Revering the Word
Romans 7 What does it really mean to be set free?
Good morning everyone. This morning we are in Romans chapter 7 and Romans chapter 6 We saw the question and answer that Paul gave he says what shall we say then are we to continue in sin? So that grace may increase May it never be how shall we who died to sin still live in it one of the beautiful things about the grace of God is how? large and abundant and beautiful it is that we can be forgiven of all of our sin as a gift and the emphasis of chapter 6 was that Yes, we have received this gift But now that grace is not only forgiveness, but it empowers us to live for him and we should be seeking to live Holy lies to become more like our Lord and Savior and not Live under the bondage of sin anymore because we've been set free In chapter 7 there's a pretty controversial You know position one way or the other that you could take regarding Romans 7 night We're studying it this morning and I feel like I'm interested to share with you or you got to share with you some insight That I have from the passage But one of the questions that people wrestle with in Romans chapter 7 is Paul talking about his current self or his past self Meaning Paul by the time he's been writing this letter has been walking with the Lord for quite some time but he seems to be writing in Present tense and he's talking about the struggle with sin and the question is when he's talking about the struggle that he has with sin Is he talking about in the current? after he's been born again and living for Jesus for many years or is he talking about what it was like before and So that's a question and some people will have a different answer regarding that I said that because I wasn't sure that I was recording, but I am so Good Anyways, so let's pick it up in chapter 7 Or do you not know brethren for I am speaking to those who know the law? And there does seem to be a Jewish emphasis especially to this section That the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives So he's it's interesting. He's using a common law Argument here because like for instance, let's say you make a contract or you're You're under a law. Well when when you've when you've died that contracts over, right? you can no longer live to a contract when you've you know passed away and He's gonna make the case that we're no longer under the law anymore because someone died and he's gonna use the example of marriage Here it says for the married woman is bound or Her husband excuse me is bound by law to her husband while he is living And I think that's mutual. I mean we we we come before God and we say hey I'm making a commitment to be married to my husband or wife but if her husband dies she is released from the law and you know clearly if your husband or wife dies you're no Longer under that marriage Commitment because they they have passed away. She's released from the law concerning the husband so then if our husband is living she is joined to another man and You know that obviously we should not do. I mean if you were married You shouldn't obviously be joined to another person and if you were you'd be called an adulterous but if her husband dies then She's free from them. She's free from the law so that she is not an adulterous Though she is joined to another man So that's that's an interesting point and you know I want you to notice as we go through this the terms She's free From the law that that's really important. Now. Let's keep going therefore my brethren You also were made to die to the law Through the body of Christ so that you might be joined to another to him who raised from the dead in order that We might bear fruit for God and what he's saying is is that now that Jesus Christ came to die And he took the consequences of the curse of the law the disobedience to the law upon himself He has now made it so that we can be joined to him instead of Through the law and now by being joined to him we can bear fruit for God He's gonna explain much more as we go for while we were in the flesh The sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work and the members of our body to bear fruit for death and In the Old Testament when people you know were Old Testament Jews They didn't have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit like Christians have today the Holy Spirit Wasn't there to empower it came upon David it came upon saw there were times that the Spirit had its way and Interacted with people but it wasn't like today where everyone is Promised the indwelling of the Holy Spirit who believes which is a whole different Season of life we live in now that empowers us to live for him and we need to embrace that Spiritual power to live to bear fruit and to overcome our sinful flesh But he's saying that prior to that our flesh Was aroused by the law in the sense we saw what we were to do and not to do and and we had a rebellious spirit And the law showed us how sinful we were because we just couldn't live to it now You may recall what it was like living apart from Christ and I mean I do I lived 26 years Not born again not with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and I was Significantly more governed by living according to the flesh and was not living according to the spirit because I didn't didn't have the spirit But it says in verse 6 now, but now We have been released from the law having died to that by which we are bound so that we serve in Renewness of the spirit and not in the oldness of the letter See now we can serve God with the power of his Holy Spirit helping us now what I want us to see is that there's a lot of terms in here regarding like in this case being released and It it was as though in the past we were a prison To our flesh and to not living according to the law and we couldn't be set free from the power of the flesh and our disobedience to the law, but when Jesus Christ came he he released us from that law and he We were bound to it. It said in verse 6 and now we can serve in the newness of the spirit But I want you to see those really those words released and bound It's it's it's really refers to freedom, but the freedom and I've mentioned this and I think the last couple chapters The freedom that Paul is Illustrating to us through the gospel of Jesus Christ is that we're not bound in Prisoner to our flesh. It's not like we can't overcome Although we still wrestle with the flesh. We now have we've been released from the bondage where we can now get victory over it with the power of the Holy Spirit and Live in a new way according to the spirit not in the old way according to the flesh and the letter of the law Verse 7 what shall we say then is the law sin because you could almost make it seem as though Paul's saying well The law was really bad and it wasn't it's just that without the power of the spirit We couldn't live to it. May it never be the law is not bad on the contrary I would not have come to know sin except through the law For I would not have known about the covening if the law had said you shall not covet So the law did teach us what was right and what was wrong and that was good We needed to know what was right and what was wrong, but the Old Testament people just lack the spiritual power to overcome their flesh and their disobedience to that law, but sin Take versus a taking opportunity through the commandment produced in me Coveting of every kind for apart from the law sin is dead. I Was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came sin became alive and I died and this commandment which was to result in life proved to result in death for me for sin taking an Opportunity through the commandment deceived me and through it killed me so then the law is holy and the commandment is good The commandment is holy and righteous and good So it's not like the ten commandments and the law were bad the law and the ten commandments were good, but I'm repeating myself and Paul is too, but we were in bondage to the law our sin our flesh Did not enable us to live accordance to the law and therefore we lived in a kind of a sense of condemnation and and from that the Jews especially the Pharisees tried to live as realistically and adhering to the law as close as they could but it became like a bondage and Even though they were strictly trying to observe it. They just couldn't do it So verse 13 therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me May it never be rather it was sin really the problem was our sinfulness not the law You know the law just showed us how sinful we were but the problem was always our sinfulness Rather it was sin in order that I might be shown to be sin By affecting my death through that which is good the law was good so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful so we really Were it was illustrated to us it was revealed to us how sinful of beings we were and not living up to the law verse 14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am a flesh sold into bondage. There's the bondage again the bondage to sin without Jesus. We're really in bondage to sin without Jesus for for what I am doing I Do not understand For I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing. I hate see so this was what I referred to at the beginning of this Podcast that Paul is talking now first person. I'm doing the very thing. I hate is he really talking about What it's like now to be born again and have Christ or is he talking about his past? And that's subject to debate. I'm gonna share with you a Perspective that I believe comes from this as we get into it later in this chapter But if I do the very thing I do not want to do I agree with the law confessing that the law is good So now no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me It's kind of interesting Paul almost like separates himself. He's like I want to do good But really it's this sin in me that just keeps doing bad For I know that nothing good dwells in me that is in my flesh for the willing is present in me But the doing of the good is not so you know Paul's like, you know, I really do want to do good But I just can't seem to do it Plush just seems to get in the way for the good that I want I do not do but I Practice the very evil that I do not want so that's interesting again It's Paul talking about current or past, but if I am doing the very thing I do not want I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. He's like that's our fleshly evil nature That's really acting up and having us participate in that sinfulness I find then verse 21 the principle that evil is present in me the one who wants to do good Evil just seems to be present in me even though I want to do good For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, and he was he was a zealous follower of the law But I see a different law in the members of my body Waging war against the law of my mind and making me up there it is again making me a prisoner of the law of sin Which is in my members and he's saying prior to Christ When I was trying to follow the law. I was like a prisoner to the law and a prisoner to my flesh I couldn't seem to overcome and then he says this wretched man that I am now He's saying that first person isn't he who will set me free from the body of this death? So now he's talking about being set free. There's the freedom again Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord, so then on the one hand I find On the one hand I myself with my mind. I'm serving the law of God, but I'm the on the other With my flesh the law of sin Alright, so Paul has said an awful lot beautiful words. Here's what I My perspective on this as far as is Paul talking about current past and I think it's a little bit of both, but let me explain Prior to being born again in the spirit now. I need to remember now all these words regarding prisoner and freedom and What were some of the other set me free? I was a prisoner of the law. He talked earlier about being released from the law Here's the thing when we now and we didn't live that way although like meaning under the law I didn't grow up a Jew living under the law, but I did grow up an unbeliever and Similar in some ways in that when We did not have Christ at that time we were in bondage to our sin and We did not and could not live up to God. We needed the power of the Holy Spirit to help enable us to live for God and That's what Paul's talking about. He's talking about I just couldn't do it I was in bondage to this law evil was in me flesh was having its way now When we've come to Christ and we've become born again We've been set free from that power that we could not break free from So before the chains were on us to live according to the flesh and even if I want to do good I just could not escape this prison of my flesh in prison of my sin But now what he's saying is this in Christ Jesus by becoming born again And by having the Holy Spirit those bondage that bondage has been broken I've been set free from that cell. I now with the power of the Holy Spirit Can overcome my sinful nature can overcome the flesh and I can live to bear fruit for God And I can do good and live to serve God because it says thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord who set me free See we've been set free. It no longer has to control us We now have the power to overcome now. This is interesting though. So what am I saying? This does not mean that we don't have a flesh This does not mean that we don't have any evil in our nature. This does not mean that I Won't sin or I won't make a mistake the differences is now through the power of the Holy Spirit Which is going to be talked about Significantly in the next chapter in chapter 8. I am no longer in bondage. I no longer have to be in bondage to that sin I no longer Empowerless to overcome that sin so the chains in the prison that I was in in living Under the flesh and under the law and in sin has been broken. I've been released I've been set free. I've been empowered on high now That doesn't mean I can't get back into Living an incorrect way, but shame on me really because the power is available to me to have the victory and to live a godly life to live a spiritually empowered life I Now have the power to overcome and can live rightly by God now. Can you do it? every day seven days a week, you know 30 or 31 days a month three hundred and sixty five days a year well I would say no you're not gonna live perfectly for the rest of your life but in theory if you stayed if I stayed in connection with the power of the Holy Spirit and I had I set my mind on Jesus Which is what we'll talk about in the next chapter and I did it constantly moment by moment Then there would be the power within me to live a life free of sin, but in my humanness it's Difficult and challenging for me to every moment Live by the spirit if we were living by the spirit every moment We probably could but how it's hard for us to live by the spirit every moment that but the difference is Listen, here's the thing. Let's say you're struggling with a sin I want you to know with the power of Jesus Christ living in you you have the power to overcome that in Jesus name You don't have to live in bondage. You should not be living in bondage to sin sin will It's it will rear its ugly head. We will sometimes act out and do something stupid or our mouths might get ahead of us or We we can and still can sin right but we don't have to just be in bondage that way in prison to it where it's just defeating us because we now have the power of the Holy Spirit we've been set free from that bondage and Hallelujah Thank who will set me free from the body of this death Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord and now in the next chapter and you know This this happens quite a bit in the book of Romans It's like it's not complete the book of the whole book is complete But not every chapter is complete, you know and and and now Paul's gonna tell us the solution of how we can live This victorious life in the spirit and that's gonna come in the next chapter But I want you to know as we close you've been set free from the power of sin and death You've been unable to live in the new way in the newness of the spirit through Jesus Christ our Lord and Thank you for listening. Thank you for being in the word of God now Let's make sure that it's not the word without the spirit, but the sword of the spirit is the word of God Let's make sure we are connecting to and walking in that spirit so that we're not living in bondage to sin anymore Hallelujah. Thank you Jesus for helping us to rise above. God bless you all [BLANK_AUDIO]