8th November 09
Romans 7:1 – 13
Last week I spoke on God’s amazing grace but some of you still had questions about the place of the Law; has grace completely nullified the Law.
In chapter 7 Paul writes that we are free from the Law but this doesn’t mean that the Law is no longer relevant.
And we can divide these verses into three sections.
I. The Reason We Are Free From The Law – verses 1 – 4
Paul uses two illustrations – death and marriage and contrary what some comedians might tell you they are not one in the same.
The first thing that Paul says is that; the law has no power over a dead person.

“…the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives.”
If someone was fatally injured, because of their own wreak-less driving – the police are not going to charge them with an offence – the law cannot touch them. They have already paid the ultimate price.
To illustrate how Christians are dead to the Law Paul uses marriage as an illustration – this is not a passage about divorce and adultery; it’s about the law.
Paul’s point is that, a marriage covenant is only binding until one of the parties dies – ‘for as long as you both shall live.’
After, which time the surviving partner is free to remarry.
In the same way in verse 4, if a person dies to the law then they are no longer under the law of God.
Now we can develop Paul marriage metaphor in a number of ways.
i. To begin with, ladies, imagine that the law is like your first husband and he is impossible to live with.
After all the Law demands perfection and the law is never wrong.
I’ve counselled couples where the husband was a perfectionist – trust me it’s very difficult when one spouse is a perfectionist, because he will demand perfection from you as his wife.
Every morning he hands you a list of things to do and when he comes home in the evening – at the same time, he asks you to get the list and he sits down with you and says, ‘now let’s review the day’.
Of course, his wife, who is not a perfectionist, finds that in just about everything, she has failed to reach the absolute standard that her husband has set and she is made to feel her inadequacy.
And Paul is saying that ‘the Law’s demands’ and ‘the Christian life’ are totally incompatible.
If we try to live the Christian life by law keeping we are going to become very frustrated and feel very guilty over our constant failure to measure up.
ii. Also in Paul’s example of being married to the law – we know that the law doesn’t lift a finger to help.
The Law, is not gracious, it doesn’t help us become a better Christian; it’s just a rigid set of standards.
iii. The wife, married to the Law, begins thinking about how she can get out of the marriage. So she considers her option; she could either divorce him or murder him.
Or Maybe, she says, “If I died I could get out of this impossible marriage”.
The point Paul wants to make is in verse 4;
“So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead.”
Remember Chapter 6:5,
“We have been united with Christ in his death.”
This is positional truth; the Bible says it we are in Christ and Christ is in us through the Holy Spirit then when he died, we died to the bondage of sin and the Law.
Q. Now if our old husband was ‘the Law’, who is our new husband?
It’s all there in verse 4.
Clearly our new husband is ‘Christ’; “to him who was raised from the dead.”
So before we became a Christian, the Law was our demanding spouse setting impossible standards, which we couldn’t keep.
If you are a Buddhist or Hindu or any religion – there will be an impossible standard to keep – for a Jew it was keeping the Ten Commandments.
But when we met Jesus and die with him to the Law and its’ demands we put ourselves beyond the reach of the Law.
Now, we are married to Christ!
So in Paul imaginative way he gives us the reason we are free from the Law.
Now! All we have to think about is our relationship with Christ.
So what are the results?
II. The Results Of Being Free From The Law – verses 4 – 6
Four fantastic results!
1. We have a New Freedom
“So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ…”
If we are in Christ we have a new relationship, we don’t have to be married to the Law any longer.
In verse 3, Paul says of the widow of the law, that “when her husband dies she is released from the law’.
I read a true story, sometime ago, of a lady who owned a big plantation in the southern states of America, prior to the American Civil War.
She was obviously extremely eccentric lady because when her husband died she had him embalmed sitting on his favourite chair in the parlour in an airtight case.
Her neighbours thinking she needed a long holiday encouraged her to go abroad for a while, which she did.
On holiday she fell in love and remarried and the happy couple decided to move back to the plantation.
In the meantime she had forgotten all about her first husband – still sitting in his chair in her house.
When they arrived home, her gallant new husband carried his bride over the threat hold, only guess whom they came face to face with?
Needless to say her first husband had to go.
We don’t have to be married to the Law any longer.
Our new relationship is completely different and the best word to describe that difference is freedom – not to do as we want because like any married couple, we are to treasure our spouse; to love them and not abuse them.
Our marriage to Christ, is not based on rules but love and freedom.
Now I need to say that the law is not of itself bad – its purpose ultimately is to lead us to Christ and help us to discover God’s love but it was never made to become our master.
2. We have a New Relationship
“…you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another”
And the word Paul uses for ‘another’ means ‘another of a different kind’.
We have, in Christ, a new husband of a totally different nature and our relation with Jesus is going to be completely different to our relationship with the Law.
Not based on rules but based on love and freedom.
3. We have a New Purpose
What is the purpose of becoming a Christian?
“…that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God.” vs. 4b
We become Christians in order to bear fruit.
What is the fruit of a Christian?
Two things;
i. The fruit of one Christian is always another.
ii. Our new relationship should also produce new character fruit as well. (We should become more like our new spouse)
“22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law”.
Freedom from the Law doesn’t mean freedom to sin; God’s purpose is to help us live more fruitful or productive lives.
Far more productive than we could ever have achieved if we tried to live by the Law;
The fruit of the Law is frustration and condemnation but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy and peace.
And to bear this kind of fruit, first we must be married to Christ.
Verse 6 says the same thing.
4. A New Motivation
Going back to Paul’s illustration of marriage to the Law; being married to a hard demanding husband doesn’t inspire love.
On the other hand a wife who is married to a man who loves her and does his best for her, inspires her do the same things as required by the law only now her attitude will be completely different.
Now she does everything out of love, not fear or guilt or duty.
And it’s the same for us – now that I am a Christian I try to do everything that God requires of me.
I seek to serve the purpose of God because I love Him and want to please Him.
It’s not a matter of, ‘I should’ anymore; it’s a matter of ‘I want to.’
You know psychologists tell us that the word ‘should’ is a very demotivating word and as soon as we put it in front of something we tend to rebel against it;
‘I should go on a diet’ or ‘I should be a better parent’, we procrastinate because we automatically resent it.
When the law pushes against us, we push back and rebel.
Guilt may motivate us for a short time but not for long.
Nagging your spouse doesn’t work for the same reason. The Law nags;
And Paul says, “It even wants to make me sin all the more.”
This is why in the OT, God says, ‘I’m going to give you a new motivation, a new power, I’m going to put my Spirit with in you.”
And in this way Jesus replaced the ‘shoulds’ of the Old Testament with a new word – ‘can’!
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”. Phil 4:13
Not ‘I should’ do all things…”
The words, “I can is very motivating words.”
(Even ‘The little red engine that could’ understood that)
We have a new motivation; we serve in a new way with the help of the Holy Spirit.
PQ. Do you serve God because you fear Him – afraid that you will miss out on heaven if you don’t?
It’s not a legitimate reason and in time it becomes very soul destroying.
God saves us for two reasons;
i. To bear fruit – this is my character development/ reaching out to others.
ii. To serve – this is my way of saying, “Lord, I love you and I love what you love.”

Q. Do you know what Christ loves the most? He loves his Bride; the Church.
But we don’t do anything out of duty but out of love or we shouldn’t be doing it.
The question to ask ourselves is, ‘If we don’t love what Jesus loves is the love of Christ really in us?’
Final question:
III. The Purpose Of The Law – Romans &:7-13
If we are not under that Law, why don’t we just throw it all out – become New Testament Christians?
Paul says, the law still has a role to play even though keeping the law does not make God love us more.
Five purposes of the Law
1. The Law Defines Sin – shows us what sin is – vs. 7
“What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the Law had not said, ‘Do not covet’.” vs. 7
Our post-modernism world would have us believe that there are no absolutes; ‘it may be wrong for you but it’s okay for me.’
But our Creator God who put everything in its place doesn’t agree – moral laws are as absolute as physical laws. If we break them we will get hurt.
Paul gives the example of coveting and admits that that he wouldn’t have know that it was wrong if the law hadn’t said, “Do not covet.”
Being a strict Pharisee Paul didn’t have a problem with the other nine commandments – he could discipline his behaviour. But the tenth one bothered him – why?
Because it was the only one that deals with inner desires – which is the basis of all others;
Jesus taught that lying, adultery, murder all begin as a desire.
But Paul said, “I didn’t know that I had these wrong desires until the Lord said it was wrong.”
I didn’t know that it was hurting me to think that way.
2. The Law Arouses Sin – vs. 8 & 9
“But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire.
Q. How does the Law provoke me to do wrong?
By making something, which is prohibition desirable! Our human nature is such that at the moment someone says, “Don’t do this”, there is in me a natural desire to do it.
That’s true of us all, ‘forbidden fruit looks the best’
What is it people say, ‘rules were made to be broken’ – that’s our human nature speaking.
Now if the Law arouses sin, what implications does that have for our parenting?
For apart from the law, sin is dead. Once I was alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died.”
Well if we are the kind of parent that sets a lot of rules expecting this to change our children behaviour, we are in for a big surprise.
It’s a loving relationship that inspires the change we want to see in our children. (I’m not saying we shouldn’t set boundaries – children need to know where the boundary lines are – but discipline must be administered lovingly).
It’s true for the preacher; if I stand here every Sunday and give you lists of do’s and don’ts – that’s not going to help you build your relationship with the Lord.
3. The Law Judges and Condemns us.
“I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death…’. vs. 10
The Law was intended for people keeping – to bring life.
But because of our sinful nature it only brought death.
‘For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death.” vs. 10
We have more Laws today than ever before – are we a better nation for it?
4. The Law Shows Us the Character of God
It tells us what God is like.
“So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.” vs. 12
‘Holy, righteous and good’ are all words that belong to the character of God.
Holy, means separate, different, special and complete.
Righteous, means it’s based on truth; Paul says, the law is if fair and just in all its commands.
Good, Jesus said that goodness is the unique quality of God.
”No one is good but God.”
So there is nothing wrong with the Law, but there is something wrong within us. And its purpose is to show us that we can’t be good by ourselves.
Its purpose is to lead us to Christ.
5. The Law Shows Us How Bad Sin Really Is.
“…so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.” vs. 13
The only way to measure how good or bad something is, is by holding it up to a perfect standard. And against the standard of God we don’t compare so well.
So what is the solution?
“Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.” Galatians 3:23-24
i. The Law exposes our faults – the flaws in our character and in our thinking and forces us to depend on God’s grace.

ii. It helps us realise that God loves us unconditional despite our many failings.
So does this mean that because we’re not under the Law, we can just ignore it and do whatever I want to? Not at all!
We have a new freedom but we also have a new relationship. It’s a relationship motivated by a new love for the Lord.
Why would I want to do anything to undermine that?
My motivation has changed.
I don’t feel any pressure to serve the Lord, rather I serve him because I love Him and I realise how much He loves me.
This is what it means to live under grace and be free from the Law.
Next week we will look at the second half of chapter seven, which is very practical.
We will talk about how to break the bad habits and patterns of our life that have become so destructive.
Prayer
Lord we thank you for the Law because it helps us know the truth about you and ourselves. But most of all we thank you that we have a new relationship now based on your unconditional love.
We are sorry for everything that we have done wrong – help us to do better this week because we love you Lord and we want to do better for you. Amen.