Sin, grace and freedom : Romans 7 and 8

Part 5: The Holy Spirit is our guide and strength, but is the comforter who stands by us, not the one who takes over from us

We must therefore now turn to our relationship with the Holy Spirit. There have certainly been a few times in my life when I’ve wished that the Holy Spirit would “zap” me – now I hope that he never will, though, of course, the Spirit reserves the right to do whatever he wishes. What did I have in mind? I wondered if it was possible to be so filled with the Holy Spirit that it became – in practice – impossible to sin. The bible talks about being given “a new heart and a new spirit”, and perhaps if this happened, the human will, which keeps failing (and also often succeeding, but never succeeding in everything, always) would suddenly find that it always succeeds. For this to be a good thing, it could not be an inner voice that simply commands and over-rules the voice in our mind that is ready to give in to temptation – that would be a restraining of sin, through the power of God that would be over-ruling what it is that, “I really want to do”. But would it be possible for the Holy Spirit to give me a new invincible will? When I feel closely enfolded in the presence of God, I do have the power – because I have the desire – to only do what pleases God. Yet that experience is not long-lasting; it “fades away”, so that I feel I am now relying on my own resources (even though I freely acknowledge that God is still with me, because he is always with me), and, left to my own devices, at some point my will power will crack and I will give in to the call of the divided mind.

So, what if, once you are filled with the Holy Spirit – in this special but false sense – you are now given an invincible will power? The joy, strength, clarity of purpose, good judgement and glad commitment to God’s goodness, truth and love – that you sometimes felt before – would now be your constant experience and outlook on all that you do. I do find this a very attractive possibility – but it’s never happened to me, and in my experience, I haven’t found anyone else who has it. You do occasionally meet someone who strikes you as a truly holy person, though I strongly suspect that they would never dream of describing themselves as having reached this state of perfection. The difference now is that – based on my understanding of correct theology – I hope that it never will happen to me (even if it is somehow possible). The reason is that I do not want God to do this for me; I don’t want him to make it easy for me; I don’t want God to take away my responsibility for using my faith to follow the way of Christ. Please note: I am not striving after my own righteousness. I agree entirely with Paul that this is not possible. What I want to do is rely on the grace of Christ and trust in him for my redemption. And in my response to God’s saving grace, although I long to do better (in fact, I long to be perfect), and I am genuinely trying to do better, I want to fully accept my human nature, and I would rather try and fail, and rely on God’s grace to forgive me, than for God to intervene and somehow make it easy for me to be righteous through some sort of spiritual gifts that “replace” – if this is the right word – who I am, and which take on the job of responding to God for me. As a Christian, I do want to receive spiritual gifts to help me, and I do want to do better, but I think this process only has true value if it is me who is doing it. It’s a difficult point to be clear about, and I need to beware the vanity of “wanting to do it myself” – but I have already freely admitted that I cannot do it by myself – I am, and always will be, a debtor to grace. But if the redemption achieved by Christ is to truly mean what we believe it does, and if God’s creation of us remains valid rather than being over-ruled by him as a mistake, then I think I am correct in believing that God must not give me an invincible spirit to be true to him. I must reach out to him as I am – poor wretched sinner that I am, but gloriously redeemed wretched sinner that I am – and take hold of my faith, and seek gifts of the Spirit, and rely on the grace of God, and step forward as I try to follow Christ.

Sin, grace and freedom : Romans 7 and 8

Part 4: We are always debtors to grace – because Christ affirms our human nature and becomes the channel of grace whereby we find freedom

However, Paul does see the correct solution to this dilemma -though it remains a painful situation. The key thing is not to reintroduce the righteousness that comes from keeping the Law by the back door. Paul has already wrestled with the problem: surely if we truly love and believe in God, and if we try really hard, then we will be able to stay right with God? “No!” is Paul’s sombre but honest and correct answer.  So, don’t now fall into the trap of thinking, “Surely, now that I am saved by God in Christ and empowered by the gifts of the Spirit, surely now I will succeed?”. The answer is still, “No!” – and it is painful, but Paul’s correct answer is to keep directing us back to the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Keep coming back to this spring of healing and forgiveness. We are always debtors to grace. We must keep relying on the free gift of God’s love shown to us in Jesus. This is so painful. Paul, and we too, who see the glorious transformation that God works in us through Christ, truly do feel that now perfection is within our reach. My own view is that, in principle, it now is, yet in practice, it remains just out of reach (sometimes very far out of reach!).

Does this mean that in some way Jesus has failed? That God’s plan of salvation in Christ has not quite worked out? No, I don’t think this is the case -though there is an irreducible tension in the Christian life. The key to understanding is to keep looking clearly at God’s method of salvation. This also has a powerfully affirming message for our creation -that is, of God’s creation of us, that he has not thought better of his initial attempts at making us in his own image and has replaced that with a better idea. So, God redeemed us through a gift of grace. This does have a powerful transforming effect on us, but it does not erase the fundamentals of our human nature. It is not as though humanity was having difficulty passing a test, so God did the test for us and gave us the pass certificate, saying “Now you’re ready to get this right by yourself”. We are, both at the start of our Christian lives, and throughout them to the very end, dependent on the grace shown to us in Jesus. Christians are always called to strive for righteousness, but our ability to stand before God at peace will never rest on our own righteousness, but on the gift that God has given us in Christ. We must always pay more attention to God’s power and willingness to forgive us than to our own sinfulness. Our failure is so painful, but it is not destructive to our joy, because always, always, the grace of God comes through to lift us up. Our redemption is always complete, our salvation secure, even though we will continue to sin. Paul corrected a possible wrong turning in his letter to the church at Corinth. There, some disciples were so delighted by the power of God to free them from sin that they had the idea that they were now free to sin as much as they wanted, because God’s grace would always simply wipe it away – in that way, they could enjoy even more grace. Paul gave that idea short shrift. Our faith must be genuine, and our commitment to Christ complete; we cannot deliberately commit ourselves to “colluding” with the divided will, even if, in practice we still sometimes find ourselves unwillingly subject to it. The whole point of Christ’s grace is to transfer us from the dominion of sin into God’s kingdom. In God’s kingdom we are called to live in God’s way, and so we cannot casually resort to our old way of life, not even trying to overcome the weaknesses of human nature, and think that that is somehow compatible with living in communion with God.

Nevertheless, perfection remains our calling. It appears to be tantalizingly within reach, though, in practice it always remains beyond us.

Sin, grace and freedom : Romans 7 and 8

Part 3: We do not earn our salvation, it is given as a gift – but what happens next?

Fundamentally, sin is a challenge to the lordship of Christ. In the first part of Paul’s letter to the Romans, he wrestles with a crucial problem: “How on earth did we Jews manage to miss the salvation that God has offered?”. This represents the essential failure of human nature, for Paul sees very clearly that the Law (that is, the Jewish religious law that God has gifted to the Jewish people and which is recorded in the Christian Old Testament) IS the word of God. It is complete, perfect righteousness; follow it and you will be saved. There is nothing inadequate about the Law. It should have brought complete salvation to those who follow it, and those who follow it would be able to present themselves before God: “We are the righteous ones”. Yet Paul came to realise, once he became a Christian, that the Law could not bring salvation because no-one is able to follow it. You can strive mightily and achieve enormous progress – and this is a perennially popular appeal for religious movements to become “the pure ones” and prove that you have what it takes to please God. Yet all fall short. If there was someone who did not fall short then he or she would deserve salvation, and God would be in the wrong to deny them it.

In Christ, Paul realised that God has provided a new solution to the problem of human sin and so unattained salvation. Instead of calling, urging us, to immense effort to earn our salvation, God will give it to us as a gift. This is the essence of what we call “the grace of God”. God grants us salvation as a freely-given, undeserved gift, given not because we have earned it but because God loves us; he knows that we need this gift, and it is his nature to love. This is the Christian message: that God in Christ has acted to give us what we could not achieve in any other way. This is why Jesus is Lord and Saviour and why Christians continually look to him, the person of Christ, rather than to any code, values, principles or teaching (even though these are also important). Paul was absolutely over-whelmed by the grace of God, that reached out to include even him. This is why Paul’s message was always, “We preach Christ crucified and risen!”. This is the method by which God redeems humankind.

But what happens next? There is a strong argument – and Christian groups have sometimes taken this wrong turning – to adopt a new righteousness. And, indeed, Christians are called to adopt a new righteousness, but it always has to be founded on the grace of God, otherwise it becomes self-righteousness. However, we understand the appeal. You are so delighted that, in Christ, at last you have discovered the spiritual power to forgive you and set you free from your sins. At last you are opened up to an intimate closeness to God that is astonishing in comparison to your previous relationship. You experience God’s presence in enormously powerful ways. What is the most natural human response but to say, “Thank you Lord! I respond to you by complete repentance; from now on, I will live only to love and serve you”. Empowered by God’s gifts, especially by the new Christian experience of the Holy Spirit, this joy, hope and commitment to living a new life is entirely genuine. However, it raises a new problem for Christians. The simple truth is that, enfolded in the grace of God, Christians should not sin. Jesus is Lord; we are set free from the dominion of sin; the Lord is with us. We should not sin. And, hopefully, we do a lot better than before, and some people do very well indeed – but we do not succeed in becoming perfect. However, we feel that we should. Before, we were relying on our own efforts – as Jewish people were in trying to keep the Law – but now we Christians are relying on the grace of God and the gifts of the Spirit. If we still fail, then it implies that not even grace and the Spirit are sufficient to redeem us.

Sin, grace and freedom : Romans 7 and 8

Part 2: Who is in charge of me – I don’t think it’s me?

Paul’s answer was insightful, but I’m not sure that I will support it. He decided that, as he did what he truly didn’t want to do, then, in an important way, it wasn’t him responsible for the action, and he instead saw it as the action of sin within him. This needs unpacking, but initially I will see this as Paul considering that sin is a power that has taken control of him, and to which he is subject. Therefore, it is not him who has gone astray, it is the power of sin within him which has made the wrong decision. I don’t really like this idea because I think simple honesty requires us to own up and take responsibility: “Yes, it was me who failed”. Perhaps, when we have investigated Paul’s theology a little more, we will be able to bridge the gap, but this is my starting point.

Where I would begin is with the paradox: “No, I really didn’t want to do this action”, but neither is it true to say that, “I really didn’t want to do this. I hate it”. The fact is that we really did want to do it – that’s why we did it, and so, we don’t actually hate the action – we love it – but we also disapprove of it. This understanding accurately reflects the idea of having a divided mind. The action is a contradiction of our principles but accurately reflects our core drives, both conscious and unconscious, or it correctly expresses part of our essential personality – even though we may wish we were different.

I begin with trying to take responsibility for my own actions, being honest with myself, not trying to fool myself, or others, or wriggling out of responsibility by claiming, “It wasn’t really me”. It was. But where is Paul coming from? I think that his theology is making an extremely serious point, so that – although we may think differently, or at least express ourselves differently – it is not the case that Paul is trying to wriggle out of taking responsibility. If anything, his accusation against himself is even more serious than my accusation against myself. In my understanding, I am acknowledging that I do not have complete control or direction even of my own mind. I accept that my sins are down to my choices, though I see those choices as a failure of my will-power. I knew what I “really” wanted, but I didn’t have the strength to stick to that when confronted with the temptation to do what I “really did want” – or at least what a part of my own mind really did want. The seriousness of Paul’s complaint against himself is that he has been, as it were, “taken over by a foreign power”. He appears to see sin, not as a poor, or mistaken or destructive choice that he has made, but as a power that has taken possession of him. This is an appalling situation to be in, and Paul is making astounding admissions in seeing things as he does.

This theological reflection – in 7 parts – explores key ideas that Paul raises in his letter to the Romans in chapters 7 and 8, and, in particular to a key passage in chapter 7, verses 15 – 20, which are worth quoting, so that we have them present in mind. I will add verses 24- 25.

“I do not even acknowledge my own actions as mine, for what I do is not what I want to do, but what I detest. But if what I do is against my will, then clearly I agree with the law and hold it to be admirable. This means that it is no longer I who perform the action, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me – my unspiritual self I mean – for though the will to do good is there, the ability to effect it is not. The good that I want to do, I fail to do; but what I do is the wrong which is against my will; and if what I do is against my will, clearly it is no longer I who am the agent, but sin that has its dwelling in me.

Wretched creature that I am, who is there to rescue me from this state of death? Who but God? Thanks be to him through Jesus Christ our Lord”.

Sin, grace and freedom : Romans 7 and 8

Part 1: What we want and what we really want: the divided mind

Paul is clearly in great distress, and facing a severe dilemma. He is trying to make sense of his own weakness – that is, of human weakness. He is clear in his own mind that he really does want to do the right thing. He is devoted to God and can completely see what he should do, and that the course of action that he instead takes is wrong. He is truly committed to God, and truly wants to do what is right and what honours God. Instead, he finds himself doing the very thing that he has set himself against, that fills him with dismay, and leaves him feeling a failure who has betrayed God and deserted his faith. He was put to the test and failed. He is aware that this has happened over and over again. He has made his most solemn promises to God, that this time he will not let his Lord down – and then he’s gone and done it again.

What are we to make of this? From our modern perspective, we have some advantages. We are indebted to Augustine and his idea of the divided mind, and we can make sense of this through our understanding of evolution. Human beings just are equipped with minds that have at least two layers. We have the will that arises from our values, principles and reasoning. This leads us to make decisions of which we approve, and we are fully aware of how we came to this decision. However, we also have our more ancient mind – sometimes referred to as “the reptilian mind” which is completely selfish. To our mind now, it is immoral, because it makes decisions of which we do not approve, but, strictly speaking, it is amoral, because it simply doesn’t take moral value judgements into account. This will simply says, “I want this!”. We are conscious of these desires, though this element of our mind can also work unconsciously.

What often happens in practice – and I think this is what Paul is lamenting – is that we are absolutely firm on sticking to the action that we approve of. Our will is saying, “Do this!”, and we say, “Yes, yes, yes” – until, all of a sudden we find that we have switched allegiance to the other part of our will, and have done precisely the action of which we don’t approve. Immediately, we are remorseful: “Why on earth did I do that? I really didn’t want to do it”. Yet we find that we have done exactly that.

While our modern understanding of our mind is helpful, it still doesn’t allow us to abdicate responsibility for the failure of will represented in the switch to doing what we don’t want to do. Paul understood it as a spiritual failure – a failure to show sufficient will power and sufficient devotion to God, and I think we should honour this point of view, for it is still true – even if we can now use our understanding of how our minds work, hopefully, to help us in additional ways that Paul wasn’t aware of. How then can we make progress on this issue?