condition in which we bore fruit to death (v. 6). The result is that we may now serve in the newness of the Spirit (v. 6), and not in the oldness of the letter (v. 6).

Who Is Who?
In order to grasp Paul’s point here, we have to be careful to correctly identify the characters in his illustration. Who is who exactly? We are the woman, and our husband was the old Adam. He was the federal head of the entire human race (Rom. 5: ), and his sin meant that we, married to him, bore fruit to death. The Torah is not the husband in this illustration—the law is holy, righteousness and good (Rom. 7:12). But a good law can bind a woman to a bad man. The law holds people to their covenants, even when those covenants are destructive. A good law can insist that death must beget death (v. 5). Note that in this illustration, the woman cannot just walk away from Adam, even to marry Christ. Adam must die in order for her to be free (Rom. 6:5). Adam died in the new Adam, so that the human race could be married in the new resurrected Adam, walking in newness of life, while remaining truly human. The Torah faithfully required us to beget according to our marriage vows, and God in His grace enabled us to bear fruit in another way. So this means that humanity is the woman, her first husband is Adam, and her new husband is Christ. The Torah held us fast to our first husband, which is not the same thing as approving of our first husband.

Dead to the Law
Note carefully how Paul discusses the issues of death here. Who dies? The first husband dies (v. 2). If the first husband dies, his wife is free to remarry (v. 3). Christ died, which is implied by the fact that He rose from the dead (v. 4). Because Christ died and rose, we are dead to the law (v. 4). A wife whose husband has died is not a dead woman, but as far as the laws of marriage are concerned, she is dead to the law, and the law is dead to her. The law that held us to our first husband is dead in that respect (v. 6).

As will become apparent shortly, Paul is not saying that the standards of righteousness are now waived or abrogated (Rom. 6:14; 13: 8-10). He is talking about a particular aspect of Torah, that which regulates marriage unions and the issue born from such marriage unions.

Respectable Depravity
The Jews who were still in Adam were bound to him by the Torah. The Gentiles who were in Adam were bound to him by the law of the heavens, seen in every clear night sky. The Jews were bound by Torah, the Gentiles by natural revelation, and the two of them together bore fruit to death. Now of course, the Jews of the Old Testament who walked by faith (Heb. 11) did not bear fruit to death—they were looking forward to Christ. And in the same way, the many Gentiles of the Old Testament who walked by faith did not bear fruit to death either. Men like Melchizedek, Jethro, or Namaan walked before God.

It is too easy for us to caricature the “old” man. The fact that our first marriage resulted in so much death and despair should not make us think that it was cartoon evil. Our first husband did not rampage through brothels and taverns talking like a pirate. This kind of thing of course happens in a fallen world, but the really serious temptations came from our first husband at his respectable best. The kingdoms that came from him were glorious enough to present a significant temptation to the second Adam (Matt. 4:8), and the angelic being who led him astray appears as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14). Recall t hat Paul is making this point over the objections of those who “knew the law.” They were better than the unwashed Gentiles; that was a given. They were chosen. They were religious. They were respectable. And they were just as married to Adam as anybody else.

Fruitful or Fussy?
Notice that in this passage, Paul contrasts two husbands, death and life, fruit to death and fruit to life, and, right at the end, Spirit and letter (v. 6). He does this elsewhere, and we do well to understand it. He is not condemning letters as such because he wrote the contrast of Spirit and letter with letters. But those who have those letters only are still married to the first Adam—and the fruit to death they consistently bear proves it.

But those who receive the letters of the New Testament (and the Old) in the power of the Spirit are not bibliolaters (Jn. 5:39). When the Spirit is at work in you, you bear fruit organically. If when you try to grow your apples, the trunk shakes and the branches clank and smoke, something is obviously wrong. We serve, that is true (v. 6), but we serve in newness of Spirit. This is life. This is regeneration. This is grace and mercy, and peace. This is righteousness hanging heavy on the branches, given to you. We are talking about the fruit of the Spirit; we are not talking about crawling over the broken glass of rules for the Spirit. Our first marriage was full of turmoil. But now we are invited to be at peace.