Faith for Faith

Continued from previous post: “Therefore, Ezekiel declares, as the apostle Paul declares, that baptism results in the obedience of God’s people. How? Because God places in his people a new heart and a new spirit, and he puts his Spirit in us so that we will ‘walk in [his] statutes and be careful to obey [his] rules.’ Therefore, man’s inability to fulfill the obedience of faith is remedied by God’s ability, for it is God who works in his people to bring them to obedience through Jesus Christ. The question that remains then is, ‘How is this accomplished?’”

This obedience which God accomplishes in his people comes about first through the emancipation from sin that baptism affords. Paul addresses this truth thoroughly in the sixth chapter of his Epistle to the Romans. However, before we look at that text, I would like to explain how the apostle structures his argument. Yes, baptism is the apostle’s topic in Romans 6-8:17, however he does not come at the topic directly as though he were writing an essay on baptism, but he does it in response to certain objectionable questions, each question raised by a prior claim of his. The reason he structures his discourse in this way, I believe, is because he is preparing the church for the false teachers who will inevitably spring up among them proclaiming destructive heresies. He expresses this concern at the end of his epistle, writing, “I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them” (Rm. 16:17). Therefore, the apostle structures his discourse on baptism in such a way that the church will have a defense against those who bring in a false gospel.

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Posted by D. Matthew Brown under Theology | No Comments »

For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings (1Cor. 9:19-23).

It can be said of Christian history that one generation’s cultural adaptation is the following generation’s tradition-entrapped religion. It was true of the Jews who were in previous generations faithful to Yahweh in their cultural adaptation, but who were in a subsequent generation in Christ’s day so ensnared by the cultural adaptation of previous generations that they were unable to recognize Yahweh incarnate and crucified him. And the same it is true of American Christianity where previous generations adapted to the culture of their time, and subsequent generations were then ensnared by the cultural adaptations of the previous generation.

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Posted by D. Matthew Brown under Just a Thought | 2 Comments »

It is settled. The first step on our journey to unindebtedness is complete, namely we, with the help of relatives, have closed on a piece of property for a great price just a couple miles from where our church gathers, our family lives, and closer to both our places of employment. God is indeed gracious and good. And thus it has been proven that land can be purchased through Craigslist.:)

The seemingly ironic part of this is that we are actually more in debt now than we were before. Therefore the next step is to figure out how we are going to sell our home in Raleigh so that we can free up our credit to settle onto our newly acquired property. And this step is possibly more complicated than the first, though that did not seem to be the case before we closed on the land.

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Posted by D. Matthew Brown under Unindebtedness Journal | No Comments »

The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s (Rm. 14:6-8).

In Christian practice there exists two categories–that which is doctrine and that which is opinion. And though these two categories exist and have existed since the creation and more so since Christ fulfilled the ceremonial and civil requirements of the Law, their ends have ever been the same, namely to glorify God. Therefore whether one submits to doctrine or whether one submits to a certain opinion, it is to be done for the sake of the glory of God alone lest that which is not sin become sin.

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Posted by D. Matthew Brown under Fridy Night Bible Study | No Comments »

Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law (Rm. 13:8).

While the interpretations of the apostle’s command to the church at Rome, “Owe no one anything, except to love one another,” are many, his purpose can be surmised in the verses that follow his exhortation. And though it is wise not to owe any man anything at all, e.g. lent money, etc., and to pursue such lack of indebtedness is a godly pursuit, that particular debt is not what the apostle is speaking about chiefly, though it cannot be discounted totally.

The debt about which the apostle is speaking particularly is the debt of sin or transgression. For the apostle’s command, “Owe no one anything,” is fulfilled by the command, “Love one another.” This is the same debt that Christ speaks about in his model prayer where he says, “Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Mt. 6:12). The idea is the same as that which the apostle presented in the previous section of his discourse, namely that we as Christians have an obligation to our fellow men to obey the law, be it God’s law or a government’s law, and we are to pay our debts according to the law, be it taxes or honor (cf. Rm. 13:7). Therefore, the Christian is a debtor in this life to the laws under which he finds himself.

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Posted by D. Matthew Brown under Fridy Night Bible Study | 1 Comment »

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do, by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit (Rm. 8:1-4).

In some ways, the Roman Road basis of evangelism has been both a blessing and curse to American Christianity. For on the one hand, the Romans Road has taken verses that are fundamental to the Faith and has made them well known to many, and yet, on the other hand, it has taken those same verses and ripped them from their contexts and has in the process watered down the Gospel.

For while it is indeed true that, “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus” (v. 6:23), the verse taken from its context removes the very foundation of eternal life, namely regeneration and sanctification. For v. 6:23 is the apex of the apostle’s chain of salvific events that begins with identification with Christ in his crucifixion by baptism (v. 6:2), the freedom afforded by Christ’s death from the body of sin (v. 6:6; cf. v. 7:23) and thus from slavery to sin (v. 6:6; cf. v. 7:14, 25), and ends with the Christian’s being brought into slavery to obedience, to righteousness, and to sanctification, and sanctification’s end–eternal life (v. 6:16, 18, 19, 22). For the gift of God indeed is eternal life in Christ Jesus, however eternal life never comes apart from obedience, righteousness, and sanctification.

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Posted by D. Matthew Brown under Theology | No Comments »

It is with great humility and a bit of regret that we leave the eighth chapter of the letter to the Romans. We leave it humbly knowing that it is considered by many to be the greatest chapter of the greatest letter ever written and knowing also that it has been a wellspring of life and comfort to the saints of God for centuries. We also leave it with a bit of regret knowing that the treasures of this chapter are boundless (for its Author is boundless) and that the shortness of our stint in mining its treasures is sure to have left many unturned. But before we progress and move onto the ninth chapter, I would like to take some time to review what we have studied in the eighth.

Complete Freedom in Christ
The contrast between the end of Romans seven and the beginning of Romans eight is quite jolting literarily and theologically. Chapter seven ends with a narrative of a desperate man—a man who characterizes himself as a man of the flesh, a slave of sin, a slave to the law, and a condemned man in need of deliverance. In the context of Romans 6:1-7:6 (the didactic section that precedes the narrative), we know clearly that this man’s character is the polar opposite of the one who is in Christ. We know that the Apostle has said in the preceding context that those who have been crucified with Christ have had their body of sin brought to nothing so that they would no longer be slaves of sin. We know also that those who are in Christ have been freed from the law, for the Apostle writes, “You are not under law but under grace.” And we know from our study in Romans eight that, “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”

Though this man is utterly without Christ, we somehow find ourselves identifying with him. We read his narrative and look at our own lives before Christ, and we sympathize with his condition. We are drawn into his story and are drawn into his desperate condition, and we vicariously experience his hopelessness through it. And we, at the apex of his desperation, feel our hearts plummet with his when he cries out, “Who will deliver me from this body of death!” And we, at the end of the chapter, find ourselves shackled beside the narrator—enslaved to the law and to sin and without hope for deliverance.

And then through the blinding fog of desperation, Romans eight bursts forth like the spotlight of a lighthouse: “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus! For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death!” All the feelings of condemnation and inadequacy in law keeping that we experienced through the speaker of the narrative are brought to nothing in the light of Christ.

The Apostle writes:

For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit (Romans 8:3, 4).

The reason for the great contrast between chapters seven and eight becomes most clear in these verses, namely “God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do.” Without Christ and the imputation of his righteousness to our account, our stories would be exactly like the narrator’s of Romans seven. We would find in ourselves the desire to keep the law so that we might live on the one hand, but we would find our absolute inability to keep the law on the other. How desperate and impotent we are apart from Christ!

But Christ did not merely impute his righteousness to us so that we might live after this life, but he has freed us through the Spirit from the bondage of sin and death so that we might live like the Apostle commands in vv. 6:1-7:6. On this, the Apostle elaborates further in his contrast between living in the flesh and living in the Spirit in the following verses, which we will look at in depth next time.

The great point of the narrative of Romans seven and the introduction of Romans eight is to demonstrate our inability against Christ’s ability. Apart from Christ, we are powerless against sin and our flesh. In our natural state, we might by some grace find in ourselves the desire to keep the law so that we might attain the life that the law promises, but apart from Christ we would continually practice evil all the same. For this reason, we, like the narrator in chapter seven, need an Emancipator, a Law Keeper, and a Redeemer. Thus the great contrast between these sections is designed by the Apostle to bring our hearts to the deepest depth of desperation and then exhilarate them with the power and truth that is in Christ so that our weaks hearts might feel a fraction of the joy that this great truth is due. Rejoice today that Christ has fulfilled the law on our behalf, and give to him the praise that he is due!

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