Released from the Law, but the Law is Good

Romans 7:1-13

Do you feel that Romans is a very theological book? It is indeed full of foundational concepts that define what we believe as Christians. It uses some words that are very important for us to understand: sin, law, grace, faith, righteousness, judgment, and so on. These words are like pegs on which we hang the tapestry of the Christian experience. We need to consider them in the context of the entire Bible to understand what they really mean. And that’s important for us to do, because we can see examples throughout history of where misunderstandings or misconceptions of these key words have led people into all kinds of errors. I will tell you today about how the church got a little off track on the concept of grace and what happened then. But I also want to reiterate the importance of something that goes beyond correct doctrine. We can have our theology all tidily laid out, but that’s not what really matters. The bigger question is what difference it is making in our lives – in how we are truly loving God and truly loving other people. That’s where the rubber hits the road in our understanding of Romans.

Let’s start reading at the beginning of chapter 7:

Do you not know, brothers and sisters—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives?  For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her to him.  So then, if she has sexual relations with another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man.—Romans 7:1-3

Paul is returning here to our relationship with the law. We have already seen that sin is defined by the law. Sin has always existed in the world, since the fall of Adam and Eve, but sin is not taken into account where there is no law. That’s what we read back in chapter 5. The law provides a consciousness of sin. It holds the whole world accountable to God. And no one can be declared righteous by observing the law. Righteousness comes through faith to all who believe. This is at the heart of chapter 3.

Paul makes it clear that he is not getting rid of the law. It still has its purpose. Jesus had also stated very clearly in Matthew 5:17 that he had not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. The Jewish people included in Paul’s audience would have had a special attachment to the law. They would be “those who know the law.” It was the basis of their old covenant with God. Some of them would have been right there with the psalmist in saying, “Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long.”

But Paul here is starting to talk about dying to the law, loosening the control that it has over us. This is different from when he was talking about dying to sin. Yes, there was the matter of our old nature drawing us back to sin, making it enticing or justifiable, but everyone who listens to their conscience would agree that sin is bad and something that we ideally should distance ourselves from. But what about the law? Isn’t that a good thing? Why should we need to die to it?

However, before Paul answers that question, he presents this analogy of marriage. This book of Romans is a bit nonlinear that way, doubling back on itself and surprising us with twists and turns to keep us on our toes. Marriage is presented here as a law that loses its effect when someone dies. This is parallel to idea of a slave being released from slavery when he or she dies, the image used in chapter 6 in talking about slavery to sin and considering ourselves dead to sin.

By law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive. She would commit the sin of adultery if she had sex with another man. But if her husband dies she is released from that relationship and would be free to marry someone else. Death ends her obligation to her husband. In the same way, dying with Christ ends our obligation to the law.

So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.—Romans 7:4

In a way, therefore, the Jewish people were married to the law, obligated to honor it in a certain way. By dying with Christ they were released from that marriage to the law, and then, by being spiritually resurrected with Christ, they entered a new marriage relationship – with Him this time. The attachment, love, honor, respect, and even sense of obligation that they had for the law have now been transferred to the person of Jesus Christ. Their means and their motivation for bearing fruit for God would be different. No longer would they be trying to please God by following all the rules. Jesus and His bride would be as delighted as newlyweds to enjoy and please each other, bearing fruit as a marriage would bear children. Satisfying God’s righteous requirements for life would be a matter of grace and the infilling of the Holy Spirit rather than self-effort and harsh judgment.

For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.—Romans 7:5-6

How are sinful passions aroused by the law? Have you ever seen a willful toddler being told no, they are not allowed to do or have something? There can be some sinful passions aroused in that situation! All of a sudden the forbidden object or action becomes the most desirable thing in the world. In the temper tantrum that may result, the forbidden loses its original significance and becomes merely the focus of resisting authority and fighting against the imposition of a law that prevents them from some perceived self-gratification. This process might be more obvious in young children, but a similar reaction can occur at any age. I call it “the irresistibility of the forbidden.” It started way back in the Garden of Eden, didn’t it? God told Adam and Eve that there was one tree that they couldn’t eat from, so of course that was the one that they really wanted to try. This nature, this sense that we actually know better than God, has been passed down to all generations. It can show up as FOMO in adolescents (fear of missing out). Friends may seem to get away with doing as they please. Why does God have to spoil my fun? Sinful passions aroused by the law can make things seem more attractive than they really are. Sin always promises more than it can deliver. That is why Hebrews 3:13 tells us to “encourage one another daily, as long as it is called ‘today,’ so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.” Sin is deceitful, promising fulfillment and delivering emptiness. But it hardens people so that they are unable to recognize that result, even if that is their experience over and over again.

The wages of sin is indeed death. By our words and actions we produce either life or death in those around us. If we are controlled by the flesh, we will bear fruit for death. Selfishness might seem to benefit us in the short term, but if everyone operates that way in society, eventually everyone loses. The new way of the Spirit is marked by love and self-sacrifice. When we get up to chapter 12 of Romans we will be urged to “love one another with brotherly affection and to outdo one another in showing honor,” as the ESV puts it. This philadelphia love is truly possible only after we receive the agape love that God has “poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit,” as we read in chapter 5. The old way of the written code is about being motivated by a sense of “should” and not out of love.

What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead. Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.—Romans 7:7-12

Paul states emphatically that the law itself is not sinful. It is, in fact, holy because it was designed by a holy God. God intended the commandment to bring life, which it would do if we were able to follow it perfectly. But our sin nature prevents us from being able to do that. Knowledge of the law inclines us to sin even more. Sin brings death of all kinds – which we might be tempted to blame on the law itself, but the law is not responsible for the sin. The commandment is holy, righteous, and good.

Let’s go back to the passage in Matthew 5 that I already referred to. Jesus is speaking in the Sermon on the Mount.

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.—Matthew 5:17-20

Jesus here is certainly treating the law as holy, righteous, and good. The Pharisees accused Him of disregarding the law, but He only disobeyed their strict interpretation of it, which would have prevented Him from healing on the Sabbath, for example. Jesus looked beyond the rule to point out that sin was a matter of the heart. The Pharisees might look good on the outside, but God would judge them for their inmost thoughts and attitudes. Jesus was able to fulfill the law because He was completely obedient to the will of his Father. God’s standards are always holy and righteous. That’s what Jesus was supporting.

Back to Romans 7:

Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! Nevertheless, in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it used what is good to bring about my death, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.—Romans 7:13

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus was pointing out the utter sinfulness of sin. It could not be covered up by “looking good” as the Pharisees tried to do. The true law is what brings us to the end of ourselves, to admitting that we are completely inadequate to fulfill God’s requirements. It brings us to the point of recognizing that it is only through our death with Jesus on the cross that we can obtain resurrection life with him.

A couple of weeks ago, I referred to the impact that Romans had on Martin Luther. He not only became disillusioned with the way the church abused its power, such as through the selling of indulgences to allow sinners to escape purgatory, but he came to realize that the church had strayed from a true understanding of law and grace, leading to a distortion of the gospel message. It wasn’t as though the church didn’t teach about grace, but it was considered “infused grace” that God puts into a sinner to allow him to start to become righteous. Grace makes salvation a possibility, creating a new will in a person so that he will begin to fulfill the law. Faith is therefore focused on obedience and behavior. At the final judgment God will decide if a Christian has done enough with the gift of grace to merit salvation. This becomes then a lot about what we have to do, verging on a “works righteousness” as the basis for being right with God.

Luther felt burdened by his own sins that he couldn’t seem to do anything about. He struggled mightily with the concept of “the righteousness of God,” more than once saying that he hated it because he had been taught that this righteousness referred to how a holy God would punish sin. He puzzled for years over the meaning of Romans 1:17: “For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith.’” At last a revelation came to him one day. He wrote about it:

“Then finally God had mercy on me, and I began to understand that the righteousness of God is a gift of God by which a righteous man lives, namely faith, and that sentence: The righteousness of God is revealed in the Gospel, is passive, indicating that the merciful God justifies us by faith, as it is written: ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’ Now I felt as though I had been reborn altogether and had entered Paradise. In the same moment the face of the whole of Scripture became apparent to me. My mind ran through the Scriptures, as far as I was able to recollect them, seeking analogies in other phrases, such as the work of God, by which He makes us strong, the wisdom of God, by which He makes us wise, the strength of God, the salvation of God, the glory of God. Just as intensely as I had now hated the expression ‘the righteousness of God,’ I now lovingly praised this most pleasant word. This passage from Paul became to me the very gate to Paradise.”

Luther came to realize that salvation must be received by faith as a gift from God. There is nothing that we can do to earn it or deserve his grace. This was a revolutionary thought for his day. It became one of the “sola” statements of the Reformation that set it apart from the Catholic church: sola gratia (by grace alone), sola fide (by faith alone), solus Christus (by Christ alone), soli Deo gloria (for the glory of God alone), and sola scriptura (through scripture alone). What scripture reveals is enough. It is the reliable and sufficient word of God. Salvation is by grace through faith in the completed work of Jesus on the cross. So only God deserves the glory!

In light of this revelation, Luther began to study the Bible with renewed vigor. One of the hallmark results of his study was a realization that Christians need an appreciation and correct understanding of both the law and the gospel. One is not complete without the other. Law without gospel is hopeless and repressive. Gospel without law would be license to sin and not transformative. As we read in our chapter today, we have been released from the law through the sacrifice of Jesus, but the law continues to be holy, righteous, and good. Luther famously identified three uses of the law that continue to have a bearing on the life of a Christian. The law is intended to curb, mirror, and guide.

The first can be thought of as the civil use of the law: God’s laws serve all humanity by restraining sin, setting moral and ethical boundaries for people in society. This use of the law allows humans to enjoy a limited measure of order and justice in this life. God’s laws are the basis for civil justice.

The second has been called the pedagogical use of the law: God’s laws show the perfection of God’s character and thus reveal people’s sinfulness in contrast to his righteousness. By so doing, it enables us to realize our need for mercy and grace from outside ourselves. It refutes all human efforts at self-justification. This is how Jesus was using the law in the Sermon on the Mount in confronting the “righteousness” of the Pharisees. It is also summed up in the last verse that we read today from our Romans passage: “that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.” When we look into the law as a mirror, we see the depth of our sinfulness reflected back.

The third is the normative use of the law: Though God’s laws cannot justify us, grant us forgiveness of sins, or bring us new life, for the Christian God’s laws serve as a guide to show us how to live. The Law sets before us a norm of conduct and instructs those who have been saved by grace through faith regarding the good works that should follow salvation. The Christian, therefore, is called to love God’s laws and obey them. This is done with a sense of thankfulness instead of obligation. We glorify God by living according to His will.

I really liked Carl’s illustration last week of his class syllabus as an application of the law. How could his syllabus be used in the three ways that I just described? He explained how the syllabus is a means to curb undesirable behavior in his students. That was the reason it had grown from one to six pages. As students got more creative at bending the rules, he had to make them more explicit. They would try to get away with anything that wasn’t written down. Attempting to maintain order and to control his students in this way illustrates the first use of the law.

How might the second use of the law come into play? Perhaps a student might look at the syllabus on the first day of class and feel overwhelmed. “How am I ever going to be able to do all this? Is there any help for me out there?” He or she might go to Carl and say something like, “I’m pretty sure I’m not strong enough in math to do this class. Do you have any suggestions for how I can get up to speed?” And Carl might offer grace in the form of remedial sessions to help the student catch up. This illustrates how the law can act as a mirror to reveal inadequacies in all that we should be. However, this scenario is not at all equivalent to the outrageous grace of God, which is just about as far out as Carl saying, “Don’t worry about the math, I’ll just give you the answer key.” Strength made perfect in weakness is something difficult for us to grasp. Grace offends our human sense of fairness and justice.

What about the third use of the law? Carl mentioned some students who would do just fine in the class, even without all the rules in the syllabus. They are the ones who would work hard on their own because they could see the value of it for becoming good engineers. They are motivated by a bigger purpose than just getting a good grade in that class. They want to learn all they can and develop into all that they can be. They don’t need the syllabus to keep them in line. It would mainly serve as a guide as to when they need to get assignments done.

So, at the beginning I mentioned an application to life. We need law and gospel in our dealings with each other as brothers and sisters, don’t we? Sometimes we need to speak law to each other. There is such a thing as tough love. We all need to face the reality of not being able to live up to God’s standards. We need to be open about that but not get stuck there. The mirror of the law should drive us to God for forgiveness and a fresh start. And we need to offer grace to each other, to “bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ,” as it says in Galatians 6:2. The law of Christ is the law of love: love for God and love for each other. Jesus said that there is no commandment greater than this. Unselfish, wholehearted love needs to be the basis of our relating to God and to other people. This answer impressed the teacher of the law who had asked Jesus about the greatest commandment in Mark 12:

“Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”—Mark 12:32-34

The burnt offering and sacrifices were external rituals that were powerless to change people’s hearts. Those are the laws that we are released from in Jesus. Our visible behavior needs to be reflection of who we are on the inside. Are we operating out of love or not? I am reminded of a quote that you may have seen on the internet or Facebook. It’s attributed variously to Lao Tsu or Mahatma Gandhi.

Watch your thoughts;

They become words.

Watch your words;

They become actions.

Watch your actions;

They become habit.

Watch your habits;

They become character.

Watch your character;

It becomes your destiny.

Does this sound like law or gospel? Without Christ it sounds very much like law, doesn’t it. How are we to control our thoughts, even with our destiny at stake? Praise God that when this process is infused with His grace we are released from the law. We have the mind of Christ, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians. Then our speech will be full of grace, seasoned with salt, as it says in Colossians. We will act out of love and develop habits of seeking God and serving others. Then our character will be conformed to the image of Christ. And our destiny to abide with Him in heaven forever is already secure!