Understanding functional death and spiritual life in Paul's doctrine

Understanding functional death and spiritual life in Paul's doctrine

The reason a lot of people don’t have assurance of salvation today is because their faith has never been rooted and grounded in the first cornerstone of the Romans foundation, concerning the righteousness of God. Israel was ignorant of God's righteousness, and because of that, they continued to establish their own, Rom.10:1-4. One can distinguish a man who has placed his trust in the righteousness of God from one who has not. The man who hasn’t, is still trying to establish their own righteousness through the works of the law. Righteousness under the grace doctrine is not our own righteousness, nor our repentance, nor some religious experience we had 25 years ago. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. Our faith today is rooted and grounded upon the very righteousness of God through Christ, Rom.3:21-28.

Look at Rom.5:21: “That as sin hath reigned unto death...” How then did sin reign unto death? Through Adam's disobedience and the law of God. Let’s continue, “As sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness.” Now let’s ask, “who’s righteousness is this verse speaking of?” Yours and mine? God’s grace doesn’t reign through our righteousness, God’s grace reigns through the righteousness of His Son. You have access now to the grace of God because of Christ's righteousness, not yours. And the purpose of this grace that now reigns through righteousness is to get rid of the death that came by sin and to bring eternal life. Life and death deal with your relationship to sin and righteousness. A man that’s bound to sin is a man that’s in death. A man who cannot live unto righteousness is a man that’s dead to God. Romans 6 and 7 speaks a lot concerning death, but this is not death in the context of our physical death. Much of the context of death in these chapters is functional death, meaning that a person has no profit to God and cannot function in the spirit of righteousness and godliness. 

Paul says in Romans 7:9, “I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.” This statement is crucial because it defines what death truly means in a spiritual context. Paul is explaining that before he understood the law, he was alive in the flesh and unrighteousness. However, once he became aware of the commandments, sin became active, and he experienced spiritual death, being condemned and separated from God because of his sins. Paul has just defined death for you. Not physical death, but spiritual (functional) death. Despite this clear explanation, many people still misunderstand these passages. They often think that when Paul says, “to be carnally minded is death,” he is referring to going to hell. However, this interpretation misses the point. Individuals do not grasp the true meaning of the passages, which is not eternal damnation, but about spiritual (functional) death, referring to one’s unprofitability for God because of sin. So, functional death, in the context of these passages, is not referring to eternal death, but rather, it means that a saved believer is in a spiritual state of ignorance and lack of faith which renders them to be of no profit and use to God.

This reminds me of a statement Paul makes in 1Tim.5:6 which reiterates this reality of functional life and death. Paul writes, “But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.” The woman in reference is not physically dead. She is certainly living, but due to her carnal mind (the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eyes, and the pride of life), she was functionally dead to righteousness and to God. In the context of chapters 5, 6, and 7 in Romans, we must know that Paul is not talking about unsaved people. It is sad to say that this is the state of many believers who do not grow in spirit after they get saved. This could be due to lack of biblical knowledge through studying the Word, or due to exposure of incorrect doctrine. Having delved into functional death, let's have a look at what Paul teaches about spiritual life.

In Romans 8 Paul continues to define and compare spiritual death and spiritual life. Look at Romans 8:13: “If you live after the flesh, you shall die. But if you, through the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live.” What did Paul just say? “If you, through the Spirit...”. There’s only one thing in this world that can make the death of Christ a reality in your life and bring you into that ’newness’ of spiritual life, Rom.6:4. There’s only one thing in this world that can take that old man and experientially put him to death with the Son of God so that you can experience the resurrection life of the Son of God also. It’s the Holy Spirit of God ministered through the written Word of God.

There are two sections to Romans 5, 6, and 7, which is important to understand. The first section is about positional identity which deals with who God made you by your baptism into the death of Christ. The second section deals with experiential identity which deals with how you live this life out in this realm? How do you live this new life in Jesus Christ? God put you in Christ so that you could walk in newness of life. How do you walk in this newness of life? In Romans 7:7-25, Paul gives us this understanding by giving us a personal experience of it, writing about what happens when going back under the law. If Romans 7 is the experience you are living currently, you’ve got to understand that you are living in functional death, whether it be through ignorance of the written Word or through putting yourself under the law.

If grace is not reigning through righteousness unto eternal life, but sin is reigning unto death like it is in Romans 7 when Paul cries out, “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”, then, what do you think is reigning in him? Is life reigning in him or is death? Is sin reigning in him or is it righteousness? We all go through this phase in our Christian walk, but you must not remain there. There is one sure way to remain in this state and that is if you ignore the Word or put yourself back under law. That’s going to be your experience. The reason most Christians experience functional death in their Christian life is because they are not advancing past the point of either ignorance of the written Word, or because they remain under the law, just as Paul experienced in Romans 7.

Romans chapters 5 to 8 are the most neglected and misunderstood chapters in all of Christian foundational doctrine. Having a good understanding of these chapters will benefit one greatly in knowing their positional (or heavenly) state in Christ and also their experiential (or functional) state in this current life. The knowledge gained in these chapters of Romans are the ground upon which all other concepts in Paul’s doctrine will be built. These chapters are ultimately the cause of weak faith and doctrinal confusion in much of Christendom today.