Romans 7:1-25

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JR. Church

Call two men up to play...
How many of you have ever played tug-of-war?
What is the point of this game? How do you play it? How do you win?
Do you ever feel like there is a tug of war inside of you?
Your parents do too! Sometimes they have tug-of-war inside their hearts and minds.
Paul tells us that it is not always easy to follow Jesus but that we can when we have the Holy Spirit that gives us strength.
Call up another man to pull on the side of one of the others.

PRAY

Oh God our Father in Heaven we praise your Holy Name. We thank you for your text this morning in Romans 7. LORD as we gather together today to hear your word we want to bring our confessions before you. Individually and corporately we agree with your Holy standard and we agree that we have fallen far short of it. We recognize our sin before you and we come to you with nothing to offer in ourselves but humble submission to you as we ask for your grace and mercy of forgiveness. We praise you for those who have come before us in the faith. For Paul who you selected as a herald to us as gentiles who speaks to us even today through your Holy Word and the power of your Holy Spirit. Help us to be encouraged and or rebuked this day as we place ourselves under your teaching. Let us not be hearers only but seeking the power you give through the Spirit to be renewed in our minds so as to be doers also. God we praise you for Romans 7 and how transparent your servant Paul is in it. Please hear our supplications now as we turn to the reading and preaching of your word! Amen!

Message

If someone showed you a caricature of Richard Nixon—a man’s face with oversize shaggy eyebrows, a bulbous nose and pronounced jowls—you would probably recognize the former president immediately, even though the drawing is not true to life. A cartoonist creates such a sketch by taking the average of many male faces and subtracting it from Nixon’s face, then amplifying those distinctive differences. To an observer, the result looks more like Nixon than Nixon himself. Why is it that our brains respond so intensely to extremes?
---- Save For Ending ---
When the cartoon’s “Nixon-ness” jumps out at you, you are experiencing what scientists call “peak shift.” To understand the concept, imagine, for argument’s sake, that you want to teach a rat to distinguish a rectangle from a square. It’s quite easy to do. Simply give the animal cheese every time it picks the rectangle, and it will soon learn to select the rectangle every time. Once the rat has developed this preference, let’s say you show it a longer, skinnier rectangle. Inevitably, you will find that the rat prefers the exaggerated one to the original. What the rat has learned to recognize is not a particular rectangle but rather rectangularity itself: the more rectangular the better. The savvy rodent looks at the longer, skinnier quadrilateral and goes, “Wow, what a rectangle!” In scientific parlance, the rat’s “peak response”—its strongest reaction—has shifted away from the original—hence the term “peak shift.” [https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/carried-to-extremes/]
“Peak Shift”
The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Six: Christians and the Law (Romans 7)

Something in human nature makes us want to go to extremes, a weakness from which Christians are not wholly free. “Since we are saved by grace,” some argue, “we are free to live as we please,” which is the extreme of license.

“But we cannot ignore God’s Law,” others argue. “We are saved by grace, to be sure; but we must live under Law if we are to please God.” This is the extreme expression of legalism.

Paul = Correcting Extremes
Antinomianism
Legalism - slavery to God…
Law-fulfilling Freedom
The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Six: Christians and the Law (Romans 7)

What really is “legalism”? It is the belief that I can become holy and please God by obeying laws. It is measuring spirituality by a list of do’s and don’ts. The weakness of legalism is that it sees sins (plural) but not sin (the root of the trouble). It judges by the outward and not the inward. Furthermore, the legalist fails to understand the real purpose of God’s Law and the relationship between Law and grace.

The Authority of The Law [Rom 7.1-6] = Defining our right relationship with the Law.
The Illustration [v1-3]
Romans 7:1–3 ESV
1 Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? 2 For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. 3 Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.
v1
Jews & Romans = know the law / religious / secular
Binding = “complete dominance” = Mark 10.42
v2
Marriage = bound - law [Gen 2.24; Matt 5.31-34, 19.1-12]
Death = release = “to be exempt” - null and void = No Longer a wife!
v3
free from that law - Rom 6.18 = free from sin
We died to the Law [v4-5]
Romans 7:4–5 ESV
4 Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. 5 For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.
v4
Likewise = symbolically = way of explanation
belong to another!!
died to the law = died to sin [Rom 6.2]
Christ = flesh = under law [Gal 4.4] = raised = exempt
NOTICE | release from law and marriage to Christ = church is christs bride!
v5
What does it mean to have our sinful passions aroused by the law? = Paul will answer this later… 8/9
Fruit / marriage = children | / Christ = obedience
We are released from the Law [v6]
Romans 7:6 ESV
6 But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.
NOTICE | the law does not die rather we do; what the law failed to do in us Christ will do through us
John 4:23–24 ESV
23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
The New American Commentary: Romans 2. No Longer Condemned by Law (7:1–25)

The shift from law to Spirit is a shift from legalism to true spirituality. How unfortunate that so many believers continue to understand their Christian experience within an ethical framework determined by law.

The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Six: Christians and the Law (Romans 7)

To be “dead to the Law” does not mean that we lead lawless lives. It simply means that the motivation and dynamic of our lives does not come from the Law: it comes from God’s grace through our union with Christ.

Legalism
Antinomianism
Law-Abiding Free People!!
The Ministry of The Law [Rom 7.7-13] = What the Law does and was meant to do.
The Law unfolds Sin [v7]
Romans 7:7 ESV
7 What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”
Logical step of V5… “our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.” = Does that mean LAW = BAD
Shoot a arrow into the woods, will you hit a bullseye? NO, why? You must have a target to shoot at in order to truly miss the mark!
SIN = requires an absolute standard
SIN = sin / mistake / accident / laps in judgement / character flaw [Rom 3.20; Jam 1.22-25]
Letter of the Law VS Spirit of the Law… JESUS Says...
The Law arouses Sin [v8-9]
Romans 7:8–9 ESV
8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. 9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died.
Explanation: v5 question “What does it mean to have our sinful passions aroused by the law?”
v8a
Opportunity = used of a military base of operations… a starting point
all kinds of covetousness… We want what we cannot have!
v8b
Rom 4.15, 5.13; = No Law… No Problem
1 Corinthians 15:56 ESV
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
Augustine - Confessions = example of this perversity.
Age 16 along with friends, shook a pear tree and stole its fruit. He was not hungry, they fed them to pigs! “I stole something which I had in plenty and of much better quality. My desire was to enjoy not what I sought by stealing, but merely the excitement of thieving and the doing of what was wrong.”
Jon Gruss - Confessions = example of perversity.
I threw a neighbors push lawn mower into the pond sheerly for the joy of destruction!
Beloved the problem is not the LAW the problem is US!
v9
Theologins struggle with this… Age of accountability? Bar Mitzvah?
NOTE | Genesis 2-3 similarity of… innocence - command - transgression - death
The Gospel of God: Romans The Christian and the Law (7:1–8:1)

The problem was not that the law was bad, but that we were bad, morally impotent and could not bring forth the intended fruit of righteousness, spelled out in the law

The Law condemns [v10-11]
Romans 7:10–11 ESV
10 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.
v10
Lev 18.5; Luke 10.28
Leviticus 18:5 ESV
5 You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the Lord.
Luke 10:28 ESV
28 And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”
How did that which was to produce life rather produce in us death?
v11
Military term = seizing the opportunity / deceived me / killed me
GARDEN…!
The New American Commentary: Romans 2. No Longer Condemned by Law (7:1–25)

The deceptive nature of sin runs throughout Scripture from the account of the fall (Gen 3:13) to the final days of human history (2 Thess 2:9–10). Elsewhere Paul counseled us to be aware of the schemes of Satan (2 Cor 2:11). Although defeated by Jesus’ death on the cross, Satan continues his wicked and deceptive plans, trying to subvert the best interests of God’s people. Paul pointed out that Satan’s ploy has been to convert an instrument intended for life (the law) into an instrument of death.

Word of caution to those tempted toward legalism...
The Law reveals the full sinfulness of sin [v12-13]
Romans 7:12–13 ESV
12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. 13 Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.
v12
Answers Q in v7 “What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means!”… to the contrary!
It comes from God, how could it be other than good!
Good = bringing of benefits
v13
Sin is the culprit not the Law!
After a shooting is the gun arrested? Does the gun go to trial? Can the man blame the law for his murder?
Sin might be shown to be sin… through the commandment … become sinful beyond measure!
How twisted must we be ? How debased our minds? How wicked our hearts? to take that which is good and use it for evil!
magnifying glass / Mirror… to examine ourselves by
The Law is really good for what it was designed for but really terrible for anything else!
The Impotency of The Law [Rom 7.14-23] = What the Law cannot and was never meant to do.
debated - I believe for average Christian!
Paul changes to [I] now! = He makes it personal = Praise God for This Text!!
The Law cannot change you [v14]
Romans 7:14 ESV
14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.
This is why we need a Christ!
This is why we need a Gospel!
Hebrews 5 = bridge the gap Flesh / Spirit
OH WOE TO YOU CHRISTIAN IF THIS BE FORGOTTEN BY YOU!!
The Law cannot change you!
The Law cannot empower you [v15-21] = Read and then go back to v15…
Romans 7:15–21 ESV
15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.
The Gospel of God: Romans The Christian and the Law (7:1–8:1)

no Christian in this world achieves a 100% consistent desire to obey God only. There is a powerful desire left over from the fallen nature. When we have been born again and the Spirit has been shed abroad in our hearts, we have new natures, new desires, new inclinations, new attitudes, new love for the things of God. But that love is not perfect, it is not pure, it is not yet completely realised in our lives. There is a constant daily struggle and warfare with the old self whose desires are battling the desires of the new self. It is precisely this battle, with which every Christian has struggled, that Paul is setting forth here.

Brother and Sister have you ever felt this way? Have you ever felt this tug of war between your old and new natures?
Spiritual battle! / Spiritual warfare
This is why we are to renew our minds!
I agree with God = The Law good
Not Me… Me...
still responsible ! = “the devil made me do it”
already / not yet
sin / spirit
This is a law not The Law
The Law cannot change you
The Law cannot empower you
The Law cannot set you free [22-24]
Romans 7:22–24 ESV
22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
v22-23
Have you ever felt this way?
David = hidden your word in my heart
v24
WHO WILL FREE ME!!!!!? WHEN WILL THIS END!!!!!!?
Last week we discussed an old custom of punishing criminal for murder
The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Six: Christians and the Law (Romans 7)

The believer has an old nature that wants to keep him in bondage; “I will get free from these old sins!” the Christian says to himself. “I determine here and now that I will not do this any longer.” What happens? He exerts all his willpower and energy, and for a time succeeds; but then when he least expects it, he falls again. Why? Because he tried to overcome his old nature with Law, and the Law cannot deliver us from the old nature. When you move under the Law, you are only making the old nature stronger; because “the strength of sin is the Law” (1 Cor. 15:56). Instead of being a dynamo that gives us power to overcome, the Law is a magnet that draws out of us all kinds of sin and corruption. The inward man may delight in the Law of God (Ps. 119:35), but the old nature delights in breaking the Law of God. No wonder the believer under Law becomes tired and discouraged, and eventually gives up! He is a captive, and his condition is “wretched.” (The Greek word indicates a person who is exhausted after a battle.) What could be more wretched than exerting all your energy to try to live a good life, only to discover that the best you do is still not good enough!

The End of The Letter & The Start of The Spirit [Rom 7.25a]
The Gospel!
Romans 7:25 ESV
25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
If someone showed you a caricature of Richard Nixon—a man’s face with oversize shaggy eyebrows, a bulbous nose and pronounced jowls—you would probably recognize the former president immediately, even though the drawing is not true to life. A cartoonist creates such a sketch by taking the average of many male faces and subtracting it from Nixon’s face, then amplifying those distinctive differences. To an observer, the result looks more like Nixon than Nixon himself. Why is it that our brains respond so intensely to extremes?
When the cartoon’s “Nixon-ness” jumps out at you, you are experiencing what scientists call “peak shift.” To understand the concept, imagine, for argument’s sake, that you want to teach a rat to distinguish a rectangle from a square. It’s quite easy to do. Simply give the animal cheese every time it picks the rectangle, and it will soon learn to select the rectangle every time. Once the rat has developed this preference, let’s say you show it a longer, skinnier rectangle. Inevitably, you will find that the rat prefers the exaggerated one to the original. What the rat has learned to recognize is not a particular rectangle but rather rectangularity itself: the more rectangular the better. The savvy rodent looks at the longer, skinnier quadrilateral and goes, “Wow, what a rectangle!” In scientific parlance, the rat’s “peak response”—its strongest reaction—has shifted away from the original—hence the term “peak shift.” [https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/carried-to-extremes/]
Paul teaches us the sinfulness and futility of two extremes
Antinomianism & Legalism
The Message of Romans 10. God’s Law and Christian Discipleship (7:1–25)

Legalists are ‘under the law’ and in bondage to it. They imagine that their relationship to God depends on their obedience to the law, and they are seeking to be both justified and sanctified by it. But they are crushed by the law’s inability to save them. Antinomians (or libertines) go to the opposite extreme. Blaming the law for their problems, they reject it altogether, and claim to be rid of all obligation to its demands. They have turned liberty into licence. Law-fulfilling free people preserve the balance. They rejoice both in their freedom from the law for justification and sanctification, and in their freedom to fulfil it. They delight in the law as the revelation of God’s will (7:22), but recognize that the power to fulfil it is not in the law but in the Spirit. Thus legalists fear the law and are in bondage to it. Antinomians hate the law and repudiate it. Law-abiding free people love the law and fulfil it.

Prayer

E.N.D.
Exalt God in relation to the Biblical truths that were just taught.
Name the Biblical principles preached and ask God to help the local church body to obey these truths.
Draw people to the cross of Christ by proclaiming hope and help in the person and work of Christ for salvation and sanctification.
------------------------
Morris, Leon. The Epistle to the Romans. The Pillar New Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: W.B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsity Press, 1988. [*1]
Mounce, Robert H. Romans. Vol. 27. The New American Commentary. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1995. [*2]
Schreiner, Thomas R. Romans. Vol. 6. Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1998. [*3]
Spence-Jones, H. D. M., ed. The Pulpit Commentary: Romans. The Pulpit Commentary. London; New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1909. [*4]
Sproul, R. C. The Gospel of God: An Exposition of Romans. Great Britain: Christian Focus Publications, 1994. [*5]
Stott, John R. W. The Message of Romans: God’s Good News for the World. The Bible Speaks Today. Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2001. [*6]
Wiersbe, Warren W. The Bible Exposition Commentary. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996. [*7]
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