A. The story is told of an old preacher who was dying.
1. He sent a message for his banker and his lawyer to come to his home, both men were members of his church.
2. When the lawyer and banker arrived, they were ushered up to his bedroom.
3. As they entered the room, the preacher held out his hands and motioned for them to sit on each side of the bed.
4. The preacher grasped their hands, sighed contentedly, smiled, and stared at the ceiling.
5. For a time, no one said anything.
6. Both the banker and lawyer were touched and flattered that the preacher would ask them to be with him during his final moments.
7. But they were also puzzled, because the preacher had never given them any indication that he particularly liked either of them.
8. They both remembered his many long, uncomfortable sermons about greed and covetousness that made them squirm in their seats.
9. Finally, the banker said, “Preacher, why did you ask us to come?”
10. The old preacher mustered up enough strength to weakly say, “Jesus died between two thieves, and that’s how I want to go.”
B. Death, of course is no laughing matter, that’s true whether we are talking about physical death, or spiritual death.
1. During our sermon series on Romans, we have talked about how that death came through Adam, but that life came through Christ.
2. We have talked about how we are dead to sin and alive in Christ.
3. Today, we are going to talk about how that we have died to the law through the body of Christ.
4. We will also learn about the important principle of death and how it changes many things and releases us from certain obligations.
C. Those of us who watch the news were likely troubled by the things that Jeffrey Epstein was charged with.
1. On July 8th of this year, federal prosecutors charged financier Jeffrey Epstein with one count of sex trafficking of a minor and one count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking.
a. Per the indictment, “over the course of many years, Jeffrey Epstein, the defendant, sexually exploited and abused dozens of minor girls at his homes in Manhattan, New York, and Palm Beach, Florida, among other locations.”
b. The document also noted that “in order to maintain and increase his supply of victims, Epstein also paid certain of his victims to recruit additional girls to be similarly abused.”
c. The prosecution alleged that he sexually assaulted girls as young as 14 years old.
d. Following the indictment, Epstein pleaded not guilty on both charges
2. This was not the first time that Epstein had been in trouble with the law.
a. In 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty to a felony charge of solicitation of prostitution involving a minor, and was sentenced to 18 months in prison; he served 13
b. He also registered as a sex offender.
3. Prosecutors said the case would involve a million pages of discovery, including evidence from his Manhattan mansion.
a. They would have liked the trial to begin next June.
b. On July 18, Epstein was denied bail.
c. He had previously said he was willing to post $100 million.
d. Prosecutors “argued that Mr. Epstein’s vast wealth, said to be more than $500 million, would make it possible for him to flee the country if he were not held in jail.”
4. There was speculation at the time of Epstein’s arrest that his arrest could open a window to expose other influential people who knew about or participated in his crimes.
a. The question is what evidence or information did Epstein have against them and how might he use it?
5. Suddenly, on July 24th, Jeffery Epstein was found dead in his jail cell from an apparent suicide.
a. Epstein's death effectively ends the criminal case against him, but several of his alleged victims have started civil lawsuits against his estate.
D. Why have I brought up Jeffery Epstein’s story?
1. I have brought it up to illustrate the point that the apostle Paul made in Romans 7:1-6.
2. Our legal system may reach very far, but not even the “long arm of the law” can go beyond the grave.
3. You just can’t prosecute a dead man!
E. As you know, we have been systematically making our way through the book of Romans, and we have now come to Chapter 7.
1. In Romans 7:1-6, the apostle Paul explains why we are no longer under the Law of Moses.
2. When you think about it, that is a logical question: after all, for centuries God’s people had observed the Old Testament rules and regulations.
3. So, what changed?
a. Why don’t we keep the Sabbath any longer?
b. What happened to all those kosher laws that forbade us from eating pork or shrimp or catfish?
c. Why aren’t we bound by all those painstaking commandments in Leviticus?
4. In our text today Paul provides a startling answer: because we DIED!
F. Let’s start with verse 1: Since I am speaking to those who know the law, brothers and sisters, don’t you know that the law rules over someone as long as he lives?
1. We are not under the authority of the law of Moses for the same reason that Jeffrey Epstein will not have to answer to the law of the land – because the law has no authority over a dead man.
2. The law rules over someone as long as he or she is alive.
3. What exactly does Paul mean by that?
G. Look at verses 2 and 3: 2 For example, a married woman is legally bound to her husband while he lives. But if her husband dies, she is released from the law regarding the husband. 3 So then, if she is married to another man while her husband is living, she will be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law. Then, if she is married to another man, she is not an adulteress.
1. Paul used an analogy that most people would readily recognize.
2. If I leave my wife to take up with another woman – most people understand I am committing adultery.
3. If my wife runs off with a traveling salesman, she is guilty of adultery.
4. Adultery was wrong in the Old Testament (it is the Seventh of the Ten Commandments) and adultery is still wrong today!
5. Jesus said in Mark 10:11-12, “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery.”
6. Adultery is shameful, it is sinful, it is wrong.
7. God expects us to remain true to our wedding vows – marriage is for life – That is God’s perfect plan.
H. But wait a minute – marriage is for life, but not for death!
1. Suppose I drop dead tomorrow – and a couple of years later Diana meets a nice Christian man – a healthy relationship develops, and they get married (after our girls approve, and she gets a prenuptial agreement signed, of course, haha) – no one would think that’s inappropriate, and they certainly wouldn’t accuse her of adultery. Why?
2. Well, because she was “released” from her marriage to me when I died.
3. Her wedding vows don’t extend beyond the grave.
4. After all, the preacher said, “For better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do you part.”
5. We all understand that the marriage vow ends at death.
6. Paul used that illustration to make an application of that principle to something that is not as well understood in the religious world.
I. Verse 4 says: Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you also were put to death in relation to the law through the body of Christ so that you may belong to another. You belong to him who was raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God.
1. In that verse, there are four significant phrases that deserve close examination.
J. The first phrase is “put to death in relation to the law”
1. There is a good bit of confusion in the religious world about the Old and New Covenants.
2. Some religious groups fail to distinguish between the two, and some preachers will quote willy-nilly from any text that happens to confirm their particular point without regard to whether it is in Leviticus or Luke, Malachi or Matthew.
3. But it makes a huge difference, because the gospels make it clear that our Lord ushered in a new dispensation, a new covenant, or agreement.
4. For example, Mark 7:19 tells us that “Jesus declared all foods ‘clean’.”
a. Just like that, he repealed a whole set of food laws found in the Law of Moses that had been carefully observed for centuries by devout Jews.
b. It is nearly impossible for us Gentiles to register what a startling statement that would have been for Jews.
5. Then, in John 4:23, after acknowledging that the Old Testament specifies worship at the Temple in Jerusalem, Jesus went on to declare, “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth.”
a. Once again, Jesus signals that a seismic shift in religion was taking place.
6. And when Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper we observe each Sunday, Luke 22:20 tells us he took the cup saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.”
7. A person cannot read the gospels without recognizing that the old rules no longer applied, that Jesus was instituting a new way of relating to God.
8. And when Paul says, “we died to the Law,” he was reflecting and clarifying that change.
K. The second important phrase is “through the body of Christ.”
1. What does that phrase mean?
2. Look at how Paul talks about this truth in Ephesians 2:11-16: 11 So then, remember that at one time you were Gentiles in the flesh—called “the uncircumcised” by those called “the circumcised,” which is done in the flesh by human hands. 12 At that time you were without Christ, excluded from the citizenship of Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he is our peace, who made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility. In his flesh, 15 he made of no effect the law consisting of commands and expressed in regulations, so that he might create in himself one new man from the two, resulting in peace. 16 He did this so that he might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross by which he put the hostility to death.
3. In Colossians 2:14, Paul wrote “He canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the Cross”
4. When Jesus’ body was nailed to that Cross, Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament law, the prophecies, and the Temple worship.
5. In his sacrificial death Jesus abolished forever the sacrificial system of the Temple, because he was the perfect lamb of God, the full and final sin offering.
L. The third important phrase is: “that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead.”
1. This phrase puts Paul’s argument in context, because it refers back to the previous chapter.
2. You’ll remember that we learned when we were baptized, we were united with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.
3. In baptism, His death becomes our death and His resurrection is our new life.
4. In baptism, we are united with Christ – we are bound to Him, married to Christ as His bride.
M. The final important phrase of verse 4 is: “in order that we might bear fruit to God.”
1. The very next verse (vs. 5) tells us that under the Old Law, people “bore fruit for death.”
2. Verse 5 says: For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions aroused through the law were working in us to bear fruit for death.
3. Lord willing, next week, we will spend more time on that thought, but for now I’ll simply say this – the law can punish people who do wrong, but it cannot empower people to do right.
4. There has never been a law passed that could make someone want to do right.
N. Verse 6 is Paul’s conclusion of his point: But now we have been released from the law, since we have died to what held us, so that we may serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the old letter of the law.
1. Now that we have died to the Law, we are not lawless sinners – but Spirit-led servants!
2. I can’t wait until we get to chapter 8 of Romans, and where Paul teaches us more about what it means to be led by the Spirit!
O. Paul’s illustration from marriage here at the beginning of chapter 7 may seem tedious at first glance, but I can assure you that its implications are revolutionary.
1. The implications of our being dead to the law affects everything from ham sandwiches to hermeneutics – from the food we eat to the way we interpret God’s Word!
2. It affects our worship, explaining why God’s people no longer offer animal sacrifices or travel to the Temple or use any of the external trappings of the Jewish religion.
3. It helps us understand the nature of sin, and appreciate the resources of our salvation.
P. But most of all, Chapter 7 is a crucial component in Paul’s theme all throughout the book of Romans: that Jesus brings a new kind of righteousness!
1. As we have noted numerous times, the theme of Romans is stated in Romans 1:16-17: 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith.
2. As we have been making our way through Romans, Paul has been building toward this argument in Chapter 7.
3. The negative effect of the Mosaic law has been a recurring theme in Romans.
4. Paul has argued that possession of the law did not improve Israel’s situation before the Lord – for it is not possession of the law but obedience that counts, and Israel failed to fulfill the law (2:12-13, 17-24).
5. In fact, the overall impact of the law on Israel has been negative:
a. It stirs up consciousness of sin (3:20).
b. It brings wrath (4:15).
c. It increases trespasses (5:20).
6. In contrast to the inadequacy of the Law is a righteousness that comes through Christ, faith and grace.
a. In chapter 3, Paul wrote: 21 But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed, attested by the Law and the Prophets… 27 Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By one of works? No, on the contrary, by a law of faith. 28 For we conclude that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. (3:21, 27-28)
b. For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would inherit the world was not through the law, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. (4:13)
c. Then in chapter 6, Paul wrote: For sin will not rule over you, because you are not under the law but under grace. (6:14)
Q. The central claim of Romans 7:1-6 is that Christians have been released from the law, but what does this mean for our everyday Christian life?
1. First, we must understand that Paul is not teaching that Christians are no longer responsible to obey a set of commandments.
a. When Paul says that we are “not under law” (6:14-15) or that we have been “released from the law” (7:6), what he means is that we are no longer under a specific form of God’s law (ie. the Mosaic law, the Old Testament law), not that we are not under God’s laws at all.
2. Second, we must understand that Paul taught that Christians are still obligated to obey the commandments that God has given them.
a. In 1 Corinthians 7:19, Paul reminded the Corinthians that “keeping God’s commands is what counts.”
b. Christians are not subject to the law of Moses, but we are subject to “the law of Christ” (1 Cor. 9:21).
c. After proclaiming throughout Galatians that Christians are no longer under the Mosaic law, Paul warns them not to draw the wrong conclusion – God still expects believers to follow the command of love (5:13-15) and to fulfill “the law of Christ” (6:2).
d. Just what this “law of Christ” might be is not clear from Paul’s mention of the phrase, but we can see that God has given us the New Testament with specific commands to direct our conduct and to show us when we are straying from His moral will.
3. A third matter arises inevitably from the first two points – what role then does the Old Testament law have in this “law of Christ” that governs Christians?
a. As we understand that we are set free from the law and have died to the law, we understand that no part of the Old Testament law stands any longer as a direct and primary guide to Christian living.
b. Just as a person is freed from the laws of the state of Florida who has moved to New York State, so Christians are free from the law of the old covenant because we now belong to the new covenant.
c. Does our freedom from the Old Testament law include even the Ten Commandments?
d. My answer is “Yes” and “No”.
1. “Yes” in the sense that those commandments as part of the Mosaic law no longer stand over us.
2. But “No” in the sense that the teaching of 9 of the 10 commandments is explicitly taken up by New Testament authors and is made part of “the law of Christ.”
3. The only commandment not brought over into the new covenant is the Sabbath command. (The Sunday Lord’s Day is similar to the Sabbath Day, but not the same)
4. What this means is that Christians should look to the New Testament for the commands that God expects new covenant Christians to follow.
5. That doesn’t mean we should no longer read the Old Testament, because the Old Testament continues to be God’s Word and the New Testament tells us that all Scripture is given for our enlightenment and encouragement (2 Tim. 3:16; Rom. 15:4).
6. And of course, without understanding Old Testament law or practice, we wouldn’t fully understand how Jesus is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.
R. In the end, when contrasting the Old Covenant with the New Covenant, we truly understand what makes the gospel “good news.”
1. Our trust is not in perfectly keeping the law, but in personally knowing our Lord.
2. Our confidence doesn’t come from meticulously meeting every single rule, but in a loving relationship with Jesus!
3. Our righteousness does not come from a legalistic perfection, but from a perfect Savior who shed his blood to atone for our sins and to give us his righteousness.
4. The apostle John said it well in John 1:16-17, when he wrote: 16 Indeed, we have all received grace upon grace from his fullness, 17 for the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
5. Thank God it did! Amen!
R. The old hymn, “Rock of Ages,” written in 1776, by Augustus Toplady, expresses the truths of the Gospel of Jesus so powerfully:
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee;
Let the water and the blood,
From Thy riven side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure,
Cleanse me from its guilt and power.
Not the labor of my hands
Can fulfill Thy law’s demands;
Could my zeal no respite know,
Could my tears forever flow,
All for sin could not atone.
Thou must save, and Thou alone.
Nothing in my hands I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling;
Naked, come to Thee for dress,
Helpless, look to Thee for grace:
Vile, I to the fountain fly,
Wash me, Savior, or I die.
Resources:
Romans, The NIV Application Commentary, by Douglas Moo
We Died To The Law, Sermon by Dan Williams
