Finding Life and Freedom

Romans–Galatians Section Outline

Section Outline

V. Three Failed Objections to the Faith (Grace) Principle (6:1–7:25)

A. “Faith Encourages Sin!” (6:1–14)

B. “Grace Abrogates the Law!” (6:15–7:6)

C. “The Law Itself Is Sinful!” (7:7–25)

Question:

Why do we have laws?

What are the purpose of laws?

What happens if we do not follow the law?

Sometimes we can break a law and get away with it and say no one will ever know. But is that really true when you know and God knows?

It’s for us to do right when we know that the attention of others are on us. It’s easy to say the right thing, put on the right face, and most of the time have the right attitude.

When we know that we are being watched most of us go out of our way to ensure that we present ourselves in the best light.

Conversely, when we know that we are not being watched or when we think that no one is paying attention to us we are more prone to compromise on what we know is right.

Question:

Why do we respond this way when we know people are looking?

Why do we feel comfortable with compromise when we know people are not looking?

How does this impact our spirituality?

Introduction:

In composing Romans Paul could anticipate objections that his presentation of the gospel might generate. So, in a central portion of the epistle (not just as an afterthought), Paul addresses how unsympathetic or uncomprehending readers might attempt to refute the “power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Rom. 1:16).

Some might fear that downplaying rules, or the “law” in Jewish understanding, would promote violation of those rules.

Paul has already shown that possession of the law and championing the Jewish heritage is no guarantee of avoiding violation of the law (ch. 2). The call to salvation by grace through faith does not encourage sin but is the only avenue to bring sin’s tyranny under the greater power of the crucified and risen Christ. Paul deals with this issue in 6:1–14.

Next he tackles the perversion of gospel teaching that would say that since Christians are not under law but under grace, they are free from the law’s condemnation and even constraints. They may behave as they wish. But in 6:15–23 Paul corrects this notion, stressing human slavery to one of two masters, sin or righteousness. Only the gospel enables righteousness to reign. Yielding to sin, even with the viewpoint that grace will forgive it, is only confirmation of sin’s reign. It is not a sign of the possession of grace at all.

In the third subsection (7:7–25) Paul corrects the misunderstanding that his gospel understanding downplays the sanctity and authority of the law, by which Paul means the whole OT. Paul will refute this by a dramatic, partially autobiographical account of how a life under God’s grace in Christ is lived out, aware of ongoing sin (in part by the law’s instruction) but successfully if painfully resisting and triumphing over it “through Jesus Christ our Lord” (7:25).

The Gospel of Grace: The good news of God’s unmerited divine favor.

Saving faith in Christ brings with it an inner transformation that is a death sentence on former default attitudes, convictions, and behaviors. As Jesus underwent a deadly baptism to save his followers from sin (Mark 10:38; Luke 12:50), those followers through faith undergo the death of their sin-tainted former paths and loyalties when their faith unites them with Christ. They are “baptized into his death”—they begin a life of increasing conformity to the negative verdict the cross pronounced on all indifference to and rebellion against God. This does not effect a perfect and immediate change of behavior in all areas of the believer’s life. Paul often stresses growth in faith and godliness. But it sets in motion a direction, and in a sense a whole new location (cf. Col. 1:13–14), of identifying with Christ in his aversion to, freedom from, and victory over sin in believers’ own lives.

English Standard Version Chapter 6

Slaves to Righteousness

15 What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 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.

Released from the Law

7 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? 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. 3 Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.

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. 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. 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.

The Purpose of our Death in Christ

Purpose of our death in Christ.—Christ once lived under the curse of sin and in a body over which death ruled. He died, and arose from the dead. By dying once He escaped for ever from the curse of sin, and from death, the result of sin. He now lives a life of which God is the only aim. In former days we did the bidding of sin, and were thus exposed to the anger of God. To make it consistent with His justice to save us, God gave Christ to die, and raised Him from the dead. His purpose is to unite us to Christ, so that we may share Christ’s life and moral nature. For this end we were formally united to Christ in baptism. We were thus joined to One who was by death set free from death, and was raised by God into a deathless life. Therefore if the purpose of God be realised in us, we are practically dead with Christ. And if so, all law proclaims us free. We therefore infer that the purpose of our death with Christ is to free us from the service of sin. And if so, we also infer that our union with Christ is more than union with His death. For we see Christ not only free from sin, but living a life devoted to God; and we know that such devotion to Himself is what God requires from us. Therefore we are sure that God designs us to be united to Christ, both in His freedom from sin and in His active devotion to God. Consequently to live in sin is to resist God’s purpose for us, and to renounce the new life to which baptism was designed to lead us.—Beet.

In the closing section of Romans chapters 6 Paul talks about being Slaves to Righteousness.