We have taken a break in our study of the gospel through the lens of the book of Romans. But we are returning to this wonderful book and we are going to see in Romans 7-8 the good life that God has promised to those who belong to Christ Jesus. Romans 7 is considered a complicated chapter. Paul has a few complicated chapters in the book of Romans. I want to make sure that we understand the big message in Romans 7. The way I believe I need to do this is by studying the whole of the chapter. This means that I cannot unearth every detail in this chapter. Rather, I want to communicate how Paul shows us the freedom that is found in the gospel. Please open your copies of God’s word to Romans 7 and we will see the function of the Law of Moses and what that means for all people.
The Illustration the Law (Romans 7:1-6)
The apostle Paul begins by using an illustration at the start of Romans 7. You know that the law only has authority over a person as long as the person lives. Then Paul uses the marriage law to prove this idea. You are bound by law to a person so long as the person lives. When the person dies, you are released from the marriage law. Verse 3 makes this point clear. If a woman were to live with another man while married to another, she is an adulteress. If the husband were to die, then she is no longer an adulteress. She is free from that marriage law. The whole point of this illustration is to show that while a person lives, the law is binding. If a person dies, then the law is no longer binding.
Why is Paul telling us this illustration? The message is that you have died to the Law of Moses through Christ’s death so that you can belong to him who was raised from the dead. The apostle Paul would write to the Colossians that the law with all of its legal demands were nailed to the cross of Christ (cf. Colossians 2:14). Notice that the purpose is that we would bear fruit for God (Romans 7:4). Before Christ, we lived in the flesh and our sinful passions were at work so that we were not bearing fruit for God. Rather, we were bearing fruit for death. But now that we have died to that which held us captive, we no longer serve in the old way of the written code. Instead, we serve in the new way of the Spirit (Romans 7:6). This is the big idea of this chapter. You can imagine the apostle Paul writing to those who were Jews and telling them about the result of being under the Law of Moses. The Law of Moses did not rescue people and justify them. Instead, the Law of Moses held them captive. They were bearing fruit leading to death rather than bearing fruit for God. I believe there would have been resistance to this idea for the Jews who lived under the Law of Moses. What do you mean that the law aroused our sinful passions? What do you mean that our flesh was bearing fruit for death? What do you mean that we were held captive to the law but Christ released us from that captivity? I will come back to this summary at the end of the lesson. But now the apostle Paul will clarify how all this works and answer these questions in this chapter.
The Purpose of the Law (Romans 7:7-10)
So does this mean that the Law of Moses was bad? Was the law sin? Paul says absolutely not. The law was not the problem. In fact, the law did its job. The law reveals sin. The law teaches what sin is. Paul says that if the law did not say to not covet then he would not know what that would have meant. The law was not sin. The law is like a mirror, exposing something about us (cf. James 1:25). This is what Paul points out in verses 8-10. The law simple shows the problem.
Let me illustrate this idea. Is the speed limit law sin? Is the speed limit law bad? Now some may think so but speed limit laws are not sin. But the speed limit law reveals some things. The speed limit law reveals what is deemed to be safe driving speed for you and for others around you. The speed limit law also reveals that you have a problem with driving too fast. Now our culture thinks that the problem in our society is that we just need to get rid of all these moral laws and everything would be better. They think the law is the problem. But the law is not the problem. We are the problem. The problem is you do not care about other people or about authority so you break the law. God is trying to tell us that his laws are trying to show something about us. The law is trying to hold up a mirror to see what is inside of us. The Law of Moses was the promise of life. Remember in Deuteronomy how the people went to two mountains and proclaimed all the blessings for obedience to the law and all the curses for disobedience to the law. What happened? The curses came. The law that promised life proved to bring death. The problem was not the law. The problem is us.
The Result of the Law (Romans 7:11-25)
This is where Paul goes in verses 11-25. In verse 12 Paul says that the law is holy. The commandment is holy, righteous, and good. In verse 14 Paul says that the law is spiritual. The law is not sin. The law was not the problem. The problem is sin. Sin was alive and producing death in me through the good law God gave (cf. Romans 7:13). But this is the way that sin could be shown to be sin. We needed the law to show us what sin is. But the law was not kept. Rather, sin produced death. Paul then expresses the problem in terms of the battle of the mind and the flesh. He speaks about wanting to obey and do the good commanded but not having the ability to do (cf. Romans 7:18). In verse 22 he speaks about his inner being delights in the law of God but the flesh wages war against that delight, making him captive to the law of sin.
To make this point in another way, the desire to obey is there, but the law did not get people there. Please think about how true this is. Paul plainly said earlier in this book that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). Paul plainly said that there was no one who was righteous, not a single person (Romans 3:10-11). We would expect that those who had the Law of Moses would have had a great advantage in righteousness. They had the law. They knew what sin was. They have the covenant. They had the promises. They had the blessings and the curses. But no one was successful. Even Paul says he was not successful under the law (Romans 7:10). Even the man after God’s own heart, David, failed under the law. Even Moses, the man of God and the servant of the Lord, failed under the law. Solomon, with all of his wisdom, failed under the law. The law does not give us life because no one has ever kept it.
I want us notice a particular phrase because it is very important to this chapter and to understanding God’s solution in the next chapter of Romans. It is such an important phrase that Paul says this phrase three times in this chapter. Look at Romans 7:17, “…but sin dwells within me.” Look at Romans 7:20, “…but sin dwells within me.” Look at Romans 7:23, “…making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.” What does Paul say is happening? Paul says that sin dwells in him. What does he mean by this? Is this an excuse? Is Paul saying that he could not help but sin and he is responsible because of this? Is Paul saying sin is something he cannot control? Not at all. Paul is saying the opposite. For sin to live in Paul means that sin is what is ruling over his life. Sin was in charge. God’s law was not in charge. Sin was alive and ruling over him. Paul was not the only one. Anyone who was under the law was in the same condition.
So what is the problem? The scriptures are going to make an important point that the people needed to see. Law does not change hearts. I can illustrate this on a small level and then we will look at this idea in the scriptures. Here is a small illustration: does the speed limit law change your heart to not speed? No. You may choose not to speed because of the consequence. But it does not change the heart. Obedience to the speed limit does not come from loving the state of Florida. This is the point that so many scriptures make. We will notice this first in Romans 2:29.
But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God. (Romans 2:29 ESV)
The obedience God was looking for from his true people was one inwardly. God wanted obedience from the heart. God wanted circumcised hearts. You see God say this directly in Ezekiel 36.
I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. (Ezekiel 36:25-27 ESV)
God through the prophet Ezekiel declared that a new heart and a new spirit would be needed. God would have to remove the heart of stone from them and give them a heart of flesh so that they will walk in his statutes and be careful to obey his rules. Remember that Ezekiel spoke to the people of Israel who had the law. But they did not have a heart for God from the law. So the temple was destroyed and the people were taken into exile. But a promise was made that God would cleanse them and give them new hearts so that they would obey him. The point is that law is not the solution for us. This takes us to the opening verses of Romans 8.
The Freedom of the Gospel (Romans 8:1-4)
In Christ Jesus there is no condemnation (Romans 8:1). Why? There is no condemnation because the law of the Spirit of life has set us free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2). What happened? God did what the law could not do (Romans 8:3). By God sending his own Son in the flesh and as an offering for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh so that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk according to the Spirit (Romans 8:4). Now Paul is going to explain a lot of this in chapter 8. Lord willing, we will have some future lessons going through chapter 8 to explain this idea. But I want us to notice that Paul comes back around to something he keeps saying in this book. In Romans 8:2 he says that the law of the Spirit of life is now the law we are under, being set free from the law of sin and death. In Romans 7:6 Paul said that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. In Romans 2:29 Paul said that circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit and not by the letter. The implication is not by the letter of the Law of Moses but by the Spirit.
The point is that a change has happened so that we have been set free by the gospel to obey Christ. People sometimes want to read Romans as saying that we have been set free from the law so that we do not have to obey any more. Or that we have been set free from the law so that we do not have law any longer. Paul does not say that we no longer have any laws or requirements to God. Paul does not say that we do not have to obey God. What he says is there is a new law that is different from the old law. What Paul says is that this new law gives life while the old law gave death. What Paul is saying is that we now have the power to obey God through Christ Jesus because of the law of the Spirit of life. This is where Romans 8 is going. The freedom of the gospel is not the freedom to sin. The freedom of the gospel is that you are able to serve and obey. Paul made this point this way to the Galatians:
For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. (Galatians 5:13-16 ESV)
Your freedom in Christ means you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Your freedom in Christ means you will walk by the Spirit. Your freedom in Christ means through love you will serve one another.
Life Messages
If all we do is view God as law, then we will never have the life transformation that God expects in us. God did not just give us another law and hope that this one works on us. Looking at God as just rules is not what God wants us to do with his law nor does it create the love that he wants us to have for him. Think about it like this: do you want your children to only look at you as laws and rules? No, not at all. The purpose of your rules is not so that they would become little lawyers in your house, trying to figure out what they have to do and what is the minimum requirement to pass your rules. You want your children to see you and your love for them so that they have a heart to obey the rules. This is what God is working through Christ in the law of the Spirit of life. Listen to what Jeremiah said about this:
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. (Jeremiah 31:31-33 ESV)
Notice God did not merely say that he would make a new covenant with us. What makes the new covenant different from the old covenant is not merely that we worship on Sunday rather than Saturday or take the Lord’s Supper rather than the Passover. What makes the new covenant different is God will write his law on our hearts. God will write his laws in us, rather than on stone tablets. What was going to be so different this time that would get his laws inside of us this time, where it failed in Israel’s history? Look again at Romans 8:3. What did God do that the law could not do? God sent his own Son to deal with sin. The law was not enough to get people to obey him from the heart. But the sacrifice of his Son is enough to get us to obey him from the heart. Now the law of Christ is the Spirit of life to us because we love him and want to serve him. In other words, the love of Christ controls and compels us (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:14). The law was weakened by the flesh that desired to serve sin (Romans 8:3). But the Son of God dying for you will not be weakened by the flesh. His love will be greater than our desire to serve sin so that we will walk now according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh (Romans 8:4). No condemnation in Christ is to change everything about who we live for and how we live.