WHAT BELIEVERS SHOULD KNOW ABOUT LAW AND SIN
Romans 7:1-25
As taught by Dave Lindstrom
I. Justified believers need to learn to serve God now in a new way rather than turning back to a previously tried old way (vs 1-6).
A. All believers have now died to the Law through the body of Christ (vs 1-4b).
1. Christ fulfilled the law by living a perfect life and submitting himself to a cruel death in his body (vs 4a; Matt. 5:17; I. Cor. 11:23-26).
2. We have died to the Law by uniting ourselves with Christ. We now have died with him, have fulfilled the Law in Him, and therefore the old Law should no longer have a binding or condemning force on our new lives (vs 1-3, 4b; Gal. 3:23, 24; Col. 3:1-4).
B. All believers now belong to Christ and our purpose now is to bear fruit unto God (vs 4c-6; John 15:5, 8, 15, 16; Phil. 1:21,22).
1. Living life “in the flesh”, whether as an unbeliever or a believer, produces a mixture of sin aroused by the Law. This combination produces fruit unto death (lacking God’s fellowship, will, purpose, or blessing)(vs 5; Rom. 6:19-23, 7:14-20, 8:12-14).
2. Believers have now been released from (katargeo- to make unemployed, redundant) the Law but we need to learn how to serve God now in the new way of the Spirit (vs 6; Rom. 8:2; Gal. 3:23-25; Col. 2:16-23).
Thought: What choices do we make on a moment by moment basis that determines whether we as believers produce fruit unto God or fruit unto death?
II. Justified believers have died to sin(Rom. 6:2) and have died to the Law(Rom. 7:4) and yet they still struggle with sin and the Law (vs 7-25).
A. The Law of God is holy, righteous and good (vs 7-13).
1. It reveals what sin is (vs 7-13).
2. It increases sin’s desire to sin more (like a catalyst)(vs 8-12; Rom. 5:20).
3. Paul’s spiritual formulation would be sin + Law = death(a negative spiritual reaction that is supposed to lead someone to cry out to God for mercy and belief)(vs 13; Gal. 3:23-25).
B. The Law of God is spiritual (pneumatikos) but Paul and all believers are fleshly(sarknos) when we offer ourselves to sin rather than to God (vs 14-25; Rom. 6:15-18).
1. A believer now has a new nature (2 Cor. 5:17) which desires the things of God(Eph. 4:23, 24; 5:8-10) as well as a remnant of the old self called the flesh(vs 18; Rom 8:1,4; Gal. 5:16-18).
2. The flesh is our leftover sinful tendencies and is sometimes called ethical flesh(better named unethical) by theologians. It is different from our physical or mortal bodies (Rom. 16:12, 13; 18:11).
3. The flesh seeks to reign (vs 15-20), practice evil (vs 19,21) and wage war against the new nature in order to take it captive (vs 23).
4. In Paul’s theology, a believer’s new nature desires to do what is good(vs 15, 18, 21), delights in God’s Law (vs 22) and operates to its full extent in a Spirit controlled mind (vs 23,25).
Thought: Flesh(sin) + Law = death; New nature + Spirit = life; the choice is yours. Is the thing which concerns you most leading you toward death or life?
