The Good News is that God has not left us to ourselves. For Paul declares in Romans 5 that that same Offspring that preserved the life and the holiness of ancient Israel has come into the world as the Second Adam–the second head of the human race–and where the first Adam failed, the Second Adam, Jesus Christ, succeeded. Where the first Adam brought judgment into the world, the Second Adam–Jesus Christ brought justification into the world. Where the first Adam brought the reign of death, the Second Adam–Jesus Christ brought the reign of righteousness unto eternal life. Where the first Adam was disobedient, the Second Adam–Jesus Christ was obedient. Where the first Adam brought the condemnation of the law, the Second Adam–Jesus Christ brought the abundance of grace.

Therefore, the question becomes not, “What work must I do, or how shall I exercise my will,” but, “How am I, a son of Adam, to be taken out from Adam’s headship and placed under the headship of Jesus Christ?” “How am I, a disobedient and faithless person, to be placed under the One who fulfilled the obedience of faith?”

And thus we come to the third option of dealing with Paul’s “obedience of faith,” and that option is baptism. “What business does water have to do with obedience?” you might ask. The apostle Paul gives perhaps the most thorough explanation of this truth in Romans 6-8:17, however, before we look at that text, it would be profitable to look at Scripture outside of the apostle Paul. Concerning this truth, the apostle Peter writes:

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him (1Pt. 3:18-22).

The apostle intimates that baptism in its essence is not the removal of dirt from the body, i.e. by water, but it is an appeal to God for good conscience. How does one have a good conscience? By doing as he ought to do–by obeying the commands of God. We know this is the case, for in the paragraph preceding this text, the apostle writes, “Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed … having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame” (1Pt. 3:13, 14, 16). Therefore, baptism by God results in a good conscience which comes about by obedience.

And lest we think that baptism is a post-Christ ordinance, the prophet Ezekiel testifies about this reality and its significance in the New Covenant:

I will take you from the nations (or Gentiles, cf. Is. 60) and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God (Ez. 36:24-28).

Therefore, the prophet declares, as the apostle 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?”

Next: On Baptism, III. Redemption from the Slavery of Sin

The sad irony for most of us who call ourselves Baptists is that we bear baptism in our denominational title, yet we by and large have no clue what baptism is. In this way, we are much like the Circumcision party of whom the apostle Paul writes in Galatians 5 in that we, like them, bear the symbol of God’s covenant in our title, and, we, like them, understand the symbol of the covenant with great precision, and yet we do not understand the reality behind the symbol. We, like the Circumcision party, are zealously meticulous about practicing the symbol correctly, giving lectures and preaching sermons on why baptism by immersion is the only acceptable mode of baptism, all the while neglecting to teach upon the reality of baptism. We will harp upon the mode of the symbol to such detail so as to say that a baptizer cannot hold the nose of the one being baptized because dead people do not hold their noses, yet we neglect to teach that baptism is matter of the heart performed by the Spirit of God not by the letter of the law.

“What is the big deal? Why does this zealotry upon the proper mode of baptism have any weight upon the health of the church?” The reason that this emphasis upon the proper mode of baptism has been a burden upon the church is that it more often than not draws attention from the teaching of the reality that is baptism. And by focusing upon the symbol and neglecting the reality, we who call ourselves Baptists have neglected the proper teaching of the Gospel. For if what the apostle Peter writes is true, namely that “Baptism saves you” (1Pt. 3:21), and salvation comes through the Gospel alone, then baptism is the Gospel. Therefore, our proper understanding of baptism is essential to our proper understanding of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

However, before I address the proper understanding of baptism and the Gospel, I need to first address why we need baptism and the Gospel that accords with baptism. In his Epistle to the Romans, the apostle Paul bookends his letter by testifying that he has two charges as an apostle: to preach the Gospel and to bring about what he calls the “obedience of faith” in those to whom he preaches (Rm. 1:1, 5; 16:25, 26). As we read further into the Epistle, we find that these two charges given to the apostle–to preach the Gospel and to bring about the obedience of faith–are not two separate charges, but they are in fact the same charge. In other words, the Gospel is the obedience of faith. For we find in the Epistle that no one will see God and have life apart from the Gospel, and no will see God and have life apart from the obedience of faith. For the apostle writes, “He will render to each one according to his works. To those who by patience in well doing seek glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury” (Rm. 2:6-8). Therefore, obedience is necessary for salvation and eternal life, and disobedience leads to damnation. Therefore, since obedience to the law of God saves a soul, then obedience therefore has some part in the Gospel.

However, despite the clear declaration that “It is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified” (Rm. 2:13), the apostle seems on the surface to contradict himself later in the letter by writing that salvation comes from faith alone apart from works of the law. He writes, “For the Promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. For if it is the adherents (obeyers) of the law who are to the be the heirs, faith is null and the Promise is void” (Rm. 4:14). Thus he writes later, “Therefore, we have been justified by faith” (Rm. 5:1), seemingly contradicting what he had written earlier, namely, “The doers (obeyers) of the law will be justified” (Rm. 2:13). So then which is it? Are we justified by faith, or are we justified by obedience?

The answer to the question is not an easy one, and it has been typically answered in one of three ways. Two of the ways are false ways and are prevalent in the church even now, and one is true and not as prevalent. Both false ways distort the language of the Gospel, and both are, because of this, a false gospel. The first of the two false ways to deal with what the apostle calls the obedience of faith is the emphasis of obedience to the neglect of faith. This is what we would call a works-based Christianity. And though it is found across denominational lines, the chief example of this way is Roman Catholicism. These who hold to such a works-based gospel focus upon the deeds of men and neglect the righteousness that comes by faith, and as such, they must distort the language of the Gospel to change the Christian religion from a heart and Spirit-based religion to one that is deeds based. Thus when you speak to many Roman Catholics, you will hear them speak of charity instead of love, of penance instead of repentance, of service instead of worship, and of sacrament instead of grace–all these manipulations highlighting their distortion of the Gospel.

The second is its opposite, and it likewise distorts the Gospel and its language. It is the response the apostle’s declarations that emphasizes faith to the neglect of obedience, and it is prevalent in many churches who call themselves Evangelical. This way emphasizes the initial will and response to its gospel call, and neglects the fruits of true faith, which is obedience unto holiness and eternal life. Thus those who hold to such distort the language of the Gospel by using phrases such as “Accept Jesus as your personal Savior” instead of “Believe and repent,” “Once saved, always saved” instead of the doctrine of the “Perseverance of the Saints,” and, perhaps the worst of all, “You have accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior, will you not accept him as your Lord?”

And though both distort the language of the Gospel so as to make it what it is not, both have a much more fundamental problem, namely they both rest upon the work of men. This is such a problem because both presume that men by their nature are able in their present state to perform in such a way so as to bring themselves into God’s favor. The problem with such a presumption is that the apostle Paul declares in Romans 5 that all men are sons of Adam, and as his sons, have him as their head and are therefore children of disobedience and slaves of sin and unrighteousness. Thus the apostle says of men in Adam:

None is righteous, no not one;
No one understands, no one seeks for God;
All have turned aside, together they have become worthless;
No one does good, not even one;
Their throat is an open grave;
…They use their tongues to deceive;
…The venom of asps is under their lips;
Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness;
Their feet are swift to shed blood;
In their paths are ruin and misery;
…And the way of peace they have not known;
…There is no fear of God before their eyes (Rm. 3:10-18).

For this reason, no man can work his way to God, for, “No one does good, not even one,” and no one can will his way to God, for, “No one understands, no one seeks for God.” It is for this reason that the apostle writes later in the Epistle, “So then, [salvation] depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy” (v. 9:16), and why he quotes the prophet Isaiah later in that chapter same concerning Israel, “If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring, we would have been like Sodom, and become like Gomorrah” (v. 9:29).

Next: On Baptism: II. The Remedy to Man’s Inability

The great purpose of the apostle in writing his letter is this: “To bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of [Christ's] name among all the nations” (Rm. 1:5). We know this is the great purpose of the apostle for he ends his letter writing:

Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith–to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen (vv. 16:25-27).

Additionally, the apostle commends the church at Rome at the letter’s beginning, writing, “I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world (v. 1:8), and he commends the church at the end, writing, “For your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you (v. 16:19). Therefore the letter’s purpose and the basis of his commendation are one, namely the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that is fulfilled by faith and obedience.

If this is indeed the purpose of the apostle, how then does he flesh out this purpose? He does so in vv. 1:16-8:17 by addressing the greatest issue that faces the world and the church, namely righteousness and its lack, and how faith and obedience fulfill righteousness. Regarding faith’s relationship to righteousness, the apostle declares that it is through faith that we are counted as righteous. He writes:

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through the faith of Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are [made righteous] by his grace as gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as propitiation by his blood to be received by faith (vv. 3:21-25).

Therefore, it is by faith that we are justified (i.e. made righteous) in the sight of God.

Also, faith is not initiation into righteousness alone, but it is the manner by which those who have been made righteous live. For the apostle writes earlier, “For in [the Gospel] the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith (see v. 3:22), as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith” (v. 1:17). Therefore, faith is both the means by which the saints of God are made righteous and the manner by which the righteous saints of God live until that Day when faith yields to Sight.

While it is by faith that we are counted righteous before God (cf. v. 4:5), it is through obedience that we become righteous. After introducing the doctrine of baptism and the freedom from sin it affords, the apostle writes:

Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin which leads to death or of obedience which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have now become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness” (vv. 6:16-18).

Also concerning this baptism unto obedience, God in Ezekiel declares:

I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God (Ez. 36:24-28).

Therefore, because of baptism, obedience is a necessary component of salvation, for obedience leads to righteousness, and righteousness leads to sanctification, and sanctification leads to eternal life (cf. 6:16-23).

Some will be quick to object: “Is this not justification by works?” It is in a way, for salvation comes both through faith and obedience. What distinguishes a saint’s justification by works from the reprobate’s attempt to justify himself by works is the Spirit of God. For opposed to fleshly attempts to keep the law so as to attain life (cf. vv. 7:7-25), those in whom the Spirit of God dwells keep the law by the Spirit of God alone. For it is the Spirit alone who gives the saint a new heart by circumcising it (cf. v. 2:29), and it is the Spirit alone who compels men to obedience. Both faith and obedience are the work of God, as the apostle writes elsewhere:

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them (Eph. 2:8-10).

Therefore, since it is God who opens eyes to his glory so as to produce faith, and it is God who makes men his slaves and causes them to obey him (cf. v. 6:22; Ez. 36:27), all grounds for boasting in faith and works is removed. For salvation “depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy” (v. 9:16).

For this reason, the apostle contrasts the fleshly inability of keeping the law with the Spirit’s ability in Romans 8. He writes:

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 (vv. 8:1-4).

Therefore, the Gospel is about both faith and obedience, and it is faith and obedience that comes from God alone. For as James writes, “Faith without works is dead” (Jm. 2:17), and as Christ declares, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (Jn. 14:15).

But what is the purpose behind the apostle’s desire “to bring about the obedience of faith among all the nations”? As we have already seen, faith and obedience are necessary for righteousness. Therefore we should ask, “Why righteousness?” As the apostle writes later in the letter in his discourse concerning divisions, “The kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (v. 14:17). Paul, therefore, is concerned about the Kingdom. For in encouraging the Gentiles (i.e. the nations) to be righteous (cf. vv. 1:16-8:18) and to seek peace (cf. vv. 12:1-15:7), he is encouraging the church at Rome to live as citizens of the Kingdom of God which is comprised of the nations and whose overseers are peace and whose taskmasters are righteousness (cf. Is. 60:17). Therefore the epistle to the Romans is the prayer, “Thy Kingdom come; thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,” and the exhortation to the church to be the Light of the Kingdom to the world.

And because of this turmoil that captivates our souls when we fall into sin and by it turn from our God, we long to jump up quickly and turn back onto the path of obedience. However, despite our desire, the path back to obedience is not always as quick and easy as we would like it to be. And I have found this to be the case in my life, where I have walked the path of obedience and then, seemingly out of nowhere, fell into temptation and then found that the obedience that I desired to have was even more difficult than it was prior to my fall.

The reason for this reality, I believe, is because of the nature of our lives in this age. For whether we would acknowledge it or not, we are at war every moment of our lives, and our obedience unto righteousness is the weapon by which we stave off the enemy. And when we fall into temptation and sin, we are wounded and knocked to the ground by our Adversary, and, because of our wounded state, we must be healed before we can rise and walk upon the path of obedience again. And since we are wounded and find ourselves in enemy territory, the darts of the Adversary are more able to strike us so as to make us fall again. Therefore it is in these times that we must hunger and thirst for righteousness all the more, for it is in these times that righteousness seems so far away and beyond our grasp.

How then are we to fight our way back onto the path of righteousness? One way not to do it is to forget the Gospel and thereby be overcome by guilt. For I believe that such guilt is one of the devices of the Adversary that he uses to attempt to overcome the saints of God. For it is one thing to fall into sin and to be convicted by that sin so that we run to Christ and seek for his aid and forgiveness, but it is another thing entirely to fall into sin and to allow our guilt to so overcome our souls that we are ashamed to run to Christ. The apostle John puts it this way:

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1Jn. 1:8, 9).

What the apostle is intimating is that it is foolish and contrary to God’s revelation to think that we will never fall into sin as believers, however, when we do fall into sin, we have an Mediator in our Lord Jesus Christ who will cleanse us from our present sins just as he cleansed us of our past sins.

However, we must run to Jesus. We cannot forgot the Gospel that first brought us to Christ now that we have come to Christ. For the Gospel is not something that we need at the beginning of our walk with Christ and then from that point we are on our own, but we need the Gospel every day of our lives. That is why the apostle Paul in his letter to the saints at Rome wrote, “I am eager to preach the Gospel to you also who are in Rome” (Rm. 1:15). For the Gospel is not a message meant only for the unsaved, but it is a message to be preached to the saints of God continually until Christ returns.

If then we are to repent and to turn back onto the path of righteousness, how are we to do it?

1. We Must Preach the Gospel to Ourselves
Though I have already made this point before, it is a point that cannot be emphasized enough. Before we can be about the work of defeating the sin in our lives, we must remember the Gospel of the Righteousness that comes from God alone. For if we think that we have anything in ourselves that would merit for us a right standing before God, we will be overcome by our guilt and be defeated by our inability to be righteous on our own. We must understand that just as we did not come to Christ on our own and were not justified by anything that we did, we cannot be righteous and obedient apart from Christ. The very moment we believe that we can do anything apart from Christ is the very moment that we will fall. Therefore we must run to Christ all the days of our lives, knowing that our righteousness and obedience comes from him alone.

2. We Must Walk by the Spirit
The apostle Paul writes, “If you live according to the flesh you will die, but if, by the Spirit, you put to death the deeds of the body you will live” (Rm. 8:13). If we are to have any success against our flesh, we must fight it by the Spirit of God alone and in his power alone. For apart from the Spirit we have no power to be obedient, and apart from the Spirit all men are fleshly and are condemned to death. We who are in Christ, however, have the blessed gift of the Holy Spirit, and, we, by that gift, have the power to put to death the deeds of the body and live. We, therefore, must be constantly in prayer, seeking for him whom God has given to us, and pleading his power when we in our frailty fail.

3. We Must Despise Our Sin
In the same letter of the apostle John referenced above, the apostle exhorts:

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world–the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions–is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever (1Jn. 2:15-17).

The apostle exhorts us not to love the things of the world, and to put it negatively, we must despise the things of the world. For what are our failings except a turning from God to love the things of the world? For whether it is loving possessions, boasting in them, or the lusts of the flesh, all of our sins fall into these things. The remedy then is to cultivate a heart that loves God above all things that in turn despises the world and the things in it. For if we do not love God, it is impossible to turn from our sins to him.

And to do this, we must put this life into its proper perspective. The apostle writes, “The world is passing away with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever” (v. 2:15). We must look upon this life as it truly is, as a vapor that quickly disappears and as a drop in the ocean of Eternity, and by that recognition be quick to forfeit this life so that we might gain true life (cf. Lk. 9:24). For if we regard this life as more than it is and esteem it as worth preserving, we will turn away from God to worldliness and therefore turn away from the Life that is truly worth preserving.

Final Thoughts
I hope that these thoughts we aide you when fall, as you inevitably will, into temptation and sin. I hope that you will remember the Gospel that saved you who were unable to save yourself, that you will strive to live by the Spirit of God, and that you will despise this world and the things that it offers and that you will groan inwardly as you wait eagerly for your adoption, the glorification of your body (cf. Rm. 8:23). May God grant us success in our battles against the flesh and the Adversary. Amen.

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.

For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing (Rm. 7:15-19)

Me, being the contrary person that I am, obstinately disagree with the popular and Reformed interpretation of this passage that says that this is the apostle speaking at the time of his writing, and this passage exists as a comfort to Christians who are in sin. I do so simply because of the context and because of the way the speaker introduces himself at the beginning of this section, namely as one who is of the flesh and a slave of sin (v. 7:14). For anyone who has even thought about reading Romans 6 and Romans 8 knows that the apostle goes to great lengths to demonstrate that Christ’s death and the salvation that it brought has freed every Christian from his slavery to sin (cf. vv. 6:6, 7) and that all who live according to the flesh cannot please God and will die (cf. v. 8:8, 13).

This is all to say that in believing thus about Romans 7, I have little on which to comfort myself when I see in myself workings of sin. On the contrary, I find elsewhere in Scripture many reasons why I should be terrified at my sinning and impenitence. In the chapter that follows the aforementioned text, the apostle writes quite clearly, “If you live according to the flesh, you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live, for as many as are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” (vv. 8:13, 14). Therefore all who have the Spirit do not live lives that are not characterized by the putting to death of the deeds of the body. Conversely, those who do not put to death the deeds of body are not led by the Spirit and therefore are not children of God.

For this reason, those of us who hunt for an opiate for our unrepentant sin and disobedience in Scripture do so in vain and do so to our own spiritual demise. It is in this vein that the apostle writes, “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Ph. 2:12). This passage is not some attempt by the apostle to demonstrate the reality of some philosophical paradox between free will and the sovereignty of God, but it is a restatement of Romans 8:13, expressly that if God is working in a person then that person will be inclined toward obedience, in this case, whether the apostle is in his presence or not. Therefore if one is wise, he will examine himself and then fear and tremble if he finds himself disobedient. Furthermore, if one is not inclined toward obedience, then it is quite natural to assume that God is not willing and working his good pleasure that person. And as Christ said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (Jn. 14:15).

Therefore, if you are driven to sorrow and repentance by your comforting interpretation of Romans 7, take that pill. As for me and my life, pain and fear are much more effective means.

The prevenient work of the Spirit of God is described in several ways in the Bible. It is called at one point new birth, at another the writing of the law upon our hearts, at another the removing of the scales upon our eyes, etc. There are numerous others, and they all demonstrate that our coming to God is fully initiated by God. Christ said, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (John 6:44).

The necessity of this prevenient work of the Spirit lies not in any lack of our Object of worship and obedience, but it lies in our natural condition in Adam. Scripture declares that all men apart from God’s grace are dead in their sins, blind to the glory and beauty of God, and deaf to the call and demands of the Gospel. Romans 3 declares that no one is righteous, not a single one; all have turned aside and no one seeks God. Elsewhere Scripture declares that even that which we as men consider to be righteousness is in the eyes of God rags of filthiness. There is nothing in us that compels us to call upon the Lord, and there is nothing that we do that commends us to God.

Therefore, even a spark of divine fire to seek after God (as Henry Higgins so eloquently put it) is a spark created by God in the soul.

When God in his Infinite and Providential Wisdom causes this spark of regeneration to happen in the life of the soul, it is nothing short of spectacular–it is life from the dead, it is new birth, it is being given a new heart, it is exchanging sight for blindness and hearing for deafness–it is by all accounts the most spectacular transformation in the universe. The angels in heaven know this and rejoice in unison when a lost soul is brought into God’s fold, even more than they rejoiced when Christ restored physical sight to the blind, or mobility to the crippled, etc.

This supernatural transformation wrought in the soul by the Spirit of God is by most accounts not what is being preached in American pulpits today. Most teach of a conversion that involves praying a prayer, walking an aisle, accepting a Savior, but they do not teach its supernatural and transforming elements. This method of preaching might create many converts and might increase the number of names on church rolls, but it does not save souls. Any acceptance (what a horrid word to use for being saved by the God of the universe!) of Jesus Christ as Savior without seeing him as glorious and beautiful and without full surrender to him and his commandments is not salvation neither in this life nor in the one to come. God does not save prostitutes and heathens so that they remain prostitutes and heathens, but so that they will be transformed into the likeness of Jesus Christ to the glory of the Father.

This prevenient work of the Spirit continues in the sustaining work of the Spirit, for “He that began a good work in you will carry out till the day of Christ Jesus.” This good work that the Spirit continues in us, which is commonly called sanctification, is nothing more than the desire for and the accomplishment of obedience to God’s commands. On God’s side, it is his Spirit working and willing his good pleasure in us; on our side, it is our seeing Christ as our glorious and beautiful King and regarding all the world’s pleasures as rubbish when compared to him.

This is why Christ commands that we forsake all for him, for only those who see him as he really is will do it. When the rich young man turned away from Christ grieved, the disciples marveled not at the rich man’s leaving but at Christ’s command to him. “Who then can be saved?” they asked. They recognized that no man, regardless of his wealth, can deny themselves for the sake of Christ. But Christ responds, “With man it is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” God can do it. God has done it. He has done in all those whom he has called to himself, and it is to those that he commands, “Sell your possessions and give to the poor,” “Take up your cross and follow me,” and “Lose your life so that you might gain it.” These commands on not burdensome to God’s children, not because they are not humanly difficult, but because God is so much better to them than the world’s treasures.

This view of the work of God in the soul demands several questions be asked of those who claim to follow Christ: Do you see Christ as more precious than the treasures of the world? Do you say that you treasure Christ but neglect Christ’s commands and hold onto your possessions? If you do not see Christ as better than the world’s treasures or if you do not keep Christ’s commands and sell your possessions, you have nothing on which to base your assurance. The work of God in the soul is a work of God unto obedience, and God does not fail in anything that he does.