Bob Stewart - No Condemnation

         Paul's letter to the Roman Christians is his heartfelt plea for them to understand their relationship to God in Jesus Christ. The situation in Rome was difficult. Jewish Christians had been away, driven out by the Roman government. They returned to find the church thriving but different, in the hands of Gentile Christians. Although both groups followed the same Savior and tried to live and worship side by side, they did so from very different cultural perspectives. The result was conflict and uncertainty, as Gentile Christians claimed freedom and Jewish Christians held onto strong beliefs in law.

        Paul begins by establishing that all of humankind stands condemned, hopeless and despairing before God. Whether one lives by observations of nature, an internal moral sense, or law given by God himself, all, by their own wills and weakness, fall short of their own chosen standard and far short of God's. There is no way any of us can close or even reduce the gap between God and us. Perfect justice demands our condemnation.

        The answer to this dilemma is Jesus Christ. His death, burial and resurrection satisfied the demands of justice, opening a way back to God. Access to that way is through immersion in water, but this is not the key point at hand. The Romans did not dispute how to become Christians. Their problem was to understand what it meant to be Christians, to be forgiven of our shortcomings, our sin.

        In chapter 6, Paul speaks to those who would turn full, ongoing forgiveness into license. He makes it clear that Christians are to move away from sin, not use forgiveness as an excuse to continue or go deeper in sin. This is a relatively easy concept, since people generally accept that our behavior should be compared to some standard.

        The major problem that Paul addresses is dependence on law. One has only to look around at human society to see how we try to codify right and wrong, in ever increasing detail, but inevitably end up with systems of rules that are both cumbersome and ineffective, often having results the opposite of what was intended. Regardless of man's tendency to corrupt law, Paul makes it clear in chapters 7 and 8 that living by law is not only not the answer, it is a problem.

        Paul starts chapter 7 addressing the Jews, those who know about living by law. He makes it clear that God's law as given to the Jews is not wrong, but that its clarity and even existence serve only to condemn us. He speaks at length of how good and evil are at war in our bodies, and how we constantly succumb to evil although we want to do good. This is generally taken as our ongoing struggle, but look again. This is the struggle of one living under law, and we are dead to law. As a widow is no longer bound to her dead husband, we are not bound to law. The struggle Paul describes is not our struggle.

        In chapter 8 Paul continues to equate living in a struggle, under law, as living by our sinful nature. He says that we must live by the Holy Spirit within us. He says that no external power, including our own sin, can separate us from God, and that God's power can turn even our mistakes to good.

        It all comes down to this. We cannot live by a set of detailed rules, a law. We must live by the Spirit within us, constantly forgiven as we constantly fall short. We don't go part way, with God making up the rest. We don't make it any of the way, but God makes up the whole distance, as an undeserved gift, his grace, because we are in Christ.