Beloved, I am glad to share with you today the above theme from Rom 7:1-2. Indeed, not only does the Law punish the misdeeds I have committed, but it deems my nature sinful, for example my inability to love God and my neighbor as it prescribes. Sin therefore places me inexorably under the condemnation of God’s law… Well! I am delivered from it in the same way that I was freed from sin: by death (that is, my death withChrist). When a culprit has died, human justice can no longer put him in prison.
Is the Law a bad thing, since God had to protect me from its rigor? “Certainly not!” cried the apostle again. If in a museum I take in hand an exhibited object, I may not be aware of committing an offence. On the other hand I am fully at fault if there is a sign: Defense of touch. But at the same time this inscription will suggest to many visitors the desire to advance the finger towards the objects presented. For the proud nature of man leads him to break every regulation in order to assert his independence. Thus, by the Law, God catches me in the act of disobedience and highlights the lust that is in me, in order to better convince me of sin.
These verses have been compared to the vain efforts of a man mired in a swamp. Each of his movements to get out only makes him more sogged down. Seeing himself lost, he ends up shouting for help. Morally this drama illustrates the story of many of God’s children during a period following their conversion. The apostle puts himself in the place of such a believer (if it were not one, on the one hand he would not have these struggles, on the other hand he would not find his pleasure in the law of God). And he depicts his despair. Alas! this man cries out, instead of going from progress to progress, I feel worse every day. I discovered successively that I was “under sin” (Rom 3:9-18), that sin reigned over me (Rom 5:20-21), dominated me (Rom 6:12-14), held me prisoner(Rom 7:23), and finally that it “dwells in me”,” much like a virus that has taken possession of my vital centers. This body of death, who will deliver me from it? I admit that I am incapable of it, without strength… So I am ready to rely on another. And Jesus takes me by the hand. — Painful but necessary experience! From the moment I no longer expect anything from myself, I can expect everything from Christ.
Thus, the apostle dealt in the previous chapters with the two great questions of justification and deliverance. He outlined the results of Christ’s death and resurrection in relation to these two issues. He is now addressing a new topic of the utmost importance. God had once given His commandments to man; they were inviolable and applied to all men without distinction. They were intended primarily for the people of Israel, but nevertheless contained God’s just demands on his creature, on man in his natural state. Every man who knew of it was bound to submit to it. They still have their full strength for man today (1 Tim. 1:8, 9). The holy God cannot reduce his demands or diminish his rights.
However, the apostle had declared, shortly before, that believers were not “under the law, but under grace.” How can this apparent contradiction be explained? He had demonstrated, in the clearest way, that they were not “lawless,” that is, they could not obey their own will, nor their inclinations, nor their lusts. How, then, had they been delivered from the curse of the law and its domination? the answer is, as in Rom 5 and Rom 6, death.
Whoever knows what the law is, therefore, also knows that a dead man is exempt from the application of it. Similarly, the law of Sinai has authority over man only during his life: death frees him from any obligation towards him. The apostle explains this in even more detail, using the example of the law of the husband. “For,” he said, “a woman who is subject to a husband is bound to her husband by law, as long as he lives; but if the husband dies, she is untied from the husband’s law. Thus, the husband being alive, she will be called adultery if she is to another man; but if the husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not adulterous in being to another man.”
Let us note, however, that the apostle, in applying the example, reverses the roles: it is not the old husband, the law, who died, which would be quite impossible, but it is we, who once lived in the flesh, who were put to death to the law, by the body of Christ, that is, in his death. Having died with Him, we are delivered from our old obligation, to belong to Him alone, and this not again in any legal spirit, but being entirely submissive to Him, as if he were our legitimate husband, contemplating Him alone and learning from Him. The Christian can in no way serve two masters, either Christ and sin(Rom 6) or Christ and the law (Rom 7). For him, to live is Christ (Phil. 1:21); only in this way can it bear fruit for God. By not walking according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit, he does more than the law requires(Rom 8:4).
But if we walk by the Spirit, we do not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Instead of the sad works of the flesh, we will produce the precious fruit of the Spirit to the glory of God. For “if ye are led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law,” that is, in the miserable state described in Romans 7, and “those who are of Christ have crucified the flesh with passions and lusts” (Gal. 5:16-25).
However, in the final verse of our chapter, there is no mention of the power that now makes the believer capable of serving, from his understanding, the law of God. He only makes known to us the deliverance of the soul from the state in which it found itself and depicts to us the entirely new terrain on which grace has placed it, as well as the character and spirit of the new nature.
The following verses have been compiled for your edification and grouped together for your better understanding.
- Members of the Family of God are called brothers
Mt 23:8 But you do not call yourself Rabbi; for only one is your Master, and you are all brothers. Mt 25:40 And the king will answer them: I tell you in truth, whenever you have done these things to one of these little ones of my brethren, you have done them to me. Lk 8:21 But he answered: My mother and brothers are those who listen to the word of God and put it into practice. Jn 21:23 On this, it was rumored among the brethren that this disciple would not die. However, Jesus had not told Peter that he would not die; but: If I want him to stay until I come, what does it matter to you? Rom 8:29 For those whom he knew in advance, he also predestined them to be like the image of his Son, that his Son might be the firstborn among several brethren. Heb 2:11, 17 For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one. Therefore, he is not ashamed to call them brothers, 17 Consequently, he had to be made like his brethren in all things, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to atonement for the sins of the people; Rev 12:10 And I heard in heaven a loud voice that said: Now salvation has come, and the power, and the reign of our God, and the authority of his Christ; for he was precipitated, the accuser of our brethren, the one who accused them before our God day and night. Rev 19:10 And I fell at his feet to worship him; but he said to me, “Beware of doing it! I am your companion of service, and that of your brothers who have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God. -For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
- Solemn obligations of Marriage
Gen 2:24 Therefore the man will leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife, and they will become one flesh. Mt 5:32 But I tell you that he who repudiates his wife, except because of infidelity, exposes her to adultery, and that he who marries a repudiated woman commits adultery. Mk 10:7:9, that is why man will leave his father and mother, and cling to his wife, 9 Let man therefore not separate what God has joined. Rom 7.2 Thus, a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he is alive; but if the husband dies, she is released from the law that bound her to her husband. 1 Co 7:10-11 To those who are married, I command, not me, but the Lord, that the wife should not separate from her husband(11 if she is separated, remain without marrying, or reconcile with her husband), and that the husband should not repudiate his wife.
- Adultery
Ex 20:14 Thou shat not commit adultery. Lev 20:10 If a man commits adultery with a married woman, if he commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, the adulterous man and woman will be punished with death. Jb 24:15 The eye of adultery spies on twilight; No one will see me, he said, and he puts a veil over his face. Mt 5:27 You have learned that it has been said: Thou shat not commit adultery. Mt 19:9 But I tell you that he who repudiates his wife, except for infidelity, and marries another, commits adultery. Rom 7:3 If, therefore, during her husband’s lifetime, she becomes the wife of another man, she will be called adultery; but if the husband dies, she is freed from the law, so that she is not adulterous in becoming the wife of another. 1 Co 6:9 Do you not know that the unjust will not inherit the kingdom of God? Make no mistake: neither the shameless, nor the idolaters, nor the adulterers; 2 P 2:14 Their eyes are full of adultery and insatiable of sin; they initiate souls badly strengthened; they have hearts exercised to greed; they are children of curse.
- The Church as a Bride
Isa 62:5 As a young man unites with a virgin, so your sons will unite with you; And as the bride makes the joy of her fiancé, so thou shady the joy of thy God. 2 Co 11:2 For I am jealous of you with a jealousy of God, because I have betrothed you to one spouse, to present you to Christ as a pure virgin. Rev 19:7 Let us rejoice and be in joy, and give him glory; for the wedding of the lamb has come, and his bride has prepared; Rev 21:2 And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, descend from Heaven, from God, prepared like a bride who has adorned herself for her husband. Rev 22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him who hears say: Come. And let him who thirst come; that he who wills, take water from life, free of charge.
From all of the above, we discover the Christian who serves God in a new spirit, relying on four fundamental truths: deliverance from the law through death; knowledge of sin by law; the state and experiences that a soul renewed, but which is not yet freed, under the law before arriving at deliverance. In connection with this third truth, we have learned three more important things: a) That in our flesh there is no good; b) That we must distinguish between ourselves, who want good, and the sin that dwells in us; c) That as long as we have not grasped by faith deliverance in Christ, there is no strength within us to overcome sin in the flesh and that it is rather we who are always overcome by sin. Moreover, we could not deliver ourselves from this wretched state, but that it was another Person who had to deliver us from it. We support you all in our prayers so that you may be aware of it and freed, in the name of Jesus.
PRAYER OF ACCEPTANCE OF JESUS CHRIST AS LORD AND PERSONAL SAVIOR
I now invite every person who wants to become a new creation by walking in the truth, to pray with me the following prayer:
Lord Jesus, I have long walked in the lusts of the world ignoring your love for humans. I admit to having sinned against you and ask your forgiveness for all my sins, because today I have decided to give you my life by taking you as Lord and personal Savior. I recognize that you died on the cross of Calvary and rose from the dead for me.
I am now saved and born again by the power of the Holy Spirit. Lead me every day to the eternal life that you give to all who obey your Word. Reveal yourself to me and strengthen my heart and faith, so that your light may be shining in my life right now.
Thank you Lord Jesus for accepting me into your divine family, so that I may also contemplate the wonders of your kingdom.
I will now choose a nearby watering point to baptize myself by immersion, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
All adoration, power and glory are yours, now and for centuries of centuries. Amen!
I would be happy to respond to any questions and comments you may have, before sharing with you tomorrow on “no condemnation for those who are in Jesus Christ.”
May the Lord Jesus Christ bless you abundantly.
David Feze, Servant of the Almighty God.