Search Results

Therefore, did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Instead, it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good so that through the commandment, sin would become utterly sinful. Romans 7:13 Paul's seriousness towards sin was understandable, given his personal history. His message serves as a reminder of the gravity of sin. However, when we do sin, we tend to justify our actions. Evil doesn't want to be identified as such; it prefers to be called righteousness, so we hide it from itself. We often use phrases like "Nobody's perfect"; "It was an accident"; or "My bad"; to water down our nature. In truth, we have offended the divine righteousness of God.

I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive, and I died; and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me; for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Romans 7:9-12 At one point in our lives, we were carefree. No worries about anything. Those were our Pre- Christian days. But one day, God’s conviction washed over us and laid a weight upon us that was too much to bear which drove us to Christ. Folks, the Law is the word of God, it is holy and true. So, it is not the Law that is bad, it is us.

What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead. Romans 7:7-8 No doubt, the law causes many to think negatively about God’s righteousness. Paul says, “Don’t do that. Don’t fall into that trap.” We cannot come to Christ unless God has quickened our souls through the Spirit to agree with Him about our sins. How does the Spirit do that? He convicts us with Law. He shows us that every aspect of our being has been corrupted by sin. It is necessary that the Law remain for that purpose alone.

Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.   For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death.   But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter. Romans 7:4-6 In the preceding verses, Paul gave us bad news; we are bound to the law until we die. Now, he gives good news; we have died to the law through the Person and work of Christ. Not only have we been released from our obligations to the law through that death, but we have also been spiritually resurrected with Christ in His resurrection to do good works for Him. In the last verses, Paul emphasizes that we still serve, but not the letter of the Law; we serve the Spirit. In reading scripture, we always want to look at the whole counsel of God and not build a theology around one or two verses. Always remember, the Holy Spirit is fully God, whose purpose is to convict us of our sins (using the Law, by the way), give us discernment with scripture, and remind us of the Person and work of Christ. One of the functions of Christ was not to remove the law but to fulfill it. This is the enormity of God’s grace, He sent Jesus to do what we never could. There is never any DO for believers in the Gospel, only what has already been DONE.

Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives?   For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband.   So then, if while her husband is living, she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man. Romans 7:1-3 Here Paul refers to the law as something that has authority over us. He uses a comparative illustration of a husband and wife relationship of the 1st century. As long as the husband lives, the wife is obligated to him. This parallels our relationship with the law; we are bound to it until death. Believers must understand this principle to understand the following few verses. We must hear the bad news before we hear the good news.

I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented the parts of your body as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your body’s parts as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in relation to righteousness.  Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death.  But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life. Romans 6:19-22 When we were in service to sin we had no righteousness in us. Yet, when God acted in our lives freeing us from that service, He separated us unto Himself to eternal life. But, wait a second, we still sin. What about that? Yes, we still sin and will continue to this side of glory. That is why Paul added a concluding statement. As a reminder of what God gives versus what we do. For the wages of sin is death, but the gracious gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23

But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were entrusted,   and after being freed from sin, you became slaves to righteousness. Romans 6:17-18 Remember, the context for slavery in this portion of Paul’s letter is to emphasize obedience. Note the order Paul displays here: after being freed from sin, you became slaves to righteousness. This is a critical principle of Christianity; God must initiate a change in us before we can come to Christ because we are slaves to sin. In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul would go as far as to say; we are dead in our sins (Ref Eph. 2:1). The dead cannot bring themselves back to life, just ask Lazarus. This is God’s grace on full display. God did not wait for us to get better, He changed our hearts while we were in service to sin. He brought us from death to life. This is precisely the regenerative calling that Jesus spoke of in John. No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. John 6:44 It is never about what we DO and always about what has been DONE for us.

What then? Are we to sin because we are not under the Law but under grace? Far from it! Do you not know that the one to whom you present yourselves as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of that same one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? Romans 6:15-16 Paul presents a question here to make a point instead of seeking an answer. He uses slavery as an illustration. Context is important here. In Paul’s day, slavery took many forms. The type of slavery that Paul refers to here is offering services to discharge a debt; hence the phrase, present yourselves as slaves. His point would be easily understood by those living in the 1 st century. If we present ourselves as a slave, the idea is to be obedient. So, when we are obedient to sin, we are a slave to it, and death is the result. Conversely, when we are obedient to Christ, righteousness is the result. A critical point to note here is the Biblical distinction between what we do to earn righteousness and what has been done to provide us with righteousness. As our own righteousness cannot save us, we must rely on the righteousness of Christ. As a result, our obedience to Christ is not to gain righteousness but to express our gratitude for the righteousness we have been given.

For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. Romans 6:14 I love this verse because it is a promise, not a command. However, many want to read it as a command, forcing Christians into a state of confusion, often leading them to believe they are not obligated to observe the moral law. Paul is simply stating that because of God's unfathomable grace through Christ's work, we no longer have to do things to justify ourselves before Him. We are justified by what He has already done. Here is a quick analogy. A man is lying on the ground with an enormous and heavy stone on his chest; we will call it the law. He cannot get out from under the law; it is too heavy, and breathing is getting harder and harder. Another man comes along, removes the law from his chest, and frees him simply because He wants to. Paul teaches that the first man doesn’t have to crawl back under the law to prove to the second man that he is worthy of being freed. Instead, he lives in gratitude for what was done; this is grace. The law did not disappear; it is still around. So now the man lives with the law but not under it.

Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts. And do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. Romans 6:12-13 Paul’s teaching in the preceding verses was that believers are dead to the slavery of sin and alive to the cause of Christ through the Grace of God alone. These verses are essentially the concluding statement. Simply put, believers can now prevent sin from ruling their lives. Take care here; many Christians are misled into thinking they can now prevent sin from entering their lives. They cannot! Paul points this out without any reservation in Romans 7. Paul is not focused here on the cessation of sin in a believer but on the believer’s rest in what Christ has done. The emphasis here is that the believer’s ability to resist sin is a product of faith, not how they justify it.

For he who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.   For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.    Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Romans 6:7-11 Jesus died a horrible death, one of the worst deaths imaginable; crucifixion. Why? To fulfill the will of the Father, which was to redeem His people by assigning the righteousness of His Son, through His blood to all who believe. Jesus did not have to suffer death because He was sinless, but He did because we are not. He did this once and for all time because He is eternal. The work of Christ was completed on the cross, there is nothing left to be done but to believe.

For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin. Romans 6:5-6 Paul's phrase, “Our old self,” is a critical point. Our former nature is what Paul is talking about; the one predisposed to sin and in opposition to God. Paul teaches that Christ did not only die for our sins in the legal sense; He also died for our sinfulness which is the curse all bear from the fall of the first representative of mankind, Adam. Our old ways and inclinations were crucified with Christ, and one day we will be resurrected in His likeness. Until then, by God’s grace through the finished work of Christ, we have been given the power to resist sin, although not yet perfect.