No images? Click here Free to Obey Pt. IRomans 7:15-25 January 1st, 2023 What is your reaction when instructed not to do something? In children, most often the reaction is: Watch me! As children mature, they usually learn that there is a good reason for the rules their parents lay down. Laws established by the state are generally for our protection and for the promotion of an orderly society. Laws established by God are the most important and the most consequential – rewards for obedience and punishment for disobedience. (See Deuteronomy 11:26-28) In today’s text, Paul clarifies the misunderstanding resulting from his statements such as: “the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law” (Romans 3:21); “we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law” (Romans 3:28); and “we are not under law but under grace” (Romans 6:15). Jews had a high regard for the Law of God but they had a wrong understanding of the purpose of the Law.
The epistle to the Romans is all about the gospel. Paul wants his readers understand that they have a desperate need for Christ. He builds on this premise from the opening chapter through Chapter 3, where he says, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…” (verse 23) Sometimes in the Bible all refers to all types, but this case all includes every single person, excluding no one. Paul stressed that God’s wrath falls on the disobedient. So, the question is How does an object of wrath become right with God. Paul provides the answer in Chapter 4; a right standing with God is through faith and offers Abraham as an example. Genesis 15:6 tells us that Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness, and Hebrew 11 lists the various ways in which Abraham demonstrated the genuineness of his faith.
Starting in Chapter 5 to mid-way through Chapter 8, Paul introduces the theme of being secure in our salvation. In Chapter 5, Paul states that by faith in Christ we are made right with God; we are justified, and we have peace with God. We are restless until we find this peace, and it is this peace that allows us to be certain of our security in Christ. Paul ends Chapter 8 with a great assurance: “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39) The security we have in our salvation is bookended by peace with God (Romans 5:1) and nothing being able to separate us from God (Romans 8:39).
As Paul moves from Chapter 6 into Chapter 7, he anticipates two questions: I. Since we have a guarantee of our salvation, does sin matter? Paul says that sin certainly matters; you cannot ignore sin in your life. II. Does the Law have any meaningful purpose in our life? Paul states that the Law is certainly meaningful in our life. Paul makes various statement that the Jews interpret as minimizing the Law and, to the Jewish listeners, sounded like blasphemy.
Paul too had a high regard for the Law of God, but he had the correct understanding of its purpose. He saw the Law as beautiful, sweeter than honey and more valuable than gold. (Psalm 19:10) The Law reflected God’s majesty in its perfection. It would be confusing to the Jews to think that Paul was minimizing the law when he described himself as “a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee” and “as to righteousness, under the law blameless”. (Philippians 3:5,6) Based on the Jews’ flawed understanding of the Law, Paul would have been secure in his salvation. In the portion of Scripture that we will focus on today, Romans 7:7-13, Paul is making the point that the Law does not bring life, only death.
Paul is going to highlight how the Law does a majestic work in our life. There are two aspects of the Law: 1) it judges and 2) it lays the foundation for obedience. The Law entices the heart to disobey, while at the same time it provides the only means of deliverance from slavery by our old master. God uses the Law to kill us so that we might be raised from the dead. Chapter 7 allows us to see the connection between the purpose of the Law and the power that it has on our sanctification. Our desire as believers is that we want to grow in holiness; we want to know how we can overcome sin in the new year. We want to know how to identify sin in our life, clarify our confession before God and see sin go away. All of this hinges on our understanding of the Law.
We have imputed righteousness, and this is our sanctification; we are sanctified before God by the imputed righteousness of Christ. We have a process, imparted righteousness, the growth that we go through; this is our progressive sanctification. This progressive sanctification is directly related to an understanding of how the Law works in our life. How well you understand the Law will be reflected in your holy living. If you are not able to overcome sin in your life, it is because you misunderstand the Law. In Christ we have freedom, but now we have the freedom to obey. When a believer dies, he/she is set free from the bondage of their old marriage to a sinful lifestyle and its power to make them rebel. They are put into a new marriage relationship where Christ influences their life and produces righteousness in the believer. From verses seven through thirteen, we see three things that the Law does; it uncovers:
I. A Universal Problem (vv. 7-8)
If we are driving down the highway at 100 miles per hour, we don’t know that we are a lawbreaker until we see a sign that reads, Maximum Speed 70 MPH. Thus we don’t have a problem with the second part of verse seven; it seems quite natural to us. Similarly, if we don’t know that something is sinful, we don’t recognize our sin. However, verse eight seems to say that the Law makes us sin. At first glance it seems that the Law has an evil intent. Why would the Law that God says is holy, righteous and good lead me to sin? The problem is not the Law, but that the Law produces a problem for us. The Law produces unmistakable clarity, and this is what is perceived as the problem. This clarification explains why people hate the Law; it confirms the suppressed convictions of their conscience.
Paul began verse seven with, “What then shall we say? That the law is sin?” He is emphatic in his response, “By no means!” Before we knew the Law, we didn’t have a problem; now that we know the Law, we do. Our basic nature makes it difficult for us to accept responsibility for our sin. Adam blamed God for giving him a wife and “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil”, and Eve blamed Satan, and so it goes. It seems like Paul is saying that the Law entices sin, and this is why there is confusion. In Romans 5:20, he said “Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.” And in 7:5 Paul said, “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.” Paul is saying that sin is already within, and knowledge of the Law only makes us recognize it.
Paul began to build his argument in Chapter 1 when he said that, by the light of nature, everyone knows that God exists, that He is present in His creation, and that He is holy. In Chapter 2 Paul says that the conscience testifies to the Law; it gives us a framework for morality that is represented in the Law. “For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them.” (Romans 2:14-15) Paul says that our conscience is already working, it is telling us that there is something wrong, and then the Law clarifies the conviction of our conscience.
In the latter portion of verse seven, Paul begins to share some of what he struggled with in his personal life, “if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin.” Paul was a student of Holy Scripture, having studied under the tutelage of the respected rabbi, Gamaliel. He sought diligently to obtain righteousness from the law, yet he knew there was something wrong. When he met Jesus and was tutored by Him, he learned the true purpose of the Law. His encounter with Jesus on the Damascus Road led him to salvation but the Law was already at work on his heart. Paul knew he was not right with God, and he was struggling as he studied and meditated on the Law. He was struggling to pursue righteousness, struggling to obey the law. He thought he was obeying the law perfectly, but this all changed when he met Christ. Paul shows here what begins to happen in the power of the command that was given to us by God.
What happens when a person hears a command from God? Paul didn’t realize it before he met Jesus, but he struggled with covetousness. He well knew Exodus 20:17, "You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's." The first thing that such a command does is to personalize it. Before we have this command, we can excuse our behavior, yet something within tells us it is wrong to lust for things that don’t belong to us. Before the clarity, excuses are made and the conscience is easy to appease, but with the words “You shall not”, it is personal, and you are the one sinning. Authority and personalization come with the command You shall not, and condemnation must follow.
As Paul studied the Law in depth, he naturally wanted to know what it means to covet. Coveting is the desire to have anything that belongs to someone else. Paul wants us to see the extent of the law against coveting because it is comprehensive, covering all things that belong to another.
The Law has a direction to it; it is from God. If I covet, I am in direct violation of what God has told me not to do. Upon hearing the Law of God, sin is unveiled, it is clarified, and we understand the nature of our actions, Who we have sinned against, then we begin to understand our sin in the way that God understands it; we have no excuse for disobedience. Before we know the Law, we easily find excuses for our behavior. We can excuse offending our conscience. We initially look on our sin with an innocent ignorance; we think it is not that bad, and certainly not as bad as other sins. There seems to be no authority, no accountability, no pain, no sense of guilt; none of these exist outside the Law.
A violation of the command “You shall not covet” is personal, it is comprehensive, and it is directed at God. But added to this clarity is an aroused affection for the Law. Verse eight says, “But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. Apart from the law, sin lies dead.” With clarity and conviction comes creativity. When we hear the command “You shall not covet”, sin begins to stir within the heart, and we begin to look for creative ways to covet without calling it coveting. While Paul is talking specifically about coveting, he has in mind the overarching moral influence of sin in our life. The sinful nature is already within us and now we seize the opportunity to lay hold of it. We may even rationalize and think, If this is so bad, why would God place it before me? James rebukes this thinking with, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God,’ for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.” (James 1:13-14)
Instead of clarity leading us to flee sin, our sinful nature leads us to embrace it. But this, too, has a divine purpose. God makes us acutely aware that we are not able in our own strength to obey; He reveals to us that we cannot try harder; it further reveals our need for Christ. Apart from the Law we don’t know how sinful we are and how much we need God. Prior to the indwelling Holy Spirit’s influence on our life, the Law only produces a greater affection for sin by allowing us to see more opportunities to sin, and then our heart takes that sin and grants a variety. There are many ways we can covet, and Paul begins to realize that he enjoys coveting. We may like to get angry; it feels good. We make excuses for our sin. Paul found new ways in which he was jealous, a desire for things that belonged to others, and the Law caused him to embrace and cultivate his coveting.
The Law is like a plow breaking up the ground of our heart. It will eventually lead to repentance, but sin is the first thing to come out of our heart. Paul says, “Apart from the law, sin lies dead.” Sin was there in the heart, maybe undefined or ambiguous until the Law reveals the truth to us. We may wonder what is in our heart; we might think it could be wrong, but we don’t know how it is wrong, so we make no changes in our behavior. When the plow comes through our heart, the sin is then clarified, and Christians must deal with it.
Prior to receiving the Law, Sabbath violations in Israel only received a rebuke. When God supplied manna for Israel in the desert, He instructed them to gather on the day before the Sabbath an amount to last for two days, so that they would not have to gather manna on the Sabbath. However, Exodus 16:27-28 says that “On the seventh day some of the people went out to gather, but they found none. 28 And the Lord said to Moses, "How long will you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws?” This was only a reprimand. However, after Israel received the Law, Numbers 15:32ff reports the account of a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath; he was stoned to death according to the commandment given by God. Israel had the Law, there was clarity, and there was no excuse for violating the Law. Christ taught the same principle in Luke 12:47-48 when He said regarding the servant who was not prepared for the return of his master: “And that servant who knew his master's will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. 48 But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.” Our mind begins to think that Ignorance is a benefit, but NO, ignorance is not a benefit. An ignorant shell of happiness remaining under the wrath of God is still judgment. What a tragedy it is for someone to go through life thinking that they are right with God, but are, in reality, destined for an eternity in hell.
So, we ask What is the point of the Law? Paul addresses this in Galatians 3:19, “Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary.” The Law reveals our imprisonment, our enslavement, our husband as discussed in Romans 7:1-4. True knowledge of the Law indicts, it convicts, and it reveals the heart, thereby enabling a correct diagnosis. It also shows that salvation is available only in Jesus Christ. When an unbeliever is confronted by the Law, revealing sin in his life, there is normally a visceral reaction. The things unclear are now made clear and the things hidden are now brought into the light. The Law should be treasured because it provides a means of escape from a life of sin and its eternal consequences. Knowing the Law means knowing the gospel.
Trying to make a gospel presentation to a friend or making the teaching in the church more palatable, in making disciples without offending them, should not be our focus. We all need to face the reality of our sin and its consequences. We need clarity of our sin as revealed by the Law, so that we understand confession and repentance. Jesus spoke often of repentance and in Luke 13:3, He said, Unless you repent you will perish. We should not try to sugar-coat the gospel; we need to understand that when people do not receive the gospel, it is not us they are rejecting – it is Jesus. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 2:15-16 “For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, 16 to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.” The gospel either saves or it condemns. The world will flock to listen to people who speak generically to the conviction of a sin, but who stop just short of clarifying that sin. That is comfortable for both speaker and hearer, but it does not produce righteousness. Believers are likened to medical clinics that dispense a drug that cures a terminal illness. The gospel is the cure that sinful man must receive. We are guilty of self-worship if we withhold the gospel out of fear; we are saying that our personal comfort is more important than dispensing a life-saving message to another.
When believers gather to study Scripture, our hearts should be stirred to ask: What does this passage say about God? What does it say about God’s character? Where in my life am I in violation of His character? Where am I not reflecting that character? What do I need to change in my life so that I can be molded into the image of Christ? How does my life align with what God says in the Scriptures? God’s Word defines our sin and teaches us how to overcome the sin in our life. The Law uncovers the universal problem, which is our sinfulness. It also exposes a grim reality.
II. A Grim Reality (vv. 9-11)
Verse nine states, “I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died.” In one sense, ignorance is bliss. Before the Law became clear to him, Paul thought he was alive; he thought he was right with God; he thought he was obedient to the Law. But then as he studied the Law, he realized that he was not right with God. He liked the things he knew he was to avoid. When the commandment came, he saw the crop of sin first. Paul heard the Law, read the Law, studied the Law, then he plowed his heart, and a huge crop of sin came forth. Then he realized that he was not alive; he was actually dead, and God’s wrath was against him.
Paul realized that he had allowed the Law to deceive him. In verse ten he said, “The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.” Paul had thought that if he followed the Law it would lead to eternal life, but it actually proved to be death. He had thought that he was blameless before God and alive. However, Paul was dead, twice dead. The Law had killed him, and it continued to kill him by deceiving him into thinking that he was right with God. We do the same, thinking that we can manage the sin in our life and that we won’t get burned. But we will get burned. The purpose of the Law is to prove to us that we can’t manage sin in our life; we must allow Christ to absolutely kill it.
“For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.” Paul read the commandment, understood the commandment and he saw the crop of sin that resulted. He wanted to obey but the commandment deceived him, then killed him. The promise of life actually brought death, but that death leads to a profound truth.
III. A Profound Truth (vv. 12-13)
Verse twelve says, “So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.” Death actually proves that the Law is good. Paul is saying that it was good for him to see all the sin that was cultivated in his life; it was good for him to see the affection for the sin in his life, for now he recognized that he needed Christ. When he met Christ on the road to Damascus, he sees himself falling short. When Christ shows Himself to Paul, the purpose of all of his wrestling becomes clear. Paul then sees the beauty and grace in Christ. Sin is the universal problem, not the Law. It is the sin within each of us that keeps that sin hidden; because of our sin, we don’t understand our sin. That’s the problem. Paul said his heart told him lies. His heart was telling him he was alive when he was actually dead. His heart kept telling him he was right with God when he wasn’t. Thanks be to God that Jesus loved him enough to tell him the truth. It is possible that, before he met Jesus, one component of Paul’s hatred of Christians was due to his frustration with God. Christians were joyfully preaching grace, while he was miserable in his striving to please God, yet knowing that something was still not right.
After Paul met Christ, his perspective on the Law was changed. In verse thirteen he asks rhetorically, “Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.” The Law produces its ultimate purpose, to drive us to Christ. It shows our desperate need for grace. The Law produces righteousness in us when we are guided by Psalm 119:11, “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” Make God’s Law your guide in 2023.
Selah:
|