I want to invite you to turn with me in your Bibles to Paul's epistle to the church at Rome and the seventh chapter, Romans chapter seven. And as you're finding that. I'll remind you, because we're at a turning point to some degree in the epistle, the theme of the book of Romans is the righteousness of God. And that was established in Romans chapter one, really verses 16, 17. And then Paul unfolds or teaches this great theme of the righteousness of God, but beginning with pointing out that we're all unrighteous. And he takes a lot of space to do that all the way up to chapter three in verse 20 from 118. And a lot is included in that. But the final analysis is all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And then he begins to unfold how man becomes righteous in light of his unrighteousness. And the primary doctrine in which he does this is the doctrine of justification. But justification begins with Jesus Christ at the end of chapter three. Jesus Christ's life and death and us having faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And then in the fifth chapter, he really goes into, fourth and fifth chapter, goes into a lot of detail about justification because obviously part of his writing of this epistle and no doubt the content that he communicated with churches as he ministered to them had to do with this matter because the natural man, we by nature think that somehow or the other we might earn righteousness. We might attain to it through some religious practices or through good works in some way or the other. This is really and truthfully our default setting, but it is also It also reveals our sinfulness and the fact that we have to come to the end of ourselves. We have to come to the place where we admit we are unrighteous. We're not going to trust Christ if we think that we can do something to contribute to it. Well, justification is, this great doctrine is that we're saved by grace through faith in Christ alone. That's the summary statement of it. But there are many other issues that grow out of that. And this is why when we get to chapter 6, Paul raises this question and he says, can we just continue in sin then? And the reason he raises this hypothetical question is because there were people that had no doubt thrown that in his face as he had preached in various synagogues and places. They're like, well, if you're justified and you're declared righteous in the courtroom of God, then what's to keep people from just indulging in and living in sin? And basically, he begins to talk what we would categorize as sanctification with chapter six. And what he does is he tells us that we're in union with Christ, and therefore we died with Christ in his death, and we were buried with him, and we were raised with him, and we're now, we have a new life in Jesus Christ, and we are therefore slaves of righteousness. That's just giving the sixth chapter in just the thumbnail drive. And when we come to the seventh chapter, We really come to a chapter which is communicating, it parallels the sixth chapter. It's teaching us something similar to the sixth chapter, but in different terminology. And this terminology is vitally important. So there's a sense in which we can say the sixth chapter taught us that we were dead to sin and alive to God. The seventh chapter is teaching us that we're dead to the law. and alive to Christ, to God. And in some ways that might be a little bit of an oversimplification, but it's nevertheless true. And I'm going to, over the number of weeks that we look at the seventh chapter, seek to bring that out. as clearly as possible. Verses 1 through 6, I've entitled this death or dead to sin, taking the phrase dead to sin here that Paul uses. And what we need to see is chapter 7 verse 1 through chapter 8 verse 4 is a unit. So this unit does not end with verse 25. It goes to verse 4 of chapter 8. And I think some people, by not seeing that, have misunderstood some of... they differentiate, they separate what the summarization that's given in verses 1 through 4 from what is given in the rest of chapter 7. It would really be to our advantage if the chapter division began with chapter 8 and verse 5 instead of with verse 1 to show that unity, but that is my job. Now, there's another sense in which The seventh chapter, 7, 1 through 8, 4, is an explanation of chapter 6 and verse 14. Now if you've been with me, you know The chapter 6 and verse 14 was a key verse in the 6th chapter. And that verse says, For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law, but under grace. And my interpretation of that verse, which I gave repeatedly in a number of the messages, is really drawn from the seventh chapter. And I mentioned that we'll have to see the details of it when we get to chapter seven, but I gave that. And of course, we are, and I'll explain it further as we go today. I want you also to note by way of introduction that the word law is used 27 times in 7.1 through 8.4. So there's no misunderstanding that in this section of Scripture, Paul has the subject of the law in mind. So the hymn that we just sang is a beautifully written hymn and theologically sound summary of the doctrine of sin as unfolded to us in the Scriptures. And the last verse, of course, is equally important. It's not like the hymn writer decided, well, you know, I've talked about the law in these other stanzas, now I'm gonna talk about Jesus. No, the law brings us to Christ. The law is a schoolmaster that causes us to come to Christ. I mean, everything that is there is a part of the biblical New Testament teaching on the doctrine of sin as laid out in the scriptures. What Paul is doing in this section is He is giving us a detailed explanation of what it looks like to be under grace as a covenant rather than under the law as a covenant. And he's unfolding that for us here in a wonderful way. Now let me just mention one other thing by way of clarification at this point. The title to the message is Dead to the Law. That is the teaching of verses 1 through 6, unmistakably. But it is about believers and not about unbelievers. All unbelievers in this world are still under the law as a covenant of works. And they are condemned under that law. Condemned. as we were before we were converted. It's only after salvation through faith in Christ that we were removed from being underneath the law as a covenant of works and brought under the covenant of grace. And these are glorious themes. These are glorious truths, and they are very liberating also for the living of the Christian life. So let's start with verse one, which says, Or do you not know, brethren, for I speak to those who know the law, that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives?" And maybe if we skip the parenthetical statement, which is basically a statement wherein he's not saying necessarily that the majority or the vast majority of the church is Jewish. It may have been. We'll discuss that question later. But even the Gentiles that would have been a part of the church at Rome, they were all people who understood law. The Roman Empire was an empire that was very much concerned with the concept of law. And so he says, it's a rhetorical question, do you not know brethren that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? Paul is not expecting by offering this question for people to sit and ponder and try to figure out whether they agree or disagree with him. The very meaning of the verse is that he's taking it that all of the readers of this in the original church there at Rome were going to be in agreement with this. They were going to know intuitively, we might say, that this is a truthful statement. So what we need to begin with first of all this afternoon is the, I'm going to call it the proposition that's found in verse 1. The proposition. I need not say much about it, but basically the proposition is this. The law has authority over a man as long as he lives. That's the proposition that Paul is setting forth by this question. The law has dominion. That word dominion means rule or authority or jurisdiction, in similar type words. So what Paul is saying is the law has authority. It has the inherent right to rule and it carries jurisdictional precedent over lives. The law has, and I'm going to use the word authority, the law has authority over a man as long as he lives. Okay, his implication is that you could die and therefore would be released from being under the authority of that. So let me mention this before we leave the proposition. Some good Bible commentators view law here in verse one as referring to the Mosaic law, and others would say that this, that Paul here means just the general concept of a law. as God has created man in the world and that this law has dominion or jurisdiction over people. But as I read the arguments from the different Reformed teachers with regard to this, the outcome is the same in either case. So whether we see it as the Mosaic Code, whether we see it as law in general, It amounts to the same thing in the final analysis. So the proposition is very clear. The law has authority over a man as long as he lives. He's going to go on from this, he's going to build on this, but we need to see this proposition. Secondly, in verses 2 and 3, it says, For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. So then, if while her husband lives she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man." Now, almost everyone describes verses 2 and 3 as an illustration, but I'm going to call it, because I like alliteration, I'm going to call this the proof. Verses 2 and 3, Paul is giving as a proof of the proposition. He wants to prove this proposition. Just in case there is a few people somewhere who are not really sure that they accept the proposition that the law has authority over a man as long as he lives, he wants to give an illustration that proves the proposition. And basically the illustration is the binding authority of marriage. One of many laws that was, we call them creation ordinances, that God gave to Adam and Eve in the garden and other laws that He would give in existence at other times. Now, let me give an explanation of this. Basically, what He's saying in verses 2 and 3 is, there is no expiration date on marriage. That's what he's saying. And he's saying that marriage is something that doesn't end until death. So what we will say is that when a husband dies, then his wife is released from the bonds of that marriage. Or if the wife dies, the husband is released from the bonds of that marriage. And the word released means to be discharged or to be dissolved. So two people that are married, they're living together, they're loving each other. One of them passes away, the other one is no longer married to that person. And I know a lot of people that are widows and widowers think of themselves maybe as still being married to that person, but very clearly their marriage vows and the traditional marriage vows that have been used in all churches, Protestant and Catholic, throughout the ages have expressed the fact that the principle that is set forward here in this passage. Basically, the marriage, biblical doctrine of marriage and the binding authority of marriage is a part of the moral law of God. And all human beings know this in their hearts. We understand the permanent nature of marriage. Now, but we also hear, and Paul's point is that death dissolves the legal obligation of the marriage vows Basically, he's presenting it as proving the proposition. He's just giving it as an illustration to prove the proposition. So that is the explanation concerning the illustration as being a proof of the proposition. But before we go on, I want to sort of interject something here. I'm going to call it the misunderstanding related to this illustration in verses 2 and 3. Some Bible teachers have misunderstood verses 2 and 3 to be, as it were, the definitive statement that there are no allowances for divorce or remarriage. Now, if it were true that these verses are teaching that, it would put Paul here in Romans chapter 7 in conflict with himself in 1 Corinthians chapter 7 and would also put him in conflict with Jesus in Matthew 5 and Matthew 19. So, in other words, there are other things besides death which can break, sadly, the marriage vows besides death itself. Although certainly death only was in the original creation, not that death had come into the world yet, but when God joined Adam and Eve together, it was a permanent union that was given to them. But because of sin, God gave divorce to the nation of Israel and we see Jesus restating it for us and the Apostle Paul doing so as well. The point of this illustration The point of this proof that Paul is giving here in verses 2 and 3 is simply that marriage vows cease at death. And that's the point of this verses 1 through 6. We are dead to the law. Death has done something that has brought a separation and we are no longer under the law as a covenant of works, but we are under a covenant of grace through the Lord Jesus Christ. That brings us then to verses four through six, which say, Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another, to him who was raised from the dead, that you should bear fruit to God. For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were told, excuse me, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter." So you can see that what I have been discussing in verses 1 through 3 is to some degree dependent upon what we have read in verses 4 through 6. So we have seen the proposition, the law has authority over a man as long as he lived. We've seen a proof and that is the binding authority of marriage and the only thing that severs it would be death. And then here in verses 4 through 6, I want to give you the particulars associated with the teaching about being dead to the law. So the particulars, before we even look at them, they add up to this truth. When a person has died to the law, he is free from the law as a covenant. When a person has died to the law, he is free from it. And you can see, just in reading the verses, how that is clearly what he is communicating to us at this juncture. Now, I can add something to that, and if you didn't get it, because this is so important, I'll repeat it again. The teaching of verses 1 through 6 is, when a person has died to the law, and we'll find out what that is in these particulars, he is free from the law as a condemning agent. So this little parenthetical phrase at the end is very important. And I'm taking into account all that is being given to us here. When one has died to the law, he is free from the law as a condemning agent. an agent of condemnation. So Paul here starts these particulars at a beginning point and they build. They're like a set of stair steps and they're really building one on top of the other. And so the basic teaching that those who have died with Christ have died to the law is spelled out in six particulars. And we've read the whole passage and let me just read verse 4 again. Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another. And who is that you're going to be married to? To him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. So the first particular is that when you were saved, you were put to death. Okay? Now that's not a new concept for us. That actually was a big emphasis that Paul had given to us back in chapter 6 in the first, really the first 14 verses. But let me just look back over there and read a few phrases for you. In verse 4 it says of chapter 6, Therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death. In verse 5, for if we have been united together in the likeness of his death." In verse 6, "...knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin." Verse 7, "...for he who has died has been freed from sin." Now what he was saying in this chapter about dying to sin is we could paraphrase these verses and take the concepts that are being used in chapter 7 and we could say, for he who has died has been freed from the law. Because that's exactly what he is saying and these mirror each other and they are both communicating the same basic concept for us. To be dead to the law, sin is to be dead to the law in the sense that he is teaching it and presenting it to us here. The second particular is also found in verse 4. When you were saved, it was by the work of Jesus. Okay? So what we have in verse 4 is through the body of Christ, which is a reference to the substitutionary atonement, the fact that Christ lived a sinless life and died a substitutionary atonement, and by Him you were raised from the dead. That's a reference to the resurrection. So we have a death and the resurrection. And then he says that Christ has died for you so that When you were under the covenant of works and in bondage to that, in essence, and in bondage to sin, you were delivered from that by the Lord Jesus Christ and you are married to another. Now, the other that we are married to is Christ. In fact, there are oodles of places where we are called the Bride of Christ. In fact, one of the number one metaphors used of the church is that we're the Bride of Christ. Church is not this building. As you know, it's each of us who are believers in Christ. We are the Bride of Christ. But we can also take other languages. Instead of saying that we are married to Christ, indeed we are, but we can also say that the law as a covenant of works has been replaced by Christ or it has been replaced by the covenant of grace. So before we were saved, we were under the covenant of law and we were condemned because we kept breaking the law. We kept disobeying God. But then we were saved and brought into Christ and in Christ we came under the covenant of grace. And this is the important thing to remember. This is as basic and as easy to remember as we can get. And many of you have heard this many times. What the law demanded, Christ provided. It's as simple as that. What the law demanded, Christ provided. Could we provide it? No, absolutely not. Could we provide it in conjunction with Christ? No, we could not. What has been provided for us? is Christ Himself and He has provided all that was required for us from the law. The third particular is also in verse 4. In the last phrase, I'll put it this way. When you were saved, it was that you should bear fruit. When you were saved, it was in order that you would bear fruit unto God. And we understand this, okay? We were saved, spiritually speaking, by being put to death to sin and the law. We've been saved by the work of Christ, and we were saved to bear fruit. We weren't saved to just Sin. We weren't saved to just survive. We were saved to bear fruit to God. So when Jesus is speaking to his disciples after Judas has left the group on that last evening, Jesus said to them in John 15 and verse 16, You did not choose me, but I chose you and I ordained you that you should go and bear fruit. And you will bear fruit. Because if you've been put to death to sin and the law and if you've been saved by the work of Christ, then you are going to be a fruit bearer. And if your fruit is not as luscious or as volumous as it should be and could be, you're going to get pruned. And we've all been pruned and we're going to all be pruned yet more until we see the Lord Jesus Christ. But then in verse 5, we have a fourth particular. Now let me read verse 5. For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death." So the fourth particular is that when you were unsaved. So everything that we've been talking about is when you were saved. But here he interjects in verse 5, when you were unsaved, you produced sinful actions or you produced sinful fruit, unacceptable fruit and sinful actions and evil sinful passions. Now, basically verse 5 is a contrast between our lives before salvation and our lives after salvation. So it's obvious, even before we get to some of the particulars later in the chapter, that Paul's clear understanding is that being dead to the law does not mean libertarianism. It cannot mean that. That would be totally contrary to even what this verse says. Before you were saved, you were living a sinful, passionate life, indulging in things that were displeasing and dishonoring to God, disobeying your parents, doing all these kind of things. But once you're saved, As verse 4 has clearly laid out, you are now bearing fruit to God and to His glory. This is a wonderful contrast. And of course, in the flesh clearly means before your conversion, before your salvation. In fact, if you look back to chapter 6 and verse 6, he says, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him. That old man's crucified, implying that there is now a new man. And of course, the old man, new man, Teaching is found in a number of Paul's epistles. He doesn't get into that here in chapter 6, verse 6. But the old man was crucified for what purpose? That the body of sin might be done away with. The life of sin, the actions of sin. That we should no longer be slaves to sin. We've been delivered, excuse me, from that. Now, something interesting in verse 5 that we need to note is he tells us that these sinful passions were aroused by the law. And this has really stumped a lot of people. But I think all of us understand what he's saying. The law clearly reveals sin, and we have a lot of scripture that we know what sin is because the law said don't do these things. So if we disobey those, we know that that's sinful. We also have many exhortations to do certain things, and when we fail to do them, that also is sin. In fact, many of our sins are sins of omission as much or more as commission. But what he's telling us here beyond just the fact that the law reveals sin is that the law actually stimulates or promotes sin. Now, if you have never heard that before, you might be puzzled, but that is very much what he's saying in verse 5 when he says, "...the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members." He's including himself here in his teaching at this point. Now, we need to ask ourselves, how could that be? How is it that the law of God, which is perfect and holy and good and righteous, how could it be a means of stimulating or promoting sinful passions in our lives? Well, Romans 7 and verse 8 is gonna get to the answer. If you look down there with me, it says this, But sin, taking the opportunity by the commandment, another word for law, Sin, taking the opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law, sin was dead." What Paul's saying in verse 8, and incidentally what he's saying also in verse 5, is that when the law says, don't do something, guess what we want to do? The natural inclination of all human beings is to do what we're told not to do. It's not just the little children, not just the teenagers, even us senior adults and others, everybody in between. When we're told not to do something, the pride of the human heart is just swelled up with, you're not going to tell me what to do. I'm going to do what I want to do. And we sin. So the law becomes a stimulant and a promoter of disobedience to God. This is exactly what happens in the Garden of Eden. God gives Adam and Eve everything wonderful and perfect, and they are to, you know, enjoy it. One command, don't eat of this tree. What do they do? There's a big debate as to how quickly they went and ate of the tree. We don't know. We're not told. But I can guarantee you this rather quickly. They went and ate of the tree and disobeyed the one simple command that God had given to them. You see, give, and the result then of the law arousing within us sinful passions because we're told not to do certain things leads to what? Death. Here it's said to bear fruit to death, but ultimately leads to death, and it leads us to bearing fruit that is dishonoring to God, and that also is dishonoring to ourselves as creatures created in the image and likeness of God. And then verse 6 gives us another particular. I'll read about half of the verse. It says, "...but now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by." So the fifth particular is that when you were saved, you were delivered from or died to the law. When you were saved, you were delivered from or you died to the law. You didn't die to just sin. You died to the law. But now we have been delivered from the law having died to what we were held by. We were held by it naturally. This helps us to understand exactly what law Paul is talking about here. It's a law that was given and spread abroad in our hearts in creation and we were held by it and we were condemned by it. We were condemned by the law because we were law breakers and we were going to be judged by it. So, the natural man is, we're born into this world in bondage to the law, the law of works. And the saved man is the one who has been delivered from this bondage to this covenant of works. How can this be, we might say, since the law is clearly holy, just, and good? It's because we have died to the law as a covenant of works established in the Garden of Eden. Now, let me explain something that might be a question in your mind. No one can die to the law as a moral code of ethics, as a moral code by which we are to live. But we can die to the law as a covenant established and in the form of a covenant of works that God entered into with man in the Garden of Eden. And that is reissued in a different form but very similar form to the nation of Israel at Mount Sinai. This is what our confession says in the 19th chapter on the law of God. The sixth paragraph starts off this way, Although true believers be not under the law as a covenant of works, to be thereby justified or condemned. So those who are saved by Christ and are true believers are not under the law as a covenant of works. What the law as a covenant demanded, Christ has provided. So the result of being dead to the law as a covenant of works is clearly expressed for us in chapter 8 verse 1 which says, There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. There's no condemnation. At condemnation, we were condemned before we were saved. And under that covenant, we are under condemnation, were under condemnation. But once we are no longer under the covenant of works, have been brought into the covenant of grace, there's no condemnation to those who are in that covenant. There is a sixth And final particular at the end of verse 6 where it says, So that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. So the 6th particular is that when you were saved, now listen carefully, you were enslaved to the newness of the Spirit. You were enslaved to the newness of the Spirit. So the word that is translated serve here at the end of verse 6 is the verb form of the noun doulos. Doulos is the noun for slave or bond servant. And this word, serve, here is the verb form. And so the meaning here is very clear, that we should be slaves in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. And is this not in complete agreement with what Paul had written in chapter 6? Look at verse 18 of chapter 6. Having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness and of lawlessness, leading to even more lawlessness, so now..." And the so now is very important. "...so now that you have been saved through the work of Jesus Christ, present your bodies as slaves of righteousness for holiness." And what Paul is basically saying in Romans 7 and verse 6 is, you are slaves of righteousness. And the implication is, therefore, present your instruments as slaves unto God and do what He has called you to do. So those who are genuinely saved, to put it in very practical terms, they're not sitting around debating, should I obey what God says or can I just indulge in the lust of the flesh because I know afterwards I can, you know, ask for forgiveness and He'll give it to me. Such a concept is foreign to the New Testament. I'm not saying that truly genuinely saved people haven't done such a thing before, but it's a terrible sin for us to reason in such a manner. The meaning here is that those who have died with Christ are going to obey God. Even though they're dead to the law as a covenant of works, they are alive to Christ in the covenant of grace. And, of course, this is exactly what Jeremiah prophesied in the new covenant, Jeremiah 31, verses 31 through 34, and which came to pass with the coming of Christ and with the accomplishment of his work upon the cross of Calvary. So if you have died with Christ, you are free from the covenant of works. You are free from the law in that sense. And as such, you cannot be condemned. There's no condemnation for you, and you are free to live to the glory and honor of Almighty God. Let us pray. Dear Father, we thank you for this message. We pray that you would teach us from it, that we would take it into our hearts and lives and be comforted by it, be strengthened by it, and even to be enabled to fight the lust of the flesh and to live a more pleasing life to you. For we pray all of this in Christ's name. Amen.