Law & Order

A Metaphor From Marriage, The Authority of Law

“Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives? For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man.”

Romans 7:1-3 (NASB Update)

·        The law used here is reference to an authority over you, such as the government.  Law symbolizes authority. 

·        “but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband.”  The woman can remarry because she is free from the law.  Death, and death alone, frees her from that law. 

“You shouldn’t have any trouble understanding this, friends, for you know all the ins and outs of the law—how it works and how its power touches only the living.  For instance, a wife is legally tied to her husband while he lives, but if he dies, she’s free.  If she lives with another man while her husband is still living, she’s obviously an adulteress. But if he dies, she is quite free to marry another man in good conscience, with no one’s disapproval.”

Romans 7:1-3 (Eugene H. Peterson, The Message)

·        Jesus died to the law so that the law would be dead to us, and we to the law.[1]

·        Our marriage with sin is over because its authority is up, and we are free to unite with righteousness. 

God Fruit, Bad Fruit… God’s Written Law

“Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. But now we have been released from the Law*, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.”

Romans 7:4-6 (NASB Update)

* Whenever “the Law” is mentioned throughout this passage, it is referring to God’s written Law given to Moses. 

·        An attempt to do good deeds in the flesh results in even more sin, “the fruit of death.”

·        Through Jesus we died to the law, meaning we could bear good fruit to God through His grace, not our accomplishments. 

        “Till men have faith in Christ, their best services are but glorious sins.”

-Thomas Brooks, Puritan Pastor

“Whatever You Do, Don’t Push That Button,” The Law of Sin

“What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COVET.’  But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead.”

Romans 7:7-8 (NASB Update)

·        Because we have God’s commands, we know that we’ve sinned.

·        Our sinful nature, which is adamantly opposed to God and the things of God, takes advantage of God’s Law, looking for ways to break it. 

“I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died; and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me; for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.”

Romans 7:9-11 (NASB Update)

·        Our sinful nature brings physical and spiritual death.  The Lord Jesus has freed us from both.

     “So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.”

Romans 7:12 (NASB Update)

·        Paul emphasizes that God’s Law isn’t the problem.  It’s the sinful nature that takes advantage of it.  

“Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful.”

Romans 7:13 (NASB Update) 

·        Once again Paul states, it is our sin, NOT GOD’S LAW, that is to blame.

·        Because God has show us what holiness is through the law, we know how “utterly sinful” our sin actually is.  

Night & Day Natures

“For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good.”

Romans 7:14-16 (NASB Update)

 

1) Because we still have sin in our lives, we have a sinful nature.

 

·        There is a conflict between the Old (sinful) and New (Christ like) Natures.

 

“So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.”

Romans 7:17-20 (NASB Update)

What is it about us that even when we have the best intentions, sin creeps up and gets the very best of us?

Other terms for “the sinful nature”:

·        “The Law Of Sin & Death”

·        The Flesh

·        Indwelling Sin

“After each failure, ask forgiveness, pick yourself back up, and try again.  Very often God first helps us towards is not the virtue itself but just this power of always trying again.  For however important chastity (or courage, or truthfulness, or any other virtue) may be, this process trains us in habits of the soul which are more important still.  It cures our illusions and teaches us to depend on God.  We learn, on the one hand, that we cannot trust ourselves even in our best moments, and, on the other, that we need not despair even in our worst, for our failures are forgiven.  The only fatal thing is to sit down content with anything less than perfection.”[2]

-C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Jekyll & Hyde Spirituality 

“I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

Romans 7:21-25a (NASB Update)

 

2) Sin is a “law”.  

·        This means when we are born it has authority in our lives.

·        Jesus took sin’s authority away from us when He died on the cross.

3) Sin opposes God’s Law  

4) The sinful nature never rests. 

“Sin can be like trick birthday candles: you blow them out and smile, thinking you have your wish; then your draw drops as they burst into flames.”[3]

-Kris Lundgaard, The Enemy Within

“ So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.”

Romans 7:25b (NASB Update)

If the law of sin never rests, what hope do we have?  Romans 8 gives us an answer...