Romans 7:1-8:1

The law only has authority over a man as long as he is alive. (vs 1)

The analogy in vs 2 has been the occasion of much confusion.

The analogy is simple.

If the man is alive and his wife marries, she commits adultery, if he dies and she remarries, she doesn’t commit adultery.

Death breaks the obligation to be faithful.

The confusion comes in vs 4.

People read that verse as since they are dead to the law, it is irrelevant to the Christian life.

This becomes the proof-text to support the spirit of Antinomianism, the idea that the Christian is no longer related to the law of God in any way.

This is not what the apostle is saying.

Who dies in verse 4?

So if man dies, the law lives.

In what sense did man die?

We died with Christ; our old selves have been put to death and the curse has been taken by Jesus.

Our new relationship with the law has changed it has not been severed.

We have been resurrected into a new life so, we must now bear new fruit.

What the law failed to elicit from us, Christ helps to see born through our relationship with Him.

Justification under faith and living under Grace is never a license to sin.

When we were in the flesh, the desires of sin were activated by the very presence of the law. (Vs 5-6a)

What the law once did to us, it does no longer.

We are still called to obedience but in the new way of the spirit. (vs 6)

Service now happens in the spirit not in the written code.

This is where most confusion happens. Some people believe Paul to say there is a written part and a spiritual part.

The written is the expressed parts on the stone.

The spiritual is the intent or the motives behind the law.

The Pharisees thought they were keeping the law because it said thou shalt not murder and they didn’t.

Paul however is not making that distinction. He is not saying God is concerned with you keeping the written and disobeying the spirit or the visa-versa.

What he is saying is that you now have a new spirit in you.

The Holy Spirit empowers you to now live the law.

Paul answers the next big objection or question. (vs 7)

Is the law bad?

If we get rid of speed limit people won’t speed.

If we make marijuana legal, people won’t get arrested for it.

Sin depends upon a standard.

Sin took advantage of the law. (v 8)

Paul was alive without knowledge of the law. (v 9)

Does he mean he was without sin?

Is this cause for an age of accountability?

If there is one, we know not the age it is. (David)

However, there are different requirements for a 4 year old than a 40 year old.

In the Jewish custom, a Bar Mitzvah, designated the transition.

Bar Mitzvah means son of commandment.

Paul recalls that the more he learned of the law the more sin stirred up within him. (v 10)

The fault is not the commandment.

Our sin deceived us thus put us to death. (v 11)

Sin kills and deceives and the tool used is the commandment.

The apostle doesn’t mix words, the law is Holy! (v 12)

Irony: The more I see the commandment, the more I sin: the more I sin, the more I reveal how holy and righteous the commandment is and the more wicked and deceitful I am. (v 13)

Paul still deals with his sinful nature. (v 14)

He also in this verse makes a distinction between himself and the law.

He is carnal, sold to sin, the law is spiritual given by God.

The battle of choice. (v 15)

The secret to sanctification is to develop within our hearts a growing intensity of desire to please God.

Have a bigger yes!

By doing what I don’t want to do, I prove the law is good. (v 16)

Does Paul have schizophrenia? (vs 17)

Paul is not saying there are two distinct people.

He is saying the real him, the new him, doesn’t want to do that stuff. It is traces of the old him.

He is still responsible for his actions.

He repeats the struggle in vs 18-20.

Again none of this absolves Paul of his responsibility or his consequences.

Paul states a law but is truly meant a proverbial axiom. (v 21)

Our most dedicated moments come the most evil thoughts.

Whenever we desire to do good, we experience our closest proximity to evil.

Paul confirms that he is discussing his post conversion self. (v 22)

No unregenerate person delights in the law of God in his or her innermost self.

There is another “law” at work. (vs 23)

Paul is not saying his soul is righteous and his body is wicked.

He is talking about the core versus the peripheral.

Sin is not longer an internal force by which he is bound but an external that is constantly consistent at tugging he and I away from God.

Paul cries out in anguish and profound remorse! (v 24)

Paul realizes like Isaiah, like David: Woe is me for I am undone and I am not a man but a worm.

Who will rescue me from this body of death? (vs 24)

What does he mean by body of death?

He answers his own questions.

There is but one name by which men can be saved.

Verse 25 is scary.

This isn’t the end. begins with one of the most triumphant and victorious verses in scripture.

THEREFORE!!!!

Paul made a huge argument from chpt 1-7. Then he cleans it all with verse 1 in chapter 8.

Just like Paul even after my conversion I sin.

I deserve condemnation.

But I have a savior.

God sees me covered.

What does Paul mean “in Christ Jesus?”

The Greek is “eis.” Which means into.

Once you go into you are clearly in. Which is the Greek word. “en”.

Once a person has faith that moves them “into” Christ they are securely “in” Christ. Which is why there is no condemnation.

Well if it is all Christ, why do I have to worry?

Your life will still be evaluated.

You don’t have to worry because you are in Him.

You will be completely satisfied with your reward.

Hell is not an option because there is no condemnation.