Paul's Favorite Question - Part 1

Based on word count, Paul wrote approximately twenty-four percent of the New Testament. Acts records some of his sermons and public defenses. In both his writing and speaking, Paul employed questions. Questions are sentences that are formed to gain information or to test knowledge. Effective teachers will use questions to increase the engagement of students and keep attention. When teaching a Bible class, I will use questions in an effort to get my students to closely examine the text. A question that Paul asked is found in three letters (Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians) and is found a total of fifteen times. It is phrased as “Know ye not” in the KJV. In this and subsequent articles, let’s consider Paul’s usage of that question.

Romans 6:3 reads, “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death?” In the preceding chapter Paul discussed the entrance of sin into the world through one man’s sin and the horrific consequences that followed because all have sinned (Rom. 5:12-17). In the same context he also reminded the Romans that what was lost in Adam is more than regained through Christ. Many have been made righteous by the obedient death of one perfect man, Jesus (Rom. 5:19). In that text we learn that God’s grace and the death of Jesus are the means by which man is saved from sin. As you turn the page to Romans 6, Paul preemptively answers a question that some might have asked - Should we sin more so that we can get more grace from God? Paul’s answer was emphatic: “May that never be said” (Rom. 6:2)! The Greek phrase is μὴ γένοιτο and it expresses an absolute denial. Paul uses that expression ten times in Romans alone and four other times in his writings. His point in Romans 6:3 is that one who has been baptized into Christ (for the remission of sins - Acts 2:38) cannot keep on sinning. He has made a choice to die to sin, be buried in the waters of baptism, and to be raised to walk in newness of life (Rom. 6:4). Sin is a choice and the child of God does not willfully engage in it.

In the same chapter we find the second occurrence of Paul’s favorite question: “Know ye not, That to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom you obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness” (Rom. 6:16)? Again, sin is a choice. The wages of sin is death and each individual must decide if that is the route he wants to take (Rom. 6:23). The good news is that righteousness is also a choice. Righteousness is not transferred from person to person anymore that sin can be transferred from one person to another. One’s compliance with the revealed will of God is what leads to righteousness. Jesus taught that in the sermon on the mount (Matt. 5:20). John tells us that “he that doeth righteousness is righteous” (1 Jn. 3:7). God recognizes us as righteous when we do what He commands because “all Thy commandments are righteousness” (Ps. 119:172).

The third instance of Paul’s favorite question is “Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth” (Rom. 7:1)? He was making a point about the law (of Moses) by using an illustration regarding any law. He specifically used the example of God’s law on marriage (Rom. 7:2-3). His question and the illustration used made clear to the Romans that they were no longer under the dominion of the Law of Moses. We know that Paul was speaking specifically of that law because of the successive verses. He wrote, “the law has said, Thou shalt not covet” (Rom. 7:7). Those who had died to sin, been buried in baptism, and raised to walk in newness of life (Rom 6:3-4) were not under the jurisdiction of the Law of Moses. Rather, they were under the “law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1-2). This is the good news! “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh” (Rom. 8:3). The Law of Moses could not justify man before God (Rom. 3:20; Gal. 2:16). This issue was THE main problem in the first century church. There was a “conference” held in Jerusalem about this very subject (Acts 15). Nearly the entire book of Galatians deals with the same issue. Paul’s favorite question in Romans 7:1 leads to the answer that man is freed from the law of sin and death by what God has done through Jesus Christ, and that is good news!