Living Free From Sin

INTRO

Romans is a pivotal book in the New Testament as to who we are in Christ. Paul begins chapter 7 with the question of being under the dominion of the law even though believers were saved through Christ. There is an old Native American story about two dogs fighting to take control—a white dog and a black dog. When a man was asked which dog wins, he replied, “The one that gets fed. The one that doesn’t get fed eventually dies from starvation.” John 8 says Jesus set us free from sin, but our fleshly sin nature keeps trying to pull us back into sin. The dilemma is that since we still have a sin nature, we still sin. If we’re not careful, we try to blame our sinfulness on that sin nature. But the Bible says we are dead to sin. My heart is, we are meant to live free from sin.

TEACHING

Romans 7:1-6: Paul explored the issue of being under the law by using an example from marriage (vv. 1-2). Paul said a woman who was married was bound by law to her husband as long as he lived. If he died, she was then released from that covenant promise. If she married someone else before her husband died, then she became an adulteress (v. 3), because it was illegal to have two husbands. Therefore, the covenant was broken only by death. In the same way, believers have become dead to sin through the body of Jesus Christ (v. 4). That means we are in a covenant relationship with Christ so we can bear much fruit for Him (v5)—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). Before Christ, we operated freely in our sinful passions and “bore fruit of death” (v. 5). But now, we’ve been freed from that covenant with death (remember that the husband had to die for the wife to be free), as we became alive to Christ and now serve the Spirit. There was a death, and in this case, it’s a continuous death to what we had been held captive—the Law (v. 6). The newness of the Spirit comes with that death.

Romans 7:7-12: Paul’s next question was to ask, “Is the law sin?” (v. 7) Paul answers his own question, “Absolutely not!” Why? Because without the law, he would not have known what sin was. The law included the guardrails to keep us from falling off the cliff of sin, but they were also supposed to point us to Jesus—to His holiness and His righteousness. Jesus had to become the Justifier, to move us beyond the law. Paul used the example of coveting as an example of being told the law. That death in the law came when sin deceived Paul and he realized he could not fulfill the law on his own (vv. 8-12). The law is holy.

Let’s talk about this thing with the law by going to Galatians 2. The background of Galatians 2:15-21 is that Peter comes to Antioch and eats with Paul and the Gentile believers. But when certain Jewish “elites” come from Jerusalem, Peter pulls away from the Gentiles. He feared the Jews who lived according to a much stricter lifestyle, specifically, the act of circumcision. Paul calls Peter out on the hypocrisy. Paul pointed out they had both been justified by Christ, but Peter was trying to go back under the law and perform under its expectations. If we are not careful, we will actually try to rebuild the things that brought us into spiritual death in the first place. We’ll try to do the right things and live by the right rules but lose focus on the One who is righteous.

Galatians 5:1 says, “Christ has liberated us to be free. Stand firm then and don’t submit again to a yoke of slavery.” We’ve been freed, so don’t become entangled again. The “yoke of slavery” mentioned here is the law. John 15:4-5 records Jesus’ instructions to abide in Him, and He will abide in us. Without Christ, we can do nothing (v. 5b). But if we’re not careful, we’ll fall back into the trap of trying to uphold the law and legalism. If we could keep the law on our own, Jesus would not have had to die on the cross for us.

Romans 7:13–25: Paul then asked, “Did what is good cause my death?” (v. 13) Once again, he answered his own question, “Absolutely not!” It was the sin in his life that was producing his death. Paul explained that the law is spiritual and from God, but he is made of flesh and subject to sin (v. 14). Paul described the conflict this caused: “For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree with the law that is good” (vv. 15–16). The reality is we have the mind of Christ in us. Now if Paul did what he did not want to do, it was because of the sin that lived with him (v. 20). Paul cried out, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this dying body?” (v. 24).

CLOSING

I have been in this place of being the wretched man who could not control the sin in his life. I want to walk with Jesus and show Him to my children at home. I want to share Jesus at my workplace. How can I do this with sin in my life? Galatians 5:16-18 says, “I say then, walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you don’t do what you want. But it you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”

Galatians 5:19-21 lists the works of the flesh: “sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar.” But verses 22-23 list the fruit of the Spirit: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control.”

In Romans 7, we find we have a choice to make. Will we walk in the fruit of the Spirit? Or will we walk back under the law? Galatians 5:24-26 describes this process: “Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, we must also follow the Spirit. We must not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.” We have the ability to live in the Spirit and have His fruit.