Romans 7:7 study

Introduction

Last time- We have been released from the law.

Is the law good or bad?

without the law, we don’t know what sin is

Romans 7:7 ESV

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.”

Paul actually goes as far as to say that he was once alive before he knew the law in verse 9

Sin uses the law as a weapon against us

It isn’t that the law is inherently bad (just the opposite), but it can be deadly if mishandled.

Sin saw that we were susceptible to mishandling it, and it tempts us to do just that. It uses a weapon meant for our good to kill us.

Why then would God give us the law?

Water example

is water good or bad? Good. We need it.

Can water kill someone? Only when used wrongly.

Has water killed someone? Many times.

Is water then bad because it has been used wrongly? Not at all. We still need it.

1) The law is like water because it tells us about who God is and who we need to be.

2) It was so that we could be made aware of our tendency to misuse it. It exposes the sin that was already inside of us. It shows us who we are, and that we are not who we need to be.

Imagine for a moment that God knows at the end of your life, you are going to have to swim across a river to get to heaven.

God also knows that deep down, every time you see a river, your body has an irresistible urge to swim to the bottom of the river instead of keeping your head above it, even though your mind is opposed to that

You might think to yourself, “there’s no way I would do that, that’s crazy.”

So then, God puts a river in front of you, and even though your mind doesn’t want you to, you immediately dive in and swim to the bottom and drown.

Is it bad for God to have put the river in front of you? Wasn’t it going to happen anyway at the end?

This is what it exposes:

Paul’s Spirit/Flesh tension. That we are all made of both.

That though we know what is good and want to do it, our flesh is naturally inclined to do what we hate.

We have the desire to do good because of our Spirit, but not the ability to do good because of our flesh.

We are corrupted.

A new kind of law: that we are depraved people

Bad news! This still doesn’t answer why God would give it to us. Just to show us that we’re bad? So that we could drown earlier rather than later? What is the answer?

Romans 7:24–25 ESV

Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 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.

Jesus is redirecting power from our flesh to our Spirit. He is solving our “depravity problem”

Next week Paul is going to discuss in more depth the fact that the flesh part of us that was causing our whole selves to rot has been dealt with on the cross. Now we are no longer regarded as dead in the flesh, but alive in the Spirit.

After we dive into the river, he dives in after us and brings us up from the bottom.

Then, he retrains us to love swimming instead of diving, preparing us for that final river.

Not only that, but he stays by our side to rescue us if we ever go under again.