This message is from the teaching
ministry of James Tippins, pastor of Grace Truth Church. More information
can be found online at Gracetruth.org and AnchoringFaith.org. A people
for His glory, by His grace. Romans chapter 7. Follow with
me as we read the first six verses. Or do you not know, brothers,
for I am speaking to those who know the law, that the law is
binding on a person only as long as he lives? For a married woman
is bound by law to her husband while he lives. But if her husband
dies, she is released from the law of marriage. Accordingly,
she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man
while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she
is free from that law. And if she marries another man,
she is not an adulteress. Likewise, my brothers, you have
also died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you
may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the
dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were
living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law,
were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now
we are released from the law, having died to that which held
us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit,
and not in the old way of the written code. Now think about
that for a minute. Here we've come from Romans 6
and in Paul, in his argument there in Romans 6, he says for
verse 20, when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard
to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting
at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For in the
end of those things is death, but now that you have been set
free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you
get leads to sanctification and in its end, eternal life. For
the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal
life in Christ Jesus our Lord. And then he says, or do you know,
do you not know brothers, for I'm speaking to those who know
the law, that the law is binding on a person only as long as he
lives. So see, we're going to get into
this segue argument. And what is happening here is
Paul is making some bold assertions doctrinally. And these assertions... cause the reader to posit certain
thoughts and questions. For example, when we hear about
the judgment of God, we say, well, then who can stand? What's
going to happen? What's taking place? What are we going to do?
How are we ever going to escape if no one was without excuse?
Well, God can't even forgive. How can he forgive if he's just
and righteous? Well, he can forgive because
he has satisfied his judgment in Christ. So then it talks about
the works of the law and how no man is righteous according
to the works of law and even gives a patriarch of Israel,
Abraham's example that he was not justified by his works but
rather by faith. Then, as people would say, then
how in the world then are we able to have peace? Oh, it's
the gospel. That's what it is. Well, the
gospel is so great and it's all of grace, so why don't we just
sin like we want to sin? You see, this question, answer,
question, answer. And Paul says that's an absurdity.
Why would we do that? We've died to sin. We're alive
in Christ. And that's the continuation of
this argument. Then what are we to do with the law Well, we're
released from the law because don't you know, for those who
know the law, I'm speaking to those who know the law, that
the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives. I mean,
for example, we have a new law in our day, and that new law
is that you cannot touch your cell phone except for once in
the car, you know. You have to have your ear bobs
and your nose bobs and your eye bobs and everything else. I don't
know how we're going to do, if you have to hang it up, you can
answer it with one touch, but if you hang it up, you've touched
it twice or you've violated the law. It's just another law. Well,
my grandparents, all of them are passed away except one. So none of those who have passed
away have to worry about this law because they're not alive
in order to be judged by it. They're not alive in order to
be what? yield the consequences of it. So in that same way, we
who are alive, if we think about it in this sense, Paul is saying
the law is alive. And as long as someone is alive,
then they are bound to the law in this sense, and the law is
binding upon that person. Now we have heard historically
about people who have been posthumously post-mortem tried, convicted,
and even hanged or beheaded or burned again, especially in Rome
and the church there. They love to dig up heretics
and burn them hundreds and thousands of years later. Just to get a
point across, I guess it's supposed to hurt that person wherever
they may be in purgatory. or wherever they may be. But
in real life, there is no such person who is dead who is still
subject to the consequence of the law. And so when we think
of this, as Paul starts, he says, Or do you not know, brothers,
I am speaking to those who know the law, that the law is binding
on a person only as long as he lives. He is speaking to people
who know the law. Now, we know that his audience
is what? The Christian Church of Rome.
That also includes what? Whom? the Jewish Christians of
Rome. So there are Jews in that day
that know the law, of course, but there are also Gentiles,
and this is interesting, Gentiles who also know the Jewish law
of marriage, who also understand the Mosaic law in some sense.
Why is that? How is that even possible? Because
Rome had occupied Israel for some time. So because Jews lived
their faith to some degree, as they did, The culture understood
the law of Moses to a degree. So you wouldn't go up to someone
who'd been living there for a decade and say, oh, you ever heard of
the Jewish law of such and such? And they go, no, never heard
of it. That's like coming up to someone around here and saying,
have you ever heard of the celebration of Christmas? No, I don't think
I have. How about Ishtar or whatever
else you want to call it? So people there knew the law,
both Jew and Gentile, and to some degree they were not necessarily
knew it, but were familiar with it. And Paul's saying, do you
not know? I'm reminding you. You know these
things, but maybe you don't. Do you not know that the law,
as long as one is alive, binds that person to it? But you are
free from the law. He's already said you are dead.
You have died in Christ, and you have been raised to life
in Christ. So what he's trying to argue now is that the law's
action against you is no longer binding. You don't have to worry
about the consequence of the law because you have died to
the law, because you have died in Christ. And so he recapitulates
this argument using the Mosaic Law in this way. We've already
seen in verse 23 of chapter 6, for the wage of sin is death.
That is what the law brings. It brings what? Death. Where
has the law then received its pay? Just think about that for
a second. Where has righteousness received
its payment? Justice received its payment
on the body of Jesus Christ. Christ died to satisfy the law's
demands. So the law's actions are no longer
binding, for the wage that is due because of the law has been
paid by Christ in His body. He died, and more importantly,
not more importantly, but just as excitedly, just as amazingly,
He rose again. So I'm speaking to those who
know the law, who are familiar with the law, you Jew, you Gentile,
who know and understand the Jewish law to some degree. You know
that you're no longer under the law. This is a recap. Paul's
just assuming his readers are paying attention. And of course,
it doesn't take 34 weeks to read this far into Romans when you're
in assembly. You just sort of read it that day, and then you'd
spend five or six hours talking about it. And then day after
day after day after day, that's what the New Testament church
was every day of the week. And then that became a lifestyle. But he says that, you know, you're
no longer under the law, but you're under what? Grace. You're under grace. And so therefore
you live by the grace of God and the law could never give
you what? Life. Has the law ever given
anyone life? No. It cannot give life. It was never intended to give
life. People often make the mistake
of misthinking about the covenant with Adam that God made. God
did not say to Adam conditionally, if you obey me, you will live. No, God gave him life. Breathed breath of life in him. But God did warn him very clearly
that righteousness demands perfection. Justice demands recompense. If you eat of the fruit in the
middle of the garden, what did He say? You will die. So life was given to Adam. and
then the charge not to eat of the fruit in the center of the
garden, lest he die. But this, these law understanders,
as I'll call them, they knew that the law required death.
Today, we were in a clinic, hospital-type thing in Bradea for five and
a half hours, running tests and things. There was a sign in the
middle of the waiting room, and around the backs of all the chairs
were these beautiful variegated ivy-type plants. And there was
a sign about this big that says, do not pinch samples off of the
plants. And we looked at it, and I looked
at Robin, and I said, I know five people who would want to
pinch the samples off these plants, because they're beautiful. They're
really good. Three of us are in here. Anyway, four of us are
in here. And Robin goes, well, I don't
think I'm going to do that. And after about an hour, you know, we're
sitting back down and she goes, I think I do want to pinch some
of these plants off because that sign keeps telling me I can't.
See, that's what it does. It drives us that which we cannot
have, that we cannot desire, that we cannot do. Our flesh
wants it. Our flesh desires it. That's
why you see the same type of debauchery no matter what culture
you're in. If it's illegal to do something,
one place, most of the time it's illegal to do that same thing,
and I'm talking about in general, every place, and so when people
are told you cannot do this, then what happens to our flesh? We go, oh, now I want to do it. It's like that piece of junk
you find in grandma's attic. I'll just throw this away, we'll
break this up into firewood. Somebody comes along and says,
hey, what you doing with that priceless antique? Oh, we better take that
home and clean it up. We were going to burn it earlier, but
now we find out it's got some value. We don't think of anything
in the sense of disobeying until we're told that we can't do it,
then all of a sudden that activity in our flesh has some value,
doesn't it? What does it feel like? What
would it be like? Why can't I be the ruler of my
own choices? So remember, that as Paul's continuing
here, he's talking to these Jews and these Christians and these
Gentile Christians together, these Jewish Christians and Gentile
Christians together who make and comprise the church of Rome
and they know that they are not under the law but are under grace.
They know that the wage of sin is death. They know that the
law does never give life and that no man is justified by obedience
to the law. Paul says the law is binding
as long as one lives. As I've already stated when I
started, when someone dies, they can no longer be charged as a
violator of the law, even if they were a violator of the law.
The law has no bearing on them. You cannot incarcerate a corpse.
You cannot cause a man to pay a fine after he passes away,
at least not in most places. He cannot pay even if he was
charged, and he cannot serve even if he was judged, because
the outcome of the law for the natural man is death. Therefore,
if the man is already dead, how can what? How can he die again? You might think, this is not
really clicking with me. This doesn't really make sense.
I get what you're saying, but where's an example? Paul does
that for us in verse 2. He gives an example that his
readers would very well understand, both Jew and Gentile, when he
says, for a married woman is bound by law to her husband while
he lives. You know what? You are bound
to your husbands and wives while you live, while they live. We
are bound to one another. That's the point of marriage,
as we've always been taught. Marriage is not about us. Marriage
is about Christ. So this woman is married, and
she's bound to her husband as long as he lives. I like to joke
when I'm counseling premarital preparation, young couples, I
say, remember, it is till death do you part. So either learn
to get along or learn to take one out before the other takes
you. It's a joke, but even then, It is true. For you are bound
until one of you dies. Accordingly, she would be called
an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband
is alive. And you might say, well, what does that mean? Well,
in Deuteronomy 24, the law says that if a man finds fault with
his wife, in other words, finds impropriety in her, like maybe
she's committed adultery, he can give her a certificate of
divorce, Jesus said, because his heart is hard. See? He's unforgiving, but he gives
her a certificate of divorce, but she cannot remarry, ever. And the Bible says that the only
way that she can remarry is if her first husband dies. Because
if she remarries and then her second husband dies, and then
her first husband takes her back, he's an adulterer. It's a really
complicated situation. And it's not for us to learn
the ins and outs of what can and cannot be done in marriage,
it's for us to learn the severity of why marriages should be held
in high honor, and when it's not, that it puts a pock in the
face of Christ. But she'll be called an adulteress
if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if
her husband dies, she is free from that law. For example, even
if she is divorced and her husband dies, she's free to remarry without
being an adulteress. Now, of course, we don't live
in the same time as the first century Palestinians, which,
you know, Palestine, this region. And now divorce doesn't have
the stigma that it even had in the 1940s and 50s. But here,
in the context of a very I don't know, patriarchal society, women,
even when they were the victim of divorce, they were sort of
done, even as a victim. But even then, if they remarried,
they would be an adulteress. To be an adulteress in the day
of the first century was a real bad sentence. It was bad. In Judaism, before Rome, you
could die. You did die. Not only did you
die, but the adulterer that was with you died, and anybody that
knew about it died. I mean, they just killed all
of them. That's how serious they took it. If a child talked back
to his father, they stoned him. I mean, could you imagine? You
know how many children were stoned? The oldest of each household.
or one, or the first, the first child that was stoned. That's
all it took. The others stood in line, and
they never talked back again. I'm making fun. But here, Paul
gives this example, because he wants his readers to understand
that in this same picture of marriage, the law then does apply
in this way. This example suggests that, as
I've already said, that some of these Gentile Christians had
a comprehension of the Mosaic law of marriage. A woman who
commits adultery can be divorced, though she is free from him.
She is not free from the law of marriage. She is bound as
a wife to him forever as long as he lives. But if he dies,
she is free to remarry. But if her first husband dies,
even after the divorce, she is free to remarry. So death is
what frees one from the law of marriage. Because there's no
way to impose the rule of law and the rule of covenant, the
law of covenant, over that person who is dead. And because that
person is dead, there is no way to tie and to bind the living
person to that covenant any longer. So a dead man cannot be sentenced
by the law. Recap, even though he may have been guilty of breaking
it, it no longer has rule over him in judgment, and it no longer
offers any consequences for his life. Marriage, in the sense
of the law, to the law is to be dead in one's sins. Marriage
to the law is to be dead in one's sins. Let me say that again.
Marriage to the law, you see what I'm saying? If we are in
unity with the law, if we are in covenant with the law, if
we are in bondage to the law, if we are tied to the law, if
we're married to the law, it ends where? In death. It ends in death. Because being
in the law and under the law is to be dead in sin. It means
you're in unbelief. You're in covenant to the rule
of law and to the rule of justice, and there is no one who lives
except the Christ, who is not guilty of violating the law.
So the law in all of its glory brings justice, which is death,
for the wages of sin is death. So the only thing that the law
can do for any human being, sans Christ, is kill that person. But Paul is now saying, so we've
died to the law. Just as when the first husband dies, the woman
can be what? It doesn't just say free, does
it? That she can marry another. That's the example that Paul
gives. So in that sense, the wife whose husband put her away
has died. Now she can marry another. That's
the example. In the same way, we who have
died to the law can be married to another. You see what's happening? We
often think, because our culture is so free-spirited, that, well,
I'm free from the law. Oh, happy condition. A good hymn,
by the way. Ah, I just can't wait to do all the sinful things
that I've always enjoyed. That's an absurdity. Paul's already
established that in Romans chapter 6. It's an absurdity. We don't
want to do all the sinful things that we used to enjoy because
those things are dead to us. We don't enjoy them, though we
might be tempted. We have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, whom God put forth to crush Him
so that He would propitiate for us because of our sin. Why would
we want to do that thing and participate in those things that
caused our Savior to die? We don't. We don't. So in this explanation, dying
to the law means that we can be bound to another, just like
dying husband allows a wife that has been divorced to marry another. But what and how is Paul really
trying to show us here? See how this can be, I mean,
let's just, you don't have to raise your hand, but I'm willing
to bet that many of us have read through this section of Romans
before and just sort of scratched our head and kept moving. It's
not easy because the argument is so quick and so repetitive,
but yet Paul brings the point down again before he gets to
the other question. Oh, well, the law must be evil
then because it always brings down. It always causes us to
sin, you know. That's what verse 7 starts. What
shall we say then? That the law is sin? By no means. He says, likewise, just as a
woman is free at the death of her husband to marry another,
likewise, my brothers, verse four, you also have died to the
law through the body of Christ. So let's that, through the body
of Christ. I'll bring the end to the front
of this. Through the body of Christ, you have died to the
law in the same way that a woman who has been divorced, her husband
dies, she is free to marry another. You are the same in regard to
the law through the body of Christ. The rigid requirements of the
law are gone. You are no longer married to
the consequence of justice and righteousness according to the
law. You are married to the Christ
who is our righteousness. We do not belong to the debt
of the law because Christ has died to pay it. I want you to understand this freedom. I want you to understand this
freedom. We're no longer bound to the requirements of the sentence
of death. We're no longer bound We are free. Our chains have
been cut. Our eyes have been given sight.
Our minds have been renewed. Our hearts have been regenerated. We are a new creation. We are a new creature in Christ
Jesus. And we are so because who we were is dead. Who we are is Christ. In Christ, we are alive in Christ. You might say, well, that's a
little weird statement that you said right there. Paul said it, actually. He says,
it is not I who live, but Christ who lives within me. And then
he says, I live my life, what I do with what I am in my life,
in this meat suit that I walk in, my soul, who I am, walks
in this broken vessel, but what I live my life by faith, in the
Son of God who loves me, he used the past tense, loved me and
gave himself for me. So the requirements of the law
are gone in their rigidness. We do not belong to the debt
of the law because it has been paid by Christ. We are no longer
bound to the requirements of the sentence of death. We are
free because Christ paid it all. I want you to pay attention.
He is our freedom from the law. You hear that. You see how backwards
that sounds? Because what do people think
in their humanity? What do we think in our flesh,
in our human way of thinking when somebody says, you're free
from the law? Well, I can do what I want to do. Paul's already
answered that question. No, you can't. That's an absurdity. You just will not pay the penalty
of that which you do in sin. And no matter how good you live
your life, none of it counts for righteousness. None of it
proves anything to anybody. But if you don't live and strive,
then we'll correct you as brothers and sisters. And if we correct
you and you go, then we'll discipline you. You know, kids, no, nanny nanny
boo boo and you stick your fingers in your ears. So Christ paid it all. He is our freedom from the law.
This is not now a freedom to be a slave to the flesh. And
it's not a freedom that I'm my own man anymore because that's
not the argument that Paul gives. Paul says the woman is divorced
and then her first husband dies. Now she's free to be bound to
another in the same way now you have died to the law. So you
don't have a freedom that is your own. Your life doesn't belong
to you. Our lives don't belong to us. We are a slave no longer
to the law and no longer to the flesh, but we're a slave to Christ
who is our true husband. We're a slave to Christ. We're not going to violate. We're
not going to be judged by the violation of the law because
Christ took that judgment. And we're not free so that we
might move back into the flesh and live in wickedness. We are
free that we might be bound to our Savior. We are free so we could be bound
to Christ, our perfect and true husband. See how marriage is
not about the couple, but it is about the Christ. You see
marriage? It's about the Christ. That's
why one of the most absurd things that people do in the context
of the Christian faith is to belittle marriage. Hold it in high honor. It is
not something that we take flippantly, but brothers and sisters, we
all well know, we who are married in the room, how difficult it
is. It'd be easier for us to drive
to the moon than to have a perfect marriage. Why? Because God has
established that the marriage would be forbearing and forgiving
and learning to die to oneself, learning to submit to one another.
And then just as we do in the home, we also do in the body
of Christ. And that is the point. We are
bound to Christ and we are His body. So you also having died,
the law then cannot claim authority over you in a court of justice."
There's no law. Like if I rob all the banks in
this state, and then I die, and then somehow they can, you know,
let's say this is a sci-fi movie, and they're like, well, James,
you're in some other place. Yep, I'm dead. You can't judge
me now. You can't be judged. by the law
if you've died to the law. The atonement is finished. The
law cannot claim you. Christ has paid it. He has suffered
it. Justification is accomplished.
Redemption is applied. Sanctification is complete. Y'all
hear those things? Friends, if we're in Christ,
the work is done. The work is done. What in the
world are we striving for? What are we striving for in this
life? To give glory and praise to Christ. And that is evidenced, first
and foremost, that God gives us a love for Him because He
first loved us, but because God has loved us and we have a love
for Him, we have a love for each other that is unparalleled in
the world. Did you hear that? It's unparalleled
in the world. The reason we are called the
church is because we have a supernatural spontaneous affection that is
driven by the Holy Spirit of God that no man can separate. And let me tell you what doesn't
separate by death, the love of the saints. But do you know what
does separate by death? When my body quits kicking, my
wife is free forever for me. But when I die, you are still
bound to me as brothers and sisters in Christ." It's an amazing thing. So that,
you might think, well, you're getting all that. Well, likewise,
my brothers, you've also died to the law through the body of
Christ, verse 4, second part, so that you may belong to another.
See, we're free from the law, but we belong to our Savior,
to the true righteousness of God, who is Christ. to Him who
has been raised from the dead. So this idea of death, Paul wants
to remind us that we're not just talking about we're just dead,
we're done, but we're alive in Christ and we've been raised
alive because Christ has been raised. So we belong to Christ, we've
been united with Him in a spiritual sense, we've been united with
Him in a spiritual marriage, and we're alive. We're not just
dead, though we're dead to the law, we are alive in Christ,
who fulfilled the law for us. We're alive in Christ. Friends,
this is a breakdance moment. Do you know what that means? Sometimes you just feel like
breakdancing, even if you don't know how. This is one of those
moments, that Christ, and through Christ, we are alive, because
when Christ died, we died with Him. But why? In order that we, notice
that, he says, so that you may belong to one another, talking
to his audience, and then collectively, in order that we may bear fruit
for God. Now see the theme here. What
is the theme of Paul's argument? What is his example? Marriage.
What does the Bible teach us in Genesis chapter 2? that God puts man on earth from
the dust, breathes life into him, out of man comes woman,
and the two become one flesh, let no man separate. God establishes
the picture of redemption in the husband and wife of marriage. And then He tells them, what?
Be fruitful and multiply. Subdue the earth. So in that
same way that marriage as a picture of the fruit, that we bear fruit
for God in His purposes for marriage, in that same way we as the church
collectively bear fruit for God in our redemption. What does
it look like? Oh my goodness. Proverbs 11,
Jeremiah 17, Matthew 7, Ephesians 2, we are His workmanship
created in Christ to do good works which He planned beforehand
for us to walk in. Love one another. And again,
I say to you, love one another. Be kind and gentle and forgiving. Encourage one another as long
as it's called the day. So it's all about how we love
and worship God through Christ, who is our God, who is our Savior,
and how we love and equip and encourage one another. That is
the law of Christ. The fruitfulness of our faith
is that we hold fast to Christ alone as our righteousness. The
outcome of that is manifold as God begins to work through His
people to produce those things intimately that are absurd to
the world at large. It's absurd. And beloved, there's no man or
woman or child in this world, except Christ, who has ever or
will ever in any way mark righteousness off of their report card through
their striving to love the Lord and to love each other. We have righteousness on our
report because we've been given the righteousness of Christ. Because unbelievers can do good
works, unbelievers can love people, sort of. Unbelievers can give,
unbelievers can even pray. But they're wicked deeds. But if you and I pray for one
another, it's a righteous deed. If we forgive one another, it's
a righteous deed. Why? Because it's done by faith.
We're not doing these things so we go, look at me, Mr. Righteous
Man. No, look at my Lord Jesus is
my righteousness. He's forgiven me. I must forgive
each other. We must forgive each other. We
must love each other. And I don't want to go too far
into that because it's not the point of the text, but that sermon
is coming. Bottom line, we can live for
Christ today because we are alive in Christ today. We are able
to put to death the flesh and to live out our faith. Why? Because we are free from the
law. We cast off our dead flesh by
faith because Christ has died. Thus we have died. And so together
we all bear fruit for God who works in us as He wills for His
good pleasure. And then Paul then says, for,
and he gives reminders here, for while we were living in our
flesh, while we were living in our sinful passions, while we
were being aroused by the law, you see what I mean? I've already
said that. Don't do that! Well, I never thought about doing
that till now. I can't. Told I shouldn't. Told I can't. I'll show him, I'll do it. You
know what we call reverse psychology with toddlers? Don't you get
dressed for bed. Don't you brush your teeth. And
then we whip them two years later because we tell them to do something,
they do the opposite, you know. It is the human nature to do
opposite of what we're told. or to do that which we're commanded
not to do. That's what it means to be dead
in our trespasses. Even if it comes to spiritual
things, you must believe on Jesus Christ alone for salvation. Well,
I can work that out myself. We were living in our flesh in
our sinful passions aroused by the law. We were living in our full members, our
total body, to bear fruit for death. See, these things work
out in our whole bodies, and they bring forth the fruit of
sin, and at the same time, they bring forth the fruit, listen
to me, of the law. The fruit of the law is the death
of the wicked. That's what it is. For humanity, we die. Sin gives birth to death. The
law gives it, causes it, accuses, judges, and sentences. All works, for those who are
not in Christ, that they may appear to be righteous, they
are not righteous, they are dead works, Paul will say soon, because
they proceed from self-love, self-glory, self-gratification,
self-pride, self-righteousness. A heart that is not on fire by
the Holy Spirit in gratitude for the grace of God, but a heart
that is selfish. As I've said, marriage was meant
to bear fruit into the world with people, so the fruit of
the law is death because of sin. Sin begets death. The law grants
it justly. But verse 6, now we are released
from the law, having died to that which held us captive. We
are released from all, listen to me, the ceremonial laws of
Judaism. Those that were a shadow. And
we are released, pay careful attention to what I'm about to
say, sound bites require wisdom and a temper that is spiritually
discerned. Fools jump to conclusions and
infants babble and argue about words. That's not as much for
us as those that may be listening to this in the future. We are also released from the
moral law because we can't obey it either. You see the point? We're not released from doing
these things, we're released from the consequence of not doing
them. That's what the Scripture's teaching when it says we're released
from the law. Do not covet. We covet. We do not die. Because
Christ died and He never coveted. Do not murder. We murder by gossip. Gossip is murder. We murder with
our hands. We shed blood. Romans 3 all over
again. We are guilty of these things.
No matter how less we do them, no matter how Never again we
may do them. We are still guilty of these
sins. We are guilty of violating the law. The law brings forth
death, so we are freed from this law and its consequences. That's
what Paul is arguing here. We are delivered, a better word,
from the moral law as it bound us to die in our unbelief. We are free from death. Do you see that? And so as it
stands, beloved, if you are in Christ today, no matter what
your life looked like before you were born again, and no matter
how hard you strive today and still fail, we are no longer
guilty before God. Because the law, listen, is satisfied. How? Romans 3, through Christ. The law is satisfied. The law
has been satisfied. Justice has been given. The righteousness
of God is manifested apart from the law, though the law and the
prophets bear witness to the righteousness of God. But the
righteousness of God is manifested apart from the law. How? In Christ
Jesus. There you go. In Jesus. Say that. In Jesus. Alright. Whom God put forward as propitiation
to be received by faith. So the law is satisfied. The
lawgiver is satisfied. And the one who obeyed the law
perfectly is the one who becomes our satisfaction. We are bound to the fruit of
justice, which is the law, which is death, when we are not in
Christ. No one can ever find life in
the law. It always brings justice, and
justice is always death. Christ has fulfilled the consequences
of the law in His death, thus bringing us to life, no longer
captive to the law in that way. But what law does our heart beat
for? The law of grace. The law of grace. That I should
do nothing in my mind or with my mouth or my eyes or my hands
that would disgrace the one who died for me. Oh, Father, lead
me not into temptation. You see that? That is a daily
battle. And beloved, sometimes our temptations
are so deep within, no man can see them until we confess them.
And sometimes they're so surface, I was rebuked just this week
and I took it and I was rejoicing in it because of some phraseology
that I use as a southerner that may reflect blasphemously the
divine natures of God. And I'm like, I've never thought
of this before, and I'm excited about it, and I can't wait until
Sunday night to talk about it on the vidcast, because that's
where it was. I'm like, yes. Things that we
do and say we don't know, but we're no longer bound to the
fruit of justice. because Christ fulfilled it.
The law holds no more warrant against us. The curse that held
us captive is gone. He who is hanged on a tree is
accursed. Christ became the curse for us.
He took the curse for us. We are free from the law, O happy
condition, because it would not bring justice in our righteousness. As our obedience continued to
fail, it would bring justice in our death. because we are
guilty. It would bring wrath, as it should,
but it will not bring that now. The law will not bring justice
upon us, the law will not bring death upon us, the law will not
bring wrath upon us, because Christ took all of that in our
place. He substituted for His church,
and they are free. Never, listen, never, to receive
the wrath of God. Do you know the verse 1 of chapter
8 of Romans? Therefore now there is no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus. That's where Paul's trying to
get to. I'm just taking too long. But it'd be good for us to sit
on it for a few weeks and think about it. Why is the curse gone? And I'll
pick up in this verse next week, so that we serve in the new way
of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. We are the children of the Lord. We are the redeemed. We are the
purchased. We are the elect. Beloved, we
have a life to live for Christ that is unimaginably awesome. And that's where we'll go next
week. Let's pray. We thank you, Lord,
for the law. Oh, Lord, for in it we see who
you are. We see your holiness, how set
apart you are so far from the ways in the mind of men that
we could never comprehend the depth of your glorious, awesome
righteousness. Father, You were just and good
to impose death upon us wicked sinners. Oh, but Father, how
gracious You are to place Your wrath upon Jesus Christ, Your
Son, that we would be free from the wrath of the law. That we
would no longer hang over the pit of wrath. but that we have
been dragged and snatched and carried and sealed into the light
of Christ. And it's in His name we pray.
Amen. Thank you for listening. We hope
that this message has encouraged you in the faith. Subscribe to
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