Last week was our second week back into our study of The Apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans called The Gospel Unveiled. In this second part of our study Paul begins talking about the practical outcomes of our justification. Earlier Paul reminds us that if we believe Jesus is God’s Son, that He died on the cross but three days later rose from the dead to defeat death and sin, we will be justified before God. In other words, we are not just forgiven for our sin; it is as if we had never sinned. That is our position before God.
Now, Paul says the result of our justification is that we have a new identity, a new creation, literally a new person. We also have been freed from sin’s power over us. Because of those things, we are free to live new lives, and we are free to serve righteousness instead of sin. When we serve righteousness, over time, we become more like Jesus. This is what it means to be sanctified, to become more like Jesus.
The goal of our faith is not to obey a list of dos and don’ts. Paul said we are no longer under the law, but under grace. We no longer answer to the law, that list of dos and don’ts.
The goal of our faith is to become more like Jesus.
Paul says that we have been freed from the power sin has over us, but how do you become more like Jesus without fixating on your sin? If becoming more like Jesus means sinning less, how do we become more like Him without obsessing over the things that keep us from being like Him?
This is where many of us get confused and are easily sidetracked from the goal of our faith and instead of finding abundant life in Christ, we find exhaustion and frustration.
It’s like two guys riding a tandem bike uphill. After what seems like an eternity, they finally reach the top, and the guy in front says, “Man, I didn’t think we would ever make it to the top. I thought we’d end up rolling back down.” “Me too,” answers the guy in back. “That’s why I kept the brakes on the whole time.”
The same thing happens to Christians. “I get it,” we say. “I see what Paul is saying. I don’t want to fall back down the hill. I don’t want to roll back into sin, so I’ll put the brakes on. I’ll put rules and regulations around myself so that I won’t sin.” But the rules and regulations we think will break our fall into sin only lead us to exhaustion and frustration as we discover we cannot keep them.
Paul deals with this issue in Romans 7 as he compares the relationship between the law and the follower of Jesus to the relationship between a husband and wife. The title of my sermon today is The Struggle is Real.
Rom 7:1-3 (CSB)—Since I am speaking to those who know the law, brothers and sisters, don’t you know that the law rules over someone as long as he lives? For example, a married woman is legally bound to her husband while he lives. But if her husband dies, she is released from the law regarding the husband. So then, if she is married to another man while her husband is living, she will be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law. Then, if she is married to another man, she is not an adulteress.
In the Old Law, a man could divorce his wife but a wife could not divorce her husband (I didn’t write the rule, I’m only the messenger here.) The only way a wife could be free from her husband is if her husband died.
The late Ruth Bell Graham, outspoken wife of evangelist Billy Graham was once asked if she had ever contemplated divorcing her husband. Her reply: “Divorce? No. Murder? Yes.”
Death was the only way out of marriage for a woman in the Old Law.
Rom 7:4-6 (CSB)—Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you also were put to death in relation to the law through the body of Christ so that you may belong to another. You belong to him who was raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God. For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions aroused through the law were working in us, to bear fruit for death. But now we have been released from the law, since we have died to what held us, so that we may serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the old letter of the law.
Pretend for a moment, Ladies, you are married to Mr. Perfect. You wake up. Lying next to you is your husband. His breath is mint-fresh and not a single hair is out of place. His pajamas are pressed, and even the sheet over him is unruffled. He’s perfect, and he’s your hubby! “Good morning,” he says as he gives you a perfect peck on the cheek. Then, with amazing energy, he jumps out of bed with a smile on his face, goes to his closet, and takes out his perfectly tailored suit with his perfectly white starched shirt, and perfectly matched tie. He dresses himself impeccably, puts his belt around his perfect-sized waist, and goes into the kitchen to make his perfect breakfast. Finished with breakfast, he picks up his bowl, rinses it out and puts it in the dishwasher. Then he gives you another peck on the cheek, and out the door he goes to work.
He drives perfectly—not one mile over the speed limit, nor one mile under, stopping for pedestrians along the way. At work, he fulfills his tasks to the letter. Then, at 5:00—not 4:59, not 5:01 he finishes cleaning up his spotless desk, walks to his car, and drives home. As you greet him at the door, you’re again amazed that you had the good fortune to marry Mr. Perfect. But as he walks into the house, he stops and looks at you with a question on his face. You realize he’s looking at your hair because there’s a strand out of place. Then he goes into the kitchen, and, being a perfect six feet four inches tall, he notices dust on top of the refrigerator. “How can this be?” he wonders.
Panic begins to fill your heart, and anguish begins to set in until you remember that you fixed a fabulous meal. As he sits down to dinner, you bring out the six-course meal you prepared, the aroma filling the room. But as you uncover the entree, you realize your husband, Mr. Perfect, is staring at the brockley, which, to your dismay, looks a bit wilted. As he reaches for something to drink, your heart sinks as you see a spot on his glass. The evening goes downhill from there, and you go to bed, thinking, Yes, I’m married to Mr. Perfect—but he’s driving me crazy.
This goes on until you become filled with so much tension and anxiety that you decide it was a mistake to marry Mr. Perfect. “I want a divorce,” you say. “On what grounds?” asks the judge “My husband is perfect,” you answer. “Request denied,” declares the judge. “Perfection is not grounds for divorce.”
You go your way thinking you can’t last a moment longer, when suddenly you remember Romans 7, which says that the woman is bound to her husband only so long as he is alive. So the next day, as he’s reading the paper, you pour a bottle of arsenic into your husband’s celery juice. You wait with anticipation as he takes a sip and two and three. Your anticipation turns to amazement as he asks for seconds—until you remember that he’s in perfect health. His kidneys filter out the poison totally.
“Oh no,” you say. “I can’t divorce him because he’s perfect. He won’t die because he’s perfect. I’m stuck in this bondage forever. And in your despair, you slam the door behind you as you walk out into the rain. You return half an hour later sniffling, sneezing, and coughing; and you know you’re coming down with pneumonia. Your lungs start to fill with fluid. Your temperature rises. You get sicker and sicker—and you realize you’re dying.
As you let go of your life, you say to yourself, “This is the way out. I’m finally free. Mr. Perfect couldn’t be divorced. Mr. Perfect wouldn’t die. But I’m dying. And that sets me free to marry someone else—Mr. Grace and Love—Who’s waiting for me in heaven.”
(The above illustration was taken from Jon Courson’s New Testament Commentary)
It’s a silly story, but I hope you understand.
In Matt 5, Jesus said the law will never die.
Matt 5:18 (CSB)—For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or one stroke of a letter will pass away from the law until all things are accomplished.
The law will always loom over us, making us aware of our imperfections and inconsistencies. We can’t live with it. We can’t divorce it. We can’t kill it. “There’s only one way out,” says Paul in Romans. “And when you discover the way out, you’re free!”
The penalty for sin was paid on the Cross, Paul says in Rom 1-5. The power of sin was broken by the Cross he says in Rom 6. Now our preoccupation with sin is resolved through the Cross he says in Rom 7. You are no longer married to the rules and regulations of the law. Why? Is the law dead? No. You are.
Gal 2:20 (CSB)—I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
You’ve died to Mr. Perfection—and now, you’re connected to Mr. Grace and Love. No more roller-coaster Christianity.
I acted like I was still under the law in my early high school years. I set up rules and regulations, disciplines, and expectations. When I kept them, I would look down on other Christians who didn’t, wondering when he got up for devotions this morning. And I would walk around like a self-righteous jerk inside.
But ultimately, I couldn’t keep my own rules and regulations. I’d sleep late one morning, or two, or three—and then what happened? I’d get frustrated with myself. “Woe is me,” I’d say. “I’m such a wretch. I can’t go to church. Why should I even read the Bible? This is too hard!” Up and down I went until I understood that Paul said, “The rules and standards you set up to prove you’re a good little Christian are all irrelevant.”
That is why, when people say Christianity is narrow and restrictive, my response is, You’re not reading the Bible. The reason the religious establishment killed Jesus is because He represented this radical freedom, and the only way they could contain Him was to kill Him.
It is freedom that leads me to something better than the law.
1 Cor 6:12 (CSB)—“Everything is permissible for me,” but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible for me,” but I will not be mastered by anything.
In other words, “I’m not going to jeopardize this amazing freedom by becoming enslaved to any substance, habit, or activity. I’m free not to sin, even though all things are lawful.” Like we talked last week, I won’t climb back in the ring with a 550 lb lion that has already had a taste of me and wants more.
1 Cor 10:23 (CSB)—“Everything is permissible,” but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible,” but not everything builds up.
In other words, “Even though I have permission to do all things, seeing me do certain things might cause someone to stumble. So I choose not to do those things which will cause others to stumble.”
You’re free in Christ totally and completely. You’ve died to Mr. Perfect and are now married to Mr. Grace and Love. When we understand this, what happens? We no longer live by rules written down on a list or by commandments etched in stone but by the Word written in our hearts.
Rom 7:6 (CSB)—But now we have been released from the law, since we have died to what held us, so that we may serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the old letter of the law.
Maybe you have this list of rules in your head, your list of dos and don’ts you follow. You may pride yourself when you keep them and turn up your spiritual nose at others who don’t and aren’t as devoted or as committed as you, but watch out. Exhaustion and frustration are inevitable when you live by the law.
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“But,” you might say, “if we’re no longer married to the law, that’s just a license to do all kinds of evil things.” Not so. Pastor Jon Courson tells this story:
As a sixteen-year-old, washing the family car was one of my Saturday chores. The law was laid down, and I followed it: I squirted some water on our green Buick Skylark, flung a towel over it a couple times, and went on my way. But that all changed when I thought I fell in love with a girl named Stephanie. You see, because Dad gave me permission one weekend to use the Skylark to take Stephanie out to dinner, I washed it, dried it, waxed it, buffed it, shined the chrome, polished the hubcaps, vacuumed the interior, and washed the windows. I transformed the Skylark into a thing of beauty. Why? Because of love—while the law made me wash the car, love made me do the rest.
When it clicks, just how much Jesus did for you and how much He loves you and cares for you, instead of thinking, “I guess I have to do my devotions now,” instead it’s, “I wonder what You have for me today, God?” It’s not that I have to; it’s that I get to. And you end up doing much more than you ever did with your rules, regulations, and traditions. You’re free because the Lord whispers in your heart, in the newness of the Spirit day by day, moment by moment.
The law says, “Responsibility!” Love says, “Just respond to Me.”
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Does that mean that since Jesus came, there is no need for the law? In 1 Tim 1:8-11, Paul says although the law is not made for a righteous man—for a guy who’s in love with the Lord, walking close to the Lord, desiring to please the Lord—it is made for the lawless, the disobedient, the ungodly.
Those who don’t care about the Lord need the law laid upon them for their protection. So, the law has a two-fold purpose. It keeps the unrighteous from rampant sin and drives the rest of us to Jesus.
If the law’s sole purpose in the life of a believer is to drive us to Christ, then why even bother reading the Old Testament with all of its ordinances and laws?
Because each ordinance, each statute, and each Old Testament picture points to Jesus and gives us a clearer picture of Him and His character. Take the fourth commandment, for example.
Ex 20:8 (CSB)— Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy:
Some people say things like, “If you don’t worship on Saturday, you’re violating the law.” But in Colossians 2, Paul says, “Sabbaths and all of those regulations are simply a shadow of the reality of the Person of Jesus Christ.” There are people in “church-ianity,” stuck in legalism, who are caught up in the shadows when the reality is Christ. Jesus fulfilled the law; He is our Sabbath. He is our Rest. He is the Reality, not just a shadow.
Not only is Jesus the reality of the law, but there are practical things for us to learn in the law. That is why Jesus said this:
Mk 2:27 (CSB)—Then he told them, “The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath,
It is good for us to rest, recharge, and set aside a day to simply worship Him. And like Paul says in the final verses of Romans 7, we can’t do it without Jesus. We can’t live a life of righteousness without Him leading us and walking with us.
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When you look at the law, listen to the heart of the Father. Don’t get caught up in the technicalities. When you read the Old Testament, say, “Lord, show me something about You and something practical for me.”
I know the struggle is real, and my prayer for you today is a very simple one: that God would keep you from the frustration and exhaustion that are the result of a preoccupation with rules and regulations, obligations and stipulations—that you might know what it means to be dead to Mr. Perfect and married to Another who loves you unconditionally and will lead you day by day in joy and freedom.
Chris Hankel 
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