The Christian and the Law

Have you ever wondered what the purpose of the law is?

It’s a question that fascinates the greatest OT and NT scholars.

• In this passage Paul shows us how the law reveals our sin to us and how powerless we are against our sin.

The Law does this so that we will cleave to Jesus Christ.

The Law reveals our problem of sin.

In vs. 7-12, Paul teaches us how the Law reveals our sin and brings death upon us by showing us we are guilty before God. He says, “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil For apart from the law sin was dead. I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me. Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.” There are three things to note about what Paul says here:

• The Law shows us God’s righteous standard. Notice here vs. 7. He says, “What shall we say then? Ist he law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law.”
• Evil desire generates in our hearts. In vs. 8 he says, “But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil For apart from the law sin was dead.”
• We now know we are condemned. In vs. 9-11 he says, “I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me.”

X-Rays, MRIs, & CT scans. Consider the way X-Rays, MRIs and CT scans reveal problems within our bodies.

• The little pink tablet.

Romans 4:14-15. “For if those who are of the law areheirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect, because the law brings about wrath; for where there is no law there is no transgression.”

Thus, the Law shows us our sin before God.

The Law shows that we are powerless against our sin.

In vs. 15-20, Paul goes on to remind us how we are powerless against our sin. He says, “For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.” Notice here that we lose our fight against sin. The bad we don’t want to do we do. The good we want to do we don’t.

Health food vs. desserts. Consider the tough time we have not eating the food we shouldn’t eat, and eating the food we should eat.

Galatians 5:17. “For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.”

Thus, we cannot overcome our sin on our own.

We are free from the Law and bound to Jesus Christ.

In vs. 21-25, and then in vs. 1-6, Paul reminds us that we have been redeemed by Christ, freed from the law, and are now united to Jesus in our life. He says, “I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” If we are powerless against our sin, what then is our hope? Paul makes it clear that our hope is found in Jesus Christ.

He then says, “But now we have been delivered from the law, 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.” And if we are redeemed by Christ, we are now under His authority. We live now, not by obsessing over the fine details of the written law of the Jews, but by faith and obedience to Jesus Christ.

The Law in Jerusalem. Peeled eggs, elevators, toilet paper, etc.

• Married to Another. “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. 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 we should bear fruit to God.”

Galatians 5:16, 18. “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. . . . But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”

Thus, we are free from the law and bound to Jesus Christ.