Notes:
Don’t Go Back Under The Law – Rom.7:1-25 See Session Slides Here
In chapter 7, Paul shares the doctrine of our freedom from the law (Rom. 7:1-6). Then he discusses what will happen if we choose to live under the law (Rom. 7:7-25).
- A) The Doctrine. The law, like marriage, has dominion over a person as long as he lives. We can’t contract out of the law while we are alive. But when we are dead, it cannot touch us. Through our union with Christ we died to the law and are now married to Him. We have no further obligation to the law. God’s way of holiness is in His Son. He is our life, and His grace results in holiness.
God gave the law for two reasons:
- That we might know what He is like. The law is a reflection of God’s image. See Rom. 7:12&14.
- That we might know what we are like. The law is good if we use it lawfully, i.e. for the purpose for which it was given (1 Tim.1:8). It was given to increase our knowledge of sin. Sin is not a measurement of how bad we are, but of how good we are not. We are not like God. We fall far short of His glory, as revealed by the law. He didn’t give the law so that He could see what we were like, but so that we could see what we are like, (Rom. 7:7). The law is designed to reveal what is already present in us – sin. It is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. But once it has done this work, it is obsolete.
B) What will happen if we choose to live under the law?
Rom. 7:9-10. Paul’s own experience. He attempted to deal with sin by the law and died. “And the commandment, which was unto life, this I found to be unto death” — its proper ministry is condemnation and death (2 Cor.3:7,9). This is the glory of the Old Covenant.
Marriage to the law is a sterile union. For two reasons:
1) Rom. 7:5. The strength of sin is the law. It arouses sin in us. Rom. 7:8. The law touches the point of our rebellion and places thoughts in the mind that were not previously there.
2) Rom. 8:3. The law puts us back under the power of the flesh and therefore dooms us to failure. The flesh = will-power. See Rom. 7:15-16,18-21. The person under law can will, but not do. Will-power will never win over sin. Note that the Holy Spirit is not mentioned in this struggle. It is Paul’s flesh responding to the law prescribing a godly walk, but supplying no power for it.
Rom. 7:17: “No longer I!” but sin which dwells in my flesh. The real me hates sin! See Rom. 7:18.
“The law’ = the Mosaic Law. ‘Law’ = any legalistic system we may use in an attempt to change.
Rom. 7:11 Paul said that sin deceived him to believe that the law could actually help him to change.
Rom. 7:24-25. Paul was not delivered by Christ, but through Him; i.e. through the revelation that he had died with Christ at the cross to indwelling sin, and to God’s law which gave sin its power.
Rom. 8:2. What is it that sets us free from the law of sin and death? The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. In Christ we do not have a law, but life. In contrast to the law working from the outside, the indwelling presence of Christ works from the inside. Consequently, “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.” As we walk according to Spirit that which is our position becomes our condition. Imputed righteousness translates into righteous living.
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