Notes from a notebook belonging to Johan O. Smith

March 19, 1910

Romans Chapter 7

Verse 1: “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?”

When it speaks about the law having dominion over a person as long as they live, it is obviously not referring to the normal lifespan of a human being; verse 6 already refers to being delivered from the law, even while being present in the flesh. The point the scripture is making is that the law has dominion over both Jew and Greek as long as it is “I who live” as opposed to “Christ living in me.”

This law which has dominion is not the Mosaic law, since the Romans, to whom the letter was written, were Gentiles according to the flesh. Jesus did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. He embodied the law and wrote it on the tablets of flesh in our hearts, we who are flesh of His flesh and bone of His bone. Actually, He has even inscribed the law in the hearts of all mankind.

Verse 2: “For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband.”

Here Paul is using a man and wife primarily as an example of the binding nature of the law. But just as there is first the natural and then the spiritual, this example also applies in a spiritual sense.

The Man to whom the woman is bound is the Lord, as mentioned in Ex. 6:2-3, where it is written:

“And God spoke to Moses and said to him: ‘I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name Lord I was not known to them.’”

It is by the name “Lord” that the body becomes apparent, and thereby also the law; for every sin that a man commits is outside the body. The light of the law shines from outside the body to illuminate the perfect Man, who is the Lord, who was now to be revealed to Israel.

The reason the law was weak was because the flesh was weak, which is why it also says in Rom. 8:3: “For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh.”

God could not leave things as they were with the light of the law shining on that perfect body. He had to do a greater work––to condemn sin within the body itself, there where the root of sin dwelt. That is why Jesus said, when He came into the world, “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You have prepared for Me.” Heb. 10:5. In this body the whole will of God was to be done, and that caused great tribulations and sufferings. This body had to be broken down so that the root of sin could be put to death in the body. Therefore, when we die with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him.

We put our self-life––which is subject to the law––to death and marry the risen Lord and Master. Only then are we free from the law, which is the same as being free from transgressions, because the law is only for transgressors.

Verse 3: “So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law . . . .”

We know that when a married woman runs off and becomes the wife of another man while the first husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. It is just the same in the spiritual world. Before we have died with Christ, while we are still under the law, we must adhere to the law, because the law is holy, righteous, and good. The law always points toward what is perfect, and we are always to walk in its light. If we run away from the law, we become an adulteress, and that will always end in ruin and corruption. The law must be allowed to accomplish its work with us; its task is to chasten us to bring us to Christ. As long as any self-life exists, the law must be permitted to work. Running away from the law before it has accomplished its work with us is not “liberation” from the law, in spirit and truth, but just ungodliness and harlotry.

Verse 4: “Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.”

The first thing we read here is that we have died to the law through the body of Christ. Once we have come into the body of Christ, we are no longer under the law. All sin is outside of this body, because the body of Christ has always been presented only in the service of righteousness. We are baptized by one Spirit to be one body. God’s Spirit will make us introspective and teach us to walk on the paths of righteousness, where the requirements of the law are perfectly fulfilled. Consequently, we come into perfect harmony with the law which we previously transgressed. But this marvelous life in the leading of the Spirit can only be lived in the body of Christ, of which we have become members.

We now belong to another; we are not our own. Our plans, our future prospects, and our time are all in God’s hands. We no longer have a right to decide anything for ourselves outside of God. We have become slaves of Christ and must fully and exclusively obey the Lord who has taken us into His service. This complete surrender into God’s almighty hand causes us to bear fruit to God, and these fruits will endure.

Verse 5 “For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death.”

“For when we were in the flesh . . . .” This does not mean we are no longer in the body. But while our entire mind, thoughts, and being were in the flesh and its interests, we bore fruit to death. But now we are not in the flesh but in the Spirit. Rom. 8:9. Our mind and thoughts are now in God’s good Holy Spirit, which is why we can also bear fruit to God.

The sinful passions were aroused by the law. The light of the law is so strong that it judges the sinful passions even in the deepest recesses of our heart, and the more we abstain from them, the more lusts and passions are revealed to us by its light. The law constantly arouses and illuminates in order to show us our total corruption and to teach us to seek out justification in a different way than by the law, because all of our own fruit belongs to death.

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.”

Our mind was bound to our self-life with such strong bonds that we had to die in order to become free. In other words, we had to give up all attempts to live life in God through our own strength. From that moment, we were also set free from the law and from the oldness of the letter. Christ has now become our life and our Lord, and we serve Him in the newness of Spirit. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

Verse 7: “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, ‘You shall not covet.’”

Since the intention was that we were to be set free from the law, and since it is an absolute requirement that we be delivered from it, it could be reasonable to ask: Is the law sin? No, the law is not sin. It was given because of transgressions; and when the transgressions cease, then we are quite naturally freed from the law. But if no law had been given, we would not have been aware of what was sin and what was not sin. For example, we would not know that covetousness was sin unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.” Covetous desires are first awakened in our mind; but now God has given us power to not covet, because we have been set free from covetousness by the body of Christ.

Verse 8: “But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead.”

There is always enmity between sin and the commandment. So, sin always insists on expressing itself, but all these expressions are instantly exposed by the law as transgressions. Once a person realizes that the most evident of these expressions are sin, then they try things that are less obvious, hoping that these things will be acceptable, and they continue like that, without end. Thus, the apostle had to say that the commandment produced all manner of covetous desire in him, which was forbidden according to the law.

If there was no law, there would of course be no sin and therefore no bad conscience.

April 4, 1910

Verse 9: “I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.”

This must have been a time when the apostle lived in an unwatchful state without actually doing things that were obvious vices. If he had lived in gross sin, the law would very quickly have made him aware of the commandment. Nevertheless, as soon as the zeal of the Lord awoke, and the Lord’s love for Paul was revealed to him, the commandment came, and caused sin to revive.

Verse 10: “And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death.”

Once sin had become alive for Paul, he became aware of his wrongdoings in all their hideous ugliness. This was too intense for him, and he came to the admission that he was totally corrupt as a person, who needed a Savior who could save him just as he was. As a result, he died to the thought of being able to live in a well-pleasing way to God by following the law.

Verse 11: “For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me.”

We can ask: What is sin? We can answer: Sin is transgression of the commandments of God. God gave the commandments in such a way that they hindered even the slightest expression of the flesh. An upright soul, who is following along with what happens in their inner life, will quickly see that the fault does not lie with the law when they are unable to be united with it, but rather with themselves. The light of the law attacks even my best deeds and convinces me that even these are not acceptable when they are measured according to the standard of pure selflessness. In this way, the law brings me death. I need another life if I am to live.

Verse 12: “Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.”

In light of this, we see that the law is holy and the commandment is holy. The law denotes the entire law, and the commandment each individual commandment. If the law is holy, each commandment must be holy too.

Verse 13: “Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful.”

Of course, it wasn’t what was good that produced death. Rather, when a person himself is evil and compares himself to what is good, they have to conclude that it isn’t the good that produces death, but their own evil. However, I wouldn’t be able to recognize sin except by comparing it with the good any more than I can recognize a counterfeit two-kroner coin without having seen a real one. But now sin has become exceedingly sinful compared to a holy, just, and good law.

Verse 14: “For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.”

So, now we know that the law is spiritual. Perhaps we knew this previously in an intellectual way, but now we know it with even more certainty; because we know that “I am carnal, sold under sin.” We did not always have this knowledge, but now it has been given to us through the law.

Our “I” according to the flesh will always be carnal, sold under sin––even after we have been set free from the law. The knowledge that I cannot serve God in a well-pleasing manner by living according to the law does not do away with my self-life. It gives me clear enlightenment over and liberation from my life of bondage, but my “I” can remain and continues to remain in the flesh. It is still just as fully under the dominion of sin. But instead of being under the law, this sinful “I” has come into the body, where it is to be destroyed. Therefore it is also written in Rom. 8:3: “For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh . . . .”

In other words, once we are freed from the law, we have the possibility of getting rid of sin in the flesh, not by our own strength, but by the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, by which we are conformed to Christ in His death. This is the death in which the “I” in the flesh is put to death. Dying to the law is only the “I” giving up its attempts to live a holy, just, and good life; the dying of the “I” in the body of Christ is destruction in the fullest sense of the word.

Verse 15: “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.”

Surely there is no one, no matter how far along they may be in Christ, who does not occasionally do things which they hate and which must be judged. For what is born of the flesh is flesh, and it cannot be subject to the law of God. When a person hates his foolish deeds, this is nothing other than a good indicator of having the right attitude. If transgressors hated their evil deeds, they would quickly stop doing them.

Verse 16: “If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good.”

My attitude has now changed. I understand that the law is good, and it is my deeds that are evil. Now I love the law because it is holy, just, and good; but I hate my own life and my own deeds, and I judge and reject them as insufficient.

Verse 17: “But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.”

Verse 18: “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find.”

When we walk in the light of God, exercise ourselves in godliness, and are not aware of any condemnation in our conscience, and yet we still end up doing what is sinful and what we hate, then the apostle says, “It is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.” I do not have my senses exercised in everything to distinguish pure from impure, truth from lies, and righteousness from unrighteousness. In our development in Christ, it is easy to confuse these things in unguarded moments. But God does not in any way condemn us for that. Instead, He makes us keenly aware of it so that we can accept it or reject it, hate it or love it. If we have the right attitude of mind, and God’s love dwells in our heart, we will hate the evil we have done, and we will judge it and put this deed to death. Such deeds are not a fruit of evil desire in the sense of conscious transgression; therefore the Scriptures call them “deeds of the body.” These deeds continue with us as long as we are in this earthly house. This is why it also says in Rom. 8:13: “For 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.”

The will to do what is good is certainly present with us, but how to perform it we do not find. Perhaps some people claim they are able to manage it, but the Apostle couldn’t manage it. In other words, we are not able to do the good so that we can count on it as being good, and thereby build a foundation of good works that can satisfy our heart. We should always remain in that humble condition where we have the sense that our best works are only filthy rags, because they truly could have been far better.

Verse 19: “For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.”

Everyone with a God-fearing attitude sets high goals for themselves in Christ Jesus, and they require much of themselves. But the good they want to do goes wrong, and the evil they absolutely didn’t want to do they do. This always results in genuine godly sorrow and true humility, so that we always feel our need for the grace of God. It keeps us in that true poverty of spirit which is always yearning for more of God.

Verse 20: “Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.”

God only holds us accountable for what we have clarity over. He does not judge us for sin that has not become conscious for us. That’s why it also says, “If I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.” My conscious “I” has not agreed with this type of sin, but rather my unconscious “I.” This is like small children, who do many things that are wrong, but they must first be made conscious of what they did wrong before they can be punished. Therefore it also says: convince, rebuke, exhort. Conviction must come first.

Our deeds, even after we are baptized with the Holy Spirit, are full of sin. But the Spirit of God will shine its light on them, and then, once we become conscious of it, we must agree with that judgment. This is how judgment begins with us, as Peter says, and this is exactly the way in which we can exercise our senses to distinguish between the precious and the vile.

Verse 21: “I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.”

Verse 22: “For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.”

Once we have been freed from the law, there usually follows a time where we feel like we are really on top of things. All of the usual feelings of chastisement for everything under the sun are suddenly gone, and everything seems new. However, when we walk in the Spirit and take heed to ourselves, we soon realize, in the light of God’s Spirit, that there is much that is sinful in our words and our deeds. The law no longer judges us, because this judgment has now been left to us, but that doesn’t make things any better. Here the perfect law of liberty is to rule, so we no longer feel any condemnation, but only the Spirit’s guidance and admonition. If you want to walk on this way, it is the most excellent and perfect of all ways, because we only follow the laws of liberty, which become effective through our love for God. This is the perfect bond which binds us firmly to God regardless of our works, despite the evil which is so close at hand.

Verse 23: “But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.”

“But I see another law in my members . . . .” This is the law of sin. Most people nowadays just close their eyes to this law; nevertheless, as long as we are in this body, the law of sin will be present in our members––whether we admit it or not. This law in my members wars against the law of my mind. We should note, however, that we didn’t have the law (the law of God) in our mind, but we had a delight in it. On the other hand, a law of sin was in the flesh, which immediately took a person captive. We conclude from this that what is born of flesh is flesh and can never be subject to the law of God. This is also the reason that we––even when we have been freed from the law––are never satisfied with our works; there is always something to judge, something that could have been different, etc. The law of sin takes us captive.

Verse 24: “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”

This is a question we may well ask, since we are constantly being taken captive in this way by the law of sin in our members.

Verse 25: “I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.”

Paul came to the very reasonable conclusion that we no longer need to be anxious about the law of sin in our members. Instead he thanked God that he could serve the law of God with his mind, while having to serve the law of sin with his flesh. And there is no other possible way out, regardless of what we might think or attempt to come up with.

Romans 8

Verse 1: “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus . . . .”

When our mind is serving the law of God, there is no longer any condemnation; we do indeed serve the law of sin with our flesh, but God does not hold us accountable for this when our mind and our entire longing are for the law of God.

Verse 2: “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.”

When God’s Spirit has shown us that we are bound to serve the law of sin with our flesh all the days of our life, we turn away from the flesh, and we don’t expect anything else from it other than sin. This is how we are set free from the law of sin and death, even though it dwells in our members. Our mind is in the realm of the Spirit, and our whole interest is in the resurrection life. We are not reprimanded for “deeds of the body.” Nonetheless, we ourselves must judge them when the Spirit of God sheds light on the specific deeds we are most conscious of.