Acts 10—To the Ends of the Earth

We are all aware of exclusivism or barriers between cultures and races of people. In High School they called it “clicks”. The jocks, the nerds, the beautiful, and the wild group all had hard to cross barriers between them. In first century Jerusalem, the barriers were much greater than anything we have today. They had barriers between slave and free, racial, ethnic, gender, religion, and rich vs. poor, just to name a few. Unlike 21st century America, those boundaries were almost un-crossable. In Acts 8, the barrier between Jews and Samaritans had been brought down, but the bigger barrier blocking the Gentiles also had to be brought down. In Acts 10-11, it would be Peter who God chose to take that next step.

In Exodus 19:5-6, God spoke through Moses to Israel, telling them that if they kept the covenant with God then they would be a special people set apart by God, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. When God gave them their new home in Canaan, He told them to be separate from the Canaanites, and not to intermarry or even live with them. As part of that separation, God gave them special dietary laws in Leviticus 11 that would make them unique and separate from the nations. The Canaanites were a despicable, evil, idolatrous people so God gave such dietary restrictions to hinder social contact with them. All Jews were brought up with these dietary restrictions, and taught that anything else was unclean for them. Thus, the Gentiles who ate the forbidden food were also considered unclean. Today, we use the word kosher, which means fit or allowed.

To Peter, the dietary laws were so ingrained into his life that it was unthinkable to even sit down at a table with Gentiles. It was assumed that their stuff was unclean, and even their houses were contaminated. No respectable first century Jew would go to a Gentile city unless he had to, and they would definitely not go into a Gentile’s house. Ten to twelve years after Jesus gave the commission to His disciples to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth, the disciples did not comprehend that they were supposed to go to Gentile cities, enter Gentile houses, eat with Gentiles, and open the door for Gentiles to be saved and in the church. That dividing wall had to be broken down, and it would require the intervention of God. We can see six steps in the Acts 10 story that broke down that wall.

 God’s Preparation

God prepared both Cornelius to receive the gospel and Peter to deliver the gospel. Scripture says that God responds to the seeking heart. Jeremiah 29:13 quotes God, saying “and you will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.” In Acts 10:1-8, God prepared the centurion Cornelius to receive the good news about Jesus. Cornelius was a God fearer who was seeking the truth about God. It must have required some humility for a Roman centurion to deny the pagan polytheism of his countrymen to believe in the God of Israel, but he had. He even gave money to needy Jewish people. He was not a proselyte, but was just seeking the one true God. He had lived up to the small amount of light that he had, but now God was going to shine the light of Jesus on him. God gave him a vision of an angel who told him to send for Peter.

The next day, God also was preparing Peter for this encounter. In Acts 10:9-20, Peter was waiting for his lunch, and he went up on the housetop to pray. Peter was hungry so God gave him a vision of food. Peter saw both clean and unclean animals. A voice told him to kill and eat all of them including the unclean, but naturally Peter said no. It took three repeated visions for the message to get through that things had changed. The separating features of kosher eating were now counterproductive. God was now bringing Jews and Gentiles together as one in the church. In the vision, the clean animals represented the Jews and the unclean animals represented the Gentiles,

Acts 8-9: God’s Chosen Instruments

In Acts 1:8, Jesus had commanded the disciples to go and be His witnesses to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and even the remotest areas of the world; but at the end of Acts 7 they are still in Jerusalem. We can’t be sure how much time had gone by, but if the resurrection occurred in 30 AD, and the death of Herod in Acts 12 occurred in 44 AD, then considerable time had gone by without them leaving their comfort zone. All the momentum had been on the church’s side in those early days because thousands were believing in Christ, and the whole city was observing great “signs and wonders” taking place through Christ’s disciples. Then an important event took place that swung the momentum away from the church. In Acts 7:60, a great witness for Christ, Stephen, was stoned to death. At first glance, Stephen’s death seemed a great waste, but God used it to do great things to move the disciples out of their comfort zone.

Appearances

At first glance Stephen’s death seemed like a sad waste of a devoted servant to God. Even worse, it had been for nothing because none of the people in that synagogue where Stephen got arrested were converted. His ministry seemed to end in failure. Why would God allow him to be killed when Stephen had so much to offer, so much potential?

Upon further review, Stephen’s death triggered the first great wave of persecutions against the church, and that was actually a good thing. It scattered the church throughout Judea and Samaria into areas they just would not have gone without some serious prompting. The religious leaders attempt to stamp out the church, actually started new churches in all the surrounding areas. Acts 8 was the pivot in the action, or the turning point for missionary activity outside Jerusalem. In Acts 8, the disciples reached out to the hated Samaritans, and even a Gentile would be saved. In order to understand how unlikely this was previously, read Luke 9:54. When Jesus and His disciples were passing through Samaria, John had asked “Lord do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” Jesus had replied no, that he came into the world to save lives, and then years later here they were saving the souls of Samaritans in Acts 8.

Philip the Evangelist

The Philip of Acts 8 was not the apostle, but probably was the deacon chosen in Acts 6:5. After the recorded activity in chapter 8, we don’t hear from him again until Acts 21:8 about 20 years later. At that time, he was called Philip the evangelist and he met Paul in Caesarea. Philip was God’s chosen instrument to venture into the land of the hated Samaritans. They had a Jewish monotheistic view of God, and a basic knowledge of the Jewish Bible so they were very open to the Gospel message, and thousands believed in Jesus. We know that Samaritans were looking for the Messiah to appear from the story in John 4:25 about the Samaritan woman who told Jesus that Messiah was coming and they were looking for Him. Jesus then told her, “I am He”. The woman believed in Him, her life was changed, and her whole village became believers in Jesus as the Messiah. We can see in Acts 8:7 that Samaria had been an unclean place of much idolatry because many people had unclean spirits (demons) that were “coming out of them shouting”. What a wild scene that must have been with Philip doing signs and wonders, multitudes being converted to Jesus, and demons audibly coming out of afflicted people. The key focus is Acts 8:8, “there was much rejoicing in that city”. In the midst of poverty, oppression, and demonic activity, Jesus was saving souls and changing lives.

Simony

As Luke records the story of taking the gospel to Samaria in Acts 8, he included an interesting story in verses 9-24 about a magician there named Simon. This Simon of Samaria was used to “wowing” people with his tricks, but when he observed the signs and wonders that Philip was doing,

Acts 3-5: An Unexpected Miracle

When we think of miracles that Jesus did, we may think of people that approached Jesus with a desperate need, and out of sheer compassion, Jesus healed them. In fact most of the New Testament miracles were done for reasons beyond compassion to teach His disciples, to draw crowds, and to reveal who Jesus is. Some of the miracles, like the healing of the lame man in Acts 3, were done for people who were not even expecting it or asking for it. Jesus just healed a man unexpectedly in a very important place for a very important reason. Imagine the drama at the Temple in Jerusalem when a well known man who had been lame from birth suddenly leaps up from the ground and began dancing around praising God. The man had thought that what he really needed was donations from the people going into the Temple so he could support himself. He strategically placed himself at the Temple gate where everyone had to pass to enter at the daily time of prayer. Naturally people would be at their religious “do-gooder” best at this time and place so this lame guy could reap his reward. Unexpectedly, Peter and John passed by, and when the lame man asked for money, Peter said, “I do not possess silver or gold, but what I have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ-walk!” This man, who had exercised no faith or done any good deed was grabbed up by Peter, and immediately his feet, legs, and ankles were strengthened, and he began leaping and walking about. This guy who had never walked before could suddenly dunk a basketball (my interpretation). He thought he needed money, but Peter gave him what he really needed—Jesus.

Another misconception that most of us have is that healings occur when believers exercise their great faith. Amazingly, it appears to me after reviewing the Book of Acts that all the people healed by the Apostles were unbelievers. God sovereignly chose people to be healed for His purposes. In that time of such great transition, God gave His spokespersons in the early church the gift of miracles. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 12:12 that “The signs of a true apostle were performed among you by signs and wonders and miracles.” Imagine those guys walking constantly into hostile and unknown environments, but God was doing great things to draw crowds, and give credibility to their message.

The Scene and Context of Acts 3

Peter and John had been radically transformed by the coming of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2 so that they were bold witnesses for Christ in the streets of Jerusalem. Shortly thereafter, they continued their routine of going to the Temple at the ninth hour of the day for the daily prayers and sacrifices given there. What was not routine was their new commitment to be witnesses for Christ wherever they went. According to the tradition of the times, there was a time of prayer at 9, 12, and 3, with an animal sacrifice at 3:00 pm. Thousands of people would routinely come to the Temple every day at 3 pm, but that day in Acts 3 they were treated to an incredible sign which pointed them all to Jesus. After the crowd formed up to see what had happened, Peter gave them a Gospel presentation, and that day 5,000 men believed in Jesus as their Savior (Acts 4:4). Theologians differ as to whether this number included those who believed at Pentecost in Acts 2, but either way thousands believed there at the Temple in Acts 3.

The Message

In Acts 3:12-26, Peter, John, the healed guy, and the large crowd assembled outside the Temple gate on the east side of the Temple Mount in the Portico of Solomon. Peter took that opportunity to address the crowd. The first thing Peter made clear was that the miracle was not done by he and John, but by the power of Jesus Christ. In his message, Peter presented five of the many names that express who Jesus is. In verse 13, Jesus is God’s servant who Isaiah the prophet spoke of in Isaiah 52:13 through 53:12.

Acts 2—The Birth of the Church

Jesus had been crucified the week of the Passover, and then He was resurrected and appeared for 40 days to His disciples “presenting Himself alive by many convincing proofs over a period of 40 days”. After the 40 days, Jesus ascended to heaven from the Mt. of Olives after telling them once again that “not many days from now” you shall all be “baptized with the Holy Spirit”. By this He meant that they would permanently be indwelt by the Holy Spirit. This actually happened as recorded in Acts 2:1-4 on the Day of Pentecost about 8 days later. This was an annual feast that was commanded by God for all Jews to celebrate on the 50th day after the Feast of Firstfruits. If you want to figure it out for yourselves, study Exodus 12, Leviticus 23, Numbers 28, and Deut.16, but basically Passover was on Nisan (Abib on the Jewish calendar) 14, then Unleavened Bread began the next day and lasted a week. Firstfruits was the day after the Sabbath of Passover week, and Pentecost was the day after the 7th Sabbath (49 days) after the Day of Firstfruits. Thus Pentecost (which means 50), was the 50th day after Firstfruits. In Deuteronomy 16:16, all male Jews were commanded to go to Jerusalem for this feast. Therefore, thousands of pilgrims from all over the Mediterranean world were in Jerusalem. A list of all the different nationalities and languages is given in Acts 2:9-11. In the first century, the Feast was called the Day of Pentecost.

The Dramatic Descent of the Holy Spirit

Perhaps all of us would like to experience the dramatic indwelling of the Holy Spirit like the Apostles did in Acts 2, but we must remember that it was the moment of great transition, and it was necessary that God make it obvious and well known what was happening. The transition was from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant, from the Law to Grace, from the Old Testament to the New Testament, and from Israel to the Church. Without God’s dramatic intervention they would have never figured that transition out. Jesus had repeatedly promised this event and the Old Testament prophets had spoken of it, but they did not understand until the dramatic events of the Day of Pentecost. Today, we must take the indwelling of the Spirit by faith because the Word of God says that all who believe in Jesus as their Savior receive the Spirit of God.

In Acts 4:1-4, we see the evidence of the coming of the Holy Spirit. They heard, saw, felt, and manifested the Holy Spirit’s coming. They were all together, probably in the Upper Room of Acts 1:13, because it says they were in a house when it happened. They heard a noise from heaven that sounded like a great rushing wind, then they saw what appeared like tongues of fire, and each tongue of fire settled on an individual. The filling of the Holy Spirit was manifested through each of them as they went out into the streets of Jerusalem near the Temple, and spoke languages previously unknown to them. All the foreigners were hearing the disciples of Christ speak in foreign languages with perfect accents. What was even more amazing was that these were uneducated Galileans who were accomplishing this feat. Because of the great sound from heaven and the amazing “tongues” being spoken, a large crowd was coming together to see and hear what was happening. Peter explained this phenomenon as being a great fulfillment of prophecy. He quoted Joel 2 that in the “last days” God would pour forth His Spirit upon mankind.

It was significant that this happened on the Feast of Harvest (Pentecost) when Israel presented the “first fruits” of the crop to the Lord because on this day all the new believers that formed the church were the first fruits of the full harvest of the church to come. With the outward signs of the Holy Spirit came the inward invisible reality that demonstrated its presence by the effects on the believers. They went out boldly in public and began praising God in such a way that would draw ...

The New Testament book called “Acts” is unique in the Bible in that it records about 30 years of history of the early church following the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The close companion of Paul, Luke, wrote this book as the sequel to his earlier letter we call “The Gospel According to Luke”. Acts is addressed to the same man named Theophilus that Luke’s Gospel was written to. Also, Acts 1:1 refers back to the Gospel of Luke. The book of Acts is our history of the early spread of Christianity and growth of the church. Luke wrote to produce a new theological outlook of the New Covenant in which the coming of the Holy Spirit and the mission of the church filled the gap caused by the period of time between Christ’s first and second coming.

Forty Days of Appearing

In Acts 1:1-5, we find out that after the resurrection Jesus continually appeared to His disciples for forty days ministering to them, teaching them, commanding them, and promising them great things. It sounds like He would come and go, and appear to different groups in different places. We have the record of at least eleven appearances in the New Testament, but He probably appeared more often than that in those forty days. It was imperative that His disciples first believe that He was alive in order to insure their confidence, hope, and courage to continue His ministry that He was entrusting to them. The resurrection appearances played a big part in their transformation from timid and clueless to bold and knowledgeable. The text says that He spoke of the things “concerning the kingdom of God”. In its simplest form, the kingdom is God’s sovereign rule. Now, God rules in the hearts of believers, but in the end, God will rule over all things. During the church age, God rules in the hearts of believers through the church, but the rest of the world goes its own way. When Christ comes back, He will change that.

In verse 4-5, Christ gave them instruction to stay in Jerusalem and wait for some great life changing event. Remember that all the Apostles at that time were from the Galilean area, so they may have thought about going home. Jesus had already promised them at the Last Supper that the Holy Spirit was coming to help them, but they probably had no idea how awesome this would be, or the difference He would make. Jesus had taught them a lot of truth, but they needed power to accompany that truth. Therefore they had to all stay in Jerusalem to wait for the new change to come upon them, and it would be entirely a divine activity. John the Baptist had predicted that they would be “baptized by the Holy Spirit” in Luke 3:16, and Jesus had taught about a year before that “He who believes in Me, from his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water; but this He spoke of the Spirit whom those who believed in Him were to receive…”(John 7:38-39).

Like Children in the Back Seat

All through Jesus’ ministry, the disciples had been chomping at the bit for Jesus to set up the Kingdom so they could get great rewards and positions of power. They were like little kids in the back seat who constantly ask, “Are we there yet?” Even after the resurrection that was foremost on their minds as they asked Jesus in Acts 1:6 “Lord, is it at this time you are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” They still had no clue as to the extended time period we call the church age between the first and second advent of Christ. Can you imagine how surprised they would be now two thousand years later? Now it is we who are saying, “Are we there yet?” Jesus told them in v.7 that it was not for them (or us) to “know times or epochs which God the Father has fixed by His own authority”. Their job was to anticipate the kingdom by living with an urgency to minister until then.

The Great Command

Acts 1:8 is connected to the previous verse by a “but” which means that instead of being obsessed with the “when question”, they needed to totally focus on being a witness for Jesus...

The New Testament book called “Acts” is unique in the Bible in that it records about 30 years of history of the early church following the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The close companion of Paul, Luke, wrote this book as the sequel to his earlier letter we call “The Gospel According to Luke”. Acts is […]

Romans 12:1-2: We Give Back to God

The author of Romans, the Apostle Paul, spent the first eleven chapters of Romans teaching about what God has given to believers in Christ. Now in Romans 12, he tells us what believers in Christ need to give God. People get frustrated because they want even more stuff from God in a materialistic sense, but here Paul gives the secret to a fulfilling life in Christ—give yourself to Christ. The key to a productive spiritual life is in giving up your self-promotion, your agenda, and your selfish desires, and offer yourself to God. Because of God’s grace in overcoming your lost condition, you must not live for yourself, but give yourself completely to God. We were dead in our sins, but God has sent Jesus to atone for our sins and declare us justified. Now that we are saved, Romans 8 details how God has also graced us by indwelling us with His Holy Spirit so we can be empowered to live righteous lives even now. Now he expands upon the Romans 6 teaching that we are to consider ourselves dead to our old lustful desires and alive in Christ. By dying, we live. We need to put into practice what Jesus told His disciples, “deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Me”. We need to die to our own goals, our own agenda, and our own desires in order to properly serve Christ.

Romans 12:1: “Present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice”

Romans 12 begins with “Therefore”, which explains that chapter 12 is connected to chapters 1-8. Because of the great mercy that God has bestowed on us, we need to give ourselves completely to God. First of all notice the seeming paradox of “a living sacrifice”. He is referring to the image of the Jewish priest in the Old Testament who placed the animal sacrifices on the altar at the Temple. The law commanded that they bring a sacrifice for their sin to the priest who slayed the animal and placed it on the altar. Now that Jesus has made the perfect sacrifice of infinite value, the priesthood and the animal sacrifices are unnecessary. Now we are to figuratively offer ourselves to God to serve Him and glorify Him. There is a competition for our lives. The fallen world offers us acclamation, wealth, and pleasure, but Jesus offers His blood for our devotion, worship, and service. This sacrifice we are to make must be “holy and acceptable”, meaning God’s way not our way. Most people portray themselves as serving God, but they do it on their terms and their timing. They would compartmentalize God, and make this only on Sunday, or only when they are not serving themselves. Romans 8:12 told us we used to serve ourselves, but now we are obligated to live according to the leading of the Holy Spirit. This sacrifice we make is our “spiritual service of worship”. When I was in High School, I had to read Charles Dickens book, A TALE OF TWO CITIES. All through the book the selfish worthless guy Sydney lived only for himself, but he admired from afar the virtuous Charles Darnay. In the end Charles Darnay is on death row in the Bastille during the French Revolution. In an act of pure love, Sydney substitutes himself for Darnay who goes free. Sydney goes to the guillotine, but says the famous line, “It is a far far better thing I do than I have ever done; it is a far far better rest I go to than I have ever known”. Jesus died for us, so now we can live for Him. A person’s self sacrifice of his life is the ultimate proof of love. Jesus’ sacrifice was an atonement for sin, but we are sacrificing our ambitions, goals, and personal agenda for what is infinitely better–a life lived for Christ.

Paul said it well in 2 Cor. 5:15, “we no longer live for ourselves but for Him who died for us and was raised again”. Then again in Gal. 2:20, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me”.

Romans 12:2,

Romans 8: GROANING FOR GLORY

Webster’s defines groaning as “a deep moan indicative of pain, grief, or annoyance; a sound uttered under prolonged strain”. I think everyone groans instinctively without knowing it. It’s that sound you make when your wife asks you to take out the trash or change the light bulbs. The sound she makes when you trash the kitchen yet again, or leave the toilet seat up. In so many situations there is just nothing to say but a deep groan, which expresses our dissatisfaction. Amazingly the author of Romans also groaned, and he recognized the universal groaning of three different groups—the creation, Christians, and the Holy Spirit. Read Romans 8:18—26.

Groaning in the Old Testament

In the Psalms David groans in his laments like Ps. 5:1, “listen up Lord, consider my groaning”, meaning I got some real trouble here you need to take care of Lord. In Ps. 12, David laments injustice and lying which is afflicted on the needy who “groan” for God to intervene. In Exodus the people of Israel groan under the oppression of slavery (Ex.2:23). All the prophets spoke of the people groaning over God’s judgments upon them. In Lamentations 1:4,11 “the priests groan”, and the “people groan”. Ezekiel wrote of the groaning of the few righteous men who recognized the “abominations” being committed against the Lord (Ezek. 9:4;21:6). The general theme of all the groaning is that things just are not right, and they long for God to do something about it.

Uniqueness of New Testament Groaning

In the New Testament the groaning has an element of anticipation to it. Paul is suffering but he looks forward in anticipation to better times. It is an eager excited anticipation of GLORY. Look at 2 Cor. 5:2-4 where Paul anticipates his resurrection body, “in this body we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven…For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, in order that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.” He feels burdened in this earthly decaying lustful body, and he groans for that new imperishable perfect heavenly body.

In Romans 8 Paul looks forward to the promised glory, which will be revealed when Jesus returns to receive His followers to Himself. The context of this passage is present suffering compared to future glory. In verse 18, Paul says he considers the sufferings of the present time “are not worthy to be compared to the glory that is to be revealed” when Jesus comes back for us. Paul is not the only one anticipating that great event. Using a figure of speech called personification, Paul says that the entire creation anxiously, eagerly longs for the “revealing of the sons of God”, meaning our resurrection. Why is the whole creation involved? Go back to Genesis 1:29-31. When God first created the earth it was like a perfect greenhouse with a plethora of plants and vines and trees of every kind that were very fruitful. Food for all of creation was bountiful, “and God saw all that He had made and it was very good”. Unfortunately for the creation, when man sinned, God cursed the ground—“cursed is the ground because of you”. Before, they just strolled around in peace and prosperity and there was plenty to eat, and work was enjoyable and fulfilling. Now there would be a struggle for survival, no fulfillment in this world, failed relationships, and worst of all death. I like to say that when man chose to go his own way, God said “Let’s see how that works”, and then He rigged the world so that it won’t work, because there is no fulfillment apart from God. You might say its difficult for you to understand how a good, loving, and holy God could curse His own creation; but Romans 8:20 we read that God “subjected it to futility in hope”. The hope is that mankind, finding no fulfillment apart from God, will return to God and believe in Him and obey Him.

Romans 8: The Rule of Life for the Christian

The Apostle Paul continued his systematic presentation of the Good News of Jesus Christ in Romans 8. In Romans chapter 1-3, Paul revealed that all people have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and therefore all people need Jesus as their Savior. In chapter 3:21-31, he wrote that the righteousness of God has been given to us on the basis of the atoning work of Christ on the cross, and we receive it by faith. In chapter 4, Paul uses the Old Testament examples of Abraham and David to show that salvation has always been received by faith. In chapter 5, Paul teaches that God is faithful to bring us spiritual peace, and even in the adverse circumstances of life, God is faithfully working to build our character and bring about spiritual growth. In chapter 6, Paul shifts to living the spiritual life of Christ now, and we find that the old person before Christ is dead, but a new spiritually born person is alive. We no longer live for ourselves, but we have a new master and we live in newness of life. There is a synergy in chapter 6 between all the blessings of Christ that are now ours and our responsibility to “present ourselves” to the new life in Christ. Living for Christ is our responsibility, and it is the way things should be now. Romans 7 brings up the major problem we all have in following through to become holy. The reality is that we still live in physical bodies that have powerful desires so that although you can know what you should and should not do, it is extremely difficult to live up to the standard of Christ—so much so that Paul cries out “Wretched man that I am! Who will free me from this body of death?” Romans 8 provides the answer to that question. God has not only sent His Son to die for our sins, but God has also sent His Spirit to indwell us so that we can have power over the sinful desires that are still in us.

The Trinity in Romans 8:1-4

Romans 8:1 tells us the position we proceed to live from. It is very comforting to know that in spite of our desires that Paul elaborated in chapter 7, we are totally forgiven, and in God’s eyes we are citizens of heaven. Therefore he can say that in spite of the frailty of the flesh he laid out in ch.7, “there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” This is very liberating as it takes all the pressure off us. We can see the Trinity at work in the life of the believer in the first four verses. God justifies us by His grace, the Holy Spirit sanctifies us, and it is all on the basis of Jesus’ substitutionary atonement on the cross. In verse 2, he uses the image of the law as a way of life to lay out a contrast between living by the Spirit of God vs. living by the law in the Old Testament that they couldn’t keep but only revealed their sin. This is also a reminder that Jesus ushered in the New Covenant. The prophets like Jeremiah and Ezekiel predicted that God would make a new covenant that would be different than the old because in the new He would provide His Spirit to change His people’s hearts. As Ezekiel spoke for God and said in Ezekiel 36:26, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you…and I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes”. The law could not save us because of the sin in our “flesh”, but God accomplished it by sending Jesus as “an offering for sin”. What the law was incapable of doing, God did. The amazing thing now as we continue to live in this new relationship with Christ is that if we “walk” or habitually live by the leading of the Holy Spirit, we actually fulfill the law (v.4). God does not save people in order for them to do as they please, but to do as He pleases. You are free from all condemnation, but you must now leave your sin behind. God is the agent of our justification and the Holy Spirit is the agent of our sanctification.

Jesus’ Teaching on the Holy Spirit

Romans 7-the Believer’s Relationship to the Law

Romans 7 arises from a continuation of chapter 6:15, “we are not under law but under grace”. The old person before Christ had only their moral code or law to guide them and measure their righteousness, but when Jesus came into our lives we were freed or released from the law. We are now judged not by the law, but by the grace of God in Christ. The law was given and demanded that we be perfect and holy, but Christ fulfilled those demands and joined us to Himself, so now we are free—dead to the law, but alive to Christ. Make no mistake, the Bible has a very high regard for God’s commandments. Jesus was accused of trying to change or do away with the law, but He made it clear in Matthew 5:17-19 that He had the highest regard for it, “Do not think I came to abolish the law…, I came to fulfill it”. Therefore the question arises for the believer in Christ, “What is the relationship between the law and our faith?” In the first six verses of Romans 7, Paul refers to the law 8 times, and in the chapter he refers to the law 23 times. Naturally the question arises about what he means by the law, and since he is writing to a diverse group of Romans, Jews, and Greeks it must refer to a broad concept. In verse 1 he is talking about legal principles in general like a marriage contract, but in verse 4, he probably means the moral/ethical law that we once tried to live up to and would be judged by if we did not have Jesus as our Savior. In verse 7-8, he is talking about the tenth commandment found in the Ten Commandments God gave to Israel in Exodus 20. Therefore we must understand the context of his argument in each passage to ascertain what he means by law.

Jurisdiction

Concerning laws in general, it is a self evident truth that any law only has jurisdiction over the living. There are obvious examples of this like Lee Harvey Oswald. The law was not brought to bear upon him because he was dead. Paul uses the analogy of marriage in verses 2-3 to say that the law of marriage applies only to the living. If a woman’s husband dies, she is free to remarry. The application of this logical truth is that spiritually speaking, we were made to die to the law in the sense that we are now joined to a new relationship in which we will be judged for eternal life. We are now new people in a relationship with Jesus, which produces a transformation so “that we might bear fruit for God.” The “made to die” phrase is a passive verb meaning it happened to us by an act of God. Since the old person who was judged by the law is in a sense dead, we are no longer under the jurisdiction of the law.

In verse 5 and 6, we have a before and after contrast of how the law worked on us before Christ “but now” we have been released from the law, and the difference now is that we serve Christ in newness of the spirit. Before Christ we responded only to our flesh with its sinful passions, and those passions were “aroused by the law”. Think of the thrill when you were a teenager of breaking free of your parent’s control speeding around in the car breaking all the rules. Our rebellious nature wants to do what is forbidden. In 1919, our country passed the 18th Amendment to the Constitution prohibiting the manufacture, sale, and consumption of alcohol. Illegal distilleries, bootleggers, speakeasies (bars), and organized crime exploded. They didn’t call it the “Roaring Twenties” for nothing. Just imagine that the prohibition of something actually increases that activity because of the reaction of our sin nature to a law that we have no heart for. Yet now, in Christ, there is a change, and we are being changed from the inside so that being led by the Spirit of God we develop a heart for God’s law.

We Know that the Law can’t Save us, but what can it Do?

In Romans 7:7-13, we see that the law of God is good, righteous, and holy, but our natural sin nature is only stirred up by it.