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.

The first question that is raised in objection to the apostle’s teaching is found in v. 6:1: “What then, are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?” This question is founded upon the previous statement of the apostle in v. 5:20, viz. “Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.” The apostle’s answer to this objection is an emphatic, “No!” He writes, “By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” His answer to the objection brings in a new facet of the discussion. In the previous section of the discourse, the apostle goes to great lengths to highlight the superiority of the work of Christ over the work of Adam, yet he does not demonstrate how that effects those who have been taken out from under the headship of Adam and placed under the headship of Christ. The apostle, however, introduces the concept in v. 5:21, viz. “So that as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord,” however he does not expound on how this reign of righteousness occurs in the life of a subject of Christ until this point. Thus, from his response to the objection, we find that this reign of righteousness first happens through Christ’s subject’s death to sin.

How did this death to sin occur? The apostle writes, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life (v. 6:3, 4). Though the apostle does not deal with the cause for our death to sin directly in these verses, he intimates its cause through baptism’s end, namely, so that “we might walk in newness of life.” We who have been baptized into Christ, that is, we who have in some mystical and spiritual way been identified in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, have been identified for the purpose of our “walking in newness of life.” In other words, we who were formerly walking in the oldness of death under the headship of Adam have been taken out from under Adam and identified with Christ so that that which was old and leading to death might be made new so that we would no longer live as we once lived.

To demonstrate how this newness of life comes about in the life of those who have been placed under Christ, the apostle uses a literary structure that is common in his writings where he takes two concepts and structures them in such a way that each concept comments upon the other. This structure is an A B B A structure, where concept A brackets and comments upon concept B and vice versa (cf. Rm. 2:7-10; 10:9, 10). The structure is thus:

A. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his (v. 6:5).

B. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin (v. 6:6).

B. For one who has died has been set free from sin (v. 6:7).

A. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him (v. 6:8).

Concept A is that dying with Christ guarantees living with Christ in eternity. This living with Christ is the hope of our salvation, for the apostle writes later, “For in this hope we were saved” (v. 8:24). Concept B is that our dying with Christ has accomplished that which we could not accomplish, namely that Christ’s death redeems us from our slavery to sin under the headship of Adam. Therefore, our union with Christ in his death freed us from the bondage of sin, for our union with him, as the apostle writes, “Crucified our old man with Christ in order that the body of sin would be eradicated.”

The structure of the text is thus, because the hope that with have of living with Christ is contingent upon our emancipation from sin’s bondage. We cannot live with Christ apart from freedom from sin, for no one will see God unless he be righteous and do the works of righteousness. For God will, as the apostle writes earlier, “Render to each one according to his works” (v. 2:6).

Now it needs to be noted that the apostle does not write, “He will render to each one by his works,” but that, “He will render to each one according to his works. The difference is that God does not repay salvation based upon the merits of good works, but that he gives salvation in accordance to the works that he produces in those who are in him. This notion is seen everywhere in Scripture and perhaps most clearly in another epistle of the apostle Paul, where he writes, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,” Why? “Because it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure (Ph. 2:12, 13). Therefore, God is just to render to men according to their works, because they do not work for God in their natural and foul state, but they work for God in their state under Christ.

It is for this reason that the apostle ends the previous section, writing, “Grace might also reign through righteousness leading to eternal life” (v. 5:21). For God in his divine ordinance, has not chosen to save men by merely granting to them life in eternity, but he saves men in such a way that they become righteous now, and the fruits of that righteousness lead to life everlasting.

Next: On Baptism, IV. Let Not Sin Reign in Your Mortal Bodies

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.

It is a simple reality to which we assign the title, “tradition,” and it is merely the extrabiblical practices that might have once served a particular culture well but remained in practiced Christianity even when the culture changed. In the Baptist church (the church with which I am most familiar), it is seen in such things as church buildings with Grecian columns and steeples, in the wearing of suits, and in the singing of hymns accompanied by organs. And many of these things are not wrong in and of themselves, but when these things are given such weight that hinder the work of the Gospel in a new culture, they become idols and snares.

In the South particularly, these traditions are becoming more and more hindrances to the Gospel as a influx of different cultures are injected into what is known to many as the Bible Belt. Because of increased prosperity in the South and declining prosperity elsewhere in the country, people are moving to the South in droves. And because of this influx of new people and culture, many who grew up here are in culture shock, and they who are in the churches are holding onto their “old time religion” with a death grip. For rather than seeking to recognize the drastic changes in culture and adapting the practices of the church accordingly so as to “redeem” the new culture, they are instead fighting for what they call Christianity and are spurning all those who do not share their same background.

And while there has been an overreaction to culture and thus a loss of the Gospel by many who claim to be Christians in what is being called the Emerging church, most of the things over which the church in the South will not budge are things that are not Christianity but tradition. These traditions can be music style, meeting locations and times, food and drink, use of language, etc.–all things to which the Gospel gives freedom so that we might become all things to all people and thereby win some in the new culture by the Gospel. It is not a practice of making the church appealing to the culture, but it is a practice of removing all things that might be a barrier to the culture for the sake of the Gospel. For the Gospel will most surely be an offense to the culture, but it should be the church’s only offense.

Likewise, we in the American church need to rid ourselves of the mindset that Christianity has shaped Western culture, when in reality Western culture has had more of an effect on shaping our traditions which we regard as Christianity. The Great Commission is not about the spreading of Western culture and Capitalism, but it about the Redemption of souls from all nations, tongues, and cultures. It is about the Gospel, and it is not accomplished by erecting Western-style church buildings in India. We are not as superior a culture as we esteem ourselves to be, and we need to cast aside our traditions so that we might preach an untainted Gospel to our culture and to the nations. Just a thought.

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.

We were treated to dinner last night by Haley’s parents to celebrate the closing on the land, and we discussed at length what would be our next step. The two options we spoke of then were either, one, sell the house while we still lived in it, trying to keep it clean and free from the smell of dogs (which is nigh onto impossible), or, two, to figure out how to get the funds to buy a trailer and move it to the land and then move there ourselves and sell our house (which also is nigh onto impossible). And so it seemed that we were, as it were, up the creek without a paddle.

Last night laying in bed, it occurred to me that there may be an option that is a hybrid of the two, namely that we, with the hospitality of our relatives, might move out of our house ourselves, taking everything out but our furniture, and move in temporarily with a relative while we sell our house. Doing this, we could keep our home clean while we try to sell it, rid it of its doggy smell, and do so without having to worry about moving our furniture immediately. And by doing so, we would not take up extra living expenses, and we could potentially get our house up on the market quickly and, by God’s grace, be ridden of that burden quickly.

I believe this is the option that we may go with, and you could pray for wisdom for us as we do this. It may not be the way we go, but it seems like the best option at this point. And as such, we may begin setting things into motion immediately, which would help get us more quickly onto our path to unindebtedness. Thank you for your continued prayers.

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.

For sin has never been rooted in particular practices, but it always has been rooted in a rebellious and self-glorifying heart. For when one sins, it is from the heart that he sins, for at that moment his heart’s desire is not to glorify God, but it is to please himself. Thus if anything is to be pleasing to God, it must be done from heart that seeks to honor him alone.

For this reason, the apostle writes elsewhere, “So, whether eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1Cor. 10:31). For the practice is not the end of itself, nor is its propagation, but the glory of God is to be its only end. So if one eats all foods, he is to do it to the glory of God; if he abstains from particular foods, he is to do it to the glory of God; if he drinks wine, he is to do it to the glory of God; if he abstains from wine, he is to do it to the glory of God. For around such things there is no law, for Christ has fulfilled the law concerning such things and has freed us from it, “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. 8:4).

The reason being, as the apostle says later in the chapter, “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rm. 14:17). In other words, these things over which we quarrel the most have no correlation with the kingdom of God. For God is not concerned about the practices of our particular cultures or our traditions per se, but he is concerned about righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

The apostle Peter writes, “[By] his divine power [God] has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence” (2Pet. 1:3). What Peter is conveying is that God has fully given to us all things to be godly in his sight and to glorify him through the knowledge of God in Christ. This knowledge has been made known to us in the person of Jesus Christ and in his Word which he has spoken forth from before the foundation of the world. For this reason, we are to fully understand that which he has given to us, viz. his Scriptures, and they alone are sufficient for our godliness. All other matters that the Scriptures do not address or to which they explicitly give freedom–all these do not pertain to life and godliness in and of themselves, but they do so in the heart of him who practices them. Therefore, in these things, one’s heart must be inclined to glorify Christ alone, and he must practice all things to that end.

For this reason, the Christian must do as the Lord commanded Joshua, “Meditate on [the law] day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it (Jsh. 1:8),” so that he might do as David did, viz. “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you” (Ps. 119:11). For the Christian’s aim must be to glorify God by “the renewal of [his] mind” (Rm. 12:2) by the Word of God and to conform himself to the instructions therein for God’s glory, and so that he might distinguish what is lawful requirement and what is opinion. And it is for this end that apostle instructs the stronger in the faith to suffer the opinions of the weak, for they in their infancy have yet to meditate upon the word of the Lord and to be transformed by it. Therefore, rather than casting those out for their ignorance and their convictions based upon culture and tradition, we are to accept them so that they too might have a chance to grow in godliness by being instructed from the Word of God.

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.

But one will object, “We are not under law but under grace.” And this is indeed true. And the apostle does exhort, “Owe no one anything, except love.” However, in God’s ordinance, the debt of love is not disjoined from the law, but it fulfills the law. For the apostle writes:

For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

For the salvation that Christ brings is not freedom from the commands of law so that we might not fulfill the law, but it is to bring us under new ownership, as apostle intimates earlier in his letter, “You also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from dead, in order that we may fruit for God” (Rm. 7:4). Our death to the law through Christ is not so that we can cast aside the law, but so that our ownership might change. For our death to the law has taken us who were once under ownership of sin and death and has placed us under the ownership of Christ so 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. 8:4). For, the apostle writes, “While we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now, we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code” (Rm. 7:5, 6). For the law has not changed, nor has its righteous requirement, but the means by which we fulfill it has changed from our former fleshly inability to our new Spiritual ability (cf. 7:14-25; 8:1-8).

Therefore, the law is to be fulfilled, but it is not to be fulfilled by negation, e.g. “You shall not commit adultery; you shall not murder, etc.” but by the positive fulfillment of “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” For, as the apostle writes, “Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”

For this reason, we who are of the Spirit are to pay the debt of love to our neighbor, and, by paying that debt of love, fulfill the righteous requirement of the law. For if we love our neighbor as we love ourselves, we will do no wrong to our neighbor. And we shall do this by the power of the indwelling Spirit alone.

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.

For the requirement of God for salvation has never changed–one must be obedient and righteous (cf. 1Pet. 1:13-16). And the great hindrance that exists is not the law (as Romans 7 expounds upon thoroughly), but it man’s inability to be righteous while a slave to sin and fleshly (v. 7:14, 18, 25). The fleshly speaker of Romans 7 puts it this way, “I have the desire to do what is right [so that I might have life (cf. 7:10)], but not the ability to carry it out” (v. 7:18; cf. 8:7). For even the Gentile who does not have the written code knows that he must be obedient and righteous to obtain life, and he will stand condemned for his rebellion against the law written upon his heart (cf. 2:12, 14-16). Therefore, for any man to obtain to eternal life, he must be set free from his natural slavery to sin and death, for apart from that freedom he will remain condemned in his body of death (cf. 6:6; 7:24).

Thus we find Romans 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Why? Because a prayer was uttered? Because a sacrament was taken? Because a gift was accepted? No. Because, “The law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death” (v. 8:2). The very basis of our condemnation’s removal is our freedom from our past slavemasters who kept us from obedience to God (cf. 7:18). How was this accomplished? “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” (v. 8:3). God did it. God accomplished it. God fulfilled the righteous requirement of the law by sending his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh–the same flesh that was powerless to fulfill the righteous requirement of the law (cf. vv. 7:14-25)–and Christ did it, fully and perfectly. For what end? So that we could continue in sin that grace might abound? By no means! So that “the righteous requirement of the law might fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (cf. 8:4).

Therefore, the end of the Gospel is that we who could not fulfill the righteous requirement of the law can now fulfill it through the emancipating work of Christ Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit. For Christ has taken those who were dead and has made them alive (v. 6:13), and has made them a new creature so that they who were once unable to do what they desired to do so that they might live (cf. v. 7:18), can now do it. There is now no inability for those who are in Christ. There is no slavery (v. 8:2), there is no death, there is no body of sin that controls our lives (cf. 6:6, 7; 7:21), there is only the Spirit of life by whose power we put to death the deeds of the body (v. 8:13) and inherit eternal life. That is the Gospel, and that is what God has done.

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!