Dead to the Law - Romans 7:1-6

1:35In chapter 6, after he says, for sin will have no dominion over you, he follows by saying, since you are not under law, but under grace. In chapter 10, he'll say, for Christ is the end of the law, for righteousness to everyone who believes. What is he saying? Righteousness of God apart from the law. By the works of the law, no person will be declared righteous. The law produces wrath. The law increases the trespass. The law slipped in.

2:16The law has ended. What happened to King David? The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. What happened to Solomon? Blessed is he who keeps the law. What happened to the Psalmist in Psalm 119? Verse 44, I will keep your law continually forever and ever. Verse 72, the law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces. Verse 97, oh, how I love your law. It is my meditation all the day.

3:02And yet, Paul is saying, the law slipped in, the law increased the trespass, the law produced wrath. He has some explaining to do in chapter 7. You know, again, it feels like Paul has shared this message so many times, and really, by the time he's written Romans, he has shared this message in so many synagogues, and so he can anticipate all these different issues that are going to come up. All are condemned, even the Jew. Well, then, no one can get the righteousness of God.

3:43Paul says, no, it's by faith. By faith, that goes against the Old Testament. No, chapter 4. Abraham had faith. David had faith. Well, if it's by faith, then people are just going to sin. No, chapter 6. How can we who died to sin still live in it? So now, chapter 7. How dare you speak against the law? You can't just throw it aside. What gives you the right to say it is ended? We must stay under the law.

4:28Well, in chapter 7, he'll say. No. You died. Remember? You died through the body of Christ. And when slaves died, they're freed. Chapter 6. And so you are no longer under sin's dominion. But when somebody who's bound to the law dies, he's free. And so you are no longer under the law. That is the main point of this text in chapter 7. And really, this is a one-point sermon. I'll give some sub-points later so we can have an outline. But this is a one-point text, and the point is this. When you died with Christ, you died to the law, and so you are free from the law. That's the main point of today's passage. When you died with Christ, you died to the law, and so you are free from the law.

5:36Pray with me before we jump in. Father, this issue of the law and the Christian, this is a hard issue for us to understand. But your text is clear. Your word is clear. Your word is written for our instruction. So I pray that as we come to study it this morning, that you'd help us understand. We pray that you'd give us wisdom. We pray that you would help us. Deal with the issues that come up. We pray that you would help us pay attention and have a focused mind as we think about the law and think about our relationship to the law.

6:16Father, as we learn and grow, I pray that we would be people who are doers of your word, who long to put it into action even this week. We thank you, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. Romans 7, verse 1, Paul says, Or do you not know, brothers, for I am speaking to those who know the law. So let's stop there for just a second. I don't think that that's limited to only Jews. Remember, he's writing to this community in Rome, this community of Christians that would have been a mix of Jew and Gentile. But he's saying that he's writing to those who know the law, who have at least heard about it, who understand what the law was, the Mosaic law. 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?

7:10He's saying this is something you should know. This is pretty intuitive, right? The law is binding on a person only as long as he lives. If someone dies, they're no longer bound to the law. They no longer have any fear of breaking the law, and they no longer have any fear in this life of punishment. For going against the law, the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives. And then he gives an illustration in verses 2 and 3. 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. Pretty clear example, right? When there is this death, the law that bound that woman to her husband, that law is emptied because her husband is no longer alive. So there's been a death that occurred that freed her from that law, and so she is released. Before that happened, if she went to go live with another man, she would be an adulteress. She's bound by that law. But when that death happens, she's no longer bound. If she marries another man, she's not called an adulteress. And so she's freed by that death. And so then he continues on with the main point in verse 4. Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ.

8:57You also have died to the law. Through the body of Christ. So it was not your body that died on the cross. It was Christ's body that died. But when Christ died, you died with him if you're a believer. You have died to the law through the body of Christ. And so Paul is going to explain what that means for the next few verses. He's going to explain it by giving us three results of dying to the law. Three results of dying to the law.

9:40First, I can bear fruit for God. Second, I can reject the flesh. And third, I can serve in the spirit. I can bear fruit for God, verse 4. I can reject the flesh, verse 5. I can serve in the spirit, verse 6. So let's look at the first one. I can bear fruit for God. Look at 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. So there has been a takeover. You used to belong to the law. You used to be bound by this law.

10:27But since we were united to Christ, when we became A believer. And since Christ died and rose again, then there's been a takeover in our life. When he died, we died to the law through his body so that we could belong to him who was raised again. The law cannot make any more claims on us because we are officially forever belonging to Christ, no longer belonging to the law. And this is not spiritual adultery. You know, those Jews in that first generation that forsook the law in order to follow Christ, that turned from the temple in order to follow Christ. They were not committing spiritual adultery. They were not abandoning the law and incurring a curse upon themselves. And the reason why they weren't committing spiritual adultery is because they died to the law through the body of Christ. They died to the law so that they could be free to turn to Christ.

11:38The text says that we belong to him in order that we may bear fruit for God. That was the purpose, that we could bear fruit for God. Some interpreters think that this is continuing on with a family metaphor. And you can kind of see what they're saying there: that we had a husband, the law, but we died to that husband. Have a new husband, Christ, and so now we can bear fruit, like fruit of the womb, for this new husband. But the scriptures don't really use this word for fruit in that way. And I think that's kind of a weird picture, anyways, right?

12:14I don't think that Paul is trying to give us some kind of extended allegory of marriage, where in an allegory, everything represents, every single part of the story represents something, like in Pilgrim's Progress. Don't forget to sign up for VBS. I don't think he's trying to give us an allegory. In fact, if we were to press that and say and demand that he is giving an allegory where everything matches up, well, then the illustration in verses two and three wouldn't really work, anyways, right? Because in the illustration, it's the woman's husband who dies, not the woman who dies. And so things kind of break down if you try and force it into an allegory. So instead, what I think he's doing is he states a plain principle in verse 1: those who have died are no longer bound by the law. I think he illustrates it in verse 2 and 3 by just saying, look, for example, when this kind of death happens, someone is freed from the law. And so he's saying, something that frees you from the law is death.

13:20And so if it's not an allegory, that means that bearing fruit for God in verse 4 is the normal New Testament usage of bearing fruit for God. We are not saved by works, but we are his workmanship. And we're his workmanship created for good works. Created to produce good fruit for God. And so the point is this: contrary to those who say that being free from the law would lead to licentiousness, the truth is that being freed from the law is the only way we can bear good fruit.

14:02I'm going to say that again. Listen to this. Contrary to those who say that being free from the law would lead to licentiousness and even more sin and throwing off every restraint, the truth is that being freed from the law is the only way we can truly bear fruit for God. And the opposite is also implied. If you haven't become a believer yet, you're still stuck. If you haven't turned to God and asked for forgiveness of your sins, then you cannot bear good fruit for God.

14:40You might think that you've done some good things. You might think that you've done some noble things, but it's still bad fruit. Fruit for death, not fruit for God. If you haven't turned to God, To God and ask for forgiveness, then you haven't earned an ounce of favor with God by your good deeds. So turn to God today. Christ shed his blood on the cross so that we can be forgiven. Christ died so that we could die to the law and be set free from the condemnation that we experienced under the law. So turn to God today. You can begin this life of bearing good fruit.

15:36You can begin this life of joyfully walking in obedience, a life that's pleasing to God, finally able to bear fruit for God. And believers, remember that this is true of yourselves now. You can bear fruit for God. You can bear good fruit. This is an astounding privilege that only you have as a believer in Christ. Only people who have been redeemed and forgiven, brought out from underneath the curse of the law. Only those who have been forgiven can bear fruit for God.

16:20So treat it like a privilege. You know, even consider this week, how can I bear fruit for God? Maybe. You've been bearing fruit for God in some ways, but there are other ways, your character that you need to work on, deeds of service that you could do extra just for joy, just for the love of the Lord, bear fruit for God. I can bear fruit for God. The second result of dying to the law is: I can reject the flesh. I can reject the flesh. Look at verse 5. For while we were still living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.

17:07This is speaking of the time before we were believers, that though we may have known the law, that law did not cause us to want to keep it. Especially for the Jewish person like Paul. He knew the law very well. And yet, he still didn't have this natural inclination to keep it. Quite the opposite, right? Look at verse 5 again. For while we were still living in the flesh, our sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.

17:49So notice the point that he'll make later: that it wasn't the law that was working in our members to bear fruit for death. We need to understand. It wasn't the law. The law is not something wicked that causes sin in our hearts. That's not what he says. He's saying that the wickedness comes from within, it's our own hearts that are wicked. Though they may have been aroused by the law to do even more wickedness, that doesn't mean that the law itself was wicked. The law is good. The wickedness came from within. Our sinful passions were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.

18:40And so, when we heard something wonderful and good, the rules of God, the law of God, when we heard something wonderful and good, it only made us want to go against it. Though the law is perfect, our sinful passions are so twisted, our flesh is so twisted that we were aroused to do wickedness instead of obey the law. I remember a young man that was out to dinner with his youth group all around one big table at a Mexican restaurant, and he was sitting right at the middle of the table, and right across from him was the youth leader, and he burped at the table. And the youth leader, as you might expect, kindly, graciously said, please don't burp at the table. You know, it's not good manners. Well, rather than prompting a humble reply, the young man said, Oh, sorry. And so he stood up, pushed in his chair, took a step back from the table, and in the middle of the restaurant, for everybody to hear, let out a huge belt and then sat back down at the table.

20:03How obnoxious, right? I'm ashamed to say that that young man was me as a teenager. And of course, that was in jest, right? It was just looking for laughs, but in reality, in reality, that was a response that I didn't like it when I heard that rule. And hearing that rule didn't cause righteousness in me. It caused me to want to break that rule, at least the spirit of that rule, even worse than ever. Hearing that good rule incited the sin in my heart to do even worse.

20:43In the same way, though we already sinned, when we hear the law as an unbeliever, it only makes us want to increase the trespass. That's how twisted our flesh is. And again, to stay. The obvious, if you're an unbeliever, if you still haven't received the free gift that we spoke about last week, well, then you're still stuck here. You're still stuck to hopelessly succumb to your own passions over and over unless you turn to God for help, unless you turn to God to receive that free gift, not earned by works, paid for by Christ. But Christians, on the other hand, you have already turned to God, you have already repented and believed. And so, verse 6, but now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive. So we're no longer bound by the flesh. We're no longer bound by the law. We're no longer stuck in the cycle of obeying our flesh. And so the law no longer needs to arouse sinful desires in us. Instead, the law can produce good desires in us.

22:06He says that in the flesh, the law produced fruit for death. Continuing on with that same theme that we saw last week, that the wages of sin is death. The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. We've moved from death to life. And so now the law can produce these good desires. Desires in us. We're not stuck. I can reject my flesh because I have died to the law. And so, do you live like that's true?

22:47Or do you pretend that you can't reject your flesh? Because you can, if you're a believer. Beware the twistedness of your own flesh, the twistedness of your sin that could take something good and produce something bad. Be aware of it, but also know that you can reject it. You can, as a believer, reject your flesh. I could bear fruit for God. I can reject the flesh. And third, I can serve in the spirit. Since I have died to the law, I can serve in the spirit. Verse 6. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the newness of the spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.

23:49So here again, you can tell, it seems like Paul is speaking so negatively about the law. It was something to be released from. It was something that held us captive. It was something old. But remember, he's already shown that it wasn't the law that caused us to sin, it was our own sinful flesh. It wasn't the law that caused us to sin, it was our own sinful flesh. The desire to sin came from within. And so the law can only hold us captive because of the wickedness of our own flesh.

24:32Nevertheless, the law does hold sinners captive. Even if somebody desperately wanted to escape from their sin, handing them the law and saying, These are the rules of God, obey them. That's not going to help. That doesn't work. Even if somebody desperately wants to escape from their cycle of sin, handing them the law is not going to let them escape. But once we are released by faith, once we're released because we died and rose again with Christ, once we're released because we are born again, now we have the ability to serve God in the newness of spirit.

25:20Some have assumed this verse to be distinguishing between the spirit and the letter of the law. We use language like that sometimes, right? Saying something like the Jew used to be bound to the detailed letter of the law, but then once he turns to Christ, then he can follow the spirit of the law instead of the letter of the law. It's certainly something that's true, but I don't think that's what he's talking about here. Others have interpreted this to be about hermeneutics, how we interpret scripture, that before Christ came, we were bound to be literalist, to take the Bible so literally, but now that Christ has come, we are opened up to this spiritual understanding. It was the letter that killed, and the spiritual understanding of Scripture helps us really see what God communicated in Scripture. Well, I don't think that there's ever a license in Scripture to be able to do that. I think that Jesus himself was clearly a literal interpreter of scripture, right? He pointed to the Old Testament over and over and over to give proof for who he was. So if this verse is not talking about following the spirit of the law instead of the letter of the law, if it's not talking about a spiritual hermeneutic instead of a literal interpretation, well, then what is it talking about? Now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the newness of spirit and not in the oldness of letter. What does he mean? Well, I think it's pretty clear that he's talking about two ways of serving, right? Serving and the newness. Of the Spirit versus serving in the oldness of the letter.

27:04But I think that specifically he's touching on that old covenant, new covenant difference. In 2 Corinthians 3, that we read from this morning, Paul says that he and his team were ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the spirit, for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. That was verse 6. The old ministry, he says in verse 7, was a ministry of death, carved in letters on stone. And the new ministry, verse 8, he says, is the glorious ministry of the spirit. And so elsewhere, he has this distinction between the old and the new covenant, that the old was carved in letters and the new is carved on our hearts.

27:54And so a Jew might have formerly adhered to the law given in letters, but now they love the law. It's written on their hearts. They understand it and they love it. And so instead of serving because of a written requirement, they serve because they want to. And parents, you've seen this before, right? In your kids. You know, there's a difference between take out the trash. Okay, fine, I'll take out the trash. There's a difference between that and joyful, loving obedience, right?

28:30So, instead of serving because of a written requirement, they serve because they want to, and most importantly, they serve in the Spirit. The Spirit has changed them, and so now they can continue to walk in the Spirit. He's going to kind of leave that hanging for now, and so are we. We're not going to delve too much into what that's going to look like because he's going to return to it when we get to chapter 8. He's going to talk about it for a long time. What does that look like to walk in the Spirit instead of in the flesh? But for now, he's set up this difference between walking in the flesh and walking in the spirit. The oldness of the letter, the newness of the spirit. One commentator writes this: Christians live in a new stage of salvation history in which the Mosaic law's rule over God's people has ended.

29:24The Spirit has freed Christians from the tendency of the law to increase human rebellion against God and has empowered them to live in ways that are productive and useful for the service of God. I think he nails it, what this passage is about. Listen to that second part again: The Spirit has freed Christians from the tendency of the law to increase human rebellion against God and has empowered them to live in ways that are productive and useful for the service of God.

30:02So we came out of verse 5, the flesh, law, sin, death. We came out of flesh, law, sin, death, and we came into spirit, freedom, service, life. That's the change that has happened in our lives as believers. We came out of flesh, law, sin, death, into the spirit, freedom, service, life. John Stott writes, the Christian life is serving the risen Christ in the power of the Spirit. I hope that's true about our lives, right? That we intentionally choose, because of what the Spirit has done in our heart, that we intentionally choose to serve the risen Christ.

30:51Rather than pretending like we need to return to legalism to keep our salvation, instead, we can serve in the newness of the Spirit. So is there a contradiction between Paul and the Old Testament? Paul saying that the law increased the trespass, and the psalmist saying, Oh, how I love your law. Is there a contradiction there? I don't think so. I think that they both knew both sides of the issue. I think that they both knew both sides of this reality, that the law was good.

31:37It accomplished what it was meant to accomplish. It's just that the law was never meant to justify. The law was never meant to be what people turned to to earn righteousness. If you're looking to the works of the law to atone for your sin, then it's ineffective. It's not going to work, even though the law is good. And so, though Paul is speaking this way about the ineffectiveness of the law, of the law increasing the trespass, he also says in Romans 3:31, therefore do we nullify the law through faith? May it never be, but we uphold the law.

32:22The law is something good. So he says both sides. It's the same David who said, The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. It's that same David who says in Psalm 32, verse 1, Blessed is the one whose transgression, transgression of the law, blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Psalm 32, verse 5, I acknowledged my sin to you. I did not cover my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord. You forgave the iniquity of my sin. He says in Psalm 103, verse 12, as far as the East is from the West, so far does He remove our transgressions from us. And so, yes, David and the other Old Testament poets, they love the law, but they also know that they've been forgiven of the law. And I think you could even turn that on its head. Only those who know they have been forgiven can truly love the law.

33:33Only those who know they have been forgiven can truly love the law. John Stott, again, he writes this: Legalists fear the law and are in bondage to it. Antinomians hate the law and repudiate it. Law-abiding free people love the law and fulfill it. Legalists fear the law and are in bondage to it. Antinomians hate the law and repudiate it. But law-abiding free people love the law and fulfill it. So, as we think about how to apply these things, I think that this passage frees us in two different ways.

34:28So, the first application is. Don't be a legalist. We're free to not be a legalist. As Christians, we have been freed by the law. And so we don't need to keep the law to keep our salvation. If you forget this and you start to walk in the flesh, pretending like you can earn part of your salvation or pretending like it's up to you to remain in the faith. If you forget this and you start to walk in the flesh again, well, that's only going to lead you into that cycle of moral failure, of sin, bad fruit, because you're not walking in the newness of the Spirit. So don't be a legalist. Don't try and force artificial rules on yourself, pretending you can keep your salvation by earning it. This will only lead to worse things. Remember instead that you're already forgiven. You're 100% clean, washed, fully forgiven for anything that you've ever done. You're free, and so you can serve God knowing that you're forgiven. And the same goes when you're thinking about others. Don't be a legalist when it comes to others. Don't impose your artificial rules on someone else and pretend like they need to follow your laws in order to stay a Christian. So the first application is don't be a legalist, but this leads right into the second application. Of love the law.

36:04That sounds like a contradiction, but it's not. Since we have died to the law, since we have been forgiven of our trespasses, since we have been freed from the law, well, then we're free to enjoy it. Now we can truly love the law. We can walk in the newness of the Spirit. We can meditate on the precepts of the law with joy because it's not something that's shouting back our condemnation to us. It's something that we've been freed from.

36:45We've died to the law, so we're free to enjoy it. The question is: how do you enjoy the law? How do you love the law? John Piper writes, For the last 40 years of my ministry, no biblical issue has proved more recurrent or more vexing than the nature of the Mosaic law as it relates to the gospel in the new covenant. It's quite a statement, right? John Piper says, the most confusing thing in his ministry for 40 years has been how the law relates to the Christian.

37:19Throughout church history, you may remember that there's been these different names for the different purposes of the law. You have different theological. Throughout church history, talking about the purpose of the law. You have Martin Luther talking about how the law was primarily civil. It was teaching them how to live in their communities and how to live in the kingdom. But then he also said that it had a purpose, a theological purpose, to increase our sin and show us that we needed a Savior. And then John Calvin would add to that: well, there's also the purpose of teaching. The law was meant to teach us. That's why God gave it, to teach us righteousness. All those things are true, right? All those purposes of the law are true. Well, in recent generations, Christians have tried to make this a little simpler. They'll try and speak of the three components of the law. Have you heard this before? The moral, the civil, and the ceremonial components of the law.

38:24The moral are those timeless principles that are always true in the law. The civil aspects of the law in the Old Testament, we're speaking about those as a citizen, in their community of Jews, in their kingdom. And the ceremonial, talking about those laws that pertain to the temple and the sacrifices. And so they try and make it simple by saying, well, clearly the New Testament does away with these civil and ceremonial, but we're still supposed to keep that moral law. That's timeless.

38:55But I think that that's close, but it's not quite right. I think that though you can probably think of some laws that fall into each of those categories in the Old Testament, I think if you tried to really go to the Old Testament and divide it up into those three, I don't think you'd really be able to do it. Besides, Paul didn't say that we're free from two-thirds of the law, right? He said we're released from all of it.

39:26And so I think it's ever so slightly wrong to say that Christians are still expected to keep the moral law. I think that instead we can say something, and maybe this makes no difference to you, but I think that instead we could say something a little bit clearer that says we're supposed to keep the morality behind the law, or we're supposed to love to obey Christ what the law teaches. That's how a Christian can love the law. We meditate on the laws, knowing that none of it is, that we're not bound to any of it.

40:01But we meditate on it over and over, and we consider what is this precept, what does this law teach me about the character of God? And if it teaches me something about the character of God, well, then wouldn't I want to conform to that character? What does this law teach me about God's expectations for mankind? Well, if he has those expectations, shouldn't I want to please him? meet those expectations. That's meditating on the law, loving the law in that way.

40:37So we joyfully seek to obey. We joyfully seek to understand the law, not because we're bound to the law, but because the law teaches us God's character. It teaches us God's wisdom. And we want to please God. So just a quick example before we close. You may remember that In those days, they would have flat roofs, and that's one of the locations that they would throw parties, right? That they would have their neighbors over. They would spend time on their roofs. They would eat together. Most of our roofs, you can't do that on, right? But maybe in cities, you've been at like a rooftop plaza or something like that. Well, they had those, and one of the laws was to make sure that there is a parapet around the roofs so that people don't fall off of it.

41:29Now, if you were to ask me how I would categorize that, I think that we'd have to put that into some kind of civil category, right? This is part of living in community. This is avoiding manslaughter and negligence. This is making sure that you're loving your neighbor. But I don't think that the answer is then, okay, wow, we need to obey that law. We need to make sure there's a parapet around our roof. That's not what we're bound to. But I think that if we're meditating on that law, Law, we see, okay, I see the intention of that law. I can see God's character in that law, that he wants us to love our neighbor, that he doesn't want us to willingly put people in danger just because we're lazy, that instead we can take extra steps to make things safe. That would be something that's pleasing to God, not because we're bound to the law, but because we want to please him. Does that make sense? So, on the one hand, don't be a legalist, don't pretend like we need to keep the law to earn our salvation, but on the other hand, love the law, meditate on it, think about it. You're free from it, but you're free so that you can meditate on it and learn from it and grow.

42:45Those are our two applications, and of course, the three we mentioned earlier. Remember, as you fight sin, the three results of dying to the law, that I can bear fruit for God, I can reject the flesh, and I can serve in the spirit. Let's pray, Father, we thank you so much for our freedom in Christ. Again, we thank you. We can never thank you enough that though our sinful hearts were so twisted, though our flesh was so twisted in its own sinfulness, that it would take your good rules and your good law, that it would take that.

43:30And produce more wickedness. We thank you that you stepped in and you changed our hearts. That when we believed in Christ, when we trusted Christ, that his sacrifice on the cross was a sacrifice for sin, sin that we needed to be forgiven of, when we believed and repented and came to you, you changed us. So that now we can serve in the newness of the Spirit instead of the oldness of the letter. Not begrudgingly serving because we feel that we have to, but joyfully serving because we love you. We love your law. And we've been changed by your spirit.

44:22Father, as we think about these things, I pray that it would spur us on to more and more meditate on your law, grow, knowing your character, knowing your wisdom, becoming more and more conformed to you with joy, knowing that we're free from our sin, though we still live in these fleshly bodies. We're free from sin's dominion, and we're free from being bound by the law. We thank you, Father, that when Christ died, we died to the law.

45:00So that we're free to be joyful, to love and to serve. Help us, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen.