Sermon Outline:

1. The Law is Good at Its Intended Purpose
2. The Law Provides an Opportunity for Sin
3. The Law Proved To Be Death to Me
4. The Law Must Be Viewed Through the Lens of the Gospel

Introduction

Years ago all our small groups went through a book together. It was written by Paul Tripp and Timothy Lane and was titled: Relationships: A Mess Worth Making. It’s a great book and I love the title because in five words you are told exactly what the book is about.

Relationships are messy, we all know that. They’re also complicated as well. We all have complicated relationships. Maybe you have a complicated relationship with a friend who sometimes acts like an enemy. Or maybe it’s with a friend or family member who was seemingly walking with the Lord and now is not. Maybe you work for someone and they go to church here! So now they’re your boss and your fellow church member. Relationships can be complicated.

We are in the book of Romans chapter seven and we are discovering that the Christian’s relationship with the law is … well … complicated. So far in our study of the book of Romans we have heard some positive things about the law. But we’ve also heard some things that make us think it is our enemy. So is the law our friend or not? How should the Christian think about it? Well it’s complicated. In fact Paul begins our passage with this question, somewhat in mind when he says in verse seven: What then shall we say? What shall we say then about the law?

The Book of Romans is Paul’s magnum opus on the gospel (a large and important work by a writer or artist) So, Paul takes chapters not verses to fully explain it. The gospel can be stated very simply: Christ died for our sins. But it is also a deep and rich truth and is the foundation of our Christian life. And so we should not be surprised when Paul takes an entire chapter to focus on the law.

Concerning the law Paul tells us of its helpful benefits and he tells us of its inadequacy to make us right with God. Only Christ can do that and only Christ in us through the Spirit can give the power and grace to live in a godly way.

Yes we have a complicated relationship with the law of God but in and through our relationship with Jesus Christ we are set free to allow the law to be a source of grace to us. So this morning we want to look at our passage and learn how to navigate this complicated relationship.

I. The Law is Good At Its Intended Purpose

Last week’s, this week’s and next week’s passages and sermons, are all from Romans seven and have to do with the law. They cover similar but different ground. Here are our points for this morning:

Points: The Law is Good At It’s Intended Purpose; The Law Provides an Opportunity for Sin - The Law Proved To Be Death To Me - The Law Must Be Viewed Through The Lens of the Gospel.

In the book of Romans the word law is mentioned fifty-three times! This is more than any other book of the Bible and double any other book of the New Testament. One of the helpful ways of trying to get our hands around our “complicated” relationship with the law is to keep in mind what John Calvin wrote about what is known as the three fold use of the law.

The three-fold use of the law:

1. It acts as a mirror. It reflects God’s perfect righteousness and our sinfulness in keeping the law. It helps us to see our need for a Savior.
2. It “restrains evil”. It’s ineffective in restraining sin in the heart of a non-Christian but it can help restrict the outward sinful actions of both Christians and non-Christians.
3. It reveals what is pleasing to God. Provides the way we should walk. A revelation for the Christian of the will of God.

Most of what we are going to cover this morning has to do with the first use of the law. But in our last point we will focus on the third use. Now up until our text, in the book of Romans Paul references to the law were often very negative. This is because he is speaking of its failure to be able to save us or justify us before God. In fact the law actually condemns us for our failure to keep the law. The law and its demands are not able to save us or justify us or defeat sin in our lives. John Stott in his commentary on Romans tells us that Paul is doing a balancing act with the law. He is both telling what it can do and what it can’t do. What it is good at and what it is terrible at.

Looking at our text in verse seven - Paul begins with What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! He is answering or anticipating the question that a reader might have up until this point. (Especially in light of his negative comments about the law) And then Paul goes on to discuss this first use of the law - that of a mirror. Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” (Berean Literal Bible: But I have not known sin, if not by Law.)

In verses seven and eight we see that Paul apparently got “tripped up” through the tenth commandment which is “you shall not covet”. Or maybe we should say “allegedly” that it tripped up Paul”! There is much disagreement among theologians and Christians in general (and even among some pastors) concerning chapter seven. Here specifically when Paul says “I’ is he referring literally to himself or Adam or Israel or all Christians? Our goal today is not to delve into this centuries long debate.

John Stott states that perhaps Paul is telling both his own personal story and universalizing it. Regardless of who Paul has in mind we can all place ourselves in what Paul is saying. The law as a mirror reveals sin in a more specific way than our conscience left to itself gives us. Earlier in Romans, in chapters one and two he mentions that all people have an internal or natural law within them so that we intrinsically know what is right and wrong.

But that internal instrument has been corrupted by sin and is often not trustworthy - especially when a person habitually ignores the warnings of his conscience and continues to do what he knows is wrong. When this happens his conscience will become hard and cold. Compared to the natural law within, God’s law very specifically and clearly states what is right and what is wrong. (Galatians 3- law was a guardian/tutor until Christ came) That tutor, the law speaks to not only our outward actions but the inner thoughts and desires of our heart. Jesus spoke to this in the Sermon on the Mount as well as many other places such as Mark 7:

Mark 7:20–23 (ESV) — And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

So apparently coveting was coming out of Paul’s heart. One can appear to be a moral or righteous person outwardly while inwardly coveting or lusting or raging against or being indifferent to God. The law points out our sin, even our most inward sins. Paul’s defense of the law reveals this God ordained purpose = his law as a mirror. However a problem exists - and it has to do with sin and our fallen nature.

II. The Law Provides an Opportunity For Sin

If we were structuring a play from Romans 7 it would have four main characters: the law, sin, one’s fallen nature (flesh) and Christ. Now concerning the law verse twelve of our text tells us that the law is holy, and righteous and good. So how could something holy and good provide an opportunity for evil? Well, enter into our story sin and our flesh.

Sin takes what is good (the law) and uses it for evil. If you have a favorite kitchen knife you probably use it for many helpful tasks. It was created for good. But someone could take that knife and use it for evil and this is what sin does with the law. Look again at our text, verse eight tells us, But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. Some translations read that the law stirred up within me all kinds of covetousness.

Sin was comparatively dormant until its prohibition in the law of God actually made it more attractive to a rebellious nature.

• Joel R. Beeke, Michael P. V. Barrett, and Gerald M. Bilkes, eds., The Reformation Heritage KJV Study Bible

In the story of the Hobbit when Bilbo Baggins first entered the treasure chamber under the Lonely Mountain he finds Smaug the evil dragon fast asleep (or at least it appears so). But after Bilbo steals a golden cup eventually Smaug awakens and his response is eventually one of wrath and fury. This is what the law can do to sin that is dormant in one’s flesh. Sin can appear to be non-existent but it is actually very much alive and if poked by the law’s demands, it can respond in strong and rebellious ways.

This can be seen in big or little ways. In front of the building for Apex Middle School there are a number of signs that read “Don’t Walk In the Flower Beds”. Now I wonder how many seventh grade boys have read that and previously hadn’t planned or even thought of walking through the flower beds until they saw the signs!

We can all be tempted or provoked or enticed by the forbidden fruit that the law seeks to keep us from. Somehow the law pokes the bear which is the rebel deep within us. Illicit activity somehow excites the fallen nature. But we must remember that ultimately that rebellion is not just against God’s holy law but specifically against God himself. R.C. Sproul described sin as “cosmic treason” against God. Have you ever noticed how someone who seems very sweet and reasonable can get very ugly or belligerent when the claims of Christ (and his lawful demands) are pressed against them?

John Calvin mentions that sin shows itself more clearly in its contact with the law’s demands. God’s law reflects his perfect, righteous and just demands. He is God and there is no other. And when the law’s righteous demands are pressed against one’s fallen nature, the response though varied is not obedience or submission to God but rather rebellion. God’s word, his holy law has a way of finding us out. Hebrews four describes the power of God’s word to do this.

Hebrews 4:12–13 (ESV) — For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

In Acts chapter six and seven Stephen preaches to a hostile crowd of Jews. He delivers an amazing summary of the history of Israel and then preaches the demands of the law to his audience, confronting them with not keeping the law and murdering the Messiah. And this was their response:

Acts 7:54 (ESV) — Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him.

Acts 7:57–58 (ESV) — But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.

Apart from grace this is our response to the law and to God. The law provokes indwelling sin within us and as we will see in our next point it also proves to be death to us.

III. The Law Proved to Be Death to Me

Verses nine to eleven are also open to a lot of varying views of what Paul is speaking of when he writes: I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. 10 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.

For Paul, the law that he, as a zealous (and proud) Jew took much pleasure in, turned on him and slayed him because it showed him to be a sinner (and killed him). John Calvin writes that Paul was inflated with a conceit as to his own righteousness, claimed life to himself while he was yet dead. We read in Philippians 3 Paul’s description of that conceited Jew:

Philippians 3:5–6 (ESV) — circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

That was before the commandment of coveting came in and killed him. It revealed to Paul his true nature of being a sinner before a Holy God. It is similar to the story of the rich young ruler who thought he had kept all of the commandments (All these I have kept from my youth) until Jesus told him to go and sell everything and follow him. (The law not only finds us out but it kills us). It killed Paul and it killed all of us. In Adam we all died. Even Paul the self-righteous Jew learned (as should we) that the law as glorious and holy as it is cannot save us. John Stott writes

The law cannot save us because we cannot keep it. And we cannot keep it because of indwelling sin. (John Stott)

These verses reveal the deceitfulness and sinfulness of sin. We all know of the deceitfulness of sin when we are battling sin and trying to overcome it and that it somehow “convinces” us or deceives/tricks us so that we keep on sinning. It is like the Turkish Delight that Edwin got hooked on in the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. It is the same temptation and sin that Eve fell for when she believed the devil’s lie in Genesis three.

Genesis 3:4–5 (ESV) — But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

(that is what we are all tempted)

The law is good at what it was intended to do. First it shows us our sin and secondly that it is unable to save and thus shows us our need for a Savior. Arthur Cundall writes

There must be Law. Without absolute demands there can be no definition of sin, no challenge to it. In this sense, as Paul says, the Law brought sin into being. It located and named it. But Law can do no more. It can convict and condemn. It cannot save. It can quicken conscience, but cannot assuage its pangs. It is only the trusted servant, as Paul told the Galatians, who cannot educate the child but can bring him to the one who can. The Law is divinely given, essential—but halts short and provokes despair, unless it be fulfilled in Christ, unless it hands over its slain victim to His resurrecting strength.

• Arthur E. Cundall et al., Romans–Revelation, vol. 4, Daily Devotional Bible Commentary

The law is God’s intended tool to bring us to Christ.

Galatians 3:22 (ESV) — But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

IV. The Law Must Be Viewed Through the Lens of the Gospel

In verse twelve of our text, Paul’s balancing act continues when he declares that the law is holy and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. So how should the Christian view the law? Through the eyes of the gospel. That is how we ought to look at everything. The very context of our passage is found in Romans 1:17-18 which is what many theologians consider the key verses of the entire book:

Romans 1:16–17 (ESV) — For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

This is the most wonderful glorious good news that we will ever encounter. We can be righteous before God not based on our performance of obeying the law but through our faith in Christ! And this is the context of not only every verse and chapter in the book of Romans but also in the entire Bible. Remember, this good news is the answer to the question (the most important question of life) “how can a sinner be made right with a Holy God?”. It is certainly not by obeying the law. Paul reiterates the answer in Romans 5:1.

Romans 5:1 (ESV) — Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

We could come up with a number of different descriptions of a Christian but the most basic identity you and I have as believers is that we are those who have been made right with God through trusting in the work of Christ. You can’t enter into the kingdom of God apart from this. This glorious gospel provides for us lenses. prescription glasses that help us see and navigate all of life including all of Scripture. So whenever we come to difficult or complicated passages in the Bible we should stop and remember the gospel and our right relationship with God.

We can examine the rest of Scripture secure in our relationship with God our Father. If there is one thing that we should always be cognizant it’s that we have been made right with God through Jesus Christ. And that all things in the Christian life flow from Calvary. And one of the many wonderful redemptive blessings that come to us from the place where our Savior died, is that the Lord takes what was harmful to us and uses it for our good.

Before we came to Christ we were helpless to obey the law’s demands. We could never obey it or be justified by it and it was always condemning us. Our guilt as it states in the book of Ezra had mounted up to the heavens. Colossians two tells us that there was a record of debt that stood against us. It was our failure to obey the law. But now through our faith in Christ we have died to the law and all our debt and guilt have been washed away. Now we are accepted in Christ. Why? Because he has fulfilled the law’s demand - perfectly. Romans 10:4 tells us:

Romans 10:4 (ESV) — For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

He is the end of the law because he perfectly fulfilled it through his sinless life. And his death paid for our sins of disobedience to the law’s demands. So when the Lord looks upon one who has trusted Christ he sees them as one who has perfectly obeyed all the commandments. If we peek into Romans eight (verse four) we read that the righteous requirement of the law was fulfilled in us who are in Christ. Oh, beloved, we should never tire of rejoicing in all the riches of the gospel message.

So how shall we now think of the law? Well we should think that our Savior has tamed it. He has taken out the sting of it. I Corinthians 15 tells us:

1 Corinthians 15:56–57 (ESV) — The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Through his death and resurrection Christ took away the sting of sin and death and the condemnation of the law by dying in our place. And now the law, the commandments, all of God’s word becomes to us like honey, like bread and meat. It is sweet to us and is one of the main sources of our strength. The law has ceased to be our enemy and is now our dear friend. So one of the clear implications of this blessing is that we should discipline ourselves to delight in God’s word. Matthew Bingham wrote a book called “A Heart Aflame for God”. It’s about spiritual formation in the Christian life. That which not only instructs us but causes our heart to grow in affection for God. In his chapters on Scripture and meditation he mentions the following:

“it is in Scripture that God comes daily to his people. In it he speaks to his people not from afar but from nearby”. Herman Bavinck

Quality over quantity. This stresses slowing down to think more deeply about the truths of Scripture - his attributes, his works, his ways, his promises.

Meditation is the “means by which the empty soul seeks to be filled with substance” A way of moving truth from the head to the heart.

• A Heart Aflame for God (Matthew Bingham)

The law has become our friend and because we are in Christ we should approach God’s word as the main way that we hear from him, learn of him and receive his love, his wisdom and even his discipline.

We no longer feel the sting of death through the law. But we can and should experience the sting of the Holy Spirit’s conviction through God’s word. This sting does not condemn us - that only comes from Satan and our guilty or overly sensitive conscience. If you are a Christian and you are reading God’s word and are feeling condemned, that's not from God. Remember you are one who has been justified by faith alone. When we read God’s word and feel its conviction it is specific and is meant to lead us to repentance in a certain area and to the peaceful fruit of that repentance.

For the Christian even though our old nature has died we can still feel its pull, as it fights back from the grave when it is poked by God’s word. This is an “opportunity” for us. In the past sin took an opportunity to provoke us. But now we can take God’s word and use it to help us put to death the old nature. We can use it to slay the dragon within even as Christ did in his confrontation with Satan in the wilderness. (For it is written). Whatever temptations or areas of discouragement you regularly face in your life learn to go directly to God’s word. Say no to sin’s first stirrings. Have the word near you, in your mouth and in your heart”

Well, there is much more that we could say about the grace that comes to us because Christ perfectly fulfilled the law and we will when we get to chapter eight. Yes, our relationship with the law is complicated but through our Savior’s great work on our behalf it no longer is a means of death and condemnation but of grace and strength and let us rejoice in that and utilize it for our good and God’s glory.