Justified Saints Under Grace - Romans 7:1-6
INTRODUCTION:
For two weeks we have been out of the book of Romans looking at two other passages that deal with our sanctification, that process where the Holy Spirit who indwells us matches our behavior to the positional righteousness that we have in Christ due to being forgiven and justified by God because we came in faith to Jesus Christ for salvation.
This morning we return to Romans for one week and then I will be gone for the two following weeks and Brian will be preaching next Sunday while I am at Shiloh speaking for the Powerhouse retreat. Then the week after that I will be at a Sufficiency of Scripture conference in California and Dan Tanner will be here speaking. Dan is the former Village Missions missionary pastor of Tanwax Country Chapel in Eatonville outside of Yelm. He is partially retired but still puts in some time at the church every week. I think you will enjoy him.
This morning we will begin chapter 7, but this is just a continuation of chapter 6. In chapter 6, verse 14 Paul wrote, “For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” (Romans 6:14, NASB95)[1] Then in verses 15-23 of chapter 6 Paul explains in greater detail the first truth of this verse that as those who have put our faith in Christ for salvation we are no longer under the law specifically with regard to its power to condemn us. In chapter 7 Paul explains in greater detail the second truth of verse 14, that as those who have faith in Christ are now under grace, but to do this he mentions law 23 times in this chapter and 8 times in the first six verses. In these first six verses in introducing this truth that we are under grace, he first states a truth, then he gives us an illustration, then he gives an explanation as to how this applies to us, and finally ends this this passage with a declaration affirming what he has said in this passage. Let’s open in prayer and then get into this passage.
--PRAY--
SCRIPTURE:
Turn in your Bibles this morning to our passage, Romans 7:1-6. Paul begins in these verses to expand on the truth that we as justified saints in Christ are under grace. Please stand if you are able in honor of the reading of God’s Word and follow along as I read.
Romans 7:1-6,
“Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives? For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man. Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.” (Romans 7:1–6, NASB95)[2]
A TRUTH (Romans 7:1)
As Paul opens up this next section teaching the truth that we are under grace, he begins with, “Or do you not know, brethren…” (Romans 7:1a, NASB95)[3] Paul uses this question to show his readers that what he is about to say is a self-evident truth, something that anyone could or should know. Paul addresses his readers as brethren or brothers in Christ. Then he adds the parenthetical statement (those who know the law, or more literally in Greek, those who know law) which may be directed to the Jewish believers which may be reading this letter, but by not using the definite article “the” with law it may be directed to any who knows law, whether it be the Mosaic Law, or Roman law, or municipal law. Paul may say this here to make it clear that he understands that there is law and we must understand its purpose and its place in our lives.
The point that he goes on to make is that law, any law whether Roman or the law given by God to Moses on Mt. Sinai has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives. This word translated “jurisdiction” is a Greek word that means to “have dominion over, to be lord of, to rule.” So, Paul is saying that as subjects of Rome or of God, whichever law you are talking about it rules you, you are commanded to obey it and follow it as long as you live. But if you die as a criminal or as one who broke the law, you are no longer subject to prosecution or punishment, and it does not matter how bad your crimes were. You are dead and freed from the rule of the law on this earth. Law is binding only on those who are living, it has no jurisdiction over the dead.
AN ILLUSTRATION (Romans 7:2-3)
Paul then uses a law to illustrate his point that law has no jurisdiction over a person who is dead. He uses the law of marriage as his illustration and says that a married woman is bound to her husband by law while he is living, as long as both husband and wife are alive they are bound to one another, but if one of them should die, the other partner is released from the law that bound him or her to their spouse. Paul carries the illustration to another level and says that if the wife is joined or married to another man and her husband is still living then she shall be called an adulteress and the same is true and implied that if the husband is joined to or married to another woman he is an adulterer. But if the husband has died or the wife has died and the spouse who is still living marries again, they will not be an adulteress or an adulterer because they have been freed from the law by the death of their spouse.
Now understand that this is no more than an illustration that Paul uses to show that the law is only binding on the living, but when one dies the law no longer has jurisdiction. So many people want to make this illustration more than it is and want every part to mean something, but Paul simply uses it to illustrate that the law is no longer binding when there is death, for the husband and wife the death of one frees the other from the contract of marriage, it is no longer binding. As a matter of fact, Paul encouraged widows, especially young widows to remarry, as long as they married a believer. He wrote in 1 Corinthians 7:39, “A wife is bound as long as her husband lives; but if her husband is dead, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 7:39, NASB95)[4] Paul counseled Timothy in 1 Timothy 5:14-15, “Therefore, I want younger widows to get married, bear children, keep house, and give the enemy no occasion for reproach; for some have already turned aside to follow Satan.” (1 Timothy 5:14–15, NASB95)[5] He wanted them to remarry so that they would not become idle and busybodies and gossips, so he counseled Timothy to tell them to remarry so that it would not give the enemy, Satan, an opportunity or an occasion to bring disgrace or dishonor on the name of Christ. Again, this was simply an illustration that Paul used here to show that death frees one from the law.
Verse 4 begins a new paragraph and Paul uses the word “therefore” to show that he is now transitioning from the truth that he has stated and the illustration that he has used to an explanation with an application. Again, he addresses his readers as brothers, but makes it even more personal by adding “my” to his address. He writes, “my brothers” to show that he is now getting to the heart of what he wants to teach them and by addressing them in this way he calls them to listen carefully to what he has to say.
Just as the death of a spouse frees the other spouse from the marriage law which bound them together, Paul writes that you were made to die to the Law, and here he uses the definite article and writes, “the Law” thus referring to the Mosaic Law. You were made to die is a verb that speaks of the completeness and the finality of death, but also emphasizes that you did not die naturally or you did not put yourself to death, but you were made to die by an act of God when you put your faith in His Son. We have already looked at this fact in the early part of chapter six that we have died in Christ to the penalty of sin and to the power of sin. Now Paul declares that faith in Jesus Christ also brings death to the Law and not only the Law but also brings freedom from the law’s penalty. Paul says that this death that we are made to die is through the body of Christ. Jesus Christ suffered the wrath of God against sin, suffered the penalty of death required by the Law on our behalf, we as those who have put our faith in Jesus Christ are freed from our relationship to the law, just as the widow is freed from her relationship to her former husband. Just as the widow is free to marry another husband, so we also are free to marry another husband, that husband being Jesus Christ, we are freed to be joined to another, “to Him who was raised from the dead.” Just as remarriage after the death of a spouse brings a complete change of marital relationship, in the same way salvation brings a complete change of spiritual relationship. No longer are we married to the Law, but instead because of our death to the Law in Christ we are free to be married to the Glorious Bridegroom of the church, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Again, as I have said before, an underlying theme that runs through the book of Romans is that salvation through Christ brings total and complete transformation. Paul goes onto write that the purpose of our death to the Law and our being joined to Christ is that we might bear fruit for God. Again, this is speaking of the attitude and the actions that will come through the indwelling Holy Spirit matching our behavior to the positional righteousness that is ours in Christ. Paul declares this truth this way to the Galatians in Galatians 2:19-20, “For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” (Galatians 2:19–20, NASB95)[6] As Christ lives in us through the Holy Spirit our lives are transformed, and the evidence of that transformation is that we will bear fruit for God. “The great theologian Charles Hodge wrote, ‘As far as we are concerned, redemption is in order to [produce] holiness. We are delivered from the law, that we might be united to Christ; and we are united to Christ, that we may bring forth fruit unto God…. As deliverance from the penalty of the law is in order to [produce] holiness, it is vain to expect that deliverance, except in view to the end for which it was granted’ (Commentary on the Epistles to the Romans [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, n.d.], p. 220).”[7] What is this Godly fruit that we will produce? It is the attitude and the actions that come from the Holy Spirit producing His fruit in us. Paul in Galatians 2:20 tells that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. As the Spirit works in our life this fruit is produced, John gives us another dimension of this from our Scripture reading this morning in John 15:1-2, “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.” (John 15:1–2, NASB95)[8] Jesus goes on in that passage to tell us how to bear fruit and it is by abiding in Him, cooperating with the Holy Spirit, allowing God the Father to prune you and conform you to the image of His Son. By spending time with the Lord, being in His Word, seeking His will we abide in Him and we will produce fruit for God. That is not to say that at times we will be tempted to sin and give into that temptation and sin, but that is not to be the habitual pattern of our lives. When we do this, we must confess our sin to the Lord and ask for forgiveness and know that He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).
In verse 5 Paul reminds us what our lives were like before we came to Christ for salvation, how sin ruled our lives and our life was characterized by sinfulness. Paul points out four things about our way of life before salvation. First, he reminds us that we were in the flesh, the way that Paul uses this term here refers to the unredeemed sinner and this flesh refers to our sin nature with which each person is born. If a person lives in the realm of the flesh, then he cannot belong to Christ. That is not to say as I already said that a believer cannot fall back into some ways of the flesh, that is what he does when ever he sins. But a true believer can never again be in the flesh, but at times the flesh shows itself in the believer. Paul says to his readers, you were in the flesh.
Second, he says while they were in the flesh your lives were characterized by sinful passions, this is the uncontrolled nature of evil desires, the impulses that drive us in our thoughts and actions that are evil, these are at work in those who are in the flesh.
Third, Paul writes that these sinful passions were aroused by the Law. Again, Paul uses the definite article here with the Law referring to God’s Law, so how can something good, like God’s Law, arouse that which is sinful? It does this because when we have no knowledge of the Law, we would not know good from evil. But when we know what the Law declares as wrong or sinful, it arouses the unredeemed person because they are naturally rebellious and want to do the very things that he learns are forbidden.
Fourth, Paul says that the flesh, the old sinful nature working with these sinful passions in the members of his body will bear fruit, not good fruit, but fruit that leads to death. This word “work” here in Greek means to operate with power and it describes the sinful passions as working with power in the members of our body. The members of our body is describing our whole being, that all of us is controlled by our sinful passions. The fruit of this sin is for death, which refers not only to physical death, but the second death as well, eternally separated from God in the lake of fire. Paul says this is who you were before coming in faith to Jesus Christ for salvation and being transformed by God’s grace.
In the end of this passage, this first section of chapter 7 Paul makes a declaration, or we might say that he sums up what he has been teaching in this passage. He writes, “But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.” (Romans 7:6, NASB95)[9] Paul now contrasts what we were before Christ, which was just described for us in detail in verse 5, but now having put our faith in Jesus Christ we have been released from the Law, we are no longer bound to it because we have died. Paul is reiterating what he said in the beginning of this chapter that the Law has jurisdiction over a person only as long as he lives. When a person dies he is released from all the legal liabilities and the penalties of the law. Because we died in Christ when He paid our sin debt on the cross we are therefore released from the Law by God’s grace. This does not mean, as Paul has already forcefully said, it does not mean that we can live however we want now, even doing what the Law forbids. Freedom from the Law is just the opposite, it does not bring freedom to sin, but freedom to do what is righteous, this is a freedom that an unredeemed sinner does not have and cannot have, it is a freedom that only comes through salvation.
This means that a saved person not only is able to do what is right but that he will do what is right. Through faith in Jesus Christ God releases us from the bondage of the law so that we will serve. John MacArthur writes, “This verb [to serve] does not describe the voluntary service of a hired worker, who is able to refuse an order and look for another employer if he so desires. It refers exclusively to the service of a bondslave, whose sole purpose for existence is to obey the will of his master.”[10] Paul goes on to say that we will serve our Master in newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. The oldness of the letter, the Law could never save us, it could never free us, it could only condemn us. But now we are free in Christ to serve and Paul says for the believer this is not an option, because the Holy Spirit dwells within us and we have a new nature. As a true believer Paul says that you will bear fruit for God, not that you might bear fruit for God. Our Scripture reading this morning said in John 15:1-2, “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.” (John 15:1–2, NASB95)[11] The person who is bearing no fruit is not a genuine Christian and will be cut off, the person who is bearing fruit is pruned so that he bears more fruit. If we are truly saved, then we will bear fruit and we do this in newness of the Spirit.
CONCLUSION:
In this passage Paul is teaching us that as Christians we are dead to the Law with regard to its demands and penalties and we now live in newness of the Spirit because of salvation we are transformed, we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit who is forever working to match our behavior to our positional righteousness in Christ. As we cooperate with the Spirit, He will produce fruit in us for God. His fruit will be seen in our attitude, our words and our actions as we serve the Lord.
When we do not cooperate with the Spirit we give in to our unredeemed flesh and we sin, but praise God that we can come at anytime and confess our sin and know that our Savior Jesus Christ is faithful and righteous and will forgive our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness and we can then again begin cooperating with the Spirit and have His fruit again produced in our life. The Christian life will produce fruit, it is the evidence of our salvation, it is the process of our sanctification that is ours by the grace of God.
[1]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[2]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[3]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[4]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[5]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[6]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[7]MacArthur, John F., The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, Romans 1-8. Chicago, IL : Moody Press, 1991.
[8]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[9]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[10]MacArthur, John F., The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, Romans 1-8. Chicago, IL : Moody Press, 1991.
[11]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.