The Christian and the Law part 1

The Christian And The Law, 1
Reading: Romans 7:1-6

Introductory Thoughts

* Romans So Far:

** Paul is writing to them explaining the Gospel—Rom 1:16-17

** The Gospel starts with God, who is justly angry at the sin and rebellion of mankind—Rom 1: 18

** Whether a human being is a pagan or a Jew, human religion won’t work, and as a race, we really don’ want any part of God’s way—Rom 3:9-11

** Gentile or Jew, religious or non-religious, our efforts and squirming don’t help—we all stand guilty before God—Rom 3:19-20

** There is a way of righteousness, but it is God’s way—Rom 3:21-22

** Salvation is by Grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone—Rom 3:24, 28

** Justification is a legal transaction, where the righteousness of Christ has been put to our account, and the account has been closed—Rom 4:6-8

** We have peace with God, we have been reconciled to Him by the Cross—Rom 5:1, 10

** Where once we were dead in Adam, we are now alive in Christ—Rom 5:12, Rom 5:20-21

** Grace is not a license to sin, but a freedom to serve Christ—Rom 6:1-2, 14

** We were the servants of sin, now we are the servants of Christ Jesus our Lord—Rom 6:17

* And now, we begin to look at the relationship that the Law has to the Christian, both now and before.


1. Preliminary Question: What is the Law?
a. Ps 19
(1) The Law of nature
(2) The Law of Conscience
(3) The Written Law
(1) Torah—the Books of Moses
(2) The prophets
(3) The New Covenant Scriptures

b. What is the effect of Law?
(1) It cannot save
(2) It cannot save
(3) It can only convict—Rom 3:19-20

2. Introduction to Romans 7

a. We begin with the third of the five big questions which began in Chapter 6—Rom 7:1

b. There are many common misunderstandings and misinterpretations of the relationship between the Law and the Christian. Each of these statements contains a grain of truth and a grain of error.

(1) One is that we are under the Law (or under some law or another) for salvation.

(2) Another is that we are still under the Law (or some law or another) to maintain salvation

(3) Another false teaching is that the Law is dead, null, and void, and of no effect for anyone any more.

(4) Another false teaching is that the Law has nothing to say to the believer in Christ.

c. Answers:

(1) Are we under the Law (or under some law or another) for salvation? NO! The Law is not now, nor was it ever, a way of being right with God—Gal 2:16
(2) Are we still under the Law (or some law or another) to maintain salvation? WE do not begin with grace, then revert to Law to maintain grace—Gal 3:1-3
(3) Is the Law dead, null, and void, and of no effect for anyone any more? NO! Again, Rom 3:19-20
(4) Does the Law tell us anything that is useful today?
(1) There are many in our day, inside Christendom and outside as well, who would like to say that no part of the Law is valid on any level. This is often because they wish to define morality for themselves in a way that will meet their lusts.
(2) As we will learn in a later lesson, Rom 7:12 “….the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.
(3) As an expression of Truth, as an expression of God’s rules for human life, as a moral guide, the Law is true and good—
(4) The Law is never inaccurate, but it is always inadequate.

(5) Does the Law have anything at all to say to the believer in Christ? Yes!
(1) Grace enables us to serve Christ, but the moral Law (as applied in this day) is still an expression of God’s standards of right and wrong!
(2) The Gospel is not a license to sin, nor is it an excuse to declare every kind of immoral behavior to be moral and acceptable.
(3) Mat 5:17-19
(4)

d. So, Romans chapter 7 teaches us how the Law relates to us as New Testament believers in Christ.

(1) 7:1-6 talks about the Law and the Christian
(2) 7:7-13 defends the Law as just, good, righteous.
(3) 7:14-25 is one of the most difficult passages to understand in the New Testament, as the apostle Paul speaks of his own personal struggles, (I believe) when he was under conviction, and before he was actually saved, and how God used the Law to work in his life to convict him.


3. The Principle: Rom 7:1, The Law has dominion over the living only

a. “brethren,”

(1) Not addressed to Jewish believers, else Paul would have called them “brethren according to the flesh.”
(2) Addressed to Christians, Jew and Gentile alike.

b. “…for I speak to them that know the law…” Both the Jews and the Gentile Romans knew law, and a General Principle of any law is that it has dominion over all under its sway

(1) You don’t arrest dead people for a crime
(2) There is no point in trying dead people for a crime
(3) The dominion of the Law is for living people only.

c. The dominion of the Law
(1) Law has dominion—example, the US Constitution. Wherever American authority rules, that authority is subject to the Constitution.
(2) Law has total dominion—only a higher authority may negate or change the law. Those subject to it may protest, and in a democratic society, they may work to change the Law, but if they are under its dominion, they are under its dominion.
(3) Law has lifelong dominion— the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? As long as a man is alive, he is under the Law.
d. The Bondage of the Law—because Law has total, lifelong, dominion, Law is a bondage, onerous to the extent that the Law is itself a burden.

4. The Illustration—7:2-3

a. The Illustration: marriage. Paul uses this illustration for at least two reasons.
(1) Marriage is a legal bond that all people are familiar with in some way.
(2) Secondly, we know from Paul’s writings that marriage resembles the spiritual union between a believer and Christ—Eph 5:22-33

b. The Principle: Marriage is forever, but death breaks the bond—

c. Four points of interest about marriage as the illustration here. (Lloyd-Jones)

(1) Male headship
(2) The binding character of marriage
(3) The only legal possibility for a new relationship is the death of one of the parties.
(4) The object of the relationship is fruit.

d. So, for the Law and us, before we died with Christ:

(1) The law had dominion, it was our head
(2) The Law was our head
(3) We were bound by the Law
(4) We were bound to the Law until death.
(5) Our marriage to the Law has borne fruit, but all of the wrong kind.

5. And now we have died with Christ— Rom 7:4 "Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ;

a. This is the historic aorist tense, something that has happened once for all.
b. This is a very violent and strong term, like a condemned person being put to death. It is not that we became dead passively, or especially, through our own action, but that we were put to death with reference to the Law.

c. The old dominion is broken, but the old husband is still alive—the Law is not dead, we are!
d. The bond is severed—we are no longer married to the Law, because we have died.

(1) We are now free from the Law.
(2) The fruit of our relationship to the Law is now of no interest to us.
(3) Now we have another husband, the Lord Jesus Christ, and if marriage is forever in God’s eyes, then His salvation is forever as well. If you are His, you will stay His forever.
(4) In applying the illustration to salvation, since the bond may be broken only by death, and since the definition of salvation is that we have, present possession, eternal life, once we belong to Christ, the bond cannot be broken.

6. The Lifestyle Contrast—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.

a. In The Flesh—
(1) The Law aroused our passions when we were lost.
(2) The fruit of that relationship is death—Rom 6:23
b. We have now been delivered SO THAT WE CAN SERVE CHRIST
(1) In the Spirit
(2) Not in the Letter

c. What is “the letter?”—2 Cor 3:1-18
(1) It is NOT referring to the New Testament Scriptures
(2) Nor is it referring to the Gospel in the Old Testament—e.g. Ps 22, Ps 2, Is 53, Jer 31:33, etc.
(3) It is referring to the Law
(4) The distinction is shown in Heb 2:1-4

d. What is “in the Spirit?”
(1) Acts 2:42-47
(2) Gal 5:22-24