Romans Chapter 7

How do you deal with sin after you are saved

There are 20 references in Romans chapter 7 to the Law of God. So let us make sure that we all start out here on the same page. What is the Law of God? We will define it for our purposes here as The Ten Commandments. When we are all ready for a course in advanced theology we will get into a little more detail. But for our present study, when we use the term Law, just think of The Ten Commandments. And let us understand one more thing as we begin our study of Romans chapter 7. The Law of God is a wonderful creation even though believers have been set free from it. And the reason it is so special is that in a special way it reflects the holiness of God. If you will remember back in chapter 6, verse 14, Paul told believers that they were no longer under law, but under God’s grace, which means we no longer have to obey the Law to be saved. Instead God offers us salvation and eternal life even though we do not deserve it. That is what is meant by the term, God’s grace.

But even though believers are no longer under the Law, that does not mean that the Law of God is not the same wonderful creation that it was when God first gave it to Moses, and you will see that later on. Go with us to the Psalms for a moment and we will see just how wonderful a creation God’s Law was considered to be. Psalm 19:7-10 NLT:

The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The decrees of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple.
8 The commandments of the Lord are right, bringing joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are clear, giving insight to life.
9 Reverence for the Lord is pure, lasting forever. The laws of the Lord are true; each one is fair.
10 They are more desirable than gold, even the finest gold. They are sweeter than honey, even honey dripping from the comb.

Psalm 119:12,16,18,77,97,136,142,165,174 NLT:
12 Blessed are you, O Lord; teach me your principles (law)[fn].
16 I will delight in your principles (law)[fn] and not forget your word.
18 Open my eyes to see the wonderful truths in your law.
77 Surround me with your tender mercies so I may live, for your law is my delight.
97 Oh, how I love your law! I think about it all day long.
136 Rivers of tears gush from my eyes because people disobey your law.
142 Your justice is eternal, and your law is perfectly true.
165 Those who love your law have great peace and do not stumble.
174 O Lord, I have longed for your salvation, and your law is my delight.

Deuteronomy 27:26 NLT:

Ecclesiastes 12:11-14 NLT:
11 A wise teacher’s words spur students to action and emphasize important truths. The collected sayings of the wise are like guidance from a shepherd.
12 But, my child, be warned: There is no end of opinions ready to be expressed. Studying them can go on forever and become very exhausting!
13 Here is my final conclusion: Fear God and obey his commands, for this is the duty of every person.

When God gave The Ten Commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai back in the year 1445 B.C., God instructed Moses to tell the people what we find written in Deuteronomy 6:1-15. Here Moses is speaking to the people of God:

1 “These are all the commands, laws, and regulations that the Lord your God told me to teach you so you may obey them in the land you are about to enter and occupy,
2 and so you and your children and grandchildren might fear the Lord your God as long as you live. If you obey all his laws and commands, you will enjoy a long life.
3 Listen closely, Israel, to everything I say. Be careful to obey. Then all will go well with you, and you will have many children in the land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you.
4 “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.
5 And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.
6 And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands I am giving you today.
7 Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are away on a journey, when you are lying down and when you are getting up again.
8 Tie them to your hands as a reminder, and wear them on your forehead.
9 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
10 “The Lord your God will soon bring you into the land he swore to give your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It is a land filled with large, prosperous cities that you did not build.
11 The houses will be richly stocked with goods you did not produce. You will draw water from cisterns you did not dig, and you will eat from vineyards and olive trees you did not plant. When you have eaten your fill in this land,
12 be careful not to forget the Lord, who rescued you from slavery in the land of Egypt.
13 You must fear the Lord your God and serve him. When you take an oath, you must use only his name.
14 “You must not worship any of the gods of neighboring nations,
15 for the Lord your God, who lives among you, is a jealous God. His anger will flare up against you and wipe you from the face of the earth.  (NLT)

And finally we hear from God through the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 42:21 (NAS):

It pleased the Lord for the sake of his righteousness to make his law great and glorious.

It is simply a basic fact of the human sinful nature that people throughout history have wanted to believe they can earn their own salvation by what they do. Many churches throughout our country and the world support this same type of belief today, and it is a total contradiction and violation of the teachings of God and Christ. Humankind, because of their own lust for money and power, used the church in order to control the masses of people and provide for their own personal desires. They developed false doctrine and manipulated the Word of God to support that doctrine. They told people they could be saved by performing various rituals and penance for their sins, and it was nothing more than a lie. God is love and He made salvation very simple. In fact, you are about to see that He made it so simple that it requires nothing more than reaching out and accepting a free gift of love.

Now we have been confirming the truth of the Gospel message in our study of Romans that a person can be saved by faith in Jesus and not have to keep a bunch of laws by exercising their own self-will alone. Does that mean that if God accepts you by faith alone that He makes His Law null, void, and useless? The answer is no, and as we study chapter seven we will see that Paul is very careful in establishing the exact place and purpose of the Law. Paul has already told us in Romans 3:20 (NIV):

Paul also told us in Romans 6:14 that “we are not under Law.” But if you cannot be saved by the Law, then what is the Law for? Why did God give us The Ten Commandments? We will soon get to that, but for now we just need to understand that it was essential for Paul to deal with this issue in chapter 7 because the Jews of his time were not about to listen to anything he would say if he could not explain why they were not responsible to keep the Law of God on their own. So let us take a look at the first verse of Romans 7:1 NLT

Now, dear brothers and sisters—you who are familiar with the law—don’t you know that the law applies only to a person who is still living?

Paul simply states something here that he knows everyone else knows. He is saying that he knows he is talking to people who understand the Law and that know it only affects living people. It would be foolish to think that the Law could have any effect on a dead person. If a drunk runs his car into a tree and is killed, you do not see a police officer bending over his body writing a ticket. The law does not apply to a dead person. That is just something that is obvious to everybody. Now let us go on to Romans 7:2 NLT:

Let me illustrate. When a woman marries, the law binds her to her husband as long as he is alive. But if he dies, the laws of marriage no longer apply to her.

If a woman’s husband dies she is no longer bound by law to her husband. She is released from her legal obligation. She is not married and legally bound to a corpse the rest of her life. The law binds people only while they are alive. This is just another way of expressing what he said in verse 1. Paul continues in Romans 7:3 NLT:

So while her husband is alive, she would be committing adultery if she married another man. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law and does not commit adultery when she remarries.

This verse simply confirms what was said in verse 2. The law only applies to the marriage as long as both partners are alive. Now Paul starts to get into the application of these first 3 verses in Romans 7:4 NLT:

So this is the point: The law no longer holds you in its power, because you died to its power when you died with Christ on the cross. And now you are united with the one who was raised from the dead. As a result, you can produce good fruit, that is, good deeds for God.

You may remember that Paul described a believer’s death when he/she came to believe in Jesus as their Savior back in Romans 6:3-7 NLT:

3 Or have you forgotten that when we became Christians and were baptized to become one with Christ Jesus, we died with him?
4 For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.
5 Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised as he was.
6 Our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin.
7 For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin.

If you believe in Jesus as your Savior, you died on the cross with Him at Calvary. We learned in chapter 6 that when you put your faith in Christ, you are united with Christ and you die with Him in a real spiritual death. When you hear the term “born again Christian,” this is what that term is referring to; you die with Jesus in His death and you rise again with Him, just as He rose to new life. Is that difficult for you to understand? You bet it is, but if you stay with us all the way through this study of Romans, I believe you will see it more clearly with each passing chapter.

If you are not a believer in Christ, The Law, The Ten Commandments, has no ability to save you. Trying to keep all ten of them all the time is not what will save you. Trying to be a pretty good person, even a very good person is not what will get you into Heaven. The only thing that the Law can do is condemn you because it shows you that no one could possibly keep all of the Law.

How does the law work in our judicial system? First it tells you what the rules are, and then it tells you that if you break those rules, you will pay the penalty. That is exactly what the Law of God tells us.

Now let us use an illustration that might be helpful in understanding your relationship to God’s Law. If I committed a murder and the law of the state of Illinois saw fit to execute me for that crime, that is precisely what I would deserve and receive. But if after I was executed, I rose from the dead, I would be free, because the law would no longer have any authority over me. I paid its required penalty for the crime by dying in the electric chair. I am now a free man.

So in a similar manner believers die with Christ. The Law can then no longer condemn them. Before a person comes to Christ, the Law cannot save them, but it can condemn them, and thus they are under its control and authority. When they die in Christ, the Law no longer has any authority over them. That is what we are being told in Romans 7:4, we “died to the Law through the body of Jesus Christ.”

19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. This is the wonderful message he has given us to tell others.
20 We are Christ’s ambassadors, and God is using us to speak to you. We urge you, as though Christ himself were here pleading with you, “Be reconciled to God!”
21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.  (NLT)

When we come to believe in Jesus as our Savior we make a trade; our sin for His goodness. Our sin is poured into Christ at His crucifixion on the cross. His righteousness is poured into us at the moment we believe. That is what is meant by Christ’s atoning death for sin. Galatians 3:10-13 says:

11 Consequently, it is clear that no one can ever be right with God by trying to keep the law. For the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.”
12 How different from this way of faith is the way of law, which says, “If you wish to find life by obeying the law, you must obey all of its commands.”
13 But Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing.   (NLT)

Galatians 2:20 NLT:
I myself no longer live, but Christ lives in me. So I live my life in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

This brings us right back to Romans 7:4 NLT:

The law no longer holds you in its power, because you died to its power when you died with Christ on the cross. And now you are united with the one who was raised from the dead.

Salvation is a complete change of relationship. In verse 2, Paul said that a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living but is no longer bound to him by law if he is dead. That is the same for anyone who comes to faith in Christ. Before they come to faith they are bound to obey the Law, but when they come to faith in Christ, they die with Christ, are buried with Christ, and rise from spiritual death with Christ to become a new person. Through the Holy Spirit who comes to live within the new believer, that new believer is united with Christ. The believer is then no longer bound to obey the Law because they died and the Law therefore has no authority over them. You are no longer under the bondage of the Law, you have been freed from your obligation to obey the Law and because of the power of the Holy Spirit you can now live a life that accomplishes things that please God. You will still sin now and then, but if you work at submitting your will to the will of God, you will be amazed at how your life will change for the better. You will also reflect the light of God in the way you live and you will become a positive influence for Christ with other people. And it is only because you are now united to Jesus Christ as one is in a marriage. Will Christ ever die again? Will we ever lose that new relationship that Paul compared between a wife and a husband? Never. We died with Christ because of the mysterious miracle of our union with Him by God’s grace through faith, and we rise to walk in newness of life. Salvation is a total transformation.

Now Romans 7:4 also tells us the reason that God has developed this process:

As a result, you can produce good fruit, that is, good deeds for God.

That is the reason plain and simple. Because of Christ we bear fruit, we do the good things that God wants His children to do. There is no such thing as a no-fruit Christian. Salvation has a product. Because of a transformed life we are able to do and do do what God originally intended people to do before we were contaminated by a sin nature.

What actually is fruit? Well let us go to the scriptures to help us answer that question. First we will look at Galatians 5 :22,23:

But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23 gentleness, and self-control.

Now let us take a look at Hebrews 13:15 NAS:

Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.

If you would like additional examples you can read: Titus 2:7,8; 3:8,14; James 3:13, and 1 Peter 2:12.

When Christ transforms your life and you are dead to the Law and you come alive to God through Jesus Christ, it is not just because of some event that occurred. It is because of the presence of the living Christ, in the form and presence of the Holy Spirit, with whom you are one. He produces fruit (right attitudes and right behavior) in you to the glory of God.

He is the vine and we are the branches and the vine produces fruit through the branches as we are told in John 15:1-5 NLT:

1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.
2 He cuts off every branch that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more.
3 You have already been pruned for greater fruitfulness by the message I have given you.
4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful apart from me.
5 “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.

In Romans 7:5 (NAS), Paul describes what it was like before a person became a believer:

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.

Now this is a very key verse because it is just packed with meaning. There are 4 key elements in this verse and they deal with:

1. Flesh
2. Sin
3. Law
4. Death

 

Flesh
The flesh produces sin which is aroused by the Law which results in death. These 4 terms describe mankind’s fallenness and sinful nature. What does Paul mean by “in the flesh” at the beginning of verse 4? Before answering that we should understand that in the Bible the word “flesh” is used in 2 different ways. We need to understand the difference between the 2 meanings. When flesh is used physically in the Bible it has no evil meaning, for Jesus came in the flesh according to John 1:14. When “flesh” is used in the ethical and moral sense it always has an evil meaning. You can see examples of this in Romans 8:4-9,13. In these references the term speaks of mankind’s sinful human nature. So when we are in the flesh it means we are unsaved. If you are a Christian you are no longer in the “flesh.” So if you are in the “flesh,” seeking only the pleasures of the “flesh,” you are not reconciled to God and you are in an unsaved state.[fn]

 

Sin
Being in the “flesh” produces sinful impulses according to verse 5.

 

Law
These sinful impulses or desires are produced or stimulated by the Law of God (as we learned earlier). Now we would wager that statement comes as a real shock to most of you. How could a good law create a sinful passion? There are 2 ways:

1. First the Law makes evident what is evil. Without a law or rule you would not understand what it meant to break the law or rule. In other words if there was not a commandment that said, “You are not to steal,” you would not know that it was wrong to steal. So the Law reveals sin by setting up the standard by which to identify sin. When a person comes to know these Ten Commandments, which are considered the Law of God, and then does not obey them, then they know they are committing a sin.             

 

1. Secondly, the Law excites evil because nothing seems more appealing to people than to do something that is forbidden. If you question that, just turn on the television, pick up a magazine, or go to a movie. You might even want to become a politician for a little while. Just tell people they cannot do something and watch them rush to try it. So in that way the Law excites sin and we will also see more about that later in chapter 7. Instead of us living up to the Law of God, the Law of God simply shows us evil. Rather than wanting not to break the Law, we instead want to break the Law. There is something in the make-up of most humans that seeks to rebel. Remember now that we are speaking of a person’s general attitude before they are saved.

This is probably a good time to understand God’s purpose in giving The Ten Commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai. We will try to do this in as clear a manner as possible because it is a key element in understanding “salvation by grace through faith.”

The Law was given to prepare the way for Christ, Galatians 3:23–26:
Until faith in Christ was shown to us as the way of becoming right with God, we were guarded by the law. We were kept in protective custody, so to speak, until we could put our faith in the coming Savior.
24 Let me put it another way. The law was our guardian and teacher to lead us until Christ came. So now, through faith in Christ, we are made right with God.
25 But now that faith in Christ has come, we no longer need the law as our guardian.
26 So you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
 
Here Paul uses an illustration that was familiar to all his readers—the child guardian. In many Roman and Greek households, well-educated slaves took the children to and from school and watched over them during the day. Sometimes they would teach the children,  and sometimes they would even discipline them. This is what Paul means by teacher or in other translations, schoolmaster (Gal. 3:24); but please do not read into this word our modern idea of a schoolteacher. The translation of the original Greek gives us our word pedagogue, which literally means “a slave that escorted children to school.”

By using this illustration, Paul is saying several things about the Jews and their Law. First, he is saying that the Jews were brought up by the Law. They were taught the Law from the time they could sit up and make a fist. And the slave who took the child to school and watched over him was the child’s guardian, teacher, and disciplinarian. So, the Law was not given to Israel so they would obey it in order to gain salvation. The purpose of the Law was to regulate life. It was the Jewish Pharisees who made the Law into a religion of their own and taught that the Law was necessary for life and righteousness, and Paul’s argument shows their error. It also shows the error of any church today that teaches salvation by good works.[fn]

But the second thing Paul says is even more important: the work of the guardian was to prepare the child for maturity. Once the child came of age, he no longer needed the guardian. So the Law was a preparation for the nation of Israel until the coming of the promised Seed, Jesus Christ. The ultimate goal in God’s program for the salvation of all people for all time was in the coming of Jesus Christ (Gal. 3:22). But before Christ came the nation of Israel was given a schoolmaster to help them understand God‘s ultimate plan and that schoolmaster was the Law (the Ten Commandments).

The Law separated Israel from the Gentile nations (Eph. 2:12–18), in other words all the other people in the world. It governed every aspect of their lives. During the centuries of Jewish history, the Law was preparing the people for the coming of Christ. The demands of the Law reminded the people that they needed a Savior. The types and symbols in the Law were pictures of the coming Messiah (see Luke 24:27).[fn]

A good example of the purpose of the Law is in the account of the rich young ruler (Matthew 19:16ff). This young man had everything anybody could desire, but he was not satisfied. He had tried to keep the commandments all his life, but still something was missing.Yet it was the commandments that got his attention and motivated him to go and talk with Christ. This is one of the purposes of the Law, to create in lost sinners a sense of guilt and need. The sad thing is that the young man could not place Jesus above the pleasures in this life and he went away without eternal life.

The Law performed its purpose: the Savior (Jesus) came and the schoolmaster, the Law,is no longer needed. It is tragic that the nation of Israel did not recognize their Messiah, Jesus, when He appeared. God finally had to destroy their temple and scatter the nation in 70 A.D. because all the practices in association with the Law were fulfilled in Christ and were no longer necessary. In fact for anyone to continue the traditional Jewish worship, as it was conducted under the Law before the coming of Christ, would now be idolatry.

Now we will continue by discussing the fourth item discussed in Romans 7:5, and that is death. Let us look again at the whole verse:

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.

We see that before a person is saved they are in the flesh and the flesh produces sinful desires which are heightened and intensified by the Law. The result is “fruit for death.” These sinful impulses excited by the Law work in our members (the members of our body, or flesh). In the unsaved person this brings about spiritual death which means a person is not saved and will not go to Heaven. But back in verse 4, Paul says that for the believer this has all changed. The believer is now dead to the Law and alive in the risen Christ. The believer no longer produces “fruit for death,” but “fruit for God.”

We hope you are feeling as overwhelmed right now as we are at the absolute mastery and perfection of God’s plan for those who are willing to trust in His judgment, His goodness, His love, and His power.

 

STRUGGLING WITH SIN

Do you have an occasional problem doing the right thing? Do you ever feel that maybe you would like to get those words back that just passed through your lips? Do you ever wish that you had never tasted alcohol or experimented with an illegal drug? Do you wish you had shown more love to your children, your parents, or your spouse? I know I have such feelings and I have a much longer list of regrets because of my actions than I wish I had. You may struggle as well with a life that has had its share of sinful mistakes. If you do not have any such feelings whatsoever, I want to congratulate you because you are the only person on this planet who has ever in all of history been able to achieve such a level of perfection; that is of course other than Jesus Himself. But I would also suggest you seek counseling as soon as possible.

Now in order to be able to understand Romans 7:6, we need to first review verse 5. So let us read these two verses together, Romans 7:5,6:

5 When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced sinful deeds, resulting in death.
6 But now we have been released from the law, for we died with Christ, and we are no longer captive to its power. Now we can really serve God, not in the old way by obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way, by the Spirit.

Verse 6 tells us that we are no longer held prisoner by our sinful desires.  We are now free from the Law. We have been released from any legal liability to the Law. The Law said, you are guilty, you pay the penalty.

At this point many people develop all kinds of questions about why it was necessary for Jesus to die and shed His blood on the cross as a sacrifice for the sin of all people of all time. And it is a pretty good question deserving a thorough answer. So let us see if we can provide that answer as understandable as possible. The best answer of course comes right from the Bible and that is just where we are going.

The Bible tells us that the penalty for sin is death. “Well,” you might say, “Everyone dies. Does that mean that everyone is being punished for their sin?” Well, we first need to understand the two meanings for the term death as well aswhat the Bible says about the consequences of sin.The first reference to death in the Bible is in Genesis 2:16, 17 NLT where we find God speaking to Adam:

16 But the Lord God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden—
17 except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.”

Well, Adam did eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and he did not keel over dead immediately, did he?

When God discovered that Adam and Eve had sinned by eating the forbidden fruit, He said this to them in Genesis 3:19 NLT:

19 By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made. For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return.”

The verse we just read describes physical death that came into the world as the result of Adam and Eve’s sin. The previous verse (Genesis 2:16, 17) described spiritual death which also entered the world as a result of Adam’s sin. Therefore, we may conclude that because of the sin that came into the world as the result of Adam and Eve’s disobedience to God, and which is a part of the nature of everyone ever born, all people will die physically and spiritually. None of us can escape the first death, but God has provided a way to escape the second.

Spiritual death, by the way, is the only death we have to fear, because it is the kind of death that sends us to Hell for eternity. Death means separation. Physical death is the separation of a person from his/her body, spiritual death is the separation of the person from God.[fn] But let us examine a few more verses to better understand what we are dealing with here

Romans 6:16-23 NLT:
16 Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living.
17 Thank God! Once you were slaves of sin, but now you wholeheartedly obey this teaching we have given you.
18 Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living.
19 Because of the weakness of your human nature, I am using the illustration of slavery to help you understand all this. Previously, you let yourselves be slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led ever deeper into sin. Now you must give yourselves to be slaves to righteous living so that you will become holy.
20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the obligation to do right.
21 And what was the result? You are now ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom.
22 But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:13 NIV

James 1:15 NLT:
15 Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.

John 5:28, 29 NLT:
28 Don’t be so surprised! Indeed, the time is coming when all the dead in their graves will hear the voice of God’s Son,
29 and they will rise again. Those who have done good will rise to experience eternal life, and those who have continued in evil will rise to experience judgment.

Daniel 12:1, 2 NLT:
1 At that time Michael, the archangel who stands guard over your nation, will arise. Then there will be a time of anguish greater than any since nations first came into existence. But at that time every one of your people whose name is written in the book will be rescued.
2 Many of those whose bodies lie dead and buried will rise up, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting disgrace.

Revelation 20:6 NLT:
6 Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. For them the second death holds no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him a thousand years.

There certainly does not seem to be any doubt about what the Bible says about the consequences of sin. If we die in that state of sin we will spend eternity living in Hell. You see, the Bible tells us that everyone will live forever and there are only two places we can live. One of them is Heaven and the other is Hell. The choice of where you want to live is simply up to you. Now the good news. How and why Christ’s death allows us to make the choice that will give us eternal life. We will start again by reading some Scripture.

Leviticus 22:17-21 NLT
17 And the Lord said to Moses,
18 “Give Aaron and his sons and all the Israelites these instructions, which apply both to native Israelites and to the foreigners living among you. “If you present a gift as a burnt offering to the Lord,
19 you will be accepted only if your offering is a male animal with no defects. It may be a bull, a ram, or a male goat.
20 Do not present an animal with defects, because the Lord will not accept it on your behalf.
21 “If you present a peace offering to the Lord from the herd or the flock, whether it is to fulfill a vow or is a voluntary offering, you must offer a perfect animal. It may have no defect of any kind.

We are told right from the beginning in the Old Testament that a sacrifice for our sins must be perfect for it to be accepted by God. In this case a perfect animal. And these sacrifices had to be made again and again for the sins people continued to commit.

Leviticus 4:17, 18, 20, 21 NLT:
17 The priest shall dip his finger in the blood, and sprinkle it seven times before the Lord in front of the inner curtain.
18 He will then put some of the blood on the horns of the altar for fragrant incense that stands in the Lord’s presence inside the Tabernacle. He will pour out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar for burnt offerings at the entrance of the Tabernacle.
20 Through this process, the priest will purify the people, making them right with the Lord, and they will be forgiven.
21 This offering is for the sin of the entire congregation of Israel.

Also from the very beginning we are told that a blood sacrifice is required to cover the sin of the people. So far then we know that the blood of a perfect sacrifice is necessary for forgiveness of sins.

Exodus 30:10 NLT:
10 “Once a year Aaron must purify the altar by smearing its horns with blood from the offering made to purify the people from their sin. This will be a regular, annual event from generation to generation, for this is the Lord’s most holy altar.”

Leviticus 17:11 NLT:
For the life of the body is in its blood. I have given you the blood on the altar to purify you, making you right with the Lord. It is the blood, given in exchange for a life, that makes purification possible.

 

Life in both its physical form, and eternal life in its spiritual form is represented by blood. So we now see that the blood of a perfect sacrifice is necessary for the forgiveness of sins and eternal life.

Hebrews 9:11-15 NLT:
11 So Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have come. He has entered that greater, more perfect Tabernacle in heaven, which was not made by human hands and is not part of this created world.
12 With his own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever.
13 Under the old system, the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow could cleanse people’s bodies from ceremonial impurity.
14 Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins.
15 That is why he is the one who mediates a new covenant between God and people, so that all who are called can receive the eternal inheritance God has promised them. For Christ died to set them free from the penalty of the sins they had committed under that first covenant

The animal sacrifice system which had to be done over and over was only a representation of the permanent, once-and-for-all sacrifice that Christ would make for sin. His death for sin would cover all people of all time who believed in Him. Therefore the new covenant in Christ’s blood provided forgiveness of sin and eternal life in Heaven for all those who confess their sin and accept His death as atonement for their sins. By so doing, God in His grace sends His Holy Spirit to dwell within them to be available for guidance and teaching whenever He is asked to do so.

Hebrews 9:19-22 NLT:
19 For after Moses had read each of God’s commandments to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, along with water, and sprinkled both the book of God’s law and all the people, using hyssop branches and scarlet wool.
20 Then he said, “This blood confirms the covenant God has made with you.”
21 And in the same way, he sprinkled blood on the Tabernacle and on everything used for worship.
22 In fact, according to the law of Moses, nearly everything was purified with blood. For without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.

Hebrews 10:1-25 NLT:

2 If they could have provided perfect cleansing, the sacrifices would have stopped, for the worshipers would have been purified once for all time, and their feelings of guilt would have disappeared.
3 But instead, those sacrifices actually reminded them of their sins year after year.
4 For it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
5 That is why, when Christ came into the world, he said to God, “You did not want animal sacrifices or sin offerings. But you have given me a body to offer.
6 You were not pleased with burnt offerings or other offerings for sin.
7 Then I said, ‘Look, I have come to do your will, O God— as is written about me in the Scriptures.’ ”
8 First, Christ said, “You did not want animal sacrifices or sin offerings or burnt offerings or other offerings for sin, nor were you pleased with them” (though they are required by the law of Moses).
9 Then he said, “Look, I have come to do your will.” He cancels the first covenant in order to put the second into effect.

11 Under the old covenant, the priest stands and ministers before the altar day after day, offering the same sacrifices again and again, which can never take away sins.
12 But our High Priest offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then he sat down in the place of honor at God’s right hand.
13 There he waits until his enemies are humbled and made a footstool under his feet.

15 And the Holy Spirit also testifies that this is so. For he says,
16 “This is the new covenant I will make with my people on that day, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.”
17 Then he says, “I will never again remember their sins and lawless deeds.”
18 And when sins have been forgiven, there is no need to offer any more sacrifices.
19 And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus.
20 By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place.
21 And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house,
22 let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.
23 Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise.
24 Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works.
25 And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.

A person who does not know Jesus as Savior and is seeking after the pleasures of his/her flesh is living in a state of death. They are dead. This is a spiritual deadness, a separation  from God. They are totally unable to respond to God as Paul pointed out in Romans 7:5 NLT:

5 When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death.

We hope you now have a very clear understanding of the gift of salvation and eternal life. If you, however, have any questions about the process, you may check out the verses below for further information, or contact us at villagechurchofwheaton.org:

Romans 6:2-11, 8:10,11; 1 Cor.15:55; John 5:24; John 6:50,53, 8:51, 11:26; Romans 7:11; Romans 8:6, 13; Ephesians 2:1,5, 4:18, 5:14; Colossians 2:13; 1 Timothy 5:6; 1 Peter 2:24; John 5:12; proverbs 11:7; Luke 16:22,23; Hebrews 2:15, 9:27; Revelation 1:18; 2 Timothy 1:10; 1 Corinthians 15:26; Psalm 115:17; 2 Thessalonians 1:9; Revelation 2:11, 20:6, 21:8; Daniel 12:2; Matthew 25:46; James 5:20.Luke 22:20; Romans 3:25, 5:9; 1 Corinthians 11:25; Ephesians 2:13; Hebrews 13:20; 1 Peter 1:19; Revelation 1:5, 5:9, 7:14.  

Verse six goes on to say that because of this freedom we can now really serve God, not by the old way of having to keep all of the Law, but in a new way that is much more effective because now we have the power of the Holy Spirit within us to guide and empower us. Our service is no longer relying on keeping a list of rules. It is not just going through some repetitive ritual. It is not a matter of obeying the rules while people are watching us and then doing or thinking something that no one may know about. Salvation plants within you a new nature and that new nature wants to serve God. That new nature comes from deep within your heart and is provided by the Holy Spirit.

We are no longer bound to try to obey the Law to please God. We are now free to obey the Law because of the power of God, the Holy Spirit, within us. We could not obey it before we were saved. We can obey it after we are saved if we submit our will to the will of the Holy Spirit who is now living within us. We are free to serve God rather than ourselves, which is what we did before. If you long to be free, the first step is to surrender your self-will. Perhaps that sounds contradictory to you, but you will find it to be true if you do it. A believer then serves God’s Law out of a changed heart and receives the blessings for living such a life. A believer, however, might legitimately raise the question,

“If we have now been set free to serve the Law, why is it so hard to want to do that sometimes? If we’ve been transformed, if we’ve been made to produce good fruit and service, why do we struggle so and do things we know we don’t want to do and feel so guilty about after we do them?”

We might find some help in answering that question in the next seven verses in Romans chapter 7. Before we get into this text, however, let us remind you of the greatest good news ever known.

If it was not for God’s love and provision and the willing sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, every human being ever born would be destined for an eternity in Hell. If you find that statement to be contrary to your understanding of what a loving God would do, we can understand that if you are not yet a student of the Bible. When you come to know and understand the Word of God in the Bible, you will no longer feel that way because you will clearly see that it is God’s desire for everyone to be saved and go to Heaven for eternity. In fact the Bible says that in no uncertain terms in 2 Peter 3:9 NLT:

The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise to return, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to perish, so he is giving more time for everyone to repent.

Every person in this world lives in rebellion against God’s Law. And God being a God of justice must require punishment for such a violation. Would you want to go to Heaven and find the same kind of people there that you find here? Would you want to find the same anger, hatred, sickness, pain, stress, and misery? If that is what was allowed into Heaven, it would not be Heaven, it would be Hell. We should be grateful to God that He insists on nothing less than perfect living in Heaven. He provides that opportunity for perfection for us through Jesus Christ. First we get a new life here on this earth the moment we believe. Then when we die and are freed from this physical body with its sin nature, and because we are one with Christ, we are given a new and perfect body just like the one Jesus has. We are then fit for an eternity of perfect living because of a new physical body that will last forever along with the new Spirit we were given when we came to faith in Christ, that enables us to live without sin. Heaven will be a perfect place because God is perfectly just.

So God sent Jesus into the world to pay the debt that all people owe for their sin; to die the death that all should die; and to bear the sin that all should bear. God has ordained that when a person believes in Jesus and accepts Him and His work on their behalf, their sin is forgiven forever. God has also ordained that not only is their sin forgiven, but they are granted the very holy nature of Jesus Christ. They become possessors of the divine nature of Jesus. It is given to the believing sinner and he or she is thus equipped to spend eternity with God. We saw it right at the beginning of the book of Romans and we see it again and again throughout the entire book. Paul began in Romans 1:16,17 by saying:

16 For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—Jews first and also Gentiles.
17 This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.”

Now the essential words in the first eight chapters of Romans are the words, grace and faith. Paul is presenting a salvation that is a gift of God received by faith. This is a very unique message that Paul is presenting because he is presenting it in a Jewish context, in a Jewish culture. These people had been raised with the understanding that you appeal to God and you appease God and you please God by your goodness or by obeying His rules and laws. They believed that you sort of work your way into God’s good favor. When Paul came along and preached a salvation that was a free gift which you could not earn, and that it was received not by good works but by faith, and that faith itself was a gift from God, it was very, very hard for the Jews to accept.

You see the Jews believed that the Law showed you how to get and stay holy, and that if you could no longer get holy by the Law, which was the standard for obtaining holiness, then you have taken away the ability to be holy, to be saved. So all they could imagine was society running amuck doing anything they wanted because the Law was no longer the means for salvation.

By the time Christ began His ministry around A.D. 27, the Jewish rabbis had increased the number of commandments to a total of 613. There were 248 commandments regarding things you must do and 365 commandments that you must not do. These commandments related to idolatry, lessons from history, blasphemy, temple worship, sacrifices, priests, vows, agriculture, loans, business, slaves, justice, and relationships.

Why are you now questioning God’s way by burdening the Gentile believers with a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors were able to bear?
11 We believe that we are all saved the same way, by the special favor of the Lord Jesus.”

But the Jews were so confused and probably more than a little angry. They knew that the Law had originally been given by God and that God had given the commandments for a reason. So they believed that because God gave the laws they needed to follow them. In fact there was a verse from the Old Testament in the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible written by Moses, and it appears in Deuteronomy 27:26 NLT:

This verse certainly makes it clear that anyone who does not comply with all the commands of the Law will be condemned. To make it even worse Deuteronomy 28:15-22 confirms the previous verse with emphasis. We will just look here at verses 15-19 NLT:

16 You will be cursed in your towns and in the country.
17 You will be cursed with baskets empty of fruit, and with kneading bowls empty of bread.
18 You will be cursed with few children and barren fields. You will be cursed with infertile herds and flocks.
19 You will be cursed wherever you go, both in coming and in going.

Deuteronomy 28 just keeps going on like this throughout the whole chapter. It just keeps condemning and condemning, and the condemnation works its way through every conceivable activity of life. If they did not keep all of the Law of God, they would be condemned.

Now let us get back to the book of Romans and as we do, hopefully we now have a little bit of an understanding of why the Jew felt so bound to the Law of God. They felt a very heavy burden. Paul recognizes this burden. Do not forget that Paul was about as fanatical about the Jewish religion as anyone could be before he met Christ on the Damascus road and was converted to Christianity. Look at what he wrote in Galatians 3:8-14 NLT:

8 What’s more, the Scriptures looked forward to this time when God would accept the Gentiles, too, on the basis of their faith. God promised this good news to Abraham long ago when he said, “All nations will be blessed through you.”
9 And so it is: All who put their faith in Christ share the same blessing Abraham received because of his faith.
10 But those who depend on the law to make them right with God are under his curse,

WHY?

for the Scriptures say, “Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all these commands that are written in God’s Book of the Law.”

This simply means that if you think you can get to Heaven on your own by pleasing God and keeping His Law, you have got another think coming because nobody can do that. Therefore  you are condemned. There is only one way to Heaven and we see what that is in verse 11of Galatians 3:

11 Consequently, it is clear that no one can ever be right with God by trying to keep the law. For the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.”

Continuing in verses 12-14 we read:
12 How different from this way of faith is the way of law, which says, “If you wish to find life by obeying the law, you must obey all of its commands.”
13 But Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing. For it is written in the Scriptures, “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”
14 Through the work of Christ Jesus, God has blessed the Gentiles with the same blessing he promised to Abraham, and we Christians receive the promised Holy Spirit through faith.

Anyone who is trying to please God by keeping all of His Law is under a curse. Why? Because you cannot keep the Law perfectly. James said it well in James 2:10:

The person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as the person who has broken all of God’s laws.

Breaking one of God’s laws is not like breaking one spoke in a bicycle wheel. You can break one spoke and keep on riding. Breaking just one of God’s laws is like breaking a pane of glass. You break it in one spot and the whole thing comes down. So they were all cursed. That is the bondage of the Law because you are trying to do something that is impossible, earn your way to Heaven by good works.

Yet they tried and they tried.

Why did God give them laws they could not keep? Well, we have already learned that God did that to show them how sinful they were and to drive them to a place where they realized they needed a Savior to deliver them from sin and to provide them with the capability of obeying the Law. Paul wrote as we just read in Galatians 3:13 NLT:

But Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing.

Christ took upon Himself the sin of the whole world. He did this so we might be set free from the curse of the Law. So Paul is saying here, “Look, we’re not under the curse of the Law anymore. We’re under grace. We’re out from under that curse.”

So now let us look at Romans 7:7-13, where we will see that the Law can convict (convince) us of our sin, which is the very reason God gave the Law in the first place. In the second place He gave it so that it would be fulfilled, and the Law can be fulfilled by us through the power of the Holy Spirit living in us, as I believe you are probably beginning to understand by what we have learned so far. But we will really get into that when we get to chapter 8 which discusses the power of the Holy Spirit. Let us begin with Romans 7:7 and to get the flow of what is going on in the verse we will read verses 5 and 6 as well, Romans 7:5-7 NLT:

5 When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced sinful deeds, resulting in death.
6 But now we have been released from the law, for we died with Christ, and we are no longer captive to its power. Now we can really serve God, not in the old way by obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way, by the Spirit.
7 Well then, am I suggesting that the law of God is evil? Of course not! The law is not sinful, but it was the law that showed me my sin. I would never have known that coveting is wrong if the law had not said, “Do not covet.”

Paul is once again imagining what the Jews might be saying. “Paul, you just told us we’re dead to the Law and it cannot do anything for us, that we’re no longer under it’s authority. Are you saying that the Law is evil?”

It was the Jews who had re-interpreted the Law and made it something God never meant it to be. They made it something that was external, something that could be seen by people. They never dealt with the inner thoughts of a person where all the real filth is actually found. They had created a situation where the outside of their lives looked good. The Jews did this in Jesus’ day and people all over the world, who call themselves Christians and go to church every Sunday, are doing the exact same thing today. They make themselves look real good on the outside, but on the inside they are not quite so good. Christ commented on this very thing when He was here on earth and we find His words in Luke 11:39 NLT:

Then the Lord said to him, “You Pharisees are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are still filthy—full of greed and wickedness!

You may on occasion say to yourself, “I gotta get my life straightened out because I notice that I lie, steal, drink too much, and I’ve got a bad temper. I’ve just got to get my life right.” Well, that is a commendable goal, but you need to understand the real nature of sin. The truth about sin is that it is not just something you do externally, like robbing a bank. That is the actual commitment of the sin, which is the result of the thought that began in your mind. Had the person dealt in the right manner with the thought that lingered in his/her mind, they would not have robbed the bank. It is the same with every other kind of sin.

Faith in Jesus Christ is the only way to bring about this transformation of the heart because it is the only way that the Holy Spirit of Christ is going to come and live in your heart. Remember what we said about becoming a totally new creation when you die with Christ and rise with Christ? Just imagine it! If you accept Christ as your Savior, God comes to live inside of you and He will never leave you from that moment on. He will be available to you when you call upon Him to help you not want to sin. He will help you cast off those thoughts as they begin to form. He will be there to help you do the right thing and to do the next thing right. And to top it all off, you do not have to do anything to have all this because it is a gift of love. God offers you all of this as a gift and all you have to do is reach out and accept the free gift by faith. It actually breaks my heart that there are people who hear this truth and just laugh it off. Imagine doing that with a promise that guarantees eternity with everything you could ever want and much, much more, if you only say and mean it in your heart.

But the Lord said to Samuel, “The Lord doesn’t make decisions the way you do! People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at a person’s thoughts and intentions.”

And then in Luke 16:15 (NIV), Jesus says:

He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God’s sight.

Now there are so many people that go through life saying to themselves:

“I am not such a bad person and a truly loving God wouldn’t send a person like me to Hell. I try to do my very best. I try to do what is right. I obey the laws. I am a pretty nice person and good people like me don’t really go to Hell anyhow. I am just one of the good folks.”

People really believe that and they live under this illusion, an illusion that truly needs to be changed. Even though you may have people thinking that you have control of your life by the way you act on the outside, and even thinking that you are citizen number one who could even have given Mother Theresa a case of the guilties, the truth of the matter is that on the inside you are not the same person as you are making people believe you are on the outside.

Now let us go back to Matthew chapter 5 and listen to the words of the greatest preacher who ever lived and see how He preached the message of salvation and how He used it to convince people of their sin. Beginning in Matthew 5:21, and we will be reading this from the modern translation, The Message, Jesus says:

“You’re familiar with the command to the ancients, ‘Do not murder.’ I am telling you that anyone who is so much as angry with a brother or sister is guilty of murder. Carelessly call a brother ‘idiot!’ and you just might find yourself hauled into court. Thoughtlessly yell ‘stupid!’ at a sister and you are on the brink of hellfire. The simple moral fact is that words kill. “This is how I want you to conduct yourself in these matters. If you enter your place of worship and, about to make an offering, you suddenly remember a grudge a friend has against you, abandon your offering, leave immediately, go to this friend and make things right. Then and only then, come back and work things out with God. “Or say you’re out on the street and an old enemy accosts you. Don’t lose a minute. Make the first move; make things right with him. After all, if you leave the first move to him, knowing his track record, you’re likely to end up in court, maybe even jail. If that happens, you will not get out without a stiff fine. “You know the next commandment pretty well, too: ‘Don’t go to bed with another’s spouse.’ But don’t think you have preserved your virtue simply by staying out of bed. Your heart can be corrupted by lust even quicker than your body. Those leering looks you think nobody notices—they also corrupt. “Let’s not pretend this is easier than it really is. If you want to live a morally pure life, here’s what you have to do: You have to blind your right eye the moment you catch it in a lustful leer. You have to choose to live one-eyed or else be dumped on a moral trash pile. And you have to chop off your right hand the moment you notice it raised threateningly. Better a bloody stump than your entire being discarded for good in the dump. “Remember the Scripture that says, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him do it legally, giving her divorce papers and her legal rights’? Too many of you are using that as a cover for selfishness and whim, pretending to be righteous just because you are ‘legal.’ Please, no more pretending. If you divorce your wife, you’re responsible for making her an adulteress (unless she has already made herself that by sexual promiscuity). And if you marry such a divorced adulteress, you’re automatically an adulterer yourself. You cannot use legal cover to mask a moral failure. “And don’t say anything you don’t mean. This counsel is embedded deep in our traditions. You only make things worse when you lay down a smoke screen of pious talk, saying, ‘I’ll pray for you,’ and never doing it, or saying, ‘God be with you,’ and not meaning it. You don’t make your words true by embellishing them with religious lace. In making your speech sound more religious, it becomes less true.

The Jews had taken God’s Law and developed an external religion with it. And Jesus is saying that the problem with them is not that they kill on the outside but that they hate on the inside. The problem with them is not that they commit adultery on the outside but that they commit it in their hearts and minds. Their hearts and minds are full of evil thoughts and this theme continues throughout Matthew 5.

In order for Jesus to convince people of their sin it was necessary for Him to show them that the Law of God is something that touches the inside of a person as well as the outside. On one occasion a rich young man came to see Jesus and asked Him, “What is the one thing I need to do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus reminded the young man of the Ten Commandments. When the young man said sincerely that he had kept them, Jesus felt love for him and went to the heart of the matter, the young man’s heart. Jesus said to him, “There is one thing lacking. Go and sell all you possess and give the money to the poor, and you shall have treasure in Heaven. Then come follow me.” The Bible tells us that the young man went away sad because he had great riches and was not willing to exchange his material earthly wealth for the eternal treasure Jesus offered him in Heaven.

Does loving God with all your heart and mind and soul and strength sound easy (Luke 10:25-27)? Is doing that an external action? No, it is internal. Love comes from the heart. Let everything you do radiate the love of God. Let everything you do seek to glorify God and to praise Him. You can put all the Law into this one commandment. Now may the Word of God that you have just heard come alive for you and become a part of your behavior forevermore.

 

More Struggling With Sin

If you remember we earlier discussed how God’s purpose in giving the Law (Ten Commandments) was to show people that they were sinners and that no one could keep the Law on their own. We also talked about how the Bible emphasizes that sin is not only something that we do outwardly, but it is also what we think about in our minds. If you can come out of the case presented in Romans five, six, and seven thinking that you do not have a problem with sin, I would suggest you go back and carefully read it again. We encourage you to go to our web site at www.villagechurchofwheaton.org and e-mail us your questions so that we might help clarify anything about these chapters that you might find confusing or difficult to understand. Whether you are a believer in Jesus Christ or not at this point, we believe that anyone who can be completely honest with themselves recognizes they have a sin problem. We all have a problem with sin, not doing  the right thing all the time and not making God our highest priority 100% of the time. In fact, let me give you the best definition of sin that I know, and then you decide for yourselves whether you believe what the Bible says in these three chapters (Romans 5-7).

The word translated sin throughout the O.T., with very rare exceptions, is derived from the word which originally signifies to miss the mark, and in the New Testament Greek from the word which means a failure or a coming short of that aim which God intended all His children to reach.‍  If human beings were originally made in the image of God, that image of God must have been implanted in them as the basic reason for living, that they should live as God lives. Every departure, therefore, from doing what is right is a coming short of the purpose for which human beings were made, and a missing of the goal which ought to be reached. The word, sin, usually implies a conviction that wrong has been done either towards God or towards a fellow human being. This wrong is not necessarily willful, for many sins are committed through negligence or ignorance (see Leviticus 4:2, 5:15, Numbers 15:28).[fn]

Now just in case you still have some question of whether or not you have a problem with sin, you can look at the following Bible verses from, Willmington’s Book of Bible Lists, that identify specific sins:

 

1.          Disobedience                         Gen. 3:6 2.             Drunkenness Gen. 9:21 3.             Self-worship Gen. 11:1–9 4.             Sodomy (homosexuality) Gen. 19; Rom. 1:24–32 5.             Incest Gen. 19:33–38 6.             Lying Gen. 26:7–8 7.             Deceit Gen. 27:11–15 8.             Hatred Gen. 27:41 9.             Plotting murder Gen. 37:18–22 10.          Idolatry (placing God 2nd) Exod. 32 11.          Murmuring (complaining) Num. 14:29 12.          Breaking the Sabbath Num. 15:32–36 13.          Rebellion Num. 16 14        Covetousness (wanting more) Josh. 7 15.          Compromise Judg. 2:1–3 16.          Intruding into the priests’ office 1 Sam. 2:17 17.          Taking bribes 1 Sam. 8:3 18.          Pride 1 Sam. 14:12–14 19.          Eating blood 1 Sam. 14:33 20.          Jealousy 1 Sam. 18:8–12 21.          Experimenting with the Occult 1 Sam. 28:7–18 22.          Despising a husband (or wife) 2 Sam. 6:16–23 23.          Adultery (sex outside of marriage) 2 Sam. 11:4, 27

24.          Rape 2 Sam. 13:14 25.          Causing division among God’s people 2 Sam. 15:4 26.     Mockery (making fun of someone) 2 Kings 2:23–24 27.          Offering human sacrifices 2 Kings 17:17 28.          Despising God’s Word 2 Chron. 36:16 29.          Scattering the sheep Jer. 23:1 30.          Self-will Ezek. 28:17 31.          Prayerlessness (not praying) Hos. 7:7 32.          Attributing to Satan the work of the Holy Spirit Matt. 12:24–32 33.          Teaching false doctrine Matt. 16:6 34.          Lack of mercy (forgiveness) Matt. 18:23–35 35.          Hypocrisy (misleading others) Matt. 23 36.          Denying Christ Matt. 26:69–75 37.          Polluting the house of God John 2:14–16 38.          Crucifying Christ Acts 2:23 39.          Stubbornness Acts 7:51 40.Blasphemy-showing contempt for God Acts 12:20–23 41.          Ingratitude Rom. 1:21 42.          Boasting Rom. 1:30 43.          Disobeying parents Rom. 1:30 44.          Lacking natural affection Rom. 1:31 45.          Living in the flesh (gluttony) Gal. 3:3

 

Hopefully we can now continue in Romans 7:8 with the knowledge that we all share a common family trait, which is sin. And that common trait, sin, can be likened to our being locked in a jail cell. There is no way any of us are going to get out unless someone comes along with the key that will set us free. And while we are in that prison cell of sin, we have to do what the jailer, Satan, tells us to do, and he leads us to do some awful things. But God is much more clever and powerful than Satan and He will send Jesus to unlock our prison cell if we only ask Him. You see in certain ways God uses sin to bring about good. For example, did you know that God gave His Law (Ten Commandments) to the people, not only to show them that they could not keep the Law, but God also used the Law to fuel the passions of sin within a person. Look at Romans 7:8 NLT:

But sin took advantage of this law and aroused all kinds of forbidden desires within me! If there were no law, sin would not have that power.

Sin used the Law as a base of operations. Without the knowledge of what sin is, which is produced by the Law, a person would not be aware of the evil nature within them. In Romans 7:8, Paul tells how sin used the commandments to create in him desires of every kind to do what was evil. You see without law (the commandments), sin is dead. Paul does not say that people do not do sinful things when they do not know the Law. He is saying that without law sin is not apparent to us. It takes a carpenter’s level to make clear how far from straight a board really is.[fn]

Once we know what sin is and begin to see it for what it is, all of a sudden you see lusts coming out of you that you never knew were there. And when you see sin in this light, you see your need for a Savior. You also see that there is no way you can unlock your prison cell door without the key.

Let us give you an example that should make us all squirm a little bit. If someone tells you that they just saw a movie and it is just filled with all kinds of sex and immorality and you should not even think about seeing it, what is your reaction? Might you just have a flicker of interest in seeing it? For some, including many who call themselves Christians, it is a full blown four-alarm fire. But even if you do not go see it, would I be wrong if I suggested you might just think about going to see it? Someone tells us how terrible something is and the more they talk about it the more we want to experience it. That is what this verse is referring to, and with that we will move on to Romans 7:9:

I felt fine when I did not understand what the law demanded. But when I learned the truth, I realized I had broken the law and was a sinner, doomed to die.

This is the loss of all security, self-esteem, self-satisfaction, and self-preservation. Paul knew that it was at this point of becoming aware of the Law that we recognize our helplessness in saving ourselves. One’s spirit is broken and they begin looking for a way to get out from under that horrible guilt they have felt since they were exposed to the Law of God.

It is true that God is love, but when preachers, teachers, and evangelists preach a gospel which speaks only about God’s love they are not doing people any favors because they are not making people recognize how far short they fall of God’s expectations. They are actually deceiving people rather than loving them. The purpose of the Law is to show you that you are a sinner so that you might seek a remedy in and through Jesus Christ. Now on to Romans 7:10 NLT:

So the good law, which was supposed to show me the way of life, instead gave me the death penalty.

If you go back into the Old Testament, you will see reference after reference that indicate the Law was given to provide blessedness in life, to make life full, rich, meaningful, and happy. If you read Proverbs you will see that it talks about the fact that if you are obedient and you accept and apply the wisdom of God, then your days will be long on the earth and God will give you an abundance of blessings. Now perhaps you are saying to yourself, “Haven’t we been learning that the Law was given to show us our sin?” And the answer to that question is, yes. Now do not allow yourself to get confused because we hope to clarify this right now.

You see the Law of God was meant to result in your living a full and rich life. But the Law cannot accomplish that purpose in an unsaved person because an unsaved person cannot obey the Law. Therefore, an unsaved person cannot receive the benefits and blessings of obeying the Law. That is what Paul is saying in verse 10. The Law that God gave in order to provide a full, rich, and meaningful life, just killed him. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, a Christian, and the Holy Spirit dwells within you, you have the potential for keeping the Law. The Law can provide you that kind of life if you obey God in and through the power of the Holy Spirit living within you. You are only able to do this if you are a believing Christian who places God at the very top of your priority list, and who does not allow anything or anyone to replace Him at any time.

If you obey God through the power of the Holy Spirit, will He bless your life? Of course He will. The Law was given to make us recognize our sin and drive us to the only Savior who could help us, Jesus Christ, so that we might be saved by our faith in Him. Then the Holy Spirit comes and sets up residence within our body so that we can keep the Law if we allow Him to help us do so. Thus we enjoy the blessings that come as the rewards for keeping the Law. Jesus has the key to open our jail cell door and set us free to enjoy a life of abundance both here and now and throughout all eternity.

Therefore, the Law cannot bring them any of the truly meaningful things of life. So the Law that was designed to secure life and its fullness for all people only brings about death, ruin, devastation, destruction, disappointment and disillusionment to those who are unsaved. When an unsaved person hears God’s Law, all it does is show them how evil they are and it makes them miserable. But when God’s Law starts to operate in the heart of a believing Christian, by the power of the Holy Spirit it brings them happiness, holiness, and blessedness. It is impossible for people to enjoy these things if they have not received Christ as their Savior. Romans 7:8 NLT:

Sin took advantage of the law and fooled me; it took the good law and used it to make me guilty of death.

Again Paul is describing his own conversion. Before that Paul must have looked at himself and thought, “How pleased God must be with me. I am doing everything possible to obey the Law.” But when he was confronted with the reality of God’s Law and realized he had to look inside himself as well, it was then he was aware of the evil in his heart and he threw himself on the promised mercy of Jesus Christ.

How was it that sin fooled Paul? It led him to expect one thing while in reality he was feeling the exact opposite. You see Paul thought that if he obeyed the Law and was self-righteous he would have an abundant life. He thought that he would find life and blessing and purpose and meaning. But you know what living like that got him? Death, misery, sin, unhappiness, disillusionment, and disappointment. And do you know what? The world is filled with people just like Paul before his conversion. They are madly running around chasing a religion of self-righteousness, of keeping rules, of saying their beads, or of lighting their candles, or of going to their temples, or to their seminars, or their Bible studies, or to hear their cultic leaders. Their religions tell them that if they do so many things like this and so many things like that, and if you live a certain type of good life and keep all your good works going and obey all those laws that supposedly God has written, if you just keep doing all those things you will have a good and blessed life. All of that is nothing but a lie from the master liar, Satan.

So many people go along with this religious process. But if they think at all and look into their hearts, in all reality they realize they are not filled with joy at all. They realize that all the promises that were made to them by that religious system are unfulfilled. What do they really find when they look in their hearts? They find misery, unhappiness, and death. That is exactly how sin can fool or deceive you as Paul says in verse 11.

And it is a deception because it simply is not true. I like what Hebrews 3:13 has to say about this very subject:

You must warn each other every day, as long as it is called “today,” so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God. (NLT)

Also Ephesians 4:22 NLT:
In reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit.

This is getting interesting so let us move on to Romans 7:12 NLT:

But still, the law itself is holy and right and good.

There is nothing wrong with the Law. If the Law reveals sin that is not the fault of the Law. It is the person who is at fault. The Law convinces people of the error of their ways. As the Law shows a person their sin, they see what they are and recognize their need for a Savior. Then when they run to the Savior, Jesus, grace and mercy is available there for them.

Next verse, Romans 7:13 NLT:

But how can that be? Did the law, which is good, cause my doom? Of course not! Sin used what was good to bring about my condemnation. So we can see how terrible sin really is. It uses God’s good commandment for its own evil purposes.

Paul is simply once again re-emphasizing that it is the Law that reveals sin in a person’s life. And sin can use the Law of God which is holy, just, and good to produce terrible effects. People are so controlled by sin that instead of realizing the holy purpose of God’s Law, they turn away from it and are deceived. That is the wretched nature of sin. Before going on to the next section of Romans 7, in verses 14-25, I would like to summarize all that we have learned in the first thirteen verses by reading Romans 7:1-13 from the New Living Translation,, Romans 7:1-13:

1 Now, dear brothers and sisters—you who are familiar with the law—don’t you know that the law applies only to a person who is still living?
2 Let me illustrate. When a woman marries, the law binds her to her husband as long as he is alive. But if he dies, the laws of marriage no longer apply to her.
3 So while her husband is alive, she would be committing adultery if she married another man. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law and does not commit adultery when she remarries.
4 So this is the point: The law no longer holds you in its power, because you died to its power when you died with Christ on the cross. And now you are united with the one who was raised from the dead. As a result, you can produce good fruit, that is, good deeds for God.
5 When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced sinful deeds, resulting in death.
6 But now we have been released from the law, for we died with Christ, and we are no longer captive to its power. Now we can really serve God, not in the old way by obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way, by the Spirit.
7 Well then, am I suggesting that the law of God is evil? Of course not! The law is not sinful, but it was the law that showed me my sin. I would never have known that coveting is wrong if the law had not said, “Do not covet.”
8 But sin took advantage of this law and aroused all kinds of forbidden desires within me! If there were no law, sin would not have that power.
9 I felt fine when I did not understand what the law demanded. But when I learned the truth, I realized I had broken the law and was a sinner, doomed to die.
10 So the good law, which was supposed to show me the way of life, instead gave me the death penalty.
11 Sin took advantage of the law and fooled me; it took the good law and used it to make me guilty of death.
12 But still, the law itself is holy and right and good.
13 But how can that be? Did the law, which is good, cause my doom? Of course not! Sin used what was good to bring about my condemnation. So we can see how terrible sin really is. It uses God’s good commandment for its own evil purposes.

Now let us move on to Romans 7:14 NLT:

The law is good, then, because I am sold into slavery, with sin as my master.

Here we have a picture of a person in conflict with themselves. Here is someone who loves God’s Law and truly wants to obey it. But they are pulled away from fulfilling that desire by the sin that is within them. It is the personal experience of a soul in conflict. It is a battle that rages in a person’s heart. Every honest believing Christian knows that even though they are a new creation in Christ and sin’s dominion over them is broken and no longer rules over them, sin is still a problem. So when we look at a believer here in chapter seven we know that we have to look at a Christian that is still having a struggle with sin even though his/her new creation is holy. Then moving on to Romans 7:15, we read:

I don’t understand myself at all, for I really want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do the very thing I hate.  (NLT)

Again we see here a person who wants to do what is right but something prevents them from doing it. You want to know what kind of Christian is being described here in these verses? One who sees so clearly their own inability not to sin when they are confronted by the holiness of God expressed in God’s Law. The more mature one is in their walk with God, the more spiritual they are, the greater will be their sensitivity to their own shortcomings or sin. Paul has mentioned the solution in Romans 7:6, that there is to be a new way, the way of the Spirit. The end of Romans 7 describes the problem and chapter 8 is coming. Chapter 8 will show the solution in greater detail. But between Romans 7:6 and Romans 8 there is a graphic description of someone who is indeed a Christian and who has started on the road with Christ.

The moment we receive Christ as Savior, the Holy Spirit comes to live within us. However, day by day, each of us decides whether we are going to push The Spirit off to a small room, or whether we are going to let Him have full run of the house, or our lives. Ephesians 5:18,”Let he Holy Spirit fill and control You.” We, unfortunately, have the ability, or the potential, to quench (1 Thessalonians 5:19) or grieve the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30). When we do this, we find ourselves in the predicament described in the last verses of Romans 7.

Show me an immature Christian who gives in to the worldly pleasures of the people around them, emphasizes a need to adhere to a set of religious rules, and is self-righteous, and I will most likely be able to show you a person who thinks everything they do is very spiritual, yet is not yielding to the Holy Spirit and allowing Him to control their life. But show me a person who admits to the kind of brokenness that Paul demonstrates in these verses, a person agonizing in the depths of their own soul because they cannot do everything written in the Law of God, the Ten Commandments, and I will most likely be able to show you a spiritual person who loves the Lord with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength. A person who recognizes that the ugly reality of sin still is hanging on in their physical bodies. I really like what Paul has to say in 1 Timothy 1:12-16:

How thankful I am to Christ Jesus our Lord for considering me trustworthy and appointing me to serve him,
13 even though I used to scoff at the name of Christ. I hunted down his people, harming them in every way I could. But God had mercy on me because I did it in ignorance and unbelief.
14 Oh, how kind and gracious the Lord was! He filled me completely with faith and the love of Christ Jesus.
15 This is a true saying, and everyone should believe it: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—and I was the worst of them all.
16 But that is why God had mercy on me, so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of his great patience with even the worst sinners. Then others will realize that they, too, can believe in him and receive eternal life.

This is what Paul is confirming in these last few verses of Romans 7. Here we see Paul well along in his apostleship, mature in his faith for Christ, and having experienced the mighty power and wisdom of God. The more he knows and the more he experiences, the more he hates the sin that he sees hanging on.

But he loves righteousness as we see in Romans 7:16-21 NLT:

16 But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good.
17 So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.
18 And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I cannot.
19 I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway.
20 But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.
21 I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong.

Paul loves the Law of God from the bottom of his heart and deeply regrets his sins in Romans 7:22-24 NLT:

22 I love God’s law with all my heart.
23 But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me.
24 Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?

And then in the last verse of Romans 7, Paul thanks God for the deliverance that is his in Christ Jesus our Lord, Romans 7:25 NLT:

Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.

Sin no longer rules in our new nature, our oneness with Christ, but it does still reign in our physical body. So as soon as a believer’s physical body dies they go immediately to Heaven because their soul has already been made fit for Heaven through their faith in Jesus. All they will have to do is get rid of their physical bodies. This is the only hope for everlasting life in Heaven that people have. It can only be received through faith in Christ and His work on our behalf. We recommend giving thanks to God frequently for this gift. And let us thank Him, also, for the Holy Spirit which enables us to live victoriously in this life. Now we will begin to learn how to live life in the Spirit as we get into Romans 8.

 

Isaiah

John

Romans

1 Peter


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