The following is a brief review of Romans, chapters 1-4. Paul
addresses his letter to all the Messianics in
Paul, as well as the Jewish Messianics, is a debtor to
proclaim this Gospel to the Gentiles dwelling within the territories of the
household of
Paul writes to the Messianic Jews and Messianic Gentiles in order to instruct them in the practical application of the truth of the Gospel. He is concerned that they work out the power of Yahweh’s salvation in the daily affairs of life. He exhorts them all to faith-obedience, the practice of faithfulness to the truth of the Gospel, and the production of Yahweh’s righteousness through one’s mind, one’s heart, and one’s body. This must be accomplished either to the consummation of the then present but soon-to-end Mosaic Eon or to the consummation of one’s life.
In Romans 1:18-32, Paul describes the collective failure (sin)
in the past of both
Yahweh’s salvation calls for the practice of godliness and the
production of righteousness. Yahweh’s salvation delivers from His indignation to
His righteousness. Those Messianics in
Chapter 2:1-16 of Romans warns both the Messianic Jew and Gentile (O man) of the consequence of unfaithfulness. Chapter 2:17-29 of Romans warns the Messianic Jew of the consequence of unfaithfulness to his special priestly service, responsibility, as a result of his circumcision in the flesh. Failure to remain faithful to the truth of the Gospel will result in Yahweh’s indignation against him. Such an unfaithful Messianic will be accounted as an apostate, being numbered with Apostate Israelites who are shortly to incur the consummating indignation of Yahweh against Jerusalem, the Temple, and the holy land.
Chapter 3 of Romans warns the Messianic Jew of the responsibility of his prerogative of being entrusted with Yahweh’s revealed word (including now the revelation associated with the Gospel). Not all Jews have this prerogative, for not all Jews remain faithful to Yahweh. The unfaithful nation as a corporate body is under the indignation of Yahweh. As such, this apostate nation of apostate people has become unholy, contaminated, and corrupted. This nation is under sin. All associated with this nation are affected by this condition of sin.
The unfaithful Jews reject the present righteousness of Yahweh being revealed in the Gospel, thus, by such opposition, declaring Yahweh a liar. They themselves, however, are the liars, clinging tenaciously to their own lie. They are unholy, unelect, unprivileged, having no prerogatives in their current condition and being doomed to Yahweh’s imminent condemnation. Those Messianic Jews corrupting the truth of the Gospel through false teaching and ungodly conduct will find themselves among those condemned by the indignation of Yahweh soon to destroy Apostate Israel. Unfaithfulness to the Gospel results in the loss of one’s salvation, the loss of the Celestial Allotment.
The righteousness apart from the law demands faith-obedience to the end. Those Messianic Jews rendering faith-obedience enjoy the responsibility of service graciously granted by Yahweh through His elect prerogatives and privileges belonging to the faithful Jewish Messianics. Boasting in the flesh is excluded. Boasting in The Cross of Jesus the Messiah and the glory of Yahweh’s Gospel and New Covenant is honorable.
Consequently, since Yahweh’s Gospel is power for salvation, being faithful to the Law of Christ means standing the Mosaic Law in its proper place. The Gospel, therefore, rather than teaching licentiousness, libertinism, and antinomianism, requires lawful thought and conduct. It enhances godliness and righteousness. Its freedom is from enslavement to sin and unrighteousness to service to godliness and righteousness, thereby praising, honoring, and glorifying Yahweh and His Anointed Son/King.
Chapter 4 illustrates this faith and faithfulness of service by pointing out the significance of Abraham’s faith and faithfulness. Abraham had been justified by faith while yet in uncircumcision. His faith had been accounted for righteousness apart from the law. The Promise (consisting of the Celestial Allotment and the counter-alteration) is, therefore, not through law but through the grace of Yahweh’s elective faithfulness.
Circumcision preceded the law and is a sign of a circumcised heart of faith accounted for righteousness. Therefore, the justification of Yahweh apart from law is for both the circumcised and the uncircumcised believer in Jesus the Messiah. The Messianic Jew and the Messianic Gentile are saved to serve Yahweh and their fellow man. The salvation of the Gospel demands, requires, insists on, the practice of godliness and the production of the righteousness associated with the truth of the Gospel of Yahweh concerning His Son roused from the dead, resurrected, ascended, exalted, and glorified.
Abraham had been justified by his faith in Yahweh’s faithfulness. He passively had trusted that Yahweh is true. Whatever Yahweh says is true. Whatever Yahweh promises, He will do, He will accomplish. This attitude toward Yahweh is right. This trusting attitude in the promises of Yahweh exalts and glorifies Yahweh.
Consequently, Yahweh’s gracious elective call of Abraham chooses to account this faith of Abraham for righteousness, thereby making Abraham right, just, justified, in the sight of Yahweh. Abraham’s faith makes him right in the sight of Yahweh as a result of Yahweh’s Covenant of Promise. Apart from this covenant, this promise given to Abraham by Yahweh, Abraham’s faith would not have been accounted for righteousness. It is Yahweh’s gracious approach toward Abraham which makes possible Abraham’s justification on the basis of faith apart from works of law.
In the proclamation of the Gospel of Christ, Yahweh had once
again approached His elective people. Yahweh had approached
Jesus is the Son of Abraham and the Son of David. In Jesus the Messiah, as THE SEED of Abraham and THE SON of David, Yahweh is fulfilling His covenantal promises to Abraham and David. Israel as the circumcised seed of Abraham and Israelites as citizens of the Kingdom of David are the addressees of this Gospel. Abraham had been justified by faith in the Gospel proclaimed to him. But that Gospel had not been the Gospel of Christ.
Abraham himself had to await the future coming of The One appointed by Yahweh to be THE SEED through Whom the ultimate promise made to Abraham would be fulfilled. Thus, the salvation offered in the Gospel of Jesus the Messiah provides a greater justification than the justification attributed to Abraham. The principle of faith in the faithfulness of Yahweh remains, but the object of one’s faith now is the faithfulness of Yahweh as accomplished through the faithfulness of Jesus THE SEED of Abraham, the Son of David, the Son of Yahweh.
Having been justified out of the faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah by faith in the Gospel of Jesus the Christ, Paul declares,
we [Messianic
Jews] have peace toward Yahweh, through our Lord, Jesus Christ, through
Whom we have the access also, to the interest of the faith [in the Gospel now sent to
Abraham had enjoyed a relationship of peace with Yahweh. But that relationship of peace cannot be compared to the relationship of peace accomplished through the faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah. Abraham had not obtained the counter-alteration. He had been awaiting the counter-alteration which would qualify him for the promised Celestial Allotment. That counter-alteration had now begun with the proclamation and reception by faith of the Gospel of Jesus the Messiah.
When Paul uses the pronoun we, he is referring to the Jewish Messianics. The Gospel of Jesus the Messiah is a Jewish Gospel. It is sent to the Jews who are the seed of Abraham and the citizens of the Kingdom of David. Because the Jews now have access to this Gospel, and the faithful Messianic Jews have received it by faith, the Gentiles also have been given access to the salvation proclaimed in the Gospel. Because there is now a New Born-From-Above Israel of Yahweh, the Gentiles, on the basis of Abraham’s faith while uncircumcised, have been given the right to citizenship in this new nation and kingdom. This is the truth revealed in the secret of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Gospel of the Uncircumcision expounded upon by Paul in the previous chapter (chapter 4 of Romans).
The Messianic Gentiles enter the
Because the Messianic Jews have peace with Yahweh as a result of the new justification now become a reality in Christ, so also the Messianic Gentiles, as legitimate children of faithful Abraham being justified through the same faith in Jesus the Messiah, have this same peace with Yahweh. There is only one Nation, one Kingdom, one People, one Covenant, and one Gospel addressing all the legitimate children of Abraham, circumcised and uncircumcised. This peace, however, is based upon the faithful accomplishment of Jesus the Messiah. His death and resurrection achieve a peace not possible previously.
The peace established by Jesus the Messiah eliminates, disposes, abolishes, nullifies, the enmity which had made humanity an enemy of Yahweh. The justification of Abraham had not removed the enmity. Therefore, Abraham, though accounted just, right, righteous, in the eyes of Yahweh, had remained a soulish/soilish man. The enmity in the flesh (The Law of Sin and Death) had remained unaffected. His peaceful relationship with Yahweh had been only covenantal. His sinful condition continued to be at enmity against Yahweh. Though Yahweh had justified the ungodly, soulish/soilish Abraham, his unchanged Adamic condition remained.
Since Abraham had not been under law, his sin had not been accounted as transgression. Since sin had not been accounted as transgression, sin could not reign, though its consequences could not be avoided. Yahweh’s indignation against sin, on the whole, amounted to giving over the sinner to the destructive consequences of sin. In the case of Abraham, his faithful walk kept sin in check so as to avoid its cumulative destructive effect. Abraham chose to live his life in accord with the righteous laws of Yahweh. His thought and conduct had been kept in harness. Sin had not been allowed to gain control over him. All humans have this capacity, in spite of the alien influence of The Law of Sin and Death in their members.
Yahweh, before the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant of law, had not
counted up sin as transgression. Therefore, He had not personally penalized
sin. He had let sin take its natural course (Yahweh’s general indignation,
1:18). Paul earlier had referred to this as “the
passing over of the penalties of sins which occurred before in the forbearance
of God [Yahweh]” (Rom. 3:25b CV).
In this forbearance, all men had remained at enmity with Yahweh, but Yahweh
chose not to administer the penalties against the sins of men. However, there
had been some exceptions to this rule (the destruction of
Those in Christ, unlike Abraham, have a peace toward Yahweh based upon the death of the old Adamic humanity. In Christ, Yahweh accounts the Adamic man (soulish/soilish man) dead and the new celestial man alive. Though the old soulish/soilish man remains alive, in Yahweh’s eyes it has been crucified with Christ. It has been disabled. The Adamic alteration (The Law of Sin and Death) has been counter-altered by The Law of the Spirit of Life. The enmity had been abolished in the death of Jesus the Messiah’s body of flesh (see Eph. 2:13-18). Thus, the death of Jesus results not only in a genuine peace with Yahweh based upon the counter-alteration of the condition of enmity caused by the Adamic alteration, but also in a legitimate peace between the circumcised Messianics and the uncircumcised Messianics:
For He [Christ] is our [Messianic Jew and Gentile] Peace, the One making the Both [Messianic Jew and Gentile] One and The One loosing the middle wall [between Jew and Gentile] of the partition [between Yahweh and men], the Enmity [The Law of Sin and Death] in the midst of His flesh; the One annulling the law of commandments in the realm of decrees, in order that the two [Jew and Gentile] He might create in Himself into One New Man [The Ecclesia, the New Born-From-Above Israel of Yahweh], the one presently making peace [between Jew and Gentile], and He might counter-alter away from what they actually are in relation to one another in the flesh [apokatalasso, not katalasso] the Both [Jew and Gentile] in one body to the interest of Yahweh through The Cross, putting to death The Enmity [The Law of Sin and Death] in it [His body]. (Ephesians 2:14-16 my translation)
As long as the Adamic humanity remained alive, the distinction between Jew (circumcised in flesh) and Gentile (uncircumcised in flesh) would remain. When the enmity in the flesh (the Adamic man altered by The Law of Sin and Death) had been put to death in the death of Jesus the Messiah’s body of flesh, the distinction between Jew and Gentile in that flesh (the middle wall, circumcision) had become abolished. Therefore, the Gospel could justify both Jew and Gentile alike on the basis of faith. Both could be incorporated into the new nation, the New Creation of Yahweh, the New National, Corporate Man of Israel. If the old Adamic humanity is dead, so also is the distinction between Jew and Gentile, circumcised and uncircumcised. Thus, the partition (the soulish/soilish man) between Yahweh and mankind is also abolished by the death of the Enmity in the physical body of Jesus’ flesh.
As a result of the death and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah, the Jewish Messianics also have access into the grace of the New Davidic/Abrahamic Covenant entered into by the faith which trusts the truth of the Gospel of Jesus the Messiah. Since the Jewish Messianics have access to this grace, it is now available also to the Gentile Messianic sons of faithful Abraham. If the Jewish Messianics had not had access to this grace, this grace would not be available, accessible to the Gentiles. Salvation is of the Jews. The Gentiles can only have access to this salvation as joint-citizens of the Saints (the Jewish Messianics), thus, Jew first, also Greek.
No longer under the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant, but now standing under the grace of the New Davidic/Abrahamic Covenant, the Messianic Jews are glorying, boasting, in the Abrahamic expectation of the glory of Yahweh, the new glory of the New Celestial Man qualified to enter the Celestial Allotment promised to Abraham and his faithful seed at the consummation of the Parousia of Jesus the Messiah. Again, since the Messianic Jews have this glorious expectation as faithful children of Abraham under the New Covenant which does not require circumcision but faith in the faithfulness of Yahweh revealed through the faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah, the Messianic Gentiles can now be joint-participants with the Jewish Saints in this expectation. Those faithful Gentiles, according to the Gospel of the Uncircumcision, are now accounted by Yahweh as legitimate children of faithful Abraham whose faith in the faithfulness of Yahweh had been accounted for righteousness while he was still an uncircumcised member of the nations.
Being in Christ, however, also means sharing in His sufferings on behalf of the righteousness of Yahweh. According to Paul, the Jewish Messianics also glory, boast, in afflictions, since afflictions on behalf of Yahweh’s righteousness produce endurance which produces testedness, Yahweh’s seal of approval regarding the genuineness of one’s faith and faithfulness. Such approval qualifies one as faithful to the end, assuring one’s expectation of the Celestial Allotment and the completion of one’s resurrection metamorphosis into the superseding glory of Yahweh as manifested in the New Celestial Man.
Adamic man had come short of the glory of Yahweh having sinned, missed the mark of life. Thus, he, now, is lacking the glory of Yahweh associated with the soulish Adam. The expected glory of Yahweh associated with the exalted Jesus Christ far exceeds the glory of Yahweh associated with the soulish Adam. Adam’s glory had been soulish/terrestrial. Christ’s glory is Spiritual/Celestial. All those in Christ who are faithful to the end are promised this celestial glory. These are to be the mature generated sons of Yahweh in relation to whom Adam had been a first, inferior phase. Jesus the Messiah had been the ultimate prototype of mankind in the mind of Yahweh from before the creation of Adam.
The faithful Messianic Jew or Gentile glories, boasts, in such affliction because such affliction on behalf of Jesus the Messiah is a sign of Yahweh’s approval of worthiness: “They [the Apostles], indeed, then, went from the face of the Sanhedrin, rejoicing that they were deemed worthy to be dishonored for the sake of the Name”(Acts 5:41 CV). The expectation of the faithful Messianic is not to result in shame-due-to-disappointment (Romans 5:5, Greek, ou kataischunei). This expectation is both sure and imminent. It would occur during his own contemporary generation. This is confirmed by Yahweh’s love which had poured out the spirit of Yahweh into the hearts of all Messianic disciples of Jesus the Messiah. The counter-alteration of the spirit is no illusion to these Messianics. This counter-alteration is a spiritual energizing, renewing the mind and body for service to Yahweh and Jesus the Lord in the midst of persecution and the great affliction about to be endured on behalf of the truth of the Gospel.
The justification in Christ is the justification of the ungodly, those lacking the glory of Yahweh due to their soulish/soilish condition. This condition remains, but is counter-altered in the then present by The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus. This law initiates the metamorphosis of resurrection which when completed at the consummation of the Parousia of Jesus the Messiah will transform the soulish man into the Celestial Man.
Thus, the Messianic in Christ still retains the infirmity of The Law of Sin and Death, but is now given The Law of the Spirit of Life to enhance his power over Sin’s seductive influence. The Messianic is still a soulish/soilish man, but now has the added power of the spirit to bind, disable, The Law of Sin and Death from implementing Sin’s seductive desires. This is the meaning of Paul when he writes, “For Christ, while we are [present tense] still infirm [soulish/soilish man], still in accord with the era [season of Adamic man], for the sake of the irreverent [ungodly], died” (Rom. 5:6 CV).
When Adam had sinned, Yahweh had legalized, authorized, the activation and entrance of The Law of Sin and Death into Adam’s progeny. As a result of Christ’s obedient death, Yahweh has condemned The Law of Sin and Death in the flesh. This law remains in the flesh of man, but is no longer legalized, authorized, by Yahweh to perform its seduction. The Messianics had been counter-altered, thereby empowering them (over and above their normal capacity to refrain this law) to bind and disable this now unauthorized law from producing its seductive desires through the mind and body of Adamic men. This counter-alteration has not been given to the rest of humanity.
Nevertheless, Yahweh no longer perceives humanity in His sight as Adamic men. He perceives all humanity in His sight as under the new headship of Jesus Christ, the Second Man, the Celestial Man. In condemning The Law of Sin and Death in the flesh as the result of Christ’s death and resurrection, Yahweh has liberated the mind and body of humanity from the mythopoeic perception of the world-order of the ancient gods. This law remains operative, but it has lost the authorization of Yahweh, thereby weakening its affect.
Yahweh is commending His love for the Messianics while in this infirm condition by the very fact of this counter-alteration, this justification of the ungodly (men who continue to sin). Yahweh’s justification of those in Christ accounts their faith for righteousness. Their faith in the faithfulness of Jesus the Christ accounts them as just, as right, as righteous, as having the right to both present eonian life (the counter-alteration of the spirit) and imminently future immortal life (the life of the completed Celestial Man).
For the Messianics, the resurrection has already begun and
would be completed, through endurance of affliction, at the consummation of the
Parousia of Jesus the Messiah and the final intervening indignation of Yahweh
against
The justification of the Messianics is the result of the cutting off of Jesus’ body of flesh on the cross. In this death of Jesus the Christ, the Adamic humanity had been put to death in the eyes of Yahweh. The verdict of Yahweh against Adam’s sin (the death common to all men through the activated Law of Sin and Death operating in the members of their fleshly bodies) had now been satisfactorily executed against Jesus, the last (eschatos) Adam. Thus, death no longer is the last word in relation to Adamic humanity. The grave is no longer the final destiny of all Adamic men. Because of Christ’s death and resurrection, Yahweh is just in His verdict of justification of life for all Adamic humanity and in His justification of all those hearing and believing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Yahweh is justified in His accounting of this faith for righteousness even though these men of faith remain in the infirm condition of ungodliness and continue to commit sin.
The continued commitment of sin by these justified and counter-altered Messianics necessitates the “much more” addition of Paul:
Much more, then, being now justified ones, in the sphere of the interest of His blood we shall be saved through Him from the indignation [of Yahweh against sin committed while in covenantal relationship to Yahweh]. (Romans 5:9 my translation)
Justification by faith is on the basis of Christ’s death. Thus, being now justified ones as the result of His death, the Messianic shall be saved from Yahweh’s indignation against sin whenever he trusts the propitiatory-shelter of the blood of Jesus the Messiah for forgiveness of his sins. Under the New Covenant, sin is not counted up as transgression as long as one is in the process of trusting in the blood of Jesus as a perpetual propitiatory-shelter (“rinse their robes, . . . whiten them in the blood of the Lambkin” Rev. 7:14 CV).
When, however, one sins intentionally or one sins unknowingly for a period of time before becoming aware of it, one is accounting the old Adamic man as alive rather than accounting him as crucified, disabled. Hence, one comes under the old Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant under which sin is counted up as transgression. This kind of sin calls for a definite act of repentance in which the Messianic sinner turns from the old Adamic man and covenant back to the new counter-altered man and New Covenant, once again trusting in the blood of Jesus as one’s graciously given propitiatory-shelter.
Paul, now, in Romans 5:10, refers directly to the counter-alteration. Before the enmity had been put to death in the body of Christ’s flesh, the Messianic brethren had been enemies of Yahweh. Through the death of Jesus His Son, the Messianics had obtained the counter-alteration. The Greek word used by Paul is katallagamen, a form of katallasso, meaning to down change or change against. It has traditionally been translated as reconcile. However, reconcile does not communicate the full meaning of Paul’s usage of this Greek word. Thus, it should be translated, more literally, counter-alter. By doing so, its relationship to Adam’s alteration of the human condition can be made clear.
Paul’s intention is to allude to the sin of Adam and its
affect within all humanity. He is preparing the Messianics in
For if being enemies, we were counter-altered [altered-against-what-we-actually-are as Adamic men] to the interest [concern, purpose] of Yahweh through the death of His Son, much more, having been counter-altered, we shall be saved in the sphere of the interest [concern, purpose] of His life [His resurrection life]. (Romans 5:10 my translation)
In Christ’s death, the enmity (The Law of Sin and Death) had been judicially put to death by Yahweh, thereby justifying Yahweh’s judicial justification of all those believing the Gospel. This justified the one believing the Gospel from the condemnation resulting from the sin of Adam. Being cleared of the contamination caused by The Law of Sin and Death, Yahweh is judicially just in accounting the justified one as having a right to life.
Consequently, having justified mankind’s innocence in relation to Adam’s sin, Yahweh judicially could account the faith of those believing the Gospel for righteousness, now qualifying them for the reception, obtaining, of the counter-alteration of His spirit. Having obtained the counter-alteration by faith in the faithfulness of Jesus Christ, the faithful Messianics now have access to the power of Christ’s resurrection life saving them, delivering them, from the death-affecting seduction of the operation of The Law of Sin and Death within the members of their bodies of flesh.
By faithfully accounting themselves dead to the old man (the Adamic man, the soulish/soilish man exposed to the seductive influence of The Law of Sin and Death) and alive to the new renewed man (the soulish/spiritual man having access to the empowerment of The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus), the Messianic brethren participate in the resurrection life of Jesus the Messiah. They participate in this new life as long as they faithfully allow the spirit dwelling within to actively indwell them, empowering their minds and bodies to be crucified to the unrighteous influence of The Law of Sin and Death while alive and free to the righteous influence of The Law of The Spirit of Life. In this way, the Messianics were presently being saved by the resurrection life of Jesus the Messiah.
By faithfully computing continually, habitually the information of the counter-altering spirit of Yahweh, the faithful Messianics participate in the saving resurrection life of Jesus the Messiah. Thinking and acting unfaithfully cuts one off from access to the empowerment of this life. Thus, faithfulness to the truth of the Gospel to the impending end of the Mosaic Eon is required if one’s salvation in Christ is to be completed.
Because all those in Christ have obtained the counter-alteration, they are presently glorying, boasting, in the gracious, loving purpose of Yahweh revealed in this practical empowerment of the counter-alteration. The infirmity in their flesh need no longer be an infirmity. They have been empowered with the strength to disable by spiritual crucifixion the infirmity of The Law of Sin and Death, and they have been empowered with the strength to renew the mind and reenergize the members of the body of flesh so as to produce the righteousness of Yahweh to His glory and the glory of His Anointed Son.
Having introduced the truth of the counter-alteration, Paul now elaborates on the previously secret significance of its implications for mankind as a race and in its implications for the Messianics presently having their faith accounted for righteousness. He begins an analysis of the relationship of Jesus to Adam. He assumes as historical truth the record of Genesis concerning Adam. Adam is the first human created by Yahweh. He is, therefore, the head of the race. All humans are generated from Adam. The consequence of Adam’s sin had affected the entire race. What is this consequence and what is its significance in relationship to Jesus Christ? These two questions are about to be answered.
Paul argues that through one man (Adam) the sin (the missing
of the mark by Adam) entered into the world-order of mankind in
Paul refers to this principle as The Law of Sin and Death. However, he does not refer to it as such until chapter 8. In 5:12, by his use of the definite article before the word sin and before the word death, he implies what he makes explicit in 8:2. The sin refers to Adam’s specific sin of missing the mark of soulish life which Yahweh had breathed into his nostrils. Having disobeyed the command concerning the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, Adam had activated the Law of Death which had been dormant within him. In scientific language, it could be referred to as the gene of death.
Adam as soulish man is mortal. He could die. Before he had sinned, he could be killed by some external force. But death had not been working, operating, within him. It had not yet been activated. Yahweh had commanded him not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge. Adam had been informed,
From every tree of the garden, you may begin eating. But from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, you may not begin eating from it. For in the day that you eat from it, TO DIE YOU SHALL BE IN THE PROCESS OF DYING. (Genesis 2:16-17 my translation)
The day Adam transgressed this commandment was the day the
principle, law, gene, of death became activated in him, and he began the
process of dying, death working within him. This death Paul refers to as the death in
Paul, then, concludes,
and thus into all men passed through the death, upon which [death] all [humanity] sinned. (Romans 5:12b my translation. FOR COMPLETE AMPLIFIED TRANSLATION AND STRUCTURE OF ROMANS 5:12-21, SEE APPENDIX 11.)
When Adam had sinned, he had activated the Law of Death within him. Consequently, this law, this gene, now activated within him, would be passed on to all his progeny through his sperm. Every child generated by a sperm of Adam would come into the world altered by the Law, the gene, of Death activated within his or her body. As such, all men at the time of Adam’s sin had sinned, that is, all humanity generated by Adam, at the moment of Adam’s sin, missed the mark of soulish life, since each one would now be born with the activated law/gene of death.
This means, for Paul, every generated child of Adam comes into the world no longer a pure soulish man like Adam before his sin, but a contaminated soulish/soilish man, a dying man. All those generated by Adam are now contaminated from birth by this law/gene of death. It is upon this principle/law of death that Adamic men and women commit their own personal sin. In the members of their bodies operates the seductive influence of The Law of Sin and Death, the mind of the flesh which seduces through the prostitution of the normal functions and desires of the soul (the five senses) and the mind.
Paul does not accuse all men of the guilt of Adam’s sin. They are the victims of his sin. Nevertheless, they are responsible for their own personal sins which produce unrighteousness. Men, though committing personal sin, do not have to be characterized as unrighteous. Sin need not make them evil. Men have the capacity to choose, will, practice, and produce that which is upright in the eyes of Yahweh.
Though The Law of Sin and Death operates within them seeking their destruction through seductive lies of deception, they have the capacity, the freedom, to reject these seductive impulses, desires, thoughts, by refusing to compute such false and destructive data coming from the enemy, the enmity, within. The Law of Sin and Death functions as a distorter of the knowledge of Good and Evil. Man has the capacity to recognize and apply, perform, practice, and produce both the good and the evil, so as to practice and produce the righteousness of Yahweh which contributes to the welfare of humanity, both to the individual and the collective whole.
Hence, all men die the death common to all men, not because of their own sins, but because of the affect of the sin of Adam. Adam alone is responsible for the death common to all men. He alone is guilty of the sin which had brought this fate, this verdict, affecting all his progeny. Justification by faith has to do with the sins of individual men and women. Justification of life (Rom. 5:18, first and only time used in the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures) has to do with the sin of Adam. Justification by faith requires faith and faithfulness and promises a Celestial Allotment for a select, elect group of human beings. Justification of life requires neither faith nor faithfulness on the part of Adamic soulish/soilish men and women and guarantees all humanity, without exception, a right to immortal life.
Paul now proceeds to elucidate the distinction between justification by faith and justification of life. The sin and the death (The Law of Sin and Death) had entered the world-order of mankind as a result of Adam’s sin. Consequently, all human beings generated by Adam are born having The Law of Sin and Death already activated within them. Living as soulish/soilish men they are in the process of dying and are destined to die the death common to all men, “dying you shall die” (Genesis 2:17b my translation). They personally did nothing to deserve this. The guilty culprit is Adam alone.
Nevertheless, writes Paul, though sin is in the world-order of mankind, it is not counted up unless there is law:
For until law sin was being committed in the world-order of contaminated mankind, but sin is not put to account [counted up and accredited, charged] there not being law. (Romans 5:13 my translation)
Only where law exists is sin identified and accounted. This is a general principle. But Paul is not concerned with sin as identified and accounted by human societies. He is concerned with sin as identified and accounted by Yahweh.
Though sin had been in the world-order of mankind from Adam to
Moses, Yahweh had not taken account of it. Though mankind had been in the
process of committing sins from Adam to Moses, sin had not reigned. Death
reigned from Adam to Moses and continued to reign from Moses to Jesus (Rom.
This elect nation had been separated out from the nations (made holy) in order to receive Yahweh’s Law by which He would, for the first time in the history of soulish/soilish mankind, take account of sin, thereby, once again, revealing His righteousness within a world-order which had degenerated into the darkness of the unrighteousness, the sins, of the nations steeped in the ignorance and ungodliness of idolatry. Though Yahweh had not been taking account of sin among the nations, the consequences of sin had taken their toll on the nations, driving them further and further away from the moral, social, judicial, and religious healthiness of Yahweh’s righteousness.
Yahweh’s election of
According to Paul, the death common to all men had reigned from Adam to Moses over all men, even though they had not been sinning in the likeness of Adam’s transgression:
But the death [common to all men] reigned from Adam to Moses, even upon the ones sinning not upon the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a pattern [type] of the One about to be [introduced, presented, discussed, Jesus the Messiah about to return and consummate His Resurrection]. (Romans 5:14 my translation)
By marking out the period of death’s reign as from Adam to Moses, Paul implies a change beginning with Moses. Death continued to reign from Moses to Jesus. Why did Paul not mark the period of death’s reign from Adam to Jesus? Because Moses represents the establishment, the coming of the law.
Only with the establishment of the law does Sin begin to reign. Sin reigns from Moses to Jesus. Sin had not reigned from Adam to Moses. This is why Paul points out that death reigned over those not sinning upon the likeness of Adam’s transgression. Sin could reign only over those sinning upon the likeness of the transgression of Adam, since sin is not accounted apart from law.
Adam’s transgression (parabasis,
stepping aside) had been a stepping aside of the commandment forbidding him
from eating of the Tree of Knowledge.
Only
The nations had not been placed under the law. All the progeny of Adam had been sinning, but since their sins had not been counted up by Yahweh, they could not commit transgression as their father Adam had committed transgression. The death common to all men reigned because all men were in the process of dying and had their lives terminated in death. Sin, though not counted up and though not reigning, did, however, produce its destructive consequences upon sinning individuals and societies. This is precisely Paul’s point in Romans 1:18-32.
The transgression of Adam had brought death and sin into the world-order of mankind. Adam’s sin as the first man had brought about the verdict of death. All humanity, without exception, had become, from the day of Adam’s sin, victims of Yahweh’s altering verdict of death. As the last (eschatos) man, Jesus’ righteous act (His obedience to the commandment of His Father to pour out His soul unto death) would bring about a counter-altering verdict of life. All humanity, without exception, would become from the day of Jesus’ resurrection beneficiaries of Yahweh’s verdict of life. As all mankind had become victims of Yahweh’s altering verdict of death apart from works or faith, so also, all humanity would become beneficiaries of Yahweh’s counter-altering verdict of life apart from works or faith.
Adam as type and Jesus as antitype now become the focus of
Paul’s argument. The last thought of Romans 5:14 is Paul’s transition into this
magnificently crucial analogy. Paul alerts the Messianics at
Adam’s deviation resulting from his transgression of Yahweh’s
commandment is the cause of the death of the
many. Here, Paul is implying the association of Adam as transgressor with the many Israelites as transgressors. Because
Adam’s deviation is
responsible for
By graciously being placed electively under Yahweh’s Law and
being condemned to covenantal death collectively and individually as a result
of sin being accounted as transgression, Yahweh also graciously places
Only
Since Jesus as the last (eschatos)
Adam died, all in Christ have
covenantally died, in the death of this last Adam, to the National Adamic Man (
As long as they continue to account themselves dead to the old Adamic National Man (Apostate Israel) and to the old Adamic soulish/soilish man of the flesh, they remain alive in Christ to Yahweh covenantally (New Davidic/Abrahamic Covenant) and metaphorically/spiritually (resurrected soulish/spiritual life of the renewed mind and body energized, empowered by The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus). Thus, in Adam, they have already died covenantally and metaphorically/spiritually with Christ in His death. In Christ, they are continually dying to the old National Adamic Man (Apostate Israel under the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant) and to the old soulish/soilish Adamic man of the flesh.
This is the meaning of having been crucified with Christ (perfect tense) and crucifying (present tense) the flesh with the lusts thereof (the soulish/soilish man as contaminated by the seductive influence of The Law of Sin and Death). Death and resurrection are both past and present realities in Christ. The old Adamic Man is both dead and dying. The new celestial man (metaphorical/spiritual man) is both alive and living. Faithfulness to the truth of the Gospel is participating in the superabounding (Rom. 5:15b) resurrection life of Christ by continually walking in newness of life according to the empowerment of the indwelling spirit. By faith one continually computes the righteous input (data) of The Law of the Spirit of Life, thereby walking in newness of life.
Thus, in the deviating transgression of Adam the many (
Paul continues his analogy by writing,
And not as through one man sinning is the gift. For the judgment, indeed, is out of one deviation into condemnation. But the grace-effect is out of many deviations into justification. (Romans 5:16 my translation)
When Adam, sinning, missed the mark of soulish life, the
verdict of Yahweh upon all his descendents had been condemnation, the death common to all men. This meant the active
presence of The Law of Sin and Death
within the members of the soulish body. When
This day we [the
many Israelites at Mount Sinai] have seen that Elohim [Yahweh, the One, True, Living Elohim] speaks with the human [National
Thus Jacob/Israel, the many, as one National Man, had received into his nostrils the breath of covenantal life, becoming a living Man, a living nation, in the presence of Yahweh. Nevertheless, as individual Adamic men and women, each remains under the verdict of Adamic condemnation. As individuals in the living presence of the holy Elohim, each realizes his/her Adamic condition which makes him/her vulnerable to physical death if he/she, as an Adamic individual, remains exposed to the living Elohim any further. In response to this conclusion of the many Israelites as one Covenantal Man, Yahweh declares,
I have heard the sound words of this people [the one Covenantal Man] that they [the many] have spoken to you [Moses]. They have done well in all they have spoken. (Deuteronomy 5:28b CV)
Realizing their Adamic vulnerability to death in the presence
of the One, True, Living Elohim, they had requested that Moses mediate any
further communication with Yahweh Elohim. Their conclusion and request are
acknowledged by Yahweh as being correct, “They
have done well” (Deut.
The one deviation of Adam had brought the condemnation of
death to all Adam’s progeny, as exemplified by the many Israelites under the Sinatic Covenant. The Sinatic
Covenant had effected the acknowledgement of condemnation by the many in contrast to the all of humanity. However, with the
transgression of National Israel, together with the many transgressions of the many individual Israelites, came the
national condemnation of the nation as a corporate
As Adam’s sin had brought the verdict of death to all his
progeny and, in a unique covenantal way, to Israel, so Christ’s obedience had
brought the verdict of life to all Adam’s progeny, and in a unique covenantal
way, to the many of Israel. Only
For to the interest of the grace [proclaimed by the Gospel], through faith, are you [the many] saved [from the condemnation of Adamic man and the condemnation of the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant with its sin counted up as transgression], and this [salvation] is not out of you [out of your works of law]; it is God’s [Yahweh’s] approach present [gift], not of works [of law], lest anyone [of you “the many”] should be boasting. (Ephesians 2:8-9 CV modified)
The gift is not faith. The gift is salvation. This gift, this salvation, is received through faith in the faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah. It is not for all humanity. It is for only those to whom it is sent. And out of those to whom it is sent, it is only Yahweh’s gift to those who faithfully believe into Jesus the Messiah and remain faithful to the end of the Mosaic Eon. These are the many accounted by Yahweh as the faithful seed of faithful Abraham, consisting of the circumcised faithful ones and the uncircumcised faithful ones.
Through Adam’s sin,
Jesus the Messiah, as The Seed of the Woman born under the Sinatic Covenant apart from Adamic sin and condemnation (both Adam’s and national Adam’s sin) and as the only Israelite uncontaminated by national and personal transgressions, is, through His obedience to the commandment of His Father Yahweh and through His obedience to the Sinatic Covenant, the One Who brings about the grace-effect, the gift of salvation. This gift of salvation is for the faithful ones, beginning with Abel through all those believing into Jesus in response to the Gospel proclaimed by the Apostles of Jesus the Messiah from about the year 30 through 70 A.D.
This faithful remnant consists of two groups: those faithful to Yahweh Elohim from Abel to Moses and those faithful to Yahweh Elohim under the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant (from Moses to Jesus). The shed blood of Jesus the Messiah, the only legitimate son of Adam, speaks better things than the shed blood of Abel (Heb. 12:24). The shed blood of Jesus the Messiah speaks the word of justification by faith. Thus, out of the many deviations of those faithful to Yahweh Elohim up until the time of Moses (and the establishment of the Sinatic Covenant) comes the justification, the right to the Celestial Allotment, of all those who had been faithful to Yahweh before the establishment of the Sinatic Covenant.
The sins of those faithful ones under the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant, however, are not merely deviations. Since they are committed in relation to Yahweh’s commandments, they are counted up as transgressions. These are those who sin after the likeness of Adam’s transgression. Adam’s sin had consisted of hearing aside (parakoe, disobedience, Rom. 5:19), stepping aside (parabasis, transgression, Rom. 5:14), and slipping aside (paraptoma, deviation, Rom. 5:15-16). As a result of hearing aside, stepping aside, and slipping aside, Adam had sinned, missed the mark of soulish life. Only Israelites under the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant could and did sin after the likeness of Adam’s transgression.
The gift of salvation is only for the elect many. The reception, or obtaining, of this gift requires faith in the faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah, that Abraham-like faith which is accounted for righteousness. Thus, this gift of covenantal salvation (the covenantal life associated with the New Davidic/Abrahamic Covenant) is associated with that justification which comes as a result of faith. It is not to be confused with the justification of life of Romans 5:18, which is for all humanity apart from the requirement of faith (this is the only time the expression justification of life is used in the Greek Scriptures). Justification by faith is for the elect many. It requires Abraham-like faith. Justification of life is for all Adamic humanity. It does not require Abraham-like faith. It is the consequence of Yahweh’s verdict as a result of the obedient act of Jesus. It affects all humanity as the counter-alteration to the alteration of all humanity resulting from Adam’s disobedient act.
The deviation (slipping aside from the commandment of Yahweh into sin, missing the mark of soulish life) of the one man, Adam, had resulted in Yahweh’s verdict of death in relation to all Adamic humanity. Consequently, the death common to all men reigned through the one disobedient act of the one man. This is true of all humanity. However, the counter-alteration obtained by the many through the faith accounted for righteousness far exceeds the consequence of the death common to all humanity,
much more [to the interest of the grace of Yahweh], the ones taking [by the faith accounted for righteousness] the superabundance of this grace [based upon the faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah], even of the gift of righteousness, shall be reigning [as long as they continually remain faithful to the truth of the Gospel] in the realm of this [New Covenantal, counter-altered] life through the One Man Jesus Christ. (Romans 5:17 my translation)
The gift of this salvation in Christ far exceeds the consequence of Adam’s sin (the death common to all men and the alteration of The Law of Sin and Death), since the gift is associated with the present soulish/soilish life of the faithful ones who have received, obtained, the counter-alteration of The Law of the Spirit of Life (soulish/spiritual life) by which they are enabled to presently reign with Jesus the Messiah in His Davidic Kingdom. This grace (favor), this gift (the salvation granting the righteous life of the New Davidic/Abrahamic Covenant) is characterized as superabundant, because it grants to those whose faith/faithfulness is accounted for righteousness the right, the privilege, the honor, the glory, of serving Yahweh and His Anointed Son/King. It is characterized as superabundant because those whose faith/faithfulness is accounted for righteousness serve Yahweh and Messiah Jesus as spiritual-warriors in their conquest over their enemies, their conquest over the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenantal Law of Sin and Death (which had been excluding the uncircumcised nations from the promises made to Abraham), and their conquest over the Adamic Law of Sin and Death (which had condemned all humanity to the death common to all men).
These faithful sons of faithful Abraham had been granted
graciously the opportunity to participate in Christ’s suffering and Christ’s
glory in the redemption of all mankind, excluding none. Such faithfulness to the
end of the conquest qualified them for the superabundant grace (favor) of
entrance into the Celestial Allotment of the
Christ and His Holy Ecclesia. These faithful ones were experiencing the
superabundant grace of becoming members in the Holy, Spiritual Body of Jesus
Christ, the Anointed Son/King of Yahweh. Only the many superabundantly participated in this
Paul has now reached the Pearl of Great Price which underlies the entire historical metamorphosis of mankind, which purchases for all humanity created in the image of Yahweh Elohim the glory associated with the ProtoType Man, the Celestial Man, Jesus Christ the Only-Generated Son of Yahweh Elohim:
So then, as through one deviation [paraptomatos, slide aside, misalignment, deviation] into all men into condemnation, So also, through one righteous act [dikiomatos, righteous alignment with the command of Yahweh to pour out His soulish life unto death] into all men into justification of life. (Romans 5:18 my translation)
In this passage, Paul no longer refers to the many. The superabundant grace given to the many would be impossible without the truth revealed in Romans 5:18. As Paul in Romans 5:12 had referred to all humanity without exception only in their relation to Adam and his sin and death, now in verse 18 he concludes his analogy by revealing the relation of Christ to all humanity without exception.
In relationship to all mankind, the faith accounted for righteousness is excluded, as well as the works of law. The one deviation (misalignment with Yahweh’s command) of Adam affected all Adamic men apart from any man’s faith or works. Yahweh’s verdict of death affected all mankind as a result of Adam’s one unrighteous act (eating the forbidden fruit). Yahweh’s verdict in relation to Adam and all mankind had been rendered on the basis of His prior ProtoType (Jesus the future superior man already preconceived and intended in the mind of Elohim) Who would also be identified with all mankind.
The first man Adam had been the first phase of a predetermined two-phase metamorphosis by which soulish mankind in the Image and Likeness of Yahweh Elohim would be, through the metamorphosis of death, created anew into the completed Image and Likeness of Yahweh Elohim, the Image and Likeness of the superior Celestial Man. The first man, Adam, had been created a soulish man. He had been created mortal. He could potentially die. The decision of Adam in relation to the commandment of Yahweh had already been predetermined by Yahweh to affect all his progeny. Guilt had not been a factor. The only guilt involved had been the innocent guilt of Eve, who had been deceived, and the premeditated guilt of Adam, who had not been deceived.
By creating the first man male and female, Yahweh had set up the conditions by which death would enter the world-order of the first phase of mankind. Thus, His decision to identify all mankind with the disobedient act of Adam had been a manifestation of Yahweh’s grace. ALL (with the exception of one) had been condemned to death by the one disobedient act of Adam in order that ALL (without exception) would be justified as having the right to the superior immortal life of Jesus the Celestial Man as a result of the one obedient act of Jesus.
Adam, the soulish man of the first phase of mankind, through his one unrighteous act (paraptomatos, misalignment, deviation) had activated mortality, passing it on genetically to his progeny. Jesus, the only legitimate soulish son of Adam, as the eschatos (last) Adam being uncontaminated by death, through His one righteous act (dikaiomatos, righteous alignment with the command of Yahweh to pour out His soulish life unto death) had activated the principle of death within Himself and had given Himself up to soulish/soilish men for the death of crucifixion, thereby satisfying the verdict of Yahweh in condemning all men to death. This judicial satisfaction terminated the death sentence as the final word of Yahweh in relation to Adamic mankind, the first phase. Death would no longer be the last word. The ultimate word of Yahweh in relation to Adamic mankind would now be justification of life (Rom. 5:18).
Thus, through the one righteous act (righteous alignment with the command of Yahweh to pour out His soul unto death, Jn. 10:17-18) of Jesus the eschatos (last), uncontaminated, soulish man, the sentence of death is terminated as the last word of Yahweh in relation to all soulish/soilish men (the grave is no longer the abiding place of soulish/soilish man). As the roused, resurrected, ascended, exalted, immortal Celestial Man, Jesus is in the process of passing on to His spiritual progeny (all Adamic mankind without exception) the immortality of the second phase of mankind, the Celestial phase, the phase of the completed Celestial Man, the ultimate phase of Jesuic human maturity as fully metamorphosed, generated Celestial Sons of Yahweh Elohim. Hence,
Through one unrighteous act [deviation, misalignment] of the first soulish man, the condemnation of death passed into ALL soulish men generated by Adam, making them soulish/soilish men. So also through one righteous act [alignment] of the last [eschatos] soulish man, the justification of immortal life passed into ALL soulish/soilish men generated spiritually by Jesus the Second [deuteros] Man, the ultimate Celestial Man, guaranteeing all soulish/soilish men resurrection out of the state of death into the ultimate metamorphosed state [of life] of Celestial Sonship, the predetermined goal of Yahweh for all humanity created in His image and likeness. (Romans 5:18 my amplified translation)
The many, however, were the first Adamic soulish/soilish men to receive this new life. These faithful Messianic Jews and Gentiles did not have to wait until death to receive the power, the enabling, the freedom, of this counter-alteration. They were the first and only group of Adamic men and women to receive this counter-alteration while still alive in the Adamic soulish/soilish body affected by The Law of Sin and Death.
These elect, faithful sons of faithful Abraham were already experiencing the power of the age to come in the last days of the Mosaic Eon. These, the many in Christ, were already experiencing the likeness of the resurrection of Jesus the Messiah as a result of the indwelling spirit of Christ operating in accord with The Law of the Spirit of Life. Only the many justified by the Abraham-like faith accounted for righteousness were new creations in Christ.
The majority of those in Christ would not pass through the death common to all mankind in order to reach the consummation of their resurrection metamorphosis into the completed state of Celestial Sonship, the state of the ultimate Celestial Man. Consequently, the many in Christ who had received the gift of the superabounding grace of Yahweh which had been achieved through the faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah were Yahweh’s firstfruits among all Adamic mankind, guaranteeing the justification of immortal life, the state of Celestial Sonship, to all Adamic men and women (those not in Christ) passing through the death common to all mankind.
Apart from the justification of life for all humanity, excluding none, there would be no just basis upon which to account faith for righteousness. Justification by faith could only be extended to the elect faithful ones on the basis of the faithfulness of Jesus the only legitimate son of Adam and the Only-Generated Son of Yahweh. Apart from the faithfulness of Jesus as the Last (eschatos) Adam and the glory of Jesus as the exalted Second (deuteros) Man (the Righteous, Creatively Powerful Celestial Man, the ProtoType Superman in Whose image all humanity will eventually be conformed), none of Yahweh’s elective graciousness, mercy, compassion, and kindness poured out upon Adamic mankind would be just.
Mankind’s destiny has never been in jeopardy. Sin and death have always been in the gracious, merciful, just, and creative hands of Yahweh Whose love for His creation never fails to accomplish its purpose. Yahweh and His Only-Generated Son have not abandoned mankind during the course of the last 2,000 years. Mankind is in the process of metamorphosis. Adamic mankind has passed through infancy and childhood. Jesus the only legitimate Son of Adam and the Only-Generated Son of Yahweh has already redeemed Adamic mankind from the death common to all men. He has already liberated Adamic humanity from the darkness of the ancient world-order of the gods, the mythopoeic world of idolatry.
The wise, creative intelligence of Jesus the Celestial Superman has been orchestrating the metamorphic development of mankind’s progression through adolescence (the last 2,000 years) into the age of maturity. Jesuic mankind under the Headship of Jesus Christ is finally coming of age. He is currently in the process of putting behind Him all the remaining vestiges of myth, superstition, and religion. Jesuic mankind’s historical, intellectual, psychological, and biological progressive development is no accident. Jesuic mankind’s ascension to the border of cosmic consciousness is a sign of his mental metamorphosis. Change is no longer occurring arithmetically, but exponentially. Mankind is on the verge of discovering the genetic code (or gene) containing The Law of Sin and Death. This has been engineered by the Celestial Superman Himself. Mankind, indeed, has not been abandoned by his Creator, his loving Father.
Consequently, Yahweh has been silent throughout the previous 2,000 years of Jesuic humanity’s historical development. Yahweh will continue to remain silent during the 21st century, awaiting the completion of Jesuic humanity’s coming of age, consummating in his attaining to mature adult-sonship. Jesuic humanity is to stand on his own two feet and take mature responsibility for himself and his world. Jesuic humanity is to cast off the myth, superstition, and religion of his adolescence, during which he needed recourse to the stop-gap god of his own creation, the distorted conception of the god and christ of Christianity. Jesuic humanity is to abandon his philosophical, metaphysical, and religious illusory attempts to attribute to life his own illusory meanings. Jesuic humanity is to abandon his own vain attempts to solve the question of his future state and destiny. Jesuic humanity’s immature prayers of childhood and adolescence aimed at a self-created stop-gap god and savior will be recognized as a childish act of fearful dependence on Yahweh and Jesus Christ. These man-made idols had been created so as to solve problems that Yahweh and Jesus Christ have made Jesuic humanity capable of solving for himself. Thus, Jesuic humanity is to finally take his place beside Jesus Christ as a mature, adult son of Yahweh the One, True, Living, Creative God.
In Romans 5:19, Paul returns to the relationship of Adam and Jesus Christ to the many. Through the disobedience (the hearing aside of a commandment of Yahweh) of the one man (Adam and Israel as a National Adam, Paul again using double entendre in his references to the many as associated with Adam, Rom. 5:15-17, 19-21), the many had been constituted sinners. The use of the aorist tense (past tense) indicates that the act of constituting, officially appointing or designating, is not an ongoing process, but an event that has occurred in the past.
Paul’s use of the word disobedience
(hearing aside) implies a commandment of Yahweh. Therefore, Paul is referring
to
Constituting the many as
sinners had been the verdict of Yahweh, not over all Adamic humanity, but only
over the many out of all Adamic humanity.
Only the many of
The many (Israelites) had been constituted sinners in association with the Sinatic Covenant of law, and the many of Israel through the obedience of the One Man (Jesus the Messiah, the Son of the Sinatic Covenant, the Last [eschatos] Adam) shall be constituted just (righteous) by Yahweh as long as the many remain faithfully under the grace of the New Davidic/Abrahamic Covenant consecrated by the shed blood of Jesus the Messiah of Israel. Here again, Paul uses the gnomic future making the many faithful ones responsible for working out the gift of salvation through faithfulness to the truth of the Gospel, through faithfully walking in newness of life according to the likeness of the resurrection of Jesus the Messiah of Israel, according to the enabling power of the counter-altering Law of the Spirit of Life implemented by the indwelling spirit of Jesus the Only-Generated Son of Yahweh.
As the many of Israel had been accounted covenantally righteous at Sinai before having committed personal sins counted up as transgressions as a result of their participation in the orgy surrounding the worship of the Golden Calf, thus, becoming personally guilty before Yahweh, so also the many of the New Born-From-Above Israel believing into Jesus the Messiah by faith in the Gospel are accounted covenantally righteous. Under the New Covenant, as under the old covenant, the many are accounted by Yahweh as just ones, as righteous before Yahweh, as long as they continue faithful. Justification by faith for the many of the New Israel is dependent upon faithfulness to the truth of the Gospel to the end of the spiritual conquest against the enemies of Yahweh and His Anointed Son/King, even as the condition of righteousness under the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant had been dependent on faithfulness throughout one’s life.
The Gospel of Christ holds the one justified by faith responsible for the faithful use of the gift of grace, the indwelling spirit implementing The Law of the Spirit of Life. Faithfully working out the enablement of the counter-alteration meant faithfully walking in newness of life, faithfully suffering on behalf of Jesus the Messiah and the righteousness of the Gospel to the consummation of the holy conflict between Apostate Israel and the New Born-From-Above Israel of Yahweh. Such faithfulness could be abandoned, as exemplified by Ananias and his wife Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11) and Hymeneus and Alexander, the latter having failed to war the ideal warfare and having thrust away the faith (1 Tim. 1:18-20).
Confirming the many
constituted sinners as referring to
But the law came alongside [sin] in order that the deviation [of Adam] should increase in magnitude. But where [under the Sinatic Covenant of law] the
sin [of Adam and
The Sinatic Covenant of law, in accord with Yahweh’s grace, came alongside the sin of Adam in order that Adam’s deviation, which had been counted up against him as transgression, should increase in magnitude. Since the sins of Adam’s progeny had not been counted up by Yahweh from Adam to Moses, the sins of the nations could go unacknowledged.
The nations had established their own definition of sin. They had come to determine good and evil on the basis of what had been considered good or evil in their own eyes. Since Yahweh had given them up to their own disqualified minds, their perception of good and evil had become distorted, contaminated, resulting in abominable thought and behavior.
The Sinatic Covenant of law had been given to
The Sinatic Covenant of law in relation to the many of
The nations, now perceiving the light of Yahweh’s Law
radiating from within Israel, had become aware of the difference between their
perception of sin (a dwarfish weakling) and Israel’s perception of sin as a
giant strong man whose purpose is to enslave and destroy those under its power-elite,
oppressive influence. Of course, this did not mean the nations had accepted
Hence, as a result of Yahweh’s Sinatic Covenant of law, Sin began to reign over the many of
The reign of King Sin
consisted in the acknowledgement of his true identity as a giant strong man
having the power and might to enslave and destroy those who bowed down before
him in worship and service. Thus, King
Sin in
King Sin was to be respected as to his potential authority and power. But he was not to be worshiped or served. Though the law counted up sin as transgression, the law also provided the lawful, righteous means whereby the power of King Sin could and would be legally, covenantally restrained from executing its dragonian rights. Even Sin is a servant of Yahweh. After all, it had been Yahweh Who had authorized the reign of Sin by sending the law alongside Sin, even as it had been Yahweh Who had authorized the reign of death by His verdict in relation to Adam’s sin.
The reign of Sin
over
But when
In the very place where the sin of Adam had increased in
magnitude (
The nation had become like all the uncircumcised nations. Sin no longer was defined by what was
upright in the eyes of Yahweh.
The transgressions of the nation had exceeded the boundaries of the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant of law. The reign of Sin had become corrupted into the tyranny of Sin. The power of Sin as a dragonian, vicious tyrant had been unleashed, corrupting, contaminating, devastating the holy status of the nation. That which had been holy had become unholy.
Sin no longer was merely reigning. It was ruling lawlessly as a tyrant having no restraints. As weak, enslaved servants of dragonion King Sin, the power-elite in Apostate Israel had murdered the Son of David, the King appointed by Yahweh to rule the nation. As the nation had once rejected Yahweh as her King in favor of Saul (the king after the likeness of the nations), so now the nation had rejected as King the Only-Generated Son of Yahweh.
However, where Sin’s power had been unleashed to its maximum, the power of Yahweh’s grace had superaboundedly exceeded the now apparent meager, dwarfish power of Sin and Death in comparison to the awesome power of Yahweh’s grace. The crucifixion, intended to thwart the gracious purpose of Yahweh by the power-elite of Apostate Israel, had been transformed by Yahweh into the manifestation of His exceeding gracious salvation, not only of the faithful among circumcised Israel and the faithful among the uncircumcised nations, but also of the entire soulish Adamic humanity (without exception) which had been delivered from the common death of all men to the immortal life of the ultimate Celestial Man.
Consequently, as the sin of Israel as a National Covenantal Adam
had reigned in the realm of that death entering into the Sinatic/Mosaic
Covenantal world-order due to the worship of the Golden Calf, so now, in
Christ, the grace of Yahweh’s gifted counter-alteration should reign, through
the acquittal verdict of justification, into eonian life (the resurrection life
of Jesus the Messiah produced by His indwelling
spirit). Sin had reigned in the realm
of covenantally dying
Obedience to the law had been a restraining influence against
the incursion of Sin’s destructive dragonian power. The counting up of sins as
transgression had revealed the true identity and character of Sin, thereby robbing it of its seductive
deceptions. Recognizing and acknowledging sins as transgression against
Yahweh’s revelational knowledge of Good and Evil directed the many of
In Christ, however, the reign of the Sin of Adam is replaced by the reign of the Grace of Yahweh superabounding through the faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah. This grace is the gift of counter-alteration. The guidance of the reign of Sin, which had been incorporated into the role of the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant as administrative guardian of the seed of Abraham, is now replaced by the very spirit of Yahweh and Christ. The law had no power to energize, to quicken the members of the body of flesh affected by the alien Law of Sin and Death.
The Grace of Yahweh, now having entered the new realm of the New Davidic/Abrahamic Covenant, has the power and authority to energize, vivify, quicken the members of the body of flesh affected by the operation of The Law of Sin and Death. As the Sinatic Law had entered alongside the deviating sin of Adam, revealing the true identity of Sin and making Sin a servant of righteousness, so also the Grace of the counter-alteration entered alongside The Law of Sin and Death dwelling within the members of the body of flesh, liberating the members of the body of flesh to become vivified instruments of the righteousness of Jesus the Messiah, the righteousness of the truth of the Gospel, the righteousness, the justification, of the Celestial Man in the process of transforming by metamorphosis the soulish/soilish man into the soulish/spiritual man into the final, ultimate Celestial Man.
The reign of Sin, as
a result of
Thus, the dragonian reign
of Sin had continually increased the darkness in
The coming great affliction, however, made urgently
indispensable an understanding of the truth of the Gospel concerning the
righteous requirement of faithfulness to the end of the current spiritual
conflict. It had become vital for the Messianic Jews and Gentiles at
The justification by faith in Christ now granted by the truth of the Gospel was a gift of the grace of Yahweh made possible by the justification of celestial immortal life already secured for all mankind without exception. Therefore, fleshly boasting in one’s faith-accounted-for-righteousness, as if this faith made one superior to those excluded from the elective grace of hearing the proclamation of the Gospel or superior to those unfaithful after having heard the Gospel, placed in jeopardy one’s gracious elective call to salvation. Justification by faith was an elective call of Yahweh making the one called responsible for faithful service to the elective purpose of Yahweh.
Many are being called, but few will be chosen. The few chosen ones will be those who faithfully fight the great fight, those who faithfully finish their course by faithfully participating in the sufferings associated with The Cross of the Christ, by faithfully participating in the counter-altering life of Jesus Christ. The chosen ones are those reigning with Jesus the Anointed Davidic Warrior-King, those rinsing their righteous robes in the blood of the Lamb, those royal spiritual-warriors and priestly-warriors contributing to the work of Yahweh on behalf of the welfare of all mankind. The faithful elect have been chosen and privileged to be Yahweh’s instruments through whom the entire Adamic race (without exception) would eventually be conformed to the image of Jesus as the Second (deuteros) Man, the Celestial ProtoType of Yahweh’s predetermined superior design.
The many of
The justification of life into all men referred to by Paul in Romans 5:18 does not require the consent of those to whom the justification of immortal celestial life had been given. As Adam’s one act of disobedience had brought the death common to all mankind to all men apart from their consent (or choice), so also, Jesus’ one act of obedience had brought the life uncommon to all mankind (immortal, celestial life) to all men apart from their consent (or choice). It is upon this truth, this life, this celestial justification, that the gift of grace is given to soulish/soilish men on the basis of justification by faith. Apart from justification of life for all men without exception (Rom. 5:18), the gift given through justification by faith would be unjustified.
The many under the advantages of the Sinatic Covenant had been required to obey the law and observe the works of the law. Such obedience would result in terrestrial blessings, while faithfulness to the Abrahamic promises would result in qualification for the promised Abrahamic Celestial blessings. Lawlessness would forfeit terrestrial blessings and produce terrestrial cursings. Unfaithfulness would disqualify one from the future Abrahamic Celestial blessings.
The many under the advantages of the New Covenant are required to faithfully live out the new life in Christ, sharing in the sufferings of The Cross through the enabling of the counter-alteration. Faith-obedience to the end of the contemporary spiritual conflict results in participation in the Celestial Allotment and rewards for qualified service. Failure to faithfully live out the new life in Christ to the end of the then current spiritual warfare would result in the loss of one’s status as righteous on the basis of faith in Christ and disqualification for entrance into the Celestial Allotment.
Some Messianic Jews and Gentiles at
Some Messianics at
We [Jewish
Messianics first, and, consequently, Gentile Messianics becoming citizens of
the New
In Christ, The Law of Sin and Death has become illegitimate. Yahweh had instituted it as a result of Adam’s deviation, Adam’s sin, which had activated The Law of Sin and Death in his bodily members. This law, then, had been passed on genetically to Adam’s progeny. Now, for those in Christ, this law had become disabled by the counter-altering Law of the Spirit of Life. The old contaminated soulish/soilish man had been sentenced to death in the death of Christ.
For those in Christ, the condemnation of this contamination is no longer valid in the eyes of Yahweh. Yahweh no longer views those in Christ as soulish/soilish men. They are now, under the grace of the New Davidic/Abrahamic Covenant, legally perceived and accounted as new soulish/spiritual men, having received the counter-alteration. Yahweh now acknowledges only the counter-altered man.
The soulish/soilish man is legally accounted dead. If the soulish/soilish man is dead, those alive in Christ should not be serving its interest. If they have died to this contaminated man, they are free from its interest. The interest of The Sin of Adam, The Law of Sin operating in the members of the body, is to produce unrighteous deeds (through seductive deception of the five senses [the soul] and the mind) in the service of death (the death common to all men and the death produced by unrighteousness, the sickness of the soul and mind).
The Messianic Jews have been baptized into Christ’s death.
They have been identified with Him in His death, even as those Israelites
coming out of
We, therefore, were together-buried [entombed] with Him through the Baptism [of the spirit] into the death [of the soulish/soilish man] in order that as was roused Christ out from among dead ones through the glory of the Father, so also we in the interest of newness of life should be walking. (Romans 6:4 my translation)
Those who had believed into Moses became identified (baptized) into Moses (1 Cor. 10:1-3) in the cloud and the sea. They had experienced the salvation of Yahweh associated with Moses. Their enemy (the Egyptian army) had been destroyed, disabled. No longer could that enemy inflict its power against them.
Those who have believed into Jesus the Messiah become
identified (baptized) into His death in order that they should be sharing in
the salvation associated with His resurrection. As
The counter-alteration of the sea of death (alteration: the
parting of the sea; counter-alteration, collapse of the sea) had made powerless
the Egyptian army in relation to
The death and resurrection of Christ frees those in Christ from the enslaving intrusion of the successful seduction of The Law of Sin and Death and disables this destructive law in order that the Messianic disciple should serve Yahweh in the power of the spirit, the power of the counter-altering Law of the Spirit of Life. This new law produces righteousness to the authentic and true glory of Yahweh. This means the Messianic disciple is now responsible to be living in the interest of Christ, which means to be living in the interest of the new Law of the Spirit of Life, the interest of the counter-alteration, which interest seeks the production of the righteousness of Yahweh associated with the truth of the Gospel. Identification with the death and resurrection of Christ liberates one from the debilitating interference of The Law of Sin and Death into the powerful freedom of The Law of the Spirit of Life, enabling the Messianic spiritual-warrior to “be walking in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4b CV), which is his graciously privileged responsibility in Christ:
I am encouraging you, then, brethren through the compassions of Yahweh to present your bodies a living, consecrated sacrifice, well-pleasing to Yahweh, your logical [reasonable according to the sound mind of the spirit] priestly service. (Romans 12:1 my translation)
It is the contaminated body of the soulish/soilish Adamic man which needs the counter-alteration associated with Christ’s death and resurrection:
For if we have become together-planted-for-growth to the interest of the likeness of His death, moreover, also we shall be to the interest of the likeness of the resurrection. This knowing, that [being baptized into His death], our old man [humanity, the soulish/soilish man] has been together-crucified-with [Him] in order that the body [the soulish body contaminated by The Law of Sin and Death] of the Sin should be annulled [as an instrument through which The Law of Sin can produce unrighteousness], so that we are no longer slaving to the interest of the Sin. (Romans 6:5-6 my translation)
The soulish/soilish contaminated body had been crucified together with Christ. Crucifixion disables the physical body while it is still alive. The crucifixion process eventually results in death. The soulish/soilish contaminated body during the process of metaphorical/covenantal crucifixion is still alive. Thus, The Law of Sin and Death is still operating.
However, it can only operate through the members of the soulish body. Being baptized into Christ’s death means Yahweh has declared the soulish/soilish man dead. Yahweh is no longer taking account of that man for those in Christ. That man has been buried (entombed) with Christ and is now legally, covenantally, declared dead by Yahweh.
Thus, one is planted together with Christ in His death in order to bring forth the growth of a new life. Therefore, the one planted in Christ’s death is the same one who shares in the new life associated with Christ’s resurrection. Sharing in the likeness of Christ’s resurrection means sharing in the likeness of His resurrection life. That life is imparted by the spirit.
When one believes into Christ, one is baptized with the spirit. The spirit comes to dwell within the soulish/soilish contaminated body. This is Yahweh’s seal signifying the death of the old Adamic man. The presence (dwelling) of the spirit indicates the truth of Yahweh’s verdict concerning the old Adamic man. Yahweh is accounting this man dead according to the terms of the New Covenant.
However, the spirit must be allowed through faith/faithfulness to indwell the body, thereby allowed to operate in accord with The Law of the Spirit of Life. This calls for a faith-accounting. The Messianic disciple must be accounting the old Adamic man as dead in accord with Yahweh’s accounting. This means he must acknowledge his body as crucified to The Law of Sin and Death still operating within his body members. He must account his body dead (crucified) to The Law of Sin and alive to The Law of the Spirit of Life.
In this way, The Law of Sin is disabled, since it cannot produce unrighteousness apart from the members of the body. The sound mind of the spirit rejects the intrusive, seductive, influence of the unsound mind of the flesh administering the seductive influence of The Law of Sin and Death. Thus, the influence of The Law of Sin no longer has access to the members of the body. Instead, the righteous influence of The Law of the Spirit of Life working through the sound mind of the spirit of Christ operates through the members of the body producing the righteousness of Yahweh.
As long as one accounts oneself dead to The Law of Sin and alive to The Law of Christ, one is walking in newness of life according to the operation of the counter-alteration. Whenever, The Law of Sin manages to free itself, gaining access to a member or members of the body, producing unrighteousness, the sound mind of the spirit must account the blood of Christ as Yahweh’s acceptable means for cleansing from such sin. This accounting is the accounting of faith/faithfulness.
Whenever the mind of the Messianic disciple yields its bodily members up to producing sin, it has accounted the Adamic man alive, thus acting unfaithfully, denying the crucifixion of Christ, denying the crucified life. Hence, the Messianic disciple, as a justified man, must, out of faithfulness, exercise for himself the functions of the new life in Christ (Rom. 1:17b). By faith he must be accounting himself crucified with Christ to The Law of Sin and Death operating in his bodily members and alive to Yahweh through The Law of the Spirit of Life, the counter-altering power of the indwelling spirit of Christ. This faith-accounting results in faithful living according to the truth of the Gospel.
Whenever the Messianic disciple is walking in faith/faithfulness, the physical, soulish body is annulled as an instrument through which The Law of Sin can produce unrighteousness. This soulish body, thus, becomes uncontaminated by The Law of Sin, resulting in the new soulish/spiritual man. The soulish/spiritual man is in the process of dying to the old Adamic man in conformity to the verdict of Yahweh concerning this old Adamic man. The new soulish/spiritual man is by faith faithfully putting on the new man, putting on Christ, which means putting on the new life in Christ, continually activating the operation of the spirit’s counter-alteration of the soulish/soilish contaminated body of flesh.
The body of flesh is, thereby, no longer the body of The Law of Sin, since that Adamic, contaminating law is bound up by the chains of faith/faithfulness accounting the body of flesh alive only to The Law of the Spirit of Life. Thus, the Messianic disciple is in the process of dying to the old contamination brought about by the Adamic Law of Sin and Death and is simultaneously in the process of resurrection/metamorphosis according to Christ’s counter-altering Law of the Spirit of Life. Hence, in Christ, one should no longer be slaving to the interest of The Law of Sin. In Christ, one is slaving in the interest of the righteousness of Yahweh. Walking in newness of life is walking lawfully, not lawlessly.
Therefore, having died in Christ to the interest of The Law of Sin, the Messianic disciple
is no longer to be living to the interest of The Law of Sin. Hence, committing sin in order to magnify the glory
or affect of grace is to act unrighteously, negating the justification in
Christ. To produce sin is to slave to the interest of The Law of Sin, and, thus, to account the soulish/soilish man as
alive. This amounts to walking in the flesh (obedience to the willful desire to
return to
For the one who actively dies away from the interest of The Law of Sin is justified [righteous] and continues justified [as long as he accounts himself dead to The Law of Sin]. But if we died together with Christ [by our act of faith], we are also believing that we will be living with Him [in the likeness of His resurrection life]. (Romans 6:7-8 my translation)
Justification by faith depends upon continued faith. Faith is actively believing that having died together with Christ to the interest of The Law of Sin, one is faithfully to be accounting oneself alive to Yahweh through the indwelling operation of the spirit of Christ. Dead to the interest of The Law of Sin means living to the interest of The Law of the Spirit of Life. If the Messianic is accounting himself dead to the interest of The Law of Sin, he must simultaneously be accounting himself alive to the counter-alterating spirit of Christ. The Messianic disciple cannot serve two masters. Either he serves Christ through the operation of the counter-alteration, or he serves The Law of Sin through the Adamic alteration (the soulish/soilish man), thus determining good and evil for oneself.
To be alive to The Law of Sin is to serve The Law of Sin by acting unrighteously. To serve The Law of Sin is to put off Christ, the new counter-altered man. Either the Messianic will be living in accord with the old Adamic soulish/soilish man or he will be living in accord with the new counter-altered soulish/spiritual man associated with Christ’s death and resurrection.
Faith in Christ means faithfulness to Christ. Faithfulness to Christ means living righteously according to the truth of the Gospel. Justification by faith is a process initiated by faith in the faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah and continued by faithfulness to the significance of one’s identification with Christ’s death and resurrection. The new man means a new life producing the righteousness of Yahweh as manifested in and exemplified by Jesus the Messiah, thus spiritually determining good and evil.
The Messianic, having perceived that Christ, having been
roused out from among dead ones, dies no more, understands that death,
therefore, no longer exercises lordship over Him. If death no longer exercises
lordship over Christ, then death should not be exercising lordship over those
identified in Christ’s death and resurrection. When Jesus had activated the
principle of death (mortality) lying dormant within His body in obedience to
the commandment of Yahweh His Father, death began to exercise lordship over Him.
He began to die internally, and, as such, now became vulnerable to the
machinations of men, resulting in His crucifixion
death (see
Although death had exercised lordship over Jesus, sin did not. He bore in His uncontaminated, sinless body the sin of Adam as this Law of Sin operated within the sons of Adam to produce the unrighteous act of murder against their righteous brother. Having died to death, He no longer could be affected by death. Death no longer had an authority over Him (see Rom. 6:10).
Having died to the interest of The Law of Sin operating in Adam’s progeny, Jesus had condemned The Law of Sin dwelling within the
members of the bodies of Adam’s progeny. This Law of Sin residing in the flesh of Adamic man no longer operated
in accord with the authority of Yahweh. Yahweh had rescinded its license to
operate under His authority within the body of Adamic man. The Law of Sin no longer operated with Yahweh’s legal endorsement.
Its operation was significantly restricted (as restricted in
Consequently, this Law
of Sin would be weakened in its operation of seduction. For those in
Christ, this weakening had been increased enormously by the addition of the counter-altering Law of Life. Those
in Christ, by faithfully accounting themselves dead to the interest of The Law of Sin (identification with
Christ’s death), disabled its ability to seduce the mind into using the members
of the body as instruments producing unrighteousness. Having bound, disabled, The Law of Sin, they had now been
liberated to use these same members of the body as instruments of righteousness
by the enabling power of the spirit of
the counter-alteration.
By accounting themselves alive to Yahweh, they accounted as true the verdict of Yahweh concerning their justification and the power of the counter-alteration, thereby identifying themselves with the likeness of the resurrection life of Christ, resulting in the production of righteousness, the faithful walking in newness of life. Since death had no more authority over Christ, death had no more authority over those in Christ, those who shared, not only in His death, but also in His resurrection life.
Should the Messianic brethren commit sin in order that grace might increase in magnitude? Never! Having been planted-together-for-growth into Christ’s death and, thus, also, sharing in the likeness of His resurrection life (as a result of the counter-alteration of His spirit), the Messianic brethren have died with Christ to The Law of Death and have risen with Christ to be living to the interest of Yahweh in the power of the regenerating Law of the Spirit of Life.
Yahweh’s interest is in the production of His righteousness associated with the faithful life in accord with the truth of the Gospel. This life requires the sharing in the sufferings of Christ (glorying in the Cross, the crucified life) and the participation in the counter-altering life of Christ (the resurrection life). Faith in Christ results in faithfully living to the interest of Yahweh to the end of the then present eschatological conflict:
So, also, you be accounting yourselves dead, indeed, to the interest of The Law of Sin, but actively living to the interest of Yahweh in the sphere of the interest of Christ Jesus [the sphere of the interest of His death and resurrection]. (Romans 6:11 my translation)
The Messianic disciple is not to let “The Law of Sin be reigning in your mortal body into obeying the interest of its enslaving desires” (Rom. 6:12 my translation). The Law of Sin can reign in the mortal body only if the members of the body are allowed to become instruments through which sin, unrighteousness, is produced. Under the Sinatic Covenant, Sin reigns as a result of the law’s counting sin up. The reign of The Law of Sin serves Yahweh’s purpose of revealing Sin’s true identity as a giant, rather than as a dwarf. Recognizing and acknowledging Sin according to its true identity, harnessed, controlled, limited the commitment of sin for those lawful Israelites who loved Yahweh’s law, seeking always to obey its requirements. Only for the lawless had Sin actually reigned in the mortal body. It is this second type of reign (practical reign in the mortal body rather than covenantal reign that Paul refers to here in Romans 6:12).
The Law of Sin can only reign, in this second sense, where the individual will submits to its seductively deceptive lies. When the will yields to the mind of the flesh (the disqualified mind), the members of the body of flesh are given over to the interest of The Law of Sin, becoming instruments through which unrighteousness is produced. The will of the Messianic disciple, by faith/faithfulness, is not to yield to the mind of the flesh, but to the renewed mind of the spirit of Christ, which mind is a qualified mind distinguishing between good and evil as determined by that which is upright in the eyes of Yahweh. Thus, the renewed mind of the spirit, activating the power of the counter-alteration, gives over to the interest of The Law of the Spirit of Life the members of the body of flesh so as to make them instruments through which the righteousness of Yahweh is produced.
When the mind of the Messianic disciple accounts by faith the body of flesh dead to the interest of The Law of Sin and alive to the interest of The Law of the Spirit of Life, The Law of Sin cannot reign, since it is unable to tyrannically produce sin, unrighteous deeds. The Law of Sin is actively vetoed by The Law of the Spirit. As long as the Messianic disciple is walking by faith/faithfulness, any sin committed is cleansed automatically by the blood of Christ. Such sin slips through against the will in moments of weakness. Such sin is recognized and acknowledged by the renewed mind, which proceeds to justify its status in Christ by condemning such sin and committing it to the cleansing blood of Christ (1 Jn. 1:9). This faithful Messianic disciple reigns with Christ as the New Davidic Warrior-King presently in the process of conquering His enemies (see Rev. 3:21; 20:4; 5:10; 19:11-16).
The Messianic Jews and Messianic Gentiles at
Neither be presenting-as-prepared [for sin] your members as instruments of unrighteousness to the interest of The Law of Sin, but present-as-prepared [for righteousness] yourselves [as a totally unified individual of righteous, loyal integrity to Christ] to the interest of Yahweh as those living out from among dead ones [those operating only as soulish/soilish men] and your members as instruments of righteousness to the interest of Yahweh. (Romans 6:13 my translation)
The Messianic disciple is not actively functioning under the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant of law which counts up sins. He is presently functioning under the grace of Yahweh revealed in the New Davidic/Abrahamic Covenant which is accounting faith for righteousness. Under this New Covenant, sin is not being counted. Therefore, Sin is not reigning as it reigns under the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant. Sin can only reign when a Messianic disciple accounts the old Adamic man alive by allowing it to usurp the members of the body of flesh for use as instruments through which sin is produced. When this occurs, the Messianic disciple comes under the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant. His sins being counted up, he comes under the reign and the lordship of The Law of Sin and Death.
Such faithlessness requires repentance in order to come out from under the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant of law. One must repent of the faithless act of accounting the old Adamic man as alive, since this accounting denies the practical realities of the death and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah. This fleshly accounting quenches (1 Thess. 5:19) the indwelling activity of the spirit of Christ. It is an offense to the lordship of Christ. It is a direct act of willful disobedience. To continue in this willful disobedience is to forfeit one’s justified status in Christ. With the abandonment of faith comes the loss of justification. Faith accounted for righteousness justifies one as long as one continues in faith/faithfulness,
For Sin shall not be exercising lordship over you; for you are not actively functioning under law [the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant], but [you are actively functioning] under grace [the New Davidic/Abrahamic Covenant]. (Romans 6:14 my translation)
Since the Messianic disciple is not under the Sinatic/Mosaic
Covenant of law but under the New Davidic/Abrahamic Covenant of Yahweh’s grace
in Christ, should he feel free to commit sin? Never! Just because sin is not
being counted up does not give the Messianic disciple the right to sin. The
law’s counting up of sin magnified the true identity of Sin in order to guide and encourage Israelites not to come under Sin’s actual power. The counting up of
sin seated Sin on a throne in order
for all
As long as the individual Israelite or the corporate nation
refuses to yield himself/herself up to the seductive lies of The Law of Sin operating in his/her
members, Sin’s potential power is not
activated. Thus, the reign of Sin as
the result of the counting up of sin is a warning, reminding
When sin is committed, the faithful, law-abiding servants of Yahweh, recognizing and acknowledging the sin, obey the law’s instructions concerning the acceptable means of obtaining forgiveness and cleansing for such sin. For these Israelites, sin does not execute its lordship by administering its potential destructive power. For these, this reign of Sin is a blessing.
The nations had no such blessing. The nations had remained
ignorant of the true gargantuan identity of Sin.
Therefore, though Sin did not reign
among the nations, as it did in
The Messianic disciple must understand the purpose of the reign of Sin under the Sinatic/Mosaic
Law. The intention of Sin’s reign
under law is the avoidance of becoming enslaved to Sin’s seductively deceptive lies, unsound thinking, by carrying out
its false conclusions, thereby producing the poisonous deeds of unrighteousness
which attack the health and welfare of individual human beings and collective
human societies. A misunderstanding of the purpose of the law’s counting up of
sin had resulted in an erroneous conclusion by some of the Messianic disciples
at
In Christ, one is liberated from serving The Law of Sin in order that one should be serving Yahweh and His righteousness. Freedom in Christ means the freedom to serve Yahweh and His Anointed Son/King, becoming enslaved to righteousness:
Have you not conclusively perceived that to whom you are preparing to present yourselves as obedient slaves, his slaves you are to whom you obey, whether of Sin into death, or obedience [Righteousness] into justification? But thanks be to Yahweh, that you were temporarily slaves of The Law of Sin. But you obey out from the heart a pattern of [sound] teaching into which you were given over [by Yahweh]. But having been set free from The Law of Sin, you were enslaved to the interest of the justification [by which faith is accounted for righteousness]. (Romans 6:16-18 my translation)
Paul informs the Messianic disciples at
In Christ, there is now no condemnation; the old Adamic man is declared legally, covenantally dead. Outside of Christ, the condemnation of the old Adamic man under the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant remains. All those under the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant are under the verdict of covenantal death soon to be executed upon Apostate Israel. For those Jewish Messianics in Christ who willfully choose to present themselves as prepared to serve The Law of Sin, the old Adamic man, the soulish/soilish man, Yahweh accounts as belonging to Apostate Israel and identifies them as slaves under the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant of death. This accounting applies also to those Gentile Messianics who turn away from serving Christ to serving The Law of Sin. Believing into Christ makes them citizens of the New Israel. Apostasy from the New Israel makes them citizens of the old Apostate Israel under the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant of death.
To serve The Law of Sin is to serve under the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant of death. To serve obediently The Law of the Spirit of Life, the righteousness of Yahweh, is to serve under the New Davidic/Abrahamic Covenant of life. To serve Sin is covenantal death, is condemnation; to serve Righteousness is covenantal life, justification. Condemnation is under the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant; justification is under the New Davidic/Abrahamic Covenant.
The righteousness of Moses is out of works of law; the righteousness of Christ is out of the faithfulness of Christ. The righteousness of the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant is out of works of law, requiring law-obedience. The righteousness of the New Davidic/Abrahamic Covenant is out of the faithfulness of Christ, requiring faith-obedience.
Faith-obedience means serving the righteousness of Yahweh as empowered by the counter-altering spirit of Yahweh and His Anointed Son/King. Such faith-obedience is characterized as accounting oneself dead to The Law of Sin and alive to Yahweh through the practical application of the eschatological significance of the death and resurrection of Christ. Faith-obedience is enslavement to the righteousness of Yahweh in Christ. It demands the superior life of the counter-alteration of the spirit of Christ. Law-obedience, since the establishment of the New Covenant, is enslavement to the unrighteousness of The Adamic Law of Sin in the contaminated body of Sin. Law-obedience under the Sinatic Covenant demands only the inferior life affected by the humbling invasion of the alteration initiated by Adam’s sin.
Those in Christ (both Jews and Gentiles) previously had been temporarily slaves of The Law of Sin because, in their ignorance and unbelief, they had presented themselves as prepared workmen to obey the unsound mind of the flesh as influenced by the interest of The Law of Sin. They had been deceived. However, having been enlightened by the teaching of the Gospel and the operation of the counter-alteration of the spirit, they would no longer be able to defend themselves on the grounds of ignorance and unbelief if they turned from the counter-alteration of Christ back to the alteration of Adam.
Having obeyed from the heart the pattern of the sound, healthy teaching of the Gospel of Christ, they had been set free, liberated, from enslavement to the interest of The Law of Sin and enslaved to the noble interest of the justification of Yahweh accomplished through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ and offered in the Gospel associated with the New Covenant, that justification by which faith is accounted for righteousness. Sin’s enslavement had not been unalterable. Yahweh’s intention and purpose for admitting into Adam’s progeny The Law of Sin and Death had been temporary. Therefore, The Law of Sin (and its enslavement) had been and is inconclusive. It would, in its appointed time, reach its telos, its consummation, having fulfilled Yahweh’s intended purpose.
Paul uses the analogy of slavery because of the infirmity
(weakness) of the flesh of Adamic humanity. Those Messianic disciples at
In the past, the nations collectively, as well as the nation
Taking heed to the alien input of The Law of Sin causes sinful thought and behavior producing unrighteousness. Such distortion of the truth of Yahweh enslaves men to the ignorance of an unsound, disqualified mind. This does not mean that all men are basically evil. It only means that all men are deceived into committing sin and producing unrighteousness either because they choose to believe as true the lie of The Law of Sin or because they are deceived into believing the lie of The Law of Sin by the influence of men and societies like Cain. For example, even though having been confronted by the truth of Yahweh, Cain, knowing the truth of Yahweh, arrogantly rebels against that truth, not being deceived through ignorance, but through a willful commitment to the Law of Sin as truth. Saul of Tarsus, on the other hand, having been taught the errors of his esteemed forefathers, in his ignorance opposed the truth of the Gospel of the very Elohim he worshiped.
In the first case (Cain), the seduction of The Law of Sin is highly erudite, deceiving in the face of the truth of Yahweh, rather than in ignorance of the truth. In the second case (Saul of Tarsus), the seduction is less sophisticated, since it is a deception based on ignorance of the truth. Nevertheless, in both cases, The Law of Sin is responsible for misleading men into sin and unrighteousness. In both cases, however, men are personally responsible for their thoughts (upon which their choices are based) and their conduct, their behavior, their deeds, their actions resulting from their choices. This truth, associated with man and his place within his terrestrial world-order, is no secret hidden from men.
The will is not predestined to be deceived by the seduction of The Law of Sin. The will does have access to a mind capable of rationally distinguishing between the truth and the lie. The mind is still free to properly understand the truth of Yahweh. The mind can learn from observing the consequences of the choices one makes. Thoughts and actions can be evaluated in relation to the truths ordering man’s world. The basic moral laws are known by all men. These laws, however, are often disregarded or repudiated. Even the so-called pagans such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle were able to discover, through the reasoning of the mind and the observation of the senses, universal truths regarding the life of men.
Good and evil have been distorted and corrupted, but Good and Evil as perceived through the eyes of Yahweh have been discovered by men throughout the history of men and societies. Although The Law of Sin has affected all men and societies, distorting the truth and contributing to the unhealthy state of man’s mind, man’s body, and man’s social relationships and institutions, chaos has not been the rule. Although poverty (due to greed, war, injustice) and unnecessary suffering contaminate the affairs of men, order prevails, and men still remain basically good, though still corrupted by the affect of The Law of Sin.
As contaminated by The Law of Sin, mankind had remained characterized, in the eyes of Yahweh’s accounting, as enslaved to the interest of The Law of Sin up to the death and resurrection of Christ. The Law of Sin and Death had opened man’s horizon to the knowledge of Good and Evil. Man began to be responsibly put to the test.
The first half of his experience with the knowledge of Good and Evil (Adam to Jesus) had resulted in the ignorance of idolatry resulting in corrupt thinking and acting. The second half of his experience with the knowledge of Good and Evil (Jesus to the present) would raise him out of the humiliating enslavement to a disqualified mind into the dignifying enslavement (of freedom) to a qualified mind dedicated to the search for truth and justice in his terrestrial world-order.
The Law of Sin continues to contaminate. But it is no longer accounted as enslaving in the eyes of Yahweh. For Yahweh has justified all Adamic, now Jesuic, humanity (Rom. 5:18) from the contaminating condemnation of The Law of Sin and Death. He has achieved this foreordained purpose through the faithful death and resurrection of Jesus the only legitimate Son of Adam and the Only-Begotten (generated) Son of Yahweh.
As to the individual Messianic Jews and Gentiles at
For as you presented your members as slaves to the interest of the uncleanness [of personal defilement] and to the interest of the lawlessness [of social and political deviation] which results in more lawlessness, so now [in Christ, having received the counter-alteration] present conclusively your members as slaves to the interest of the righteousness [of Yahweh accomplished through the faithfulness of Christ] which results in holiness [a setting apart as dedicated completely to the service of Yahweh]. For when you were slaves of The Law of Sin, you were free from the interest of the righteousness [associated with the faithfulness of Christ as proclaimed in the Gospel of the grace of Yahweh’s New Davidic/Abrahamic Covenant]. (Romans 6:19b-20 my amplified translation)
All those in Christ are not to be enslaved to the interest of The Law of Sin operating within the members of their bodies. They are to be enslaved to Yahweh as completely set apart for dedicated service to the interest of Yahweh (holiness) made known in the Gospel concerning His Son, Jesus the One Anointed with Yahweh’s spirit. This Jesus had been granted authority to share Yahweh’s spirit with all those in Him (in Christ) through the pouring out of the spirit initiated at the Feast of Pentecost recorded in Acts, chapter 2.
This gift of the spirit is the counter-altering Law of the Spirit of Life which enables the Messianic disciple to escape the enslaving operation of The Law of Sin. As they had in the past presented the members of their bodies as instruments through which The Law of Sin could produce acts (deeds) resulting in the uncleanness of personal defilement and acts of lawless social and political deviation, resulting in additional lawless activities, shameful behavior dishonoring them in the eyes of Yahweh and men; so, now, in Christ, these Messianic disciples are to conclusively, once and for all, present their members as slaves completely dedicated to the interest of the righteousness of Yahweh, accomplished through the faithfulness of Christ and associated with the truth of the Gospel, the pattern of the sound teaching of the spirit committed to the Apostles of Jesus the Messiah.
When those disciples had been under the enslaving influence of The Law of Sin, they had been free from that righteousness of Yahweh associated with the faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah. While serving the interest of The Law of Sin, service to the interest of Yahweh is excluded. It is impossible to serve two masters simultaneously. The slave will obey the master to whom he has subjected himself.
Prior to the faithfulness of Christ, the possibility of slaving to the interest of the righteousness associated with Christ’s faithfulness had not existed. Therefore, all Adamic men, in Yahweh’s accounting, had been enslaved to the interest of The Law of Sin in varying degrees. Since all had missed the mark of soulish life, becoming victims of the death common to all men and victims of the indwelling operation of The Law of Sin and Death, all had been placed by Yahweh under the service of The Law of Sin and Death. All had been accounted as slaves of the Adamic contamination, although the degree of slavery varied, since men had the capacity to repudiate the influential deceptive input of The Law of Sin. Men could and did repudiate the mind of the flesh, choosing to obey the intelligent deductions and inductions of their rational mind and functionally designed senses.
However, due to their contaminated condition, they could not be viewed by Yahweh as slaving for Him. But, having been placed as slaves of The Law of Sin apart from their personal choice, they had the freedom and capacity to repudiate this enslavement by faithfully committing themselves to Yahweh’s revelation and faithfully attempting to think and act in accord with the truths of their Creator woven into the design of man’s world-order created by Yahweh Elohim for man’s welfare and development. Thus, they could (and many did) please Yahweh Elohim their Creator by accurately using their mind and senses to discover and obey the laws Yahweh had incorporated into man’s terrestrial environment toward his preordained destiny.
By faith these men (from Adam to Abram) walked pleasingly in Yahweh’s sight. Yahweh had accounted them righteous. Later, He would elect Abraham and grace him with special promises. Following this election, Yahweh elected to create for Himself, out of Abraham’s circumcised seed, a nation to whom He would graciously impart His statutes and judgments.
Hence, men had the option of pleasing their Creator. Though slaves of The Law of Sin, they had the capacity to use their God-given faculties to oppose the enslaving interest of The Law of Sin. They also had the freedom to submit themselves willingly to the interest of The Law of Sin either through open rebellion against the known truth of Yahweh or through the deception of blindness to and ignorance of the truth of Yahweh Elohim.
Paul now asks the Messianic disciples at
The Messianic disciple, having been freed from The Law of Sin, is now enslaved to the interest of Yahweh. Serving Yahweh according to the power of the counter-alteration, the Messianic disciple produces the fruit of righteousness which manifests his new condition of holiness, his setting himself apart in Christ, through the active operation of the counter-altering indwelling spirit, as a slave of Yahweh completely dedicated to the interest of Yahweh alone. The consummation of this righteous fruit is eonian life (Rom. 6:22b CV). Not the future life of the completed resurrection, but the then present life of the counter-alteration, the life of the activated indwelling spirit daily renewing, vivifying, the mind and the body in accord with the life of Christ as the Second Man, the Celestial Man.
During the then current eschatological conflict, the rations (provisions necessary to wage warfare, see Rom. 6:23) for soldiering as slaves of The Law of Sin are paltry, shamefully insufficient, deceitfully noxious, deadly. These rations, which should be nutritious, sustaining vitality, are, in fact, noxiously devitalizing, resulting in spiritual paralysis, the process of increasing covenantal enfeebleness (Sinatic Covenant) consummating in covenantal death (the Second Death, the death of the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant). Thus, to slave to the interest of The Law of Sin during the era of the proclamation of the Gospel is to slave in the interest of the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant of death. This slave will have his part in the Lake of Fire, the Second Death, the death of Apostate Israel at the consummation of Yahweh’s indignation against the rebellious, stiff-necked Cainite nation.
The slave of Yahweh, in contrast, receives his rations for waging war from the superabounding grace of the gift of Yahweh, the counter-alteration of the spirit, more-than-sufficient provisions for waging the spiritual warfare against Apostate Israel. This nutritious provision invigorates, vitalizes, unifies the mind and body through the resurrection life of the spirit of Christ, that spirit associated with The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus, the then present eonian life empowering the Messianic disciples to perform their responsibilities as spiritual-warriors in the holy militia of Jesus Christ, Commander-In-Chief of the conquering forces of the New Born-From-Above Israel of Yahweh.
The Messianic brethren at
All Adamic humans, as a result of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, have been released from The Law of Sin and Death by Yahweh’s reversal of His judicial verdict of death condemning all Adamic humans to the operation of The Law of Sin and Death in their members. As a result of the obedience of Jesus the Anointed One of Yahweh, a new judicial verdict has been issued releasing all Adamic humans from the legal authority of The Law of Sin and Death. Yahweh no longer authorizes the operation of The Law of Sin and Death, although it continues to operate in the members of all Adamic humans. He no longer judiciously views Adamic humans in association with Adam and his law.
Yahweh no longer identifies Adamic humans with the headship of
Adam. He identifies all Adamic humans with the headship of Jesus Christ as the Second Man, the superior Celestial
This nation (the many) had been made holy at Sinai by the consecration of the Sinatic Covenant. This holy nation represented the elect seed of Abraham, the seed of promise, the beneficiaries of the elect Celestial Allotment based upon justification by faith, that faith accounted for righteousness. This elect many had been “garrisoned under law [the Sinatic Covenant], being locked up together for the faith [the faithfulness of Christ Jesus] about to be revealed. So that the law [the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant] has become our [the many, Jews] escort to Christ, [in order] that we [the many, Jews] may be justified out of faithfulness [out of Israelite, Jewish faith in the faithfulness of Christ]” (Gal. 3:23b-24 CV modified).
Justification out of the faithfulness of Christ delivered
This counter-alteration had not been given to all Adamic humans. Only the elect many justified by faith in the faithfulness of Christ received the gift of grace, the spirit of Yahweh/Christ, the counter-alteration of The Law of the Spirit of Life. This gift of grace provided those believing the Gospel with the righteousness of Yahweh apart from the law. It provided that righteousness, that justification, that pardon of sins “from which you [Israelites] could not be justified in [the sphere of the interest of] the law of Moses” (Acts 13:39a CV).
The Law of Moses could not deliver Israelites from the authority of The Law of Sin and Death. This is why the Sinatic Covenant was a ministry of death from its very inception. It had revealed the awesome, powerful identity of the Adamic condition of sin and death associated with the operation of The Law of Sin and Death in the members of the Adamic human body.
The Sinatic Covenant, however, in spite of this condition, did
provide a life-relationship with Yahweh and a righteousness of Yahweh promising
terrestrial blessings for
The Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant by counting up sins identified the
true character and affect of Sin as The Law of Sin and Death. In doing this,
the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant caused Sin
to reign in the service of Yahweh. By revealing Sin’s true identity and character,
The Israelite who loves Yahweh’s Law writes it in his heart. This Israelite is a law-abiding Israelite. He keeps the law as it is meant to be kept. He lives a moral life pleasing to Yahweh under the terms of the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant. This moral life indicates that he is not, in his practical daily activities, bowing the knee to The Law of Sin and Death. Therefore, though Sin is reigning in association with the law’s counting it up, it is not reigning in the practical affairs of the obedient, law-abiding, faithful Israelite. Thus, the covenantal reign of Sin due to its being counted up by the law is in the service of Yahweh. This reign of Sin enhances every Israelite’s ability to live the moral life in accord with the revealed Law of Yahweh providing all Israelites (the many) with a knowledge of Good and Evil as perceived through the eyes of Yahweh. No other nation had been given this advantageous distinction.
Paul, having already referred to the Mosaic Law and, by description, The Law of Sin and Death, now, rhetorically asks,
Or are you ignorant, brethren, for to those knowing law I am speaking, that the law is exercising lordship over the man for as long a time as he [the man] is living? (Romans 7:1 my translation)
The Messianic brethren at
Therefore, when he writes concerning the law and the man, using the definite article, he is, once again, making use of double entendre. He is referring to a specific law and a specific man. The use of double entendre allows him to write of two specific laws and two specific men simultaneously. In the previous chapters, he has written of Adam and the Law associated with Adam, as well as Moses and the law associated with Moses. These two men and two laws have an analogical relationship to one another.
The history in the Hebrew Scriptures includes the account of
Adam in relationship to humanity and the account of Moses in relationship to
As Adam’s headship over Eve represents his headship over all
humanity generated through Eve, so Moses’ headship over
Paul refers to this lordship associated with Moses as the letter of the law. The letter had killed the National Man, national
However, the Law associated with the man Adam, as well as the law associated with the man Moses, exercises lordship (legal, judicial authority) only as long as the man Adam and the man Moses are alive (legally, judicially). Therefore, Paul continues,
For the under-man woman to the interest of the living man is bound, and continues bound, to the interest of law. But if the man should die, she is legally fully released, and continues released, from the law of the man. (Romans 7:2 my translation)
Adamic humanity (the under-man woman) is legally/judicially bound to the lordship of The Law of Sin and Death (the law of the man Adam) as long as the man Adam is legally/judicially accounted as living. As long as Adam is accounted as legal head of humanity, Adamic humanity is under the legal/judicial lordship, rule, of The Law of Sin and Death dwelling and operating in the members of the mortal body of each individual human.
This, however, does not mean each human is doomed to live immorally. It means each human cannot live without being affected by the operation of this law. Each human will commit sin. But each human is free to restrain, repress, the seductive thoughts and impulses of The Law of Sin and Death from completely dominating his thoughts and actions. Adamic humans can live moral rather than immoral lives. They do not have to bow the knee to Sin in association with their practices. They will sin (miss the mark) in many ways, but they can repudiate sin when it is committed, thus, repenting of it. They can also resist committing sin when they are urged through their minds and soulish senses as distorted by the influence of The Law of Sin and Death. They are not compelled to submit to sinful thoughts, deeds, or practices.
Legally, The Law of Sin and Death is only authorized to seduce through the mind and the body members (the five senses operating through the members of the body) as long as Adam is accounted legal head of humanity. The Law of Sin and Death is not authorized to conquer human freedom so as to deny humans the power to resist and repudiate sin. What Adamic men (at the time of the writing of Romans) should not do is either to repudiate the legal authority of The Law of Sin and Death to seduce them or to repudiate their condition in association with this Adamic alteration. This authority comes from Yahweh and is associated with His legal verdict in relation to the sin of Adam.
Adamic men sin and die not because they are sinners, but because they are generated progeny of Adam having The Law of Sin and Death operating in their members by genetic inheritance. This fact, however, does not necessitate complete submission to this alien enemy within. The alien enemy must be fought, must be challenged, must be denied success in its efforts to debilitate through the seduction of lies. This is Adamic man’s power of choice authorized by Yahweh his Creator. Yahweh has authorized both The Law of Sin and Death and the law of choice. The will is free to refuse to serve Sin as a willing slave. Yahweh encourages all humans to appropriate their potential, as those in the likeness of His image, to master the enslaving seduction of The Law of Sin and Death.
In like manner, the many
of
These faithful ones, though continuing to sin, do not bow the
knee to Sin. These are the faithful
lawful ones in
There are others, however, who, though also being lawless, neither obey the letter of the law nor the letter together with the spirit of the law. These are the outright sons of Cain. They defy Yahweh to His face, blatantly opposing Him in the open.
As long as Moses is accounted by Yahweh as covenantally alive,
as covenantal head of corporate, national
Unless Moses dies, there is no salvation for
But Moses cannot die unless Adam dies. Thus, Adam must first
die if Moses is also to die. Without the death of
If Adam does not legally/judicially die, Adamic humanity
cannot become bound to the interest of the
law of another man of a different kind. Adamic humanity would, thus, be
doomed to Yahweh’s verdict of death. Not a single human being could escape
death. If this were true, the salvation and hope of
Consequently, then, the man [Adam/Moses] being alive, an adulteress she [humanity/Israel] shall be designated [by the law of the man, the law associated with Adam and the law associated with Moses] if she should be becoming bound by law to another man of a different kind. But if the man [Adam/Moses] should die, she [humanity/Israel] is free from the law [of the man Adam/Moses]. So that [the man being dead and the law of the man no longer having authority], she is not an adulteress if she becomes bound by law to another man of a different kind. (Romans 7:3 my translation)
If Adamic humanity attempts to deny her legal/judicial association with Adam while Adam is legally/judicially accounted by Yahweh as alive, Adamic humanity, in the eyes of Yahweh, is an adulteress and is to come under the condemnation of religious adultery. This, in fact, had been the case. Adamic humanity, in denying her legal/judicial bond with Adam (denying the condition of The Law of Sin and Death), had rejected and turned away from Yahweh, bonding herself illegally to another man of a different kind (another religious explanation of the origin of humanity in association with the creation and worship of other gods). Humanity had endured the consequences of such an adulterous relationship.
In like manner, if
However, if the man Adam is accounted legally/judicially dead, then Adamic humanity (all, Rom. 5:12, 18) is no longer bound by the Law of the man Adam (The Law of Sin and Death), the Law of Condemnation (Rom. 5:18a). She is free to become bound to another man of a different kind in accord with the Law of this man of a different kind (the Law of Justification of Life, Rom. 5:18b). As Adam had bound all Adamic humanity to the condemnation of Sin and Death apart from the individual choice of his progeny, so had Christ bound all Adamic humanity to the justification of Righteousness and Life apart from the individual choice of His Adamic brothers. If this be the case, Adamic humanity is not an adulteress in the eyes of Yahweh when becoming bound legally/judicially to another man of a different kind, namely, Christ Jesus.
In like manner, if the man Moses is accounted covenantally
dead, then
This new status became the reality of the New Born-From-Above Israel of Yahweh on the basis of the
faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah. However, as the many Israelites at the foot of Mount Sinai had to consent to
the Sinatic Covenant, so also the many
Israelites at the foot of
These uncircumcised Gentile Messianics, having believed the
Gospel of the Uncircumcision sent to them, became fellow-citizens of the Saints (the New Born-From-Above Israel of Yahweh). Thus, they became Israelites,
the seed of Abraham. They did not become Christians as the term is understood today. They became Messianic
members of the New Messianic nation of
As the last (eschatos) man, Jesus the Only-Generated Son of Yahweh, the only legitimate Son of Adam, satisfied the judicial sentence of death against Adam and his progeny, thereby terminating the verdict of death passed upon Adamic humanity. Death would no longer be the last word in relation to Adamic humanity. In addition, however, Yahweh issued a new judicial verdict passed upon Adamic humanity—Justification of Life.
This justification of life, however, was not a justification of soulish life, but a justification of celestial, immortal life. This justification of life did not require either faith or works. It was the result of Yahweh’s verdict alone, a verdict based upon the faithfulness of Jesus Christ, a faithfulness on behalf of Adamic humanity. As Yahweh’s verdict of soulish death (the death common to all men) alone affected all Adamic humanity on the basis of the disobedience of Adam apart from faith or works, so also Yahweh’s verdict of Celestial life (Justification of Life) alone affected all Adamic humanity on the basis of the obedience of Jesus Christ apart from faith or works. This verdict of Justification of Life, however, was achieved by Jesus Christ as the Second (deuteros) Man, the resurrected, exalted, Celestial Man, the Only-Generated, fully metamorphosed, Son of Yahweh.
As the Son of Abraham, the Son of David, the covenantal Son of Moses, and, thus The Seed of the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant, Jesus the Messiah of Israel died in order to bear in His body the curse of the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant of law. In the body of His flesh, through death, He nullified “the law of precepts [commandments] in decrees” (Eph. 2:15 CV), thereby terminating the authority of the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant. Those Messianics identified with Him in His crucifixion death died with Him to the curse of the law and rose with Him to the life of His resurrection. In Him, they would not be harmed of the Second Death, the covenantal death of the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant. In Him, they would live in the presence of Yahweh as established by the New Davidic/Abrahamic Covenant. Under the grace of this New Covenant, they would live in the power of the spirit of Yahweh/Christ, the enabling power of The Law of the Spirit of Life, the power associated with the counter-alteration. Only the many justified by faith and living in the faith-obedience of the truth of the Gospel participate in the life and celestial hope of this New Covenant, of this New Born-From-Above Israel.
Since the man Adam and the man Moses both have died, the first as a result of Yahweh’s judicial verdict (Christ as the Last and Second Man) and the second as a result of Yahweh’s covenantal verdict (Christ as the Son/Seed of the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant of law), Paul declares,
So that my brethren, you also [the Messianic Israelites at Rome] were put to death [to the authority of the Law of the man Adam and the law of the man Moses] through the body of the [true, authentic, legitimate] Christ [Messiah, Anointed One of Yahweh] into your becoming bound to another man of a different kind [Christ as the Second, Celestial Man and Christ as the resurrected/exalted Son of David and Seed of Abraham], Who out from among dead ones was roused in order that we [all the newly counter-altered Messianic Israelites] should be bringing forth fruit to the interest of the [One, True, Living] Elohim [of the New Born-From-Above Israel]. (Romans 7:4 my translation)
Christ is the man of another kind. As the Last and Second Man, His death is accounted by Yahweh as the judicial death of the headship of Adam, thereby terminating the authority of the Law associated with Adam (the Law of Condemnation, The Law of Sin and Death operating in the members of the bodies of Adamic humanity). Superseding this (at that time) presently operating law is The Law of the Spirit of Life, the counter-alteration experienced only by the many believing Messianics hearing and believing the Gospel as officially proclaimed at that time by the Apostles and Messianic Jews. As the Son of David, the Seed of Abraham, the Son/Seed of the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant, Christ’s death is accounted by Yahweh as the covenantal death of the headship of Moses, thereby terminating the authority of the law associated with Moses (the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant of law as a provider of covenantal life in the renewed presence of Yahweh among His people).
The many believing Messianic Jews and Gentiles had been put to death, through the body of Jesus the Messiah which had been physically crucified unto death. Having been judicially and covenantally identified by Yahweh with Christ in His death, these Messianic brethren had been released from the authority of The Law of Sin and Death and the authority of the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant of law in order to become bound to the resurrected and exalted Christ by the new law associated with Him, The Law of the Spirit of Life (Rom. 8:2), also referred to as The Law of Christ (Gal. 6:2).
The purpose of this release from the Law associated with Adam and the law associated with Moses was to bind one to Christ in the power of the superseding Law of the Spirit of Life, the counter-alteration, in order to bring forth the righteous fruit necessary to achieve, fulfill the interest, the purpose, the concern of the One, True, Living Elohim of the New Born-From-Above Israel of Yahweh. That interest was the fulfilling of the Law and the Prophets. This gift of the grace of the New Covenant (the counter-alteration) brought with it the responsibility of faith-obedience to the consummation of the crucial spiritual warfare being waged against Apostate Israel, the enemy of Yahweh and His Anointed Son/King. This conflict was being waged on behalf of all the nations and, ultimately, on behalf of all Adamic humanity.
Paul continues the explanation of his analogy of the man, the under-man woman, and the law of the man:
For when we [circumcised and uncircumcised Messianic brethren] were in the sphere of the flesh [as contaminated by The Law of Sin and Death], the sinful passions [stirred up] through the operation of The Law of Sin and Death were energizing in the members of our body so as to bear fruit to the interest of The Law of Death. (Romans 7:5 my amplified translation)
Prior to having been baptized into the death of Christ, the Messianic brethren (both circumcised and uncircumcised, both those under the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant and those outside the jurisdiction of this covenant) had been living their lives in the sphere of the flesh as contaminated by The Law of Sin and Death. Thus, they had been Adamic men under the Law associated with Adam’s sin.
In this condition, The Law of Sin and Death operating in and through the members of their bodies stirred up, incited, provoked, stimulated the senses of the members of the body to desire sinful passions. These passions incited the senses to desire that which goes beyond the legitimate boundaries of the healthy function of the senses (seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, smelling), thus, seducing the members of the body and the mind into producing unrighteous, unhealthy fruit resulting in noxious, deadly consequences. Such sinful passions seek to prostitute the senses.
In this contaminated state, Adamic men, even in spite of their unwillingness, found themselves committing deeds and thinking thoughts which were destructive to themselves and others. These sinful passions and sinful thoughts were, more often than not in most Adamic men, restrained so as not to allow such seductive desires and thoughts to become actualized in behavior. However, it was impossible to completely restrain these sinful impulses which seemed so desirable and even good and wholesome.
Consequently, Adamic men, both those unwise, ignorant, greedy, selfish, and dishonorable, and those wise, knowledgeable, generous, unselfish, and honorable, found themselves making erroneous decisions and committing destructive deeds, even when their motivation had been honorable and well-intentioned. Paul accounts this condition, this state of existence, as due to the indwelling, instigating, energizing of The Law of Sin and Death.
This law puts men on trial. It tests men by attempting to seduce them into abandoning thought and behavior which are in accord with the truth they do possess and abandoning the pursuit of truth which will reveal the falsehood of counterfeit truths which have been embraced as true but which in reality are false.
Adamic man, though handicapped by The Law of Sin and Death, has the capacity to turn the seductively deceptive operation of The Law of Sin and Death into an agent contributing to his welfare, his freedom, and his maturity. Yahweh had authorized this law in order to encourage Adamic man to develop his potential. This law, responded to dialectically, has the potential to become an agent of truth and freedom. Adamic man is not a complete victim of this law. This law had been designed as an intermediate law. Its function had been to encourage Adamic men to harness their human faculties in their progress toward maturity. Responded to intelligently, this law could be an agent increasing knowledge, increasing Adamic man’s freedom, even while remaining in slavery to this law.
The Messianic brethren in Christ had been released from the authority of this law. However, this law continued to operate. The Law of the Spirit of Life (the counter-alteration) enhances the dialectical interaction with The Law of Sin and Death by adding access to the truth of the Gospel. This truth, dialectically interacting with The Law of Sin and Death, disables The Law of Sin and Death from successfully deceiving the new renewed mind and reschematized body. The Law of Christ harnesses the Law of Adam, bringing it into subjection to the new man, thus freeing him to serve Yahweh according to the truth of the Gospel, thereby allowing him to produce the righteousness of Yahweh which contributes to the authentic welfare and development of the new man in his pursuit of spiritual maturity in Christ:
But now [in Christ] we [the new Israelites of the New Born-From-Above Israel of Yahweh, both circumcised and uncircumcised sons of Abraham] received complete release from The Law of Sin and Death, having died in the sphere of the interest of that which we were being held fast, so as to be slaving in newness of spirit and not in oldness [obsoleteness] of letter. (Romans 7:6 my translation)
Having been released from the contamination of The Law of Sin and Death means having been justified from its contamination. Yahweh judicially has accounted the old Adamic man, contaminated by The Law of Sin and Death, dead. In His judicial eyes, only the new spiritual man vivified by The Law of the Spirit of Life is accounted alive. In Christ, the Adamic man is legally accounted dead. All sin committed in the process of walking by faith, walking in newness of life, is attributed to the old man which is accounted dead.
Therefore, in Christ, one is no longer accounted contaminated. The contaminating Law of Sin and Death has been legally/judicially accounted dead in the death of Christ. That which is dead cannot be charged with sin. Being released from the authority of The Law of Sin and Death, those in Christ have been bound to The Law of Christ (The Law of the Spirit of Life) so as to be slaving for Yahweh and Christ in the newness of the power of the spirit (the counter-alteration). The counter-alterating spirit writes the law of Yahweh/Christ on the tablet of the heart, vivifying in the heart the letter of the Law of Yahweh/Christ contained in the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant of law as interpretively applied by Christ.
The truth of the letter of the law is now spiritually alive and actively operating in and through the renewed mind and reschematized body of all those in Christ. The Messianic disciple does not have to write the letter of the law on the tablet of his heart; the spirit of Yahweh/Christ has already accomplished this on his behalf. However, not only has the spirit written it on the heart, the spirit has also energized its living affect in the mind and the body, resulting in the disabling of The Law of Sin and Death from commandeering the mind and members of the body in the interest of seductively deceiving the mind and body into committing sin and producing noxious, deadly fruit opposed to the righteous fruit of Yahweh’s will and intention.
Serving Yahweh in oldness of letter refers to serving Yahweh under the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant. The Law of Yahweh had been objectively written on stone tablets and scrolls using individual letters. Under the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant, the faithful Israelite had been required to take the objective letter of the law and write it upon the table of his heart so as to resurrect it to life within him. The resulting spirit of the law initiated successful dialectical interaction with The Law of Sin and Death operating within the members of his body, thereby thwarting its attempts to deceive him into disobeying Yahweh’s Law and thereby avoiding its pollution of his mind. For this seductive law also sought the disqualification of his law-abiding mind.
By writing the letter of the law on the tablet of his heart, he would be taking objective truth and making it his own subjective truth, thereby producing the righteousness of the law in his thinking and acting. What the mind holds in the heart as subjectively true becomes objectively manifested in one’s thinking and acting. Even Socrates understood this truth when he had declared that knowledge is virtue. What one truly understands and believes to be true transforms one’s life, one’s behavior.
Under the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant, The Law of Sin and Death could be harnessed, restrained. Truly believing with the mind that Yahweh’s Law is truth, one could write the letter of the law, the objective words containing within their tomb-like encasement the living truth of Yahweh, on the table of one’s heart where the entombed truths would be resurrected out of their objective sepulchers to manifest themselves in righteous thought and behavior.
In Christ, this transformation of dead objective truth into living subjective truth manifested in one’s life is achieved by the very spirit of Yahweh vivifying the truth of the Gospel contained in words into living energy conforming the one in Christ to the image of Christ as the New Second Man, the Celestial Man. In Christ, only the new counter-altered man is accounted by Yahweh as alive. This man is alive in accordance with The Law of the Spirit of Life by which he walks in newness of life, the life of the counter-altered soulish/spiritual man slaving to the eschatological interest of Yahweh according to The Law of Christ as the Second Man to Whom he is bound, having been completely released from the Law of Adam, The Law of Sin and Death. This gift had been given only to those in Christ during the first century A.D. It had been given only to the members of Christ’s Ecclesia, Christ’s Body, the members of the New Born-From-Above Israel of Yahweh, which holy nation had become completed by 70 A.D., resulting in her entrance into her Celestial Allotment.
Since those in Christ are no longer to be slaving for Yahweh
in the oldness, the obsoleteness, of the letter of the law, that is, the
Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant of law, what then was and is the role and purpose of
the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant? Is the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant sin? “May it not be coming to that!” (
Nevertheless, the law which is contained within the confines of this covenant continues to be holy, just, and good (Rom. 7:12). The covenant itself is holy. It had achieved its divine purpose. It was now old, decrepit, and near its demise, its telos, its death (Heb. 8:13).
Paul, as a representative Israelite, insists that he would not have known, recognized, acknowledged The Law of Sin except through the Sinatic/Mosaic law (Rom. 7:7c). He argues,
For even the mutinous coveting I had not been aware of except the law [Sinatic/Mosaic] began saying, “You shall not be coveting.” (Romans 7:7d my translation)
Not all coveting is sin. Coveting within the bounds of Yahweh’s design for the senses, for the members of the body, is good and healthy. But mutinous coveting, desiring beyond the Yahweh-designed limits of healthy desires, prostitutes the natural, wholesome, healthy desires of the senses, of the members of the body of flesh.
Such mutinous coveting is conjured up by the operation of The Law of Sin and Death. The letter of the Mosaic Law spelled out that coveting which was mutinous in the eyes of Yahweh. Thus, the letter of the Mosaic Law identified for all Israelites the coveting which prostituted the senses, the members of the body of flesh. When the mind of the law-abiding Israelite consented to the Mosaic Law’s identification of natural, healthy coveting and unnatural, prostituting coveting, the mind of the faithful, law-abiding Israelite became aware of another law operating within the members of its body.
Therefore, Paul declares,
But The Law of Sin, taking [establishing] a base of operations through the commandment [the letter of the Mosaic Law], worked in me [in the members of my body] all manner of mutinous coveting. For apart from law [the Mosaic Law or any law] the operation of The Law of Sin is dead [unperceived]. (Romans 7:8 my amplified translation)
The commandment of the Mosaic Law became a base of operations through which The Law of Sin and Death could agitate, stir up, induce mutinous coveting which would seduce the members of the body into prostituting themselves by desiring that which was beyond the legitimate, healthy Yahweh-designed desires. This function of the Mosaic Law is in complete harmony with Yahweh’s purpose. It is no accident that the commandment becomes a base of operations for the work of The Law of Sin and Death.
This is precisely the intention of Yahweh. Because The Law of Sin uses the commandment as a base of operations, the Israelite under the Mosaic Law perceives, recognizes, becomes aware of the seductive activity of The Law of Sin. Awareness results in acknowledgement, and acknowledgement results in the opportunity to repudiate, restrain, the seductive mutinous desires of this contaminating Law of Sin from producing sinful fruit through the members of the body.
The specific commandments of the Mosaic Law, though becoming a base of operations for The Law of Sin, become a means by which the faithful, law-abiding Israelite can overcome, by reducing, the production of sin accomplished through the members of his body. In this manner, he fulfills the righteousness of the law, being accounted a faithful, holy member of the elect, holy nation.
Paul, referring to himself as a typical Israelite and a typical Adamic man, declares that he at one time had lived apart from the Mosaic Law. Here, he refers to himself as an Adamic man living before the establishment of the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant of law. At that time, he was alive in relation to The Law of Sin and Death. Prior to the Sinatic/Mosaic Law, Yahweh had not counted up sin. Therefore, at that time, from Adam to Moses (Rom. 5:14), Sin did not reign; The Law of Sin had been dead, unperceived. It had been operating, but Yahweh and Adamic man did not take account of it. Death reigned, but not Sin.
With the coming of the Sinatic Covenant, that age of innocence
ended for the nation
Upon hearing the voice of Yahweh uttering His commandment (the
Ten Words), The Law of Sin “sprang up to life” (Rom. 7:9b my
translation), and the many of
Then it came to be, as you heard the voice from the
midst of the fire . . . that you came near to me [Moses] . . . and you said: Behold, Yahweh our Elohim has
shown us His glory and His greatness, and we heard His voice from the midst of
the fire. This day we [the many of
At the hearing of the commandment of Yahweh, the many of
at the coming of the commandment [at
For the many
individual Israelites at
The Law of Sin,
prior to the coming of the Sinatic Covenant, had deceived Adamic man. Adamic
man had not been aware of The Law of
Sin’s killing operation. Thus, Adamic man was not aware of the presence and
operation of The Law of Sin within
him. Therefore, being consciously unaware of The Law of Sin, it did not slay him as it had slain the many of
Therefore, prior to the Sinatic Covenant and the hearing of
the commandment of Yahweh, Adamic man was alive, being unaware of his
contaminated condition in the eyes of Yahweh, though instinctively aware of a
basic sense (or standard) of good and evil and intuitively demanding justice in
human affairs. He experienced the death common to all men, and he experienced
sin, the missing of the mark of his various endeavors. But he did not perceive
the cause of sin, the contaminated condition of The Law of Sin and Death which condemned him in the eyes of Yahweh.
Thus, he was able to arrogantly defy the One, True, Living Elohim in his
thought and conduct (though not all Adamic men did so), believing himself
unaffected, unrestrained, by any contaminating, enslaving subjective law. He
considered himself free, alive. This was not so for the many of
For The Law of Sin, taking a base of operations through
the commandment, deceived me [the many of
Paul then asks, has the commandment which is good, skillful in
achieving Yahweh’s intention, become death to the many of
But The Law of Sin, in order that it may be manifested as Sin through the skillful commandment, is destructively working death to me [the many of Israel at Mount Sinai and those coming after] through the skillfulness of the commandment in order that The Law of Sin may become exceedingly sinful through the skillfulness of the commandment. (Romans 7:13b my translation)
The Messianic Jews are well aware of the fact that the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant of law is spiritual. It is the creation of the spirit of Yahweh. The problem with Adamic man is The Law of Sin and Death dwelling within the members of the body of flesh, making this body a soulish/soilish body, a fleshy body, a body enslaved by Yahweh to the operation of The Law of Sin:
For we [the Messianic Jews and those Messianic Gentiles now joint-citizens of the New Born-From-Above Israel] perceive, once and for all, that the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant of law is spiritual; but I [Adamic man] am fleshy, being enslaved under the operation of The Law of Sin until death [the death common to all Adamic men]. (Romans 7:14 my translation)
Even for those in Christ, The Law of Sin continues to operate, though disabled and overpowered by The Law of the Spirit of Life and accounted by Yahweh as dead. Adamic man continues to experience the death common to all men. Christ is not a substitutionary propitiation. He did not take the place of others. He died on behalf of Adamic man, not in the place of Adamic man. His death as the last (eschatos) and only legitimate Son of Adam (not being contaminated by The Law of Sin and Death) satisfied the verdict of Yahweh condemning Adamic men to the death common to them all. That verdict would no longer be the last word. Adamic man would not be left in the grave. Yahweh’s new verdict on the basis of Christ’s faithfulness provided all Adamic men without exception with a justification of immortal, celestial life, the very celestial life of Christ as the Second Man, the Celestial Man.
In the current passage under consideration (Rom. 7:14), Paul uses the word fleshy to describe the soulish/soilish Adamic man under the enslaving operation of The Law of Sin residing within his bodily members of flesh. The flesh in itself is not sinful. It became the body of Sin as a result of the contaminating entrance of The Law of Sin and Death. Thus, it became enslaved to The Law of Sin and Death and could be commandeered into producing the unrighteous deeds of prostituted passions (mutinous desires, mutinous covetousness).
Having made this enslavement clear, Paul now proceeds to describe the experience of Adamic man under the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant of law:
For what I work against my own will [the death common to all Adamic men and sinful deeds], I do not recognize as my will. For that which I do not will [the death common to all men and sinful deeds], this I practice [perform against my will]. But what I hate [death and sin], this I produce [against my will]. But if what I do not will [death and sin], this I produce, I am conceding [according to the will of my mind] that the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant of law is ideal [holy, separated unto the service of Yahweh, a true standard of righteousness and life]. But now [since becoming aware of the presence and operation of The Law of Sin as a result of the coming of the Sinatic Covenant of law] it is no longer I [the will of my mind] working it [death and sin], but The Law of Sin dwelling in me. (Romans 7:15-17 my amplified translation)
The Adamic man under the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant of law comes to recognize the significance of The Law of Sin dwelling within him. He wills life, but realizes that no matter what he does, what he works, he is dying. His condition of death is not due to his will or his work. Death is working within him apart from his will or work.
The same is true of sin. Though with his mind he wills to practice and produce righteousness, he invariably discovers, against his will, the slipping in of sin, which thereby contaminates his practice and production of righteousness. Since the will of his mind is against the commitment of sin, his will concedes that the Sinatic/Mosaic Law is ideal. His will chooses to obey this holy law, this holy, righteous standard of Yahweh; but the seductive operation of The Law of Sin dwelling within him deceives him into committing those sinful deeds which the will of his mind is against.
Consequently, this Adamic law-abiding Israelite under the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant of law acknowledges that though he commits sin, it is against his own will. Therefore, it is the operation of The Law of Sin within him which is responsible for the commitment of sin. The mind of this law (the mind of the flesh) opposes the mind of his will, imposing itself, against his will, on the members of his body, compelling these members to prostitute themselves against their own internal standard (schemata) and against the will of the mind ruling over all the members of the body.
Paul declares that Adamic man under the Sinatic/Mosaic Law comes to realize that within the members of his body there is no opposing skillful law capable of eliminating the operation of The Law of Sin, capable of restraining, binding The Law of Sin. There is no law within him operating to produce the skillful through his members. There is only the will of his mind. And though it can restrain the effect of The Law of Sin, it cannot eliminate its operation and its successful invasion into and upsetting of the normal and predominant rule of righteous thought and conduct.
The law-abiding Israelite, though able to keep the righteousness of the law, is unable to achieve the ideal: life and righteousness uncontaminated by death and sin. The Sinatic/Mosaic Law cannot, and is not intended to, remove the condition of Adamic man as enslaved to The Law of Sin and Death:
For I [Adamic man under the Sinatic/Mosaic Law] perceive that there dwells not in the members of my body of flesh an opposing law of skillfulness. For to will the ideal [life and righteousness uncontaminated by death and sin] is present with me, but to work the ideal is not. For I do not produce what I will: the skillfully ideal [uncontaminated life and righteousness]. But what I do not will: the unideal [contaminated life and righteousness, i.e., death and sin], this I practice. But if what I do not will [the unideal, death and sin], this I produce, it is no longer I [the will of my mind] who works it, but The Law of Sin dwelling within the members of my body of flesh. (Romans 7:18-20 my translation)
Consequently, the Adamic man under the Sinatic/Mosaic Law concludes that though his will seeks to produce the ideal, uncontaminated life and righteousness, this is impossible because the unideal, contaminated life and righteousness (death and sin), is his present condition (Rom. 7:21). The Law of Sin and Death dwelling within the members of his body of flesh is working death and compelling sin in spite of the opposition of the will of his mind. He is dying, and he is sinning genetically as a generated son of Adam. This state, this condition, he has no control over. It is his, even though he hates it.
The Adamic man under the Sinatic/Mosaic Law, the law-abiding Israelite, delights, together with the interest of the law, in Yahweh’s ideal. He delights in this ideal according to the inward man, the will of his mind and heart. But he now observes a law of a different kind, an antagonistic law, The Law of Sin and Death, within the members of his body of flesh. He observes the operation of this law warring against, blatantly opposing, the interest of the law of his mind, the will of his mind committed to obeying the Sinatic/Mosaic Law of Yahweh.
This law (The Law of Sin and Death) usurps, commandeers, control over the members of his body, compelling them, against the will of his mind and heart, as captured slaves, to become instruments of unrighteousness. Thus, in spite of his mind-and-heart commitment to the Sinatic/Mosaic Law of Yahweh, in spite of his having written the letter of the Law of Yahweh on the tablet of his heart, thereby resurrecting it to the life-imparting spirit of the law of Yahweh manifested in his thought and behavior, he still finds himself committing sin, thus contaminating his righteous life as a loyal slave of Yahweh and His law:
But I am observing another law of a different kind operating within the members of my body of flesh, warring against the interest of the law of my mind and taking as captured slaves the members of my body, compelling them into serving the interest of that Law of Sin operating within my members. (Romans 7:23 my translation)
The Adamic man under the Sinatic/Mosaic Law (the law-abiding Israelite), coming to understand his contaminated condition and his inability to change this condition even though living the righteous life of the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant of law, groaning within himself (see Rom. 8:22-23), cries out in desperation, “O wretched man am I! What shall rescue me out of the body of this death?” (Rom. 7:24 my translation). Paul answers this existential groaning of the Adamic law-abiding, faithful Israelite with the word grace, referring to the gift of the grace of the Gospel mentioned earlier in chapters 5 and 6, The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus. This gift of grace provides that which the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant of law could not provide, “an opposing law of skillfulness” (see Rom. 7:18 my translation) operating within the members of the body of flesh in opposition to The Law of Sin and Death,
Grace! [Greek text variation, see Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles, Alford] I thank God [Yahweh], through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Consequently, then, I myself [Adamic man under the Sinatic/Mosaic Law, the faithful Israelite], with the mind, indeed, am slaving for God's [Yahweh’s] law, yet with the flesh [enslaved to The Law of Sin and Death] for Sin's law. (Romans 7:24b-25 CV)
The faithful Jew had always been able to serve the Law of Yahweh with his mind, even though the members of his body of flesh, when being taken as captured slaves by The Law of Sin, served Sin’s law. The faithful Jew under the Sinatic/Mosaic Law complied with the instructions of the law concerning such sins committed against the will of the mind dedicated to the ideal of the Law of Yahweh. Now, however, in Christ, that faithful Jew had access to another more powerful law operating in his members in opposition to The Law of Sin and Death. This new law of the counter-alteration disables and binds The Law of Sin and Death while simultaneously vivifying the members of the body so as to be taken as captured slaves for the righteousness of Yahweh. Those Messianic disciples in Christ, thus, have already begun to be delivered, rescued, out of the body of death, the body as enslaved to the operation of The Law of Sin and Death.
Paul, now, draws to a revelational conclusion the argument he began in Romans, chapter 5. In Romans 5:10-11, Paul had introduced the theme of the counter-alteration which those in Christ had obtained as a gift of the salvation proclaimed in the Gospel. In Romans 5:18, he had established the justification of life achieved by Christ on behalf of all Adamic humanity without exception. This justification of life reversed (offset) the verdict of Yahweh upon all Adamic humanity, without exception, caused by Adam’s sin: condemnation of death.
Condemnation of death (the death common to all Adamic men and women), thus, no longer is the last word of Yahweh in relation to Adamic humanity. The verdict had now been completely satisfied by the obedient death and resulting resurrection of the innocent and just Jesus. Though Adamic humanity would continue to die the common death of all men, they would be resurrected to the immortal life of the Second Man, the Celestial Man, the New Head of the New Jesuic Humanity. It is upon this new verdict, this new reality, this new humanity, that Yahweh, for those in Christ, could justly offer the gift of salvation (the counter-alteration) received on the basis of faith in Christ Jesus.
This gift of salvation, received only by those believing into Jesus the Messiah, is the subject of Romans 5:13-17 and 19-21. In these passages, Paul writes concerning the many, not the all of 5:12 and 18. The many believing into Jesus the Messiah are justified by faith, that faith which is after the likeness of Abraham’s faith, for which faith Yahweh is now revealed as justified to have counted for righteousness. Apart from the justification of life achieved on behalf of all Adamic humanity, without exception, this gift (the counter-alteration obtained through the faith counted for righteousness) would not be justified.
Even the faith of Abraham which had been counted for righteousness would be unjustified. Yahweh’s justification in counting faith for righteousness had been, from before the creation of Adam, based upon His foreordained purpose which was to be achieved by Jesus His Only-Begotten Son, the ProtoType after which Adam had been likened as an inferior pre-model. In the mind and purpose of Yahweh, Jesus had preceded Adam, though Jesus had not preceded Adam in actual existence.
The propitiatory sacrificial death of Jesus on behalf of the sins committed by those Yahweh had justified by faith and was now justifying by faith in the Gospel had been and continued to be the just basis upon which Yahweh counted faith for righteousness. This counting of faith for righteousness is only in relation to the many. It had never been intended for all humanity. It had always required the freedom to believe the revealed word of Yahweh and to responsibly live faithfully to the end of one’s soulish/soilish life.
The faithful elect had always been chosen on behalf of the welfare of the non-elect. Yahweh could justly bless some above others because of His preordained intention and purpose to ultimately bless all with the justification of immortal life, the life of the Second and Superior Man, the Celestial Man through Whom all Adamic humanity would be immortally blessed. The faithful elect had always borne the burden of the non-elect. They had always carried upon their shoulders the added responsibility accompanying their faith. This faithfulness of the faithful elect would be rewarded the Celestial Allotment associated with the faithfulness of Abraham.
In chapter 8 of Romans, Paul finally identifies the counter-alteration as The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ
Jesus. This law is now revealed as the power of Yahweh freeing those in
Christ from the power of The Law of Sin
and Death which Paul had been describing in chapters 6 and 7. The Law of the Spirit of Life is the
answer to the faithful Israelite presented in Romans 7:24 as existentially
crying out, “O wretched man am I! What shall
rescue me out of the body of this death?” (my translation). The Messianics
in
The body of flesh no longer need be enslaved to the working of The Law of Sin and Death. The counter-altering power of The Law of the Spirit of Life has now been provided whereby The Law of Sin can be bound, disabled from taking captive the members of the body and compelling these members to become instruments of unrighteousness:
Consequently, now [since Christ’s death, resurrection, ascension, and pouring out of the spirit], there is no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus [whose faith in the Gospel has been counted for righteousness and who have obtained the counter-alteration]. For The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus has set me [the faithful Israelite serving the Law of Yahweh with his mind and, now, also, the faithful Gentile believing the Gospel] free from The Law of Sin and Death. For without power [disabled] is this law because of the following: it has begun to be weak through the flesh, since Yahweh, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh [the flesh through which The Law of Sin is operating] and concerning Sin, has condemned this Law of Sin in the flesh. (Romans 8:1-3 my translation)
For all those in Christ, having been justified by their faith in the Gospel, there is, now, since the achievement of Jesus the Messiah, no condemnation. The Law of Sin and Death has been condemned in the sphere of the flesh. Therefore, the soulish/soilish man is accounted as dead by Yahweh, since The Law of Sin and Death is no longer accounted as contaminating. The death common to all Adamic humanity is no longer the last word. Therefore, the contaminating condemnation of The Law of Sin is no longer applicable to those in Christ who are new creations. They are no longer soulish/soilish men, but soulish/spiritual men in the process of metamorphical transformation into the New Celestial Man.
As crucified and entombed with Christ, they have died to the old soulish/soilish Adamic man and have been resurrected with Christ into the transforming life of the New Celestial Man. As soulish/spiritual men, they have been set free from the rule and condemnation of The Law of Sin dwelling in the members of their bodies of flesh. The Law of the Spirit of Life has invigorated their mortal bodies so as to be alive to Yahweh.
As long as they are walking in the newness of this counter-altered life, they are free from the operating power of The Law of Sin. The Law of Sin has been disabled from freely operating to enslave the members of the body of flesh. It is now hindered, being opposed by The Law of the Spirit. The Law of the Spirit binds, disables, incarcerates, The Law of Sin from capturing and holding captive as slaves the members of the body of flesh.
The law of the mind which had always served Yahweh (for the
faithful Israelites) is now aided by its new ally, The Law of the Spirit, so as to conquer, capture, imprison, bind,
incapacitate The Law of Sin. This law
no longer can take unchallenged a base of operations through the commandment (
Yahweh counts all those in Christ as dead to the Adamic man of contaminating death. Only the new man is alive in Christ. The new man (the soulish/spiritual man) living by the power of The Law of the Spirit produces only life. The mind had willed life, but The Law of Sin, through the commandment, had revealed the process of death contaminating the whole man. This, the law of the mind could not change. The contaminating condition of Sin and Death generated in all Adam’s progeny made them slaves of death. Though they could desire life, assenting to the revelation of the Law of Moses, they could not produce that life. They were dying. That was their condition.
The faithful Israelite under the Law of Moses, in agreement with the law, willed life. But death reigned in him. Even when he kept the law with all his heart, soul, and intensity, he still produced only death, because death ruled over him. He was dying and would die the death common to all Adamic men. He had loved life and hated death (see Rom. 7:15-17 my translation, in previous section titled “The Law of Sin and Death and The Law of the Spirit of Life: Freedom, Romans 8:1-17”). But, no matter how well ethically, morally, socially, economically, he lived, he was still dying.
The righteousness of the Mosaic Law could not change this condition of Sin and Death. The Mosaic Law could not provide an opposing law of skillfulness constraining and conquering The Law of Sin and Death operating in the members of the body of flesh (see Rom. 7:18-20). The Mosaic Law could not change the characteristic condition of Adamic man. It would take an uncontaminated son of Adam to redeem Adamic man from this condition of Sin and Death.
Jesus, as the only legitimate son of Adam uncontaminated by Sin and Death, put an end to the reign of death on behalf of all Adamic men, without exception. He put an end to the reign of Sin, however, for only those in Him, the many justified by faith. Christ had delivered those in Him from the contaminating condition of Sin and Death. Walking by faith in the newness of The Life of the Spirit, the mind which loved and willed life could now produce life. No longer was the mind unsuccessfully warring against “another law of a different kind operating within the members of my body of flesh, . . . taking as captured slaves the members of my body, compelling them into serving the interest of The Law of Sin operating within my members” (Rom. 7:23 my translation).
The Law of the Spirit had disabled The Law of Sin from uncontestedly operating in the members of the body. Accounting oneself dead to the old Adamic man, one now had access to the cooperation of The Law of the Spirit. The operation of this law incarcerated the operation of The Law of Sin. The mind, now in cooperation with The Law of the Spirit, conquers The Law of Sin, producing both righteous deeds and the new characterizing condition of life.
By faith the old Adamic man (the operation of The Law of Sin) is conquered, and by
faith the old Adamic man is accounted judicially dead (the condition of death
common to all men) in accord with Yahweh’s judicial accounting of it as dead.
If the old Adamic man is legally accounted dead by Yahweh, its condition of
contamination is negated. If the new celestial man is legally accounted alive
by Yahweh, then its new condition of life is the only characterization of the
new man. By faith, those in Christ account the old Adamic man dead and account
the new celestial man alive, thus advocating the accounting of Yahweh. This
negates the cry of the old Adamic man faithful to Yahweh’s law, “O wretched man am I! What shall rescue me
out of the body of this death?” (Rom. 7:24 CV). The soulish/spiritual man
joyously exclaims Yahweh’s answer to his existentially desperate, interrogative
cry, “Grace!” (
The obedience of Jesus Christ has rescued this man out of the body of this death! The counter-alteration of The Law of the Spirit of Life has delivered this man from his wretchedness! He is no longer a man characterized by Death and Sin. He is no longer characterized as soulish/soilish, but a man characterized by Life and Righteousness, the Life and Righteousness of the Second Man, the Celestial Man, the exalted New Head of Adamic humanity, Jesus the Anointed, Only-Begotten Son of Yahweh. This once wretched man is now a counter-altered man characterized as soulish/spiritual.
The practical purpose of this counter-alteration, this Law of the Spirit, is
in order that the righteousness of the law [the spirit of the Law of Yahweh contained in the Sinatic/Mosaic Law] should be fulfilled in us [those in Christ, Messianic Jews and Messianic Gentiles], whose interest is not to be walking according to the condition of flesh under The Law of Sin, but according to the condition of spirit under The Law of the Spirit. (Romans 8:4 my translation)
The purpose of Yahweh’s gift (the counter-alteration of the spirit) is to enable the many in Christ to keep, to obey, the righteousness of the Sinatic/Mosaic Law. Objectively, this law is referred to by Paul as the letter of the law. The letter of the law kills (2 Cor. 3:6), since it reveals, unmasks, the contaminated condition of death of Adamic humanity.
Nevertheless, when the letter becomes written on the heart, it produces a righteousness, a moral righteousness which conforms to what is right in Yahweh’s eyes. This righteousness characterizes a healthy human. It characterizes the man who conforms his thinking and behaving to a true understanding and appropriation of the Knowledge of Good and Evil as designed by Yahweh. The letter of the law is resurrected when its spirit is properly appropriated in the various situations of daily life.
The spirit of the law is creative. It must creatively determine the appropriate application of Good and/or Evil leading to the health and welfare of those involved in the specific situation. The letter of the law is a general guide. The spirit of the law is a specific, just application of the letter of the law appropriate to the specific situation, resulting in the God-designed welfare of those involved.
The letter, indiscriminately applied, is destructive and unhealthy. The letter properly appropriated by the spirit results in creatively wise decisions and actions revealing one’s mastery in the use of Good and Evil. Under the Sinatic/Mosaic Law, the faithful Israelite had been responsible for writing the letter of the law upon his heart where his own spirit could engage in its proper, creative, just application of the letter of the law in the varying situations of daily life. This engagement had been hindered, obstructed, distorted, aborted, by the seductive operation of The Law of Sin. Thus, the righteousness of the law was continually contaminated by the Adamic condition of man.
The Law of the Spirit of Life provided by Yahweh to the many in Christ rescued these faithful ones from the contaminating, obstructing, distorting operation of The Law of Sin, thereby giving them the power to avoid aborted acts of righteousness. The old Adamic man now having been declared judicially dead by Yahweh meant they were no longer producing death while desiring life. The old Adamic man accounted legally dead by Yahweh meant the many in Christ were alive to Yahweh, producing only the life of the spirit of the new soulish/spiritual, celestial man, which man alone Yahweh judicially recognized, acknowledged.
The mind now desiring life, produced that life (even when committing sin), first, as a result of Yahweh’s accounting the old Adamic man (the soulish/soilish man enslaved to the operation of The Law of Sin) dead and, second, as a result of the counter-altering power of The Law of the Spirit of Life. For such sin was now being charged against the old Adamic man now declared dead by Yahweh. The many in Christ could not be charged with the sin committed by the old Adamic man officially declared dead by Yahweh. Only that sin committed when accounting the old Adamic man alive could be charged against those in Christ.
By faith, therefore, the many in Christ were responsible for accounting the old Adamic man dead. Such a faithful accounting described the man walking in newness of life. This man was sharing in Christ’s death and resurrection. This man actively crucified the flesh with its lusts, that is, crucified The Law of Sin so as to incapacitate its active operation whereby it had been able to take captive the members of the body, compelling these members to prostitute themselves as instruments of unrighteousness against the very law of the mind of the body.
Consequently, the many in Christ, sharing in the spirit of Christ, were empowered so as to fulfill the spirit of the Sinatic/Mosaic Law as interpreted and appropriated in the situations of daily life by the very spirit of Yahweh/Christ operating in them. This spirit (counter-alteration) renewed the mind and reschematized the members of the body of flesh in accord with the revealed truth of the Gospel. As a result, the New Born-From-Above Israel of Yahweh was in the process of fulfilling the Law and the Prophets, fulfilling the letter and spirit of the Sinatic/Mosaic Law, of fulfilling Exodus 19:5-6a:
Now, if you shall hearken, yea hearken to My voice and observe My covenant then you will become Mine, a special possession, above all of the peoples, for Mine is all the earth. As for you, you shall become Mine, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. (CV)
Having received the counter-alteration, those in Christ no longer have to be enslaved to the contaminated flesh. They no longer need to be victims of The Law of Sin and Death, since the old Adamic man contaminated by this alien influence is accounted dead by Yahweh. In Christ, they are alive to Yahweh because of the presence and operation of The Law of the Spirit of Life (the spirit of Yahweh/Christ).
However, this new condition, this counter-alteration, must be continually accounted by faith/faithfulness as Yahweh’s new reality. The Messianic must, with the renewed mind, be accounting, computing, the reality of the presence and operation of the spirit within him and must be accounting, computing, downloading the data which the spirit is communicating to the renewed mind. The spirit is Yahweh’s power enabling the Messianic disciple to understand the truth of the Gospel and to discern the situations and affairs of his daily life in the light of this spiritual knowledge whereby he can appropriately apply the Law of Yahweh, thus fulfilling the spirit of the law in all his relations with his neighbors. Hence, the many in Christ must be continually accounting the mind of the spirit while discounting the mind of the flesh when this mind attempts to promote deceptively false data opposed to the truth of the Gospel:
For those who are in accord with flesh [the mind of the flesh promoted by The Law of Sin and Death, thus, the old Adamic man, the soulish/soilish man], are disposed [have a propensity] to the deceptively false input of the mind of the flesh as polluted by The Law of Sin. But those who are in accord with spirit [the mind of the spirit promoted by The Law of the Spirit of Life, thus the soulish/spiritual man] are disposed [have a propensity] to the authentically true input of the spirit. For the disposition of the flesh [contaminated by The Law of Sin and Death] is death [the death common to all men and the destructive effect of the tendency to err, to sin, to miss the mark of the true welfare, health, of humanity]; but the disposition of the spirit [the renewing of the mind and reschematizing of the members of the body by The Law of the Spirit of Life] is life and peace. (Romans 8:5-6 my amplified translation)
The old Adamic man contaminated by The Law of Sin and Death, having a propensity to be deceived by the false input of The Law of Sin, is enslaved to be producing, in varying degrees, the sinful deeds of the mind of the flesh. This man has a tendency, an inclination, a temperament, a propensity to be led astray by the alien Law of Sin and Death, thereby causing him to pollute his thinking process (the mind of the flesh) and act in ways destructive to his own spiritual, psychological, intellectual, physical, social, and economical welfare. In spite of this disposition, however, this man can and does live a moral life, contributing positively to his own, his family’s, and his community’s welfare. But he cannot accomplish this without missing the mark often enough as to destructively affect his own, his family’s, and his community’s welfare.
This man is spiritually, psychologically, intellectually, physically, socially, and economically unhealthy in the eyes of Yahweh. He is contaminated by death and sin, even at his best. His mind and body are stained, damaged, contaminated by The Law of Sin and Death. He is imperfect; he is unwhole; he is divided; he is dissonant. Hence, the mind, the disposition, of the flesh is death in the eyes of Yahweh.
The soulish/spiritual man, in contrast, is not contaminated by The Law of Sin and Death. For Yahweh has accounted the old Adamic man crucified, put to death, and buried in the crucifixion, death, and entombment of Christ. This new man, now having the propensity to life as a result of the counter-alteration, the vivifying of the body and mind by The Law of the Spirit of Life, is enslaved to Yahweh, thereby producing in varying degrees the righteous deeds of the mind of the spirit. This new man has a tendency, an inclination, a temperament, a propensity to be led righteously by the allied Law of the Spirit of Life, thereby invigorating his thinking process (the mind of the spirit) and his acts so as to produce the righteousness of Yahweh (that which is right in the eyes of Yahweh).
This soulish/spiritual man cannot sin, miss the mark, of Yahweh’s righteous ways. This new man can only think and act according to that which is conducive to his own, his family’s, his community’s spiritual, psychological, intellectual, physical, social, and economical welfare. This new man is alive to Yahweh. In Christ, he is free from the contamination and pollution of death. He is perfect; he is whole; he is undivided; he is harmonious. Hence, the mind, the disposition, of the spirit is life and peace in the eyes of Yahweh. This new man is a new creation in Christ.
However, in spite of having access to the enabling power of The Law of the Spirit of Life, the Messianic disciple is still capable of walking according to the flesh, according to the mind, the disposition, of the flesh. If by faith/faithfulness he does not account the old Adamic man crucified, put to death, and entombed with Christ, he will be walking according to the flesh. The old Adamic man will become unbound and powerfully active. It will no longer be crucified, but under the seductive deceptions of The Law of Sin and Death. If repentance does not take place before the consummation of the Parousia of Christ, this Messianic disciple will be considered by Yahweh an apostate and will be given over to The Adversary and Apostate Israel to endure the final indignation of Yahweh, the suffering of the Second Death, the termination of the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant.
The Messianic disciple who turns back to the old Adamic man chooses to walk in the flesh rather than the spirit. This disciple is not faithful to the end. He has failed the test of faithfulness. He has shown himself unworthy of the present eonian life and the soon-to-come life in the coming age, entrance into and participation in the Celestial Allotment of the faithful sons of Abraham. He has chosen the way of the disapproved mind of the flesh under the enslaving influence of The Law of Sin and Death. He has become disqualified, having quenched the indwelling operation of The Law of the Spirit of Life dwelling within him as the gift of Yahweh. Having denied Jesus the Messiah, Jesus the Davidic Warrior-King will deny him before the throne of the Father. His name will be blotted out of the Lamb’s book of life. The Gospel of Christ requires faith/faithfulness to the end. He who walks according to the disposition, mind, of the flesh is dead in the eyes of Yahweh and His Anointed Son/King.
Why is he dead in the eyes of Yahweh and Jesus the Messiah? “Because the mind of the flesh is enmity
against Yahweh. For it is not subject to the interest of the law of Yahweh. For
neither is it able [to be subject to the interest of the Law of Yahweh]” (
Can this man obey the Law of Yahweh? Yes! Can he attain to the righteousness of the law? Yes! But can he attain to life? No! Life can only be obtained by the faithfulness of Christ on behalf of all Adamic humanity. As death has been obtained by the disobedient act of Adam resulting in Yahweh’s verdict of death in relation to all Adam’s progeny, so also life had now been obtained by the obedient act of Jesus (the only legitimate, uncontaminated Son of Adam) on behalf of all Adam’s progeny resulting in Yahweh’s verdict of life in relation to all Adam’s dying progeny.
The many in Christ were the first to actually experience this life as a result of Yahweh’s gift of the counter-alteration. This gift (the counter-alteration) would not be possible apart from the achievement of Jesus Christ on behalf of all Adam’s progeny. This gift, however, was only to the many and required faithfulness. The gift could be quenched (1 Thess. 5:19) and the Celestial Allotment forfeited. Thus, “many are called, yet few are chosen” (Matt. 22:14 KJV).
The many in Christ, the Messianic disciples, however, are not living in the sphere of the interest of the flesh enslaved to the operation of The Law of Sin and Death. In Christ, they are dead to the Adamic man (the soulish/soilish man, the flesh subject to the operation of The Law of Sin). They are alive with Christ as those subject to The Law of the Spirit of Life. But this covenantal state is only practical reality if the spirit of Yahweh/Christ is indwelling them (actively operating in the members of the body of flesh and on the mind) by the continual faith/faithfulness accounting (accounting the old Adamic man dead and accounting the new Jesuic man alive, accounting oneself crucified to The Law of Sin and Death and accounting The Law of Sin and Death crucified to oneself):
But you are not in the sphere of the interest of flesh, but in the sphere of the interest of spirit, if so be Yahweh’s spirit is dwelling [oikei, making its home] in you. But if anyone has not Christ’s spirit [the spirit first poured out at Pentecost], he is not of Him. But if Christ [His spirit, The Law of the Spirit of Life] be in you, the body [contaminated by The Law of Sin and Death], indeed, is dead, on the one hand, due to the condition of Sin [the operation of The Law of Sin and Death], but, on the other hand, the spirit is life due to the condition of righteousness [the operation of The Law of the Spirit of Life]. But if the spirit of Him Who roused Jesus out from among dead ones is dwelling [oikei, making its home] in you, He Who roused the Messiah out from among dead ones shall also be vivifying [making alive] your mortal bodies through His spirit indwelling [enoikountos, actively operating as in control of the members of your body] in you. Consequently, then, brethren, we [the Messianic Jews, and so, also the Messianic Gentiles] are not in debt [any longer] to the flesh [as subject to the operation of The Law of Sin and Death] to live according to the flesh [as commandeered by the operation of The Law of Sin and Death]. For if you live according to the flesh [subject to the operation of The Law of Sin and Death], you are about to be dying away from [the active operation of The Law of the Spirit of Life]. But if to the interest of the active operation of the spirit you are putting to death [by the accounting of faith/faithfulness] the practices of the body [instigated by the commandeering operation of The Law of Sin and Death], you will be living [as long as you continue the accounting of faith/faithfulness by which the spirit’s operation continually controls the members of the body through the process of reschematization and continually renews the mind through its input of the righteous truth of the Gospel, the wise understanding and appropriation of the Law of Yahweh, The Law of Christ]. For as many as are being led by the spirit of Yahweh, these are Yahweh’s sons [no longer children, but adult sons possessing and manifesting in practice the character of Yahweh the Father, i.e., the mind and heart of Yahweh as represented and exemplified by Jesus the Messiah]. For you did not receive a spirit of enslavement leading you back again into fear [of sin and death], but you received a spirit of sonship in the interest of which we are crying “Abba Father” [as adult sons possessing intimate, personal relationship to Yahweh as men belonging to the Second, Celestial, Jesuic humanity, in contrast to the childishness and imperfection of Adamic humanity]. (Romans 8:9-15 my amplified translation)
The spirit of Yahweh/Christ dwelling within the Messianic brethren testifies together with each man’s individual, personal spirit that in Christ he is a progeny of Yahweh. Thus, the testimony of two confirms the truth of the Gospel for each Messianic disciple. Each is spiritually assured of his new relationship to Yahweh as Father. But if, in Christ, they are Yahweh’s progeny as a result of being Born-From-Above by the imparting of the spirit of Yahweh/Christ, they are, then, not only possessors of an allotment belonging to Yahweh, but also joint-possessors of Christ’s allotment.
Christ is the possessor of the Celestial Allotment promised to Abraham and his faithful sons. In Christ, the Messianic brethren participate with Him as members of His Body, His Ecclesia, sharing His Celestial Allotment as Firstborn from among the dead ones. But the sharing of this Celestial Firstborn Allotment requires sharing in His suffering on behalf of the Gospel, on behalf of the righteousness of Yahweh, in the present conflict with Apostate Israel. Only those sharing in His suffering associated with His crucifixion, death, entombment, and resurrection will share in His impending glory. Only those faithfully enduring His suffering to the end of the conflict will share in His glory to be revealed during the period of His Approach/Arrival Parousia:
The spirit itself is testifying together with our spirit, that we are Yahweh’s progeny [spiritual sons Born-From-Above, new creations in Christ]. But if progeny, also allottees [possessors of an allotment]; allottees [possessors of an allotment], on the one hand, of Yahweh [since the allotment belongs to Yahweh], but joint-allottees [joint possessors of an allotment] with Christ [to Whom Yahweh has given the allotment as THE SEED of Abraham], if, indeed, we are actively suffering together with Him in order that we also might be glorified together with Him. (Romans 8:16-17 my translation)
To share in Christ’s suffering is to share in His glory. This
was possible only for that generation contemporaneous with Jesus the Messiah.
It is this generation to which the Gospel had been sent. The Apostles (the
Twelve and Paul) had been commissioned to proclaim this Gospel throughout the
territories of the Roman Empire wherein resided the Jews (representing the
Southern Kingdom of Judah) and the Gentile descendants of
Paul’s argument in Romans 8:18-27 is that the sharing in the sufferings of Jesus the Messiah is limited to the present era of the proclamation of the Gospel and to those in Christ responding in faith to this Gospel:
For I am accounting that not worthy are the sufferings [on behalf of Christ and the righteousness of the Gospel] of the present era to be compared with the imminent glory about to be revealed into and manifested through our present condition as adult sons of Yahweh. (Romans 8:18 my amplified translation)
Paul accounts the present sufferings (for the sake of the Gospel) of those in Christ are not worthy to be compared with the imminently coming glory of Christ to be shared by them. If they share in His sufferings, they will share in His Parousia glory soon to be manifested in His imminent Parousia/Approach as Yahweh’s victorious, conquering Warrior-King.
His Parousia/Approach will be in power and glory. His Parousia/Approach will initiate the unveiling of the glory of His spirit indwelling all those in Him. That glory associated with the new life in Christ had been revealed only to faith. That glory had remained hidden from those outside the Messiah. Those in Christ had been metaphorically buried with Him in His death and had begun to share in His resurrection life, but that life had metaphorically remained in the soil of His death-burial. Those dead in Christ had sprung to life. Those dead in Christ had germinated, but their new life had remained hidden in the soil from the living dead ones (the unfaithful, disbelieving Jews). Those dead in Christ had been alive and growing in the suffering process of sharing in Christ’s crucifixion death.
As Christ had been revealed in resurrection only to those who
belonged to Him, so also the time was near when those in Him (in His death and
resurrection) would be revealed in the glory of their spiritual, new covenantal
life. They would be revealed as the sons of Yahweh to the rest of elect
Even as the darnel [tares],
then, are being culled and burned up with fire [the Jewish revolt against Rome, 66-70 A.D.], thus shall it be in
the conclusion [suntelias, not telos] of the eon [the Mosaic Eon]. The Son of Man shall be dispatching His
messengers [His Parousia/Approach], and
they shall be culling out of His kingdom all the snares and those doing
lawlessness [the counterfeit apostates in
the Ecclesia of Christ], and they shall be casting them into a furnace of
fire [along with Apostate
At the Parousia/Approach of Christ, the sons of Yahweh in Christ would be unveiled in the glory of Christ like a germinated seed breaks through the soil, bursting into the glorious light of the rising sun. This Parousia/Approach would begin in 66 A.D., ending in Christ’s Parousia/Arrival in 70 A.D. This glorious unveiling of the sons of Yahweh in Christ (the Ecclesia of Christ, the New Born-From-Above Israel of Yahweh) results in the salvation of all Israel, the rest of elect Israel who have remained hardened and blind after the likeness of Saul of Tarsus. As Saul on the road to Damascus had been overwhelmed by the unveiling glory of Christ, so also the rest of Israel being accounted by Yahweh as children of Abraham would be overwhelmed by the unveiling glory of Christ being revealed in the members of His Ecclesiastical Body.
Paul continues his argument by referring to the creation. The
term creation is here used by Paul to
refer to elect
For the anxious expectation of the creation [the many of
Those in Christ had received the counter-alteration, the new condition of the sons of the
kingdom, the sons of Yahweh. The new condition freed one from The Law of Sin and Death. This new
condition freed the Israel of Yahweh from the covenantal death it had been
subjected to at Sinai. As Moses, interceding on
Furthermore, Paul declares that the entire creation (consisting of all the members of the Elect Israel of Yahweh, the many faithful children of Abraham now, in Christ, adult sons, having received the sonship) “is groaning and travailing together until now” (Rom. 8:22 CV). Paul is here alluding to Exodus 2:24, “And God [Yahweh] heard their [the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob] groaning, and God [Yahweh] remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob” (KJV). Once again, Yahweh has heard the groaning of the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and has remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The nation is groaning for the promised salvation. This includes the Cainite nation (Apostate Israel) and the Abelite nation (the deceived blind and ignorant Jews like Saul of Tarsus), as well as the Jews and Gentiles in Christ.
Yahweh has remembered His covenant and has established it with
Jesus the Messiah, The Seed of Abraham. The New Davidic/Abrahamic Covenant is
Yahweh’s answer to the groans of His people. However, only those after the
likeness of the faith of Abraham (the
many) are to be delivered out of the Second
Death associated with the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant. The present groaning and
travailing of those in Christ is in relation to the oppression of the
Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant as distorted by the false shepherds of Apostate Israel.
Apostate
Now Christ, coming along a Chief Priest of the impending good things [of the New Davidic/Abrahamic Covenant] through the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made by hands, that is, not of THIS CREATION [my emphasis]; not even through the blood of he-goats and calves, but through His own blood, entered once for all time into the holy places, finding eonian redemption. (Hebrews 9:11-12 CV)
This creation is
here referring to the creation of
But not only so, but even ourselves, the ones having the firstfruit of the spirit [the counter-alteration], we ourselves, also, are groaning in ourselves, awaiting the sonship, the completed condition of the redemption of our body [the old, national, corporate body of Israel, the present terrestrial house/tabernacle being demolished and the individual soulish/soilish body, both still affected by The Law of Sin and Death, in spite of being crucified with Christ]. (Romans 8:23 my amplified translation)
Those who are already in Christ at the time of the writing of
Romans are included in “the entire
creation” (Rom.
Nevertheless, when they are unveiled in the glory of Christ,
this glorious manifestation of Jesus the
Christ will melt the hardened hearts and open the blinded eyes of the remaining
Jewish faithful children of Abraham ignorantly opposing the Gospel. Like Saul
of Tarsus on the road to
The full redemption of the mortal/soulish body and the
redemption of all
The expectation in Christ, though experienced in part, was still future. It was not yet observable with the eyes of the body. It was observable only with the eyes of faith. Yet, it would soon be observable by the eyes of the body. In the interim, those in Christ “are awaiting it [the manifestation in glory of the resurrection life] with endurance” (Rom. 8:25b CV), the endurance characterized as the sharing in the sufferings of Christ associated with the death (the termination) of the old Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant and the life of the metaphoric transformation of the New Davidic/Abrahamic Covenant promised to the faithful many associated with the Abrahamic, Sinatic, and Davidic covenants.
During this groaning interim of sharing in the sufferings of Christ,
the spirit also is aiding our infirmity [the present, though weak, presence of The Law of Sin and Death within the mortal body], for what we should be praying for, to be in accord with that which is binding [that is, whether to magnify Christ by remaining alive for service or by becoming a martyr], we are not perceiving, but the spirit itself is superbly interceding with groanings not expressible in words. (Romans 8:26 my translation)
Those in Christ were not able to perceive which best contributed to the purpose of Yahweh in Christ: living for Christ or dying for Christ in order to magnify Christ and advance His cause in their bodies. Paul wrote of this dilemma in his letter to the Philippians:
as always, now also, Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether through life or through death. For to me to be living is Christ, and to be dying [is Christ’s], gain. . . . and I do not know which I prefer. I am hard pressed between the two, . . . (Philippians 1:20b-23a CV modified)
This dilemma is mediated by the spirit with groanings not
expressible in words. Yahweh, Who searches the heart, hears and understands the
communication of the spirit on behalf of His holy ones in Christ. Yahweh, in
response, relieves these groanings by directing the spirit to appropriately
inform the prayers and guide the decisions of those in Christ in relation to
this dilemma (Rom.
With such intercession and guidance from Yahweh, Paul can confidently declare,
Now we perceive that Yahweh is working all things [associated with the purpose of the Gospel] together for the good of the ones [in Christ] who are loving Yahweh, the very ones who are called according to His purpose. His purpose being, that, whom He foreknew, He designated also to be conformed to the image of His Son [the image of the Celestial Man], for Him [Christ] to be Firstborn among many brethren [the many in Christ by faith/faithfulness]. Now whom He designated beforehand, these He called also, and whom He called, these He also justified; now whom He justified, these He also glorified. (Romans 8:28-30 CV modified)
Yahweh has called the seed of Abraham, both circumcised and
uncircumcised. He had designated this seed beforehand. His election is not in
relation to all humanity. His call to the seed of Abraham through the
proclamation of the Gospel of Christ is limited to those dwelling in the
territories of the
His call has required faith/faithfulness to the end of the Mosaic Eon. He had not designated beforehand specific individuals. His designation beforehand had been in relation to a group of human beings graciously selected to hear the Gospel and, thus, have the opportunity to respond in faith. Yahweh had not predestined, predetermined the faith of those graciously hearing the Gospel. The call had been graciously designated beforehand, but not the response of the individuals hearing the call.
His call had been in relation to His elective purpose associated
with His promises made to Abraham. This elective purpose passed from Abraham to
Isaac to Jacob to Jacob’s twelve sons from whom Yahweh created and generated
the nation
His ultimate choice, election, of the seed of Abraham had been Jesus, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham. Jesus is THE SEED of Abraham in Whom all those called and designated beforehand would be blessed on the basis of faith accounted for righteousness. The only elect individuals designated beforehand by Yahweh were Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jesus THE elect and designated beforehand SEED of Abraham.
Those called on the basis of election have the responsibility of living by faith/faithfulness. Yahweh does not predetermine one’s faith. The call is Yahweh’s choice. The life of faith/faithfulness is the free choice of those electively called. Election does not guarantee participation in the ultimate promise of the Celestial Allotment. Salvation is the gift offered by Yahweh to the elect. Participation in the Celestial Allotment of this present salvation requires the living out of faith/faithfulness to the end of the present spiritual warfare on behalf of Christ and the righteousness of Yahweh revealed in the truth of the Gospel.
All those electively hearing the Gospel and believing into Jesus the Messiah receive the counter-alteration. However, only those faithful to the end experience, participate in, the complete conformation to the image of Yahweh’s Son, Jesus the Messiah, the image of the New Celestial Man. Salvation is provided by Yahweh. Faith/faithfulness is not provided by Yahweh. It is the responsibility of the one receiving Yahweh’s salvation. Those whom Yahweh justifies on the basis of faith accounted for righteousness He will glorify. This, He had determined beforehand. But those who forfeit their justification by faithlessness are excluded from His beforehand-designated glory.
Jesus the faithful Anointed Son of Yahweh is Yahweh’s Firstborn Son. All those remaining faithful to the end remain in Him and share in His Firstborn Celestial Allotment and glory, even as they faithfully had shared in His sufferings. For those faithful ones loving Yahweh, all things associated with their expectation in Christ would be worked together for their good, their covenantal welfare, by Yahweh their faithful and loving Father. For those who would faithlessly turn away from Jesus the Messiah, such would not be their experience. Rather, they could only expect “a certain fearful waiting for judging and fiery jealousy” (Heb. 10:27a CV). Yahweh is a jealous and just Elohim. For it is written,
Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. (Hebrews 10:30b-31 KJV)
The elect are uniquely Yahweh’s people. They have been chosen and blessed to be Yahweh’s instruments through whom the entire Adamic humanity would be blessed. If Yahweh is for them, who can successfully oppose them?! Those in Christ are conquerors together with Him over Apostate Israel, a false, rebellious nation despising its heritage, its election, and its Elohim. This evil, Cainite nation has refused to be an instrument of blessing to the nations. It has opposed Yahweh and His Anointed Son/King. But it cannot successfully oppose the conquering Ecclesia of Jesus the Davidic Warrior-King.
Yahweh had not spared His own Son. He had given Him up to a crucifixion death on behalf of those He had called according to His elective purpose designated beforehand. The New Covenant consecrated with the shed blood of His Only-Begotten Son had been made only with the elect in Christ. If they have been blessed by the death of His Son, they could be assured that the life of the Son would graciously guarantee all the things associated with the promise made to Abraham concerning the Celestial Allotment. If they would faithfully endure the sufferings on behalf of the Gospel to the consummation of the Parousia of Jesus the Davidic Warrior-King, they would share in the triumphant victory of Yahweh and His Anointed Son/King over their enemies.
The Adversary is now without authority to indict Yahweh’s
elect ones. The sin of
Indictment can only occur as a result of faithlessness, apostasy from Jesus the Christ, “crucifying for themselves the Son of God again and holding Him up to infamy” (Heb. 6:6b CV). Such apostasy results in expulsion from being in Christ. If not in Christ, the ex-elect one is perceived by Yahweh as being in the dying Adam/Israel and is, thus, condemned, indicted, as under the Law of Moses (the Sinatic/Mosaic Law). This indictment of Yahweh condemns one to the judgment of the Second Death (the death, telos, termination of the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant). Such condemnation forfeits one’s covenantal relationship to Yahweh and the expectation of the Celestial Allotment.
The Adversary can no longer indict those in Christ, since Christ is their Advocate. Christ defends their justification with an air-tight argument. His defense is in accord with the righteousness of Yahweh. Thus, in Christ, neither anyone nor anything can separate the elect from the love of Yahweh. The sufferings of the then present era which were bringing affliction, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, and sword could not separate those remaining faithful in Christ from the love of Yahweh superabounding on behalf of His Elect, Holy, New Born-From-Above Israel. To remain in Christ, however, required a sharing in the sufferings of Jesus the Messiah, living the crucified life,
On Thy account we are being put to death the whole day, We are reckoned as sheep for slaughter. (Romans 8:36b CV)
In spite of such suffering and sacrificial death, Paul can exclaim,
Nay! in all these we are more than conquering through Him Who loves us. (Romans 8:37 CV)
The promises of Yahweh and Jesus did not fail to occur for the elect in Christ during the course of their generation. They were truly more than conquerors of the then present enemies of Yahweh. Having suffered together with Christ, they had entered together with Him into the promised Celestial Allotment to reign together with Him over the redeemed, though not yet fully transformed, previously Adamic, but now Jesuic humanity.