VICTORIOUS LIVING ACCORDING TO PAUL - Part 3

Dealing with Pushback #1 - More Sin = More Grace… Right? Romans 6:1-14

Dealing with Pushback #2 - “Shall We Sin Because We are not under law, but under grace? Romans 6:15-7:6

Dealing with Pushback #3 - “The LAW is (or is equal to) SIN!” Romans 7:7-25

We come to a COMMON PROBLEM IN CHRISTIANITY - We Either Bend to LICENSE - Living as WE please - Romans 6 handled that…

or We Bend Toward LEGALISM - Placing People Under the Law to Please God - That is handled here in Romans 7.

In Romans 6 Paul Made Clear How to STOP Living in Sin (Know you are Baptized into Christ, Reckon Your selves dead to sin, Yield your members to righteousness)

In Romans 7 Paul Points Out that Once we begin getting VICTORY over the Habits of Sin - We may Start Creating Standards (Laws) and then we FAIL.. It all comes crashing down!

Now we Realize we have moved into LEGALISM - The Idea that I can become Holy by DOING WORKS OF THE LAW, ANY LAW (Romas 3:20 - For by NO deeds of any kind of law shall any flesh be justified since by means of the law comes knowledge of sin AND Romans 3:28 “therefore we concluded that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law...”

So, Is the LAW SIN? NO! The LAW IS SACRED, But SIN is ENERGIZED BY THE LAW...

#1 - The Law Helps Me SEE SIN (7:7-8)

Gal 3:19-25 “19 Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. 20 Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one. 21 Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. 22 But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. 23 Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. 24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian,”

#2 The LAW IS HOLY! BUT, SIN STRIKES BACK (7:9-12; cf. rom 4:15; 5:13; 1 Cor. 15:56-57)

Remember in Galatia, Judiazers, Legalists came, and so rules and regulations became the norm, and Paul said in Gal 5:15 “15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.”

The LAW Points out the SCOPE of our SIN (7:13-24)

Remember Gal 3:22 “22 But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.”

Think in terms of what we learned in Romans 5:

our Weakness (5:6) - The Law Magnifies this,

our negating reverence (5:6b) - the Law magnifies this -

our negating the testimony (5:8) - the Law magnifies this,

our open hostility toward God as enemies (5:10) - The Law MAGNIFIES THIS

Remember Gal 3:22 “22 But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.”

The Law CANNOT CHANGE YOU (v. 14)

The Law CANNOT ENABLE SELF RIGHTEOUSNESS (vv. 15-21)

The Law can SENTENCE and STIR UP SIN but CANNOT SET YOU FREE! (vv. 21-24)

Romans 7:25-8:1 “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. 1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”