Dear Friends,
Paul can be difficult to understand. Aside from the complex theology that his letters reveal, he was a very complicated person. He was a trained rabbinic scholar and a Roman citizen, well versed in both the laws of the Torah and the laws of the Roman Empire, a most unusual combination. He set out on the road to Damascus not simply as an unbeliever in Jesus; he was following orders to go there to persecute and possibly execute Christians. But then, after his mysterious conversion experience on the road to Damascus, he did not simply drop his prior life to follow the Christian path. He found profound ways to incorporate the laws of his faith and the laws of Rome into his new experience of relationship with Jesus Christ.
The sophistication of his vision and understanding can make his insights challenging for us to grasp. It helps to look at his writings from the perspective of his time and place. By doing so, we are able to perceive how vitally new Paul’s words were when they were written, and how new his message remains today, 2,000 years later.
Before we delve into what God is telling us through Paul’s writings in Romans 8:1-11, let us take a moment to pray together this prayer for illumination.
God, by your Spirit, open our minds to your word this day, that we might learn to walk according to your ways, for the sake of Jesus, in whose name we pray. Amen.
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,” (8:1) Paul assures us. Phew! So much for Paul’s complexity! After all my musings about how difficult it is to understand Paul, we’re home free! It seems like there’s no more to be said: that there is no condemnation for us says it all, right? I guess my work here is done, and yours as well????
But wait, if everything can be so neatly tied up and delivered to us in that first verse, why does Paul continue writing? Clearly, the evangelist in Paul wants to make sure we fully understand just what it is that God has done and is doing for us. And the preacher in me wants to make sure of that as well. Nothing worthwhile is ever quite as easy to understand as the first part of this verse might lead us to believe.
There’s more to that first verse, and that’s where the real work for our understanding lies. What do those last three words, “in Christ Jesus” mean? The emphasis for this verse is not meant to be on the otherwise very attractive notion of there being no condemnation; rather, it’s on being “in Christ Jesus.” Again, what does that mean?
And what about the notion of time – of “now” in that first, deceptively simple, verse? The “now” in this verse isn’t the type of “now” an irate boss might be demanding with an imperious, “I want that report NOW!” Paul’s “now” is opened-ended. It began a quarter of a century before he penned this theological opus during the reign of Nero. It started in Galilee with the itinerant ministry of Jesus of Nazareth and blossomed into the fullness of Christ’s witness with his death and resurrection in Jerusalem. This “now” continues to this day, and beyond. In its way, this “now” gives us a hint of the timelessness of eternity.
And just as Paul’s world view isn’t constrained by time or place, it’s also not limited by politics or society. When he writes of “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus [that] has set you free from the law of sin and death,” (8:2) he is not referring to what we think of as laws or civil ordinances, whether in ancient Rome or in Scottsville. In our rule-oriented society, we have a different understanding of law from the one Paul is promoting here.
For Paul, law is more like the combined forces of natural law and, more to Paul’s point, divine law. This law is a way of life; it is what governs life itself. It’s not the specifics of what’s right or wrong in a legal sense. This is much greater: Paul is sharing the big divine picture that Jesus, simultaneously fully human and fully divine, represented in his earthly ministry. Christ Jesus brings us the law of the Spirit, and it is something entirely new. It is not equal to or balanced by the laws of sin and death. This is not a bipolar struggle between two equal and competing codes of life (or, as Paul would say, between a code of life and a code of death). The law of the Spirit encompasses and then supersedes the laws of sin and death.
Look back over this passage again. Wherever Paul uses the word “law,” try replacing it in your mind with the word “way.” Thinking about the way, the path, that God gives us for our journey better reflects Paul’s theological intent than a dry, legalistic, or historical understanding of the notion of law. It opens us to receive the Spirit and to allow the Spirit to dwell within us.
The Spirit of God dwells in you,” (8:9) Paul tells us, and “Christ is in you.” (8:10) This is an extraordinarily succinct understanding of the basic sanctity and potential of all humankind. It’s completely uplifting. Perhaps he’s recalling the blinding joy of his sacred experience on the road to Damascus. Paul is affirming and celebrating the indwelling of God in us. It is the divine indwelling that makes it possible for us to find God’s path, led by the Spirit within us, as we journey through our lives.
Paul’s insight is remarkably layered here. Not only is he assuring us of God’s presence through the Spirit in our lives, but he is laying down a foundation for the Christian theological notion of the triune God. We know this as the Trinity. Almost three hundred years before it was definitively accepted by the Council of Nicea, Paul is suggesting it here with an elegant, almost visceral understanding.
The indwelling of God is truly an attractive, compelling concept, but it’s still very hard to fully grasp. How to fathom the notion that “Christ is in you?” (8:10) Karen Chakoian, a friend from my graduate school days, approaches this notion with the following analogy, which I hope you’ll appreciate as much as I do.
“Imagine you wish to paint, not in a beginner’s sort of way, but beautifully, like Michelangelo. No matter how many lessons you take, how much you practice, how hard you try, you simply cannot do it. Even if you are very gifted, you will create only a facsimile of his masterful art. The only possible way to paint like Michelangelo is to be Michelangelo. Of course you cannot do that either – unless the spirit of Michelangelo is to live within you. Then, and only then, could you create such beauty.”
In his theological commentary, Epistle to the Romans, Karl Barth calls this indwelling the “impossible possibility.” Impossible it certainly is for us alone, but in Christ, all things are possible. And that is part of the foundation of our faith, inspiring us to seek, question, and learn, and pushing us into action that reflects the love and righteousness of Jesus Christ within us all.
It is the divine gift of the indwelling of God’s Spirit that enables us to live life in the Spirit of God. And so we’ve come full circle: that, I believe, is what Paul means in the first verse when he talks about being “in Christ Jesus.” The Spirit frees us from the flesh, that which keeps us tethered to the earth and in which resides the way of sin. “To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.” (8:6) This isn’t something we can do because we choose to: it’s something God does in us. It’s one of the many mysteries and paradoxes of our faith, and it’s grounded in the great mystery of faith itself.
Thanks be to God who sets us free to act in faith by giving us the amazing gifts of Christ Jesus and power of the Spirit dwelling in us.
Let us pray together:
O God, who answers prayer and walks with us in times of both celebration and grief, you have a purpose more glorious than we can imagine. Hear our prayers for healing, justice, and restoration, and accept our thanks for the comfort and healing you flourish upon us.
You have created one human family to live in peace. Give us the wisdom to order our world that all may find shelter, sustenance, and love.
You have given us the gift of the indwelling Christ, that your church may be faithful, loving, and wise. Give us strength to follow Christ so that all may be reconciled by Christ’s grace and love.
Your faithfulness, O Creating God, is revealed in the rhythmic nature of creation, and your sanctuary is known in the earth itself. Rid us of apathy, indifference, and greed that injure its health, for we know in our hearts that you have bound your creation together for the blessing of all.
We ask all this in the name of the divine Spirit that dwells within us at the very essence of our being and which is your holy gift to us all. Amen.