Study session scripture: Romans 10:14-11:10

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for “Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.” But I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says, “I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; with a foolish nation I will make you angry.” Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, “I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.” But of Israel he says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.”

I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel? “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.” But what is God's reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace. What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day.” And David says, “Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them; let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and bend their backs forever.”

Study session topics:

• Israel's Rejection of God's Promises, Continued

• Israel's disobedience to the Gospel (10:14-21)

• The chain from sent to saved

• Israel's rejection of the message of salvation

• Israel's rejection foretold in the Old Testament

• The first excuse: Has Israel heard the Gospel?

• The second excuse: Did Israel understand the Gospel?

• The remnant of Israel (11:1-10)

• Has God abandoned His people? By no means! -

  God still reserves a remnant for Himself

• Israel's greater responsibility toward God

Study session audio:

S4 E26: Romans 10:14-11:10

Download

Study session scripture: Romans 9:30-10:13

What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness[d] did not succeed in reaching that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, as it is written,

“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

Brothers,my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Study session topics:

• Israel's Rejection of God's Promises

• Israel's Unbelief (9:30-10:4)

• As with last time, we begin with "What shall we say then?"

• Points back to Paul's discussion of God's promises to Israel

• What follows is Paul's summation of what he laid out in Ch. 9

• Paul lays out a grand irony between the Jews and Gentiles:

• Gentiles, on the whole, neither possessed nor pursued God's law, but they have been given an opportunity to receive God's righteousness by faith

• Jews, on the whole, possessed and pursued God's law for generations, yet that pursuit has not yielded the righteousness that leads to life

• Why did Israel fail to obtain righteousness through the law?

• They failed to use the law for its intended purpose: as a mirror to reveal their wickedness and point to a savior

• Instead, they attempted to use the law to increase their own righteousness

• As a result, they stumbled over the purpose of the Messiah and His teachings

• Paul diagnoses the issue of the Jews as being zealous for God, but being wrong about what God requires -If the Jews understood the law and its purpose rightly, they would look to Christ, "the end of the law for righteousness." What does "end" mean?

• Fulfillment -Culmination -Termination

• God's Message of Salvation to All (10:5-13)

• Paul again contrasts righteousness based on the law with righteousness based on faith

• He quotes Leviticus 18:5, a verse he also uses in a similar way in Galatians 3:10-14

• The way of the law and the way of faith are mutually exclusive

• Using several Old Testament references, Paul lays out 3 different types of religion:

• The religion of the law (10:5)

• This is the religion of legalism, which Paul refuted in Ch. 7

• No one can perfectly keep the law all their life

• The law was never meant to be a means of salvation

• The religion of signs (10:6-7)

• Here Paul references Deuteronomy 30:11-14 and recontextualizes it to refer to Christ's work, laying out several different meanings for Israel and Christians:

• Neither Israel nor Christians need any further word from God

• Neither Israel nor Christians need to do anything to bring the Messiah to them

• Neither Israel nor Christians should look for miracles

• The religion of faith (10:8-10) -This is a religion of belief and confession

• Belief: not mere intellectual assent, but trust, resting your hope for the future on Christ's work -Confession: several elements here

• "Jesus is Lord"--placing oneself under the kingship of Christ

• Confession with one's mouth is done before others--publicly identifying oneself with Christ

• Confession with one's mouth is how we share our faith with others

• Paul ties this passage back into his greater point on Israel's unbelief and rejection of God's promises

• "Everyone who believes in Him will not be put to shame" refers back to 9:38 where Paul assembles several quotes from Isaiah, all of which refer to the Messiah and come together to show both the promise of salvation and Israel's rejection of it

• Paul continues to hammer downs the walls between Jew and Gentile by restating what he said in 3:29-30 and universalizing Joel 2:32

Study session audio:

S4 E25: Romans 9:30-10:13

Download

Study session scripture: Romans 9:14-29

What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.

You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? As indeed he says in Hosea,

“Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’ and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’” “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’”

And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved, for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.” And as Isaiah predicted,

“If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring, we would have been like Sodom and become like Gomorrah.”

Study session topics:

• God's Saving Promises to Israel, Continued

• Is God unjust?

• "What shall we say then?"--refers back to Paul's explanation of God's sovereign choice

• This is an objection we encounter to this day--"If God is all-powerful, then He is unjust."

• Paul shifts his answer from God's justice to God's mercy

• Under God's justice we are all deservedly condemned (3:10-12)

• God's mercy is the only way anyone is saved, and mercy is in a different category than justice -Paul again states that salvation is a work of God that doesn't depend on human exertion or will (8:30)

• The example of Pharaoh (Exodus 9:13-16)

• God is not responsible for man's sin

• God is free to save whom He wills and judge whom He wills

• In both cases, His name is glorified

• Why does He still find fault?

• This objection flows directly from Paul's answer to the first

• Critical problems with this question:

• It assumes God condemns certain people without reference to what they are or do as sinners

• It assumes God creates certain people only to damn them, and that they themselves are bystanders in all this

• The question itself is a rebellion against God's right to do with His creation as He will

• Paul's answer to the question begins with 3 comparisons to put the question in its proper context

• Man and God -Created and Creator

• Clay and Potter

• Paul connects the illustration of the potter with the conclusion of the previous objection, the idea of God's wrath (Ch. 1), and His forbearance (2:4)

• Paul ends his refutation with quotes from Hosea and Isaiah that show that God's new covenant of salvation was always His goal, even in the days of the old Israelite kingdom

• Hosea

• God commanded Hosea to marry a woman who would be unfaithful to him and give his children strange and symbolic names

• Paul is emphasizing unity between Jews and Gentile believers

• Isaiah -"only the remnant will be saved"--Paul once again rejects physical lineage as the way to be included in God's covenant

• Apart from God's grace in saving a remnant, Israel would have been destroyed

• Taken together, these quotes emphasize a church blended together from Jews and Gentiles and God's faithfulness to His promises as they are rightly understood

Study session audio:

S4 E24: Romans 9:14-29

Download

Study session scripture: Romans 9:1-13

I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit—that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.

But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.” And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls—she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

Study session topics:

• God's Saving Promises to Israel

• Paul's sorrow for the Jews

• Paul desires salvation for his people so greatly that he would be willing to not just lose his salvation, but become an enemy of God if it would save Israel

• Paul is speaking hypothetically here (I could wish) because he knows and has shown that only one person giving of themselves sacrificially could achieve salvation for others

• Earlier, at the start of Ch. 3, Paul stated that there is much benefit to being an ethnic Jew. Here, he lists those benefits:

• Adoption

• Glory

• Covenants

• The Law

• Worship

• Promises

• Patriarchs

• Human Ancestry of Christ

• Despite all of these advantages, a great many Jews remain unsaved (as it is today). Advantages do not save:

• Paul's explanation of how God has kept His promises -"[I]t is not as though the word of God has failed"--this is a theme for the next few chapters

• This passage echoes and expands on what Paul says in Ch. 2:28-29

• Abraham as example again

• Paul further makes his point by pointing to Jacob and Esau

• This is another example of God's foreknowledge (choice)

• 2 big points to be made from these examples:

• God's choice is emphasized in both cases by choosing the second-born

• Given how wicked all mankind is, God's choice is the only way anyone will be saved

Study session audio:

S4 E23: Romans 9:1-13

Download

Study session scripture: Romans 8:26-39

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Study session topics:

• The Intercession of the Holy Spirit (vv. 26-27)

• This is an important topic because prayer itself is a confusing subject, as Paul himself concedes in v. 26 -"Likewise" or "In the same way"--connects the Holy Spirit's intercession to earlier context

• vv. 22-25: our hope in God's promises is strengthened by the Spirit's intercession on our behalf

• vv. 15-17: the Spirit's aid in prayer is further assurance that we are God's children

• The problem with prayer--our weakness

• The Holy Spirit assists us in our weakness in many ways, but here Paul is specifically talking about our ignorance

• The word "our" is important here--Paul is saying this is a problem for all Christians -"helps"--a hugely insufficient word

• Greek sunantilambanetai--someone coming alongside another to help bear a heavy burden -Paul transitions to his next and final point in this chapter by giving us both an assurance and an aspiration: the Spirit intercedes for Christians according to the will of God

• The Spirit translates our desires into requests that fit into the will of God

• The point of the Christian life is to be increasingly conformed to Christ, so we also should be increasingly petitioning God according to His will

• The Practical Outworking of God's Character (vv. 28-39)

• v. 28 is one of the most well known--and misused--verses in the Bible

• It is not a platitude for things getting better, rather Paul immediately clarifies that he means all things work together to further sanctify us

• v. 28 is the thesis of the remainder of the chapter--we can rest assured in our salvation and know that we will be further sanctified due to the One our salvation rests on

• vv. 29-30 show the roadmap for God's process of saving and sanctifying His people -Foreknowledge -Predestination -Calling -Justification -Glorification

• In the last section of the chapter, Paul triumphantly, almost defiantly, challenges anyone to overthrow the work of God in salvation by posing 5 questions:

• Who can be against us?

• How will He not graciously give us all things?

• Who shall bring any charge?

• Who is to condemn?

• Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Study session audio:

S4 E22: Romans 8:26-39

Download

Study session scripture: Romans 8:15-25

For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Study session topics:

• Children of God (vv. 15-17)

• Here Paul fully lays out how profound our new standing with God is

• Paul briefly touched on it in 5:1-5 -Peace with God--we are no longer God's enemies

• This grace in which we stand--we have a new standing before God

• We are not merely slaves or servants of God (though we are those things as well)

• "Adoption"--this word choice is important

• Only Paul uses this word in the New Testament, and it doesn't appear in the Old Testament at all

• How close to God are we as sons? The Holy Spirit allows us to call Him "Abba! Father!"--the same term of address Christ used in Mark 14:36 -Paul says the Holy Spirit bears witness with us that we are children of God--how does the Spirit bear witness?

• Evidence of the Spirit's presence within us--the Fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23)

• The Spirit produces in us a willingness to suffer for Christ

• Persecution--we will be mistreated by the world for our allegiance to God (Matthew 5:11-12, John 15:18-20)

• Purification--God will give us difficult circumstances to further sanctify us (Hebrews 12:7-11)

• As part of the full rights of sonship that adoption entails, Paul declares us to be heirs of God with Christ

• What does it mean to be an heir of God?

• Our final future state--glorified in heaven

• Our present circumstances--God lavishes His love and blessings on us

• In both cases, the true inheritance is God Himself

• Hope of future glory

• Paul transitions to this topic by declaring that our suffering in this life is insignificant compared to the indescribable glory we will one day experience -Paul restates this idea in II Corinthians 4:16-17

• Paul is speaking from experience

• Paul broadens the principle of suffering giving way to glory and applies it to all of creation, specifically non-rational creation

• The picture Paul paints of the cosmos is distinct from the way an atheist would describe it--Paul talks about a universe that has a purpose, has lost that purpose, and looks forward to the restoration of that purpose

• The imagery and words Paul uses point to the fall in Genesis 3 and the frustration of the teacher in Ecclesiastes

• At the same time, creation desires to be set free of the fall and be made new, as God promised He would (Isaiah 11:6-9)

• At the end of the passage , Paul again narrows his focus to his audience to address the dissonance we feel and our hope for its resolution

• The "first fruits of the Spirit" does not refer to the fruit of the Spirit, but rather the first portion of the Christian's inheritance (Ephesians 1:13-14) -Earlier Paul treats our adoption as something that has already occurred--here he speaks of it as something yet to happen

• We have become part of God's family, but we do not yet have full rights and inheritance because we are not yet who we ought to be

• Paul finishes this point by reminding us that these glorious things are still to come, and we anticipate them in hope that "does not put us to shame" (5:5)

Study session audio:

S4 E21: Romans 8:15-25

Study session scripture: Romans 8:1-14

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

Study session topics:

• Assurance of Hope

• Freedom from condemnation by the law (vv. 1-4)

• v. 1: a thesis and a summary -"therefore"--the biggest one yet

• No condemnation

• Points back to the first few chapters, summed up in 3:9-11 -"in Christ Jesus"

• Points back to Paul's discussion of being united to Christ in Ch. 5, continued in v. 2

• Here we see all 3 persons of the Trinity active in salvation

• God the Father: Sends His Son to Earth and condemns sin in the flesh through Christ's death, thus justifying the Christian

• God the Son: Becomes like us, dies as the perfect sacrifice, and breaks the power of sin through His death

• God the Holy Spirit: Joins us to Christ in His death and resurrection, and gives us power to live a holy life

• In this passage we begin to see how our freedom from condemnation leads to a holy life -Holiness is the goal of justification

• Holiness consists of fulfilling the law's just demands

• Holiness is the work of the Holy Spirit

• Holiness is mandatory

• We see Christ illustrate how freedom from condemnation works in John 8:1-11

• Deliverance from our sinful natures (vv. 5-14)

• In vv. 5-8 Paul contrasts the unsaved person and the Christian

• The unsaved person is characterized in 4 ways:

• His thinking: his mind is set on fleshly things

• His state: spiritually dead

• His religion: anti-God

• His present condition: unable to please God

• The Christian is characterized in 2 ways:

• His thinking: set on what the Spirit desires

• His state: spiritually alive and at peace

• In vv. 9-11 Paul encourages his audience to examine themselves to assure them that they are included in God's new covenant

• The Christian's past (v. 9) -The Christian's present (v. 10)

• The Christian's future (v.11) -vv. 12-14 describe the process of sanctification as a moral imperative

• If you live like a non-Christian, you will die like a non-Christian--because you are not a Christian -If you live like a Christian--as only a true Christian can--you will live forever

Study session audio:

S4 E20: Romans 8:1-14

Study session scripture: Romans 7:13-25

Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

Study session topics:

• The Law and sin, continued

  • v. 13 summarizes vv. 7-12

  • The law does not bring death

  • The law reveals sin as sin

  • Sin takes provocation from the law

  • The law, operated on by sin, brings us to the end of ourselves

• What is the state of the man in vv. 14-25?

• Paul as an unsaved man -Calls himself "sold under sin"

• Says "nothing good dwells in me"

• Wonders "who will deliver me from this body of death?

  • Problems with this view:

    • The way Paul describes himself here is different from how he describes his unsaved state elsewhere

    • Paul expresses delight in God's law, which is absent in unbelievers

    • Paul describes himself in the past tense in vv. 7-12, but here he describes himself in the present tense

• Paul as a "carnal Christian"

• The man in the passage speaks in despair, as if he has been defeated

  • This view holds that the passage talks about a Christian who lives in sin, and Ch. 8 is about a life of victory

  • Problems with this view:

  • This view suggests that there are 2 stages of Christian experience, where a person first accepts Christ as Savior, then later accepts Him as Lord

  • Paul does speak of his flesh, but there is a struggle that a so-called "carnal Christian" has given up on

• Paul as a man under conviction

  • This view claims that Paul is speaking neither as a regenerate man nor an unregenerate man

  • The strongest argument for this position is that Paul is speaking as a man who has come to the end of himself after being confronted by the law

  • Problems with this view:

  • It still doesn't account for the change from past to present tense

  • Paul knows who his redeemer is

Study session audio:

S4 E19: Romans 7:13-25

Study session scripture: Romans 7:7-12

What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

Study session topics:

• The Law and Sin

  • The Legalist's Objections

  • Objection 1: If the law can neither save nor sanctify, what is its value? Should it not be thrown out?

  • Objection 2: If our sin is aroused by the law, isn't the law sinful since it leads to evil?

  • Why these objections matter: Since the law came from God, who does not do or make anything evil

  • Paul will show in this passage that the law is good and holy, and that it does accomplish good things

• The law reveals sin as sin

• No one naturally thinks of themselves as wicked, but God's law reveals that fact to us

• Genesis 6:5 -Romans 3:10-12

• Even if we can see our wicked state with clear eyes, we cannot know what is "sin" without the law

• Paul touches on this earlier in 4:15 and 5:14

• Paul relates this truth to himself

• Philippians 3:2-6 -- Paul once thought very highly of himself and needed the law to see himself as a sinner

• The law provokes sin

• This sounds counterintuitive, but it draws out the realization of how bad sin is

• Sin, through the knowledge of the commandment, creates a surge of rebellion in our hearts

• The law brings out sinful desires we never knew existed

• Our sinful nature reveals itself (and its power over us) by taking provocation from the law

• The Law Brings Us to the End of Ourselves

• v. 9 in context talks about Paul's obliviousness to his own wickedness, becoming aware of that wickedness due to the law, and feeling hopeless -- dying -- due to his realization that he cannot keep the law

• This hopelessness in oneself is a good thing because it drives us to see our need for a savior

• Jesus used the law this way when talking to the rich young ruler (Mark 10:17-22)

• Paul summarizes this idea earlier in 3:19-20

Study session audio:

S4 E18: Romans 7:7-12

Study session scripture: Romans 7:1-6

Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.

Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.

Study session topics:

• The triumph of grace over the power of the law

• Law is binding only until death

• Ancient Greek wording omits "the" in v. 1

• Paul is talking about a broader concept of law than the Law of Moses

• Death ends all obligations and contracts

• Paul's illustration: marriage

• Paul ties the idea of marriage dissolving at death to the Christian's relationship to the dominion of the law vs. the dominion of Christ

• This illustration is not allegorical (i.e. the husband does not represent the law, or Adam, or our old nature)

• Though this is an imperfect illustration, it is useful for several reasons:

  • A woman who is married to a man is under the authority of that man

  • The subjection of a wife to a husband in marriage is for life

• In spite of the permanence of this relationship and the authority it confers, there is still the possibility of entering into another relationship

• The object of marriage is to bear fruit

• Flesh vs. spirit

• The word "flesh" here has a deeper theological meaning that Paul often uses in his letters in contrast with "spirit"

• Flesh (sarx) can refer to a physical human body (Luke 24:39, Gal. 2:20), the whole of mankind (Isaiah 40:6), or our fallen, sinful nature

• v. 5 uses the latter meaning

  • It can't be a physical body, since it speaks of flesh in the past tense

  • It can't be all humanity, since it is contrasting flesh with the new life according to the Spirit

• Interpreting the use of the word "flesh" correctly is critical, because misuse of the term has given rise to the modern view of the "carnal Christian"

• Scripture does speak about and to immature Christians, but it does not support the idea of them being in a separate category of persons from "spiritual" Christians

• Scripture treats the process of sanctification for the Christian not as something that is optional, but as an inevitability (I Cor. 6:9-11, Philippians 1:6, Hebrews 9:13-14)

• In Romans 7:6, Paul presents 2 categories: captivity to sin aroused by the law, and serving in the new way of the Spirit

Study session audio:

S4 E17: Romans 7:1-6