(Romans) Romans 7:1-25 — Zac Poonen

Freedom from the Law Through Union with Christ

Today we come to Romans chapter 7 and verse 1. We've been seeing how in Paul's letter to the Romans there's a logical step-by-step presentation of the Gospel till we come to the culmination towards the closing chapter of the book.

And so far we've covered chapters 1 to 6 which deals with man's guilt, how God has made provision for our sin to be forgiven, our guilt to be removed, how we can be declared righteous and how we can become free from the power of sin in Romans chapter 6.

In Romans chapter 7 the subject in the first part of that chapter is being free from the law, from a legalistic approach to the Christian life. And in the second half of that chapter he's telling us how through personally struggling to keep the law he could never attain to the standard of the law.

We'll look at that later but first of all Romans chapter 7 we look at verse 1. He says, Don't you know brethren, I'm speaking to those who know the law, that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives.

That's the first sentence. How long can the law apply to a murderer or a thief as long as he's alive? What can the law do to that man when he's dead? You can't do anything to that man when he's dead. And so that's the first point to be established.

The law can do nothing to a man once he's dead. The law has no power over a man once he's dead. You see what he's working up to, that we have died with Christ. And that's how we are delivered not only from sin, that was our old master, but also the law.

Because the law has no power over us when we are dead. Then he uses the example of marriage. A married woman is bound by law to her husband while he's living. But if her husband dies, she's released from the law concerning the husband.

Supposing a woman is married to a very wicked man, a cruel, evil man. And she suffers and suffers and suffers and suffers under such a husband, wondering when she'll ever be happy. And one day her husband dies.

She's free. Until that time, she couldn't even think of marrying anybody else. But now that her husband is dead, she's free. She can marry anybody now. Someone with whom she'll be happy. But if while her husband is living, verse 3, she marries another man, then she's to be called an adulteress.

A woman cannot marry another man when her husband is alive. Then she's an adulteress. A woman with two husbands. But if her husband dies, then she's free from the law. Romans 7 .3. So that if she's married to another man, she's not an adulteress.

He's establishing these simple points and using that illustration to speak about our relationship to the law or the old covenant and our relationship to Christ. Or our relationship to, our attitude rather, to God's commandments in a legalistic way or in a spiritual way.

You know, you can take even the New Testament commandments and keep them in a legalistic way without obeying the spirit of it. A wife can submit to her husband and say, Okay, I'll submit to you just because God's word says so.

I don't feel like it, but I'll do it. That's not the spirit of the New Testament. But she's keeping a commandment, she submits. A husband can care for his wife in the same way too. Okay, I'm supposed to love you, I'll do what I can for you.

But that's not true love. It's just trying to fulfill an obligation. So, when people obey God with that type of a spirit, they never become spiritual. They are religious. There's a lot of difference between being religious and being spiritual.

And so that's what is the theme of Romans chapter 7. Speaking about a legalistic religious relationship with God as opposed to a loving spiritual relationship with God. And that's why he uses the picture of marriage because marriage is or should be established on the basis of love.

And so he says, my brethren, verse 4, you were made to die to the law through the body of Christ so that you might be married to another, to him who was raised from the dead that we might bear fruit for God.

While we were in the flesh, verse 5, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. It speaks in verse 5, the last part of fruit for death and in verse 4, last part of fruit for God.

But now, verse 6, we've been released from the law having died to that by which we were bound so that now onwards we serve, like I was just telling you, in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.

That means it's not an obligation that I have to obey God but with joy. You know, in the Old Testament, they were told to type. 10 of your income must be given to God. How many people do you think in the Old Testament did that joyfully?

Probably very few or none. But they all did it. The Lord never said you've got to do it joyfully. The Lord said you've got to do it. And even today, people who insist on the type, hardly anybody pays it joyfully.

They pay it reluctantly. But there is no requirement to pay the type in the New Covenant because now the question is not how much you give to God but how you give to God. It's not a question of 10 but giving with joy because we are in the New Covenant.

God's not imposing laws upon us. He wants a heart of love. And that's the point here, not the oldness of the letter but the newness of the spirit. We can picture the Christian life, the spiritual man, as one who's gone through three marriages, a picture of three marriages.

The Three Marriages: The Flesh, the Law, and Christ

The first is our unconverted life where we are married to our old man, the one that made us sin all the time, that treated us so badly. It's like being married to a terrible husband who beats us up and hurts us and harms us and asks us to do all types of things that are evil.

That is our first marriage, our unconverted life. And then we wonder when are we ever going to be free from this? It's like a woman struggling, struggling, struggling, struggling under a terrible husband and seeing another man there whom she wished she could marry a good man but she can't marry him because the law says if she marries another person she'll be an adulteress.

Romans 7, verse 3. But this husband of hers is living. And then one day God does something, He kills that old man. The old husband is dead. That's what we read in Romans chapter 6. So when the old husband is dead, then I'm free.

Then we are free. Now to be married to another. Because if the old husband dies, Romans 7, verse 3, now instead of going and marrying Christ, this person goes and marries the law. That's the second marriage.

What does that mean? The law is a very good person, never does anything wrong, never asks you to do anything wrong, always asks you to do what is absolutely right, but is very demanding. The law may say breakfast at 8 o 'clock, it must be ready at 8 o 'clock, not even 1 past 8, and it doesn't help you.

It's like a husband who never asks you to do anything wrong, but never helps you either. The house must be spick and span, but he doesn't help you to keep it spick and span. The clothes must be washed perfectly, but he never helps you to wash your clothes.

A very righteous husband, very demanding, absolutely unhelpful, never does anything evil, never asks you to do anything evil, but never helps you one bit to do what is right. That's the law. And the woman is struggling again now.

Her life is miserable in another way now. The old husband used to torture her and tell her to do a lot of wrong things. This new one makes demands which are righteous, but doesn't help her to keep it.

And this new husband never seems to, doesn't look as if he's ever going to die. The law is perfect. The law is given by God, it will never die, it's perfect. How can God deliver us? And the woman loses all hope.

It's a surprising thing. The woman dies. And again the marriage is broken. In the first case the old man died. In the second marriage the woman dies. We die with Christ. And again the marriage is broken.

Praise the Lord. We're freed from the law. Now we can be married to Christ. And what is Christ's standard? Is Christ's standard any less than the law? This husband says breakfast at 8 o 'clock. He also wants the breakfast at 8 o 'clock, but there's a difference.

Now supposing you're one of those lazy wives who can have breakfast ready only by 2 o 'clock in the afternoon, because you're lazy. This husband says, never mind, we'll work together, make it better, and works with us till one day breakfast comes at 11 o 'clock, 9 o 'clock, and one day breakfast at 8 o 'clock.

That's just an example of how Jesus helps us to attain to the standards of the law. He helps us to keep the house spick and span. He helps us to wash the clothes. He helps us to cook the food. He's a husband whose standard is just as much as the law or even more, but one who helps us.

This is the marriage into which God wants to bring you. You have died with Christ not only to sin, you've died with Christ to the law so that you can be united to a loving husband to Jesus Christ, loving with all your heart, and he helps you to keep God's standards.

Serving God in the Newness of the Spirit

We're going to study today in Romans chapter 7. If you remember, in our last study we were considering how there are three marriages spoken of. One is a marriage to the old man, a bad husband who tortures us, and God kills the old man as we read in Romans 6 and that marriage is broken.

And then this person who's released from this believer whose old man is dead, instead of being married to Christ, he marries the law. In other words, he begins to serve God legalistically. He has a legalistic relationship with God according to the oldness of the letter.

And he's now suffering under a husband who's so demanding but who never helps her. And now God delivers her not by killing the husband because the law of God can never be killed, we die with Christ. And again the marriage is broken and we come to the third marriage which is where we are married to Christ whose demands and standards are just as much and more than the law but who helps us to keep the standard.

And so it says here, you know, like when a woman is married to her husband she produces children. When you were married to the law and to the flesh, your children were fruit unto death, it says in Romans 7 .5.

But now that you're married to Christ it can be fruit for God. Even being married to the law does not produce fruit for God. In other words, there's not much difference between being married to the old man and being married to the law because when you were married to the old man you committed a lot of sins.

God wasn't happy with that. You're married to the law and you do a lot of good things but you're not happy with that either. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 9 that God loves a cheerful giver. 2 Corinthians 9 .7.

Now, God's not happy with a man who obeys him out of compulsion, reluctantly, does keep the commandments but unhappily. So God's not happy with a marriage relationship with the law. God didn't make the father reluctantly or under compulsion.

He did it joyfully. And when he gives us his nature, we saw that in Romans 6 .23 that eternal life is God's nature. When we get the nature of Jesus Christ we don't do things out of compulsion. We do it joyfully.

And this is the type of life God calls us to where we joyfully serve God. It's not fruit for death. It's fruit for God. That's what God's happy with. What is God happy with? He's happy with the obedience that comes from your heart joyfully without compulsion.

Anything else is a dead work. See, in the Old Testament they didn't have dead works. They only had evil works and good works. And we know what that means. What's a dead work? In the New Testament you have evil works, dead works and good works.

Evil works and good works It's right. But God doesn't value it because it's not done joyfully. It's not done from the heart. It's done externally. It's spoken of here in Romans 7 .6 as the oldness of the letter.

A husband loving his wife because he has to, not because he really loves her. A husband helping his wife, doing a lot of good things for his wife because he has to. Because she is happy to do it. That's the oldness of the letter.

And you can do things for God also. Go to meetings, read the Bible, pray, witness, because you have to. Because you're compelled to. Somebody forces you to do it. That has no value before God. I'm not saying you shouldn't do it.

It's good to be under the law until you come under grace. Like we drag our children to the meetings in the church whether they like to or not because they're still under law. So I'm not saying we shouldn't do it.

A man must be kept under law. But I'm saying that that is not the ultimate purpose of God. The law is our schoolmaster to lead us to Christ. So that finally we come to the place where we do the same thing joyfully.

That child that was dragged to the meetings in the church today goes on its own. The one who was forced to read the Bible every morning now reads joyfully on his own without anybody telling him. That's the newness of the Spirit.

And that is being delivered from the law. And then only can you bear fruit unto God. Otherwise even married to the law you will only bear fruit unto death. Even what you do which is right will be a fruit unto death which God cannot accept.

So this is the theme of Romans and chapter 7. Being freed from the power of sin in Romans 6 and being freed from the type of obedience to God that's mentioned here in Romans chapter 7. So he goes on to say concerning this so when we talk about being free from the law what shall we say then?

The Law Reveals Sin but Cannot Produce Spirituality

Is the law sin? Certainly not. The law is not sin. The law is perfect. On the contrary he says I would not have known what sin was except through the law. I would not have known about coveting. See how many people without the Ten Commandments would know that to desire somebody else's property or wife is a sin.

I mean to steal it to rob him of his wife or his property that is sin. Everybody knows that. But to desire it would that also be sin? In the Ten Commandments nine of those commandments were relating to our external life.

You know that I am the Lord your God you shall have no other gods but me. Don't make any idols don't take the name of God irreverently in vain remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy and honor your father and mother number five don't murder, don't commit adultery don't steal, 6, 7 and 8 and don't bear false witness against your neighbor.

Nine commandments it's all in Exodus chapter 20 and they were all external. You could keep it but when it came to the tenth one the tenth commandment was you should not desire. Desire is inward. You shall not covet your neighbor's house.

Now if a man stole you could see it if he committed adultery. It's an external thing. But the tenth commandment was not something which you could catch anybody in covet your neighbor's house covet your neighbor's wife covet your neighbor's servants or his animals.

So nobody even thought that was sin. But when the law came Paul says in Romans 7, 7 I would never have known that coveting was a sin until the law came. So when Jesus spoke about it was there hidden in the tenth commandment.

You shall not desire something God has forbidden. You know the first sin that was committed by man in the garden of Eden. When Eve sinned it was through desire. She had a desire and yielded to that desire.

So when we yield to a particular desire even in our thoughts we sin. But if the law had not proclaimed that the law is bad. The law is like a mirror. All of us are very thankful for mirrors. It shows us the condition of our face whether there's dirt on it.

But we can't use a mirror to clean the dirty face. When you see your face in a mirror it's dirty. Do you take your mirror to clean it? No, the mirror can only show you the dirt. You need soap and water to clean the dirt.

In the same way you need the blood of Christ to cleanse you. Or to use a more modern example an x-ray. An x-ray will show you what's inside your body but it can't cure you. A scan, a body scan can show you what's inside your body but it can't cure you.

The cure has to come through surgery or medicine. In the same way the law and the scanning machine they're not bad things. They show up a lot of bad things inside our bodies but they're not bad themselves.

They're excellent things very useful. And so he says the law is not bad. It's like saying I would not have known that there was a sickness in my body except for that scanning machine. Paul says I would not have known that there was sin in my life.

If it were not for the law you shall not lust covet and lust are the same words. You shall not have evil desires in your heart. And he says sin. Verse 8 taking opportunity through the commandment produced in me coveting of every kind.

Saying that sin used this law to remind me of all these wrong desires and aroused all kinds of forbidden desires within me. Paul doesn't pretend that he didn't have a struggle with sinful thoughts in his heart.

He says I found all types of desires. Externally Paul says in another place that he kept all the commandments from his childhood. Even the rich young ruler told Jesus he kept all his commandments from his childhood.

All the commandments. But Paul here is very honest. And the tenth commandment was placed by God. Whether you are honest whether you will admit that there are desires in your heart which are contrary to God's laws.

There are things in your life which are wrong. The law, the scanning machine shows you what's wrong. Acknowledge it, admit it. Apart from the law, sin is dead. If the scanning machine was not there you'd be ignorant of your true condition.

If the law was not there you wouldn't realize what a terrible sinner you are. When God goes in the tenth commandment you discover you are a sinner and you acknowledge it and in that acknowledgement is your salvation.

Acknowledge your sin the first step to being free. We turn today to Romans chapter 7 and verse 9. Romans chapter 7 we saw Paul speaking about deliverance from the law and from a legalistic attitude towards the Christian life a spiritual way of living the Christian life described as a newness of the spirit in Romans 7 .6.

Paul’s Struggle Under the Law

In Romans 7 .9 Paul says I was once alive apart from the law. What does that mean? Was he really alive? What he means is I was unaware of sin my life, it's like a man who didn't take a scan of his body.

He didn't realize that he had a cancer inside him. The cancer was growing and when he went under the scanning machine he discovered the cancer and he suddenly realized he's a dead man. So he says I was once alive apart from the law in this sense.

But when the commandment came sin became alive and I died. The scan, the x-ray showed me things in my life which I never knew existed and I died. I died means I was aware I became aware that I was a dead person.

You see I didn't understand what the law really demanded. But when I learned the truth I realized I had broken the law and I was a sinner doomed to die. The commandment which was to result in life proved to result in death for me so far as I was concerned.

The Living Bible says the good law which is supposed to show me the way of life resulted instead in my being given the death penalty. The law was supposed to show me the way of life which the law produced.

It just showed me my sin and showed me that I deserve the death penalty for sin. Taking opportunity through the commandment deceived me and through it killed me. The Living Bible paraphrases that as sin fooled me by taking the good laws of God and using them to make me guilty of death.

But still verse 12 you see the law itself was wholly right and good. You see sin took the good laws of God and used them to make me guilty. The law couldn't help me. The whole point in Romans chapter 7 is you cannot become spiritual by the law.

You can keep the commandments in a legalistic way but it doesn't come up to God's standards. The scan shows things that you never see otherwise. Verse 13. Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me.

May it never be. Did the law. If the law caused my doom how can we say it's good. No, it's not that it was sin. It's not the law that causes me to die. The wages of sin is death. It's not the wages of the law.

It was sin in order that it might be shown to be sin. By effecting my death through the commandments sin might become utterly sinful. It is sin. This devilish stuff of sin that used what was good to bring about my condemnation.

So you can see how cunning and deadly and damnable sin is because it uses God's good laws for its own evil purposes. And so we see sin is such a terrible thing that not only it makes me bad it even takes the good laws of God and makes me even more guilty of death than I was before.

So the law is good. Verse 14. The trouble is not there. The trouble is with me. I am sold into slavery with sin as my master. I'm sold into bondage to sin. Sin rules me like flesh sold into bondage to sin.

The whole subject of Romans chapter 7 is freedom from a legalistic way of serving God. And he's saying here that even though you may understand the truth of being crucified with Christ in Romans chapter 6 when you present yourself to God as it says in Romans 6 now I'm a slave of God and I'm going to give myself to God to serve him.

That's the theme of Romans 7 not according to the oldness of the letter you know a servant can serve his master completely and yet reluctantly and unhappily. Jesus taught us to pray thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven.

How do the angels do God's will in heaven. Not reluctantly joyfully. And obedience without joy is not the obedience God wants. And that's the theme of Romans 7 that the law brings about a certain obedience.

But it's not the way God wants it. You can be free from the old man and say well now I give myself to God but your obedience is still not satisfying God. The law is holy but sin in you makes you reluctant to serve God.

You haven't seen the glory of serving God. The law is spiritual but I'm a flesh sold into bondage to sin. Romans 7 .14. Then he says in verse 15 I don't understand what I'm doing because I really want to do what's right.

But I can't and I do what I don't want to do. I do what I hate. How true this is of all of us. We do what we hate. If you're born again you acknowledge that the law is good. You want to do what's right and you end up doing what you don't want to do.

You determine that you're not going to lose your temper anymore. And you do lose your temper. We make New Year's resolutions on the 1st of January and we grit our teeth and with great effort maybe we are able to keep those resolutions till the 5th or 6th of January.

Most people break their New Year's resolutions by then a few with greater determination may carry on till about the 15th of January. Hardly anybody goes beyond the 31st of January. It's all broken by then.

So the next year we make a new set of resolutions that doesn't turn out to be any better either. That which I'm doing I don't understand I'm not doing what I want to do. I'm doing the very thing I hate.

Is that your experience? Like we read in Romans 7 .15 you're not honest about it, Paul is honesty is something God really loves. He really wants us to be absolutely honest. Lord, I really acknowledge your laws are perfect.

I want to keep them but I'm not able to keep them. Is this your condition? This was Paul's condition too and he was delivered from it. It can be also listen, that which I'm doing I don't understand. I'm doing the very thing I hate.

Romans 7 .16 he says I know perfectly well that what I'm doing is wrong. My bad conscience proves that I agree with these laws that I'm breaking if I do the very thing I don't wish to do. I agree with the law, confessing is good.

My conscience tells me that what I'm doing is wrong. So what does that prove? It proves that I agree God's laws are right but I'm breaking them. My problem is not agreement with God's laws. My problem is not that I don't want to do God's laws.

I agree with God's laws. I want to do God's laws. My problem is I don't have the ability I can't keep them. My strength is not enough. And so if that's the case he says what is it? He says my mind wants to do God's laws but my body is habituated to evil.

And he says it's almost against my will that I'm doing certain things. In that case he says I can't help myself because I'm no longer doing it. It is sin inside me that is stronger than I am. That makes me do these things.

You know I want to do good but there's a tremendous force of sin inside that makes me commit sin. How honest Paul is and how true to life it is. You don't want to lust anymore with your eyes. But all of a sudden in a moment of temptation this force of sin makes you do what you don't want to do.

And the same way you don't want to lose your temper. But the force of sin inside you makes you lose your temper. Well this is Paul's experience also. And there's great hope for us because he came through to victory.

Then he goes on to say in verse 18 I know that in me nothing good dwells. That's in my flesh. I'm rotten through and through as far as my old sinful nature is concerned. That's my flesh. The wishing is present to me.

The doing of good is not I've been converted. I have a desire to do good now that's better than the unconverted person. I desire to do what's good. Romans 7 is not describing an unconverted person. We're converted.

We're born again. We want to do what's good. We're not like those godless people who don't want to do God's will. But he says our nature our flesh is so corrupt. I don't know how to be free from it. I don't know how to do what's good.

Verse 19. When I want to do good I don't do it. And when I try not to do wrong I do it anyway. I practice the very evil that I don't want to do. Verse 20 he's laboring the point here. Now if I'm doing the very thing I don't wish I'm no longer the one doing it.

But sin indwells me. He says I know where the trouble is. Sin inside me just forces its way out. When I don't want it it's like you want to keep a door shut but you can't keep it shut. Somebody stronger than you pushes it.

Open willingness to overcome sin is there but not the ability. So he says I find the principle then verse 21 that evil is present in me. The one who wishes to do good. I want to do what's right but I inevitably do what's wrong.

The Cry for Deliverance and the New Covenant

But it doesn't have to be like that. There is deliverance as he goes on to say in the rest of chapter 7 and in chapter 8 that is freedom. The Holy Spirit can come to help you to be free. We'll consider that to the point where Paul said in Romans 7 that he was doing the very thing he did not want to do.

Verse 20 I'm doing what I don't want to do. And I've discovered where the trouble is it is sin that has got me in its evil grip. Even when I want to please the Lord I'm not able to please the Lord. I want to do things in a way that glorifies God but I can't do it.

Something within me forces me to do what I don't want to do. Verse 22 he says I love to do God's will. As far as my new nature is concerned see we have a flesh which is a picture of this old nature of ours that makes us sin.

We carry it with us till our dying day. We also have this new nature planted within us this new spark of eternal life. God's nature within us that joyfully agrees with God's law that says I delight to do your will O God.

You know David said in Psalm 40 I delight to do your will O God. But he couldn't do it. And temptation came when he saw that pretty woman he just fell. Willingness was not there. There were so many people in the Old Testament who wanted to do God's will but they couldn't keep that 10th commandment.

And that's what Paul is saying in Romans 7 .7 that 10th commandment caught him. He couldn't keep it. He wanted he wanted to do. He wanted to do it wanted to do it but couldn't keep it. He wanted to do God's will joyfully.

Maybe typing. He wanted to type joyfully. He typed but he couldn't do it joyfully. He was very very honest in this chapter about his struggle and it's so helpful to us because we go through the same struggle ourselves.

And he says in verse 23 even though verse 22 I agree with God's law I find another law in the members of my body. There's something else in my lower nature that's always warring against my mind and that wins the fight and makes me a slave to sin that is still within me in my mind.

I want to be God's willing servant but I find instead I'm still enslaved to sin. Verse 23 there's a war going on and we all understand this war in my mind. I want to do God's will. But then there's this other law of sin which is in the members of my body which is habituated to doing what is selfish habituated to being proud and arrogant speaking rudely and lusting with the eyes.

And here is this here is this child of God who wants to do what's right and ends up doing what's wrong. Well, Paul says verse 24 what a wretched man I am. Let me read the new the living bible paraphrase of it.

You see how it is. My new life tells me to do right. But the old nature so true what a terrible predicament I'm in who will free me from my slavery to this deadly lower nature. Thank God it's been done by Jesus Christ our Lord.

He has set me free thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So he says on the one hand that my mind serves the law of God when my flesh serves the law of sin that pull towards sin will always be there till I die, Paul says now that verse teaches very clearly there is no such thing as the eradication of the flesh within us.