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Romans 7.1-6
May 16th 2021
Alright, my friends, we are about to enter into Paul expanding a concept that he has appealed to in his singular letter to the Romans.
There is a great debate among scholars as to what group (to whom) Paul is writing – was it those who have yet to be saved or those who have been saved – AND the effect of the law upon them relative “to having peace.”
As a result, not many chapters in the Bible have been the subject to more interpretations than this one.
And after all that has been written on it (by the learned, and the scholarly) the answer is STILL up to debate – whether Paul, when he refers to his own experience, is speaking of his experience as a believer or if he references his life before he became a Christian. We will get to this in the coming weeks.
In reality the point is not that important.
Why?
Listen closely: because the Law, though perfect, whether present in the life of a non believer or a believer, has the SAME effect – woe and unrest.
This is the purpose of the Law relative to the fallen world – to bring the sinful to a state of unrest – so much that they seek a solution – which is only found in looking to the Lord Jesus Christ.
So since the effects of the fallen world work upon believers and unbelievers alike, the presence of the Law will also have the same effect on believers and unbelievers alike.
However . . .
believers should be at peace and rest in Him by faith! Therefore, the presence of the Law “in a believers life” is shown to be in opposition to their joy and walk!
The main design of the chapter is not very difficult to understand. In the end it shows the insufficiency of the law to produce peace of mind of anyone living in bodies of flesh – I would add, especially in believers – and Paul will appeal to his own experience to teach this principle.
So, in the previous chapters (1-4) Paul showed that the Law was incapable of producing justification on our behalf.
Remember what he said in chapter 3:20? We cited it last week:
“Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”
Then in chapter five he showed “how the following plan of God’s” produced peace, saying:
“Therefore being justified by faith, (and not obedience to the Law) we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Then (in Romans 6) he showed that while Christians are certainly freed from the law this freedom does not lead to a licentious life of lawlessness (God forbid, he says) but to a life where believers yield to the promptings of the Spirit (instead of the flesh) saying:
“For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.”
All along, therefore, we can see that Paul has been appealing to the grace of God, a gift to us, instead of the Law and any merits that come thereby through obedience to it.
So now here in chapter seven he proceeds to further illustrate how the law works upon people (and I would submit) who are both unbelievers and to believers as well.
Thus far Paul has overthrown all the unique and peculiar opinions of the Jews.
And here he seems to deliver a final blow against all they believed about the Law by showing the tendency of the law to work exactly the same way on people . . . whether they are saved or not.
In other words, in an unbeliever the Law is a magnificent thing, a wonderful tool, in bringing sinners to Christ. It helps them see themselves for who they are – lawbreakers before God.
But in a believers life the presence of the Law is antithetical to the Good News and should not be part of our lives.
We will learn that this is not the fault of the law, which was (in and of itself) perfect, good and righteous, but the fault of the law lies in that when meeting with sinful flesh, it cannot be kept so therefore cannot bring peace.
Unfortunately, one of the first things many people do who come to know the grace of God through Christ is re-embrace elements of the Law.
The reasons are numerous.
Some, not certain that the works of Christ are complete, set out to “ensure by their righteousness by and through embracing” Law in their lives.
Others, having begun in the Spirit somehow believe that perfection of the flesh is the expectation of God and instead of allowing Him to do the work in and through us, knowing that our failures are covered, they embark on their own laborious efforts to “get sanctified.”
Then there are the pastor/teacher/preacher/churches that, as a means to control their congregates by and through the arm of the flesh, implement elements of the Law among them, labeling them as simply the basics of decency and moral Christian living.
Won’t work. Doesn’t work and Paul makes this plain here in chapter seven.
In the past I have made a statement that can be misconstrued if not taken in context. I’ve said:
“To the believer sin is a non-event.”
This could really be taken wrongly interpreted in a number of ways. “What does that mean?” some ask.
We reply:
Jesus came and bought our peace.
He reconciled the entire world to the Father by and through His shed blood.
This propitiation is done. Paid in full. And the world has been forgiven of sin.
Since Pentecost the Holy Spirit calls to all people – wooing or drawing them toward the cross.
Accept and believe Jesus before you die? Salvation to His Kingdom. Reject, dismiss, ignore or seek after “whatever ways that seem right in your own eyes” – no entrance to His Kingdom at death.
In both cases, salvation or no salvation to His Kingdom is determined by faith . . . or lack of it.
What keeps an unbeliever out of heaven is not their sins – those have been paid for by our King.
What keeps an unbeliever out of heaven is committing the sin that is unforgiveable both here and above – the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit which is to reject its purpose since Pentecost – to draw all people to Christ by faith!
Having been saved by the GIFT of grace through faith, Christians fall under a new commandment – a commandment upon which hang all the law and the prophets – to love the Lord our God and to love our neighbor as ourselves.
In so doing, we produce fruit of the Spirit – love and all of its manifestations.
The sin of the Christian, saved by THE GIFT of grace THROUGH faith, is the failure to love. And this is the sin for which we repent – which means change our minds about.
So, here’s the applicable point relative to the Law – it cannot create, support, or cause love to exist, thrive, or flourish in the heart of anyone.
It only does two things – produce debt (because we are earning rewards by keeping it) or it produces sin – pride, condemnation, rebellion.
And so it is only by and through a constant appeal to the gift of grace through FAITH that we are “able to ever produce acceptable fruits of love” which come only in and through us by the presence of Jesus Christ.
And this is why Paul has spent no small amount of time talking with these Roman Jewish converts about dying to the Law, and living – abiding – in Him and His love . . . because it is the only way we can literally fulfill the new command to love all – enemies included.
Got all that?
Now, we all recall that when the Bible was put together they took all the writings and compiled them without chapters or verses.
This was just one letter to the Church at Rome and it wasn’t until (I believe) the time of Jerome and later that the book was broken up into these bit-sized morsels called chapters and verses.
In light of this we can see that there are breaks between chapters and even verses are, in some ways, a bit of a fail.
We get a glimpse into the human mind and it’s desire to compartmentalize because how many times have we heard people say:
“Oh, I just love Romans chapter eight,” when in reality it is merely a man-made segment of an entire letter that was written to serve a specific purpose overall.
All that being said, we come to “chapter seven,” but in so doing have to remember what was just said in the last verse of Romans six, which was:
Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
In light of all we’ve studied we concluded that we could equally state:
“For the wages (or the earnings) of (attempting to live by the Law) is death, but the GIFT of God (gift, mind you, unearned, proving that faith is not a meritorious work but trusting in Jesus to have done the work) is eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Well, here in chapter seven Paul actually takes off on this very point, reminding us, that if death is merited or earned when we seek to live by the law, and eternal life is gifted, we ought to then become “dead to the Law.”
And to emphasize this point he gives us an poignant example. So let’s read verses one through six of chapter seven and see what Paul has to say.
Roman 7:1 Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?
2 For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.
3 So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.
4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
5 For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
6 But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.
In the first three verses Paul introduces us to a comparative teaching, taking one situation and making it analogous to another.
The first situation? How God sees marriage and the man and woman involved. And the second he compares it to? Believers in Christ and the Law.
Let’s read the first three verses again
Romans 7:1 Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law (or to the Jews) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?
2 For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.
3 So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.
In Hebrew culture and according to the Bible, when a man dies, and the lawful connection between him and his wife is dissolved.
This means his law (as her husband) ceases to be binding on her. Now, there is an immediate reference to the Mosaic law but the principle is affirmed in most situations surrounding human existence.
Most of the covenants and promises and obligations we undertake are dissolved when the party to whom obedience is given is dead, whether in business contracts or family obligations.
But if the parties involved are all alive, the contracts, in a court of law (or God) remain alive and therefore binding.
In this comparative, Paul says a woman is free from the Law of God (relative to her husband) ONLY when the husband dies.
If she doesn’t wait until he is dead to be free from him and marries another, she is “called an adulterer.”
This is concurrent with Jesus teaching on marriage, BTW. This is exactly what He said, and remember, this is from God’s point of view.
But the applicable point Paul makes is “death dissolves those connections and relations which makes the law otherwise “makes binding on her life.”
So again, to a Jew, the husband had to die in order for the wife to be free from the law that holds her bound to him in God’s eyes. And when that husband dies, only then is she free to marry another and not be guilty of adultery.
And here is a simple application to the point:
The Law of God is represented as the husband. He (the Law) has to die for the believer (or the wife) to be free. Until that happens, she (the believer) is not free to marry another, who, in this analogous comparison, is Christ.
Another way to see it is:
A wife (the believer) is united to her husband and is under his authority as the head of the household (the Law).
In order for the wife (the believer) to truly be free to marry another (Christ) her husband (the Law) has to die.
Until this happens she is under his or its (the Laws) direction. And if it’s law, there will be sin.
Now there is an interesting point here to consider isn’t there?
IF the believer (the wife) seeks marriage to another (Christ) WHILE her husband (the Law) remains alive, she will be called an adulterer.
The point Paul makes is believers cannot be married to both “the Law and to Christ in God’s eyes anymore than a woman can be married to two husbands.
Now, in light of this illustration, passages like the following begin to make sense:
Romans 4:15 “. . . where no law is, there is no transgression.”
Romans 3:20 “. . . for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”
Romans 5:13 “. . . sin is not imputed when there is no law.”
1st John 3:4 “ . . . for sin is the transgression of the law.”
Romans 7:8 “For without the law, sin was dead.”
1st Corinthians 15:56 “The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.”
Now, in verse four, Paul brings the two analogies together, saying:
4 Wherefore, my brethren, you also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
WOW! WOW! WOW!
I mean that is a passage, innit? Let’s read it again because it says SOO SOO SOO MUCH TO US AS BELIEVERS. Ready?
4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
Can you see how the death of Christ, buried in the grave for our sin as the perfect law keeper, allows us to be “married to another” WHO? “Even to him who is RAISED from the DEAD,” WHY “so that we should bring forth fruit unto God!”
Holy guacamole, batman, is this not a great summary of the living Christian??
Did you hear what Paul himself wrote?
I didn’t write this nor make it up – Paul, who spent three years in the Arabian desert being tutored by the Lord Himself said it –
4 Wherefore . . . YOU ALSO are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, (who SHOULD we be married to, folks? Paul says) “even to him who is raised from the dead,” (why should we be married to another who is Christ?) “that we should bring forth fruit unto God!”
As death dissolves the connection between a wife and her husband, so the death of the Christian (to the law) comes by the dead body of Christ who fulfilled the Law and thereby dissolves that connection between our Old Man (and the guilt he carries under the law) and our new.
This makes it possible then for the New Man to lawfully establish another union – to marry another – who – LISTEN CLOSELY – is with the risen Lord and this new creation is purposed for bringing forth fruit to GOD! (which is agape love)
Last week we read that the WAGES of sin is death. The wages of the Law is death. The Wages of our first marriage (to the law) is death.
But that “the GIFT OF GOD is eternal life (through) The RISEN CHRIST Jesus our Lord, our new spouse!
Now in verse four Paul makes an interesting reference.
He says that we are become “DEAD to the Law by the BODY of CHRIST.”
Hmmm. What does this mean?
Dead to the Law BY THE Body of Christ?
How so? Did our Lord’s literal fleshly body, which He took on for us when becoming incarnate, actually somehow serve as a Law-abiding receptacle as a means to free all who believe on Him from the effects of the Law?
Absolutely.
This is a MAJOR reason why what happened TO HIS BODY under the Roman soldier’s whip and the suffering on the CROSS is so vitally important to our freedom, our relationship, and our power in and through Him.
That body assumed all the commands of the Law and all the consequences for breaking it. It is one of the reasons why I personally honor the cross emblematically in my flesh.
Hear what the Word says about exactly what Jesus did THROUGH HIS BODY on the CROSS:
Ephesians 2:15-16, speaking of Jesus says:
Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; and that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:
Colossians 1:20-22:
20 And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.
21 And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
22 In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:
1st Peter 2:22-24:
22 Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth:
23 Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:
24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.
The sense of all this combined is that by the insufferable death of Christ on the cross (as our atoning sacrifice) the demands of the law were completely met ALLOWING us to be divorced from the Law of our first marriages.
And by His taking our place, and completely releasing us from the demands of the law, producing justification and freedom from its penalty by faith, He has saved us from its curse of it, and that all of this was all done through His body.
Now listen! Because He bought and paid for this with His own body (out of love) “to re-embrace Law as a means to live and sanctify ourselves” only serves to spit in the face of the grueling finished work He did for the world.
So not only is there no possible way to be free by re-embracing law, not only will we fail to meet the command to love (because the Law cannot produce fruits of Love), but we also faithlessly deny His offering and selfless gift – which in my estimation proves we have never understood Him or His offering in the first place.
Therefore, it is FAITHLESSNESS that embraces law in the presence of His gift of grace.
It is FEAR or PRIDE that causes those who “having begun in the Spirit,” to think they can become “perfect in the flesh.”
And this will amount to a total FAILURE to produce any acceptable fruit through the loins of our King when such inferior means are exchanged for God’s unassailable plan of Grace for which His only begotten died!
Referring to his analogy, Paul adds in verse four “that we should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead,”
And we return to a most radical concept. Hang with me.
For us to be “married to another” even the risen Lord Jesus Christ, is the completion of the illustration Paul presents in verses 2 and 3.
As the woman is freed from the law of her husband by his death (but then when married again she comes under the authority of another) so we who are made free from the law and its curse by the death of Christ, are brought under the new law which is to love (through Him) to whom we are now wed.
Interestingly, this personal and corporate union of Christ we are told to have is not infrequently illustrated in scripture through the imagery of a husband and wife – with Christ being the groom and believers making up His bride.
How are we – male and female alike – “married to another, even Him who is raised from the dead?” Here, the parallels and picture get pretty radical.
We know that it is only through Him (the vine) that we can do anything. “For without Him, we can do nothing.” So as branches in the vine we are wed to another.
Hand in hand with this idea, Paul points out that being married to Christ . . .” we should (then) bring forth fruit unto God.”
It is not by mistake that the analogy is made for all believers to be married to Christ, nor that scripture likens Him to being the groom and the church being the bride, AND THAT in this picture we find an interesting parallel to the marriage of a man and woman – the fruit of children born to them.
In other words, couples marry and typically bring forth “fruit from the womb.”
The Christian couples. Comprised of both men and women who are married to Christ, bring forth “fruit from the tomb.”
At the risk of being crude, I cite Deitrich Bonhoffer, who I believe said “that in Christ there is neither male nor female” for Christ penetrates us all” with the implication being that He impregnates all (who are wed to Him) with His Spirit . . . which when it takes root (or conceives) on good soil bears or produces fruit – fruit of the Spirit – love.
Bonhoffer is not too far off when we consider Galatians 3:28 which says:
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.”
This certainly gives us pause when we contemplate the resurrection of the human race, doesn’t it?
So, with this picture in place, Paul tells us, that with the Law having died with Christ, that we are then freed from the law, and can then be married to another, in order to . . . bear fruit to God.
Our next verse contributes to our understanding of fruit bearing. And so Paul goes back to when we operate in the flesh, saying
5 For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, (don’t miss that line) did work in our members to bring forth “fruit unto death.”
Whether a believer or a non believer, our sin nature, responding to the presence of the Law, did work in us to bear what Paul calls “fruit unto death”
In other words, our former woman or man in the presence of Law, produces what Paul calls, “fruit unto death.” Still born fruit. No life in it.
And in this we are confronted with two types of fruit now – fruit unto death and fruit unto life (or eternal life).
Since the Spirit gives life, and the fruit of the Spirit is Godly love, then the fruit unto life is love and therefore the fruit unto death is its opposite.
What is the opposite of love? To me it is anything and everything that leads to or lends to . . . death. Non-eternality. Dark graves of temporariness.
God is love. God is eternal. In His is no shadow or darkness. So, opposite Him are things not eternal, temporal, ephemeral, dark, fading, dying, and death.
It’s the old word game, of which I’m not sure there is any merit, were the reverse of “live” is “evil,” right?
Therefore, a way to examine and weigh out our behaviors and acts of love is to see them in terms of the “life” they give or should we say, “their eternality,” their longevity.
So, Paul wrote
5 For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth “fruit unto death.”
6 But now (Paul says) we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.
Can Love, the Christian command, thrive in the “oldness of the letter?”
It’s impossible. That is why we see so many Christians living by the Law and therefore being and becoming unloving toward others.
Can real love exist (toward God and Neighbor) when people believe that they must –
Obey a Sabbath day?
Pay a tithe?
Wear certain clothing?
Abstain from items they ingest?
Devote a certain number of hours to the church?
No! Because the by product of such is sin – condemnation, pride, and/or rebellion – all elements of death.
So, we serve in the Newness of the Spirit, NOT in the Old Letter. Listen to Galatians 5:22 where Paul writes
. . . the fruit of the Spirit is love (manifested in) joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance – against such there is no law.
Get it?
In the Gospel, in the vine our lives are of a spiritual nature. In our marriage to Christ our offspring is the fruit of the Spirit. This is a way of life completely distinguished from that practiced by the ancient Jews, .
2nd Corinthians 3:6 says it well, speaking of Christ in them as apostles, said
“Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament (the new covenant) not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.”
Remember when we read in Romans 2:29 where Paul said:
“But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.”
Let me wrap this up by citing from the life of Jesus. Recall when He was sitting with the Samaritan woman at a well and there He said something profound about worshippers – true worshippers. Do you remember?
So, the Lord is sitting (alone) talking with a Samaritan woman – two acts forbidden by culture, by the way. See, after the Babylonian captivity, the Samaritans, who were sort of a mongrel group that were part Jew and part pagan, were not allowed to livet in Jerusalem or take part in rebuilding the temple so a great hatred popped up between them and the Jews.
They then built a rival temple on Mount Gerizim (which was destroyed by a Jewish king) and so they built another one at Shechem.
So, there was two communities “worshipping the Lord” in Jesus day and both did so by and through their own temple and their Laws.
And Jesus, traveling through Samaria, comes upon this woman at a well.
And after a whole bunch of very revealing conversation with our King, the woman says to Jesus (in John 4:19):
“Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet,” and then she added, “Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.”
She brings up a very sore subject between the Jews and hated Samaritans. And what does Jesus say to her? He says,
“Woman, believe me, the hour comes, when you will neither in this mountain, nor at Jerusalem, worship the Father.
You worship what you know not: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour comes, and now is, when “the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”
This is the very point that Paul has been making. In SPIRIT . . . IN LOVE . . . IN TRUTH . . . will those who know the living
God seek and worship Him.
It is not by law. It is not through temples. God, who is spirit, “seeks those who worship Him in Spirit and in truth.”
That is you. Know that – if you are studying with us – that is you.
Now wrapping up our time today, go back with me to verse five, which says:
5 For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
Paul uses the remainder (of “chapter 7”) to amplify this premise – and he pulls from his own life to make the point most clear.
Next week we’ll continue to examine what I personally believe presents Christians with one of the single most important teachings we can ever hear.
Today is our last day of Meat Teachings for CAMPUS.
We only have the rest of Romans to go through before we will have taught through the Apostolic Record verse by verse.
Once we are through with Romans we are going to embark on a verse by verse journey through the Old Testament which will truly open our eyes to the Gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord.
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