"I"

in
 

Romans 7:13-25

13 Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.

14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

 
 

ATTENTION!

  1. Romans Part 2 begins TOMORROW. Pick up your new Romans book at Asbury, or email Sandie and she can mail you one.

  2. THIS WEDNESDAY: All-Church Bible Study, 6:30-8:00 PM. We’ll be looking at what is arguably the greatest chapter in the Bible—Romans 8. Please make every effort to attend—it’s important.

 
 

This is one of the most famous passages in the Bible, and it has generated no end of opinions. Who is the “I” Paul is writing about?

Here’s what I think is the most persuasive interpretation:

In Romans 7, Paul is personifying Israel itself and speaking in the first person: “I.” He is talking about the experience of Israel before the coming of the Messiah. Though they had the Mosaic Law, it in itself was not enough to change their hearts.

“For the law informs us of our duties before God, but it does not give us the ability to fulfill those duties.” — from The Letter to the Romans, by Douglas Moo

The story of Israel in the Old Testament is proof that it is not possible to be righteous on your own—you need the Spirit of God to change you, which is what he will start talking about in Romans 8. Because Torah—the Law—is working with sinful flesh, the only thing it can produce is sin and death. The Law is a gift from God, but people also need new hearts that are capable of keeping the Law.

Sin, then, is a prison. Paul speaks for agonized, sinful Israel:

24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? [7:24]

The answer:

25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! [7:25]

Summary so far:

• The Gentiles were idolators, and they were enslaved to sin and death (even though their consciences should have been guiding them away from sin);
• But the Jews were also enslaved to sin and death, even though they had the Law;
• The reason Jews were enslaved is that their hearts were just as sinful as the hearts of the Gentiles, and the Law could do nothing to change hearts;
• So, both Gentiles and Jews are in the same position: enslaved to sin and death, and unable to free themselves.

In Romans chapter 8, Paul will dramatically explain how the coming of Jesus the Messiah and the gift of the Holy Spirit will show the Father’s love for His people and set people free for a new kind of life. We start Romans Part II on Tuesday, October 1!

 

John Adams Was Right

in
 

Romans 7:7-12

7 What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! 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.” 8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. 9 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. 12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

 
 

THREE THINGS!

  1. We have readings this weekend. Normally, we take off Saturdays and Sundays, but I have assigned us readings this weekend only, so as to finish Romans Part 1 before October begins.

  2. Our new Romans books are in! Pick one up at Asbury, or email Sandie and she can mail you one.

  3. All-Church Bible Study Wednesday (10/2), 6:30-8:00 PM. We’ll be looking at what is arguably the greatest chapter in the Bible—Romans 8. Please make every effort to attend—it’s important.

 
 

Paul has previously told us that the Law provokes sinful people to sin. If that is the case, then is the Law itself sinful? After all, Israel became more sinful after it received the Law:

9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. [7:9]

(Paul, as we shall see, is speaking here as Israel personified: “I.”)

No, the Law is not sinful—it was just twisted by sinful people. Even the holy Law can’t work with sinful people.

There is an important political point here.

It is important that we have good laws and even more important that we have a good system of governance—the Constitution. But even the Constitution itself is not sufficient to work with sinful people. John Adams wrote a letter to the Massachusetts Militia, and there is a particular section of that letter that is frequently quoted today:

Because We have no Government armed with Power capable of contending with human Passions unbridled by morality and Religion. Avarice, Ambition, Revenge or Gallantry, would break the strongest Cords of our Constitution as a Whale goes through a Net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. —John Adams, 11 October 1798

Adams’s point is that even the best laws cannot save a wholly wicked people. Pray for spiritual revival in America!

 

"Ain't Nobody Can Tell Me What To Do"

in
 

Romans 7:1-6

7 Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? 2 For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. 3 Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.

4 Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. 5 For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.

 
 

THREE THINGS!

  1. We have readings this weekend. Normally, we take off Saturdays and Sundays, but I have assigned us readings this weekend only, so as to finish Romans Part 1 before October begins.

  2. Our new Romans books are in! Pick one up at Asbury, or email Sandie and she can mail you one.

  3. All-Church Bible Study Wednesday (10/2), 6:30-8:00 PM. We’ll be looking at what is arguably the greatest chapter in the Bible—Romans 8. Please make every effort to attend—it’s important.

 
 

Paul’s point is that a person is only bound by the Law while he or she lives. If you are married and your spouse is living, then you are still under the law of marriage; but if your spouse has died, you are no longer under the law of marriage. He uses that little metaphor to explain that a Christian is someone whose old self has died and so we are no longer under the law; now, rather, we live by the Spirit. The old has gone and the new has come.

When we were enslaved to sin, the very fact that we had clear teaching from God in the Law caused us to sin even more. We were like children who want to deliberately disobey the teacher, just to prove that no one can tell us what to do:

5 For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. [7:5]

The good news is that Christ has died to set us free from slavery to sin and death, and we who have been baptized have been joined to His death, so that now we are no longer controlled by sin—now we serve the Holy Spirit in freedom.