The Awesome Power of the Gospel
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On February 26 the Portland Trail Blazers played and defeated the Houston Rockets by a score of 131-114. The remarkable part of this game was the all-star player for the Trail Blazers, Damian Lillard, scored 71 points in a single game without overtime. This is an impressive feat that you could boast about. After you play a game like that you have bragging rights. And I was very impressed as I was watching the highlights of the game until they posted a statistic. It turns out that Damian Lillard is number three in NBA history for the most 60+ point games in a career. Number three- that is pretty impressive. He is the third greatest player with five 60+ point games in his career. Number two is Kobe Bryant with six 60+ point games in his career. Again, still seems very impressive. Until you get to number one. Any guesses? Wilt Chamberlain is number one with 32 60+ point games in his career. That puts a little bit of a damper on the situation doesn’t it? It gives a little less reason to boast or brag.
What do you brag about? What do you boast over? Kids, job, deer antlers, academic degrees, travel experience, size of your house, the type of car you drive? What do you brag about.
What we boast over and brag about reveals what we are impressed by. It reveals what our hearts glory in.
Our problem is that we tend to boast over things that, when you really stop and think about, aren’t really that impressive.
Plus, not only do we boast about unimpressive things, the things in life that truly are awesome we act as if we are ashamed.
Mom who would always correct her boys when they would say something is “awesome.” Her immediate response was “God is awesome.”
This is Paul’s attitude.
14 But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
Friends do you boast in the gospel? Do you view the power of the gospel as awesome?
This is key to the message of Romans 7.
Remember in Romans 6 Paul took careful time to show that being under grace does not encourage or enable believers to sin. We are not to continue in sin so that grace may abound because of our identification with Christ. Those who are united to Christ share in the benefits of his death, burial, and resurrection. So the idea of continuing in sin becomes absurd. Neither are we to continue in sin because we are no longer under law but under grace. We have a new master now. We have been set free from to sin and have become slaves of God, slave of righteousness, thus obedience is the nature and expected result of one who is united to Christ and under God’s grace.
In the end of Romans 6 Paul makes several incredible claims.
Romans 6:21–23 (ESV)
21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.
22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Only a Christian is capable of bearing fruit unto God. Only a Christian is capable of producing the fruit of holiness that leads to sanctification. If you are not a Christian you can only produce the fruit of shame that leads to death.
Paul continues with this idea in the beginning of Chapter 7. He is answering the question, “why are Christians the only people capable of bearing fruit unto God?”
And in doing so Paul puts on display, in marvelous detail, the awesome power of the gospel.
This is the message of Romans 7:1-6. Paul wants the Roman believers to be overwhelmed by the awesome power of the gospel.
My friends, this morning I want each of you to become overwhelmed by the power of the gospel.
Why is the power of the gospel so awesome?
Paul gives us several reasons.
Because God has created the world with certain absolute or unbreakable laws
Because God has created the world with certain absolute or unbreakable laws
1 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?
What law is Paul referring to in v. 1?
Some think this is a reference to the Mosaic law- the OT law of Moses.
Romans 7:1 (ESV)
1 Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law
This would seem like Paul is speaking only to Jews here who know the OT law.
Issues:
What Paul is about to say is not for Jews only, but every person.
In Rom 9:3 Paul uses different terms to indicate he is speaking only to the Jews.
3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.
In Romans 7:1 Paul only uses the term, “brothers.”
So I think that Paul is speaking to both Jew and Gentile, and both men and women. When the Greek term, “brothers” is used in the plural it is an idiom that stands for both brothers and sisters. So Paul is speaking to all believers in the church, Jew and Gentile, men and women.
He is speaking to those who know the law- that is the idea of law in general. Not specifically the Mosaic law yet. He is stating a general principle about the nature of laws. And then in vv. 2-3 he gives a specific example from the OT law.
But, here is v. 1 Paul is interested in stating a general truth about the nature of laws because it is vital for the rest of his argument through v. 6.
What is the general principle that Paul wants us to understand?
Romans 7:1 (ESV)
1 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?
How powerful is this law?
Binding- κυριεύω, noun form is κύριος, which means Lord.
11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Here the verb form means to exercise authority or have control… to be master, to dominate someone or something.
The law is master of a person / the law dominates a person only as long as he lives.
Paul is first of all stressing the great power of a law. A law is an absolute or unbreakable rule that God Himself establishes in creation. Every law that God establishes over us is binding. It is master, it dominates that person.
Illustration: Take for instance the law of gravity. It is popular today to claim that there is no such thing as absolute truth. Truth is relative, the post-modern individualistic atheist person will say. That is well and good to say, but try telling gravity that its laws are relative while you jump out of a 10 story high window. You can say gravity is not an absolute truth, that its powers are relative to the whims of whatever a person might believe, but you will still have a sudden and abrupt meeting with the pavement after the laws of gravity effect its power over you.
The law of gravity is binding upon a person. It is absolute, it is inescapable, it is master, it dominates.
This is the point that the Apostle Paul wants us to think about and understand. “The law is binding on a person.”
Why is the power of the gospel so awesome?
Because only death is powerful enough to release someone from the bondage of law
Because only death is powerful enough to release someone from the bondage of law
When is a person bound by a law?
Romans 7:1 (ESV)
1 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?
Not only are God’s laws binding upon a person- they are also so powerful and so absolute that the only power great enough to break the binding power of law is death.
The law is binding on a person only as long as he lives. As long as someone is alive they are bound to the power of law.
Illustration: Take gravity for instance. As long as a person is alive he is bound by the laws of gravity. But, as soon as a person dies gravity no longer has anything whatsoever to do with that person. A person is only bound by the law of gravity as long as they live. Death has the power to undo the bondage of law.
Now that Paul has stated the general principle he moves on and gives us a specific example. Paul often teaches this way: from the general to the specific. Here is the specific example of the general principle he just stated.
2 For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage.
The specific example that Paul uses to show his general principle is the example of marriage fidelity. (Paul does not choose this illustration on accident. He is very purposeful in choosing the marriage relationship. And specifically for highlighting the woman’s position in the marriage relationship. And we will see exactly why Paul chooses this argument in just a little bit.)
First notice the binding nature of the law.
Romans 7:2 (ESV)
2 For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage.
For a married woman is bound by law.
Bound- generally this word means to confine a person by various kinds of restraints- to bind or to tie.
Here it means to constrain by law. A wife is tied or constrained to her husband by law.
Perfect verb: The moment she enters into the marriage covenant the power of the law goes into effect, and that power continues on into the future.
Passive verb: The woman is bound by law. The action of the verb is passive, there is a force outside of the woman that is acting upon her. God’s law binds the moment the covenant is made and its power continues while the husband is alive.
Second notice the power of death to release the married woman from the law.
Romans 7:2 (ESV)
2 For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage.
What does the word “released” imply for the married woman?
Released- to cause the release of someone from an obligation (one has nothing more to do with it), be discharged, be released.
If the husband dies she is released from the law of marriage (the law concerning her husband). The law has nothing more to do with her whatsoever! This is very important.
Perfect verb: The moment her husband dies the binding power of the law is broken. And it remains broken forever!
Passive verb: The woman does not herself break the binding nature of the law. She cannot! She has no power to release herself from the power of the law. Only the death of her husband can effect her release from the law.
Paul is so keen for us to understand this he spells out the consequences in v. 3
Romans 7:3 (ESV)
3 Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive.
She WILL BE CALLED an adulteress! This is a binding and absolute truth. If the woman lives with or marries another man while her husband is alive she WILL BE CALLED an adulteress. Why? Because God declared it to be so.
Refutation: Someone might argue, “That’s all well and good for you. You accept the authority of the Bible. I do not! I don’t agree that living with another man while the husband lives constitutes adultery. I reject that standard. I reject that authority.”
Whose authority matters most? Does your authority matter more or does God’s authority matter more? Do you have the right establish universal laws? Do you have the right to establish standards of righteousness?
Job 40:6–14 (ESV)
6 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:
7 “Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me.
8 Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be in the right?
9 Have you an arm like God, and can you thunder with a voice like his?
10 “Adorn yourself with majesty and dignity; clothe yourself with glory and splendor.
11 Pour out the overflowings of your anger, and look on everyone who is proud and abase him.
12 Look on everyone who is proud and bring him low and tread down the wicked where they stand.
13 Hide them all in the dust together; bind their faces in the world below.
14 Then will I also acknowledge to you that your own right hand can save you.
You have no right, no power, no authority, no majesty and dignity, no glory, no splendor to determine for yourself universal laws and standards of righteousness. Only God has that kind of authority. Why?
16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.
God is creator, God is lawgiver, God is judge. You are not.
So you can go on now and reject God’s authority and pretend that you have the right to be your own authority. But there is coming a day where everyone of us will stand before the God, the judge of the whole earth. And he will exercise his awesome authority and judge according to His laws not yours.
19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.
Friends, everyone of us must understand this truth, acknowledge it as true for me personally, and then with fear and humility submit ourselves under the mighty hand of God. Do it now before it is to late.
What does that mean for our situation?
Romans 7:3 (ESV)
3 Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive.
God establishes the standards of righteousness for His creation. God puts into place unbreakable and inescapable laws into His world. If one of his creation breaks those laws that one is bound (absolutely, totally, and completely) by the consequences of that law.
Example: If a woman lives with another man while her husband is alive, she, being bound to the law, is now an adulteress. And there is nothing she can do to escape that judgment. She might as well try to break herself away from the law of gravity than to break herself away from God’s law that makes her an adulteress. She is under the power of the law and there is nothing she can do about it. The law is binding. The power of the law is great.
Romans 7:3 (ESV)
3 But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.
But if her husband dies and then she marries another man she is free from that law. She is no longer under the ownership, authority, or the servitude of the law. If she marries another man after her husband dies she is not an adulteress. The law no longer as any power over her. She is released from the law. The law has nothing more to do with her whatsoever. She is free. She is released. Try as you might she is no longer labeled an adulteress. The power of the law is undone. And only the death of her husband could effect that freedom, that release.
Refutation: But pastor what about divorce? What about the exception clauses? Paul’s point in this passage is not to speak about divorce and is not to speak about the exceptions to divorce. His purpose is to state the general principle of law and to show that principle in the specific instance of the marriage relationship. You never attempt to build your theology using a passage of Scripture that does not aim at answering the question you are asking. Paul’s concern is not to answer the questions of divorce and the exceptions to divorce. His aim is to put on display the awesome power of the gospel. There are other passages where he speaks of divorce and remarriage.
Why is the power of the gospel so awesome?
Because only the power of the gospel is capable of releasing you from the power of law
Because only the power of the gospel is capable of releasing you from the power of law
What must be true of someone before they can bear fruit for God?
4 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.
Some people get hung up on this verse because they try to push Paul’s illustration too far. Clearly the believer in likened to the wife in vv. 1-3. But in vv. 1-3 the husband is the one who dies not the wife. Now in verse 4 it is the believer who dies. What is going on? We cannot press the illustration to far.
Paul’s point in vv. 1-3 in on the binding nature of the law and that the only power strong enough to release one from the law is death. So it is true in the life of a Christian.
Likewise, in the same manner, the Christian has died to the law.
How is it that the Christian has died to the law?
Through the body of Christ! What is this a reference to? The death of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross? Why did Jesus need a body?
14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil,
This is the power of the gospel, the power of our salvation. What is the only thing that has the power to release someone from the law and the penalty of the law? Death!
Jesus took upon Himself a body so that through death he might destroy the power of the law. He died and when you put your faith in Christ you are united to Christ. So His death becomes your death. So Paul can powerfully state, “you also have died to the law through the body of Christ.” And what did the power of this death accomplish?
Romans 7:4 (ESV)
4 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.
Why does Paul use the marriage relationship in vv. 1-3 and why does he focus on the position of the woman in the marriage? Because it is the perfect picture of what happens to the Christian in salvation. Before salvation you were bound by the power of law to another- to sin and to death and to hell. But, after salvation, after being united to Christ and His death, the power of the death of Jesus has set you free from the power of the law. But Jesus was not merely interested in releasing you from the power of the law. He also wanted to bind you to Himself. You were freed so that you may belong to another- to him who has been raised from the dead.
And only a person in this new position- freed from the power of the law and united to the one who has been raised from the dead is able to bear fruit for God.
5 For 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.
Before salvation we were under the power of sin. We were slaves to sin and because of sin we were under the power of law.
Because of God’s standards of righteousness we were adulterers, liars, drunkards, thieves, haters of one another. And because of the law you were bound to its power so that you brought forth fruit unto death. The wages of your sin is death- eternal death. And while you are under the power of law there is nothing you can do to escape it.
Some people try. You ask them when you stand before God one day and he judges you what will his verdict be?
And they say- I have done more good works than bad works. I have said hundreds of prayers, I have gone to church my whole life, I have given money to those in need.
All the while they are ignorant of their position. They are bound to the law. They will be called sinners. They will be held accountable.
Illustration: Can you break the law of gravity by doing good works? Is that powerful enough to break the law of gravity? Can you break the law of gravity by saying one hundred prayers? Can you break the law of gravity by your church attendance or by the number of zeros on the check you write? None of those things have the power to break law.
There is only one power great enough to break the power of law.
Why does the gospel have the power to break the power of the law?
Romans 7:6 (ESV)
6 But now we are 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.
But now we are released from the law! This is the power of the gospel. Jesus died for your sins. He shed his blood on the cross. And his blood is so powerful it breaks the very power of law itself. Through the death of Jesus you are released from the law. The law has nothing more to do you with you whatsoever. It is finished with you. It has no power over you any longer.
There is a new law, a new power at work in your life. You now belong to another. To another power- and what an awesome power it is! As powerful as sin and the law were in your life, now because of Jesus and his death for you on the cross, you are released and bound to Jesus and to his power. And OH what comfort there is in that power.
Romans 8:35 (ESV)
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?
In other words there is a new law at work in your life. There is a new power that you are under. Only this power is at work in your life producing holiness and its end eternal life. And what can undo this power?
38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,
39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The power of the gospel is so strong that it can break law. It is gravity breaking power. It can undo the very power of law itself. And once you belong to Jesus there is no greater power. Nothing else in all of creation can break it, or change it, or separate you from it. This is the power of the gospel!
Friend, have you been set free from the power of the law? Have you died to that power. Have you understood that you are hopeless and helpless on your own to break the power of sin, the power of law? You might as well try to undo gravity. Maybe you have been trying anything and everything to save yourself. You have trusted in your good works, in your church, in your ability to be kind to others. Today, you understand that none of that has the power you need to break the power of your sin and the power of law.
Friend, maybe today you have understood for the first time that you need the power of the death of Jesus Christ in your life. You need the power of His shed blood for you sins. You need the only power in all creation that is able to release you from the guild and the condemnation of the law.
Cry out to Jesus right now for that saving power. Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. Repent of you wrong thinking, turn from your sin and turn to Jesus. Cast your faith upon Him alone. Believe that nothing else other that the power of his death can save you from condemnation. Will you be saved today?
Believer, do you understand and stand in awe of the awesome power of the gospel?
Do you stand in awe of the power of the gospel or are you ashamed of the power of the gospel?
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
Are you ashamed of the gospel? Of course not! How could you ask that question?
When is the last time you told someone about the awesome power of the gospel? When is the last time you just could not contain yourself?
The power of the gospel is the power to break the law itself. Nothing else in all creation has that power. It will not, it cannot disappoint anyone who partakes of its power!
Do you really see and stand in awe of the power of the death of Jesus Christ? Have you fallen to your knees, your eyes streaming with tears, as you bask its warmth? You have been released from the power of the law! Shout it on the rooftops.
And yet we don’t. We see an opportunity to proclaim the power of the gospel and we worry what other people will think about us. Instead of proclaiming the greatness and the glory of Jesus!
Charles Wesley understood this awesome power. So he penned a famous hymn:
He breaks the power of cancelled sin,
he sets the prisoner free;
his blood can make the foulest clean;
his blood availed for me.
And because he understood the great power of the gospel he also wrote this:
O for a thousand tongues to sing
my great Redeemer's praise,
the glories of my God and King,
the triumphs of his grace!
My gracious Master and my God,
assist me to proclaim,
to spread thro' all the earth abroad
the honors of your name.
Is that you Christian? Does the power of the gospel so overwhelm you that you wish you had a thousand tongues to sing your great Redeemer’s praise? The triumphs of his grace? Do you actively regularly spread the honors of Jesus’ name?
Are you ashamed of the power of the gospel? Repent of that sin. See the awesome power of the gospel in all its glory, and move forward in telling others. Go out this week and tell someone of the glories of your God and King. Tell someone the triumphs of His grace! Stand in awe of the power of the gospel, the power that breaks the power of cancelled sin!