Before your group study begins, share your first impressions on the message. Did the message raise any particular questions?

Transcription

1 Sermon Series: Pants on Fire Sermon Title: That s Just the Way I Am Scripture: Romans 7 Speaker: Reid Robinette Before your group study begins, share your first impressions on the message. Did the message raise any particular questions? IF YOU WERE NOT ABLE TO ATTEND THE SUNDAY SERVICE, WATCH OR LISTEN TO THE SERMON AT Summary The biggest problem of the human heart is the inability to change by using willpower.

2 Each week you will open the Bible and explore the Scripture for the week. While you re there, take a look at the verses that surround your text for the week. As you read, you might want to make a list of observations. Try to put yourself in each of the character s shoes. Make a list of questions you may not have answers to. Ask God what He may be trying to teach you. My first impression of the passage: READ ROMANS 7 Observations: Scripture surrounding your text- Characters (Who s listening? Who s in the story?) / Setting / Culture- My Questions: Questions for Reflection 1. What leads to the feeling that change is impossible? 2. Why does applying the law to the heart not produce the kind of changes we desire? 3. What area of your life might God still be at work in after all these years?

3 1. What s our part in fighting the battle described in Romans 6 7? What s God s part? How can believers help each other fight this battle? Prayer Point As a closing prayer time, divide up into couples or small groups and share about how you are dealing with the struggles of this life. As you pray for each person in your group, pray specifically that our outward obedience to God will align with the inward joy of our salvation. HAVE A VOLUNTEER READ ROMANS 7:1-6. Unpack the Biblical Text How were we put to death in relation to the law through the crucifixion of Jesus? How do you think our sinful passions operated through the law in every part of us? The law tells us things that we should not do. We should not worship other gods. We should not steal or covet. The problem is that we have all done these things, and the justice the law demands for breaking these good laws is death. The good news is that Christ s death was one of atonement, meaning it counts for all those who repent and believe in Him as Lord. The law s demand is met for us in Christ Jesus, and so we are released from the law s requirements. We now live, not by the letter of the law, but from the love born in us through the grace that God has shown us in Christ.

4 HAVE A VOLUNTEER READ ROMANS 7:7-13. Why does God s good law provoke us to sin? How are the commandments meant for life? Why would a commandment meant for life bring death? God s law provokes us to sin because we do not love God or His commandments. We resist God s authority in our lives, and even when God gives us a good command, our rebellious nature wants to disobey. We know that stealing is wrong, and we would say that thieves deserve to be punished. Yet, we steal. We steal people s ideas, and we covet and take other people s things. So even though the law of God is good, we resist it because of the sin in our hearts. The nature to covet things that are not ours is present in all of us. God sees that, and so He lovingly warns us not to covet. When we hear the command, we recognize that impulse within us. Unfortunately, in our rebellion we often chase sin instead of righteousness. HAVE A VOLUNTEER READ ROMANS 7: What do you think Paul meant when he said that nothing good lives in his flesh? Why didn t he have the ability to do good inside of him? How is it that Jesus sets us free from being a prisoner to the law of sin? How does Jesus rescue us from our dying body? Paul teaches us that apart from Christ and the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit, we will never do anything good. We cannot do good because we do not love God, and since we do not love God, we will not keep His commandments. The law s demand for not loving God is to be separated from God, and the law s demand for sinning is death. Christ came to set us free from our rebellion that was killing us. By dying for us sinners, Jesus showed us the love of God for us. This love that is put in our hearts by the Holy Spirit teaches us to love God, and when we love God, we also begin to love His commands. This is how Jesus sets us free from the law of sin. As long as we are in this world, we will still struggle with sin. No one s faith here is perfect, and no one loves God with all of their heart, mind, soul, and strength yet. But God is gracious, and through Christ, He has forgiven us of all our sins both past, present, and future. This is why it is such good news when Jesus says, Therefore, if the Son sets you free, you really will be free (John 8:36). Commentary 7:1-6. Roman Christians knew about Roman civil law, and many of them (especially those of a Jewish or proselyte background) knew the Mosaic law. Of course neither law could hold sway over a dead person. Having died with Christ, the believer is not under Mosaic law (6:14). 7:2-3. A married woman, bound by law to her husband so long as he lived, was legally free to marry another man if her husband died.

5 7:4-5. Believers have died to the old self (6:2-6) and are free to marry another and bear fruit for God. The death of Messiah is the means by which we died to the Mosaic law (Gal 3:13-14; Col 2:14). 7:6. As new creations, believers serve as slaves in a new way with a new power from the Spirit, not as old men (6:6) laboring vainly under the letter of the law. 7:7-8. The law itself is not evil or sinful, but one of its functions is to reveal sin. In fact Paul speaks as if sin is an unknown quantity apart from the law when he says, I would not have known sin if it were not for the law. Sin, seizing an opportunity, uses the law to motivate the flesh (fallen nature) to action. Once again Paul personified sin almost as Satan himself. 7:9-10. The phrase once I was alive has been variously interpreted as a reference to (1) Paul before he came to know the law as a young Jewish boy, (2) Paul before his conversion and the conviction brought by the Holy Spirit, (3) Paul speaking as Adam in the garden of Eden before the command came, or (4) any Hebrew before the giving of the Mosaic law at Mount Sinai. The basic point in each of these interpretations is the same: God s intent in the law was life, but sin deceived man by the law and brought death. 7: Though the law makes sin known and is in fact used by sin to produce death, it is nevertheless holy and just and good, reflecting God s perfect and eternal holiness. 7:13. Did the good law cause death? The correct understanding is that sin used something good to bring human death. God used the law to accomplish His purpose to clarify and to overcome sin. 7: This section is probably the most difficult and controversial passage in the letter to the Romans. For the most part the Eastern Church has interpreted it as referring to an unregenerate person (e.g., Paul before his conversion). The Western Church has followed Augustine, Luther, and Calvin in thinking it refers to a regenerate person (Paul after his conversion). Some suggest a mediating position. One such view interprets the subject as an OT believer who loves the law (Pss 1; 119) but struggles to perform it. Living before Christ and Pentecost, this person does not have the permanent and empowering gift of the Holy Spirit, as do new covenant believers. Another view holds that the subject is almost converted to Christ and is now under conviction of sin by the law. The view that the subject of is a regenerate person is sometimes modified in the following ways: (1) The subject is saved but has not had baptism in the Pentecostal sense or a second work of grace (as held in some types of Wesleyan theology). (2) The subject is an immature believer, not yet equipped for warfare with his fleshly desires. (3) The subject is a believer trying to become sanctified by legalism. The view outlined here takes the position that the subject is a regenerated believer, most obviously Paul himself but generically every believer. Paul describes the new man in relation to the law of God and is looking at only one aspect of the person. The new man will be considered in relation to the Holy Spirit in the next section where the Holy Spirit is mentioned 21 times. The main reason for the position offered here is a consideration of what this man s problem really is. In verse 14 he is said to be made out of flesh (Gk sarkinos, not sarkikos). Many translations confuse these two Greek words. The first word emphasizes composition while the second emphasizes tendency ( fleshy vs. fleshly ). In verse 18 in my

6 flesh means the whole fallen nature that needs the resurrection body (Php 3:21). In verse 24 the wretched man cries out to be rescued from this dying body. As a believer in Christ, Paul longed to be delivered from the fallen human body which still has indwelling sin. 7: The law is from God and is therefore spiritual, but Paul is made out of flesh (a metaphorical reference to spiritual fallenness) and thus finds himself conflicted with the heavenly law of God. 7: Paul agreed with the law and its goodness, but sin is an alien power that has residence within him and causes him to do things he hates. 7: Even after conversion, there is no part of a person that is sinless, no place without sin s presence, and the believer is unable to keep the whole law. The only good in a believer is the presence of the Holy Spirit. 7: In his inner self, in his deepest recesses, the believer delights in God s law, but he finds this alien power living within, waging war with him and taking him prisoner to the law of sin. 7: Many modern commentators and translators try to reorder these verses, but the order makes sense if the interpretation outlined above is followed. In verse 24 the subject cries out for deliverance from the fallen human condition. A cry of thanksgiving is then offered to God because the subject knows that Jesus will deliver him from his body. The believer recognizes that in his mind he wants to serve God s law since it is holy, just, good, and spiritual, but at the same time his fallen nature is in the service of this alien power sin. There are free Go Deeper Devotionals available at our Resource Center. The Go Deeper Devotionals will take you through the Bible over a period of three years. There is a commentary for every chapter of the Bible. Reading the commentary will give you some background before reading the scripture text. We encourage you to use the devotionals. Grab as many months as you wish. Share them with your friends, neighbors. Dive into God s word. Psalm 119:105 - You re word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path. October Psalm 1-139