The Law That Chains You

Introduction

Romans 7

Romans 7 NIV

1 Do you not know, brothers and sisters—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives? 2 For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her to him. 3 So then, if she has sexual relations with another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man. 4 So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. 5 For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. 6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code. 7 What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead. 9 Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. 10 I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. 11 For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. 12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good. 13 Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! Nevertheless, in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it used what is good to bring about my death, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful. 14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. 21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

This chapter is talking to mature Christians who know The law, know the Bible and know Jesus Christ.

This is a passage is a passage that talks to us today. Members of the Body of Christ.

The Law

The Law is the rules that have been set out before us as a set of standards. We cannot Reach.

Paul knows we can’t reach it. He has said as much, before in this letter.

Paul also knows that the Law holds authority over mankind. That is before one dies. This is cool here. Paul is ripping on the idea found in Baptism. You are under the law until you are dead and raise to walk in a new life.

To those in Rome, whom Paul is writing, could connect easily with the concept of law’s authority.

The Gentile believers in the Roman church were used to the imperial law of Rome being an iron boot on their neck.

If there was one thing Rome was not, it was soft on law.

The Jewish believers in Rome, on the other hand, came from the tradition of Torah—the Jewish law handed down by God to Moses on Mt. Sinai.

While the law went through periods of neglect in Israel, on the whole Israel venerated the law. Even today when Jewish men gather at the Western Wall in Israel, the scrolls are lifted high as the supreme revelation of God to his chosen people.

So law was not a foreign concept to Paul’s audience in Rome; they knew the law ended with the last breath of the one under the law.

Paul will use an illustration from Marriage to support his claim. He is not giving a lesson on Marriage here. He has other passages that are better for that. This point he is using is based on the assumption that when two people join together it is for life. It is till death do us part. He isn’t discussing if there is time for divorce, or what about those who grow up in a place where the idea of marriage is foreign or what about this situation or that.

Did all in Rome live that way? Certainly not. Did all in the church live that way? Probably not.

And all in the church today certainly do not live that way.

But Paul’s goal here is not to pursue that end.

Rather, while teaching directly on one thing (the law) he affirms another thing (the marriage bond).

In the case of his illustration, marriage, Paul’s point is that laws governing marriage are null and void when the marriage union is broken by the death of one spouse. Death is the only thing that frees one from the lordship of law in marriage.

Does the Law have value?

Of Course it does. Paul tells us that the Law lets us know that we need a saviour. It reveals the the human proclivity to sin.

The law is not bad it tells you that there is a direct standard of living. But we can't live that way. we break the law so the law make us more guilty. Which is exactly the point. The solution found in chapter 8 is Jesus and the Holy Spirit

Not that we are horrible people. But that we are slave to the king of sin. Sin is show to be a master over us. I don’t agree with those who say that we are awful beings, humans are just no good. It is about who we serve.

Sin or YHWH

Sin is living in us.

When Paul says he keeps doing what he doesn’t want to do, he isn’t saying he does only evil, or that he does more evil than good, but that the conflict with evil is one that keeps on keeping on.

The lure of sin is not dead though we have died to it. It will not die during “this present age” but in the coming age we will be free from that temptations.

Freed from the Law in Jesus

We are free from the Law - But we are not free from the Criteria of The Law. We need Jesus.

The mature believer in Jesus Christ is not one who never struggles to obey God. Rather, the mature believer is one who has been released from the law’s condemnation and made free to serve its requirements by dying to the law through Jesus Christ.

The believer cannot be committed to the law and to Christ at the same time.To be controlled by the pull of sin is to be continually stimulated by the law to sin.

Next Steps

Have I truly died to the demands of the law (which I cannot keep) in order to rest in a righteous union with Christ (who kept the law for me)?

Is there a sin which continually defeats me? Am I focusing more on the law against that sin than I am on Christ?

We can tell when we are focused more on the law then we are on Jesus because we are not focused on Righteousness we are focused on not doing wrong.

Focus on Christ Righteousness and living for him.

Bibliography

Boa, Kenneth, and William Kruidenier. Romans. Vol. 6 of Holman New Testament Commentary. Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000.

W., Jackson. Reading Romans with Eastern Eyes: Honor and Shame in Paul’s Message and Mission. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic: An Imprint of InterVarsity Press, 2019.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SVTl4Xa5fY

Questions?

Do I ever blame God, and his righteous standards, for my sin instead of taking responsibility for my sin?

Am I prepared to be engaged in spiritual conflict for the rest of my life? Do I accept the reality of the power of sin in my outward self?

What does Paul use as an illustration to support his claim in Romans 7? Explain how this illustration relates to the concept of the law and marriage.

According to the sermon, what should the mature believer in Jesus Christ focus on, and how can they be released from the law's condemnation?

Why is it important for believers to focus more on Christ's righteousness than on not doing wrong, according to the sermon in Romans 7? How can someone shift their focus to Christ's righteousness?

Are you prepared to be engaged in spiritual conflict for the rest of your life, as mentioned in the sermon? How can believers accept the reality of the power of sin in their lives and continue to fight against it?