I've been doing a bit of reading/reflection on Romans 6-8 lately and ran across a stellar quote from one of my favorite exegetical professors Jonathan F. Grothe. I never had the privilege of sitting at Dr. Grothe's feet for Romans, which was his specialty, but I did take him for a course on the Gospel According to St. Matthew. It was one of those "breakthough" courses you get two or three times during a course of study that forever shapes your thinking.
Dr. Grothe's translation notes and commentary on Romans are available as a two-volume self-published work entitled The Justification of the Ungodly. Here is a wonderful summary comment on Romans 7:14-25, illustrating Dr. Grothe's consistent emphasis on the relevency of exegesis to pastoral care and council. For completeness, I've included his footnotes so the reader can have full joy of this quote; my apologies if this inclusion appears a bit "bookish" for a blog.
PRACTICAL GOSPEL COMFORT
It is of the greatest imporatnce for theology and ministry to grasp correctly that Paul is not making ethical exhortation in Romans 6-8.1 It is of great importance for pastoral dealings with Christian persons in their awareness of their moral failures. For it is an operation of opinio legis2 that makes people use such phrases as "a good Christian" and "live out your faith" in such a way as to engender the false hope of being able to fulfill works of the Law in curent behavior.3 Such false hope can lead to doubt or despair in believers who are weak both in morality and in faith. It is from the devil himself that come thoguht such as "I must not be a very good Chirstian if I behave (or even think, or feel) in such and such as way."
To expect that the baptized Chirstian will be continually growing less and less susceptible to sin is to fall into a grave trap. It is a sad fact that each child of Adam, even the baptized believer, continually recapitulates and confirms the fall into sin.
So what to do about it? Some Christian groups feel constrained to draw a line around themselves, based on outward manifestations of piety, to demarcate between the holy (or, at least, the "more nearly holy") and the not so holy, between the "good" ("genuine," "committed," "reborn,") Christians4 and the "bad" (so-called,5 delinquent, or "nominal"6) Christians. When confronted with their moral shortcomings, these (self-proclaimed) holier chirstians tend to say something like "God knows we can't be perfect, and so he has to accept our best efforts, even if they are imperfect." Such thinking is still in the realm of Law.
But in the realm of Law, God expects doers of the Law, not try-ers. He will not wink the eye at sin. Those who hold that the mark of the Chirstians is that they try their best to behave rightly have put themselves under Law and in an impossible position.7 All holier-than-thou types who separate themselves (as "the godly") from the ungodly forget that the God of the Gospel is the God who justifes the ungodly (Rom 4:5).
But for the ungodly, who have nothing of which to boast and whose experience is all struggle (and mostly a losing struggle) with Sin, the message of Paul brings great comfort. "That's the way it is," Paul says, "between baptism and deliverance. Your sanctification, which God is seeing to, has begun with Christ's death and your baptism. It continues every present moment as you live in the Holy Christian Church in which God daily and richly forgives sins. And it culminates in your deliverance from the old aeon, in the death of the body of sinful flesh and in the purging of indwelling sin and its corrupting power. This brings the resurrection of the body - a spiritual body - and the life everlasting."
All of this is life "according to the Spirit,"8 life which has already begun and, as such, makes a foundation for hope. It is to these topics that Paul now turns in chapter 8.
Endnotes
1E. Käsemann (Romans, 158-86) and P. Stuhlmacher (Romans, 104-16) are correct in arguing this. but, in their interpretation of Romans 7. they remain in the tradition of R. bultmann, in that they see the self who is making confession in Romans 7 as the pious man under Law, but not in Chirst. It is as though this were dealing with the same kind of person as is addressed in 2:1! This approach, wrongly, bears no difference between "sold as a slave back under Sin" in 7:14 and "you are slaves of Sin" in 6:17, and reads terms such as "inner man" and "mind" as an anthropological way, as elements of a natural man, not as signifiers of the new creation. This means, finally, that the cry for deliverance is the cry for freedom from the power of Sin, rather than for deliverance from the tension of life in the world but not of the world, life in two aeons, a life of civil war and struggle whilst on the pilgramage to the heavenly home.
The most pertinent crticism of that interpretation is in A. Nygren, Romans, 284-303, of which the following (pp. 296-97) is a summary (emphasis Nygren):
1) 7:14-25 applies to the Christian life. It is thus an organic part of the inclusive view which speaks in chapters 5-8, discussing consistently the meaning of the Christian life (Gk: to live in Christ).
2) It speaks of the position of the law in the Chirstian life. It is seen to be essentially negative, since even the Christian cannot attain to righteousness by way of the law. It is in a wholly different way that he receives the righteousness of god. He is free from the law. Thus this passage [7:14-25] belongs to the context of chapter 7, whose them and caption are just these words, "free from the law."
3) the reason for the ompotence of the law is the fact that the Chirstian, even though through Christ he belongs to the new aeon, still lives in the old aeon, "in the flesh." The impotence of the law goes back to the conflict between pneuma (spirit) and sarx (flesh).
Here we have the key to chapter 7:14-25. If we start here, this passage no longer presents any problems.
2This phrase refers to the natural inclination of the heart of fallen humanbeings to think in terms of Law and not Gospel.
3A. Nygren, Romans,302-03.
4These are sometimes also called "disciples," who have received Jesus not only as Savior but also as Lord.
5Other common derogatory terms are "pew sitters," "lukewarm," and believers in "cheap grace." the whole idea is that somehow one has to do more than "repent and believe the Gospel" (Mk 1:15) to be counted a good Christian. In such a case, the "more" - whatever it is - tears down the Gospel.
6Actually, "nominal" is about the only adjective which every Chirstian can rightfully claim - or need to have; he has been baptized into the name of Jesus. It is the only kind of Christian there is, in the last analysis.
7Of course the solution is not to stop grieving over sinful behavior and to give up on tryng to behave well. That would indicate the death or departure of that new, inner man (Christ in the believer), who keeps on willing to do the good despite the continued bad results in sinful thoughts, words, and deeds. "If a person does not intend to fight thereafter, why does he seek to be absolved and enrooled in the army of Christ?" Luther, LW 25:339.
8Rom 8:4-5; cf. 7:6
Jonathan F. Grothe. The Justifcation of the Ungodly. (© Jonathan F. Grothe, 2005) vol 1, pp 399-401
Edited on: August 25th, 2007 2:10 pm
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