Law & Grace - Romans 7:1-6 Joined to Christ

Good morning. I've been looking forward to teaching this passage. Of course, I was looking forward to teaching the passage we looked at last week and the week before that, too. But anyway, I've been looking forward to this because it's six, I think, very clear verses that really spell out an important truth that I'm sorry to say most of Christendom has missed. But we're going to look at it today. I think it's a glorious, wonderful truth to examine here.

In Romans 7, 1 through 6, the Apostle Paul is explaining what he said in Romans 6, 14. And that's a part of the pattern that we see in this set of chapters is that Paul will state something briefly and then take another section or a chapter to spell out in greater detail what he said previously.

The sin nature shall not be having dominion over you, for you are not under law, but in sharp contrast, under grace. And I insert the in sharp contrast because there are different words for but, beauty, in Greek, and this is the one for sharp contrast. You're not under law, but in sharp contrast, you are under grace. Grace and law are sharply contrasted.

Paul had already addressed the character of grace. It's the grace that we've been made to stand in. This grace in which we not just stand, but this grace in which we've been made to stand permanently. And it is the reigning principle. We saw that in Romans previously.

And I have 11 there. Change that to 5. I don't know why I had that in there. Paul had already said that grace is not a justification for us to engage the sin nature or to sin. So now Paul will explain why we're not under law but under, in sharp contrast, under grace. This is the passage we're looking at here.

He starts off with, do you not know, and of course he said that before. He says that in Romans and First Corinthians repeatedly. And the intended response there is, yes, we do know. That's the assumption. He's not saying they don't know. He's saying, in fact, that they do. But he's inviting them to think along with them and to recall the things that they do, in fact, know. That's why this question is there. It's an invitation. Think along with me. Recall what you already know. Do you not know? Of course you do.

For I am speaking to those who know law." And of course, here they are in the capital city of Rome. It's the place where law is made, right? And so they most certainly know law. Paul is not speaking down to them as he asked this question, but rather inviting them to think the issue through with him. This is along a pattern that you see in the New Testament. Sometimes the if will be there, And the if is not in every case, but in a number of cases put in such a way that it's an invitation to think along with the Apostle Paul in these things. He calls them his brethren. He's coming alongside them. He is not coming and speaking down to them or scolding them in some way.

So he says, you who know law know that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives. This principle holds true whether someone is talking about the law of Moses or the law of the land. In either case, the law only has jurisdiction as long as a person is alive. Nobody who is dead gets jailed or prosecuted or fined. We don't come to this fellow who is dead and say, you're sentenced to 50 years in prison. It's going to smell real bad. We just don't do that because they're already dead. They're outside the legal system at that point.

So while the Apostle Paul will address here shortly our identification with Christ, our union with Him, our being in Him, our being baptized into Him, he's going to address that in verses 4 through 6. First he's got to set up an example so that they are certain to get the point. And so he does that in a couple of verses here. He wants to make sure everybody understands what he's talking about. So he does it, and he says, everyone will understand this. Commentators have tried to figure out, is this the law of Moses that he's referring to, or secular law? And so they go back and forth and have big debates, and I think the debate is senseless.

And here's why. The example that he chose for married women fits both the law of Moses and Roman law. So the secular law and the law of Moses were identical for the woman. since in each case the wife was to remain faithful. He chose the woman in this case not only because it fits the identification example, but because under Roman law the man was not required to be faithful, but the woman was. Isn't that interesting? So because of that lopsided situation, because the woman under both the law of Moses and Roman law The woman was required to be faithful and to not be an adulteress. He could use that example and everybody, Jew or Gentile, would understand. So that's why he picks this and that's why he gives this illustration, even bringing up the adultery aspect.

The law binds the married woman to her husband for as long as the husband is alive. He doesn't bring up the circumstance of divorce or anything like that, but just saying the marriage here now binds the woman to her husband as long as the husband is alive. But if the husband dies, she is free to marry another man. Since her husband's death frees her, she has the option to remarry.

And that was true whether it was a Jewish wedding or a Roman wedding. The people of Rome, where the laws were made for the Roman Empire, and the Jews in Rome reading this, also familiar with the Law of Moses, both of them would understand this example very well. They would say, ah, I get it. I'm writing to those, Paul says, who know law. And so whether it's the Roman law or Law of Moses, this would be well understood.

Then he goes on in verse 3, if she is joined to another man, if while the woman's husband is alive she is joined to another man, she would be called an adulteress. We have the biblical example where a woman caught in adultery is brought to Jesus and they're putting him on the spot saying should she not be killed, which of course the Romans would not allow, but there's a problem with what they did with this woman caught in adultery. The law says you bring the man and the woman. And now they're only punishing the woman. Now, if her husband dies, she is free to be joined to another man. The law does not bind her. It's not adultery if the husband dies.

And that was the case in both the Roman and the Jewish law. Paul's point here in this illustration is set up a parallel with the spiritual realm that they would well understand. So in understanding our identification with Christ, it would be very clear why we're not under law, having been joined to Christ. We're not bound by the law, having been joined to Christ. So then, getting into verse 4, he starts off with, therefore, my brethren.

So he says, okay, here I've given the illustration that all of you Roman, Jewish, all of you will understand. I've given that illustration. Now I want you to do some logic into the spiritual realm. So he sets up the illustration, wanting them to draw some conclusions. Because remember, he had started off with, do you not know? He's inviting them to think through this. He gives the illustration.

He says, OK, now come with me into carrying this into the spiritual realm and think through, therefore, OK? Logic this through with me. Therefore, whether they were Jews, knowing the law of Moses well, or whether they were Romans, Gentiles, knowing their own law well, this would be something that would make good sense to them. So he writes to the believers in Rome, therefore, think through this with me now.

As he did in verse one, he comes alongside them rather than speaking down to them. Speaking down to them, look, I know this stuff and you guys don't. He acknowledges, yeah, you guys know law. You understand this and I've given you the illustration. And therefore, and you can think this through along with me, he calls them my brethren. My brethren. Did he have apostolic authority and could he have done it differently? Yes, but he comes alongside them. My brethren.

Now, there's a comparison and contrast here between Romans chapter 6 and here in these verses that we're looking at in Romans chapter 7. The word pair died to was found in Romans 6.2 and 6.10. It's also in 7.4 and 7.6. So there is a dying to in both cases in both places.

Christ raised from the dead is in Romans 6.4 and 9. It's also in 7.4. So he draws from that same set of analogies, same set of words.

Being put offline is in Romans 6.6 and it's also in Romans 7.6. This is the being put offline, being taken out of its position of enthronement, off to the side, the power taken away.

That's used in both Romans 6.6 and 7.6.

While most of Romans 6.1-3 addresses the sin nature, that's the main theme of the chapter, the central theme of this passage, Romans 7.1-6, is law.

Whether it's the Law of Moses, a subset of the Law of Moses, like people say, well, you know, these laws are God's top ten, right? Or some man-made law. He's talking about law as a means of attaining righteousness. It says we've been made to die to the law.

When Christ died, you died with him. That's a truth that we looked at back when we were looking in chapter 6. That same truth carries over here. When Christ died, you died with him. That's the first thing that happened when you believed. with the crucified and then dead body of Christ. When those nails were being put in, you were being crucified with Him. When Christ breathed His last, you died with Him. There's the death Paul was talking about, so that you died in relationship to the law, any law at all as a means of attaining righteousness.

It means not just some part of the Law of Moses, but somebody else cooking up, oh, if you're really holy, you'll not do this. Law as a means of attaining righteousness, you died to it. Any kind. Whether it's the Law of Moses, a part of the Law of Moses, or something else that somebody else cooks up. There was a time when it was considered very, very bad for Christians to go to movies. And so that was what? That was under the principle of law. We're going to cook up some rules of things you do and don't do because you're a Christian.

It's a law approach. That dying in relationship to the law does not make the law go away. Dying to the law doesn't mean that the law dies. We die in relationship to it. That's a big difference. The law does not go away any more than the sin nature goes away. But we die in relationship to the sin nature and we die in relationship to the law. We've been made to die in relationship to the sin nature and the law as a principle by what God did by identifying us with Christ and His death. We died to the sin nature. We died to the law.

Romans 7, 4 through 6 that we're looking at here has a very similar message to Galatians 2, 19 and the first part of 20, but it puts it more succinctly. It reads this way, for through law I died to law so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. I died to law so that I might live to God.

And matter of fact, that live to God part matches up very well with what we saw in Romans 6.11. Living to God begins by our considering, counting, and reckoning ourselves dead to the sin nature and alive to God. So we have this illustration that's on a slide there in your handout.

In Adam and before faith in Christ, we were separated from Christ. We were joined to the sin nature, the principle of law, and the world. Having believed in Christ, after faith in Christ, we've been placed into Christ, identified with Him, we were joined to Christ, we were separated from the sin nature and the principle of law and the world.

And you have the passages there for each of those. So bearing fruit to THE God, and I put the definite article there which is probably lacking in your English translations, but it's there in the original language. Paul repeatedly in here has THE God, THE God, and it's to distinguish for the Romans who grew up in a pagan environment where there's lots of gods, it's to distinguish THE God, the real one, the one God. or the bearing of fruit to the death, and that definite article is also there, the death. It's not just death generally, it's the death.

The believer has been separated from any law as a principle and has been joined to Christ. This is not something partially completed. It isn't, well you've been mostly separated from the law, or all but a few. It's not you've been separated just from the punishment of the law. It's not that. You've been separated from the whole thing and joined to Christ. As a matter of fact, that is why you've been separated from the law in order to be joined to Christ.

That's the point he makes. This unique spiritual position enables the believer to bear fruit to the God. That's why we can bear fruit to Thee, God, by what happened here. We've died to the law. What that also tells us is if we go for the law, what's going to happen? No fruit bearing. Uh-oh. Whoops. If we go for the law and grab for the law, even one, fruit bearing stops.

We have died to the law in order to be joined to Christ and bear fruit to the God. The unbeliever, as he describes here, who is as we once were, is in the flesh. That's where he is positionally. That's where he is conditionally. With the sin nature enthroned and totally engaged. I mean, it's locked in. It's hardwired.

Totally engaged in using the body as military assets That's right in a spiritual battle using the body as military assets fully enabled to bear fruit for the death What's that death the death of separation from God? Bearing fruit for the death just spewing out death Lots of it and that's all you get That's the unbeliever Jesus in John chapter 15 And we're only addressing a part of it here, but I think it's enough to get the point across Jesus talks about this in terms of the Apostles Condition their daily condition. He said in John 15 I am the true vine and my father is the vine dresser and he said this in the context of what has become known as the Last Supper and Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and I changed this here, he lifts up, not cuts off. He lifts up every branch that bears fruit, he prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.

You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in me. What he has taught us in the Romans 7, 1 through 6 passage is about our position. Jesus is talking about our daily condition where from one moment to the next we abide in Christ. I am the vine and you are the branches.

He who abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit. Fruit bearing, that comes from abiding. It has been enabled by having died to the law and by having been joined to Christ, your position. This is a matter of moment by moment, living out the position that you already have.

And I point out here, the I am that Jesus says twice here, these words are a claim to deity. In the Greek Old Testament, that special combination of words is used by God when he's speaking out of the burning bush to Moses. And Moses says, who shall I say has sent me? I am. Same words. Now, 7.5. I have as a title here, I'm from the law and I'm here to help.

It seems that many Christians not understanding the nature of the law or the nature of grace feel like grace really needs some help. Grace, boy, it just doesn't quite cut it. Grace is nice, but that's not going to do it. And so they bring the law in to help out grace as if that's going to be the fix. Oh no! What that does is it ends fruit bearing.

God's grace is sufficient already. Isn't that what the Apostle Paul was told? My grace is sufficient for you. So if it's a grace that God has riches of, if it's a grace that God's going to spend eternity showing us, Ephesians 2.7, if it's a grace that is sufficient for Paul, for this thorn in the flesh, does it need help? I think not.

The law will be a ministry of death and condemnation. Anybody like to volunteer for that ministry? A ministry of death and condemnation will actually stir and stimulate the sin nature into even more activity. It stirs up the sin nature. And we had it as a cartoon we presented here, and we've got it as a cartoon on the slide. This sign here, absolutely no machete juggling. And this fellow says, Suddenly I have an urge to juggle machetes. That's the way the sin nature gets stirred up by the law.

We were released from and have died to any and all law. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Galatians and he said to them, if you so much as get circumcised as a way to achieve righteousness, If you so much as get circumcised, you're signing up for the whole thing. And, he says, you've fallen from grace. That happened, having died to the law, that happened by being crucified with Christ. We died with Him on the day in which He was crucified. If you're a believer here this morning, you died with Christ on the day in which He was crucified. That happened to you.

That's why Paul could write Galatians 2.20, I have been crucified with Christ. And you can say that too, if you're a believer here today. I have been crucified with Christ.

And we'll get there. God did that by grace. You see, we didn't earn being crucified with Christ. He did it by grace, something we could never pull off by ourselves Not only could we not pull it off, who would ever think of such a thing? Hey, I think I need to be spiritually identified with Christ. That's what I've been wanting to do my whole life. Right?

No. It isn't something that we would cook up. But God said this is exactly what needs to happen and it is entirely gracious. We didn't earn it. We're not working towards it. God did it completely by grace. That we might serve in newness of the Spirit instead of the oldness of the letter.

Now, newness of the spirit goes along with newness of life from Romans 6.4 and we also sang about here in Buried with Christ. So newness isn't just new, it's a new and kind newness. It isn't just relatively new, it's new and kind. Oldness isn't just old, it's worn out. So a new and kind newness and not the worn-out oldness of the letter of the law.

As we discovered last Sunday, we're going to serve somebody. This is what Bob Dylan wrote in his album. You're going to serve somebody. You're going to serve somebody. And I modified the line. It will be the sin nature or it will be the Lord, but you're going to serve somebody, right? We are going to serve somebody, but God's intent is that we recognize ourselves as having died to the law and have been joined to Christ and are therefore enabled to be fruit bearers. How? How does that happen, moment by moment, day by day?

Abiding in Christ. That's how you bear fruit. You don't just stand there and go, Any fruit yet? Nope. Okay. It's not my effort. It's abiding in Christ that will produce the fruit. Not because we strain ourselves. Don't get a hernia. You have to abide in Christ. That's how the fruit gets produced.

In spite of the fact that the Law of Moses was righteous and holy and good, and we'll see that as we continue on in chapter 7, it teams up with the sin nature to make a deadly duo. You want death of separation from God in fellowship, team up with the law. And the law and the sin nature go together. They're a deadly duel. Serving by the Spirit is newness and life. Now, some people will say, yeah, but we've got to have the law or people will go hog wild! And let me tell you, I know Hog Wild.

One time, this was, oh, about 40 years ago, we were around the pig pen. And we had a mama pig was about 300 pounds. And a mama pig had a bunch of little babies. And somebody among the group had the bright idea of snagging one of the little babies. Ooh, very bad idea. We had two. layers of 4x4 stacked up with pig wire between them. That mama pig came right through all the 4x4s and broke up the pig wire.

There was lumber flying, and we were flying. Matter of fact, you see this right here? Over here on this side is where the pig pen was, and I jumped right on that barn roof. I flew. I know hog wild. But we don't need the law to keep us from going hog wild. We need grace. And I needed a lot of grace right about then, too. We don't need some law.

The law quantifies sin, we found out, by type so that it can be accounted. You've done this kind of sin, and you've done it three times. The law quantifies sin and categorizes it and characterizes it so that it can be accounted. You've broken this law five times, you've broken that law three times, you've broken this other one over here twice, etc. The law quantifies sin so that it can be accounted. The law actually increases sin, and a part of that is simply because we can account for it, but it also happens because the law arouses the sin nature, stirs it up.

You want there to be lots of sin? Get the law out. That'll work just fine. Now, so just how does the law help us sin less? It doesn't. It doesn't. We, as believers, have died to the law and have been released from it in order to be joined to Christ. Got that? We've died to the law and have been released from it in order to be joined to Christ. Now, was any of what God did incomplete? Did any of it fall short? Did God get halfway done with anything that he said here?

No! We drink from the Niagara Falls of Grace." And this time it's spelled correctly. Okay. You have here the slide at the end of your handout, and I have it here on the screen as well. Galatians 2.20, expanded and explained. And let me read it up to a certain point here.

Since I first believed the gospel by God's doing, I have been made to be in Christ so that I was crucified together with Christ. And I died with Him. And having also been raised with Christ, and since Christ was also made to dwell in me, so it's me in Christ, Christ in me, It is no longer I who do the living, but Christ who indwells me does the living. Let me ask you this. Is Christ who indwells you, if He is doing the living in and through you, is He going to mess up? Does He need some help? Is He going to somehow go, whoops! That's not going to happen. It's not going to happen. Christ living through you doesn't need the law. He died to it, and so did you. Because you died with Him. What part, what part of died to the law, joined to Christ, don't people understand? It's not that tough. But it is amazing how people resisted.

It is phenomenal. Grace, pure grace, full on, full out, pedal to the metal, mountains and fountains of grace. Let's pray. Lord, your grace is amazing, and we ought to be amazed by it. And Lord, how astounding it is that you have designed it so that we, in our co-crucifixion with Christ, have died to the sin nature and died to the law 100%. And we even see the purpose spelled out here, that we are joined to Christ for the purpose that we bear fruit to God. And we just pray that you would draw our hearts, give us understanding and insight that we might abide in Christ. We give you thanks in Jesus' name. Amen.