The Dead to Sin
Notes
Transcript
INTRODUCTION: Good morning, church family, from sunny Idaho!
God has been doing some exciting things here this week, that we can’t wait to tell you about
We spent the past week doing street evangelism, prayer walking, and doing spiritual mapping in Boise. Today, if all goes well, I will be preaching in two different Hispanic church plants, and in the week ahead we will help an two different church plants do canvassing in the day and run a soccer camp at night.
We covet your prayers for the movement of the Holy Spirit as we continue the work here this week, and for His protection as we travel home.
But as we continue in our journey through Romans this morning, let me invite you to open to Romans chapter 7. And as you do so, let me remind you that...
serving God is an adventure.
Life in Christ is not always easy, but it is never boring
The journey is full of mountains and valleys
We have an enemy that hates us and works actively to stop the work before us
Truly following Christ will cost you great sacrifices of your time, your physical and emotional well-being, and your money
Sometimes, those outside of Christ have a hard time understanding the Christian life
Why would you live to sacrifice for others instead of seeking wealth for yourself?
Why would you forsake the pursuit of wealth and power and fortune and fame?
Why would you willfully having and doing things that bring you pleasure?
They can’t understand these things because in Christ, we live in an upside down Kingdom
TRANSITION: Last week, we were talking about what it means to be freed from sin, and that those of us who are freed from the slavery of sin and death are now slaves of Christ
Our lives are different now because we are no longer dead.
The life of the living looks different from those that are dead.
This morning, we are going to dive deeper into the difference between those that are in Christ and those that are not, and the role of the law in helping us to see it.
So, let’s read together from Romans 7, and wherever you are this morning, I invite you to stand with me in honor of the reading of God’s Word:
Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives?
For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband.
So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man.
Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.
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.
But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.
What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “You shall not covet.”
But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead.
I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died;
and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me;
for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.
So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful.
PRAY, invite the church to be seated
*Listening Guides Out*
A lot of people find this section of Scripture to be confusing
It seems like Paul says some contradictory things
He uses precise language, and yet the complexity of what he speaks about makes it seem unclear
But what Paul is explaining is how God brought about the forgiveness of sins to believers through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
And this morning, we are going to break this discussion down into three main points. Let’s look at it together, starting in verse 1:
Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives?
For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband.
So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man.
If you’ve got your listening guide handy, the first of our three main points is this, that
Those who are not in Christ are bound to the law for as long as the live
Those who are not in Christ are bound to the law for as long as the live
What does this mean? Well, using Paul’s analogy, it means they are married to it
tied to it, as their source of standard for righteousness or judgment
Just like a wife is bound to her husband until death,
a married woman who finds a new husband is an adulteress,
a woman that is widowed can marry who she wills-don’t get any ideas here, ladies
The sinner is married to the law. But Jesus Christ died to replace the law
Jesus died so that the sinner that believes can be bound to Him instead of the law
This is important because you can’t be married to both
“I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.”
Righteousness can’t come through the law, otherwise we would have no need for Christ
Jesus came to give us a better way
Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.
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.
But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.
Those who are not in Christ are bound to the law, but the second thing we see here this morning is the opposite, that
Those who are in Christ died to the law in Christ
Those who are in Christ died to the law in Christ
Before you come to Christ, you live your life as the pursuit of sin.
Outside of Christ,you seek whatever your heart desires, by whatever means it takes for you to get there
Those things that were outside of God’s will for you were even more tempting to you because they were things you weren’t supposed to pursue.
Those who are outside of Christ are slaves to sin. They do the will of sin, and cannot help themselves because they have made sin their master. In John 8:34...
Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.
But placing true faith in Jesus Christ changes everything
when you come to Christ, you share in his death-
In that moment you die to sin because your sin is what led to His death
Jesus died to pay for your sins, and in your faith you share in that death
Once you are dead to sin, you are no longer bound to it. Sin is no longer your master
And once you are freed from sin and the death it brings, Jesus can also give you His life,
Life with a purpose Galatians 2:19-20 explain this well.
“For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God.
“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
These verses reiterate what verse 6 of our passage tells us:
If you are in Christ, you have a new life. You are born again
Your life in Christ isn’t a life of legalistic ritual, but of vibrant, Spirit-filled pursuit of Christ’s will for you to know Him and make Him known.
So, if the law is a “prison” of sorts that brings condemnation to the unbelieving, why did God give it to us in the first place?
Wouldn’t it have been easier just to leave us alone without the law, than for Christ to have to die for us?
a lot of people look at the end of this passage, and that is exactly what they think.
but if you look a little closer, you will see the true meaning behind what is going on here. Look at verse 7
What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “You shall not covet.”
But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead.
I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died;
and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me;
for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.
So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful.
Those who are not in Christ are bound to the law, while those who are in Christ are freed from it by His death to live in His resurrection towards His Kingdom purposes, but we need the law because, as our final point,
It is only through the law that we understand our need for Christ
It is only through the law that we understand our need for Christ
In verses 7-9, what Paul is saying is this
The law didn’t make you sin-it made you understand that you already had
Before you knew the law, you thought you knew what it meant to live
you were in your own desires. You were dead, but you didn’t know it
But once you understood God’s law, you realized that the life you thought you were living was, in reality death
And so, as we come to verses 10-11
we see that while the law gives us a roadmap to righteousness, what happens is that we rebel against it
And even now knowing that our sin is rebellion, we continue in it, going further and further into death
The result is that the law that bears life and righteousness actually results in death for us
As Paul closes this section, what we are left with is that the law didn’t kill me-it made clear what did
INVITATION: So what comes to us through the law is that we are able to see how desperately we need Jesus
Outside of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, there is no path to life and righteousness for you and me.
Under the law, each and everyone of us is guilty and deserving of death
The only way out from beneath the law and into life is the life and death of Jesus Christ.
Have you trusted your life to Christ today? Have you participated in His death? Are you living in His life?
Are you still a slave to the sin and death, or have you died to live?
Today can be the day of your salvation, if you simply choose to put your faith in Jesus Christ
If today you hear Him calling you to life, don’t leave yourself trapped beneath the law. Come down front and talk with us. Let us show you how you can be made alive for the very first time. You will never be the same
PRAY