Romans 7 1-6
Romans 7:1-6,
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? 2 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. 3 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. 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. 5 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. 6 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.
I. Before we are saved we are under the law.
A. Verse one tells us as long as one lives they are under the law.
1. Romans 5:12, Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
2. As long as we live under the law, it will have dominion over us.
a) The law says we are not to have any other Gods before us.
b) A lot of us but our jobs before God or our families, or something, which we love.
3. The result is we cannot keep it and we end up in Hell.
a) Acts 7:53, Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.
b) Acts 15:10, Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?
B. The law demans so much from one, it keeps us under bondage.
1. We have to scarfice all kinds of things to God for all kinds of sin.
2. We have to have a High Priest go into the Holy of Holies once a year for our sins.
3. We would have to keep track of all the sins we did and go to scarfice for each one. Can you imagine the work that would intail?
C. God tells us as Christians that we must separate from the law.
II. When Christ came into the world and died on the cross, He put to death the law or He fulfilled the Law.
A. Remember no one could keep the law.
1. That is one reason the High Priest went into the Holy of Holies once a year.
B. The whole propose of Christ’s death was to free us from the law.
1. Christ became the perfect sacrifice.
C. Now we have a way to get into heaven.
1. Through Jesus Christ which paid the penalty for us.
D. Now we have a chose to serve God because we love Him.
1. We obey the commandments because we want to. We want to please God.
III. God tells us through Paul the illustration about a woman.
A. A woman as long as she is married is bond to her marriage. Verse 2.
1. In this case it is the law that we are bond by.
B. So Christ comes along and by His death put an end to the Law and so the Law dies.
1. Christ fulfilled the Law.
C. So in verse 4 it tells us that we can now marry another.
1. By accepting Christ as our Savior, we marry into the family of God.
2. Remember I spoke once that we get grafted into the vine.
IV. After salvation, we are married to another.
A. When we except Christ into our hearts we are being married to Him.
1. Christ is the groom and the church is the bride.
B. 2 Corinthians 5:17, Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
C. Before the Civil War, there was a plantation owner, a very fine, handsome man married to a beautiful woman, and they lived happily in a lovely home. Then he became sick and died suddenly. It was a great heartbreak to her, for she loved him dearly, and she did a strange and morbid thing. She had his body embalmed, placed in a sitting position in a chair in an air-tight glass case, and situated in the great hallway of her lovely southern home. The minute you opened the door, you were looking at him. Well, her friends realized that this wouldn’t do, so they urged her to go away and travel for awhile. So she went north, then traveled abroad for almost two years. During that time she met another man, fell in love with him and married him. On their honeymoon they came to her plantation home. The new bridegroom did as a new bridegroom is supposed to do, he picked her up and carried her over the threshold. When he put her down, he was staring into the face of a man in a glass case. He said to his bride, “Who is that?” Well, she had forgotten about him. She told him that he was her first husband. They both decided it was time to bury him, which was the proper thing to do. She was married to a new man; the old man was dead.[1]
D. The differents between the Law and Grace.
1. The Law say I have to do this and that.
2. Grace say we want to serve Christ because we love Him.
3. “I do not work my soul to save; that work my Lord hath done. But I will work like any slave for love of God’s dear Son.”
Conclusion: I hope today that each of you got a petty good glimpse of what Grace and Law is all about.
And how it can help you as a Christian.
Sunday Morning Biker Service 7/23/06
----
[1]McGee, J. Vernon: Thru the Bible Commentary. electronic ed. Nashville : Thomas Nelson, 1997, c1981, S. Ro 7:4
