Well, I invite you to turn tonight, as we continue our study in the book of Romans, to Romans chapter 7, Romans chapter 7, and we will be looking at verses 7 through 13. I'm going to back up and read it verse 1 to set the context tonight. Let's give our attention to the word of the Lord, Romans 7, beginning at verse 1.
Is not an adulteress. 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. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.
Now, our text: "What then shall we say that the law is sin? By no means. Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin, or I would not have known what it is to covet. If the law had said, you shall not covet but sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin is dead. lies dead I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So the law is holy and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Did that which is good then bring death to me? By no means. It was sin, producing death in me through what was what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure."
There will end tonight the reading of God's Word.
Well, Paul's presentation in the book of Romans has been wonderful. It has been liberating. It has shown us this great truth of our union with Jesus Christ, and the book has really encouraged us and helped us to understand the Christian's new life and what has happened to us being brought into Jesus Christ being brought into union with him. And you remember how he helped us in Romans 6. He was really going after how we think. He wants us to to to think in an entirely different way now as new creatures in Christ. Having become new, he wants us to think in a certain way: that as Christ died, we died, and that that dominion of sin has been shattered in our lives so that now we are to live not under the condemning power of the law anymore. That's really crucial the condemning power of the law. And so last time he explained that in coming to Jesus, our relationship to the law, being under it for condemnation, it's over. It's over. You are no longer under law but under grace, he said.
Now, anyone hearing that anyone hearing that has a real concern, I would imagine, especially if you're Jewish. The real concern goes like this: it's a very simple concern. I even felt it preaching things like this makes you a little bit apprehensive because everyone is initially thinking, or anyone who's sensitive to the law of God is going to charge Paul. When you hear statements like this, of devaluing the law of God. In fact, Paul has been saying things like, "You're freed from the law." What a statement! And he would say these things sometimes without qualification: "You're freed from the law." Well, what kind of conclusion would you draw if you're running around saying that you're freed from the law? That that has to mean that you're saying that something's wrong with the law, that the law itself is evil, that the law is bad. And there have been antinomians who have drawn that kind of conclusion in history that the law is is something that's bad well that is exactly what paul is addressing tonight. But I want you to to think about the the the language he used in the previous section: "But now we are released from the law." You know, sometimes as a pastor you always want to qualify everything, and sometimes you have to, but you also want to let things set Released from the law! He wanted people to wrestle with that. Released from the law. Or even saying, "Having died to that which held us captive." Again, problem here. That makes it sound like the law is bad, and that's that's just what we're dealing with tonight. And this is really important this is an important section for, I believe, understanding conversion. And what he is doing now is explaining the chief purpose of the law of God. What we call the first use of the law of God. That's his goal in this particular section.
And so what he does in 7 through 13 is describe what you might say is the good purposes of the law of God. He's working through that: What are the good purposes? How does God use his law? What does his law accomplish? How does it set out to to help us? In what ways? And he does this by by getting somewhat personal about himself here. He describes himself in the first person, and what you might say what life was like without the law. And that's not really true everyone's under; if you're in Adam, you're under the law of God for condemnation if you don't keep it perfectly. But we'll come back to this thought. What life was like without the law, and then he describes what life was like with the law.
So this is this is important to wrestle through a little bit. It could be summarized this way, very simply: "When I was ignorant of the law's demands, I felt really good about myself. I was very content with my life. I was very satisfied with my life. I didn't really think anything was wrong. But when I finally heard the law, when the law was actually brought home to me and God started working in my heart, I didn't feel so good about myself anymore."
Okay, well we need to explain this because this is this is important to understand: why the gospel matters so much, doesn't it? Because a lot of people stay there, and that's not the ultimate intention, is it? Well, that's what our Lord is helping us with tonight.
Um, we have been considering that the Christian has been raised up brand new in Jesus Christ, in our union with him. the Paul's whole point is in roman 7, was in this first section which was challenging last time, you know some people ask, "Are you always happy with your sermons?" I'm never really happy with any of them. But I particularly wasn't happy with that one. I don't know. It's just me. I didn't think I was very clear. But maybe you thought that. That's good! The Spirit works regardless. But what Paul had been saying in that first section is we've been set free from that first master.
And that raises important questions. In verse 7, this is the issue he raises. After saying all those things, we've been released from the law. We're no longer captive to it. What that means is for condemnation. We're no longer under its condemnation. He says, "Well, what do you want to say about the law then? What do you think we're saying about the law? Am I saying that the law is sin? Am I saying that the law is bad? Certainly not!"
From here he outlines these good purposes of the law, and I think, hopefully, it'll be helpful for you tonight to understand this major purpose that he is working with.
Let's start with verse 9. I i find verse 9 to be well at least when I read it around our table it was very confusing for our family. But when we understand verse 9, I think it's one of the greatest texts, verses to understand sort of what brings about and how the Lord is working to convert somebody.
Verse 9: "I was alive once. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died." For notice he goes on: "The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me, for sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me."
So you might say, the first thing, very simply, tonight that Paul is saying here that he's helping us to understand about the law of God is that the law of god has this great purpose, has this great intention to awake awaken sin in somebody's life. Very important! It's an important verse because it describes what is happening for anyone who's truly being delivered from sin. It's counterintuitive to us, but it's exactly the purpose of the law of God. He's describing the before and the after, and Paul gets personal. You'll notice this: "I was alive once without the law." Paul's essentially saying, "I used to have really good thoughts about myself. I used to think pretty highly about myself."
Every every true Christian, looking back in life, can can say this and it can simply be, at times, a maturity issue, but but but the reality is, for all of us, until we were converted and we were given the Holy spirit one of those great works of the Holy Spirit was to convict us we know. But there was a time in life where we didn't see anything.
This is the great challenge with ministry, you know. You take um if I could just look through the lens of sort of the course of life, my own life as a young adult, you know, had had they been ministering to me and come up to me and challenged me which I wish they had done more and challenged me, challenged me as to sin, how would I have responded? I might have generally agreed. The hard part for the ministry is getting somebody to see the truth about themselves. You just don't see it.
This is what most people in the world, if you talk to them. This is why they all say you ask them about whether they're going to heaven. Most everyone thinks they are, based on this idea that they're generally good people. I've always said it's just a marvel to me in our society and culture and the things that we see and the evil all around us that people still believe that lie. But it's a lie that's embedded there because we haven't come alive yet to what the law is saying.
So I would arise every morning out of my bed, you'd be about your business, and it would have never occurred to me that I was in trouble. This is what Paul's saying. There was a time in my life where I thought everything was fine. Life was together. I was moral. I was good. I never murdered. I never committed adultery. But he's not even thinking in these terms. I was honorable. I was blameless. I mean, you could take Paul's list in Philippians three "If anyone else may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, concerning the law, of Pharisee; concerning zeal, I persecuted the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless."
Paul says, "I was alive," in my own estimation is what he's saying. I climbed the ladder right to God. But the powerful end of verse eight is: "Apart from the law, sin lies dead." I was dead. I was dead. What does that mean? Paul's saying, "There's a a time in my life i never saw a thing wrong."
Now, this is important because essentially what Paul is saying here is that apart from God revealing truth to us, revealing the matter about the human heart, apart from God doing a work to first bring us to this very point, you'll never come to the conclusion that you're a sinner. And if you never come to the conclusion that you're a sinner, you'll never see a need for a Savior. In fact, we all know this. It just goes against sort of our nature and what we think of ourselves to have our lives exposed. That's why in John, "For anyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light lest his deed should be exposed." They don't even think there's anything wrong. This is exactly what Jesus said.
So, people, if you really ask the fundamental issue tonight why aren't people in church it might be that they say, "Well, because it's judgmental." But is it not the most prevalent answer going to be: "Because they see no need for it"? Isn't that basically get to the heart of it? "Why do I need to do that? What good does it do me? How does it even help me?" See, they're very content in their lives. So people stay away.
You know, and this is this is what we deal with when we're trying to help people. We might take a young person struggling in sin or somebody who's walking away from the faith. You know, when we talk to them, it's it the challenge can be, you know, you address the issue, and it can be anger, it can be resentment. It can give the charge: "Stay away! Don't judge me!"
Or you could use the language of 1 John when somebody says, "I'm not sinning." There's a progression there. Or "I am not sinning in what you say," or "I have never sinned." It's hard to have these conversations when people can't see.
I think of a grandmother telling their grandchildren, "I'm concerned for you." And it's like it rolls right off. They can't even understand why. Father tells daughter he shouldn't be dating this young man and there's no fruits for him being a Christian, and it doesn't matter. The pressure is to say nothing.
So it's the prodigal son, in a sense. He couldn't even see he was in the pigsty until he came to himself, right? He couldn't even see he was eating the pods of pigs until he came to himself. And that's why that crucial little phrase in Luke 16, "Then he came to himself, and he said, what am I doing is so crucial for the point of return, isn't it?
So you understand why the Christian ministry is hard business. It's hard business for us to convince people of their need for Jesus. So what do we do? Jesus was in a war with an entire nation of people who had the law and didn't listen to the law. So this is the struggle of Christian ministry, and you don't make any progress in Christian ministry until people come to themselves on this point. But for that to happen, you're going to engage in some kind of fight A fight that you're called to.
Now, one pastor was preaching this section in Romans on the law and sin, and after the sermon a woman stormed up into the back of church to him, holding up her index finger and thumb about a half inch apart. This is one pastor's report. said, "Pastor, you made me feel this big!" Okay, this is a challenge for a pastor, right? "Madam, said the pastor that's too big. You see that much righteousness, that much, will land you in hell." It's a hard concept for people to get, but they have to get it.
Paul struggled with this himself. He was hated by people for his confrontation with sin. Charles Spurgeon once said, "We ought to preach so as to make every sinner tremble in his seat, if he will not come to the Savior. Right, come to me, I'll give you rest he ought to at least have a hard time of it while he stops away away from him. I'm afraid that we sometimes preach smooth things, too soothing and agreeable, and that we do not set before men their real danger as we should."
He says, "Against these people we ought to thunder day and night. Let us plainly proclaim to them that the unbelieving sinner is condemned already and that he's certain to perish everlastingly if he does not trust in Christ."
You see, that's that aspect of the message that's so important. "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son." Great. "Whoever believes in him will not perish, but whoever does not believe in him is condemned already." That's the other half of it we don't hear. And so the gospel doesn't take effect. There should be a worrisome place for people who've not come.
And this is what Paul is saying here. There was a time I felt good about my life. I was doing really well in life, and he's explaining what true Christianity did to him. He's explaining what happened to him: that all of a sudden, he didn't feel so good about himself anymore.
This is the one thing we're all trying to avoid in our therapeutic, moralistic culture. But Paul understood it had to happen to somebody that they have to completely die to themselves and then be raised up brand new with the good news of the gospel.
But how does it happen? The question is, you see, you could be alive in your own estimation. Again, verse 9: "I was alive once apart from the law." You could be alive in your own estimation. But notice what Paul's describing: How did he get to the place of coming to a knowledge of saving faith?
Well, he says there was an instrument that God used to open my eyes. If somebody is dead to their sin and they can't see their life and they can't even see it's amazing what people can't see about themselves. How do they become alive in seeing it? And Paul says the law was designed to do this. It's good.
And Paul describes the day he woke up and saw himself. First, one day he says, "I i heard the law." One day he says, uh He says don't get me wrong he had he had already spoken, but one day I heard the law," meaning I began to understand the real demands of the law. This is what everyone has to go through, on on this great work of the Spirit to be saved. All of a sudden, there's awakening first of what happens and the predicament we're in. Because finally the law has been come home to the human heart, is the law sin? No, no, no. The law is not sin.
He says, "If it had not been for the law, though, I would not have known sin. You see, I would not know what it is to covet if the law had said, thou shall not covet
You think of the rich young ruler here. You know, some people try to draw a connection: with "Is Paul the rich young ruler?" I don't believe that. But it is interesting that he uses covetousness, which was the cardinal sin for the rich young ruler that he could not see. "I've kept the whole law in my life," but actually, when it came to covetousness, he started to come to a realization. In that moment, "I can't sell my stuff," you see. And so he walked away sad. Something was happening.
Well, the law opened it up for me. I, my whole life, I didn't even know I was so full of covetousness. I was always looking at things. I was always looking at at people. I was always looking at somebody not my spouse. You might say, I was always doing these things. I was always wanting. I was always coveting. And I didn't even know it. And then I listened to the 10th commandment. It talked about all the desires of the human heart, and I thought, "Whoa! The commandment actually is commanding me to set all my desires on the Lord, and any other desire upon anything renders me guilty of the whole law." I realize all of a sudden, I've been living in that sin.
Now, pick your sin. Verse 9: it literally means sin came to life in me. The commandment, after all these years, revived it. Revived. He says it like the prodigal: all of a sudden, I began to understand the righteous requirement of the law, and I died.
Here, he's saying notice I died in other words I recognized i was under the curse of the law. All of my self-righteousness of Philippians went away. None of my tears could do it. As we sing, "Nothing that I would do could make me acceptable," I had, for the first time in my life, realized I was totally lost. For the first time in my life, I realized I was dead. For the first time in my life, I realized I was going to hell, you see.
We have to get here. And so he goes further. He says, "You know, the law actually did something else that I didn't anticipate. When it finally came home to me, and this is a shocking thing about the law, not the law it's the shocking thing about the human heart. Paul said, the law is good Verse eight But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness."
If you, you know, looked back up at verse 5 for a while we were living in the flesh, so he's talking about our sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our members to bring fruit to death." That's quite a statement, you know. What the law was actually doing? You know what it does? It actually arouses sin in you.
You know, i i don't know, maybe this is a bad illustration, but up in up in Washington, I would always get these. They weren't gophers; they were moles. And I could not get those things. And they go dormant in the winter. And I liked a nice lawn was lended and all of a sudden, the sun would come out, and you'd see holes all over my lawn. And so I'd be out trying to flip those things with the shovel. It just didn't work! I couldn't trap them. Your pastor's not a good trapper. The sun drew out those moles. That is just what the law does in the heart. It actually draws out what's going on there. "Thou shall not it's so perverse. We are so perverse. When the human heart hears "thou shall not," do you know what it does? It starts to want to do that.
Why would anyone set their desire on somebody else's wife or husband? It's because the law forbids it. See a heart, see what it's doing, see what the law is doing. It's a rousing sin. So Paul is saying, "I actually finally realized I died. I saw what the law required. And then I realized that the law actually is a rousing sin when it says, thou shall not.
What a thought about the law. Is the law bad? No, the law is good. It's not the law that's the problem.
Did you notice he says that in verse 13? "Did that which was good then bring death to me? By no means. It was sin, This is the problem. Producing death in me through what is good in order that sin might shown to be sin and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure."
So the commandment makes sin shown to be sin and shows sin beyond measure, right? That's what happens. That's what needs to happen.
So he says here, "My sin took occasion to act by God's commandment. It killed me. It put an end to me." In other words, I finally realized I was living a life of deception. I finally realized I was living a dual life, whatever you want to say. A total lie. I loved my sin. The truth of the matter was, no matter how hard I tried to be accepted by God, I never was.
So I discovered that the commandment that I thought would bring life brought death to me.
So this is important because when we confront and talk about sin, see how important that is? We read the law every Sunday too. The law is a third way of gratitude for the Christian, but it also has this important function especially if there's any who are living in darkness. We want people to come to this great question that comes out in Acts: "Sir, what must I do to be saved?" How do you get there? Somebody has to realize they need to be saved, and then we can talk about Jesus Christ. Then we can talk about the gospel.
So Paul says, "I know nothing good dwells within me." Let's see. That's the evidence, that's the beginning evidence that somebody's died to themselves. They're dying to themselves. Think about that. When you come into an end to yourself, you're no longer fighting this assessment of God. You're no longer fighting the assessment that the law exposes. You're no longer putting up the front. You're saying, "Finally, I agree with you, God. Your law is right. The human heart I am bad I have missed the mark. That's my problem."
And you know, genuine conversion has occurred when somebody is quite willing to hear and accept God's description of how debased and evil he is, and then he looks to Jesus Christ in faith, you see.
But there's no conversion, genuine conversion, apart from this law doing its work of convicting people of sin. Some people say, "Well, we don't want to see people go to the bottom of the barrel." Well, it depends. You know what are they doing? If they're not Christians and they're not following the Lord, you know, maybe the bottom of the barrel is the best place to go. The tough prayer to pray for your loved one might be the best prayer to pray.
But they're still thinking too highly of themselves. This is exactly what we're after in Christian ministry, that people's hearts would be opened.
And you see what we're about to study, what we're about to, and what we've been studying and we say there's no condemnation in Christ, the new life. We're about to see in Romans 8 how wonderful the life is in Jesus Christ, but how beautiful it is when a sinner comes. I think of all the gospel stories we have of this of all these broken and sick, Bruce Reeds, smoldering wicks, these kind of people are the ones the Gospels highlight. is These are the ones whom Jesus gives grace, forgiveness, help, love, and restoration to. It was the Pharisee in front of the church who stood up and said, "I'm not going to listen to this assessment about sin. I i'm pretty good I I pray i fast i give." Was a tax collector, and back beating his chest, saying, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner." The law had done its work. And Jesus says that man goes down to his house justified. He's going to receive grace in his life that'll change everything.
God cares to do this. And you see, that's what is going to lead us to verse 24 in the next week: oh wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" He says, "I thank God through Jesus Christ, my Lord."
It's Christ who delivers us. It's Christ who restores us. It's Christ who forgives us, justifies us, unites us to him, and then gives us this new life we've been talking about from Romans 6. It's then, and only then, that the person and work of Christ takes on a whole new meaning in our lives.
So let the law do its work. It's condemning work, and then people will see their need for Jesus and believe on him for eternal life.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, thank you for your great instrument reflects the righteousness of the Lord that is used to search and try the human heart and show what sin is hidden there. It's a work of your Spirit, a work of grace in our lives. We think, oh Lord, to see and know that you have brought us down to lift us up, that you have shown us the truth of ourselves to accept your diagnosis in Scripture that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, that the law has been that tool to accomplish that so that we might receive the free grace of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Thank you for caring to instruct us in righteousness. Thank you for your good law, but as we see the human heart, thank you for covering all of our sin, for giving us a perfect Savior who fulfilled all righteousness, who lived for us and died for us, who rose again so that we might be set free from the condemning power of the law to now walk in the newness of the Spirit.
We give you our praise and thanks. In Jesus' Name, Amen.