Romans 7:1-13

• 1 ¶ Do you not know, brothers-for I am speaking to men who know the law-that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives?
• 2 For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage.
• 3 So then, if she marries another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress, even though she marries another man.
• 4 So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God.
• 5 For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death.
• 6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.
• 7 ¶ What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, "Do not covet."
• 8 But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead.
• 9 Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died.
• 10 I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death.
• 11 For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death.
• 12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.
• 13 Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! But in order that sin might be recognised as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.

Introduction

In Romans chapter seven, Paul continues his discussion of the doctrine of SANCTIFICATION (growing in holiness). In this chapter he expands on the concept of our union with Christ in His death and resurrection, that he introduced in Romans chapter six.

In chapter six Paul said: Don't sin, because you are united to Christ.

In chapter seven Paul says that our unity with Christ in His death should remind us that death has a way of nullifying previous relationships, and he illustrates by using the situation of marriage. When your spouse is alive, you are tied together, and must be faithful. But when your spouse dies, the marriage bond is broken, and you may marry another person.

Paul says that we should think of "the Law" as if it were our spouse. If the Law dies, we are then free to re-marry. We are now married to Christ, instead of to the Law. Humanly speaking, this is a terrible illustration. If I were Paul's teacher in Homiletics 101 I would tell him to re-write his sermon. Why? Because it is not the law who died, but it is WE who have died. We are in Christ, and we have died to the Law. So, in a way, it is a bad illustration. However, we understand what Paul means, and he was allowed to write what he did under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

The point: death has intervened in this "marriage" relationship, so the relationship has been severed. It no longer exists. Christians are not bound to the Law. We are bound to our new husband: Jesus Christ.

• 3 So then, if she marries another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress, even though she marries another man.
• 4 So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God.
  (Romans 7:3-4)

In Romans 7:6 Paul says we have been "released from the Law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code."

We need to pause here, and discuss this a little bit: In what sense is a Christian free from the Law of God?

1. We are free in the sense that the Old Covenant (the Law) has passed away. The covenant that God made with the nation of Israel has come to an end. It is over. It is the OLD covenant. There is now a new covenant established by Jesus Himself: "This cup is the New Covenant in my blood," is what Jesus said when He established our sacrament of "the Lord's Supper."

2. We are free in the sense that we are not bound by the ceremonial (priestly) or civil laws of the Old Covenant, except by what the confession calls the "general equity thereof." For example, in Old Testament days, the Law said that people had to make railings on the roofs of their houses. Why? The roofs were flat. They were live-on patios. They were to be kept safe. Nowadays we would simply say: you are responsible for the safety of visitors who come to your home. If you place a smooth rug on a slick floor, and your neighbor walks in and it slides under him, and he breaks his arm when he falls down, then YOU are responsible. It's YOUR fault. As far as the ceremonial religious laws go, they have all been fulfilled in Christ, our High Priest and sacrificial lamb.

3. We are NOT free from the requirement to live by the Ten Commandments. It was wrong to murder then, and it is still wrong. It was a sin to steal then, and it is still a sin. And so on.

4. But we have been set free from the curse of the Moral Law. We are free from punishment, when we break the Moral Law, because Jesus paid for our sins when He died for us on the cross. Shall we then continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid! Anyone who thinks so has not really come to Christ for salvation, and become a disciple of Christ, and a true child of God.

God saved us in Christ in order that we might "bear fruit to God." (Romans 7:4). This means holiness. It means sanctification.

• 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
• 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
• 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.
  Galatians 5:22-24

Before we became Christians, we were like trees bearing the fruit of death (Romans 7:5).

• 19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery;
• 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions
• 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
  (Galatians 5:19-21)

Paul devotes several verses in Romans seven to the usefulness of the Law. He is answering a hypothetical question that he thinks may occur in the minds of some people who are reading his book. The question is: "If I must be set free from the Law, then is the Law actually a bad thing?"

Paul answers this in two ways: first, he simply states, for the record, that God's Law is good.

• Romans 7:7 "Is the Law sin? Certainly not!"
• Romans 12:12 "The Law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good."

I am reminded of King David's admiration for the Law of God in Psalm 119...

• 13 ¶ With my lips I recount all the laws that come from your mouth.
• 14 I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches.
• 15 I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways.
• 16 I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word.
• 72 ¶ The law from your mouth is more precious to me than thousands of pieces of silver and gold.
• 97 ¶ Mem Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long.
• 98 ¶ Your commands make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me.
• 99 I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes.
• 105 ¶ Nun Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.

The Laws of God are good, and we must never forsake them. When we look around at our American culture, our American morality, our American world view, we see what happens when a nation forsakes the Laws of God.

Here is a prayer delivered before the Kansas House of Representatives by Central Christian Church Pastor Joe Wright on January 23, 1996.

Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask Your forgiveness and to seek Your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, "Woe to those who call evil good,," but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values.

We confess:

• We have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your Word and called it Pluralism.
• We have worshipped other gods and called it multiculturalism.
• We have endorsed perversion and called it alternative lifestyle.
• We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.
• We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.
• We have killed our unborn and called it choice.
• We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.
• We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem.
• We have abused power and called it politics.
• We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition.
• We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.
• We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.

Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free.

Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent to direct us to the center of your will. I ask it in the Name of Your Son, the living Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Jesus said in Mark 7:6-9

• 6 He replied, "Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: "‘These people honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
• 7 They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.’
• 8 You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men."
• 9 And he said to them: "You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!

So, Paul says: The Law is good! And we ought to keep the Laws of God.

But he also says this, which gives us God's true and underlying purpose in the Law: "I would not have known what sin was except through the Law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the Law had not said, Do not covet." (vs 7) And in verse 13 Paul says that God gave the Law "in order that sin might be recognised as sin...and that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful."

He said the same thing another way in Galatians 3:24-26...

• 24 So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.
• 25 Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.
• 26 You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus,
  (Galatians 3:24-26)

The Law was "put in charge." Literally in Greek: The Law was our "pedagogue." Our schoolmaster. Our teacher, our guide. The one who guards us from evil, and pushes us on to maturity.

The Law drives us to seek a Savior. The Law drives us to Christ. In the mirror of the Law, we see ourselves for what we really are, for we cannot keep the Law. We break it constantly. The Law condemns us. The Law gives our sinful flesh another opportunity for rebellion. The Law drives us to Christ, by the convicting grace of the Holy Spirit working in our hearts.

Conclusion: The Law is good and holy. We ought to live by the Moral Law of God, and strive to implement it in our culture and society. However, the true purpose of the Law is to show us our sinfulness, and our dead hearts, and our total need of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Only when we come to Christ, and are born again, and are empowered by the Spirit of God, can we keep the Moral Laws of God, and bear spiritual fruit.ondly, Paul explains that the Law performed a useful function: It made us very aware of our sins, and drove us to seek a Savior.