Commentary on "Victory Over Sin"

MARTIN L. CAREY

 

Day 4: Tuesday, August 17, 2010 - The Holy Law

 

Overview

  Paul exalts the law in every way he can, the lesson states, because the Jews revered the law. The law is good for its purposes, but it cannot save us from sin. We need Jesus to accomplish that, the lesson says, who brings His righteousness to us by faith.

It is sin, not the law that causes our sinful condition, and works all manner of lust and desire in us. The law is God’s standard of conduct, and it condemned Paul. He needed Jesus Christ to take away the condemnation and slavery to sin. He was a slave to sin and was not able to do what the law told him to do. His efforts to do good resulted in failure. The lesson explains that Paul used this as an illustration for the Jews to see that they needed the Messiah. Jesus would give victory through grace. Romans 7 shows us that being “under the law” means being enslaved to sin.

 

Observations

The lesson assumes that in Romans, Paul was speaking to Jews who were not trusting the Messiah, and that was why in chapter 7 he used the “illustration” of his former failures with sin. However, we only need to look at the beginning of Romans 1 to see what kinds of believers he was writing to.

“…you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, to all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints…” Romans 1:6,7a

These were believers, both Jews and Gentiles, who already belonged to Jesus Christ, not Jews who were resisting the Messiah. Certainly, some were still observing the law, but they had fully accepted Jesus as their Messiah and were “called to be saints.” Unconverted people who are still enslaved to sin are never called saints or belong to Christ. Romans 7 was not written to them.

The lesson again emphasizes how Paul never blames the law for sin. What is ignored, however, is how Paul shows us that sin uses the law to deceive us and defeat the law’s intent.

“The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.”

Many a Christian who has given his life to Christ and been baptized, has found this awful reality in his own life. The harder he tried to obey the law, the more ways he seemed to find to break it. Instead of victorious living, they found that their desires to do wrong flourished all the more. Many of these have given up trying for this reason alone. This is the result of using law-keeping as a guide to holy living and expecting spiritual progress. Paul explains here that our sin is always able to defeat the holy law by deceiving us into more sin. At its root, sin is rebellion against God’s authority, and the law shows us we are not in charge. Sin seizes opportunities through God’s laws, tricking us into thinking that our rebellion is good behavior. That is why the purpose of the law is not to sanctify us, and there must be another way.

The other way is that instead of being joined to the law and under its authority, we consider ourselves dead to it. We are “joined to Another” so that we might bear fruit for God. Being joined to the Risen One and under His authority, “we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code” (Romans 7:b). We are not married to the law anymore, that relationship results in death every time. There is no law that can give life (Gal. 3:21). We are married to Someone entirely different who, unlike the law, is very much alive.

So bearing fruit for God can only happen in the new way of the Spirit. We find the “way” also described in Galatians 5:16,17:

“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.”

The Spirit now rules our lives, to keep us from following our rebellious desires. We cannot use the law any longer to hold back the flesh, it won’t work.

“But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”

Unlike the law, the Spirit does not stir up our rebellion against God and His law. Our sin cannot use the Spirit to deceive us, for no power in the universe can misuse the Spirit. Instead, He takes up residence in us and brings out fruit, such as love, joy, peace, and patience. These things fulfill the law in every way.

 

Summary

1. Romans was written to Jews and Gentiles who already belonged to Christ, “saints,” not Jews who didn’t trust Christ.
2. Sin in us uses the law to defeat the law and produce death. The law cannot defeat the flesh.
3. Christians are no longer married to the law to produce fruit for that marriage. We are married to the living One who can make us fruitful.
4. Christ gives the Spirit, so we walk in the Spirit. He causes us to submit to Him, and controls our fleshly desires.
5. When the Spirit indwells us, He does not stir up rebellion in us, but produces fruit such as love, joy, peace which fulfill the law in us.

 

GO TO DAY 5

 

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