Freed From The Law
Notes
Transcript
Introduction:
Introduction:
It amazes me how anticipatory Paul is. He realizes that there will be yet another inevitable question: “What is the relationship of the Christian to the law? We are going to tackle that question this morning.
Recap:
Recap:
In the pervious chapter we saw Paul deal with this controversial concept of the free gift of grace.
Grace gives us freedom to serve the Lord, not to continue in our past sinful nature.
Habitual sin is something that is extremely dangerous for the believe to engage in.
As humans we are subjects created to serve. After all the chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever.
As we place our faith in God and His word, we are set free from our yoke of slavery to sin.
We are now to live every day consistent with that freedom. Christian be what you are!
Habitual sin is to not have a place in our lives. Neither is occasional sin.
True lasting freedom will not be obtained this side of heaven. Yet, that doesn’t null and void our responsibility. Like Paul we are too:
I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Paul concluded the chapter with this idea of you will reap what you sow.
If you strive towards impurity and lawlessness it will only lead to more lawlessness.
And for believers we are to strive towards righteousness and it will lead to holiness.
If you are asking yourself why am I struggling with this __________. What are your habits? What are you spending your time doing?
It might be time to replace some of what you are doing with reading/studying your bible and praying to your Lord and Savior.
Vv 1-3) The authority of the Law
Vv 1-3) The authority of the Law
For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
Paul probably has Jewish believers especially in mind in answering this question, since the law was given to Israel.
but don’t be fooled this principle apply just as much to Gentile believers who foolishly want to put themselves under the law as a rule of life after they have been justified.
In chapter 6 we saw the death ended the tyranny of the sin nature in the life of a child of God. Now we will see that death likewise ends the dominion of the law over those who were under it.
When we are looking at verse 1. It is important to take note that in the ancient Greek wording here has no word “the” before law.
What this means is that Paul is speaking of a principle broader than the Mosaic Law.
Now this “law” includes the Law of Moses, but there is a broader principle of law communicated by creation and by conscience (found in the first couple chapter of this letter) and all of these are bound to each person.
The key here though is “as long as he lives” Death ends all obligations and contracts.
To illustrate this, Paul shows how death breaks the marriage contract. However if a woman marries another man while her husband is living, she is guilty of adultery.
If, however, her husband dies, she is free to marry again without any guilt of wrongdoing.
V 4) Freedom from the law
V 4) Freedom from the law
In the pervious chapter, Paul carefully explained that we died wit hJesus and we also rose with Him, although Paul there only spoke of our death to sin. He is now going to explain that we also died to the law.
In using the example of husband and wife, we must not hold onto each detail with exact literalness.
What I mean is that neither the husband nor the wife represents the law. The point of the illustration is that just as death breaks the marriage relationship, so the death of the believer with Christ breaks the jurisdiction of the law over him.
Notice that Paul doesn’t say that the law is dead. The law still has a valid ministry in producing conviction of sin.
Some might think, “Yes, we were saved by grace, but we must live by law to please God.”
It is perfectly clear that isn’t the case. Because we not only died to sin, but to the law as well.
What that means is as far as the law represents a principle of living or a place of right standing before God, we are dead to it.
Believers are through with the law. It is not a way of salvation, it never was. They do not seek to be right with God by obeying it either.
That is something that almost all other religions have done.
Family we have been made dead to the law through Christ atonement on the cross. We are no longer joined to the law; we are now joined to the risen Christ.
One marriage has been broken by death, and a new one has been formed. However, we are not free from the law so that we can live unto ourselves.
We are free so we can be “married” to Jesus and so that we can bear fruit to God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
V 5) The problem with the law
V 5) The problem with the law
The problem with the law comes down to the fact that we did not bear fruit to God.
Instead we bore fruit to death. Because the law aroused the passions of sins within us.
The expression in the flesh here is descriptive of our standing before we were saved.
It is the opposite of being “in Christ.”
In this prior standing, we were ruled by sinful passions, aroused by the law. It is not that the law originated these passions, but only that by naming and them and forbidding them it stirred up the strong desire to do them!
[Example] My kids/ Myself
These sinful passions found expression in our physical members, and when we yielded to temptation we produced poison fruit that results in death.
Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Paul is going to explain this problem of the law in a few verses. But here his point is:
We only come fully to the place of bearing fruit for God when we are free from the law.
V 6) Delivered from the law
V 6) Delivered from the law
Paul is now summarizing the theme found in the first 5 verses of this chapter.
What makes this truly amazing is that among the many countless wonderful things that happen when we are converted is that we are also delivered from the law.
This is a result of having died with Christ. Since He died as our Representative, we died with Him.
For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.
Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.
In His death He fulfilled all the claims of the law by paying awful lot. Therefore we are free from the law and from its inevitable curse.
There can be no double jeopardy.
Believer’s Bible Commentary I. The Place of the Law in the Believer’s Life (Chap. 7)
Payment God will not twice demand—
First at my bleeding Surety’s hand
And then again at mine.
—Augustus M. Toplady
We are set free to serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.
It is such a shame that many serve sin or legalism with more devotion than those who should serve God out of the new way of the Spirit.
It is unfortunate when fear motivates us more than love.
Our service needs to be motivated by love, not fear; it is a service of freedom, not bondage.
The law cannot justify us; it does not make us right with God. The law does not sanctify us; it does not take us deeper wit hGod and make us more holy before Him.
It is no longer a question of slavishly adhering to minute details of forms and ceremonies but of the joyful outpouring of ourselves for the glory of God and the blessing of others.
V 7) Our problem with the Law
V 7) Our problem with the Law
It might seem from all this that Paul is hyper critical or the law. He had said that all believers are dead to sin and dead to the law.
If we follow the train of thought we can understand how someone might infer this question of, “is the law equal to sin?”
Paul insisted that we must die to the law if we will bear fruit to God. And because of that someone might think, “There something really messed up with the law.”
From this point Paul goes on to describe the important role which the law played in his own life before he was saved.
He emphasizes that the law itself is not sinful, but that it reveals sin in man.
The law is an X-ray machine; it reveals what is there but hidden. You can’t blame an x-ray, for what it exposes.
The law sets the “speed limit” so we know exactly if we are going to fast. We might never know that we are sinning in many areas.
It was the law that convicted him of the terrible depravity of his heart. As long as he compared himself with other people, he felt fairly respectable. But as soon as the demands of God’s law came home to him in convicting power, he stood speechless and condemned.
The one particular commandment that revealed sin to him was the tenth: You shall not covet.
Coveting takes place in the mind. Although Paul may not have committed any of the grosser, more revolting sins, he now realized that his thought life was corrupt.
Understanding that evil thoughts are sinful as well as evil deeds. He had a polluted thought life, while his outward life may have seemed rather blameless. His inward life was a depraved mess.
V 8) Sin corrupts the everything
V 8) Sin corrupts the everything
Now Paul is is explaining the powerful truth of the depravity of the old man. The commandments telling us essentially, “Don’t do that!”
And our rebellious hearts taking that as a call to action. That isn’t the fault of the commandment, but it is our fault.
Saint Augustine in his book Confessions described this rather nicely.
“There was a pear tree near our vineyard, laden fruit. One stormy night we rascally youths set out to rob it and carry our spoils away. We took off a huge load of pears- not to feast upon ourselves, but to throw them to the pigs, though we ate just enough to have the pleasure of forbidden fruit. They were nice pears, but it was not the pears that my wretched soul coveted, for i had plenty better at home. I picked them simply in order to become a thief. The only feast i got was a feast of iniquity, and i enjoyed that to the full. what was it that i loved in the theft? Was it the pleasure of acting against the law? the desire to steal was awakened simply by the prohibition of stealing.”
We know this to be true don’t we? After all look at our American history. The Prohibition Act didn’t stop drink. In many ways it made drinking more attractive to people because of our desire to break boundaries set by the commandment.
“Stolen water is sweet,
and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.”
Once God draws the lines and sets boundaries for us, we almost immediately enticed to cross the boundaries- God’s boundaries are not at fault here, but our sinful hearts.
There was a waterfront hotel in Florida that was concerned people might try and fish from their balconies. So they put up signs saying, “NO FISHING FROM THE BALCONY.” They had a constant problems with people trying to fish from the balconies, with lines and sinkers weights breaking windows and bothering people in rooms below.
Do you know how they solved the issue? They took down the sign. And no one thought to fish from the balconies.
Because of our fallen nature, the law can actually work like a invitation to sin.
“All kinds of covetousness” or “Evil desires:” There is a concept that Paul is trying to get across that is very important for the believer to grasp and understand fully.
Engaging in sin is unacceptable. Engaging in sinful thoughts are also unacceptable.
Jesus taught on this concept in His sermon on the mount:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
There was a terrible misconception that the thoughts one had could never be sinful, after all you are not acting on it.
The law forbids a dirty, vile, suggestive thought-life. However, the law has no power to overcome it. So the result is that people under the law become more involved in a day-dream world of iniquity than ever before.
Sin i believe starts in the mind. Because a wrong thought comes before a wrong act. Therefore, sin begins within the mind when we choose to accept a wrong thought and act upon it. Only with the help of God are we able to overcome the thought of sin.
For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.
V 9) Innocence before knowing the law.
V 9) Innocence before knowing the law.
Before being convicted by the law Paul was alive, not in the spiritual sense. Its as if his sinful nature was comparatively dormant and he was blissfully ignorant of the pit of iniquity in his heart.
It is as if He sat secure in the house of his ignorance like a man living on a volcano and thought that all was well.
When the commandment was introduced, He was crushed underneath the conviction. His sinful nature became thoroughly inflamed. It came to life.
The more he tried to obey, the worse he failed. He died as for as any hope of achieving salvation by his own character or efforts was concerned. He died to any thought of his own inherent goodness. He died to any dream of being justified by keeping the law.
When we do come to know the law, the law shows us our guilt and it excites our rebellion, bringing forth more sin and death.
Vv 10-12) The law corrupted by sin, brings death.
Vv 10-12) The law corrupted by sin, brings death.
[10] What Paul meant by, “the very commandment that promised life.” ls probably a call back to:
You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the Lord.
Ideally the law promised life to those who keep it. Much like the sign outside a lion’s cage says, “stay back of the railing.”
if obeyed, you live longer. But for the person who disobeys and reaches in to pet the lion, it brings death.
Sin is so deceptive.
The deceptiveness of sin:
Sin falsely promises satisfaction.
Sin falsely claims an adequate excuse.
Sin falsely promises an escape from punishment.
[11] “For sin deceived me:” It isn’t the law that deceives us, but it is sin that uses the law as an occasion for rebellion.
This is why Jesus says this:
and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
The truth makes us free from the deceptions of sin.
Sin, when followed, leads to death- not life. This is something that we have extensively talked about.
Satan’s greatest deception is to get us to think of sin as something good that an unpleasant God wants to deprive us of.
When God warns us away from sin, he is warning us away from something that will kill us.
Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”
[12] Paul understands that someone might take him as saying that he is opposed to the law- but he isn’t at all.
It is true that we must die to sin.
By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
And we must die to the law.
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.
But that should not be taken to mean that Paul believes that sin and law are in the same boat.
The problem is in us, not the law. Nevertheless, sin mutilates the work or effect of the law, so we must die to both.
V 13) The purpose of the law.
V 13) The purpose of the law.
So we are clear. The law provokes our sinful nature to rebel against God.
There is good that comes from that though, as it dramatically exposes our great depravity.
Let this bake your noodle… If sin can use something as good as the law to its advantage in promoting evil, it shows how evil sin is.
The law, is a great tool in the hands of a faithful minister, to alarm and awaken the sleeping sinner.
The law was never meant to give us the power to overcome sin. In reality the law is a magnet that draws out of us all kinds of sin and corruption.
Family do not be sleeping on sin, It is deplorable, disgusting, and dangerous.
“Sinful beyond measure” or “Exceedingly sinful”
Notice He doesn’t call it darkness beyond measure or exceedingly horrible.
That is because there is nothing in the world so bad as sin. When he wanted to use the very worst word he could find to call sin by, he used its own name.
You will either be killing sin or it will be killing you.
The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.