AS A MATTER OF FACT, I AM ABOVE THE LAW

AS A MATTER OF FACT, I AM ABOVE THE LAW Romans 7-8 With grateful acknowledgement of these sources of direction and inspiration: the Holy Spirit; the Word of God; Henry Cloud and John Townsend, How People Grow; Larry Crabb, The Pressure's Off; John Piper, Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ; Robert Russell, "By Sin Enslaved"; John Stott, Romans August 31, 2003 [Additional Notes] Given by: Pastor Rich Bersett [Index of Past Messages] Introductory From the award-winning film, The English Patient, comes the line, "In love there are no boundaries." A recent slogan from the IBM Corporation reads, "Rules? What rules?" Not long ago, the Spice Girls purred this lyric: "The rules are for breaking." Comedy Central boasts, "See comedy that breaks the rules." And, of course the ubiquitous message of media advertising: "Life without limits" (Prince Macthabelli perfume; "No limits" (Foster Grant sunglasses); "We broke the rules" (Columbia House Music Club); "No Rules. Just right." (Outback Steakhouse) Thousands of messages proclaim the message, "Away with Standards!" as they routinely appeal to postmodern sensibilities. And we cringe at the potential consequences of that kind of thinking. If there are no rules, no boundaries, no laws, what will happen to society? It would be utter chaos, anarchy. So, we might be surprised when we come to a text like Galatians 3:25 and find the apostle Paul saying things like "Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law". And again at Romans 6:14 - "you are not under law, but under grace." Then we come to our text in Romans 7 and find these words at verse 6 - "we have been released from the law". Of course, the "law" that Paul is talking about is not the law of governments, courts, city ordinances and traffic signals. He is talking about the basic moral law of God-the commandments and ordinances of the Old Testament. So, please don't leave here today and tell someone that Pastor Rich said we don't have to obey the speed limit, the tax code or the constitution. Let's take a look at the text. Please begin with me at Romans 6:23 - "for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Here we have the ultimate bad news-good news statement. The best news is that we can freely receive salvation and eternal life as a gift from Jesus. The worst of all bad news is that sin results in death-and this is a clear contrast with the eternal life, so the verse is talking about hell as eternal death. As we try to understand the contrast between chapter 7 of Romans and chapter 8 it might be well to keep this verse in mind. Think about the hopelessness of sin leading to death. Paul will refer to the "law of sin and death" in Romans 8:2. There he will teach that we believers have been set free from the law of sin and death through Jesus Christ and the law of the Spirit of life. In the interest of time, we'll skip the marriage analogy in 7:1-3, and pick up at verse 4 - "So, my brothers, 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 to God." What happens to the person who comes to salvation in Christ is that he "dies to the law". Verse 5- "For when we were controlled by the sinful nature," (please see here that the Christian is no longer controlled by the sinful nature) "the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death." Essentially, the mere mention of sin in the law enticed us to sin, and as sinners we did not bear fruit to God, but we bore fruit to death. Verse 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." The old way of trying to live to please God was under the law. That is, attempting to make ourselves righteous before God by doing good and not doing bad. But Paul said there is a "new way" made available to us in Christ. Not only do we have in Christ the necessary payment for our sin which brings us back into fellowship with the Father. He also provides a new way in which we may live for God. It is not the old way of the law, but the new way of the Spirit. Let's understand, this new way revolutionizes religion. Every other form of religion is an attempt to reach God by appeasing Him through our good works or our efforts to do a little more good than bad. Only in Christ does God say to us, you can never make yourself righteous before me, but I can do it for you through the gift of my Son. Receive His salvation for your sins and come to me. Many years ago during a British conference on comparative religions, experts from around the world debated whether any one doctrine was unique to the Christian faith. They began eliminating possibilities. Incarnation? Other religions had different versions of gods appearing in human form. Resurrection? Again, other religions had accounts of return from death. The debate went on for some time until C.S. Lewis wandered into the room. "What's the topic of discussion?" he asked, and his colleagues explained that they were talking about Christianity's unique contribution among the world's religions. In his forthright manner Lewis responded, "That's easy. It's grace." After more discussion, the conferees had to agree. The notion of God's love as a part of God from the beginning of creation, offered to us, free of charge, no strings attached, seems to go against every instinct of humanity. The Buddhist eightfold path, the Hindu doctrine of karma, the Jewish covenant and the Muslim code of law -- each offers a way to earn God's approval. Only Christianity dares to make God's love unconditional. Next Paul reveals the ongoing struggle, as a saved Christian. He says he has this ongoing struggle with the flesh, and it has to do with the law. He admits he loves the law of God and confesses that it is good, and that he wants to do what is good, but he can't seem to do it. Start at verse 12 - "So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good." Did that which is good, then, become death to me? That is, did God's good law make me bad by creating a sinful condition in me? Verse 13b - "By no means! But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful." The law doesn't make us sinners. We're sinners because we want to sin. The law simply shows us that we are sinners and just how bad off we are. Verse 14-15 - "We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do." Are there some Christians in this room who would be honest enough to also admit that you love God's law, and you desperately want to obey it, especially since Christ has saved you for eternal life, but you just can't do it? We are beginning to see a dilemma here. Paul is a Christian. God has saved him through Christ so that he can bear fruit to God (verse 4) and stop bearing fruit for sin and death (verse 5). He goes on. Verse 16 - "And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do-this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is not longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it." This guy is a mess, aren't we? His real self-his redeemed, God-loving, Christ-serving, law-loving self-wants to do right, but can't. So, he says, it's not really me doing evil, because I do not want to. I just have to admit that, even though I am a Christian, I still have sin and a sinful nature in me. When I finally see Christ and am fully redeemed, that will be eliminated once and for all, but for now, I still have this sinful nature to contend with. He goes on. Verse 21 - "So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God-through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin." You know, what really worries us about sin in our lives is the issue of condemnation. At the heart of the matter, we are afraid that one day God is going to say, "That's it, Bersett! Grace is grace and mercy is mercy, but I've had enough of your flesh failures. You're on your own now!" But Paul is writing to say that is exactly what will never happen! If you are in Christ, your sins-all of them-are paid for through the atonement of Jesus. Romans 8:1 - "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus". The two greatest words you ever heard - NO CONDEMNATION! If you understand the meaning of that awesome truth you have been "Good Newsed"! The almost unbelievable truth is that when you trust in Jesus Christ, your sins, all your sins, are atoned for. He did it for you. That is soul-comforting news for those who, like Paul in Romans 7, felt they were failing as Christians. Pastor Lee Strobel shares this account: We were doing a baptism service. We told people before they came up to the platform to be baptized to take a piece of paper, write down a few of the sins they've committed, and fold the paper. When they come up to the platform, there was a large wooden cross on the stage. Take that piece of paper, take a pin, and pin it to the cross, because the Bible says our sins are nailed to the cross with Jesus Christ, and fully paid for by his death. Then turn and come to the pastor to be baptized. I want to read you a letter a woman wrote who was baptized in one of those services. She said: I remember my fear. In fact, it was the most fear I remember in my life. I wrote as tiny as I could on that piece of paper the word abortion. I was so scared someone would open the paper and read it and find out it was me. I wanted to get up and walk out of the auditorium during the service, the guilt and fear were that strong. When my turn came, I walked toward the cross, and I pinned the paper there. I was directed to a pastor to be baptized. He looked me straight in the eyes, and I thought for sure that he was going to read this terrible secret I kept from everybody for so long. But instead, I felt like God was telling me, I love you. It's okay. You've been forgiven. I felt so much love for me, a terrible sinner. It's the first time I ever really felt forgiveness and unconditional love. It was unbelievable, indescribable. Do you have inside of you a secret sin that you wouldn't even want to write down on a piece of paper out of fear somebody might open it up and find out? Let me tell you something about the Jesus I know. Not only does he know all about that sin, He has already forgiven it and has adopted you as his child, and he wants to lift the weight of guilt off your shoulders. The first answer to the dilemma of our sin nature and our inability to live up to the law is NO CONDEMANTION. But there is a second answer. This answer, like the no condemnation promise, applies only to the Christian-one who has received Christ and trusted Him as Savior. The second promise is about how the believer is equipped to live ABOVE THE LAW and escape the Romans 7 dilemma. That is through the Holy Spirit whom He has given to those who trust Him. Romans 8:2 - "because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit." Here we begin to understand how God gets us to the place where we bear fruit for Him. Remember, He said back in 7:6, "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." What is the new way? It is walking in the Spirit. Romans 8 teaches that we don't have to struggle with whether or not we are living up to the law, trying our hardest in our own carnal strength to please God. Romans 7 showed us we can't do that. We need supernatural power to bear fruit for God--the power of the Holy Spirit. Let's read from Romans 8:5-9 - "Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ." Please catch the significance of that last verse. Paul says that Christians have the Holy Spirit in them. Non-believers do not, but believers do. That means that if you have trusted Christ for your salvation, you have God's Spirit living and working within you. That means you have the power to live above the law of sin and death. Understand, I am not talking about perfectionism here, because no one follows the Holy Spirit perfectly. But the point is this: you can live above the troublesome existence of Romans 7. How does the Christian live above the law of sin and death? Be careful here-the answer is so simple that it can get by you if you're not careful. You pay no attention to the law; you simply devote yourself to following the Holy Spirit. The New Testament clearly teaches that the Holy Spirit is the anointing that God has given believers (John 2:20, 27). When we follow Him, by obedience to the Word (which is His leading) and incline ourselves to His direction, we will never miss fulfilling God's law. Galatians 5:16-18 - "So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law." We never successfully obey God when we are focused on law. It only brings out the worst in our sinful nature. Stop focusing on the law-trying to keep every rule, avoiding every misstep and not forgetting to do all the holy things. You get lost in the legalistic complexity of that. As a believer, if you will learn to do one thing well, you will always fulfill the perfect will of God. Walk in the Spirit. Jesus said that we could be shed of our burdened efforts at keeping the law-always doing what the law says to do, and always avoiding what the law says to not do. He said, "Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and by burden is light." [webmasters note: Matthew 11:28-30] Christian, you don't have hundreds of laws to obey-you have one thing to do, and you are empowered by His Spirit living in you to do it. And here is what the Spirit of God leads Christians to do: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind…[and] your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and Prophets hand on these two commandments." (Matthew 22:37-40) Romans 13:9-10 picks up the same theme: "Love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law." "The first fruit of the Spirit is…love" (Galatians 5:22). There it is. God's plan to simplify religion. No Condemnation for those who trust in Christ, and the Holy Spirit to lead and empower them in the righteous life that God wants of them. Dr. Bill Bright of Campus Crusade for Christ tells this story of a famous oil field called Yates Pool: During the depression this field was a sheep ranch owned by a man named Yates. Mr. Yates wasn't able to make enough on his ranching operation to pay the principal and interest on the mortgage, so he was in danger of losing his ranch. With little money for clothes or food, his family (like many others) had to live on government subsidy. Day after day, as he grazed his sheep over those rolling West Texas hills, he was no doubt greatly troubled about how he would pay his bills. Then a seismographic crew from an oil company came into the area and told him there might be oil on his land. They asked permission to drill a wildcat well, and he signed a lease contract. At 1,115 feet they struck a huge oil reserve. The first well came in at 80,000 barrels a day. Many subsequent wells were more than twice as large. In fact, 30 years after the discovery, a government test of one of the wells showed it still had the potential flow of 125,000 barrels of oil a day. And Mr. Yates owned it all. The day he purchased the land he had received the oil and mineral rights. Yet, he'd been living on relief. A multimillionaire living in poverty. The problem? He didn't know the oil was there even though he owned it. Many Christians live in spiritual poverty. They are entitled to the gifts of the Holy Spirit and his energizing power, but they are not aware of their birthright. I want to close with three exhortations on how to live above the law as a Christian RELAX Christ has saved you and there is now NO CONDEMNATION Since your efforts at law-keeping are fruitless, stop trying You died to the law and can live above the Romans 7 dilemma RELINQUISH Control of your life-stop trying to do it in your strength Trust the Holy Spirit in you to lead you and empower you Devote yourself to one thing-following Him REJOICE That there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus That you live above the fretting, carnal efforts of trying to keep the law The Joy of the LORD is your strength (Nehemiah 8:10) Consider what you might do if one Saturday afternoon, your doorbell suddenly rang. You lumber out of your Lazyboy, shuffle to the door and pull it open. To your shock and amazement, you are confronted with glaring lights, video cameras and a guy holding an over-sized check for ten million dollars. Against all odds, you have won the Publishers Clearinghouse Sweepstakes. What do you think might be your first reaction? The film shot of most of these big winners usually shows them with their mouths and their eyes wide open, dancing around while screaming "I don't believe it! I don't believe it!" They say to themselves, "Nobody ever wins these things" and "The odds against winning are astronomical," coupled with, second, unbridled joy - "Yes, yes, yes, it's really happened to me," "Our lives are changed forever," "It's what we've always hoped for!" No briefly compare the value of the Sweepstakes with the virtually incomparable gift of the forgiveness of your sins and the gift of eternal life. The Holy Spirit enables us to live in the continual joy of that realization until the day when we meet the Lord in person and He hands the check over to us. [Back to Top]