Romans chapter 7 is where we're going to be this morning.
Let's read together the first six verses.
Or do you not know, brothers, for I am speaking to those who know the law,
that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives.
For a married woman is bound by the law to her husband while he lives,
but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage.
Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive.
But if her husband dies, she is free from that law,
and if she marries another man, she is not an adulteress.
Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ,
so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead,
in order that we may bear fruit for God.
But while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions aroused by the law
were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.
For now we were released from the law, having died to that which held us captive,
so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.
Let's pray together.
Father, I pray that you will bless our time together as we study your word,
by the power of the Spirit within us,
and that you give me words to speak clearly the truth presented here,
and that you give all of us fears and hearts to receive it.
I pray, Father, that the great truths of the gospel are not lost on us.
We are your children, and we thank you for that.
Father, I pray that you will now combine knowledge and understanding,
so that we may have wisdom as to how we ought to live in light of these truths.
We pray this in the precious name of Christ.
Amen.
We're going to spend a number of weeks in these first six verses.
I don't really know exactly how many yet,
but we're going to get through verse four this morning.
Just so you kind of know,
I'm not going to just neglect those last two verses in our reading this morning,
but I really want to get us through verse four,
and we'll probably need to stop at that point for the sake of time.
But just to kind of get our minds going,
to get us back on page,
to make sure that we know where Paul has been
and where he's taking our thinking,
let me remind you that he begins the book off
and goes through about the middle of chapter three,
approximately verse 20,
is where he begins to wrap up the idea,
the presentation that all of us have sinned
and fall short of the glory of God.
There is no chosen race of people that's exempt from the law.
And that the law demands of us two things.
The law demands fulfillment,
and the law demands condemnation.
Fulfillment we can see in chapter two, verse 13 of Romans.
Not the hearers of the law who are righteous for God,
but the doers of the law will be justified.
In condemnation, chapter two, verse eight,
those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth,
but obey unrighteousness,
there will be wrath and fury.
We see in chapter three, verse 10,
that none is righteous,
no, not one.
All of us have transgressed the law
and are entirely incapable of keeping it.
Which creates a great problem for us, doesn't it?
It puts us in a desperate state.
If you don't know that this morning,
that apart from Christ,
if you were to have to work your way
by fulfilling the law,
by keeping the law,
it is impossible.
There is no way.
Your sinful heart inclines you to do the opposite.
And as a result,
you are an enemy of God,
apart from Christ.
So in the middle of chapter three,
beginning in verse 21,
he begins to give us the solution to the problem,
and he runs that through the end of chapter five,
in that Jesus Christ fulfills
both of the demands of the law.
He fulfilled the law in his perfect life.
Jesus Christ came and did not sin.
And he meets the demand of the condemnation
by bearing the wrath of God on our behalf.
So justification then for us,
our right standing before God,
is contingent only upon faith in Christ.
The belief that he did, in fact,
fulfill the demands of the law,
that he came as the Son of God,
lived a sinless life,
died as propitiation,
the replacement for us.
Justification by faith alone,
is such a precious truth.
It absolutely ought to blow our minds.
I'm justified simply by my faith.
Nothing that I have done
has earned my right standing before God.
It is all wrapped up in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
I get trembling just thinking about it.
It's an amazing truth
that neither can I earn my way to heaven,
but also I don't have to.
Christ has accomplished the work for me.
It is finished.
But there's some implications
that come along with that.
It doesn't just stop there.
When I am justified before God,
I don't disappear.
I don't go to heaven to be in His presence.
I'm left behind for some very specific purposes.
What do we do then with these truths
beyond what He's trying to say to us?
Which is where He goes in chapter 6 and 7 and 8.
He begins to ask some hard questions
in light of this idea that we're justified by faith alone.
In a few moments, I think,
we're going to sing the song Rock of Ages.
The first verse of Rock of Ages reads this.
Rock of Ages, cleft for me.
Let me hide myself in Thee.
Let the water and the blood
from my wounded side which flowed
be of sin the double cure
save from wrath
and make me pure.
I realized recently what the song was about.
I admit to you that I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed.
And I connected it,
I just randomly, divinely in my mind
to the story of Moses
after the tablets had been broken
and he went back to receive them again.
He asked, audacious claim,
he asked of God to see His glory.
And God granted that request in part.
He said, well, you can't see my face.
If you look on my face as a sinful man,
you will die.
But what I'll do is I'll hide you
in this spot in the rock.
A cleft in the rock.
I'll hide you in it.
And I'll put my hand over it.
And then as I pass by,
I'll let my hand go
and you can see my back.
But you cannot see my face.
That's what the song is about.
The rock of ages.
Jesus Christ.
It's a cleft for us.
That we can hide ourselves in Him.
That we might behold the full glory of God
and not be destroyed.
It's incredible.
But some questions come out of it.
Chapter 6, verse 1.
What shall we say then?
That's the question.
What shall we say then?
Are we to continue in sin
that grace may abound?
Because of the great work of God
in our lives,
this grace to us,
should we go on sinning
to prove Him gracious?
Chapter 6, verse 15.
What then?
Are we to sin because we are not under law,
but under grace?
We've now been set free from the law.
Are we just to go be lawless?
Paul emphatically answers both questions.
He says, no.
Absolutely not.
And then we get to chapter 7.
The overarching question
throughout the chapter is,
so what then becomes of the law?
So what value is it then to us?
And that's kind of going to be the theme
for chapter 7.
The law.
It is mentioned,
that phrasing, the law,
is mentioned 46 times in Romans.
23 of which are in chapter 7.
Half of them are found in chapter 7.
That's why the kids are supposed to give a thumbs up
when they hear the law.
Fail.
They're not listening.
They're coloring right now.
And that's fine.
So in order for us to begin our journey
through chapter 7 together,
I think we just need to take a little bit of a step back
and talk a bit about the law.
What is it that he's referring to
when he talks about the law?
Number one, specifically,
he's referring to the Mosaic law.
That law found in the first five books of the Bible,
the Pentateuch,
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.
He's certainly referring to the Mosaic law,
that law that was given to Israel,
that was given to Moses,
and he brought it to the people.
That law that was meant to set them apart
from the world,
but to prove to them
that they couldn't do it on their own,
that they needed Jesus Christ.
All the clues were there for them to understand
that they needed a Savior.
Beyond that,
let me read to you a couple of texts.
Joshua 1, 7 and 8.
It says,
Be strong and very courageous,
being careful to do according to all the law
that Moses, my servant, commanded you.
Do not turn from the right hand or to the left,
that you may have good success wherever you go.
This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth,
but you shall meditate on it day and night,
that you may be careful to do
according to all that is written in it.
Isaiah 42, 21.
Isaiah says,
The Lord was pleased for His righteousness' sake
to magnify His law
and make it glorious.
Psalm 1, 2 says that the righteous man's delight
is in the law of the Lord.
Psalm 119, a famous psalm,
speaks in 176 verses
about the law of God.
Makes much of it.
Psalm 119, 72 says,
The law of your mouth is better to me
than thousands of gold and silver pieces.
Psalm 119, 165 says,
Great peace have those who love your law.
Nothing can make them stumble.
The law has great value.
And certainly,
to the people that Paul is writing to,
had great value.
You'll notice in verse 1 of chapter 7,
he says,
Or do you not know,
brothers,
which clues us into the fact
that he's speaking to the Jewish Christians,
which would have been a large part
of the church in Rome.
Do you not know,
brothers,
the problem was
that many Jews
had inflated the law,
had taken it beyond its intended purpose.
It had become
not the way to point them to Christ,
the condemnation
that showed them they needed a Savior,
but it himself had become their salvation.
They idolized it.
They set it up as the thing they worshiped
to the degree that
they created new laws,
they called them hedge laws,
to prevent the breaking of the
Mosaic law.
So even a converted Jew,
somebody who had placed their faith in Christ,
would have held dearly
to the law,
as we should,
to a degree.
I'll give you an example
of the degree
to which they
revered the law.
The Babylonian Talmud,
which is the primary collection
of ancient
rabbinical commentary
on the Torah,
those first five books
of the Bible,
rabbis wrote commentary
and it became
new truths.
Rabbi Rabba
said,
the Holy One
created man's
evil inclination
for theology,
so dismiss that please,
but created the Torah,
the law,
to overcome it.
He believed
so strongly
that the law
was the redemption
of man's
evil inclination.
There's a type of art
called
pointillism,
if you've ever
heard of pointillism
or not.
John, I think,
is going to throw a photo
up there for me.
Famous artist named
Surratt in the 19th century
painted this painting,
you may or may not
be familiar with it,
called
A Sunday Afternoon
on the Island
of La Grande Hate.
Sunday Afternoon
on the Island
of La Grande Hate.
It's huge.
It's in the Chicago
Museum of Art.
I hope someday
to get to go see it
in person.
It's incredibly large.
It's six feet,
ten inches tall
and I think it's
eight feet,
ten inches,
eight feet,
one inch wide.
Huge.
Takes up a whole wall
at the Chicago
Museum of Art.
And pointillist paintings
are painted
with little dot brushstrokes.
A modern version
of this you've probably
seen are the big pictures
that are made up
of little tiny photos
of people
and they put them
all together
in order,
when you step back
from it,
you see the large
picture of it all.
I use this just
as an example
because if you were
to walk really close
to this huge painting
at the Chicago Museum
of Art
and really get in there,
let's say on the
girl in the white dress
in the middle,
you would see simply
dots of white.
Get in there close.
You wouldn't really
understand what's
going on in the
big picture
of things.
Maybe you could
see the girl.
You know,
your scope would be
large enough
to see,
it's a little girl,
that's fantastic,
but you wouldn't see
that she's holding
the hand of her mother
with the red umbrella,
etc.
That's what the law
had become
for the Jews.
They were so narrow,
they were such a
tight view of it
that they missed
the point.
They missed the fact
that it was meant
to point them
to Christ.
It was their
condemnation.
You fools,
you can't keep this,
you need a savior.
Between the Old Testament
and the New,
God's promises to us
have never changed.
It wasn't as if
God had a plan
and it got messed up.
I'm going to give
these people the law.
I'm going to show
them the way.
And they just
weren't good at it.
Man,
he thought,
it's just not good enough.
I've got to come up
with something else.
Okay,
I'm just going to have
to take care of it
for them.
It wasn't the case at all.
People were always
saved by their faith.
Before the law existed,
Abram,
his name at the time,
was saved by his faith.
He believed in the
promises of God.
Now,
they couldn't see
the whole picture.
Well,
it's not fair.
It's okay.
They couldn't see
the whole picture.
We do.
That's a blessing to us.
We get to see
the grand scheme
of all things.
But what they knew
was that God
was their salvation.
He would
redeem them
from their sins.
They just had to
place their faith
in that.
So this is a really
valid question
coming up in our
readers' minds.
We don't really
feel the burden
of the law,
which is unfortunate.
We should.
But we don't really
feel that burden.
But the Jewish reader
would have said,
Whoa, Paul!
What happened to the law?
Does it not have
value anymore?
Should we dismiss
the Torah
and the prophets?
Paul would say,
Absolutely not.
So it certainly
refers to the law,
the Mosaic law.
Secondly, though,
and more generally,
because there is no
article in Greek
in front of the word
law.
The law,
there is no.
So really,
it could be read,
For I am speaking
to those who know
law.
Any moral code,
the Greek word
just simply means
moral code,
rules set apart
for the good
of mankind.
And we know
laws.
We have laws
of our land,
which we are
meant to obey.
So generally,
it means that,
I'll give you
an example,
most people
know,
or make some
mental assent
to the fact
that it's good
to go to church.
That's why,
typically,
Christmas and
Easter celebrations
at churches
are widely attended.
There are churches
now that rent out
stadiums to be able
to seat the people
that will show up
on those days.
Because in those
people's minds,
it's a good thing,
it's a law.
I must go do
this good thing
to be in right
standing with God.
I saw a TV show
this week,
actually,
where it opened
with the dad
trying to rush
the children out
the door to go
to church,
and one of the
little girls
said,
Dad,
why do we have
to go to church?
And his response
was,
we're hedging our
bets.
We're going to go
just in case.
that's required
of us,
so we'll be
all right.
We're going to hedge
our bets.
So what then
becomes of the law?
What should we do
with it as those
who have died
to it?
How is it that
those who have
died to the law
don't become
lawless?
Christ hasn't
delivered us
from our sin
and let us
go into
more sin?
How is it
that we
don't actually
become
lawless?
And he gives
us an analogy,
which we see
in the second
half of
verse 1
through 3,
and it's
pretty simple,
so let's look
at it real quick.
Or do you not
know,
brothers,
for I'm speaking
to those who
know the law,
that the law
is binding
on a person
only as long
as he lives?
So it's a simple
analogy.
It's all he's
giving us here,
and I think he
explains it rather
well.
He says,
if a woman is
married to a man,
her job as a
wife is to
serve him.
With all
that she is.
And if she
doesn't serve
him with all
that she is,
if she serves
another man,
she's an
adulteress.
The law
requires her
to maintain
commitment to
her husband.
However,
if her husband
dies,
she's no longer
held accountable
to him in
that way.
The same is
true of our
modern day
judicial system.
If somebody
commits a
murder and
then dies,
they're not
put on trial
for the murder.
They're not
held accountable
to the law
anymore because
they're no
longer alive.
The analogy
can be flipped
around.
It doesn't
really matter.
This isn't
any kind of
a teaching
on divorce.
It's not
really the point
of what he's
trying to say.
We can flip it
around and say,
a husband is
to be committed
to his wife
as long as
she is alive.
And he's not
to be committed
to any other
while that's
the case.
That's simply
what he's
trying to
say here.
In order for
him to get
to verse
four,
where he
says,
likewise,
in the same
way.
Many of your
translations might
say,
therefore.
And he
says,
my brothers,
you have
also died
to the law
through the
body of
Christ.
You have
also died
to the law
through the
body of
Christ.
This phrase
is,
aorist,
past,
passive.
I know most
of you don't
care about
that.
So what it
means is,
that it has
been a
divinely
completed
action.
If you
were found
in Christ,
if you
placed your
faith in
him,
you have
died.
Not
physically,
you didn't
kill yourself,
but divinely
your old self
has been
killed.
Completed
action in
the past
because we're
found in
Christ.
our identity
gets tied
up with
his identity
and Christ
died.
In the same
way,
so have
we.
Likewise,
so that
we're no
longer
bound
to the
law.
We've
died to
it.
We're not
bound to
it any
longer.
For what
purpose?
So that
you may
belong
to another,
to him
who has
been raised
from the
dead.
we have
been set
free
from the
marriage,
if you
will,
to the
law,
so that
we might
be bound,
we might
be married
to Christ.
Now,
some of you
macho men
in here,
your macho
ego may
not allow
you to
think of
your
relationship
with Christ
in this
way,
and my
encouragement
to you
would be
get over
it,
because it's
a really
good
analogy
of our
relationship
with him.
Ephesians
chapter 5,
we're taught
as husbands
to love
our wives
as Christ
loved the
church.
I want
Christ to
love me
that way.
I'm cool
with that.
I can be
a bride
of Christ,
no problem
with it
at all.
Keep in
mind,
it's an
analogy.
It's not
the reality
of the
situation.
It's an
analogy,
trying to
help us
wrap our
minds
around what
happens
when we
become
Christians.
So we
have been
bound
together
with Christ.
We belong
to him.
So what
does that
do then
to the
law?
What does
that do
for us?
Romans 6,
2,
as Chris
preached on,
the second
part of
verse 2
through 4,
reads this
way.
How can
he who
died to
sin still
live in
it?
Do you
not know
that all
of us who
have been
baptized into
Christ Jesus
were baptized
into his
death?
We were
buried
therefore with
him by
baptism into
death in
order that
just as
Christ was
raised from
the dead by
the glory of
the Father,
we too might
walk in
newness of
life.
So we're
bound with
Christ in
that, in
the newness
of life,
because of
our union
with him.
We have
died with
him in
order to
belong to
him.
2 Corinthians
11,
2,
Paul paints
another
beautiful
picture of
this.
He writes
to the
Corinthians,
for I
feel a
divine
jealousy
for you
since I
betrothed
you to
one husband
to present
you as a
pure virgin
to Christ.
It's where
our allegiance
lies as
Christians.
So we're
joined together
with Christ,
but for what
purpose?
For what
purpose?
And you look
at the very
end of
verse 4
there,
so that
we will
bear fruit
for God.
That's the
end of
the need.
That's why
we've been
delivered,
joined together
with Christ,
so that
we will
bear fruit
for God.
2 Corinthians
5,
21,
Paul said,
for our
sake he
made him
to be
sin,
who knew
no sin,
so that
in him
we might
become
the
righteousness
of God.
Christ
came
to
fulfill
the
demands
of the
law,
to
live a
sinless
life,
to give
us the
ability
to be
seen as
perfected
from the
eyes of
God.
He also
bore the
condemnation
of said
law.
So if
we are
bound up
with Christ,
we will
care about
what he
cares about.
We will
fulfill
the law
as
Christians.
There's not
a lot of
gray area
in there.
We will
fulfill
the law
because we
are from
the heart
joined to
Jesus.
We are
from the
heart
joined to
Jesus.
You can't
be that.
You can't
be joined
to Jesus
from the
heart and
not have
that change
how you
live.
You can't.
It's
impossible.
If you
have made
a profession
of faith
in your
life
somewhere
along the
way
and it
didn't
change
you,
you're
not a
Christian.
You don't
believe in
the risen
Son of
God
because when
you place
your faith
in Christ,
you die
to the
law and
you're
joined to
another
Jesus
Christ.
And that
will
change
your
heart.
The
great
theologian
Charles
Hodge
wrote on
this text,
as far
as we
are
concerned,
redemption
is in
order to
produce
holiness.
We are
delivered from
the law
that we
may be
united to
Christ,
and we
are united
to Christ
that we
may bring
forth fruit
unto God
as
deliverance
from the
penalty of
the law
in order
to produce
holiness.
It is
vain to
expect that
deliverance
except with
a view
to the
end for
which it
was granted.
You
can't
believe for
a moment
is what
he's
saying.
You
can't
believe
that
Christ
would
deliver
you
for
any
other
reason
than
holiness.
As far
as we
are
concerned,
that is
why it
was
accomplished,
to make
us
holy.
That's
who
is
holy.
So,
if you're
found in
Christ,
if you
have placed
your faith
justified
by faith
alone
in
Christ,
you're
going to
fulfill
the
law.
do we
do that
perfectly?
No.
I wish
we did.
I wish
that when
the Spirit
came to
indwell us
and we
were
regenerate,
things just
started working
their way
out.
Everything
went
perfect.
We're
going to
get into
some stuff
that makes
my head
spin as
Paul begins
to try to
explain the
process in
his life
where he
sees himself
doing things
he doesn't
desire to
do.
But this
kind of
truth is a
barometer for
us.
it's a
test by
which we
filter our
living.
If we're
faithful to
God,
we'll bear
fruit for
God.
If we're
faithful to
God,
we will
bear fruit
for God,
but we
don't
always
bear fruit
for God.
And what
does that
then say
of our
relationship
with him?
If you're
a Christian,
you were
bound to
Christ,
but most
of us
are unfaithful
to that
union.
I want
to find
myself
faithful to
my husband
as a
bride of
Christ,
devoted
and serving
him with
all that
I have.
And that
will be
the fulfillment
of the
law.
It's the
first and
greatest
commandment.
Love the
Lord your
God with
all your
heart,
with all
your mind,
with all
your soul,
and love
your neighbor
as yourself.
In those,
all the other
commandments are
wrapped up,
they're tied
in that.
If you do
that,
you'll do
everything else.
If you
devote yourself
to that
whom you're
bound up
with,
that was a
terrible sentence,
I'm sorry,
devote yourself
to whom
you're
bound up
with,
you will
fulfill
the law.
So where
does that
leave you
as you're
pondering
such a thing
and questioning
your own
life?
I hope
convicted.
I don't
think it's
possible for
us to
think about
the potential
to fulfill
the law
in Christ
and not
feel some
conviction
because we
don't.
If you
think you
do,
you're
incredibly
prideful,
which is a
sin,
or you're
a liar,
which is a
sin.
None of
us,
none of
us are
perfect.
Found
perfect in
Christ by
God,
playing that
out in
reality,
none of
us are
perfect.
And you
have to
ask
yourself,
am I
even dead
to the
law?
Do I
try to
gain approval
with God
because of
what I
do,
or because
of who
I am?
There's a
big difference.
Your identity
in Christ,
a child of
God,
adopted,
not because
of anything
that you've
done,
but all
because of
his work
on your
life,
his grace
to you,
justification
by faith
alone,
or do you
try to
earn and
work your
way into
his approval?
You may
not be a
Christian at
all,
or you
may just
need to
repent and
believe anew.
A Christian
life is a
process of
repentance,
constantly
looking to
God,
laying down
the sins
in your
life.
You never
stop that.
It never
ends.
we'll
always be
repenting,
picking back
up faith,
pursuing
him.
But we
ought to be
able to
look at
the scope
of our
lives and
see some
movement
towards
Godliness.
As I
counsel people
here in the
church who
are dealing
with sins,
habitual
sins,
it is easy
for me to
encourage them
to continue
on because
they're so
broken over
the things
that they
do.
there are
men in
this church
that hate
sin and
love Christ.
You can
hear their
voices,
you can
see it as
they pray,
as they
lament over
the stuff
that they
do.
It's easy
to encourage
them.
March on.
God's at
work in
your life
because the
natural man
doesn't hate
sin the way
you do.
He doesn't
abhor it this
way.
Do you find
yourself hating
sin more and
loving Christ
more as your
life progresses
on or do
you just
revel in the
fact that
you're sinful?
So verse 4,
I'll leave it to
us again.
Likewise, my
brothers, you
also have died
to the law
through the
body of Christ
that you may
belong to
another, to
him who has
been raised
from the dead
in order that
we may bear
fruit for God.
We'll talk more
about this this
week.