Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us, and I pray and hope that the Lord
will bless you as we go through the scriptures and the preaching
of the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And if you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'll be preaching from Romans chapter 7. This is
a very significant chapter, and for the most part, very misunderstood. I'm going to take a few messages
and go through Romans 7. The first message is entitled,
Married to Christ. Married to Christ. Of course,
what I'm going to be talking about is a believer's union with
Christ, which is described in the scripture oftentimes as a
marriage union, Christ being the bridegroom and the church
being his bride, Christ being the husband, the church being
his wife. And then we're gonna talk about
how each individual believer, sinners saved by grace, are in
essence married to Christ. And the contrast that Paul's
setting up here in Romans chapter seven is this, that when we come
into union with Christ by God-given faith, we're no longer married
to the law. We're married to Christ. And
I'll explain that in just a moment. The title's taken from verse
four where he talks about being married to another. And the other
there is Christ. But the apostle had set this
up back in Romans chapter six. And let's just look at a verse
back there just to set the context here. He's talking about in Romans
chapter six how a believer, how a child of God has, in union
with Christ, has been justified, justified by the grace of God,
based upon the death of Christ. Now the death of Christ refers
not just the fact that he died, which he did. He literally died
on that cross. And that's an amazing thing because
Christ is God in human flesh. And that death is attributed
to his humanity but was an act of his entire person. But he
died. But his death was a satisfaction
to the law of God. His death satisfied God's justice
for the sins of his people. Now in the Bible, there's a word
that describes that. It's called propitiation in the
New Testament. Back in the Old Testament, you
see the word mercy seat. which was the, you remember,
in the holiest of all, in the tabernacle, there was the Ark
of the Covenant, and then there was a lid made of chitim wood,
overlaid with gold, and it was put over that ark. Inside the
ark was the Ten Commandments, the law, which condemns us based
upon our works, and the mercy seat covered it. And the high
priest would come in one time a year and sprinkle the blood
of the lamb from off the altar, brazen altar, the altar of sacrifice. He'd sprinkle the blood of the
lamb on the mercy seat. And that was an emblem, a type,
a shadow, a picture of Christ, the high priest of his people,
God's elect, bringing in his own blood. for He is our mercy
seat, and He satisfied justice. And that's what Christ did in
His death because it says in Romans 6 and verse 7, now listen
to this, for he that is dead is freed, the word freed there
means justified. That means legally declared not
guilty, legally declared righteous, we're justified from sin. Sin
cannot condemn any sinner for whom Christ died. The Bible says
that God cannot bring any sin to the charge of His elect. That's Romans chapter 8 and verse
33. And he says why? Because it's
God who justified and on what basis? See, if God justifies
me, a sinner, he has to do it on a just ground. And what just
ground is there? He says, who can condemn us?
It's Christ that died. And that's what he's talking
about. The death of Christ, the resurrection of Christ, the crucifixion
of Christ, the resurrection of Christ. And based upon what Christ
did in the place of his people as their surety and substitute,
having their sins imputed, charged, accounted to him, He satisfied
the justice of God and brought forth a righteousness that enables
God to be just and justifier. So they're dead in the sense
of legal death. See, I'm dead to sin in this
sense. I am no longer, I am not charged
with my sin. I'm righteous before God based
upon the righteousness of Christ imputed to me. And therefore
the law cannot condemn me. Sin cannot be charged to me.
Now I'm still a sinner in myself. I still, I'm a sinner saved by
grace. But I'm dead to sin legally.
And so he says, now down in verse 14 of chapter six, he says, for
sin shall not have dominion over you. Now in myself, while I'm
in this body, this flesh, Sin still contaminates everything
I think, say, and do. I can't get away from it. Oh,
wretched man that I am. That's how Paul concludes Romans
7. Wretched man that I am. Who shall deliver me from this
body of death? The dominion of sin over me has
been totally eradicated, not in me, in my thoughts, in my
flesh and all that, but in the person of Christ as my substitute
and surety. He drank damnation dry, so that
I cannot be condemned. So he says in verse 14 of Romans
6, for sin shall not have dominion over you, for you're not under
the law, but you're under grace. under grace. Now that's the difference. The law cannot condemn me. I'm
not seeking salvation by my law keeping. I used to do that when
I was lost, before I was born again, before God brought me
to faith in Christ. But now, now sin doesn't have
any dominion over me. I'm not under law. I'm under
grace. I'm under grace. Now, he goes on to show that
those who have been justified by Christ legally in the person
of Christ, as a result of that, they will be born again. They
will be given spiritual life. They will be liberated from the
deception of sin. And that's what he talks about
in verse 18 of Romans 6, being then made free from sin. You
became the servants of righteousness. Now, a servant of righteousness
is a person who believes in Christ. Because Christ is our righteousness. Romans 10, 4. For Christ is the
end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe it.
Now that's the context. A believer. And so in Romans
7, he starts off with an illustration that he gets from the law to
prove that believers are justified sinners, they're free from the
law. And so there's a song that says
free from the law, a hymn, free from the law, oh happy condition,
Jesus hath bled and there is remission. The law cannot condemn
us. And they're free from the law
by the issue of death. And look at it, this is Romans
seven, look at verse one. He says, no you not brethren.
Now the brethren there proves that he's talking to believers
now. The things that he's going to say only applies to those
of us who have been brought by God's grace to believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ, the true Christ of the Bible. So he says, no
you not brethren, and then in parenthesis, as the King James
Version translators put it, Paul says, for I speak to them that
know the law. I'm talking to you who know about
this law. He says, how that the law hath
dominion over a man as long as he liveth. Now he uses, what
he's saying here is this. In order to be free from the
law, you've got to die. Now that's it. That's the only
thing I'm, well, In Christ, I have died. Back up in Romans 6-7,
for he that is dead is freed from sin. So in other words,
I'm free from the law because of the death of Christ, not my
own death now. Now I did die in Him, but not
by my own personal death, is what I'm saying. But I died in
Christ. When He died, I died. When He
was buried, I was buried. When He arose again, I arose
again. He's my representative. He's
my surety. My sins were imputed to Him.
His righteousness has been imputed to me. He's my substitute. He's my intercessor, my mediator. There's one God and one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. So His death was
for me. How do I know it was for me?
Because I believe in Him. I trust Him. The ones for whom Christ died
will be brought to faith in Him. So he says, verse one, know ye
not brethren, for I speak to them that know the law, for how
that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth. Now
he uses an illustration of the law of divorce. Divorce and remarriage. And I want to make this point
before I read these verses. Paul is not teaching how we are
to look at and deal with matters of divorce and people who have
been divorced here. That's not what his subject is.
I was going over this years ago and a woman was upset because
there was a man in the congregation, a believer, who had in his past
life been divorced. And you know a lot of people
look at that like it's the unpardonable sin or something like that. Now
let me tell you something, divorce is sin, and it's bad, it has
consequences, but it's not the unpardonable sin. And there's
nothing in the Bible that says a divorced person who has been
brought to faith in Christ, been saved by the grace of God, cannot
be a member of a church or even a leader in the church. And the thing about it is, you
see, we're all sinners. We're all sinners. But that's
not what Paul's talking about here. He's using the law of divorce
to prove something about the law that the only thing that's
going to satisfy the law is death. And look at what he says. This
is verse 2 of Romans 7. For the woman which hath a husband
is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth. You know
in the marriage vows they say, till death do us part. That's
the law. But if the husband be dead, now
the husband dies, she is loosed from the law of her husband.
In other words, she's no longer bound to that law of marriage
because the husband has died. And so he says in verse 3, So
then, if while her husband liveth she be married to another man,
she shall be called an adulteress. She's an adulteress. If a man
and woman who are married and they divorce and each of them
remarried, that's an adulterer and an adulteress. That doesn't
mean that they're to wear a red letter A on their shirt or their
blouse or anything like that. Do you know something? If we're
saved by the grace of God, we are all forgiven adulterers. If nothing else, we've committed
spiritual adultery in our past life. But think about this, you
know what Christ said in Matthew chapter five about the sins of
the heart, the lust of the flesh, all of that, you see? We're sinners
saved by the grace of God if we're saved. So yes, you can't
deny that a person who's been divorced and remarried is an
adulterer or an adulteress, but my friend, the blood of Christ
cleanses his people from all sin. And we're not in any way
told to put a stigma upon certain people for certain sins that
they commit. If they commit scandalous sins,
we're to deal with it in a way of grace. The Bible teaches us
that. But again, his subject here is
to show how we're bound to the law until the death. And he says
in verse 3, so then if while her husband liveth, she be married
to another man, she shall be called an adulteress. But if
her husband be dead, she's free from that law. Now that's his
subject. Free from the law. So that she is no adulteress,
though she be married to another man under the law. So look at
verse four. Now, here's the reason he used
that illustration. Wherefore, verse four, for this
reason, my brethren, you also are become dead to the law. Now, how did I become dead to
the law? He's not bound by the law. Well,
here's the key. Underscore this in your Bibles.
By the body of Christ. Now the body represents his death
there, by the death of Christ. Before the foundation of the
world, God chose a people and betrothed them, if you will,
to Christ. And the only way that they can
be free from the law of sin and death is by the death of the
one to whom they are betrothed, the Lord Jesus Christ. So wherefore,
my brethren, you're become dead to the law. The law's satisfied
in your case, is what he's saying. Brethren, you're justified. You're free from the law, all
right? Now, how did you get that way?
Was it by your works? No. Was it by your free will
decision, walking an aisle and accepting Jesus as your personal
savior? No. That's not how you become
dead to the law. Was it because of your water
baptism? No. Church membership? No. There's only one way that a sinner
can become dead to the law. Not bound to the law in a legal
way whereby the law condemns them for their sin. And there's
only one way, by one person, by one work, and that's the death
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the equivalent of His
righteousness. When the law looks at me, it
looks at me in Christ, and it cannot condemn me. And let me
tell you this too. The law cannot require anything
from me by way of obedience in order to attain or maintain salvation,
because Christ is all my righteousness. Now all that took place in the
death of Christ, for by one offering, the scripture says, Christ hath
perfected forever them that are sanctified. All that took place
in the death of Christ, Look at verse four of Romans seven.
In order that you should be married to another, now who is the other
here? Another, even to him who is raised
from the dead. All of that took place so that
his people would be married to him. And the marriage there that
he's talking about is the union of faith with Christ. When a
sinner is born again by the Spirit, given life from Christ, by the
Spirit of God, and brought to faith in Christ, that sinner
is literally, by faith, married to Christ, united to Christ. Christ is the husband, the church
is his bride. and they're married to him. And
it says they're married to him who is raised from the dead for
what purpose? Look at the last part of verse
four, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. That we should
bear fruit, the fruit of faith, the fruit of repentance, the
fruit of obedience motivated by grace, love, and gratitude. Think about it like a marriage
union between a husband and a wife. That marriage union is only a
good marriage union if it's based on love. Husbands, love your
wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. Ephesians chapter five. Wives,
submit yourselves unto your husbands as unto the Lord. Now let me
tell you something about marriage. If the husband could truly love
his wife like Christ loved the church and gave himself for it,
the wife would have no problem being submitted to him as unto
the Lord. The husband who tries to force
his wife to be obedient or submit that tried, with threats, with
harming her or any way, or even verbally. My friend, that's not
the way Christ loved the church. Christ loves his church. He draws
his church with cords of love. And that's what it is, you see.
There is an obedience here. But it's not legalism. It's not
you obey or I'll kick you out of the marriage or I'll divorce
you. Now that's the kind of relationship God had with Israel under the
old covenant. Did you know that? It was a conditional
covenant, conditioned on their obedience to him and they failed.
And in the book of Isaiah, he talks about how he wrote a bill
of divorcement with Israel. But that's not the relationship
he has with his church. Christ is married to the church
and there is no bill of divorcement. And Christ loves his church,
his people, his elect, his sheep, with an uncorrupted, perfect
love that provides for his bride everything that she needs. What
did she need? Well, she needed, she was in
debt to the law. She owed a debt to God's law
and justice that she could not pay. And Christ, her husband, came
along and paid it all. Jesus paid it all, all the debt
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain.
He washed it white as snow. What was the debt? It was death. And what did she need? She needed
a dowry. She needed a righteousness. that
could fulfill and equal the demands of the law. She didn't have it. We're all sinners. We've all
sinned and come short of the glory of God. Ecclesiastes 7
says, there's not a just man on earth who has not sinned. That's right. There's none righteous,
no, not one. What do I need? to satisfy the
law. I need a perfect righteousness
that I do not have by nature and I cannot produce. You see,
I fell in Adam and I'm born dead in trespasses and sin. I was
ruined by the fall. And the only way that I can have
a righteousness that answers the demands of God's law and
justice is to be redeemed by the blood. That's the payment
price. That's the ransom price. That's
the redemption price. redeemed by the blood of the
crucified one. And that's the equivalent of
His righteousness which is imputed, legally counted unto me over
in the book of Isaiah chapter 61. There's a reference to this
where it's talking about the coming of Christ into the world
to pay the price of His bride. And in verse 10, this is Isaiah
61 10, listen to this. It says, I will greatly rejoice
in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my
God, for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation. He
hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom
decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself
with her jewels. He hath covered me clothed me
with the garments of salvation, and covered me with the robe
of righteousness. What are the garments of salvation?
Well, it's all the blessings and benefits of salvation that
come to God's people through Christ, by God's grace. Ephesians
1.3 says it. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with
all spiritual blessings, in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. It's all of grace. None of it's
conditioned on me. It's all conditioned on Christ
and He fulfilled the conditions. And then He hath covered me with
the robe of righteousness. That's a metaphor of the imputed
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. David wrote, and we can
see that over in Romans chapter four, as Paul quotes David from
Psalm 32, and it says in Romans chapter four and verse six, even
as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom
God imputeth righteousness without works. God declares and legally
accounts me as righteousness without my works. How does he
do it? Somebody else did the work. And
what was the work? It was obedience unto death.
And who did it? Well, back over in Romans 7,
4. Wherefore, my brethren, you also become dead to the law by
the body of Christ. You see it? And why? That you
should be married to another, married to Christ. That's a marriage
union that can never be broken. That's a marriage union that
there'll never be any bill of divorcement. because the whole,
all of the conditions, all of the stipulations, all of the
requirements of the marriage union are already met and fulfilled
in perfection by the Lord Jesus Christ. And what does He do? Well, remember what He says here
in verse four, even to him who is raised from the dead, that
we should bring forth fruit unto God. Christ is divine. His people are the branches.
The church, he's the husband, the church is his wife. We see
that in Revelation quite a bit. The church being the bride of
Christ in opposition to the great harlot Babylon, which is a false
church. The world religion, the world
economy, against Christ. But his bride, what does he do? He gives her a new heart. He
gives her a new mind. He writes His word upon her heart
and causes her to walk in His statutes and He causes her to
love Him. He changes her heart. He doesn't drag her to the altar
kicking and screaming. This is not a shotgun wedding.
He draws her with cords of love. You see, if you come to an understanding
in the power of the Holy Spirit of the glory of God revealed
in the face of Jesus Christ, you cannot help but love and
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And bring forth that fruit unto
God. Now later on, I'm gonna talk
about the difference between fruit unto God and fruit unto
death. But I quoted just earlier, John
chapter 15. He's the vine, we're the branches. We don't produce fruit We bear
it forth from the life that's in the Son of God. It's the resurrection
life of Christ, expressing itself through His people who have been
made dead to the law by the body of Christ, married to Him. I hope you'll join us next week
for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1-1-0-2-3. Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia
31707. Contact us by phone at 229-432-6969
or email us through our website at www.theletterofgrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.