No condemnation in Christ Jesus?

When I talk to Christians about keeping God's Feasts and his commandments in Torah, I'm often retorted by a Pauline quip, "There is no condemnation in Christ Jesus! I'm set free from the Law, praise Jesus!"

Are they right?

It's been on my mind lately and I want to discuss us here. If "no condemnation in Christ Jesus" means I shouldn't talk to Christians about celebrating God's Feasts nor encourage people to keep God's commandments, then I need serious correction myself and a deep change in my theology and understanding of the Scriptures! :)

What's more, if "no condemnation in Jesus" means "don't point out things Christians are doing wrong", we might as well abandon the Torah altogether and start sinning freely. Forget honoring your parents, forget "do not murder", forget "no adultery", forget "keep My Sabbath".

On the other hand, if that phrase isn't meant to excuse ignorance or disobedience of God's commandments in Torah, this point should be cleared up and Christians shouldn't use that as an excuse to disregard God's Feasts, God's righteous commandments, his just definition of right and wrong.

Let's search out the Scriptures and come to a better understanding of this matter.

The famous phrase comes from Paul's letter to the Romans, chapter 8, in the New Testament part of the Christian Bible. Here's the actual quote:

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Messiah Yeshua, because through Yeshua the Torah of the Ruach of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the Torah was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, YHVH did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the Torah might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Ruach.

(Note: I'm using the original Hebrew names here;
YHVH = God's name,
Yeshua = Messiah's name,
Ruach = spirit or breath
Torah = instruction or law, often meaning the Law of Moses, which are the first 5 books of the Jewish and Christian Bibles])

Looking at this passage, the first thing that jumps at me is how the 8th chapter begins, "Therefore, ..." It seems we're missing something here; there was something that made Paul come to his conclusion in the beginning of chapter 8 that there is no condemnation for those in Messiah. I wonder, what made him come to this conclusion?

Remember that the chapter and verse numbers were NOT original in Scripture; they are later additions to Scripture meant to aide in study. The chapter 8 division is unfortunate, as it places an artificial separation between Paul's argument and his conclusion of that argument.

So, what is Paul's argument? What led him to the conclusion that there is no condemnation for those in Messiah? Let's look at the ending of the previous chapter to see what he's talking about.

Is the Torah sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the Torah. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the Torah had not said, "Do not covet." But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from Torah, sin is dead. Once I was alive apart from Torah; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death.

For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. So then, the Torah is holy, and the commandments are holy, righteous and good. Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.

We know that the Torah is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I don't understand why I'm doing these things. For what I want to do I don't do, instead I do the things I hate. And if I do what I don't want to do, I agree that the Torah is good. As it is, it's no longer I myself who do it, but it's the sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, in my sinful nature. I have the desire to do what's good, but I can't carry it out. Instead of doing the good I want to do, I do the evil things I don't want to do. Now if I do what I don't want to do, it's no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's Torah; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the Torah of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Yeshua the Messiah our Master!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's Torah, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

Wow! This is some deep stuff. Let's dissect this piece-at-a-time.

The problem: we're doing bad things even though we know better

The first part of his argument starts with, "Is the Torah sin? Certainly not!" Paul starts out by making a distinction between sin and Torah. This point will be crucial towards the end of his argument.

Paul drives this point home -- he says the Torah is "holy, righteous, and good." The Torah tells us what sin is; it's God's righteous and just definition of sin. The Torah tells us what the bad things are, thus making us aware that we do bad things all the time!

Paul then explores this deeper -- and I think this is where Christian folks get lost -- by saying that because Torah tells us what sin is, sin doesn't exist outside of Torah. If God never told us "don't covet", for example, we wouldn't know that coveting is sin. Same can be said for murder, adultery, promiscuity, even -- ahem -- homosexuality.

Now that we know coveting is sin, it becomes more attractive to our flesh, says Paul. Forbidden fruit complex, if you will.

Paul says, "Once I was alive apart from Torah; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life. I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death." Heh. Ironic, isn't it? It's kind of like saying, "Before speed limits on our highways, I could speed all the time -- no problems! But now that the law about speed limits is here, I'm a lawbreaker! And I speed all the time! It shows me how terrible I am at following the law!"

Your next thought might be, "Ah, problem solved! We'll just get rid of the law, and now we're not lawbreakers anymore!"

Paul anticipated such foolish thought and preemptively nips that in the bud, "Did that which is good [the Torah], then, become death to me? By no means!"

Did you catch that? Paul will seem to contradict this later if you're not careful to understand what he's saying here. He is saying Torah is NOT death to him, but rather it is sin that is death to him. Torah's role in this matter is that it told us what sin is; that's it.

Ok, so where does that leave us? So far, the Torah told us what sin is, but is still holy, good, and righteous. We also have reasoned that now that sin has been revealed by Torah, we've come to realize we're really bad at this "living a holy life" thing; we sin all the time and do all kinds of bad things, even Paul. Paul goes into detail here -- why are we sinning even when we know what sin is? Why do we do bad things -- lie, cheat, steal, whatever -- when we know clearly right from wrong?

Why do we do bad things?

"We know that Torah is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I don't understand why I'm doing these things. For what I want to do I don't do, instead I do the things I hate. And if I do what I don't want to do, I agree that the Torah is good. As it is, it's no longer I myself who do it, but it's the sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, in my sinful nature. I have the desire to do what's good, but I can't carry it out. Instead of doing the good I want to do, I do the evil things I don't want to do. Now if I do what I don't want to do, it's no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's Torah; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the Torah of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me."

Oooh, this is a nugget. Torah is so good -- spiritual, even! -- and we are utterly evil people by nature. God's definition of right and wrong -- the Torah -- is spiritual, but we're not. The divide happens there. Our knowledge of God's Torah convicts us; we know right and wrong. But our flesh and its desires to lie, cheat, steal, and be self-serving lead us in the opposite direction: our body naturally wants to do evil and whatever pleases itself. Our flesh doesn't desire to serve God; the flesh's natural desire is to stay alive by any means necessary. This desire is almost always selfish: we'll lie to get what we want, cheat to win, seek sinful things to bring pleasure to our bodies. But the mind, the intelligent part of our bodies, knows the dumb desires of the flesh don't bring real happiness, true well-being, or standing right with God.

The "law" brings sin and death? Not the one you're thinking of.

Paul introduces a new "law" here into the conversation. Look at the last bit of that passage: "I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's Torah; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the Torah of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me."

Big, crucial crux here. You don't want to miss this. If you draw only 1 thing from this study, make it this: the law of sin is not the Torah -- Paul makes that crystal clear -- it's this new "law" at work in our flesh. He hinted at this in his first statement by saying, "Is the Torah sin? Certainly not!"

Now he's making it plainly obvious when he says, "I see another law at work...", contrasting this other law with God's Torah. This "other law" he calls the law of sin. It sits opposite the Torah, prescribing a self-serving, self-exalting, flesh pleasing life. The law of sin is the body's selfish desire, and is at odds with the Torah.

Ok, Paul, we got the message. Our mind, with it's knowledge of Torah, God's definition of right and wrong, tells us to run from sin, but our bodies move us in the other direction. This moving in the opposite direction from God's Torah is what Paul calls the "law of sin". Got it.

Paul's resolution to the hypocritical life of loving God yet still sinning

Ok, what now? We're in a bad situation here! We know what sin is, yet we sin all the time. Our dumb flesh overpowers our intelligent minds, leading to life devoid of God. What are we supposed to do now? Paul comes to a resolution below:

"I'm such a wretched man! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Yeshua the Messiah our Master!
I myself in my mind am a slave to God's Torah, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin."

The resolution, Paul says, is found in Messiah. Messiah pardons the bad things we've done if we repent -- that is, completely turn our backs on sin and run back to God. So, even though we are indeed slaves to God's Torah in our minds -- and we ought to be! -- we still sin. The resolution to this conflicting lifestyle is that God provided a way of out this mess of contradictions and hypocrisy, by allowing us to come to back to God and have our sin wiped clean for those with soft, repentant hearts.

Applying the resolution to "no condemnation in Jesus"

We have some context now! Remember the quip we are addressing? We are armed with knowedge - we can solve it now! Let's look at the famous quip again:

"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Messiah Yeshua, because through Yeshua the Torah of the Ruach of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the Torah was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, YHVH did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the Torah might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Ruach."



There is a confusing piece of this passage that we can now clear up, thanks to the stuff we just learned: there are 3 "torahs" or "laws" mentioned here, they are highlighted in different colors above:

1. The Torah of the Ruach (spirit or breath) of life (Messiah himself)
   
2. The law of sin and death (the desires of our flesh)
   
3. The Torah [of Moses] (God's commandments, the Law)
   

Too often, we read that bit out of context and think Paul is contrasting the Torah of Moses with living by the Torah of the Spirit (that is, living in Messiah). But we just finished reading the context, and we know what he's talking about! Yes!

So, what is he talking about, you ask? Ah, we just need to think back to Paul's reasoning and his lengthy argument and resolution regarding sin:

1. God gave us the Torah, which defines sin.
2. By nature, our flesh rebels against God's Torah. This rebellion against Torah is called the law of sin.
3. God gave us a way out of this contradiction: the law of the Spirit of life, setting us free from condemnation of the law of sin.

Paul says the Torah is powerless to stop our flesh's desires; it's role is merely to tell us right form wrong, nothing about helping us stop sinning. Paul's right; we still do wrong even though Torah defines right and wrong. Since the Torah is powerless to stop us from sinning, we needed something to rectify the situation. Messiah did exactly this: even though we still sin, we have a way to be set right with God through our repentant hearts. He made the Torah-prescribed offering for sin on our behalf by being the ultimate, sacrifice lamb slain for the sin of humanity. He condemned sin itself, so that men aren't condemned to die as Torah would otherwise prescribe - no condemnation. Instead, Torah's requirements about us living holy and righteous lives before God are still able to be carried out despite our sin.

Awesome! All of this thanks to Messiah - wooo!

The conclusion? The phrase, "no condemnation in Jesus" means we're not condemned to our sentence of death, as prescribed to those who have broken God's Torah.

It doesn't mean we must keep silent about God's Torah; if anything, it means we should speak it boldly so that we know clearly right from wrong. Without the clear, concise guidelines in God's Torah, we're left with a wishy-washy, confused church that exists today.

I hope this little study has been helpful and leads you fine blog readers to a better understanding of Scripture, God's Torah in particular.

Shalom!



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