Sermon Tone Analysis

Wenstrom Bible Ministries

Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom

Thursday August 21, 2008

www.wenstrom.org

Romans: Romans 7:4b-The Christian Is Married To Christ In Order To Bear Fruit For The Father

Lesson # 213

Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 7:1.

Last night, we noted Romans 7:4a, which teaches that the Jewish Christians in Rome were dead with respect to the Mosaic Law through the body of Christ or in other words their identification with Christ in His physical death.

This evening we will study Romans 7:4b, which teaches that the Jewish Christians in Rome and all Christians for that matter have been married to Christ in order to bear fruit for God the Father.

Romans 7:1-4, “Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives?

For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband.

So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man.

Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.”

“So that you might be joined” is composed of the preposition eis (ei)$) (ice), “so that” and the personal pronoun humeis (u(mei~$) (hoo-mice), “you” as well as the definite article ho (o() (ho) and the verb ginomai (givnomai) (ghin-om-i), “might be joined.”

The personal pronoun humeis literally means, “all of you” and refers to the Jewish Christians in Rome.

The verb ginomai is an idiom for getting married.

The infinitive form of ginomai is an “infinitive of result” emphasizing that “the result of” Paul’s Jewish Christian readers having died with respect to the Mosaic Law by means of the physical death of Jesus Christ on the Cross is that they are now married to Christ.

The fact that this is an “infinitive of result” rather than “purpose” is indicated in that Paul is speaking from the perspective of what God has already accomplished for his Jewish Christian readers through the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

The fact that they were identified with Christ’s physical death through the baptism of the Spirit has freed them from the authority of the Mosaic Law.

Therefore, Paul’s emphasis is not upon God’s “intention” in identifying these Jewish Roman Christians with Christ’s physical death but the “effect” of their being identified with Christ in His physical death.

He wants them to be aware of the fact, if they are not already that they have been freed from the authority of the Mosaic Law and have died with respect to it through the baptism of the Spirit just like a Jewish woman is freed from her husband’s authority when he dies.

The infinitive of result emphasizes the “effect” of these Jewish Roman Christians having been identified with Christ in His physical death, which made them dead to the Law.

Romans 7:4, “Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.”

“To another” refers to the Lord Jesus Christ as indicated by the following phrase to ek nekron egerthenti, “who was raised from the dead.”

“To Him who was raised” is clarifying for the reader who they have been entered into a marriage relationship with, namely, Jesus Christ who rose from the dead.

“From the dead” indicates that the human nature of Jesus Christ was raised out from those who are physically dead.

Romans 7:4, “Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.”

“In order that” is the conjunction hina (i%na) (hin-ah), which emphasizes that God’s “intention” or “objective” in placing the Christian in union with Christ was so that the Christian might bear fruit for the benefit of the Father.

“We might bear fruit” is the verb karpophoreo (karpoforevw) (kar-pof-or-eh-o), which is used in a figurative sense for fruit bearing or in other words, producing or bearing the character of Christ in one’s life.

Christ-like character is synonymous with divine good.

Character is composed of three elements: (1) Thought (2) Word (3) Action.

The production of divine good or Christ-like character in the believer is the result of the believer being obedient to the Word of God.

This in turn enables the Holy Spirit to reproduce the character of Christ in the believer which will be rewarded at the Bema Seat Evaluation of the Church (John 15:1-8; Rom.

1:13; 6:22; Gal.

5:22; Eph.

5:9; Phil.

1:11; 4:17; Heb.

12:11; James 3:17-18).

Fruit bearing is simply the production of Christ-like character in the believer that is the result of the believer having a lifestyle of living in the new Christ nature.

Fruit bearing, i.e.

Christ-like character is the result of experiencing fellowship with God as a lifestyle.

It is the result of experiencing the holiness of God since the believer cannot experience the holiness of God unless he is living in the new Christ nature, in which produces Christ-like character and where the righteousness and holiness of God resides.

Fruit bearing, i.e.

Christ-like character is the result of experiencing the holiness of God since the believer cannot experience fellowship with a holy God unless he himself is holy.

It is the result of experiencing sanctification in time after salvation.

It is the result of obeying the voice of the Spirit, which is accomplished by the believer who is obedient to the Word of God since the Spirit inspires the Word of God and the Spirit speaks through the Word of God.

The Spirit’s job after salvation is to reproduce the life and character of Christ in the believer’s life and this is called fruit bearing.

Remember what Paul said in Galatians 4:19:

Galatians 4:19, “My children, with whom I am again in labor until the character of Christ is formed in all of you.”

The fruit of the Spirit is the production of Christ-like character.

Galatians 5:22-23, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”

Fruit bearing talks about building Christ-like character.

Ephesians 5:9, “(for the fruit of the Light {consists} in all goodness and righteousness and truth).”

Hebrews 12:11, “All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”

The Holy Spirit employs the Word of God in order to perform this post-salvation function on behalf of the believer.

He performs this post-salvation only on behalf of those believers who are obedient to the Word of God.

The Lord Jesus Christ taught His disciples about fruit bearing in His metaphor of the vine and the branches.

John 15:1-17, “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.

Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.

You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.

Abide in Me, and I in you.

As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.

I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.

If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.

If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.

Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love.

If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.

These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.

This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.

Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.

You are My friends if you do what I command you.

No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.

You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.

This I command you, that you love one another.”