Fall Seven Times, Rise

Ever since the shore in Galilee the steady word has been that the commandments must be kept. Peter was asked whether he loved and was told to feed the sheep with them, four friends in Babylon kept them to the edge of death, the love chapter measures everything by them, and the wedding door opens to those who do them. But no one keeps them by his own strength, and every believer who sets out on that road will fall. Scripture does not hide this. It shows the way up again.

The Righteous Falls and Rises

Proverbs 24:16 For seven times the righteous falls, and rises again; but the wicked stumble into evil.

In Hebrew the line reads ki sheva yippol tsaddiq vaqam; the verb for fall is naphal, and the verb for rise is qum. The verse is not speaking of a small stumble, for naphal is a real fall. And the tsaddiq, the righteous man, is not described here as the one who reaches flawless perfection from the first day and never falls. He is the one who falls and gets up, and gets up again, seven times. The proverb draws its line not between those who fall and those who do not, but between the righteous, who fall and rise, and the wicked, who “stumble into evil.”

How does the righteous man get up? Does rising mean gritting his teeth and promising himself that tomorrow he will try a little harder? If that were all, it would be exhausting, and it would not work, because no one keeps the commandments by his own strength. He rises not by gathering his strength for another try, but by taking hold of a victory that has already been won.

A Victory Already Won

Colossians 2:15 When He had disarmed the rulers and exousiai(authorities), He made a parresia(public-display, boldness) of them, having triumphed over them through Him.

The verb for triumphed is thriambeuo, the word for a victor’s procession, when the conquered were led through the streets behind the one who had beaten them. The rulers and authorities were disarmed and put on public display, and that victory is finished.

1 Corinthians 15:57 but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Yeshua Messiah.

The victory, nikos, belongs to God, and He “gives” it “through our Lord Yeshua Messiah.” It is given, not earned. A believer who falls does not have to win the battle again from the beginning. He reaches out and takes hold of what has been given.

Nailed Once, Nailed Again

Scripture speaks of the old nature as something already crucified.

Romans 6:6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be nullified, so that we should no longer serve sin as slaves.

Galatians 5:24 Now those who belong to Messiah have crucified sarx σάρξ sarx(flesh) with its pathema πάθημα path'-ay-mah(passions, sufferings) and epithymia ἐπιθυμία ep-ee-thoo-mee'-ah(desires, cravings).

Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified together with Messiah; and it is no longer I who live, but Messiah lives in me; and the life which I now live in sarx(flesh) I live by faith in the Son of God, who agaped(loved) me and gave Himself up for me.

The verb in Romans 6:6 and Galatians 2:20 is systauroo, to be crucified together with Him, and the old self, palaios anthropos, was nailed to the cross alongside Him.

And yet the cross is not only behind the believer; it is also before him, each day.

Luke 9:23 And He was saying to all, "If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his stauros σταυρός stow-ros'(cross) and follow Me.

Many English Bibles read “take up his cross daily” in this verse. The Byzantine Majority Text (Robinson–Pierpont 2018), the reference text of the YLV, does not have the word daily there, but Paul says the same thing about the old nature in his own words:

Romans 8:13 for if you live according to the sarx(flesh), you are about to die; but if by the pneuma πνεῦμα pnyoo'-mah(spirit) you put to death the practices of the body, you will live.

The verb for put to death is thanatoo, and Paul writes it in the present tense, as something done and done again. So is the old nature dead, or must it be put to death again and again? Scripture says both. What was nailed to the cross once for all has to be nailed there again in daily life, on every day that the old nature raises its head.

Confess and Rise

John wrote his first letter to believers, and he did not pretend that they would never sin.

1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

1 John 2:1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin; but if anyone does sin, we have a Parakletos(the One who comes alongside to call) with the Father — Yeshua Messiah the righteous.

“Confess” is homologeo, from homos, same, and lego, to say: to say the same thing. It is more than feeling sorry. People are skilled at apologizing and excusing in one breath: “I am sorry I shouted, but I was so tired.” That is not homologeo. To confess is to say about the sin exactly what God says about it, to agree with His verdict, without shrinking it or blaming the circumstances. John states the aim plainly, “so that you may not sin,” and that goal is not lowered; yet if anyone does sin, there is a Parakletos with the Father. Falling does not end the race; confessing and getting up carries it on.

The Law of the Spirit of Life

Paul describes what sets the believer free to walk this way.

Romans 8:2-4 For the nomos νόμος nom'-os(law) of the pneuma(spirit) of zoe ζωή dzo-ay'(life) in Messiah Yeshua has set me free from the nomos(law) of sin and of death. For what was impossible for the nomos(law) — in that it was weak through the sarx(flesh) — God, by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful sarx(flesh) and concerning sin, katakrino κατακρίνω kat-ak-ree'-no(condemned) sin in the sarx(flesh), so that the dikaioma δικαίωμα dik-ah'-yo-mah(ordinance) of the nomos(law) might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the sarx(flesh) but according to the pneuma(spirit).

The Spirit does not set the believer free from what the law declares right; He sets him free from the law of sin and of death, so that “the dikaioma(ordinance) of the nomos(law) might be fulfilled” in him.

This is how the series reads Romans 7 and 8 together. When the sinful nature is nailed to the cross before the law, a man keeps the law, and by keeping it he becomes free from the law. A believer who has trusted Yeshua and received the Spirit is led by the Spirit to fight the sin that once dragged him along by the desires of the flesh, and he takes hold of the victory the cross has already won and makes it his own. The sinful nature no longer thrashes against the law; he keeps it. That this happens at all is the evidence that the crucifixion of the old self is real and at work in him, and the sign that he has received the Spirit.

The Walk

So the walk goes on in this order: he keeps the commandments, he falls, he takes hold of the victory of the cross, he nails the old nature to the cross again, he rises, and he keeps going. Nothing in that order earns his salvation. He was justified by grace through faith before his first step, and every time he rises it is by a victory he was given. But the justified man walks, and he walks in the commandments of God, and when he falls he does not lie down in the road.

From the Shore to Here

It began on a shore, with a man who had failed three times and was asked three times whether he loved his Lord, and it comes here to the righteous man who falls seven times and rises, holding the victory of the cross.

Peter himself is the clearest picture of it. He fell badly, denying his Lord three times, and he rose, and he fed the sheep, and he finished his road. Such people do not make themselves strong. They were born again, in Peter’s words, “through the logos λόγος log'-os(word) of God, which lives and abides forever,” and those born that way are meant to grow. That birth has a song of its own in Scripture, and an unexpected one: a barren woman told to sing, because the children of the desolate one would be more than the children of the married.