Romans
10
In Romans 7 Paul is writing to Christians who know the Mosaic Law. Twenty three times in the chapter the word law is used. Paul points out that our first husband was the law. It made demands on us. But when we died in Christ, we died to the law through the body of Christ, and death changes everything. By death, we’re free from the law. We now have a new husband – the Risen Christ. Since your ‘old man’ is dead, you are no longer married to the law.
There is nothing wrong with the law. It is the revelation of the will of God. It is not human, but divine. As it says in Romans 7:12 - “The law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.” Romans 7:14 declares: “the law is spiritual.” The beautiful passage in Psalm 19:7-11 honours the law.
“The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.
The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple.
The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes.
The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever.
The ordinances of the Lord are sure and altogether righteous.
They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold;
They are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb.
By them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.”
As the way to life, the road of justification, the law is fundamentally flawed, not of itself – “the law of the Lord is perfect” – but because of our inability to live up to it. The law cannot impart life. However, it is brilliant at showing us where we fall short and why we need help. Only if there were no laws to break would there be no sinning.
Paul indicates that the more the law thundered loudly in his ears – “Do not covet” – the more he felt the power of sin chaining his life. It was as if “sin revived”, it sprang to life and he was devastated.
Here was an inward attitude, not an outward action, that had mastered him. The Message paraphrases Romans 7:7-8 “The law code had a perfectly legitimate function. Without its clear guidelines for right and wrong, moral behaviour would be mostly guesswork. Apart from the succinct, surgical command, “You shall not covet,” I could have dressed covetousness up to look like a virtue and ruined my life with it.”
There is something about human nature which, when you tell it it can’t immediately wants to. This is the Adamic nature. Paul’s discovered that the power of sin within him keeps sabotaging his best intentions.
The law exposes sin. It is like a great x-ray revealing sin working death in me. The demands of the law are righteous, but the person upon whom the demands are made is unrighteous. Immediately there is a confrontation between my flesh and my spirit. The old and new natures in the believer clash.
We can all readily identify with John Donne who wrote:
“Canst Thou forgive that sin whereby I won others to sin and made my sin their door?
Canst thou forgive that sin which I did shun a year or two, but wallowed in a score?
When Thou hast done, Thou hast not done, for I have more.”
The problem is expressed also in Galatians 5:17 “For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.”
By the law, our inability to live right is made evident. Let the believer realize God is the Lawgiver on the Throne and He is also the Lawkeeper in my heart.
There is a purple passage in Romans 7:14-20. It’s a brilliant exposé of the civil war that rages in the human heart. Sin, as a principle, is working within me, spoiling my best efforts to live for God. Listen to the passage: -
“We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.”
A Christian is someone who doesn’t understand himself at all. He really wants to do what is right, but can’t. He apparently lacks the wherewithal.
The ’wretched man’ of Romans 7 tried to meet the claims of God’s law himself. Note how many times “I” is repeated. He thought God was asking him to keep the law. But the key in the Christian life is not effort; it is union. The Christian life is “no longer I, but Christ.”
There’s a contradictory streak in a man which makes him do what he abhors. I have a will, but it is so overpowered by the lusts of sin that I am helpless. My passion is stronger than my reason.
The end of the chapter, in The Message Bible, says:
“It happens so regularly that it’s predictable … I truly delight in God’s commands, but it’s pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.
I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn’t that the real question?
The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.”
How Christ is the answer, we shall learn next time!