A YOUTH STANDS trembling before a judge for the first time. The infraction is minor – a traffic violation. But he feels unfairly maligned; it somehow wasn’t his fault, even though in his own mind he was partially to blame. If the other person hadn’t… then he wouldn’t have… “How do you plead,” asks the judge, interrupting the youth’s mental soliloquy. He unconsciously shifts nervously from one foot to the other, and then ekes out, in a strangled voice, “Guilty your honor, but with an explanation.” The judge responds, “There is no such plea. You must plead either guilty or innocent, or “nolo contendere.” The youth understands “guilty” and “innocent,” but upon his quizzical facial expression at the last, the judge explains, “it means that you agree that you are legally guilty, but that you silently disagree with the basis of the charges.” The youth stammers, “Yeah, that one,” and then is quiet.
The theological treatise of the Law in Paul’s writings is found permeating all of his letters, but the most cogent centerpiece is developed in the letter to the Romans. After a brief discourse on the biblical view that, “There is no one righteous, not even one.” (Rom. 3:9) He then states, “Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.” (Rom. 3:19-20) Paul is trained not only in the theology of Judaism, but also in the use of Greek rhetoric, and so his thought patterns can seem quite convoluted to the modern Western mind. He is laying the groundwork for his legal defense as he proposes the new Covenant of Grace as the preemptor of the old covenant of the Mosaic Law.
The Law—that is, not just the Ten Commandments, but all 613 of the laws of Judaism found in the Torah—had been the guiding force determining both civil and criminal codes for Israel for perhaps fourteen hundred years by Paul’s time. It had been picked apart by legal experts—the scribes—for interpretation by rabbis throughout the centuries in virtually every possible permutation and nuance, and their decisions had been recorded in the Mishnah and the Gemara, which made up the Talmud, for further historical interpretation. Beyond the civil and criminal aspects were the issues of ethics and morality; it was these issues that had been so much at the center of the scribes’ work. Additionally, there were the later writings of the psalms and proverbs, as well as the historical record of the major and minor prophets. As Paul begins to make his case, he is going against a deeply rooted cultural and religious mindset. He will need to be very careful with his argument.
The hero of the N.T., in fact, the hero of the originally created cosmos as well as the one to come, is Jesus. He also is very careful as he develops his Father’s theology of Grace. He begins by saying, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.” (Matt. 5:17-18) And, he adds this note, “For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt. 5:20)
First Jesus, and later Paul, establishes the connection of the Law to God’s perspective on righteousness. The stakes are incredibly high; if we are unable to keep the law, we “will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt. 5:20b) But this seems not just an arduous, but an impossible task, for as Paul says, “There is no one righteous, not even one.” (Rom. 3:9) We are perplexed and conflicted, impossibly caught in the irresolvable tension of an unsolvable problem. The Law has been impossible for us to keep; our life, contravening our state of self-denial, is undeniable testimony against us. There is no “nolo contendere” plea available to us—that is not a biblical option. The only possible pleas are either guilty or innocent, and we are not innocent, by presumption or in fact. We are guilty, and without excuse. And that’s God’s point.
Enter the hero, Jesus. Paul, himself a victim of the same impossible dilemma at one time—and we with him—exclaims, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Rom. 7:24-25) He has been developing the theology of Grace throughout the Book of Romans. He began by saying, “For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith.’” (Rom. 1:17) Now, after the excoriating agony of an admission of guilt without excuse, he says, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.” (Rom. 8:1-3)
The gospel is our answer to the dilemma of the Law. It is the only answer. Something radically outside of the constructs of the Law is the only possibility for negating the power of the Law. No new or additional interpretation of the Law could withstand the weight of its force across history and culture. The remediating force to contend against or reverse its flow could not develop from within, but had to come from without. So, “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. (John 3:16-18)
“This is the verdict: Light has come into the world.” (John 3:19a) Because of this, we are without excuse, but not without a plea.
Q. Have I been found guilty, or innocent, or is this the wrong question?
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