THE MISUNDERSTANDING OF SALVATION AND ITS NEED

Calvinism accepts the Augustinian doctrine of original sin. But the Augustinian doctrine of original sin is legalistic because it presupposes a legalistic understanding of sin and death. According to the legalistic point of view, all sin is a transgression of the law, a crime, and death is always the punishment for those crimes. Death is always the result of sin or, in legalistic terms, death is the penalty of sin; death is the just reward of our sins. But the Augustinian doctrine of original sin is also legalistic because it assumes a legalistic understanding of salvation. Augustine used the doctrine of original sin to establish the need for salvation. Why does man need to be saved? Augustine answered that man needs to be saved because he is a sinner by nature. By this he meant that man is not able not to sin and not able to do meritorious good works because he has inherited a sinful nature from Adam. Man needs the grace of God to enable him not to sin and to do good works by which he can earn eternal life as a reward for his meritorious good works. The doctrine of original sin was Augustine's answer to Pelagius's assertion that man was able not to sin and able to do good works to earn eternal life by natural grace. Augustine said that man needs special grace because he lost the natural grace and is now, since the fall, a sinner by nature. Although man needs this special grace to enable him to do good works, men are still saved by good works. Augustine nowhere questions this legalistic conception of salvation. He like Pelagius assumes that salvation must be earned, but since we are sinners by nature, Augustine said that we need God's special grace to enable us to do so. Thus salvation as well as the need for salvation were understood legalistically.

At the Reformation, the Protestant Reformers (Luther and Calvin) opposed the teaching of the Roman church which since the time of Augustine taught that by the grace of God, which is infused into man at baptism and renewed by the sacraments, a man is able to do good works to earn eternal life. The Reformers agreed with Augustine that man cannot earn eternal life because of his sinful nature but they rejected the idea that grace was something infused into a man to make it possible for him to earn eternal life. Grace, they said, is God's unmerited favor, and eternal life was a gift to be received by faith. But, they said, this gift of eternal life was earned by the active obedience of Christ during his life on earth. This "merits of Christ" is imputed to the believer's account when he first believes in Christ. Thus salvation was for them still ultimately and fundamentally by meritorious works. It is true that they said that salvation was not by our works and that eternal life was a gift to be received by faith. But salvation was still by works -- not our works but the meritorious works of another, Jesus Christ. It was a vicarious salvation by works. Thus salvation as well as the need for salvation were still understood legalistically.

This classical Protestant explanation of salvation, like Augustine's and the Roman church's, mixes grace and works, which the Apostle Paul says cannot be done or grace will no longer be grace ( Rom. 11:6). Paul very clearly teaches that salvation is not by works.

"8 For by grace you have been saved through faith;
and that not of yourselves, it [salvation] is the gift of God,
9 not as a result of works, that no one should boast."
(Eph. 2:8-9 ERS; see also Titus 3:5).
Salvation is by grace through faith, and not by works. Man cannot be saved by his good works; he cannot earn salvation by his works. This is the clear and explicit teaching of Scripture. But not only is salvation by grace but it is also not by meritorious works. Salvation by grace and salvation by meritorious works are mutually exclusive and opposing ways of salvation.
"But if it is by grace, it is no longer by works;
otherwise grace would no longer be grace." (Rom. 11:6)
Thus salvation by grace and salvation by meritorious works must not be mixed. The result of such a mixture is that the strong dynamic Biblical concept of God's grace as God's love in action is reduced in Augustine's and the Roman church's theology to the idea of something infused into man by the sacraments which makes it possible for him to earn eternal life or in Protestant theology to the weak idea of grace as unmerited favor. Grace is no longer grace in these theologies.

Salvation is not by meritorious works, not because a man is not able to do them, but because God does not deal with mankind on the basis of the merit scheme. As Jesus made clear in his parable of the householder (Matt. 20:1-16), God does not act toward us on the basis of our merit but on the basis of His generosity. And because God does not treat mankind according to their desserts, but according to His love, He often puts the least deserving before the more deserving. "The last will be first and the first last." (Matt. 20:16; 19:30; Mark 10:31; Luke 13:30)

THE MISUNDERSTANDING OF DEATH OF CHRIST

From the legalistic point of view, man needs to be saved because he is guilty of breaking the law. Salvation is accordingly conceived of as a removal of that guilt. Justice requires that the penalty be paid before the guilt can be removed. It cannot be forgiven freely but only can be taken away by the paying of the penalty which alone can satisfy justice. Because of the enormity of the guilt - it is against an infinite moral being - finite man himself can never pay the penalty and go free. From this legalistic point of view, man's sin demands an eternal punishment, and being finite, man cannot meet the infinite demand of justice. If he is to be saved at all, he must be saved by another - one who is man like himself but without sin, but also one who is God who alone can meet the infinite demands of justice. Where is such a one to be found? Only God can provide that one, and God has provided the perfect sacrifice to pay the penalty by sending His Son to become man. His death is the perfect sacrifice. It can remove the guilt by paying the penalty. In His death He endured the eternal punishment due to man's sin.

This penal satisfaction theory of the death of Christ is clearly legalistic. It assumes that the order of law and justice is absolute; free forgiveness would be a violation of this absolute order; God's love must be carefully limited lest it infringe on the demands of justice. Sin is a crime against God and the penalty must be paid before forgiveness can become available. According to this view, God's love is conditioned and limited by His justice; that is, God cannot exercise His love to save man until His righteousness (justice) is satisfied. Since God's justice requires that sin be punished, God's love cannot save man until the penalty of sin has been paid, satisfying His justice. God's love is set in opposition to His righteousness, creating a tension and problem in God. How can God in His love save man from sin when His righteousness demands the punishment of sin? This is the problem that the death of Christ is supposed to solve. According to this legalistic theology, this is why Christ needed to die; he died to pay the penalty of man's sin and to satisfy the justice of God. Redemption is misinterpreted as paying the penalty of man's sin and propitiation is misinterpreted as the satisfaction of God's justice. And reconciliation is misinterpreted as as a vicarious act, instead of another, God being reconciled to man by Christ's death paying the penalty of man's sin.
The necessity of the atonement is the necessity of satisfying the justice of God; this necessity is in God rather than in man. And since this necessity is in God, it is an absolute necessity. If God is to save man, God must satisfy His justice before He can in love save man.

Nowhere in the Scriptures does it say that Christ died to pay the penalty of man's sin and satisfy God's justice. Not in the three passages (Rom. 3:25-26; II Cor. 5:21; Gal. 3:13) usually cited to support this doctrine does it say explicitly that Christ paid the penalty of sin or satisfied the justice of God. Propitiation is not the satisfaction of God's justice; ; neither is redemption the paying the penality of sin. "To be made sin" or "a curse" does not mean paying the penalty of our sins.
In his second letter to the Corinthians Paul writes,

"He who knew no sin was made to be sin for us,
that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." (II Cor. 5:21 ERS)
Historically, there has been three interpretations of the phrase "made to be sin" in II Cor. 5:21:
  1. Christ is treated as if He were a sinner, and as such Christ became the object of God's wrath and bore the penalty and the guilt of sin (the traditional Protestant interpretation).
  2. When Christ in His incarnation took on human nature, which is "in the likeness of sinful flesh" (Rom. 8:3), God made Him to be sin.
  3. Christ in becoming a sacrifice for sin was made to be sin, the word "sin" (harmartia) meaning a "sacrifice for sin" (Augustine and the NIV margin "be a sin offering").
In the first interpretation, it is assumed that Christ's death is a vicarious act, a substitution in the stead of sinful humanity.
In the second interpretation, it is assumed that Christ's death is a participation. on the behalf of and for the sakes of sinful humanity.
And in the third interpretation, the basic concept is sacrifice, which is probably the correct interpretation, but the scarifice has been assumed to be a substitution not as a participation. But this substitution interpretation must here be rejected because it is contrary to the explicit statement in the verse that he was made sin for us, that is, "on our behalf" (huper hemos, NAS; see verses 14-15, and 20). And this substitution interpretation just assumes a legalistic interpretation of Christ's death as a paying the penalty of sin.
And when Apostle Paul writes to the Galations,
"Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law,
having become a curse for us--for it is written,
'Cursed be everyone who hangs on a tree'" (Gal. 3:13),
he does not mean that Christ paid the penalty of sin as our substitute, but that Christ's death was to deliever us ("redeemed") from our sins and to save us from the wrath of God ("the curse of the Law", see Gal. 3:10). And Christ being made a curse for us, does not mean that Christ died as a substitute, in our place, paying the penalty of our sins, but that Christ's death was "for us", on our behalf (huper hemos), The Scripture that Paul here quotes (Deut. 21:23) does not mean that being made a curse was for another's sins but because he was being hung on a tree for his own sins (Deut. 21:22). And since Christ was hanging on the tree (the cross) was not because of His own sins (He was without sin - II Cor. 5:21) but it was on our behalf to redeem us from our sins and from God's wrath against our sins (Rom. 1:18). Paul does not say that Christ took our curse but that He became a curse for us to redeem us from the curse of the law. Christ's death sets us free from the law and from its curse.
The introduction of these legalistic concepts into the interpretation of these passages has obscured their meaning and interpretation. Apart from the clear and explicit statement of Scripture, it cannot be assumed that this is what these verses mean. Since this legalism is contrary to the clear and explicit statements of Scripture, any interpretation employing these legalistic concepts is suspect. In fact the Scripture explicitly rejects the principle of vicarious penal sacrifice upon which this interpretation depends.
"The person who sins will die.
The son will not bear the punishment for the father's iniquity,
nor will the father bear the punishment for the son's iniquity;
the righteousness of the righteous will be upon himself,
and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself."
(Ezekiel 18:20 NAS; see also Deut. 24:16; Jer. 31:30).

If Christ did not die to pay the penalty for man's sin and satisfy God's justice, then why did Christ have to die to save man? Why then do men need to be saved? An examination of Scripture (John 10:10; Eph. 2:4-5; Heb. 2:14-15; I John 4:9; etc.) clearly shows that the answer to this question is that man needs to be saved because he is dead. Man is separated and alienated from God (Eph. 4:8). He does not know God personally, and because he does not know the true God, he turns to false gods - to those things which are not God - and makes those into his gods (Gal. 4:8). The basic sin is idolatry (Ex. 20:2; Rom. 1:25), and man sins (chooses these false gods) because he is spiritually dead - separated from the true God. This spiritual death inherited from Adam is the personal, contemporary origin of each man's sin. Because he is spiritually dead, not knowing God personally, he chooses something other than the true God as his god; he thus sins.

This is why a man needs to be saved. He is dead spiritually and dying physically. Man needs life - he needs to be made alive - to be raised from the dead. And if he receives life, if he is made alive to God, death which leads to sin is removed. And if death which leads to sin is removed, then man will be saved from sin. Thus salvation must be understood to be primarily from death to life and secondarily from sin to righteousness. And since God's wrath - God's "no" or opposition to sin - is caused by sin (Rom. 1:18), the removal of sin brings with it also the removal of wrath. No sin, no wrath. Salvation is then thirdly from wrath to peace with God (Rom. 5:1).
Propitiation is the sacrificial aspect of Christ's work of salvation that saves us from wrath to peace with God.
Redemption is the liberation aspect of Christ's work of salvation that saves us from sin to righteousness.
And salvation is a propitiation and a redemption because it is a reconciliation to God.
Reconcilation is the representative aspect of Christ's work of salvation that saves us from death to life. Being made alive to God, death, the cause of sin, is removed, and sin, the cause of wrath, is removed.
Christ's death is a propitiation because it is a redemption;
and it is a propitiation and a redemption because it is a reconciliation to God, salvation from death to life.


Reconciliation, Redemption, and Propitiation are the three aspects of salvation. 


                 THREE ASPECTS OF SALVATION
In Adam                                                In Christ 

From--------------------SALVATION------------------------> To

DEATH-----------------RECONCILIATION--------------------> LIFE 
 |                                                         |
 V                                                         V
SIN---------------------REDEMPTION------------------> RIGHTEOUSNESS
 |                                                         |
 V                                                         V
WRATH------------------PROPITIATION--------------------> PEACE

This salvation (from death, sin and wrath) is exactly what God accomplished through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, His Son. This is why Christ died, that He might be raised from the dead. Jesus entered into our spiritual death in order that as He was raised from the dead, we might be made alive in and with Him (Eph. 2:5). And by saving us from spiritual death, Christ saves us from sin. It is by taking away the spiritual death which leads to our sin that God takes away our sin. Jesus died for our sins - literally - to take them away (John 1:29). What the Old Testament sacrifices could not do (Heb. 10:1-4) the death of Christ has done. The blood of Jesus (His death) cleanses us from our sins (I John 1:7). We are delivered from sin itself. We were saved from our trust in false gods when we put our trust in Jesus Christ and the true God who sent Him. We "turned from idols to serve the living and true God" (I Thess. 1:9). When we were spiritually dead we trusted in and served those things that are not God - money, power, sex, education, popularity, pleasure, etc. But when we turned to the risen Christ, we entered into life, leaving behind those false gods. The risen Jesus Christ is now our Lord and our God (John 20:28).

The death and resurrection of Jesus was the means by which God removed death - the barrier to knowing God personally and knowing His love. In the preaching of the Gospel, God reveals Himself to us making us spiritually alive to Himself when we receive Jesus Christ who is the life (John 14:6; I John 5:12). To be spiritually alive is to know God personally, and to know God personally is to trust Him. For God is love (I John 4:8, 16) and love begets trust. The trust that God's love invokes in us is righteousness (Rom. 4:5, 9); it relates us rightly to God. Thus by making us alive to Himself, God sets us right with Himself through faith. Life produces righteousness just as death produces sin.

THE MISUNDERSTANDING OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE

Augustine and much of Roman Catholic theology conceives of the Christian life as a process of earning eternal life by the good works which the Christian is enabled to do by the grace that was infused or imparted at baptism and renewed by the other sacraments. This conception of the Christian life is clearly legalistic. And it was this conception that the Reformers and Reformed theologians denied as unbiblical. But by retaining a basically legalistic understanding of Christ's work of salvation and justification, it was difficult if not impossible for them to understand the Christian life and sanctification in any other than legalistic terms. The practical matters of the Christian life are definitely affected by the theory of salvation and, behind that, the theory of the need for salvation. Since man's relationship to God was conceived in legalistic terms, that is, that all men are under the law and that man's relationship to God is determined by the law, not only is sin understood legalistically as breaking the rules, the transgression of the law as the divine standard of perfection in thought, word, and deed, but righteousness is also understood legalistically to be the keeping of the rules, a conformity to the law in thought, word, and deed, that is, moral perfection. Since according to this legalistic conception man was created under the law and for the law, man's highest good and final goal is this moral perfection, this legal righteousness. To stand spotless and without blame before the law was thought to be the Christian's ultimate hope. So the Christian life and sanctification was conceived by most Reformed theologians as growth and progress toward this moral perfection. Of course, it was not to earn eternal life. For all our moral progress, they said, we are still sinners, sinning in thought, word and deed. And at the same time legally righteous with the imputed righteousness of the merits of Christ -- simultaneously righteous and unrighteous, both a saint and a sinner.

Chapter 7 of Romans (verses 7 through 24) was interpreted by most Reformed theologians as the normal Christian life. They said that because the Christian after conversion still has a sinful nature, he will have an unending struggle with indwelling sin. His sinful nature (which is subject to sin) is in constant warfare with his renewed nature (which is subject to God's law). Even though he wants to keep God's law, he finds himself being compelled by his sinful nature to do the very things he hates. Although justified (declared righteous through the imputed merits or righteousness of Christ) and thus assured of salvation, there is still no deliverance from his sinful nature until he dies. He will finally be delivered from his sinful nature when he will be raised from the dead in the last day with an incorruptible body completely free of the presence of the sinful nature. Thus most Reformed theologians interpreted the 7th chapter of Romans as the normal Christian life. According to their teaching, since the believer has two natures, a sinful nature and a new nature, the experience recorded in Romans 7:7-24 is interpreted as the struggle between these two natures. This explanation of Romans 7 leaves the believer with no deliverance from this struggle, contrary to the clear teaching of Scirpture that there is deliverance:

"24 O wretched man that I am!
who shall deliver me from the body this death?
25a I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord!"
(Rom. 7:24-25a KJV).

John Wesley (1703-1791) in the 18th century recognized that there was deliverance from the Roman 7 experience, and he put forth the teaching that there was a second work of grace (the first work of grace was conversion), which he called entire santification, that would eradicate the sinful nature, cleansing from inbred sin and enabling those experiencing this work of grace to live without conscious or deliberate sin (Christian Perfection). But his explanation of this deliverance as the eradication of the sinful nature assumes that the struggle of Roman 7 is caused by the sinful nature. This assumption is wrong; the cause of the struggle is not the sinful nature, but being under law. According Rom. 6:14. sin has dominion over the believer when he is under the law and the deliverance from the dominion of sin is to be under grace.

"For sin shall not have dominion over you:
for you are not under the law, but under grace." (Rom. 6:14)
The grace of God, God's love in action, delivers the believer from the dominion and slavery of sin by placing the believer back under the grace of God. God does this by not condemning the believer who is in Christ Jesus.
"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus."
(Rom. 8:1).
Under the law, the law condemns those who sin; it does not deliver those under the law from the dominion of sin. But God does not condemn them but places them back under grace and delivers them from the dominion of sin ("the law of sin") and of death ("the law of death") by the operation of the Spirit ("the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus").
"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus
has set you free from the law of sin and of death." (Rom. 8:2).
The law separates the believer who is under law from God; this is practically the same as spiritual death. Thus the believer under law sins because he is practically spiritually dead. For the Christian to place himself under law is like placing oneself in spiritual death; the law has taken the place of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus and it has the same results as spiritual death -- it produces sin.

Wesley, while recognizing that there was deliverance from the Roman 7 experience, misunderstood that deliverance as an eradication of the sinful nature. He did not recognize that the cause of the Roman 7 experience was being under the law ( Rom. 6:14), not the sinful nature. And he did not recognize this cause because his explanation of the need for salvation was legalistic (all men are under the law and have sinned by transgressing that law) as was the explanation of Augustine and of the Prostestant Reformers. And Wesley's explanation of salvation was also legalistic: he believed that the passive obedience of Christ's death paid the penalty of men's sin and the active obedience of Christ's good works earned for us eternal life which is imputed to our account when we believe. Also his concept of Holiness as Christian Perfection was also a legalistic misinterpretation of the Christian Life as sinless perfection.

Thus, although some Reformed theologians interpret this struggle of Romans chapter 7 as the normal Christian life, other Reformed theologians reject this interpretation of the Romans 7 experience and teach the suppression of the works of the flesh (sinful nature) by the power of the Holy Spirit. But in this case the Christian is still left under the law as a rule and standard of life and the "walk in the Spirit" is interpreted as nothing more than Spirit-empowered law-keeping. According to this teaching, the Holy Spirit is given to the Christian to empower him to keep the law and to make him morally perfect, conforming to the divine standard given in the law. This legalistic interpretation of the Christian life is the source of many of the psychological problems that Christians have today.

Legalism has either of two psychological effects on the person in bondage to the law. He becomes either self-righteous or afflicted with a guilt complex.

  1. This self-righteousness is a special form of pride which is the chief by-product of idolatry (Psa. 40:4). It is most often connected with the externalization and detailed extensions of the law. It expresses itself in the attitude of the Pharisees who keep the minutiae of the law but overlook the spirit of the law (Matt. 15:1-19). Also the legalist is not only self-righteous but sits in judgment on others who do not conform to the law and has little place for mercy. He becomes like the god he acknowledges and worships -- the law. When he is shown mercy, he does not in turn show mercy to those in his debt (Matt. 18:23-35).
  2. The other psychological effect of legalism is a guilt complex. If the legalist does not become self-righteous, then he usually becomes afflicted with a guilt complex. This psychological effect is most often connected with the quantitization of the law. Since he cannot know the precise amount of merit attached to each good deed or how much he has acquired, a legalist has no certainty. In addition, no matter how well he has lived, it is always possible for him to slip into a terrible sin whose demerit will outweigh all his merit. As a result of this uncertainty the legalist is led to look constantly within himself to see whether he measures up to the divine standard, the law, which he has chosen as his ultimate criterion. If he believes himself constantly falling short of this standard, he will develop a guilt complex.

    This second psychological effect of legalism is the most common among Christians who have been misled into legalism. Because of the intense desire placed by God in the believer to please God, the Christian entrapped in legalism internalizes the law, applying it not only to external actions but to every thought and motive as well as every word and deed. Because of the sin resulting from legalism (legalism itself is sin -- the sin of idolatry of the law), the guilt accompanying this sin is added to all the imagined guilt of the evil thoughts and motives resulting from close, detailed introspection. The result is often a very intense guilt complex bordering on the neurotic. Because of the widespread legalistic teaching in Christian churches, it is not surprising that so many Christians are afflicted with such guilt complexes.

The moral and ethical result of legalism is the moral dilemma: the contradiction between what man is and what he ought to be. Since man falls short of the ideal of moral perfection, the standard of righteousness, the law, he is faced with the disparity between the real and the ideal self, between what he is and what he ought to be. The Christian statement of this dilemma is given classic expression by the Apostle Paul in his famous analysis of the experience of the man under law in Romans chapter 7 --
"The good that I would, I do not.
And the evil which I would not, that I do." (Rom. 7:19)
This predicament has led the legalistic theologian to conclude that sin is intrinic to human nature. Rabbinic Judaism, for example, developed the theory of the evil nature or "yetzer hara." Augustine used the doctrine of original sin (originale peccatum) or inherited inborn sinful nature to explain why men always fall short of the divine standard. But this doctrinal expedient of the sinful nature is unnecessary since the moral dilemma can be explained by the fact that a false god always betrays its worshippers into the very opposite of what they expected from the false god (Isa. 44:9,10; 45:16, 17, 20, 21). The man under law who practically deifies the law (Rom. 7:22, 25) and looks to it to save him from sin and give him life (Rom. 7:10) finds that the law cannot save him, but on the contrary discovers that the law arouses sin and becomes the opportunity for sin which results in death (Rom. 7:5, 8-11).

And not only that, but also since death (primarily spiritual death) leads to sin (Rom. 5:12d ERS), the man under law is practically in spiritual death (the law separates him from God), and sin is the result of that death. This is what the Apostle Paul concludes at the end of his discussion of the legalistic struggle in Romans 7.

"7:21 So I find it to be a law that
when I want to do right, evil is present with me.
7:22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inner man,
7:23 but I see in my members another law
at war with the law of my mind and
taking me captive to the law of sin which is in my members."
(Rom. 7:21-23 ERS)
There are three laws presented here in this passage.
  1. The first law is the law of sin (verse 21). Since sin is not what the man under law wants to do, he concludes that sin must dwell in the members of his body rather than in his real inner self (Rom. 7:17-20).
  2. The second law is the law of God (verse 22) which the man under law delights in, which he agrees with his mind is right, good and holy (Rom. 7:12, 16); this is the law of the mind in the next verse.
  3. The third law is the "another law" (heteros --
    another of a different kind; compare with allos --
    another of the same kind) -- a law different from the first two laws but warring against the law of the mind -- the law of God -- and bringing the man under law into captivity to the law of sin.
    What is this third law? In the next verse we get a clue.
    "Wretched man that I am!
    Who will deliver me from the body of this death" (Rom. 7:24).
    This third law, this other law, is the law of death.
    And this is confirmed in Romans 8:2 (NAS, margin) which says,
    "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus
    has set me free from the law of sin and of death."
    The law of death brings the man who is under law into captivity to the law of sin. That is, death leads to sin,
    "because of which [death] all sinned" (Rom. 5:12d ERS).
    "The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law" (I Cor. 15:55).
Paul uses the word nomos [law] here in Rom. 8:2 in the way that the Greeks and Romans did; they believed that the law had power to force compliance with the law (Cicero, Laws, II, 8-10). In their view the law was a principle or power of action which could by its power bring about what the action that the law prescribed; it was not merely a description of or prescription for some action; the law made the action occur. This is the sense in which Paul speaks of "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" and of "the law of sin" and of "the law of death" in Rom. 8:2. These are not merely descriptions of how the Spirit or death or sin acted; they are powers that act and bring about certain actions. Thus the law of the Spirit of life is the power of the Spirit of God acting to make one alive, and thus freeing from the law or power of action of death and of sin. The law of death is the power of death acting make one spiritually dead. The law of sin is the power of sin acting to make one sin. In the next verse (Rom. 8:3) we see that the law of God is unable to make righteous, because it did not have that power of action. And, as Paul says in Gal. 3:21, righteousness is not by the law because the law cannot make alive; it does not have that power of action either.
"Is the law then against the promises of God?
Certainly not; for if a law had been given which could make man alive,
then righteousness would indeed by the law." (Gal. 3:21)
No sinful nature is necessary to explain the moral delimma; the man under law sins because he is spiritually dead; the law separates him from God. For the Christian to place himself under the law is practically like placing himself in death; it has the same results -- sin. For the Christian to be under law, the law has taken the place of the Holy Spirit; the law thus separates the Christian from God. Romans chapter 7 is not the normal Christian life; it is the struggle of the man under law, entrapped in the bondage of legalism. If the Christian falls into this legalism, there is deliverance.
"Thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. 7:25a).

There are three steps for deliverance from legalism that may be found in Romans 7:25b through 8:4:

"7:25b So then, I myself am a slave to the law of God with my mind,
but with my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin."
8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.
8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus
has set you free from the law of sin and of death.
8:3 For what the law could not do,
in that it is weakened through the flesh,
God Himself, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh
and concerning sin, condemned sin in the flesh,
8:4 in order that the righteous acts of law might be fulfilled in us,
who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." (ERS)
Step 1 - The recognition that legalism is the problem (Rom. 7:25b):
"So then, on the one hand, I myself with my mind am a slave to the law of God,
but on the other hand, with my flesh to the law of sin." ERS
To be delivered from legalism one must recognize that he himself is a slave to the law and a slave to sin, that is, that he is under the law and sin has dominion over him ( Rom. 6:14).
Step 2 - Deliverance from condemnation (Rom. 8:1):
"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." NAS
God delivers from legalism through His word of unconditional love which says that there is no condemnation to those in Christ. This is a word of grace and places the Christian back under grace. Legalism conditions God's love by our sins. God says that His love is unconditioned by our sins. Therefore God does not condemn us for our failure under the law but delivers us from under law and places us back under grace. For in His love God delivers us from sin and death (Rom. 8:2) and thus from wrath which is condemnation.
Step 3 - Deliverance from sin and death (Rom. 8:2):
"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death." NAS
Paul here says that "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" has set him and his readers free from "the law of sin and [the law of] death." Paul, like other New Testament writers, uses the Greek word nomos (usually translated "law") in several different ways. The following are some of them.
  1. The first 5 books of the Old Testament, the Pentateuch (Matt. 12:5; Luke 2:23-24; 16:16; 24:44; Rom. 3:21b).
  2. The whole Old Testament (Rom.3:19 referring to the passages quoted in Rom.3:10-18 which are not just from the Pentateuch; John 10:34, quoting Psa. 82:6; I Cor. 14:21, quoting Isa. 28:11)
  3. The Mosaic covenant that God made with the children of Israel (Exodus 24:1-12; Rom. 2:12; 3:19; 4:13-14; Gal. 3:17-18).
  4. The Ten Commandments, the Decalogue (Exodus 20:1-17; Deut. 5:6-21; Matt. 5:18), sometimes improperly called the moral law.
  5. All the commandments of God, ceremonial as well as the Ten Commandments; all statutes and ordinances of the law of Moses (Luke 2:22; John 7:23).
  6. Teaching, instruction, guidance (Rom. 2:17, 18, 20, 23, 26); compare this with the meaning of the Hebrew word Torah which has the same meaning. As such it is that content of God's revelation (the Word of the Lord, Deut. 5:5; Psa. 119:43, 160) which makes clear man's relationship to God and to his fellow man. It provides guidance for man's actions in relationship to God and to his fellow man.
  7. Any commandment regulating conduct (Rom. 7:7, 8-9).
  8. A principle or power of action (Rom. 3:27; 7:21, 23, 25; 8:2).
This last use is the way Paul uses it here in this verse (Rom. 8:2). The Greeks and the Romans believed that the law had the power to force compliance with the law (Cicero, Laws, II, 8-10). In their view the law was a principle or power of action which could by its action bring about what the law prescribed; it was not merely a description of or prescription for some action; the law made the action occur. This is the sense in which Paul speaks of "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" and of "the law of sin" and of "the law of death." These are not merely descriptions of how the Spirit or death or sin acted; they are powers that act and bring about certain actions. The law or power of action of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus frees us from the law or power of action of sin and of death. The law of death is power of death acting to make one dead. The law of sin is the power of sin acting to make one sin. Since death leads to sin, the Spirit delivers from sin by giving us life in Christ which is deliverance from death. The law is not able to do this, In the next verse (Rom. 8:3) Paul says that the law of God is unable to make righteous; it does not have that power of action. And, as Paul says in Gal. 3:21, righteousness is not by the law because the law cannot make alive; the law does not have that power action either. it is through the death of Christ (Rom. 8:3) who put an end to sin's reign over us ("condemn sin in the flesh") by his death for us (Rom. 6:6-10). The result ( Rom. 8:4) is that the righteous acts of the law are fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. To walk according to the flesh is to try to do the righteous acts of the law by human effort ("the flesh") to conform to the norm or standard of the law. The believer must not do it that way. He must walk according to the Spirit. And to walk according to the Spirit is to walk in love. And love fulfills the law (Rom. 13:8-10) and the righteous acts of the law.

Legalism makes a problem of the Christian life because the law separates us from God and leads us to trust in ourselves and our good works rather than in Him. This is the practical effect of the legalistic theory of Christian life -- it does not work. Where is the victory of Christ's resurrection in the struggle of Romans 7? Only as we pass out from under the law (we died to the law in Christ's death: Rom. 7:4) and are set free from the law of sin and death by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:2), do we experience the resurrection victory of Christ over sin and death. The Christian life is not Spirit-empowered law-keeping, but Spirit-filled law-fulfillment by love ( Rom. 8:4; 13:10); it is a joyful walk in the Spirit, trusting Him who loves us and gave Himself for us. And is a law necessary to make us love and trust God? The law is for those who do not love and trust God -- though it will not help them -- it cannot make them alive -- it cannot produce righteousness ( Gal. 3:21). For if the law could make them alive as the legalist tries to tells us, then Christ died in vain (Gal. 2:21). Salvation is not by works of the law -- in any way, shape or form. Salvation is by grace -- God's love in action to make us alive in Christ through faith, through trust in Him who loves us and gave Himself for us. And the Christian life is also by grace through faith.

The Christian life is a life of fellowship and communion with God the Father through Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit (I Cor. 1:9; II Cor. 13:14; I John 1:3). Through Jesus Christ we have access in one Spirit to the Father (Eph. 2:18; Rom. 5:2; Heb. 10:19-22). God speaks to us through the written and spoken Word of God and we speak to Him in prayer. The Christian life is also a walk of faith. It not only begins in faith, but it continues in faith (Col. 2:6). The walk in the Spirit is the walk of faith (Gal. 2:20; 5:25). Faith in the Father who loves me; faith in Jesus Christ with whom I have died and have been raised to new life; faith in the Holy Spirit who dwells within me. The Christian life is also a life of being transformed into and conformed to the image of God (Rom. 8:29; II Cor. 3:18). The resurrected God-man, the Son of man, Jesus Christ, is the image of God (Col. 1:15; II Cor. 4:4). By the last Adam, the man from heaven, man is being restored to the image of God. In faith we have put on the new man which is being renewed according to the image of Him who created him (Col. 3:10; Eph. 4:23-24).

Legalism is a temptation and an obstacle to the walk in the Spirit by faith. As good and right as the law is (Rom. 7:10), this law is not man's highest good, and observing the Ten Commandments is not man's righteousness. God Himself is man's highest good, and trust in and love for God is his righteousness. This love fulfills the law (Rom. 13:8-10), which a legalistic living by the law does not do. Man's basic problem is not "Are you keeping the law?" but "Which god are you trusting?" Is it the true God or is it a false one? This is not just the problem of the non-Christian and the unbeliever but also the problem of the Christian. Many psychological problems that Christians have are the result of a divided loyalty. They are trying to hang onto the true God and a false god at the same time. This double-mindedness, this divided faith (James 1:7-8) makes a Christian psychologically and morally unstable and hinders his relationship with the Lord.

And strange as it may seem, this is the situation behind the Romans 7 kind of experience of many Christians. As we observed above, the experience of Romans 7 is the experience of the man under law. And if a Christian is having this kind of experience, it is because he has placed himself or allowed himself to be placed under the law which God says he is not under, for he is under grace ( Rom. 6:14). He is attempting to serve two masters at the same time: the law and the Holy Spirit. And it cannot be done (Gal. 5:18). It only creates psychological and moral problems: guilt on the inside and sin and failure on the outside. Being indwelt by the Holy Spirit, the Christian does not need to walk by the law but by the Spirit. The Christian's goal is not moral perfection but the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23). The Apostle Paul's question in Galations 3:3 is particularly relevant and right to the point: "Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?"

Paul's obvious answer to this rhetorical question is "no". For "as you... have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him" (Col. 2:6). Moral perfection is perfection by the flesh, by the works of the law, and is contrary and opposed to the fruit of the Spirit and the righteousness of faith (Gal. 5:19-21). The weakness, if not the error, of most Christian preaching and teaching is that it is an exhortation of the Christian to perfection by the flesh, by the works of the law. Having begun in the Spirit, the Christian is urged to seek moral perfection. The Holy Spirit is brought into this kind of preaching, if at all, as the source of power to enable the Christian to keep the law. This Spirit-empowered law-keeping is not what Paul means when he speaks of "walking according to the Spirit" (Rom. 8:4; see also Gal. 5:16,25). To walk by the Spirit is to be led by the Spirit, and if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law (Gal. 5:18). To walk according to the Spirit is to make all one's decisions with reference to the Holy Spirit as He personally guides, fills and empowers the believer. The walk in the Spirit is the moment by moment walk of faith and personal trust in the God who personally by His Holy Spirit reveals and communicates Himself along each step of that walk. The "normal" Christian life is this walk according to the Spirit and not a legalistic Spirit-empowered law-keeping; it is Spirit-filled law-fulfillment by love ( Rom. 8:4; 13:10).

Christian legalism not only ignores the clear statements of the Scriptures that the Christian is not under law ( Rom. 6:14), but also the equally clear statements of the Scriptures that the Christian is dead to the law.

"Likewise, my brethen, you have died to the law
through the body of Christ,
so that you may belong to another,
to him who has been raised from the dead
in order that we may bear fruit to God."
(Rom. 7:4; Gal 2:19)
Not only is the Christian dead to sin but dead to the law. Through Christ's death he has died to sin and to the law, and now in the resurrected Christ he is alive to God.
"But now we are discharged from the law,
dead to that which held us captive,
so that we serve not under the old written code
but in the new life of the Spirit." (Rom. 7:6)
The Christian has passed from under the reign of death and sin unto reigning in life in Christ Jesus (Rom. 5:17). The law was the rule in the dispensation of death (II Cor. 3:6-7); the letter kills and the law condemns. The Holy Spirit is the rule of life in the new dispensation of life (II Cor. 3:17-18). Since the Spirit gives life (II Cor. 3:6), the dispensation of life is the dispensation of the Spirit (II Cor. 3:8), the Era of the Spirit. Since the Christian has passed from death to life, he has passed from the rule of the law to the rule of the Spirit. The law as the rule of Christian life has no place in the Era of the Spirit. And if the law has no place in the Era of the Spirit, legalism as an idolatry and misunderstanding of the law has no place in the Era of the Spirit either.

THE CONCLUSION TO THE PROBLEM

In conclusion, the following statements will summarize our findings concerning the problem of original sin.

  1. The origin of sin is twofold:
    1. the historical origin of sin is the sin of Adam, the Fall of man,
    2. the immediate, contemporary and personal origin of the sin for each of Adam's descendants is the transmitted death from Adam to his descendants (Rom. 5:12d ERS).
  2. The analysis of human freedom shows that man must have a god as the ultimate criterion of his choices.
  3. Because man is spiritually dead and does not personally know the true God as a living reality, he choses a substitute for the true God as his god. Man sins because he is spiritually dead (Rom. 5:12d ERS).
  4. Man has not lost his freedom to choose as the result of the Fall of man in the sin of Adam; he is able not to sin. But since he cannot make himself alive to God, he cannot save himself.
  5. Salvation is basically and primarily from death, both spiritual and physical; salvation from death is man's primary need.
  6. Because salvation is basically and primarily from death, salvation from sin (trust in a false god, idolatry) is secondary and, since man sins because of death, the result of salvation from death is salvation from sin.
  7. Salvation is not something to be earned by meritorious works but is the gift of a personal relationship with the true God - spiritual life - to be received by faith.
  8. Because the law cannot make alive ( Gal. 3:21), salvation by meritorious works is in principle not possible and is non-biblical; man cannot earn salvation ( Eph. 2:8-9).
  9. The problem of original sin is a pseudo problem arising from a misunderstanding of the Biblical teaching concerning the origin of sin and the need for salvation. This misunderstanding arises from legalistic concept of salvation as something to be earned by meritorious works and a legalistic misinterpretation of Scripture, particularly of Rom. 5:12 ERS and of Rom. 7:7-24.
  10. The sinful nature was introduced into Christian theology to explain why man could not save himself by his meritorious works. Since man cannot save himself by his meritorious works even if he could do them (salvation is not something that can be earned by meritorious works but is a gift), the doctrine of the sinful nature is unnecessary and unbiblical. The sinful nature is not taught in the Scriptures.
  11. The sinful nature is not needed to explain the defeat of the man under law described in Romans 7:7-24. Sin has dominion over the man who is under law ( Rom. 6:14) because being under law he is separated from the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus and is in spiritual death (the law has taken the place of the Spirit) and he sins because he is in this spiritual death (Rom. 5:12d ERS). The law of death makes him captive to the law of sin ( Rom. 7:21-23).
  12. There is deliverance from the Romans 7 experience (Rom. 7:25a) and the three steps of that deliverance is given Rom. 7:25b-8:4.
    Step 1 - The recognition that legalism is the problem (Rom. 7:25b):
    "So then, on the one hand, I myself with my mind am a slave to the law of God,
    but on the other hand, with my flesh to the law of sin." ERS
    To be delivered from legalism one must recognize that he himself is a slave to the law and a slave to sin, that is, that he is under the law and sin has dominion over him ( Rom. 6:14).
    Step 2 - Deliverance from condemnation (Rom. 8:1):
    "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." NAS
    God does not condemn us who are in Christ for our failure under the law
    but delivers us from under law and places us back under grace by this word of no condemnation in Christ Jesus.
    Step 3 - Deliverance from sin and death (Rom. 8:2):
    "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death." NAS
    The law or power of action of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus frees us from the law or power of action of sin and of death. The law of death is power of death acting to make one dead. The law of sin is the power of sin acting to make one sin. Since death leads to sin, the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus delivers from sin by giving us life in Christ Jesus which is deliverance from the law of death and thus from the law of sin.
  13. The "normal" Christian life is the walk according to the Spirit by faith and not a legalistic Spirit-empowered law-keeping; it is the Spirit-filled law-fulfillment by love ( Rom. 8:4; 13:10).