The Christ Church Wednesday Bible Study Group is now in a detailed study of Paul's epistle to the church in Rome. These are the notes for Session 8.
Paul’s primary purpose in writing Romans was to teach the great truths of the gospel of grace to believers who had never received apostolic instruction. Unlike with some of Paul’s other epistles, his purpose for writing Romans was not to correct detestable theology or rebuke ungodly living. The Roman church was doctrinally sound, but, like all churches, it was in need of the rich doctrinal and practical instruction this letter provides.
The overarching theme of Romans is the righteousness that comes from God: the glorious truth that God justifies guilty, condemned sinners by grace alone through faith in Christ alone.
In chapter 7, Paul explains how the law, which was important to his Jewish readers, relates to their faith in Christ.
He also addresses the issue of why believers who are dead to sin still struggle with sinful desires.
So here's what we are going to look at in chapter 7.
The law:
(1) can no longer condemn a believer
(2) convicts unbelievers (and believers) of sin and
(3) cannot deliver a believer from sin
Click below to read my notes.
For an audio recording of the session click on the YouTube icon.
Some churches are libertine or lax in their practice. They abuse the notion of grace and the result is rampant sin. Other churches are legalistic. They misrepresent the notion of grace by piling a heavy load of human-made rules on their parishioners.
While neither extreme is God-honoring or healthy, most individuals and churches tend to lean one way or the other.
Which tendency do you typically have to watch out for—liberty or legalism?
What is the appeal of churches/leaders who give their members/followers long list of “dos and don’ts”?
Paul, has first established the sad, sinful state of human beings. All are under condemnation. However, the good news includes the miracle of justification—a righteousness from God available by grace through faith.
But the gospel received from God and preached by Paul doesn’t stop there. It also includes sanctification—that truth of absolute identification with Christ (in His death, burial, and resurrection),
by which God transforms redeemed sinners into the very likeness of Christ.
In chapter 7, Paul explains how the law, which was important to his Jewish readers, relates to their faith in Christ.
He also addresses the issue of why believers who are dead to sin still struggle with sinful desires.
So here's what we are going to look at in chapter 7.
The law:
(1) can no longer condemn a believer (vv 1–6);
(2) convicts unbelievers (and believers) of sin (vv. 7–13); and
(3) cannot deliver a believer from sin (vv. 14–25).
The Law Can No Longer Condemn A Believer
Romans 7:1-6 GNT Certainly you will understand what I am about to say, my friends, because all of you know about law. The law rules over people only as long as they live. A married woman, for example, is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives; but if he dies, then she is free from the law that bound her to him. So then, if she lives with another man while her husband is alive, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is legally a free woman and does not commit adultery if she marries another man. That is how it is with you, my friends. As far as the Law is concerned, you also have died because you are part of the body of Christ; and now you belong to him who was raised from death in order that we might be useful in the service of God. For when we lived according to our human nature, the sinful desires stirred up by the Law were at work in our bodies, and all we did ended in death. Now, however, we are free from the Law, because we died to that which once held us prisoners. No longer do we serve in the old way of a written law, but in the new way of the Spirit.
Romans 7:1-3 NKJV Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man.
Verses 1-3 Paul wanted to emphasize a Christian’s freedom from law. So he used an example from a law that the Christians in Rome knew well. A woman belongs to her husband while he is alive. He actually had dominion or jurisdiction over her. Remember in one of our other studies although the law said that a man could divorce his wife that really didn’t mean anything she still or he still couldn’t marry anybody else or that person would be considered committing adultery. So if a woman marries another man during her husband’s life, she is guilty of the crime of adultery. But after her husband dies, she can marry another husband. The first husband’s death ends the control that the law had over that woman.
Romans 7:4 NKJV Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.
Verse 4 Before we became Christians, sin controlled our lives completely. Just like a cruel husband acted as if his wife is a mere slave, sin had a similar effect on us. We wanted the law to free us from sin. But the law was unable to achieve this. In other words, our best efforts to obey the law could not free us from sin. Instead, the law declared that we were guilty. And it declared that the punishment for our sin was death.
But, because of God’s grace, Christ died for us. Last week we talked about being baptized and that being like dying and being resurrected like Christ.
Romans 6:1-4 NKJV What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
By baptism we talk part in the death of Christ.
So, like a woman whose husband has died, we are free from the law. Sin used to control us like a cruel husband. But death has ended that situation.
Our relationship with Christ is also like marriage. But unlike many marriages today our marriage and our uniting with Christ is a permanent relationship. But it is a good relationship. We want to belong to him. We want to serve him. And we shall live with him always.
Romans 7:5-6 NKJV For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.
Verses 5-6 Because of our human nature, our desires were sinful.
We still have that remnant of the old nature and it will remain with us until we each receive our glorified body.
The unbeliever’s rebellious nature is awakened when restrictions are placed on him or her. They still have the overwhelming impulses to think and do evil aroused by the law. So we did not obey the law. The result of this is death.
But because we are now free from the law, we can serve God in a new way. The law told us that we must be loyal to God. So we obeyed the law because we were afraid of punishment. But now we belong to Christ. So we obey him because we want to. We obey Christ because we love him.
The Law Convicts Unbelievers (and believers) Of Sin
Romans 7:7-13 NKJV What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead. I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me. Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful.
Romans 7:7-8 GNT Shall we say, then, that the Law itself is sinful? Of course not! But it was the Law that made me know what sin is. If the Law had not said, “Do not desire what belongs to someone else,” I would not have known such a desire. But by means of that commandment sin found its chance to stir up all kinds of selfish desires in me. Apart from law, sin is a dead thing.
Verses 7-8 Verses 1-6 do not mean that the law is sinful. Paul says that such an idea is certainly not correct. The law showed us what sin is. Paul chose the commandment on coventness as his example.
Exodus 20:17 NKJV “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”
It was a good example because it is easy to think that an action may be wrong. It is more difficult to realise that our thoughts can be sinful.
To want other people’s possessions is a sin. Paul said that he wouldn’t have known this until the law told him.
So the law is good. It shows what sin is. But our human nature seems to want things just because God forbids them. St. Augustine said that he and some of his friends stole some fruit. He did not even want to eat them. He knew that it was wrong. And that was the only reason why he stole them.
Romans 7:9-11 GNT I myself was once alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life, and I died. And the commandment which was meant to bring life, in my case brought death. Sin found its chance, and by means of the commandment it deceived me and killed me.
Verses 9-11 Paul discovered that sin cheats or deceives us . This is what we think: ‘I’ll be happy when I have more things so we often want things that we cannot have.’ But these things won’t and cannot satisfy us. We actually think that we can avoid the punishment or consequence for our sin. But such things do not make our lives better. Instead, they bring death.
Paul uses a military description in verse 11 when he said “for sin taking occasion” or opportunity also means the place where soldiers begin an attack. Sin used the commandment as a place from which to attack people.
Romans 7:12-13 GNT So then, the Law itself is holy, and the commandment is holy, right, and good. But does this mean that what is good caused my death? By no means! It was sin that did it; by using what is good, sin brought death to me, in order that its true nature as sin might be revealed. And so, by means of the commandment sin is shown to be even more terribly sinful.
Verses 12-13 The law is holy because God gave it. And God is holy and perfect. So the law is righteous. God intended the law to help people. Paul says that the law is good. It is not responsible for death. It is sin that causes death. The law was good for people. But sin used it to cause death. That is what sin does. It turns something good into something wicked. For example, it can turn love into a wrong sex desire. Sin uses the law wrongly. This shows how terrible sin is.
The Law Cannot Deliver A Believer From Sin (the struggle against sin)
Romans 7:14-25 GNT We know that the Law is spiritual; but I am a mortal, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do; for I don't do what I would like to do, but instead I do what I hate. Since what I do is what I don't want to do, this shows that I agree that the Law is right. So I am not really the one who does this thing; rather it is the sin that lives in me. I know that good does not live in me—that is, in my human nature. For even though the desire to do good is in me, I am not able to do it. I don't do the good I want to do; instead, I do the evil that I do not want to do. If I do what I don't want to do, this means that I am no longer the one who does it; instead, it is the sin that lives in me. So I find that this law is at work: when I want to do what is good, what is evil is the only choice I have. My inner being delights in the law of God. But I see a different law at work in my body—a law that fights against the law which my mind approves of. It makes me a prisoner to the law of sin which is at work in my body. What an unhappy man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is taking me to death? Thanks be to God, who does this through our Lord Jesus Christ! This, then, is my condition: on my own I can serve God's law only with my mind, while my human nature serves the law of sin.
The Law is not Paul’s problem. Paul tells us that he is the problem. The Law is “spiritual,” and he is not. He is “of flesh.” His nature, by birth and by virtue of his union with Adam, is fallen. His fleshly nature is hostile toward God and friendly toward sin. Nothing good dwells in his flesh. His nature impairs not only his ability to comprehend the Law of God but inclines him to disobey it even if he did understand.
Verses 14-25 Paul had used ‘I’ and ‘me’ in verses 7-13. He spoke there about the past.
In verses 14-25, he speaks in the present tense. It is clear that he is describing his own struggles with sin. Most people have had such an experience. So Paul speaks for everyone, not just for himself.
Paul’s flesh is naturally opposed to God, to His Law, and to anything righteous. Paul’s flesh is responsive to sin. Paul’s flesh (his fallen nature—all that he was before he came to faith in Christ) has become sin’s sanctuary. In one sense, Paul is a prisoner of his own flesh. Deep within himself, Paul wishes to do that which God’s Law defines as good. He desires not to do that which the Law calls sin. His desires conform to God’s Law. His deeds reject and resist God’s Law. He is almost schizophrenic in his spiritual life.
There are two opinions about when this struggle took place:
1. Maybe Paul was writing about his experiences before he became a Christian. At that time, Paul wanted to please God. So Paul tried to obey God’s law. Paul was very sincere. But he discovered that he was unable to obey God’s law completely. Paul did not want to sin. But sin controlled his human nature. So Paul was even doing things that he knew to be wrong.
Romans 7:18-20 NKJV For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
This was a terrible struggle for Paul.
Romans 7:22-23 NKJV For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
Paul loved God’s law. But Paul could not obey it. So he made himself rules in his mind. But he could not even obey those rules because the control (law) of sin was too powerful for him.
So Paul felt miserable and desperate. He needed someone to rescue him from sin. At last, he realised that he could not save himself by his own efforts. And that is when Christ changed his life, on the road to Damascus
Romans 7:25 NKJV I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
So the first opinion is that Paul is talking about the time before his conversion.
The second opinion is that Paul is actually writing as a Christian. He said that he loved the law.
Romans 7:22 NKJV For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.
Someone who does not believe probably would not say this.
On the other hand a Christian is not ‘a slave to sin’
Romans 7:25 NKJV I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
And a Christian should not say, ‘nothing good lives in me’
Romans 7:18 NKJV For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find.
Because;
In fact, God’s Holy Spirit lives in a Christian.
I Corinthians 6:19 NKJV Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?
The Christian life is not easy. There is a struggle against sin. Paul knows he is not perfect and neither are we.
Philippians 3:12-14 NKJV Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Paul urges Timothy, and we can take that same urging to fight for our faith.
I Timothy 6:12 NKJV Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
Perhaps Paul’s cry in verse was not a cry of despair.
Romans 7:24 NKJV O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
But a desire to be free from his weak human nature. He wants to become more holy.
So perhaps Paul was writing about the time when he was a Pharisee. Or perhaps he was writing as a Christian who was struggling to live a holy life. But in either instance he shows clearly that human knowledge is not enough. We can know what is wrong. We may decide to do what is right. But our power to carry out our decision is weak. Peter said that he would never deny Christ. But he failed soon afterwards.
The desperate struggle in the life of the Christian to do what is right on his own power leads to complete frustration and failure - even the apostle Paul says this is his experience.
We cannot live in a manner that pleases God by our own efforts.
Galatians 3:3 NKJV Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?
We can only do that by the power of God’s Holy Spirit.
A law was fighting a war against his mind. The law of his human nature was making him a prisoner of the law of sin. He struggled to obey his conscience. He knew what was right. But he could not do the right things.
Verse 24 Paul is grateful that he can win the victory over his sinful human nature because of Jesus Christ.
Romans 8:37-39 NKJV Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Conversion to Christ does not instantly solve all our problems. It even results in some problems we had never experienced as unbelievers. Before our salvation, we were never in opposition with sin. We were unknowingly the slaves of sin, all along thinking we were serving our own interests. Before our conversion, we were enemies of God. Our struggle was the result of our opposition to Him and His present judgment in our lives. As a result of faith in Christ, our animosity toward God ended and a new animosity—toward sin—began.
Paul will explain in chapter 8 how the Holy Spirit can give to Christians the power to live a holy life.
