Living by Faith - Romans

No Condemnation

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Living by Faith

Lesson: 29-64

Genre: Talk

Track: 029

Dictation Name: RR311P29

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 has made known Thy love and Thy grace to us in Jesus Christ, we praise Thee, we rejoice in all of Thy blessings, and we magnify Thy holy name. Oh Lord our God, day after day Thy mercies are new every morning. Give with all these things a grateful heart unto us, that we may be ever mindful how rich we are in Christ, how greatly protected and blessed we are by Thee. Make us mindful how much in debt we are in Thee, how surrounded we are by Thy love and the love of Thy people. Give us these things that we may ever praise Thee, and rejoice in Thee as we ought; in Jesus name, amen.

Our scripture is The Required Walk, and our text is Romans 8:3-8. Romans 8:3-8.

“3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.

6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.”

Antinomianism undermines Gods plain word concerning the way of life. the law, we are told, is the way of sanctification, of blessings, of life; but on disobedience it is the way of curses and of death. So we are told in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, and by Paul, our Lord in the Sermon on the Mount says: “I say unto you.” He speaks as the law giver who gave the law to Moses, who now corrects false teachings concerning the law. He is the way, the truth, and the life; and His law expresses the righteousness of the being of the Triune God. Moses, who was so disregarded by antinomianism, received direct revelations from God. We are told in Hebrews 10:28 to despise Moses law meant death without mercy at the hands of two or three witnesses; in fact, when Moses died God honored him, and the archangel Michael had charge of Moses body, to bury him.

The great song of triumph in the book of Revelation is called the song of Moses and the lamb of God. So Moses is coupled very closely with Christ in the New Testament. He is the great forerunner of Jesus Christ, the great prophet spoken of in Deuteronomy 18:15-22. Thus the song of Triumph in Revelation 15:3-4 bears both their names. It declares:

“3 And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints.

4 Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest.”

God spoke directly to Moses. God described Moses as the forerunner and type of Christ. If Moses work is repudiated by God and set apart in due time, why should not God then repudiate any or all of us in due time? If God sets aside His law and the minister of His law, Moses, why should He not in an age to come set aside our faith? We often grow weary one of another; why shouldn’t God grow weary of us? We are wearisome creature. Why should not after a few thousand years or more, God drop us also? But God says: “I am the Lord, I change not.” Because He is the unchanging Lord His law unchanging, and Moses is eternally secure, and we are secure.

Now in verse 3 Paul says the law could not save us because it was weak through the flesh. There is no disrespect to the law here. Paul tells us in Romans 1:17-31 that Gods law is written in all creation, in all our being, so that men know the things visible and invisible of God, and hold it down, hold it back, suppress it, in unrighteousness, in injustice. On top of that, we have the written law of God.

But, we are told, it was weak through the flesh, weak, ‘astheneo’, impotent, without strength. The fault is not in the law, but in man’s nature; it was weak because of our flesh. We, being fallen, our human nature suppresses the law of God.

Moreover, there is another fact that we have to see here. Most theologians and most commentators misread a good deal of the New Testament, and passages just like this, because they read it as though salvation is the goal, the be all and end all of every passage of scripture; but it isn’t! It is the starting point, but the goal is the service of God, and we are saved that we might serve Him; so that when preaching concentrates exclusively on salvation and on the celebration of salvation, it is like talking about food but refusing to eat it. The point of salvation is that we now are empowered to go to work. The point of food is that we eat it to become strong; it is our salvation that now makes us strong to do the work of God, so that God sends His Son to redeem us in order that we might be saved.

And this is what the next verse, verse 4, tells us. Why did God send His Son? “That the righteousness” (and remember, the word righteousness is the same as our more common word justice) That the righteousness or justice “of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”

Now there Paul tells us what the point of salvation is. That Gods justice be made manifest throughout all of life through us. The law has no power to justify, it tells men what God requires of them. Man’s fallen nature does not absolve man of the duty to serve and obey God, man’s duty remains. But Christ comes to remedy that incapacity, and through His salvation we are a new humanity, a new human race, free to serve God and to exercise dominion for Him.

We are told that we are saved ‘that the righteousness of the law, the justice of the law, might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit.’ There are a couple of words there that are very important. ‘Fulfilled’ We have the Greek word ‘Pleroo’ and ‘Pleroma’, fullness. It means in the Greek original, ‘executed’ or put into force. So Paul is saying ‘that the righteousness or justice of the law might be executed or put into force by us.’ This is only possible if we walk after the spirit, not after the flesh.

Now the word ‘walk’ here is ‘paripateo’, ‘Who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.’ It means to ‘tread all around’ so, to walk means to cover the ground, so that to walk after the spirit is to cover the ground with the justice of God, with the righteousness of God, to exercise dominion. So what does it mean, to walk after the spirit? It means wherever we are, whatever our calling is, to cover the ground there, to cover all bases, with the justice of God; to apply our faith to the totality of our lives, to exercise dominion.

But we have so much misrepresentation here. One commentator writing in German, his work translated into English because it was regarded as so important for readers to be aware of his thinking, Walter Lüthi, a Barthian, in commenting on this verse cites a play by a German, Durrenmatt, a play which as far as I know has never been translated into English. There are two men, one represents the law, and the other grace; and who represents grace is an alcoholic, a drunkard. Why does he represent grace? Because he is incapable of doing anything good, therefore his salvation is by faith alone, and Durrenmatt sees that as exemplifying Paul. On the other hand the public prosecutor whose name is ‘Mr. Mississippi’ makes and I quote: “The claim that he will save mankind by the law.”

Now this is the way a German scholar looks at this passage, looks at Romans; and this is the kind of perversion that is commonplace, as though to affirm salvation by the grace of God through faith, we are to deny the justice of God, and we are to prove that there isn’t any good thing in us by being the town drunk. This is the insanity that antinomian Protestantism is increasingly becoming.

In verse 5 Paul reminds us again of the two ways: “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.”

The two ways are one, those who are governed by autonomy, by the self-determination of their human nature, and those who are ruled by the Spirit. And in verse 6 Paul tells us of the consequences: “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.”

The word ‘minded,’ ‘phronema,’ is ‘thinking’. It refers to human thought. So it tells us ‘how is our human thought governed? Is it governed by human nature, or is it governed by the spirit?’ This will determine how we live, for to be minded by the things of our human nature, (the word ‘sarkikos,’ ‘carnal,’ is neutral in its implications in Greek,) is death, buto to be governed in our minds by the Holy Spirit is life and peace, because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

Humanistic man prefers his own way, and his way is enmity to God, enmity to Gods law, enmity to everything that is of God. So the issue is man’s law versus Gods law, Man saying: “My will be done” and the Godly person saying: “It is Gods will that must be done.”

In verse 8 Paul brings this to a conclusion: “So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.”

The word ‘please’ is a Greek word meaning to be acceptable. Man is only acceptable to God in Christ, and men who are carnally minded, whose being is governed only by their human nature, are unwilling and incapable of obeying God, because they believe that they are their own Gods, that it is their business to determine good and evil for themselves.

For us however there can be no life apart from Christ, and outside His ordained walk for us. We are called to walk in the Lord, to cover the earth with our tread, to exercise dominion. This is life, and this is blessedness. So that, when we are commanded to walk by faith, it means that we are to cover the ground where we are, to exercise dominion over the things we have to do with, to bring them under subjection. There is an old saying that the best manure for a farm is a farmers footsteps. Because as he walks over that ground and is concerned about every bit of it, and improving the whole place, he brings his mind to bear upon that ground, and all of his farm then is subjected to the improvements he has in mind. Now this is the kind of thing that Paul is talking about, we are to walk after the Spirit, we are to cover the ground, exercise dominion over it in terms of the word of God. This is life, and this is blessedness.

The best way perhaps to sum this up is in terms of Calvin’s comment on verse 6, and I quote: “The minding of the Spirit he calls life, for it is life-giving, or leads to life; and by peace he designates, after the manner of the Hebrews, every kind of happiness; for whatever the Spirit of God works in us tends to our felicity.”

Whatever the Spirit of God works in us tends to our felicity. This is the way of blessing and of happiness, to be spiritually minded. Let us pray.

Oh Lord our God, whose word is truth and who has summoned us to walk, to exercise dominion after Thy Spirit and according to Thy word, bless us in our daily walk, that we might know that we are commanded to walk, to exercise dominion, to be masters of creation, in Thee and according to Thy word. We thank Thee that we do this in Thy power, and that we are never alone. Bless us ever to faithfulness and to joy in Thee, in Jesus name, amen.

Are there any questions now about our lesson? Yes?

[Audience Member] The exercise of dominion for man here on earth, in what way might that relate to activity in heaven, in preparation for that?

[Rushdoony] Very good question, how does our activity in exercising dominion here on earth relate to our life in heaven. First it is a preparation, because we are told that in the new creation, and it is beyond our imagination to grasp its dimensions, we are to have a society; that in that society some will be as it were, rulers over ten cities, and others rulers over five, and our work there will depend upon our exercise of dominion here, and our faithfulness here, so that it is important for us to recognize that all eternity depends upon our life here; the place we occupy in the new creation will be determined by what we do here and now.

So, it is very important to recognize that the dominion we exercise here is simply a portion of what will be ours eternally. Any other questions or comments?

If not, let us bow our heads in prayer: Oh Lord our God we rejoice in all Thy mercies and blessings, we thank Thee for Thy word, that we have a lamp, a light to guide us day by day. We rejoice oh Lord that by Thy Spirit we are blessed, guided, and empowered to do Thy work. Bless us ever in thy service.

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.