Obligation to the Law Is Over

Transcript

GR 2225
01/12/2020
Obligation to the Law is Over
Romans 7:1-6
Gil Rugh

We’re going to Romans chapter 7 and we are in an extremely important part of Romans. Hard to say any part of Romans is not important. The first section that talked about sin and condemnation is foundational to understanding God’s work of reconciliation. Next, justification that takes place, in the following section, from chapter 3, verse 21 through chapter 5. Then we come into the doctrine of sanctification. I think why I would say, that it is so important for us today, in the Evangelical church, a fundamental Bible believing church. This sometimes is the door by which error comes in and creates problems from within, a failure to understand the biblical doctrine of sanctification. It’s an important section. Perhaps after we complete the section, I’ll want to give some examples, some more recent history of how this has affected the Evangelical church and continues.

Chapter 6 began this, and I’ll just give you an overview of chapter 6 because it is the basis for chapter 7. The concepts here, particularly of death, resurrection, new life, carry over to chapter 7. So, if we don’t have chapter 6 fresh in our mind, we won’t really grasp the impact. What does chapter 6 say after showing the work of justification accomplished by Christ that enables us to be reconciled to God and that accomplished through the work of Christ on the cross? That the impact of the sin that was brought into the world by the one act of Adam, was counteracted by the one act of Christ in dying on the cross, there at the end of chapter 5. What does that mean for our life and how we live? That brings us to what we call the doctrine of sanctification.

In our daily walk, we sometimes narrow it down to progressive sanctification, how we live our daily lives. We can’t continue in sin, chapter 6 began. That’s not a possibility. Then he tells why. Because we died to sin, and death breaks that relationship. We were raised to new life. So, when you come to the end of verse 4, we were raised with Christ, we were identified with Him in His death, in His burial, and in His resurrection. “…so that as Christ was raised from the dead…so we too might walk in newness of life.” We have a new life; the old life is gone. Verse 6, “…that our old man…” They tried to use the word “self” in verse 6, but as you have in the margin the ‘old man’ “…was crucified with Him,” so that the body as under the control and domination of sin might be rendered inoperative, done away with. That word is going to come up in chapter 7, rendered powerless, that we would no longer be slaves to sin. That power, that lordship of sin over us is broken. Now we can live new lives. That’s what the doctrine of sanctification is about; living lives of holiness, set apart from sin to God. Now the same basic word, holy, sanctify, saint, as you’re familiar with the point being.

Look at verse 7, “for he who has died is freed from sin.” The authority of sin over us is over. We’re dead! Verse 9, “…knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.” We’ll see this word “master” in chapter 7, lord. And in the sense that in His physical body, as He was born into the human race, He came to pay the penalty for our sins, He didn’t have any sin to die for. But He was going to take our sin on Himself, bear our sins in His body on the cross, so in that sense, sin was master over Him. For Him to accomplish the work that only He could do, He in effect had to take our place to pay our penalty. But death is no longer master over Him because He died once; and was raised from the dead. Verse 9, “…never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves (reckon yourselves) to be dead to sin…” The old me is now inoperative. It has been dealt with. I now have a new life. I’m a new man, a new creation in Christ. So, consider that. That word consider, means to reckon it to be true, take these things into thought and evaluate, and recognize your present condition. Therefore, you wouldn’t let sin reign in your mortal body, this physical body to obey its lusts. You wouldn’t go on, and you are not to go on presenting the parts of your body to sin. Why? Verse 14, “For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” Verse 14 becomes key because the first part of verse 14, “…sin will not be master over you… Then he’s going to further elaborate in verses 15 to 22, and then the last part of verse 14, “…for you are not under law but under grace.” Then he’ll pick up that point when you start chapter 7.

Chapter 7, verse 1, “Or do you not know, brethren…that the law has jurisdiction…” As we’ll see, it has lordship, functions as our lord. It did as long as a person lived. Then he’s going to use the analogy of death and he’ll use a different illustration, marriage. But you’ll see he’s picked up the same point from chapter 6, what it means to have been identified with Christ in His death and in His resurrection. That His impact in our relationship to sin and in our relationship to the law, and the point will be death ends any connection to both, so don’t let sin reign in your mortal body. And then he’s goes on to explain why. You’re dead to sin, so you don’t let sin reign, you don’t present the members of your body to sin. You present them to God, this body now. You are not your own, you have been bought with a price, therefore, glorify God in your body, as Paul wrote to the Corinthians. This is the doctrine of sanctification. We want to understand this. “For sin shall not be master over you…” chapter 6, verse 14. Verse 16, “Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves to the one whom you obey…” You are under the mastership, the lordship of one, you are a slave to that one.

Some of you are taking Greek and some of you have taken it. You know the word, Kurios, the word for “lord” or “master”. To that lord you give obedience. Look in verse 16. “…either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?” When you are a slave of sin, the end-result of that is death, but when you are now one who obeys, you are under the lordship of righteousness because you have been resurrected with Christ and have a new life. Then that leads to righteousness. God likeness, if you will. Verse 17, “But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.”

There is no middle ground as we have seen. Everybody, there’s only two kinds of people in the world, slaves of sin, slaves of righteousness, children of the devil, children of God, consistently drawn. Now, I want you to realize here there’s not two different categories of Christians. This is where we get into problems and sometimes, we divide. Well, there are people who are believers, but there’s another deeper step, the deeper life, the higher life. You have to get in and the inside, there’s more work to be done. That’s foreign to Scripture! It is a distortion and corruption of Scripture! I don’t want to go through this and then we go on, but then these kinds of teachings come, and we find ourselves open to it.

Verse 18, “…and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.” Everyone who is truly a believer in Jesus Christ has been freed from sin and its controlling authority, its power. It has been removed! Also, its influence and its attempt to draw me. That’s why he’s telling us, I never have to sin again. I’m not saying I never do, but I never have to. Why? I’ve been freed from it. I’ve been raised to a new life and that’s Paul’s point. You don’t go back to the old life. You don’t go back to the old ways, the old habits, the old practices. I did that when I was a slave of sin, and when I was a slave of sin I never did anything to serve the true and living God and His righteousness. Now, why in the world that with the marvelous work of salvation provided in Christ so that I could die and be set free, and now be enslaved to God and His righteousness, would I willfully go back to the old ways?

That’s the development here, the provision for our sanctification is our identification with Christ. That sets us free from sin. As we’ll see from the Law as well. We’ve been freed. I’m speaking in human terms. He’s using a human analogy here of slavery and having a lord over us, a master. The master was sin and we were the slaves. We served him completely. Now we have a new Master, God. We are to serve Him completely with righteousness. Verse 19, “I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves…” He’s talking about the parts of your body. These are things we do. Be careful that we see what he’s talking about here. “…to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness…” Further lawlessness was the result. “…so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification, (the holiness of life).” It’s a simple, clear analogy, and picture. It’s not complicated. This is what you were; this is what you are. This is how you behaved; this is how you behave now. There are no additional secrets to a higher life, a deeper life. This is it and it can’t get any better. Foundational, you died spiritually. That broke the power and authority of sin. So, instead of using my body for sinful purposes, now I use it to honor Him.

“For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.” That’s the point, we didn’t do things. Romans 3 says there is none that does good, none of us, we all went astray. We were consistent. So now be consistent with the new life that we have. “Therefore what benefit…” Note that word, you have it in the margin. It is the word fruit. We’ll get into the next chapter, and see the word fruit, but we fail to connect it here. “Therefore what fruit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed?” The thing you produced in your life was more sin. That’s the kind of things that came out of a life; the tree is known by its fruit. A good tree produces good fruit, a bad tree produces bad fruit. That’s what he’s talking about. “…what fruit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed?” Because sin just produced more sin, because I was serving my master, I was enslaved to him, and it was sin that I was serving. “For the outcome of those things is death. But now having been freed from sin (but it doesn’t stop there) and enslaved to God…” There are only two kinds of people, those who were enslaved to sin, those who were enslaved to God. If we keep our thinking biblical, it’s a lot simpler.

I was reading a book in connection with these things that I’ll talk about when we get through the sanctification. But he was saying, I’m bringing a new concept, and it will take me a whole book to explain this to you. The book is 300 pages, and for him to subtly make adjustments in Scripture, so that you think that you now have a deeper, more intimate relationship with God. Now wait a minute, I’m not going to give my mind over to your control! Here’s what the Scripture says, “…having been freed from sin and enslaved to God…” What more is there? “…you derive your fruit (benefit)…” There’s the word “benefit” but it’s the word fruit again, “…resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.” So, the two contrasts in verses 21 and 22. The pattern of life has changed and it’s not just external, because God has changed me on the inside. He’s made me new.

All these additional steps to get the higher life, to move from just being a Christian, to abiding in Christ, and all the other variations that come. And they keep circling around and coming back, and they make their way into the Evangelical church because we think, well, they seemed clear on the doctrine of justification. They’re agreed on the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. So, they make their way in to influence believers, because they’ll say they’re believers. And then well, maybe they have something more, maybe something I don’t have. It’s the health and wealth preachers in a different category, but the same thing. They’re offering something supposedly that we don’t have. Well, this is just a more Christianized, “Biblisized” variation of that deeper relationship with God. Then you need to enter into that; so that’s the foundation.

Now we come to chapter 7. “Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law),…” He’s speaking to believers. I’ll say more about this in a moment. “…that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives?” Then you get to verse 4, “Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law…” You’ll see the connection when we come back to chapter 6, verse 14. “For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” Now let me explain to you why you’re no longer under law. Because when you died to sin, you also died to law. This is coming in as another variation, not just for justification, but for sanctification. Well, you have to believe in Christ, but that won’t be enough. And there’s a variation of that and it comes in Reformed theology. We talk about Reformed theology, Covenant theology. Basically, they don’t see distinctions like we do between Israel and the Church, and so on. But like John Calvin said, well, we’ll get ahead of ourselves, “We died to the law regarding its condemnation, but the law is still for us for our sanctification.”

It’s just the opposite of what God is teaching here. Everything necessary for justification and for sanctification, a life of holiness has been done, in Christ. Now we are to live it out. We came to salvation through the gracious work of the Spirit, and the sanctification is carried out by the gracious work of the Spirit, who now indwells us. This is our salvation. We have the third area that we talk about glorification. But we’re focusing on these two, because these are the two that impact us right now. The glorification will be accomplished in the future, in God’s term when it’s all brought to fullness, fulfillment, and completion. The work of justification, but the work of sanctification is just as necessary. And you need to see it is not a separate step, because he’s going to take us back to the very thing that he talked about in chapter 6 that set us free from sin. It sets us free from the law, so two parts that we’re focusing on. We believe the gospel and that brings salvation. We obey God and His word, and that is our sanctification. That’s at the end of chapter 6, verse 22. This is the fruit that results in sanctification a life of holiness. A life that is now lived for God, set apart for Him. That word sanctify, holy, saint; the basic root meaning is to be separate. You’re separated from sin. God is holy in that sense. He’s sanctified. Why, because He is completely, perfectly set apart from all sin and defilement.

Okay, we’re going to pick up with chapter 7, “Or do you not know…” This is something they are expected to know and understand. This is a Gentile church but evidentially you have now the Jewish and Judaizers coming in. Like they say, this is what happens to fundamental, bible believing churches. Now the teachers want to come and say, it’s great what you have, but there is something else, something more. For them it was keeping the law. Come back to Romans 1, this is the church at Rome and Paul talks about that it’s a Gentile church. And he’s coming as the apostle of the Gentiles. Verse 5 of chapter 1, “…through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name’s sake, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ...” He connects this church as basically a Gentile church. “…to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints…”

Then he’ll come down further to talk about the fact in verse 13. “I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that often I have planned to come to you…so that I may obtain some fruit among you also, even as among the rest of the Gentiles.” You see he connects them with the Gentiles. “I am under obligation both to Greeks and barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish.” I want to preach the gospel to you. This basically is a Gentile church. They’re expected to know something of the Old Testament. But now it seems that confusion comes, because when people come and say, it’s great what you’ve done and you’ve trusted Christ, but there’s more. This is the Jerusalem Conference, as you’re familiar with in Acts 15. Now to bring all that God planned for you to fruition that involves also keeping the Law. And it’s like there’s something more, there’s something else. That’s always what’s held out to Christians. That was good, but there’s something deeper, there’s something more. There’s something to bring more fullness and completion.

Come back to chapter 7. Paul says to them, “Or do you not know...” Now again, he’s used this expression several times. It implies something that they should be well aware of; that they should know it. He’s going to talk about the Law. The emphasis in chapter 6 was on sin. The emphasis in chapter 7 is on the law. The word “sin” was used 17 times in chapter 6. The word “law” is going to be used 18 times in chapter 7. But the issue for both is our death with Christ and resurrection to new life. We don’t want to lose that, and that connection will help us be consistent through chapter 7, and then come into chapter 8 to see what it means to have new life in Christ. Then live that new life out as he explains the ministry of the Spirit, which he holds off until we get to chapter 8. Because he’s walking us through in a very consistent way. “…do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law) …” I guess Gentiles, who’ve come to know Christ.

We didn’t even have the New Testament. Paul is in the process of writing it. But they had to be instructed in the Old Testament as well, so they would understand the coming of Christ. “…to those who know the law) that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives?” What we’re going to find is the first six verses of chapter 7 are basically the same as the first seven verses of chapter 6. There he talks about sin. Now he’ll talk about the law and death to the law. In the first seven verses of chapter 6, he talked about death to sin. The connecting is death, and what death does. The law has “jurisdiction”. That’s the word we’ve mentioned in chapter 6. It’s the word to be a lord, its connection to the word slave. A slave is a slave to the one who is lord over him. That word was used, and we mentioned it in chapter 6 several times. Christ had sin as a lord over Him, in the sense that He had to bear the consequences and penalty of our sin, to enable the penalty to be removed from us. He bore our sins. Hebrews 9:27 and 28 will talk about the fact when Christ appears the second time. He’ll come without reference to dealing with sin. He dealt with that at His first coming.

Now, He’ll come to bring judgment and establish the kingdom. So, that issue of a lord. Here it has the law, has jurisdiction, has the position of lording it over a person for as long as he lives. Now he wants them to understand that this would have impact for any Jews. It doesn’t mean that the church at Rome didn’t have any Jews in it. They may be confused on this. Then you bring the false teachers that were constantly roaming around, trying to get into churches that had believers. The Church has come into existence, but the devil doesn’t leave it. Now he has to corrupt it, he has to infiltrate it, not by direct denial. Remember the Jerusalem Conference. Yes, these Jews weren’t denying the necessity of believing in Jesus as the Messiah, and that’s what confuses us. They seemed to be somewhat together with us on justification. There may be a variation there, where they’re requiring the law as necessary for justification, or if they’re just saying it’s necessary for your sanctification, like many Reformed people do.

Well, no. You don’t keep the law for justification, but that’s how you’re sanctified. So, they criticize us for being antinomian, against the Law, because we think we don’t keep the Mosaic Law. But that doesn’t mean we’re lawless, because we have been enslaved to God. We’re not out there on our own, but nor are we under the Mosaic Law. The Law has lordship if you want to put that word there for jurisdiction. It’s a form of that word Greek kurios, to be a lord over a person as long as he lives. Here we are, you can see the point. Now he’s going to use an illustration and not a slave and master as he did in chapter 4, but a husband and wife because the husband is the lord over the wife, as Christ is Lord over the Church, as in other passages. “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.” Okay the point here and we don’t get sidetracked. People come to this and get all wrapped up in the issue of marriage, and remarriage and divorce. Divorce is not mentioned here.

Paul is establishing a basic principle of law, of the Mosaic Law. If a woman is married to a husband, she is bound to that husband. “So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she is 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.” That’s the point in the illustration, life and death, and death breaks the relationship. That’s the point that was the point in chapter 6 on sin. Sin breaks that relationship and the obligations of that relationship. If you were a slave to the master, sin, death broke that. You were no longer a slave there. Here, in marriage, death breaks that. You no longer are a slave to that, no longer obligated to that. You can be free to another husband, just as you are freed to another master in chapter 6.

“Therefore, my brethren…” Note here, when you are doing something like this, and people are maybe confused and entangled. They’re often not real open. If you’re just coming and telling them why they’re wrong. He wants them to understand he considered them brethren, fellow believers. So, he calls them brethren in verse 1. He calls them brethren in verse 4, but in verse 1, “…do you not know, brethren…” There is the firmness, “…do you not know…” I’ve used the example when you tell your kids. Don’t you know any better? Well, it’s a rhetorical question. The answer is in the question. Of course, you know better! But I’m not saying I don’t love you or consider you brethren. “Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law…” The Law was a former spouse. With the coming of Christ, the Law is over. In your identification with Christ, there would be no relationship to the Law. Now in a sense, the Gentiles never were under the Law, but the Law was the revelation of the will of God. It was the revelation of God’s standard for life for His people Israel, and when you came to believe in the God of Israel, you submitted yourself. Gentiles became proselytes, to one degree or another, connected themselves to Israel and Israel’s Law. This becomes confusing sometimes to Christians, if we’re not clear. It makes sense that God gave the Law. We’re going back to maybe the church at Rome. Now that we’re believers, we are enabled to keep that Law when we didn’t do it before. It makes sense to me that that’s what He would expect for our life rule. And that’s what much of Reformed theology teaches. That it’s not a means of justification, but it is our sanctification.

I think that’s the very thing Romans 7 is denying. But you see how it can be confusing, because it’s God’s word. Why would God set aside His word? Remember Paul’s now unfolding this for us, so all the clarity of what happened in the death and resurrection of Christ and the Law as Paul gave instructions in Galatians was a school master that would help Israel to be prepared, and guide them for the coming of the Messiah. With the coming of the Messiah, the function of the Law has come to an end along with all its sacrifices, and the Law is a unit you cannot break apart, as James says. If one part of the Law is broken, the whole Law is broken, so you died to the Law. You were made to die to the Law. How? Through the body of Christ. This is not something different. This is what we had back in chapter 6, verse 4. We died with Christ. At the end of verse 2, “How shall we who died to sin still live in it?” We’ve been identified with Christ. The Spirit identified us with Him in His death, His burial, His resurrection. At the end of verse 4, “…so we too might walk in newness of life.” Verse 5, “For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection…” And in verse 6 while we’re here. “…knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with…” Now it’s rendered inoperative, powerless. We no longer have a body controlled by sin, enslaved to sin.

We come over to chapter 7 verse 4. “Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ...” When Jesus hung on the cross, His death when we believed in Him, became our death. God accepts His death as payment for my penalty. As we saw at the end of chapter 5, as Christ is the Second Adam. “…so that you might be joined to another…” So, you see the marriage picture. Any connection to the Law is like a marriage relationship, that relationship and obligations and responsibilities is ended, so whatever connection there may have been to the Law is done. You died to the Law just like you died to sin. That’s the point. “…so that you might be joined to another...” You’re joined to Christ. “…to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that…” And here’s where I said we need to recognize the word “fruit”. Remember it was translated “benefit” at the end of chapter 6. “…that we might bear fruit for God.” That’s the same thing as we had back in verses 21 and 22. What fruit were we producing before we were set free? Well, it was the works of the flesh, but now we’ve been freed, and we have fruit for righteousness. “…that we might bear fruit for God.” It’s the same point, living our life now as God’s holy people, saints, those that have been set apart for Himself. “For while we were in the flesh…” He’s talking about unbelievers here. It’s the same thing we talked about in chapter 6, before we died with Christ. That’s the same thing here, while we were in the flesh, the old man.

Come down to chapter 8, verse 8 and see what that means. “…those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” That’s why they didn’t produce any fruit for God. They weren’t producing anything righteous, acceptable to God, because even the “good” things they did, did not come from a heart that was devoted to God and honoring Him. To be “in the flesh” means you are an unbeliever, you’ve never been made new. Romans 7, verse 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.” Come back to chapter 6, verse 21. “Therefore what fruit were you then deriving from those things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death.” You see the connection here, any responsibility, obligation, connection to sin is broken. Any obligation, connection to the Law is over. This won’t get developed, but these first six verses prepare the way for what verses 7 to 25 will talk about. We’ll get into the issue whether that’s a believer or an unbeliever. But it’s important we have this foundation.

“For while we were in the flesh…” That’s the same thing as being under the obligation to the Law. Now of course, there was salvation for those who believed in God, but it wasn’t through keeping the Law. And keeping the Law didn’t guarantee a life that was pleasing to God, and the Law wasn’t an enabling power. There were problems where the Law stirred the desire for sin. You know you say something shouldn’t be done, there is something in us as fallen beings that make us want to do it. You know the joke, the Christmas story with the boy who puts his tongue on the metal. Now you see around Christmas on some of the things that were done, they were using it for advertisements, and kids sticking out their tongue deciding whether to put it on the pole. You tell someone don’t do that, and I wonder why they tell me not to do it. I wonder what it’s like to do it. How will I know if I don’t do it? So obvious, but that’s what Paul is saying. We bore fruit while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions.

God said here’s what He requires. We’ll talk more about how the Law aroused the sinful passions because that’s what he’s going to do. He’ll have to lay the foundation in the first six verses of chapter 7 like he laid it in the opening verses of chapter 6. He he lays it in the opening verses of chapter 7 and then he elaborates an explanation. Then he’ll bring it all together in chapter 8, because you note chapter 6 basically didn’t develop anything about the Holy Spirit. Nor will chapter 7. When we get to chapter 8 then the work of the Holy Spirit in all this is developed. Verse 6, “But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that which we were bound, so that we might serve in newness of the Spirit…” There the Spirit is mentioned because that’s all we have, just a mention. We’ll wait for the development until later, in chapter 8. “…and not in oldness of the letter.” You note that word “released” that takes us back to chapter 6 as well.

Come back to chapter 6, verse 6, “…knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with…” You have in the margin of your bible, made powerless, katargeo, rendered inoperative, it’s powerless, no longer has any control over us. You come over to chapter 7, verse 6, “But now we have been released from the Law…” The word “released”, is the same word as we had back in chapter 6, rendered inoperative, powerless. Chapter 6, verse 6, “…might be done away with…” It is katargeo, rendered powerless. The same things, that death rendered it powerless, broke its authority and its ability to control us. “But now we have been released from the Law…” It ends! It no longer has authority over us. It no longer has power over us, it’s been rendered inoperative. Why? “…having died to that which we were bound…” If Christ hadn’t come and the Law continued, then those who became believers would believe in the God of Israel and then connect themselves to Israel and the laws and so on. Part of why you really see no real evangelistic program, missionary program, in the Old Testament. Because people in far off lands have to worship the God of Israel.

Remember Naaman the Syrian? He took the soil from Israel and it was going to be an obstacle, a problem. But he recognizes the God of Israel, that He’s the One that has to be worshiped. How are you going to have a priest to intercede for you? The only priests there that can intercede under the Law are the Jewish priests, offering the sacrifices in the way that God offered. Understand that any relationship and obligation to the Law, over the Law, is done. Paul says the same thing in Galatians but different analogy, different pictures. The schoolmaster until Christ comes. It served its purpose saying the same thing here. Any relationship to the Law would be over, because Christ has come. “…having died to that which we were bound…” Now we were bound to the obligation, up in verse 2, “For the married woman is bound by the law to her husband.” This doesn’t get into divorce. Divorce is not mentioned here. It’s just the basic issue of the marriage relationship and the obligations in that marriage relationship. The word used for married is an unusual word. I believe it’s the only time it’s used here in the New Testament. It’s a word “to be under the man”, because you’re talking about lordship and over responsibility. The connection there, just like he talked about sin “…by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.”

Here it’s the Law, but the point is, everything has been done in Christ. That’s why the Bible believing churches get drawn into that there’s something else. I know for our justification, we died with Christ, we’re buried with Christ to new life, but now in the new life… Of course, you’ve been forgiven sin, you have a new life, but there’s something else. Discipleship was another that’s a second step. When I was in the Holiness Movement, you were saved now, and sanctification is a second step. Presenting your body as you get to Romans 12, that’s a second step. No! Everything’s done in this connection, now it’s living out the new life you have. Not some have a deeper life, some are more mature and have grown more in that relationship. There’s nothing more. All these things come back to some kind of internal analysis and adjusting the Scripture.

You’re doing the same thing as bringing the Law into it, not for justification. But of course, if you’re going to live a life pleasing to God, He’d want you to keep His Law. Not all of it, not the sacrifices, not the ceremonial things, but all the moral things. But you can’t sort those out. Most of us would be in trouble because you couldn’t mix materials in a garment. A woman was unclean at her time of month and so you had to follow the Law for that. Well, was that ceremonial or was that moral? Where are the moral things? The law’s a unit, that’s what James says. If you break one point of the law, you break it all. Who are we to say, we’ll save this part of it? God says we died to the Law. Well, maybe he’s just dying to the Law as a principle. I have all the verses that lead up to this, but we’re not going to look at those. Everything he’s talked about up to this point has been the Mosaic Law.

Reread chapter 2, chapter 3. For example, he’s talking about the Mosaic Law, he’s not talking about the principle of law generally. He’s talking about the Mosaic Law and that problem of people constantly thinking it ought to be brought in, and now we live the life of sanctification by keeping the Law, the Ten Commandments. But here we are meeting on Sunday. Well, this is the new Sabbath. That didn’t work in the Old Testament. If you gathered sticks on Sunday you were all right, if you gathered sticks on Saturday you got stoned. Who gave us the authority to change it? The Law is the Law. Now, we have law, but it’s the law of Christ, so that’s the principle foundation that will prepare us for the rest of chapter 7, which is one of the most controversial sections among believers in the New Testament. Are we talking about a believer or are we talking about an unbeliever? We’ll get to that.
Let’s have a word of prayer and then I’ll open it up if you have any questions or comments.

Thank You, Lord, for Your word, the privilege of being in it together. We pray that these truths will be impressed by the Spirit upon our hearts and minds. The miracle that took place when we placed our faith in Christ by Your grace, that we were identified with Christ in His death, so that in reality we died. The old man died, his power and authority was broken. We no longer have to serve sin, obey sin. But now we are free. Free because we have been enslaved to You to fulfill the very reason for our existence, to live in a relationship with you, and to live lives honoring to You. Bless the remainder of our time, we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.

Okay, I’ll open it up to questions. First, of all, you’d better have some questions, because I’ll just keep talking. I may use your question just as an excuse to keep talking but—

Gil, is there any good reason why the Editorial Board of the New American Standard in verses 1, of the same passage you were in tonight, Romans 7:1-3, didn’t capitalize the word law and then all of sudden in verse 4 they start talking about the Law?

Yes, because I think there may have been some discussion. Are we talking about law just as a principle? Like Roman law on marriage, or that may have been in view, but it wouldn’t make any sense to capitalize it in verse 4. Because if he’s not talking about the Mosaic Law in the first three verses. Why would you think in verse 4 it is? So, I don’t know. It would make no sense to me and if you were going to say the whole section is dealing with that maybe, but it’s hard to do that as you move along, because down in verse 14 he’s going to say the Law is spiritual. It’s hard to say that about law generally, so I just think it’s an inconsistency that you take note of here. It’s like I say, there’s no good reason why they translate the word “fruit” at the end of chapter 6 as “benefit,” and then as “fruit” when you get into chapter 7, because then you lose something of the connection. But it’s always a problem when you’re going from one language to another.

There’s a certain subjective decision to be made and every word has a range of meaning, but as far as the capitalization of law I could see none. I went back earlier this afternoon and went through all the references to law preceding this and it’s clear, and there’s general agreement. They're all referring to the Mosaic Law, so I think consistency requires this is what he’s talking about here. Of course, you’d still have obligations to Roman law. Paul says he kept the law of the Romans and if he had violated the law of the Romans, he was willing to subject himself and he took refuge in the law of the Romans and so on. Some commentators you read will say, well, we’re just talking about the law here and some of these verses as a principle. I’d written some of that down in some old notes I had but yeah, I think it’s just an inconsistency.

Jesus summed up the law saying, “Love the Lord your God supremely and love your neighbor as yourself.” How should we today feel about that as Christians under grace?

Okay. That’s a good observation and a good question. It’s showing what God was looking for was, “YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, WITH ALL YOUR SOUL WITH ALL YOUR MIND.” That’s the most important thing and then “LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.” The relationship with God in Israel was God’s family, and you demonstrate your love for God by your love for God’s children. That principle is picked up particularly in 1 John. If we say we love God but hate the children of God, then we’re lying. Because a true love of God gives us a love, and that’s why we talk about ourselves as a family and that’s where, if we don’t love fellow believers we have to back up and say, Wait a minute, maybe it’s me. The problem is--we sometimes find an excuse, well, they’re not caring, they’re not loving, but wait a minute. So, I think what he’s saying is, that’s what the law is all about in the foundational.

Now these other individual 600 plus commandments are fleshing out and living out how I want you as a nation, because they were an earthly nation, to conduct yourself in manifesting this. But now that God has completed that and we are not a nation, the same principal though, we love God and we love the children of God. It doesn’t mean we don’t show love to unbelievers but it’s not a family love. The test of our being believers is that we love other believers and that’s why 1 John makes it such a point. So good, I’m glad you brought that up because it does summarize the Law, and for Israel as a nation the individual commandments, governed the religious life, but we don’t have a national religion. Not like England does with the Anglican Church and the Queen is the head of it. But I think that’s an attempt to carryover the Old Testament pattern. Roman Catholicism says their pattern of a priesthood, is patterned after the Old Testament. But again, we’d say, we don’t have that. Every believer is a priest. So, there are differences.

Some of the moral things required in the Law are carried over but we do it not because it’s part of the Mosaic Law. We do it because its part of the New Testament law, which is called the law of Christ and that’s why nine of the Ten Commandments are repeated, but the law of the sabbath is not. In fact, the New Testament tells us, don’t let anyone put you under obligation to sabbath days, because that was unique to Israel, and the sabbath was connected to God’s relationship with Israel, His people. If we’re not careful some people think it seems like we’re getting too technical. But you can see how Paul is walking us through the details and once you lose some perspective and understanding of the details then how are you going to discern? As we use the expression, not the most biblical way to put it, but “the devil is in the details” and that’s when we just have a general idea. Well, God’s people were Israel in the Old Testament. God’s people today are the Church, and we’re all God’s people. And where do we go? So, there’s a reason God gave us all these details. That’s why we’re working on the doctrine of sanctification.

I am convinced as I have reviewed, that the most damage has been done for example, to our local church in my 50 years has been confusion over the doctrine of sanctification. I’ll give you illustrations of that when we’re done with sanctification. I think that’s true in fundamentalism. I was reading a man pastored in Ireland, another man ministers in England. They say the basic damage being done in the fundamental churches is, they didn’t clarify it, but when you read what they said, it’s basically the doctrine of sanctification. And the failure to understand that, causes people to go out following those who are supposedly bringing in something that is additional. Then if they have something I don’t have as a Christian, I want it. I was reading one man and he says, if you only read Romans, you’ll have a misunderstanding. Well, what do you mean, what did the Romans have to read? It doesn’t mean everything is there, but what is there is accurate, and correction as it is there. He wants to tell me that certain parts of this you can’t take it just at what it says. Well who gave him that authority? I’ll give you some of those illustrations when we get done. Because I think, sometimes we’re vulnerable. They profess and seem clear on justification, and it’s by grace through faith, and by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

I think they must be believers. They have to be believers. But remember the Judaizers in Acts 15. They brought in something else and that’s what we need to be careful of. We’ll want to have the biblical doctrine of sanctification along with the biblical doctrine of justification, so we have a correct doctrine of salvation, and salvation includes justification, it includes sanctification. They are distinct, but they cannot be separated, and as we’re seeing in chapter 6 and 7, they are a unit. Because both happen in connection with the death of Christ on the cross, and our identification with Christ in His death on the cross, and the living out the reality of that. That has become the reality for us, because we’ve been moved from enslavement to sin to enslavement to righteousness. Now we are slaves of God and we want to bear fruit. Let’s have another word of prayer.

Thank You, Lord, for the truth of Your word. Lord, we not only study these things to learn them, but we go back over them again, and again, and again because we need to be reminded. That is what You’ve instructed us to do, given us the example to do, as we’ve learned from Peter. As he faced death, he wanted to remind the believers of these important truths. Lord, we who have been blessed to be in Your word for many years, to have known the joy of having you as our heavenly Father, the wonder of our salvation in Christ. Lord, it’s easy for us to become dull in our hearing, to become lax and just forget about some things, Lord. I pray these truths, as we go over them again, will be impressed on our hearts and minds that we might see the importance of them even more clearly than we ever have before. We look forward to the week ahead. Lord, we pray You’ll use us as Your slaves wherever we are, whatever we’re doing. We commit the week to You, in Christ’s name. Amen
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