Death to the Law

REVIEW QUESTIONS

QUESTION: What are the two kinds of slaves in chapter 6?

ANSWER: A slave of sin or a slave of righteousness

QUESTION: Can someone be both?

ANSWER: NO

QUESTION: How do you know which one you are?

ANSWER: By which one you obey on a regular basis

QUESTION: What are the outcomes of the two kinds of slaves?

ANSWER: Slave of sin: death

slave of righteousness: eternal life

INTRODUCTION

We are going to cover the first 13 verses of Chapter 7 tonight. Next week is our shoe box packing and the week after that is Thanksgiving meal. The week after that we will not have Wednesday night service. the week after that we will decorate the church for Christmas!

Chapter 6 was about dying to sin. Putting to death the old man so that we can be raised to new life and be freed from the power of sin.

Chapter 7 is about dying to the Law so that we may serve God in the newness of the Spirit.

1) In Christ we are free from the obligations of the Law

Romans 7:1–6 “Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives?

QUESTION: What is the Law?

Those who have died with Christ are not bound to the OT Law (v 1)

That means the things Moses commanded Israel in the OT do not apply directly to us today.

That does not mean that is not useful, or should no be preached, or does not have any authority over us today.

2 Timothy 3:16 “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness”

This verse includes the OT!

It is still useful today and cannot be unhitched from the NT

So how do we use the OT?

We extract principles from Scripture that would apply to us today.

Ex: Deuteronomy 22:8 ““When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, so that you will not bring bloodguilt on your house if anyone falls from it.”

How do we use this today? Be mindful of what you do so that it does not cause harm to other people.

If we build a house that is unsafe for people and let people come over and be exposed to that danger, we’re at fault.

Leave a dead tree in your yard that could fall on your neighbors house, or car, or neighbor

Leave electrical outlets with exposed wiring that could hurt someone

Also the OT verses teach us about God and about the nature of man, about how God interacts with man, about worship, about faith, and creation, on and on

So it is still very useful for us today

Romans 7:2–4 “For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man. Therefore, my brethren, 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.”

The illustration of marriage

Paul uses marriage as a way to illustrate this truth

A woman who is married is bound to her husband by law as long as he is living

If the husband dies, then the woman is free to remarry, but If the woman leaves before the husband dies, she commits adultery.

The point is the only way the woman can leave her husband is through his death

The same point is true for us in relation to the Law and to Christ

The only way a person can be united to Christ, and bear fruit for God, is to die to the Law.

That is, we must stop trying to achieve our righteousness (or be right with God) by obeying God’s commands.

Paul is writing to people who knew the Law (v 1), and did their best to follow the Law, and by doing their best to follow the law they would be saved through the obeying of the Law.

Paul says that will never work. We cannot achieve what is needed to go to heaven by trying to do what God wants us to do!

It didn’t work in the OT and it doesn’t work for NT believers.

So the first thing we must do is die to that whole pursuit!

Illustration

Suppose someone says to themselves, I’m getting older and I really don’t want to go to hell. So I am going to start going to church. So they do

Then they say, well I don’t feel like that is enough. I think I should probably stop cussing too. So they do

Then they say, that’s still not quite enough, I should probably start giving a little money to the church too. So they do

Then they say, I still don’t feel like things are right, “I’m going to start giving money to the Salvation Army”.

Then they eventually convince themselves that because of doing these things, they are right with God.

QUESTION: Have you ever tried this approach to Christianity?

2) Trying to follow God’s Law in a body of sin makes us want to sin more.

Romans 7:5 “For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death.”

When this happens, people understand what God wants them to do, yet knowing what God wants them to do, makes the flesh want to disobey God even more.

It’s like telling a child, do not eat that Halloween candy I put up on top of the fridge.

That child was given a law or a rule. And ever since the parent said that, all that child can do is think about getting some of that candy. In fact he wants it more now than he ever did because his mama told him he cannot have any more.

This is the result of trying to get to God by following all the rules.

It is counter productive! One would think if I just knew what to do, then I can do it and eventually do everything that God wants me to do!

But what actually happens is God says don’t do this and then the sinful nature inside an unconverted person says, “oh how badly you need this!” Get it!

And they sin even more than they did before they knew what they were not supposed to do.

(v 6) “But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.”

That is that instead of breaking out the rule book and checking off our list of things we are supposed to do, we serve God in the Spirit

QUESTION: If serving in the oldness of the letter means trying to obey our way to heaven what does “serving in the newness of the Spirit mean”?

ANSWER: This is a contrast between the the Old Covenant and the New Covenant.

Ezekiel 36:26–27 “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.”

Serving God in the newness of the Spirit is obedience empowered by the Holy Spirit. It is a change of desires. It is a change of heart. It is knowing what God wants and actually wanting to do it.

Application:

There are many many people today who are still trying to get to God through the oldness of letter. They are trying to obey but can’t. Their sinful nature is fighting against them constantly.

3) The Law is good and reveals the true nature of our sin

Romans 7:7 “What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “You shall not covet.”

The Law is Good!

And that is because if the Law makes us want to sin even more, we may be tempted to think that it is bad and we need to get it out of here!

What is it good for?

It reveals our sin

Paul says, “he would not have known about coveting if he had not read in the Law that “You shall not covet”.

The Law tells us what sin is. And whatever God calls sin, is sin, and our opinion has nothing to do with it.

The church would be in a much better place if it would learn this simple truth.

It seems like more and more people are redefining sin to fit their own life, while ignoring what God has written in black and white.

(v 8-11) But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead. I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died; and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me; for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.”

What in the world is Paul talking about!?

There was a time in Paul’s life when he had no conviction of sin. (apart from the Law sin is dead). Meaning it has very little affect on people. Sin is sin and the result is the same (death). But those who do not know what they are doing is sin, there is no conviction.

Paul could sin and it made no impact upon him. And even though he knew the Law, he did not realize the seriousness of it.

Application:

This is the experience of all people who live in disobedience to God yet still think they are right with God. They have no conviction, no sorrow over their sin, knowing its wrong, but not understanding the gravity of it.

(v 9) “But when the commandment came, sin became alive, and I died”

When he read or understood or realized what he was doing was in direct opposition against God, his sin became very real to him, producing a conviction in his life that he was in trouble.

Application: This is a method of evangelism that we use. It is simply using God’s Law to identify sin in people’s lives, to allow them to see their sin and then see they truly have a need to be saved from their sin through Jesus.

(v 12-13) So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. 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 effecting my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful.”

The point here is that Paul wants to say again that the Law is good and sin is the culprit.

Sin has taken what is good and used it for its own evil purposes showing itself to be exceedingly sinful

And we are reminded here that the law has no real power to break the sin pattern and sin’s power over one’s life.

In fact, sin can take the Law and use it for its own purposes to cause us to sin even more.

The Law then cannot be the solution, there must be something else which he discloses in the the next section.