Rom.7:1-25 Our Inner Struggles

ROM.7:1-25 OUR INNER STRUGGLES 07-19-08

Today I want to talk for a little while about the fact that we, children of God, we that have been saved by the grace of God find our selves many times having problems with this old flesh, and it seems that very often we find our selves yielding to the old nature knowing that it is not what we ought to be doing.

Paul in this chapter is writing to people at that time that knew about the law of God. He begins by using the law to do with marriage as a means for them to understand what he was talking about.

I want you to listen as I read what the apostle Paul has to say about it in our text today found in Romans 7:1-25

Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? 2For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. 3So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

He used the illustration of a husband and wife to show that the believer has a new relationship to the Law because of his union with Jesus Christ.

Marriage is a physical union Gen.2:24 and they shall be one flesh ” and can only be broken by a physical cause. And one cause is death.

In the New Testament we’re under grace if we’re saved and we find in Matt.19:1-12 Jesus saying unfaithfulness also breaks the marriage bond, but Paul doesn’t’ bring this up here.

4Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, {Jesus} that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

5For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins,* { emotion or influence} which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. {before we were saved} 6But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. {That is we were made free from the law}

4- 6 explain the believer’s relationship to the Law: 1st of all, as believers we died to the law.

When we were unsaved (“in the flesh . . .” we were under the authority of God’s Law. That Law condemned us. But when we trusted Jesus Christ and were united to Him, we died to the Law, Just as we died to the flesh (Rom. 6:1-10) notice, the Law did not die; we died.

The law is still there and it is full force today to the lost sinner; Rom.6:23 is still there, 23For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Jesus said in Matt 5: 17 17Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.

7What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. 8But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. {for what is forbidden}

The Law reveals sin (7:7)—“By the law is the knowledge of sin” Rom. 3:20 Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonourest thou God?

If it were not for the law, we’d never understand when we sin.

The Law is a mirror that reveals to us the inner man and shows us how dirty we are James 1: 25

25But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed

Lets notice that Paul didn’t use murder, stealing, or adultery in his discussion; he uses coveting. ** And it is the last of the Ten Commandments, and its different from the other nine in that it is an inward attitude, not an outward action such as murder, stealing, and adultery

Covetousness leads to the breaking of the other commandments! God’s Law reveals it.

1st tim.1:10 says 10For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.