Marriage to another
Romans 7:4-6 · Bob Eckel · Oct 1, 2006
Romans (2005-07), No. 51
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492603323453

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Romans 7, 4 through 6, and I think to really introduce this adequately today in terms of where we've come from and kind of where we're going, let's get back to Romans 6, 14. I'm sorry. Yep, 6, 14. I am correct. And let's read down through Romans 7, 6. I'll go ahead and get us going here. Romans 6, 14. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you're not under the law but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we're not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.

Know ye not to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey? His servants ye are whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness. But God be thanked that whereas you were the servants of sin, you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, you became the servants of righteousness. I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh. For as you have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity, even so now yield your members servants to righteousness and to holiness. For when you were the servants of sin, you were free from righteousness.

What fruit had you then in those things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. but now being made free keep in mind 622 we're gonna look at it three times this morning but now being made free from sin and become servants to God ye have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life for the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord now chapter 7 last week we covered the first three verses know ye not brethren for I speak to them that know the law how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he lives.

For the woman who hath a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if while her husband lives she be married to another, she shall be called an adulteress. But if her husband be dead, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

Okay, today's lesson, four through six. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. For when we were in the flesh, the sinless impulses which were by the law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. But now we are delivered from the law that being dead in which we were held, that we should serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter."

What a great text we have today. Romans 7, 4 through 6 is really the mountaintop of what the Christian truth and experience is really all about. So let's now kind of dissect that, keeping in mind from once we've come in Romans 6, always an important aspect of what we're studying here. Nothing can be taken out of context. We have to frame it within the frame that that picture is framed in.

Okay, verse 4, chapter 7. This is the King James Version. Therefore, my brethren, you have also become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another. And I've titled this day's lesson, Married to Another. To him who was raised from the dead, we should bear fruit to God. Therefore, as J. Vernon McGee often says, when it says therefore, what's it there for? What's it there for?

All right, and that takes us right on back to Romans 6.22. So let's flip back to 6.22. Again, this is the first of three times we're going to look back there. And I'm using 6.22 to summarize what we began reading in 6.14.

And by the way, what we read in 6.14 began in Romans 1.1.

Remember, this is a sequence of truths that Paul has shared with us. that ultimately take us from 1 through 16. 622 says, but now being made free from sin, that doesn't mean we have no sins. It says we've been made free from sin, positionally, and become servants to God. You have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life.

That's condition. And what we're going to do a lot today is flip back and forth between position and condition. And as Jim so nicely taught about a month ago, we see this constant balance, this reflection of condition depending on position back to condition. We see ultimately who we are in the risen Lord Jesus Christ and how that should be impacting our lives on a day-to-day basis.

Remember, we sin. We all have old natures. We have the flesh still there. But before God, we're declared dead of the sin. Important truth. And I think this section so importantly looks at that. Brethren. Who are we talking about here? Who are the brethren? All believers? All believers? What about the Jews?

We're going to get into the law a lot, aren't we? Alright. I guess if you came to the point of coming to the Lord Jesus Christ in terms of salvation, then it ultimately could leave all legal systems behind, that maybe this would have no appeal to the non-Jewish believer, right? I mean, the next statement in the verse, therefore my brethren, you become dead to the law, is a positional truth that actually the Jew could understand much better, couldn't he or she? So is this directed towards the Jews?

I think primarily. We're talking in context to legal systems and the Mosaic Law will have its paramount importance in what's going to follow. However, the principles of the Mosaic Law, we're going to get into this in more detail, in addition to law systems, really is there for every believer. God calls us to one thing, the Lord Jesus Christ. and believing everything that was reflected on him and who he is in terms of empowering our lives to have our condition ultimately become reflected of our position. Let's go ahead. Error's passive indicative.

I don't want to spend a lot of time in the Greek here, but this is a done deal, right? This isn't something that we have to wait for in terms of anticipation. We're talking about here of you have become dead to the law. It doesn't say, how about becoming dead to the law? Why don't you work on leaving the law behind? That's not what the text says. The text says, we're dead to the law, period.

So this is not anything that requires any further interpretation. The term dead, in its best and most explicit translation, means to be made extinct. Another interpretation could be to be separated from, And ultimately, I like the term powerless. The law has no power, no commanding response by us as believers in terms of anything that we're doing. And of course, then the next question is, did the law die? What about this law of God that was given to Moses on Mount Sinai? Has that died? Well, let's determine which law.

Now, there are people in this room that I'm sure know a lot more about this maybe than I do. But the idea is that if there's an article before the word law in the Greek, we always interpret it as the Mosaic Law. And through further study that I've been doing, that may not always be true. In general, it is true, but not always. Jim, it reminds me of the verb gnosis or gnosco, to know. And although we generally assume that's an experiential knowledge, sometimes it does mean factual knowledge.

And I think the same thing there is true of when the term law in the Greek is preceded by the article of the law. In general, and almost always, it means the Mosaic Law. But at times it can be interpreted more broadly. And some of the Greek translations and commentators I read, in fact, did take that position.

When we talk about the Law of Moses, what are we talking about? Well, all right, so that's the first. The commandments themselves revealed in Exodus 20, 1 through 26. What else? Peter, I was sharing in the car with you this morning this Orthodox Jew that I rode from Los Angeles to Sydney with when I came to see you last year. And this guy was on to the next level.

The social life of Israel. All the judgments, if you will, of the Orthodox Jewish law is what? Is it 613 or 623? 613? It's somewhere in the 600s. He was keeping all of these This guy was living out in his life all 623 judgments or social activities that relate to the Orthodox Jewish law.

Unbelievable. I was talking to Pierre in the car this morning. We had a great conversation. I think he learned a lot about Christianity in terms of biblical Christianity and I learned a lot about what keeping law was about or not about anyway. And then the final aspects of the law of Moses are all the ordinances which really govern religious life. and these are stated all over the Old Testament. So you can spend quite a bit of time. If you've got nothing to do the rest of today, you can go ahead and look at all these passages in Exodus, all the book of Leviticus, numbers, a bunch of numbers, and get those down.

I want you to be working on these between now and next week, alright? Alright, back to the text there. It says, Wherefore, brethren, you're dead to the law by what means? by the body of Christ. What's our thoughts about by the body of Christ? Margaret's got a mind like mine.

Okay, no, Colossians 1.22.

Well, we want to use Scripture to back up our position and in Colossians 1.22 it says very clearly, "...in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy, blameless, and above reproach in his sight." How can you beat that?

I mean, it doesn't say, oh, Christ went and our sins were forgiven at the cross. No. He says by his bodily death that ultimately our position before God makes the law impotent. It has no strength, no power, no declaration to us as believers. Isn't that nice? Remember, the common belief of all Christians is that their sins have been forgiven. And ultimately, their trust that they're going to be with the Lord Jesus Christ forevermore. That's the easy parts of Christianity. Sin's forgiven. I'm OK because God's forgiven my sins. I'll be with him forevermore.

The first and third aspects of the Christian experience, right? What about living the Christian life? And that's what we're talking about here. The beginning of the Christian life is being realized that God sees us no longer in our sin. Art, question. Do you think, while we're speaking up here, I think we start with position and our condition as we grow in grace reflects increasingly our position. We have a responsibility, Art, to live the Christian life by faith. But it doesn't begin with our responding by faith to live the Christian life before we understand who we are in the risen Lord Jesus Christ. And I think again, as Jim pointed out, we have this constant to and fro between the right hand of God and our earthly experience. It seems to me that if we consider this positionally, and certainly that's what it's speaking of, but on the other hand, if we wantonly break the law, we're certainly not carrying out, or I shouldn't say carrying out, but simply because positionally we're free from the law, that doesn't wantonly grant us the right to break the law. No, and I think that that's where, you know, we're to respond by faith and that increasingly our lives are molded and, you know, modified to the nature of the Lord Jesus Christ being lived out through us.

We have a responsibility. I mean, I broke the law last night. I coveted something. I mean, is my relationship to God any different now because I did that? Do I want to covet? No, but the nature that I have in this old man makes me covet sometimes. What was that? I won't even tell you what else I was thinking about last night. Let's go around the room, okay?

So, Art, the idea here is, you know, our sin nature is still fully present. And I think sometimes as the light of the Lord Jesus Christ gets brighter, our sin nature becomes more revealing as to what it really is. I mean, I've learned things about myself in the last few months. I mean, the point is that I don't like the ugliness of the flesh, but God has declared that dead. I mean, that's a tremendous truth that we have to really substantiate ourselves in. Before Him, we are dead unto sin. Our lives are often filled with sin. Sinful thoughts, sins of omission, sins of commission.

Remember what John hated? John hated the man or woman who has lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, and the third, how about that, the pride of life? Ooh, that's a tough one, the pride of life. I mean, think about that. The pride of life is being among the great sins.

That takes into consideration much of what we are and what we do, doesn't it? But before God, those have no power. They've been removed or separated. We are dead to that. Now, does our life always reflect that? No. Because, remember, in Romans 6.6, it says, knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed. Henceforth, we should not serve sin. That destruction of the body of sin is before God. It's been put aside. It's been made non-relevant. But we're still sinners saved by grace.

And my response by faith is I increasingly know the Lord Jesus Christ and respond to His, if you will, commandments. The commandment of Christ, right? The law of Christ is a new life to allow the spirit in us to be energizing us with that life instead of our own. I mean, if the world expects the Christian never to sin, you know, the world system isn't our judge, is it? I mean, I think the neatest thing for the believer when he or she in fact does sin outwardly before the world is to ask to be forgiven. I mean, I think the world system expects too much out of the believer. But yet, our life really is a reflection of our faith in who we are positionally. Then our condition, I believe, increasingly changes to reflect who we are.

Jim? Yeah, you know, back in chapter 6, verse 15, it says that real clearly. It says, what then shall we send? because we're not under the law, but we're under grace. And then if he says, may it never be so. Here's the positional truth of no longer being under the law. But as arts bring up, does that give us the license to go out and do whatever it is that we want to do because we're under the law?

God would not have. Exactly. No way. Exactly. Not at all. You know, the idea of because we're under grace and we're positioned above, does that give us a license to go out and ignore his quote Law? No. The law is holy. That's my point here. The law hasn't died. And we're going to look at that in a little bit more detail in 7, 12, or 14. It clearly says the law is holy and good. Isn't that beautiful? Isn't that beautiful?

Because what we've done by our sin has not changed our position. It simply changed our active and ongoing fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's beautiful because we confess and move on. And that's where the Spirit's alive in our lives. I don't know, I mean, the sinful nature no longer should be enjoying that nature the way it once did, right? Because now we've been positioned above and empowered by the Spirit in the new man. And that old man keeps showing up, and I think sometimes more, because that light is brighter. and as we grow in grace, that old man and who he really is becomes more evident.

Yes? You're right, but we were... Well, point well taken. I don't disagree with you. The sin nature, however, remains. Does it not? You would agree with that. Thank you. Okay, now the reason for all this, this idea that's been brought forth and for, is that we become dead to the law. Why?

So we can be married to another. Now think about what we did last week in one through three. We simply dealt with the facts of what marriage was in the law. Marriage in the law was the fact that a man and woman are expected to be together until it says here the man dies or the woman dies and then there's a freedom to remarry. And if you're a woman and your husband's still living and you're out running around with another man, or if you're married and your wife's not dead and you're running around with another woman, that's adultery. And those are the legal terms. And I think the New Testament does nothing to refute that. Okay, but what we're using 1 to 3 to declare is ultimately what a new relationship is based on death.

And remember, the death in Romans 7.3 is the death of the spouse that now allows a freedom to marry somebody else. So what we're talking about here is the reason that we have an opportunity to be married to Christ and have a whole new relationship is because of the death of the law system. Now that doesn't mean the law is not there. The law is there, but it's no longer Relevant because why is the law there?

We're going to get to that here in a second This is the first mention in scripture of this intimate union with the Lord Jesus Christ in terms of being married to him So this is really representative of the foundation of Christian marriage and we could turn to let's turn to Ephesians 5 just for a second take a look Harry, I'm going to ask you to read a couple of those verses, if you would, please. We're not going to read this entire passage, but let's see if we can highlight this by... Let's do 24... How about 24 through 29, if you could read that, please?

But as the Church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in every kind of way. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the Church and gave himself up for her, so that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of the waters with the Myrrh, that he might present to himself the Church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that she would be holy and blameless. So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the truth.

Good. Thanks very much, Harry. Now, I was originally going to have us all read this, Romans 6, 3 through 8. We've kind of touched on Romans 6, 6 already in terms of the old nature, we being crucified with Christ. And remember, I think for those of you who are not clear on this point, at Calvary, our sins were forgiven and we were crucified with Christ. And that crucifixion took us into the grave with him, and then we're risen in newness of life. This is simply not our sins being forgiven, but the Adam nature, the old nature of being co-crucified.

Okay, so that's what's reflected in 6, 3 through 8. Donna, could you read Galatians 2, 19 and 20 for us too? So this relationship we have in terms of married to another, married to the Lord Jesus Christ, is based on multiple passages, but I just picked two to highlight this.

For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives in me. and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Okay, thanks much. That reminds us, what is the purpose of the law, the legal system? Why was the law given? And just parenthetically, you know, of this text, about two-thirds of it deals with the law, right? So why would God put such an emphasis on law?

Well, the Bible tells us, Galatians 3, 23 through 25, that before faith came, we were kept under the law, meaning we, the Jew traditionally, but I think even the Gentile under legal systems, was shut up under the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster to bring us into Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith has come, we're no longer under the schoolmaster."

Boy, isn't it neat when Scripture complements itself so beautifully? It is so wonderful to turn then to another writing of Paul, to a whole different group of believers, and to a whole different geographic area with a whole different historical background, complementing the truth that he's written to the Romans. at a different time period, at a different level of his knowledge and experience. The purpose of this marriage is that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

Aorist, active, subjunctive. By the way, aorist is not necessarily past. It can be present, typically at one point in time. Active is our role in participating, if you will. Conditional response, the condition is that we should be bringing fruit unto others. That's something God, he ultimately gives us the position to do that, but it's not a passive experience where we're not actively involved. We, in fact, are living the Christian life by faith. and subjunctive means it's a possibility we would bring fruit. Because I think the alternative is also possible, we would not bring forth fruit. But we are positioned, dead under law, that this new life and this new marriage we have under the Lord Jesus Christ would bear fruit.

Now, the question is, Romans 6.22, again, that now having been set free from sin and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness and the end everlasting life. So the next question is, Let's skip that. What is fruit? What kind of fruit are we talking about here? We had blueberries, raspberries, and pineapple for breakfast, right Margaret? We did, but I don't think that's the fruit.

Oh, okay. You studied ahead of time. Well, is this offspring? What about our children and our spouses and our relatives? Are they, in part, potentially the fruit in our lives? I don't think we can exclude that. Those people that are closest to us, in fact, as we impact their lives through the power of the Spirit, in fact, I think could be defined as part of the fruit. Because remember, fruit is ultimately that that reflects God's holiness and God's righteousness in the lives of us and those around us. So I think it's possible that the way we impact our family, in fact, could be a direct response that is defined in the definition of fruit.

The JFB commentary said, all the issues of this new life in Christian obedience. Notice in obedience. Now, what's our obedience to? We'll come back to that in a second. are regarded as the fruit of the blessed union to the risen Christ. So what's our obedience here that Jameson, Fawcett, and Brown are alluding to? It's not to the legal system, is it? What's the purpose of the legal system again? Give me one word.

How about schoolmaster? And no longer is that schoolmaster relevant. And why is the schoolmaster not relevant? Why is this Jewish colleague of mine that I rode that long flight from Los Angeles to Sydney, why is he wrong? Even though he's keeping 623 Jewish laws, so he claims, why is he wrong? What was the purpose of the schoolmaster?

Galatians 3, to bring us to Christ. Could any man keep the law before God? No. No, there are none righteous. No, not one, right? And all our righteousness in our own capability is considered by God filthy rags. God has allowed the law to be perfect and holy to convict men of their sin. And remember, the Jewish tradition is that sacrifice of a high priest that took into consideration the animal sacrifices, that perfect propitiation for the sins of the people. Inadequate, because the sacrifice of bulls and goats can never take away the sin of the world, right? Hebrew's truth. Another possibility is that the Holy Spirit's involved in this process of providing evidence of our relationship with the blessed Lord Jesus Christ. What's the fruit of the Spirit? Anybody have that memorized, Galatians 5, 22 and 23? Come on Sue, we've got to hear it now. You're on the stand. Did everybody hear that? But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control.

Against such there is no law, right? There's no law that demands this type of attitude. By the way, I think there are people in the world system who are not believers, who can demonstrate love, not in the sense that we know it, joy, gentleness. Some of the most patient people in the world are people that are so far removed from Christianity, biblical Christianity, I can't believe it.

I say, why can't I have some of that patience? Well, I don't know. But the thing is, what we're told is that we're fully acceptable to God by our belief in what's been accomplished. We all carry different personalities. And yes, impatience at times can be sinful. But yet, some of us are just intrinsically kind of patient people, and other ones are not. Is impatience a sin? Not always.

I think it's just the animations we all have are somewhat different. There's nothing sinful about having a personality. Some people are very quiet and shy, and after they get saved, they're still quiet and shy. And some people are very loquacious and very outspoken, and they're often not changed in terms of that character quality. But the issue is to whom gets the glory. We don't want to look at the fruit. We want to look at the source. So the fruit is evidence of the sort, but we don't make conclusions out of fruit. We are not fruit inspectors.

The Holy Spirit drives the life and only God can weigh the impact of our behavior. Gil, I like this. So such works only are the true and genuine fruits of righteousness, which are in consequence of a marriage relationship to Christ. These are done in faith, they spring from love, and are directed to the glory of God and all others, which are done before marriage to Christ, and without faith in Him are like spurious and illegitimate children. This is a conditional truth. This is our response. to, in fact, how we've been positioned being dead under law and alive unto the Lord Jesus Christ in marriage.

And again, this is a problem with this, putting the PowerPoint program here. The point at the bottom of the page was, and don't forget the wood, hay, and stubble of the Christian life. There are many, many, quote, things that look good that are motivated by wrong internal behavior. And this gets burnt.

Now remember, If you were here for the teaching of Hal in 2 Corinthians in terms of what these eternal rewards are all about, if you haven't seen those notes, you ought to pick them up. But nevertheless, the loss of reward due to the works that were of self-serving base really are not something that we should be preoccupied with. Yes, Wayne? have a note in my Bible under the word Mary well it's not something we try yeah I think it is, and it reminds me, Jim, that gets us back to some earlier issues about several months ago. And the issue is to what is our response to this great grace in which we live?

And I think that the concept of choice came up as to whether or not, and to some extent I think the way I can settle this best, and I haven't really talked about this too much with Jim and Roger before I'm making this statement, You know, God's will is that we would live the Christian life as we're called to do that.

I think when our will becomes consistent with His will, ultimately that becomes a life lived out without the choice. I mean, in other words, our wills merge. His will and our response to that by faith becomes one will acting out. And yes, we ultimately are in a position to need to know which way we're going, but I'm sensing that life lived is when those wills merge, that our will is consistent with Him. And then it happens. It's still a choice for allow our will by faith to move in that direction, but nevertheless, I mean, but this is an important issue, I think, in terms of the life being perceived and lived as it's ultimately called to. All right.

Now, Romans 7, 5, we got about 10 minutes to cover the next two verses, and that may be a challenge beyond the power of the Holy Spirit in this room. King James, for when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at or did work in our members to bear fruit to death. Still possible, isn't it?

And I like the amplified here. When we were living in the flesh, mere physical lives. I'm not sure I agree with that. whether the living in the flesh is simply the physical life, I think it could be the power of the fleshly nature. However, the sinful passions that were awakened and aroused by the law, which makes sin, were constantly operating in our natural powers and our bodily organs and the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh, so that we bore fruit for death. Now remember, that's amplified. This is not a direct translation, but this is a a furtherance of an attempt to try to understand the meaning of this verse. Were and did work are in perfect tense. This represents continual repeated action.

My question to you today, is this before and or after salvation? And Hal and I had a long talk about this last evening until he had an unfortunate consequence. We had to get off the phone fairly quickly. But anyways, what are your thoughts? Is this talking about the believer before he was saved or is it also possible and or is it possible that we're talking about the person who has been born again and positioned above? Everybody does not have to respond simultaneously. Donna says both. Is everybody okay with that? I mean, clearly, before you're saved, right? Before you're saved, we're in the flesh, right? I mean, yes, we're in a physical body, but the atom nature is all that we have as human citizens. So before we're saved, ultimately, those impulses, which, by the way, convicted by the law.

Remember what the law was there for? did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. Now, remember what fruit unto death, that doesn't mean that somebody didn't do a good deed for their neighbor, or for their mother, for their father, for their children. I mean, they're good deeds happening from a world system all the time. The issue is what was the source and motivation for those deeds.

So, before we're saved, there's no question before God that unless in Christ, those don't make it. But yet also, we carry that nature into the life of a believer. Each one of us didn't lose that nature. And as I mentioned before, sometimes I think it becomes a bit brighter the more we grow in grace. But anyway, I think it could mean both. Hal thought it could mean both.

I guess a little bit it relates to how you put Romans 7 in relationship with the rest of the book of Romans. And so is Romans 7 written to the unbeliever or is it written to the believer? And I happen to believe very strongly it's written to the believer. It's between 6 and 8. And to say this was written to the non-believer is really taking it out of context.

Okay, so that's that question. We've discussed it a little bit. Why is this so? Is this really fair? Think about this. For when we were in the flesh, the sinful impulses which were by the law worked in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. Is that fair? What do we think of God when we think of fairness? God fair? And a related question is, you know, is this, yeah, so God is perfectly holy and righteous.

Fairness is kind of a human concept. And I don't think we need to spend a lot of time there. But I mean, fairness is something we all in our human existence want to see applicable under all circumstances if possible. But God fairness is, I think, a term that really doesn't apply to him. I don't even relate fairness to God. God is holy, perfect, righteous, sanctified, unique. I mean, there's just nothing in the way of the earthly term that we can really come up with. Fair is what? Right, we all deserve death. That's right. That's a good perspective. Okay, is this flesh sin for just subject to sin?

And I think, you know, the term sarx in the Greek, it's just like when there's an article before law. This whole thing, I mean, sarx can be interpreted both ways here. And I think you could interpret this as simply these are the earthly bodies we carry around. And by the way, sinful impulses arise from that body simply because we're separated from God. But Sarx also is that other nature, the fleshly nature, the old man, the Adam nature. These two men, remember that we looked at carefully in Romans 4 and 5, the first man is Adam and that can be translated very freely, the flesh. So I sense that the flesh itself is sinful, and that in context is what we're talking about. But you could interpret this the other way. Why does the law have to result in fruit unto death? Well, let's look at, jump ahead for a second, Romans 7, 12 through 14. Who's got that? Read 14. Wow.

So there's no question here about the law. The law is perfectly holy and the commandments are holy. They're just and they're good. So we can't criticize the law, but it says very clearly that men are put under law to declare their sin for what it is. Thanks. It's a bright light and before salvation, as that light increases, people become aware of the fact that there's something not right here.

I got saved on July 14, 1978. When I came to a saving relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, I came to the understanding, looking for truth. I was into Eastern religions in college. One of my favorite classes was Indian history, where the study of Hinduism was kind of part of that. I never quite got into that mentally or spiritually, but I was open to all possibilities at one point. Then I saw my wife, Sharon, change over nine months. She was a woman who was totally different after she got saved than I knew before. I dated my wife since she was 13. I was 14. We dated for seven years. Seven-year relationship. I never dated anybody else, so I dated Margaret, basically, other than my first wife. And so that's another story.

But anyway, Sharon, when we were raising children in Seattle, we just recently moved there from Madison, Wisconsin. I was doing my research fellowship at the University of Washington. We were really struggling as parents. We had two kids. They were three and one when we moved there. And man, we were just such inconsistent parents. I mean, our mood reflected on how we raised our kids. If we were in a good mood, they could get away with anything. If we were in a bad mood, they couldn't do anything.

And I remember profoundly, Sharon's dad said, you guys got to get your act together as parents. You guys aren't making it. And Sharon said, well, where do we get the answers? So we'd grown up in a mainline church, and their answers weren't there, I can assure you. It was all psychology.

So here, independently, I start kind of seeking truth in kind of a different direction. And Sharon thinks she can find it in the church. To cut to the chase, she got saved in Bible study fellowship, kind of a church-related thing, but kind of outside the domain of the church. And I saw a woman I'd never seen before. I'm not kidding.

The Lord just kind of grabbed her life and just changed it dramatically before my eyes. And I paid attention as I was kind of seeking truth on the side too. I mean, I finally came to the fact that the truth was in the Lord Jesus Christ and I was a sinner that needed some help here. And the law, ultimately, I cover it all the time. What about looking at a woman with lust in your heart? The whole issue, all those things became increasingly demanding on me. Stealing that pencil from my workplace. One thing after another, the law became dominant in convicting me in my sin. Do I respond to the law by keeping it?

No, but there's this other truth out there, quote, other truth, that the Lord Jesus Christ, in fact, replaced all that. This, the law is holy. The law was never meant to be kept, though. It's holy, but never meant to be kept. Purposeful, Romans 7, 7. Jim's going to cover this next week. What shall we then say?

Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law. For I had not known coveting, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. All right. Passions of sin. When you think about passions of sin, where in fact these are marked or affected or afflicted by the roots, and the roots come from who we are in Adam.

Romans 3.10, I mentioned this earlier, there are none righteous, no not one. And increasingly as we become apparent to these truths, we in fact return to those roots. And the law is there to make this important truth known.

Galatians 3.10, for as many are as of the works of the law are under the curse, for it is written, cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. So what are these passions of the flesh that are working in our members?

I think I got cut off at the bottom on this one too. I just put a little gif. These are church members. Just teasing there. These are not the church members who we're talking about. These are the members in the Greek means kind of like arms and legs and trunk and all our body parts. So it reflects who we are as an earthly organism. All right, Galatians 5, 19 through 21 says, now the works of the flesh are evident, which are adultery, here they are, let's look down this list, and they're probably missing a few here, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, gee, those sound terrible, don't they? But now let's start getting into a little bit more that's underneath the surface.

How about hatred, contentions, jealousies? Ooh, none of us have those. Outbursts of wrath, can't ever remember doing that. Selfish ambitions, my goodness gracious. dissensions, heresies, envy, murders. I haven't murdered anybody recently. I thought about it at times. Drunkenness, revelries, and the like, of which I tell you beforehand. Just as I also told you in time past that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Condition, right? This is condition. All condition. But you can say, well, gee, I haven't done some of these, but I'll say that there are many of the other ones there.

James 4.1 describes it well. Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that warren your members? Seems pretty relevant to what we're studying here today, doesn't it? But the source of these passions has been dealt with.

Galatians 5.24, which ends the fact that the law was our schoolmaster, and those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the passions and desires. Positional truth, right? Positional truth. And as Mike says, Donna, so often, then who's this guy dancing around in here, right? If that positional truth is really true, how does that old man keep showing up in my life? Remember, Mike Doyle, like the rest of us before the Lord Jesus Christ, are considered righteous. There is no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus.

Now our response is by faith, it's saying, O wretched man that I am, it is your power, your will, that I would respond to all you've called me to in terms of the life that I need to live. Our responsibility is to respond by faith and work to the understanding of how that life is ultimately lived. Okay, let's end up very, very quickly. Romans 7, 6.

But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter." What does it mean to be delivered from the law? Well, the Greek gives you lots of strong terms.

It means to be rendered idle, useless, abolished, become of no effect, bring to naught. I mean, that's a great list of things that it means. It means no relevance, no importance, no power. Become idle. The law takes that position for us as believers.

Look at Romans 6.22. Have we looked at that today? I'm not going to read it again for you.

Galatians 4.4.5. But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.

Aorist passive indicative. Again, it's a done deal. It's a fact. It's a fact that we've been crucified in position dead from the law. To what we were held is imperfect passive. That's kind of something that's there and has this possibility of having continuing action. And that we should serve as more present tense, active, infinitive. That's something we're to be doing, is that we're to be serving ultimately in newness of spirit. In newness of spirit and not the oldness of the letter. Conditional truth, not in our old way.

Our old way is responding to some legal system, even prayer lists on refrigerators and things like this. That doesn't mean a prayer list itself is harmful. Traditions are only harmful if they're used for the wrong purpose and motivated by the wrong reasons. Prayer lists can be fine if, in fact, we respond to that in a spiritually-led manner, but not in the old way, trying to please God through our behavior.

Literal, mechanical obedience to the divine law is not what we're talking about here, or it's not the response to a set of external rules of conduct. but in that new way of spiritual obedience through union to the risen Savior. I love Romans 2, 28 and 29 here. For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor a circumcision that which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew who is one inwardly. And the circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not from men, but from God."

2 Corinthians 5.17, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.

And Philippians 3.3, For we are the circumcision who worship God in the spirit.

Rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. And my final bullet at the bottom, which again, this transmission onto the hard drive here doesn't allow it to be shown, but have you been freed from the power of law-based systems? Remember, condition depends on our position. Okay, Jim, to you next week and more detail on what the law is and what it's not.

Let's close in prayer. Our Father, there's been much to cover today, and this is a very, very important and precious text in Scripture. We're thankful for the truth that gets revealed. We trust and hope that it has been here today. And we're challenged by the opportunity to respond in faith to the great grace you lay out there on the table for us. And may we continue to grow in that great grace as you provide by our active faith and trust in the Word. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.