Dr. Bradford Reaves
CrossWay Christian Fellowship
Hagerstown, MD
www.mycrossway.org
We are here now in the heart of Romans, what I would consider the approaching the pinnacle of Paul’s message to the Church in Rome. As we approach this point in Paul’s letter, we have before us some profound and significant theology. If you remember, we covered some important terms:
Propitiation: an atoning sacrifice that succeeds in turning aside the wrath of the one to whom it is offered. Propitiate is “to regain someone’s favor; to appease.” So Christ’s propitiation is the turning away of God’s wrath toward us as guilty sinners by enduring God’s wrath himself on Calvary (Zondervan’s Bible Dictionary)
“Till on that cross as Jesus died/the wrath of God was satisfied” (In Christ Alone)
Redemption: The act of purchasing a slave for the purpose of setting him or her free. "This is precisely how the New Testament describes Jesus's work on our behalf. Jesus is our Redeemer. He is the One who paid a ransom for our souls. The ransom purchased by Christ is paid to God for our debt to Him.
Justification: The opposite of condemnation. It is the legal act of God based on the meritorious work of Christ on Calvary imputed to the sinner where God declares one absolved from all sin and released from its penalty. In our justification through Christ, we have four essential acts:
1. Remission of Punishment
2. Restoration of Favor
3. Imputed Righteousness of God
4. New Legal Standing before God
New Term: Sanctification
Sanctification The word sanctification is related to the word saint; both words have to do with holiness. To “sanctify” something is to set it apart for special use; to “sanctify” a person is to make him holy.
1. “Positional” a once-for-ever separation of believers unto God. It is a work God performs, an integral part of our salvation and our connection with Christ
And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. (Hebrews 10:10)
And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, (1 Corinthians 1:30)
2. “Progressive” Sanctification: the effect of obedience to the Word of God in one’s life. It is the same as growing in the Lord or spiritual maturity
But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. (2 Peter 3:18)
If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. (1 John 1:10)
And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. (Philippians 1:6)
For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. (Hebrews 10:14)
3. “Ultimate” Sanctification: This is the same as glorification.
Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thessalonians 5:23)
To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Colossians 1:27)
Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:2)
We receive sanctification through justification. We also receive sanctification to maturity is a practical and progressive holiness. In the future, God will give us glorification which is a permanent and ultimate holiness. These three phases of sanctification separate the believer from the penalty of sin (justification), the power of sin (maturity), and the presence of sin (glorification).
Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. (Philippians 2:12–13)
As we now study chapter 7, is good for us to read the previous verses of chapter 6 to give us context.
15 What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. 20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
1 Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? 2 For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. 3 Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress. 4 Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. 5 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. 6 But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. (Romans 6:15–7:6)
The question is, “Does that describe you?” Paul is stating here that the new life in the believer brought by the redemptive work of Jesus Christ means that sin has lost its mastery in your life. You are freed from sin, and you are no longer obligated to operate only in the flesh.
The work of sanctification is the fruit of our justification. They are inseparable. By our new life in Jesus and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, I mean that we desire to serve our Lord and no longer follow sin.
For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. (Romans 5:19)
Notice that Paul here says that we are ‘made righteous’, kathistemi, which mean to constitute. It is not that you want to be righteous, nor that you hope to be righteous, and not that you attempt to be righteous. You are now made righteous because the righteousness of Christ is credited to you. In sanctification, there is a real transformation as a result of that righteousness in you. There is both a cleansing work of God happening and at the same time a desire of the believer to please the Lord.
So the sanctifying work of God in our lives is both a transformation of him and a willfulness to serve him and please him. Think about it this way: Prior to your rebirth, you were a slave to the sinful nature of man. There was no possible way for you to break that yoke. You can willfully change habit, but you can never escape from the bondage of sin. Only through the power of Christ and his propitiation are you justified and made righteous. As a result of that, you are both sanctified (set apart as holy), and being sanctified. The problem is we still dwell in sinful flesh. The ongoing sanctifying work of Christ strengthens our desire to be slaves to him and not our flesh.
So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 6:11)
I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. (Romans 6:19)
The reality of our spiritual condition is God changed our hearts, but didn’t make us robots or zombies. Our faithfulness to the one that purchased liberated us from sin was not to give us license to sin while we remain in our flesh awaiting the resurrection into our new glorified bodies that will be without sin. That leaves us in a battle that we must learn to rely on Christ. Holiness should never stem from a legalistic standpoint or perfectionism, but out of a deep desire and love to serve our Master.
Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. (Romans 7:24–25)
And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. (Romans 8:23)
Justification vs. Sanctification
There are some similarities between justification and sanctification, both originate and stem from the free grace of God. It is only because of God’s grace that believers are justified and sanctified. Both are part of Christ’s redemptive work of salvation. He grants us pardon, justification, and He grants us purification in sanctification. Both will be present in the same person. Anyone who is justified is sanctified. Anyone who is sanctified has been justified. Both begin simultaneously, both begin at the moment of justification. Both are necessary to glorification. “Without holiness no man will see the Lord.” Those who reach heaven have not only been forgiven of their sins, they’ve also been transformed and renewed in the heart by the Holy Spirit. (MacArthur)
And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, (1 Corinthians 1:30)
The Purpose of the Law
So that brings us to the question for tonight: “Is there a purpose for the Law in the believer’s life?” “The focus of Paul’s attention in this chapter is to explain the place of God’s law in God’s plan of salvation. Paul uses the term “law,” “commandment,” or “written code” in each of the first fourteen verses of Romans 7, and a total of thirty times in the entire chapter.” (Freddy Fritz, Sermon Central).
The Old Testament Law
The Law was given directly to Moses and is found recorded in the Old Testament books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy. The legal code issued by God can be divided into three sections.
The Moral Law
The first section is the moral law, which is how to live a godly life or how to pursue personal holiness. It is rooted and grounded in the Ten Commandments. These moral laws are still in effect today with one minor exception.
The Ceremonial Law
Second, there is the ceremonial law, which is the sacrificial system made up of the high priest, priests, sacrifices, offerings, the day of atonement, a scapegoat, and the rest. The ceremonial law was fulfilled in the life and death of the Lord Jesus Christ. He abolished the ceremonial law. That is why we do not attend churches today where a pastor cuts the throat of a lamb, lays it on the altar, and sprinkles its blood on the mercy seat. Christ was both our high priest and our sacrificial Lamb as He offered Himself upon the cross to make atonement for our sins (John 1:29). Everything in the Law, as it related to the ceremonial sacrifice, was to be a foreshadowing of the coming of Christ. The ceremonial law was fulfilled in the life and death of Jesus Christ. It is no longer in effect.
The Civil Law
The third aspect of the Law, the civil law, concerns how God’s people were to function as a society under the theocracy of the nation of Israel in the Promised Land. That part of the Law is not binding upon believers outside of the Promised Land without a king of Israel ruling over us. However, there is much for us to learn from the civil law. Our whole Western system of jurisprudence is based upon the timeless principles of the civil law issued to Moses. For example, the death penalty should be still in effect. If you take someone else’s life, then your life should to be taken by the government. In Romans 13, we will we see that God has given the sword to the government to use to be an avenger of the wrongdoer. The sword of capital punishment is still in the hands of the civil government. (Steve Lawson, One Passion Ministries)
Paul teaches us that we are set free from the Law. Some people take this to mean that the Law has no place in the Christian life.
But that is not what Paul is teaching here. Instead he is teaching that because of our justification, the Christian is not saved by obedience to the law but by grace alone. So for justification we are under grace not the law. But that does not annihilate the law from the believers life. As Jesus said, I have not come to abolish the law but fulfill the law. (Matthew 5:17-18)
It will help you to understand this difficult chapter if you know that there are three possible attitudes to God’s law—attitudes represented by the legalist, the antinomian, and the law-lover:
Legalism
First, the legalist is in bondage to the law. That is, the legalist imagines that his relationship to God depends upon his obedience to the law. He seeks to be justified by the law's works. But he finds that the law is a harsh and inflexible taskmaster. In Paul’s terminology, he is “under law.”
Antinomianism
Second, the antinomian goes to the other extreme. Antinomian literally means “against law,” and antinomians are sometimes also called “libertines.” The antinomian rejects the law, and views it as no longer applicable, necessary, or even as wicked. He blames the law for most of his—and mankind’s—moral and spiritual problems.
Law-Lover
Third, the law-lover preserves the balance. The law-lover takes “delight in the law of God” (7:22) and recognizes that he can only fulfill the law by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit.
So, the legalist fears the law and is in bondage to it. The antinomian hates the law and repudiates it. And the law-lover loves the law and fulfills it.
Directly or indirectly, the apostle Paul portrays each character in Romans 7. Roughly speaking, Paul addresses the legalists in Romans 7:1-6, the antinomians in Romans 7:7-13, and the law-lover in Romans 7:14-25. (Freddy Fritz, Sermon Central).
With legalism, the apostle Paul illustrates marriage to convey his point. When a woman is married she has a legal responsibility for her husband and to serve her husband. However, once that husband dies, she's no longer legally bound to serve that husband. In fact, it would be strange for her to continue to try to serve the legal binding of that marriage. Likewise, if she were serving two husbands, then she would be considered an adulteress.
The same is true for the believer’s relationship with the law. For the legalist, there is a continual sense of obligation to serve the law for the purpose of justification. This is not only odd but dwells in the realm of spiritual adultery. For we do not serve the law nor are we slaves to the law nor are we obligated to be bound by the law, we are slaves to Christ and Christ alone.
To address the legalists, Paul reminds them in verse 5 of our purpose. The whole reason for our rebirth is not to be obligated to fulfill the Law but to bear fruit for God. Every believer, made in the image of God, redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, justified through Christ, and imputed with the righteousness of Christ, has been raised from death to life - not so that we can continue in our sinfulness, nor so that we can be obligated to follow the legal bindings of the Law, but so that we can bear fruit for God. You cannot bear fruit for God if you are following after sinful passions nor can you bear fruit for God if you keep yourself under the Law.
Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. (Matthew 3:8)
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, (Galatians 4:4)
I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:5)
Paul concludes this paragraph of thought in verse six with the spiritual antithesis of what he stated in verse five. There, Paul described how we lived before becoming Christians. But here, in verse six, we see the reality of what we have become as Christians.
But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. (Romans 7:6)
“This is merely the beginning of Paul’s discussion of the believer’s relationship to the Law. This chapter has many knots that require being untied. If we do not carefully untie them, we are susceptible to making false assumptions about our responsibility to keep the Law. For example, when Paul says we are released from the Law, some say we are free to do anything we want. Such is sheer absurdity. We are not free to have an adulterous relationship. We are not free to dishonor our parents. I seriously wonder if a person who says he has such freedom is even a believer. We must follow the spirit of the Law, as well as the letter of the Law. God has given you a new heart that makes you want to obey. Even when you do not want to obey, the Spirit of God convicts you that you are not living in a manner pleasing to God.” (Steven Lawson)
Antinomianism
What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. 9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. 10 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. 13 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. (Romans 7:7–13)
The word antinomianism comes from two Greek words: anti, meaning "against," and nomos, meaning "law." Antinomianism means “against the law.” Theologically, antinomianism is the belief that there are no moral laws God expects Christians to obey. Antinomianism takes biblical teachings to an unbiblical conclusion. The biblical teaching is that Christians are not required to observe the Old Testament Law as a means of salvation. When Jesus Christ died on the cross, He fulfilled the Old Testament Law. The unbiblical conclusion is that there is no moral law God expects Christians to obey. (Got Questions)
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. (Romans 10:4)
Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. 24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, (Galatians 3:23–25)
by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, (Ephesians 2:15)
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? (Romans 6:1–2)
The antinomian view of justification say that our obedience to the law is irrelevant, even after we have been justified. They take this to the point that our obedience to the moral law of God is irrelevant. “Antinomianism is contrary to everything the Bible teaches. God expects us to live a life of morality, integrity, and love. Jesus Christ freed us from the burdensome commands of the Old Testament Law, but that is not a license to sin. Rather, it is a covenant of grace. We are to strive to overcome sin and cultivate righteousness, depending on the Holy Spirit to help us. The fact that we are graciously freed from the demands of the Old Testament Law should result in our living our lives in obedience to the law of Christ.” (Got Questions)
If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. 12 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. (Romans 8:11–13)
I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. (Psalm 119:11)
whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. (1 John 2:6)
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)
The Believer that Loves the Law
14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? (Romans 7:14–24)
The language Paul uses here is strong. He is presenting us with a problem that does not give an easy solution. What he is showing is a quandary that every single believer faces on a daily basis. We face this every day in our lives, and it defines the believer’s soul. It is a battle of the mind and the soul. Paul is wrestling between what he delights in, what he loves, and what he approves of in his life.
That is why, in verse 24, he seems to burst out, “Oh, Wretched man that I am!” That is an honest expression of pain over this inability to fulfill your deepest longings. This can only occur in a believer. This tension is inevitable, and it doesn’t help to ignore it or write it off.
For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. (1 Corinthians 15:9)
To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, (Ephesians 3:8)
There are some keys to this interpretation in the text. The first one is a change in the verb tense. Verses 7 through 13 are past tense emphasis, and all of a sudden, verse 14 changes into a present tense. When he was talking about himself before his conversion, it was past tense. All of a sudden, the verbs come into the present tense: “I am,” verse 14, “I do not,” “I am,” “I am doing,” “I do,” “I agree,” “I am the one doing it,” “I know,” “I wish,” “I’m doing,” “I find,” “I joyfully concur,” “I see,” all present tense. This is post-conversion in the immediate presence. Something changed, but the battle still rages on in the believer.
We are the product of these two births. We live two lives melded into one, and that is the source of our conflict. Everything relating to sin that comes out of that first birth wages war against who we are as a result of the second birth. When the reality of our second birth comes face to face with our first birth, our flesh wants to run. This, friends, is the essence of our spiritual warfare, even to the point of tormenting us.
As a believer in Jesus Christ, you need to understand the nature of your new life in Him. As a result of being born again, you have a divine nature that resides in you. You are a new creation. You have eternal life. You are now made fit for the presence of God. You possess a holy and divine nature. It is from that that a holy longing to be sanctified and holy comes.
Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, (1 Peter 1:22)
Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. (James 4:8)
But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:20–24)
“If I could sum it up, I would say this: every true Christian, every person who has been genuinely saved, has been given an imperishable, incorruptible, new life by the Holy Spirit, through the Word of God which cannot die. Not only can it not die, but all its impulses and all its longings and all its desires are holy and righteous and pure.” (MacArthur)
In other words, we love the Law of God not because it will justify us before God or make God love us more but because we are devoted to God. God sent his son to die for us to make a propitiation for our sin and justify us before our Heavenly Father. Now, we choose to live by what we know will please our Heavenly Father and Lord Jesus Christ.
I don’t think most believers understand this. They live their lives just drifting along, thinking how they live their lives has no bearing on their eternity. The reality is that many will enter heaven and stand before the King with an immense amount of regret.
If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. (1 Corinthians 3:14–15)
