Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

If you’ve been with us lately you know that we have been studying in the book of Romans together.

Romans is the letter that Paul wrote to the church in Rome.

And he was writing to Greeks and Jews who all were followers of Jesus.

This morning we are going to cover all of chapter 7. Two weeks ago we answered the question: Is the law of God bad?

And our answer was Paul’s answer, emphatically, no, “by no means”, Paul says.

This morning in chapter 7 we see a battle that we are all very familiar with.

The Battle between the flesh and the spirit.

It’s the battle within.

And this morning as we look at chapter 7 we see Paul making a main point and then “fleshing” it out.

No pun intended.

Our passage breaks up in two big swaths.

1.

The Believer is dead to the law and alive in Christ.

(7:1-6) 2. The Believer is powerless against the law and needs a savior.

(7:7-23)

I.

The Believer is Dead to the Law and Alive in Christ.

(7:1-6)

Read with me the first 3 verses of Romans 7 as we unpack the chapter together.

Romans 7:1-3 “Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law (both the Jews and the God fearing Gentiles would know God’s law)—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives?”

(Paul now introduces and illustration to unpack verse 1)

“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.”

(Unless you are Dave)

“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.”

What is Paul saying to us this morning?

As long as a person lives in/under the law then they are bound by it.

But when a person dies they are released from the law.

As we continue reading we see how this applies to you and I.

Romans 7:4-6 “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,

For every person who has been saved by the substitutionary, atoning death and resurrection of Jesus—we are no longer dead in our sin.

We are no longer slaves to our sin.

We are no longer living under the law as those who will be judged by the law.

Paul says, “We have died to the law through the body of Christ”

And the result is that we now belong to Jesus who has been raised from the dead.

Paul continues,

“in order that we may bear fruit for God.

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.

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.”

And as a result—rooted in Christ—we produce fruits of righteousness instead of fruits of death rooted in our flesh.

Verse on of chapter 8 begins like this.

Romans 8:1-2 “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.”

This has led some commentators to say that as far as argumentation goes the letter Paul wrote could easily end Chapter 7 at verse 6 and start Chapter 8. Paul picks up in chapter 8 the argument he makes in the first 6 verses of chapter 7.

But Paul inspired by the Holy Spirit continues on in chapter 7 and has more to say about the law of God.

In the rest of our passage we will see Paul defend the value of the law, highlight our inability to keep it, and our deliverance from it in Jesus.

And where God leads in His word we will happily go.

Amen?

So let us go there now.

Read with me as we continue in Romans 7:7-12.

Romans 7:7-8 “What then shall we say?

That the law is sin? (And our answer?)

“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.”

But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness.

For apart from the law, sin lies dead.”

Sin twists the good law of God—and its good commands—and Paul says, “it seizes an opportunity” to tempt us to sin further.

It’s not that the law of God is bad—remember two weeks ago we said, “God’s law is not bad, but we are bad at keeping it.”

And the reason we are bad at keeping it is that you and I are born in sin.

Thanks to our spiritual parents Adam and Eve all people are born with a nature of sin.

And so our natural response when we are told not to do something is what?

To do it.

If you don’t believe me—just spend some time with children.

And if yours are prefect, just spend some time with my children.

Sin is deceitful.

God speaks to Cain about sin in Genesis 4:7 “If you do well, will you not be accepted?

And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door.

Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.””

Our sinful flesh takes the good commands of God and we believe the same lie that Adam and Eve believe in the garden.

Genesis 3:4-5 “But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.

For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.””

What’s the lie?

God is trying to keep something good from you.

And this is the same lie that the world believes and tells today.

The Bible is not freedom—they say--it’s oppression.

God is just trying to control you.

Happiness is found in freedom from God’s laws.

Do what makes you happy.

Be who you want to be.

This is real freedom the world says.

The loudest lie that the world tells today is that real freedom and happiness comes in “sexual liberty”.

Love is love.

God is trying to ruin your life with his rules.

Have sex with who you want when you want where you want.

If you don’t want a baby just kill it.

It’s your choice.

Were you born a man?

Doesn’t mattter.

Be what you want to be.

You want to be woman then be one.

You want to be “non-binary” then be that—whatever that is.

You want to be a cat.

Then be a cat.

That by the way isn’t a joke.

“Other kin” is a category for people who don’t quite feel like people.

It’s the + on LBGTQA+.

They say it’s a sort of “transpecies body disphoria”.

Reasoning that maybe through a mistake in reincarnation they were placed in a human body when they really have the “soul of an animal”.

God is trying to keep something good from you, Satan says.

God is trying to keep something good from you, sin tempts.

And our flesh is tempted to believe it.