A. INTRODUCTION
1. Many Bible scholars consider the sixth and seventh chapters of the Epistle to the Romans to be among the most difficult to grasp in all of Scripture. What the apostle Paul teaches in these chapters is not all that hard to understand; it is simply hard to believe and accept in praxis.
2. In our study of chapter 6 last week Paul explained the believer's relationship with s __ __.
a. Unlike the unsaved world around us, believers have been set free from s __ __ __ __ __ __ to sin. This has been made possible by Christ's r __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ of all sinners who receive by faith His atoning sacrifice on Calvary's cross as their own.
b. Paul declares that this is true because all believers who have been b __ __ __ __ __ __ __ into Christ have been placed by the Holy Spirit into vital union with Him. Someone long long ago created a word picture using the term atonement to illustrate the strength of our reconciliation to God through Christ. The word "atonement" can be understood to describe the believer's "at one-ment" with Christ before the face of God. When God looks on a justified sinner, He sees only the sinless perfection of His Son, Jesus Christ. Christ, then, is much more than my "friend" or "guide" or "co-pilot."
(1) Having been baptized "into Christ," Paul writes, believers are by the same token baptized "into" His d __ __ __ __ (6:4), His r __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ (6:5), and His "new" l __ __ __ (6:11).
(2) This truth is illustrated beautifully in the sacrament of b __ __ __ __ __ __.
c. Believers are free from the power of sin because we have d __ __ __ in Christ and, like Christ, are thereby freed from sin's dominion.
(1) Romans 6:5-7 [ NKJV ]
For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
(2) Galatians 2:20 [ NKJV ]
I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
d. That we have, in fact, been freed from sin is illustrated in 6:13-14 and 6:17-18, where Paul states that believers have the power ("authority") to c __ __ __ __ their master. No such choice is given to a slave!
(1) Part of the burden of original sin is the loss of the ability to choose the "moral option" to obey God rather than one's own sinful nature in a given situation. To be sure, there are occasions in which even a sinner will "do the right thing," but his/her tendency will ever be skewed toward choices which satisfy the flesh. It is a universal condition, and the historical rise in lawlessness, immorality, greed and cruelty throughout the fallen world is indicative of mankind's hopeless slavery to sin. (See Romans 3:11-18.)
(2) Paul's understanding of the grace of God as set forth in the doctrine of Justification by Faith Alone was thought by some to grant "license" to choose sin. Paul addresses these concerns in 6:15-23, describing the new creature's fealty to his/her new lord and master, r __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __. The regenerated believer has both the freedom to choose and the Spiritual knowledge and wisdom to choose wisely. When faced with the choice between the "w __ __ __ __ of sin" and the "g __ __ __ of God," the New Creature will "obey from the h __ __ __ __" (6:17).
3. There was more on Paul's mind in this section than just the Christian's relationship to sin; Paul was deeply interested in exploring his/her relationship to that defining icon of Hebrew belief and practice: the Law of God.
a. "The supposition is that if a man be declared just without the works of the law, then he is free to break the law. Paul {has declared}, on the contrary, that justification by faith issues in a life of holiness, and that justification and sanctification are inseparable. He {has shown} that by faith in Christ one is severed from his sin-stained past and is turned with radiant hope toward a new and holy life." - Charles R. Erdman: The Epistle of Paul to the Romans
b. Paul knew that any dialogue about grace and sin would, sooner or later, turn itself toward the question of grace and God's law. He has anticipated the question in 6:15:
For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under l __ __, but under g __ __ __ __.
c. The whole question of the role of God's Law in the life of a sinner saved by grace was near and dear to the heart of the apostle who had spent most of his adult life as a well-known Pharisee in Jerusalem, a "Separated One" whose primary occupation was the meticulous "keeping" of even the most minuscule detail of the written and oral law of God. He will confront the question of the relationship between Christians and the Law in chapter 7.
B. TEXT: Romans 7:1-23
1. The Law of God
a. Read Exodus 20:1-17, Leviticus 19:1-37, and Deuteronomy 6:1-15.
b. Read Psalm 19:7-11.
(1) These words all refer to the Law of God:
- l __ __
- t __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
- s __ __ __ __ __ __ __
- o __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
- c __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
(2) The psalmist exalts God's law.
c. Read Psalm 119:1-176 (Yes, it's the longest chapter in the Bible!).
(1) This passage is the most accurate portrait of the mind of the faithful saint under the Old Covenant. At its center is the Law of God.
(2) This chapter declares God's Law to be:
- (v.9) a d __ __ __ __ __ __;
- (v.97) an object of l __ __ __;
- (v.165) a means of p __ __ __ __;
- (v.142) venerated as t __ __ __ __;
- (v.45) a means of l __ __ __ __ __ __; and
- (v.72) a t __ __ __ __ __ __ __ above all earthly wealth.
d. God's purposes for His law include:
(1) to reflect His h __ __ __ character;
(2) to define for His created human beings the behaviour that p __ __ __ __ __ __ Him as well as the behaviour that o __ __ __ __ __ __ Him.
e. One central truth anchors the Law of God: "I am the L __ __ __ your G __ __."
f. One great commandment flows out of that central truth: "You shall be h __ __ __, for I the Lord your God am h __ __ __."
(1) One response to this commandment was the Pharisaic belief which taught that one's righteousness was dependent upon obeying the law as completely as possible. Jesus exposes this error in Matthew 15:1-20.
(2) Another historic reponse to this commandment has been the historic heresy called "a __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ " (literally, "against law"), which declares believers to be free from any and all moral restraints -- including the Law -- since they have been declared righteous by God's grace.
(3) A third response to this commandment is a modification of the other two. It is often called "l __ __ __ __ __ __ __," and exists in varying degrees of intensity in nearly every church in the world. Christians who might be called "legalists" fully believe in salvation by grace through faith, make no mistake. Their error comes when they add and assign rules and regulations -- some implied from Scripture, others blatantly man-made -- for "qualifying" a "standard of righteousness" for "true" believers. Nearly all denominations were born amidst the struggle to make doctrine out of someone's strong personal conviction.
(4) The only correct response to God's commandment of holiness for His people is the one taught by Christ Himself in Matthew 22:34-37:
But when the Pharisees heard that He has silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" Jesus said to Him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."
2. In our text passage this morning Paul presents a practical (although difficult) approach to fully understanding and proper application of God's law in the lives of those whom He has justified.
a. In Romans 7:1-6 he again draws on familiar analogy to explain an abstract truth. In chapter 6 he had used the illustration of slavery to demonstrate the believer's freedom from sin under Christ's lordship. Now he presents m __ __ __ __ __ __ __ as a viable model to explain the believer's having been "delivered from the law," dead from the former "influence" of the law in order to be alive by faith, united with the living Christ so as to produce conduct pleasing unto God.
(1) Under the law, a formerly-married woman could not re-marry in a sinless way unless she had been "freed" from the law by the death of her former husband. Paul writes in v.2:
For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband.
(2) The Law is limited, then, by d __ __ __ __. Paul's conclusion is presented in v.4:
Your "husband," your master, used to be the Jewish law; but you "died," as it were, with Christ on the cross; and since you are "dead," you are no longer "married to the law," and it has no more control over you. Then you came back to life again when Christ did, and are a new person. And now you are "married," so to speak, to the one who rose from the dead..." [ TLB ]
(3) Paul continues this train of thought in v.6:
But now you need no longer worry about the Jewish laws and customs because you "died" while in their captivity...." [ TLB ]
b. The antinomian might well break into the reading of v.6 at this point and say, "Aha! There it is! Why worry about the law? Why bother with it at all? The grace of God has fully delivered me from obeying it; I am "dead" to it, am I not?" Paul refutes any such notion as he concludes the passage:
....and now you can really serve God; not in the old way, mechanically obeying a set of rules, but in the new way, with all of your h __ __ __ __ and m __ __ __. [ TLB ]
(1) The Christian has indeed been delivered from the law in several important ways:
- as a "vehicle for righteousness" (which was never God's intention for it)
- as an "incentive" to sin (?)
"{Paul in v.5} states... a distressing law of human perversity, namely, that a knowledge of right, and a command to obey, instead of producing virtue, are strong incentives to vice. As an old Roman writer declared: 'We always endeavor to obtain that which is forbidden, and desire that which is denied,' or, as another confessed, 'The permitted is unpleasing; the forbidden consumes us fiercely.'" - Erdman: Op. cit.
(2) More importantly, Paul in v.6 describes how believers have been brought to a place by the grace of God where they can properly respond to His law. But now were 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. [ NKJV ]
Or, as the Living Paraphrase puts it, believers have been freed from the "bonds" of the law in order that we might now serve God with our hearts and our minds.
3. Such talk might cause Paul's detractors to charge Him with "trashing" God's law. He, again, anticipates their argument in v.7-13.
a. "Am I saying the law is sin? OF COURSE NOT!" (v.7)
b. "Am I saying that the law 'trapped me,' holding me, as it were, within the very sin it defined and condemned? YES, IT IS TRUE. (v.7b-11)
c. Two truths are hereby set forth:
(1) the law is h __ __ __, j __ __ __, and g __ __ __ (v.12);
(2) it was k __ __ __ __ __ __ me (v.11).
d. "The law is 'life'; obedience to it would issue in purity and happiness and peace. The law is 'holy' and 'righteous' and 'good.' It is no fault or defect of the law that it is the occasion of conviction and of condemnation. The whole fault lies in man, and in the principles of sin, which really works the disaster. So, Paul declares, in his case, sin was allowed to work out its deadly result in order that sin might be made to appear in all its horrid and hideous character. No, the law cannot relieve of sin, but by it sin is revealed." - Erdman: Op. cit.
4. In v.14-25 Paul voices the despair felt by all believers who have ever lived, wrestling with the two powerful forces at work in their lives: f __ __ __ __ and S __ __ __ __ __.
a. Paul's (and our own) failure to do what we know we should do is not to be attributed to a wrong attitude toward the law. The real culprit is "s __ __ that dwells in me" (v.17). Even though I am no longer a slave to sin, my sinful body ("my f __ __ __ __"), a lingering reminder to me of my fallen nature, has retained the "appetites" of the flesh.
b. In v.21-23 sees the struggle within him as the battle for control between two forces:
(1) the law of my m __ __ __ (which has been renewed by faith in Christ), and
(2) the law in my m __ __ __ __ __ __ (which must be brought into subjection to the lordship of Christ through the process of s __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __).
c. V.24 is the triumphant cry of one who is still in the midst of battle whose outcome has been determined:
Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God -- through Jesus Christ our Lord! [ NKJV ]
Oh, what a terrible predicament I'm in! Who will free me from my slavery to this deadly lower nature? Thank God! It has been done by Jesus Christ our Lord. He has set me free. [ TLB ]
d. Yet the battle remains, and will continue in the lives of all believers until they are at last delivered from their sinful bodies and given their perfect, glorified bodies in the resurrection. The second half of v.25 stares back at us in stubborn recalcitrance. The battle is belongs to the Lord; the battle is already won; but the battle rages on, and we are on the front lines, in the thick of it.
(1) Paul's honest appraisal of his situation in v.25b refutes any attempt by scholars to present this passage as a picture of Paul's life before his conversion by faith in Christ.
(2) "The Christian," writes Martin Luther, is "simul justus est et peccat" -- both j __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ and yet a s __ __ __ __ __.
"To be righteous with God is not to be fully free from the effects of sin. Believers must run the race with perseverance, and though there is progress, sin and sorrow and death do not in this life fade away. These remain enemies, death the greatest of them.' - James R. Edwards: Romans (Vol. 6, New International Biblical Commentary )
C. APPLICATION
1. One sure sign of a person's justified status is the ever-present struggle between the old, sinful nature and the "mind of Christ" which has been given to every New Creature in Christ. Two truths can be gleaned from this.
a. The presence of sin in a believer's life will most certainly create anguish, frustration, and the desire to be rid of it. And why shouldn't it? The presence of sin in the life of one in whom the Holy Spirit dwells will "g __ __ __ __ __" the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30), and the believer will be "pricked" by the Spirit's grieving.
b. This battle cannot be won by the strength of the will of the person who wishes to win it! It is a Spiritual battle!
(1) 2 Corinthians 5:1-8
(2) Ephesians 6:10-18
(3) "If we depend on the energy of the flesh, we cannot serve God, please God, or do any good thing. But if we yield to the Holy Spirit, then we have the power needed to obey His will. The flesh will never serve the Law of God because the flesh is at war with God. But the Spirit can only obey the Law of God! Therefore, the secret of doing good is to yield to the Holy Spirit." - Warren W. Wiersbe: Be Right
2. God has provided for both the final outcome of our struggle and the basis on which to continue the fight even when we're temporarily overcome by the foe.
a. The final outcome is the basis for the doctrine of the Resurrection of the Saints.
ref: 1 Corinthians 15:1-58
Romans 8:18-30
b. In the meantime, when we fall, we have a God-given resource to be "patched up," brought back to full vigor, and given back "the upper hand."
ref: 1 John 1:9
Philippians 2:13
Colossians 1:9-11
3. 1 Corinthians 15:58 [ TLB ]
So, my dear brothers, since future victory is sure, be strong and steady, always abounding in the Lord's work, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever wasted as it would be if there were no resurrection.
D I S C U S S I O N G U I D E
1. The fact that our sinful flesh is still prone to sin means that believers will have to deal with the consequences of sin for as long as they live. For this reason it is imperative that Christians come before God's throne to confess their sins and receive His promised cleansing. If we "linger" in our sins, there will be terrible consequences. Read the referenced passages to learn of some of them.
a. Ephesians 4:30
the Holy Spirit is g __ __ __ __ __ __
b. 1 Peter 3:1-7
my p __ __ __ __ __ life is hindered
c. 1 Corinthians 9:24-27; 1 Thessalonians 5:16-19
my life becomes p __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
d. Psalm 51:15-17; Psalm 33:1
my p __ __ __ __ __ is unacceptable
e. Jeremiah 5:21-25
God's b __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ may be withheld
f. Hebrews 12:5-11
God's c __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ is administered
g. Psalm 51:5-12
my j __ __ is forfeited
h. 1 Corinthians 3:1-3
my spiritual g __ __ __ __ __ is hindered
I. 2 Timothy 2:14-21
my s __ __ __ __ __ __ is limited
j. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20
God is d __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
2. Read 1 Corinthians 2:9 - 3:3. Define the following in your own words:
a. a "natural" person
b. a "carnal Christian"
c. a "spiritual Christian"
3. Do only those Christians who are "carnal" have a "sin problem? _________ How, then, are they different from Christians seen as "spritual," and not "carnal?"
4. Read Psalm 119:9-20.
a. V.11 has long been the one used by Sunday School teachers to exhort their pupils to memorize Scripture verses. Is that what this verse is really suggesting? Defend your answer.
b. How would you "delight yourself" in God's statutes (v.16)?
c. How does God "open our eyes" (v.18). What part does the individual believer play in this "opening" of his/her eyes?
d. Read v.20 again. David uses strong figurative speech in an attempt to communicate something to God.
What is he actually saying here?
How might you phrase such strong sentiment to God?
5. Read Psalm 119:105. Re-state this verse in your own words:
