Sermon: Sunday, 1st December, 2024
Speaker: John Johnstone
Scripture: Romans 7
The theme of Romans chapter 7 is the law of God which is mentioned well over 20 times! For many weeks, we have been reminding ourselves that none of us can enter into a right relationship with God by trying to keep the law. Nor can we earn our way to Heaven by keeping God’s rules. The law is not a ladder which human beings are able to climb up to reach God. The letter to the Galatians makes this plain. ‘Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because ‘the righteous will live by faith.’ Galatians 3:11
This means that before people become Christians, they have a negative relationship with God’s law. They are under the curse of the law because the law condemns them as guilty. Quite clearly, none of us have loved God or our neighbours as we ought to have done. We could not do so, no matter how hard we tried. But here’s the good news. Jesus sets us free from the condemnation of the law by keeping it perfectly on our behalf and by paying the enormous moral debt we owe to God for flouting his rules time and time again, by dying on the cross for our sins.
1. A marriage ended and a marriage begun
Paul uses an illustration to help us understand that we are free from the law’s condemnation. A married woman, says Paul, is bound to her husband as long as her husband is alive, and is not free to go with anyone else. However, if the man dies, she is set free and can marry someone else. The main point is that it’s death which dissolves this marriage. In the same way, before we were saved, we were married to the law of God, which brought condemnation. The consequences of our disobedience to the law is death. This was not a good marriage! Only death can dissolve the marriage. The good news is that because we are united to Christ, when he died, we also died, and our death meant that our marriage to the law has been dissolved and we are no longer bound to the condemnation of the law. We are free. We are no longer in bondage to the law, having the obligation of perfect obedience to it, and we can no longer be crushed by it, not because the law died, but because we did. Our previous unhappy marriage is over and now we’re happily married to Christ.
Ash: The key point is that death ends the first relationship and makes possible the second.
This is a wonderful marriage in total contrast to our marriage to the law. The fruits of our first marriage were death and condemnation. Listen to verse 4 to hear what flows from our marriage to Jesus: ‘…you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.’ (Romans 7:4) What a wonderful marriage! Our purpose becomes bearing good fruit for the glory of God.
This raises a question – can Christians just ignore God’s law if we have died to it? Absolutely not. The law is good and reveals the holy character of God.
John Stott: ‘This does not mean that we have been divorced from the law altogether, in the sense that it has no more claims on us of any kind, or that we have no more obligations to it. On the contrary, the moral law remains a revelation of the Lord’s will, which he still expects his people to ‘fulfil’ by living lives of righteousness and love. This is what Calvin called the 3rd use of the law – it shows us what is pleasing to God.’
Christians now have a new relationship with the law and it is a much more positive one. By God’s grace, Christians are married to Christ and given the Holy Spirit to empower us to keep God’s law. It’s actually a wonderful thing that Christians are no longer married to the law, but instead are married to Christ! Why was being married to the law so bad? The law was a powerless to make us holy. The law could not make us more like Jesus. Quite the opposite. The law was impotent. The law could not change us.
2. The law – a poor marriage partner
Let’s examine just how rubbish a marriage partner the law was. What did the law do? The law reveals just how sinful we are. ‘I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’ (Romans 7:7) Imagine a room that’s badly lit but it looks ok. However, someone turns on the light and suddenly you see the thick dust and grease and damaged paint- things you didn’t see without the light. The law is like that strong light. It reveals what we are really like. So just hearing the command ‘do not covet’, can reveal how black our hearts really are, as so often we wish we had someone else’s job or partner or children or money. The command ‘do not covet’ reveals our sinful hearts.
What is sin? The Bible says: ‘Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.’ (1 John 3:4) That’s why the catechism says: Q.14. What is sin? A. Sin is disobeying or not conforming to God’s law in any way. The 6th commandment says that we should not kill. That includes the unborn child and the terminally ill person. Just because the UK government might change the laws on these things does not mean they are not sinful. If our actions to the unborn or elderly break God’s law, expressed in the 6th commandment, then it is sin, no matter what direction public opinion moves in. The 6th commandment shines a light onto UK society revealing how far away we are from God today.
The law actually increases sin in the heart of the unbeliever. It stimulates sin. ‘… but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died.’ (Romans 7:9) This is an amazing but sad truth. For example, you see a sign saying ‘Keep off the grass’ and what does this law do inside you? It makes you walk on the grass! It stimulates our sin. The knowledge that we cannot have something makes us want it. There is nothing so attractive to us as the forbidden, such is the rebellious spirit of man. If your friend is watching your house when you are on holiday and you say: ‘Please don’t read my private diary’, just by saying that, there’s a greater chance she will read it. Law can arouse sin in people. An excellent example of this is the prohibition era in the US, when it was forbidden to make or consume alcohol. The law became ‘Thou shalt not consume alcohol.’ What happened? The number of places which sold alcohol, despite being banned, doubled or tripled! The US saw the rise of speakeasies, illegal pubs. The law actually stimulates more disobedience. It is not God’s law which is bad (in fact, it is good) but it brings out what is sinful in fallen humanity.
This week I’ve been reminded of when in Jesus’ day, those with leprosy had to go to the priest. Could the priest help the leper? No! In fact, the priest was in a sense like God’s law, condemning the leper, showing him, yes, you have this disease and need to be sent away. The priest was impotent in that he could not change the leper. In contrast, how marvellous it was when lepers went to Jesus for healing. He touched them, changed them, and set them free from the disease. Who do you go to if you want to be changed, to the law or to Jesus? Who do you want to be married to?
3. A Christian’s tug-of-war
Let’s move on to consider verses 14-25. These are verses which many Christians disagree on. From verse 14 Paul stops using the past tense and uses the present tense. The personal pronouns are all in the first person. So, it seems likely to me, that in this section Paul is still speaking about the law, but now he is considering how the law impacts him as a Christian man. I believe that Paul is speaking as a Christian believer here. Look at verse 22: ‘For in my inner being I delight in God’s law.’ Surely, only a Christian can delight in God’s law. And this phrase ‘inner being’ found in verse 22 is found in 2 other places in the Bible, and in both it is speaking of a Christian.
‘Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.’ (2 Corinthians 4:16)
‘I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being…’ (Ephesians 3:16)
However, there are parts of this passage which might suggest that Paul is thinking back to before he was a believer. ‘We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.’ (Romans 7:14)
‘For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.’ (Romans 7:18)
‘… but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am!’ (Romans 7:23-24)
Over the centuries, and in commentaries, Christians have disagreed about who this wretched man is. The early Greek Fathers thought Paul was still speaking about himself as a non-Chrisitan Pharisee under the law. Others, such as Augustine, Luther and Calvin (and this is what I believe) view this section as a description of normal Christian life. There’s another group who think it describes a backslidden Christian. Still others, say this wretched man is a personification of Israel’s existence under the Mosaic covenant, and describes the way in which they tried to establish their own righteousness by obeying the law, even though that struggle was impossible.
Personally, I think the plain reading of the passage is the best explanation, especially because Paul speaks in the present tense, suggesting his present struggle with sin. Although he has been delivered from the dominion of sin, until Heaven he still knows the presence of sin in his heart. This is the tension with us, we know the presence of sin in our hearts but we also know the presence of Christ in our hearts. ‘… so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.’ (Ephesians 3:17)
Scotland is famous for its Highland Games. There are many different events. Perhaps you have taken part in some of them. One of the events is the tug-of-war. Two teams pull on the same rope as hard as they can – a test of strength and sure-footedness. It’s not easy- it’s a real struggle. But you are not on your own. It’s a joint effort.
The Christian life is like an ongoing tug-of-war event. This can be exhausting.
R C Sproul: ‘Before I became a Christian, I wanted to go only one way: [my way] the way of the flesh. I acquiesced to the desires of the flesh. I had a mind of flesh. I had no inclination toward the things of God. But then God changed my heart and planted in it a love for him and an inclination to walk in his ways. Now I have a desire to please God, but I still have a desire to please myself. I would like to think that every time those desires bump into each other, my desire to please God wins, but it does not, and I still sin. When I get to Heaven, and all the remnants of that flesh are removed from me, I will have one heart and one will and one mind-set to please God and God alone. Only then will I become conformed to the image of Christ.’
What is Sproul saying? Before he was a Christian, there was no tug-of-war. He just did whatever he liked- with no thought of God! But now, his Christian walk is a struggle between the way of the Holy Spirit, and of the flesh. Paul says; ‘For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am!’ (Romans 7:18-24)
Like Paul, sometimes we can feel wretched. Like we are making no progress. Like it’s 2 steps forward and 3 steps back. Yet the Christian life is supposed to be a life of transformation. Gradual transformation usually. We call this sanctification.
I can relate all too well to Paul’s experience here. Indeed, this is the experience of every true believer. We are, as Luther said, ‘at the same time just and a sinner’. We are creatures of mixed desires. Jesus says: ‘The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.’ (Matthew 26:41) ‘There is within us a constant daily struggle and warfare with the old self whose desires are battling the desires of the new self
R C Sproul says, ‘It is not easy being a Christian! It is a fight.’ ‘So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.’ (Romans 7:21)
RC Sproul: ‘It seems that whenever we desire to do good, we experience the closest proximity to evil. Sometimes… in our most precious hours of devotion to Christ, the most wicked thoughts will creep into our minds’.
I think it’s important to state that Paul is not saying he feels this way some of the time or even most of the time. He has already spoken of the experience of God’s love which floods his heart by the Holy Spirit. Paul knew great peace and joy in Christ. However, there are times when we feel like wretched men and women. Jesus even says: ‘Blessed are those who mourn (over their sin) for they shall be comforted.’
Leon Morris: ‘Great saints throughout the ages don’t commonly say ‘how good I am’; ‘go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man’ is the authentic cry not of someone who does not believe but of one who does’.
We don’t want to leave Paul in his wretched state here. He asks a question: ‘What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?’ (Romans 7:24) It is not the law which will rescue him! He answers his own question. ‘Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!’ (Romans 7:25) Paul’s struggle has led him back to Jesus for strength.
Just as a law cannot justify the sinner, so the law cannot sanctify the saint. Only Jesus can empower us to be more like him. So if as a Christian, the law convicts you of sin and you feel the internal struggle of the Christian fight, don’t stay there, but rather run into the arms of Jesus, confessing your sin and asking him to empower you to know victory over sin in your life.