This author’s account of the Biblically based, and Augustinian approach to recovery and Christian living that frees from the power of sin and addictive lifestyles. After failing miserably through today's self-willed Christianity this author finally came in contact with the grace-empowered teaching of the early Evangelical church (Augustinian Theology). In keeping with this tradition, and in support of its emphasis on the grace and forgiveness that lead to true freedom and a new power to live for God, this article seeks to prove the Christian Augustinian method by looking at the life of Paul and carefully examining the meaning and reality of Paul’s ‘victorious life’ as it is recorded in the Scriptures and told by Paul. Here it is discovered that Paul lived his life for God while at the very same time he continued to struggle with sin and weakness, yet Paul still describes this struggle to walk with God, with all of its failures, as ‘the victorious life’. Find out why…
by John Gibbs
FOREWORD:
This author believes that this article is important to the Christian community because it describes how a believer can live the Christian life in view of the sin, weakness and struggles that remain both in us and in the world. This article is somewhat unique in that it gets its theology of Christian living and addiction recovery from the Augustinian perspective, a theology which was taught by 90 percent of Evangelicals in the times of the Reformation but today is taught by only 10 to 20 percent of Christian leaders, whereas the Arminnian perspective is now taught by 80 to 90 percent of Christian leaders today (these percentages were confirmed by RC Sproul in his lecture, “Blue Print for Living”).
This article also proves the position of the Augustinian perspective regarding the victory of daily Christian living by examining the Biblical account of the life of Paul after his conversion on the Damascus Road. Here it is discovered that Paul lived his life for God while at the very same time he continued to struggle with sin in his life. In his own words Paul says, “The good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.” (Rom. 7:15-15) but yet in spite of this wretched condition he still gives thanks to God and continues always, where he is, to live for God by grace and faith.
In keeping with this position of the Christian’s necessity of living by grace and faith “The Romans 7 Road” is a booklet that is concerned with Christian living as taught by the Scriptures and in accordance with Paul’s own experience. In these it is discovered that the born-again Christian continues to struggles with sin and never completely overcomes sin in this life due to the sin nature that remains and continues to exert its power even after conversion. Since this is true the Believer is instructed in the Gospel as how to live for God above this condition and not be disqualified by the sin and weakness that remains but instead to live in the provisions of God found in the Gospel through faith and grace rejoicing in the all-sufficient salvation that we receive in Christ, “Which joy is our strength” (Neh. 8:10).
The “Romans 7 Road” is also a re-acknowledgement of the classic historical Evangelical teaching of the early church (Augustinian Theology) which, as stated earlier, this author believes is sorely needed today due to the ever increasing advances of humanistic Christianity (Ariminian and Pelagian theologies) which stress the opposite, declaring the ability of the born-again Christian to personally overcome all sin and thereby become personally holy in this life but these humanistic teachings are not Biblical and lead the honest Christian into despair and the others into hypocrisy.
This booklet is also one of the results of this author’s journey out of humanistic Christianity and into the glorious liberty of the Gospel of Grace and Faith as taught by the Scriptures, Paul the Apostle and the Evangelical Reformers. A Gospel that opens the eyes of the believer to the fact that he is always a chief of sinners in this life but a Gospel that also causes him to realize the free gift of God through faith in Jesus Christ by which he is loved of God and called to live for Him by grace and faith. In this manner this booklet is dedicated to believers who struggle in their daily Christian walk. May it bring knowledge, grace and peace to you as you continue in life’s journey with God. May the ‘God of all comfort’ comfort you with the knowledge of His every provision for your every failure and weakness (sin). May this knowledge result in a closer walk with God and may it bring about a fullness of joy within you, which joy is our strength.
THE ROMANS 7 ROAD
(Where Struggling Christians Find Peace and Victory In God)
The After Salvation Experience of a Christian:
Many Christian believers including this author have found the Christian life to include a great paradox that is supported by Scripture and is according to God’s plan for the greater majority of us. The paradox is that after the true and powerful reality of being born again by which we received a new heart toward God and new power to be able to do what we could not do before our salvation yet we surprisingly find ourselves still struggling with weaknesses and sins and so unable to fully live the Christian life. With this discovery we begin to wonder what has happened to our promising start and at this point a great dilemma pours over our souls as we frantically search for a solution to our weaknesses and sins that remain so as not to loose God’s favor and find ourselves outside of the blessings that we have come to rejoice and hope in. As a result most of us begin to seek out many teachers and teachings that claim to have the answer to this dilemma and who claim to have the overcoming victory. We then make resolutions to try harder and harder by their various rules and insights but the full victory continues to be illusive by experience. What’s worse is that the whole time of this mid-life Christian crisis we usually keep secret and so bear it alone because we are afraid that others will find us out and then we will loose our comfortable position in our Christian fellowships. Therefore many of us pretend to have a greater victory, faking it as part of the process of making it, until we do have the full victory but because of this approach we do not realizing that everyone else whom we believe is having the full victory and who we are trying to measure up to are also struggling with their owns failures and sins but they too remain quiet about their shortcomings for the same reasons that we are and so the reality of remaining sin and the solution to it evades us. Another result of this dishonesty is that we loose intimacy with each other and our Christian fellowships become hypocritical. This lack of honesty, coupled with a sincere desire to overcome our weaknesses, makes us easy prey to un-biblical teachings promising unbroken personal victory and personal accomplishment. But the truth is that these teachings aren’t even working for those who are teaching them but we don’t know it because we don’t know the Scriptures that expose their hypocrisy and also because our fallen human nature loves the accolades of acceptance that our boasting brings us when we make it appear as if we are doing better than we are. After all we reason, “Those failings shouldn’t have occurred now that I am suppose to be an overcoming Christian and if they hadn’t occurred the present formula for victory would have worked and been continuous, so in effect I am not lying but rather I am just encouraging my fellow Christians to keep on keeping on in a good thing.” But this type of good news is deceiving and therefore no good news at all for the honest Christian. As a result of this deception of Christian perfection (personal holiness) these unbiblical personal Christian victory techniques, books and seminars, etc. continues without being challenged or exposed.
This is the dilemma that I hope that you will face in the reading of this article. In your walk as a Christians you will come to a place (at just the right time, according to God’s wisdom) when you will be exposed to the reality that you cannot live the Christian life. At this point you will have to make a choice, continue to live this truth in secret, bearing the burden and frustration of it alone, so as to please men (including Christians) in order to gain or keep their acceptance or risk everything by admitting the truth that as a victorious Christian you ‘yourself’ are a failure and as a failure throw yourself on the mercy of God, remembering His promises to you and the work of Christ on your behalf. Cry out like Paul, “Oh wretched man that I am. Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ.” (Rom. 7:24,25). In this passage all of us who struggle in our Christian walk can take comfort in the fact that the great apostle Paul also experienced weakness and wretchedness throughout his Christian life but yet he could still thank God through Jesus Christ. But here it is crucial to ask ourselves what exactly is the reality of this victory that Paul speaks of in this passage? What is he giving thanks for? That is what I hope to share with you from Romans Chapter 7, from Paul’s own words. Words that set us free from the confusion and frustration that is caused by the many erroneous victorious life teachings that are in the church today and instead to restore us to the joy of Christ’s salvation for us. This is the purpose of The Romans 7 Road to set us free from the confusion and frustration of remaining sin within the believers’ life and restore us to the joy of Christ’s salvation for us. It seeks to prove that this passage, (Rom. 7:14-25), is a call for every Christian to live for God by grace and faith (rather than personal ability) in view of the sin factor that remains within us throughout this life.
But before I begin with the position of the Romans 7 Road I must admit that many men far more learned than I have interpreted this passage differently. Some see this passage as revealing a second work of God’s grace performed in a believers’ life that leads to a new power for personal Christian victory over sin. Others see this passage as revealing an essential second experience in the Christian life that leads to Christian maturity resulting in personal victory. But I believe these interpretations leads us right back to where we started, to frustration and hypocrisy. But thanks be to God that He has led me to many great teachers of God’s Word who support the teachings of Christian living that I will be sharing with you. Men who in number and reputation outweigh the evidence to the contrary conclusions mentioned above but whom unfortunately many Christian circles have largely neglected today. It is for this reason that this interpretation of Romans 7 will include many quotations by these men so that this work will be shown not to be of any private reality but rooted in the sound teachings of the early church, and in its creeds and its sound Christian scholars of the faith. I also think that I should mention here that I believe that both of these approaches sincerely want to enable Christians to walk victoriously but that the former and disputed position puts its hopes in the personal ability of the Christian after salvation and therefore stresses the priority of higher stages of personal holiness and personal ability rather than the priority of living by faith and grace and therefore stresses the ability of the new nature to produce holiness by which one secures a full personal victory. In contrast the position that will be put forth here puts no confidence in man, either saved or unsaved, but rather puts its hope (faith) in God and the work of God on our behalf, (grace). This later man lives by faith and grace’, rather than his personal ability or personal holiness. He lives by faith in what God has already said about him and in the grace of what God has already provided for him through the Gospel of Jesus Christ as when he first believed. This second position is clearly supported by the Scriptures because the Gospel declares that through ‘grace and faith’ rather than some new power, formula or experience the Christian man moves on to living a life for God as Paul later describes in Romans Chapter 8. The man who believes the Gospel lives through faith and grace because he has come to understand with the Apostle Paul that in himself no good thing dwells (Rom. 7:18). But he has also come to understand the things that he has received in the Gospel through Christ so that he can now worship in Spirit and truth and when we are truthful (intimate) we can risk disclosing the truth of our weaknesses because then, being dependant upon God we become strong (2Cor. 12:9,10).
This second way is the way that many others and I believe that Paul is speaking of in Romans 7:14-25. Paradoxically his victory comes through a real brokenness and defeat, one that is always present in some manner and thereby always making him dependant on God to work through him (a sinner) and hereby God alone gets all the glory. In himself the Christian is disqualified but a Christian does not live in himself or to himself but to God and in God who calls those things that are not as though they are (Gen. 17:5; Rom. 4:17). He lives by a reality other than the measure of himself and that reality is through faith in the Gospel; the Gospel of being ‘in Christ’ by grace and faith. By faith the sinner takes hold of the only victory and Gospel-provision for fellowship with God. Through the Gospel he has come to know the God that justifies the ungodly by faith alone (Rom. 4:15). He lives for God but not by any personal merit, or any personal ability, or any personal holiness, because he now knows he is bankrupt and without any personal power for holiness. It is at this point in the Christian walk that a Christian’s mouth has been silenced as to his own abilities and merit; he has no boast, not one. His hope is no longer in attaining a personal righteousness, or victory, or power or holiness in this life but is now in God alone who is the Righteous one, the Victorious one, the Powerful one, the Holy one (for us). Here a Christian’s focus starts to change as he begins to realize the impossibility of changing himself for the better and now he begins to see that his hope and power for change is no longer in the measure of his own ability or reality but that through Christ, God is his reality, his all in all. With this realization he is home and he is free and God loves him for Jesus sake, wretched man that he is, because he is in Christ by grace and faith. Here God declares us ‘already perfect in the beloved’ even though we are still being perfected (Heb 10:14) and in this way alone possessing the perfect victory. This Christian knows that he is a sinner saved by grace and that ‘he’ is a sinner who lives by grace entering the blessed life described in the next chapter (Romans 8) even as he himself is still weak in many areas and this way of living by faith and grace is all to the glory of God.
Ironically, those who hold to the former view of a Christian attaining a personal victory over sin and by this victory are qualified to move on to live in the life and blessings described in Romans 8 actually close and lock the door leading to Romans 8 by their very method. Because they, like Paul, will have to admit that they are incapable too. And they, like Paul, will have to take the low and self-degrading road, the Romans 7 Road, and as the chief of sinners, live for God by His provision and victory alone. Now I realize that our opponents would say that we speak unbiblical. But I hope by God’s grace that this work will make clear the truth. One manner of proving that truth will be essentially by proofs from Scripture but also other testimonies will be provided from respected Christian teachers who clearly teach this second way and also from the record of Christian history and the early church creeds. But another proof I mention here is that I believe that anyone who is still living by or looking for Christian victory by the first path (where human weakness and a tendency toward sin are removed or overcome) he, himself, knows the hypocrisy of it and is of an uneasy conscience under it. Although it is difficult for our pride to come to God and live for God this way (as a man without any merit, still struggling with sin) yet it is the only way that we can live for God in this life. Concerning the difficulty of coming to God this way a great man of God, Obadiah Grew, states the following:
“It is hard for men to count those things which were or are gain to them to be loss for Christ, as Paul did in Philippians 3. Men may be brought to think of themselves as lost for their sins, but hardly for their righteousness.” [1]
At some point in our Christian walk we must come to see that every system of personally victorious Christian philosophies will leave the door to the victory of Romans 8 slammed shut in our face and justly so because we thought we could earn or be worthy of a right to live there but the only key that fits that door is the grace of God in Jesus Christ. I may have said too much in opening but let us go on and hear what Paul has to say concerning what he found concerning Christian victory in Romans 7:15-25.
The Roman 7 Road of Paul (Romans 7:15-25)
“For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do that I do not practice; but what I hate that I do. If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me (that is in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. Oh wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God - through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin” (Rom. 7:15-25).
In this passage Paul describes a very real struggle that exists when a person tries to live a godly life but the following question must first be answered in order to correctly interpret what Paul is saying here. Is this struggle with sin that Paul describes the dilemma of a Christian before or after his salvation? Most Christian teachers say that Paul is describing the struggle of a Christian after salvation but there are some who say that Paul is personifying the struggle of an unbeliever and that this is the reason for Paul’s illustration of the struggle with sin in this passage. But if Paul is personifying the struggle of an unbeliever then he is writing using seriously flawed grammar to make his point because he makes no indication that he is changing tenses or speaking in another person in the grammar of this passage. Also the context of what Paul says before, in, and after this passage show that he is clearly talking about his own experience as a born again Christian. Furthermore, within these verses Paul states that this person involved in this struggle is not of himself sinning but rather that the sin that remains in him is being allowed to take control and act sinfully. This in no way could be said of an unbeliever but it is possible to speak this way of a believer in regards to his position in Christ by which he possesses the impeccable righteousness of Christ before God in spite of his own personal unrighteousness and sins. And it is also for this reason of Christ’s perfect, eternal and unblemishable righteousness, (that belongs to every believer by faith alone) that Paul says following this passage “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1). The grammar and context of this passage proves that Paul is speaking of his own Christian experience after his coming to faith in Christ and this is the reason that most teachers of the Scriptures interpret this passage as Paul’s experience of the continuing struggle with sin after having become a Christian.
Having therefore affirmed the position that this passage does indeed speak of Paul’s experience as a seasoned Christian we therefore conclude that the Scriptures do speak of two natures, (also affirmed by Augustinian Theology) an old and a new, that are alive simultaneously within the born again Christian and continuing to affect the Christian life and experience.
This reality of the continuing struggle between the old and new nature is debated among Christians. Regarding these two natures John F. Walvoord, the past president of Dallas Theological Seminary, says the following regarding the various opinions about the extent and duration of this struggle between the old and new nature:
"Ever since the time of the early church fathers, theologians have struggled to delineate the moral character of individuals before and after their salvation. There is general agreement that a person is sinful before salvation, but what has been debated is the extent of the transformation after the new birth. Some emphasize the tremendous change that takes place with the new birth, quoting, for example, 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” Some picture the transformation as gradual, culminating in perfection in heaven. Others offer the possibility of totally eradicating sin – at least as willful sin. Others describe people as having two natures: the old nature, or sin nature, which they had before salvation, and a new nature like the divine nature of God, which includes eternal life… The central problem of all these views was and continues to be the extent and power of sin in Christians after their conversion and the means of sanctification, or a holy life, in view of the sin factor that remains.” [2]
Walvoord then goes on to give his summary of a person’s spiritual state in regards to sin and righteousness after salvation:
"In light of the foregoing discussion, we may conclude that, once a person is saved, the spiritual state of that person includes a new nature and an old nature. That is, the believer still has an old nature – a complex of attributes with an inclination and disposition to sin; and the new nature, received (along with eternal life) at the same time of the new birth, also has a complex of attributes, but these attributes incline and dispose the Christian to a new manner of life, one that is holy in the sight of God… The basic problem of sanctification is how individuals with these two diverse aspects in their total character can achieve at least a relative measure of sanctification and righteousness in their life… The old nature has a tendency to sin and the new nature a tendency to act in righteousness; hence these two natures are in the struggle that is described in Romans 7:14-25. Moreover, just as the old nature cannot produce a righteous life, so also the new nature cannot in itself produce one either… a holy life is possible only by the grace of God and the enablement that God has provided for every Christian… Christians do not automatically experience sanctification on earth simply because they have been made new creatures in Christ. On the divine side, it requires provision for the Christians spiritual needs; on the human side, it requires appropriation.”
This summary by Walvoord states that Christians do indeed have two natures, (an old nature that is still in bondage to sin and a new nature that is alive to the things of God) and that they continue to have these two natures throughout their Christian lives. He continues to say that just as the old nature cannot produce a righteous life, so also the new nature alone cannot produce one either. He then says that the answer to this dilemma of powerlessness is two-fold. It requires provision to be made for the believer on the divine side (by grace) and it also requires the believer to take hold of those provisions (by faith). This interpretation is exactly in accord with the experience and answer given by Paul in Romans 7:15-25. Paul in this passage gives thanks to God for this provision that he takes hold of but what exactly is it? Our answer to this question will determine our understanding of what is Christian victory.
As Dr. Walvoord has said earlier, “Some emphasize the tremendous change that takes place with the new birth… Others offer the possibility of totally eradicating sin – at least as willful sin.” These two positions above interpret the provision to be one of inherent power. In other words they believe that believers receive the power to fully live the Christian life out of a new ability either at the time of salvation or by a second work of grace after salvation. But others believe that the Scriptures explicitly state that this provision is not an inherent power but rather a declared (legal) possession of the Christian through faith in the provision of the Gospel. This legal provision of the Gospel is what theologians refer to as “judicial justification”. What this means is that the primary provision and victory that we receive in the Gospel is not our own "practically" or "inherently" but rather that it is the very work and victory of God given to us by grace for our faith in the Gospel. In this way God calls us victorious even though we are not yet practically (inherently) victorious and He is just in doing this because He has truly made us victorious in Christ since Christ’s victory now legally belongs to us.[4]
In this sense God is no liar in calling them victorious who have no complete practical victory in this life as He has made perfect forever those He is still perfecting (Heb. 10:14). [5] This faith, according to the Scriptures, is how Paul took hold of God’s provisions for living the Christian life and this taking hold of God’s provision by grace through ‘faith’ (apprehension) is the second part of a Christian’s victory that Walvoord spoke of earlier as the responsibility of the Christian in the Gospel.
This truth is also proven by a careful examination of the Romans 7 passage itself. In Romans Chapter 7:1-6 Paul speaks of the Christians freedom from the law. In verses 7-14 he speaks of the advantage that sin has over us when we live under the law or return to it. Then in verse 15 Paul begins to describe a dilemma. He says that as a believer he has within him two desires that are contrary to one another at work in him simultaneously. One desire is to carry out a godly life but there is something else in him working against this desire and continually frustrating his good desires. For a good portion of chapter 7 Paul goes back and forth describing these two laws at work in him and then he finally cries out, “Wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death.” (v. 24) Immediately after this cry for help he praises God for the answer, “Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (v. 25a). He then concludes with a summary, “So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin” (v. 25b).
The context and the order of these verses prove that Paul was not giving thanks for an inherent or practical ability to now live the Christian life or fulfill the requirements of the Law with a new power that overcame this struggle. According to the order of this passage Paul gives thanks to God for Jesus Christ as the answer to this condition and then concludes by stating that although he has the victory in Christ with power to serve the law of God with His mind yet he is still, even now after giving thanks for the answer, subject to serving the law of sin with his flesh. The fact that he is still subject to the power of the flesh and by it still in slavery to sin, even after the provision of Christ his victory, is proven by the fact that he makes this statement of slavery to sin (v. 25b) as a "So Then" conclusion continuing to occur after the reality of his victory in Christ.
Paul is truly giving thanks for a sure and real victory but this victory is definitely not in Paul's flesh or over the sinful tendencies of his flesh, and therefore he was still unable to personally fulfill the Law. This Paul makes plainly clear when he ends verse 25 by saying that he still serves the law of sin with his flesh even after his praise to God for the solution to this dilemma.
The only possible answer that explains this victory according to context of the Scripture is that Paul is giving thanks for the victory of Christ in his behalf and that this victory is therefore positional (with practical consequences) but not practical (Paul's own victory over the sinful tendency of the flesh) and therefore, in further conclusion and in agreement with this incredible victory of Christ in his behalf Paul writes, “there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1). So then, we see that Paul’s victory was not inherent or practical in the sense that he now had personal victory over sin and neither did he receive a newly acquired inherent power to overcome sin and weakness by a second work of grace. Rather Paul, who was saved by faith without the Law, continued to live by faith without the Law, as he knew that his victory was in Christ by association and imputation and therefore a true and just judicial declaration of victory by God given to sinners without an experiential victory over sin so that by God’s declaration of victory and righteousness Paul righteously lived for God while he was also and at the same time both a sinner and a saint. No wonder he was so energized to live for God by the Gospel of God because he knew he could not loose, God had guaranteed it.
The victorious life of the Christian is therefore an ever-present reality in-spite of remaining sins in the believers’ life and this God Himself accomplishes and declares about us through the imputation of Christ’s victory to us and is what theologians refer to as positional (in Christ) rather than practical (in us).
This realization and reality of our positional victory has very real practical consequences. It enables us to live for God by faith without the Law because our transgressions against the Law cannot disqualify us and as we continue in a life of faith without the Law we grow in the grace and knowledge of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. This is how Paul, the chief of sinners (1 Tim. 1:15), lived one of the most powerful lives ever lived for God, but not because he personally merited it, or acquired the ability to do the Law, but because he, a sinner, ‘lived by faith and grace’ in the provisions of the Gospel which include a righteousness and victory not his own but rather one given to him through grace by God.
In regards to this type of a judicial righteousness Francis Turretin wtites:
“The justification of the wicked” of which Paul speaks (Rom. 4:5), ought not to be referred to as an infusion or increase of habitual righteousness, but belongs to the remission of sins (as it is explained by the apostle from David). Nay, it would not be a justification of the wicked, if it were used in any other sense than for a judicial absolution at the throne of grace. [7]
In summary of what has been said already we claim that born-again Christians do indeed have two natures (one that serves God and holiness and one that serves man and sin) and that believers continue to struggle with these two natures throughout their lives. As a result of this truth they never inherit a personal, practical righteousness that overcomes this struggle or that is enabled to live by the Law or have personal merit before God. And as a further result they must then live by the provisions of grace through faith in a righteousness that is not their own in order to walk in fellowship with God and live for Him.
Therefore just as ‘faith without the Law’ is essential on man’s part for salvation so ‘faith without the Law’ also is required on man’s part in Christian living. This truth is clearly seen Paul’s instructions, “Just as you have received Christ, so walk in him” (Col. 2:6) and this is exactly what Paul did in Romans chapter 7.
We have here shown Romans 7 to bear out this position of the meaning of Christian victory but even more directly the Scriptures explicitly state, “In the Gospel the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall ‘live’ by faith” (Rom. 1:17).
This teaching of sinful men receiving the blessings of the Gospel through ‘faith’ in ‘God’s provision alone’ (grace) is also the basis of the Reformation’s theology of “justification by faith alone” (Justification = God’s provision, and Faith Alone = man’s taking hold of God’s provision). But more and more the church today is returning to humanistic doctrines and teachings that emphasize the ability of the Christian to earn God’s favor and His blessings through personal conduct and the reason that we are doing this is that we no longer truly understand or believe the bibles Evangelical doctrine of “justification by faith alone” and so we continually add to the Gospel even unawaring with good intentions of trying to make it more profitable or to speed up or improve the process of sanctification but in so doing we end up preaching another Gospel which is no gospel at all. It is for this reason that I now wish to carefully go over what the doctrine of justification by faith alone meant to the Reformers and the early church and why this teaching is essential not only to salvation but also to Christian living. And although reading and studying this material may be somewhat tedious and boring yet it is important. By studying this foundational doctrine I came to learn from many of its teachers what I have written here and what I hope will further validate these teachings to you so that if what I am writing here is helpful you may have more ammunition to hold on to its teachings when others give their evidence that this way is incorrect.
The Doctrine of Justification by Faith Alone
The doctrine of justification by faith alone was considered to be one of central importance to the early church and was the main reason that the Reformers broke from Rome due to their rejection of it. Concerning the necessity of the doctrine of justification by faith alone R.C. Sproul writes the following:
The issue of justification touches not merely the churches well being, but the churches very essence or being. Without this doctrine the church falls; she collapses into ruin. She ceases to be a true church. Though every other article of historic Christian faith remains intact – if this one (sola fide) is lost, the church is lost with it.[8]
John Calvin also expresses the centrality of this truth when he writes:
The doctrine of justification … is the principal ground on which religion must be supported, so it requires greater care and attention. For unless you understand first of all what your position is before God, and what judgment is which He passes upon you, you have no foundation on which your salvation can be laid, or on which piety towards God can be reared.[9]
This last point made by Calvin directly relates to our purpose here, “The doctrine of justification…is the principle ground on which piety towards God can be reared.” Understanding this doctrine then is essential to correctly understanding sanctification, (how a man can grow in the Christian life and live for God).The Reformers, such as Luther and Calvin, understood man’s sinful nature both before and after salvation due to his original fall into sin and therefore believed and taught the total depravity of man and by it understood the necessity of salvation and sanctification by grace and through faith alone.
But the church today is increasingly rejecting the full implications of the Reformers teaching regarding man’s total depravity. Many today have mutated the Evangelical doctrine of total depravity because while they correctly maintain that unbelievers cannot live for God or produce holiness yet they introduce the unbiblical teaching that the born-again Christian can "of their own person" live for God and become holy and so they put their hope in and put the primary stress on things like morality, virtues and the law rather than faith, forgiveness and dependence upon the Holy Spirit. In this manner they reverse the doctrines of justification and sanctification and rather than teaching how sanctification flows out of grace through faith and dependence upon God’s justification, “THE GOSPEL”, they teach a sanctification that is dependant upon the performance of morals, virtues, laws, etc. but neither sanctification or justification come through the flesh by its effort to keep laws, morals or virtues but rather sanctification comes the same way that justification comes, “by grace and faith through the Holy Spirit”, for as Paul says, “Just as you received Christ so walk in Him.” So let us walk in Him as Paul did, (as the chief of sinners), not proud of this but acknowledging the truth and knowing that our sanctification will come not because of our ability or striving but because we believe the gift and power of the Gospel and since we believe we come as we are “still slaves to sin by nature” but through a righteousness not our own we who are hopelessly addicted to sin have the right to walk with the King and it is because we are in the presence of the King that we know change will come.
Therefore, come, as you are, sins and all because it is the only way you can come and this coming will honor God because it is a proof that you have believed His Gospel about who He is, who you are and what He will do for you through grace and faith.
Sadly many today no longer teach the blessings of the Gospel that come by grace and faith alone to sinners but rather teach a Gospel by faith plus works. But this new teaching is the very same teaching that the Reformers passionately fought against and eventually split from the Roman Catholic Church over and yet this teaching is returning today in churches claiming to be of Evangelical (Reformation) roots. This departure is sadly lamented and rebuked by Benjamin B. Warfield (a past president of old Princeton Seminary, succeeding Charles Hodge):
Its very heart (the Reformation) was a revolt from the conception of salvation which had dominated and cursed the Middle Ages. A conception which threw man back at the decisive point upon himself … what you had to do no doubt was reduced to as little as possible … it came to amount to this: You push the button and God will do the rest. But always you had to push the button. And this was a button sinners could not push! … It was against all this fatal doctrine of human ability and human merit that the Reformation threw itself with a passion.[10]
In the same way this booklet of "The Romans 7 Road" makes its stand against man’s ability for receiving grace, favor, blessings or anything else from God by anything other than faith in God’s grace that is revealed in His Gospel promise.
The Reformers of the past understood these issues and the devastating consequences that would occur in a Christian community that did not understand them and as a result they would not compromise their stand against Rome’s doctrine of human merit and ability but rather insisted upon salvation and Christian living by faith and grace alone and so finally broke with Rome. In regards to this dogged stand against human merit in man Martin Luther said the following:
"There is no such thing as merit; but all who are justified are justified for nothing (by grace), and this is credited to no one but to the grace of God… For Christ alone it is proper to help and save others with His merits and works. The works of others are of benefit to no one, not for themselves either; for the statement stands: “The just shall live by faith” (Rom. 1:17). For faith grounds us on the works of Christ, without our own works, and transfers us from the exile of our sins into the kingdom of His righteousness. This is faith; this is the Gospel; this is Christ.[11]
But even before the Reformers, Augustine (considered to be one of the greatest theologians of the church) taught that even our best works (Christians or non-Christians) are but splendid vices (sinful) and that all of God’s rewards and blessings to man flow from His sheer grace and are in no way merited by man. In regards to this stand of Augustine and the later Reformers against human ability and merit R.C. Sproul says the following:
"Augustine insisted that even the best works of sinners are still tainted by sin and are therefore but “splendid vices.” Splendid vices are not morally equivalent to true virtues, and as such they can make no moral or legal claim on God for reward. Even in a state of grace, we are unprofitable servants… In summary, the Reformers strenuously rejected assigning any merit to our justification save the merit of Christ alone. Again we see that the sola gratia (grace alone) of the Reformation was a true sola, without mixture of any type of human merit. Sola fide (faith alone) meant that justification is by faith alone because it is a justification by the imputed merit of Christ alone."[12]
Another issue that separated the Reformers from Rome was their understanding of the basis for justification. As mentioned earlier there are some who believe that a Christian has or needs an inherent justification (personal righteousness) for true Christian victory (the teaching of Rome, Ariminians and Pelagians) but others teach that Christians have already received a perfect judicial righteousness by the imputation of Christ’s perfect righteousness to them and by this ever present possession we are to live for God by grace through faith over and against the fact that we are also and at the same time sinners in the fallen nature (the position of the Evangelical Reformers and Augustinian theology). In regards to this issue of the basis of our justification R.C. Sproul has written much in the defense of an imputed and judicial justification. The following is just one example:
"Hence the issue was this: Is our justification based on the righteousness of Christ in us or the righteousness of Christ for us? Luther insisted that the righteousness by which we are justified is a righteousness that is extra nos , “apart from us.” He called it an iastitiam alienum, an “alien righteousness.” [13]
Luther also used the term simul justus et peccator (at the same time saint and sinner) to describe the condition of the saved and justified Christian. What Luther meant by this is that the Christian is justified and righteous in Christ by imputation (positionally) while he is still a sinner (practically). The Reformers always insisted without compromise that justification was by imputation and was judicial. Rome called the Reformers doctrine ‘a legal fiction’ and insisted that justification (righteousness) must be truly an inherent personal possession of a believer before God could truly call him just otherwise God would be made to be a liar (this is the reason that still today Rome preaches a works-righteous gospel). In contrast the Reformers insisted upon justification by imputation and this stand was the basis for many of our Protestant hymns such as the lyrics of this famous hymn:
“nothing in my hands I bring (no personal righteousness) simply to the cross I cling” (for the provision of Christ’s righteousness and atonement).
In addition, according to Scripture, the imputation of Christ that Christians receive in salvation by faith alone brings a two-fold provision of grace to the believer and this two-fold understanding of Christ’s imputation to us is a key to better understanding ‘Christian living’ and the victory it brings. Concerning this two-fold aspect of the work of Christ imputed to all believers by faith alone Obadiah Grew states the following:
"Now there are two things, say divines, in justification. First is the remission of sin; and this is from Christ’s passive obedience. We have “remission of sins through His blood [that is from our sins], we shall be saved from wrath through Him.” The second thing is the imputation of righteousness; and this is from Christ’s active obedience. He is called “the Lord our Righteousness,” and we are called “the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)."[14]
It is this second aspect of the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to us that is frequently neglected in Christian teaching today. But in order to understand our victory over sin we need to understand this two-fold imputation of Christ to us because by it we possess our only true and real righteousness for victorious living and blessing. In this doctrine we learn that Christian victory (Righteousness) is by imputation for our faith in Christ and that which is imputed is always an objective fact. This means that whatever is imputed is true whether we understand it or not, whether we personally accomplish it or not it, or whether we feel righteous or not. Whatever God imputes to us for our faith is never subject to any other condition to be met by us. We possess it forever. In this doctrine we learn that Christ’s righteousness is imputed to us for our faith alone. We need to rest in this Righteousness just as the author of the book of Hebrews tells us to do. We cannot improve upon this righteousness rather we must simply accept it as a gift and give thanks to God for it (Rom. 7:25b) and live by faith in it. Again, this Righteousness is a gift and by it we are accepted in the Beloved and by it alone come all of God’s blessings, as we of the Faith are the heirs of all blessings.
If we are not diligent to understand this doctrine we will most likely set out to secure our own victory as the basis for living for God, for being in fellowship with Him and for receiving His blessings. An ignorance of our real victory causes us to seek security in our own personal victory and here we become frustrated due to our alienation from grace and faith.
When we try to live by anything that we personally possess or ever hope to accomplish as Christians we are living from ourselves (the flesh, the old nature) rather than from Christ and His gifts. We ourselves will never produce anything worthy of God’s fellowship nor will we ever be worthy enough to receive His blessings. To put it simply the only way that we will ever have joy and victory is to reckon Christ’s victory and righteousness ours, even though we ourselves do not have personal victory or personal righteousness (practically speaking). This is to believe the Gospel. This, as Martin Luther said earlier, is the Gospel. This is Christ for us, His body and blood given for us, so that through His life and death we who believe might inherit Him and all that belongs to Him (both the payment and forgiveness of sins and also the righteousness and blessings of God that Christ won for us) and by this faith we live for God.
Oh my friend, how long will you insist on being personally worthy or capable because until you stop and freely receive by faith all that is yours in Christ’s you will be frustrated and without the joy that comes from the true victory, “Christ Himself in our behalf” because the reality of what you are without grace will always stare you in the face and undue your greatest and most noble efforts and accomplishments leaving you with nothing but condemnation by the Accuser (Satan). There is only one way to overcome the Accusers power and live for God, “by grace through faith” (Rom. 11:6; Eph. 2:8; Heb. 13:9). My Christian brother or sister, please; become like Paul. Own the fact that you are the chief of sinners, in the present tense, like Paul did when writing to Timothy in his old age and shortly before his death (1 Tim. 1:15) and then thank God for the victory of Christ imputed to you by grace through faith.
Then, Believing this move into the glorious liberty of the sons of God and start living for God by faith in the provisions of His grace. In other words start living in Romans 8 through faith even though you are (practically speaking) the man or woman of Romans 7. This is living by faith in the Son of God who gave Himself for us (Gal. 2:20). This is how Paul lived and living like this he not only did great things for God but he also began to put to death the sins of the fallen nature (Galatians 5:16) but not directly by an overcoming inherent power but through living by faith for God in God’s provisions of grace in the Gospel which is available for all who realize that they too are the chief of sinners.
Coming back to the testimony of the Reformers in their teaching of Christ’s two-fold imputation to us, R.C. Sproul discusses the writings of Francis Turretin who is considered to have written one of the greatest works on the doctrine of justification which included the doctrine of Christ’s two-fold imputation in his book called, Justification:
“Turretin makes a crucial point that is often overlooked in popular forms of Evangelicalism today. He speaks of Christ’s fully satisfying the justice of God by his perfect obedience. Too often Christ’s work of satisfying the justice of God is reduced to his work of atonement… But this work of satisfaction is only one aspect of the matter… The cross alone, however, does not justify us. We need not only a substitute to pay for our demerits, but also positive righteousness. We are justified not only by the death of Christ but also by the life of Christ. Christ’s mission of redemption was not limited to the cross. To save us He had to live a perfect life of righteousness…He earned the merit of perfect righteousness, not only for His own humanity, but for all those whom He redeems… We are constituted as righteous by the obedience of Christ, which is imputed to us by faith”. [15]
In another book Sproul writes this concerning the two-fold aspect of justification and the imputation of Christ’s life and death for us:
“On the cross, Christ took upon himself the negative sanction of the law, becoming a curse for us. Satisfying the curse does not in itself guarantee the blessing. For the positive sanction of the blessing, the law must be obeyed. This is a vitally important element of Christ’s vicarious work. He is our substitute not only in death, but also in life. He satisfies not only the punitive demands of God’s justice, but also those demands required for the blessing. In this respect Christ not only takes upon Himself our demerits, but also merits the blessing for us by His perfect obedience. He is not only our curse but also our righteousness (the means of God’s blessing us)”. [16]
This aspect of Christ’s double imputation is so important to Christian living and victory that I am compelled to continue to give more proofs of it from Scripture so that we might be even more grounded in it so that others will not drag us back under systems of the law for our righteousness for Christian living. The Scripture abundantly testify to these facts but the following are just a few proving our case:
Justification is something that is done for us by God so that we might have the forgiveness of sins (Acts 3:18; Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:14) and also eternal life (Rom. 5:21; 6:23; 1 John 5:11-13) which life includes an inheritance (Titus 3:7) so that as it is written, “whoever believes in Him should not perish but (also) have eternal life (John 3:15). Justification then is more than salvation from sin as it involves both a positive and a negative aspect. Negatively it involves the forgiveness and remission of sins, “Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through this Man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins; and by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses” (Acts 13:38,39) and positively it credits to us the righteousness of Jesus by which we become an heir to all God’s possessions and blessings including the right to fellowship with God (eternal life), “that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:7).
Again the Scriptures confirm the twofold effect of justification when it says, “that they may receive forgiveness of sins (the negative aspect) and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me (the positive aspect)” (Acts 26:18); and again, “To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood (the negative aspect), and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father (the positive aspect)” (Rev. 1:5,6); and Jesus himself conveyed the same twofold meaning when He promised believers a transition from death to life (As the law clearly contained a sanction of two parts: 1) punishment of death to transgressors; and 2) the reward of life to the obedient.
So faith in Christ not only brings deliverance from death, the penalty of sin, but also the obtaining of life, the inheritance, the blessings and the righteousness of Christ. An exposition of Romans 5:1-11, by Woodrow Krull, also explains more fully all the benefits of our salvation:
“Verse 9 describes the negative benefit, “we shall be saved from wrath.” But this passage goes on to show ten more positive benefits that are added to us at our justification. The first of these is that we now have peace with God (v. 1); second, we have continual access to God (V. 2); third, we have a right standing before God (v. 2); fourth, we look forward to the glory of God, the finishing of the work which He began in us when we first believed (v. 2); fifth, we rejoice because our salvation means triumph and even gain through our tribulations (vs. 3-4); sixth, we have a sure hope (v. 5); seventh, we enter into a relationship with God based upon His love (vs. 5-8); eighth, we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (v. 5); ninth, we are also saved by Christ’s resurrected life (v. 10); and tenth, all of this results in continued rejoicing in our lives (v. 11)”.[17]
These distinctions regarding the two-fold work of justification by imputation are important as they have vital consequences relating to the personal application of what we have been saying: that by grace through faith alone we take hold of the provisions of God for salvation, Christian living, the blessing and the victory.
Victorious Living by “Grace” through “Faith”
Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we also have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in the hope of glory” (Romans 5:1-2).
This verse shows that faith is required on man’s part for both salvation and Christian living just as John Walvoord also agreed earlier that faith is man’s part by which he takes hold of the grace of God in the Gospel. In Walvoord's 2-part formula for the provision of justification and sanctification in the Gospel he says, “On the divine side, it requires provision for the Christians spiritual needs (grace); on the human side, it requires appropriation (faith).” [18]
Also notice in the opening words of this verse that Paul says, “having been (past tense) justified by faith,” This first part of the verse speaks of our completed salvation which was by faith and grace alone and as a result of our being justified by faith Paul says; “We have (1) peace with God and (2) access by faith into this grace in which we stand.” This second possession (access to God) also speaks of the necessity of living by faith and grace after salvation in order to again take hold of the provisions of God for living the Christian life in the grace in which we stand (the same grace by which we were saved). Notice this is in accord with Paul elsewhere when he says, “just as you have received Christ (salvation) so walk in Him (sanctification)” (Col. 2:6). Therefore, the just shall not only be saved by faith and grace but shall also live by faith and grace (Rom. 1:17) A life of living by faith and grace is in agreement with the Scriptures and with Paul’s experience and victory in Romans 7:14-25. Paul thanks God for the victory that he received when he first believed not some new victory, second blessing, or new power. Paul, in the midst of his struggles already has the reality of his victory ‘Christ and His righteousness’ and so by this faith and in this grace, as when he first believed, he again takes hold of the continual victory in Christ and he thanks God for Him and so continues, where he is, to live for God while working out the salvation that God has completed for him as he further describes it in Romans chapter 8.
All this proves the necessity of faith and grace as the key for both salvation and Christian living and this disproves the teachings that say we need to seek something new for Christian living after salvation. It also disproves the notion that a certain amount of inherent righteousness or holiness or some stage of personal sanctification is needed for true Christian living, victory or blessing. Again it proves that knowledge of God’s provision (what we have received in Christ when we first believed) is an essential element in the victory. As Paul says, “We are transformed by the renewing of our minds” (Rom. 12:2). From the knowledge of the truth in the Word of God we are made aware of our true provisions for Christian living in the Gospel and this knowledge is made ours by faith. As Paul says, Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God” (Rom. 10:17).
So then, every effort of a Christian to seek or acquire something new that we did not receive when we first believed is deceptive and seeking something new will also always lead to walking in the flesh (our own provisions) and will fail. Therefore, Paul did not experience nor did he wait for some practical experience proven in the flesh before he moved out into the life of Romans 8 but he rather, as the man of Romans 7, did it by grace through faith in the provision of Christ Himself. Here, Paul, the chief of sinners, lived one of the most powerful lives ever for Christ and here Paul lived his victory honestly, a sinner saved by grace and living by grace, and not as some hypocrites who boast in new or special powers or newly acquired levels of personal sanctification by which they have overcome their struggles and sins and who thereby continue to deceive many with their inflated boastings causing much havoc, confusion and frustration among the true children of God, children whom God makes constantly aware of their own inability.
Brothers in the faith, we are very weak and prone to sin in many things (James 3:2) but we carry an exceedingly great treasure in these weak and broken jars of clay (2Co. 4:7). Therefore let us walk by grace and faith and not by sight, “boasting in our weaknesses” as we go about God’s work, “so that the glory of God’s provision, ‘Christ and His grace’, might tabernacle over us”(2 Co. 12:9). In this way we will amaze the world and draw men to Christ, doing the works of God and giving him all the glory and so greatly exalting the Gospel of God that justifies the ungodly for their faith in Christ (Rom. 4:5), and by so doing we can bring hope to a sin enslaved world. The following are a few more quotes by respected Scholars so as to better ground us in these things concerning acquiring the victory of Christ and His graces through faith alone. The following was written by William Pemble:
“Faith alone is the grace of God whereby a sinner, believing the promise, and resting himself upon the righteousness of Christ, receives mercy from God in absolving him from the fault and punishment of all his transgressions, and is accounted righteous for Christ’s sake. This gracious privilege God has annexed unto faith, as unto the condition of the new covenant, and not unto love, hope, fear, repentance or any other grace. For not these, but faith only respects the promise of the Gospel”. [19]
And Obadiah Grew says the following:
“Now faith is the grace that honors Christ most. It fetches all from Christ and gives all the blessedness of a restored sinner to Christ. It’s faith that makes Christ so precious: “To you that believe, He is precious” (1 Peter 2:7). Faith makes the worst of Christ to be better and more eligible than the best of this world. It was by faith that Moses esteemed the reproaches of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. And because faith so honors Christ, therefore it is exalted above other graces to this high office, which no other grace has in the justification and righteousness of a sinner. It’s faith that puts Christ’s worth and merit into the balance against all your sins and wretchedness, against the curse of the law (and to swallow up) hell and death into victory”. [20]
Don Kistler says the following:
“God is very clear that He will not share His glory with another. If you try to add anything to what Christ has done, you do nothing more than subtract all that He has done. It is a fatal mistake… If we would be “accepted in the beloved,” to use Paul’s phrase from Ephesians, then we must say with the hymn writer Augustus Toplady: Nothing in my hands I bring,Simply to the cross I cling”. [21]
The Westminster Confession of Faith says the following:
“Those whom God effectually calleth he also freely justifieth (Rom. 8:30; 3:24), not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by counting and accepting their persons as righteous; not for anything wrought in them, or done by them but for Christ’s sake alone; not by imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience, to them as their righteousness; but imputing the obedience and satisfaction of Christ unto them (Rom. 3:22-28; 4:5-8; 5:17-19; 2 Cor. 5:19, 21; Titus 3:5, 7), they receiving and resting upon Him and His righteousness by faith, which faith they have not of themselves; it is the gift of God (Acts 10:44; Galatians 2:16; Phil.3:9; Eph. 2:7-8). Faith, thus receiving and resting on Christ and His righteousness, is alone the instrument of justification (Jn. 1:12; Rom. 3:28; 5:1)”. [22]
And again the Heidelberg Catechism teaches:
“Question #60: How art thou righteous before God? Answer: Only by a true faith in Jesus Christ. (Rom. 3:22; Gal. 2:16); so that though my conscience accuse me, that I have grossly transgressed all the commandments of God, and kept none of them (Rom. 3:9), and am still inclined to all evil (Rom. 7:23); notwithstanding, God, without any merit of mine (Rom. 3:24), but only of mere grace (Tit. 3:5; Eph. 2:8-9), grants (Rom. 4:4-5; 2 Cor. 5:19) and imputes to me (1 John 2:1) the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ (Rom. 3:24-25); even so, as if I never had, nor committed any sin; yea, as if I had fully accomplished all that obedience which Christ has accomplished for me (2 Cor, 5:21), inasmuch as I have embraced such benefit with a believing heart (Rom. 3:28; John 3:18)”. [23]
And now having set forth a defense of the position of the Romans 7 Road regarding a Christian’s true victory ‘by grace through faith’ I would like to put forth two more credible testimonies giving greater evidences favoring this interpretation of Romans 7:14-25 before proceeding to the practical application of what has been said herein: First, Obadiah Grew says the following in regards to Romans 7:14-25:
“Paul had as little sin and as much grace as any man when in a state of grace; and yet when he complained in both cases of the strength of sin and the weakness of grace. He bewailed it that he did the evil which he did not want to do, and that he did not the good he wanted to do. And not withstanding all his grace, he cried out of himself, “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me?” My own ability through grace? No. “But I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Here was his sanctuary and city of refuge; here his conscience had peace and rest. Remember this, then, in your perplexities within, and when you cannot but esteem your own righteousness as filthy rags, that Christ has enough righteousness, and that He has it for you. As He has said to His disciples, “Because I live, ye shall live also” (John 14:19), so, “because I have righteousness, ye shall have righteousness also” Isaiah 45:24: “Surely shall one say, ‘In the Lord have I righteousness and strength.’” … Here is a righteousness too hard for your sins. “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound (Rom. 5:20)”.[24]
And finally William Pemble says the following:
“The apostle describes corruption and grace in a regenerate man: “The flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you cannot do the things that you would” (Gal. 5:17). Who can say that holiness is perfect in that man in whom corruption of nature not only troubles, but also hinders grace in its holy operation? Shall we say that this contention lasts for but a while after a man is newly regenerate, but that over time the Spirit gets an absolute victory, corruption being not only mastered, but annihilated? If we say so, experience will accuse us, and conscience will judge us to be liars. Where is the man, and how is he named, who can say that he finds no rebellion or distemper in his affections or desires, no disorder in any motion of the soul, but that all within him is sweetly tuned unto obedience without jar and discord arising from corruption? Certainly that humble confession of a most holy apostle may cause blushing in any such proud claimant. Had Paul the body of sin in him and you had none? He fights and wrestles against the law in his members, rebelling against the law of his mind, yea, he is so checked and mated by it that he can neither do the good he would nor avoid the evil he would not. When he would do well, evil was present with him. And so tedious is this toil unto him that he complained of it at the very heart and cried out bitterly for help in this conflict. Whereupon, though he has help from God through Jesus Christ, yet he does not have full deliverance from this inherent corruption, but is far to conclude in this pitiful manner: “So then I myself in my mind serve the law of God, but in the flesh the law of sin” (Rom. 7:25). Even Paul served God in the better half of him. Do what he can, sin will have place in his heart and a part of his service, though he is unwilling to yield to it. If any will compare and prefer himself to this holy man, he may prove himself prouder, but better than him he cannot be. It is arrogance for anyone to claim perfection when so great an apostle disavows it. If one will not acknowledge that corruption in himself, which Paul (in the name of all) confessed in his own person, it is not because such a one is more holy than the apostle, but because he is ignorant and sees it not; or he is high minded and scorns to be made aware of it… Furthermore, reason confirms what Scripture and experience witness that sinful corruption will hang fast upon us to our dying day… Wherefore, seeing the best of men cannot live without manifold actual sins, it is apparent that this ill fruit comes from a bad humor in the tree, and this defect of actual obedience comes from the imperfection of habitual holiness. This is sufficient for justification of the truth of our first proposition, that inherent holiness in this life is not perfect because it is always coupled with some sinful corruption. But here our adversaries cry out with open mouth that we maintain a monstrous proposition… that a man justified is yet a sinner in himself; that corruption, filthiness and uncleanness remains in him when yet in God’s sight he is accounted pure and clean because he has hidden himself under the cloak of Christ’s righteousness… They say; you have a most holy and fair bridegroom coupled to a foul, deformed spouse… They slander us in that they say we deny all inherent righteousness in a justified person, which is an impudent calumny. They slander the truth in condemning that as an error, which in sacred verity is taught to us by God in the Scriptures, that a justified person is yet after that, in himself, part sinful”. [25]
And also in support of our position on the true victory of Christian living read in defense of “Miserable Sinner Christianity”, the history and teaching of Augustinian Theology in the Evangelical Church, by B.B. Warfield, which is included as a separate article on this web-sites home page.
What then? Shall we sin, so that grace may abound to God’s glory?
“The Purpose of Grace and Faith”
In every age, including the time of Paul, some have interpreted the radical grace of the Gospel as a license for sin. To some of these, with a concern for the abuse of its grace, this has lead to a watering down of the Gospel or to mixing it with the Law. But this Paul would not do and so he was accused of preaching against the Law. But Paul was not preaching against the Law rather he was rightly diving the truth of the Gospel and the truth of the Law. To the others of these, with a concern to serve their own desires, Paul’s Gospel was used as a license for sin. To the charges of preaching a Gospel that promoted sin and to those who were using the Gospel as license for sin Paul answers, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not!” (Rom. 6:1). Paul’s Gospel of grace was radical indeed, “Where sin abounded, there grace abounded all the more” (Rom. 5:20). Paul’s gospel may indeed have opened doors for the abuse of grace but the radical Gospel of God’s grace cannot be safeguarded from abuse by watering it down or by mixing it with the Law (Gal. 3:1-3). The Gospel must rather be proclaimed boldly (Eph. 6:19-20), even though it leads some of its hearers to death (2 Co. 2:15-16), such as those who use it for a license to sin (Rom. 3:8) and even though its bold preaching may bring us persecution by both the world (John 15:20; Gal. 4:28-29) and those claiming to be of God (2 Co. 4:7-15; Gal. 1: 10; 6:12) yet we must be faithful to proclaim it.
Preaching the Gospel boldly can only be done by faith in the sovereignty of God to perform His purposes for which He sent it (Is. 55:11) and to complete what He started (Php. 1:6). This is why Paul asks the churches to pray for him that he might preach it boldly as he should (Eph. 6:19-20). We must remember that the results of the Gospel is God’s business, not ours. It is He who is the author of its radical grace and it is He who will take responsibility to deal with its abuse but He does not ask us to help Him out by watering it down or by mixing it with the Law to lessen the possibility of its abuse. To do either of these is to destroy the Gospel itself (Gal. 1:6-7) and to find ones self opposing God Himself (Gal. 1:8-9). The Gospel must be preached as the glorious Gospel of grace that it is, for only by the faith and grace it provides can sinful men be reconciled to God and walk with Him becoming more and more Christ-like. While it is true that the Gospel may be abused and those who claim to be Christians by it may not be true Christians yet Paul says one thing is certain of true Christians; those who are truly born again enter into a spiritual struggle that did not exist before their salvation. This struggle is due to the fact that at salvation they receive a new nature that is alive to the things of God in the Spirit (Rom. 7:25) but still the perfect (good) expression of this new life they cannot find how to carry out (Rom. 7:18) because they still possess the old nature that is still in bondage to sin through the flesh (Rom. 7:14-25). Therefore, Paul tells us plainly how we are to live for God as Christians, “Reckon yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore, do net let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its desires and do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace” (Rom. 6:11-14). And then after once more denouncing the Gospel as a means of making an occasion for sin, (Rom. 6:15), Paul further adds, “Now, I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness leading to holiness” (Rom. 6:19).
The purpose of the grace and faith in the Gospel for the true Believer then is to open a door that no one can shut for the sinner/saint to walk with God and become more and more Christ-like. This is how Paul lived, this is how Augustine lived, this is how Luther lived, and this is how all great men of God lived for Him. These men were not self-deceived in regards to their sinful natures that persisted even after salvation and therefore, they did not live by their own merit, personal righteousness or effort (Php. 3:9) but by the Righteousness of the Gospel through faith and grace. But they also did not use their grace as an opportunity for their sinful desires but as an opportunity to do something so astounding that even the angels in heaven marveled at the reality of it (1 Pe. 1:12). That through the Gospel wretched men could walk with a Holy God and be about His business even as they were still being perfected while struggling with sin. Oh the victory that is in Christ! How unsearchable are His ways! How shall anything now separate us from the love of God? (Rom. 8:35-39). For even in this state of the Gospel’s first fruits (Rom. 8:18-25), where we still struggle with our fallen nature and sin, yet at the very same time we are, even now, “More than conquerors in Christ” (Rom. 8:37). For the battle is the Lord’s (1 Sa. 17:4; 2 Ch. 20:15) and He has won it (Psalms 22:31; John 19:30). Therefore, let us, like Paul, use the Gospel of grace to press on toward our high calling (Php. 3:12-14) and let us not use it as an opportunity for the flesh (Gal. 5:13) but as an opportunity to grow in holiness and in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ (2 Pe. 3:18) to the glory of God, our Father. Amen.
The Necessity of Applying the Truth of Romans 7 Today
Although I believe there are many reasons to apply the truths stated here in the Romans 7 Road yet it is in regards to the times in which we live that I believe these truths are most needed today. From a short study of Christian history it is discovered that the Evangelical teachings of man’s total depravity and the common experience of Christian weakness and of the continuing slavery of the flesh to sin after salvation has been significantly removed and ignored by a great portion of the church after the Age of Reason and the Enlightenment. As this work itself shows, many of the references and creeds to the historicity of this doctrine being preached in the church date back to times prior to the Enlightenment and the Age of Reason and although this period of history brought great advances to human culture it also brought about devastating consequences to the Biblical doctrine of man’s total depravity, a doctrine foundational to the Bible and Augustinian theology. This is partly because during this period of time man became intoxicated with his newfound abilities, his inventions, discoveries and sciences and as a result man began to put his hope in his own abilities for the welfare of his world and his future. With this new confidence man put his hope in himself to make a heaven of his fallen world through the reforms of his own abilities rather than put his hope in a supernatural God for deliverance from this world of sin and suffering. Therefore, one of the many things the enlightenment did was to shift the focus of most men from trusting in God and the Scriptures to man trusting in himself and his natural abilities and understanding apart from Biblical revelation. This new reasoning replaced man’s trust in a supernatural God and Bible with the natural sciences that were provable to man’s understanding. In this way man himself became the ultimate hope and the measure of reality, as he trusted in his own ability to determine truth and salvation without reference to or under the authority of the Bible. The hope of this new age demanded a supreme trust and confidence in man’s ability as foundational to its success. After all, if man could not ultimately trust in his own abilities then how could he trust in his own self-discovered facts, inventions, conclusions and sciences? The age of reason and the enlightenment thrived on man’s confidence in himself and to doubt that confidence and ability was considered to be a return to the chains of the Dark Ages.
The hope that the enlightenment put forth necessarily demanded that men hope and believe in themselves and their abilities. The intoxication of this hope for a brave new world was in direct conflict with Augustinian theology and its doctrine of man’s total depravity. The theology of the early church and the Reformation found victory in the biblical paradox of man accepting his ultimate inability to improve or save himself and his world. This realization lead the church to throw itself on Christ and His merits, promises and work alone and to pray as Christ commanded them to pray, “Thy Kingdom come”, looking in hope for His return when alone man and the earth would be healed. As a result Augustinian theology was at odds with the popular hopes of the world and the teachings of the church were seen as an obstacle to the improvement of man and his world. As a further result the church, influenced by the changing world, became permeated with a hope in a humanistic can-do type of Christian philosophy that was in agreement with the current culture but that was not in agreement with the Scriptures or the early Evangelical Creeds of the church. Because of this can-do philosophy the advancing church largely rejected its earlier historical Evangelical doctrines with its teachings of man’s total depravity and rather favored the Arminian and Pelagian teachings of the preachers of its age. In time persuasive preachers such as Charles Finney and even the great John Wesley supported this humanistic belief in the personally overcoming godly abilities of man to bring in Christian perfection.
As a result of this shift a great portion of the church today erroneously clings to the false belief in victorious Christian theologies and its resulting mentality. A hope dependant upon man’s person and work’ (therefore subjective), rather than a ‘hope in God’ (the objective work and Person of Christ) as the answer for man and his world. That the objective Person and work of Christ was the basis of the early church’s hope rather than the law or a Christians ability to do the law is displayed in the fact that Paul, in all of his letters, gave the objective truth of Christian doctrine first and upon this taught the fruits of Christian conduct which should follow. In this way Paul always kept his readers focused on God and His victory for them (The Gospel) as their means of life, which at the same time caused them to turn away from the law as their means of life. This turning away from the law Paul showed to be in accordance with the Scriptures for to continue to put ones hope in the law (of necessity man’s ability) was to disbelieve God’s victory for them. For this reason Paul said they could not return to the law (seek their own merit) but instead must live by grace (God’s victory).
But these new teachers of the enlightened world were not content to continue with the old ways and so rather than continue in the old teachings of the Evangelical church which always taught the total depravity of man and the use of the law to humble men by showing them their inability and thereby driving them to Christ for the Gospel and grace (Rom. 3:20), these new teachers and their new gospel rather put their hope in the law (man’s ability) and the valiant victorious Christian’s ability to do the law as the answer for the world’s ills and for personal transformation but this gospel is unbiblical and has produced much arrogance and strife even in the face of so much failure on the part of those who advocate this personally victorious gospel and as a result has helped to make Christianity obnoxious and hypocritical to a world that sees through these boasts.
Paul foretold of this ill fruit that would come from the hypocrisy of a hope in the law by super achieving Christians when he wrote to the Galatians saying that it would cause them to bite and devour one another, as they would begin to criticize, compare and compete with each other, blaming each other for their lot or lack of blessings and becoming proud and seeking personal credit for their blessings. Paul warned them that this path to achieving greater success in their Christian walk would blind them to the truth that all of God’s blessings come by sheer grace alone to the undeserving and all of this God does with infinite wisdom. In this way Christians learn to give thanks in all things knowing that in all things God is working out an eternal glory for each Believer just as He has determined in advance.
In addition such a false Gospel would produce overwhelming guilt and shame because its hopes for advancement are built upon incapable men and these men knowing their secret incapability’s would become secretly shamed and their resulting guilt would blind them from seeing the God of the true Gospel who can move and accomplish His will in spite of their failings, a God who can say to each individual Christian, “I see and know you and yet I can use you and work through you for My son has opened the door for Me to righteously work and act this way in you, even in you.” And to the true church He can say, “I see you and that you have little strength but yet I have the right and ability to act through you. Do not be proud, do not hope to change the world by your own ability because it is hypocrisy and will destroy you, rather believe that I am your God through the new covenant of the Gospel and that I cover your sins for My own Names sake and that I will work good things through you for My own glory.”
In contrast to the current boastings of the theologies advocating personal ability and achievement by Christians through their own merit to affect the world for good or even for the advancement of the Gospel, Paul, rather boasted in his personal weakness and the cross of Christ (Gal. 6:14), as did also the early church and the Reformers. Paul understood the incredible power of the cross when it was lifted up showing the holiness and love of God to a sinful world, a cross that justified the ungodly by faith in the one crucified there (Rom. 4:5). This cross proclaimed the Good News, that when we were without strength Christ died for us (Rom. 5:8) and having died for us while we were his enemies how much more shall we live through Him while we work out our sanctification in the face of many weaknesses and sins (Rom. 5:9,10).
Here the Gospel opens a door to sinful humanity to once again walk in fellowship with God and thereby grow in grace and faith. Man is asked only to acknowledge his bankruptcy in sin and then believe and receive God’s provision of Christ crucified for Him. This is the Good News that comes to the one who knows that he is enslaved to sin. The provision of God that supplies more grace than man has sins and gives to the ungodly the exceedingly great reward of restored fellowship and a right standing to walk with God. By this Good News we all come to God on equal ground as undeserving sinners who through faith alone can come boldly to the throne of grace (Heb. 4:16) and live for God in spite of (above) our weaknesses even as we struggle against them.
Here we can rejoice in undeserved blessings and trust in the lot that God gives to each Christian knowing that each man has what he has by undeserved grace and trusting a wisdom in these things that surpasses our own. Here the criticizing, comparing and competing and restless impossibility to make things right can cease, as we trust in God to act through our faith rather than our meager abilities. Here, being all equal, all one, without one boast but Christ we can love and support each other rather than devour one another in competition within our Christian fellowships.
As you can see a reawakening to the doctrine of man’s total depravity, which declares man’s inability to personally produce righteousness and live godly, is necessary today to better understand the power of sin and the greatness of the free grace of God found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Only a Christian theology that includes a biblical doctrine of man’s total depravity rightly estimates the sinful reality of man both before and after salvation and therefore the essential nature of a Gospel kind of free grace salvation that opens the door for sinful Christians to work out their salvation by walking with God in the midst of their weaknesses through grace and faith.
But the things said and quoted herein do not make sense to the modern rational mind (the reason they are not found in some churches today) and the modern rational mind is afraid of them because as they reason, “if these things are not true then all hell will break loose as these teachings will give men a license to sin.” But Obadiah Grew states it well that the reason for these things being true cannot be discerned by the sound reasoning of men but rather is discovered only by faith in the Scriptures that record the reasons of God. He says:
“Why does God justify a sinner by the righteousness of another (yet made ours)? Because it is His good pleasure to do so. For we were justified when ungodly (Rom. 4:5), reconciled when we were sinners (Rom. 5:10), loved when we were in our blood (Ezekiel 16:6), and Christ died for us when we were without strength (Rom. 5:8). And again Grew states the mysterious nature of this way:
"… The mysterious nature of this righteousness…It is a revelation: The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith” (Rom. 1:17). It is not a thing in view of natural reason. The world must be convinced of it by the Spirit. It is a new way (Hebrews 10:20), an uncouth, untrodden, and unbeaten way to the light of nature; nay, there was no such thing known in the state of innocence. Those philosophers, the Epicureans and Stoics who encountered Paul in Acts 17 called it “new doctrine.” It is news indeed, so is the whole Gospel, for that is the sense of evangelovi, bringing good news. Man being made righteous by the righteousness of another is a new way, and unknown to the generality of the world”. [26]
If these things stated herein are not true and this way is a false way then we agree with our critics that it will give man a license to sin rather than give him a way and the reasons to surrender to the provisions of God and to the control of the Holy Spirit and thereby grow through faith and grace. I believe that a fear of grace as giving men a license to sin is another reason that ‘personal victory and holiness theology’ is taught by many today as a perquisite for a Christians’ access to God and His blessings because this way seems better to them to avoid the abuse of grace. But the reality of blessing and growth in Christian living is not built upon our natural understanding or performance and ability but rather upon the eternal counsel and provision of God and his Word and the Word testifies to God’s Gospel of grace and a sinner’s access and right relationship to God by grace through faith in which he grows in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ.
It is therefore necessary to apply the truths of "The Romans Seven Road" today because in order to grow and mature as Christians it is necessary to build upon the righteousness of Christ while at the same time being deeply aware of our own weakness and inability and this can only be done by grace and faith. Grace that gives us God’s right and provision to do it this way and faith by which the believing sinner/saint takes God’s provisions and personally lives the Gospel.
The Benefits of Applying the Truths of Romans 7 to Your Life
The following are a partial list of some of the fruits in the application of these truths:
(1) Being justified freely by grace we therefore have peace with God (Rom. 5:1).
(2) The forgiveness of sins through the free grace of the Gospel restores unto us the joy of our salvation, which joy is our strength (Neh. 8:10).
(3) This way humbles man even in his most righteous works and abilities and causes him to boast in God alone (Gal. 6:14). In regards to this third benefit Grew Comments:
“It is by this doctrine that God has designed to hide pride from man, from the best and holiest of men, even from Abraham the friend of God… Even he had nothing to glory of before God. Yea, and Paul challenges all other men when he speaks of this righteousness in Romans 3:27 and 4:16: “Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? Nay, but the law of faith,” that is, “by faith that it might be by grace.”[27]
(4) This way causes a man to face the truth of his incurable fallen nature so that he does not become proud (falsely believing he has attained some personally victorious degree of sanctification) and therefore let down his defense and as a result instead of running from sin he falsely believes he can withstand it. How many men have fallen this way? How many men have shrugged off a sexual advance by a secretary thinking of it rather as a compliment that can be handled only to find that the right timing and circumstances later undid their confidence and their marriage? How many alcoholics thought they had come to a place in their recovery where they could handle a beer or two only to find them back on a binge? It is, therefore, necessary for a Christian to know the depravity of his fallen nature that continues after salvation.
(5) This way supplies a struggling Christian with grace upon grace so as to persevere under a burdened conscience because where sin abounds, there grace abounds all the more (Rom. 5:15; 20), and it assures us that even in our most difficult times God will never leave us or forsake us (John 14:16; Heb. 13:15) and here we also have the continuing blessing of His fellowship to overcome a guilty conscience due to a stronghold of sin or manifold failures that otherwise would have disqualified us from continuing in the Christian race (Heb 9:14). In regards to this manner of applying this truth read Hebrews Chapter 10, but Pemble also puts it in his own words when he writes:
“Christ, having fulfilled the law and made satisfaction for all our transgressions thereof, has made this yoke easy for the necks, and has made this burden light upon the shoulders of the regenerate, because though they are called to obey, yet it is not upon those severe terms of being eternally accursed if they at anytime disobey. Now they are assured that their hearty obedience shall be accepted so far as they are able to perform it, and where they fail they shall be mercifully pardoned. This is a singular encouragement to a Christian’s heart… unto a heart sanctified by grace; all such obedience becomes sweet, pleasant and delightful. The heart now loves the holiness of the law (Rom. 7:22), takes contentment in obeying it (Psalm 119), and is full of singular affection and desire after it.” [28]
(6) This way encourages all manner of good works (especially necessary for those works of small beginnings) because through Christ and for His sake these works are accepted in the beloved [even a cup of water given in Jesus name will receive a reward (Mark 9:41)]. Here a mother can be encouraged in the household chores and the raising of children and a father encouraged when working to provide for his family as these are all works of God and accepted by Him for our faith but outside of faith in Christ these works are not washed in His grace and are therefore not accepted as works of righteousness.
(7) This way is a reason for a believer’s continual and everlasting thankfulness to God and Christ for so great a salvation.
8) This way gives us assurance that the work that God started He will complete.
9) Most importantly this way allows us to discover the reality of our personal powerlessness to live the Christian life and with this knowledge we become more patient and merciful to other people regarding their sin’s and weaknesses as we also look ever more and more to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Here we continue to grow in grace and knowledge: renewing our minds through the Word of God and beginning to put to death the misdeeds of our fallen natures by following the leading of the Spirit.
Finally, I would like to consider a personal point of this work: That is that we are complete in Christ from the moment we first believed the Gospel even though we may continue to experience many shortcomings and commit many sins in our Christian walk. Knowing this keeps us from becoming victims of false teachers who deceptively call us to them and their teachings rather than to Christ and the knowledge of all that we have already received in our salvation. These false teachers attempt to persuade us that they have some secret knowledge or that they can somehow impart some new power or blessing unto us that we did not receive when we first believed. And although the shortcomings of our remaining sinful nature may persuade us to believe that something is indeed missing from all that is available to us in Christ yet the Scriptures tell us otherwise.
According to the Scriptures every believer is complete in Christ (Col. 2:10) and has been given everything that pertains unto life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3) and every believer has also been given the Holy Spirit to indwell them (Rom. 8:9; 1 Cor. 6:19: 12:12-13). All of this is given by God to every believer the moment that he believes yet he is still subject to the weakness of the flesh which is still in slavery to sin after salvation (Rom. 7:14-25). These are truths that we need to take time to understand clearly because there is so much confusion as to what our victory over sin in Christ is all about and this confusion usually leads to living Christianity by the power of the flesh. While it is true that we are no longer in bondage to sin and that we have the victory over sin yet the victory that we have is not in the flesh, at least in this lifetime. Our continuous victory over sin is through faith in Christ and what He did for us. We, having kept the law through Christ, are no longer under the law and through Christ’s life and His cross the law has been completed for us and so the law and sin have been removed and this alone is why we are always victorious (vicariously, by our association with Christ) and so therefore free to live for God (justly and also personally). Christian theologians sometimes refer to all of this as the vicarious substitutionary atonement of Christ. In short this means that our victory is Christ’s victory (in the Spirit) but is not our victory personally (in our flesh) and this is why the possession of our victory (Christ) is by grace through faith only and why it is that to seek to improve upon this victory in the flesh is to fall from grace.
Therefore “Believe” for it is for freedom to live for God that Christ Jesus has set you free (Gal. 5:1). Do not therefore try to improve the sin nature of your flesh in the hopes of becoming more acceptable to God, rather, right where you are, as sinner and saint, believe, rejoice, and live and do because of what has been done for you. This is how Paul, the chief of sinners, lived powerfully by faith in the Son of God who died for him. Live by the power of this Gospel and you are truly free to live for God. But if you wait until you yourself make yourself acceptable to God then you will remain miserable, under hypocrisy, under the law, under your own power, under your own right to live for God and here you will never begin, because this Gospel of freedom is only for sinners who accept what God has to offer for free, and then continue to receive it for free, and then after maturity they still continue to receive it for free because once mature they see more clearly that the sin that remains in them, the sins that abounds in them is yet super abounded by the grace of God in this Gospel, and this Gospel is the secret of their joy, the secret of their strength, the secret of their endurance.
Therefore, once you have tasted the true Gospel do not return to the false teachers who bring you back under the law and who put you under systems of living Christianity by the power of the flesh in order to overcome the flesh. How ridiculous is it to assume that by the flesh you can overcome the flesh? John the Apostle asks, “Who is he who overcomes?” and answers, “He who believes” (1John 5:5). Anything that depends upon you without faith in Christ is a system of living Christianity by the power of the flesh and is doomed to fail.
Knowing the true Gospel keeps us from getting caught up in the subtle and deceptive promises of the false teachers that trick us into living Christianity by the power of the flesh instead of by faith and grace. For example, seemingly innocent and popular Christian slogans such as, “the law bids me to keep it but gives me no power, but the gospel gives me the power to do it”, must be challenged, as they are often used out of context by false teachers to lure us into their constantly changing fleshly ministries by mischievously preying upon our continuing sins and weaknesses. Nowhere do the Scriptures support the slogan above as it is commonly used today to advance the idea that a Christian can easily achieve great advances in personal holiness. In fact James, the Lord’s brother, when speaking at the first Jerusalem Council in regards to what rules should be mandated for Gentile converts to Christianity has this to say about the keeping of the law for Christians, “Why should we put a yoke (the Old Testament Law) on these new Gentile converts that neither we nor our fathers were able to bear.” (Acts 15:10). It is only logical to conclude from what James says here that not even born again Christians would be able to bear up under the holiness of the law. After all if the new life within a Christian were unhindered so that it was capable of keeping the law then James would have welcomed the addition of it so that Christians, by the keeping of it, could prove to the objecting Jews that the new Christian covenant was indeed of God. But rather the Scriptures state the following regarding the way and power of the Gospel,
What the law was powerless to do because it was weak in the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us who no longer walk according to the flesh (this includes our works according to the law) but according to the Spirit (God’s victory according to the way and power of the Gospel)” (Rom. 8:3-4).
According to this verse God wrought the victory (the power of the Gospel) and fulfilled the righteous requirements of the law for us (the way of the Gospel) so that we would not have to continue seeking the blessing of His fellowship by our effort through law keeping (the flesh) but rather to walk by faith and grace in God’s power and righteousness provided for us in the Gospel according to the Spirit [29]. This truth reminds us that our salvation, which includes forgiveness and eternal life as well as the blessing, comes by grace and faith so that it might belong to all who believe (Rom. 4:16).
By understanding salvation and the reality of the blessing which we received when we first believed we will no longer be tricked into disbelief by seeking something outside of the fullness of the Gospel such as through seeking out so called specially anointed teachers for the impartation of their own special anointings, nor will we seek out special privileged blessings such as second works of grace, or fantastic spiritual experiences and spiritual encounters, the necessity of speaking in tongues and the observing special rituals, etc., etc., all in the name of seeking new power and deliverance from the common experience of remaining sin and weakness within the flesh in a believing Christians life, but rather as the author of Hebrews says, “Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings; for it is well for the heart to be strengthened by grace” (Heb. 13:9), instead of seeking something outside of the Gospel we will continue to abide by faith and grace, wherever we are, and walk in the all-sufficient Gospel provisions of God, living for God and trusting in God making use of His present and all-sufficient provision ‘Christ in us’ in spite of the weakness and sins of our flesh. In this way, we who are weak overcome, by grace through faith (1 John 5:4,5) and by these, not personal merit or ability, we will do those things God has called us to do and in so doing we will put to death misdeeds of the flesh, not directly by our own will power but as a by-product, (fruit) of living for God by the Spirit in the grace and faith of the Gospel (Rom. 8:4).
In closing this chapter, I believe that we need to return to more biblically accurate words, phrases and Bible studies; such as this one has attempted to do, teaching the nature and reality of salvation and a Christian’s real victory so that we can help to bring Biblical answers to the widespread search of struggling Christians today seeking answers to the dilemma of the weakness and sin that remains in the born-again Christian. Finally, I would like to give thanks to God for so great a salvation and for giving us the blessing by grace through faith in Jesus Christ and continuing His work in such unworthy vessels all to the glory of God. May He be continually praised as we grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:18).
Therefore, In Conclusion, How Now Shall We Live?
In reference to what has been said, and if these things are true, how then shall we live today? Will we use these truths as an opportunity for the flesh? Unfortunately we may for a little while but if we are truly saved we will find the conviction of the Holy Spirit upon our hearts when we do so and we will also find that even though we are secure in our salvation and even though we are accepted in the beloved in spite of our remaining sins yet the sin that the flesh so eagerly desires does not truly satisfy the deepest longings of the new creation that is alive within us. As Christians even though we are secure in our position with God when we sin (1John 1:7-10) yet we find that we are miserable at the core of this new life principal within us when we do so. Now that we are Christians, now that we have been born again, try as we may yet giving into the desires of the flesh and sin will no longer satisfy the deepest longings of the new heart and the new life of Christ within us. We who have been Christians for some time have experienced the reality of this. Our new hearts are alive to the things of God and rejoice in them but our fallen nature still cries out for the sins of the flesh to which it is still in bondage. As a result we cry out, “Oh! Wretched men and women that we are, who will save us from these bodies of death?” But thanks be to God that our position and Righteousness in Christ enables us to continue in the things of God and in fellowship with Him in spite of this condition that we are in during this lifetime. Oh! Thanks be to God that no matter how many times we fail the impeccable Righteousness of Christ will never fail us.
How now shall we live then?… We shall live for God in our bodies even though they are weak through the flesh yet through this weakness we shall live a Gospel kind of life with strength and honor through grace and faith in the provisions of God found in Christ. We shall go about doing good yet with no personal merit or boasting. We shall come to know that we are the least among men, still full of sinful tendencies, yet chosen in Christ for good works and so walk with God by grace being about His business so that His Gospel and grace might shine about us giving glory to God alone and a sure hope to men. Yes, a sinful world without Christ can be attracted to a God who provides a way for sinful men to walk with Him in a righteousness not their own so that by it they might grow in the Grace and faith of the Gospel (Matt. 11:19). Through our undeserved favor with God the unsaved world can be astonished and take hope in a gracious God who pledges Himself to the unrighteous for their faith in Christ their redeemer (Rom. 4:5). And by the witness of this Gospel of grace through faith all men have hope but in personal righteousness no man has hope (Rom. 3:10). This is why Paul says that he glories in all of his weaknesses so that the power and the glory of Christ and the Gospel might shine most spectacularly through him by this manner of witness (2 Co. 12:9) Paul is not saying that an unrestrained sinful life gives glory to God here. No, Paul and other Scriptures elsewhere say that men are attracted to God by good works and good conduct (Mt. 5:16; Rom. 13:3; Eph. 2:10; Php 2:13; Tit. 2:14; 3:8; Heb. 10:24; James 3:13; 1 Peter 2:12). Therefore, we must conclude that what Paul is saying is that as the sinful world looks upon Christians who are struggling with some of the same weaknesses that they (the unsaved) have but yet in spite of those weaknesses they see Christians living for God, loving one another, forgiving one another and going about doing good in Jesus name even as they struggle to overcome their faults, that this witness, draws the unsaved whom God is calling to Christ. It is through us who are weak and believe that God calls the unsaved to Christ and God alone is glorified (1Co. 1:26). Therefore, let us like Paul boast only in the cross of Christ as our credentials for righteousness, blessings and fellowship with God and in this walk let us also remember to ask for courage to admitt our weaknesses as we go about living our lives for God so that the Gospel might be fully understood by all as the glorious Gospel of grace that it is and thereby draw men without hope to God. May God who worked so effectively in Paul work in us also to His glory and may we find grace and peace in our travels as Christian pilgrims along our own Romans 7 Road. Amen.
QUOTATIONS CITED:
1] Obadiah Grew, The Lord Our Righteousness, (Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 2005) pg. 84
[2] Walvoord, “Five Views of Sanctification” pg.199, 201
[3] “Five Views” Pg. 209 (emphasis mine)
[4] For an in depth explanation of the judicial ground of our salvation and justification see, R.C. Sproul, “Getting The Gospel Right”
[5] This does not mean that we do not have real power to do some good that we could not do before we were saved, because we do and the Scriptures testify that we do and the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit lets us know that we are indeed the children of God but the power that we have is still weak by the flesh and corrupted by it so that even our most righteous works before God are as filthy rags when it comes to human merit. Therefore the grounds of a persons justification for Christian living remain solely and exclusively the imputed righteousness of Christ.
[6] Further proof that Paul never received a practical inherent power to live the Christian life but that rather he lived it with a continuing struggle against the sinful nature and therefore without human merit but rather only on the positional and imputed merit of Christ is his further testimony in Timothy, “Christ Jesus died to save sinners of who I am chief” Notice that Paul made this statement at the end of his life and he said it in the present tense, not the past tense
7] Francis Turretin, Justification, (Phillipsburg, New Jersey: P&R Publishing, 1994), Pg. 7
[8] Francis Turretin, Justification, (Phillipsburg, New Jersey: P&R Publishing, 1994), vii
[9] John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Reformation History Digital Library, AGES Software: (Albany, OR, 1998), 2:37
[10] Benjamin B. Warfield, Selected Shorter Writings, (Phillipsburg, New Jersey: P&R Publishing, 1970), vol. 1, pg. 402
[11] Martin Luther, What Luther Says: An Anthology, ed. Ewald M. Plass, 3 Vols. (St. Louis: Concordia, 1959), 2:921
[12] R.C. Sproul, Faith Alone, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1995), pg. 150, 151
[13] R.C. Sproul, Getting the Gospel Right, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1999), pg. 65
14] Obadiah Grew, The Lord Our Righteousness, (Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 2005) pg. 22
[15] R.C. Sproul, Faith Alone, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1995), pg. 103, 104
[16] R.C. Sproul, Getting the Gospel Right, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1999), pg. 145, 146
17] Woodrow Krull, Romans (Chattanooga, Tennessee: AMG Publishers, 2002) 63-73
18] Walvoord, Five Views of Sanctification
19] William Pemble, The justification of a Sinner, (Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 2002) pg. 45
20] Obadiah Grew, The Lord Our Righteousness, (Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 2005) pg. 76
[21] Don Kistler, Justification by Faith Alone, (Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 2005) pg. 142-3
[22] Westminster Confession of Faith (11.1)
[23] The Heidelberg Catachism, Question #60.
[24] Obadiah Grew, The Lord Our Righteousness, (Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 2005) pg. 56-7
[25] William Pemble, The justification of a Sinner, (Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 2002)pg. 77-9
[26] Obadiah Grew, The Lord Our Righteousness, (Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 2005) pg. 33,
[27] Obadiah Grew, The Lord Our Righteousness, (Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 2005) pg. 29
[28] William Pemble, The justification of a Sinner, (Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 2002)pg. 92
[29] For an in depth meaning of being lead by the Spirit consult B.B. Warfields article, The Leading of the Spirit from The Power of God Unto Salvation, Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1903. Also available online at: http://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/onsite/warfield01.html
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