(See letter of 1909/04/15)

Romans 7 and Romans 8

In issue number 20 of Missionæren, B. Hjelle writes the following: “Having an unbiased view of the Word and a corresponding personal experience of being liberated from the law and from sin, we will discover that here Paul is describing the condition of all believers when they were under the law as miserable slaves. To be freed from the law and still be in Rom. 7 is impossible.”

Paul rightly asks: “Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives?”

The apostle is speaking to those who know the law. Can you really say that those who are under the law know the law? I don’t think so. In order to know the true purpose of the law, a person has to have fought their way through to the end of the law, to Christ. If you want to speak to someone who knows about the year 1908, you need to speak to someone who has lived through that year and entered 1909.

Obviously, we can conclude from this that Paul was speaking to those who had been freed and had been filled with God’s Spirit.

We can see that those were the ones Paul was writing to by reading Rom. 7:4. “Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ,” etc. And then we read in verse 6: “But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.”

Consider this:

1) We, Paul, the Romans, and everyone in Rom. 7 have been freed from the law.

2) We have died to that which we were held by.

3) We serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.

So how does all this fit together with it being absolutely impossible to be freed from the law and still be in Rom.7?

Verses 14 and 15 could perhaps appear to place us under the law: “For we” (who according to verse 6 serve in the newness of the Spirit) “know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.”

Set aside an entire day. Determine to only do good all day long. Do you think that you will come rushing in at the end of the day, rejoicing over all your good deeds? I don’t think so. On the contrary, I think you would probably have to bite your tongue and admit that things went altogether differently than you intended.

But if it didn’t go as you intended, then, of course, you did that which you did not want to do. So again we meet one another in Rom. 7 and read verse 17 together.

“But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.”

Isn’t this interesting? It is at this point that we begin to understand how completely corrupt we are. All day long, with the very best of intentions, we attempted to do only good, and we still did what we hated. So then it must no longer be my fault that it all went so wrong. It was because of the sin that dwells within me—my corrupt nature.

In this manner Paul reasons his way through the entire chapter until he exclaims: “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” So what is this body of death? Quite simply, it is our body in which the law of sin and death resides. As time passes, our bodies grow older, our hair becomes gray and falls out, our teeth break, our faces wrinkle, our backs become bent, and our legs get weak; we need a cane and everything points toward the grave. You might ask, What has been freed from this law of sin and death? It is our spirit, our human spirit which, like the last Adam, has become a life-giving spirit. It gives life. 2 Cor. 4:16. “Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.”

Since God has ordered things in such a way—and we cannot resist His will—Paul thanks God that he, with his mind, can serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.

We are not completely finished just because we have received God’s Spirit. This is just the beginning, because this Spirit is to guide us into all the truth. If we were already perfected, all exhortation would be unnecessary.

But “there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus . . . .” Rom. 8:1. In spite of this, we still carry our flesh with us into Rom. 8. “For if you live according to the flesh” (this body of death, wherein sin dwells) “you will die . . . .” Rom. 8:13.

I think I have probably said enough for now on this subject, but I felt like something had to be said against this false doctrine which creates such a huge divide between Rom. 7 and Rom. 8. Indeed, ever since God gave me His good Holy Spirit, this doctrine has repulsed me. I have known a lot of people who claim to have skipped over Rom. 7 into Rom. 8, and yet they ended up in almost every kind of sin.

Therefore, let our testimony be in keeping with our lives; because being free according to “the doctrine” is one thing, but being free from sin in our everyday lives is a completely different matter.

Horten, May 19, 1909