Romans 7:25 “This therefore then I serve, on the
one hand the law of God with the mind but on the other hand with my flesh sin.”
In the 2017 Sabbath School Quarterly
on Romans page 70 is this citation from Luther: “In 7:25 the Apostle writes: ‘With the mind I
myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.’ This is the
clearest passage of all, and from it we learn that one and the same (believing)
person serves at the same time the Law of God and the Law of sin. He is at
the same time justified and yet a sinner (simul iustus est et peccat);
for he does not say: ‘My mind serves the Law of God’; nor does he say: ‘My
flesh serves the Law of sin’; but he says: ‘I myself.’ That is, the whole man,
one and the same person, is in this twofold servitude. For this reason he
thanks God that he serves the Law of God and he pleads for mercy for serving
the Law of sin. But no one can say of a carnal (unconverted) person that
he serves the Law of God. The Apostle means to say: You see, it is just so as I
said before: The saints (believers) are at the same time sinners while
they are righteous. They are righteous, because they believe in Christ, whose
righteousness covers them and is imputed to them. But they are sinners,
inasmuch as they do not fulfill the Law, and still have sinful lusts. They are
like sick people who are being treated by a physician. They are really sick,
but hope and are beginning to get, or be made, well. They are about to regain
their health. Such patients would suffer the greatest harm by arrogantly
claiming to be well, for they would suffer a relapse that is worse (than
their first illness).”—Martin Luther, Commentary on Romans, pp. 114,
115. Ellen White is also cited on the same page: “There is no safety nor repose nor
justification in transgression of the law. Man cannot hope to stand innocent
before God, and at peace with Him through the merits of Christ, while he
continues in sin.”—Ellen G. White, Selected Messages, book 1, p. 213.
Ellen White did not agree with Luther in this statement. Luther’s conclusion is based on a wrong
analysis of this verse. The semantics of “law of sin” is wrapped-up with the
last part of the previous verse 24: “body of death”. It is the mortality agony
that Paul is referring to, not peccatum originale or original sin or sinful
nature or sins in the faithful believer. A better analysis is: simul iustus et mortalis.
Or simul iustus et transformatio. The same time sinner and saint is for Paul
unthinkable. The “law of sin” is for Nicolas de Lyra in the
13th century: “sequedo carnis inclinationem” = “following carnal
inclinations” (column 100). “’It is Augustine who gave us the Reformation.’
So wrote B. B. Warfield in his assessment of the influence of Augustine on
church history. It is not only that Luther was an Augustinian monk, or that
Calvin quoted Augustine more than any other theologian that provoked Warfield's
remark. Rather, it was that the Reformation witnessed the ultimate triumph of
Augustine's doctrine of grace over the legacy of the Pelagian view of man.” (R.
C. Sproul, “Augustine and Pelagius” Online accessed on 25th of
November 2017 at https://www.monergism.com/augustine-and-pelagius). One of the most insightful paragraphs of
LaRondelle is in his book Perfection at page 320 at footnote 430 citing
from R. Prenter, Spiritus Creator, ET, 1953, page 39: “The Augustinian and
scholastic teaching of justification which Luther opposes in the writing
against Latomus permits grace to be a new nature in man, so that man is gradually
changed to a new man or lifted up from the natural level to the supernatural.
Righteousness in this manner becomes a ‘formal justice’. Perhaps it can be
stated crudely that in the scholastic teaching grace results in a gradual
improvement of the old man until the insensibly has become a new man ….Man thus
gradually becomes more and more righteous. Grace gradually substitutes the new
nature more and more for the old sinful self.” Then LaRondelle commented by
himself saying: “Luther fundamentally rejected this ontological-anthropological
concept of Scholastic justification by his religious-theological statement of simul
iustus et peccator which over against the traditional partly righteous-partly
sinful idea placed the concept of the Christian as being simultaneously fully
righteous and fully sinful. This implied the radical idea of semper
iustificandus: the Christian needs to be justified daily anew. This means a
continual total justification. Sinful nature itself, to Luther, never enters on
a process of healing or improvement. The old man remains sinful. Luther’s
teaching is characterized by a deepening sin-consciousness and a radical
self-condemnation which destroys all thoughts about a gradual transition to
holiness or a slow process of becoming perfect. To Luther, as well as Calvin,
man does not gradually become more and more righteous inherently. Progress in
sanctification rather meant progress in true repentance and deeper trust in
Christ’s righteousness. In this light Heick’s evaluation becomes
understandable: ‘Wesleyanism may be called a Protestant version of
Franciscan-Jesuit theology.” Luther would be correct if he interpreted
Romans 7:25 correctly but he did not since it is not talking about sins or
sinful nature but mortality as the last part of verse 24 indicates. Thus,
although man do need daily a consecration to God to keep the relationship
continual, it is not correct to lament about sins if there is no knowledge of
any known behavior, acts or habits contrary to the Ten Commandments. When
people say “but your personality may hurt other people” what about the role of
the Holy Spirit to make straight what is skew for the onlooker or listener?
Leave these matters in the hands of the Guide into the full truth. The originator
of a good Christian life is only one element in the Holy Spirit involvement but
He is also involved with the receptors taking note of this life. Any
imperfection the Holy Spirit can perfected. That is what the Holy Spirit is
doing with our prayers as Paul is explaining in Romans 8. It is also perhaps not correct for Luther to
hold the doctrine of semper iustificandus or the Christian need to daily
be justified. What is needed daily is consecration. “Consecrate yourself daily
to the Lord” said Ellen White in one of her writings. Thus, what is needed
daily is rather semper consecrandus.