Romans 7 - The Divine Rescue Plan!
Released From the Law, Bound to Christ
7 Do you not know, brothers and sisters—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives? 2 For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her to him. 3 So then, if she has sexual relations with another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man.
Paul uses an example from everyday life to show how we have been released from the requirements of the Law. If someone is married and they were to commit adultery, they would be clearly be breaking the Law. (I.e. the Fifth Commandment) But if a woman's husband died, she would be free to marry without the guilt of breaking the Law. The Law no longer is in force because of the change in her life.
In the same way, Jesus fulfilled all of the requirements of the Law. He is the only one who could ever live up to the standards of the law. By dying on the cross for us, He took the penalty we deserved because we were lawbreakers. Therefore our relationship to the Law has changed.
4 So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. 5 For when we were in the realm of the flesh,[a] the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. 6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.
Using the analogy of marriage, Paul applies that in our relationship with Christ. In a sense, using this analogy, we were married to sin. But now that we are dead to sin, we are married to Christ. We could not be faithful to the Law, but we can be faithful to Jesus. How can we do that? Paul gives us the key when he says, "We serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code."
What does he mean by this? When we lived bound by our sinful nature, the Law only condemned us and we could never measure up to it. Instead of giving us the power to obey it, the Law only fanned the flames of our sinful nature. As we gave into our sinful nature, Paul says, "we bore fruit for death". Literal death, spiritual death, and death in our relationships.
But now we have a new power to live the life we've always wanted. The power of the Holy Spirit. The power of the One who raised Jesus from the dead. This is a new way and the only way to live a life pleasing to God.
Would you say you are living in "the new way of the Spirit"? How would you know? Check out the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22. It is a good barometer of what our character looks like if we are living in "the new way of the Spirit".
The Law and Sin
7 What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”[b] 8 But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead. 9 Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. 10 I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. 11 For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. 12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.
Paul then describes the relationship between the Law and our sinful nature. Remember the Law was given to Moses on Mount Sinai. It is summarized by the Ten Commandments. God gave the Israelites the Law to separate them from the Gentiles. The nations would know the Israelites were the people of God, as they lived according to the Law.
But instead of living by the Law, the Israelites rebelled. This was epitomized by worshipping idols instead of the one, true God. So while the Law was meant for good, it only showed them their sinful nature before a holy God. Importantly though this doesn't mean the Law is not good. The Law is holy and good because it comes from God. But the Law can't save! The Law is powerless to save a human life. It can't change a human heart to want to please God.
There is a classic analogy where a freshly painted sign says, "Don't touch". Next you see of painted hands that have not obeyed the command. This is just like our sinful nature. When we are told not to do something, our natural inclination is to what to do it.
13 Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! Nevertheless, in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it used what is good to bring about my death, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.
The first purpose of the Law is to show us our sin. The Law makes it clear that I am a sinner in need of redemption. The purpose of the Law is to lead us to Christ!
14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.[c] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
Paul then gives a statement of his own battle with sin that every one of us can relate to. Paul basically says that he knows what the right thing to do is, but he can't do it. He agrees with the Law but just can't keep it every time. He has a desire to please God by keeping the Law but he keeps on doing the opposite. So if Paul wants to obey the Law but can't what is going on here?
The problem is the sin that lives within him. Paul, like all of us, inherited a sinful nature from Adam. Instead of doing the good that we know we should do, we do the very opposite. Fortunately this is not the end of the story. But we have to understand the bad news before we can truly understand and appreciate the Good News that is coming.
Can you relate to the battle Paul faces? Do you ever wonder why you can't do the good you know and want and should do?
21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature[d] a slave to the law of sin.
Paul concludes chapter 7 with his famous words, "What a wretched man I am."
The ancient Greek word wretched is more literally, “wretched through the exhaustion of hard labor.” Paul is completely worn out and wretched because of his unsuccessful effort to please God under the principle of Law. - Guzik
This led John Newton when he wrote Amazing Grace to write, "That saved us a wretch like me".
But it is not until we realize we are a wretched man or woman that we we realize we need someone to rescue us from this woeful condition. And who is that rescuer ... Jesus Christ!
We were like a person drowning in the ocean with no boats or people around to help us until God sent Jesus to be our life raft to keep us from drowning. There was nothing we did to deserve it. It was a complete gift from God to keep us from drowning in our sin given because of His great love for us.
Give thanks to Jesus today for rescuing you from sin that not only led to physical death but spiritual death! Jesus came to give us life and life to the full not only in this life but the life to come!
Comments
Post a Comment