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3.12 - A History of Christianity in the Apostolic Age
The Christianity of Paul
Justification from Law
Our study of Paul's conception of redemption throws light upon his view of law, and of the Christian's relation to it, a subject about which he has so much to say in his Epistles to the Romans and Galatians.
By law Paul means ordinarily not merely the divine character, or the natural constitution of the universe, or the ideal of human perfection, but positive divine enactment; a definite expression of the will of God given for a particular purpose. Law in this sense was laid by God upon Adam and all his descendants, Gentiles as well as Jews.
But law, whatever its terms, and whatever the time and the circumstances of its enactment, was given only in consequence of sin. [Rom. 8:38 sq.] Had there been no sin, there would have been no law; it was the existence of sin that required its promulgation. But sin attaches to human nature or flesh. Flesh, therefore, is subject to law, and every man who is in the flesh, whether he be Jew or Gentile, is under its dominion.
But the law, whose author is God, is holy while the flesh is unholy. The flesh, therefore, never has obeyed, and never can obey, the law. [Rom 7:12 sq., 7:7] The law consequently serves only to reveal man's sin. [Rom. 3:20] Becoming conscious as he does when he sees the contrast between his own life and the law's righteous requirements that he is a sinner, he knows that not life, but death, the necessary consequence of sin, awaits him. He does not die because he breaks the law; he dies because he is sinful, and that he is whether there be any law or not. [Rom. 5:13, 7:13]
But a man is subject to law only so long as he lives. When he dies, he passes out from under its control, for the law has dominion over the living only, not over the dead. [Rom. 7:1] When Christ died, therefore, he was discharged from the law, to which he had been subject while in the flesh, [Gal. 4:4] just as every man is discharged from it when he dies, not because the law has exacted its full penalty, -- the law exacts no penalty, -- but simply because it can sustain no relation to one who has ceased to exist.
But Christ did not remain dead; on the contrary, he rose again. But in the new life upon which he entered at his resurrection, he was no longer subject to the law, for he was no longer in the flesh, but in the Spirit, and over the Spirit, that is over the Divine Spirit, which alone is in Paul's thought, the law exercises no dominion. Christ's new life, therefore, in the Spirit, was a life of complete freedom from the law.
But that which took place in the case of Christ takes place also in the case of his disciples, who die with him unto the flesh, and rise with him in the Spirit. Dying, they are discharged from the law, and rising again, they rise unto a new life over which the law has no dominion, a life lying without its sphere. Thus the man who has died with Christ and has risen again with him, is not under the condemnation of the law, for the law sustains no relation to him.
It is in this sense that Paul's characterization of the believer as a justified man is to be understood. He has been justified not by the law, but from the law, for he has been discharged from its control, and it no longer has jurisdiction over him. [cf. Rom. 7:7]
Paul is very emphatic and unequivocal in his assertion that the Christian disciple is a free man; that the Christian life upon which he has already entered, is a life of complete liberty. [Cf. e.g. Rom. 6:14, 7:6, 10:4; Gal. 2:19, 3:24 sq., 5:13,18; Col. 2:14. But there are other passages that seem at first sight inconsistent with the assertion that the Christian is subject to no law. Such, for instance are Rom. 8:4, 13:8-10, and Gal. 5:14, where the fulfilling of the law is referred to. But it is evident, when these passages are read in the light of the others just mentioned, that Paul was thinking when he wrote them not of a law laid upon the Christian from without, but of the inner law of the divine character. The law which was given by God, and is therefore spiritual (Rom. 7:14), is an expression of the character of God, and for that very reason it is impossible for the flesh to keep it. But if it expresses the divine character, it must express also the life of the spiritual man, for that life is divine; and thus the spiritual man, though not under the bondage of a law any more than God is under the bondage of a law, may properly be said to fulfil the law, just as God fulfils the law of his own character which finds expression in the revealed law. The Christian is not under law, but the Christian life is a holy life, and thus there is revealed in it the same features that are expressed in the holy law of God. And so the law finds itself fulfilled in the Christian.]
But such teaching smacks of antinomianism. Indeed, even in his own day, it brought upon Paul the condemnation of many that believed that his Gospel meant the subversion of all good morals, and must inevitably open the floodgates of anarchy and crime. It is instructive to notice the way in which Paul answers his assailants. He makes no compromise, nor does he in the least alter the terms of his Gospel. He simply asserts the it we died with Christ unto the flesh, we died also unto sin, and "how, then," he cries, "shall we who died to sin, any longer live therein?" [Rom. 6:2]
To say that freedom from the law means license to sin is from Paul's standpoint illogical and absurd, for only he is free from the law who is dead unto the flesh, and therefore unto sin. If he comes again at any time under the control of the flesh, if he ceases to be controlled by the Spirit, and is led by the flesh into sin, he comes thereby immediately under the control of law. He cannot be controlled by the flesh without being controlled by law.
Freedom from law, therefore, cannot mean license to sin, for there is no freedom from law where there is sin. If a Christian man were to abuse his freedom, he would in the very act cease to be free, and would be subject again to law just as all unredeemed men are subject to it, but he would not then be Christ's.
Used by permission of the publisher.
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