Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / Romans

Romans 7:1-12

INTRO:  One warm spring evening in may 1998, Christopher Sercy was playing basketball with a few friends half a block from Ravenswood Hospital. Three gang members shot young Sercy in the abdomen. His friends carried him to within 30 feet of the hospital and ran inside for help. The emergency room personnel refused to go outside to assist the dying boy citing a policy that only allows them to help those who are inside the hospital.
         The boys called for nearby police to help their friend. When the officers arrived on the scene they proceeded to call for an ambulance, but refused to carry the boy inside. While passersby pled with the officers to get the boy into the hospital, he lay in a pool of blood unconscious. When, after several minutes, the ambulance had not yet arrived, the police gave in and carried Sercy into the emergency room. By then, nothing could be done to save his life. As is often true, when we legalistically insist on holding to the letter of the law, the needs of others are overlooked.  The pharisaical legalism pictured in the Gospels is alive and well and as a result, a 15-year-old boy in Chicago is not.

          Jesus said. "Woe to you teachers of the law, you hypocrites. You give a tenth ... but you have neglected the more important matters of the law--justice, mercy, and faithfulness."

EXP:The church in Rome was made up of both Gentile and Jewish Believers. But here, in our text, Paul speaks directly  to the Jewish Believers by calling them 'those who know the Law'. Paul knew their background, it was like his.  To a Jew, even  many Jewish Believers, following the Law, to the letter,  was the driving force in their lives. It was their understanding of how to please God and obtain eternal life. Following the letter of the law is not limited to the early Jewish Believers or to the people in the story I read. It happens in the church today.

ILL: Before you can become a member in some churches you have to sign a document, a covenant of right behavior. Covenants  like this state that you will not smoke, drink, play cards, go to movies or to the theater. You will not dance, even with your wife or listen to rock music. Women will not wear slacks to church and men will wear ties. You will adhere to the doctrinal positions of the church and will not raise controversy by talking about dissenting doctrines. They are told that keeping this covenant will help them grow in holiness by separating them from the world .

         In Romans 6:14, Paul said that we are no longer under the Law but under Grace. He is talking to  Believers who have burdened themselves with the duty of adhering to a strict set of rules and regulations with the hope of pleasing God by their efforts. He was addressing Believers still living under the law.

TRANS: Paul has explained the difference between living under the Law and living under grace by using the illustrations of new life in Christ and in serving a new master both in chapter 6. In chapter 7 he uses the analogy of marriage.

I. Two Husbands : Two Bonds (Rom. 7:1-6)
    A. First Husband: Adam.  First Bond: The Law.

           First, Paul is not giving  a full explanation of marriage here. He is only using one aspect of the marriage relationship to illustrate his point about the Believer and the law.

           Second, I could spend the next couple hours trying to give you all the possible explanations of what this marriage analogy means. I won't. Instead I will give you my picture on what Paul is saying. To do that I need to extend the marriage analogy.

         Imagine what it would be like being married  all your life to someone who is a perfectionist. One who gives you a list of things to do and you must do them each day thoroughly and perfectly. No half hearted jobs. No excuses will be accepted  for failure.You wake up each morning knowing you will fail in your daily list of impossible tasks and then face the condemnation of your Perfect husband.  On top of all that  the Law says that you are bound to that person for as long as they live. It is no surprise that you would lash out  under the pressure in anger or fear. You will do wrong just to assert your independence and to rebel against him.  Making your situation even worse.

         Back to the text. Let me see if I can break this analogy down. The husband represents Adam. Remember before Christ we were 'In Adam' Paul already told us that. We are the Bride. That which binds this husband and wife together is the Law; the torah, the 10 commandments, the covenants signed in some churches.

         That is why Joshua in 1:8 tells the people to do the Law, be obedient to every command of God. That's all they had. They were 'in Adam' married/bound to him by the Law. So they had to work to be approved by God....How did they do? They failed miserably. A covenant of works..doesn't work if you aim is to be righteous and pleasing to God.

    B. Second Husband: Christ. Second Bond: The Spirit

        In the analogy Paul gives, it is the husband  who dies, freeing the wife to marry another. Paul explains that the bride dies also, (vs 4) to her husband, yes, but more importantly to that which bound her to her former husband, the Law. Because the law can not be enforced on the dead.  But who or what really dies here? That which was married to Adam and bound by the law. (Rom. 6:6) When our 'old self' dies so does our identification in Adam, our tie to the Law and our slavery to sin.

         With our death comes the freedom to remarry, according to the text. And  who is our new husband? Jesus.  We said our vows to be His loving bride when we placed our lives at Calvary and accepted Christ's death as our own. Being 'In Christ'  means that we are now married to Him.

         And the bond that unites us in marriage is the indwelling Holy Spirit. It is this bond that enables us to be devoted to Christ and obedient to God's Word. This bond can never be broken because it is a bond held together not by our desire but by God's promise. According to the text, our relationship with our new husband is to be marked by godly fruit produced by 'newness of the Spirit'. You see, the Law, did not provide a way to help us obey it or pardon us when we break it. We were told to keep it or die.

         But Now, v. 6 tells us, we have help because we are under grace. The help is the very thing that binds us together, the Spirit. We now desire to keep the Law out of love empowered by the Spirit. The Law is no longer an external code to follow but and internal attitude to nurture through the Spirit. It is no longer something to rebel against but something to embrace.

TRANS: Paul asks the obvious question in verses 7-12. Then why the Law?

II. Two Discoveries : One Result (Rom. 7:7-12)
 Paul makes two discovers about the Law.
    A. The Law revealed sin in my life.

         Paul  said before he knew and understood the law he was fine, happy, alive, but when he came to understand it, personally, he saw that he was a sinner. Paul discovered that the purpose of the Law was to reveal our sinfulness. And that was a good thing.

    B. Sin took advantage of the Law.

         Because the Law gave no help to those who wished to obey, sin took advantage of this and caused us to sin all the more. Satan knew that we have a problem with authority so he uses the Law against us.

ILL: Prohibition or telling us we can't do something tends to awaken our rebellious nature, doesn't it?

         Ever notice the 'Do Not Park Fire Lane' signs at K-mart and other stores? There are often many of them lined up in front of the buildings. But what else do you find line us in front of the buildings...parked cars. How about signs that say 'keep off the grass' and how many will stop and just have to walk on the grass just because the sign said we couldn't.  And children are great for this...Don't touch that. OK so they go all around it but never touch it, just being rebellious.

         Sin, knowing our dislike for authority, uses the law to assert our independence. Leading to further sin.

   C. The result of his discoveries?
        The result of all this is that  holy and just as the Law is, our sinfulness causes us to rebel against it's authority over us and sin all the more.

Conclusion

KEY:
        To be 'under the law' means that we do something for God.
        To be 'under Grace' means that God does something for us.

         You see, following a set of do's and don'ts, the law as Paul states, is really  living under a covenant of works. But life in and marriage to Jesus brings us into a covenant of Grace. The OT Law says, 'This do and you shall live'. It shows that life is available only when the 'doing' is being done. Don't do and you are do-do.  Believers living under the Law are trying to be holy by strict adherence to a list of do's and don'ts. When you do this your focus is on your behavior.

         Righteousness comes by living under grace. And acknowledging what God is doing in and thru your life. When this happens your focus is on  God, His grace and indwelling Holy Spirit. Paul, in this text, is telling us that our focus is  misplaced.

Our focus should be on being In Christ and not doing for Christ.

Our focus should be on the 'Spirit's activity' in our lives. And not on our behavior meant to please God.

Our focus should be on being filled with the Spirit. And not on being good enough to gain eternal life.

Paul is saying life in Christ is a matter of His Spirit in us. Are you united to Christ in Marriage? Are you bound to Him by His indwelling Spirit? Then trust in the Spirit's ability to keep the bond between you and Christ strong and allow Him to help you walk in newness of the Spirit.

         BY the way, Ravenwood Hospital in Chicago after the incident I read earlier, realized their priorities were misplaced. So they changed their policy on helping people. They regained a proper focus...the patient.
 How about you?  Where is your focus?