ROMANS 7:1-6 Law and Grace

 

THE ARGUMENT SO FAR IN PAUL’S LETTER TO THE ROMANS

 1.       1:1-17 Introduction

2.      1:18 - 3:20   Here Paul shows us how the whole world is guilty before God.  All of us have sinned.  All of us are sinful by nature and sinful in practice.  “There is no-one righteous, no not one” (3:10). We all have belittled His glory (3:23). We all have exchanged His glory for the things that He has made. All of us are idolaters. All of us treasure the things made by God more than we treasure God (1:23).  Therefore, a holy, just, good God is now revealing His wrath against this substitution of His glory. This leads to God’s righteous “wrath and fury” (2:8).   This is  where we all are heading. This is the bad news!

3.       In 3:21 we find a radical announcement, and from here to the end of Romans 5 Paul shows us that there is a way to get right with God.  It is called justification by faith. We are taught to look by faith to Jesus, whom God put forward (on the cross) as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.  All our guilt is absorbed in Christ's suffering and death (3:24-25). Those who look by faith to Him are justified. All it takes is to look and believe. Nothing more! No law of works needed (3:28). We receive our salvation as a free gift (5:17-19). This is the doctrine of free grace. Jesus plus nothing is everything!

4.      In Romans 6:1 & 6:15 this doctrine of free grace raises a great objection: "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may abound?"(6:1) Someone was arguing, "If I, sinful being that I am, am justified simply by looking to Jesus – an act of sheer grace – well then let me  go on sinning. Does your doctrine of free grace not imply that the more I sin, the greater the grace of God will appear to be?“  The same reasoning is found again in Romans 6:15:  Paul shows us that this is warped logic. His response to this objection is both times, “No!“ [1]  Why not? Because people who are justified (freed from sin) have died to sin (6:10). That means that they will not continue in sin! “Sin will not have dominion over you, since you are not under law, but under grace.“ (6:14).

5.      Romans 6:2-23: The fruit of free grace (trusting in Christ) are superior:   they lead to sanctification and ultimately eternal life. The fruit of trusting in the law is that the law will not be able to make you righteous. The purpose of the law is not to save you. It can at best only expose you and shame you  for who you are – and this leads to death (6:23)

 Romans 7

We are now going to learn that living under grace provides us  with  far greater power and  motives for abstaining from sin, than  we can obtain from living under the law.  

Our relationship to the law should now be clear. We are free from the law in the sense that we do not need to keep it to be saved from the wrath of God. That does not mean that we can now ignore the law. We can’t! It remains God’s holy law, and the 10 commandments remain God’s holy standard. And if  you love Jesus, you will keep His commandments.  

But, thank God, you will not have to rely on your keeping of the law to make it to heaven.   And now Paul explains a little more about the Christian’s new relationship to the law. He does that by using an illustration from marriage.  

Paul is still essentially answering the objection found in Romans 6:15 -”Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?"

In Romans 7:1-3 he uses marriage as an illustration. When two people are married they make a legal vow before God. 

•      As long as they live that married couple is bound by the law to remain together.

·       When a spouse dies, that law is no longer binding.Their partner is free from that vow.

·    They are free to remarry if they so choose. Their remarriage will not be considered adultery (7:3). 

7:1-3  can be summarized like this:  legal obligation ends with death.  Before Christ took us as His own, we were bound to the law. The law held us accountable before God. It was the standard by which God was judging us. Breaking that law is  sin, and here are the consequences:  the wages of sin is death.” (6:23) . 

In  Romans 7:4ff  we read of another death: “you have died to the law through the body of Christ , so that you belong to Him who has been raised from the dead…”. Now, if you become a believer in Christ you die to the law. You die to your old life regulated by the law; you now live under Christ.   And so we  read in 7:4:  "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 was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God."  

Death to the law happened when you were joined to Christ. The old contract or legal obligation is over.  The moment you  meet Christ , you die to the law,  and you enter into  another marriage. Christ is, so to speak your new "husband".  

In the Bible He is frequently  spoken of as the bridegroom (Mk 2:19-20; Jn 3:29; Matt 25:1-13; Rev 21:2, 9-10).

And the aim of this "marriage" (as is true of any marriage) is that you "bear fruit for God." (7:4). There it is. That means that when you are converted you have new desires, a new attitude, you make new choices, and your actions produce God glorifying fruit!  It is inevitable!  You have been planted in new soil, and you must produce fruit in keeping with your repentance. 

So,  being set free from the law does not mean that we  can do as we please. Yes, we  were released from legalistic, joyless service, but we  were not released from service!   

7:6 says that we now serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.

 In this way Paul answers  the objection posed in   Romans 6:15. 

So then we find that it is impossible for those that are under grace to love lawlessness!  Jesus to whom you have now been joined, and who is in you, will not produce bad fruit. 

Also, the indwelling Holy Spirit renewing you through His sanctifying power   cannot produce bad fruit in you.  What is inside must come out.  You must bear fruit for God to prove your attachment to Christ. Spiritual fruit prove that you are a Spirit filled Christian.

And we shall see, as we make progress through Romans 7 that this does not mean that Christians won’t sin. We will, but it does not make us happy. Paul will confess that he does struggle with sin. This is something that makes him unhappy, when it happens.  But thank God that his salvation is not grounded in his perfect keeping of the law, but it is grounded in Jesus’ finished work on the cross.  And for that Paul is eternally grateful. And he loves the Lord Jesus because of that, and he serves them with a full heart because of that, notwithstanding his faults, sins and shortcomings

A further illustration[2] 

This  illustration will help us to clarify the relationship between law and grace, between our former life under the law and our present life under Christ :  There one was a man, a bachelor, to whom all his domestic chores became very tedious. So, he decided to employ a housekeeper. In her work contract he drew up a long list of rules   and expectations and to make a point, he stuck his rules to the kitchen wall, as a perpetual reminder to her :  

·       Meals are to be served at eight, at one and at six

·       Dishes were to be done immediately after each meal

·       The house was to be kept spotlessly clean at all times

·        Linen was to be changed once a week  

·       He even went into minutest details:  don’t pour tea leaves or coffee grains down the kitchen sink        Etc.

Needless to say, the housekeeper didn’t always stick to his rules. In fact, she soon began to resent them, and the more she thought about all the rules the more resentful she became, because she knew that she wasn’t that perfect someone. And to be spiteful, and in sometimes in rebellion   she even  secretly poured the tea leaves or coffee grain down the kitchen sink…

She knew that there was precious little point about challenging him for all his rules, for he was after all her employer, and he was a strict man. 

And then, after some time, the unthinkable happened … he asked her to marry him!

And things became very different from that time.     She grew to love him.   He even took down the rules from the kitchen wall. She became his bride- the queen of the home. Their relationship  had changed drastically. Because she loved him, she wanted to do that which she knew he would appreciate. She did it freely and willingly. And he loved her because of  her love for him – and not because she did things always perfectly.  There was a distinct difference between her past and her present experience  

 This illustrates the believer’s relationship with the law.

The law in itself, though it is fair and just, it doesn’t please us. 

We know that we are not perfectly inclined to keep it, and because of that we begin to resent it. And often we are discouraged because of that.  

But when we are converted, we love the One who has taken our burden caused by the law away.

We love Him because He has given us new life, new hope and a new destiny.

And we do not find his commandments burdensome (1 John 5:3).

There is a different quality about this relationship – and it comes from the heart (6:17).

The former comes from a sense of coercion, but there is no joy in it.  The latter  comes  from a heart of love.

And now let me ask you … why do you do the things that you do ?

Because you feel you have to?

Or because you love Him?

 

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[1] Gr. mē genoito  (μη γενοιτο)  - may it not be!  – Vocative;  [Romans 3:4; 3:6; 3:31; 6:2; 6:15; 7:7; 7:13; 9:14; 11:1; 11:11]

[2] I have adapted this story from Stuart Olyott’s commentary on Romans, p.65ff