Subject: Rom 7:9 What's it mean? |
Bible Note: alive apart from the Law As I understand the "Doctrine" of original sin, we are conceived in sin. Not that a conceptus has done anything wrong, but is bathed in spiritual depravity. I can make any verse make sense if I'm given enough time. I've seen the verses used to build the original sin doctrine. I think they can all be explained a different way. This verse (Rom 7:9)is the one that convinces me that they OUGHT to be interpreted differently. "sin only makes sense in the context of God's commandments." (Joe) Rom 7:9 I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died; Rom 6:14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. Rom 6:11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus "I was once alive apart from the Law" can only mean that whether or not the law existed elsewhere, it was not alive in Paul. Could he have been a sinner in need of a savior if he was "alive?" You are not under the law now, but salvation is a past event in your life. Are you not also then, "alive apart from the law?" Can't it be said that one who is "alive to God in Christ Jesus," is also "alive apart from the Law?" A timeline might look like this: ...(a)....(b)....(c)....(d)... where: (a) is physical birth (b) is where the law came in (c) is salvation (d) is physical death it seems to me that for however long (a) lasts, we are not condmned until (b) happens. (b) is where the unsaved or doomed spend their earthly lives and includes phrases such as "dead to the spirit" and "alive to sin" and "enslaved to sin." (c) may have a variety of understandings in differing ages or interpretations, but is mostly marked by accepting the reality of sin in our lives and the need for the risen christ. (d) is our entrance to eternal bliss or eternal hell. I think (a) is what Paul was talking about. He was not saved, but only because he hadn't had the time to get lost yet! Original sin IS a well developed doctrine, but not in scripture. |