Epistles of Paul 75

Well, good evening, brethren. Romans is a very important epistle that many just don't fully see its important meaning expounding beautifully God's plan of salvation. Really, it's a beautiful exposition of God's plan of salvation. Paul, after starting by explaining that we all, Jews and Gentiles have sinned, Paul says that we all deserve the wages of sin, which is death, Romans 6.23. And we know, based on 1 Corinthians 15.22, that our only hope is that we will come back to life because Christ has redeemed us. And that is a great hope that we have.

We will live again. That is a wonderful hope and blessing. And this is a gift. This is a wonderful, gracious gift that God has given to us through Christ, as we read in Romans chapter 3 verse 23 and 24. Romans 23, 3 verse 23 and 24. It says, for we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Being justified freely, and it was being made right with God freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. And therefore, we know we will be made right, and we are being made right. We are justified freely. And God, through Christ, gave us Jesus' life to buy our lives back from death. In other words, so that we could be resurrected.

And He's making Christ, He's making us right with God by redeeming our lives and forgiving our past sins. Obviously, conditionally, if we believe in what He says, and that is, we recognize we have to repent and commit to live a different life. Now, this basically demonstrates two important things, as we read in Romans 3, 25, demonstrates first God's righteousness, and secondly, in verse 31, that faith establishes the law.

Because once we justify freely that Christ has paid our sins, what Christ did under the instruction of the Father, now we must do our part, committing ourselves to be a new man, receiving and using God's Holy Spirit to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, and all the human nature we need to understand has not gone away.

But we have to now overcome with the help of God's Holy Spirit. That is very important for us to understand. The carnal mind, the human nature, has not gone away. But we have to be fighting and overcoming with the help of God's Holy Spirit. And that, in a sense, is what Paul is talking to us in Romans chapter 7. You see, God's Spirit is, as we read in Romans chapter 5 verse 5, Romans chapter 5 verse 5, is God's love has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

So God's Holy Spirit is poured in our hearts. It's God's love. It's God's nature. And what does God's Spirit does to us in our hearts? It writes God's law in our minds and in our hearts. That's the new covenant. And so we have God's Holy Spirit that guides us, leads us, but never dominates us. We occasionally do that. We have to be in our hearts that the Holy Spirit dominates us.

We occasionally do fault. We occasionally do slip up, sin, even if God's Holy Spirit. And what happens? We need a defense advocate who is alive, which is our high priest, which is Christ. And so, as we read in Romans 5 We have been justified by His blood, but we shall be saved. How? We shall be saved by His life, as it reads at the end of verse 10. So what happens is Christ lives in us by the power of God's Holy Spirit.

In other words, Christ and the Father's mind set. Their power is in us. And also we are saved by His life because He, Christ, being our High Priest, is defending us. And so that's how we justify Christ's blood, and we shall be saved by His life. And so then all this requires then a commitment from us. And that's what chapter 6 describes that commitment.

Chapter 6 describes baptism, which is our commitment to be dead to sin. It was no longer sin. And then in verse 3 of chapter 6 says, Do you not know that as many of us as we baptized into Christ Jesus? And here's another point. We're baptized into Christ's spiritual body. And so for the meaning of baptism is the death and resurrection because we're now in Christ Jesus and symbolically that we die with Christ and we're resurrected with Him. So that symbolism and significance of baptism is very well explained in chapter 6, and that we covered in the last study.

But now as we get to chapter 7, Paul then goes into a further example of the law as dominion to death. And Paul does this by bringing to the brethren's attention another principle. And we'll look at that now in first place in Romans chapter 7 verse 1. We can see that Paul is writing to the brethren. Let's read verse 1. 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?

The law has dominion as authority as long as we live. Now, this is where, as we're going to read this, because in verse 4 says we become dead to the law, this is where people get entangled. This is where we need to be making it very clear what Paul is saying about law and grace. And that's why I've been taking quite a bit of time in the previous studies going through this very carefully.

Now, if we don't frame this whole concept of law and grace clearly, then people can go off the track as they have gone in the past and in big time, in big time. So what do we need to look at is what Paul is talking about, because Paul is using the law metaphorically in a sense that the law is going to convict you and I as a sinner. And so that is one side of the law, Romans 3 verse 20, that shows what sin is. And Romans 6 verse 23, that therefore the wages of sin are death.

So the law is convicting us as a sinner. But he is now explaining in chapter 7 some very profound spiritual principles through a mixture of metaphors and figures of speech, which people in the world don't comprehend. So we need to analyze the series of metaphors and their profound spiritual intent, and through these metaphors of these figures of speech, then Paul will explain some very important principle. And this important principle is regarding human nature, which is then expounded in this chapter from verses 14 through 25.

And then it takes that in chapter 8, and then it shows very clearly the role of God's Holy Spirit. So let's read verse 2 and 3, because in verse 1 he said, the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives. And now in verse 2 and 3, he's using an example. An example, very, very simple for us to understand, but he's using an example, and let's read it. 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's released from the law of her husband. So then if while her husband lives, she marries another man, she'll be called an adulterous. But if her husband dies, she's free from that law so that she is no adulterous, though she has married another man. And so this is following the point that he mentioned in verse 1, that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives.

Now, this is a very specific example of a marriage of a man and a woman, but now he's using this as a spiritual metaphor to spiritual principles. And so let's now read verse 4. Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ.

You see, this is where people get confused. Right. The death penalty was over us. So the law, which gave us the death penalty, but by the body of Christ, by the sacrifice of Christ that we went through in Romans 6, you see, in first place, the law says that we have we have sinned. The wage of sin is death. But the body of Christ, Christ, what he did, Christ says, I'll die for you. I'll die for you.

So in that sense, you are freed, you and I, we are freed from the death penalty. You see the convicting function of the law. In other words, that we have the wages of sin.

But now Paul is saying, you have become dead to the law. In other words, to the penalty of the law. You have become dead to the wages of sin, which the law inflicts upon us. That's the penalty by the body of Christ. Why? Because we baptized into Christ where? Upon repentance and believing. Now believing means we do. Always see behind the word believe. That means we obey. Believing means we obey. We believe what God says, we're going to do what he says. We obey. Therefore, we're baptized into Christ, into his body. And therefore, we put on Christ.

We got to put on his divine nature. We got to strive to put that on. And so because of that, our sins have been redeemed. In Acts 2.38, it says, Be baptized, repent and be baptized for the redemption of your sins. And so we become dead to the law, to the penalty of the law, by the body of Christ. Now, continue in that in verse 4, in the second part of verse 4, that you may be married to another.

Now, what does it mean? We are married to Christ, to be at one with Christ. Remember the two are one flesh, right? So, Genesis 2 verse 24, so we are married, we are at one with Christ. We take on the mind of Christ. And Christ is what?

Is the personification of God's law. Christ is the end of the law. And so God's law is love, and God is love. So in a sense, the law of God shows us the character of God, which is love. And so we are married to another, who? To Christ. We are married to the principle that we have to have God's law in our hearts and minds, God's character.

We know we, our old man, our old person, must die. And so now we're going to be married to another. There is the analogy that he used in verses 2 and 3, bringing that together in a beautiful analogy. In other words, we're married to another, and then he says to him who was raised from the dead. In other words, that's Christ, and that connects the symbolism of the baptism. We're baptized into Christ. We die, that old man dies. That's Romans 6, verse 3 and 4.

And then we come out that we should walk in newness of life. In other words, married to this new life. And then it completes the verse, there's verse 4, that we should bear fruit to God. There are works as a Christian. James 2, verse 14 says, faith without works is dead. Now we're not justified. We are not justified by our works, but faith without works is dead. So we have to bear fruit. We have to walk in a newness of life.

And so in verse 5 says, for when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions that which were aroused by the law. Now it's interesting, what aroused is not in the Greek. See the young's literal translator, see the Derby, see the old King James Version. It's not there. That sinful passions that were by the law. In other words, they were defined by the law. That probably could have been a better way because the law tells us what is sin.

And so those passions were identified, were defined, were highlighted by the law. And so those are evil passions and affections of the mind, lusts of the heart. In other words, the beginning is the first motions of sin, of sin being in the mind.

Now the law is not sin, but the law defines sin and shows how sinful we are. The law says the wages of sin is death. Therefore now we must not be a fruit to death, but we must live in a newness of life and bearing fruit to life. You see, so continuing now in as we read in verse five, we said, which we are aroused by the law, we are at work in our members to be a fruit to death. Now, verse six. But now we've been delivered from the law. What do you mean delivered from the law? We delivered from the penalty of the law, having died to what we're held by, having died to what we were about, so that we should serve in newness of the spirit and not in the oldness of the living.

So again, the same example as it we read in Romans chapter six about baptism. So we did, the old man is dead, but the new man should be alive. So that's why it says the law is dominion over a man, as we read in chapter seven verse one, as long as he lives. That old man should have died. So now that law does not have dominion over us because we're not under the penalty of that law. So continue now in verse seven. What shall we say then? Is the law sin?

Is the law bad? No, no, certainly not. On the contrary, I would have not known sin except through the law. In other words, the law defines sin and also defines God's character of love. For I would not have known covetous unless the law had said thou shall not covet. Verse eight, but sin taking opportunity by the commandment. Some commentaries say, but sin taking opportunity, common. In other words, sin taking advantage of the commandment. In other words, it's like people say, I'll do it because I want to do it and I'll do it.

And without the law, people were not conscious, consensus or conscious of the fact that they were going on the path of death. That they were living day by day their life to themselves. But now that for instance, they or you and I have become aware of God's law, we then realize, oops, I'm in trouble. You see, so sin became more visible because apart from the law, sin was dead.

In other words, I couldn't see it. I didn't realize I was sinning. Verse 9 and 10. 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. The commandment was to bring life for us to be like God, to have God's character.

But, be a partner, it has a second function, which shows us what sin is. So it converges of sin. And so the law tells us if I don't repent and if I don't believe and obey God, making a commitment to change and let all the man die, make a commitment to all man die and become a new man.

And then I receive a lispress through the laying on overhands to help me. If I don't go through those stages, basically I'm on the way on the way to death. Verse 11. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me and by it killed me. Sin deceived me. Sin promises pleasure, gratification, honor, independence. It's like sin deceived Eve. In Genesis 3, we can see Eve was deceived by Satan, but she was deceived by sin.

And then he says, but when you and I realize, oops, look at what I did, then we say, oops, I'm dead. I'm in trouble. And so sin deceived me, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me and by it killed me. Therefore, the law, verse 12, is holy and the commandment is holy and just and good. In Balfitz functions, the law is good. The law shows me that I'm a sinner, that I need to repent. Now, it doesn't justify me, but it shows me I need to repent and accept Christ and believe what Christ says and do what He says. And make a commitment. And then the law also shows me God's character, you know, through 10 different principles, how to properly have love towards God and love towards man.

So I have a model, and that model is the law, shows me the way. And the actual perfect example of practicing that model is Christ. Christ is the end of the law. So He's the end result, the ultimate fulfillment of the law. And so the law is in effect. In other words, it is working. It has not been abolished. Therefore, the law is holy and the commandment is holy, just and good. It is effective and is in effect.

Now verse 13, was 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.

See, it was not the law that was made death to me. No. I have to die. We have to die if we don't repent. That's what we have to have. That's what we've got to do.

So, we have, the more you and I look into God's law, the more we realize how sinful sin is, the more we realize the difference between being righteous and evil.

So, these verses put in, in the right context, magnify what Paul is saying. They magnify.

You see, there is a very important point here that Paul is saying, starting in verse 1, that the law is dominion over a man as long as he lives.

So, he has that analogy of marriage, which takes this extra, let's call it additional, meaning, because he used that analogy in verses 2 and 3, which says, once a man is dead, now it would not be sin to marry somebody else. And so, Paul is explaining through these metaphors an important principle about human nature.

And this is what we cover now in verses 14 through to the end of the chapter. And he's talking about the law in my members, which should be dead.

You see, so he has a metaphor that says we are the law, we are dead to the penalty of the law.

But then he's turning this around to show a different metaphor in which there's a law in my members, in your members, in our members.

And that law that is kind of married to us should be dead, because that's what we promised that baptism.

We baptized into Christ and we went under the water and that human nature should be dead. And now we are married to another, in a sense, another nature, which is God's nature, which is God's spirit.

So we have a new nature. So, putting it another way, there's a law in your members, in my members, that needs to die.

That's our carnal human nature, to whom we are quote unquote married to. It should be dead, buried at baptism.

Now we need to be married, between inverted commas, to a new nature, which is God's divine nature, symbolic of being resurrected from the watery grave and living in the newness of life.

And so in Romans 4 verse 4, it says, we become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another.

Yeah, we have, in a sense, a dual meaning. We are dead to the law, the law in my members.

And now there is a new law of my mind, which is Christ living in us by his Holy Spirit, so that we may now bear fruit to God.

So we're now married to God's way of life, not to the old human nature way of life. We're no longer married to the law in our members, the law of our carnal mind.

But this is how Paul now explained this, which is very, very significant. He brings an interesting principle.

Now look at verse 14, for we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal.

Now, Paul is not saying, I was carnal. He's saying, I am carnal. I am an apostle. Paul says, as we know at this time, for let's say 20, maybe 25 years.

And Paul says there is an ongoing struggle in himself. The battle continues.

And so when you and I become discouraged about ourselves, remember you're in good company, because Paul was also struggling even after he was 20 to 25 years as an apostle.

Let's read now verse 15. For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, then I do not practice. But what I hate, that I do.

Now, was that a conscientious thing that he was doing every day of his life? No. But he was admitting that times, there were times of weakness, of failure.

And he was not pleased about that. And therefore, in verse 16, he says, if then I do what I will not to do, I agree that the law, that it is good. I agree with the law that it is good. Therefore, he recognizes that the law is good.

Look at verse 17. But now it is no longer I would do it, but sin that dwells in me.

You see, so now it takes human nature and personifies that he has another figure of speech, a sin.

And he says, as the law, in this metaphor, this human nature is a law, is a sin, it's a law, a law in my members, that we were married to before baptism. And at baptism, it should have died.

He admits, though, it's still in him, but he's fighting it because it should be dead, because he made a commitment for his human nature to be buried at baptism.

But he says sin is living in me. In other words, it's a law in his members. That's what's driving this.

Let's read that in verse 18. 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.

So yeah, in verse 18, he's saying, our natural self is not good. Again, this law in my members should be dead.

And it's like the situation of one that is eating the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

But that is not the righteousness of God. Now, please note, there are a lot of people out there that have a lot of human goodness.

But we need to understand that is not God's righteousness. We need to understand that there are a lot of people that just look, look very good.

But that is not God's righteousness. And the point is that this human goodness looks like, appears like righteousness.

But that's the problem. It's deceitful because it appears like righteousness. It was like God's righteousness, but it's not.

And so unless we have the spiritual discernment or the insight to see it because we got to understand they're not the same.

We read, let's just jump briefly to Romans chapter 10 verse 3.

It says, being ignorant of God's righteous and seeking to establish their own righteousness.

In other words, they're self-righteous. Seeking to establish their own righteousness, their own self-righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.

You see, so they've not submitted to God's righteousness.

So that is a big problem. It's a big problem. People in the world, they may have some human goodness. They appear from outside really nice people.

But that's not God's righteousness. They've not submitted to the righteousness of God, as we read at the end of verse 3 in Romans 10.

All right, let's go back to Romans 7 and now on in verse 19.

For the good that I will to do, I do not do. But the evil that I will not to do, that I practice.

Note again, this is an apostle with some 20 to 25 years of experience.

And that's what he's saying. And this apostle understands himself. And he understands that the battle that he's having and that he's still fighting.

And so now he says, and now he brings the point about the law in verse 20 and 21.

Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but soon that wells in me.

I find then a law that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.

I find a law. Is he giving in to that? No, no, no, he's not giving in, but he's fighting.

And every time he sins, he immediately repents. That's what we got to do. Acknowledge and confess and repent.

Let's just jump to a beautiful scripture, and that is in Hebrews 10.

Hebrews 10. We're going to read verse 14.

And it reads, For by one sin offering Christ has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.

You and I are being sanctified. We are in the process of finally being sanctified completely like God at the end of our lives, or when we die or when Christ comes back.

But Jesus Christ, one single offering perfects us as we repent and we come to Him. He perfects us.

And so, as we read a little bit later in verse 16 of Hebrews 10, God is writing His laws in our hearts, in our hearts and our minds. In other words, our hearts and our minds. God is writing. That is the new covenant. God is writing His character in us.

So God's law is not done away. God's law is being imprinted in us, in us. It becomes part of us. And we are to become a new man.

And that's what it is. It's that old man that has died that we were married to, and now we're married to a new man.

That brings this analogy that He's bringing in Romans chapter 7 to a fuller meaning. Very fascinating analogy.

That's why it says we have become dead to the law. In one side, we become dead to our common human nature.

But on the other side, we have become dead to the penalties of God's law. Both are true.

But you see, Paul is using double metaphors to bring a cross from the point that the law brings a point to sin, and that law is God's character.

He brings a point here that says, hey, that law in my members must be dead. I must not be married to it.

I must be married to this new man, this new nature, which is a newness of life.

So there is a beautiful symbolism in this metaphor of marriage that is very beautiful.

And now we continue in Romans chapter 7 verse 22, for I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.

So what is Paul's intent? To keep God's law perfectly, because he delights in the law of God.

That's what you and I want to do. We want to please God. We delight in God's law. And that's what God empowers us to do through the power of his Holy Spirit.

That's the helper that we have to help us, and that we must not quench, that we must use.

And that's therefore what we are delighted in. That is our goal.

The end of the law is to become like Christ. That's what the end of the law is all about.

And now in verse 23, he says, but I see another law in my members. Yeah, you see, there's another force.

There's this law in my members, which it must be dead. You see, I see a law in my members warring against the law of our mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members.

You see, there is this war. There is fighting. He's not giving in to it, but he realizes it's there, and he got to keep always aware and close to God to keep fighting it and keep fighting it and keep fighting it.

And the moral of the lesson is we will keep fighting that till we die.

Human nature will not go away till we die because it's part of our physical flesh. It's a law in my physical members.

In verse 24, oh, Richard Mann, that I am. Oh, Richard Mann, that I am. You know, whatever difficulties or challenges you and I have as part of our human nature, it is as if we're going to keep struggling against that, and we're going to keep fighting that and fighting that and fighting that. And that's why it says, oh, Richard Mann, that I am. Who will deliver me from this body of death?

You and I have had thoughts like that. Who will deliver me from this body of death?

Because as we are longer and longer in the church, we come to realize that we keep fighting the same nature, time and time again. Hopefully we're overcoming it more and more with time.

But Yah is the encouraging point. It doesn't leave it with a negative point. It leaves it with an encouraging point that says, thank God, thank God, because this is the answer to these questions.

Thank God that God will deliver me through Jesus Christ our Lord. Thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. God will deliver you, will deliver us through Jesus Christ our Lord.

So then, with the body I serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin.

Paul, in his mind, with his intent, he serves. So with the mind I serve the law of God. With his mind, with his intent, he serves God's law.

Paul is not anti-law, but with his flesh, he still made mistakes.

And he had to keep overcoming and repenting and overcoming and asking for forgiveness and becoming better and better at avoiding those mistakes.

Now, what Paul is saying is actually repeated by the Apostle John. In 1 John chapter 1 verse 7, we see in 1 John chapter 1 verse 7, 1 John chapter 1 verse 7 says, But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we are fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son cleanses us from all sin.

We walk in the light. Christ's blood cleanses us from all sin. Why would he have to cleanse us from sin?

As we walk in the light, because we still occasionally sin. Because that's what he says later. If we say we're not sin, we're deceiving ourselves.

But if we confess our sins, we will forgive us and cleanse us. But if we say we're not sin, we are liars. We may not be liars.

So John is talking to Christians and he's saying exactly what Paul says.

So the conclusion of this chapter, Romans 7, we have real spiritual meat.

And that is basically that human nature does not go away.

And that the sin that wants to dominate us does not go away after we convert it. We have to fight that.

That law in our members, the rest of our liars. But we're not a slave to it.

You and I can resist it, because God gives us his spirit to fight and overcoming. And God sees you and I trying.

And when you and I make mistakes, we must repent immediately.

God then looks upon us and does not see you and I as someone with the death penalty, but he sees us as his children trying to serve him and headed towards eternal life.

And that is all within God's great mercy and grace.