Freed by death to live (Romans 7:1-6 August 7, 2011)

Freed by death to live (Romans 7:1-6 August 7, 2011) Our church is Grace Bible Church. Just think about those two words Grace and Bible. Grace infers that we are saved by faith in Christ apart from works. There is nothing we can do to earn God s favour. Bible infers that God has given us His Word to guide us and direct us in this life. But what I have learned by dint of hard ministry is that often there are Grace Christians and Bible Christians and too infrequently are there Grace Bible Christians. What do I mean by this? Some Christians learn the glories of Grace we are not saved by our works and their reaction is to think if grace saves me why strive for holiness? I can never get there that is why Jesus had to come so just let grace cover my sin. Then there are other Christians who hear the commands of the Bible they do strive for holiness but they inevitably fall short this leads to guilt and insecurity and they cry out woe is me I am a sinful man because I sin am I saved? And knowing that in any church you have both types of saints means that one of the hardest tasks any preacher faces is ministering to a diverse congregation filled with Grace Christians and Bible Christians. Some sermons seem to rob certain saints of assurance. Some sermons seem to give certain saints licence to ignore striving for holiness. 1

On Thursday I was at a conference with Doug Moo on Justification. He gave this summary of the view of Scripture: Scripture gives us: Assurance without presumption and calls for an earnest striving for holiness without anxiety. Scripture does something we struggle mightily with. It allows these two truths to exist side by side. We have an assurance of our salvation that is certain because our hope is in God and not ourselves. And we are called on to strive earnestly to be holy. The Apostle Paul was a master of allowing these two truths to exist side by side. But he also knew that Grace Christians and Bible Christians needed to be directly addressed at times. For several weeks now we have been working our way through Romans 5-8. 2

A. Assurance of Future Glory (5:1-11) B. Because we are in Christ (5:12-21) C. Should we serve sin to magnify grace? No! (ch 6) C Should we serve Law to gain holiness? No! (ch 7) B Because we are in Christ (8:1-17) A Assurance of Future Glory (8:18-39) The overall burden of this section is the assurance of our future glory. Paul wants us to know that if we rely on Law to save us there is no assurance. But if we rely on the grace of God there is full assurance there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Why? Because we are in Christ. We are united with Him, we died with Him, we rose with Him. His death washed away our sin. His resurrection guarantees we will rise. This means that our salvation our future glory rests on Him and not us. But what I want you to notice is that Paul knows how some saints hear the gospel of grace. He addresses them directly in Romans 6 and 7. In Romans 6 Paul answers the question: If we are in Christ should we serve sin to magnify grace? Romans 6:1 Are we to continue in sin that grace might abound? Romans 6:15: Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? 3

This chapter addresses the Grace Christians. Since we are saved by grace not Law does it matter whether we sin or not? Or should we sin so that the grace of God in salvation is magnified? Surely God gets more glory from saving a depraved murderer than from saving someone from a good home who never got into trouble? Since we all sin, since every one of us falls short of the glory of God is sin that big a deal? Why strive to be holy when you can never be perfectly holy? Paul s answer is unequivocal. May it never be you died to sin and are bound to Christ. Being in Christ means when Christ died sin died in you. You serve Christ not sin. Grace doesn t mean a licence to sin it means freedom from the power of sin so you can choose not to sin. Then Paul moves on to chapter 7 where he answers the question: If we are in Christ should we serve Law to gain holiness? Since God wants us holy do we find the power to live holy in the Law? Paul s answer is unequivocal. May it never be you died to Law and are bound to Christ. This chapter addresses the Bible Christians. The ones who keep trying to live perfectly and struggle when they fail. The Law has no power to make you holy. You are looking in the wrong place for help. The Law will frustrate your attempts at holiness. It was not designed for that. You have been given a greater power for holiness union with Christ. Paul says the Law was never designed to make you godly. Grace is what does this. The Law was designed to show men their sin and need of grace. In fact the Law magnifies sin. But some Jewish Christians might respond but this makes the Law out to be sinful and evil. Paul says no the Law is like a sin detector it doesn t make us sinful it shows us we are sinful and in need of Christ. The Law is inadequate for making us holy but it is perfectly adequate to show us we need Christ. 4

There were some Jewish Christians who had been saved by grace but were then trying to live by Law. Paul wants them to know that the Law was never designed for this. He wants us to know this. We are to be holy but there is something greater than Law to help us be holy and that is grace. Now before we look at how Paul makes this argument anyone who knows anything about Romans knows that chapter 7 is an incredibly difficult chapter. If you walk into any seminary or Bible College in the world find the common room and ask a few students so what is your view of Romans 7? You will start a very robust discussion. At the seminar I was at on Thursday Doug Moo was asked repeatedly about his view of Romans 7. I know full well that here in our church we have a wide variety of views regarding this passage. Let me say up front if you don t like my view if you hold to another view fine blessings to you. There are several views that are very acceptable here. What I want to do is to share my understanding of how this chapter unfolds. The discussion begins first and foremost with the question: Who is the I? Have a look at verse 7 onwards. Paul moves to the first person. I would not have known sin... I was once alive I died proved death to me The question is who does Paul want us to understand the I here refers to? In Australia if I stand up here and say I did this, I did that everyone knows I am speaking of myself. 5

However, the Jews had a much more corporate mindset so they can say I did this meaning I as a representative of a group did this. So while it sounds strange to us Paul can be referring to a group when he says I did this. So what are the options? Paul The most natural and obvious one is that Paul is in fact referring to himself and his own experiences. But there are other possibilities. Adam The main reason for seeing this as Adam is verses 9-11: I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. Many argue that the only one who can say he was spiritually alive and then died was Adam. They argue that all men since Adam have been born dead not become dead. In Romans 5 Paul has argued that in Adam death spread to all men. I would argue this can t refer to Adam. Verse 7 makes it very clear that Paul is referring to the coming of the Mosaic Law Adam never received the Law of Moses Adam was never told You shall not covet this can t be Adam who received the Law. Everyone Others say that Paul is telling us what happens in the lives of everyone when we come to understand the Law of God. Paul is describing experiences common to all men and women. But again this Law is the Mosaic Law and not everyone has the Mosaic Law. Only the Jews received this so this can t be everyone. Israel This view is possible. They did receive the Law. In places Paul clearly talks about the coming of the Law to Israel. So, Paul might be talking about what the Law did to the nation and people of Israel. 6

However, it is highly unlikely that Paul would refer to Israel as alive apart from the Law as he does in verse 9. And does all Israel cry nothing good dwells in me, I see a war in my members, wretched man that I am? Israel as a whole did not seem to realise their sin or weep over their sin. So, while possible I think it unlikely this is Israel. Some like Doug Moo combine the Paul and Israel views. Paul is thinking of what the Law did to Israel but also to what it did to him personally. Having said this I am convinced that this is autobiographical. The context and way Paul writes seems to indicate that Paul is speaking of his own experience. Listen to verses 21-25: So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. That seems too personal and intimate to refer to Israel it seems to be Paul s cry of what he went through. So most likely this passage is a reference to Paul s own experience with the Law. However, that then begs the question: Which Paul? There are a number of interpretations. Perhaps the four most prominent are these. 7

At his Bar Mitzvah Bar Mitzvah literally means son of the commandment. Although this practice did only became formalised after the time of Paul it is likely that around thirteen Jewish boys were seen to be adults who now came under the authority of the Word. This view arises from verse 9 where Paul speaks of the commandment coming into his life. As if they commandment was now the authority in his life. I don t find this view at all compelling Paul nowhere refers to an age of coming under the commandments and it does not fit the flow of the passage. As a mature Christian In this view, Paul is writing as an Apostle. The experiences he recounts are those common to all Christians. This is probably the view most commentators take. It is the view I was taught and held to for many years. Some of the main points in favour of this view are that from verses 14-25 Paul shifts to the present tense. The implication is that verses 7-13 detail his life before Christ but verses 14-25 are what he is experiencing when he wrote Romans. Also Paul seems to love the Law and want to do good would he say this of himself as an unbeliever? And if you look at verses 24 and 25 they seem to indicate that Paul is a Christian Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ but even as a Christian his flesh serves the law of sin. Let me comment on these. As far as the switch to the present tense goes we need to understand that the present tense functions differently in Greek than it does in English. In his commentary on Romans Thomas Schreiner (pp. 386-387) says this: Present tense verbs do not necessarily indicate present time. Indeed, recent research questions whether the present tense has any significant relationship to time. [In Rom 7 this shift to] the present tense stresses the condition of the person enslaved to sin [not present time]. [Paul] adopts the present tense because his nature or state under the Law is unfolded. The state of the person who is a slave to sin is communicated most effectively through the present tense verbs. The point is that Paul does not use the present tense here to show that he is talking about his state at the present time but to describe the enslaving nature of sin. As far as Paul the Pharisee wanting to do good and loving the Law. 8

Listen to how Paul described himself as a Pharisee in Philippians 3:5 7: Circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. Pharisees did have a love for the Law and a desire to do good. They just had no power to do so. Then as far as verses 24 and 25 go. My understanding is that Paul is describing the one source of deliverance from sin Jesus Christ but then describes our state if we fail to accept by faith the salvation Jesus offers. However, to my mind there are may problems with seeing Paul describing life as a Christian in Romans 7. Several statements in chapter 7 seem to contradict what he has just said in chapter 6. Look at these: Here is Paul in chapter 6: How can we who died to sin still live in it? We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus... For sin will have no dominion over you. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. We died to sin, sin is brought to nothing, no longer enslaved to sin, set free from sin, dead to sin, sin has no dominion over you, set free from sin. 9

Now listen to these verses in chapter 7: For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. It is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. With my flesh I serve the law of sin. Sin killed me, I am sold under sin, sin dwells in me, captive to the Law of sin, I serve the law of sin. I find it impossible to reconcile Paul s description of a Christian in chapter 6 with what he says in chapter 7 if he is describing himself as a mature Christian. I think that one of the great attractions of this view is that it seems to mesh so well with our Christian experience. We are saved yet we sin. We long to do good but we are drawn to sin. We have days where we cry out wretched man that I am who will free me from this sin! However, while all of the views of chapter 7 recognise that sin is a reality for Christians until heaven this view seems somewhat defeatist compared with the victorious note of chapter 6. We are not to be complacent about sin we are to strive by the power of the Spirit to overcome it. But this tension between the victory of chapter 6 and the tension of still sinning leads to the third view. 10

As an immature Christian Paul is describing a Christian but an immature one one who has not yet learned to live victoriously as he should. However, nothing in this text indicates this is an immature Christian. It seems to be a way to reconcile chapters 6 and 7 as Christians the mature and immature. But even if a Christian is immature Paul would say they have the power to put sin to death. This simply does not fit Paul or the argument he makes. This leads us to the final view. Paul is describing his experience: As a Pharisee I am sold under sin, sin dwells in me, I am captive to the Law of sin, I serve the law of sin. This can only be Paul before his conversion. Trying to live up to the Law but failing because of the power of sin. The fact that Paul wants is to understand this is before salvation is reinforced by the fact that nowhere in verses 7-25 does Paul mention the Holy Spirit yet in chapter 8 He is mentioned 19 times. This is Paul without the Spirit. This is Paul in the flesh. This is Paul in bondage to the Law and sin. Also this description fits with Paul as a Pharisee wanting to do good and obey the Law but powerless to do so. Finding that the Law brought death this fits with what Paul said in chapters 1-3. So, while there is difficulty over this chapter I want to suggest that my understanding is that Paul is describing his experience with the Law before His salvation. A Pharisee who wants to do good tries to do good through the Law but is frustrated because he is in bondage to sin and powerless to overcome that sin. So finally, with all of that introduction we can now look at the text. 11

Remember that this chapter is addressing the Christians who still want to use Law for holiness the Bible Christians. Those who still want to find some righteousness through keeping the Law. Here is the scenario some Jewish Christians were struggling to shake what they had been taught about the Law. To them it seemed that the best way to holiness was grace plus Law. You are saved by grace you stay holy by Law. Paul says the Law was never meant to make you holy. To correct this false understanding, Paul uses an analogy from marriage. To understand this we need to know that the Rabbis taught that a Jew was bound to the Law as long as they live. Only death freed you from the Law. Paul likens this situation to marriage. Romans 7:1 3: Or do you not know, brothers for I am speaking to those who know the law that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress. The Bible views marriage as a lifelong relationship between one man and one woman. Till death do us part. If you are married to join yourself to another man or woman is adultery. The only 12

way to marry someone else is if your spouse dies then you are free to marry another. Paul then uses this analogy in relation to the Law. Verse 4: Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. In Romans 6 Paul repeated made the point that Christians are united with Christ in His death. Romans 6:3: Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? He repeatedly says we died with Christ. Since we have died we are freed from bondage to the Law. But more than that we are free to marry another in this case Christ. And what is crucial is what Paul says in verse 4 we are united with the One who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. Christians don t find the power to bear fruit for God in the Law but in Christ. It is here that Paul comes to His real point. Those who have died with Christ and been raised with Christ have the power to bear fruit for God. But that power does not come from the Law but from grace. Look at verse 5: For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. Paul is basically asking which has more power for holy living Law or grace? Being bound to Law or to grace? Let me give you some examples. The Bible says do not covet. Which has more power for you to keep that command Law or grace? Law gathers you up and says there are rewards for obedience and punishment for disobedience. 13

The result is that when you feel the power of covetousness you try hard to say no you want the reward of holiness and you don t want the punishment for sin. But, Paul says once we were living in the flesh man apart from the Spirit. We had sinful passions and the Law did not quench them it aroused them. So why go back to those days? The Law just makes the passion of sin worse. A couple of years ago I had an MRI on my neck. They told me I could not swallow for the 5 minutes it took to do the MRI. Normally I never think about swallowing after one minute do know all that I could think about? swallowing? If you leave your kids at home and say I don t want you to watch Big Brother on TV while I am gone. All they think of is what is on Big Brother that I can t watch. The passion to watch is inflamed. They struggle obey Dad and Mum or do what you want. If the Law says don t lust after your neighbour s wife it fans the flames of that lust. Look at what Paul says in verses 7 and 8: Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, You shall not covet. But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. When you are told you can t have something you want it. When you are told you can t do something the desire to do it grows. If someone says don t think of the number seven there it is in your mind seven. Think of lust you know it is wrong the Law says so but the power of lust grows. And the Law doesn t help your fight it adds fuel to the fire. The Law is like a smoke detector it tells you there is fire but you need something else to quench the fire. In his book Future Grace, John Piper has a chapter on lust. In it he says this: Suppose I am tempted to lust. Some sexual image comes into my mind and beckons me to pursue it. There it is. The Law has no power to fight this temptation. In fact telling yourself it is wrong be holy can fan the power of lust or any other sin. The Law doesn t fight sin it merely shows you what a sinner you are. 14

So what has the power to fight sin? Verse 6: But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. We are released from the Law which has no power and bound to Christ who has the power to fight sin. His Spirit empowers us to live in a new way and not by the old way of the written code of Law. How? Because we are bound to a new lover Christ. We have the power of His Spirit working in us to make us want to live holy and giving us the reward of joy when we do. Piper says of lust: The fire of lust s pleasures must be fought with the fire of God s pleasures. If we try to fight the fire of lust with prohibitions and threats alone even the terrible warnings of Jesus we will fail. We must fight it with a massive promise of superior happiness. We must swallow up the little flicker of lust s pleasure in the conflagration of holy satisfaction. Our love for Christ the One we are now bound to will help us live holy. He quotes someone who had been addicted to pornography: The thought hit me like a bell rung in a dark, silent hall. So far, none of the scary, negative arguments against lust had succeeded in keeping me from it But here was a description of what I was missing by continuing to harbor lust: I was limiting my own intimacy with God. The love he offers is so transcendent and possessing that it requires our faculties to be purified and cleansed before we can possibly contain it. Could he, in fact, substitute another thirst and another hunger for the one I had never filled? Would Living Water somehow quench lust? The Law says don t or else. There is no power there. Christ frees us from this and creates in us a love for Him that leads us to desire to live holy to please him. A greater passion love for Christ is the only thing that can quench the passion of the flesh. This is Paul s experience. The Law made his coveting worse. He wanted to do good but found no power to do good. He kept doing the evil he did not want to do. 15

He found himself crying wretched man that I am who will deliver me from this body of death? His answer Jesus Christ! When Paul was a Pharisee he wanted to do good and please God but there was no power. When Paul became a Christian he wanted to do good and please God and now there was power. His love for Christ, the power of the Spirit created a desire to want to do good. What is the point for us? Christians desire to do good to live holy. We know this is the will of God. We can try the Pharisee path. Keep the Law. Try to do good. We can obey out of duty. There is no power there. Or we can bind ourselves every closer to Christ the one we now belong to. The One who is raised from the dead to new life the One who fills us with the power to live holy. The more we fill ourselves with Him the more sin loses its power. The more we want to love Him, serve Him, obey Him the more we love Him the more power there is to be holy. We want to please Him. We want to enjoy Him. We want to know Him more. Yes in this life even this does not result in perfect obedience but there is a power here that is lacking in Law. And while we are Christians who never experience the complete powerlessness of Paul the Pharisee if we try to find holiness in Law we can go close to that same frustration. Instead we need to draw close to Christ be filled with His Spirit and cry thanks be to God through Jesus Christ who saves us through His death and frees us to live in Him. That is our gospel, that is our hope, that is our delight. 16