2025 Bible Study Group

Romans 6

If salvation were really so easy, then won't men take it as a license to sin? Paul gives the answer:
1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?

Romans 6:3-7
Paul gives a brief treatment of baptism unto death. Some men, whenever they see the words 'baptism' or 'water,' will collapse them all to refer to the ordinance without regard to the context. I take Paul to refer to the spiritual reality behind the symbolon, since he makes no mention of water, but speaks of union with Christ, not that they're disconnected, but they are distinct. When Christ died, I died. Since He was raised, I will be raised. What is the result?

11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
"I am crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me, and the life that I do live, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me."

14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
I think that some men would be happier if they were not under Grace but under Law. The Apostle has a word for them, Galatians 5:4: You have been severed from Christ, you who are being justified by law; you have fallen from grace!

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gracious gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
There it is, a direct harkening back to Romans 4:4-5. The wage that God owes our work is death, it is merited. But eternal life in Christ Jesus is freely given to the one who does not work, but believes upon Him who justifies the ungodly.

@Samseau If you disagree with me, then feel free to message me. I don't think the members appreciate our back-and-forths.
 
Romans 6

In this chapter it's as though Paul is clarifying what faith and baptism into Christ really means. And what union with his death and resurrection means.

How can men baptized into Christ wallow in sin if they understand what it means to believe and be baptized?

How can those who profess Christ choose to live in sin any longer? (Verse 2)

We died with Christ so as Christ was raised from the dead we might walk in newness of life. (Verse 4)
United to his death and resurrection, which represent our death to sin and our new birth, and the literal resurrection of our own bodies. (Verses 5-8)

Christ died so we might no longer be slaves of sin. (Verse 6)

We died to sin when Christ died and we will be raised with him, spiritually and physically, united to his resurrection. (Verse 8)

Count yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus; therefore don't let sin reign in your bodies: put it to death. (Verses 11-12)
 
Romans 7

Verses 1-4
Paul gives an analogy of how believers were subject to the Law until they died through Christ's death. The Law is not binding on those who are dead. Therefore, the life that you now live is through Grace.

Every law has a purpose: to inculcate a character within you. Each nation has it's own law, it's own character that it strives to be. We have so much discord in America because this nation does not agree on which character we should be. This is even truer for the Law of God. God's Law is a description of His own character. Why is Christ the only man to have kept the Law of God? Because He is God and possesses God's very character. He is the character that the Law wants to inculcate within us. Why have all men transgressed the Law? Because they are not God. Even the Law of God emphasizes that fundamental truth: that God is God and we are not. He is the Creator and we are the creation. He is the Shepherd and we are the sheep of His pasture.

Paul was mighty in the Law, but His devotion to the Law caused him to persecute the Church of God. There is no tragedy more doomed and self-defeating. How could one, upholding the Law of God, destroy those whom God has Graced? This is why Paul so emphasizes Grace over Law for those who believe.

5 For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. 6But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were constrained, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.
The fact that we were aroused to sin by the Law's holy commandments speaks to how short of God's character we fall. But God will not hold us to this standard if we have faith in Him, but will give us everything we need to be acceptable in His sight according to His Grace. We serve in the newness of the Spirit, contracted by the New Covenant. Not in the oldness of the letter, contracted by the Old Covenant.

7 What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! Rather, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law.
The problem is not that the Law is evil, we are. The Law appears evil to those who are evil. But it is good to those who are good, and no one is good other than God alone. God tells the truth, even if it makes every man a liar.

9 Now I was once alive apart from the Law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died; 10and this commandment, which was to lead to life, was found to lead to death for me.
The more Paul exercised his knowledge of the Law, the more he became condemned. I suggest that here he speaks in a higher sense. Think of Adam, who was once innocent, but when God's commandment against eating from the tree came, sin was aroused in him and he ate and died, and that commandment which was to lead to life was found to lead to death for him.
 
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Earlier in this thread I quoted what Augustine wrote about how him and his friends would steal pears off of a tree not because they just had to have pears at that moment but for the thrill of doing something transgressive. I thought of that quote again when I was reading about how the law would arouse sin in people. The example used in the Romans 7 was how the law against coveting aroused every sort of coveting in the people confronted by the law.
 
Some more reflections on Romans 6.

Knowing this, that our old man has been crucified with Him, so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we should no longer be slaves to sin. For the one who has died is freed from sin. (Verses 6-7)

"A corpse doesn't lust after other people's bodies, worship riches, slander, lie, covet, or insult its rivals." -Gregory of Nyssa.


Dead to sin, dead to the taste of old pleasures.
Dead to inflamed desires.
Disinterested in all the things that control, captivate, and dominate men.
Free to serve God as men dead to everything that dominates and blinds the world.
 
Romans 7

14 For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, having been sold into bondage under sin.
Men fancy themselves as free, neutral, and autonomous. Blinded by Satan who tells them that their slavery is freedom. Only those in Christ know under what bondage they were in, having been set free by the Son.

15 For what I am working out, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. 16But if I do the very thing I do not want, I agree with the Law, that it is good.
The Apostle speaks as a man trapped within his own body, like a good bird in an evil cage. He wants to fly, and the commandment tells him to fly, but the cage will not allow him to fly, but since he wants to fly, he concurs with the commandment telling him to fly. In this context, he is willing but unable. The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. Such is our faith, which is willing to do every good thing but we are unable to because of our weaknesses.

17 So now, no longer am I the one working it out, but sin which dwells in me. 18For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the working out of the good is not. 19For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. 20But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one working it out, but sin which dwells in me.
I dare someone to use this line of reasoning should they ever find themselves in trial: I didn't do it but the sin in me did it. No court but God's will accept this, since faith in Christ is true justification. You see how Paul no longer identifies himself with his sin, though he does not deny it's presence within him.

22 For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, 23but I see a different law in my members, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a captive to the law of sin which is in my members. 24Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Charles Spurgeon once described Christians as having two natures. The inner nature is the heart of faith. It is supernaturally born and cannot sin. The outer nature is the naturally born body of sin, carrying out evil works. If we have the inner nature, then rest assured that "He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus." It is amazing that even the great Apostle Paul would say "wretched man that I am" and not "wretched man that I was."

I believe the hymn "Our God is able to deliver thee" comes as a response to Paul's question: who is able to deliver me from this body of death? Though by sin oppressed, go to Him for rest, our God is able to deliver thee.
 
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Romans 8. Huge chapter.

1 Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
What is "therefore" there for? Faith in Christ, the willingness to do His commandments and trusting in Him when you are too weak to do them. There is now no condemnation, only justification for those in Christ Jesus.

3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did:
The weakness of the Law was it's inability to transform Israel's heart, so the Law could never be fulfilled as long as it depended on men.

sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 4so that the righteous requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Double Imputation. Christ never broke the Law and His righteousness is imputed to those who believe. Our sin was imputed to Him on the cross. It parallels Paul in 2 Corinthians 5: He made Him who knew no sin to be sin in our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God, for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, 8and those who are in the flesh are not able to please God.
There is the noetic effect of sin, harkening back to Romans 1; sins effect on the mind. It is hostile toward God. How many times have you heard God accused of evil? The clearer He is presented, especially as He has revealed Himself in the Word, the more evil He appears to the reprobate mind. It wills not to be subject to God's Law and it is not even able to subject itself. This is why it's not our choice, but a supernatural endeavor on God's part in converting the heart. V8 has a parallel in Hebrews, that without faith it is impossible to please Him.

9 However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.
Paul is consistent with Jesus in John 3. The Spirit blows where He wishes, beyond the control of men. Men cannot see the Kingdom unless they are born again by the Spirit. Also, note how the Spirit is said to be of God (The Father) and of Christ (the Son) in common, to correct the notion that the Spirit is of the Father only and has no eternal relationship with the Son.

11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
Harkening back to the two natures in Romans 7, Paul says that there will come a time when this will no longer be, but that the physical body may also be granted a resurrection.

12 So then, brothers, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh...
This obligation is not like the obligation of the Law as Paul will show. I take it as obligation in a manner of speaking.

15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry out, “Abba! Father!”
If you had a good father, then you would know that to love him and to follow his rules did not come across as a begrudging obligation, but you loved to do the things that pleased him, it didn't feel like an obligation at all. I regret when people have abusive, unloving, or absent fathers because their earthly fathers set a horrible precedent for the Heavenly Father.
 
sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,

This is yet another reference to the Eucharist. The Eucharist is the offering for sin.

John 6:53

So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you;
 
Romans 8 Part II

19For the anxious longing of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. 20For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope 21that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
There was Creation. Then there was Corruption. But there will be Redemption. Like a woman feeling birth pangs, the Creation longs to see the Redemption, we also feel this in ourselves, and this is the Redemption, when we will be fully revealed to be sons of God, which God will publicly display by our resurrection, just as God proved Jesus to be His only Son when He raised Him from the dead.

26 And in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
I thank God that my prayers are filtered and bolstered by the Holy Spirit.

28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.
Not some things. All things. You see in the lives of the Prophets and Apostles highs and lows, tears and laughter, righteousness and sin, life and death. But all of these things were subject to God's providence in drawing these men to Himself. The same is true for we who believe.

29 Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers;
The Golden Chain of Redemption. Those whom He foreknew, He also predestined. Biblically, foreknown does not mean "know about" but known intimately, or covenantally. Such as Adam "knowing" Eve.

30 and those whom He predestined, He also called; and those whom He called, He also justified; and those whom He justified, He also glorified.
Salvation is a package deal. You cannot have one of these without the other. We were foreknown, predestined, called, justified, glorified. We have not yet seen our glorification, but Paul speaks about it in the past tense as if it's a fixed reality, just as Isaiah prophesied Christ's death is if it already happened.
 
Romans 8 Part III

32 He who indeed did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?
The death of Christ is a promise that God will continue His salvific work in His Elect.

33Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; 34who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.
If God, the Judge of all, has declared His Elect to be justified, then who can say otherwise? There are many who agree with Satan when they say that God's justification of His Church is a legal fiction, but they cannot see God's justice carried out on the cross. Without the eyes of faith, they cannot see that tether that connects Christ to His chosen ones, ties that nothing can sever. Even still, Christ is interceding right now for His chosen ones against the accusatory darts of the enemy and his followers.

38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
There is no created thing that can separate us from the saving love of God. Last I checked, we also are created. I am amazed at how people can read this and say: No Paul, you are wrong, actually we can separate ourselves from the love of God. Let God be true and every man be a liar.
 
There is no created thing that can separate us from the saving love of God. Last I checked, we also are created. I am amazed at how people can read this and say: No Paul, you are wrong, actually we can separate ourselves from the love of God. Let God be true and every man be a liar.

Your interpretation seems to be off here. Paul is saying this all contingent upon one accepting Christ. If they reject Christ, they get no such protection. And part of accepting Christ means eating his body, and drinking his blood.
 
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