Studying His Word and His Works

Listen to the study here: Romans 7:1-6

Read here: Romans 7

Review

• Calvin on the theme of Romans: “Man’s only righteousness is the mercy of God in Christ, when it is offered by the Gospel and received by faith.” Romans 1:17 and elsewhere.
• IMPORTANT: Who did Paul write this letter to? To the saints (1:7), (Shane Pruitt: we don’t pray to saints[like RCC], we are the saints). Main thing though is this letter is written to believers, which is a reminder we need to preach the gospel to ourselves daily. We need to remember this gospel, because the world wants us to forget it.
• Luther: Simul iustus et peccator = At the same time, righteous and a sinner! Romans 3:23-25
• In Ch. 1-3 Paul shows us our unrighteousness, and God’s wrath against that, and the switches to Christ’s righteousness as our covering, the propitiation of our sins (Romans 3:25) as the final sacrifice for sin, fulfilling the promise to Abraham, who had faith before any works
• Faith being “counted” or “credited to our account” as righteousness is mentioned 11 times in Chapter 4! If “none are righteous” as Paul wrote in Romans 3:10, then this saving faith must be a gift from God.
• Ch. 5, We now have peace with God, access to God, and hope, because of what Christ did for us while we were weak(v. 6), sinners (v. 8), and enemies (v. 10). Christ did this “at the right time,” (v. 6), connecting Christ’s work on the cross and God’s plan of redemption to real history (not just a myth or legend).
  • Atonement(5:6-11): Jesus satisfying God’s wrath through His sacrificial death on the cross.
  • Ch. 5 and 6 describe federalism, this idea of one man making a difference, for righteousness (Jesus) or wickedness (Adam). 
• Ch 6 ended with lots of words pointing to the new road we are now on with Christ, the sanctification road.
  • Service is the key word, “slaves” used 8 times
  • “Present yourselves”(5), “Leads to”(5)

Intro

• In the previous study, we emphasized Sproul’s statement that “our regeneration, our rebirth was the work of one Person, God. It was not a joint venture; but from the moment we take our first breath of regenerated spiritual life, it  becomes a joint effort.” The work of one Person is what salvation is about. The joint venture is what sanctification is about. Ch.6 ends and we continue into Ch.7 describing what this “sanctification road” looks like to walk down. We were on the sin road that leads to death, but now we are on the grace road that leads to eternal life. The world is on the sin road, which can be confusing to us because we want to “all be on the same team”. But we’re not on that team any more, we’ve been traded, we’re under new management now, and the new Manager has a better playbook and we need to get familiar with it, which we can through Scripture, prayer, fellowship, studying His word and His works, etc. 
• Verses 1-2
  • Paul creates an analogy. A woman whose husband dies is free from marriage laws and can now legally be bound to another in the same way that a person saved by grace is free from sin laws which only bind you to death and is now legally bound to another, Christ.
• Verses 3-4
  • So, when the husband dies, the wife is free from the marriage law, and it’s no longer a sin to marry another. Likewise, when we are born again, our flesh dies with Christ, our dead soul is revived, the new has come. It is not a sin to be joined now with the living Christ.
    • Sproul writes that we died in Christ, and in Christ the law was fulfilled. 
    • Paul could have used a man in this analogy instead of a woman, but I think he picked a woman to emphasize the truth of federalism. Before, sin reigned, sin was our federal head. But for the born again believer, Jesus is the new federal head. Likewise, the man is considered the head of the marriage. So the woman in this story went from one federal head to another. The old one was dead to her, the new one is alive.
    • Sproul writes that this “law” Paul is describing is more than just the 10 commandments, it’s the whole of God’s moral law. Recall how Romans 5 describes that sin is imputed to humans through Adam, before Moses. “The only way sin could be in the world before the Law of Moses is if another law preceded the Law of Moses, namely, the moral law of God, which he reveals in nature and in our conscience.” What Sproul is saying is confirmed in the “no excuse” of Romans 1:20. 
    • A brief review of God’s covenants
      • Now is a good time to review two covenants and see how God in time has related to mankind through covenantal promises.
        • Creation covenant-the original covenant, Adam and Eve were made “very good” (Genesis 1:31) and given a test of obedience, which they failed.
          • Also called the “covenant of works,” because obedience was required to maintain the conditions for blessedness.
          • The first Adam failed the test.
          • The second Adam, Jesus Christ, was also tested, but he passed the test (Luke 4:1-13).
            • Jesus did what no other human being has ever accomplished, staying faithful and obedient to every law from the beginning. 
        • Covenant of grace– God did not annihilate the human race after Adam and Eve fell, but promised redemption through the seed of the woman (Gen 3:15). This is the covenant of grace. Redeemed through Jesus, the only one who DOES keep the law.
          • Reminder: “justification by faith alone” sola fide, really means justification by Christ alone.
            • The only way any of us can be justified in the sight of God is through real righteousness, achieved only through real, complete, 100% obedience to God’s law, which ONLY Jesus Christ accomplished.
          • In Sproul’s commentary on these verses, he pauses here to take some time to discuss a very uncomfortable subject, our own sin.
            • He starts by basically calling modern Christians a bunch of narcissists, admirers of self in other words.
            • Now, think about the verses from the last study. I called Romans 6:23 a “great gospel memory verse,” which is 100% true, but when we just memorize one verse like that we can miss the context. Think back to verse 21, where Paul asks ‘“But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed?” For the end of those things is death.’
              • In today’s world, there is extreme opposition to “being ashamed,” and part of that could be because Satan uses our shame and guilt to bring us down. Because  of our narcissism, our craving for “looking good,” instead of realizing none are righteous and being okay with that and submitting to Christ, we get tricked into self-righteous loathing. 
              • But Paul wants us to remember our sins, to remember that being ashamed is a reminder of Who owns us now! Before, we were not ashamed of sin but ashamed of the gospel (Romans 1:16). But as believers we are supposed to be the opposite, ashamed of former sins but not ashamed of the gospel.
                • AND that shame is not there for self-loathing, but for rejoicing. Satan will always twist what God meant for good, and we have to watch out for that. 
              • This self-loathing shame is what obsessed Martin Luther before God opened his eyes to the words in Romans. He was like a crazy self-loather almost. He was a monk, and would go to confession daily, something that lasted for 5 minutes for others. Luther would spend 1-2 hours confessing his sins for the PAST 24 HOURS! And then he would leave and remember another one and be miserable again. 
              • An American missionary, David Brainerd, did some similar self-loathing, which you can read in The Life and Diary of David Brainerd, edited by his friend, Jonathan Edwards.
              • I do think Luther, before his real salvation, and Brainerd were ashamed to the point of self-focus instead of Christ-focus, but our modern church is often so “all about Jesus” that there is no time spent discussing sin, confessing sin, etc. But, what are we saved from? Remember from Romans 5? We are saved from God’s wrath that results from our sin. For believers, it is good to remember WHAT we were saved from, to consider our sin, but then to humble ourselves before the Lord and trust His righteousness is enough. 
              • Sproul reminds that “the greatest commandment is to love God with all our heart, strength and soul and our neighbor as ourself.” How are you doing with that? Do you feel like you’ve kept that perfectly? Have you ever lost sleep over doing that imperfectly? Luther did, and some say he was crazy with self-loathing, but Sproul says if that is true, he is thankful God gave us a crazy man to open our eyes to the gospel!
          • Sproul continues by contrasting Luther and Calvin’s ideas on what the law is for. Briefly,
            • Luther said the law’s basic function was to lead us to Christ.
            • Calvin said law had three functions:
              • 1) To reveal God’s character. If there are laws there must be lawmakers.
              • 2) It is a restraint upon our sin.
              • 3) It reveals what is pleasing to God.
                • God wants us to enjoy Him! To have joy and have fun!
              • However one describes the law and its uses, it’s important to remember that Jesus came to fulfill the law, not make it obsolete. Stealing is still an abomination to God. Adultery is still an abomination to God. A false balance is still an abomination to God (Proverbs 11:1). And so on. Unless there is a clear revelation that something like a ceremonial law (as with food, described in Romans 14 and elsewhere) is now outdated, then it is still evil. Wicked. An abomination to the Lord. It is still sin to violate it. Like any of the 10 commandments. Or homosexuality, described as an abomination in Leviticus 18:22, and clearly restated as sin in the New Testament in Romans 1 and elsewhere.
• Verses 4-6
  • Verse 4 describes how believers have, through Christ, died to the law. The law was binding on the married woman until her federal head died. Paul has been teaching how before we were Christians, sin “reigned” in us. Sin was our federal head, and the law exposed our sin. But our sins were imputed on Christ at the cross, making us “dead to sin”. The law is still there, it still exposes our sins, but we are under new management now, new ownership. When we go under the water in baptism, that is symbolic of our death to sin, our “going under” with Christ of Romans 6:4. Our old federal head was driving us towards death and hell. Our new federal Head is driving us towards eternal life. Our lifting up out of the water in baptism symbolizes Christ defeating death, and with Christ now in us, we defeat it too! We now walk in newness of life.
  • Walking in newness does not mean there won’t be bumps in the road. But, He is driving now and we can tell He is driving in many of the ways we’ve been reading in Ch. 6 and 7. We can tell Christ is in us because we CAN consider ourselves dead to sin of 6:11. We can now NOT let sin reign of 6:12, we CAN present our members as instruments for righteousness of 6:13, we CAN become better slaves of righteousness of v. 18, we CAN recognize our shame as something Christ gives us to show He is in charge now, driving us on the sanctification road, v. 21-22. Before, the fruit we were bearing was stinky, rotten, diseased. Bearing fruit for death is what 7:5 says. But now we bear fruit for God(7:4), with the Holy Spirit in us we can now bear the fruit of the Spirit, Gal 5:22-23 (memorize it). As believers, we serve in the new way of the Spirit now.
• Coming soon, Romans 7:7-14