November 3, 2002
Study
Questions – Chapter 7
We have concluded the study of chapter 7 of Romans, a chapter much anticipated in our discussion of previous chapters. If one were to give an overarching theme of chapter 7, it would have to be “Paul’s defense of the law.” Just like chapter 6 is a brilliant defense of grace, chapter 7 constitutes just as eloquent a defense of the law. In order to have a clearer view of what our discussion covered, below I will include the outline of the chapter, followed by the answers to the study questions. My hope is that these answers will not constitute news to most of you but rather a more organized presentation of what we have talked about.
Outline of Romans 7:
(The
Concise Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible)
Study
Questions:
1.
How are
chapters 6 and 7 related?
I have already mentioned in the short introduction above that both of these chapters are defenses. Chapter 6 is a defense of grace, while chapter 7 is a defense of the law. Why did these two entities have to be defended? They needed to be defended simply because Paul wanted to avoid any sort of misinterpretation of his message in the first five chapters. And what was the message of the first five chapters? (By the way, if these questions seem to be talking about things foreign and unknown and you have been present at the discussions, I would recommend a notepad and, maybe, some Starbucks on Sunday morning.) So, what were the first five chapters about? (Don’t worry though. The answer will follow shortly.) The theme that is present throughout the first five chapters is that justification is by faith and because of sovereign grace, not based on our merits, our works, or our righteousness, but on Christ’s! The message pervades the first five chapters. What is the danger of teaching such an awesome, God-glorifying doctrine? The danger is that the readers might fall into one of two errors. They might believe that because their sins were paid for by Christ and their being declared righteousness was not based on their works, that entails that their deeds are of no consequence; in other words, “Grace covered all of my sin, I might as well live it up!” That is error number one and is what Paul argues against in chapter 6. The other error is constituted by the belief that given that the law has no power to save but rather condemns us, and given the fact that because Christ obeyed the law perfectly we were set free from the requirements of the law, that means that the law is pointless and useless. That is error number two and is what Paul argues against in chapter 7. The next question addresses a common theme in the two chapters apart from their common purpose.
2.
What
assertion of chapter 6 does Paul expound upon in chapter 7?
The answer to this question can be found
mainly in verses 1-6 of chapter 7, which are meant to support something Paul
mentions in chapter 6. It is something
that we have talked about when we discussed chapter 6, although not in minute
detail. In chapter 6 verses 14-15, the
Word says: “14 For
sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under
grace. 15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but
under grace? Certainly not!”
In chapter 6, Paul showed why we are not to (and a true Christian, will
not) continue in sin – because we are dead to sin and alive with Christ and
because we have new identity and status in Christ. In 6:14, he says that sin shall have no dominion over us because
we are not under the law. In verse 15
he says that we should not sin because we are not under the law. The idea that freedom from the law
entails obedience rather than lawlessness is counter-intuitive. Our first
natural thought is that if someone has been “delivered from the law” (v. 6,
NKJV) or in other translations “released from the law” (v. 6, NLT and NIV),
then the sky’s the limit as far as what one can do. What Paul argues for in
verses 1 – 6 of chapter 7, however, is that freedom from the law does not
entail lawlessness but rather more love for living a righteous life. Like I said, this is not very intuitive, but
it does make a great deal of sense when we realize that we were “delivered from
the law” not with the purpose to live an unfettered life but to live in
“newness of the Spirit.”
3.
What
does freedom from the law mean and what does it entail?
We can
answer this question by using the illustration Paul gives in the first three
verses of the chapter. We were set free
from the law because Christ obeyed the law perfectly and absolutely and He
satisfied the requirements of the law in our stead. In addition, we are set free from the law also in the sense that
He endured the punishment for our transgression in our stead. What does this freedom entail? The question has already been partially
answered. We were not set free from the
law in order to live a life of debauchery, but we were freed in order to be
able to marry another Husband (v. 4), to enter a new life. You do not become an
independent moral agent if you are set free from the law but rather you enter
upon a new life in a wonderful blessed relationship with your Savior.
Also,
the purpose of our being set free from the law is to bear fruit to God (v.
4). Now, once again this is not a very
intuitive concept. It is much easier to
do the right thing when you have a precise list of precepts that you need to
follow. The key to understanding this
lies in texts such as Jeremiah 31:31-34, which talk about the New Covenant that
God establishes with His people wherein His commandments will be written on
their hearts and the indwelling Holy Spirit by the Word will guide the child of
God. We will not need stone tablets to
know what to do and what not to do. The
Word of God given to us and applied to our hearts and lives by the Holy Spirit
living in us will guide us into doing God’s will and that not only out of duty
(although that is very true!) but also as a preference. In other words, you will not have to be told
to do something but rather you will want to do that particular thing and that
is because of the process of sanctification
that the Holy Spirit works within us. It is a gradual process but we have God’s
promise as to its completion (Philippians 1:6).
4.
What is
the purpose of the law?
The purpose of the law is one point that we
have touched upon before in our discussions.
What is it based on our discussion so far? In our discussion so far, verse 20 of chapter 3 is probably the
clearest expression of the purpose of the law: 20 Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be
justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. (NKJV) The purpose
of the law is to make sin more evident, to show it in all its ugliness. To put it in an informal fashion, the law
shows sin’s sinfulness.
The same idea is echoed in chapter 7. First
important point that is not immediately obvious from the text even though verse
7 hints at it, is that the existence of the law is a necessary (and true)
assumption. Why do I say that? If there
was no law (and by law here I mean the will of the Almighty God, particularly
as it is revealed in His Word), then there could be no law-breaking, hence no
law-breakers, hence no guilt, hence no need for punishment, hence no need for a
Substitute, hence no need for the Crucifixion, hence no need for the
Incarnation. I would go even farther
and say that the absence of the law would be equivalent to the absence of God.
Fyodor Dostoievski (1821-1861), famous Russian novelist, author of what many
claimed to be the best novel ever written, The Brothers Karamazov, was
the one who said, and the faithful participants in this Bible study might
remember the quote: “If there is no God, everything is permissible.” Paul, however, spent time in chapter 1 and 2
showing that the surrounding creation itself shows forth the glory of its
Creator and that our very beings show the image (though distorted by sin) of
our Creator God proving that God exists.
So, law is a (proven) necessary assumption to Paul’s argument.
The purpose of the law is at the crux of
Paul’s defense of the law. The very
simple yet so very important statement is “I would not have known sin except
through the law.” (v. 7) That is the important role of the law, like we have
mentioned before. It shows forth what
sin is, it makes it more evident. We need to have to law to know our sin! Like John Calvin said, the law is like a
mirror that shows us how hopeless and helpless we are. It shows forth God’s perfect holiness and
our sinfulness making it clear that nothing we can do can bridge this divide. It is only because of His grace that we
have hope for salvation!
4’. What is Paul saying in verses 7-13 about the law? Is the law sin? How do sin and the law relate to each other?
Since we are on the subject of the law, there is another point that we mentioned in our discussion that is not covered by the study questions. One of the questions that Paul asks at the beginning of middle section of the chapter (v. 7) is “Is the law sin?” The answer follows immediately “Certainly not!” and is elaborated upon by the statement I’ve already mentioned, “I would have not known sin except through the law.” Why is that part of the answer to “Is the law sin”? It’s obvious! If you get to know sin through the law then the law and sin must be different entities. (My apologies for those not philosophically inclined.)
There is another point to mention regarding
the fact that law is not sin that has to do with verses 8-11 and the actions of
sin. Saying that “law is sin” is like saying “Guns kill people.” Why would I
say that the statements were equivalent? (You might say, “I don’t even want to
know how you thought that up!”) Just like guns are nothing but instruments in
the hands of killers, law was but a weapon in the hand of sin. Bear with me! Guns are not bad in
themselves (okay, this might turn into an NRA infomercial) but their usage can
be evil. The law is “holy [and] just
and good” (v. 12) but sin can use it to kill.
How can sin use the law? Sin can use the law because sin is a liar. There are two lies that sin uses related to the law and they may seem opposite but their just as untruthful:
Paul
proclaims forth the Gospel of God that answers both lies. To the hopeless
self-indulgent, the Gospel says that his sins are forgiven though they be
like crimson (Isaiah 1:18). The good
news is that Christ did keep the law entirely and perfectly and His perfect
obedience is imputed to you. This grace is not to be taken as a license to sin
(remember chapter 6) but more of a motivation to love and serve God more
ardently. To the hopeful self-righteous, the Gospel says that he is
forgiven of his fabricated “righteousness” (Isaiah 64:6) and that he is free
from the law. Freedom from the law is not to be taken as a license to do
whatever one pleases, but like the chapter 7:1-6 say it is the opportunity to
start a new life with Christ and bring fruit unto God. The conclusion in verse
12 is that the law is good and holy and just. It plays the important role of
showing us our sin and even though it provides not the means to fulfill its
requirements is the mirror that shows us how much we need God and His righteousness.
Thanks be to God for the good news that that righteousness was secured
in Christ!
5.
What
does Paul description of his inner conflict communicate to us?
First of all, it communicates that the
person in this text is not defeatist (remember the word of the day!) or
hopeless. When Paul says in verse 24: “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me
free from the body of death?” we are not to interpret it as actual lack of such
a Person. It’s a rhetorical question, whose answer comes right away. “Thanks be
to God” that He can do that. The person
in the passage is the Christian who sees that there’s a great deal of work in
order for him to become more like Christ. Paul does not show resignation to
being defeated by sin but rather the turmoil caused by his desire to be more
like Christ. A quote from J.I. Packer to bring all of this together: “Paul is
not telling us that the life of the “wretched man” is as bad as it could be,
only that it is not as good as it should be, and that because the man delights
in the law and longs to keep it perfectly his continued inability to do so
troubles him acutely. The “wretched man” is Paul himself, spontaneously voicing
his distress at not being a better Christian than he is, and all we know of
Paul personally fits in with this supposition.” – J. I. Packer There is
at least one important lesson to learn here. Paul is describing the reality of
Christian life. Not ideal, but real. That is how things are in a Christian’s
life. Paul is not saying, however,
“Well, that’s how it is; accept it.” He
rather shows that the fact that we are to be more like Christ should motivate
us in the times of turmoil.
As far as the law, “Paul says that the law does not
cause our defeats, but rather the law defines our victories. Indwelling sin causes our defeats. And Paul is very jealous in chapters 6-8
that we not overstate or understate the measure of holiness possible in this
fallen age where Christians are delivered from the dominion of sin and yet
groan awaiting the full redemption of our bodies (Romans 8:23) and the “law of
sin” connected with them.” – John Piper
In conclusion, is perfection possible in
this age? Resounding NO! Should we make peace with sin then? Resounding NO! We
have the guarantee of victory and cannot capitulate. We are to be ready to
fight! We are no longer slaves to sin!
Paul’s usage of “sold under sin” in verse 14 is not to mean that we’re
still slaves to sin but rather that, like he says in Galatians 5:1 – “It was
for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be
subject again to a yoke of slavery.” – we sometimes slip and come under
the yoke of sin.
Sanctification is life-long process. The Holy
Spirit is at work within us and we are working with Him. We cannot be perfect but that does not mean
we are not to try to live lives pleasing to God. Let’s pray that our lives would reflect that we are children of
the KING! Thanks be to God!
6.
(For
the philosophically inclined:) Do verses 14-25 support Gnosticism?
(The space above was intentionally left blank.)
My conviction? No, they do not.
If you have any (more) questions or comments (additions, opposing viewpoints, complaints, etc), please let me know. I am usually at the Bible study every Sunday so it should not be hard to find me.
Sorin Voicu-Comendant
sorinvc@sbcglobal.net
November 2, 2002
Soli Deo Gloria!