Romans CH 7

Freed From the Law

Recap: Mr. Rodriguez Study

So we learned in Ch 6 that Sin to us as believers does not have domain over us

Since we have been made right in Gods eyes through Jesus we have been granted Grace

Now Paul in the beginning of ch 6 says well if we are covered by grace then can we continue to sin and sin more , to experience more grace ?

then He goes on and he explains why that thought process is wrong

Just because we have grace does not mean we get to act how we want

Grace is not something that should be abused !

Have any of you heard of deconstruction theology ? At the root of it you purposely lose your faith ( its weird but it is a form of abusing Gods Grace)

Paul also went on and mentioned that Symbolically we were buried with Christ through Baptism and raised with Him from the dead

Christs death for Sin became our death to Sin !

Baptism Here is used as a symbol , its not the actual act of being dunked under water

it means that we were grafted in as a part of Jesus

So we as believers become what Jesus did for us on the cross , thats pretty awesome !

we are to walk in the newness of Life , not our Old life

remember our Old life does not produce fruit like our new life

We are going to be Slaves to something in this Life through our obedience

what ever we obey wether that be sin which leads to death

or obedience to God and His word which leads to righteousness

we are slaves to either or

Its important to remember before any of us were even saved that we were slaves to sin

Romans 6:18 “18 And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.”

we were set free because of what Jesus Did on the cross

He conquered the Law and showed us never ending grace through His actions

The gift of God is eternal life ( life after death ) but the wages of Sin is death

You gotta chose in this life what side you wanna be on, for most of you or hopefully all of you who are saved and have given your life to christ , you guys have already chosen

Now Chapter 7:

Romans 7:1 “1 Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives?”

Paul is addressing the Jew , the Jews in these days were the most familiar with what we know as the Mosaic Law

Paul is saying that as long as you live you are under the Law

now the next few verses he’s going to give us an example of what its like to live under the Law and to be bound to the law for life

but before we read that its important to understand that the average Jew during this time tied salvation to obedience to the Law

they didn’t see salvation as a gift free of charge purchased by the death of Jesus on the cross

They regarded the Law as the Higher power

and there focus was on doing works , not having faith in God

Romans 6:14 “14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” (this is the picture painted that we are no longer under the law but under grace )

the law was designed to point us to Jesus and show us our Sin

Lets read 2-3

Romans 7:2 “2 For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband.”

Romans 7:3 “3 So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man.”

the law in these two verses kinda goes in a circle

at the end of this section when she is married again the Law itself is still in affect

the only time the Law doesn’t apply is in death

when your dead you cant obey the Law , obviously

death ends all obligation to contracts/ Law

Paul is using marriage here to demonstrate His point when it comes to the Law

the only way a married woman is freed from her marriage is through the death of her husband

otherwise if she was to marry another man while her husband was still alive she would be committing adultery

when we look at law in todays society , when someone is charged with a crime and dies before they pay for what they have done they are essentially set free because of their death

Romans 7:4 “4 Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.”

Now read ch 6: 3-8

Romans 6:3–8 “3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,”

in these 5 verses of ch6 Paul was talking about the death of our sin through Jesus

when we died with Christ , gave our life to Him , our sinful life died with Him

He paid for it in full in ch 6

Now ch 7 is similar in vs 4 but this time he’s talking about the Law not Sin

we are no longer under the law because we also died to it with Jesus

Now heres the point to understand with this

Yes we are dead to what we know to as the Law .

Paul is making it clear that we as believers are dead to the law , but what he’s saying is when it comes to being in right standing with God ( In other words , Salvation)

works/ obedience to Law does not make or brake our salvation

why is that ? why is it that we cant just be good people and get into heaven ?

because the reality of it is that we are all wicked , we would all be braking the law

we would fail the law and no one would be saved

thats what is awesome about our loving God He gave us a way regardless if we brake the law or not to be saved , by His Grace !

we are no longer bound to it in terms of salvation

Salvation is a gift from God that is free, not something we can work for

The last part of VS 4 “that you may be married to another”

- we are not free from the law to live for ourselves

we are free from the law it says that we should “ bear fruit to God “

we became freed from the Law and Sin so that we can serve God and bear fruit for His Kingdom

again the Law does not Make us righteous , Jesus does !

Colossians 2:14 “14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.”

Galatians 5:22 “22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,”

Galatians 5:23 “23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.”

Law does not apply to the fruit of the spirit , the fruit of the spirit is the product of Having faith in Jesus and believing in Him

the fruit of the spirit is an outpouring of the change inside our heart when we serve God and not the Law

fruit also indicates that we are in right standing with God

Romans 7:5 “5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death.”

so again the law was created to expose our sin

in this verse it says”the sinful passions were aroused by the Law”

Galatians 5:19–21 “19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

but what does the law also do with our sinful nature ? It awakens our flesh , gives us a desire to want to sin

for example

who here has a problem with authority ? I know i have in the past . I hated listening to anyone.

but when a higher authority like my parents would tell me not to do something or to do something , something inside of me was always like ya ima do the exact opposite just because you told me not to !

but where does that come from ? the law for what ever reason brings out this rebellious side to us

before we bear fruit we bore fruit to death

i can honestly say that my mind doesn’t think that way anymore since i have been saved

don’t get me wrong i am tempted for sure to disobey authority and to want to rebel but since Jesus changed my life that mentality isn’t always an issue

Romans 7:6 “6 But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.”

we have conquered the Law through Jesus ! We’ve been Justified and Sanctified , made righteous , and have the ability to be Holy / pure in Gods eyes

again Law can not give us right standing with God

and it can not make us more Holy in Gods eyes

( talk about other religions )

works is not the answer/ works comes from the Law not from Jesus

the last part of the verse “so that we should serve in the newness of the spirit and not in the oldness of the letter”

the freedom that comes from God is a freedom that gives us the ability to serve him better

the newness of the spirit is apart from the Law, and out of it Like we read in Galatians comes Love

love is what should encourage/ motivate us to serve , not legalism and fear

legalism and fear are a product of the Law

think about it, if i am not perfect throughout the day with my thoughts and actions then i am failing . i have a fear of following the law for my salvation

we have a lot of athletes in here and i’m sure when your playing sports who ever is going to make the least amount of mistakes wins

but the thing is your always striving to be perfect because if your not then your gonna lose the game ( the game being salvation) thats what law and works produce in us

but with love and the newness of the spirit that its talking about we have the ability to be under grace because of Jesus Death

Now were going to get into Sins Advantage in the Law ( In the NLT version it says Gods Law reveals our Sin )

Romans 7:7 “7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.”

The law is not in itself sin ! it is also not the source of sin !

but without the law we wouldn’t know what was considered to be sin

it introduced to us the knowledge of sin !

we see in this verse as well that the Law sets moral boundaries for us that if it weren’t for the law we wouldn’t know

Id like to use an example from a commentary i used , it says( “ an x ray machine reveals what is hidden , but you cant blame an x ray for what it exposes )

we wouldn’t have known we were sinning if it weren’t for the law and thats the point here

Romans 7:8 “8 But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead.”

Sin ! is the root of this not the Law

the sin when you go back to what i said before takes advantage of the commandment , it brings about this behavior in us that wants to do the opposite of what it says

Laws themselves are not bad, we are bad and we love exploiting it for our fleshly desires

think of it like this , speed limit signs okay, when i first got my license we used to see how much faster we could go than what the sign said

we had this Speed limit sign when it first came out that had a flasher on it , and back when those first came out it would tell you how fast you were going

well me and my dumb friends thought it would be funny to see how high we could get the speed limit number on the sign

those things over time record the speeds and then they check it and they figure out how fast people really go

all that to say that sign after about 2 weeks wouldn’t show the speed limit over 45mph anymore

but anyways its not the law thats bad its us , its our sinful nature !

we got a kick out of breaking the law !

instead of seeing Law as good our nature sees Law as bad

thats a whole nother topic but at the root of it is our heart

we have a way of allowing the law to be an invitation to sin

Romans 7:9 “9 I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.”

Paul was alive to ignorance

Before the law he didn’t have the ability to see that what he was doing was leading him to death

its a form of ignorance

i’m sure everyone in this room would drink water from a Lake until they were told that it is loaded with bacteria

the law because of our sinful nature brings out the worst in us it brings forth more sin and death

Romans 7:10 “10 And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death.”

Romans 7:11 “11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me.”

Romans 7:12 “12 Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.”

Sin took advantage of the Law and brought forth death out of it

Sin is a deceptive tool to fool all of us and thats what Paul is saying

again sin uses the law we know to stir up rebellion in our hearts

its important that we as believers know the truth and that we cling to it

John 8:32 “32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.””

the truth is what sets us free and the only way to know the truth is to know Jesus

vs 11 Sin leads to death / when we are in it think of the consequence to Sin

what ever sin it may be, it always leads to death or eventually leads to death

James 1:14–15 “14 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. 15 Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.”

Romans 6:2 “2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?”

Romans 7:4 “4 Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.”

we must die to Sin and Law

Romans 7:13 “13 Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful.”

this verse gives a great little picture of Just how evil Sin truly is

it uses what God used for good and it turns it around and makes it bad

the Law is designed to expose our deepest sin

sin how Paul is depicting it is using something good , such as the law , to its advantage to promote evil . Thats evil

Look at the rainbow for example , what is it’s purpose ? God promised he wouldn’t flood the earth again Genesis CH 9 vs 11-17

Look at the church itself and how the Gospel has been highjacked

(Law can not save from sin ), (Struggling with Sin ),

- Romans 7:14 “14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.”

the law in our life is a spiritual thing , but to those who are carnal ( which means in the flesh ) the law doesn’t do anything for them

the worldly people who have been shared with or even believers that struggle in sin

we have a list of do’s and don’ts but at the end of the day if your disregarding the things you know that are right for the things that are wrong

the law has no affect on you

we all struggle with our flesh at times no one by any means is perfect

think about it when you are in your flesh the spiritual law cant help you our rebellious nature allows us to disregard what is spiritual

the whole point is the law can not help a man in sin

and because we are all sinful and human the law can not work for us

Romans 7:15 “15 For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.”

Paul wants to do what is right but cant

He’s smart enough to know what he is doing

He is admitting that he doesn’t have the power to do what is right

His flesh trumps his abilities

Romans 7:16 “16 If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good.”

Pauls agreeing that the Law is good but he also recognizes that his human nature is what is bad

He’s again admitting that the law itself is good for us

theres a contrast here between sin and law , Law is good and sin is bad and reflects just how powerful sin truly is

Romans 7:17 “17 But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.”

sin has a grip on Him,

Sin has a grip on all people

For what ever reason , sin is attractive

Paul knows he’s a sinner and he is saying that its the sin in Him that goes against the nature of what he has become In Jesus

why does sin have a grip on people?

Sin has the power to enslave people to it

Romans 7:18 “18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find.”

Romans 7:19 “19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.”

He’s recognizing that there is nothing good in Him and again he doesn’t have the ability to do what is right in Gods eyes

He’s again painting a picture for us that we are sinners with a sinful nature.

People are powerless without God

we are nothing with our own strength

He wants to do what is good but doesn’t, He doesn’t want to do what is wrong but he does it anyway

Romans 7:20 “20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.”

again just like vs 17 sin is the one in power when Paul is in His flesh

its the sin in Him that controls Him

its the same for us when we are in our flesh who is in control ? definitely not God . Its our flesh , Its sin !

Romans 7:21 “21 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.”

doing good we all know is a struggle !

I remember when i first became a believer how difficult it was to stop sinning

theres a lot of battling that goes on between the spirit and the flesh

Romans 7:22 “22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.”

the Law of Moses

Paul is saying that the real Him his inner man recognizes that the law is good and that he delights in it

regardless of his flesh , he knows whats good

Romans 7:23 “23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.”

Romans 7:24 “24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”

Romans 7:25 “25 I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.”

Paul here and ill end with this even though he recognizes all the bad gives thanks to Jesus for what He did on the cross

God gave us all another way ! which allowed people to overcome sin

We now have the ability to have a relationship with God that sin Got in the way of .

Gods Law reveals Sin

Sins Advantage in the Law

Law Can not save us from Sin

Only Jesus can save us, with all this law talk none of us are perfect and Paul laid that out perfectly , at the end of the day the Law is good and helps us to see and recognize our sin

We cant get hung up on being perfect because the Law is not what Saves us , Jesus saves us through His death on the Cross