Law & Gospel
Notes
Transcript
Our death with Christ has not only set us free from sin, but it has also freed us from the law.
Our death with Christ has not only set us free from sin, but it has also freed us from the law.
Back in chapter 6, Paul taught us that we had died to sin by using the imagery of baptism.
Romans 6:4 “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”
Romans 6:11 “So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
Likewise, Paul uses the imagery of the Crucifixion to also show how we have died to sin.
Romans 6:6 “We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.”
Paul is giving us metaphors so we can clearly see that sin no longer reigns over us.
Yet, sin isn’t the only thing we have been set free from; we have also been set free from the law.
And we see that in Romans 7:1-3 where we are given a metaphor for our death to the law through the imagery of marriage.
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? 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. 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.
Just like Paul took biblical truths that we should be familiar with to show us how we are dead to sin, he does the same thing to show that we are dead to the law.
Paul then moves on to explain this metaphor to us, starting in verse 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.
He is stating that we have died to the law through the body of Christ so that we may belong not to the law, but to Christ.
In the same way that a wife is free from the law of marriage when her husband dies, we are also free from the law when we have joined Christ in his death.
Because of the work of Christ on the cross, that we are now free from the works of the law.
This liberty from the law isn’t just so that we might enjoy freedom for the sake of freedom, it actually has nothing to do with our own pleasure, but it has everything to do with God’s pleasure. The text tells us that...
We have died to the law so that we may bear fruit for God.
We have died to the law so that we may bear fruit for God.
While we were under the law we could not bear fruit for God, because of our sin nature.
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.
The text shows that it wasn’t just that we were devoid of fruit because of our sin, but far worse, our sin worked in us in such a way that our actions produced fruit for death.
In our society it is common for people to view themselves as good, or even sometimes neutral, but never bad.
When I was in my ethics class during college there was always this assumption that if you gave people a good system of ethics that it would in turn produce good in mankind.
I believe this way of thinking has infiltrated the church.
We may reject this truth with our words, but our actions and thoughts show that we often believe it.
Maybe we believe that if we got the right leaders in this country that our nation would turn away from our wickedness.
Just as a reminder, the early church flourished under the rule of the most wicked nation.
Or maybe we believe, through an example that is a little closer to home, that our non-Christian youth should conform to Christian behavioral standards.
I’m not surprised when our youth, who have not undergone the transformative heart change brought by the Holy Spirit, act out sinfully.
My heart may wish for better behaviour, but the truth in this text tells me that what they need isn't just better actions; they need transformation, which can only be found in the Gospel.
This need for transformation isn’t just for our unbelieving youth, but it is for all of us.
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.
We bear fruit by serving in the new way of the Spirit.
We bear fruit by serving in the new way of the Spirit.
When we die with Christ, we not only die to sin and the law, but we are also alive to God in Christ Jesus, meaning we now serve through the empowering work of the Holy Spirit.
What does this look like?
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
God has not released us from the law to stay as we were, but instead He has plans to change us through the work of the Holy Spirit.
I want us to pay attention to the word “serve” in verse 6.
Although we are no longer captive to the law, we are now called to serve in the new way of the Spirit.
In the Greek, the word serve here means “to serve as a slave or servant.”
This means we now live in such a way that our lives no longer belong to us; instead, we live as those who belong to God.
We are now directed by the will and purposes of God, living our a life that reflects His character and desires.
We no longer evaluate our life with do’s or don’ts, but we ask the question “how does my life most glorify God?”.
How can I love a person in such a way, that the world can see the love of God?
How can I display joy amidst suffering, so that the world can see how much God satisfies me?
How can I find peace when others seek strife, so that the world can see God is my firm foundation?
How can I be patient in a society that expects gratification now, so that the world can see a God of perfect timing.
I ask that you consider taking time to reflect on your life, examining whether it bears the fruits of the Spirit and points others to God.
But let us not strive harder in our own efforts to achieve these fruits, but instead surrender our life to God so that He may produce these fruits in us.
So what does that mean for the law? Is it bad? It it useless? Paul answers this question next.
What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”
The law reveals our sin to us.
The law reveals our sin to us.
The law is necessary for us to see our need of the Gospel.
Without the law, we would not see the depth of our sin, and therefore, we would not see our need for a Savior.
Paul highlights this point to us by sharing his personal encounter with the law's revealing purpose.
Paul reveals to us that it required the fullness of the law for him to see his own sin.
I doubt Paul was perfect in commandments 1-9, but we do see that he truly saw his sinfulness in the 10th commandment, 'You shall not covet.'
I am sure that, just like Paul, many of us need the full law preached to us,so that our eyes may be opened to our sin.
So let us not throw away the law, but let us preach it fully, not to live by, but instead to drive our hearts to the Gospel.
I will warn you, there will be resistance when we make the law known, for sin loves to keep itself hidden.
But despite the initial pain it may cause...
Our community needs the mirror of the law to see its sinfulness
Our children need the the mirror of the law to see their sinfulness.
We need the mirror of the law to constantly drive us back to the Gospel when we depart.
Revealing our sin is not the only purpose of the law in this text, we also see it reveals something greater to us...
The law reveals God’s nature to us.
The law reveals God’s nature to us.
So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
If the law left us with just a view of ourselves, it would leave us in a dreadful position.
It would reveal our sin, but not point us to something that could overcome it.
Fortunately, we see the final purpose of the law in this text is to reflect the nature of God.
The law is holy, righteous and good, reflecting that God is also holy, righteous, and good.
Seeing God as holy, righteous, and good should drive us to be like Him, but even here, our sin have caused us to suppress this truth about Him.
Like the Jews in Romans 2:4-5, we have tasted God’s character, which should have led us to repentance, but because of our hard and impenitent hearts, we have stored up wrath for ourselves.
The law is good and necessary to reveal our sin and God’s nature, but it is powerless to save us from our sin. To find hope, we must go back the the beginning of this letter to the Romans.
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.
The Gospel is the power of God for salvation.
The Gospel is the power of God for salvation.
Where the law did not contain any power to defeat sin, the Gospel has the very power of God to bring us salvation from sin.
Through the law may we see the seriousness and gravity of our sin, but through the Gospel may we find hope.
Let this truth lead us to be intentional in our community.
Our community, like all communities, is dying from the disease of sin.
Sin is ruling the hearts of the people in our community.
One of our ministries, Celebrate Recovery tells us several ways sin is ruling in our community.
Anxiety
Drug and alcohol addiction
Eating disorders
Financial dysfunction
Sexual addiction
Physical, sexual, and emotional abuse
and the list continues.
Our community will not heal from these afflictions unless the Gospel advances beyond this church building.
May the Gospel flood our hearts so much that it cannot be contained within this church building, and instead goes out into our community.
As a church may we pray how we can take the Gospel out into our community.
If we want to see revival, then Acts 2:42-47 must be true of our community of believers.
And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.