Romans 7 and the Spirit of love

"Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding....  She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her." (Prov. 3:13-18).

Have you ever had an offer to receive a gift by participating in the grading of a product? You spend the time to rate the product, and get a courtesy gift.

But, what if you could receive a gift by you being the product to be rated? Let an expert in morality pass judgment on your character, and you get a brand new Maserati! Gratis and guaranteed! 😄. Just submit to a thorough rating of your performance (as in God who knows everything we do when no one is looking, who reads every motive and secret thought), that's all! 🙁

I have never heard of an offer like this, not from a human being. But has such an offer been made from heaven?

Yes, this is God's offer to fallen humanity! Really it is the gospel, the science of victory over sin! This is the most important conception to be grasped from the great Romans 7 and 8 juncture. By letting God condemn our short comings and mistakes, initially and on an ongoing basis (even for all eternity), then He happily gives us His Spirit, being filled with all the fullness of God, which is the best gift in the universe (way, way, infinitely way better than a Maserati).

Paul struggled through his Romans 7:9-24 agonies, trying hard, with all the willpower he could muster to attain performance that would please God.

But no matter how much effort and determination he threw at his deficiencies, consistent righteousness could not be forthcoming. He ended up the same wretched man that he started with! Ugh! And no Spirit of acceptance from God.

Nevertheless, nothing was lost by his efforts. He got a big benefit out of this whole experience of piety which was hard won practical lessons that led to his solution. And, oh by the way, the school of hard knocks is the only course of study for getting the solution to this ubiquitous, humanity-wide problem. 

Even though we have Paul's curriculum syllabus in Romans 7, much detail for our personal guidance is lacking. We have Paul's template for his victory, but we will have to repeatedly beat our head against our own brick wall like Paul did his. And thus we will gain our own victory that must be tailor made to our own physical /mental/ spiritual make up and our unique environment.

Maybe I speak so confidently because after studying Romans 7 over the past 70 times 7 times, I've probably turned over every stone in search of Paul's meaning. And maybe, just maybe, it has come together for me this time.

We know that Romans 7:25 and 8:1 are Paul's EUREKA moment to his Romans 7 bust. And no one can lay claim to Romans 8 who has not struggled under his own Romans 7 stumbling stones. But, what did Paul really accomplish in his Romans 7 rumble with self and with God? What exactly was the breakthrough that he felt he needed to proclaim to the whole world? What was the news that was so good?

 The great breakthrough was the greatest gift, the Spirit gift, which came out of the stumbling and tumbling and rumbling with the Law of God.

But, today multitudes of "Spirit" infected people jump and holler, they lift the solar panel hands heavenward for more glory, or walk on the backs of pews, they suffer through holy laughter (or holy giggling for the more conserved folks), and many other tricks that are inauspicious to all the atheistic onlookers. Yet, after that "Spirit" wears off, the "Spirit-filled" feel worse off than before it came in.

Therefore, among the unbelieving world has arisen a pervasive lothing of anything associated with the Spirit. The "Spirit" related shenanigans have left a whole generation of Reformation descendants that despise Protestantism. Many in the denominations are even defecting to Catholicism for something more normal. What a shame that Protestantism and God are getting such a black eye! The Reformation descendants, churched and unchurched alike, have rejected the genuine Spirit of God, our only hope for eternity with the Father and His only begotten Son!

What is Paul proclaiming about the Spirit? Just what is the meaning of his multi-prepositional phrase, "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus"? And what is the Spirit? How does it resolve the heart wrenching and despair of Romans 7?

Jesus said, "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?" (Luke11:13).

Paul wrote, "Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God." (2Cor. 1:3,4).

The God of all comfort was Paul's Comforter through His Son's Spirit. The Father who "Himself loveth" (John 16:27) us, was the "other Comforter" that Jesus promised to send (see John 14:16), which we know by Their united Spirit (see verses 17,18,21,23).

The Spirit is the counsel of peace between Them both.

John wrote, "For He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him." (John 3:34).

"No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him."

"As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name".

"And of His fulness have all we received, and grace for grace." (John 1:18,12,16).

Paul also wrote, "That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." (Eph. 3:17-19).

Jesus said that this Spirit is a good gift from the Father, He being the only God of love. John said that the grace and truth that Christ brought came with Him from the bosom, the very heart, of the Father. And to receive Him is an action of our heart that brings in fullness with Him. And, of course, Paul said that when the Son dwells in our brains' center of love by faith, then we know the height, depth, length, width of the love of Jesus and are filled with all the fullness of God.

Love is the fullness that God promises in His own Spirit's high, deep, long, and broad love. It sounds like deep space, unending, infinite, incomprehensibly big. Unending love, unchanging (the Law of God and the love of God alike immutable), patient, enduring, gratis and guaranteed is God's love. This is the gift of God that Paul said brought him victory over the law of sin and his painful Romans 7 debacle. 

The Spirit is the omnipotent, redeeming love of God.  The Spirit is God moving into our heart and us being drawn into His bosom. And this is what Paul received for all his turmoil and laboring under the Law. And we, too, if we will wrestle with the straight testimony of the faithful and true Witness.

Strong love, powerful love, victorious love of God was helping Paul to cope with his difficulties and deformities. He was no longer alive without the Law's demands (without Law) and thus without a knowledge of the Father's condemnation. Neither was he dying under the Law's demands because he  had assented to the Law and therefore was under the Father's condemnation. Rather, now enclosed in the love of God, his conscience was working healthfully, yet without the destructive condemnation. 

How? Did he abrogate the Law? Had Paul seared his conscience? No, now in bondage to the love of God, he was "subject to the Law of God" (Rom. 8:7). Therefore, he was without condemnation. Because Paul wrestled with the requirements of God, his self-will got broken by the Father, and then, lifeless, the Father personally emergency airlifted Paul to the Son, to be resuscitated by divine love--i.e. the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus--the height and depth and length and breadth of the love of God, which comes with Christ Jesus when He enters and when His Spirit resonates with our disciplined, humbled, and needy spirit.

Paul's original lawlessness was fixed. He had been humbled into the hopeless dust of death and then filled with the powers of the world to come. Now he was a bondman to the Law of God, serving the Law of God, and without the carnal mind, which is under the law of sin, and which had kept him under the wrath of God. But, the wrath of God upon the crucified, vacant body of Christ, now revived and heaven's ascended and advocating High Priest, gave Paul the victory. And us, too, when we are humbled into the despairing dust, and made subject to the Law of God through the merited wrath of God and the unmerited mercy of His only begotten Son.

"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the (love of God). For the law of the (love and life of God) in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." (Rom. 8:1,2).

And eternity won't be filled with God's shaming public rebukes or annual and semi-annual private performance evals. Rather we, devoid of proud sin, and full of the certainty of God's acceptance, will constantly be asking for His critiques and evaluations.