Text: Romans 7:1-13
Title: The Usefulness and Uselessness of the Law
Romans 7:1-13 Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives? 2 For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. 3 So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man. 4 Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. 5 For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter. 7 What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, "YOU SHALL NOT COVET." 8 But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead. 9 I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died; 10 and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me; 11 for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12 So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. 13 Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful.
I. The Uselessness of the Law
a. The law doesn’t bind us
b. The law doesn’t save us
c. The law doesn’t sanctify us
II. The Usefulness of the Law
a. The law reveals our sin
b. The law arouses our sin
c. The law ruins the sinner
Please open you Bible to Romans chapter 7. We will be looking at the first 13 verses today. If my job as pastor is to read the scripture and then explain, I have my work cut out for me today. This section of scripture has a number of tricky twists and turns to it.
One of the great things about preaching all the way through a book from start to finish is that we should all have a context, or a background, to help us better understand some of the trickier passages. Since we have already heard Paul talk about the purpose of the law, when we read through this passage, we have that prior knowledge to guide us.
Follow along as I read Romans 7:1-13…
As a pastor, one of the questions I get asked often has to do with the function of the law. This is one of those areas that has caused a great deal of confusion and disharmony with believers since the time of Paul. There are even some Christian groups today that have a fundamental misunderstanding of the function of the law.
The Seventh Day Adventist group is one denomination that still falls within the bounds of orthodoxy in many areas, but when it comes to relating with the law, they are confused. They still hold to Saturday as the true Sabbath, they still hold to many of the OT dietary requirements, and they have created for themselves a whole new list of new “laws” or legalistic rules for living.
I’ve always been fascinated with legalistic Christianity. It is such an anomaly to me. Even though the scripture is clear about our freedom from the law, there seems to be these deep seeded need within humanity for structure and rules, and boundaries. Legalistic denominations are still very prevalent and popular. There are millions of people who are drawn to that kind of religious structure for some reason.
Do you know what I mean? There are some people who just seem to need a lot of rules to feel like they are good Christians. Then there are those who have been in legalistic churches that have gotten out and understand what freedom from the law is all about.
I have a theory as to why legalism is attractive to some people. I think it goes back to our pride. When we are keeping the rules and doing what we are supposed to we get approval by church leaders and feel good about ourselves. Some people hang on to legalism because it makes us feel like we have done something to earn or deserve our salvation. Some people are just trapped in legalistic churches because of fear.
Legalistic Christianity is an extreme. It isn’t the kind of Christianity that Paul teaches. In fact, Paul goes to great lengths to teach against the dangers of legalism. There is another extreme though. There is also a tendency for some people to completely ignore any rules or laws. There are some who want to abandon any guidelines for living. That error is equally unbiblical. We have already seen Paul deal with that extreme.
This passage today really helps us understand the purpose of the law. In one sense the law is useless to us now. We’ve died to it. It doesn’t have the same kind of impact or control that it once had. On the other hand, Paul also explains that there is a function or purpose for the law. So today we will look at the usefulness and the uselessness of the law. First, let’s look at the uselessness of the law…
The law has become useless because it no longer binds us. The way Paul illustrates this fact is with the analogy of marriage. Look at verses 2-4 with me again…
The analogy is a simple one. Paul takes something familiar to help us understand our relationship with the law. Marriage is a life long commitment. You are bound to stay married to your spouse for as long as you both shall live. That’s the vow we make. But, if your spouse dies, you are no longer bound to them. You now have the freedom to marry someone else.
We have died to the law. That was the message back in chapter 6. That’s the message here in chapter 7. You are no longer anchored to the futile struggle to keep a set of rules that you have no hope of ever keeping. You have died to that way of life. You have been set free from that old relationship to the law. You have been set free from slavery to sin and the law and are now joined to Jesus Christ.
Look at verse 4 again… We have been freed from the bondage to the law for a purpose. There is a reason why God does this new work in our lives. The reason is so that we will bear fruit for God. Real fruit for God doesn’t come from adherence to the OT law system. It doesn’t come through legalistic living. Real fruit comes from living life in Christ. It comes from our relationship with Him.
I love how Paul throws this little reminder of our purpose and our reason for being saved right here in the middle of this passage on the law. Your purpose is to bear fruit for God. The purpose of life is to grow and the purpose of growth is to bear fruit. Are you bearing fruit? If not that might mean you are not growing. And if you aren’t growing that might mean that you are still dead.
Freedom from the law frees us to do the kinds of things that God created us to do.
Next, we the law is useless to us because it does not save us. The law was never intended to bring about salvation. As we will see in just a minute, the real purpose fo the law was to shine a spotlight on our need for salvation, but it doesn’t have the ability to save us in itself.
The law demonstrates our need for real salvation. It doesn’t get the job done. Again, that was never meant to be the function of the law. It can’t save. No amount of legalistic living came bring you any closer to God. It’s useless, worthless, meaningless.
Salvation comes as a free gift of grace through simple faith in Jesus Christ. Obeying the list of rules doesn’t save anyone. It might be familiar, comfortable, or make us think we are on the right track, but the law isn’t how we access God.
Likewise, the law doesn’t sanctify us. I think this might be the biggest error or misconception that people have about the purpose of the law. There are some who believe in salvation through grace by faith, but that the law is how we grow in our relationship to God. This is partially true with the Seventh Day Adventist that I mentioned earlier.
Some think that once they are saved they now need to put on all these laws and regulations and rules in order to be a good Christian. That’s essentially the heart of legalism. My good works put me in a right relationship with God.
But what we see here is that the law isn’t what brings about sanctification in our lives. Remember, starting in chapter 6 Paul’s main goal is to explain how sanctification does work in the life of the believer. It doesn’t come through adherence to the law, but through life in the Spirit. Look at verses 5-6 with me…
We now serve in the newness of the Spirit, not in that old letter of the law. We now serve through the power and strength of the Holy Spirit of God, not by keeping a list of rules. We now share in a restored relationship with God. The law doesn’t mature us into Christ-likeness, the guidance of the Holy Spirit does.
Let me give you an example. When I was a kid I went to a great church with loving people, but it was a church that tended to lean a little towards the legalistic side. I can remember often feeling a lot of guilt for the things I did and for the things I didn’t do. We needed to spend at least 30-1hr minutes in Bible study and devotion every morning. We needed to share the gospel with everyone around us or they might go to hell. We couldn’t smoke and we couldn’t chew, and we couldn’t go with girls that do.
Now Bible study is clearly a good thing, I’m a big fan of it. Sharing the gospel is a good thing, avoiding girls who chew is a good thing. But growing up I always felt that my value in the eyes of the church and the eyes of God had more to do with what I did. Much of my early Christian life was spent saddled with guilt because I wasn’t able to meet this church-created model of what a good Christian was supposed to be.
This kind of legalism tended to create a layer of superficiality. People tried hard to look good on the outside, even when everything on the inside was falling apart. People didn’t have the freedom to share their temptations, or their failures, or their struggles.
In a legalistic church, sanctification becomes more about keeping up appearances or playing a part. Sanctification becomes a checklist that we can mark off each day. It never moves to the level of true relationship with Jesus Christ or with other people.
Sanctification doesn’t come through keeping the law. Sanctification comes through a relationship with Christ. Bible reading, prayer, evangelism, holy living, those all come from our desire to honor Christ. Sanctification comes from yielding everything we have and everything we are to Jesus Christ.
That’s why Paul spent so much time explaining our need to die to sin and start living for Christ back in chapter 6.
Ok, so the law no longer binds us or enslaves us. It is useless to save and it is useless to sanctify. So that must mean that the law is bad right. That’s exactly the question that Paul expects. It’s the question he deals with next. Look at verse 7 with me…
In these next few verses we see Paul explaining for us what the real purpose of the law is. The law wasn’t something that men made up; it was given by God Himself. So if God gave us the law it must have had some purpose right? It must have some use. Let’s talk about the usefulness of the law next.
First of all, the law reveals our sin. The law teaches us about sin. It shines a spotlight on the fact that we are sinful people. Paul says, “I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, "YOU SHALL NOT COVET.”
Just because the Law doesn’t save or sanctify doesn’t mean that it is flawed or deficient in some way. It isn’t God’s law that is flawed, it’s us. God law is holy and perfect, we are the ones who are messed up.
And that’s really the point of the law, to show us just how messed up we really are. The purpose of the law is to reveal the extent of our sinfulness.
Professor Phillip Williams explained the function of the law this way…
“The law is the light that reveals how dirty the room is, not the broom that sweeps it clean.”
The law is the light that shines on our sin. It is the method by which we are able to understand our great separation from God. But it was never meant to rescue us from that sin. That’s where the work of Christ comes in.
Does that make sense? It wasn’t until someone told Paul, you are not allowed to covet, that Paul realized, “Really, I do that all the time; man I’m really sinful!”
Without an accurate understanding of our sinfulness we won’t have a clear understanding of why we need a savior. This ties in with why Paul spent the first three chapters of this book talking about the extent of human sinfulness. We have to grasp that truth before we will admit to our need for a savior. So by the law showing us just how sinful we really are compared to a holy and perfect God, we should be drawn to the cross of Christ.
So the law reveals our sin, but the law also arouses our sin. The law stirs up our sinful nature. It brings it to the forefront. Look at verses 8-9 again…
What exactly does it mean that apart from the law sin is dead? I think Paul is talking about how the law functions to bring to life our true sin nature. Sin is dormant, waiting, but when a rule is placed in front of us that sin springs into action.
I think this is a something we can all relate with. There is this impulsive, reflexive part to all of us that reacts in a strange way to rules. When we see a sign that says “keep off the grass” or “do not enter” our first impulse is to break the rules.
I found this cartoon that illustrates this phenomenon… Do you really want to spend the rest of your life wondering?
The law doesn’t remove our sin, it stirs it up. It brings it out more clearly. The law isn’t a cure, it simply enflames our lusts and shows us how sick we really are.
Finally, the law has the effect of ruining the sinner. The law doesn’t save us. It doesn’t draw us closer to God. It doesn’t fix our problems. The law leaves us in a state of death and despair. Look at the last few verses starting in verse 10…
Again, Paul emphasizes that the Law isn’t flawed, we are. The law isn’t sinful, we are. The law doesn’t cause our death, it’s our sinfulness that leads to death. The law just brings that sinfulness out all the more.
The law also has a way of reflecting back to us just how sinful sin is. I love the way Paul puts it at the end of verse 13… “so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful.”
The law helps us understand just how bad sin is.
So let me briefly recap. Paul has made the case that the law is useless. It doesn’t do what the Jewish people thought it did. It isn’t there to make us holy or righteous. It doesn’t save us. It doesn’t make us right with God. It doesn’t do anything to bring us closer to God.
In fact, Paul explains that the real function of the law was to highlight just how sinful we really are and just how incapable we are of keeping the commandments of God. We don’t have the ability within us to overcome sin and hold to the law. It is impossible.
So a deeper understanding of Law should have the effect of drawing us closer to our God.
So what does this mean for us? What should our relationship be to the rules and commands in the Bible? How does God’s law benefit the believer?
Let me offer a couple of quick application points:
1. When you view yourself in light of God’s law you have to admit that you are a sinner. God’s law should drive us to Him. My guess is that most of us have already been there. We have already confessed our sin to God, repented of that sin, and vowed to live a new life.
2. God’s law helps us build our relationship with Him. God has communicated to us what we need to do in order to live a life that is in line with His will. We can know God and grow closer to Him through obeying His commands.
3. Obeying God’s revealed will for our lives opens up a whole host of blessings for our lives. We will be blessed by God in this life and in the life to come when we hold fast to His statutes.
Again, this passage is found within the larger context of Paul talking about sanctification. But this process of sanctification isn’t just about keeping some list of rules, but about a close relationship with God.
That’s the lesson that God has been trying to communicate to His people from the beginning. It isn’t about the rules, it’s about the relationship. It isn’t about blind adherence to the law, but about real belief in God.
If your church attendance or bible study or prayer time or giving is done out of a sense of obligation, or guilt, or some perceived need to be good and keep the rules, then your heart is in the wrong place. Our actions should not be about things we have to do to stay on God’s good side, but about doing good works because we love God and we genuinely desire to please Him.
For some reason this is a difficult concept for some people to grasp. Christianity isn’t about rules, but relationship. Yes God gives us some guidelines for how He wants us to live, but our obedience should come from a heart motive of love, not obligation.
One of the reasons I love going to the Shepherd’s Conference is because they take very good care of you while you are there. There is always a ton of good food and snacks. They give you this huge sack full of awesome theological books. And they always hand out some kind of neat gift right when you get there. The first year I went they gave everyone this awesome watch. In past years they have given our leather bound Bibles. One your I think it was a fancy pen set.
This year they gave us all a $50 gift card for their gift shop and book store. A fifty dollar shopping spree at the bookstore is one of the best gifts you can give a big group of pastors.
When I went into the gift shop to check out what was there I saw that they had a small selection of jewelry. Necklaces and earrings. It was genius on their part. You’ve got a big group of married guys who have ditched their wives for a week to go have fun at this conference. They all know that it would be smart to come home with some show of appreciation.
So I spent my gift card on a nice necklace for Camille. Not because I had to, I could have purchased a bunch of books for myself. I didn’t do it because I know one of Camille’s love languages is gifts or because I know that you’re supposed to do nice things for your mate. I simply wanted to do it because I love her and wanted to make her happy.
I think Alan used his gift card to buy a pen set for himself. I’m not saying I love my wife more, but…
There is a difference between doing things because you feel like you have to, and doing things because you want to. That’s true in our relationships with each other and true in our relationship with God.
How do you view your relationship with God? Are your actions often motivated by guilt and fear, or love and respect?
How fortunate we are to serve a God who desires to have a real relationship with us.
