John Newton on Romans 7
“Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! ”
I am currently enjoying reading through an edition of John Newton’s letters on kindle. John Newton is best known as the converted slave trader who wrote the hymn Amazing Grace. But he was also a thoughtful, loving pastor, who wrote many letters that offered wise and sensitive counsel on faithful Christian living.
In a letter addressed to Mrs Wilberforce, July 1764, I came across this nugget. It shows us how John Newton understood Romans 7:
“It is by the experience of these evils within ourselves, and by feeling our utter insufficiency, either to perform duty, or to withstand our enemies, that the Lord takes occasion to show us the suitableness, the sufficiency, the freeness, the unchangeableness of his power and grace. This is the inference St. Paul draws from his complaint, Rom. vii. 25 … Though we are poor, He is rich; though we are weak, He is strong; though we have nothing, He possesses all things.”
I think he is spot on. Understanding Romans 7 as the Christian believer’s expression of personal inability is what I have argued for at length in my book and articles on the subject. Romans 7, as I understand it, is the embodied, experiential context within which we experience the sufficiency and power of Christ in our lives. It seems that John Newton understood the passage very similarly.
This is the rhythm of the Christian life: “Lord I don’t have it in me! I can’t do it! My flesh is so weak and sinful. My body is a body of death! I’m wretched!” The Lord replies, “Fear not child, you are in the risen Christ and his Spirit is your life, power, and peace. Keep leaning into him and you can do it.”
Like Newton says: poor, but rich; weak, but strong; sinful, but righteous; unable, but enabled; sorrowful, but always rejoicing.
Ever felt that, like the apostle Paul and John Newton did?
I think one of the reasons that some biblical scholars view Romans 7 as an unbeliever’s experience is because they subconsciously read Paul’s letters as a disembodied two-dimensional transcript of his beliefs about various aspects of theology and life. But his letters only seem to us like that because they now appear on our screens—on our laps or desktops—where we peruse them at our leisure. But they were written (or dictated) in the furnace of Christian ministry, suffering, prayer, and the pursuit of Christ.
Paul lived Christ; he experienced Christ; he knew him; he loved him; he sought him. And he lived that life of faith, hope, and love in a “dead body” (Rom 7:24; 8:10), wracked by the results of Adam’s fall and his own sinful history of rebellion against God and his messiah Jesus.
This lived dynamic—unable-but-enabled, weak-but-strong, lamenting-but-rejoicing—is hard to tidily put into words that don’t cause biblical scholars to get in a great big muddle about it all. John Newton understood the dynamic. And I think I do too. I really do have a wretched body of fleshy death, and I really do experience the power and strength of Christ in that sorrowful context.
I have not yet experienced the love, grace and power of Christ in a different context in this world. And I don’t believe you have either. One day, when he “transforms our lowly body into the form of his glorious body” (Phil. 3:21), I will.
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