Bible Study on Romans Session 14

Saint Paul’s Letter to the Romans;

A Bible Study Based upon the Homilies of St John Chrysostom (SJC)

Study Guide – February 12, 2019 – Romans 7.14-8.11 – Homily 13

Prayer before reading of the Holy Scriptures: Shine within our hearts, loving Master, the pure light of Your divine knowledge, and open the eyes of our minds that we may comprehend the message of Your Gospel. Instill in us also reverence for Your blessed commandments so that, having conquered sinful desires, we may pursue a spiritual life, thinking and doing all those things which are pleasing to You. For You, Christ our God, are the light of our souls and bodies, and to You we give glory, together with Your Father who is without beginning and Your all holy, good and life giving Spirit, always now and forever and to the ages of ages.

Chapter 7, Verses 14-25

  • Paul lays out the reason why the law led to sin. SJC “For after he said that the law is spiritual, he showed that it is the teacher of virtue and the foe of vice. For this is what it means to be spiritual, namely, to lead away from all sins.” (Pg 251 #3)
  • Sin comes from listlessness and carelessness. SJC “For when his body became mortal [after Adam sinned], man then also received concupiscence and anger and pain and all the other passions.” (Pg 251 #4)
  • Passions are/were not sins, but unbridled passions are/were sin
  • When we sin in ignorance, our punishment is less severe. SJC “They did know, but their knowledge was indistinct. Therefore, they were punished, but their punishment was not so severe.” (Pg 252 #7)
  • Paul is not claiming ignorance of the law, but lack of comprehension of actions. SJC “He means, ‘I grow blind and dizzy; I am carried away; I have violence done to me; and, without my knowing how, I am tripped up and thrown down.’ It is just as we usually say, ‘Somehow, someone came and grabbed me,’ when we are not using ignorance as an excuse, but when we are making it appear that we were caught by some kind of trick, circumstance, or plot.” (Pg 252 #9)
  • No sin is done against our will. We are never forced to sin. SJC “What then does he mean by ‘not what I wish?’ He means ‘what I disapprove of, what I do not agree with, what I do not like.’ To oppose this he also added what follows when he said, ‘But I do that which I hate. But if I do what I do not wish, I am agreeing that the law is good.’” (Pg 253 #12)
  • Flesh does not sin on its own. SJC “For it is the soul that takes in hand the whole duty of the harpist and the helmsman…For if he did not wish to do it, the soul is freed from blame. If he himself did not accomplish it, the body is also acquitted. And the entire blame belongs to the deliberate choice of evil.” (Pg 254-256 #16-19)
  • The Law can only help those who desire to do good. SJC “So it is that the law can only become an ally to the man who has the intention of doing something good, inasmuch as the law wishes for the same thing as the man does.” (Pg 255-256 #23)
  • Paul’s delight in the law is reflected in finding that the law reveals what he already knew to be true.
  • Law of sin = because we are enslaved to sin. SJC “Because of the extreme slavery of those who are their subjects, so also here Paul calls sin a law because of those who are so enslaved by it. For sinners are just as afraid to put sin aside as those who have received the law are afraid to let go of this law.” (Pg 256 #25)
  • The body deserves honor. SJC “Not only do they accuse the flesh, but they also slaner the law. Yet if the flesh were evil, the law would be good. For the flesh wages war against the law and opposes it. But if the law were not good, then the flesh is good, because according to these enemies of the truth, the flesh wages war and fights against the law. How is it then that they say that both the flesh and the law come from the devil, because they bring arguments that contradict each other? Do you see how unreasonable as well as how impious they are? But the doctrines of the Church are not like that. For they not only condemn sin, but they also maintain that God gave both laws – that of nature and that of Moses – and that both are opposed to sin and not to the flesh. They do not hold that the flesh is sin, but a work of God that is very useful for the life of virtue if we are watchful and sober.” (Pg 257 #29-30)
  • Paul doesn’t wish to be freed from the body, but the “mortal body” ie sin
  • Law of Moses expected less than the natural law. SJC “And this condescension was so great that the law made fewer demands than those made by the law of nature. For the law of nature commanded one man to consort continually with one woman. Christ made this clear when He said, ‘The Creator, from the beginning, made them male and female.’ But the law of Moses did not prevent a man from putting one wife aside and taking another in her stead, nor did it prohibit having two wives at the same time.” (Pg 259 #37)

Chapter 8, Verses 1-11

  • NO condemnation for those who walk IN Christ so long as they do not walk according to the flesh. SJC “For the face of the Spirit put a stop to this grievous war by slaying sin and making the contest easy for us. The Spirit first gave us a crown and then drew us to the struggle with an abundance of allies to aid us in the fight.” (Pg 260 #44)
  • Just as Paul uses the word ‘law’ differently in different contexts, so does he use ‘flesh’ differently. Flesh does NOT equal body.
    • SJC “He is giving the name of ‘flesh’ to the more carnal sort of mind. In this way he frees both the body and the law from being objects of accusation.” (Pg 261 #47)
    • SJC “For the Lord said to Noah, ‘My spirit will not remain in these men, because they are flesh.’ But Noah himself was encompassed by flesh. however, this is not the charge, namely, to be encompassed by with flesh, for this is natural. Rather, the charge is that these men had chosen a carnal life.” (Pg 268 #78)
  • There is no benefit of knowing we are set free from sin, unless we live as if we are set free. SJC “But what is still greater is the way in which He won this victory. For He did not take a different kind of flesh, but the same flesh, which is worn out and with toil and suffering. This was just as if someone saw a cheap and vulgar woman being beaten in the marketplace and should say that he was her son, whereas he was in fact the king’s son. In this way he set her free from those who were treating her abusively and beating her. This is what Christ did when he confessed that He was the Son of Man, stood beside her, and condemned the sin. However, Christ did not then continue beating the woman’s flesh. Rather, He continued the beating of the flesh with His own death.” (Pg 262 #50-51)
  • Christ saved the flesh. SJC “First, sin did not conquer the flesh. Second, sin was overcome and conquered by the flesh….The third thing is that not only did the flesh conquer sin, it beat it badly and punished it….Christ proved that the flesh was something to cause sin to shudder.” (Pg 262 #52)
  • DOGMA – Christ destroyed the power of sin. SJC “When sin handed over to death a body that it had found to be without sin, it was condemned because it had acted unjustly. Do you see how many proofs of Christ’s victory in the flesh there are? First, there was the fact that the flesh was not overcome by sin; second, the fact that the flesh conquered and condemned sin; third, that the flesh did not simply conquer sin, but also condemned it because it had sinned.” (Pg 262-263 #53)
  • DOGMA – Christ did NOT have sinful flesh. SJC “Because Paul had said, ‘in the likeness of sinful flesh,’ the word ‘sinful’ was his reason, but flesh like our sinful flesh, except that Christ’s flesh was sinless. But in nature Christ’s flesh was the same as ours. And so from this it is clear that the nature of the flesh is not evil.” (Pg 262 #55)
  • DOGMA – Baptism is not enough without a new life. ie: no ‘once saved, always saved’ SJC “He was showing that we must not only keep ourselves free from evil deeds, but also that we must adorn ourselves with deeds that are good. To give you the crown belongs to Christ. But it is up to you to hold on to what has been given to you. For what the law demanded, namely, that you not become liable to its curse, this Christ has accomplished for you….The bath of baptism is not enough for us to be saved if after baptism we do not display a way of life worthy of this gift.” (Pg 264 #60-61)
  • After baptism we don’t have a sinful flesh but a sinful tendency that can be stopped. Christ did His part. You must do your part. SJC “What Paul means here by ‘the tendency of the flesh, is that reasoning which is early, gross, and distracted toward the things of this life and its wicked actions. And Paul is saying that this cannot be subject to God…Therefore Paul did not mean that it was impossible for a wicket man to become good, but that it was impossible for a man who remained wicked to become subject to God.” (Pg 265-266 #66, 68)
  • Our flesh becomes spiritual. SJC “Just as when fire comes together with iron, the iron becomes fire while staying in its own nature, so too, with those who believe and possess the Spirit, the flesh afterward goes over into that action and operation. It becomes entirely spiritual because it has become spiritual in all its parts, and, together with the soul, it is now equipped with wings and is like the bodyo Paul, who spoke these words.” (Pg 270 #85)
  • Paul often uses the expression, ‘if indeed’ not to expression doubt, but instead of ‘because of.’
  • DOGMA – If you have the Spirit, you have Christ and vice-versa. SJC “What he is showing is that the man who has the Spirit not only is called Christ’s, but even possess Christ Himself. For it is impossible that Christ not be present where the Spirit is present. For when one person of the Trinity is present, the whole Trinity is present. for the Trinity is undivided in Itself and most closely united to Itself.” (Pg 270 #88)
  • DOGMA – You have life which cannot be taken away by death. SJC “You truly have in you a life that no death will take away. Such is the life of the Spirit…For where there is no sin, death is not to be seen. Where death is not to be seen, life is indissoluble.” (Pg 271 #92-93)
  • We will rise to life, or we will rise to death. SJC “If while you are still here on earth you drive away the grace of the Spirit and do not depart while this grace is still safe, you will surely perish even if you rise again. Just as the Father will not endure to give you over to punishment while He sees His Spirit shining in you, so too if He sees the light of the Spirit quenched, he will not allow you to be brought in to the Bridegroom, in the same way He refused to admit those [foolish] virgins.” (Pg 272 #95-96)

Life Application – Mortify the body in works

  • Being a slave to pleasure brings death – “For the man who makes himself the slave of these pleasures cannot live once he has become their servant. Why is this? Because of the des[ondency, the fears, and the dangers, as well as the throngs of sufferings, that such pleasures being with them. For if tham man must expect to die, he has already died before he actually does die because of his dread of death.” (Pg 272 #98)
  • Being alive means being sober – “Which of these two men, in our eyes, will be the one who is especially alive? I know that the general run of men will think it is the one who exults in pleasures and scatters his wealth. But we think it is the man who enjoys moderation. However, because there is still a quarrel and controversy, let us go into the houses of each of the two, and go at the time when you think the rich man is most alive, that is, at the time of his self-indulgence. And after we have gone in, let us see in what condition each of these men is. For it is from their actions that one appears to be living and the other dead. Shall we not find then the one man among his books, or in prayer and fasting, or in some other necessary task, awake and sober, conversing with God? But we shall see the other man in a drunken stupor and in a condition no better than a corpse.” (Pg 273-274 #102-103)
  • Living foolishly brings only scorn – “What man in his right mind would not choose to die then thousand deaths rather than to live in such a state for a single day?…For when he is behaving in an unseemly manner, he gains only this much: he does not see those who are laughing him to scorn. But when day breaks, he loses even this comfort.” (Pg 275 #109-110)
  • Being greedy is worse than being drunk – “For being drunk with wine is not so terrible as being drunk with a lust for possessions. When one is drunk with wine, the punishment stops when the suffering comes to an end in insensibility and the ruin of the drunkard himself. But with greed, the wound passes on into ten thousand souls and kindles wars of many kinds from every side.” (Pg 275 #111)
  • A greedy life is death already – “Tell me thn, is this life? Is it not death? Is it not more pitiable than any death? Death gives rest to the body; it is free from ridicule, unseemly behavior, and sins. But these fits of drunkenness cast the body into all of these by damming up the ears, by blinding the eyes, and by keeping the mind in darkness. For greed does not endure to hear or speak of anything but interest, simple and compound; shameful profits; hateful deals; and servile transactions befitting a slave. A greedy man is like a dog that barks at everybody, because he hates everyone, is opposed to everyone, and attacks everyone with no reason to do so.” (Pg 277 #120)

Send-Off – Keep evil in your mind as a warning

  • “This is why at every assembly in church our discourse touches on this topic [of greed]. This is why we constantly fill your ears to overflowing. We hope that some benefit can come from your growing accustomed to hearing it.” (Pg 278 #124)

“What words can put these evils before your minds? And if the evils are so great here on earth, think of the evils that will come hereafter: being cast out of the kingdom, the pain of Gehenna, the chains that constantly restrain them, the outer darkness, the venomous worm, the gnashing of teeth, the distress and affliction,the rivers of fire, the furnaces that are never quenched. Gather all these together and compare them to any pleasure that can come from money and possessions. When you have done this, tear out this disease by its roots, so that you may receive the true wealth and free yourselves from this grievous poverty. And in this way, may you find the blessings both of the present world and of the world to come.” (Pg 279 #128-129)