Romans 7:1-13: Are You 'Legally Dead'?

Lectionary Cycle Year A: Seventh Sunday After Pentecost:
Romans 7:1-13 (Read it on Bible Gateway)
Are You 'Legally Dead'?
As has been mentioned elsewhere, Paul deals with some fairly lofty theological concepts in Romans, his thesis on Christianity. However, Paul also deals in some pretty insightful revelations about human nature as well.

In the second half of this selection of verses, Paul focuses on the human struggle with sin and the reality of human nature to be, almost perversely, drawn to the exact thing that is forbidden. The argument he puts forth here is that while the Law (in this case referring to the Jewish Law, or the Laws of the Jewish Faith) itself is not sinful or wrong, but instead is in actuality the Law of God, thus just and sacred, it nonetheless provokes sin in humans because of both its nature and ours. Its nature is to forbid that which is sinful. Our nature is to then be tempted maddeningly to do that which is forbidden. So, Paul argues, as soon as he reached a point in life he could understand the law, and was presented with all the things he was not supposed to do, he then began feeling urges to do those very things.

He's right and we all know it. Admit it, nothing makes something quite so interesting as being forbidden. We see a door marked Private / Authorized Personnel Only and we want to know what's on the other side. We see a file marked confidential laying on a desk when we're left alone in a room, we at least wonder if we could get a look inside without being caught. As teenagers, once we're told we can't smoke, drink, get anything pierced, or have sex, we start immediately spending inordinate amounts of time suddenly wanting to try the entire list. We're like the cartoon character standing in the museum who looks at the sign "Do Not Touch", glances around to see if anyone is looking, then reaches out to touch, then again and again, smiling the whole time.

On one level we should be thankful for this instinct because its one of the reasons we as a species has excelled. We were told we can't fly...so we did. We were told we could never reach the moon...so we did. Whether it be a law established by some random authority, or an implied law imposed by reality, we no sooner encounter it and we want to try and bypass, sidestep, or duck it to do it anyway. Paul makes the same argument about the human response to the Laws of Faith, they invoke us to sin. It's not the fault of the law itself, but it is the reality.

So Paul's argument is that we, through our death and rebirth in Christ, have now died to the law. The first section of this reading focuses on using the analogy of marriage law and how it ends with death. The law is not binding on those who have died. So, Paul argues, we who have died in Christ and been reborn in our Baptism, no longer are bound to the law but instead are now bound to the ways of the Spirit, we are living our faith, and living in Christ that brings us beyond the Law.

Part of what Paul was getting across is that we should, if we're genuine in our faith journey, be seeking a higher order of right and wrong, one grounded not in what we shouldn't be doing, but one grounded in what we should be striving for, that being our life mirroring the life of Christ, seeking to live and love as he did while on Earth and continues to do now in our hearts.

This is now something that has also been defined in the understandings of human behavior in terms of emotional and behavioral maturity and development. Rules or laws are a necessary evil, if you will, for the purpose of setting clearly defined boundaries for those not sufficiently developed in their cognitive and psycho-social development to be able to make decisions on their own about what is proper. Naturally this goes for young children and as people get older and gain new responsibilities, the rules and laws adapt, focusing now on setting parameters and boundaries in broader scenarios where the self directive skills have not yet developed.

The goal however, in human development, is to grow toward a state of awareness where a personal code of morality, right and wrong, proper and improper becomes developed enough that it becomes the guiding thought in one's actions. The ideal being that such personal codes set higher expectations and conditions then any general law can.

Paul is saying that about our life in Christ, if we are truly striving toward Christ, then we are striving toward a higher principle of righteousness than can be contained in law. We are too focused on the promise of what we can strive for than to worry about distracting temptations of that which is 'forbidden' otherwise.

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