Romans 7:5-12

Released to Serve

Last Sunday we looked at vv. 1-4, where Paul declared that your spiritual participation in the death of Christ has forever severed your old relationship both to the condemning power and the direct authority of the Mosaic law in your life.

Your final severance from the law took place at Calvary where the heavy burden of the commandments, the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against you, was nailed to the cross and forever cancelled and taken out of the way by Jesus Christ, your redeemer (cf. Col. 2:14; Gal. 4:4-5).

And this death to the law has taken place so that you might be married to another, to be joined to Jesus Christ that you might now bear fruit for God.

This is a marriage literally made in heaven, which can never be broken because the one to whom you have been forever joined has passed from death to life, never to die again (7:4; cf. 6:9).

This now brings us to vv. 5-6 where Paul shows us why it is absolutely necessary that you be freed from the oppressive dominion of the law.

Here again Paul contrasts your old life in Adam with your new life in Christ.  In v. 5 he says "while we were in the flesh" to describe your life in the old man that has been crucified in Christ.  The flesh, our old man, belongs to the powers of the old age, which are sin, the law, and death.  Paul brings all three of these powers together here in v. 5.  The sinful passions of our flesh, which were aroused through the law, worked through the members of our bodies to bear fruit unto death. 

Here Paul says that the sinful passions of the old man were aroused or stirred up by the law.  In 1 Cor. 15 Paul says:

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 15:56-57).

The law, rather strangely, actually exacerbated the problem and stirred up our sinful passions against God.  And what was the result?  Death. 

In Romans 6:23 Paul concludes that "the wages of sin is death."  But the law was given to help remedy this problem, right?  Shouldn't the law have fixed our problem of sin and in its place produced in us the righteousness that God requires?

No!  the law was not given to make us righteous, but to make us worse.  Paul says in Romans 5:20 that the law came in so that the transgression would increase.  In Gal. 3 Paul tells us that the law was not given to impart life to us or to produce righteousness.  Rather, the law was given to:

shut up all men under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe (Gal. 3:22).

The law had a specific job to do.  It came to shut us up in our sin, to hem us in, and give us no way of escape.  Paul describes the law's effects on us that we were "kept in custody under the law," shut up until faith in Christ had come (Gal. 3:23).

But why?  Why did we need this enslaving, oppresive work of the law in our lives?  Because God wanted to teach us something that was crucial for what he was about to do next.  He wanted to teach us what Paul says in Romans 3:19-20:

Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may become accountable to God; 20 because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin (Rom. 3:19-20).

The law was our teacher, our pedagogue.  It was our disciplinarian to strike at us to keep us in line until a certain time when we would be released from its oppression.  And this was necessary because we were like children.  A child must have appropriate discipline to train him up to enter a world where he or she will be responsible for the decisions that will be made.  Without such discipline, then the child will grow up untrained and unable to live within the conformities placed upon him or her by society.

In the same way, while we were children, the law was our tutor, our taskmaster to keep us in line to constantly remind us that we don't in fact measure up to God's perfect standard of righteousness.  But this process of discipline was not the end, but the means to the end, which is Christ.  Paul says:

The Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, that we may be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor (Gal. 3:24-25).

Now that we have been joined to Christ through faith, we have in Christ all the righteousness that God required of us.  The infinite demand for perfection has been met for us by Christ.  What we could not accomplish, has been graciously accomplished for us by Christ.  Therefore, the law has finished its work.  It brought us to Christ and now that we are in Him by faith we are no longer under that heavy taskmaster.

As Paul says in our chapter this morning in v. 6 that we have been "released from the law, having died to that which we were bound."  You have been released from the old regime of the law, dying to that which held you captive.

But why?  Why have you been released?  Why was it so absolutely necessary that you die to the law, never to return to it again?

"So that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead" (v. 4).  Just as the woman in vv. 2-3 cannot be bound to both her original husband and a new husband at the same time, so you cannot be joined to both Moses and Christ at the same time.  You must die to the one so that you can be joined to another.  And once you have died to Moses, you cannot then return to him once you have been joined to Christ.

Paul makes this clear in v. 6, when he says "so that we serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter."  Do you see Paul's contrast here? 

The "letter" is the essence of the old, Mosaic covenant of works, which was based upon the external commandments of God written on tablets of stone.  When we served in the old man we served under the dictates of the letter of the law.  But Paul argues here that rather than curbing our sin, the law actually stimulated the power of sin and death was the final product.  The law had no power to break the power of sin, but only made it worse. 

But this was the purpose of the law and it accomplished its work perfectly.  It drove us to despair so that we would look outside of ourselves for the answer.  The law taught us that the answer was not found within ourselves, but rather outside of us in Christ. 

Charles Hodge, the great Princeton stalwart of the Reformed faith, says this about Paul's distinction here:

The law is so designated because the decalogue, its most important part, was originally written on stone, and because the whole law, as revealed to the Jews, was written in the Scriptures, or writings.  It was therefore something external, as opposed to what was inward and spiritual . . . Believers then are free from the law, by the death of Christ.  They are no longer under the old covenant, which said, "Do this and live;"  but are introduced into a new and gracious state, in which they are accepted, not for what they do, but for what has been done for them.  Instead of having the legal and slavish spirit which arose from their condition under the law, they have the feelings of children (Hodge, Romans, p. 219)

Now that we have died to the law, we serve under a new, more glorious power:  the Spirit of God.  We have been recreated in Christ by God's Spirit and this new creation brings to us a new life bearing fruit that is now pleasing to God. 

The flesh is here set in opposition to your new life in the Spirit of God.  In Romans 8:9, Paul says that we are no longer "in the flesh" but in the Spirit.  In Christ's death, you have been delivered from the old man and raised to be joined to the new man through the Spirit of God.

Now think about what would have happened if God had never given us the law to do this necessary work of shutting us up in our sin.  If we had lived our life without this illuminating exposure of our unrighteousness and the stimulation to greater sinfulness then we would have died in our sin thinking that we were right with God.  Without the law, we would have thought that we had measured up and we would have entered into eternity only to find out that we were far from hitting the goal of perfect righteousness.

Paul begins to explain this necessary work of the law in v. 7 by answering a frequent objection he had heard many times while preaching the gospel:  If Paul teaches that the law only "increases our sin" (5:20) and "stirs up our sinful passions" then is he saying that the law itself is sinful?  In no way!  As he says in v. 12, the law is holy, righteous, and good.

And as that which is holy, righteous, and good, given by God, the law has perfectly accomplished the very purpose for which God gave it at Mt. Sinai.  As Paul says in v. 7, that if it wasn't for the law, then he, along with the whole nation of Israel, would have never known sin. 

Now surely Paul would agree that even the Gentiles who do not have the law of Moses would have known sin (Rom. 1-2).  But Paul means something much more.  It was through the law that Israel came to understand the utter sinfulness of sin.  Through the law, God's people came to understand the very real nature and power of sin in a way they had not before.  The law made clear to them that sin was actually a transgression of God's commandments and therefore they were under the wrath of God with the payment of death due their sin.

Paul gives a specific example in v. 7 of how the law has done this.  He quotes the 10th commandment, "you shall not covet," which according to the Jews was the summary of the whole law (cf. Ex. 20:17; Deut. 5:21).  "Coveting" is the inner desire to possess something you do not have.  Now, before the law came to Israel, all would have agreed that coveting was wrong.  But once God said to Israel, "You shall not covet," then Israel suddenly became aware that their sin was not merely against one another but was actually rebellion before God and therefore punishable by eternal death.  The law gave Israel a new awareness of the real depth of their depravity.

Paul says in v. 8 that the sin saw an opportunity in the law to actually produce all kinds of coveting.  The law not only exposed the sin of coveting but that sin took advantage of this new commandment and actually produced all sorts of new coveting in Israel.  But how did the commandment do this?

We have all seen this take place in children.  Once you forbid them to do something, they suddenly begin to be drawn to the forbidden fruit, thinking that you must be withholding something from them that must be awful fun and now they want it all the more.

But there is something more that is going on.  We do not like being told what to do by someone in authority.  There is something in all of us that rebels against our superiors and wants to live our lives on our own terms.  You see this in Israel's life.  Before they come to Sinai, you see no hint that they ever wanted to form idols for themselves to worship.  But once God gave them the 2nd commandment in Ex. 20, then we find them begging Aaron in Ex. 32 to fashion for them a golden calf to worship.

This is how sin uses the law for its own evil purpose.  The law becomes sin's puppet to stimulate in us all sorts of rebellion to God. 

There was a very real sense in which Israel was alive before the law and sin was dead (vv. 8-9).  As Paul says in v. 9, before the law was given, Israel went about thinking everything was OK.  But then suddenly, when the law came in, sin sprang to life and Israel died under the wrath of God.

We have seen this many times in Israel's history where we see how the law killed them only after it was given.  For instance, in Ex. 15-17 we see Israel complaining three times against God's providence in the wilderness.  Each time God gives them his gracious gifts of water sweetened to drink, manna from heaven, and water from the rock.  However, after Sinai, Israel's commits exactly the same sin three more times but this time God's brings death and judgment upon the camp in Num. 11-14.

In v. 10 Paul says that what the Jews thought was supposed to give life, actually produced death and condemnation.  The law was impotent to restrain sin and actually empowered sin and brought Israel to death, just as it did in the lives of Adam and Eve in the Garden.

God had given the law with a promise of life to all who obeyed it perfectly (Lev. 18:5; Ps. 19:7-10; Ezek. 20:11; Luke 20:28).  However, God knew that no one would be able to do it and that's why he gave it. 

In this way, Paul says that the commandment actually deceived Israel (v. 11).  But how?  The law held out the promise of life to all who would obey it perfectly and therefore Israel was deceived into thinking that they could attain life through the law.  But instead, every attempt ended in failure and the law brought only death not because there was anything wrong with the law itself, but because sinful man cannot do what is required by the law. 

As Paul says in v. 12, the law is in fact "holy, righteous, and good" but Israel could not do it and therefore the law killed them in the presence of God.

But you see this is exactly what God intended.  If it weren't for this lethal use of the law then God's people would have remained in their sin and would have never looked forward with great expectation to the promised Messiah of God who would bring life and salvation to Israel.

Now, as we stand back and look at Israel's failure, we should be startled and shocked in their utter inability to attain life through the law and their history should serve all of us as a reminder that our hope is not in Moses, but in the one to whom Moses ultimately pointed.  As Augustine says, "God commands what we cannot do that we may know what we ought to seek from him."

The law, even as it strangles life from us, is placing us in a position where we have no other option than to look to God's mercy and grace in Christ Jesus. 

John Calvin wrote:

In the precepts of the law, God is but the rewarder of perfect righteousness, which all of us lack, and conversely, the severe judge of evil deeds.  But in Christ his face shines, full of grace and gentleness, even upon us poor and unworthy sinner" (Institutes 2.7.8).

The law, which brings forth only sin and death, cannot break the power of sin in our lives and all who look to it for such deliverance will only experience frustration and ultimate condemnation.  That is why you must die to the law and flee only to Jesus Christ for life and godliness.  That is why God has made us to die to the Law through the body of Christ so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that you might bear fruit for God.   

Amen!

-SDG-