Chap 7_Romans

OOOOOOOO Romans 7:1–6 (HCSB) An Illustration from Marriage 7 Since I am speaking to those who understand law, brothers, are you unaware that the law has authority over someone as long as he lives? 2 For example, a married woman is legally bound to her husband while he lives. But if her husband dies, she is released from the law regarding the husband. 3 So then, if she gives herself to another man while her husband is living, she will be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law. Then, if she gives herself to another man, she is not an adulteress.

4 Therefore, my brothers, you also were put to death in relation to the law through the crucified body of the Messiah, so that you may belong to another—to Him who was raised from the dead—that we may bear fruit for God. 5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions operated through the law in every part of us and bore fruit for death. 6 But now we have been released from the law, since we have died to what held us, so that we may serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old letter of the law.

Paul is addressing the Jewish Christians with an simile about divorce under Jewish law. He continues to show them that they are in a new era, there is a new condition or cure for everyone’s problem. But he uses a well known aspect of their law. A wife can remarry if her previous husband is dead. This situation is called “the action expires with the person” or the legal maxim is that all contracts are canceled upon death. Just as Emperor Claudius's banishment of the Jews from Rome ceased upon his death.

As in the last chapter Paul used >3 Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death.. He showed that once something is dead it cannot control you. He is saying in the case of divorce, you can’t be married to a dead person. You can start over and marry a live person if your husband was dead

....4 Therefore, my brothers, you also were put to death in relation to the law through the crucified body of the Messiah, so that you may belong to another

So if you are dead to the law you are no longer subject or under the dominion of the law. If you are dead in the flesh [worldly or human nature] then you can start anew and place yourself under grace in Christ’s kingdom.

.....so that we may serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old letter of the law.

OOOOOOOO Romans 7:7–12 (HCSB)Sin’s Use of the Law 7 What should we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin if it were not for the law. For example, I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, Do not covet. 8 And sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind. For apart from the law sin is dead. 9 Once I was alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life 10 and I died. The commandment that was meant for life resulted in death for me. 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me. 12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good.

Could there be two things at work here?

1. There is knowledge but knowledge that is lacking in beneficence. It is knowledge that cannot completley satisfy. Knowledge that entices but actually misleads.

2. There is an attraction to things desirable, but ultimately destructive.

In regards to the first. What is this thing about the law that causes to sin? Why does knowing about something wrong increase the probability that I will do wrong? Why does knowing something wrong awaken dormant wrongness within me? .....V7 I would not have known sin if it were not for the law. For example, I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, Do not covet. 8 And sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind. For apart from the law sin is dead.

This effect is similiar to that of Adam and Eve’s disobedience. Genesis 2:8–9 (NIV84)8 Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. 9 And the Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Genesis 2:15–17 (NIV84)15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”

The approved fruit was pleasing- a beauty or appreciation that triggered an emotional attraction. Eht emotion carried with it a sense of attraction and anticipation that drew you in. The abundant amount of fruit and of different kinds filled the garden. You would not get bored or hungry. Only two trees were different in that they were not just to feed the body. The tree of life and knowledge were in the midst of the garden, surrounded by all these other desirable output - fruits and nuts. And and there were also vegetables - Genesis 1:12 (NIV84)12 The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds.

In a way your hunger or desire for something tasty would be satisfied before you got to the middle of the garden.

In short, man had all that he needed for survival and for enjoyment of eating.

So why did man and woman so blessed disobey God? Genesis 1:26 (NIV84)

26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness,..... This likeness, this image is not in regard to the physical entity of man, but a spirit and soul was implanted into man’s body. Part of this placement could be seen in>Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NIV84)11 ........ He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. and could be inferred through > John 4:23–24 (NIV84)23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”

Mankind has inherited a desire [a spiritual DNA] for God. This has been observed throughout all time in mankind. There is an mysterious longing for something higher than himself. This longing has been noted in every group, society, individual, nation- we don’t understand it but we are drawn into this search. It often has produced frustration, bitterness, and the creation of idols to satisfy this hunger.

God is love. God wants our love. Somethings that God uses to woo us or attract us to Him is the urge for something eternal, Natural law, and the Law of the Jews which shows that we can’t achieve this yearning on our own. We can never be sinless under the Law and therefore can’t approach Him.

This God induced hunger can be seen in our curiosity. We want to know more about other things. We want to understand or know about ultimate things. I believe that God gave us this attraction so that we would welcome him and want to be with him, like him. This concept of searching can be seen in Jesus’s response of asking for things from the Father.> Matthew 7:7–8 (NIV84)Ask, Seek, Knock 7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

BUT, as with many good things, there are restraints. There can all to easily turn the blessing into an idol. When we exceed God’s intent and take it for ourselves, then we have fallen into sin. That is why obedience to God is so important. What can be desirable can actually lead us away from God. For our own safety and the sake of God’s intent, we must obey.

When we are curious, when we want more we edge closer the line of disobedience. This same desire to be one with God, can morph into being gods ourselves. God told them don’t eat this tree that’s filled with the fruit of knowledge of good and evil. Don’t draw near. Don’t even touch it. You are human not God and you are not intended to be gods [ though Mormons and others such as Word of Faith teachers would disagree with God on this point]. But once you are aware of something, especially if it is forbidden, you are drawn to it. A child can be drawn to a flame, but once burned will not stick her hand into the flame again. Unfortunately, much of sin does not result in such immediate or painful effect. There is a slow slide downward greased with increasing pleasure and generally the painful effects are not known until much later. The long term damage is more sever than a burned finger.

So God told them stay away from that knowledge, persist in the innocence of knowing only Me.

There is also the second - an inclination to pursue that which is beautiful, and pleasurable even though it is against God. Did God arrange or make in people a desire for knowledge and pleasure? Just as knowledge in the law is not completely attainable, could there also be desire. Just as the law exposes sin but doesn’t cure nor destroy it , is there is a similar method in desire of the undesirable? To love God and to love no other, so all other can be seen as and deemed to be a poor choice. God is love and wants to be loved. If a man must choose, then there much exist a real choice, man must wrestle and argue with himself as to what is the better, the true object of his love. If the choice arranged by God was this: a man is hungry not just for nourishment, but for the pleasure of tasting food. God gives such a man a choice between eating a cup of dirt or a cup of creamy, praline sprinkled vanilla ice cream. This is hardly a choice! So in life if something appears desirable and forbidden - like a beautiful, seductive adulteress , then a true choice involves something that you want. . Who or what is worth more, worthy- God’s guidance or my own desires.

But Satan approaches and starts the conversation with a lie. Genesis 3:1–6 (NIV84) The Fall of Man 3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman to correct him and to speak the truth, explained >2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ” She is now in a back and forth discussion. She is now engaging conversation with something much more wily and evil than her. Satan is now distorting the lure to know God, replacing that with “becoming God”.

4 “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

So woman saw it was good for food and appealing [beauty, taste, etd] as well as good for wisdom. And of course become more godly. She rationalized it must be ok.

6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

So the problem is that there is an inherent proclivity in everyone towards sin, and if this is less active or dormant then it can be super charged, activatied upon knowledge of its existence. Temptaion is stregthened.

But the Jew depended on the law as protection, against sin. The Law given by God was their hope, their defence against the outcome of evil. Yet the very thing that provided hope and they dedicated enormous resources in learning, and acting in turns out to be insufficient. The law leads to believing that by doing good or not doing bad under the law will save you, but it does help it is not sufficient. Your works, your committment, your practis is not enough. Only thorugh His sacrifice is sufficient to free you.

Augustine in Confessions” talked about the attraction of the forebiddnen things. He told about his youth when a bunch of boys stole luscious, ripe pears from an orchared . They aite thier fill and then threw away the rest to the pigs. But he hadn’t been hungry, but the just wanted to be a thiref. I’ve heard of some who enjoy crime because it is exciting to get away with something. The idea of harming others or possible punishment doesn’t detour them from the thrill of doing something wrong.

.... one commentator used the word “seduced” for 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me,

OOOOOOOO Romans 7:13–25 (HCSB) The Problem of Sin in Us 13 Therefore, did what is good cause my death? Absolutely not! On the contrary, sin, in order to be recognized as sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment, sin might become sinful beyond measure. 14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am made out of flesh, sold into sin’s power. 15 For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree with the law that it is good. 17 So now I am no longer the one doing it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it. 19 For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but it is the sin that lives in me.

Now there is a shift that deals with the relationship between the believer and his sin.

Flesh is the sinful nature or principle of everlasting evil within a person duing his life in the flesh.

,,....14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am made out of flesh, sold into sin’s power. This war is carried on in the spirit, but I am a man. This spiritual conflict even affects my body.

Ovid the Roman poet said” I see better things, and I approve them, but I follw the worse.”

The Jews said that there were two natures within every man, the “Yetser hatob” and the “Yetser har”. Men had a good impulse and an evil impulse inside them. Like the Indian saying that within each there person are two wolves fighting each other. Good and evil. Which one wins. The one that is fed.

... V13 sin, in order to be recognized as sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment, sin might become sinful beyond measure.It is almost like sin is a living thing, with a will to move into exposed areas. It sabotages that which was made for good and corrupts it by being a force for evil.

Whether sin is in the conscience as in Natural Law, or energized and subverted under the Law it grows. It ends up with Jesus as the only cure. Then in sanctification there is still a residue, a chronic condition that continues to tempt without governing or ruling the believer.

but my position is different. There is only black and white, there is not fuzzy boundary line Chap 6: 22 But now, since you have been liberated from sin and have become enslaved to God, you have your fruit, which results in sanctification —and the end is eternal life! 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Though I’m officially free from sin, I am still influenced by it. The Juneteenth example.

OOOOOOOO Romans 7:21–25 (HCSB) 21 So I discover this principle: When I want to do what is good, evil is with me. 22 For in my inner self I joyfully agree with God’s law. 23 But I see a different law in the parts of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and taking me prisoner to the law of sin in the parts of my body. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this dying body? 25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I myself am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh, to the law of sin.

Even though I am declared free and seen as godly by God, I still am lured back into the darkness. No matter my will, nor strength, nor actions prevent this thing that beckons and pulls me back into the gravity of evil. Even though I have made up in my mind to avoid it, my knowedge or diagnosis is more alive it is still not enough. Only true solution, the healing of mind and body is Jesus Christ. Even then the struggle continues, but now I am not losing, nor sickening, but becoming stronger through the struggle [sanctified] and become more like Him.

So bestowed righteousness and resulting justification, is a single event brings you officially into the church, into the kingdom. Sanctification is an ongoing process through the life of the regenerated. And sanctification is not throught the law, but through Jesus Christ.

I am still living in my body of flesh, my sinful nature. But now I also have the HOly Spirit operating in me and guiding me through my sanctification.

But we can never be complacent, we must recognize that sin awaits in ambush at all times.