So, I've been trying to get myself into a steady routine with reading my bible, and I decided to try a new method. What I'm doing is reading a book, or around 5 chapters of a book, for 30 days every day. I decided to start with Romans because I love it so much, and figured it would be the most helpful. For the last 30 days I read chapters 1-5. Last week I started 6-10. I'm of firm conviction that chapters 6 and 7 of Romans are two of the hardest chapters of the bible to understand. I'm having a hard time right now because my mind won't let me get on to chapters 8, 9, and 10 until I get 6 and 7 figured out.
There's a debate that's been raging on wether or not Romans 7:14-25 is Paul as a believer, or Paul speaking from when he was an unbeliever. My life is on hold until I get this figured out. The more I meditate on the repercussions of getting this wrong, the more weight I feel from the text. The repercussions are pretty serious. 1.) I feel/think/experience exactly what's going on in those verses. If that's Paul as an unbeliever, that worries me. 2.) It seems that viewing him as an unbeliever has led to a variety of perfectionistic doctrines, which then leads to more sin i.e. judgementalism/haughtiness 3.) It seems that the unbeliever view would cause some misguided counseling for someone thinking through his sin this way. 4.) On the other side of the spectrum, getting it wrong could lead to despair for a christian who desperately wants to stop sinning and sees the text as a "no hope' situation. 5.) Or, getting it wrong on this side could cause a christian to "make peace" with his sin and continue in it. All of this caused me to camp out on chapters 6 and 7 until I figured out this conundrum enough to appease my mind. I think I'm there. I want to talk it out though, and see if anyone who reads this agrees with me. I tried to study the texts thoroughly to come to my own conclusion before I went to the commentaries/sermons, but of course the giants are going to be way more eloquent and insightful, so I won't be hesitating to use them....
eunœa
6 years ago
A very important passage indeed, and well worthy of your musings...
ReplyDeleteI will be interested to hear your final thoughts.
I am in the 'believer' camp for numerous reasons, these being the major ones:
1. Paul breaks from past to present tense in verse 6 (But now we are released from the law...), and stays in this tense for the duration of the chapter. He does this without any indication of entering into some kind of character narrative which would not be his current self.
2. Every believer is 'in bondage to sin' at the moment that they sin. The deceitfulness of sin holds them captive, else they would not believe the lies that sin promises.
3. Does any believer actually achieve the level of genuine spirituality their heart desires?
Does any believer repel sin to the degree their heart desires? If not, then what they want to do, they do not do, and what they do not want to do, that they do.
4. Paul was a Pharisee, as an unbeliever, therefore he had no regard for inward sin. Jesus pointed out very clearly that the Pharisee's concerns were innately external. Paul as an unbeliever would have no such regard for the sins of his heart. Instead the passage says he 'delights in the law of God in his inner being.'
Paul's statements that he 'delights in' and 'serves the Law of God with his mind' clearly marks that mind of a man released from the bondage of total depravity, who would otherwise have no such inclination.