Life in Tension: A Meditation on Romans 7 for the 6th Sunday after Pentecost

For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing:

 for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.

Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.

For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:

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.

 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

 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.

 

The Christian life, as St. Paul would describe it to the Christians in Rome, is one that is always in tension while in this world.  The Mind, refreshed and renewed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ, seeks by faith to reciprocate the divine love it has received by grace, first to God then to neighbor.  Yet the Body to which Paul refers, seems to be at war with this Gospel, constantly lusting after that which is against the Word and Will of God.  Paul would go so far as to say that he finds nothing good in his flesh, that it is a Body of sin and death, and that only Jesus could rescue him from it.  The Law of the Mind is the Word of God Incarnate, crucified for the sins of the world, offering all people the same eternal life, forgiveness of sins, and salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone.  The Law of the Flesh is the condemnation which comes to all people according to God’s Justice—a Law of Sin which can only have one outcome before the holiness and righteousness of Almighty God.  And so, Paul reconciled the tension between these two impulses and two outcomes in the individual human life, by appealing to the triumph of life over death found in only in Jesus.

 

It is important to remember that Paul was not adopting the old philosophy of the Gnostics, who reduced human existence to a righteous life of the Mind, and where a careless life of debauchery in the flesh was meaningless to the soul.  Instead, Paul recognized the tough reality of Christians being at the same time both sinners and saints:  by the Law, legitimately condemned to death, and by the Gospel, freely given the gift of eternal life by the imputed righteousness of Jesus.  The human person is created to be a body and soul in union, an incarnate creature of flesh and spirit, which is why death is so terrible a fate for human beings.  When our soul is separated from our body that no longer functions according to the material principles of the universe, that death is a breaking of our created design.  Left unaddressed, a human soul detached from its body would be an eternal aberration, debasing what God had originally created good.  The Resurrection of Jesus Christ after the victory of his Cross was the first fruit of a new creation, an unalterable testimony to God’s intention to restore full life to all people suffering under the curse of death.  The Gospel which Jesus gave to His Disciples was to preach eternal life and the forgiveness of sins by grace through faith in Him alone, so that even as a person died in this world, they would live forever in Him.  This was not a separating or reduction of the human person, but a restoration of the full created glory of man, through the God-Man Jesus Christ.

 

And yet, this creates a tension in the Christian life, and in the world at large.  A person apart from grace is destined to die not just once, but twice—first as their soul is separated from their body in physical death, and second as their soul is separated from God for all eternity.  The second death, as St. John would note it in his Apocalypse, is the horror of being judged under the Word of God’s Law because they had rejected His Word of Grace, and so even with a resurrected body unable to die through separation from the soul, such a one would be cast into hell forever.  Without the grace and love of God through Jesus Christ, the first death would always lead to the second death, because no man can stand before the Law of God justified by their own works.  Only in Jesus could a person who dies in this world escape the second death, and rise up on the Last Day to inherit a new Heaven and new Earth forever devoid of sin, death, and the devil.  Thus the Christian who lives by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone while still in this world, lives presently in the promise of eternal life even as they face the first death.  This is why Jesus could tell His Disciples that whoever believes in Him will live even though they die, because the forgiveness and life that Jesus brings to His people is one that transcends temporal death, and rescues from judgment in the next world.

 

What this means for the Christian is that Life is greater than Death, and that God has proved it so by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.  In this world before the Lord’s final return, we live in a real tension, where our Mind and soul cling to the Gospel promises of Jesus and strive to live in His Word by grace through faith, while our fallen nature still lusts after all the things which are leading to its eventual death.  Only when the Christian has finally laid down his sinful nature in the first death, can the dross be refined from the pure gold, and his eternal life shine forth the reflected glory of his Savior.  In this world, we wait in this tension, working the good which God has ordained for us since before the advent of time, fighting the good fight of faith and repenting daily for our sins against His righteous Word.  But in the next, we wait victorious over sin, death, hell, and the devil, knowing that the Resurrection is as sure to come as the Cross has already occurred at Calvary.  On that great Day when the Lord culminates all the work which was ordained for this epoch of time, the dead in Christ will rise first, and those still here on earth will be caught up with them, transformed in the blinking of an eye to leave our sinful nature behind and rise up fully restored forever.  This tension, this war, which so consumes our lives and tortures our Minds is only for a little while, and then the glory of eternity dawns.

 

Today, the Word of the Lord calls us to faith and repentance, that we might have life and have it abundantly in Jesus Christ our Lord.  The individual cross He has given us to bear is the sinful nature we carry until we leave it in the grave, so that we might rise up with Him in His New Creation, forgiven and free, forever.  The Christian has no fear of the first death, because the terror of the second death is already overcome by the Vicarious Atonement Jesus made for the sins of the whole world.  Rather, though the first death is a judgment all people must face as a consequence of our first rebellion against the Author of Life, for the Christian even that first death is transformed into liberation.  While the road may seem long and the fight daunting as we live out these few years of our life in this world, it is the promise of Jesus which not only gives us love and strength to endure, but grace and mercy to glimpse an unimaginable eternity prepared for all those who love Him.  Take courage, dear Christian, and fight on—for our Lord has already done everything needful for the totality of your salvation, and your eternal life is as unassailable as the immutable Word of the Living God.  Soli Deo Gloria!  Amen.