THEMES IN ROMANS LOCATION The Gospel of Salvation 1:1-17 Condemnation Need of Salvation 1:18-3:20 Justification Accomplishment of Salvation 3:21-5:11 Sanctification Life-Process in Salvation 5:12-8:13 Glorification Purpose of Salvation 8:14-39 Election Economy of Salvation 9:1-11:36 Transformation Life-Practice of Salvation 12:1-15:13 Ultimate Consummation of Salvation 15:14-16:27
R O M A N S S E V E N
Paul explained the believer s relationship to the Law because of people s tendency to view keeping laws as a means of making progress. He d shown that the Law has no value in justification (3:20). Now he spoke of the Law in relation to progressive sanctification. If we re not under Mosaic Law (6:14), what is our relationship to it? Something in human nature makes us want to go to extremes, a weakness from which Christians are not wholly free. Since we are saved by grace, some say, we re free to live as we please, which is the extreme of LICENSE. But we cannot ignore God s Law, others argue. We are saved by grace, to be sure; but we must live under Law if we are to please God. This is the extreme expression of LEGALISM. Paul answered the first group in Romans 6; the second group he answered in Romans 7. The word law is used 23 times in this chapter. In Romans 6, Paul told us how to stop doing bad things; in Romans 7 he told how not to do good things. WARREN W. WIERSBE: THE BIBLE EXPOSITION COMMENTARY
Now, dear brothers and sisters you who are familiar with the law don t you know that the law applies only while a person is living? For example, when a woman marries, the law binds her to her husband as long as he is alive. But if he dies, the laws of marriage no longer apply to her. So while her husband is alive, she would be committing adultery if she married another man. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law and does not commit adultery when she remarries. So, my dear brothers and sisters, this is the point: You died to the power of the law when you died with Christ. And now you are united with the one who was raised from the dead. As a result, we can produce a harvest of good deeds for God. ROMANS 7:1-4 (NLT)
JOHN MURRAY Theologian (1898-1975) There must be a constant and increasing appreciation that though sin still remains it does not have the mastery. There is a total difference between surviving sin and reigning sin, the regenerate in conflict with sin and the unregenerate complacent to sin. It is one thing for sin to live in us: it is another for us to live in sin.
The presence of sin in the believer involves conflict in his heart and life. If there is remaining, indwelling sin, there must be the conflict which Paul describes 7:14. It is futile to argue that this conflict is not normal. If there is still sin to any degree in one who is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, then there is tension, yes, contradiction, within the heart of that person. Indeed, the more sanctified the person is, the more conformed he is to the image of his Savior, the more he must recoil against every lack of conformity to the holiness of God. The deeper his apprehension of the majesty of God, the more persistent his yearning for the attainment of the prize of the high calling in Christ Jesus, the more conscious will he be of the gravity of the sin which remains and the more poignant will be his detestation of it. JOHN MURRAY Theologian (1898-1975)
Not long after his conversion, Augustine was walking down the streets of Milan when a prostitute with whom he once had intimate acquaintance beckoned him: Augustine! It is I! He slowed down and with the newfound assurance of Christ s Spirit living in his heart, turned to her and said: Yes, but it is no longer I.
DOCTOR JEKYLL MISTER HYDE
O unhappy and pitiable and wretched man that I am! Who will release and deliver me from [the shackles of] this body of death? ROMANS 7:24 (AMPLIFIED)
F E E L I N G What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly. RICHARD BACH T R A P P E D
STOP IT!
C E A S E T R I V I N S G
But now we 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. ROMANS 7:6 (NKJV)
A FINAL WORD OR TWO We have preached condemnation and sin so long that we do not know how to preach righteousness and to tell the people what they are in Christ. You are the sons and daughters of God Almighty without condemnation. You will find mercy and grace to help in time of need. Righteousness gives you a standing in the presence of the Father identical with the standing of Jesus. E. W. KENYON Many people see salvation only as deliverance from judgment; they have not seen that salvation is also deliverance from self. WATCHMAN NEE