Unwilling Slave

Message: Unwilling Slave

Romans 7:14 (KJV)
14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. [i]

Romans 7:21-23 (KJV)
21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. 22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: 23 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 which is in my members. [ii]

Background

For many years the apostle had wanted to visit the Christians in Rome (15:23), desiring to establish them in the faith (1:11). While Paul had been heretofore hindered, he stood ready “to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also” (1:13–15). On his third missionary journey, shortly before leaving Corinth (Acts 20:1–3), Paul wrote this letter in lieu of a visit, and sent it, apparently, by the hand of Phoebe of Cenchrae (16:1, 2). Soon afterward he was arrested in Jerusalem (Acts 21:27ff.). Thus, as it turned out, he did arrive in Rome, but not as a free man (Acts 28:16).

Outline

The theme of the letter is redemption (3:24). Throughout the book Paul carefully develops five aspects of the subject of redemption.[iii]

This chapter is a greatly misunderstood, but nevertheless important one. Many students cannot understand why Paul deals with victory in chapter 6 and then discusses defeat in chapter 7! They feel that he should move immediately from the victory of chapter 6 to the great blessings of chapter 8, but the inspired writer knew better. Chapter 7 deals with a vital issue in Christian living: the believer’s relationship to God’s law. Romans 6 explains that believers are dead to sin because they are identified with Christ in His death and resurrection. It answers the question, “Shall we continue in sin?” (6:1). But note that Paul asks a second question in 6:15: “Shall we continue in sin because we are not under the Law?” He answers this question in chapter 7 and explains that believers are dead to the Law just as they are dead to sin (7:4).[iv]

Salvation means that God gives the believer a new nature and crucifies the old one. The Christian still has the ability to sin, but he now has an appetite for holiness. The dynamic for sin is still there, but not the desire.[v]
Our Problem is spiritual
Because...we are carnal
Paul, using himself as the example, said the problem is that I am unspiritual (sarkinos, “fleshy, made of flesh”).
In addition he was sold as a slave (perf. tense, “had been sold and remained in that state”) to sin (lit. “under the sin”; cf. “under sin” in Rom. 3:9).[vi]
The clause, “sold under sin” (kjv), describes an unregenerate person; but sin also resides in a believer, who is still subject to sin’s penalty of physical death. As a result, indwelling sin continues to seek to claim what it considers its property even after one has become a Christian.[vii]
NO LONGER A SLAVE TO IT

Definitions

Sold: 4097 πιπράσκω [piprasko /pip·ras·ko/] v. Nine occurrences; AV translates as “sell” nine times. 1 to sell. 1a of price, one into slavery. 1b of the master to whom one is sold as a slave. 2 metaph. 2a sold under sin, entirely under the control of the love of sinning. 2b of one bribed to give himself up wholly to another’s will.

Closing Supporting scripture

Romans 7:24-25 (KJV)
24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the bodyd of this death? 25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.[viii]

This is a reference to the Roman method of punishment in which the body of the murdered person was chained to the murderer.
The murderer was then released to wander where he might, but no one was allowed to help or comfort him upon penalty of suffering the same punishment.
In the hot Eastern sun the dead body would soon begin to decay, overwhelming the sentenced person not only with the smell but also with infection from the rotting flesh.
It was perhaps the most horrible of all sentences that the imaginary Romans ever devised. To Paul our putrefying body of sinful flesh is like this, and only Christ can rescue us from it.[ix]

I. In the Old Testament

a. Introduction

Under the influence of Roman law, a slave is usually considered to be a person (male or female) owned by another, without rights, and—like any other form of personal property—to be used and disposed of in whatever way the owner may wish. In the ancient biblical East, however, slaves could and did acquire various rights before the law or by custom, and these included ownership (even of other slaves) and the power to conduct business while they were yet under their masters’ control. Slavery is attested from the earliest times throughout the ancient Near East, and owed its existence and perpetuation primarily to economic factors.

b. Sources of slaves

(i) By capture. Captives, especially prisoners of war, were commonly reduced to slavery (Gn. 14:21, claimed by the king of Sodom; Nu. 31:9; Dt. 20:14; 21:10ff.; Jdg. 5:30; 1 Sa. 4:9 (cf. rsv); 2 Ki. 5:2; 2 Ch. 28:8, 10ff.), a custom that goes back as far as written documents themselves, to roughly 3000 bc and probably further (references in I. Mendelsohn, Slavery in the Ancient Near East, 1949, pp. 1–3).

(ii) By purchase. Slaves could readily be bought from other owners or general merchants (cf. Gn. 17:12–13, 27; Ec. 2:7). The law allowed Hebrews to buy foreign slaves from foreigners at home or abroad (Lv. 25:44f.). In antiquity, slaves were sold among all kinds of other merchandise and from country to country. Thus, the Midianites and Ishmaelites sold *Joseph to an Egyptian high official (Gn. 37:36; 39:1), and Phoenician Tyre imported slaves and bronzeware from Asia Minor (Ezk. 27:13) and sold Jews to the Ionians, thereby incurring a threat of like treatment of her own nationals (Joel 3:4–8). For evidence of the large numbers of Semitic slaves that reached Egypt in Joseph’s general period, probably mainly by trade, see references in *Joseph or in Bibliography below. For Babylonian merchant-enterprise in slave-trading abroad in places such as Tyre, see Mendelsohn, op.cit., pp. 3–5.

(iii) By birth. Children ‘born in the house’ of slave-parents became ‘house-born slaves’; such are mentioned in Scripture from patriarchal times onward (Gn. 15:3; 17:12–13, 27; Ec. 2:7; Je. 2:14), and equally early in Mesopotamian documents (Mendelsohn, pp. 57–58).

(iv) As restitution. If a convicted thief could not make restitution and pay his fines and damages, funds towards this could be raised by selling him as a slave (Ex. 22:3; cf. a similar provision in Hammurapi’s Code, §§ 53–54: ANET, p. 168).

(v) By default on debts. Debtors who went bankrupt were often forced to sell their children as slaves, or their children would be confiscated as slaves by the creditor (2 Ki. 4:1; Ne. 5:5, 8). The insolvent debtor himself, as well as his wife and family, commonly became the slave of his creditor and gave him his labour for 3 years to work off the debt and then go free, in Hammurapi’s Code (§ 117: DOTT, p. 30, or ANET, pp. 170–171). This seems to be the background to the Mosaic law in Ex. 21:2–6 (and 7–11), and in Dt. 15:12–18, where a Hebrew slave must work 6 years, explicitly a ‘double’ period of time (Dt. 15:18) compared with Hammurapi’s 3 years (cf. Mendelsohn, pp. 32–33), but on release he was to be granted stock to start up on his own again (see also d. (i) 1, below). Insolvency was a major cause of reduction to slave status in the biblical East (Mendelsohn, pp. 23, 26–29).

(vi) 3 Selling oneself voluntarily into slavery, i.e. dependence on another, to escape poverty, was widely known (Mendelsohn, pp. 14–19, for data). Lv. 25:39–43, 47ff., recognized this, but provided for redemption at (or with foreign owners, even before) Jubilee year.

(vii) Abduction. To steal a person, and to reduce a kidnapped person to slavery, was an offence punishable by death in the laws of both Hammurapi (§ 14: DOTT, p. 30; ANET, p. 166) and Moses (Ex. 21:16; Dt. 24:7). The brothers of *Joseph were guilty of essentially such an offence (Gn. 37:27–28.with 45:4), and might well be ‘dismayed’ and need reassurance not to be ‘distressed’ (Gn. 45:3, 5, and cf. Gn. 50:15).[x]

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[i] The Holy Bible : King James Version. 1995 (electronic ed. of the 1769 edition of the 1611 Authorized Version.). Bellingham WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.

[ii] The Holy Bible : King James Version. 1995 (electronic ed. of the 1769 edition of the 1611 Authorized Version.). Bellingham WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.

[iii]Dunnett, W. M. (2001). Exploring the New Testament. Originally published: New Testament survey. Wheaton, Ill. : Evangelical Teacher Training Association, c1963, in series: Broadening your biblical horizons. (57). Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books.

[iv]Wiersbe, W. W. (1997, c1992). Wiersbe's expository outlines on the New Testament (384). Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books.

[v]Wiersbe, W. W. (1997, c1992). Wiersbe's expository outlines on the New Testament (386). Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books.

perf. perfect

lit. literal, literally

cf. confer, compare

[vi]Walvoord, J. F., Zuck, R. B., & Dallas Theological Seminary. (1983-c1985). The Bible knowledge commentary : An exposition of the scriptures (2:467). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.

[vii]Walvoord, J. F., Zuck, R. B., & Dallas Theological Seminary. (1983-c1985). The Bible knowledge commentary : An exposition of the scriptures (2:467). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.

d the body...: or, this body of death

[viii] The Holy Bible : King James Version. 1995 (electronic ed. of the 1769 edition of the 1611 Authorized Version.). Bellingham WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.

[ix]Freeman, J. M., & Chadwick, H. J. (1998). Manners & customs of the Bible. "Rewritten and updated by Harold J. Chadwick"--Cover.; Includes index. (Rev. ed.].) (537). North Brunswick, NJ: Bridge-Logos Publishers.

ff and the following (verses, etc.)

cf confer (Lat.), compare

rsv Revised Standard Version : NT, 1946; OT, 1952; Common Bible, 1973

bc before Christ

f and the following (verse, etc.)

op.cit opere citato (Lat.), in the work cited above

ANET J. B. Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts, 1950; 21965; 31969

DOTT D. W. Thomas (ed.), Documents of Old Testament Times, 1958

[x]Wood, D. R. W. (1996, c1982, c1962). New Bible Dictionary (1110). InterVarsity Press.