Living by Faith - Romans

The Two Humanities

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Living by Faith

Lesson: 20-64

Genre: Talk

Track: 020

Dictation Name: RR311J20

Location/Venue:

Year: ?

Let us worship God. Thus saith the Lord: ye shall seek me and find me when ye shall seek for me with all your heart. Jesus said blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Let us pray.

Oh Lord our God who dost make all things new, and who art the same yesterday, today, and forever; grant that we begin this year in Thy faith, continue in Thy grace, and be guided in all our doings by Thy word. Guard us all the days of our life that we may be faithful in Thy service, and finally by Thy grace know the glory of Thy everlasting kingdom, through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen.

Our scripture is from the 6th chapter of Romans, verses 5 through 11, and our subject: The Two Humanities. Romans 6:5-11

“5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:

6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

7 For he that is dead is freed from sin.

8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:

9 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.

10 For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.

11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Paul’s style in his letters is outwardly a cramped, technical, and rabbinical one. But behind the very cautious and meticulous wording of his letters is a sledgehammer power. A systematic study of Paul is a devastating thing to humanistic man and it is not very commonly done. So much that is essential to Paul, the law, predestination, and more is commonly omitted.

In our text Paul begins by stating in verse 5 that because we are planted together in the death of Christ in His vicarious sacrifice we are also alive in His resurrection; we have a new life, we share in the results of the resurrection, and we have victory over sin and its consequences, guilt and death.

The purpose of Christ’s birth, His life, atonement, death and resurrection is to end the life of Adam in us and our bondage to sin guilt and death. Whatever man does in Adam reproduces Adams fallen nature.

In Romans 8:2 Paul calls this the law of sin and death; it is an iron law over Adams humanity. It means that everyone born of Adam is going to sin and bear the burden of guilt, and die. This is the inescapable fact. Our religion, our politics, our sociology, our total life is governed by that iron law, the law of sin and death, by the fact of sin and its results, guilt and death. The purpose of our deliverance in Christ is to destroy that bondage so that as verse 6 declares, henceforth we should not serve sin.

Death is the great dividing point. All those who are born into the humanity of Adam are ruled by that fact. But those reborn into the new humanity of Christ are reborn into life and righteousness or justice.

As Paul says in verse 7: “For he that is dead is freed from sin.” By this fact, our rebirth in Christ, a new force enters history, one not bound by sin and its consequences guilt and death; righteousness or justice now motivate us.

In verses 8 and 9, Paul states the logical conclusion. To be dead with Christ means to be alive with Him, and this requires an amazing conclusion. Christ have been resurrected has overcome the power and hold of death, and can die no more. Death hath no more dominion over Him, Paul declares, and His death is the death of death for us.

Death is a decisive fact. For the humanity of Adam it is the ugly end of all its hopes and plans, it is a standing offense to humanism; its dream of a brave new world without God is always doomed whatever its plan. Personal death and cosmic death confronts the sons of Adam.

For us in Christ death is also decisive, but in a different way. First of all, in Christ we die to sin, we are judicially dead, because Christ having died for us, having taken the penalty of death for sin upon Himself, we have now legally satisfied the death penalty. Christ has done it for us.

Then secondly, we die physically at the end of life, our mortal life, and we enter heaven; and third, and the end of all things the resurrection of the body takes place, and the total death of death as we enter into the fullness of eternal life.

Now, to analyze the implications of what Paul is telling us, what Paul here develops. He begins his epistle by the great statement: “The just shall live by faith.” Romans 1:17. Not that the just shall be saved by faith, his statement is far more inclusive. We are saved by faith that we might live by faith. What he gives us in this letter in Romans is the sociology of justification by faith. The alternative is the sociology of sin, and this is what the world lives in terms of. The humanity of Adam is fallen, it has a will to sin, its nature is determined by Genesis 3:5, the great temptation to which mankind submitted. ‘Ye shall be as God, knowing, determining good and evil for yourself; being your own law maker, determining all things as God.’ The motive force of the humanity of Adam is sin, to play God; to control men and things.

The purpose of religion in Adams world, and the purpose of magic as well, and the purpose of science, is the control of man and of nature, to control things, to play God. This too is the purpose of humanistic education, control. In my study the philosophy of the Christian Curriculum, I dealt with what social science is in the curriculum. Self consciously at the very beginning when we shifted from the study of history and civics and related subjects to the study of the social sciences, it is declared that the purpose was to learn how to control men and institutions, and social studies is the study of the science of control.

Humanistic education aims at controlling people, to establish a realm in which the masses are controlled and ruled by philosopher kings. True education leads into growth under God, and a knowledge of the realities of Gods creation. Any humanistic education will be a menace to freedom under God, because its goal is manipulation and control.

Now the politics of Adam is no different, it is only more potent having the power of the sword in its application. In 1915 a very remarkable journalist, Franklin Hichborn, published the book: The System. In this book, what Hichborn developed using a particular case study, San Francisco, was the inner linkage between capital, labor, crime and politics, all working together to control a city, to subvert justice, and to insure their power and control. And the last thing they want is for truth and justice to prevail. Under the façade of truth they maintain a society to be governed in terms of the sociology of sin, of Adam.

In the 1940’s and fifties I had experiences with a system in two states, and it was explained to me by some men who were trying and failed in their attempts to alter it. For example, if a man elected to a particular office did more than just vote on things and express his opinions in speeches and votes, but tried to challenge the basic injustice and inequities, if he became a threat, I was told he was dealt with very simply, and I saw as it worked against some. The man would be carefully watched. When he was out of his home they would enter and photograph in color every room from every perspective the closets, the bathrooms, have the floor plan completely laid out; then they would find out by surveillance when no one was home except this particular politician; and then he would be faced with an ultimatum. On the night of January such and such a day, from such and such a time in the evening until 11 o’clock, you are home alone. And we have two homosexuals, in other cases it could be two very young girls or boys, or prostitutes, who are ready to say that they spent the evening there with you, involved in various sexual acts, and they can testify as to the details of the house, the pictures on the wall, any scratches on a door or a dirty spot, in very great detail. It would be very simple, all they had to do was to find for example two homosexuals who had been involved with very young boys, and get their signed confession and say: “You are free to go now, but you will do what we say when we require it.” And so they had the instruments of control.

Such tactics on occasion are used against churchmen. When I said that this system operates with capital labor, crime, politics, we should include also the press. A book just recently published by (Hugon?) Secret Agenda alleges that this is exactly what happened at Watergate, that the issue was not what the press said it was, that every side had one concern, to conceal the truth; and that the whole break in had one purpose, to steal files that were being used and could be used.

The system is an instrument of great control; the controlled can be made into great statesmen if they play the game. Some years ago in excavations, archeological studies dealing with a culture going back to the days of Abraham, they found evidences of the system operating then. It operated then, and over the centuries, and wherever the sociology of sin prevails; because what Paul is telling us here is that the law of sin and death govern mankind outside of Christ; that there is no escaping that fact, and reforms are futile as long as men are the sons of Adam. They will then be playing God, which means controlling things. This is the world, this is the reality of it; and Paul says that there are two humanities, and on the one side those who are born of Adam are going to reproduce Adams sin, and the law of sin and death will govern that humanity always.

But, as against this he contrasts in verse 2 of the 8th chapter, the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. And the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has as its governing force justice, righteousness, life. Now this is what Paul means when he says that the just shall live by faith. The unjust are going to live by sin, and everything they do is going to have one conclusion, guilt and death; and the whole world because it is in Adam, moves towards that, and Paul says: “Because we are going to bring all things into captivity to Christ, the whole world is going to move in terms of justice and life.”

So what Paul is giving us in this book, an unfolding step by step, is the foundation of the sociology of justification by faith. The motive force of those who are in the new humanity is not sin, it is not Genesis 3:5 ‘Ye shall be as God, knowing, determining for yourself, what is good and evil.’ The motive force now is what our Lord set forth in Matthew 6:33 ‘Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things which you want for yourself will then be added unto you. But first ye seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness or justice, and then those things which you want and you are planning for, and you hope for and dream about, will in Gods providence be added unto you.’

Faith propels the members of the new humanity, the people of Christ, the just who live by faith, into the world as more than conquerors, as Paul tells us in Romans 8:37. They are now the new humanity, they are the new force, and they are more than conquerors. The politics of justification by faith is the politics of justice under God and according to His law. The politics of sin of every system is the politics of death. The sociology of justification, of the kingdom of God, Paul compares in these verses to Christ’s resurrection. We are all dead in sin and trespasses; when we die in Christ we are resurrected in Him, and now there is a new force. We are the people of the resurrection, and Paul is going to tell us subsequently that the whole earth, the very ground under our feet; all things, groan and travail waiting for the glorious liberty of the Sons of God; that before the end of all things the world is going to be different, because the sociology of justification by faith begins the transformation of all things, beginning with us, going forth from us to change all things.

In every realm, Paul says, the goal is to establish the implications of our great liberator Christ, the head of the new humanity. Death hath no more dominion over Him, and therefore Paul says, it no longer has dominion over us because we are in Christ. We are now the people of victory, the people of justice and life.

This is our calling, and this is what Romans is about. Let us pray.

Thy word oh Lord is truth, and Thou hast called us to be the people of justice and life. Arouse Thy church oh Lord, and make us again a marching and victorious army, seeking first Thy kingdom and justice, and bringing all things into captivity to Jesus Christ our Lord; in His name we pray, amen.

Are there any questions about our lesson? Yes.

[Otto Scott] Is immortality of the soul a part of the Judaic religion before Jesus?

[Rushdoony] The resurrection is a part of the Old Testament faith, but not immortality of the soul. We are told by Paul ‘this mortal shall put on immortality’ in the resurrection, but the idea of a natural immortality was a Greek idea, and it was believed that the spirit or mind is divine and immortal, and therefore can never die; whereas the flesh, the material world, is just meaningless material that this spirit or mind linked itself to and uses for a time being. Then when it is freed from it, it goes on living.

Now, this is not the Biblical faith. The Biblical faith is that all things are created by God, and are equally mortal; but God is going to give life to all things through Christ, so all things will be renewed and remade, and this mortal shall put on immortality. But in the absolute sense, Paul says to Timothy: “God alone hath immortality.” What we have is life after death, and the resurrection. It is a totally different concept, the other is a kind of a natural fact of mind or spirit. Yes?

[Audience Member] Well then, those who do not share immortality in the sense of salvation, exist in, have some form of existence in hell, which is not properly referred to as immortality, is that correct?

[Rushdoony] No, it is spoken of as the second death, it is a further way of dying, because now their separation from God is complete, and God is the source of all life; and the further we are from Him the further we are from life.

[Audience Member] But as a knowledgeable existence, is it not?

[Rushdoony] Yes, it is an existence. Any other questions or comments? Yes.

[Otto Scott] Well, how did this strike people of Paul’s day, this must’ve been a shock?

[Rushdoony] Yes, and this is why all of Paul’s letters are written to correct the Greco-Roman ideas as they crept in, as they began to infiltrate the church; and we must remember that they were also a part of the Jewish culture of the day. You may recall a couple of weeks ago I spoke of Jerusalem and the fact that a book on the city at the time of our Lord should be written; because it was a particularly magnificent city. Not only had the Jews done everything to make it glorious during the Maccabean era, but then when you had the Greeks ruling it, they attempted to keep the people there happy, knowing how resentful they were; (and of course under Antiochus Epiphanies there was a revolt) by doing all kinds of things, building magnificent public buildings, ornate developments.

Well, then, the Romans and Herod did the same thing. Money was poured into Jerusalem, you could say their politics then was very much like our own. Most foreign aid in this century has been given to the Soviet Union by the United States; well, precisely because Judea was a threat, and yet it was a key part of the Roman Empire because its great threat in those days was Parthia, they therefore poured money into Judea and made it a place of remarkable splendor. At the same time, although nationalism was strong, they borrowed heavily from Greco Roman culture, so that if we put in modern terms we would have to say the Orthodox Jew in that day was a rarity; and we know that women were ruling synagogues, something which modern Jews even find a shock. So that whether they were Jews or Gentiles they were not interested in the Old Testament, they were interested in Greco Roman culture with their own nationalistic demands, so that Paul as he gives us with such tremendous force the Old Testament faith with Christ as the culmination of it, it came as a shock to Jews and Gentiles. And because it came to such clear focus in Paul, the hostility to Paul was intense.

Any other questions or comments?

Incidentally, to this day churches which claim to believe in salvation by faith, will on occasion; and I have been told of incidents of this, drop someone from teaching an adult class because they start teaching Romans verse by verse very plainly and honestly. They are told: “It is too controversial.”

[Audience Member] That and Predestination.

[Rushdoony] Yes. Paul is still controversial. All of the explosions in the Western Church over the centuries, in the Middle Ages with the Reformation and since then, have been because of Paul. And it has been because Paul’s influence has not been strong in the Eastern church that you haven’t had a like tension and explosion.

Well, if there are no further questions or comments, let us bow our heads now in prayer. We thank Thee our Father that Thy word which is truth, speaks plainly to our human condition, and points the way of deliverance from the sociology of sin. Empower us by Thy Spirit that we may be faithful to Thy word, and be more than conquerors in Christ.

And now go in peace, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost, bless you and keep you, guide and protect you, this day and always, amen.