Boker Tov! And, Happy New Year! Yes, in “real time” here at Mishkan Katan, it is January 1st, 2025 on the Western calendar. I’m back with you live, here on the LAMB Network, after 3 weeks of pre-recorded episodes, made necessary by the winter holidays. Chanukah ends tonight, and I hope you have enjoyed the beauty of the candle lights, that they have been as meaningful for you as they have been for me.
Today, we resume our study in the book of Romans. It has been almost a month since we have studied this great book together. We will be looking at chapter 7 today. Chapters 7 and 8 should really be studied at one time, since chapter 7 is a bit of a “downer” chapter, while chapter 8 provides the antidote to the “misery” of chapter 7. However, that is not feasible and still plumb the depths of chapter 7. So, we will focus on it today, knowing that a beautiful dawn is on the horizon next week.
In chapter 7 Paul gets down to the “nitty-gritty” of the faith walk in Yeshua, by being very real about the struggles the disciple of Yeshua will encounter. I honestly can’t remember the last time I heard a sermon on this topic, the reality of the struggles of the halacha. Halacha is a Hebrew word which refers to “the walk”, the spiritual life and practice of the believer - - the one who yearns for more and more of God, who endeavors to live a holy life in keeping with God’s commandments revealed in Scripture. We just don’t often talk about it. Here’s what we tend to do instead:
1. We pretend we have no struggles. We hide them, because we are afraid if we are honest about them someone will think we are a “less than” sort of follower of God.
2. We do not ask for or seek help because we are afraid of being seen as “weak”.
3. We give up and/or give in. We decide we are unable to deal with the struggles of the flesh. So, we just throw in the towel and start living like those who have never begun a relationship with the One and Only.
4. We neglect our relationship with God, which is the foundation out of which flows good works. Therefore, our “evidences” of our salvation become meaningless, rote practices that bring no joy. We move further and further away from Him, yet continue to “do all the right things”. Usually, this leads to bitterness, pride and judgmental attitudes toward others.
All these erroneous ways Paul is cautioning the Romans against in chapter 7. He was not immune to the temptations of the flesh, as we will so plainly see. I am thankful he was honest about his own condition, because his frankness on the matter gives me hope.
Allright, let’s look at verses 1 through 4.
1 Or do you not know, my brothers for I am speaking to those who are learned in the Torah, that Torah has authority over a man as long as he is alive?
2 Just as a wife, by Torah, is bound to her husband as long as he is alive: but if her husband should die, she is freed from his Torah instruction.
3 And if, while her husband is alive, she should have sex with another man, she would become an adulteress: but if her husband should die, she is freed from Torah regulations regarding her husband; and would not be an adulteress if joined in mariage to another man.
4 And now, my brothers, you also have become dead to regulations by the body of Mashiyach; that you might be joined to another, even to him who rose from the dead, and might yield fruits to Elohim.
What is Paul doing here? He is using an analogy, a great teaching tool, if you can understand the analogy. In our modern day, in the non-Jewish world, we are not that familiar with Torah regulations pertaining to a wife’s role in relation to her husband. However, without digressing into the whole of them, let me tell you that there were many! Each Jewish marriage was bound not only by Torah requirements, but also by the contents of the written marriage contract (called the ketubbah), which in Jewish society was a binding, legal document. The ketubbah was negotiated and signed at the time of the betrothal. You might think of it as sort of a pre-nup. Paul’s readers, male and female alike, would have understood these things.
Decades ago, in Christendom, there was in the marriage ceremony a vow that a woman took “to love, to honor and to obey”, with the understanding that if the husband asked her to do something contrary to the standards in the Bible, she could choose to obey God rather than man. However, today, that phrase is usually missing from marriage ceremonies. It is considered archaic and demeaning to the woman. I have had that phrase in my marriage ceremonies, because I believe there can be only one head of each household and that if a beast has two heads, it’s generally a monster. So, as the Brit Chadasha tells women to obey their husbands, I think it is righteous for me as a wife to do so.
But, more to Paul’s point, he is obviously not saying that a widow is exempt from keeping Torah overall, merely that she would be released from the Torah dictates pertaining to the relationship between husband and wife. This interpretation is confirmed as Paul goes on to define adultery in this context. A married woman with a living husband may not have sexual relations with another man. However, if her husband is dead, she is free to re-marry. In verse 4, Yeshua is being compared to a husband, designated as the collective “husband” of the people of Elohim. We must remember, though, that this spiritual “marriage” does not abrogate all of Torah, as Yeshua kept Torah perfectly and as it is said in Hebrews 13:8, He never changes.
Verses 5-8 now:
5 For while we were in the flesh, the passions of sin which are listed in Torah, were working in our members that we should bear fruits to death.
6 But now we are absolved from the penalty of Torah and are dead to that which held us in its grasp: that we might from now on serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.
7 What shall we say then? Is Torah sin? May it never be! For I had not learned about sin except by means of Torah: for I had not known lust, had not Torah said, “You shall not covet.” And by this commandment sin found opportunity and perfected in me all lust: for sin was dead without Torah.
If you have ever watched young children play, you have seen this in action. We are born with a sin nature, inherited from our forefather, Adam. Toddlers playing with a toy do not understand that commandment - - thou shalt not covet. They covet with abandon! This past holiday season, some of the great-grands brought their new toys to later family gatherings. Often they would dispute whose toy was whose!
Paul pointed out that sin (Satan, the devil, the enemy of the believer) doesn't usually flaunt or prance before our eyes to seduce us. Instead, Satan dresses sin up in goodness, so that we are fooled. A mouse gets caught in a mousetrap because all he sees is the cheese. Focusing exclusively on the morsel of good, he ignores the danger surrounding it. Reaching for the good and beautiful, he is trapped by the deadly.
Temptation is like that. Sin hides under the cloak of virtue. If sin were not appealing, we would not fall for it.
The original purpose of the Law was to show mankind exactly how God defined sin. Had the Law not been given, there would have been a question about whether something was/is sin, or not. It is important that we are honest about what the Word of God says. If the Bible calls something sin, so should we. The Law puts all that to rest in that it defines sin from God's perspective, which is the only one that matters.
A few years ago, for example, our college-age Bible study group was discussing the Ten Commandments. How many of us would have listed "Thou shalt not make unto me any graven image" as one of the "Big 10"? It was years before I ever understood that commandment. If, in your human life, you've never worshipped a manufactured object, you are probably similarly mystified. "What's the big deal?", you ask. But, remember, when Moses tarried on the mountain with God, and Aaron and the Hebrew nation thought he was dead, what was the first thing they did? They pooled all their gold so that it could be melted down into a likeness of a golden calf (Exodus 32). In other words, they created an image that represented their own fake, made-up, substitute god. The Great "I AM" knows the black hearts of man so well! And, “graven image” can be broadened to mean ANY person, place or thing, as well as any actions, which take the place of Elohim, in all His divine, majestic mystery, on the throne of our lives.
I find it curious that, in verse 7, Paul chose the prohibition about covetousness to use as his example here. This comes from Exodus 20:17 and Deuteronomy 5:21. Years ago, I started writing a book on this topic, but have never finished it. It’s an important topic, but vastly unpopular. I went to a writer’s conference to market the book a couple years ago and was told it would not sell. It is a topic that does not “tickle ears”. Paul here equates covetousness with a form of lust. Again, masquerading as something good or at least harmless, sin begins in the mind, before it ever manifests as actions. We need to “nip it in the bud” (or as my Trinidad friend, Lyn, says, “kick it in the butt”) before those covetous thoughts spring into sinful deeds.
Before we go on, what do you think is meant at the end of verse 6 by “the oldness of the letter”? AGR says this in his footnote number 65, on page 404 of the white version of TAW, and I quote, “The ‘oldness of the letter’ comes from locking it up in Pharisaic tradition rather than letting it live either as an extension to or a foreshadowing of the completeness and newness of life that comes from the true Torah of Mashiyach.” There is no doubt that the rabbinical “fences” the rabbis had built around the Torah in the first century CE were objectionable to Yeshua. He condemned the Pharisees for such man-made practices continually.
The question for us today and the challenge is to determine “how far was too far”. The 613 commandments of Torah can be difficult to interpret. Some of them simply no longer pertain because they are related to the Jewish modes of worship in the Temple. No Temple exists today, however, and so those commandments have been set aside for the moment. Additionally, there are several commandments which pertain to life in Israel. They do not apply to those who live outside the sacred land. But, what AGR is referring to is not that. He is referring to the additional rabbinical interpretations that extend beyond what a particular commandment actually says. The question for followers of Yeshua is this: should we follow merely what the commandment in the Torah actually says? Or, are we bound by the rulings of the rabbis? It is a matter of personal conscience, in my view. The Ruach HaKodesh is the righteous interpreter of Torah, as He is part of the Elohim, and it was Elohim who gave Torah to Moses. We should listen to Him, as we seek to walk out our own salvation with fear and trembling”, (Philippians 2:12) and give grace to other followers of Mashiach to do the same. You may disagree, and you have that right. But, that’s my belief and interpretation.
The last part of verse 8 fascinates me. “For sin was dead without Torah.” This reminds me of those cultures who have never seen or read a Bible, either Old or New Testaments. Paul told us back in Romans 1 that these “were without excuse” before God, that they will be judged based on their knowledge God has revealed to them. This verse seems to confirm that. God is righteous and just. He will not condemn someone for something they did not know to be sin. The Torah was the first time God has “laid it all out on the table.” Isn’t it good to know that we are not playing a “gotcha game”? We have been given the truth, and because of that we can be set from the penalties of sin and death.
On to verses 9 through 14 now - -
9 And I, without Torah, was alive formerly; but when the Commandment came, sin became alive, and I died;
10 And the Commandment of Life was found by me to be towards death.
11 For sin, by the opportunity that it found in me by means of the Commandment, seduced me and thereby killed me.
12 As a result, Torah is Set-apart; and the Commandment is Set-apart, and righteous, and good.
13 Did a good thing, therefore, become death to me? May it never be! But sin, that it might be exposed as sin, worked death in me by a good thing, so that sin might be condemned all the more by the Commandment.
14 For we know that the Torah is of the Spirit; but I am of the flesh and sold to sin.
So, let’s begin unpacking these verses by defining what the Commandment of Life would be, in this context. In researching this, most theologians peg this commandment as the commandment to keep the whole law, in order to earn salvation. However, the only One who was able to do this was the Lord Yeshua, who was not born with the human sin nature that would have come through His earthly father, of which He had none. The rest of us, born with the sin nature, have not a snowball’s chance, if you get my drift (pun intended). Being faced with that Commandment of Life, as it says in verse 9, sin came alive, and by my falling into it, I plunged further into spiritual death. We are entirely incapable of redeeming ourselves. That is why we needed Father Yahweh to send us a Redeemer!
Now, Paul goes on to say that this situation is not the “fault” of the Torah, of which the Commandment of Life pertains. This situation of our sinful natures is not due to any imperfections in the Torah, but the sanctified Torah merely point out the imperfections in us. In verse 14, we see that Torah is of the Spirit, meaning the Spirit of God, of course, Who cannot give anything unholy. We, on the other hand, have been “sold to sin.” I just mentioned our need for the one and only Redeemer. The word “redeem” means to “purchase back” something or someone who was formerly out-of-place, enslaved to another entity. To be redeemed is a kind of homecoming. One helpful analogy I found is that of likening sin to a computer virus. A computer virus gets in unwanted and warps the designs of the machine’s systems so that it no longer can function in the way it was created. This is often called “ransomware” because those responsible demand a ransom in order for the machine to be set free. The enemy of souls can be likened to the heartless, malevolent creators of ransomware. The Mashiach paid the ransom to set us free, and restore us to our original design, eventually.
It’s important that we ascribe blame where it is due, not diverting attention or making excuses because we don’t like the messenger. The phrase, “Don’t shoot the messenger leaps to mind here.” As Andrew says in footnote 70. “It’s not Torah’s fault that we break it, just as it was not for Yeshua to be abandoned by His Father when taking on the sins of the world. Father YAH knows the difference between the sins of His Son - - there aren’t any - - and the sins of the human race.” An interesting analogy. AGR has a whole teaching on why “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me” is a mistranslation. But, you can look on his website for that, as we won’t divert down that rabbit trail this morning.
Sin is described here in verse 11 as a seducer and a killer, which it certainly is. This reminds me of the story of Adam and Eve who, once they realized they were naked had their first realization of sin. Thus began a process of condemnation that just deepened and widened in the human race as time has marched on through the centuries.
The next four verses are some of the most precious in the Bible to me, because if Paul can express this level of self-abasement and frustration with his sinful inclinations, despite being a redeemed man, I can be delivered from the despair I often feel over my own inability to triumph over sins and walk perfectly holy before the Lord. Verses 15 through 19.
15 For that which I am doing, I do not know: and that which I desire, I do not do, but I do that which I hate.
16 And if I do what I do not desire, I am testifying that the Torah is good and beautiful.
17 But now I do not do that thing, rather sin still lives in me.
18 For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, good does not dwell, for to want the good is easy for me; but to do it, I am unable.
19 For I do not do the good which I want to do, but I do the evil that I do not want to do.
I don’t think there is anywhere else in the Pauline writings we see this level of angst, for lack of a better term. A couple of things here:
First, Paul encourages us, as I have already mentioned. But, secondly, he indicates to followers of Yeshua that we will always struggle with our flesh, as long as we live. It is a lie to tell people that if they come to Mashiach all their troubles and struggles will be over. No, in most cases, they are just beginning, because the enemy of souls then sees the new convert as a threat to his unholy kingdom and begins to do everything in his power to frustrate the journey. So, it is only right that we will struggle against our tendencies to sin.
Recently, I was talking with a friend about one of her relatives who has what is often referred to in the churchy lingo as his "besetting sin": that sin that so easily trips a person up. (We all have at least one. If you don't, let me help you out: your besetting sin is then "pride". Get a clue!) At any rate, this friend's relative does not define his sin as "sin". The world does not define it as sin, and the young man has adopted the world's perspective on his behavior, instead of God's. He has made a golden calf and is worshipping it. He has made God over into his own image. Unfortunately, there have been some who have taken the whole chapter of Romans 7 as a justification to dwell in sin, because, they rationalize, “What’s the use anyway? It’s hopeless to fight against it.” These have simply given up the fight.
Honestly, when we sin knowingly and deliberately ... (Christian or non-Christian) when we let that besetting, masquerading, seducing sin (or sins) get the best of us, we are doing the same thing. That should cause us great angst and grief. It did Paul. He described himself, in his Christian walk as "wretched" (KJV). Let’s read the remaining verses of the chapter now.
20 And if I do what I do not desire, then it is not I who does it, but the sin which lives in me.
21 I find therefore a Torah which agrees with my conscience which desires to do good, but evil is near to me, distracting me.
22 For I rejoice in the Torah of Elohim, in the inner man.
23 But my members see another law (of man), which wars against the law (Torah of Elohim) of my conscience and makes me captive to the law (of man) of the sin which exists in my members.
24 I am a miserable man! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
25 I thank Elohim by means of our Master Yeshua the Mashiyach. Now, therefore, in my conscience, I am a servant of the Torah of Elohim; but, in my flesh, I am a servant of the law (of man) of sin.
Paul seems to be saying here in verse 20 that we are not responsible for our sin, that it’s the sin’s fault we sin. But, that’s not accurate, of course. We do bear responsibility for our own choices, but our sin is not who we are in Christ Jesus, in what Paul calls our “inner man”. When we followers of Yeshua sin, it does not reflect who or whose we are. That’s the way it should be. But, if we find our “conscience” disagreeing with the truth of the Word of God, vs. 21, something is wrong. Our conscience can be a good barometer, but it is not infallible. The Word of God is changeless, matchless and ever-true. We must always side with it, regardless of our conscience. The more we practice sin, the less reliable our conscience will be. The Bible says that some have even had their consciences damaged so badly that it is though they had been seared with a hot iron, causing pretty much permanent damage. This comes from Paul’s letter to Timothy, 1 Timothy 4:2.
AGR points out that Paul rejoices in the Torah of Elohim. Why would this godly man, Paul, rejoice in something that he was abandoning or jettisoning or deeming irrelevant to the walk of the person who follows Mashiach? The answer is this: he is not abandoning, denigrating, or side-lining the Torah of Elohim, because it is integral to the believer’s walk and sanctification. The verb in this verse appears nowhere else in biblical Greek. The verb is sunedomai, which was a word often used to express sympathy with another person. Whereas AGR translates the word from the Aramaic as “rejoice”, the Greek word would be best translated as “joyfully concur” or “happily agree”. Paul was expressing his joyful agreement with the holy Torah of God.
The most succinct summation of this chapter is in verse 24, where Paul declares his own wretchedness, his own misery, as a man of God encased in a body of flesh so prone to sin. In fact, he refers to it as “this body of death”. There are some theologians who believe Paul is speaking of his life before his conversion. But, I don’t agree with that. He was speaking in the present tense in these verses. Further, this type of intense struggle does not typify how Paul described himself before encountering Yeshua on the Damascus road. Instead, he described himself as a very successful and zealous Pharisee who was doing everything he could to erase the perceived errant branch of Judaism known as The Way. There did not seem to be any ambivalence present. Here, in chapter 7, he speaks of the dual natures that the converted believer in Yeshua possesses. Elsewhere, he speaks of the unregenerate person as being thoroughly “dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). I still believe Paul’s struggle was real.
I could go on with other reasons to bolster my view on this. If you disagree, well, we will agree to still be brothers and sisters in the Lord, only that we disagree on this point.
As for our bodies being “bodies of death” ... Indeed, the body will die, at some point, we know not when, for each of us. However, I think it is interesting to note that we cannot be resurrected to our new, glorified bodies unless this “tent” of flesh is resurrected with us. As Paul put it in 1 Corinthians 15:53 and following, “this corruption must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality.” So, though it will die, it is necessary for resurrection and glorification, where the flesh will be transformed into a form that is not longer subject to sin. What a glorious day THAT will be!
So, what should be our response as we end this chapter? It would be easy to feel very defeated and condemned, would it not? In fact, if we take a tiny sneak peek ahead to Romans 8, Paul acknowledges that tendency in verse 1. As previously stated, Romans 8 is the antidote to Romans 7.
Here are some more appropriate responses:
Gratitude - - In verse 25a, Paul thanks God for our Master Yeshua, the Messiah, who provided the rescue! “Who shall rescue me...?”, Paul asked. And, then he answered his own question. Rescue is found in the finished work of our Messiah, Yeshua.
Humility - - the antithesis of pride, the deadliest sin - - once we realize that personal merit plays no part in our individual conversion stories, we should all be humble before God, our Father, who worked His amazing will and work to do all that is needed for our justification and sanctification, through the Mashiach and His Holy Spirit. Remember that the Roman church was a mixed group of Jews and Gentiles, all of whom came to a saving knowledge of Yeshua the same way - - through faith. So, a stratified, cliquish congregation, in which prideful one-upmanship was seen, was extremely abhorrent a thought or practice. Such destroys the unity of the Body, of the Bride, and is a tool of the devil. May we all practice humility, exercising it as a muscle, as we do our faith.
Focus - - our response must be to keep our focus on our magnificent God, the unified echad, who deserves all the praise and all the glory for the great things He has done for us. His forgiveness is a response to our sincere repentance. His forgiveness will always be there for us when we sincerely repent of our sins.
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