FREEDOM AND THE LAW
Romans 7:1-13
Throughout
chapter 6, Paul has been attacking antinomianism. Antinomianism is the false teaching that
says, since you are saved apart from the works of the Law, it is okay to go out
and sin. But this is not the case. The believer has been set free from sin in
order to live unto God. To teach this
principle, Paul uses three images:
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Romans 6:1-14 |
Romans 6:15-23 |
Romans 7:1-6 |
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Image of Baptism |
Image of Slavery |
Image of Marriage |
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We are identified with
Christ and so should live His life. |
We are free from sin and
should not live unto it any longer. |
We are free from the Law to
enter a new relationship with Christ. |
The
key word for this chapter will be the word “Law.” Paul begins by looking at the jurisdiction of
the Law.
LAW’S
JURISDICTION
Every
aspect of a Jewish person’s life was controlled by the Law. The Law told him how to eat, how to dress,
how to worship, how to farm his crops, how to live. From birth until death, there was no part of
his life that the Law did not address.
1. The Axiom.
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? (Romans 7:1).
Paul says this as an axiom. An axiom is a truth which is universally
known. A self-evident
proposition. A
fact of life. Everyone knows that
the law only judges the living.
Imagine that a police officer observes a car speeding
through town. The officer turns on his
lights and sirens and gives chase. He is
prepared to give the driver a speeding ticket.
But instead of slowing, the driver speeds up and runs through a red
traffic light. Now the officer is going
to add that infraction. As the driver
continues to accelerate, he sideswipes another car and continues on. The police officer now adds reckless
endangerment and leaving the scene of an accident to the growing list. Finally, as the driver heads out of town, he
fails to negotiate a sharp curve and he crashes head-on into a tree. His care explodes into a ball of flame and he
is killed instantly. What does our
police officer do? Does he proceed to
write up the ticket? Not
at all. The offender is dead and
the matter is settled.
When was the last time you saw a corpse in court? They don’t give speeding tickets in
cemeteries (at least, not to the residents).
That simple fact illustrates this universal principle. The Law has no jurisdiction over a dead man.
2. The Analogy.
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. (Romans
7:2-3).
This axiom that the law has no jurisdiction over dead
people is vividly illustrated in the case of marriage. When two people get married, they exchange
vows and promise to remain together “until death do us part” (modern
This was especially true of women in Paul’s day. While divorce might be allowable under
certain circumstances, the act of remarriage was considered to be an act of
adultery. But that changed if one of the
spouses died.
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A MARRIED WOMAN |
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↓ |
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↓ |
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Her Husband Lives |
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Her Husband Dies |
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↓ |
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↓ |
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She is bound by the Law |
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She is freed from the Law |
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↓ |
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↓ |
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If She Marries Another |
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↓ |
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↓ |
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While her husband lives |
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Once her husband dies |
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↓ |
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She is called an Adulteress |
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She is not an Adulteress |
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We must point out that Paul is NOT setting forth
his doctrine of divorce and remarriage in this passage. He is only using the binding character of
marriage to make a point as regards the Law. |
Note that in the first situation, a woman whose
husband is still alive and who subsequently is separated from her husband to
marry another man is guilty of adultery.
In the second situation, her husband dies and she marries another man,
but she is free from the law. What is
the difference? She was married the first
time. She is now married to another
man. But that is okay, because the tie
that binds does not bind past the point of death.
3. The Application.
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. (Romans 7:4).
In the same way that the death of a spouse releases
the surviving party to remarry, so also OUR death in Christ releases us and
allows us to be joined to Christ.
Paul has already described how we were joined to and
identified with Christ in His death. We
saw that truth back in chapter 6. Now he
points out that the reason we could be joined to Christ is because we had first
been released from a prior binding. We
were reckoned to have died so that “we could be joined to another.”
This brings us to a question. To what were we originally bound? From what are we released? It was NOT the Law. We were bound BY the Law in the same way that
a wife is bound to her husband BY the Law.
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Wife |
Bound by
LAW |
Husband |
If
it is the Law that BINDS us, then to what were we bound? The answer is seen in the previous
chapter. We were bound to SIN (6:22).
|
US |
Bound by
LAW |
Sin & its Wages |
We have been released from that old husband to whom we
were bound. The Law has declared us to
be legally dead. And the Law isn’t
binding upon dead people. And with that
comes a release from the wages and the power of sin. We aren’t married to sin any longer. And that leaves us free to be married to
another. The “other” to whom we are now
married is Jesus Christ.
|
US |
Bound by
FAITH |
Jesus Christ |
What is the result of this new marriage? It is that it be a fruitful marriage. It is that “we might bear fruit for God.” The very first command recorded in the Bible
is that man might “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (Genesis
1:28). We were created to bear
fruit. And God still desires us to be
fruitful. Not merely in the physical
sense, but to bear the fruit of the Spirit.
Our new fruitfulness is designed to bear fruit to God.
BEFORE AND AFTER
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 7:5-6).
When
Paul says, “When we were in the flesh,” he is taking us back to that time prior
to conversion. We were in the realm of
the flesh (imperfect tense). Now we are
in the realm of the Spirit.
There
was a time when we were married to sin.
It was joined to us. We were one
with sin. The fruit of that union was
demonstrated in sinful activity. Sin
begat sin which begat more sin. We were
constantly pregnant with sin. The wages
of such sin was death (6:23). We are now
in a new kind of relationship. It is
still a fruit-bearing relationship. This
time, we are bearing the fruit of the Spirit.
Verse
6 points out that, with each of these two relationships, there is a service
which has been performed on our part. We
served in our old relationship and we serve in our new relationship.
|
Our Old Relationship |
Our New Relationship |
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We bore fruit
for death (7:5). |
We bear the
fruit of the Spirit. |
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We served in
the oldness of the letter (7:6). |
We now serve in
the newness of the Spirit (7:6). |
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Under the
jurisdiction of the Law. |
Dead to the
Law. |
|
Our sinful
passions were aroused by the Law (7:5). |
Now we have
been released from the Law (7:6). |
There
is a principle here. It is that you will
always bear fruit. The only question is
what kind of fruit it will be. And that
depends on what is the source of your connection. If you are joined to sin in the realm of the
old man, you will bear the fruit of death.
If you are joined through faith to the new man, you will bear the fruit
of the Spirit of God.
SIN
AND THE LAW
7 What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never
be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law;
for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “You shall
not covet.”
8 But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment,
produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead.
9 I was
once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive
and I died; 10 and this commandment, which was to result in life,
proved to result in death for me; 11 for sin, taking an opportunity through the
commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. (Romans 7:7-9).
|
The antinomian seems to take the position that the
Law IS sinful and to be avoided at all costs. |
Paul
now steps in to defend the Law. This is
a disclaimer. He does not want to be
misunderstood as saying that the law is sinful.
He approaches the subject by asking a rhetorical question. Is the Law sinful? Not at all!
Paul answers, — “May it
never be!” The Law is not sin. Rather, the Law reveals sin.
The
story is told of three men who were called into a cardiologist for consultation
on their X-rays. The first man was shown
his x-rays. “They look okay to me,” said
the man. The doctor took a textbook and
showed him the picture, “Here is what a healthy heart looks like.” The patient replied, “I don’t have time to
look at pictures in a book.” The doctor
explained, “If you don’t see the difference between the condition
of your heart versus what it ought to be, you will never understand the
problem.” But the man refused and left.
The
second man looked at the x-rays and then at the textbook and then retorted,
“How dare you say that my heart is inferior!
It is the standard that is inferior!”
And he left.
The
third man looked at the x-rays and then at the textbook and then asked, “What
must I do to regain my health?” The
third man was the only patient which the doctor could help. His use of the textbook is equivalent to the
believer’s use of the Law.
The
Law uncovers sin and shows us how serious it is. The Law is the diagnosis which shows that
little area of sin is really a cancer which shall lead to a terminal
conclusion. But the Law cannot conquer
sin. You cannot use an x-ray as a method
of cure. It is not designed to do
that. It is only a diagnostic tool.
The
Law reveals sin. But that is not
all. The Law also stirs up sin. How is this?
Verse 8 points out that the knowledge of the Law brought with it a
desire to break that Law. The Law said,
“Don’t covet!” And I looked at the
concept of coveting and reached out and grasped it. The more the Law said, “Don’t covet!” the
more I embraced coveting. That is what
the Law does in the heart of the one who is spiritually dead. It makes my desire to participate in that
which has been forbidden all the more intense.
This is not due to some fault in the Law. Rather, the fault is in the sinful response
within me.
It
is interesting that Paul uses the example of coveting. Of all of the Laws of the Old Testament, this
is the most internal. This Law strikes
to the HEART.
1. Coveting is a matter of the heart. It is not a matter which can be judged by
outward appearance. Murder and stealing
are visible sins which are immediately apparent to anyone who sees the evidence
of a dead body or missing goods. Coveting is a sin of the mind and heart. We
can covet, and no one may ever know it.
2. Coveting is one of the characteristic sins of the flesh. Our
flesh has its appetites which often come into conflict with God’s revealed
will. These appetites, or desires, are
often forbidden lusts (see Galatians 5:16, 19; Ephesians 2:3; 2 Peter 2:10).
Sin frequently overpowers our flesh by appealing to its lusts.
3. Coveting is a root sin which is often the cause of other
sins. Coveting in and of itself seems to do no harm to anyone, but it very
frequently provides the motivation for stealing and even murder.
4. Coveting is a sin which best illustrates Paul’s statement,
“I would not have come to know sin except through the Law” (verse 7). There is not a legal system on earth apart from
the Law of God which has a law against coveting.
Indeed, most people do not think coveting is really
wrong. In some societies, like our own,
many forms of coveting would actually be commended rather than condemned.
This is why Paul uses coveting as the example of his
past lawlessness. He would not have been
considered a law-breaker under any other legal code. By all outward appearances, he was a
law-keeper. But that changed when he
came face to face with the Law of God.
In
verse 9, Paul presents a “before and after” history of his own life and how it
was impacted by the Law.
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Before the Law Came |
After the Law has Come |
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Sin is dead |
Coming of the Law |
Sin is alive |
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Paul is alive |
Paul is dead |
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There
was a time when Paul thought that he was alive.
He was attempting to serve the Lord through the arrest and prosecution
of Christians. But then he came face to
face with the true implications of the Law.
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Prior to the Coming of the Law |
After the Law Came |
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Sin was not imputed |
Sin became alive |
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Sin was dead |
I am dead |
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Coveting was not an issue |
Coveting of every kind was
produced in me |
Actually,
it was sin that brought death, not the Law.
This becomes clear in verse 11.
The Law can only kill when sin is there.
This is because the Law condemns sin.
CONCLUSION
So
then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. 13
Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never
be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good, so that
through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful. (Romans 7:12-13).
With
all that Paul has said about the bondage of the Law, some might be tempted to
think of the Law as a culprit
- the bad thing which demands our death. It is true that the Law demands our death,
but this does not make the Law bad. It
is not the Law that is bad, but rather it is my SIN that is bad.
His
reasoning is like this:
• The
Law is good.
• The
coming of the Law brought death.
• Only
bad things bring death.
• How
could the coming of a good thing bring death when only bad things bring
death? Is the Law really a bad thing?
Did
the Law bring about my death? The answer
is that it is not really the Law which brings death. Rather it is SIN which is shown to be sinful
by the Law which brings death.
Just
as you do not blame an x-ray when it shows the presence of a cancer, so you do
not blame the Law because it points out the presence of that which kills. Sin is the cancer. The Law is merely the diagnostic tool which
uncovers the true killer.
In
John Bunyan’s classic, Pilgrim’s Progress, he pictures a dry, dusty room
into which Christian comes. There is a
thick, putrefying layer of dust filling the room. The dust represents sin.
Into
the room comes a man with a broom - he represents the Law. As he does his work of sweeping, the dust
begins to stir up huge, choking clouds.
That is was the Law does to sin — it stirs it up, showing us how sinful
sin really is.
There
is both good news and bad news concerning the Law. The Law is both a blessing as well as a
curse. There is both an
ability in the Law as well as a disability.
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The Good News of the
Law |
The Bad News of the
Law |
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Why was the Law given in the
first place? It was given...
To reveal sin.
To condemn the sinner.
To constrain our conduct.
To turn us to Christ.
It is obvious from this that
sinners will have no love for the Law.
Indeed, the sinner hates the Law of God because it condemns him.
What is your attitude toward
the Law of God? You will either love it
or you will hate it. And your attitude
toward God’s Law will reflect your attitude toward the writer of that Law.
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