My example in the last post led to quite an interesting discussion about worship; let me give another example of my frustrations with chapters and verses, this time not about worship. This example comes from the book of Romans.

Romans 8:1-2 reads:
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.”

Over the years I’ve sat through many fascinating discussions about “the law of sin and death,” with much speculation about what Paul means by that phrase. I’ve even heard some say (and may have said myself) that it refers to the Law of Moses.

Do you know why we have such a hard time understanding this? Because of a big number 8. That’s right. Erase that big number 8, flow the verses the way they were originally (remember Paul didn’t separate this into chapters), and you see that Paul identifies the law of sin in Romans 7:25:
“Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.”

I’m embarrassed to say that I’d been a Christian for over 20 years and a full-time minister for more than 10 before I realized that the interpretation of that phrase was clearly stated two verses before! How blind could I be?

That realization helped me to see the connection between Romans 7 and Romans 8. I had always studied Romans chapter by chapter, seeing only the loosest of connections between each chapter. I remember the outline we learned in college: Romans 5-Freedom from death, Romans 6-Freedom from sin, Romans 7-Freedom from law, Romans 8-Freedom from condemnation… How can you separate Romans 7 and Romans 8? In Romans 7, Paul talks about the frustration of trying to live life relying on human strength; in Romans 8, he provides the solution to the problem, which is being led by the Spirit.

I’ve thought about where I would put the chapter break if I were making the decision. And I’m not sure that I could do any better. I’d probably split Romans 7 and 8 into three sections, maybe Romans 7:1-13, Romans 7:14-8:17, Romans 8:18-39. But that probably wouldn’t help any. What’s really needed is a little more awareness on our part that chapters and verses weren’t in the original. No deep study should be done without taking that fact into account. We need to look at biblical books as a whole, looking for meanings that flow throughout the whole book. That’s nothing new, I know. It’s just something that I forget all too often.