Freedom from the Law

(To download an mp3 file of this sermon, click on the title above. To listen now online, click on the audio player shown.)

This is a message based on Romans 7:1-25, and is part of a series of messages that we have been giving on the book of Romans.

Written Excerpts:

Introduction:

As we return to our series of messages on Romans I just want to begin by summarizing what we have already learned through this comprehensive letter the Apostle has sent to the believers in Rome.

I have been reading a book by Dr. John Oswalt titled, Called to Be Holy. He does a splendid job of summarizing the content of these earlier chapters, so I would like to quote him.

In the first chapter [Paul] shows that the Gentiles knew enough of God not to become idolaters, and yet they did and in consequence have sunk to the most despicable sins. But in chapters two and three, he shows that the Jews have no cause for self-congratulation. If anything, their situation is worse because they have the written revelation and are thus responsible for their greater knowledge. But this greater knowledge has not resulted in the kind of obedience it should…. Paul can say towards the end of chapter 3, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

…If all humans stand condemned before God, and if there is nothing we can do to clear the charges from our record, what can we do? Paul begins to answer that question in 3:21. God has made his righteousness available to us through faith in the atoning sacrifice of Christ.

Regarding chapters 4 & 5 Oswalt continues by describing how the law was never given as a means to make humans right before God. Abraham was declared righteous because of his faith even before the law was given. Additionally, the Law is unable to remedy the sinful inclinations passed on to us from our first parents, but it functions to show us just how sinful we are and prepare us for the Cross.

Chapter five was as far as we got before the Advent Season a couple of months ago. Then we resumed our series a couple of weeks ago by looking at…

V.     God's righteousness is revealed through sanctification. (6:1-8:39)

I want to remind us briefly about what the word sanctify (ication) refers to.

In its earliest uses it referred to God’s “transcendence” and “otherness.” It also speaks of cleansing, or purity, as well as being separated from the common or ordinary. It emphasizes the fact that God’s people are distinguished by being cleansed from moral impurity and separated from common worldly purposes to be entirely devoted to God’s purposes.

The Apostle Paul, uses chapters six through eight to answer some of the questions that might arise out of chapters 4-5.

Quoting from Oswalt’s book again:

[the reader says] ….if none of my good deeds made me acceptable to God, and if they actually kept me from God, then it doesn’t matter how I live now that I have accepted God’s offer of Christ. In fact, if I just surrender to my sins, Christ will be free to give more of the grace he so much enjoys giving!

To all of this, Paul goes off like a rocket…. The very idea that Christians might think that they should just go on living in sin after they had received Christ’s forgiveness is abhorrent to the apostle…. So Paul says here, “Don’t you understand? Why did Jesus give his life for you – just so that he could stamp [the word] ‘justified’ on you? Never! He did it so that he could stamp his image on you!”

The last two Sundays we examined chapter six which showed that…

A.  Sanctification means grace has been victorious. (6:1-23)

“Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound!” (Quote from chapter five of Romans)

Today, we are moving into chapter 7 which addresses a question that Paul supposes will arise in the minds of his readers after they have read chapter 6.

We can imagine [their] response going something like this: “Oh, now I understand, Paul. We were brought into relationship with God by grace through faith, but to remain in that relationship we must live a holy life, and we do that by keeping the law. Right?” Paul answers, “Wrong! You cannot keep the law. If you attempt to do that, the law will only [condemn] you.”

In many respects, chapter 7 revisits some of the same points that Paul made earlier in chapters 4 & 5. So let’s turn to Romans 7 now to see what additional insights the Lord would have us discover regarding the whole idea of sanctification.

B.  Sanctification means the law has a purpose. (7:1-25)

i.  The purpose of the law is defined and illustrated. (7:1-6)

a.  Its purpose is to exercise dominion. (7:1)

Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives?

The apostle starts his argument by reminding those who are already familiar with the law that the law exercises control or dominion. It seems like he is saying, “If you think that mere compliance with the law will continue to grant you standing in the grace of God, have you forgotten what the law is and what it does?”

b.  Its dominion is illustrated by marriage. (7:2-3)

For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. ³  So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man.

There are a some commentators and plenty of preachers who have used this passage of scripture as a proof text about the issue of divorce. However, divorce is not the topic of discussion here. Paul is simply mentioning the aspects of the law that suit the illustration he is trying to make. Here’s the illustration…

When a woman is married to one man, she is bound by law to not be married to another man at the same time. But, if her husband dies, then she is free to marry another man.

c.  The believer is united to a new spouse. (7:4-6)

Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another--to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.

The reference here is similar to the one Paul made in chapter six when he says we died to sin when we were baptized into Christ. That spiritual baptism into Christ made us dead to sin. Here he seems to be saying the same kind of thing that he wrote to the Galatians (2:20), “I am crucified with Christ…”

Wesleyan Bible Commentary - Just as a slave cannot serve two masters, a woman cannot be committed to two husbands simultaneously. But, when death ends the marriage relationship, the woman is free to bind herself to a new love relationship.

⁵  For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. ⁶  But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.

Living in the flesh made us condemned by the law, but now we are delivered from the law (and its condemnation) in order to serve God in the new life of the spirit of Christ and not under the curse of the law.

(According to Oswalt) There are four uses of the term “flesh” in the NT: (here, vv. 5, 18, 15)

• Refers to physical flesh (body) – 1 Jn. 4:2, 3 - Christ came in the flesh; good connotation in contrast to the way the Greeks thought of the body (i.e. evil).
• Refers to desires related to bodily needs, thus desires for sleep, food, water, sex, etc. – good or bad depending on degree to which one’s life is controlled by them.
• Refers to attitude which says “all there is to life is the satisfaction of bodily desire, and acquisition of material possessions – bad.
• Refers to attitude which makes human ability supreme. It refers to pride and self-will – very bad.

ii.  The purpose and character of the law is defended. (7:7-13)

In this next section (verses 7-13), Paul wants them to know that he is not “trashing” the law (to put it in contemporary language). Also notice changes in pronouns – “you” (1-4); “we” (5-6); “I” (7-25).

a.  The law was designed to expose sin. (7:7-11)

What shall we say then? Is the law sin? (hamartia; miss the mark) Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin (in me) except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, "You shall not covet." ⁸  But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead.

Sin was dead in the sense that I knew nothing about it. But once I learned, then I desired my own way even more!

⁹  I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. ¹⁰  And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. ¹¹  For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me.

“was to bring life” – i.e. that is what Paul expected it to do.

Wuest's Word Studies – Paul expected his … life under law to issue in the production of a testimony … that would be a living one, … accomplished through his attempt at law-obedience. But he found that mere effort at obeying an outside law resulted in defeat [condemnation and spiritual death]. [Refer back to v.1- dominion]

b.  The law is holy and good. (7:12-13)

Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. ¹³  Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful.

Paul lays aside all accusations about the law being evil. No! The law is holy, just and good. The law did exactly what it was designed to do – cause me to become aware of what sin was and recognize it in my own life. But also, the law was designed to help me understand the holiness or “otherness” of God, and realize my own ungodliness.

iii.  The weakness of the law is explained and illustrated. (7:14-25)

There are many Christian authors and commentators who view these verses as Paul’s admission that it is impossible for a Christian to live without sinning.

But I agree with those who affirm that Paul is not talking about normal Christian experience or even his own experience as a believer. He is speaking about his experience, as a Jew, trying to live up to the law prior to his conversion.

“Normal Christian experience” cannot be described as “sold [like a slave] under sin” (5:14; compare 5:23) when he has already proclaimed in chapter six that we are either a slave to sin or a slave to righteousness - we can't be slaves to both.

a.  The Apostle’s experience validates the law.

The law is spiritual and I am carnal (v 14) – once again affirming the goodness and valid purpose of the law, but the problem he’s discovered is the flaw in his own spirit. “He prefers the tainted rather than the pure.” (Oswalt)

The rest of the chapter is Paul's own testimony that shows the validity of what he has been saying. Some people think that this is Paul's testimony as a Christian, but it surely portrays his striving to serve God before his conversion.

b.  The law is powerless to deliver or rescue.

O wretched man that I am – I’ve discovered the law couldn’t deliver me from my own fleshly passions and desires.

Conclusion:

So, looking at the title I have chosen for today’s message, one might think, “Oh, ‘FREEDOM FROM THE LAW,’ that must mean that I can live any way I want to live, because I’m “not under the law, but under grace.”

No, that is not freedom from the law, that is living against the law or “antinomianism.”

Paul wasn’t “anti-law” (against law), but he was free from the law. He had come to learn what it meant to live in the life of the spirit (which we will be talking about in the next chapter), and not suffer under constant condemnation of the law.

If I could share my own experience:

When I tried to live by obedience to the law, I constantly discovered my inability to be victorious. Whenever I failed, I would feel condemned and I would conclude I couldn’t live pleasing to the Lord, so I would just give up.

The law is still good in the sense that it reveals how I need to make adjustments to live holy like God and please him, but I have a whole different perspective now. I look to the Holy Spirit for help and I strive to make changes out of a motivation of love for God rather than a sense of self-satisfaction over keeping the rules.

The closing song I’ve chosen for today is:

His Way With Thee

Pay close attention to the words of these verses as we sing. Think of them in the light of the verses we’ve just studied.