Developing the theme of deliverance from the "body of death," the apostle turns to the theme of the Kingdom...
Developing the theme of deliverance from the "body of death," the apostle turns to the theme of the Kingdom, without which such liberation is impossible, and to the mission of the Savior, who brought the Kingdom into the world. He speaks of the Torah, which now, after Christ's coming into the world, can be transformed from an instrument for knowing sin, an instrument of death capable of killing, into the source of the life of the Kingdom by which the Risen One lives. That is why Paul distinguishes between the Torah of sin and death, on the one hand, and the Torah of the "breath of life," on the other (vv. 1-2).
The inner Torah, of which learned rabbis and theologians spoke in Paul's time, was generally expected to cleanse and sanctify the believer, but the ideal was still a person who had become, according to the commonly accepted definition of that era, a "living Torah." For Paul, however, the inner Torah, as we can see, is connected with that "body of death" from which one must be delivered, while the living Torah is the Savior Himself. Therefore anyone else can become it only by entrusting himself to the Risen One and receiving from Him that fullness of the life of the Kingdom without which no "living Torah" is possible. For Paul, the "living Torah" is the Torah of Christ and the Kingdom (vv. 14-17). And the earthly ministry of the Savior becomes for him the manifestation of the Kingdom as the living Torah (vv. 3-4). After all, in order to become a "living Torah" and reveal the fullness of righteousness of which the apostle speaks here, a person had to be completely freed from the power of sin; otherwise, instead of the fullness of the Torah's righteousness, he would show the world only the fullness of his own sinfulness.
Bodily existence permeated by sin weakened the action of the Torah on the human heart, and therefore the fullness of the Kingdom remained inaccessible even to those who, by human standards, showed the world examples of righteousness. Because of this sinfulness that weighed upon the human being, God had to make a special effort to show the world what fallen humanity was not capable of: the example of perfect, sinless humanity that contained within itself the fullness of God, and therefore the fullness of the Kingdom. And now everyone who has resolved to say a firm "no" to his own "body of death" has both the possibility of carrying out his intention and the place where he can find the life that he has nowhere to seek in our world, which has not yet been transfigured (vv. 5-10).
Thus the example shown to the world by the Savior becomes not merely an example, but a real power that changes the world and opens the Kingdom to everyone who seeks it and is ready to go to the end in that search.
8
8:15 For ye - Who are real Christians. Have not received the spirit of bondage - The Holy Ghost was not properly a spirit of bondage, even in the time of the Old Testament. Yet there was something of bondage remaining even in those who then had received the Spirit. Again - As the Jews did before. We - All and every believer. Cry - The word denotes a vehement speaking, with desire, confidence, constancy. Abba, Father - The latter word explains the former. By using both the Syriac and the Greek word, St. Paul seems to point out the joint cry both of the Jewish and gentile believers.The spirit of bondage here seems directly to mean, those operations of the Holy Spirit by which the soul, on its first conviction, feels itself in bondage to sin, to the world, to Satan, and obnoxious to the wrath of God. This, therefore, and the Spirit of adoption, are one and the same Spirit, only manifesting itself in various operations, according to the various circumstances of the persons.