Romans Lesson 6

(Chapter 7)

Introduction by narrator accompanied by a cappella singing:

THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST. Spreading the soul-saving message of Jesus. And now, Timothy Sparks and Ben Bailey.

Timothy Sparks:

“Therefore the Law’s holy and the commandment holy and just and good” (Rom. 7:12). I’m Timothy Sparks.

Ben Bailey:

And I’m Ben Bailey. Welcome to our broadcast today. Thank you for joining us. If this is the first time you’ve seen the Gospel of Christ broadcast, we hope you’ll have a Bible ready so we can study God’s Word together. Today’s lesson is brought to you by individual members and congregations of the churches of Christ. We’d like to invite you to visit the church of Christ in your area, and let them know how much you appreciate this broadcast. If you would like to have a DVD or CD of today’s lesson, we would be glad to offer that to you completely free of charge. We even pay the postage. You can visit us on the Web at www.thegospelofchrist.com. From our site, you can e-mail us, let us know your address, and we’ll be glad to send you the items you request. If you have any Bible questions, and you’d like us to answer those, if you would write those down and send them to us, or e-mail them to us, we’ll be more than happy to answer them. Also, we have streaming video and audio lessons on our website, which you can download (so you can listen to them) or even save to a CD if you would like. All of our lessons are offered free as a work of the churches of Christ in your area.

In Romans 7, Paul introduces to us the Old Law, and explains how the Jews thought they were being saved by the Law even during the time of the writing of the Book of Romans. Many of the Jews put more faith in the Law than they did in the Lawgiver. They thought that because they were Jews, and because the promises had been given to them and their children, they would be saved “automatically,” and that God would bring them that salvation through the Old Law. They failed to realize that Jesus had taken away the Old Law at the cross.

Timothy Sparks:

Paul begins with an illustration about a husband and wife. As long as a husband and wife are alive, they are bound to each other. Once the husband or wife dies, then the other mate is no longer bound. Paul’s point is that we’re no longer under the Old Law. We are dead to the Law, but alive to Christ. God has set it up so that there is now a New Covenant. Jesus Christ—through His death and resurrection—abolished the Old Law. As a result, we now have the New Covenant that He has provided. The Book of Hebrews deals with this issue in a rather extensive fashion. So do a number of other passages, such as 2 Corinthians 3, and Galatians 3. As we look at Romans 7, we learn that we have been freed from the Old Law, so that we are now free to do the will of Christ under the New Law. Romans 6 teaches us that we’ve been freed from sin; Romans 7 teaches us that we’ve been freed from the Old Law. Notice what Paul says in Romans 7:12, “Therefore the Law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.” While the Old Testament was a holy and good law, the fact is that we no longer live under the Old Law. It served its purpose. We need to keep in mind passages such as Hebrews 8:8, where we learn that the problem with the Old Covenant did not lay with God or with His part of the agreement. Rather, the problem lay with the people. The Old Testament was designed to do a specific thing, and it did it well. God upheld His part of the agreement perfectly, because that’s what the Covenant was—an agreement between God and His people. The Old Law has been removed, however, and now we live under the Covenant of Christ. Every person on Earth today is amenable to the Last Will and Testament of Jesus Christ, which we often refer to as “the New Testament.” Hebrews 8-10 deals with this at great length, in order to teach us that we are no longer under the Old Testament. The Old Testament writings are good and useful, and we can learn much from them. As Paul put it in Romans 15:4, “For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.”

Ben Bailey:

Sadly, there are still some people in who believe that we’re going to be saved by keeping the Old Law. They do not seem to realize that the Old Law has been taken out of the way. Ephesians 2:14-15 and Colossians 2:14-15 both tell us that Jesus nailed the Old Law to the cross. Paul wrote in the latter passage that, “having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us, He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.” We will not be saved by keeping the Ten Commandments today. The Law that saved Moses and the Israelites is not the law that applies to us today. The Old Law does serve two very useful purposes for the child of God today, however. First, it gives us lessons from history that we need to learn and understand (Rom. 15:4). Second, as Galatians 3:24 explains, the Old Law was a schoolmaster or tutor, whose purpose it was to bring us to Christ. It was never God’s intention for the Old Law to last forever. And it is not the law that can save us today. Only the New Law of Jesus Christ can do that. Someone might ask, “What was the purpose of the Old Law?” Its main purpose was to identify sin. Galatians 3:17-19 tells us that the law had essentially one goal, which was to explain what sin was. How would people know what was sinful—what was wrong—unless God told them? That was really the purpose of the Old Law. The New Law not only identifies what sin is, but also shows us the way of salvation through Jesus Christ. Romans 7 shows clearly that we’re no longer under the Old Law. From the context of Romans 7, apparently even Paul struggled with coming out from under the Old Law.

Timothy Sparks:

As we look at Romans 7:9, we find Paul writing, “I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.” I believe what Paul is actually discussing is his condition before he reached what we would call “the age of accountability” (that point in time when a person recognizes right from wrong). It seems as if Paul is saying that once he reached that point, he “died” because of sin. He came to a knowledge of the importance of serving God rather than serving Satan. The age of accountability, of course, differs with each individual, but notice what we discover from Romans 7. Regardless of when that age is for a particular individual, we learn that without Christ (i.e., before personal faith based on Christ) people are in a despicable condition. What you want to do, you can’t seem to do, and what you do not want to do is what you actually end up doing. On your own, you can’t achieve what you need to achieve, because you are outside of Christ. Paul thus comes to the point where he says, “Oh wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death?” I thank God through Christ Jesus my Lord. So then with the mind, I myself serve the Law of God, but with the flesh, the Law of sin” (vss. 24-25). What we learn is that we’re free from the Law, and if we are in Christ, then we are empowered to do what God wants us to do. The Old Law was simply that which directed us toward Christ. We’re going to learn from Romans 10:4 that Christ is “the end of the law of righteousness.” That is to say, He is the goal, the conclusion, of the law.

Ben Bailey:

As we think about the implications of saying that we’re no longer under the Old Law, there are several important points we need to make. Today in the church that Jesus established, we do not use the Old Law as our guide for worship. Under the Old Law, the Israelites offered incense, made animal sacrifices, and, according to 2 Chronicles 28, even used instrumental music in their worship of God. Today, however, we don’t do those things because we are not under the Old Law; we’re under the New Law. Many religious groups today use instrumental music in worship. Please understand that in our discussion here, we are not trying to demean or belittle anyone in that regard. Rather, we are simply pointing out that the New Testament must be our final Guide. Colossians 3:17 says, “Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus.” Thus, we can’t turn to the Book of Psalms and say, “Here’s the authority for such-and-such.” We can’t turn to the Book of Leviticus and say, “This is where God says I can do so-and-so.” In the era of Christianity, we have to find our authority in God’s revealed will through His Son Jesus (Heb. 1:1-2). The Bible tells us quite clearly that we are to sing, not play and instrument. Ephesians 5:19 says that we are to “sing and make melody in our hearts.” Colossians 3:16 is the companion passage. Both of those passages teach us that the heart (the mind) is our “instrument.” The text of 1 Corinthians 14:15 states, “I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding.” Today we have not been commanded to use instruments of music in our worship to God. When God tells us what to do, that’s all He wants us to do. Someone might say, “But God didn’t say we couldn’t.” Let me offer an illustration of how poor an argument this is. Imagine you have a child whom you want to send to the grocery store. You give the child a $5 bill, and you say, “Go to the store and get a loaf of bread.” That’s all you tell him—“Go to the store and get a loaf of bread.” He goes to the store and gets a loaf of bread. But since he has some change left over, he also gets a bag of candy and some soft drinks. You say, “I didn’t tell you to get all those things.” You had told him exactly what you wanted him to do. But he didn’t obey your instructions. The same holds true with God. God has told us exactly what He wants us to do. When He tells us to sing, by the very fact that He told us exactly what He wants us to do, that excludes everything else. Just imagine how big the Bible would be if God had to tell us everything that He wanted us to do, and everything that He didn’t want us to do! In the matter of the type of music we are to use in worship to God, we need to realize that the New Testament is our only guide. Also, in the realm of salvation we’re not under the Old Law; we’re under the New. We’re not saved the same way people were saved in Old Testament times. Noah built the ark to save his family. We’re not to go out and build an ark. Moses and David had to do different things than we do. Today, we must do exactly what Jesus tells us to do—nothing less, nothing more. We so desperately need to remember the words of Mary in John 2:5 at the wedding feast in Cana. Concerning Jesus, she said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.” We need to heed that admonition, too.

Timothy Sparks:

As we talk about the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament, one of the things we need to examine is Exodus 20. In that passage, God specifically states to whom He had given the Law of Moses—He had given it to those whom He had led “out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage” (vs. 2). Were you and I in the land of Egypt? No. Were you and I in the house of bondage? No. The Old Law wasn’t given to us. The Old Covenant was given to people who lived prior to our time. Those people who lived faithfully under the Old Covenant have the same type of reward laid up for them in Heaven as those who live faithfully under the New Covenant. People like Moses, David, and others who lived in compliance to God’s law, will go to heaven just as you and I will if we, too, live faithfully. But those people had to keep the Law of God under which they lived. We today must do the same. If I was to ask you, “What is the only one of the Ten Commandments that has not been brought into the New Covenant?,” what would you say? The correct answer, of course, is, “Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy” (Ex. 20:8). That was a command under the Old Covenant, but it is no longer a command under the New Covenant. Jesus and the apostles brought all the rest of the Ten Commandments into the New Covenant. But since they did not bring the command to remember the Sabbath Day, it no longer is binding on us. There are those today who want to observe the Sabbath. Yet, when we look at the New Testament, what do we see is the one day of special significance? As we look at Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24, and John 20, we learn that it was the day on which Jesus was resurrected—Sunday, the first day of the week. When are Christians commanded to come together to partake of the Lord’s Supper, to give of their offerings, and to worship God? On the first day of the week. That’s the day that has special significance for Christians. There are numerous significant differences between the Old Testament and the New Testament. Paul makes it clear in Romans 7 that we’re no longer under the Old Law. In fact, we’re “dead to the Old Law but “alive to Christ.” Thus, we must keep the New Covenant. Otherwise, we won’t be “free in Christ,” but, as Galatians 5 points out, we’ll be “entangled with the yoke of bondage.”

Ben Bailey:

The Old Covenant was very strict, as you know. In the Book of Leviticus, we learn that the priests had to offer numerous sacrifices daily for the people’s sins. For example, if the people sinned willfully, the priests had to offer a goat and a bull for their sacrifice. The person would have to actually clean the animal and take it to the priest, where it then would be offered as a sacrifice. It was a bloody system of salvation. There were many other things they would have to do as well. During the month of October, they had to get into booths (tents), and stay in those booths for several days as a sign of their coming out of Egypt. They had to observe the Passover. They had to remember the Sabbath, with all that that entailed. There were many, many restrictions to be observed, and hundreds of commandments to be obeyed. However, we don’t want to leave the impression that we today are not under any kind of law. While we’re not under the Law of Moses, we are under the Law of Jesus Christ. We, too, have a Law that we must follow. James 1:25 describes it as “the perfect law of liberty.” It’s a law that gives us freedom—not freedom from restraint, but freedom to want to do what God has commanded us to do. So, yes, we today have a law system that we must follow—the New Law of Jesus Christ. It is a law that gives us hope, grace, and mercy—some of the very things they did not see under the Old Law. Imagine if you sinned under the Old Law, what you would have to do to receive forgiveness. You would actually have to slaughter an animal. Yet Hebrews 10:4 makes it clear that “it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.” You knew, as you slaughtered that animal, that it couldn’t take away your sins, because it hadn’t done anything worthy; it wasn’t even human. It couldn’t take away the sin problem that you had, but you offered the sacrifice anyway—because God told you to. Romans 3:25 makes it clear that even those under the Old Law were cleansed by the blood of Jesus, which goes backwards as well as forwards. Romans 7 explains to us in a very vivid fashion the fact that we’re not under the Old Law, that we are not going to be saved by the Old Law, and that we do not worship the way the people under the Old Law worshiped.

Timothy Sparks:

There is a fascinating lesson for us today in Leviticus 16 as we think about not being under the Old Law, and as we ponder the kinds of blessings we enjoy in Christ. Leviticus 16 is the scapegoat scene. The priest had to put his hand on the head of the scapegoat, which represented a symbolic transfer of both his personal sin and the sins of the people. The priest drove the scapegoat far out into the desert, where it would die. This was a symbolic representation of the fact that the people’s sins were taken as far away from them as possible. Yet in John 1:29 we read, “Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Jesus did not take away sins “symbolically.” He took away our sins in a very real, a very literal fashion. Jesus’ blood, shed at the cross, goes not only to the very end of time, but also to the very beginning. Those who were faithful under the Old Testament, and who did what God had told them to do, were cleansed by the same blood that cleanses you and me today. If we’re cleansed by the blood of Christ, it’s because we’re keeping the Law of Christ, the commandments of Christ, the New Covenant, the New Testament. As we look at Romans 7, we need to remember what great things God has done for us through His wonderful scheme of redemption. We learn from Ephesians 3:11 that even before time began, God had planned in His eternal purpose that the church would one day be established. God did not intend for the Old Testament to stay intact. He did not mean for it to be a permanent arrangement. All along, He planned that the church would be established, that the New Covenant would come, and that people would glorify Him in the church of Jesus Christ. The church would be the agent by which the Gospel would be sent to the lost—to help them understand that the Gospel is God’s saving power. Without obedience to the Gospel, all people everywhere are lost. Romans 7 is a vital and important part of this great book that we are now studying. In fact, in Jeremiah 31:31-34, we see a perfect example of how, even under the Old Law, God promised that it wasn’t going to last forever. In Jeremiah 31:31 the Bible says, “’Behold the days are coming,’ says the Lord, ‘when I will make a New Covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah—not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt.’” Notice that even within the Old Law, God acknowledged that there was going to be a New Covenant. What was the Old Covenant? It was the covenant that God made with His people when He took them out of Egypt. The writer of the Book of Hebrews quotes this in Hebrews 8:13, and says, “In that He says ‘a New Covenant,’ He has made the first obsolete. What is growing old and ready to vanish away, is no more.” The idea is that Jesus Christ established a New Covenant. God promised that the Old Covenant would not last forever. The New Covenant is what we must live by today. It is our guide. It is our only pattern for worship and salvation.

Have you put your faith in the New Testament of Jesus Christ. Or has your salvation been based on the Old Law—a law that was never meant to redeem? If you’re not a Christian—a member of the Lords church—you can become one by submitting to what you read in the New Testament. You must be willing to believe in Jesus as the Christ (Jn. 8:24). You also must be willing to repent (which combines godly sorrow with making a change in your thoughts and your actions). Acts 3:19 teaches us that we must repent and turn again. Repentance is a 180º turn from sin to righteousness. We have to make sure that we turn away from those things that are wrong. The Thessalonians are a perfect example of true repentance. Paul said that they had turned from worshiping idols to serving the true and living God (1 Thess. 1:8-10). That’s what repentance means. We stop doing wrong, turn to God, and then start doing right. You also must confess Jesus as your Savior. Romans 10:10 says, “With the heart, one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation.” You must confess orally that Jesus is the Lord, and that you are willing to follow him. Then you must be baptized into the body of Christ. Galatians 3:27 says, “As many of us as are baptized into Christ have clothed ourselves with Christ.” We’re baptized into His body—into that group of people who are “called out of the world.” Peter said, “Baptism does now also save us” (1 Pet. 3:21). Baptism is essential, just like belief, repentance, and confession. We must be very careful that we do everything God says. Many are saying today that all we need to do is pray the sinner’s prayer and “accept Jesus into our heart.” That’s quite different from what the New Testament actually says. We don’t find anywhere in the New Testament a place where we are told to “pray the sinner’s prayer” or to “accept Jesus into our heart.” We meet God’s requirements, obey His commands, and He then adds us to the church (Acts 2:47). Paul is a perfect example. In Acts 9, Paul (Saul) had been praying for three days and nights, yet he still wasn’t saved. Ananias came to him and said, “Why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord” (Acts 22:16). Jesus made it so clear when He said in Mark 16:16, “He that believes and is baptized will be saved.” This is the new plan of salvation. This is what we must do today—not those things from the Old Law. This, then, brings us back again to the theme and thesis of the Book of Romans. In Romans 1:16-17, Paul says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith.’” Romans 1:16-17 acknowledges that the Gospel is God’s saving power, and that we can live and be sustained spiritually by our faithfulness to God.

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STUDY QUESTIONS FOR Romans lesson 6 (Chapter 7)

1. Some Jewish Christians thought that they would be saved by something else than the Gospel. What was that “something”?

2. What is the main topic of Romans 7?

3. What was the main purpose of the Old Law?

4. What is the main purpose of the New Law?

5. In Galatians 5:4, Paul said that the Old Law was a “schoolmaster” or “tutor.” What did he mean by that?

6. Explain the meaning of Paul’s statement in Romans 7:9, “I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.”

7. According to 2 Chronicles 28, what was permissible in worship to God under the Old Law?

8. According to Colossians 3:16 and Ephesians 5:19, what is permissible in worship to God under the New Law?

9. In 1 Corinthians 14:15, Paul explained that two things have to undergird worship in song to the Lord. What are those two things?

10. What is wrong with the following statement?—“But God didn’t say we couldn’t!”

11. In John 2:5, Mary expressed a sentiment that we should mimic in our lives today. What is that sentiment?

12. What is the only one of the Ten Commandments that is not repeated in some form in the New Testament?

13. James 1:25 tells Christians that they live under “the perfect law of liberty.” Explain what that “liberty” is, and is not, for a Christian.

14. What does Ephesians 3:11 tell us about the plan of salvation and Christ’s church?

15. What is the thrust of the message found in Jeremiah 31:31?

16. How does Jeremiah 31:31 relate the message of the Book of Colossians?

17. There was one thing that the Old Law was never meant to do. What is that one thing?

18. What is a good definition of repentance?

19. What is the implication of the teaching found in Hebrews 8:13?

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