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| I am moving my site to a new screename.
here
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| I thank God for my roomates.
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| since I don't have time to post anything. here are my notes on Romans 7.
ROMANS 7 Pt.1 (vv.1-13)
I. Context
We begin this chapter having come out of a discussion on how grace is
not a license to Sin. As you remember Ch. 5 ends with a statement
on how grace abounds when there is an increase of sin. Chapter 6
is a defense for grace. It answers back that Grace is intertwined
with our Salvation and Sanctification. So if you have Grace you
must have salvation and Sanctification as well. You cannot
attempt to hold on to both Grace and Sin. It’s all or nothing.
Now that Grace has been defended we come to the Law. Ch. 7 is a
defense for the Law. This defense is set in stark relief to Paul’s
previous statements about the Law. Consider:
∑ Romans 3:20, "By the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in
His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin."
∑ Romans 3:21, "But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested."
∑ Romans 3:28, "We maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law."
∑ Romans 4:13-14, "The promise to Abraham . . . was not through the
Law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if those who are of
the Law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise is nullified."
∑ Romans 5:20, "The Law came in so that the transgression would increase."
∑ Romans 6:14, "For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace."
∑ Romans 7:4, "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 was raised from the dead." In other words – and we say it
with trembling care – the Law bars us from marrying Christ. Only death
to the Law can free us from the Law to belong to Christ.
∑ Romans 7:5, "For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions,
which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body
to bear fruit for death."
∑ Romans 7:6 "We have been released from the Law, having died to that
by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and
not in oldness of the letter." The Law hinders life in the Spirit. You
must be released from it, "so that you may serve in the newness of the
Spirit.
Those are heavy things to say about the Law of God, even for an
inspired Apostle. But he has said them and now the listener is
asking, if the Law causes so much trouble, is the Law sin?
II. The Law’s limited reach
The beginning of the defense introduces the ending point of the
Law. Chapter 6 has just told us that we are no longer under Law
but under grace and furthermore we are told in verse 4 that we have
even died to the Law. That is, the Law no longer condemns us
because the punishment, which is death, has been paid upon Christ, so
now we are considered as dead to the Law.
III. Bearing Fruit Made Possible
And because we are dead to the Law we can now bear fruit for God.
Consider that. Before being joined to Christ in his death and
resurrection you were not able to bear fruit for God. All that
you did was sin, all the fruit you bore resulted in shame. But
now through Christ we bear fruits which are presentable to God.
And it was for this very purpose; to bear fruit that God caused us to die to the Law.
IV. Death to the Law leads to Death to Sin:
How does it work? In Romans 6, we observed how there were two types of
karpo/ß that could be produced, one type which was produced by the
slave of sin and the other type which was produced by the slave of
God. The slave of Sin must produce sinful fruit, but the slave of
God must produce acceptable fruits to God. Therefore for us to bear
fruit for God, we had to be freed from our sin. We cannot be
slaves to Sin and bear fruit for God. Being chained down by the
fetters of Sin, we were simply not able.
So the Law at one time bound us in our sin but God freed us from our
sin by uniting us with Christ, causing our old selves to be put to
death on the cross as we observed in the previous Chapter.
The law aroused our sinful passions but the Spirit leads us into
obedience. If we serve the Law sin is our Master and we are slaves of
sin BUT if we serve in the Spirit under the umbrella of God’s grace,
Christ is our Master and we are slaves of righteousness.
V. The Law is good and NOT sin!
Okay, so if the Law aroused our sinful passions, is the Law sin
too? No! the answer is the strongest negative in Greek.
Here begins the defense as to why the Law is good.
The primary reason Paul gives for why the Law is good is this: If it
were not for the Law we would be ignorant of our offenses before
God. Sin is not defined by conscience alone but by Truth.
That means there are millions of men and women today who are sinning
against the Lord Almighty who do not know that they are committing a
eternally punishable offense. We need to be aware of our
sins. You need to be aware of your sins.
VII. BUT SIN. (The Law was not made for this)
The goodness of the Law is interrupted by the entrance of Sin.
Sin took the Law and used it for its own purposes, to increase
sin.
Just for convenience sake let’s name Sin with a big S as Sinful
Condition (total depravity, absolute corruption) and sin with a little
s as sinful product.
Our Sinful Condition took hold of the Law which was given to us to
guard our life and used it against us to bring our death. As John
Piper would put it, the healing scalpel of the Law was used to slash
our throats.
VIII. Life and Death
What is the difference between a man who is alive and a man who is
dead? The man who is dead lies in a tomb unable to move, unable
to speak, unable to do anything at all. The man who is alive is
able to run, to sing, to affect changes around him. I believe a
brief definition of Life is the state wherein something has the ability
to bring about some sort of causality. A living man can cause
something to happen, a ball to be thrown, a poem to be written, a race
to be run. A dead man can DO nothing.
Now apart from the Law Sin can DO nothing. So when Sin was
impotent in the grave, It could do nothing to me, so I was alive.
But when the Law came, Sin became alive because it was now able to DO
something to me. Before the establishment of the
commandment Sin had no weapon to use. But when the commandment
came, Sin reached out and took hold of it and brought it crashing down
over heads, the wall which was meant to guard us was pushed over so
that it would crush us.
IX. How does Sin do that?
Verse 8 says “for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment,
deceived me and through it killed me.” That which is for our good
is turned against us through DECEPTION. Sin kills through
Deception. When we sin we believe the lies that Sin tells
us.
Late at night when you sit in front of your computer it says, “A little
pornography won’t hurt” Or when your working the late shift in
the office, “It’s just 10 dollars, the company won’t notice it’s
gone.” Or maybe when your roommate leaves the light on at night
while you try to sleep, “It would feel really good to give your
roommate a piece of your mind right now.” Or when you are standing at
the bus stop.“It won’t be worth the trouble to preach the gospel to him”
Sin lies to us. But how does it do it through the Law?
1. “If you can’t keep the Law, why try? Why not just enjoy the sin?”
2. “You can keep the Law, if you try hard enough.”
To believe either is to "commit spiritual suicide".
X. The Sovereign Purpose of a Holy God.
And yet through it all, Our Sovereign God remains Sovereign. The
Law has been used by our Sinful Condition to produce much sinful
product but in so doing our Sinful Condition has been revealed and
displayed as UTTERLY sinful.
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| “Give me
100 men who hate nothing but sin and love God with all their hearts and I
will shake the world for Christ!” - John Wesley
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| "Just a few days ago it was reported that for every 100
babies born in New York City, 74 babies died in abortions in 2004.
There were 124,100 live births and 91,700 murders of helpless, unique
human lives at the hands of "doctors" in NYC in 2004. Face it: Saddam
Hussein didn't kill as many people in one place in one year. Their
blood cries out. "-- James R. White | | |
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