GOD'S GREAT NEWS for MAN'S GREAT PROBLEM - Romans 1-8

The Law of Moses

The Ten Commandments are these: "Then God spoke all these words, saying, 'I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generation of those who hate Me, but showing loyal love to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and made it holy. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your brother. You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.'"

Having just heard the Law read, ask yourself what you're thinking and feeling right now. Most of us have an uncomfortable relationship with this great Law of Moses. Are we held accountable under the Law? If not, should we totally disregard the Law because we are not under Law but under grace? Even more to the heart of the issue: does the Law help me control sin in my life? If I have a copy of the Ten Commandments on a magnet on the refrigerator, will it help me to live according to those rules? In the Book of Virtues, the Ten Commandments are included as the foundation of Western morality; they are listed as rules to follow if we wish to be virtuous. In Romans 7:1-6, Paul introduces the new life we have in freedom from law and emancipation from sin through the indwelling Holy Spirit.

We Are Released From the Law - Overview

To begin with, let me provide you with an overview of this passage. Paul begins in vs. 1 by telling us that the Law of Moses only has jurisdiction over a man as long as he lives. Then he illustrates how this holds true with the law of marriage contained in the Torah in vs. 2, 3. He applies this principle to believers in vs. 4, proving that our union in "marriage" to Christ means that we died to the Law with Him when He died on the cross. Since death is the boundary of the Law's jurisdiction, this death set us free from the Law. The Law has no hold over the believer whatsoever. Paul then contrasts our pre-Christian life under the condemnation of the Law with our newfound freedom from the Law in Christ in vs. 6. In this section of Scripture, relationship with Jesus Christ triumphs over rule-based religion.

The key to comprehending this technically challenging passage is to keep our eyes on the forest rather than losing ourselves in the trees. What has helped me in understanding Paul's thrust in this passage is to underline vs. 2 where it says "she is released from the Law," and verse 3 where it says "she is free from the Law," and highlight verse 6 where it states certainly "But now we have been released from the Law." Thus, three times in the passage the same bell of truth is rung: we are freed from the Law. This is Paul's main point.

The Jurisdiction of the Law: Only Over the Living - 7:1

Verse one begins with a third in a series of questions that introduce Paul's powerful images of our identification with Jesus Christ. He begins in 7:1 by saying "Or do you not know ...", as he did in 6:3 when introducing the image of the baptism of the Spirit and as he did in 6:16 when introducing the image of bond-slavery. Here, Paul is going to introduce the image of marriage, showing by analogy how the law of marriage demonstrates our relationship to the Law of Moses. Paul is proving to us how absolutely we are identified with Jesus Christ, by the baptism of the Holy Spirit, by our choice to become bond-slaves, and now by marriage. Paul's whole question is this, "Or do you not know, brothers, for I am speaking to those who know the Law, that the Law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives?"

The basic principle Paul puts forth with this question is that DEATH FREES US FROM ALL LAWS, or "death cancels all contracts." This is a contention that makes obvious sense: one never hears about a lawsuit brought against a corpse, nor does a trial continue once the defendant is deceased. Paul simply says that the Law exerts its power to identify and punish sin only while a man is alive. But there is no transition statement between the end of chapter six and this quizzical beginning of chapter seven. What does all this have to do with us?

The answer to that question, and the key to interpreting Rom. 7:1-4, lies in the strange little side note found here in verse one. Paul begins by saying, "I speak to those knowing the Law." What is he referring to here? Is this just a general sense of "law"? Or is it more specific, the Law of Moses, to which he refers here?

When Paul uses the term Law in this passage, he refers to the Law of Moses contained in the Torah, the heart of which is the Ten Commandments. He even specifies the Tenth Commandment in his analysis of the Law in Rom. 7:7-13. Thus, when Paul speaks to "those who know the Law," he is referring to those knowing the Law of Moses, the Torah. Paul is basing his marriage analogy on the definition of marriage expounded in the Law in Gen. 2:24: "For this cause a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they shall become one flesh." According to the Law, when a husband and wife are married, they are absolutely united. They are one flesh.

This is the way marriage works even today, even yesterday here in our church when Shawn and Li were married -- when a man and a woman became one flesh. While they lit the Unity candle, Esther sang a solo with these words:

Make of our hands, one hand; Make of our hearts, one heart.
Make of our vows, one last vow: only death will part us now.

Shawn and Li are now legally married in the state of South Carolina. I signed the license. On their tax forms, and all government forms, they are married. She is a wife, he is a husband. The law of marriage rules 'til death do them part. That is exactly what Paul is saying in verse one. But what is he getting at?

The Marriage Analogy: Explained - 7:2, 3

Verse 2 begins in a very straightforward way. The married woman is bound by the Law to the living husband, and if he dies, she is released from the Law pertaining to that husband. At the point that the husband dies, the wife dies as well, because the terms "husband" and "wife" describe that marriage relationship between two living people. When the "husband" dies, the "wife" dies as well, though the woman herself remains as a free woman to join herself to another living man if she wants to be a "wife" again. The thrust of what Paul is saying here in vs. 2 is found in the final phrase: "she has been released from the Law of the husband."

Paul expands this in vs. 3. If the wife of a living husband chooses to marry another man (and afterward be invited to appear on Oprah), she is called an adulteress. Clearly, she will have transgressed the law concerning her first marriage, in which she is the wife of a living husband. In our society, she would be a polygamist, and would be a law-breaker that way, as well as being an adulteress. However, should her original husband die, and then she marries another man, there is no problem whatsoever. She won't be called an adulteress, just simply a "wife" of a new man. Paul's logic at first seems muddy here, but it is actually very clear: as long as husband #1 lives, she is his "wife," until he dies. When husband #1 dies, she is no longer his "wife," but is now a totally free woman, free in every way from the Law that bound her to the now-deceased husband #1. If at this point, as a totally free woman, she marries husband #2, then she becomes his "wife." Obviously, this makes perfect sense, and we can see how she goes from "wife" to "woman" freed from the law of that first marriage, to "wife" again if she remarries. Death breaks the power of the law of the first marriage. That is Paul's main point here.

In fact, the little phrase in the middle of verse 3 is a good summary of what Paul is trying to prove here: "but if the husband dies, SHE IS FREE FROM THE LAW." Paul is showing us how the Law of marriage extends only until death do them part. But again, "What does all this have to do with us?"

The Marriage Analogy Applied: We Are United with Christ in Death and Life - 7:4

We can rest assured all this legalese is leading somewhere. There is a point to it, and that point is found in vs. 4. Paul ties it back to verse 1 by saying, "Therefore, my brothers, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, that we might bear fruit for God." In verse 4, Paul takes this marriage analogy and applies it to us in our identification with Jesus Christ.

Paul begins by saying "Therefore, my brothers." The term "therefore" draws a tight logical bond between the marriage example of vs. 2, 3 and the Christian. But how? In vs. 2,3, there was always one wife, and two husbands. Here in verse 4, we have to ask ourselves: who is the "wife," and who are the "husbands"?

We can easily determine who the "wife" is from verse 4: it is "you," all the believers in Rome to whom Paul was writing, and us as well. The wife is the Christian. So, when you are reading in verse 4, just know that you are the wife in the marriage analogy. But who is the husband? Many different and able Bible commentators have varying views on this. Some will say that the first husband is the "LAW," but that makes no sense whatsoever, because the Law defining the marriage has been an integral part of the analogy from the very beginning. How could the Law suddenly play two parts in the drama: the part of the Law defining marriage and the part of the husband? That is ridiculous. Some would also say that the first husband is the "flesh," or the human nature, as some call it. But, "the flesh" clearly never died to the law, or else Paul would have no cause to deal with it further in Romans 8:1-13. So, the question remains: who is the first husband, and who is the second husband?

The answer is simple: in both cases, the husband is Christ!!! The first husband is Christ in His fleshly body, who died to the Law on the cross; the second husband is the risen Christ, set free from the Law, living forever to bear fruit for God.

In our first marriage with Christ by faith as Christians, we are united with Him in the death of His body on the cross. Because He was our husband and we were his wife, when He died on that cross, we died with Him, and thus we both died to the Law. Through His great death to the Law on the cross, we then as the wife were set free from the law, and we became a free woman, a "wife" under the Law no longer. We were set free totally to belong to a different man, if we so chose. And since we chose to believe not only in the dead Christ on the cross but also in the risen Christ alive today, we have now entered a new marriage with a new husband, our risen Jesus Christ. This new marriage leads not to death, but is a marriage that is fruitful like marriage was designed to be originally in the Garden, when God said, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it." This new marriage, this new union with Christ, has a great purpose: to bear fruit for God.

Thus, Paul logically identifies us with Christ, both in His death and in His resurrection life. The impeccable logic and utter consistency of Paul's argument here in Rom. 7:4 with his argument in Rom. 6:4 is astounding!! We are united with Him in His death and His resurrection in each case, through the baptism of the Holy Spirit and through the marriage analogy.

In fact, Romans six and seven are parallel. In both chapters, the great news of God is a newsflash of freedom. Freedom from sin is a key theme in Romans chapter six, while freedom from the Law is a key theme in Romans chapter seven. In Rom. 6:2, we died to sin; in Rom. 7:4 we died to the Law. In Rom. 6:3, we died to sin through our union with Christ in His death; in Rom. 7:4 we died to the Law through our union with Christ's body broken on the cross. In Rom. 6:7 and 6:18, we have been freed from sin through our identification with Christ; in Rom. 7:6 we have been released from the Law through our identification with Christ. In Rom. 6:4 we have been identified with Christ in His death to sin and in His resurrection; in Rom 7:4 we have been identified with Christ in His death to the Law and in His resurrection. In Rom. 6:4, we walk in newness of life; in Rom. 7:6 we serve in newness of the Spirit. In Rom. 6:22, the fruit of our identity in Christ is fruit unto holiness; in Rom. 7:4 we bear fruit to God as the purpose of our new identity. Thus, both of these chapters highlight our new identity in Jesus Christ, proclaiming the freedom He brings us, freedom from sin and freedom from the Law.

Thus, through our completely new identity in Christ, we are set free from the Law!! Death cancels all contracts, and death has set us free from the Law. Since we died with Christ, we are thus set free from the Law with Him. Now, in our new identity in Him, we are joined together for the greater purpose of bearing fruit for God!!

This marriage analogy has taught us three liberating truths: 1) We are freed from the Law by dying to the Law in Christ; 2) We are united with our risen Christ in freedom from the Law; and 3) Our new union has a greater purpose than rule following: to bear fruit for God!!

Simply put: the Law no longer applies, but the relationship remains forever. It is therefore the relationship, the new life lived in oneness with our risen Christ, that is important. The Law has served its purpose, but we have died to it. The rule of Law has passed; only the eternal marriage remains. And what a marriage: an eternal bond of love, bearing eternal fruit for God!

Let me tell you a little story that reminds me of a man set free from the Law to bear fruit for God. In a small London house on Brook Street, a servant sighs with resignation as he arranges a tray full of food he assumes will not be eaten. The servant is a practical man, whose primary rule in life is to make sure his master eats three square meals a day. His master is a great, but eccentric, composer. But for more than a week, the servant has been ultimately frustrated. His master has spent hour after hour alone in his room. He has barely eaten anything, for days on end. Morning, noon and night the servant brings the meals on schedule, right according to the rules of the household. And morning, noon and night he has returned to find the bowls and platters of food largely untouched.

Finally, one day, he approaches the composer's door one more time, carrying on schedule the full platter of food. As he swings open the door to the room, the servant stops in his tracks. The startled composer, tears streaming down his face, turns to his servant and cries out, "I did think I did see all Heaven before me, and the great God Himself." George Frideric Handel had just finished writing a movement which would take its place in history as the "Hallelujah Chorus." (Story excerpted from The Spiritual Lives of Great Composers, pg. 3)

That is the contrast presented here: a man living by the rules, pounding at the door because the most important thing in his life is making sure the household rules are followed. But Handel didn't need the rules of taking meals on time when the servant wanted, because a much bigger thing was going on. He wasn't focusing on the household rules: he was enraptured with God, bearing fruit unto God that we still enjoy every time Messiah is played!

But what does this mean for us? It means something much bigger than rule-keeping is going on for us as well. It means that when I pick up the Book of Virtues and see the Ten Commandments listed in the "Responsibility" chapter, I am not crushed under the weight of that responsibility. I can know that the goal of my life is far higher than merely assuming my responsibility to follow ten rules. Those ten rules were extremely useful in defining for me the moral depravity and sin which characterized my old life to which I have died. But like every Christian, I have two biographies: one beginning at my physical birth and ending on the day of my conversion when I became a Christian and died with Christ to my old sin life and the Law defining my sin, and the new biography chronicling my eternal life in freedom from sin and freedom from the Law because of my new identity with my risen Christ. The Law was useful in my first biography, defining my sin and leading me to Christ that I might believe in Him and die with Him to sin. But now that I believe in Christ, having died with Him and having been made alive with Him to God, I am in my second biography. The Law no longer has a hold over me; it is a chapter in a different biography.

Now I have Christ living in me, the one who wrote the Ten Commandments!! Having the Author inside is far greater than reading the code written on a page and trying in my own strength to follow it. In Christ, my focus is on Him, and letting Him live out His life through me to bear fruit for God by using me. HE is my virtue; I can't read the Book of Virtues to become virtuous. Likewise, HE is my holiness; I can't read and try to apply the Ten Commandments to be holy. Rule-keeping does not translate into real holiness. It only makes for facsimile holiness, or hollow human holiness that masks the severe drudgery of rule-keeping. Real holiness comes from Jesus Christ alone, whose Holy Spirit indwells us. I need Him to live His holy life through me. Letting Him live through me and bear His perfect fruit in my life is far greater than trying to obey ten rules. I am set free from the tyranny of rule-keeping that merely serves to reveal and define my sin. I now live in liberating relationship with Christ to God, desiring with every bone in my body to let Christ live the only genuine Christian life through me. My Christian life is not about the Law; it is about the life -- the life of Christ living in and through me.

In showing what difference all this makes, I have contrasted my old biography when the Law was operative, and my new biography in freedom from the Law as I serve God in the newness of the Spirit. This is exactly what Paul does in Rom. 7:5, 6.

Contrast: Old Enslavement Under the Law, New Service in the Spirit - 7:5, 6

Paul contrasts our old life in bondage under the Law in vs. 5 to our new life in freedom from the Law in vs. 6. Verse 5 begins with a statement that describes for us our old life apart from Christ, when we were "in the flesh." This is the first important introduction of the term "flesh" in Romans. The word has appeared five times before in the book, but never in quite the same way as it appears here and hereafter in the rest of chapter seven and chapter eight. Now, we have all heard of the "flesh," but can anyone really define what it is?

Most Christians speak of the "flesh" as the "old nature." But when Paul uses this term, he is usually speaking in general reference to what is human, or what is done by human means. Thus, we can define "flesh" as follows: the flesh is our human self-effort apart from God. It is thus aligned with the false self-sufficiency and self-centeredness of sin, but differs from sin because sin works through the flesh, i.e. through our human self-effort apart from God. It is this unholy, unhealthy relationship between the flesh, sin and the Law that Paul describes for us in vs. 5: "For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in our members to bear fruit to death."

What a desperate portrait of human life without God! While we were in sin, stubbornly telling God "I DON'T NEED YOU," we were trying to do everything in our lives through human self-effort. We worked hard, we lost sleep at nights, we did this, we did that, in a very busy way. But all that self-effort produced nothing but spiritual death. The voice of the flesh says, "I CAN DO IT." Not Christ, but I.

But even that is not the worst side of the flesh. The worst side of the flesh is religious flesh. This is when we do religious things, we say religious words, we act piously, but it is all our human self-effort done without God, but done to please God our way. Isaiah calls "our righteousness," i.e. fleshly self-effort righteousness, "filthy rags." But the dangerous aspect of religious flesh is that it seems like we are doing what is right, thus we become proud of ourselves. And this pride is poison. The fruit from human self-effort is poisonous unto death.

What a striking and concise indictment of all human effort apart from God!! Ironically, when we assert our supposed independence from God by relying on our human effort alone, we do not find independence. Rather, we find ourselves completely overrun by the sinful passions at work in us, and the only fruit we bear results in spiritual death.

In terms of Paul's argument here, the Law before Christ had got us by the throat. This verse shows for us the symbiotic relationship between the sinful passions, which are "passions unto suffering," and the Law. These sinful passions seem to grow from, and are more clearly seen, in light of the Law. Given the rebel heart within each of us, the Law trips off these sinful passions, but the end result is death.

I remember watching a television documentary about a very unfortunate young man in California. He was about seventeen, he was very intelligent and reasonably good-looking. He looked like the neighbor kid down the block. But he was telling a sad story to the interviewer. He was not a drug user, but a friend of his was. The friend asked him to take a little baggy full of marijuana to some mutual friends in another town. The amount of the drug was miniscule, and it seemed like no big deal. In fact, it was kind of cool, because it was against the law to possess the drug in any quantity. This young man started on his journey, but got caught by police. He was thrown in prison for ten years without possibility of parole, for drug trafficking. This is the way the Law works: it entices our rebel flesh to break the rules, but once one infraction is made, the whole weight of the Law comes crashing down with awesome consequences. And with the Law of Moses, the consequences are death.

By contrast, let's look at what verse 6 tells us about our new life in Christ, in which we are set free from the Law. Verse 6 begins with a contrast in time, "But now we have been released from the Law..." This is great news in regards to the Law for the Christian: we have been released from the Law. We have been released from the Law because we have died to the Law that bound us. This is what Paul reviewed for us in the marriage analogy and in vs. 4 specifically. The verb at the end of this phrase means "we were bound, we were suppressed, we were holding it down, we were confined by it." The Law is thus pictured as a penitentiary, from which we needed to be released.

Even more pointedly, exactly what are we released from when we are freed from the Law? We are released from the condemnation of the Law: a certain death sentence. The Law is like a prison, and the condemnation is the death sentence that put us on death row in the prison. But when we are released from the Law, we are released from both the prison and the death sentence. So, when we feel uncomfortable when the Law is read, we need feel uncomfortable no longer. In Christ, we are released from the certain condemnation of the Law.

But when we are released, what life are we released to? We are released "so that we serve." The verb "to serve" here is the verbal form of the noun doulos, or bond-slave. Thus, an even more literal rendering might be "so that we serve as bond-slaves," i.e. that we serve in willing, lifelong obedience, as bond-slaves. But how do we serve this way? We know we couldn't fulfill the Law, and are totally condemned by it. How could we ever hope to be faithful to a lifelong commitment of faithful servanthood as a bond-slave for life? Something had better be different!

We serve Christ as bond-slaves only because we have a new power by whom we serve. Paul says we serve as bond-slaves "in newness of [the] Spirit and not in oldness of [the] letter." Here is the contrast between who we are now in the Spirit and who we were before in the flesh. In the flesh, we can only serve God in oldness, according to the letter, according only to our grossly limited power through our human self-effort apart from God. We try to boil down the whole magnificent Law of God into a few external precepts (like "All you need to do is attend church regularly each Sunday," or "Just make sure you are tithing your 10% regularly," or "A Christian is someone who doesn't smoke, drink or chew or go with those who do."). Living by the self-effort of the flesh hamstrings the Spirit and makes Christianity an ancient religion rather than a vibrant relationship.

But in the Spirit we serve Him in the newness of the resurrection power and life of Christ Jesus ... a service which is new because the old marriage has ended in death and the Law which bound us in that old marriage no longer subjects us. Through His death we have been freed from it!!! Thus, newness comes only through the Spirit, while oldness always comes through the letter, the external rule.

I see this illustrated all around me. Just yesterday at Shawn and Li's wedding, I read to them and to the audience Ephesians 5:18-33, the great marriage passage in the New Testament. That passage bases marriage on both parties being filled with the Holy Spirit, both parties having a heart of yielding in love to one another, the wife to the husband and the husband to the wife. That passage also defines the man as head over the wife, and calls the husband to love his wife. I looked at Shawn and said, "Shawn: love your wife." That is the essence of marriage for a man. But, Shawn and Li are still not yet Christians. They are seekers, full of integrity in seeking Him, and they are reading some materials I gave them to help them sort out some of their questions. So, I told Shawn to love his wife, fully knowing that he cannot do what I asked him to do until he is filled with the Spirit of God, until the self-sacrificial love of Jesus Christ fills him and flows through him to his wife. The Christian life simply cannot be lived without the Spirit of Christ inside. It takes the Spirit of Christ to make a Christian: anything else is a cheap human imitation. My prayer is that Shawn and Li will come to Jesus Christ, invite His Spirit to come and live inside them, and then their marriage will become what it is supposed to be: a living picture of an even greater marriage, the marriage of Christ to the believer.

I see this illustrated also in the lives of two men I know. One of them, a friend of mine who is a pastor in California, was commuting on the train one day. He was a devout Christian, and he used his time on the train as his quiet time. One day sitting on the train, he was reading the book of Romans. Suddenly it hit him: IT'S NOT UP TO ME!! He had been devout, he had been trying his best, he had been touting the Ten Commandments. But something was missing: the Spirit doing it through him!! He left that train a new man, and to this day 30 years later, he is still one of the most excited Christians I know.

The same holds true in the life of a man I had lunch with the other day at Pelham Palace. He told me about his life. For his entire life here in South Carolina, he had been a model Christian. He called himself a "3 and 10 Christian," meaning he went to church 3 times a week (twice on Sunday and once on Wednesday night), and tithed 10%. But then he started to feel the dull monotony of his life. It was all too rote, too routine. He and another friend got together as prayer partners, figuring they were missing something. Indeed they were: they were missing the life. The life of Christ. Then those two men found Ian Thomas' book The Saving Life of Christ, they read it, and they discovered they were missing Christ Himself living in them, wanting to live His Christian life through them if they would only let Him!! So, they quit living by the numbers, the 3 and 10, and started living by the Spirit. And talk about fruit in their lives: one of the men pledged that by the end of his life, he hoped to give $1,000,000 dollars to Campus Crusade for Christ. That number far exceeded his annual 10%. God graced him by allowing him to reach that goal in about five years. I then realized I had heard about this man and his story back in California! Oh the fruit from the life of Christ, far outstripping our best in the flesh!

Conclusion: It's Not Up to Me ... It's Up to the Spirit

Let me close by applying all this to each of us. From now on, whenever the Law of Moses is read, you can THANK GOD!! In your new identity in Christ, you are set free from the Law, liberated from the certain condemnation it would bring because you could never fulfill it. But does that mean we can swing the pendulum the other way, and just do as we please? Let it never be!!

Rather, our focus is now different. So, we focus not on the rules, but on FOLLOWING THE SPIRIT INTO THE NEW LIFE CHRIST WANTS TO LIVE THROUGH US. Curiously enough, when we do this, we find ourselves in Rom. 8:4: "in order that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit." This is where Paul's logic comes full circle: by following the Spirit, we find ourselves fulfilling the Law anyhow. But by trying to fulfill the Law in our own effort, we fall short every time. Thus, as with everything in the practical outworking of the Christian life, living by the Spirit is the key. It's not up to me; it's up to the Spirit.

This transition from living the Christian life by the numbers, or by the weekly rules, to a moment-by-moment joy of following Christ is the watershed issue in the Christian life. Ask yourself if you feel bored and imprisoned by your Christian life: if so, you are living by the flesh, still trying to follow the rules. But when you follow the Spirit and not the rules, you discover the adventure of the Christian life. And you discover real fruitfulness. That is when your Christianity becomes exciting. May all of us invite His Spirit to live inside us, and may we know the excitement of His adventurous life!!

INTRO: Larry reads Ex. 20:1-17. What are you thinking/feeling? Uncomfortable ... Are we held accountable under the Law? If not, should we totally disregard the Law because we are not under Law but under grace? Even more to the heart of the issue: does the Law help me control sin in my life? If I have a copy of the Ten Commandments on a magnet on the refrigerator, will it help me to live according to those rules? In the Book of Virtues, the Ten Commandments are included as the foundation of Western morality; they are listed as rules to follow if we wish to be virtuous. In Romans 7:1-6, Paul introduces the new life we have in freedom from law and emancipation from sin through the Spirit.

We Are Released From the Law - Overview

- READ, overview. Technically challenging: forest, not trees. Underline 2, 3, 6.

The Jurisdiction of the Law: Only Over the Living - 7:1

- V. 1: third question in series of IDENTIFICATION images. Read whole verse.

- The basic principle: DEATH FREES US FROM ALL LAWS, or "death cancels all contracts." Limited jurisdiction. No transition to this weird statement. What does?

- The answer to that question, and the key to interpreting Rom. 7:1-4, lies in the strange little side note found here in verse one... Law is Torah ... Gen. 2:24.

- ILLUS: Shawn and Li. Esther's solo: Make of our hands, one hand; Make of our hearts, one heart. Make of our vows, one last vow: only death will part us now. The law of marriage rules until death do them part. But what is he getting at?

The Marriage Analogy: Explained - 7:2, 3

- Verse 2: "husband" dies, the "wife" dies as well, though the woman herself remains as a free woman to join herself to another living man if she wants to be a "wife" again: "she has been released from the Law of the husband."

- Paul expands this in vs. 3. If the wife of a living husband chooses to marry another man (and afterward be invited to appear on Oprah), explain ... Death breaks the power of the law of the first marriage. SHE IS FREE FROM THE LAW." Paul is showing us how the Law of marriage extends only until death do them part. But again, "What does all this have to do with us?"

The Marriage Analogy Applied: We Are United with Christ in Death and Life - 7:4

- Lagalese applied to us in vs. 4. Read vs. 4. Who is wife, who are two husbands? Wife is Christian, husband in both cases is Christ (not the Law, not the flesh ...)

- New marriage remains: like Gen. 1, bearing fruit for God ... spiritual fruit.

- Logic of chapter 6:4, and 7:4. Tight parallel: both speak of freedom. Parallel 6:2, 7:4: we died. 6:3, 7:4: died through Christ. 6:7, 6:18 and 7:6: freed from sin, freed from Law. 6:4 and 7:4: identified with Christ. 6:4, 7:6 newness of life/Spirit.

- 3 liberating truths: 1) We are freed from the Law by dying to the Law in Christ

2) We are united with our risen Christ in freedom from the Law

3) Our new union has a greater purpose than rule following: to bear fruit for God!!

- ILLUS: Servant and eccentric composer. Handel said: "I did think I did see all Heaven before me, and the great God Himself." George Frideric Handel had just finished writing a movement which would take its place in history as the "Hallelujah Chorus." That is the contrast presented here: a man living by the rules, pounding at the door because the most important thing in his life is making sure the household rules are followed. But Handel didn't need the rules of taking meals on time when the servant wanted, because a much bigger thing was going on. He wasn't focusing on the household rules: he was enraptured with God, bearing fruit unto God that we still enjoy every time Messiah is played!

- But what does this mean for us? It means something much bigger than rule-keeping is going on for us as well. It means that when I pick up the Book of Virtues and see the Ten Commandments listed in the "Responsibility" chapter, I am not crushed. I can know that the goal of my life is far higher than merely assuming my responsibility to follow ten rules. Those ten rules were extremely useful in defining for me the moral depravity and sin which characterized my old life to which I have died. But like every Christian, I have two biographies: The Law no longer has a hold over me; it is a chapter in a different biography.

- Now I have Christ living in me, the one who wrote the Ten Commandments!! Having the Author inside is far greater than reading the code written on a page and trying in my own strength to follow it. In Christ, my focus is on Him, and letting Him live out His life through me to bear fruit for God by using me. HE is my virtue; I can't read the Book of Virtues to become virtuous. Likewise, HE is my holiness; I can't read and try to apply the Ten Commandments to be holy. Rule-keeping does not translate into real holiness. It only makes for facsimile holiness, or hollow human holiness that masks the severe drudgery of rule-keeping. Real holiness comes from Jesus Christ alone, whose Holy Spirit indwells us. I need Him to live His holy life through me. My Christian life is not about the Law; it is about the life -- the life of Christ living in and through me.

- Contrast: two biographies. 7:5, 6

Contrast: Old Enslavement Under the Law, New Service in the Spirit - 7:5, 6

- Read 5, 6: define flesh. Not old nature, our human self-effort apart from God. Vs. 5 is indictment of life without the Spirit: may look good, but watch out!! These sinful passions seem to grow from, and are more clearly seen, in light of the Law. Given the rebel heart, the Law trips off these sinful passions, but the end is death.

- Illus: Young man in Calif. - non-druggy - kind of cool to take baggy of marijuana. Law entices, then crushes: 10 years for drug trafficking.

- By contrast, let's look at what verse 6 tells us about our new life in Christ, in which we are set free from the Law. Verse 6 begins with a contrast in time, "But now we have been released from the Law..." We are released from the condemnation of the Law: a certain death sentence. The Law is like a prison, and the condemnation is the death sentence that put us on death row in the prison. But when we are released, what life are we released to? We are released "so that we serve." The verb "to serve" here is the verbal form of the noun doulos, or bond-slave. But how do we serve this way? We know we couldn't fulfill the Law, and are totally condemned by it. How could we ever hope to be faithful to a lifelong commitment of faithful servanthood as a bond-slave for life? Something had better be different!

- We serve Christ as bond-slaves only because we have a new power by whom we serve. Paul says we serve as bond-slaves "in newness of [the] Spirit and not in oldness of [the] letter." Here is the contrast between who we are now in the Spirit and who we were before in the flesh. In the flesh, we can only serve God in oldness, according to the letter, according only to our grossly limited power through our human self-effort apart from God. We try to boil down the whole magnificent Law of God into a few external precepts (like "All you need to do is attend church regularly each Sunday," or "Just make sure you are tithing your 10% regularly," or "A Christian is someone who doesn't smoke, drink or chew or go with those who do."). Living by the self-effort of the flesh hamstrings the Spirit and makes Christianity an ancient religion rather than a vibrant relationship. I see this illus. all around me.

- ILLUS: Shawn and Li: Eph. 5:18-33. "Shawn, love your wife." He can't do it ... until the Spirit.

- ILLUS: Two Men: Rich on train. Reading Romans: IT'S NOT UP TO ME. 30 years later, excited!

- ILLUS: A man at Pelham Palace ... 3 and 10 ... boredom, something missing ... LIFE!! $1 mill. to CCC

Conclusion: It's Not Up to Me ... It's Up to the Spirit

- Whenever the Law of Moses is read, you can THANK GOD!! But does that mean we can swing the pendulum the other way, and just do as we please? Let it never be!!! Rather, our focus is now different. So, we focus not on the rules, but on FOLLOWING THE SPIRIT INTO THE NEW LIFE CHRIST WANTS TO LIVE THROUGH US. Curiously enough, when we do this, we find ourselves in Rom. 8:4: "in order that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit." It's not up to me; it's up to the Spirit.

- Watershed issue of Christian life: boredom, rote rule-keeping, or living relationship unto excitement!!

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