Freedom from the Law’s Tyranny

Introduction

Throughout the book of Romans, Paul has addressed two different groups of people: Jews and Gentiles who are both coexisting in the Roman church. Chapter 6 was about why we should not live in sin and I can imagine the Jewish christians in the audience saying “Yeah, you Gentiles this is why we keep the law.” Paul’s response is that not only are we dead to sin, but we are also dead to the law.

Have you ever worked for someone who was impossible to please? They had tons of rules and it seemed like you could never measure up to them. As parents we must be careful that we do not frustrate or provoke to wrath our children by being like this. But having a boss or being in a relationship like this can be oppressive. It feels like you can never of anything right and you are always in trouble. Then comes the day when you get fired and you actually breathe a breath of relief because you are free from that oppressive bondage.

Back in Romans 6:14 “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” Paul had made this claim looking forward to chapter 7. If sin is a real problem and it is, then shouldn’t the solution just be more law. We can think that the solution to our kids acting up is just sometimes more rules. Kids does that really work to fix the problem. The law and the rules are good, but God created them to show us not how good we can be, but how far we fail to measure up to that goodness.

Sin was an impossible master. All he ever brought you was death and destruction. Walk into any high school today and you are going to see at-least two groups of kids: You have the rebels who just want to do what ever they want to do. Free sex, drugs, drinking whatever it is; they are going to do it. These kids lives are spiraling towards destruction and heartache; they serve an abusive master who will just destroy: sin. But you also have the kids who only ever do the right thing. They bend over backwards to please their teachers. They have to make straight A’s or they have a panic attack. Image is important to them. If someone got a vid of them and posts it on instagram with noodles hanging out their mouth, they would be mortified. At some point, they will fail and because perfection and image are so important, they will crash and burn. Which of those two masters do you think is a better master to serve?

Both sin and the law are tyrants. The law becomes a burden we cannot bear and a reminder that we will never measure up. Paul in chapters 7-8 is going to introduce a new way of looking at the rules and a new way to actually do what is right in God’s eyes. This new way will not involve the tyranny of the law with its impossible standards. But this new way will actually empower us to live Godly and Holy. We will eventually get there but this morning, we look at our freedom from the Law’s tyranny.

The General Principle

Romans 7:1 “Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?”

Paul asks that question again “Don’t you know this?” because he is not introducing some strange new way of thinking. It actually makes sense. Notice those parenthesis here. This is kinda like an aside. Paul interjects a comment about who he is talking too. Who would normally have a problem with being slaves to the law, Jews or Gentiles? Jews Paul says I am addressing those who know the law. Now the Gentiles in the church would have known about the law because of their exposure to the Jews, but they are not the primary audience here.

Paul is going to begin by giving us a general principle on which he is going to build his case. The general principle says that the law is only over you as long as you live. Let’s think about this principle. In America, we have a lot of laws. We have laws about taxes. Do we go to the cemetery and charge taxes of all the dead people in the graves? No taxes are for the living. Even the so called death tax is technically paid by the remaining family when someone dies. What about capital punishment? Let’s say Timothy McVey the Murough Building bomber escaped and 10 years later we found out that he was dead of natural causes. Do we dig up his dead body and beat it up and inflict punishment on it. No he is already dead. He is paying for his sins somewhere else.

When a person dies, he is not sitting there thinking did I pay my taxes or did I blow through that red light. There is a finality to death.

The Illustration

In Vs 2-3 Paul is going to give an illustration of this truth.

Romans 7:2–3 “For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.”

Marriage is both a spiritual, physical and a legal union between a man and a woman. When we make marriage vows that is a legal agreement between us, a covenant before God. We also sign legal papers and receive a legal marriage licence. Paul is showing that marriage is a matter of law. I have known people who refuse to get state marriage license because they miss out on this important truth.

But marriage is a legal commitment to one person for the rest of your life. Our culture takes marriage too lightly. They act as if they can just get tired of the other person and split up. Or they get into a fight and call it quite. But marriage is a legal commitment to that other person. There are few things that can biblically break a marriage and Paul is not trying to speak on divorce and remarriage in this passage. But there is one thing that does break the legal commitment of marriage: death. Biblically, legally as long as your spouse is alive except for biblical exceptions, you are bound to that person. But it he dies, you are loosed, free from the law that bound you to your husband.

He goes on and says, if you haven’t been legally set free from that marriage and you go live with another man that is adultery. But if he died, you are free to go marry another man.

So there is one thing that sets us free from the obligations of the law: death. Do you see how this ties into Paul’s point in chapter six. Paul stated in Romans 6:3–5 “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:”

Our Union with Christ which involves our death and resurrection with him, means we died to who we were before. Maybe you spent you whole life trying to be good enough for God to love you, maybe you tried really hard to get to heaven someday. And the longer you went, the more and more you felt like a failure. As a Christian, we have died to that. Not only do we not have to sin, but we are no longer under the bondage of trying to keep the law.

There is freedom here. Does Christianity seem like it is impossible to live up to? All those rules and practices that God expects seem to be too much. What that reveals is a wrong focus? You are going about Christianity in the wrong way.

The Application

Paul applies this truth to our lives in verse 4.

Romans 7:4 “Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.”

Paul says brothers when you died in Christ, you died to two impossible masters: You died to sin and you died to the law. In Christ or because of your spiritual union with Christ you have been set free from law living. The second half of the verse gives us two reasons:

So that you could be married to another- Just like it is illegal to have two husbands, you cannot be married to the law and Christ at the same time. The law brought death because we could never keep it, but Jesus is raised from the dead and brings life. Being married to the law was a hopeless struggle, but Christ gives us true life.

So that we should bring forth fruit unto God- You might be tempted to think that throwing out the law in Christianity means we can just live however we want to and that would be missing the point. Paul says that our union with Christ, is intended to bring forth fruit. That language of fruit in the context of marriage implies bringing forth children. The law as good as it sounds was barren. It could not produce holiness in your life. This is why legalism is so dangerous for the Christian. It looks good on the outside but it is empty on the inside. It cannot produce fruit. It cannot produce holiness.

Have you ever seen someone who claims to be a good Christian? They have that air of spirituality about them. They wear the right clothes, have the right haircut and refuse to do certain things that they think are wrong, but on the inside, they despise others who are not like them, they speak hateful things to people, their lips are filled with gossip and or criticism. Legalism cannot produce holiness. Never, ever because it cleans up the outside and leaves the inside alone. Its worse than this as we will see in the next verse, but here it is powerless to produce fruit in our lives.

The Reason

Romans 7:5–6 “For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.”

In vs 5-6 Paul tells us why God chose to do it this way. when we were in the flesh- before we were saved when our flesh had full reign in our lives. Before we were saved, sin and the law worked together to bring forth dead fruit. Paul will later tell us that the law is good and holy, but because f our sinful flesh, the motions of sin, our desires toward sin responded to the law in rebellion. So we have been given two reasons why we needed to die to the law:

Reasons Legalism cannot help us:

Legalism cannot produce holiness

Legalism actually produces more sin

Tonight I will be preaching on some red flags I have seen in Fundamental churches and one of the things I have seen in especially the legalistic churches is that there is some deep sin that is hidden underneath the surface. The law rather than promoting holiness in us actually produces more sin because our flesh pushes back against the law. Our flesh is like a teenager. When you tell them you can’t go out with your friends; they respond in rebellion and slam doors, break dishes, die their hair green. I am using hopefully hyperbole, but the point is that when the flesh is told it can’t have its own way, it rebels and causes more sin. It says “Oh yeah, not only am I going to do that, but I’m also going to do all these other things just to spite you.”

Conclusion

The last sentence is Paul’s conclusion and it answers the question “Why do I need this?” There are two ways to live the christian life: First, You can live it by law. Paul call this serving in the oldness of the letter. But Paul says that the law is barren. Not only can it not produce holiness in your life, but it will also promote more sin in your life. Or Secondly, you can live in the newness of the spirit. We will unpack walking in the spirit in chapter 8. The Mosaic law with its edicts only produces death but what Paul calls the law of Christ in Galatians 6:2 “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.” produces true holiness. Earlier in Galatians Paul concludes the law, circumcision doesn’t produce anything good. But rather faith which worketh by love. Galatians 5:5–6 “For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.”

Romans 13:10 “Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”

You might think that you have a choice and living by the law can seem easier sometimes, but Paul says as believers we have died to the law. That is not our life anymore. The Christian is supposed to live a spirit-filled, spirit- led life of holiness.

How are you living out your faith today? Are you trying to live it by keeping the law or are you seeking to live life dependent on the Spirit?