7:21–23. Here Paul uses the law motif to illustrate from another angle the conflict he experiences. Two laws are mentioned: the law of my mind (his desire to obey God’s law), and the law of sin (that which wars against the law of his mind). He states a principle by which these two laws conflict with one another: when I want to do good, evil is right there with me. All of us can identify with the apostle’s succinct summary of the spiritual experience.

Not only Paul, but all believers, have “left undone those things which we ought to have done.” And as the Anglican confession rightly concludes (“there is no health in us”), Paul is about to explode with his own spiritual diagnosis.

One of the results of the gospel is that it delivers us from the condemnation of the law. “Of what use then is the Law? To lead us to Christ, the Truth—to waken in our minds a sense of what our deepest nature, the presence, namely, of God in us, requires of us—to let us know, in part by failure, that the purest efforts of will of which we are capable cannot lift us up even to the abstaining from wrong to our neighbor” (George MacDonald, in Lewis, p. 20).

The law did its perfect work in the apostle Paul, reviving his soul (Ps. 19:7a). It convicted him of his sin and showed him that the only deliverance for him was Jesus Christ. No wonder Paul could call the law a “tutor to lead us to Christ, that we may be justified by faith” (Gal. 3:24, NASB). That is exactly what the law did for him. Once delivered from the law, Paul was able to serve the ends of the law—righteousness—in the power of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 7:6).

Paul summarizes the entire chapter—the conflict of the believer that causes him or her to remain dependent upon the Spirit—in the final verse. When it is Paul the believer talking, he makes himself a slave to God’s law. But when his sinful capacity speaks out, he is a slave to the law of sin. As mentioned in this chapter earlier, it is a shame that chapter divisions in our Bibles cause us to “stop” at certain points in the consideration of the text. While this is a logical point in the flow of Paul’s thought for a pause, Romans 7 and 8 should be read together. Immediately, Paul moves from wretchedness to victory in declaring that the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set him “free from the law of sin and death” (Rom. 8:2). The gospel is indeed good news, delivering the believer from death by law to life by grace through the Spirit.^[7]

8:15–16. Paul declares that believers are children of God in whom there should be no fear. What is the fear that Paul says has been removed by the presence of the Spirit of God? Essentially and psychologically, it probably comes closest in our modern era to the codependent person or the addict getting well. Oftentimes people fear losing what has provided their identity for a significant period of time. Just as a former smoker has to learn what to do with his or her hands when nervous or in a social setting, so the new believer fears a new relationship as a child of God. The void left by the absence of sin will be filled by the Spirit and works of righteousness in time, but there is an initial fear. Several passages of Scripture provide insight:

1 Corinthians 2:12: “We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us” (emphasis added). Do nonbelievers, those who have the “spirit of the world,” live in fear of God and of the unknown? Yes, in their heart of hearts. They fear death, hell, judgment, eternity, punishment—not to mention tomorrow and what it might take from them. You will not find fear being discussed on talk shows, but you will find it being covered up through frantic forays into materialism, sex, substance abuse, depression, and other denial-oriented diversions. When the children of God recognize their position, instead of being afraid of life and God, their eyes are open to what God has freely given them.

2 Timothy 1:7: Instead of “a spirit of timidity” (fear), we have been given the Holy Spirit, who is love, power, and self-discipline. Rather than living in fear of life and what it may hold, the Holy Spirit’s love, power, and self-discipline through us gives us a whole new perspective on life.

Matthew 7:9–11: Children of God do not receive booby prizes or gag gifts from their Father. Even evil fathers know how to give appropriate gifts to their children; how much more will the “Father in heaven” give his children good gifts?

Paul himself provides the best illustration. Instead of a spirit of fear, we have received a spirit of sonship, or adoption. Adoption is a strictly Pauline metaphor, one common to him and his readers in Rome, due to the practice of adoption in the Roman Empire. Paul says in Ephesians 1:5 that adoption is a sovereign act of God, the result of his predestined pleasure and will. In Galatians 4:5–7, he repeats much of what he says in our Romans text, with one important addition: “That we might receive the full rights of sons” (Gal. 4:5). Therein lies the heart of sonship, or adoption. One who was not a natural son is adopted by a father and given every legal right of sonship held by the natural sons. He is made an heir of the father, and given equal standing (often a more privileged standing) with the father’s natural progeny.

Because Paul does not expand the metaphor in detail, the careful expositor will not do so either, pushing cultural aspects of Roman adoption into the realm of sanctification. But the key point—legal standing as a child of God, is fully represented by Paul’s adoption metaphor: Jesus Christ is God’s (only) natural Son and believers are adopted into the family of God and made “heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ” (Rom. 8:17).

As an adoption record in a court of law receives a stamp, seal, or signature verifying its authenticity, and validating the adoptee’s rights from that day forward, so the believer is given a seal by God. The Holy Spirit is given to believers to be a “deposit, guaranteeing what is to come” (2 Cor. 1:22). “Having believed,” Paul says, we were “marked in [Christ] with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit” (Eph. 1:13). In Romans Paul says that the Holy Spirit plays a unique role, testifying with the spirit of the believer that we are God’s children. By the presence and power of the Spirit, we call out to God in a personal way, Abba, Father. The Spirit gives us that liberty in our spirits because we know from him that we are God’s children.

Variant forms of the Aramaic Abba can be heard in the Israeli and Arab marketplaces of today as young children call to their fathers in the hustle and bustle of the crowded market. Abba, or “daddy,” represents the familiar cry of the heart from one who knows who the father is. Because it is the Spirit of God who is given to believers, the heart of the child is linked with the heart of the Father in permanent intimacy.

But the believer is not just a child of God, but an heir of God as well. Being a child means that I have a family now; being an heir means I am included in the family forever.

8:17. No more dramatic validation of our status as co-heirs with Christ can be found than that which came through the Son’s own request to the Father. First, Christ told his Father that he had given the disciples the glory that had been given to him (John 17:22). The purpose of that was that the unity (solidarity) of believers with Christ might be evident to all the world, and that the Father’s love for believers was the same as his love for the Son (John 17:23). Finally, Christ asked the Father: “I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world” (John 17:24). Christ offers to share his own inheritance, his glory, with those whom the Father has given to him, meaning the disciples and all who would believe in him.

But there is a “catch.” Coheirs will share in glory only in the same manner in which the heir achieves glory. In the case of Christ, it was through suffering. The NIV’s if indeed is not a condition in the Greek text, but rather a fact, adopted coheirs share in all the inheritance of the son. If suffering is the son’s portion, then it will likewise be the portion of the adopted coheirs. But Paul never shrunk from this inheritance in his own life, and encourages the believers in Rome to view their past, present, and future sufferings for the cause of Christ as part of their sonship.

If the son learned obedience through suffering, so will the adopted sons (Heb. 5:8). If the son carried around in his body the persecutions of the public, so will the adopted sons (2 Cor. 4:10). If the son grew weak under persecutions without losing heart, so are the adopted sons called to do likewise (2 Cor. 4:16). It is conformity to the son that the adopted sons are gaining day by day as we “are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory” (2 Cor. 3:18). We are called to share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.^[9]

4:6. As son and heir, each Christian receives the Holy Spirit, the down payment of his or her inheritance (Eph. 1:14). The Holy Spirit moves believers to pray to God as Abba, Father. Abba is the equivalent of “Daddy.” It shows the closeness children of grace have with their Father. No slave of the law had such an intimate relationship. That intimate relationship comes through the Spirit not through the law.

4:7. Paul concludes that the Galatians were no longer slaves but were sons and heirs. Thus, under grace we have progressed from being slaves to being sons and heirs. Grace is adulthood. Law is childhood. With the privileges of adulthood, why regress back to the law?^[10]

54:4 The psalmist has called upon God. He has stated the cause of his concern—godless men threaten his life. Now he makes a confession of faith and expresses confidence that God will deliver him. Surely God is my help. At the very time the enemy threatens, the psalmist acknowledges help from God. “Look!” he says, or “See!” (הִנֵּה, hinnēh) “God is helping me” (the Hebrew participle). Continuing the verse, we would translate: “The Lord (Adonai) is my sustainer of life.” This is preferable to “the sustainer of my life” since it focuses more upon the essential nature of God as the sustainer of life—of all life and not just my own: the Lord is the one who sustains me. That I am sustained is cause for personal rejoicing. That it is the universal sustainer of life who sustains me is the emphasis and the cause for greater wonder and praise.^[11]

4:8. Come near to God involves approaching God in worship and commitment. Those who approach God in the obedience of worship find that he comes near to them. As our knowledge of the Lord deepens, we learn more fully his strength, power, and guidance for godly living.

Wash your hands uses the language of religious ceremony in a moral sense (see Exod. 30:19–21). We cleanse our hands by withdrawing them from all evil actions and compromises. Perhaps obedience to this command called more for cleansing the outward life, while purify your hearts called for an inner purification (see 1 John 3:3). The language here is soaked with words from Psalm 24:3–4 calling for believers to have “clean hands and a pure heart.”

Double-minded people follow the practices of the world while they pretend to hold to God. Such people lack the purity of heart and focused purpose which the Lord wants in his disciples. The solution for this serious condition is a commitment of the entire personality to Christ and a fresh seeking of the power of the Holy Spirit.^[12]

4:4–5 First, Paul commanded the Philippians to rejoice. He repeated the command immediately, thereby emphasizing its importance. Their joy was to be in the Lord, and it was to be unchanging. The circumstances of Paul’s life reminded him of the joy available in the Lord, and he wished that joy for them as well. Paul knew that no situation is beyond the Lord’s help. Christians can always rejoice in that, if nothing else.

Second, Paul exhorted them to gentleness. No single word translates epi-eikes well, and commentators consistently insist that the word contains an element of selflessness. The gentle person does not insist on his rights. “It is that considerate courtesy and respect for the integrity of others which prompts a man not to be for ever standing on his rights; and it is preeminently the character of Jesus (2 Cor 10:1).” The word occurs in Paul’s writing as a characteristic of Christian leaders (1 Tim 3:3, of bishops; Titus 3:2). Fairness and magnanimity were to be developed so that they were visible to all. They were to characterize the church. Paul made this emphatic by reminding them that the Lord was at hand. The statement sobers Christians for two reasons: He will come as judge, expecting to see this quality in his people; having personified the quality himself, he knows what it is like.

4:6 The third command is negative, but it has a positive thrust: “Do not be anxious about anything.” Jesus spoke about anxiety in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 6:25–34), where he stated the most common causes of anxiety. They are: physical attributes (v. 27); clothing (v. 28); food and drink (v. 31); and the future (v. 34). Even in contemporary life with its complexities, the same simple concerns cause anxiety. Prayer cures anxiety. Here three words describe prayer. Each contributes to a proper understanding of the comprehensive nature of the prayer life. The point, however, is that prayer relieves the problem of anxiety. The center of the verse is the significant part: Prayer is to be offered “with thanksgiving.” The attitude of gratitude accompanies all true approaches to the Father.

4:7 The answer to anxiety is the peace of God. Paul made three statements about this peace. First, it is divine peace. He did not envision a situation where circumstances changed or external needs were met. This peace was a characteristic of God which invaded the Christian. Second, it “transcends all understanding.” “Transcends” translates the word hyperechousa (“excellent”), which is found in 2:3; 3:8, and here in a compound form. Paul contrasted knowledge and peace at one point: Peace excels over knowledge. No doubt he had in mind situations where knowledge is insufficient. Sometimes it cannot explain, and sometimes explanations do not help. Peace, however, is always appropriate and meets the need of the heart. Finally, this peace will “guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” “Guard” is a military term, implying that peace stands on duty to keep out anything that brings care and anxiety. For these reasons, prayerful people are peaceful people.^[15]

55:22 The psalm ends, however, on a note of confidence. To appreciate this, one needs to recall the psalmist’s experience—his appeals to God; the oppression, the iniquity and the wrath of his enemies; the terrors, the fear; trembling and horror he has known; his desire for flight that was denied him; and especially his betrayal by his friend. Through all of this he has come. But instead of having been crushed by the ordeal, he has a testimony to give—glorious good news to share. Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you. The “cares” is better understood as “your given lot,” meaning your portion in life. Of course, such may have become a “care” or “burden.” And note that the promise is not that the burden is sure to be removed, nor that God will carry it for us. But he will sustain the one who trusts in him, enabling him to bear it. Understandably, this opening statement of verse 22 has become one of the most cherished found in the Psalms.^[16]

4:9–10. Spiritual growth and nourishment and disciplines for godliness do not exist in a vacuum. They must be grounded in the living Christ. Paul underscored this idea by stating, This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance. This is the thing for which the apostles and followers of Christ labor and strive. They had one purpose in their work. They committed themselves to one urgent and pressing goal—the spread of the gospel.

Their hope was not in performance, legalisms, or mere talk. The touchstone of faith for all who believe is that hope is placed in the living God, who is the Savior of all men. The God we follow is living, interactive, and present in our lives. Our confidence rests in a God who is ever-living.

Since only God is the Savior of all people, only one message brings hope to the human condition. If there is only one way by which people can be saved into a new realm of God’s rule and righteousness, then it is imperative that we tell others about this way.

Although God is the Savior of all, not everyone will be saved. Abiding trust is the requisite for such salvation. He is the Savior especially of those who believe. There will be those who refuse, some who cling to idols. They will fulfill Jonah’s ancient and prophetic voice, “Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs” (Jon. 2:8).

Those who put their hope in the living God acknowledge the truth and embrace the truth. They believe that “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God” and know that “by believing [they] have life in his name” (John 20:31). We do not believe and then add works to our faith, just to make sure. We do not believe and then make up additional rules for righteousness. We put full trust in Christ, resting in his righteousness.

Our spiritual discipline and godly training are designed not to gain favor with God but to reinforce our trust in him.

4:11. Paul’s instruction was for Timothy and all church leaders to command and teach others about the Savior. Grace is no side issue. Legalism is no weak enemy. Rules are great for discipline but not for righteousness.^[17]