Articulating Our Faith

Romans 7

“The Civil War”

 

I.                   Key practical problem facing Jewish Christians, and gentile converts to Judaism in the pre-Christ period:

 

a.       What is the right understanding of law in the new economy of grace?

b.      What difference does this make in living?

c.       Perspective for understanding Romans 6-7:

                                                               i.      nomov, or nomos, or law, means “the torah”, as evidenced by Paul’s citing of commands of torah in the context of law

                                                             ii.      Can mean a general principle of secular law, but not likely here as Paul used the terms in context of a Jewish audience, or gentiles who were living by the Jewish law codes.

                                                            iii.      Gentile adherents to Jewish law, who then became Christians, were among those who were most involved in spreading Christianity in the early centuries.  Many gentile communities, familiar with Jewish law (burial customs etc.) often adopted their customs, referring to the “law of the Jews”.

 

II.                Paul’s view of the Law:

 

a.       First, the overall message of the gospel and its impact on the mode of living:

                                                               i.      Sin is essentially a focus on the “mortal body”.  A focus on the body to “obey its passions” will ultimately lead to only one end:  death.  After death, there is nothing else.

                                                             ii.      The gospel is a focus on “eternal life”—that which is beyond the trappings of the body.  The gospel offers a transformation of life so that the focus is not on the body—which is destined to die—but a focus on that which is eternal—which will live forever.

                                                            iii.      Obedience, is therefore understood as actions which indicate which path a person follows:

·        Obedience to the body leads to death (The wages of sin is death, Romans 6:23,

·        Obedience to the gospel or—the gift of God—leads to eternal life. Romans 6:23

·        Notice the contrast between “wages” and “gift”.

a.       Sin follows natural consequence (cause/effect)

b.      The gift transcends cause/effect—it is God’s insertion into living that transforms it.  Eternal life—living beyond death—is a gift from God.

b.      The reality of the law as illustrated by marriage (Romans 7:1-6)

                                                               i.      A woman is under the authority of her husband as long as he lives.  There is no way for her to end the reign of her husband as long as he is alive.

·        Principle:  law governs as long as we are alive.  There is no way to escape the authority of law as long as we live.

 

                                                             ii.      A woman is released from the authority of her husband upon his death, and is free to marry another.

·        Principle:  death is freedom from the law. 

                                                            iii.      Therefore, we are freed from the law through the death of Christ

                                                           iv.      Because we have “died to the law”  through Christ, we are enabled to be married to Christ.

·        As a result, we no longer produce fruit leading to death, but are enabled to produce fruit for God

·        We serve not in the way or the written code (the law), but in the new way of the Spirit

                                                             v.      The problem of law is that we are still in these bodies, and have not experienced the fullness of the resurrection in our new bodies which will not be subject to sin.  So how do we deal with the practical realities of sin now?

c.       Understanding the effects of law through the experience of living (Romans 7:7-25).

                                                               i.      The law provokes the actual experience of sin, and makes the sinner aware of that his or her desire is sinful (7:7).  For example, we do not understand that it is sinful to covet without the law telling us so.  We come to understand coveting as a sinful desire through the law.

                                                             ii.      Sin finds opportunity in the law to realize itself. It transforms our “inquisitiveness” into “acquisitiveness”.  It perverts the law from something intended to reveal sin to us, into a tool to actually provoke sin in us. (The serpent in the garden found opportunity to tempt once the command was given).  See verse 8

                                                            iii.      The law is right and holy, yet it provokes sin in us.  What we want to do we cannot do, and what we do not want to do we keep on doing.

                                                           iv.      Paul affirms that Christ’s physical death, burial, and resurrection is essential to the guarantee of our resurrection after our death.

 

 

 

 

 


Christ: life                   death    resurrection      ascension

 

 

Us:      life                identification with Christ                       death  resurrection eternal life

                                    while still in this body