Think Wink.

In our examination of the Old Testament we saw two things. One is that the Torah offered life to Israel if she will observe Torah. Because she failed to observe Torah, Israel died the death of exile. Second, The resurrection motif was used by Isaiah and Ezekiel to explain Israel returning from her exile and being restored to her former glory. In short, Yahweh gives Israel new life. Daniel used the resurrection motif to explain the people of God being delivered from their enemies and tribulation by being raised from the “dust of the earth.” The question is how to put Israel being granted new life graciously by Yahweh apart from observing Torah together with Daniel’s physical resurrection that delivers the people of God from their tribulation and enemies. The answer must be found in Jesus because he is the next move that God makes in redemptive history. Read more

The Resurrection and the Law

Dead to Sin, Alive to God, In Messiah Part 5

Martin Luther and 1 Peter 1:3

We have examined the Old Testament and found that in the Torah, Yahweh has promised life to Israel (Leviticus 18:5; Ezekiel 20:11-13, 21; Nehemiah 9:29). That life comes to Israel by Israel’s observance of the Law. Israel however has refused to observe the Law and so has forfeited the life offered to her in the Torah. In this post, I want us to look at the resurrection as it is promised in the Old Testament. Now the difficulty that I have is that the concept of “resurrection” can be seen in multiple places in the Old Testament. One can say that to Jacob God resurrected Joseph. To Abraham God raised Isaac up from the dead on Mount Moriah. In the book of Judges one could say that Israel was in a cycle of disobedience-death-repentance-resurrection. So I have chosen to limit my discussion to three places, Isaiah 24-26; Ezekiel 37:1-14; Daniel 12:1-5. Read more

The Resurrection and the Law

A New Way of Doing Devotions for this Year?

Jesus, the Law, and the Resurrection

Before looking at how the New Testament relates the resurrection to the Law, I want to make sure we have the right understanding of the resurrection in mind. To do so I want to go back into the Old Testament and see what was expected by the resurrection of the dead. Before I get to that however, I want to look at this promise of “life” in the Old Testament that comes by doing Yahweh’s commandments. Read more

The Resurrection and the Law

Jesus, the Law, and the Resurrection

The Law in Galatians 3 from a Redemptive-Historical Perspective

As everyone knows, Glenn Beck set off a storm within Evangelicalism because of his critique of black liberation theology. I had made a comment on Facebook which drew the attention of a good friend and fellow brother in Christ. My comment was about how there is merit to “collective salvation” based upon how Yahweh interacted with Israel in the Old Testament. He disagreed. And through the course of the conversation my friend made this statement,

There are aspects to resurrection that most have rarely considered. 1 Corinthians 15 says that the time of the resurrection shall coincide with the destruction of the law which was the power of sin and death. If we believe that law to be abrogated then a future physical resurrection becomes difficult to defend in light of this statement.

Now he made that statement as a full preterist, all prophecy in the Bible was fulfilled by AD 70 and the fall of Jerusalem. I on the other hand take a more partial preterist view, but I don’t like the label. My friend is denying the resurrection in terms of it being a future, physical resurrection. If Jesus’ resurrection is physical, then so shall ours be. But this got me thinking about the relationship of the Law and the resurrection. What does Jesus rising from the dead mean in terms of our relationship to the Old Testament covenants and promises. Has Jesus “destroyed” and “abrogated” the Law?

In the next few posts, I want to explore the relationship of the resurrection and the Law. Hopefully this will be thought provoking and enjoyable.

Jesus, the Law, and the Resurrection

Dead to Sin, Alive to God, In Messiah Part 5

Martin Luther and 1 Peter 1:3

Introduction
What does Jesus offer us in his death and resurrection? What do we get by believing in him? What is heaven? What images come to mind when you hear about heaven?

Romans 8:18-25 (NET)

Our Resurrection
Romans 8:18 says, “For I consider that our present sufferings cannot even be compared to the glory that will be revealed to us.” There is a glory that is waiting for us and God will reveal to us. That glory is more glorious than this world is bad. The pleasure of that glory shatters the suffering and hardships of this world. That glory is more delightful than this world is hurtful. What is that glory? Read more

It’s Very Familar

The Resurrection and The Law in the Old Testament

Possible Story-Arc For New Supes Movie?

As this series on Romans 6:1-11 concludes, I feel it fitting to offer some reflections on how this passage has really influenced my theology. I hope that this study has been beneficial to those who have read it and has stimulated the readers’ own thinking on these matters. This will be a little longer than the previous posts and I apologize.

To start out I have to come back to a familiar topic here on this blog and that is the resurrection. I am reminded so vividly of my own previous theological convictions that made the resurrection of Jesus to be a testimony to the cross and stripped from Jesus’ raising of the dead any soteriological benefit in its own right, except may be also to witness to the general resurrection but that resurrection is purchased and obtained by the cross so Jesus’ resurrection still comes back to being a testimony. Read more

Romans 6:1-11 Translation

Dead to Sin, Alive to God, In Messiah Part 4

Dead to Sin, Alive to God, In Messiah Part 3

In this post we arrive at the final part of Paul’s answer to his Jewish dialogue partner’s objection in Romans 6:1, “So what, Shouldn’t we continue in sin so that grace abounds even more?” And this is an objection to Romans 5:18-21, specifically 5:20. Paul’s answer, as initially articulated in Romans 6:2-4, is that because of our union with Jesus we are in union with his death and resurrection. And somehow in being united to that death and resurrection the believer has died to sin and now has new life free from sin and is no longer to live in sin. In Romans 6:5-7 Paul argues that it is Jesus’ death that ends sin’s enslavement of those who are in Jesus and united to that death. The believer has died in regards to sin and therefore no longer belongs to sin and the believer’s servitude to sin is over. But the believer is dead with Christ, buried in the grave. What hope has the believer to have life again? Paul’s answer is anticipated in Romans 6:7, “For the one who died is justified from sin.” And remember in Romans 5:18 Paul speaks of the “justification of life.” Life is connected to justification. God’s justifying action brings about life. The question is how.

Romans 6:8-10 presents Paul’s argument of how God has liberated and rescued the believers from the grave and death in Jesus, namely Jesus’ resurrection. Paul says,

8 If we have died with Christ, we believe that we will live with him. 9 We know that Christ was raised from the dead, never to die again. Death no longer has mastery over him. 10 For the death he died, he died to sin once for all. And the life he lives, he lives to God (author’s translation).

Not only have believers died with Jesus, they also participate in his resurrection. Jesus’ resurrection has broken the “mastery” (κυριεύει) of death over humanity. Now that he has gone through the resurrection he is no longer subject to death and therefore cannot die anymore. He cannot go to the grave and death can no longer claim him. Thus his death has for all time ended sin’s claim on those who are in Jesus because his death broke its power, his death is “once for all time” (ἐφάπαξ). He was raised up as the firstborn and king of God’s kingdom, the new heavens and new earth (Romans 1:3-4; Colossians 1:18; 1 Corinthians 15:20-28).

The picture that Paul has here is the Passover and the Exodus. The passover lamb broke the power of the final plague over the firstborn because the firstborn had already died. Jesus breaks the power of sin, namely death, because he died. Sin can no longer enslave those who are in Jesus. And as the Pharaoh was defeated in the Exodus from Egypt via crossing the Red Sea, so death was destroyed in Jesus being raised from the grave. We cross through death in Jesus’ death and into life in Jesus’ resurrection.

Therefore, as Paul concludes in Romans 6:11, “So also consider (λογίζεσθε) yourself dead to sin and alive to God in Christ.” Through our union with Jesus we are considered, reckoned, to be dead through his death and alive to God through his resurrection. Thus sin and death are no longer our masters, so why do we obey sin and live in sin and death if we now live to God and “are slaves to righteousness” (Romans 6:18)?

Romans 6:1-11 Translation

Dead to Sin, Alive to God, In Messiah Part 3

Dead to Sin, Alive to God, In Messiah Part 2

Marching forward in the posts on Romans 6:1-11 we come to section B and Paul discussing Jesus’ death. Last time we saw that Paul’s Jewish dialogue partner raised an objection to Paul’s doctrine of justification, “Should we abide in sin in order that grace may abound even more?” (Romans 6:1). This stemmed from Paul’s statement in Romans 5:18-21 (ESV),

18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 19 For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. 20 Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (emphasis mine).

Paul’s answer in Romans 6:2-4 is a resounding, “No.” Paul uses a favorite phrase to give voice to his negative answer, μὴ γένοιτο, or, “May it never be!” Instead, Paul sees something in a believer’s union with Jesus through faith in Jesus that kills the sinner and raises that person up from the dead to walk in new life. Romans 6:5-7 explains how Paul can say in Romans 6:2, “We who died to sin, how can we still yet live in sin?”

Paul says in Romans 6:5 that “we have been buried with him in the likeness of his death.” Paul uses the perfect tense for “we have been buried with him.” Thus at a point in time in our union with Christ, namely when we first believed and were first united to Jesus, we were considered to have died and been buried. And the results of that death carries through with us. To put it another way, Jesus’ own death and burial counts for us in such a way that Paul believes that we ourselves have died and been buried as well in that tomb with Jesus. We share, via our union-through-faith, in Jesus’ death and burial.

And what happens is, as Paul says in Romans 6:6, “Our old person was crucified with him.” So the person who existed at conversion and was united to Jesus, with all the sin and hatred towards God, and his death killed that person. That person is said to have been crucified. And the purpose of this crucifying the believer is “so that the sinful person might be destroyed, which we will never be slaves to sin.” We, as slaves to sin and obedient to its very whims, have been destroyed by faith in Jesus. Sin’s mastery over us has been broken.

As Paul says in Romans 6:7, “For the one who has died to sin has been justified from sin.” By participating in Jesus’ crucifixion, we as sinners are killed and no longer subjected to sin’s rule. There is liberation from sin, freedom from sin, and righteousness awaiting us in that death. As one can see in Romans 5:18, Jesus’ act of righteousness in dying on the cross brings about justification of life. Jesus’ has liberated us from sin’s hold by killing us through his own death. But what hope does the believer have if he or she is dead? Sin no longer holds mastery over them but the grave still does. What can be done? Romans 6:7 and Romans 5:18 point to something yet to happen in Jesus’ work with which we are united. Section C. unpacks that finished work of Jesus that Romans 6:7 anticipates while it concludes Paul’s discussion of Jesus’ death.

Romans 6:1-11 Translation

Dead to Sin, Alive to God, In Messiah Part 4

Dead to Sin, Alive to God, In Messiah Part 2

In the previous post I began to examine Romans 6:1-11. In the post I broke down the post into three sections, which is as follows: A.) Romans 6:1-4; B.) Romans 6:5-7; C.) Romans 6:8-11. Then I made two preliminary observations. First is that Paul’s reader must see that salvation in this passage, and in Paul’s larger thought for that matter, is located within the matrix of union with the Messiah. Second this text is not about the Day of Atonement and should not be forced into a Day of Atonement understanding. The Passover and Exodus form the framework to understand and interpret Paul’s words here in Romans 6:1-11. Paul is more nuanced and can allow for multiple Old Testament narratives to stand side-by-side and work in tandem without reducing them down to one narrative to rule them all.

There is a saying in hermeneutics, “A text without a context is a pretext for a proof-text.” The point of the saying is that one must take any passage that is being read, whether Scripture or not, must be read in light of the larger literary unit in which it stands. Think if the Senate hearing in Iron Man 2 and Rhodey having his report on the Iron Man. The senator leading the hearing wanted Rhodey to read certain portions of his report. The lines in question seem to indicate a negative attitude towards the Iron Man. But the larger report says otherwise.

So what is the context of our passage under examination? What prompts Paul’s dialogue partner to raise the question, “What will we say then, ‘We will continue in sin so that grace may increase even more’?” Romans 5:18-21 Paul concludes his argument of the work of Jesus in terms of a new humanity and the Adam-Christ typology. In Romans 5:18-19 Paul says that because of the the one man’s sin death came to all men. Because of Jesus’ one righteous act and obedience on the cross, all men are given the justification of life, namely God will raise those up who are part of Christ’s new humanity through participation in him. In 5:20 the law came to increase the trespass and thus when the sin increased grace increased even more. Hence, as in 5:21, just as sin reigned in death so also grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life in Jesus Messiah.

And it’s the statement that the law increases sin which increases grace even more that prompts the dialogue partner to voice Romans 6:1. Romans 6:2-4 is the answer to the dialogue partner. Paul’s answer is that because we have died to sin we cannot live in it any longer. The union with Jesus that is created by faith and demonstrated by baptism is a union with Jesus’ own death on the cross? Thus if one has been buried with Jesus and has died with him, that person will also walk in new life as Jesus walks in new life.

In other words, we have been united to both Jesus’ death and resurrection. Both events in Jesus’ work count as ours and declare something to be ours. And that is that we have died to sin on the cross and have been given new life in Jesus’ resurrection. Therefore in some way the believer must renounce sin because of his or her dying in Jesus. In regards to sin that person has died. And just as Christ is living a new life, so too the believer walks a new life that is untainted by sin.

What does Paul mean by this answer to the question is for the next two posts. First comes union with Jesus’ death and then union with Jesus resurrection.

Romans 6:1-11 Translation

Dead to Sin, Alive to God, In Messiah Part 4

Dead to Sin, Alive to God, In Messiah Part 3