Twentieth Century New Testament - 33 - Romans, Chapters 6-11

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
The Letter to the Romans, Chapter six through eleven, from
the twentieth century New Testament. This is a LibriVox recording.
All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
by J. A. Carter www dot authentic light dot org.

(00:25):
The twentieth Century New Testament by a company of about
twenty scholars, The Letter to the Romans, Chapter six through eleven.
Chapter six, What are we to say? Then? Are we
to continue to sin in order that God's loving kindness
may be multiplied? Heaven forbid? We became dead to sin?

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And how can we go on living in it? Or
can it be that you do not know that all
of us who were baptized into union with Christ Jesus
in our baptism shared his death. Consequently, through sharing his
death and our baptism, we were buried with him. That
just as Christ was raised from the dead by a
manifestation of the Father's power, so we also may live

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a new life. If we have become united with Him
by the act symbolic of his death, surely we shall
also become united with him by the act symbolic of
his resurrection. We recognize the truth that our old self
was crucified with Christ in order that the body, the
stronghold of sin, might be rendered powerless, so that we
should no longer be slaves to sin. For the man

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who has so died has been pronounced righteous and released
from sin. And our belief is that as we have
shared Christ's death, we shall also share his life. We
know indeed that Christ, having once risen from the dead,
will not die again. Death has power over him no longer.
For the death that he died was a death to sin,
one sin for all. But the life that he now

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lives he lives for God. So let it be with you.
Regard yourselves as dead to sin, but as living for
God through union with Christ Jesus. Therefore, or do not
let sin reign in your mortal bodies and compel you
to obey its cravings. Do not offer any part of
your bodies to sin and the cause of unrighteousness. But
once for all, offer yourselves to God as those who,

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though once dead, now have life, And devote every part
of your bodies to the cause of righteousness. For sin
shall not lord it over you. You are living under
the rain, not of law. But of love what follows?
Then are we to sin? Because we are living under
the reign of love and not of law. Heaven forbid.
Surely you know that when you offer yourselves as servants

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to obey anyone, you are the servants of the person
whom you obey, whether the service be that of sin,
which leads to death, or that of duty, which leads
to righteousness. God be thanked that, though you were once
servants of sin, yet you learned to give hearty obedience
to that form of doctrine under which you were placed.
Set free from the control of sin, you became servants

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to righteousness. I can but speak as men do because
of the weakness of your earthly ness. Once you offered
every part of your bodies to the service of impurity
and of wickedness, which leads to further wickedness. Now in
the same way offer them to the service of righteousness,
which leads to holiness. While you were still servants of sin,

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you were free as regards righteousness. But what were the
fruits that you reap from those things of which you
are now ashamed? For the end of such things as death?
But now that you have been set free from the
control of sin and have become servants to God. The
fruit that you reap is an ever increasing holiness and
the end immortal life. The wages of sin are death,

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but the gift of God is immortal life through union
with Christ Jesus our Lord. Chapter seven. Surely, brothers, you know,
for I am speaking to men who know what law means.
That law has power over a man only as long
as he lives. For example, by law, a married woman
is bound to her husband while he is living, but
if her husband dies, she is set free from the

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law that bound her to aid. If then, during her
husband's lifetime she unites herself to another man, she will
be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, the
law has no further hold on her. Nor if she
unites herself to another man, is she an adulteress. And
so with you, my brothers, as far as the law
was concerned, you underwent death and the crucified body of

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the Christ, so that you might be united to another,
to him who was raised from the dead, in order
that our lives might bear fruit for God. When we
were living merely earthly lives, our sinful passions, aroused by
the law were active in every part of our bodies,
with the result that our lives or fruit for death.
But now we are set free from the law, because

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we are dead to that which once kept us under restraint,
and so we serve under new spiritual conditions and not
under old written regulations. What are we to say, then,
that law and sin are the same thing? Heaven forbid?
On the contrary, I should not have learnt what sin
is had not it been for the law. If the

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law did not say thou shalt not covet, I should
not know what it is to covet. But sin took
advantage of the commandment to arouse in me every form
of covetousness. For where there is no consciousness of law,
sin shows no sign of life. There was a time
when I, myself, unconscious of law, was alive. But when
the commandment was brought home to me, Sin sprang into life.

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While I died. The very commandment that should have meant
life I found to result in death. Sin took advantage
of the commandment to deceive me and used it to
bring about my death. And so the law is holy,
and each commandment is also holy and just and good.
Did then a thing which in itself was good involve death.

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In my case, heaven forbid, it was sin that involved death,
so that by its use of what I regarded as
good to bring about my death, its true nature might appear.
And in this way the commandment showed how intensely sinful
sin is. We know that the law is spiritual, but
I am earthly sold into slavery to sin. I do

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not understand my own actions, for I am so far
from habitually doing what I want to do that I
find myself doing the very thing that I hate. But
when I do what I want not to do, I
am admitting that the law is right. This being so,
the action is no longer my own, but that of sin,
which is within me. I know that there is nothing
good in me, I mean in my earthly nature. For

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although it is easy for me to want to do right,
to act rightly is not easy. I fail to do
the good thing that I want to do, but the
bad thing that I want not to do that I
habitually do. But when I do the very thing that
I want not to do, the action is no longer
my own, but that of sin, which is within me. This, then,

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is the law that I find when I want to
do right wrong presents itself. At heart, I delight in
the law of God. But throughout my body I see
a different law, one which is in conflict with the
law accepted by my reason, and which endeavors to make
me a prisoner to that law of sin which exists
throughout my body. Miserable man that I am, who will

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deliver me from the body that is bringing me to
this death? Thank God, there is deliverance through Jesus Christ,
our Lord. Well, then, for myself, with my reason, I
serve the law of God, but with my earthly nature
the law of sin. Chapter eight. There is therefore now
no condemnation for those who are in union with Christ Jesus.

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For through your union with Christ Jesus, the law of
the life giving Spirit has set you free from the
law of sin and death. What law could not do,
in so far as our earthly nature weakened its action,
God did by sending his own son, with a nature
resembling our sinful nature, to atone for sin. He condemned
sin in that earthly nature, so that the requirements of

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the law might be satisfied in us, who live now
in obedience not to our earthly nature, but to the Spirit.
They who follow their earthly nature are earthly minded, while
they who follow the Spirit are spiritually minded. To be
earthly minded means death. To be spiritually minded means life
and peace, because to be earthly minded is to be

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an enemy to God. For such a mind does not
submit to the law of God, nor indeed can it do.
So they who are earthly cannot please God. You, however,
are not earthly, but spiritual, since the Spirit of God
lives within you. Unless a man has the Spirit of Christ,
he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is

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within you, then though the body is dead as a
consequence of sin, the spirit is life as a consequence
of righteousness. And if the spirit of Him who raised
Jesus from the dead lives within you, he who raised
Christ Jesus from the dead, will give life even to
your mortal bodies through his spirit living within you. So, then, brothers,

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we owe nothing to our earthly nature that we should
live in obedience to it. If you live in obedience
to your earthly nature, you will inevitably die. But if
by the power of the Spirit, you put an end
to the evil habits of the body, you will live.
All who are guided by the Spirit of God are
sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit
of a slave to fill you once more with fear,

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but the spirit of a son, who leads us to
cry Abbah, our Father. The Spirit himself unites with our
spirits in bearing witness to our being God's children, And
if children, then heirs heirs of God and joint heirs
with Christ. Since we share Christ's sufferings in order that
we may also share his glory, I do not count

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the sufferings of our present life worthy to mention when
compared with the glory that is to be revealed and
bestowed upon us. All nature awaits with eager expectation the
appearing of the sons of God. For nature was made
subject to imperfection, not by its own choice, but owing
to Him who made it so. Yet not without the
hope that some day nature also will be set free

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from the enslavement to decay, and will attain to the
freedom which will mark the glory of the children of God.
We know indeed that all nature alike has been groaning
in the pains of labor to this very hour, and
not nature only, but we ourselves also, though we have
already a first gift of the Spirit. We ourselves are
inwardly groaning, while we eagerly await our full adoption as sons,

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the redemption of our bodies. By our hope. We were saved.
But the thing hoped for is no longer an object
of hope when it is before our eyes, For who
hopes for what is before his eyes? But when we
hope for what is not before our eyes, then we
wait for it with patience. So also the Spirit supports
us in our weakness. We do not even know how

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to pray as we should, but the Spirit himself pleads
for us in size that can find no utterance. Yet
he who searches all our hearts knows what the Spirit's
meaning is, because the pleadings of the Spirit for Christ's
people are in accordance with His will. But we do
know that God causes all things to work together for
the good of those who love Him, those who have

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received the call in accordance with his purpose. For those
whom God chose from the first, He also destined from
the first to be transformed into the likeness of his son,
so that his son might be the eldest among many brothers.
And those whom God destined for this he also called,
and those whom he called he also pronounced righteous. And

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those whom he pronounced righteous he also brought to glory.
What are we to say, then, in the light of
all this? If God is on our side, who can
there be against us? God did not withhold his own son,
but gave him up on behalf of us all. Will
he not then with him freely give us all things.
Who will bring a charge against any of God's people?

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He who pronounces them righteous is God? Who is there
to condemn them? He who died for us is Christ Jesus,
or rather it was he who was raised from the dead,
and who is now at God's right hand, as even
pleading on our behalf? Who is there to separate us
from the love of the Christ? Will trouble or difficulty,
or persecution or hunger or nakedness or danger or the sword?

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Scripture says, for thy sake, we are being killed all
the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.
Yet amidst all these things we more than conquer through
Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death,
nor life, nor angels, nor archangels, nor the present, nor
the future, nor any powers, nor height nor depth, nor

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any other created thing will be able to separate us
from the love of God revealed in Christ Jesus Our Lord,
Chapter nine. I am speaking the truth as one in
union with Christ. It is no lie, and my conscience,
enlightened by the Holy Spirit, bears me out. When I
say that there is a great weight of sorrow upon me,
and that my heart is never free from pain. I

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could wish that I were myself accursed and severed from
the Christ. For the same of my brothers, my own countrymen,
For they are Israelites, and theirs are the adoption as sons,
the visible presence, the covenants, the revealed law, the temple worship,
and the promises. They are descended from the patriarchs, And
as far as his human nature was concerned, from them

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came the Christ, who is supreme over all things. God
Forever blessed. Amen. Not that God's word has failed. For
it is not all who are descended from Israel who
are true Israelites, Nor because they are Abraham's descendants, are
they all his children. But it is Isaac's children who
will be called thy descendants. This means that it is

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not the children born in the course of nature who
are God's children, but it is the children born in
fulfillment of the promise who are to be regarded as
Abraham's descendants. For these words are the words of a
promise about this time I will come and Sarah shall
have a son. Nor is that all. There is also
the case of Rebel, when she was about to bear

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children to our ancestor Isaac. For in order that the
purpose of God working through selection might not fail, a
selection depending not an obedience, but on his call, Rebecca
was told, before her children were born, and before they
had done anything either right or wrong, that the elder
should be a servant to the younger. The words of
Scripture are I love Jacob, but I hated Esau. What

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are we to say, then, is God guilty of injustice?
Heaven forbid? For his words to Moses are I will
take pity on whom I take pity, and be merciful
to whom I am merciful. So then all depends not
on human wishes or human efforts, but on God's mercy.
In Scripture again it is said to Pharaoh, it was

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for this very purpose that I raised thee to the throne,
to show my power by my dealings with thee and
to make my name known throughout the world. So then
where God wills, he takes pity, and where he wills,
he hardens the heart. Perhaps you will say to me,
how can any one still be blamed for who withstands
his purpose? I might rather ask, who are you who

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are arguing with God? Does a thing which a man
has molded, say to him who has molded it? Why
did you make me like this? Has not the potter
absolute power over his clay, so that out of the
same lump he makes one thing for better and another
for common use. And what if God, intending to reveal
his displeasure and make his power known, bore most patiently

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with the objects of his displeasure, though they were fit
only to be destroyed, so as to make known his
surpassing glory in dealing with the objects of his mercy,
whom he prepared beforehand for glory, and whom he called
even us, not only from among the Jews, but from
among the gentiles also. This, indeed, is what he says
in the Book of Hoseah. I will call those people

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who were not my people and her my beloved who
was not beloved, And in the very place where it
was said to them, ye are not my people. They
shall be called sons of the Living God. And Isaiah
cries aloud over Israel. Though the sons of Israel are
like the sands of the sea in number, only a
remnant of them shall escape. For the Lord will execute

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his sentence upon the world fully and without delay. It
is as Isaiah foretold. Had not the Lord of Hosts
spared some few of our race to us, we should
have become like Sodom and been made to resemble Gomorah.
What are we to say, then, why that Gentiles, who
were not in search of righteousness secured it a righteousness

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which was the result of faith. While Israel, which was
in search of a law which would ensure righteousness, failed
to discover one. And why because they looked to obedience
and not to faith to secure it they stumbled over
the stumbling block. As scripture says, see, I place a
stumbling block in Zion, a roc which shall prove a hindrance,

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and he who believes in him shall have no cause
for shame. Chapter ten, Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer
to God for my people is for their salvation. I
can testify that they are zealous for the honor of God.
But they are not guided by true insight. For in
their ignorance of the divine righteousness, and in their eagerness
to set up a righteousness of their own, they refuse

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to accept with submission the divine righteousness. For Christ has
brought law to an end, so that righteousness may be
obtained by every one who believes in him. For Moses
writes that as for the righteousness which results from law,
those who practice it will find life through it. But
the righteousness which results from faith finds expression in these words.

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Do not say to yourself, who will go up into heaven,
which means to bring Christ down? Or who will go
down into the depths below, which means to bring Christ
up from the dead. No, But what does it say?
The message is near thee It is on thy lips
and in thy heart, which means the message of faith
which we proclaim. For if with your lips you acknowledge

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the truth of the message that Jesus is Lord, and
believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,
you shall be saved. For with their hearts men believe,
and so attain to righteousness, while with their lips they
make their profession of faith, and so fine salvation. As
the passage of Scripture says, no one who believes in
Him shall have any cause for shame, For no distinction

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is made between the jew and the Greek. For all
have the same Lord, and he is bountiful to all
who invoke him. For every one who invokes the name
of the Lord shall be saved. But how it may
be asked, are they to invoke one in whom they
have not learnt to believe? And how are they to
believe in one whose words they have not heard? And
how are they to hear his words unless some one

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proclaims him? And how are men to proclaim him unless
they are sent as his messengers? As Scripture says, how
beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news? Still,
it may be said every one did not give heed
to the good news. No, For Isaiah asks Lord, who
has believed our teaching? And so we gather. Faith is

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a result of teaching, and the teaching comes in the
message of Christ. But I ask, is it possible that
men have never heard? No? Indeed, their voices spread through
all the earth, and their message to the very ends
of the world. But again I ask, did not the
people of Israel understand? First there is Moses who says,

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I the Lord will stir you to rivalry with a
nation which is no nation, against an undiscerning nation. I
will arouse your anger. And Isaiah says boldly, I was
found by those who were not seeking me. I made
myself known to those who were not inquiring of me,
but of the people of Israel. He says, all day long,
I have stretched out my hands to a people who

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disobey and contradict Chapter eleven. I ask, then, has God
rejected his people? Heaven forbid for I myself a Israelite,
a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God
has not rejected his people, whom he chose from the first.
Have you forgotten the words of scripture in the story

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of Elijah how he appeals to God against Israel. Lord,
they have killed thy prophets, they have pulled down thy altars,
and I only am left. And now they are eager
to take my life. But what was the divine response?
I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have
never bowed the knee to bail, and so in our

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own time too, there is to be found a remnant
of our nation selected by God in love. But if
in love, then no longer as a result of obedience,
Otherwise love would cease to be love. What follows from this?
Why that Israel as a nation failed to secure what
it was seeking, while those whom God selected did secure it.

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The rest grew callous. As scripture says, God has given
them a deadness of mind, eyes that are not to see,
and ears that are not to hear. And it is
so to this very day. David too says, may their
feasts prove a snare and a trap to them, a
hindrance and a retribution. May their eyes be darkened so
that they cannot see. And do thou always make their

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backs to bend? I ask, then, was there stumbling to
result in their fall? Heaven forbid? On the contrary, through
their falling away, salvation has reached the Gentiles to stir
the rivalry of Israel. And if their falling away has
enriched the world, and their failure has enriched the gentiles,
how much more will result from their full restoration? But

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I am speaking to you who are gentiles, being myself
an apostle, to the gentiles. I exalt my office in
the hope that I may stir my countrymen to rivalry,
and so save some of them. For if their being
cast aside has meant the reconciliation of the world, what
will their reception mean but life from the dead. If
the first handful of dome O is holy, so is

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the whole mass. And if the root is wholly, so
are the branches. Some, however, of the branches were broken off,
and you, who were only a wild olive, were grafted
in among them and came to share with them the root,
which is the source of the richness of the cultivated olive.
Yet do not exalt over the other branches. But if
you do exalt over them, remember that you do not

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support the root, but that the root supports you. But branches,
you will say, were broken off so that I might
be grafted in. True, it was because of their want
of faith that they were broken off, And it is
because of your faith that you are standing. Do not
think too highly of yourself, But beware, for if God
did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. See, then,

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both the goodness and the severity of God his severity
toward those who fell, and His goodness toward you, provided
that you continue to confide in that goodness. Otherwise you
also will be cut off, and they too have they
do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in,
For God has it in his power to graft them
in again. If you were cut off from your natural

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stock a wild olive, and were grafted contrary to the
course of nature upon a good olive, much more will they,
the natural branches, be grafted back into their parent tree. Brothers,
for fear that you should think too highly of yourselves,
I want you to recognize the truth hitherto hidden, that
the callousness which has come over Israel is only partial

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and will continue only till the whole gentile world has
been gathered in, and then all Israel shall be saved,
as Scripture says, from Zion will come the Deliverer. You
will banish ungodliness from Jacob, and they shall see the
fulfillment of My covenant when I have taken away their sins.
From the standpoint of the good News, the Jews are

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God's enemies on your account, but from the standpoint of
God's selection, they are dear to Him. On account of
the patriarchs. For God never regrets his gifts or his call.
Just as you at one time were disobedient to Him,
but have now found mercy in the day of their disobedience,
so too they have now become disobedient in your day

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of mercy, in order that they also, in their turn,
may now find mercy. For God has given all alike
over to disobedience, that to all alike he may show mercy. Oh,
the unfathomable wisdom and the knowledge of God, How inscrutable
are his judgments, how untraceable his ways. Yes, who has

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ever comprehended the mind of the Lord, who has ever
become his counselor, or who has first given to him?
So that he may claim a recompense, For all things
are from him, through him, and for him, and to
Him be all glory, forever and ever Amen. End of
Chapter six through eleven.