Romans 7: - O Wretched Man That I Am
They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the LORD Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the LORD Almighty was very angry. Zechariah 7:12Before looking at Romans Seven, it may help to look at some of the many passages which show the contrast between the human body and the human heart or spirit. This will show that Paul is not speaking of a conflict between his flesh and the Holy Spirit.
For Paul to have his citizenship transferred into heaven, he would have to allow his old body to die and be baptized into or in connection with the death, burial and resurrection of Christ Who was the Second Adam.
However, the old Paul was still hanging onto his physical body rather than allowing it to die and have his citizenship transferred back into heaven under the protection of the Spirit God.
The promise of a Spiritual covenant is stated many times. For instance,
And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you;
and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh: Ezekiel 11:19
Why and how did they need this new spirit? Their old heart or spirit would not listen to the Words of God which He had already delivered through the prophets speaking by the Spirit of Christ (1 Peter 1:11):
They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to
- the law or to
- the words that the LORD Almighty had sent
- by his Spirit
- through the earlier prophets.
- So the LORD Almighty was very angry. Zechariah 7:12
> Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. 1 Peter 1:11
> Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 2Co.3:17
But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.2Co.3:18
> And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Rev 19:10
David asked God not to take his Spirit which would have caused him to die as had Saul, and to:
Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. Ps.51:12
Jesus understood the conflict between the human flesh and the human spirit. He said:
Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation:
- the---spirit indeed is---willing, but
- the---flesh ---------is---weak. Matthew 26:41
And Paul wrote:
To deliver such an one unto Satan
for the destruction of the flesh,
that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. 1 Corinthians 5:5
God's covenant has always been: "I will be your God and you will be my people." However, that covenant was always conditional. Paul told the Corinthians to "divorce" themselves from their old religion and get back behind God's protective walls between the Spiritual world and the Carnal world devoted to a human-sense religion:
Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, 2 Corinthians 6:17
And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. 2 Corinthians 6:18
HAVING therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. 2 Corinthians 7:1
For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other; so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. Galatians 5:17
For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit (in the mind), and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. Philippians 3:3
Or: For it isn't the cutting of our bodies that makes us children of God; it is worshiping him with our spirits. That is the only true "circumcision." We Christians glory in what Christ Jesus has done for us and realize that we are helpless to save ourselves. Philippians 3:3 LIV
When the word Spirit is applied to Jesus we understand it to mean that He is God Who is pure or Holy Spirit. In the book of Revelation, John was not inside a person called the Holy Spirit. Rather, John was in his mind or had turned his physical-thinking nature over to the worship of God in the spirit:
I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. Revelation 1:9
I was in the Spirit on the Lords day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, Revelation 1:10 KJV
When Ezekiel was influenced by the "Spirit" he clearly called it a vision. Therefore, the LIV translates this:
It was the Lord's Day and I was worshiping, when suddenly I heard a loud voice behind me, a voice that sounded like a trumpet blast, Revelation 1:10 LIV
And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Revelation 19:10
Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. 1 Peter 1:11
Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into. 1 Peter 1:12
The following passages show that God sends His words through the Holy Ghost by sending messengers who have knowledge of His Will:
They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the LORD Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the LORD Almighty was very angry. Zechariah 7:12
We saw that it was the Mind or Spirit of Christ which informed the prophets.
For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him. John 3:34
Jesus didn't speak the words of God just because He had God dwelling within: He fully revealed His own Mind or Spirit by speaking the words of God. Peter confirmed this by showing that the words were the product of the Spirit:
For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. 2 Peter 1:21
To fit the context, Peter did not say that it was by some direct power of the Spirit that one could obey the words; the truth is what was revealed by the Spirit "without measure" speaking through Christ:
Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: 1 Peter 1:22
James also recognizes that it is not the Holy Spirit as a person who gives life; it is the human spirit which God put into all people so that they could communicate with Him.
For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. James 2:26
As God's Spirit is bound up in the Mind of Christ (1Cor 2), our mind and our spirit are the knowing part of our being of flesh. If you want to reach my spirit or mind you must use my flesh as the mediator or go-between or door.
Paul also uses flesh as a symbol for the Law of Moses, and spirit as a symbol for the Gospel. He never contrasts law and the Holy Spirit as a separate person. The old rituals which were burdens which Christ came to eleminate created "spiritual anxiety from religious ritual." Numbers 8:7 shows that the rituals were only to cleanse the flesh. Paul confirms this and shows that the gospel (Christ) gives us the power for God to cleanse the conscience or mind or spirit:
- The Human Flesh:
- For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: Heb.9:13
- The Human spirit:
- How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience (perception) from dead works to serve the living God? Heb 9:14
Christ offered Himself when He as God "laid aside His Majesty and Glory" and "clothed" Himself with humanity. His blood would have been worthless if Jesus had been just a mortal.
Paul confirms that spirit stands for the gospel or for the human spirit cleansed by the Spirit of Christ. Notice that in the flesh is contrasted with in the spirit as by the law is contrasted with oldness of the letter. The law was directed to the flesh but the spirit is directed to the mind:
For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. Ro 7:5
But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. Ro.7:6
What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. Romans 7:7
Look again at Romans Two to see that the spirit is our spirit contrasted to our flesh.
- The Human Flesh:
- For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: Romans 2:28
- The Human spirit:
- But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter (law or flesh); whose praise is not of men, but of God. Romans 2:29
The contrast is not between letter (Bible) and Holy Spirit (inspiring me) because the Spirit of Christ inspired the prophets (1Pe 1:11). The contrast is between the flesh and mind or law and gospel. We serve in the spirit or mind willingly rather than having to bow to the law which had fleshly penalties for violation.
We might expect Paul to say the same thing to the Corinthians and he does. The contrast between flesh and spirit is used to explain the Law of Moses in contrast to the Gospel which addresses the spirit or mind:
Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. 2 Corinthians 3:6
- But if the
- ministration of death,
- written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away: Corinthians 3:7
- How shall not the
- ministration of the spirit
- be rather glorious? 2 Corinthians 3:8
- For if the
- ministration of condemnation
- be glory,
- much more doth the
- ministration of righteousness
- exceed in glory. 2 Corinthians 3:9
Here, Spirit is used for the gospel and not the Holy Spirit. Let us look at veres 6 again and compare it with what Jesus said:
Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament (contract); not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. 2 Corinthians 3:6
Over and over we see Paul "ministering the Spirit" by teaching the Words of Christ.
The graphe is the writing on paper which simply describes something. For instance, I might have the graphe of how to be a Christian but the instructions have no value unless they become engraved upon my spirit or my mental nature. Paul said, "I write or grapho in order to stir up or enspirit your minds." (2 Peter 3:1).
By analogy, we might have a contract written on the best of parchment. However, the contract has little value unless both parties are committed to it in their mind or spirit. The Jews were blinded and could not understand the Covenant written on stone because they had not turned to the Lord in their mind or Spirit. Jesus was the "prophet like Moses" Who would be heard and the veil would be removed:
- It is the spirit that quickeneth; the --- --- --flesh profiteth nothing:
- the-----words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. Jn 6:63
The ministers of the letter were the doctors of the law of Judaism. Jesus "pried them off our backs" and told us not to call any man our teacher. We now have direct access to the Mind or Spirit of God through His Words which are spirit and life. The ministers of the spirit were not commanded to "go into all the world and dispense the Spirit." Rather, they dispensed spirit (not a person) by dispensing the gospel message. Paul called this the new testament and Jesus called it the words He spoke to them.
The ministration of the spirit in this passage is the ministration of righteousness. This is directly opposite the Law as a ministration of condemnation through the Law. Paul's I was his spirit or inner man. That "person" wanted to do right but his flesh was tempted by sin:
Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. Romans 7:17
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. Romans 7:18
Look again at Rom 2:29 to see that heart and spirit are the inward person. This is in conflict with our outward person which wants its body members satisfied with physical things such as charismatic, musical rituals or other drug creating abuses of the body:
But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter (law or flesh); whose praise is not of men, but of God. Romans 2:29
Paul draws a contrast between his physical body (flesh) and his inward body (spirit). This is a contrast between his sensual appetites and his mind or spiritual nature. Mind and inward man are therefore identical. This inward man is spirit and it may or may not be holy. However, it is not Spirit in the sense of being literally indwelled by Deity.
If we hear Paul out he will convince us that he is speaking of the conflict between body and mind or flesh and spirit. He interchanges the words spirit and the word mind:
- The Human Flesh:
- But I see another law in my members (fleshly body parts), warring against the law of my mind, and
- bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. Romans 7:23
- The Human spirit:
- For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: Romans 7:22
Because Paul knew that His body or human nature is at war with His spirit or mind, he knew that his human spirit could not dominate his body until he was in Jesus Christ or baptized in connection with His death. That is, Paul's body has to be buried with Christ as a dead man before Christ's mind could rule his mind.
Therefore, because his fallen human nature could never approach God in the Holy Places, Paul cried out:
O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Romans 7:24
Spirit, to Paul, therefore, is the inner nature responding willingly to the gospel which is Spirit and life. He does not mention "the Holy Spirit" in chapter seven or in chapter eight.
In chapter eight, Paul will begin to show how to live when our spirit or mind takes control of the body. None of our "body parts" or rituals directed to the body can "move us into the presence of God."
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