Not Under the Law (pt 1)

Intro

Paul has already explained that victory for the believer rests upon a different principle from that of the law (6:15). The law emphasizes human effort. Paul is now going to underline the fact that no system of human effort can sustain a victorious Christian life.

The Law and the Spiritual Man (7:1-6)

Mankind is either natural, carnal or spiritual.

The natural man is the unsaved man who can rise no higher than his intellectual, moral or volitional powers can lift him.

He is ruled by his senses.

The carnal man is a saved man still dominated at least partially by the power of sin and under the control of the old nature.

The spiritual man is the believer whose life is controlled by the Holy Spirit.

These three "men" are in view in Romans 7.

First, Paul deals with the spiritual man and shows that he is delivered from the law.

The spiritual man (1) knows that the law’s power ends at death.

"Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man" (vv. 1-3).

Paul’s marriage illustration is very graphic, for it emphasizes how valid and vital are the claims of the law up to the time of death.

The law rivets firm and fast the bond of the marriage vow—at least in the sight of God. But then the husband dies and the woman is free.

The death of the husband makes void the woman’s status as a wife in the eyes of the law.

Paul is driving home the truth that the law’s power ends at death. The spiritual believer knows this. He sees it to be true both in principle and in practice.

The spiritual man, moreover, (2) shows that the law’s power ends at death.

He is no longer "trying" for victory anymore than he is "trying" for salvation.

He has discovered (a) a more thrilling way to victory.

Driving home his argument that the law’s power ends at death, Paul says, "Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God" ( v. 4).

Because of our identification with Christ in His death, the claims of the law are broken.

The old marriage to sin, made even worse by the law, is over.

That marriage is now dissolved, not by divorce but by death.

Now the believer is "married to another."

Very powerful correlation Paul makes.

"Will you take this Man to be your Saviour?" He asked. "Will you take Him for richer or for poorer, for sickness or for health, for better or for worse, for time and for eternity?" "I will!" was the glad reply.

In that holy moment the old marriage to sin was dissolved and the believer was married to Another, "even to him who is raised from the dead."

Now the believer is Christ’s, and his love, life and loyalty all belong to Him.

He is to live on terms of closest intimacy with that risen One who has cancelled sin and conquered death and satisfied the law. What a thrilling way to victory!

The spiritual man, however, in showing that the law’s power ends at death, has discovered (b) a more thorough way to victory.

The failure of the flesh no longer haunts him.

"For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death" (v. 5). T

his is an argument Paul develops further in verses 7-13.

The letter of the law no longer daunts him.

"But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter" (v. 6 ).

It is not the law, of course, that has been put to death, but the believer.

Instead of seeking an outward conformity to the "letter" (the external rules of conduct prescribed by the law), the believer, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, fulfills the spirit of the law.

The Christian life does not consist in mere conformity to a list of rules and regulations; it is the very life and loveliness of the Lord Jesus being wrought out in us by the Spirit of God.

This is where modern cultured misunderstands Christianity.

Even young people who grow up in the church

They believe or think that all Christianity is a bunch of do’s and don’ts

They view it as legalistic

They see its rules in the same light as they see the rules our government makes

So we see so many young people after high school giving up on God and church because the think it is fake.

They have it all wrong. If only those people would get in the word of God for themselves and read Paul’s writings

He literally says its the opposite

He says we serve (yes we still do serve after being saved) but we serve in the newness of spirit not in the oddness of the letter.

A born again believer should never view the Bible as merely a book of do’s and don’t’s

Even though that is one way to accurately view it… that is not the only aspect to the Bible.

A believer’s heart is changed, his spirit has been quickened and made alive.

It should naturally be his desire to follow the spirt of the law, because he is now alive in Christ who is the living word.

The Law and the Natural Man (7:7-13)

If the spiritual man is delivered from the law, the natural man is doomed by the law.

It has been much debated whether in this section Paul is describing his present experience as a defeated saint or his past experience as a doomed sinner.

Since the verbs are in the past tense it seems a fair assumption that he is here going back to his unconverted days.

The verbs in verses 14-25 are in the present tense and refer to Paul’s experiences after his conversion.

In his unconverted days he sought salvation in vain efforts to keep the law.

The law only condemned him.

There had to come a time in his experience when he came utterly to an end of himself and all his own efforts, and he surrendered completely to Christ

This is the experience he describes in verses 7-13. The parallel he draws in verses 14-25 is clear—as a believer, he must likewise come to an end of his own efforts if he is to know victory.

As a natural man, an unsaved man, he found that (1) the law exposed the hidden nature of sin and did so in two ways.

First of all, it revealed his sinful nature.

"What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet" (v. 7).

The great function of the Mosaic law is to expose sin.

Men try to cover sin, excuse it, and camouflage it.

They call it by respectable names.

A person is not a drunkard, he is an alcoholic; drunkenness is not a sin, it is a disease.

A person `is not a liar, he "an extrovert with a lively imagination!"

Men speak of people as having complexes, phobias and inhibitions.

They speak of a book as being daring; God would call it filthy.

They say a man has had "an affair;" God says he has committed adultery.

This is one of the games men play, and a deadly and dangerous game it is.

It would be the height of folly to take a bottle from the shelf and remove the unpleasant label with its skull and crossbones and its bold letters, "Poison," putting on instead an attractive label bearing the words, "Essence of Peppermint."

This would only conceal the true nature of the contents of the bottle and invite the unsuspecting to drink and die. Such a practice would not only be folly but criminal as well; yet this is the practice of modern man when faced with the ugly fact of sin. The function of the law is to give sin its proper name and to expose it for what it is.

Paul says, "I had not known sin, but by the law; for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet."

Probably in his unconverted days as a conscientious Pharisee, Paul had little trouble with the first nine commandments of the Decalogue.

He could say, "All these have I kept from my youth up." But the tenth commandment dealt with inward desire, and Paul knew very well that his inward desires were often wrong. In desire, if not in deed, Paul had become a sinner and exposed to the curse of the law.

The law, however, did more than reveal his sinful nature; it revived his sinful nature.

"But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died" (vv. 8-9).

Before the law came there was freedom from an accusing conscience, a kind of false peace brought about by man’s ignorance of his alienation from God.

Before speed limits, no one felt guilty going any speed.

The only feeling that may have caused them to go at a reasonable speed would carefulness not to injure anyone

But no one would have a heavy conscience if they were going 45 or 55 down Columbus at 11 at night when no body is the road.

There would be no law running in the back of their to convict them.

But the moment the speed limit was introduced and said that you are doing wrong if you exceed 35 mph, you all of a sudden think back to all the times you were zooming down the road and know exactly that you have broken that law

Now every time you go down that road, the law restrains you from doing what you want to do.

And when you break the law something inside tells you you’re doing wrong.

You may be checking for police cars or radar vans why cause you know you’re doing wrong.

The coming of the law changed all this. Its straight edge reveals the crookedness of human nature and even goes a step further and forces into the open all the latent rebellion of the human heart.

As the summer sun shines on a vacant lot and warms the soil, causing the hidden seeds to spring to life, covering the lot with weeds, so the law of God, shining on the human heart, causes the latent seeds of sin to germinate and reveal themselves.

The truth of this is evident enough.

Does not the sign "Keep off the grass" arouse the latent rebellion of our hearts, prompting us to at least put a foot on the forbidden ground?

Does not the sign "Speed Limit 20 mph" provoke a desire to try to get away with driving 30 mph? Does not the sign "Speed Checked by Radar" arouse a mild resentment that we do not have even a sporting chance of successfully breaking the law? The law exposes the hidden nature of sin.

A wealthy land owner once overheard his gardener blaming Adam for the weeds which cursed the soil and for the sweat which bathed his brow. "Curse Adam!" cried the gardener as he labored through the heat of the day. The rich man asked the gardener to explain himself. "Well," replied the gardener, "it’s Adam’s fault. If Adam had not sinned there’d be no weeds to plague me, would there?" His employer argued that had the gardener been in Adam’s place he would probably have done the same, a proposition which the laborer refused to entertain.

"Well," said the gentleman, "you come up to my place for supper tonight and we’ll see." Later in the day the gardener presented himself at the rich man’s home and was ushered into the dining room where a large table was spread with everything a hungry man could desire. All the dishes were open, steaming hot and filling the air with a most appetizing fragrance, except one. In the center of the table was a large dish covered with a lid.

The gardener and his host were about to sit down to their meal when a servant entered and summoned the land owner to the phone. "You will excuse me," said the rich man to his guest; "I shall be back in a few minutes. Why don’t you start? You are welcome to everything on the table except what is in the covered dish. That dish is reserved for me and I do not want you to so much as touch it. That’s a command!"

It wasn’t long before the gardener, having filled his plate from the wide choice of good things before him, began to grow increasingly curious about that mysterious covered dish. "There must be something exceptionally good in there," he thought. "I wonder why I can’t have some. I’d certainly like to know what it is."

The host was a long time in returning. At last the gardener could restrain his curiosity no longer. Reaching across the table he lifted the cover of the dish, at least to find out what was inside. He pulled off the lid and hundreds of tiny feathers flew out of the dish scattering far and wide across the table. And just then the rich man walked in. "Curse Adam!" he said with a grin!

As a natural man, Paul found moreover that (2) the law exposed the hideous nature of sin and again did so in two ways.

First it exposed the seriousness of sin.

"And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me" (vv. 10-11).

For the law contained punishments as well as precepts.

It had power to reveal sin but no power to remove sin, for even the sacrifices of the Mosaic system were but shadows.

The law does not reward us for keeping its commands; it only punishes us for breaking them.

Who has ever been stopped by a police officer and told to report at once to the police station to be rewarded for driving in an orderly fashion through a speed zone and for stopping correctly at all the marked intersections!

It is not the normal function of the law to congratulate the law-abiding citizen, only to expose, condemn and punish the lawbreaker.

The law of God punished severely.

A careful study of the Old Testament shows that the death penalty was either appended to or associated with the breaking of every commandment in the Decalogue. That’s how serious sin is in God’s sight. It carries a death penalty in this life and eternal punishment in the next.

Suppose a hot-tempered GI were to smite a fellow soldier in the barrack room. The punishment for thus breaking the peace would be perhaps a few days detention. If he were to hit a sergeant, however, his punishment would more likely be three weeks detention, while for assaulting an officer he would get three months. `. In each case, the act would be the same—striking a fellow man. But as the dignity and rank of the person assaulted increases, so the seriousness of the offense increases in proportion. Now, all sin is against God (Ps. 51:4; Luke 15:18, 21) and is therefore an act of such seriousness that it earns eternal damnation. One of the great functions of the law is to reveal the seriousness of sin.

Paul found, however, that the law, while exposing the hideous nature of sin, revealed not only its seriousness but its sinfulness as well.

"Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. Was then that which is good made death to me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful" (vv. 12-13).

There are at least fifteen Hebrew words in the Old Testament for sin, covering the entire spectrum of all possible kinds of wrong attitude to God and man.

There are about as many different words in the Greek New Testament too, covering such ideas as sin, wickedness, evil, ungodliness, disobedience, transgression, iniquity, error and fault. Such a rich vocabulary in both Testaments reveals fully what God thinks about sin in all its forms. It is exceeding sinful.

The high and holy standard of behavior demanded by the law leaves the sinner exposed, lost and defenseless.

The law cannot save—that is the prerogative of grace.

Paul found, as a sinner, that his best efforts to win salvation were unavailing. He was confronted with a law which was "holy, and just, and good," the lofty pinnacles of which he could never climb. Moreover, its fires and thunders struck terror to his heart.