Set Free from the Law of Sin and Death
Notes
Transcript
There are many people calling themselves “Christian” who have a critically flawed view of what it means to be a Christian, on account of failing to understand just what it means to say “therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
For example, there are those whose view of a Christian as the man who confesses his many sins, who asks for forgiveness, and is for that moment a man who is forgiven and not under condemnation, but that if he should then sin again, he has fallen back into condemnation, and so must continually repent and confess his sins, hoping that at the end of his life he would at that moment be forgiven and uncondemned. Another such mistaken view is that “there is now no condemnation” on account of salvation being the result of sanctification, that until you are perfectly sanctified, you are not saved, and so a person then cannot know they are saved during this life, for even in its last moments they cannot know for certain if they have been sufficiently sanctified and in some theological systems they must then burn off the remaining uncleanness from their lives after death in order to enter into heaven. And, of course, there are those who take the view that of course since they have joined a church, they parents took them and they still go occasionally, since they do good deeds, that they then are of course not going to be condemned by the God whose great characteristic is “love”.
Yet another such wrong view takes this “no condemnation”, and looking at the phrase in verse 2, “Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death” to be speaking as a continuation of the “different law in my members” of 7:23, in order to now describe a second experience which removes the element of sin still within a person.
But to take and adopt such views, is to deny the plain, simple truth of Scripture. For when Paul writes in Romans 8:1
Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
…there are possibly no words of greater importance to all who read them for what they truly mean! For there is no condemnation at all to the Christian, there is no conceivable way for the Christian to be condemned – none at all! And furthermore, never again can the true Christian enter the realm of condemnation, for he or she has been removed entirely from it. All our sins – past, present, and future – have been dealt with already in Christ Jesus.
And this is the so-called “dangerous truth” of the gospel which Paul had so often delivered, this was why he of necessity had to answer the question “shall we continue in sin so that grace may abound” in his parenthesis in Chapter 6, to prove that rather than bring the risk of greater sin, rather the opposite was true, that being united to Christ Jesus instead freed us to no longer be slaves to sin, but beyond that brought us to be slaves to righteousness.
And so now, having laid down the idea that “therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”, he sets about to prove and support this great and fundamental truth in a way that gives us lasting and solid assurance.
Let’s pray before we begin.
O Lord our God, You are not a god who delights in wickedness, for evil does not sojourn with You, the boastful shall not stand before Your Holy eyes for you hate all workers of iniquity, You destroy those who speak falsehood, You abhor the man of bloodshed and deceit. Yet, though we were once enemies of You, in the abundance of Your loveliness we shall enter Your house, at Your Holy temple we will worship in righteous fear of You. O Lord, let all who take refuge in You be glad, let us sing for joy, lead all who love Your Name exult in You, to the glory and honor of Your blessed Son. Amen.
Last time in looking at the totality of the chapter, we saw how that one doctrine of the total justification of the person who is in Christ Jesus, united to Him in the same way we were once in Adam and under condemnation for Adam’s transgression (recall the words of the apostle in 5:15 saying “by the transgression of the one the many died”, and in the following verse “the judgement arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation”, and that now in Christ Jesus, we are no longer under that sentence of condemnation, “much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many” in verse 15 of that chapter.
And so it is no accident that the very first argument supporting verses 2 through 4 speaks directly to our relationship with the Law of God, starting off by saying:
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.
Now, I must warn you as you study this verse for yourself, you will come across many commentators, teachers, and preachers who do themselves, their listeners, and their readers a great disservice by not being careful with this verses, for all too often this verse is divorced from its context, and made out to be the primary point rather than being a supporting argument of Paul’s basic premise that “therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”, and when they do so it very frequently leads people into great error and makes a shipwreck of their faith. The apostle’s use of the word “for” at the onset of this verse ought to have made it clear that the entire focus of this verse is freedom from condemnation for those who are “in Christ Jesus”.
And so when we look at this verse, it ought to be clear to us that there is an equating of “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” with being in Christ in some way, and likewise an equating of “the law of sin and of death” with the proximate cause of the condemnation which we were once under.
And, of course, this “law of sin and of death” had been an integral part in Paul’s primary line of thought left off in chapter 5 before the two parentheses in chapters 6 and 7, where we had read
Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned— for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the trespass of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.
Paul had further made it clear in Romans 5:16 and 17, “… the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation”, and “by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one”, and finally in Romans 5:21, “sin reigned in death”
so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
And of course, this relationship between sin and death is likewise witnessed elsewhere in Scripture, but nowhere more blatantly than in 1 Corinthians 15:56,
Now the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law;
…and he even spoke of the Law in 2 Corinthians 3:7 as “…the ministry of death, in letters having been engraved on stones…”
So, it must be of no surprise to us that Paul would here remind us that Paul calls the law we must be set free from, “the law of sin and of death”.
It is not, then, a cursory perspective of “the law of sin which is in my members” of 7:23 which views sin as our shortcomings and propensities, but the Law by which “no flesh will be justified in His sight, for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin” of 3:20. It is nothing less than the Law which entered “so that the transgression would increase”. Romans 4:15 says of this Law, “for the Law brings about wrath, but where there is no law, there also is no trespass.”
And, of course, this is where our understanding has been greatly enhanced through Paul’s digression in chapter 7, for there we realize that not only can the Law work wrath, but that same Law “is master over a person as long as he lives” (7:1), that
and this commandment, which was to lead to life, was found to lead to death for me. For sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.
It is this law which condemns us to death, it is the one great and true cause of condemnation. Paul has been writing this same thing from the beginning of the epistle to the Romans, as he revealed even in Romans 1:32 “… although they know the righteous requirement of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.”
That all men, even those without the advantage of the Jew in being entrusted with the oracles of God, whether circumcised or uncircumcised, Romans 2:15 declares “…they demonstrate the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them.
It is this holy and righteous and good Law of God, is indeed the “law of death” of Romans 8:2.
But not only that, we cannot stop there, for it is also the “law of sin”, which surely Romans 7:13 had proven beyond doubt,
Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by working out my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful.
It was not the law which is at fault for our condemnation, but sin – indeed, sin which is produced by the Law.
And so, when we go back to our verse today,
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.
We realize that we already have a full understanding of what it is we have been freed from, that all who are in Adam, all who are “born of flesh”, to steal a phrase from John 3, remain under.
And so now we are ready to consider what is meant by “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus”, this law which has so changed us from the realm of condemnation to that of justification.
And here, too, Paul is telling us nothing inherently new within this epistle – saying it a different way, yes; pulling it together in a manner we may not have realized before, yes; calling out the contrast of “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” with “the law of sin and of death”, yes – but nothing truly new is being said here.
After all, we only need look again to this main line of thought before the wonderful parentheses of chapters 6 and 7 to see what he’s talking about in this contrast:
Now the Law came in so that the transgression would increase, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The Law, which Paul has here in verse 2 referred to more particularly as “the law of sin and of death”, came in, by the side, so that the transgression would increase. But the opposing force there is “grace”, but not only grace in the sense of existing but also of reigning, it itself is a power and a force to be reckoned with, grace itself is not only a thing which restores, but it also reigns in the sense that a law “reigns”, it controls and sets things in order, it rules in order to bring about “righteousness to eternal life”.
And of course, Paul has already explained this for us in Romans 3, saying
But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
And of course, we ought to understand that this Law is what Paul is calling “the law of sin and of death” in 8:2
being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith, for a demonstration of His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed;
for the demonstration of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
And now to the point for this other law, the “law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus…”
Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith.
This law, the Law referred to in 8:2 as “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus”, is this same “law of faith” Paul had already spoken of in Romans 3:27, which stands in contrast to the condemning Law of sin and of death, it is “the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe” according to verse 22 of that third chapter.
In other words, the “law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus” is nothing less than the gospel – the good news of salvation and rescue from the certain, calamitous, inevitable result of being under the law of sin and of death.
It is the grace of God in Christ Jesus which sets us free from that condemnation which we so richly deserve, the undeserved and unearned favor of God who is “just, and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” according to 3:26. And yet we must go further, not only is it undeserved and unearned, it is undeservable and unearnable for all who stand condemned. For, even should we from this day forward never sin again, never violate any part of God’s holy, just and righteous Law, “where then is boasting?” asks chapter 3 verse 27. If I am able earn God’s favor, I have reason to boast, and so Paul’s answer to the question in that verse was “It is excluded.” It cannot be done, we have already sinned in Adam, we are already condemned by the one transgression of Adam as we saw in the last 9 verses of Romans 5. Keeping a law after you have once broken it does not negate or eliminate the fact that you have already broken the law.
Let me give an example that may help us put this in perspective… Say one man kills another in broad daylight for no particular reason, right in front of the judge and many other witnesses. There is no question of the man’s guilt, there is no doubt as to his condemnation being just. But then while awaiting his trial, rather than shoplifting a candy from the candy-store, he instead pays for his candy, and is likewise seen to do so by the judge and witnesses. When that man appears in front of the judge for his crime of murder, paying for his candy, although good and commendable, does not erase his guilt in the murder of the other man. The fact that he stayed his hand and did not kill yet other men, likewise does not erase his guilt in the one act of murder. Nothing he is able to do, can ever overcome the fact that he remains guilty of the one act of murder.
In the same way, a man today who from this moment further follow the entirety of the Law of God (which we know Scripture says he is unable to do, surely Romans 7 has made that clear to us), such a man in his “holy” or “sanctified” behavior now, cannot overcome the condemnation under that Law of God, it is truly a “law of sin and of death”, it exposes sin, it pronounces death on account of that sin. Instead, he must be released and separated from that Law which condemns him.
And so here is where the heresy of the Roman Catholic church and others who teach that it is a completed sanctification which saves a person becomes obvious, this is where their devilish deception comes in, for if Paul were talking about that, it would be the same situation as the man who paid for his candy not being condemned for the act of murder. It simply doesn’t follow, there is no scriptural basis for such a teaching.
For once again, our understanding has been greatly helped by Paul’s digression in Romans 7, where we read that
So, my brothers, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.
Just as a wife separated from her husband by death is no longer under her husband and can then marry another and be under his authority, so too are we who were made to die to “the law of sin and of death” through our union with Christ Jesus on account of saving faith in Him, be now joined to Him, we are now under the “law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus”, the Holy Spirit has baptized or immersed us into one body, Christ’s body, 1 Corinthians 12 explains to us. The life of Christ Jesus passes into us, through the Spirit.
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.
Now remember, that word “for” is meant to show that this is directly related to Romans 8:1, “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” To remind us that our context is justification, our being not condemned in our actions. We now understand what these two laws are, but it is vitally important that we understand the meaning and importance of how and when this change from being under the law of sin and of death, to the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has occurred, and a proper understanding of this is bound up in the phrase “has set you free” in our verse before us.
It is wrong to think that a person may go back and forth, to be saved and then become unsaved, to swap back and forth from being under the law of sin and of death, to being under the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, and then back under the law of sin and of death. “Has set you free” is an aorist form of the verb ἐλευθερόω, “to set free”, it is something which has occured once in the past, and is over and done with, it is not something which is ongoing, not something which may happen in the future, but it is something which has already occurred.
In other words, this cannot be a sort of further experience or a thing which only happens to certain Christians, for if this does not occur, if you are not removed from the law of sin and of death, you remain condemned, the law has not been removed as your master, you remain under its rule and authority, just as the man in our example was, guilty as a law-breaker, no matter what you may have done in the time since.
The only way to remove that condemnation is to remove you from the law which condemns you, for that law cannot die, it is God’s law, so you must be freed from that Law and bound to another which takes its place, a law which does not condemn you. And so, now, under grace, so strong, so sure, so binding that it can itself only be characterized as a law just as the first law which brought condemnation to all, we are now under “no condemnation”, for we are in Christ Jesus.
I must press this a step further, however, in that this is something that is true of all who are “in Christ Jesus” individually. In this case, this word “you” is a singular word, not a plural word, the apostle is talking about each person in Christ Jesus individually here. And if you are in Christ Jesus by faith, this is true of you, you have already been set free from the law of sin and of death, there is now no condemnation possible for you.
And still, I must go further yet, for to stop here would be premature in our thinking: if this is not true of you, if you have not been “set free from the law of sin and of death”, you are not in Christ Jesus. We will get to this in detail when we get to verse 9, “But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.”
Being transferred out from under “the law of sin and of death”, and under “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus”, is then definitional to what it means to be a Christian. It is perhaps one of the greatest proofs that “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
And yet, this is only the first part of this first great proof of not being that there is no condemnation on account of our being joined to Christ Jesus. Lord willing, we will go on next week to prove beyond doubt that the purpose of the Law towards accomplishing righteousness has been accomplished.
Let us pray!