Romans 7:5

Romans 7:5

Romans 7:5 says, "For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death." Notice the phrase which says, "the motions of sins which were by the law." There is a relationship between the law and sin. You cannot be guilty of breaking the law if there is no law. When our government creates a new law, then the citizens must be careful to obey it, or they will be guilty of breaking the law. If the law had not been passed, then the obligation would not exist. The same is true about the law of God. From one perspective, we can say that the reason that we sin so easily and so often is because the law is so perfect. To become free from the obligations of the law, would therefore result in us also being free from guilt, because where there is no law you cannot be found guilty of breaking the law.

Paul said, "When we were in the flesh." Before a believer is united to God, by the Spirit; their existence upon this earth is called being in the flesh. That’s because before we come to Christ, all that we have is a physical and material life. There is no spiritual life, and therefore it is called being in the flesh. Jesus said, "That which is flesh is flesh; and that which is spirit is spirit." A person must have a spiritual birth in order to begin a spiritual life. Paul included himself and said, "When we were in the flesh, the strong desires and the passions of sin, which were on account of the law...". In the phrase, "the motions of sin", the word that is translated "motions" really means passions or strong desires.

God has given us normal desires, such as the need for love, material security, and social acceptance. But when the normal desires become selfish passions, then is when we cross the line from that which is right to that which is wrong. That’s the weakness of the flesh: the selfishness that rises up within us. Such selfishness becomes sin because of the law. The lines are drawn by the law. There would be no lines and thus no sin, if there were no law.

Rom. 7:6 says, "But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held: that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter." The final result of sin is death. The penalty for breaking the law is death. It’s normal and wise to strive for a better life and a healthy life, but if you do not have an answer for the final enemy of mankind, which is death, then you haven’t helped much because everyone will eventually die. But the good news of the gospel promises eternal life instead of death.

Because we have been delivered from the law, there is a new way to serve God that is different from trying to serve Him by keeping the law. The law is a list of rules and requirements that you must keep in order to receive blessings and in order to avoid punishments. True Christianity is not the keeping of the law. Instead of the law of the Old Testament to be the rule by which a believer lives, there is a new principle to guide the life of each believer. The new principle of living for God started in the days of the New Testament. It’s the doctrine of the Spirit. You must go with one or the other. You will either understand the new principle of the Spirit, and you will serve God by the new principle of being led by the Spirit; or you will fall into the old way of attempting to live for God by the keeping of the law.

Many people have made the mistake of reducing what they think is the Christian life to the keeping of rules and regulations and rituals. If such people had only understood the book of Romans, they would have understood that by the keeping of the law shall no flesh be justified. They would have enjoyed the liberty in which they stand, and they would have been freed from the shackles that kept them from walking in the Spirit. Remember that once we have come to Christ, not only are we free from our sins, but we are also free from the law; and therefore, we should now serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.

When Paul wrote to the believers in the city of Galatia he was surprised that they had so soon gone back into legalism, and in many ways they had forgotten the doctrine of salvation by grace and what it really meant. He said to them in Gal. 5:1, "Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage."

We are free from the law of written commands that came from the Old Testament. In reality there is now in the age of the New Testament the law of the Spirit. That’s what Paul calls it in Romans Chapter 8, the law of the Spirit. If you make an attempt to live for God, you will do it in one of two ways: either through the law of the Old Testament or through the law of the Spirit. The law of the Old Testament emphasizes human effort and human accomplishment in obeying a list of rules. The law of the Spirit is different from that. The law of the Spirit emphasizes the work of God instead of the work of man, and it’s initiated by God instead of man. The law of the Spirit puts an emphasis on God’s work being done by means of the Spirit of God leading an individual. This is in great contrast to the law of the Old Testament that puts an emphasis on a person’s own efforts to keep a set of rules.

A person can only become a Christian through the initial working of the law of the Spirit. Jesus went into a fairly detailed explanation of the spiritual birth in His conversation with Nicodemus recorded in John Chapter 3. Jesus said in John 3:6-7, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I say unto you, You must be born again. The wind blows where it will, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell from where it comes, or where it goes. So is everyone that is born of the spirit." When the Spirit of God comes over the life of a human, and that person responds in the right way, then and only then can they become united with God. It’s the work of God. It’s entirely the leading and the accomplishing of God by His Spirit. The biggest thing that the human does in all of that is to simply surrender to the leading of the Spirit.

Serving God now works on the same principle. It’s not a list of rules and regulations that you must learn to follow by your own strength. It’s the law of the Spirit that you must learn. The law of the Spirit works in the same way that it worked when you became saved. It’s God who must initiate things because it’s His leading and His work. The most important thing for you to do is to be aware of God’s leading and to surrender to it. That’s the law of the Spirit. God’s Spirit is at work. Wise is the person who finds out which way God is going and goes with Him. The main obstacle that you will have in living by the new law of the Spirit is yourself. Your own will and your own selfish desires are the only things that will keep you from obeying the law of the Spirit.

The Spirit will attempt to say to you in a still, small voice, "This is the way, walk you in it." It will be your pride, your stubbornness, or your selfishness that will keep you from being aware of the Spirit. If that happens to you, instead of the newness of the Spirit, your religion will be by the oldness of the letter, which is spiritual deadness. But if through the Spirit of God, you die to yourself, you then become alive to God and you become led by the Spirit. All the possibilities of spiritual life open up to you. If your religion is based upon how well you keep the law, then you are not spiritual.

Hopefully you understand the difference between the law and the Spirit. Hopefully you are trying to live for God by the Spirit and not by the law, because the Spirit brings life, but the law brings death. One of the reasons for the contrast between law and spirit is because salvation does not come by the law. The difference between law and grace is pointed out in John 1:17 that says, "For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ."

In spite of the contrast between law and Spirit, and in spite of the difference between the oldness of the letter and the newness of the Spirit; we should not say that the law is sin, and we should understand the good purpose of the law. Rom. 7:7 says, "What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. No, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, Except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet." The purpose of the law of God is stated very clearly and very directly. The purpose of the law of God is so that human beings would realize how very sinful they are as a result of failing to keep the law; and then after learning how sinful they are, to find in Jesus the mercy and love of God through His forgiveness. Anyone who has not yet experienced the forgiveness of God, might do well by spending time looking into and trying to keep the perfect law of God. If such a person follows things out properly, the law will lead him to Christ, because the law will teach him about his need for forgiveness. Therefore, the law is not sin. It has a good purpose.

In case there is any question about what the book of Romans means when it mentions the law, Paul makes that very clear. He quotes from the Old Testament at the end of Rom. 7:7 when he writes, "the law says, Thou shalt not covet." This is a quotation from one of the Ten Commandments. It’s a quotation taken from Ex. 20:17. It embodies the essence of all moral and ethical requirements. The rest of Ex. 20:17 says, "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor’s." To covet means to desire. It speaks of the inner thought processes before any action even takes place. You may sin just because of what you desire. What you desire will eventually result in actions, but it’s what you desire that is at the core of the problem, and it’s the violation of this eternal, moral law of God that makes it sin. The very hand of God etched these words into the stone. God did not give the tables of stone only to Moses. He gave them to all humanity and He said, "Thou shalt not covet."

There are certain things that you should not desire, just as there are certain things that you should desire. Jesus told us that to love God with all the heart and all the soul and all the mind is the greatest commandment. Certainly this is something that we should desire: to love God. Then Jesus said that the second most important commandment is to love our neighbor as ourselves. Certainly this is also something that we should desire: to love all other humans. Jesus was taking the law and putting it in concise terms for us. The law tells us to desire God. Jesus was quoting the law from the Old Testament when He said, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart..."

No one has always desired the right thing. No one has always wanted what they ought to have wanted, at every moment of every day, in every situation. No one except Jesus. The moral commands of the law are good. The law is good, but it can only condemn us because we fail to keep it. Rom. 7:8-12 says, "But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of desires. For without the law, sin was dead. For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good."

We know that salvation does not come by keeping the law, but it comes by the grace of God in Christ Jesus. We know that the law ends up condemning us, because we fail to keep it perfectly. On the other hand, we also know that the law is good: if there were a law that could give righteousness by keeping it, it’s this law of God. So what’s the problem? The problem is the weakness of human nature. Rom. 7:13-14 says, "Was then that which is good, made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good: that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin."

Anyone who is rightly related to God will understand the greatness of their own sins, and will appreciate the mercy of God that they have received. Paul understood his own sinfulness, and how much he depended upon the grace of God. He says about himself here, "I am sold under sin." In another epistle he would call himself the chief of sinners. Jesus gave a description of two men, one who was not rightly related to God, and one who was. A member of the clergy looked up to heaven and said out of the foolish pride of his own heart, "God, I think you that I am not as other men: extortioners, unjust, adulterers." He was aware of the sinfulness of others, but he was not aware of his own sinfulness. People who are involved in religious organizations are always in danger of having such an attitude and therefore not being rightly related to God. In contrast to the self-righteous clergy, the second person of whom Jesus spoke was so ashamed of himself that he could not even look up to heaven, and he prayed and said, "God be merciful to me, a sinner." Jesus said that the second man was justified before God, not the first.

When you hear a speaker who claims to be a teacher of the things of God, learn to read between the lines. If they speak of themselves as if they are better than others, then they are not rightly related to God. The reason that no person is better than others, no matter who they are or what they have accomplished, is because we all have the same sinful nature. Everyone has failed in some way to keep the law of God, and most of us have failed in many ways. Do you think that you are more holy than someone who has committed adultery, or someone who has taken or sold drugs, or someone who has committed any other horrible or despicable sin? You need the forgiveness of God for your sins just as badly as they do. There may be no greater lesson on this subject than what we learned from the incident in the life of Jesus about the woman who was taken in adultery. A group of men brought the woman to Jesus. The holy law of the Old Testament demanded that she be put to death. Remember, if your hope is in the law it will end up condemning you. "The law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." Jesus knew a higher law, a law that works for you and me and every other sinner: the law of grace and truth and forgiveness of sins. Jesus said to the men who came with the attitude of the condemnation of the law, "Let he that is without sin, cast the first stone."

We have all sinned, and the reason that we have all sinned is because we all have the same sinful human nature. This human nature that so easily sins, we still have even after we come to God. When a person becomes rightly related to God through the forgiveness of sins that is in Christ Jesus, they are given a new spiritual nature which allows them to commune with God and which allows them to be led by the Spirit, but they do not totally lose the old sinful nature, and they do not arrive at a state of sinless perfection. That will only happen when we get to heaven. Paul said in Phil. 3:12, "Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect...". The Christian life is a daily battle and a daily struggle of the spirit against the flesh. For those who believe in Jesus, it will end one day in victory, not because of their own efforts, but because of Him. In the rest of Romans chapter 7, Paul will go into more detail about this struggle between the flesh and the spirit, and his conclusion will be, "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord."

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