Romans 7:1-6

Have you ever been in a situation where you knew it was time to move on but you were struggling with guilt because you have a strong dose of loyalty running through your veins? Don’t overhear that, I’m not advocating for the quick version of cutting people out of your life.  Some of you, though, are so loyal to old things that you need some firm permission to move on to God’s best for you.

 We’re in Romans 7:1-6, the part of the letter where Paul urges the Jewish believers to fully commit to Jesus without compromise.  It seems like they needed some strong motivation to leave old things behind as well.

Transcript

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Have you ever been in a situation where you knew it was time to move on, but you were struggling with guilt because you've got an extra strong dose of loyalty that runs through your veins. Now, don't overhear me. I'm not advocating for that quick cut everybody out of my life just because they make me feel a little bit uncomfortable version of life. But some of you are so loyal that you actually need some really firm, strong permission to let go of things that you need to let go of. On that happy note, welcome to Meet Me in the Word. I am so glad that you've joined us today. We're in Romans chapter 7, verses 1 through 6. It's the part of the letter where Paul challenges his Jewish believers especially to be ready to let go of the past so that they can follow Christ in fullness. Go ahead and open up your copy of God's Word to Romans chapter 7. Again, we'll be in verses 1 through 6. Uh, and we're going to jump into that text right away here. But first, let's pray. Jesus, thank you that you see us, that you know us, that you care for us and love us. God, thank you that you call us into the very best possible situation. Uh, Lord, when it comes to uh following you, God remind us that we are people who are under grace. We love you. Be with us now. Amen. All right. Let's read this together. Do you not know, brothers and sisters, for I am speaking to those who know the law, that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives? For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as she or as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her to him. So then, if she has sexual relations with another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man. So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code. Let's go ahead and take a moment just to pause and listen to God. You can certainly pause this podcast if you need a moment to do that. All right, let's jump into this text together and just make a few observations. By the way, I've patterned these uh little podcasts uh in a way that hopefully helps us to wrestle with the text uh at least in a in a preliminary sense before we begin to apply it to our own lives. I think that's an important progression there. And uh, and then of course we're doing this in a very short amount of time. So uh I move through sometimes a little bit quickly, but hopefully it's helpful to you uh and and it's serving you in a good way. The first thing I wanted to do is uh for us to notice the connection between verses one and four. And it's not that we're going to ignore verses two and three, but I think that one and four are really those pivot points in the point that Paul is making. So just real quick, once again, uh verse one says, Do you not know, brothers and sisters, for I am speaking to those who know the law, that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives? And then verse four. So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. So the connection here is uh this sense of the law of Moses. That's what the law, by the way, is referring to. It's not just any law. Um, laws in different lands have different uh ideas about marriage, even and divorce, and all those kinds of things. This is referring to the law of Moses, the first five books of the Old Testament. And so he's talking about that, and he's talking to a group of people that are familiar with it, and so they have common ground here. And so he's appealing to those Jewish believers who were a part of that church in Rome, and uh, and he's he's highlighting uh a particular aspect of the law, and then he's gonna kind of unpack that with an illustration in verses two and three. But what he's bringing out is that death is uh is the period at the end of the sentence. It's the thing that makes it complete, done, or we could even say like null and void. Once uh somebody had had passed away, then the laws that were enforced that applied to them during their lifetime were completed, they were done, there was no longer any bearing. And that sort of sounds a little bit like, well, yeah, of course, that I mean that makes perfect sense, but but it mattered quite a bit to them. So so then as he's talking about this, he's saying, look, death to sin and to the law, right? Now he's uh speaking specifically about the law itself. So death to sin and to the law allows believers, especially Jewish believers, to move forward in fullness uh with Christ. And so if we kind of put ourselves in their um in their place a little bit, we recognize that that they did have, that's what they grew up with. That's what their parents and grandparents grew up with, that's what all of the generations before them grew up with. They were people of the covenant and they were people of the law, they were they were people of the book in that in that kind of of a sense. And that book instructed them in just the ways of life. And and so Paul is pointing out, look, you guys understand this situation, uh, and then the illustration will actually tie this in a little bit more, but then he's he's trying to help them look at it and go, like, okay, you understand this uh about your own faith, about about uh about the law itself, and now I want you to look at Jesus and this idea that uh in verse 4 he says, you know, you also died to the law through the body of Christ. So the death of Christ wasn't just about, you know, uh a substitutionary act uh in in terms of sin, but it was also about the completion or the severance. I think I used that word quite a bit, uh, it was either last week or the week before, severance to the old way of thinking. All right. So now let's bring in that that illustration that we see in verses two and three. It's a it's the marriage illustration, which I think is it's fascinating that this is where he takes the conversation. So, first things first, marriage and adultery are not the uh the main point for Paul, but he's he's using them. Uh, and I think we should at least uh take a moment to go, like, actually, I think he's using this illustration on purpose. And at least one of those benefits of using this conversation is to remind us about the seriousness of marriage to God. Um, I'm not gonna, you know, unpack all of what that means necessarily in this moment, but but what I would say to us is uh it should catch our attention the way that the Old Testament talks about it, the way that Paul is talking about it here. And if you're look at if you were to look at what Jesus says about marriage, like it's a big deal. And so if you're married, keep fighting for your marriage, keep doing things to foster it, keep doing things to to make it stronger, to make it grow. And and I I appreciate that as I say that, some of you are in marriages that are struggling, and uh and and that's that's a difficult thing. And yet, even in the midst of that, um you know, keep keep fighting for it, keep doing your part uh to make that well and to make that whole. And anyways, we won't get into the weeds too far there, but fight for it, uh, it's worth it. Uh, don't don't let it go lightly, is is all I'm trying to say. All right, now I don't know this next part for sure, but I think I think Paul actually has good-hearted Jewish believers in mind when he's using this illustration. And sometimes both him and uh and Jesus, they're they're definitely confrontational towards like the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, and the, you know, for Paul, it was like the Judaizers, the people that really wanted to make the law a bigger deal for the Gentiles. But I I think it's it's worth us looking at this from the perspective of, oh, these are people who who grew up with the law, understood it, but but they really do want to do uh the right thing. So uh I think that they may have felt that sense of of loyalty to the law, kind of like what I was talking about at the beginning. And I sort of left that a little bit vague on purpose. Like you might have thought about a friendship, uh, a romantic relationship, you might have thought about your workplace, but for them, it was their relationship with the law, something that they had grown up with and that they have been told their whole lives it was good. And then Jesus comes along and everything changes. And and so they understand that, but what do they do with it? And are they somehow being disloyal by going all in on Jesus? And what do they do with the rest of that? Um, you know, so if they have fully identified with Christ and identified with him in his death, right? That whole picture that, you know, if we go back and if you missed uh the earlier episodes on Romans, that's fine. But I would encourage you to go back and read, especially Romans 5 and 6 that lead us up to this point where he talks quite a bit about this idea of being baptized into Christ, identifying with him in his death, in order that we can also identify with him in his resurrection. It's a really strong theme for Paul through this section. And when we do that, when we identify with Christ in fullness, then the resurrection life is ours, and it certainly was theirs. And then because of that, we have this, it's it's uh more than permission, it's this almost mandate for us to let go of old ways, old thinking. It's not to condemn those old ways, but to leave them behind in order that we can embrace Jesus. I've noticed that even as Gentile believers, which I'm one, I don't have any Jewish ancestry in me, as Gentile believers, we still struggle sometimes quite a bit with what to do when it comes to the Old Testament? How much of it do we receive for ourselves today? And why don't we follow dietary laws? Why don't we do certain things, but then we seem to hold others uh to account? Again, I'm not going to unpack all of that. But uh, if we kind of have to work our way through some of those things, how much more for those early uh Jewish believers, the ones who who were coming to faith and and they're literally coming out of a world that honored the law. And it's not that Paul is dishonoring it, but they they held it in such high esteem, and then here comes Jesus, and Jesus is the fulfillment of that. Anyway, it seems like uh that there's something going on there, and Paul is making that connection for them. He's saying, look, you understand this other thing perfectly well. You know all of the emotions that come with it, you know the temptation of adultery, you know all of those things, you know the seriousness of marriage, and that's the same idea that I want you to take in into this that you identified with Christ, that you um in a sense were were cut off from the law through the death of Christ's body, and then uh now you are free to follow Jesus in total fullness, uh, and and that's what you're called into. All right. Hopefully I didn't like just lead you into major confusion. Uh I I think I think we did okay. All right, verses five and six uh really highlight this idea of serving in the new way. And and uh you heard the text already, but but two things I wanted to highlight. One uh is we get to produce fruit for God instead of fruit for death. And that's a beautiful thing that our lives, uh the product of our lives, the results of us following Jesus means our lives now are this joyous bounty for God instead of for death, which is which is the opposite. And then finally, we get to live in the new way of the spirit instead of the written code. Now, over these next few weeks, we're going to continue talking about the role of the law and the freedom that we have in the spirit and the tension that Paul felt as he went through all of that. So if you find yourself still like, man, I don't know how this actually gets lived out and how it works out, hang in there and keep make sure that you take in these next several weeks uh together because it he really lays it out in a thorough and I think a helpful kind of a way. Uh you'll find it relatable for sure, at least I do. And obviously you all are just like me, right? Uh all right. Let's reflect just for ourselves here for today before we go on our way. The first question I have for you is what are you leaving behind? What are you leaving behind or trying to leave behind? Or maybe you already have left behind? There might be something just from your childhood, the way that you thought about the world. What is it for for you that you're trying to leave behind? Maybe you're not, but most of us have certain things that we're like, yeah. I looked at the world this way before, and and now as I've matured, certain things have changed. And then finally, what fruit is your new life producing? My hope for you and for myself is that the new fruit is all all about Jesus. It's all about bringing glory to God, and it's all about those blessings that come to us in return. Let's go ahead and pray. Jesus, thank you for all that you do. Thank you for all that you are for us. God, we we love you and we we want we want to be fully in uh with you. So, God, wherever we have things that we feel some kind of loyalty towards that that are just not helpful for us any longer, help us to to leave those things behind and to follow you uh fully and completely. Amen.