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The Body of Death
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Most teaching on Romans 7:14-25, concludes like this: “Paul himself did what he didn’t want to do, and we can’t expect to be stronger than Paul. We know we’re going to sin because the flesh is too strong, but that’s why we have grace. It’s all covered by the blood of Jesus.” But is this conclusion true? Was Paul actually suggesting that he could not keep himself from sin, that his flesh was stronger than his desire to please God? A closer look at the passage shows that this is clearly not the case. If we are to understand Romans 7 (and indeed the Epistle to the Romans at all), we must understand what Paul is speaking of when he says “this body of death” in verse 24. A close look quickly shows that Paul chose his metaphor very carefully—a metaphor that his audience would have understood completely at that time but could easily be misunderstood today. Roman society knew a gruesome form of capital punishment (practiced primarily by Etruscan pirates in Northern Italy) in which the body of the murdered person would be chained to the murderer (hand to hand, face to face, etc.) In the hot Mediterranean sun, the body would quickly decay, spreading not only rancid odor but also deadly infection to the murderer. The doomed criminal would carry this awful burden until the decay and infection from the corpse finally ended his own miserable existence. It was only possible to be freed from the horrors of this punishment if someone else chose to carry the body in the place of the murderer, carrying it to his death (The Aeneid, 8.484-8.488, Freeman, p. 537, Gill on Rom. 7:24). When Paul says, “this body of death,” he is alluding to this horrible type of torture. One need not look very far before one sees the appropriateness of Paul’s analogy. He has just detailed the bondage of the flesh in the passage, ending in this cry of seeming despair. But things do not end in despair for the man who cannot shake his flesh. Paul continues, saying, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (verse 25). He has succeeded in painting a vivid picture of the man who recognizes the goodness of the Law but is unable to free himself from the slavery of sin—but he does not end there. Instead, he ends with a shout of joy that Jesus Christ has come and taken the same body upon himself, meaning Paul (and we also) can be freed from the entanglement of sin. Let us look a little closer at the analogy: the body consisted of rotting flesh, from which the prisoner could not be freed. Ultimately, the prisoner would die due to exposure to the elements present in the rotting flesh. In the same way, our flesh (see note on “flesh”), due to sin, is decaying and its end result is death (Rom. 8:13). But remember that one could be freed if someone else chose to carry the body of death in your place. And this is the cause for joy! Jesus Christ has already come and borne the flesh through death itself—but without sin. This means that we have been freed from the slavery of the flesh (provided of course we come into covenant with Jesus)! We are therefore no longer are enslaved to the desires of the flesh, but have been liberated and are now able to fully obey God. When we fully understand what Paul is alluding to here, it opens up such a glorious insight into the work of Christ and really opens the meaning of the entire Epistle. We are the sinners (murderers) bound to a flesh that is decaying and that will ultimately cause our deaths. We are helpless and condemned, unable to overcome this flesh (although we know we must) by any amount of effort we make. But Jesus has come and carried the same flesh we carry—to his very death. By this finished work of Christ, we can be freed from the entanglement, since the price has already been paid. Jesus has released us, wretched though we are, from the body of death that we cannot overcome on our own. “I thank God through Jesus Christ … for the Law was powerless, weakened by the flesh, God sending his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh … condemned sin in sinful man, so the righteous demand of the Law may be fulfilled in us!” Praise Jesus!
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