Christ frees us from mere outward rules

We've been working our way through the book of Romans. It's a critical book, maybe even the most critical book in terms of basic knowledge of Christianity and the whole introduction to what's really going on. So I thought, you know, maybe it's time that we just did a quick review. Chapter 1, a great theme. of the chapter is the gospel is the power of God. The good news is the power of God because of by faith righteousness is revealed from heaven therein.

So the world's danger, God's wrath revealed against human sin, verse 18 through 20. His wrath, and we've learned a lot about God's wrath going through this, And it's the awful course of man's sin, a man's present state related and described. So Romans chapter 1 sort of puts man where he really is in reality, not where he hopes he isn't, but this is where he is. So when we get to chapter 2, we see these principles according to which God's judgment of human actions must proceed because he's righteous and he's holy. His judgment is according to truth, according to accumulated guilt, according to your works, a man's works.

It's without respecter of persons. With God, it doesn't matter what status you have. It's according to performance and not knowledge. You can be the most knowledgeable person in the world, but what's your performance? God's judgment reaches the secrets of the heart and according to reality, not religious professions.

So the great thing about just the first two chapters is it puts man in his place. It takes care of most of his excuses or all of his excuses. And then chapter 3, we find out that the Jews had God's law, oracles. Did it make a difference with them? Did they have an advantage because God came and gave them the law? And the answer is, their unfaithfulness proved that they didn't have an advantage. Actually, it hindered them because they had a specific thing to violate.

And then after verse 8, starting in 9, there's a 14-fold indictment from the Old Testament of all men, Jews and Gentiles, and they're all brought guilty before God, and all the mouths are stopped. You know, we've talked about that a lot, that God goes through this process in two and a half chapters, primarily to get people to stop talking.

And listen, you're condemned. And I've just proven, as God says, I've proven that you're guilty and you're deserving of hell. Now, when you get done complaining and giving me excuses, it gets quiet in the room. And what does God do? He says, even though you're guilty, I'm going to extend my grace to you, because I took care of your guilt. And he had to go through all of this just to get them to shut up so they could listen to the grace. Gee, it sounds like us, doesn't it?

So, when you get to chapter 4, Abraham and David, in whom the Jews gloried, accounted righteous by faith, not by law but by works, to prove that righteousness is not by works and not by law and not because you're a Jew. Righteousness is all apart from ordinances like circumcision and baptism and confirmation and all the other kind of rituals. And Abraham has heirship to the world, not by law, but by promise. Everything that Abraham did was because of promise, not because he obeyed a law. And only believers can be certain of God's blessing because they live under grace. The way and walk of faith has been exemplified in Abraham.

The construction or the connection of our justification with Christ is in resurrection. He died for our offenses, but he was raised for our justification. He didn't die for our justification. He was raised for our justification. Five then, which is recent memory, the glorious results of justification by faith. You have peace with God. I have a standing. You have a standing in grace. I have sure hope of the coming glory and patience and joy of God.

What do I learn? I learn that about trials. I learn about suffering. I learn about who is the author of those trials and why I have them. And then we start into the kind of information that is new to most believers, but I think we probably understand it as well as anybody.

The two representative men, Adam and Christ, and how they're contrasted, and how one is condemned, to death, and Adam, and everybody in Adam dies. All in Adam die. Why? Because you're born from him. And it goes back to the Garden of Eden where God said that like will produce like. If you're a bird, then your generation are going to be birds. Well, the same thing holds true in the spiritual realm of things. If you're a sinner, you're going to produce sinners. And that's all Adam could produce. That's the big reason why Christ didn't come from Adam's line.

By the law, sin became a trespass. But grace transcended all trespasses. So not only do you have sins, but you have violation of law. You have a trespass. And now we live in a new environment. We spent the last four weeks at Sunday school talking about grace. that comes through Jesus Christ our Lord. Grace is not a substance in a jar in your kitchen. It's not God's sometime favor. It's an environment that we as believers live in.

And we talked this morning about the word aeon. age we physically and every human being today lives in the age of sin. But we believers have been moved out of that age and we actually live in the age of grace. So then chapter 6, which we just finished up, we find out that we died with Christ, that our baptism was a witness to the fact that we did die. We reckon ourselves dead to sin, separated from it. It's not dead. I'm not dead. But we're separated. I'm dead to it.

And I'm alive to God in Christ Jesus. You could spend the rest of your Christian life just contemplating those 11 verses. And then we're asked to present ourselves to God as free persons, alive from the dead so that sin will lose its dominion over us.

We do that by grace. We don't do it by statute. We do it by grace. I would present myself to God because it's the next logically spiritual thing to do. I belong to Him. He bought me and paid for me on the cross. Why wouldn't I do that? is not to be abused. Because we have these sin natures, we abuse everything that we come in contact with. For sin is always enslaving and will end in death.

Obedience brings freedom. In other words, listening and presenting under grace brings freedom. And the end is eternal life. And we found out that eternal life, again, is not a substance It's to know the Father and the Son. So eternal life is a person, not a thing. So, obedience brings freedom with the end of eternal life. God's free gift in Christ Jesus our Lord. The gift is Him, not what.

Does that make sense? I hope it does. So, as we take a look at this little recap. Obviously we spent, what, a year and a half on these six verses. We find out that in 6.1 The Word of God says, what shall we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may increase? You know, the thinking was, well, I live under grace, and you can't out-sin grace. So the natural, wonderful mind of man says, well, if we want more grace, we've got to have more sinning. So I'm going to sin more so grace would increase. And the answer is, no way. Can't be. How shall we who died to sin live in it any longer? How shall I who died? That's the answer. I did die to it, and how should I live in it any longer?

The verb in 6.1, what shall we say then we are to continue in sin that grace may increase, is a present subjunctive, which means that speaking habitually, continuous action. Should I continually operate in sin so that grace would abound? Paul's listener comes back with another question, halfway through chapter 6, and he says, well then, since grace makes it impossible for the believer to sin habitually, like he did before he was saved, may we Christians live a life of planned, occasional sin? since we're not under the uncompromising rule of law, but under a lenient scepter of grace. So, is it okay if I sin on Thursdays? Or if this circumstance happens and I react in a negative way, is it okay that I do that?

Well, the answer in 14 says, sin is not to have master over you, for you're not under law, but you're under grace. So we sin because we are not under law, but under grace may it never be. And here's the interesting thing. If you look at the verb in verse 15, we're looking at as in the era subjunctive, which means a single act. I'm sorry to inform you that according to grace, you're not even allowed one sin. Sorry. If you do sin, we have a remedy. God has provided us a remedy.

But I like what, and I mentioned this last week, Arthur Way has read this man's mind correctly when he speaks of the uncompromising rule of law and the lenient rod of grace. The man simply didn't understand grace. Law is uncompromising. No problem with that. But grace is never lenient. Never lenient. It's far stricter than law could ever be. It's a far greater deterrent to evil than law ever was. Early on in our Christian life as we're growing, we understand what a powerful thing grace is.

There's a jillion examples to use. I'm not faithful to Donna because on my refrigerator, number three is I'll be faithful to her. And number four, and number five, and number six, that's not wise because I love her. And I can't imagine doing anything that would be unfaithful. That motivation is a much greater thing than if I have to do this and I have to do that. You know, I always wondered when you go conduct a wedding, you say, well, what are your vows? Well, good luck with those. If you're not living under grace, you haven't got a great chance of making it.

So, example. If between here and Hampton Avenue going this way, there was a motorcycle cop on every corner, and their engines are running, and they're just waiting for you to come by, is a far greater deterrent for my speeding than any number of street signs that would say speed limit 25 miles an hour. The signs represent the law. The motorcycle cops represent grace. How?

Because each one of us is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Every single believer. And he takes notice of the slightest sin and convicts us about it. Whereas the law would act in a general way And then only where the conscience of the individual cooperated with it. So the motorcycle cop is like the Holy Spirit who always keeps you reminded. So we talked last week about grace, and we're studying this in Sunday school, these very verses.

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men. It's the only way we get it. instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly and righteously and godly in this present evil age, looking for the blessed hope of the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself to us for us to redeem us from every lawless deed and to purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good works. So just because a believer now is totally free from the law, does it mean that he can sin with immunity? No, because he doesn't ever leave the umbrella or the environment of grace. He's in that all the time. And we begin to thank the Holy Spirit for what He does.

Now let's look at this word age. Notice in the last verse, in this present evil age, the word age is aeon, which Trench, this guy Trench, sometimes I read things from him and think, wow. This is how he defines this present age that we live in. That floating mass of thoughts, I like the fact they're floating around. Opinions and maxims, speculations, hopes, impulses, aims, and aspirations. Kind of covers it all. At any time, current in the world, which it may be impossible to seize or accurately define, but which constitutes a most real and effective power being the moral or immoral atmosphere which at every moment of our lives we inhale again and inevitably exhale. It's everywhere. When we were singing that hymn this morning, I was thinking about this verse, and I see how this idea fits.

Doesn't the world system, Aeon, require you to take sides? Broncos are playing today. What side are you on? What side of the Israeli war are you on? Are you liberal or are you conservative or are you moderate? Every single thing in this age that we live in requires you to be on some side or another.

You can't walk down the middle. You can't do it. You have to be somewhere. Under grace, that all goes away. I'm not required to be on any side. Or maybe put it a better way, there aren't two sides. There's only one. And it's the Lord Jesus Christ and His grace. And that's the side I'm on. And I don't ever sort of leak over to the other side. So, Christians live in this atmosphere. We breathe it.

It confronts us wherever we go. It seeks our destruction. It takes a while to learn that. It's devious. It surrounds us like the air we breathe in. We take it in unconsciously like every breath of air we take. It's so around us and we're so in it that it affects everything we do. And what hit me was, boy, I have to take sides about everything. You know, I'm forced in the world to say, A is good and B is bad. And if I meet you and you think B is good and A is bad, well, we got a problem. because we're both drinking the same Kool-Aid because we are at odds with one another.

So, when we cut to chapters 5 and 6 now, they've shown us the terrible principle which man introduced into the world. Man introduced sin into the world. The relation of the believer now has that principle You and I have died to that principle. We've died to sin, the principle of sin. But there's another thing which has been introduced into the world only this time by God. You know what it is? It's law. God brought law in. About 2,500 years later than the introduction of sin, God brings law to Moses.

That is the law and we have to learn in what relationship the believer stands to the law. We need to really understand that because otherwise we're going to be infected by it. So it's of greater importance that we should be we should be known in what relation the Christian stands to the law. Our Christian liberally depends on our knowing this answer.

Israel was administered the law by angels, but you know what? They didn't keep it. So Paul brings the guilt of this on their conscience in the early chapters. Chapter 2, he says he speaks of those who rested in the law, and they boasted because they had it. Who had the form of knowledge and of truth in the law, but who dishonored God by breaking it. Then in chapter 3, he says, by the law is the knowledge of sin.

Really? You know, we know how that works. You take a two-year-old, put him right over here, put a glass of water on the table and tell him not to touch it. What's he going to do? He's going to touch it. Because that's what law does. It tells you. It defines sin. The coming in of the law is a very great event, one of the greatest events in the history of the world.

For it brought in a divine standard what man ought to be for God's pleasure. How else without the law would you know? If you read the Old Testament, you find that God did intervene to some degree in man's history. But until Abraham and then Moses, he got really involved with one nation. And in making known what God required, it gave man a sense of how righteous and how holy God really is. But the more distinctly this made itself felt as a requirement on God's part to which man must answer, the more was his inability, the more inability he felt to do it.

So, the subject of chapter 6 now leads into 7. Paul shows how by the death of the Christian is freed from law. Really great news. Which good as it is in itself and in the divine intention nevertheless owing to the corruption of man's nature instead of helping to make him good perpetually stimulates sin. So 1 verses 1 through 6 and 7 describe the liberation from law. And as we go through chapter 7 on, we'll see from 7-13 how the law really does work against a man. It's against him, it's not for him.

And in 14-25 we're shown that this working of the law is not due to anything in itself, but it's due to the power of the flesh. In the first section, God shows how those who were placed by Him under the law were released from the relation of sharing in the death of Christ, were released by sharing in the death of Christ, to that, joined to the risen Christ, that they bear fruit unto God, and released from law, they are glad and willing to service. If I really know what the law is and what it does, to find out that I'm released from it is a great day. I'm free to serve God now.

In the second section of 725, Paul described his struggle under law. One of the great passages in the Bible of a man under law. He works really, really hard at it and he loses every time. Every single time. He even says that I was a live one apart from the law at one time. It's the struggle of one that is born again and delights in the law of God, seeking to compel the flesh to obey God's law. That's a total impossibility. But you have to learn that. In further pursuing the manner of the Christian relation to law as a method of divine dealing, Paul refers to the substance of the statement in 6.14. You remember 6.14? We are not under law, but we're under grace. So really, 7.1 connects with 6.14.

To be under law is to be really an unsaved person, positionally. And be in a position, I have to obey His law. But the law gives neither the desire nor the power to obey its principles. Instead, it brings out sin in all the more because its very presence incites rebellion in a totally depraved nature of the individual believer. So to be under grace is to be a believer who has had the power of evil of the evil nature, the sin nature broken in his life so that he does not need to obey it anymore and has been given the divine nature which gives him both the desire and the power to do God's will.

You've probably heard this poem before. Do this and live, the law commands, but gives me neither feet nor hands. A better word the gospel brings, it bids me fly and gives me wings. I like that. So God's purpose now is to press home the point that the believer is not under law anymore. That's what these first six verses are about.

That a believer putting himself under law and thus failing to avail himself of the resources of grace, he's defeated. his own experience before he came into the knowledge of Romans 6, 6 and 7. And while law incites the Christian to more sin, yet law is not responsible for that sin, but the evil sin nature, which only can be conquered as a believer cries, who shall deliver me? Who shall deliver me? Notice it's who, not what. and thus looks away from himself and self-dependence to the Lord Jesus himself.

So Romans 7 says, or do you not know? Which usually means that you don't know and I'm going to tell you about it. Brethren, for I'm speaking of those who know I'm sure that most of your Bibles have the definite article in front of the word law. It shouldn't be there. It's not in the Greek.

Those who know law. Anybody on the planet, Jew or otherwise, not know law. We all know law. That the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives. So what is Paul doing here? He says that The most common example I can give you of knowledge of law that exercises dominion over a person is marriage, as long as he lives.

When he dies, he's passed out of the realm where that law could have jurisdiction over him. You read about people who are condemned to death, and they go to, I don't know, I was going to say the gas chamber, but I don't think they give you gas anymore. But once the person dies, as an example, I remember, everybody know the name Ron Lyle? Remember that guy?

He was a boxer, and he fought Muhammad Ali one time, but then he got accused of murder, and he was convicted of murder. And if they were marching him to the gallows and he had a heart attack and fell over dead, would they pick up his body and still stick him in the gallows? No, they wouldn't. Why not?

He's dead. You can't carry out your sentence on someone who's dead, because they're not there. Their body might be there, but they're not dead. So the understanding that I am dead to sin and dead to the law, especially the law means it doesn't have anything to say to me anymore. Kenneth Weiss says, or are you ignorant, brother, for I'm speaking of those who have an experiential knowledge of law, that the law exercises lordship over an individual as long as he lives. But if he isn't living, does it have jurisdiction?

No, it doesn't. It doesn't at all. So, now I want to talk about this one word, or do you not know, brethren? The opening word of verse 1 connects with the first six verses of chapter 7 directly with verse 14 of chapter 6. For sin shall not have master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. That little word, or, connects verse 14 with 7.1. The first part of chapter 6 is a parenthesis, a warning against the abuse of our not under sin position.

Therefore, you connect the words you're not under law with or in chapter 7. Do you not know? For I am speaking to those who know the law, or know law, that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives. He says this is a matter of common knowledge, that the civil law can exercise dominion over a person only if he's alive. When he dies, he has passed out of the realm where the law could have jurisdiction over him.

So if you look at a couple of verses where this also acknowledges that not under law or are you ignorant, etc. If you look at Romans 11.25, it says, For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed as to this mystery, so that you will not so that you will not be wise in your own estimation, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel, and the fullness of the Gentiles has come in." Paul wanted to make sure they understood that.

Or 1 Thessalonians 4.13, but we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. So he says, for I'm speaking of those who know the law. I want to inform you about you knowing the law, that the law as a principle is spoken of. We have.

Every society has used law or what are the anthropologists call it, mores in their society to control man's behavior. So every human being, he couldn't use a better example than this one of marriage. For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he's living, but if her husband dies, she's released from law concerning her husband.

I mean, you don't have to explain that. It's already self-explanatory. Paul uses the fundamental law of domestic relationships to illustrate that only death breaks a legal bond. This is evident simply meaning in this passage. This husband and wife illustration was marvelously chosen.

It's a worldwide application, instantly understood everywhere, and it sets forth perfectly what the Apostle desired, that is, to describe the dissolution of a relationship by death, thus making it possible for a new relationship, William R. Newell. So, what's he talking about?

If I am dead to this, then I'm free to do that. If I'm dead to sin, then I'm free to live under grace. If I'm dead to the law, I'm free to live under grace. I can't be both. And the only way I get out of a law or sin relationship is to die. Don't you realize my old man was crucified with them? That the body of sin might be put out of business. Death is the answer. Death is the answer.

So in summing up, verse 3 says, so then if while her husband is living she's joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she's free from the law so that she's not an adulteress, though she is joined to another. And I should have crossed out the definite articles in front of law. If Adam, our federal head, our old husband. If I died to him, then I don't belong to him anymore. I now have a new head. His name is Christ.

And this was made possible by the death of Christ when He was made the thing sin. Not only did He die to pay my sin penalty, but He died to the thing sin. I was included in that death. Every one of you were included in that death. Before he died, he was made to sin. He died, he separated himself from the entire principle of sin. Guess what? You got separated too. So now you have, I'm dead to that, I'm alive to Him.

The obligation that governed our former condition as an atom no longer calls for righteousness or holiness of our own in the flesh. We have died as to that place and atom and are now in the second man or the last atom, Christ Jesus, who himself is our righteousness and sanctification.

We talk all the time about how much effort believers who still think they're under the law expend on trying to be more righteous before God than they are now. If you could find out in God's Word that there was anybody more righteous and more set apart unto God than the Lord Jesus Christ.

I'm really anxious to hear about him. The Lord Jesus is the one who God is well pleased in and he's a man and he sits at the right hand of God today and he sits there because he's separated from the world system which included sin and law. We now live under a different principle. So A couple of quotes from the Hungry Hearts in the last week.

There prevails a notion that the Lord Jesus was keeping the law for us and establishing our righteousness when he was here below. We know lots of believers who think that way. Now his life was necessary to vindicate the Father and his holy law as well as to manifest himself and his love But the righteousness that we are made in Christ is another thought altogether, not the law fulfilled by Him, but the justifying righteousness of the Father founded on the Lord Jesus' death, displayed in His resurrection, and crowned in His glory. And Lucifer Chafer said the Ten Commandments require no life of prayer, no Christian service, no evangelism, no missionary outreach, no gospel preaching, no life and walk in the Spirit, and no union with the Lord Jesus, no fellowship of the saints, no hope of salvation, and no hope of heaven.

That's the Mosaic Law. So, if you want to be under law, it's a little scary place to be. If you want to live under grace and recognize, you rest by faith in the fact that you're free. You're free from something in order to do something. I'm free from sin and law. I'm free to present myself to the Lord Jesus Christ resurrected. And I'm seated in Him in the heavenlies. And I can live, because I'm indulged by the Holy Spirit, I can live from that position moment by moment.

So let's close. Father, how thankful we are for the work that You've done. Not only substitution-wise, You paid all of our penalties and took care of our guilt, but You also took care of who we are who we were in sin and under a lost system and now that we live resurrected in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our brother Miles Stanford used to say, keep looking down for your life is hid with Christ in God. So we pray in his precious name. Amen.