For the last two weeks we have seen the Apostle Paul make a shift from talking about justification, which is how we are declared not guilty of having a problem with God, to how God’s rescue should result in separation from selfishness and sin. Now theologians refer to this as sanctification. Sanctification, simply put, is the process by which we become like Christ in character and actions. In Romans 6:1-14, we discovered that our rescue should result in our separation from selfishness and sin because we are identified with Christ. Last week, in Romans 6:15-23, we saw Paul reveal for us the timeless truth that our rescue should result in obedience.
This week, I would like for us to spend our time together looking at the next section of this letter that is recorded for us in our Bibles, called the book of Romans. And it is in this section of this letter that Paul reveals a timeless truth that is necessary to embrace if we are to live a life that responds to our rescue by becoming more like Christ in our character and conduct. And that timeless truth is this: Our rescue requires wrestling with temptation. In Romans 7, we will see Paul reveal three specific temptations that we must wrestle with if we are to respond to God’s rescue from selfishness and sin in a way that becomes more like Christ in character and conduct. So let’s begin by looking at the first area of temptation in Romans 7:1:
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.Paul begins this section of his letter to the members of the church at Rome by exposing a truth that the members of the church seemed to be uninformed or ignorant about. And that truth was “that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives”. But what is Paul talking about here? Paul provides the answer to this question with the statement that I am speaking to those who know the law. The Law, as we have seen throughout this sermon series, are the first five books in our Bibles today, which were referred to as the Law or Torah.
And it is here we see the Apostle Paul reveal for us the first of three timeless temptations that followers of Jesus must wrestle against as we become more like Christ in character and conduct. And that temptation is that we must wrestle against the temptation of legalism. By legalism here, I am referring to followers of Jesus who try to force other followers of Jesus to obey the commandments as the means by which we become more like Christ.
You see, for legalists, becoming like Christ is driven by what we do for God. While the legalist may agree that they are justified, or declared not guilty of having a problem with God, by grace, they are convinced that we are sanctified, or become more like Christ by what we do for God in terms of following all of the commandments in the Bible. And as a result, legalists will often attempt to force others to follow their list of commandments from the Bible as the way to be like Christ. Maybe you have met a legalist. Or maybe this morning, you are a legalist.
And, if we are all brutally honest, something within all of us is tempted to be a legalist. All of us are tempted to buy into the idea that we can get spiritual brownie points for God by our obedience to God’s commands. All of us are tempted to compare our performance for Jesus with other followers of Jesus. All of us face the reality that we must wrestle against the temptation of legalism.
In verse 2, we see Paul respond to the temptation of legalism by pointing to the example of marriage. To fully understand what Paul is communicating here, we first need to understand what the Bible teaches about marriage. In our culture today, marriage is often viewed as a contract that two people enter into and that either party can move to dissolve that contract and enter into a new contract. The Bible, however, does not view marriage as a contract. Instead the Bible views marriage as a covenant. Marriage is divinely designed by God to be a covenant relationship between one man and one woman for one’s entire life. Now, in the Bible, when someone enters into a covenant relationship, that covenant is can only be terminated in one of two possible ways. A covenant is terminated when one of the parties that entered into the covenant dies. And a covenant is terminated when one of the parties enters into another covenant.
Paul reminds the members of the church at Rome, and us here today, that because of God’s design of marriage as a covenant, the married woman is morally bound to that covenant as long as her husband is alive. So if the woman was to leave the covenant relationship that she entered into with her husband and then marry another man, she would be guilty of violating God’s moral law as an adulteress. However, if her husband died, the woman would be free from the covenant relationship that she had entered into and would be free to marry again.
At City Bible Church, this is how we apply what the Bible states about marriage here when it comes to the issue of divorce and remarriage: We believe that the Bible teaches that God allows divorce in instances of unfaithfulness/adultery and abandonment and that a person could be remarried if they were divorced for those reasons and if reconciliation with their former spouse is impossible, due to either death or the remarriage of the divorced spouse.
Now, while Paul is not specifically focused on the issue of marriage, I imagine that Paul’s comments here provoke both thoughts and questions. Most likely, almost every person reading this has been impacted in some way by the issue of divorce and remarriage. Regardless of how you have experienced divorce, all of us know that divorce is an all too present reality in our lives. And what makes the issue of divorce and remarriage so emotional and painful is the reality that we cannot hit the rewind button, so to speak, on the past decisions that we have made.
I would like to offer a suggestion and a word of encouragement to those who have questions or thoughts that have been provoked by what we have talked here. First, if you have questions on what the Bible teaches on the issue of divorce and remarriage, I would encourage you to listen to a previous sermon on divorce and remarriage that occurred during the “when Christians act unchristian” series. You can simply call the office and we will make that available to you for free.
The piece of encouragement that I would have for you this morning if you are here and have experienced divorce and remarriage in your life would be this: While we cannot hit the remind button, in 1 Corinthians 7:17-24, Paul provides a timeless and overarching principle that, as followers of Jesus, regardless of our past, we are to live out and conduct our daily lives in the position where God has currently placed us as followers of Jesus. As followers of Jesus, we are to confess and repent of any past sin when it comes to the issue of divorce and remarriage, and we are to focus on following and serving Jesus faithfully in the relational context that God has currently placed us. As Paul continues in Romans chapter 7, we see him apply the example of covenant marriage when it comes to wrestling with the temptation of legalism in Romans 7:4:
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.Here we see that Apostle Paul reveal for us the reality that just as a woman was freed from the requirements of her covenant marriage relationship upon the death of her husband, followers of Jesus have been freed from the requirements of keeping the law that were a part of the Old Covenant that God had made with Moses and the Jewish people as a result of the death of Christ. As we saw a few weeks ago, when we place our confident trust in the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel, we are mystically and spiritually aligned and identified with Christ as part of His body.
And because we are identified and aligned with Jesus as a result of our confident trust in Christ, we have been separated from the old covenant, which required us to keep the requirements of the law in order to be in right relationship with God. Our confident trust in the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel place us in a new covenant relationship with Christ. Paul’s point here is that Jesus life, death, and resurrection, provides us the opportunity to be released from legalism in order that we would live a life that reveals and reflects Jesus Christ and His transformational activity in our lives as we become more like Christ.
Paul then contrasts the fruit, or what is produced, in the lives of those who attempted to do things for God in order to be right with God with the person who trusts in what God has done to rescue them from selfishness and sin in verse 5-6. When Paul uses the phrase, in the flesh, he is referring to a life that is lived at odds with God and the truth about God in the powers of selfishness and sin. His point here is that the commandments of the Law aroused the selfishness and sin within us that produce acts of omission and commission that result in God’s right and just judgment that separate us from God for all eternity.
By contrast, the person who has been released from the obligations of the Old Covenant to keep all the requirements of the commandments of the Law is owned and empowered by the Holy Spirit to experience new life in the relationship with God and others that they were created for.
Now you might be thinking “Well Dave, if the Law is what arouses selfishness and rebellion within us, what does that say about the Law?” If that question is running through your mind, I want to let you know you are not the first person to have that question, as we will see tomorrow in Romans 7:7.
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