In this study in Romans, we've
been looking at the good news that believers aren't under the
law, they're under grace. We looked at how believers are
dead to sin and that we're dead to sin. We're free from the guilt
of sin. We're free from the condemnation
of sin. We're free from being forced to serve sin. And believers
are dead to the law. Same way, we're not under the
rule of the law. Believers are under no obligation
to keep the law. They're free from the condemnation
of the law. And the only way we can be free
from sin, free from the law, dead to sin, dead to the law,
is in the Lord Jesus Christ by being united to Him in His life,
His death, His burial, His resurrection. And Paul's going to give us an
example here in chapter 7 of what it means to be free from
the law because we're dead to the law. Look here in verse 1
of Romans 7. Know ye not, brethren, For I
speak to them that know the law, how that the law hath dominion
over a man as long as he liveth. Now Paul says he's talking to
his brethren. Now he is talking to his brethren
according to the flesh, Jews, people who grew up being taught
the law. All their lives they were taught
the law. And they understand what the law says. They understand
the outward precepts of the law. So he's talking to them. But
he's also talking to his brethren in the faith. Because this freedom
from the law, being dead to the law, in this example that Paul's
going to give, only applies to brethren in the faith. We only
have this freedom through union with Christ, through faith in
Him. But he is talking to both. And what he's telling us here
is the rule of law only applies to living people. When a person
dies, the law doesn't require anything from them anymore. God's
law or human law doesn't require anything from a dead person.
If you receive a summons to court, I saw this on TV a couple months
ago, this ongoing court case, and it was big news, you know,
and this old fellow, I mean, he was on oxygen and looked like
he was ready to die at any moment. was getting hauled into court
for some dispute with his neighbor. He may have shot somebody. I'm
not sure what was going on. And this court case was going
on. He was being required to show up in court. Well, one evening
he died. Well, he's required to show up
in court the next morning. But he didn't have to go. The law
didn't apply to him anymore. He's free from the requirements
of the law because he died. Well, human beings, every human
being, Born on the face of this planet is born under the dominion
of God's law. God gave the law, and the law
says to every human being born, do and live, disobey and die. That's the sum and substance
of the law. Do and live, disobey and die. And that's the dominion
that we're born under. And because we're born under
the dominion of the law, the rule of the law, the law can
demand obedience from us because it has dominion over us. And
when we disobey, the law has the power to inflict punishment,
and we'll be under that dominion as long as we live. And the only
way to be free from that dominion, the only way to be free from
the requirements of that law, is to die. It's the only way. The only way to be free from
the guilt of that law is to die in the Lord Jesus Christ, through
union with Him, and in Him our federal head. The only way to
be free from the condemnation of that law, the only way to
be free from the law's ability to punish us is to die in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And that's kind of the example
here that Paul's going to give us in verse 2. For the woman
which hath a husband is bound by the law to her husband so
long as he liveth. But if the husband be dead, she's
loose from the law of her husband. So then if while her husband
liveth she be married to another man, she be called an adulteress.
But if her husband be dead, she's free from that law, so that she
is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. Now
the law says, when a couple's married, they're married forever.
Until death do you part, that's part of the oath that you take
before God. Now the Lord told Moses, he said,
I'll provide for a bill of divorcement, not because it's good, not because
that's the best thing for you, but because of the hardness of
your hearts. I'll provide for this bill of divorcement. But
you're not free to remarry, to marry another, unless it's in
the case of death, the case of adultery, or a case of desertion.
And you can read, we won't bother turning to it, but you can read
that in 1 Corinthians 7, 15 and Matthew 19, 19. That in the cases
of adultery or desertion, a person's free to remarry. But, if a divorce
happens for any other reason, the law says that you cannot
marry another. And if you do, you're living
in adultery. That's what the law says. That's pretty harsh,
isn't it? But that's what the law is. The
law is harsh. The law, you'll notice, doesn't
tell you how to have a happy marriage. The law doesn't tell
you how to stay married. The law just says you have to
stay married. That's what the law says. And this married woman,
she's bound to her husband by law as long as they live. She's
bound to live with him. She's bound by law. God's law
is to be in subjection to him, to give obedience to him, because
that's the vow that she took. And that husband, in the same
way, is bound to his wife. He's bound by law to love her. That's not an option. He's bound
by law to do that. He's bound by law to honor her
and cherish her and provide for her. They're both bound together,
one to each other, until one of them dies. Until death do
you part. If that husband dies, then that wife is free. She's
free to marry another. She's free from any obligation
that she had to him because he's dead. And the only way to be
set free from the law of marriage is death. And this is the example
that Paul's giving us. The only way to be free from
the demands of God's law is to die. To die because we're married
to it. The only way we can be separated
from that Obligation is to die. Otherwise, we're married to it.
We're joined to it under the dominion of that law, just like
the woman is under the rule of her husband. Now, verse 4. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also
are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that you
should be married to another, even to him who is raised from
the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. is free
from the law because Christ our representative died. And we died
in him. The law counts us as dead. So the law no longer can reach
to the believer. The law counts us as dead because
we died in Christ. The believer is free from the
law as a covenant. A covenant of life or a covenant
of death. And to us, we're sinners. The
law can never be a covenant of life to us. All it can be is
a covenant of death. But we're free from that covenant
if we died in Christ. We're free from the law as a
way to earn justification, which we can't do. But we're also free
from the law as a way to earn condemnation, because that's
all we can do with the law is earn condemnation. But we're
free from that if we died in Christ. We're not under the power
of the law. We're not under the rule of the
law or the dominion of the law any longer if we died in the
Lord Jesus Christ. The believer is just as free
from the law as that wife is free from the rule of her dead
husband. You think it's absurd that some woman would try to
be in subjection to that husband who's laying in the grave. We
think she's absurd. It's just as absurd to think
the believer has anything to do with the rule of the law anymore.
You're free from the rule of the law. Now, we're not free
from the law because the law died. The law is our husband.
Well, he didn't die. We're not free from the law because
the law died. The law is still in full force. And it ought to
be. The law is just, holy and good. Isn't that what Scripture says?
There's no reason for the law to die. The ones who should die
is us. And we did in the Lord Jesus
Christ. We died so that now that we're
dead, we're in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're dead
to the law. Now, it's obvious that in the life and death of
our Lord Jesus Christ, He completely satisfied the law, didn't He?
And He says here that we are dead to the law by the body of
Christ. The law cannot and does not demand
anything else from Christ, does it? Well, then the law can't
demand anything of anyone in Him either. The law requires
Perfect obedience. Well, we are perfectly obedient
in the Lord Jesus Christ. He was perfectly obedient in
all of His life. And He gave that obedience to
us. When He was obedient, everyone in Him was obedient. And we're
free from the law because Christ kept the law for His elect. Well,
the law requires death for sin. Well, the law is satisfied. In
the behalf of God's elect, the law is satisfied Because when
he died for our sins, we died in him. Look over at Galatians
chapter 2. Paul told the church at Galatia
the same thing. Galatians 2 verse 19. For I, through the law, am dead
to the law, that I might live unto God. Now that statement,
through the law, means through Christ keeping the law for me.
I, through Christ keeping the law for me, through Christ making
me legally justified, through his death, I am dead to the law
that I might live under God. You see, the law can't threaten
God's elect anymore. It can't punish God's elect anymore
because our sins have already been punished in our substitute. So the law which is holy is not
going to punish us for the sins that it punished our Redeemer
for. The law can't punish us anymore. We're free from the
law. And not only are we free from the obligation to attempt
to keep the law, God's holy law says that everyone in the Lord
Jesus Christ is not just free. Well, you know, you keep breaking
me, but you're free. No. The law says everyone in
Christ is innocent, completely holy, as innocent and as holy
as he is, as he is. So are we in this world. So since
we died in Christ, we're free from our obligation. We're free
from our marriage to the law because Christ set us free. And
we're free to marry another. Who are you going to marry? You're
not going to stay single. So who are you going to marry? The only option is the Lord Jesus
Christ, the one who came and loved us when we were unlovable
and set us free. I'm going to marry him. I'm going
to run to him. And once you do, everything's
different. Now, I'll give you an example.
I heard it from Tim James. He said he got it from Henry.
And I use this example back in 2000, 2001, somewhere in that
time frame. In Bob Coffey's Sunday school
class, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth graders. My daughter Holly
was in there, and Caleb Evans was in there, Judy's son. I use
this example with them. And the illustration goes this
way. A woman married a man. And while she was dating him,
he looked pretty good. But you know, they all do when you're
dating them, or they try to. But once she married him, his
true colors come out. And he's a mean, cold-hearted
man. Strict, unfeeling. He never told that woman he loved
her. Never told her she did a good job. He never told her thank
you for the things that she did for him. He's mean. And he demanded that household
be run to perfection. He'd get home from work in a
day, and he'd put on that white glove. And he'd go around looking
for dust on the furniture, and maybe on the windowsill, on the
top of the huts, where nobody dusts up there. But he's looking
for dust. And if he found a smudge on that
white glove, she'd be punished. He'd beat her. He'd even go and
look in the corners of the room behind the toilet. Now, nobody
cleans behind there unless you've got a lot of company coming.
You never clean back there. But he demanded it be perfect.
And if he found dirt back there, he'd beat her. And every day,
she'd get up. She'd fix him breakfast. She'd
fix him lunch to take to work. She'd had his dinner ready right
on time when he got home. And he demanded it be that way.
If that dinner was even a minute late, he'd beat her. At this
point in the illustration, I'm giving that illustration to these
kids. I'm telling you, they were hopping mad. Those girls, you
see those little felons come out in them, their fists were
clenched. And those boys were angry. I mean, you could just
see it. Everyone was scowling. Just angry that a man treated
a woman that way. And then I told them my husband
died. Caleb stood up and clapped. And all the rest of them broke
into a smile, happy. That man died. That's what he
deserved. But you know, that's the believers rejoicing. We're
dead to the law. That's our rejoicing. And that
woman remarried. Now this time she married a good
man. He's kind. He's gentle. He always
complimented her. Told her how pretty she looked.
She never criticized her. She didn't do everything just
right. He didn't point it out. He covered it up. She did everything
the same way she used to. I mean, the activity of her life
is exactly the same. She'd get up in the morning.
She'd fix him breakfast. She'd fix him lunch. She'd take him
to work. When he got home, she had his dinner ready. He'd get
up to go work in the morning. His shirt's ironed for him, ready
to go. Everything's the same. But everything's different, isn't
it? Her motive is completely different. The first motive to
that first husband was out of fear. The motive to the second
is out of love. To the second husband, she fixed
his breakfast and ironed his shirt with a song in her heart.
Because the motive is love. And believers are married to
another. To the Lord Jesus Christ. And
when we're married to Him, everything's different. We got a new name. No longer do we bear our name
and Adam's image. We bear his name, Jehovah Sidkenu,
the Lord, our righteousness. We got a new address. We moved
in with a new husband. We've been translated out of
the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his dear son.
We've got a new way of life. We've adopted his customs. We follow Christ. No longer do
we follow the course of the world, but we follow our Redeemer. We've
got a new provider, no longer providing for ourselves. Our
husband provides everything we need. He's made us perfect before
the Father. And he provides for us in this
world too. He's our provider. And we're married to a new husband
who Paul says, him who is raised from the dead to die no more. Our marriage to Christ will never
be ended because he died. Sometimes you've been in a wonderful
marriage and the husband dies and that marriage is dissolved.
It won't happen in this case. He'll never die. And we'll never
die in Him either. We have eternal life in Him.
This marriage is an eternal relationship. And we're glad. This is our rejoicing
to be married to another. Now, the law. Where does the
law fit in in this relationship? Well, now the believer loves
God's law, but we're still dead to it now. Even though we do
love God's law, we're dead to that law. The believer doesn't
live our life trying to keep the law to make ourselves more
holy or improve our standing. No, we're justified eternally
and we're sanctified, made holy eternally in the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And we don't contribute to that
with our activities. either before conversion or after
conversion. It's in Christ. The law is not
the rule of life to the believer. Christ is our rule of life. We're
dead to the law. Henry said this in his outline.
This is really good. The law can't make an evil man
good and the law cannot make a safe man holy. Christ did that
for us. We love the law. But we're not
under any obligation to it. We're not under any obligation
to keep it. We're married to Christ. So that
we should bring forth fruit unto God. Now what's he talking about
there? We bring forth fruit unto God.
Well, the fruit of marriage is children. Fruit that comes from
the union between the father and the mother. The marriage
relationship. Well, the fruit of a believer
is the result of our union with him. With our new husband. And
that fruit is good works. It works that are done in faith,
works that are done for the glory of our Savior, works that are
done for the good of His people. And they're done with a new attitude
and new motives. Not out of fear, not because
we have to, not because we're required to, but because we want
to. Look in Ephesians chapter 2. This is the attitude of the new
man. Ephesians 2 verse 10, For we
are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. That's why we are created in
Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them, that we should bring forth fruit
unto him. Now verse 5, For when we were
in the flesh, the motions of sin which were by the law did
work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death." Now
the flesh, that's the old man. That's the flesh that we were
born with. And the motions of that old man, the motions of
that flesh is activity at either keeping the law or refusal to
keep the law. Either one. Either way, it's
fruit unto death. And here's the problem with that
activity. That word motions, if you look
in your center reference, it's actually passions. The passions,
the desires, the motives of that old man are totally sinful because
they sprang from a dead heart. You see, the law doesn't just
look at our actions, whether or not you outwardly did something
or you didn't do it. The law works to the heart, to
the motives. Isn't that what our Lord said?
He said, to hate your brother without a cause is to be guilty
of murder. It doesn't matter if you took
a knife and shoved it in his heart. If you hate him without
a cause, you're guilty of murder. It looks to the heart. A man
looks on a woman with lust in his heart. That's to be guilty
of adultery. That's what the Lord said. So
what Paul is asking here is, when you were under the law,
did it do you any good? Did it make you holy to be under
the law? If you bothered at all to attempt
to keep it, did it do you any good? Did it make you holy? Well,
of course not. And the reason it didn't is that
heart, the passions, the motives. The law says don't do this. The passion of that old man is
to make us want to do it all the more. Tell me don't do something. That's all I can think about.
That's what I want to do. Yeah, it's the NCAA tournament. You
wait. You mark my words. Whoever the
champion is, I don't care who it is, everybody in this world
could have picked them on their bracket. You know what they're
going to say? Nobody believed in us. And that's their motivation. Somebody said we couldn't do
it. And that's our motivation to prove them wrong. The law
says don't do. That's all I want to do. That's
the passion. It's the heart of that old flesh.
Then the law says do. Do this. Well, the passion of
that old man says, don't you tell me what to do. I won't do
it. Just stubborn as a mule. I won't
do it simply because you told me to. That's the passions of
that old man. And that's why the law can't
do a human being, a sinner like us, any good. And all those works
that were done in the flesh, even what people would say good
works, things that people honestly benefit from, feeding the hungry,
I'll tell you what, that hungry person you gave them food thinks
that's a good work. Housing the homeless. The homeless person
who's out in the cold, that gets a warm place to sleep, thinks
you did a good work. Giving to the poor, that don't
have anything. The poor person thinks that's
a good work. But God says, that's a work of death. That work is
a fruit unto death. A work that deserves death. Those works are illegitimate
children. Because they don't come from
a union with Christ. Any work done outside of that
union with Christ is an evil work. Now, I'll show you that
in Matthew chapter 7. Now, I know that sounds harsh,
but that's what the law says. Romans 7 verse 15. Beware of false prophets, which
come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly. See, here's the
problem. Inwardly, they are ravening wolves. You shall know them by their
fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt
tree always bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring
forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good
fruit. Every tree that bringeth not
forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. Wherefore
by their fruits shall ye know them. And here's the illustration.
Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into
the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father
which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day,
Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name
have cast out devils, and in thy name have done many wonderful
works? Now I don't know if they actually
cast out devils or not, but if they did cast a devil out of
a person, I guarantee you that person thought they did a wonderful
work, didn't he? But what does the Lord say? And
then, while I profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from
me, ye that work iniquity. Those wonderful works were works
of iniquity because they were not done in faith. They were
works of fruit unto death because they were done without faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. But, look at verse 6. But now, We, God's elect believers,
are delivered from the law. That being dead wherein we were
held, that we should serve in newness of spirit and not in
the oldness of the letter. Believers free from the law because
we're dead to the law. We're not forced to be in obedience
to the law anymore. See, we used to be held by the
law, held against our will. We couldn't go free even if we
wanted to. We're forced to serve. And it
was a drudgery, just a grind of futility. But the believer
is free, free from the law and free to serve the Lord Jesus
Christ. You're not forced to. You're
free to. It differs between the service
of a servant and the service of a son. We serve Christ and
His people willingly because we love them. We love to do it.
We serve in newness of spirit. We serve with a complete new
motivation from new principles that come from a new man. There's
nothing wrong with saying we have new principles. It's where
those principles come from. They come from a new man who's
born from above. They come from a new heart, from
a new will, with new loves because it's a new man born in the image
of God. And we serve not because we're
required to, but because we want to. Not because we have to, because
we don't have another option. Because God's given us a new
want to. And we want to. I'll give you two statements
I heard this week that illustrate exactly what I'm talking about.
I was talking to Andrea Morgan this week. Hope you don't mind
me telling this, because I'm going to. Talking about, Andrea's talking
about how much she loves her pastor. And she says, It's not
just that we're willing to help him out. We'd love to. That's it. Not just I'm willing
or I'm for it. I'd love to. Andrea and Dolores
heard John's, you know, this out the shop. They said, we'll
go help him. Dolores said, I don't know what
I can do, but I'll do something. That's what I'm taught. That's
what this is. To love to serve God's people. Not because we
have to. We're free from have to. It's because we want to.
Because we love the Redeemer. Alright, we'll hope and God bless
you.