Nine Ways from Sunday
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. Romans 8:2 NASB
Law – Paul is a complex writer. He uses Greek vocabulary to its maximum. In fact, sometimes he just makes up words. So to imagine that Paul always means that same thing with any particular word he chooses is to truncate his literary style. Paul’s use of nomos is the classic example. Michael Winger’s analysis of Paul’s use of nomos[1] demonstrates how flexible the term is. Winger identifies at least seven different ways Paul uses the term. In this particular verse, the better translation would be “principle” rather than “law.” Why? Because if I uniformly translate nomos as “law” in all of Paul’s letters, I might draw the mistaken conclusion that Paul always used nomos to describe Torah, and that therefore, Paul believed the Torah was a “law” of sin and death.
Failure to notice the nuances of Paul’s use of nomos has created the popular Christian idea that Paul opposed Torah and taught that Torah was not only no longer necessary but was the source of all our problems. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Let’s translate this verse appropriately and see what happens. “For the principle of the Spirit of life in Yeshua HaMashiach has set you free from the principle of sin and of death.” What is the principle of sin and death? Simple: you and I have trained ourselves to obey the desires of the yetzer ha’ra well beyond its essential purpose of human survival. In the process we have chosen again and again to make ourselves the top priority of life. We have created a personal idolatry of fulfillment. Unfortunately, that process leaves us with a principle—a standard operating procedure—that opposes the will of God delivered in the yetzer ha’tov. We are our own spiritual enemies, fighting a battle that we cannot win alone.
But YHVH provides deliverance. There is another operating principle in this world. There is another way of conducting the business of life. It is the principle demonstrated in the actions of God’s son, taught to us by his example and the help of the Spirit. This way of living sets us free from the insistent power of our previous methods. It doesn’t come easy. It takes practice and patience and not a little agony and distress. But it works! Over time we can live for different purposes, we can see change, we can experience what it means to embrace the divine.
It’s worth noting that Paul uses the verb eleutheroo here. “To set free” presupposes a former state of slavery. Slavery means being owned by someone else, in this case, being owned by the desires of our yetzer ha’ra. But unlike the Greek world, freedom in Hebraic thought is not about individual license. According to the biblical record, “we achieve self-control by letting ourselves be controlled.”[2] The issue is simply, “Who controls me?” Paul is claiming that we can experience true freedom, that is, freedom from the controlling passions of the yetzer ha’ra only when we submit to the control of the Spirit, just as Yeshua did. Life is about control. The principle Paul advocates is control by the Messiah.
Topical Index: freedom, control, nomos, law, principle, Romans 8:2
[1] Cf. http://d3pi8hptl0qhh4.cloudfront.net/documents/tschreiner/review_Winger.pdf
[2] Kittel, G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W. (1985). Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (225). Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans.
What is the “principle of sin and of death”? Simple. You sin: you die. It’s like we are deep sea divers. Sin is where we cut our air line by fracturing our connections with all else. Life is a principle of relationship – of that connection – with all. For me to truly actualize in reality – to live – I must be plugged in to everybody and everything else.
We started out connected: breathing the air of heaven by means of relating – connecting – to all by means of obedience to YHVH’s principles. Now we are isolated and broken. The only way I am going to get to enjoy a breath of that life (connection) stuff now, fractured as I am, is to share the lifeline (right connections, or, righteousness) that my diving Partner has established. Fortunately for us, Someone left the surface where He was surrounded by that breath of life, and dove down to where we are. Now, I get to live because He is doing it for me and in me – when I remember to share His airline; His connections: His “control” (will), that is. I don’t have any. That would be an illusion. The only thing I have is a fractured line to heaven and everything else, and the only thing I know is how to keep on cutting it.
I am engaged in a continuous war of control. The more I fight the harder life is. The more I yield the fuller life is. You’d think I’d yield more easily.
Recognition of the battle seems to be a good place to start each moment I breathe. Then one step at a time.
Thanks, Skip. A good reminder of the most important thing regarding living.
“You and I have trained ourselves to obey the desires of the yetzer ha’ra well beyond its essential purpose of human survival.” “We achieve self-control by letting ourselves be controlled.”
Skip, I have a very serious question. What about all the children who’ve been traumatized and victimized before the age of 5. Science shows that rewiring of the brain goes on and changes the actual nervous system and the way it reacts to stress. How do you view this circumstance (which is going on here and all over the world) with todays lesson? The very people who feel unsafe being taken to a place of lack of control produces fear?
Tragedy occurs everywhere we look in human history, including our own stories. And I am quite sure God accounts for all this. The results of trauma affect each of us, some to great extents. But none of this removes our own free will. We still decide, even if our circumstances severely limit our decisions. We are not animals, subject only to instinct, unless we are forced to become animals. My son works with children who have had these kinds of terrible lives. Of course they are changed, but many can still be returned to some form of real humanity. Tragically, some don’t seem to be able to do so. The world is a pretty terrible place for a lot of us. Nevertheless, unless the yetzer ha’ra is extinguished, it still operates. And so does the yetzer ha’tov.
Dana, these questions are very meaningful to me, too. Skip is right that the ability to choose continues to be gifted to us, even after such terrible ‘training’, but grace does abound where sin abounds. For what it is worth, here are my summary notes of a study on post-traumatic growth that can be found in the publication “Archives of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy” Sept. 2014 vol. 16, issue 3. entitled “A clinician’s guide to the neurobiology underlying the presentation and treatment of PTSD and subsequent growth”.
Posttraumatic growth can occur when persons struggle with their traumatic experience and engage with it on a deep and meaningful level. The meaning people ascribe to their experience can contribute not only to the severity of the experience, but can also be an essential component in recovering from trauma. The more likely the trauma is, the more likely it is to experience this type growth. For example, less severe trauma is also less likely to result in this type growth.
Factors that can contribute to this growth may include various degrees of rumination about the trauma, more openness to religion and also personality variables such as openness, conscientiousness, and agreeableness. Research indicates that persons that have experienced this growth may have increased left frontal brain activation. However, the use of drugs such as Propranolol, which is used to inhibit memories, may decrease the likelihood of survivors being able to experience this growth.
Hi Laurita,
So appreciate your sharing those study notes. I can relate to them, having helped and seen some cases where they recovered completely and are better persons for it, and those who did not had such negative effects on them. Very sad.
Blessings!
we can see in the Scriptures there are different categories of judgement, not everyone is judged by the same measure, this is foremost described in spiritual terms (Luke 12:48) yet the same meaning naturally encompasses every other facet of our personal being. Are we more rational, are we naturally more temperate and gentle, are we richer than most etc
all of these differing factors have a bearing on our personal judgement, no individual is the same, and even where we might classify broad groups of people according to any number of factors there are still subtle intricate differences which are all important for one individual compared to another
so likewise when children are mistreated, and similarly adults, and they experience fragmentation, dissociation or any other condition as we have now come to term these developments (in part, processes) whilst we cannot fully know the effect and difference they produce, God is understanding, and God wants to forgive and help humanity continue both spiritually here and in the time of after
I think the more we learn about understanding the nature of these differences the more we can understand how much God wants to forgive us, and have hope in this truth, and likewise we should hope to learn from these observations how to be more kinder and good-willed to others even as they (and all of us) are imperfect and difficult at times
Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart.
(Psalms 119:34)
this is why we are asked to be forgiving and understanding in a cruel, unjust and confusing world, we have roles now to try and be carers and kind people, but it is not easy, it is very difficult, it sounds good in theory but in practise we will fall short, but we should respect the importance of this awareness about the nature of individual differences and how much one individual significant varies from another and try not to be judging, but rather, try to be understanding, tolerant and caring, we can accomplish a lot both in helping others and thereby improving our own minds and hearts
Teth, that is so beautiful. Thank you for pointing out what I believe could be the real essence of the fact that we will always have the poor among us, which is that opportunity to develop a right response to those who deserve our pity and help. That would include the poor in spirit, too, which I believe this whole class embodies.
I have been given the opportunity to work with people suffering from the fallout of severe abuse, with the expected mental challenges and physical diseases that typically tend to show up in abused people, such as chronic pain and debility, as well as autoimmune responses and digestive tract disorders. Poor in spirit eventually shows up in the mental and physical health, too. I don’t think it was an accident that Yeshua healed first before He taught. When you are hurting and mentally challenged, it is hard to impossible to experience a heart encounter. (For the record, I believe this is why the laws of health in general are as binding on us as the rest of Torah. If we are commanded to love others as we love ourselves, but are suffering from disobedience to those laws, we cannot reprove others effectively (“physician, heal thyself”) or love them either. If I am not feeling well, it can be hard to impossible to effectively contribute to the well being of others.)
In fact, when I saw that I was suffering from my own fallout of abuse, which was making it hard to be an effective witness or worker with the illness of others, I made a decision to go before YHVH and solve my problems first; not only as an example of the faith I believed (that He can heal), but also so that I would have the correct nephesh platform (health in all dimensions) from which to help others. No sooner than I started that quest, answers appeared in front of me, and you all know my testimony. Halleluah!
Dana, to continue the conversation, I believe that in order to make the world to come safe from sin again, all that inhabit it need to have a total abhorrence of sin. That requires the sinners to have repented completely, but also those that have been sinned against to have forgiven completely, too. Until you forgive that sin, you are still complicit with it: you are still in agreement with the one who sinned against you. Forgiveness contains an element of complete alienation from the crime you suffered from BY MEANS OF successfully separating the crime from the perpetrator. Until then, I continue to suffer the the shame of the deed with the one who committed it against me.
So what is easier: to repent for abusing another, or to forgive for that abuse? Both are required of those who will be allowed in the future kingdom, for those are the actions of separation from the sin. The abused must separate themselves from the sin (and the shame of that sin, which they suffer from with the abuser), but forgiveness is how they must do it. Yes, sin is horrendous, whether I commit it against another, or I am the victim of it, but in the acts of repentance and of forgiveness lie the acknowledgement of its true horror. I must face that horror directly, by either repentance or forgiveness, to be forever inoculated against it for all eternity. Both are equally hard, but both serve the same purpose, which is to make us fully and completely immune to sin in the future. I believe both are equal opportunities to overcome sin, even though the means differ.
Every morning I hand over the keys to Him.
Years ago He led me to hand over to Him my substance addictions.
He took control in an instant! In a New York minute He removed every
need and dependence as if they were never there. He was patiently waiting
for my choice to surrender my control. Never in a million years did I ever
conceive how IMMEDIATE immediate is. His grace is amazing!
And let’s all pray for all those children (and adults) still “looking for the blessed hope
and glorious appearance of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ who gave Himself for us…”
“Michael Winger’s analysis of Paul’s use of nomos [1] demonstrates how flexible the term is. Winger identifies at least seven different ways Paul uses the term.”
Screiner’s review seems to dispute this, Skip.
I will look at his critique. Thanks for noting it.
So true every one…
The self surrender of control is to Yeshua in our lives…
The more people I speak to concerning their experience the more confused I get. Am I the only one not being found favourable as I still don’t get that urge or desire to do different…
Am I to attached to me to experience this comfort. Or am I just complicating God intervention in my life..
All I know is that God told me He was going to take me through a time of “emptying me of self.” I haven’t always liked it but it has been necessary. And, necessary for what He’s called me to do. Realizing what its like to deal with my own trauma and letting go of control is helping me to have compassion and understanding for the many in our ministry who are struggling with the same issues. If we’re truly going to disciple His way, we’re going to have to go through the ringer ourselves to help others walk through.
Thank you Dana for sharing. When God speak is it revealed in what manner. Advice from others I am cautious of. Dreams Job teaches us occurs when we are pushing for answers and then God places the warning on our mind. In biblical records it is how others in different eras experienced God’s righht hand.
Our last few guidance TWs teach to trust, desire annd seek His presence or comforting hand while making the choices we are accountable for…
Is this knowledge then the guidance received…
Maybe Skip and Michael are right… focus on our issues accept the struggle is becuase we fail to humble ourselves to let go of that pride, Luariita previously pointed ouut just leads to self destruction…
I have ears I hear not, I have eyes I see not… in Yeshua this veil is lifted…