Audrey M. Rucker | Torah vs. The Flesh | Romans 7

Audrey M. Rucker grew up down the street from me in Ovilla, but I had no idea who she was and vice versa. Come to find out, we were both Messianic. This Hebraic roots movement is taking over every town, county, city, state and nation in the world right now...it's better that we have the Internet to destroy the archaic methods of finding out the truth...because the Internet has blazed past what Churchianity is having a hard time doing: giving people the answers to "What's After Getting Saved?" Ever wonder that? What the heck do you do once you're saved? That's Churchianity's failure in the world...they can reach people for Christ, but after that, what? Oh, but if it's by works, then the Messianic people would be right.


You don't keep any of Christ's commandments to be saved. You keep his commandments because you are saved, because that was the sign that you/me/etc are HIS.

Now, on to Audrey's editorial:
Torah vs. The Flesh | Romans 7

AUDREY M. RUCKER
The Palmer Post

The next section in our series must be in the top ten of passages used to say that Torah is no longer incumbent for a believer's life and daily walk. It also opens up a lovely can of worms on the touchy subject of divorce, so I, the Torah-submissive divorced woman, will attempt to tackle these issues. Try not to fall out of your seats. =) Unlike my other notes, there is just too much here in chapter seven and I won't be able to just pull out a few verses to give you the gist, so this note will be a bit atypical as I go through the entire chapter, verse by verse. Please be studious and read it in it's entirety.

Or are you ignorant, brothers; for I speak to those who know the Law; that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives?

This verse alone poses a problem for those who deny the Torah for their lives. There is also a big clue here that we might typically miss, and that is that this is specifically written to Jews, those who know the Law. This means they know what Sha'ul is talking about in a special way that we probably aren't going to understand outright.

For the married woman was bound by law to the living husband. But if the husband is dead, she is set free from the law of her husband.So then if, while her husband lives, she is married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress. But if the husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress by becoming another man's wife.

A lot of people will use this to say that a woman is "bound by law" to her husband forever, however upon closer inspection it is the married woman who is bound by law to her husband. There is a difference. Once divorced, a woman is no longer married, correct? Correct, however that is not what this passage is talking about- it is strictly about a married woman. If a married woman goes to another man, she is an adulteress. If a married woman's husband dies, she is free to go to another man. Again, divorce is not even being discussed here, it's not part of what Sha'ul is getting at, period.

Sidenote: I don't believe in "once saved always saved", nor do I believe in "once married always married"...and it's funny how those two doctrines have striking similarities. Moving along...

So, my brothers, you also have become dead to the law by the body of Messiah so that you should be married to Another, even to Him raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit to God.


Sha'ul now applies a law of Torah to a spiritual law, as he often does. Because we do not know Torah, we tend to miss this teaching method he employs. The law that we are dead to is in fact none other than the law of sin and death from the previous chapter (see my previous note). Remember that Romans is a written letter, without chapter and verse, and the thoughts from chapter to chapter flow freely and lead into one another. Bearing this in mind, we can accurately interpret this passage with other passages, to mean that because of Messiah, there was a death in our "former marriage" and we are now free to "re-marry".

For when we were in the flesh, the passions of sin worked in our members through the law to bring forth fruit to death. But now we having been set free from the law, having died to that in which we were held, so that we serve in newness of spirit and not in oldness of the letter.

Again, an echo from the previous chapter about the law of sin and death that we have been set free from by Messiah's blood. The flesh and the Torah together bring death, for we all know that, "the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the Law of God, neither indeed can it be" (Romans 8:7).




However, by Messiah's death we are no longer in bondage to the lust of our flesh but rather, empowered to serve in newness of spirit. Spirit cannot properly operate without truth, and the Torah is truth forever (Psalm 119:142).

What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Let it not be said! But I did not know sin except through the law. For also I did not know lust except the law said, You shall not lust. But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, worked in me all kinds of lust. For apart from law sin was dead. For I was alive without the law once. But when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. And the commandment, which was to life, was found to be death to me. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me.

Sha'ul explains that by the Torah comes the knowledge of sin. There are many acts of disobedience we would not think to do on our own, if we had not heard the command not to do it. It is the rebellious nature of man, his sinful nature to do what he's been told not to do, just because he was told not to. This is carnal and works death...is the fault with the Torah or with man?

So indeed the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good.

It looks like the fault is with man.

Then has that which is good become death to me? Let it not be! But sin, that it might appear to be sin, working death in me by that which is good; in order that sin might become exceedingly sinful by the commandment. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do, I know not. For what I desire, that I do not do; but what I hate, that I do. If then I do that which I do not desire, I consent to the law that it is good. But now it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwells no good thing. For to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I do not find. For I do not do the good that I desire; but the evil which I do not will, that I do. But if I do what I do not desire, it is no more I working it out, but sin dwelling in me. I find then a law: when I will to do the right, evil is present with me.

The war that is waged is not the Torah vs. unmerited favor/grace, but rather, Torah in his heart and mind vs. the law of sin and death working in his flesh. Sha'ul continues to emphasize his point, gaining momentum and becoming more unmistakable:

For I delight in the Law of God according to the inward man; but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin being in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Yeshua the Messiah our Master! So then with the mind I myself serve the Law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.

The only way you can make this chapter say that Torah is abolished is by picking out one or two verses, without the context of the chapter and preceding chapter! The shed blood of Messiah put to death our former husband, the flesh, so that we could be married to Him instead.

I realize that I almost completely avoided the choppy waters of the divorce issue, albeit unintentionally since it was never an issue in this chapter, however, if you would like my position on it, I have a 20 page study on it that I am in the process of completing very soon, with the recommendation and collaboration of my dad. Send me your email address and I will be sure it gets to you. Once again, thank you for not posting your criticisms, counters and arguments on this note publicly, but directing them in a private message for me to address.

Shalom!