The Christian and the Law – Romans 7

 Isn’t it interesting how so often we find ourselves being extremists? I know I have always been one of those people who seem to have two speeds; I'm either on or off. I’m usually all into something or I just drop it like a hot potato. But the Bible has a simple approach to life when looked at from a practical sense and I think it is safe to say that it teaches us that we need balance in life. The Christian’s relationship with the law of God is an area in which we need to find the balance in how we relate to God’s law. When we go too far in making the law important we become legalistic and we nullify God’s wonderful grace. When we simply cast it aside as if it has no bearing on our lives then we give license to sin and we nullify the holiness of God. In Romans chapter 7 Paul gives us a balanced view of the law.

Paul has already established that we saved by faith and faith alone in explaining justification and he has also offered a look at sanctification, the process by which we become like Christ. Now he speaks to the relationship of the law to the Christian. Chapter 7 begins by telling us we are no longer bound to the law as he compares our relationship to it by comparing it to a widow who, after her husband dies, is free to marry another man. Likewise we are no longer bound to the law but are free now to live under grace. Yet as stated above we are not free to use our freedom as license to sin.

So what good is the law to us as Christians? Paul answers this in Romans 7:7, “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. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.””

The law provides us with the knowledge of what is sin. This is why it is an imperative when sharing the Gospel that we take people to the law first. Otherwise we end with false conversions as people think they are already righteous. I wonder how many “saved people” even know what they are saved from?

But Paul anticipates the danger of too much emphasis on the law and explains how sometimes when we know something is wrong we desire it even more. The wet paint sign is the classic example. Put up a wet paint sign in public and watch how many people will touch that wall. Most of us have done it. But what Paul really wants us to grasp is that even in its tempting nature the law reveals to us our sinful nature and in the end teaches us that we need a savior. Romans 7:12, “So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.”

Paul bounces back and forth in this section of Romans presenting both the good and the bad of the law. Verse 7 declares that the law reveals sin. Verses 8-9 tell us that it arouses sin and then in 10-11 we see that the law kills. Paul teaches us that the law shows the sinfulness of sin in 12-13.

There is a point to what Paul is doing in this chapter. He is leading us to an understanding of the wonders of God’s grace and His mercy by showing us the things the law cannot do. In verses 14-25 we find three things the law cannot do for us.

First of all the law cannot change us.

Romans 7:14
For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.

Again it is by knowledge of the law that we can see that in our natural state we are slaves to sin. Paul expands on this. This brings us to the second thing the law cannot do. It cannot give us the ability to do good.

Romans 7:15-21
 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.  Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good.  So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.  For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.  For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.  Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.  So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.

Even the Apostle Paul has this old nature. This is why we struggle so much in our walk to live life out. Without God’s supernatural power we will fail.

What we have seen here is that we are naturally inclined to be sinners and as Paul stated we are enslaved to it. The third thing the law cannot do is set us free.

Romans 7:22-24
For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.  Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

Paul’s question raises a serious concern. Are we without hope, forever destined to be a slave to our sin? Who will deliver us from this sentence of death?

Chapter 7 ends with the answer.

Romans 7:25
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

Jesus Christ is the answer. He will deliver us. Next time we will expand on the freedom Christ offers us in chapter 8.