Freedom to grow in Christ

<Romans 7:1-6>

How can a person be made right with God?

Understanding the biblical answer to that question provides the necessary context to make sense of this passage.

Romans 6-8 deals with (sanctification).

Chapter 6 focuses on the Christian’s relationship to sin.

In 6:1, since God is glorified by giving His grace to sinners, is it okay to sin so He gets more glory? -NO!

In 6:15, in response to the Bible’s teaching that Christians aren’t made right with God by obeying the Law but rather, we’re only made right with God because of the grace of God, does that mean it’s okay to sin since God gives us grace? NO!

Before we move on, I want to clarify what I mean by “made right with God.”

Sin and separation- All

Penalty

Solution- Justification by faith NOT works.

As we think about Romans 7, it’s important to keep in mind how much the Old Testament Law was woven into the fabric of Jewish culture.

The Jews believed they were made right with God because they were Jews and because they kept the Law of God; at least they kept it to the degree that they thought was important.

Therefore, when Jesus and His followers taught that we’re made right with God only because of what Jesus did, the people struggled to reconcile this with what they believed about the Law.

The root of their problem was that what they believed about the Law wasn’t true.

God didn’t give His Law so that people could obey the Law and be made right with Him.

The Old Testament shows that people could never keep the Law as God required.

God gave the Law to teach people what sin is and that there’s no way that fallen creatures could ever obey God perfectly as He requires.

The Law was meant to bring people to an understanding of their hopelessness and then turn to God in faith so that they could be made right with God through what Jesus would do.

It’s here that Paul picks up in chapter 7 by addressing a series of questions that people undoubtedly had.

The first question we deal with today is implied in the statement in v.1.

“How could the Jews be released from the jurisdiction of the Law?”

That’s to say, How could they no longer be required to fulfill the commandments?

This question comes from the statement in <6:14b>

The answer to that begins in v.1.

A. In Christ, the Law is fulfilled. (v.1-3)

1. Jesus fulfilled the requirements of the Law.

a) Jesus perfectly obeyed the Law.

Matthew 5:17 NASB95

“Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.

b) Jesus fully paid the penalty for breaking the Law.

Romans 6:23 NASB95

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

c) God doesn’t arbitrarily forgive sin.

i. God is just and He requires that sin must be paid for.

Until sin was paid for it could not be forgiven.

ii. None of us could live a perfect life and pay for the sin because:

Romans 3:23 NASB95

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

iii. Therefore, since God decided to offer forgiveness for sin, He had to pay the penalty Himself.

d) The death of Jesus fully satisfied the requirement for sin to be paid.

i. God will accept Jesus’ sacrifice to pay for your sin through faith in Jesus.

<Romans 3:21-22>

For the Christian, Jesus has died in your place.

ii. Therefore, the law no longer has jurisdiction over the person who has repented and believed Jesus.

The Law has authority over a person while they’re alive, but once they die, the Law no longer has authority.

Ex. You don’t see the police writing tickets for loitering to the residents of a cemetery.

This concept may be challenging to grasp, so Paul gives and illustration in v.3-4.

2. Illustration from Marriage.

a) Marriage was established by God and the covenant is only dissolved by death.

(However, God has made provisions for divorce in the case of adultery or abandonment.)

POINT: In Christ, the Law is fulfilled. <cf. 5:18>

Therefore, having been justified, Christians can be sanctified.

B. In Christ, believers bear fruit. (4-6)

1. In Christ, believers have been set free.

a) Set free from the debt and condemnation of the Law.

John 3:18 CSB

Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.

We all owe a debt to God, and in Christ, that debt is paid.

b) In Christ, believers are set free from the power and bondage of sin.

<Romans 6:5-7>

c) Set free “so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead” (4b)

Ties in with the marriage language in v.2.

d) Set free “in order that we might bear fruit for God.” (4c)

The fruit is described in <Galatians 5:22-23>

i. This sort of fruit is the thing that the world covets most.

ii. How do you bear this fruit?

<Galatians 5:16>

cf. John 15:4-5

John 15:4–5 NASB95

“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.

Christian, God made you to

Know Jesus

Worship Jesus

Serve Jesus

When you understand what that means you see what a great joy it is.

“The great love which He demonstrated toward us at Calvary is to be a key motivator for us to habitually give ourselves completely to Him, in true gospel holiness.” (Rob Ventura, Romans)

2. In Christ, believers have also been set free from bearing “the fruit of death.” (5)

<Galatians 5:19-21> The fruit for death.

We do this naturally and don’t even need to think about it.

a) In Christ, you’re not bound like as slave who is required to obey his master.

You don’t have to live your life giving into to sin.

3. In Christ, we’ve been set free to live as God intended.

a) We “serve in newness of the Spirit, not in oldness of the letter.”

i. The Jews believed they were right with God only by obeying the letter of the Law.

Keep the Law, you’re good.

Break the Law, you’re bad.

ii. In Christ, who perfectly fulfilled the Law on our behalf, we’ve been made righteous.

2 Corinthians 5:21 NASB95

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Therefore, in Christ, obey God and He counts you as righteous.

Also, in Christ, when you disobey God:

When you have a bad day and say something you shouldn’t

When you’re envious of someone or covet what they have.

When you’re afraid to tell the truth and instead lie.

Whenever, you sin, in Christ, God still counts you as righteous.

b) Does this mean we live in disobedience to God’s commands in Scripture?

Why in the world would you ever want to do that?

c) A Christian has been born again.

We have a new heart and new desires.

We have a love for Jesus and His Word.

We recognize our life is being used for His glory so we want to do things to glorify Jesus.

i. Christians don’t live believing they have to do things to try and measure up to God.

In Christ, we are righteous.

So, in Christ, we live for Christ.

ii. Christians, also don’t believe that our lives are lived for our glory.

Spend time daily studying God’s Word then look for ways to apply it.

Look for opportunities to be the hands and feet of Jesus.

We’re set free to grow in Christ and we do that as we walk by the Spirit.