Romans 7 – A Travesty of Divine Truth.
You will NEVER be free from sin as long as you agree that Romans 7 is talking about a born again Christian! Romans 6-8 is all the same subject. Paul is explaining our relationship to sin, the law and our CO-death and resurrection with Jesus.
Very many Christians have been deceived into thinking that Romans 7 is the “Normal Christian Life” They say: “See even Paul did the things he didn’t want to do, but my friends it is obvious, that when taken in context, Romans 7 was an aside to explain life under the law WITHOUT JESUS…”
Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law) that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives?” [v1]
Are you alive right now?! Well not according to the Bible! You are a corpse because you were united to Christ in HIS death.
“Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life …..knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin.”
In the course of explaining WHAT JESUS PURCHASED FOR US, he stops to prove a point. He is saying “look Jesus did not ONLY shed his blood for the forgiveness of your sins, there is something else he did.
HE KILLED SIN ITSELF” so he starts to prove, in a practical way, that there is something more than just sinful actions, there is a source of those sinful actions, and that thing [the sinful nature] has a particular relationship to the Law.
Paul says that because of the sin-nature our relationship to the law is like a relationship between a man and wife. He says the law is like a cruel husband and you are the wife. The law makes hundreds of demands of you, just barking orders all day. There is nothing wrong with any of the demands really, they are reasonable but there are alot of them and he does not lift one finger to help you with them.
Your lover (Jesus) makes thousands and thousands of demands but he Himself also fulfills those demands through you with his own life and his own power.
The wife wants to leave her harsh husband [Law] and go be with the lover of her soul (Jesus) but she is bound to her husband [because of the sinful nature] until he passes away. But we know that the law will never pass away, so the only option is for the wife to die! And that is exactly what happens “you also died to the law through the body of Christ” [Rom 7:4]
“Now, dear brothers and sisters ––you who are familiar with the law––don’t you know that the law applies only to a person who is still living? Let me illustrate. When a woman marries, the law binds her to her husband as long as he is alive. But if he dies, the laws of marriage no longer apply to her.
So while her husband is alive, she would be committing adultery if she married another man. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law and does not commit adultery when she remarries. So this is the point: The law no longer holds you in its power, because YOU died to its power when you died with Christ on the cross. And now you are united with the one who was raised from the dead. As a result, you can produce good fruit, that is, good deeds for God.” Rom 7:1-4
Now Listen! If you try to leave sin without the death of your old man annulling the marriage to the law then you will be considered an adulteress, and sin will come back and take possession of you. “The power of sin is the Law” [1Cor 15:56]
Agreeing with what the Bible says about our co-death and resurrection with Jesus is a MAJOR Key because he who has died is free! FREE to OBEY.
“For when we were in the flesh, the evil passions which came into being through the law were working in our bodies to give the fruit of death. But now we are free from the law, having been made dead to that which had power over us; so that we are servants in the new way of the spirit, not in the old way of the letter. [v6]
But now that we’re no longer shackled to that domineering mate of sin, and out from under all those oppressive regulations and fine print, we’re free to live a new life in the freedom of God.[v6] But now we have been released from the law, for we died with Christ, and we are no longer captive to its power. Now we can really serve God, not in the old way by obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way, by the Spirit.”[v6]
So Romans 7 is NOT the experience of a born again Christian, it is the experience of someone who is UNDER THE LAW and BOUND BY SIN.
“Sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.” [Rom 6:14] You cannot be under the Law if You DIED IN JESUS 2000 YEARS AGO!
So continuing on in context if you will re-read Romans 6,7 & 8 with this in mind, you will see that Paul’s grand conclusion is that he was delivered from all that “under the law bound to sin hell existence” BY JESUS!
“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh [HIS OWN FLESH]. That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled IN us [that is all the way down to the thoughts and intents of the heart] who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. [Romans 8:2-3]
“There is therefore no condemnation for those who are IN Christ. Very many people try to interpret this stuff in a vacuum, but this has to be interpreted in context too and especially in the Context of Jesus own words in John 8: “I do not condemn you either. Go, and from now on do not sin any more.”
“Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh.” You cannot drink from the cup of the Lord and from the cup of demons. You cannot eat at the Lord’s Table and at the table of demons. – 1 Corinthians 10:21
You see there are alot of people who even understand this truth, at least they think they do, but then they say we can have MANY MASTERS. The Bible calls these people UNGODLY and says they are DOOMED because “They deny our ONLY Lord and Master Jesus Christ.” (Jude 1)
When Paul says there is therefore now NO CONDEMNATION you need not look any further than the words of Jesus in John 8:11 to interpret that: “Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: GO AND SIN NO MORE.” That is why there is “no condemnation” to “those who walk after the spirit” Because if you walk in the Spirit you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh” This is totally possible because your sinful nature has been crucified with its passions and desires. “
You have to repent until you are in the presence of God, because when you are manifesting HIS righteousness the battle against darkness is a feast of victory.