Inevitable?
knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; Romans 6:6 NASB
Done away – So when did you stop sinning? Weren’t you symbolically crucified with the Messiah? Doesn’t that mean that the “old” man has been done away with and you are no longer a slave to sin? So when did you stop?
Uncomfortable, isn’t it? It appears from the logic of this verse that either 1) you can point to the day when you stopped sinning or, 2) you still sin and therefore were never crucified with him. If the measure of true salvation is the absence of sin, then very, very few of us (might I say “no one”) have arrived. Can this be what Paul means? Are we all inevitably condemned because sin continues to be an issue?
Let’s examine Paul’s statement in Jewish Greek (LXX). First we notice that the Greek word palaios (“old”) does not mean temporally past or temporally before. It means useless, worn-out or transitory. The text tells us that our former way of being in the world (not “self,” but “man” – anthropos) is useless. It is worn-out and cannot provide anything of value. That way of being in the world was symbolically crucified with the Messiah. The “old” things have been done away with. Thank you, Stevie Ray.
We need another small correction. Paul uses the Greek verb katargeo in the translated phrase “might be done away with.” It means, “to make inoperative, to remove from activity, to bring to nothing.” Here it is a passive, aorist verb. That means the action of this verb is complete, but it was done to us. We are the beneficiaries of some other agent’s action. In other words, we didn’t accomplish the symbolic crucifixion. Yeshua did it, and the result is that we benefit by having the power of sin removed from us. This is the “first-fruits” principle. He was accepted as righteous and we are pulled along on his coattails. If you thought that you had to make this happen, you were mistaken. It has already happened. You just need to put it into practice.
What are you putting into practice? First, you and I need to settle the “uselessness” condition. We need to embrace the already established fact that the old way of living produces nothing. That’s a difficult step since everything in our Babylonian world appears to confirm the opposite. But we need a longer vision. An over-the-horizon point-of-view. Adopt uselessness and things will improve.
Secondly, we need to notice, and celebrate, life in another direction. Undoing all that past uselessness programing doesn’t happen instantly. Ya’akov became Yisra’el one night at the brook, but both names continued for the rest of his life. Change in direction, not rapture. The idea is this: having been released from the power of the useless life, we are not capable of bringing all those past useless activities to nothing. Some change easily. Some do not. But a new path is open to us, a path that encourages walking without condemnation. There has been a cosmic shift. Instead of “You can never do it,” we hear his voice saying, “Yes, I know you can do it.” The aorist, finished crucifixion work leads to meketi douleuein (“no longer enslaved” – a present, active infinitive). What’s done is done. Now get on with it.
Topical Index: sin, done away, katargeo, douleuo, be enslaved, Romans 6:6
Thank you for the excellent trail guide service through this much misused verse. I really appreciate the Greek grammar lessons in particular.
I think of salvation, like all love, as a two-way action; as in there are two actors involved. Yes, Yeshua completed His end of the action at the cross (an action which He started before the foundation of the world), but we still have to complete our end. Fed Ex can knock on my door all day long with a package, but until I open the door (of my heart) and sign (take responsibility) for it, it still is not mine.
I need saving every minute. Every minute of my life is fraught with disaster and death that I need to be aware of and do something about. Yelping for help and repenting for failing to hit the mark and praise and gratitude (acceptance) of all those wonderful gifts and obedience (made possible by the freedom I appropriate BY the above actions) and, the ultimate goal of all of the above life-returning activity – service – is something I have to be present in my present for.
Salvation may have been a lonely, lonely action of faith on His end, but salvation appropriated on my end is where I catch up with my Saviour in all the above ways I was alone before so we can walk together. I am dead (alone) in any moment in time that I am not in the present, for only in the present can life (salvation) happen (be streamed through me). He accomplished the loneliness that death represents so that I never have to walk alone again. Halleluah! Praise His holy name!
May we look at the word “power?” Yeshua did it, and the result is that we benefit by having the “power” of sin removed from us. What is this “power?” Sin shall no longer have dominion (power, authority) over you. We have the “power” of choice! We may now, — choose not to sin. Just say “no.” But.. it is much more than saying “no!” It is saying “yes” to something (Someone) much better!! This is what God wants! He wants our “yes!”
Let’s practice this together.. “Yes, LORD.” And again? “Yes, LORD.” And again? Amen! Holiness is a habit! But, it starts with a choice. The choice is ours. Which master to obey? O hallelujah!! I choose Him!
May our ready answer always be, “I delight to do Your will [what You want, what pleases You], my always good, always present, always faithful Father.”
Unloading useless programming is a journey towards LIFE.
” If God’s presence doesn’t show itself in your head, you are being deceived. To stay on the right path, you have to start on the inside.” (Skip, TW Aug. 15, 2011)
Thank you Skip for all you have written about this faith walk being a journey.
Done away? Did not our Savior say, “Behold, I make all things new?” And in addition, “if any man [or woman] be in Christ, he [or she] is a new creation?” Yes, [true] hope and change — “in Christ.”
I embrace wonder, maybe because I know I cannot crack it, i.e., solve it or reconcile it. It’s just wonder and that’s quite ‘ok’ with me. And I have a particular affinity to holy writ that leaves me in a state of ‘wonder’. Today’s text, Romans 6:6 is one of those points of wonder, as is 1John3:8-10. And there is a wonder that springs from this wonder, as believers attempt to make these text, more, shall we say ‘humanly digestable’, as we attempt to reconcile our personal faith and beliefs with what scripture seems to be clearly saying. We can’t make Paul or John appear and really tell us what they meant by these writings, as in some Woody Allen movie. And so I am left with wonder and that can often make the scripture more rewarding. I don’t have to strip it down to make it fit me, my lifestyle or my church’s doctrine. I don’t have to say, ‘yes, well, he really couldn’t have meant that, even though it plainly stated in my translation’. I don’t have to dress it up, to take it for a walk and enjoy its’ company. I am content with the wonder and knowledge that there could well be something ‘not quite right’ with how we interpret the text. It would be a ‘horse pill’ to swallow if the writer of the text, really meant what the translation seems to say. And since I can’t make the writer appear and explain, I am left with the wonder and the wondering and the not quite knowing. And I am content with that.
David,
I, too, am filled with wonder. Accordingly, there’s so much I accept by faith, and much,
thank God, that I’ve actually experienced.
This is a miraculous journey of new beliefs, new insights and a renewed and transformed attitude.
My eyes haven’t changed but my heart sure has.
And what’s wonder-ful about that, is its ability to hear that still small voice.
That part I get.
Thank you for a plain and understandable explanation…
Let’s me think of The Eagles – Get Over It…
I was once reminded that this all about the word taking on Flesh – my flesh or rather how I have permitted or decided to adapt myself to that what I understand is YHVH’s will.
I am still on holiday… fitting the puzzle pieces by whether I need a time or a time and a half to permit my redemption to manifest or must I wait for a sign before I mess things up because I did not leave it alone…
Let me summarize – I must reveal Christ (Being an anointed) to come in line for being united with Yeshua (Finding salvation in my now and here). In doing this my useless way of living that ends by the grave (No trailer beyond that to take my belongings with me.) will be transformed, slowly but surely, into experiencing the coming of the kingdom (Peace, Righteousness and Joy in the Holy Spirit – Neverland) of YHVH. I must just place my self on the cross to overcome my worldly approach to surviving on the earth (1 John 2).
Now the only deduction I can now make is that the word of YHVH will always shape and direct my life, be it towards;
wealth,
humbleness,
peace,
brotherhood,
love or
well-being
It will all depend on what and where I permit this word (Torah) to be manifested in the way I do things… Or am I totally missing the inevitable?
Seeker, salvation just gets more and more mysterious to me. Given the current trajectory of my rate of ‘understanding’ (not), I am beginning to be suspicious that eternity (the forever now) exists to give me an opportunity to grasp how unfathomable the workings of the Spirit really are. Yesterday I thought I knew….
Welcome to my world…
One day I think I now have it the Next I have totally missed the point…
Is this not why we need to be transparent (open and honest) towards each other and everyone claiming to know an answer (We cannot be transparent to YHVH as His spirit searches and knows all). It is in this transparency that we grow as we shed off those peals or veils that are over our eyes… Preventing us from understanding YHVH yet ensuring that we remain faithful to doing what we currently believe…
Dealing with every issue with a simple submission: Father may this cup pass me, yet not my will but Thy will be done.
Puts a whole new light on this verse!
“the old way of living produces nothing. ” We were living in darkness of being deceived, accepting evil for good in an enslaved mindset, e.g. it is alright to make a ‘white’ lie, by circumventing the entire situation through justification instead of turning to truth, is damaging to one’s integrity.
The old way of living in those circumstances bring forth vanity of vanities, meaningless, unprofitable, consternation to the spirit, leads to chaos.
We need to endeavor to walk in a new, complete Torah mindset, follow / accept new rules, be disciplined to do away with slavery to transgression, to live in a totally changed new lifestyle, desiring to be set free from the bondages of living in the disgusting old deceptive ways, taking charge of every step we take.
Shalom.
Ester, the change of heart I needed before I could do what you outlined was a revision of what I believed love to be. I believed things about love that were not true, and I based my reactions to life accordingly. The bondage I was in was to mindsets that lied to me and told me I had no choices. I would have loved to have chosen to walk in the truth, except when I believed shame that told me I had nothing to stand on and had no way out and that no one was going to believe me anyway, I had no courage to speak the truth. I would have loved to stay in peace except that I had no way and no one I felt I could trust. When I fell for that one, chaos was the only constant in my life. I had to sign on to the mandates of others even when I knew that they were wrong because they had me over a barrel.
No one sins without being deceived or forced. We fall for lies that tell us we will find love through efforts of our own, but we are also defenseless against forces that tell us we are not worthy of love. Carl wrote that we can only move with power from on high. If that is so, then the only place I am in a position to avail myself of that power is when I stop struggling. Skip has written about this numerous times. When I think I can ‘do it’ or when I believe that I can’t, I am in equal trouble. The flesh falls equally before pride and before shame. Either condition paralyzes me. That paralysis should be my signal that I am out of yoke, and the resultant fear that it produces should be my signal that I am missing vital data and vital power to act on that information.
Humility is the constant state of the acceptance of the reality that tells me I was never designed to go it alone in the first place. That is the truth that sets me and keeps me free from the pride that lies and says its all up to me, and also from the shame that alerts me to the fact that I AM alone; separated and in my ditch.
I have a choice of one of two masters. The flesh and the world take both my pride and my shame and enslave me with them. I am bound with ropes of my own weaving. If I choose to yoke up with heaven, however, neither pride or shame have power over me, for the partnership of love resists both conditions equally. I have to keep remembering that!
Today I heard an interesting view on how we should approach YHVH’s purpose…
A king and personal slave go hunting. A tiger attacks them the slave fends off the tiger after the tiger bit the kings one finger off. As the slave could not prevent the king’s finger’s loss he is tossed into prison.
The next day the king is walking alone in a different portion of his kingdom, an ancient tribe catch the king and plan to offer him to their god. Before they do this they realize he is not perfect (Missing a finger) and they set him free.
On return the king releases the slave and awards him according to being instrumental to saving the king’s life twice… As the king could not understand why he was so unrighteous to toss the slave into prison, the slave responded, if he did not the slave would have been sacrificed because of his perfect body…
We are to consider everything that happens in our life in this view as we are not intended to understand YHVH’s purpose until we can look back on our ways and realize with awe towards YHVH’s ultimate magnificent that all our disadvantages are temporary to guide us towards His plan of salvation for others… After all we have just humbled ourselves to be YHVH’s willing instruments…
The will of YHVH will never take me were the power of YHVH cannot protect me.
More than this is our own understanding of YHVH’s purpose and this may just be what is keeping us from doing YHVH’s will as Skip has advised many times on these blogs…