Trinity Evangel Church

This paragraph should be among those first pulled off the shelf when beginning to explain why men act the way they do. The implications of these truths spread out slowly like maple syrup from an overturned semi-truck coming from Canada. We see some of what’s wrong with us, and in particular how we can be expected to respond to external fixes. We are not tomato plants; tying us to straight sticks makes us mad.

This paragraph is probably not a typical choice in evangelism, but it could be. It points to the need for Christ and grace and gospel without using any of those words. It’s the previous paragraph, Romans 7:1-6, which explains that we can only bear righteous fruit when we’re dead to the law in union with Christ. Apart from union with Christ we’re still slaves of sin (as Romans chapter 6). Apart from union with Christ we’re still bound to the law, which only makes us more irritated by the law. The law doesn’t deliver anyone, we need deliverance from the law.

The law must be no good then, right? But isn’t it God’s law? The Lord Himself gave it. The Lord Jesus didn’t abolish the law He affirmed it (Matthew 5:17). He showed the law to be more relevant (Matthew 5:21-48) than most thought. The law distinguished Israel from the pagans (Romans 9:4). The law should be our delight both day and night (Psalm 1:2). The rules of His law are more desirable than gold and honey (Psalm 19:10). Why do we need to be dead and released from it?

A consideration of anthropology concerning the law of aggravation in three parts.

The moral character of the law is so beyond question that its righteousness can be assumed by rhetorical question. Paul uses this formula to emphasize the obvious. What shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! There are some parallels in Paul’s language about our being dead to sin and dead to the law, but that isn’t because sin and law are equal or that the law has anything sinful about it. The law can’t be said to cause sin. So is it tainted? μὴ γένοιτο!

The law reveals sin, but we’ve known that (Romans 3:20 and 5:13). How is the argument advancing here? There’s more than the surface apprehension. Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. This is true, technically. Men like to be technical. Men have the work of the law written on their hearts so that their consciences excuse or accuse (Romans 2:14-15), but those feelings of confidence or guilt are subjective without an external standard, or at least they are difficult to pin down. A law stands still long enough for everyone to see it and measure conduct by it.

Paul illustrates his own experience with a particular law, one what wasn’t hidden in a footnote; it’s the tenth of the 10 Commandments. But there’s something extra about this one. A jury can decide if you’re worshiping idols; you were caught on camera kneeling before Buddha’s belly. Or you flamed on about your parents on Facebook at it went viral. The police found your neighbor’s tools in your garage and other neighbors saw his wife sneaking out of your bedroom window. But like Smokey the Bear, only you can tell the truth about what’s happening in your chest.

And, it turns out, there is a law about what you’re prohibited from wanting. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’ (A quote from the LXX of Exodus 20:17) This is what happened to Paul, this is the way among all flesh.

Life is full of wants. Life could be described as a series of wants and then work to get those wants fulfilled. God says some wants are sin. As Christians have known for a long time, we’re only allowed to covet prayers.

Now we can’t make excuses for our sin, and sin gets even more ideas. But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. Sin took the law like an open door; the word for opportunity is ἀφορμή, the “starting-point or base of operations for an expedition” (BAGD), “that from which an attack is launched” (Morris). Paul talks about sin like it’s a person, and it’s not a pretty personification. The commandment didn’t stop the coveting, the commandment fueled it. The law aggravated sin.

Augustine’s Confessions has become well-known:

It is certain, O Lord, that theft is punished by your law, the law that is written in men's hearts and cannot be erased however sinful they are. For no thief can bear that another thief should steal from him, even if he is rich and the other is driven to it by want. Yet I was willing to steal, and steal I did, although I was not compelled by any lack, unless it were the lack of a sense of justice or a distaste for what was right and a greedy love of doing wrong. For of what I stole I already had plenty, and much better at that, and I had no wish to enjoy the things I coveted by stealing, but only to enjoy the theft itself and the sin. …our real pleasure consisted in doing something that was forbidden.

It’s the law of aggravation.

For apart from the law, sin lies dead. Paul is changing references with his analogy, and it’s vital to keep up. Usually we are dead in sin, numb and unresponsive to righteousness. The deadness here is different. Here sin is dead, as in, sin is quiet and lifeless-ish. The law bangs on the coffin and brings sin to consciousness.

I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. Paul’s not claiming that he was truly alive when sin was dead, as if ignorance was a place that needed no salvation. He shows that sin isn’t good when it’s ignorant and even worse when it’s aggravated. There is a sort of self-referencing bliss without rules, a lack of trouble. With the law in town, when the commandment came home, sin wants to fight, and every game with sin in ends in death. It is an end to “self-flattery” (Calvin), “self-confidence, self-satisfaction, self-reliance” (Morris).

The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. Righteousness was revealed in the law, and the end of righteousness is life. But that promise didn’t resonate. It stirred up want in the opposite direction.

Verse 11 finishes what verse 8 started with the same imagery. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. Now that we know we’re wrong, sin even deceives us into thinking that the law can fix it, which stabs us in the back of the conscience.

Christ alone saves us. The law, by itself, or even with a general work of the Holy Spirit, only makes it worse.

Is the law sin? No. All he’s said proves otherwise. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Holy means separate and excellent, righteous is without wrong, and good is of high and useful quality.

This is the conclusion of the paragraph: Provocation to more coveting proves that the law about coveting is pure. Breaking the commandment validates that the problem isn’t with the commandment. The law of God has the character of God. The law of God demonstrates sinful men do not.

The law aggravates. It stirs up longings that may otherwise have hibernated through the winter of ignorance. Sin doesn’t need provocation, but it will respond to being bossed. It’s the nature of sin.

Paul is talking about the Mosaic Law, and it’s another angle on the truth that the law can’t save. Rules don’t make anyone righteous in the heart, rules aggravate men into wanting what isn’t righteous.

There is wisdom needed. It’s not an automatic formula but an abiding principle among post-Adam men.

Does every law cause every person to want to break the law every time? No, but this is an exception to the rule. In general, because of sin in us, we naturally are bent toward wanting what we’re not supposed to have. For however much law restrains it aggravates. If we all lived in our sin consistently, we would always reject the rules, always be aggravated to greater rejection by the rules. Changing our behavior to avoid consequences means there are competing wants, not that we’ve eliminated unrighteous wants.

There are implications here for our rule-making homes, our policy-making institutions, and our legislation-making governments.

As good as God’s Law is (inspired and inerrant and true and good), state laws and school policies and father’s commands cannot make anyone love them.

A righteous, Christian home will have rules. Those rules will provoke disobedience, as well as occasionally provide previously unconsidered ideas, without grace. Resistance and resentment toward the rules and rule-makers is typical. When hypocrites enforce the rules, then there are two reasons to hate the law. When the rules are petty, it’s a trifecta of bad.

Would a nation be better with righteous legislation? Of course it would be; “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people” (Proverbs 14:34). Unrighteous laws are supposed to be a better alternative? Where are righteous laws rooted? Not in common human experience but rather in standards that are transcendent; morality is defined by the Creator. As such, any laws that repeat or echo His laws will aggravate others toward the opposite, just because sin. A nation can be governed in righteousness but a nation will only be righteous by gospel.

Again, is it better to avoid law because it makes some men mad? Is it better to avoid law because some mad men make them? The old Latin tag: abusus non tollit usum, “abuse does not abolish use.”

What is necessary? Look to Christ. Only in Him is freedom from sin’s insatiable life of coveting and contrarianism. We need new hearts with His law written into our hearts (Psalm 40:8; see also Jeremiah 31:33). This doesn’t remove externals, it teaches us how our relation to them and what to expect.

Brothers, hate your sin. Sin lies about what is good. Sin will take what is good and beat you up with it. Sin deceives, sin desensitizes. Keep believing in the Lord Jesus Christ and You will share in His joy. Let grace take up its base of operations for thankfulness, holiness, righteousness, and good.

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. (Hebrews 3:12–14, ESV)

# Introduction

This paragraph should be among those first pulled off the shelf when beginning to explain why men act the way they do. The implications of these truths spread out slowly like maple syrup from an overturned semi-truck coming from Canada. We see some of what’s wrong with us, and in particular how we can be expected to respond to external fixes. We are not tomato plants; tying us to straight sticks makes us mad.

This paragraph is probably not a typical choice in evangelism, but it could be. It points to the need for Christ and grace and gospel without using any of those words. It’s the previous paragraph, Romans 7:1-6, which explains that we can *only* bear righteous fruit when we’re dead to the law in union with Christ. Apart from union with Christ we’re still slaves of sin (as Romans chapter 6). Apart from union with Christ we’re still bound to the law, which only makes us more irritated by the law. The law doesn’t deliver anyone, we need deliverance *from* the law.

The law must be no good then, right? But isn’t it *God’s* law? The Lord Himself gave it. The Lord Jesus didn’t abolish the law He affirmed it (Matthew 5:17). He showed the law to be *more* relevant (Matthew 5:21-48) than most thought. The law distinguished Israel from the pagans (Romans 9:4). The law should be our delight both day and night (Psalm 1:2). The rules of His law are more desirable than gold and honey (Psalm 19:10). Why do we need to be dead and released from it?

A consideration of anthropology concerning the law of aggravation in three parts.


# Ignorance without the Law (verse 7)

The moral character of the law is so beyond question that its righteousness can be assumed by rhetorical question. Paul uses this formula to emphasize the obvious. **What shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means!** There are some parallels in Paul’s language about our being dead to sin and dead to the law, but that isn’t because sin and law are equal or that the law has anything sinful about it. The law can’t be said to cause sin. So is it tainted? μὴ γένοιτο!

The law reveals sin, but we’ve known that (Romans 3:20 and 5:13). How is the argument advancing here? There’s more than the surface apprehension. **Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin.** This is true, technically. Men like to be technical. Men have the work of the law written on their hearts so that their consciences excuse or accuse (Romans 2:14-15), but those feelings of confidence or guilt are subjective without an external standard, or at least they are difficult to pin down. A law stands still long enough for everyone to see it and measure conduct by it.

Paul illustrates his own experience with a particular law, one what wasn’t hidden in a footnote; it’s the tenth of the 10 Commandments. But there’s something *extra* about this one. A jury can decide if you’re worshiping idols; you were caught on camera kneeling before Buddha’s belly. Or you flamed on about your parents on Facebook at it went viral. The police found your neighbor’s tools in your garage and other neighbors saw his wife sneaking out of your bedroom window. But like Smokey the Bear, only *you* can tell the truth about what’s happening in your chest.

*And*, it turns out, there is a law about what you’re prohibited from wanting. **For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’** (A quote from the LXX of Exodus 20:17) This is what happened to Paul, this is the way among all flesh.

Life is full of wants. Life could be described as a series of wants and then work to get those wants fulfilled. God says some wants are sin. As Christians have known for a long time, we’re only allowed to covet prayers.


# Irritation by the Law (verses 8-11)

Now we can’t make excuses for our sin, and sin gets even more ideas. **But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness.** Sin took the law like an open door; the word for **opportunity** is ἀφορμή, the “starting-point or base of operations for an expedition” (BAGD), “that from which an attack is launched” (Morris). Paul talks about sin like it’s a person, and it’s not a pretty personification. The commandment didn’t stop the coveting, the commandment fueled it. The law aggravated sin.

Augustine’s _Confessions_ has become well-known:

> It is certain, O Lord, that theft is punished by your law, the law that is written in men's hearts and cannot be erased however sinful they are. For no thief can bear that another thief should steal from him, even if he is rich and the other is driven to it by want. Yet I was willing to steal, and steal I did, although I was not compelled by any lack, unless it were the lack of a sense of justice or a distaste for what was right and a greedy love of doing wrong. For of what I stole I already had plenty, and much better at that, and I had no wish to enjoy the things I coveted by stealing, but only to enjoy the theft itself and the sin. …our real pleasure consisted in doing something that was forbidden.

It’s the law of aggravation.

**For apart from the law, sin lies dead.** Paul is changing references with his analogy, and it’s vital to keep up. Usually we are dead in sin, numb and unresponsive to righteousness. The deadness here is different. Here sin is dead, as in, sin is quiet and lifeless-ish. The law bangs on the coffin and brings sin to consciousness.

**I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died.** Paul’s not claiming that he was truly alive when sin was dead, as if ignorance was a place that needed no salvation. He shows that sin isn’t good when it’s ignorant and even worse when it’s aggravated. There is a sort of self-referencing bliss without rules, a lack of trouble. With the law in town, **when the commandment came** home, sin wants to fight, and every game with sin in ends in death. It is an end to “self-flattery” (Calvin), “self-confidence, self-satisfaction, self-reliance” (Morris).

**The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.** Righteousness was revealed in the law, and the end of righteousness is life. But that promise didn’t resonate. It stirred up want in the opposite direction.

Verse 11 finishes what verse 8 started with the same imagery. **For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.** Now that we know we’re wrong, sin even deceives us into thinking that the law can fix it, which stabs us in the back of the conscience.

Christ alone saves us. The law, by itself, or even with a general work of the Holy Spirit, only makes it worse.


# Inference about the Law (verse 12)

Is the law sin? No. All he’s said proves otherwise. **So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.** **Holy** means separate and excellent, **righteous** is without wrong, and **good** is of high and useful quality.

This is the conclusion of the paragraph: Provocation to more coveting *proves* that the law about coveting is pure. Breaking the commandment validates that the problem isn’t with the commandment. The law of God has the character of God. The law of God demonstrates sinful men do not.


# Conclusion

The law aggravates. It stirs up longings that may otherwise have hibernated through the winter of ignorance. Sin doesn’t need provocation, but it will respond to being bossed. It’s the nature of sin.

Paul is talking about the Mosaic Law, and it’s another angle on the truth that the law *can’t* save. Rules don’t make anyone righteous *in the heart*, rules aggravate men into wanting what isn’t righteous.

There is wisdom needed. It’s not an automatic formula but an abiding principle among post-Adam men.

Does every law cause every person to want to break the law every time? No, but this is an *exception* to the rule. In general, because of sin in us, we naturally are bent toward wanting what we’re not supposed to have. For however much law restrains it aggravates. If we all lived in our sin *consistently*, we would always reject the rules, always be aggravated to greater rejection by the rules. Changing our behavior to avoid consequences means there are competing wants, not that we’ve eliminated unrighteous wants.

There are implications here for our rule-making homes, our policy-making institutions, and our legislation-making governments.

As good as God’s Law is (inspired and inerrant and true and good), state laws and school policies and father’s commands cannot make anyone love them.

A righteous, Christian home will have rules. Those rules will provoke disobedience, as well as occasionally provide previously unconsidered ideas, without grace. Resistance and resentment toward the rules and rule-makers is typical. When hypocrites enforce the rules, then there are *two* reasons to hate the law. When the rules are petty, it’s a trifecta of bad.

Would a nation be better with righteous legislation? Of course it would be; “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people” (Proverbs 14:34). *Un*righteous laws are supposed to be a better alternative? Where are righteous laws rooted? Not in common human experience but rather in standards that are transcendent; morality is defined by the Creator. As such, any laws that repeat or echo His laws will aggravate others toward the opposite, just because sin. A nation can be governed in righteousness but a nation will only be righteous by gospel.

Again, is it better to avoid law because it makes some men mad? Is it better to avoid law because some mad men make them? The old Latin tag: *abusus non tollit usum*, “abuse does not abolish use.”

What is necessary? Look to Christ. Only in Him is freedom from sin’s insatiable life of coveting and contrarianism. We need new hearts with His law written *into* our hearts (Psalm 40:8; see also Jeremiah 31:33). This doesn’t remove externals, it teaches us how our relation to them and what to expect.

----------

## Charge

Brothers, hate your sin. Sin lies about what is good. Sin will take what is good and beat you up with it. Sin deceives, sin desensitizes. Keep believing in the Lord Jesus Christ and You will share in His joy. Let grace take up its base of operations for thankfulness, holiness, righteousness, and good.

## Benediction:

> Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. (Hebrews 3:12–14, ESV)

In The Pilgrim’s Progress Christian ignored the counsel of Evangelist and turned toward the house of Mr. Legality who lived in the village of Morality.

So Christian turned out of his way to go to Mr. Legality’s house for help: but behold, when he was got now hard by the hill, it seemed so high, and also that side of it that was the next way side, did hang so much over, that Christian was afraid to venture further, lest the hill should fall on his head….Also his burden now seemed heavier to him than when he was in his way. There came also flashes of fire out of the hill that made Christian afraid that he should be burned.

The part of the hill hanging over him was Mt. Sinai, the Law. What’s also interesting in Bunyan’s version is that Christian was encouraged to go to Mr. Legality by Mr. Worldly Wiseman.

There is another powerful image, perhaps not as poetic. In his book Transforming Grace, Jerry Bridges has a chapter called “The Performance Treadmill.”

If we’ve performed well—whatever “well” is in our opinion—then we expect God to bless us. If we haven’t done so well, our expectations are reduced accordingly. In this sense, we live by works rather than grace. We are saved by grace, but we are living by the “sweat” of our own performance.

I love treadmills! When I was training for the LA Marathon in 2001 I did a lot of running. The majority of my running was done on a treadmill. Not being a particularly fast runner, I spent a lot of time with my friend, Mr. Treadmill. We got to know each other very well.

Saturdays were my long run days. Sometimes I would be on the same treadmill for over 4 hours!

But even though a treadmill looks kind of calm, a treadmill has expectations – high expectations! A treadmill expects (and requires) that you keep up. You cannot fall behind, you cannot miss one step, you must perform up to speed or you will pay the consequences.

While Christians present their members as slaves to righteousness (6:19), we still need to learn what it means to be under grace and not under law (6:15). Even for those who know their solas, who have dropped the burden of earning justification with God, we need the exposition about our relationship to the law that Paul provides in Romans 7.

Something to know about the Legal Authority of the Law

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? (Romans 7:1 ESV)

Or do you not know is a tactful, rhetorical question. The apostle once again uses a self-evident truth as the foundation of his argument. Important to note: he is addressing brothers.

The word law probably does not refer here to law in general, but to the law of Moses. First, we have already seen that the Mosaic law is the subject of discussion in chapters 2-5. Second, it is the Mosaic law that provokes sin (5:20). Third, believers are no longer under the Mosaic law (6:14-15).

The following context also indicates that the Mosaic law is in view. Paul specifically cites the 10th commandment of the Decalogue (7:7), and he is certainly referring to the Mosaic law in 7:12 in affirming the holiness of the law and the goodness of God’s commandments.

But even if the ‘law’ refers to a law in general, the principle is just the same.

The verb binding (or “jurisdiction” NASB) simply means to “rule over, lord over, master,” “hath dominion over” (KJV). The same word is used in 6:9 and 6:14 of the lordship of death and sin. So Paul is not referring to the rule of the law in some abstract sense, but in connection with the lordship of death and sin.

The law binds only as long as he lives. This is really not a bombshell. The principle is obvious. But Paul continues to build his case. If the law was good, as religious Jews contended, then this is no big deal. But as the apostle continues to prove that the law (because of sin) keeps us in a harmful relationship.

An illustration of the Legal Authority of the Law

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. (Romans 7:2–3 ESV)

The picture here gives further evidence that the Mosaic law is in view.

A wife is bound to her husband while he lives. This fits with the Jewish background since wives had no right in Judaism to divorce their husbands, while on the other hand husbands could divorce their wives (Deuteronomy 24:1-4). In addition, wives were considered free from the marriage upon the husband’s death.

By contrast, according to Romand law both husbands and wives had the right to initiate a divorce.

The main point of the picture is that one’s relationship to the law is changed when death occurs. The married woman is bound, that is, she is “tied,” obligated, constrained by the law to her husband. It is only when her husband dies that she is released from that law.

Verse 3 gets even more specific. It is not giving any teaching about divorce or remarriage, it is simply explaining the principle. Imagine the scenario: a woman whose husband dies is most certainly free from the restraint and obligation and free to marry another man (Paul even encourages the younger widows to do so in another letter).

But a woman who joins herself to another man while still married is called an adulterer. She sins, she breaks the 7th commandment. Death makes the difference.

The significance of freedom from the Legal Authority of the Law

No illustration is without its shortcomings. The picture of the married woman does not precisely correspond to the death of the Christian to the Law.

It is the man who died in the illustration, so if everything corresponded we would expect that the Law has died. But it is the Christian who died, not the Law.

The point is still clear, however. We died to sin in Christ and to the impossible demands of the Law which condemned us to death. Our death and resurrection has freed us from the authority and penalty of the law.

There are two products, and I chose that to emphasize beyond the intention/purpose, these are the results.

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. (Romans 7:4–5 ESV)

The address to the brothers is repeated for the second time in this paragraph. Paul uses this term at least 10 times in this letter, but is is surprising to find it again after only three verses. The repetition is significant. He knows that the subject is personal, he knows that the subject is critical.

Verse 4 is the key verse of the paragraph. The analogy in verses 2-3 convey not only that believers have died to the law, but also that believers have a new relationship with Christ.

That believers were made to die indicates that God is the one who puts believers to death. They did not accomplish this on their own initiative.

The phrase died to the Law recalls 6:2. Just as believers died to the power of sin, so too they have died to the power of the law. Just as believers have been “released” from the body of sin (6:6) so too they are released from the authority of the law (7:6).

The dominion of the law has been broken and now believers are married to Christ. They were made to die that you may belong to another, to Him who has been raised from the dead.

The death of Christ is crucial, but so is His resurrection! The resurrection of Christ makes it a whole new world! We have been buried with Him, we are raised with Him.

Being joined to Christ is the ONLY way that anyone can bear fruit to God. This expression is conceptually similar to 6:4 where the participation in Christ’s death is for the purpose of “walking in the newness of life.”

Verses 5-6 are introduced to explain verse 4 in more detail. They answer the question: “Why is it that believers need to die to the law?”

Because, according to verse 5, the law in the unregenerate/unbeliever does not produce righteousness. Instead, their sinful passions are actually increased through the law with the result of death, about which more in verses 8, 11, and 13, even the second half of chapter 7.

The typical Jewish view was that the Law helped prevent people from sinning. Paul contends that it aids and encourages sin. Sin is provoked and stimulated by the law (see also 5:20).

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. (Romans 7:6 ESV)

The key is again, having died. The death of Christ definitively broke the power of the law that in concert with sin produced death.

Paul has already declared as forcefully and unambiguously as possible that freedom from the law’s bondage does NOT mean freedom to do what the law forbids. Freedom from the law does not bring freedom from sin but just the opposite – freedom for the first time to do what is righteous and to serve in newness of the Spirit.

The letter is similar to Romans 2:9; refers to the OT law and its inability to effect righteousness apart from the Spirit. The letter of the law demands but does not enable obedience. In fact, the letter of the law actually kindles the desire to sin.

How many religions are worldly-wise and keep men sweaty and fearful on the performance treadmill? In Christ we are free to run in righteousness. This is the fruit of belonging to Christ.

For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. (Galatians 2:19 ESV)

His diving power has granted to us everything necessary to know, reckon, and yield our members to Christ. Abide in Christ in order to bear fruit for Him. You are His. You do not belong to sin or to the law, but to Christ.

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. (2 Peter 1:3–4, ESV)

# Introduction

In _The Pilgrim’s Progress_ Christian ignored the counsel of Evangelist and turned toward the house of Mr. Legality who lived in the village of Morality.

> So Christian turned out of his way to go to Mr. Legality’s house for help: but behold, when he was got now hard by the hill, it seemed so high, and also that side of it that was the next way side, did hang so much over, that Christian was afraid to venture further, lest the hill should fall on his head….Also his burden now seemed heavier to him than when he was in his way. There came also flashes of fire out of the hill that made Christian afraid that he should be burned.

The part of the hill hanging over him was Mt. Sinai, the *Law*. What’s also interesting in Bunyan’s version is that Christian was encouraged to go to Mr. Legality by Mr. Worldly Wiseman.

There is another powerful image, perhaps not as poetic. In his book _Transforming Grace_, Jerry Bridges has a chapter called “The Performance Treadmill.”

> If we’ve performed well—whatever “well” is in our opinion—then we expect God to bless us. If we haven’t done so well, our expectations are reduced accordingly. In this sense, we live by works rather than grace. We are saved by grace, but we are living by the “sweat” of our own performance.

I love treadmills! When I was training for the LA Marathon in 2001 I did a lot of running. The majority of my running was done on a treadmill. Not being a particularly fast runner, I spent a lot of time with my friend, Mr. Treadmill. We got to know each other very well.

Saturdays were my long run days. Sometimes I would be on the same treadmill for over 4 hours!

But even though a treadmill looks kind of calm, a treadmill has expectations – high expectations! A treadmill expects (and requires) that you keep up. You cannot fall behind, you cannot miss one step, you must perform up to speed or you will pay the consequences.

While Christians present their members as slaves to righteousness (6:19), we still need to learn what it means to be under grace and not under law (6:15). Even for those who know their *solas*, who have dropped the burden of earning justification with God, we need the exposition about our relationship to the law that Paul provides in Romans 7.


# The Principle (verse 1)

Something to know about the Legal Authority of the Law

> 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? (Romans 7:1 ESV)

**Or do you not know** is a tactful, rhetorical question. The apostle once again uses a self-evident truth as the foundation of his argument. Important to note: he is addressing **brothers**.

The word **law** probably does not refer here to law in general, but to the law of Moses. First, we have already seen that the Mosaic law is the subject of discussion in chapters 2-5. Second, it is the Mosaic law that provokes sin (5:20). Third, believers are no longer under the Mosaic law (6:14-15).

The following context also indicates that the Mosaic law is in view. Paul specifically cites the 10th commandment of the Decalogue (7:7), and he is certainly referring to the Mosaic law in 7:12 in affirming the holiness of the law and the goodness of God’s commandments.

But even if the ‘law’ refers to a law in general, the principle is just the same.

The verb **binding** (or “jurisdiction” NASB) simply means to “rule over, lord over, master,” “hath dominion over” (KJV). The same word is used in 6:9 and 6:14 of the lordship of death and sin. So Paul is not referring to the rule of the law in some abstract sense, but in connection with the lordship of death and sin.

The law binds **only as long as he lives**. This is really not a bombshell. The principle is obvious. But Paul continues to build his case. If the law was good, as religious Jews contended, then this is no big deal. But as the apostle continues to prove that the law (because of sin) keeps us in a harmful relationship.


# The Picture (verses 2-3)

An illustration of the Legal Authority of the Law

> 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. (Romans 7:2–3 ESV)

The picture here gives further evidence that the Mosaic law is in view.

A wife is **bound to her husband while he lives**. This fits with the Jewish background since wives had no right in Judaism to divorce their husbands, while on the other hand husbands could divorce their wives (Deuteronomy 24:1-4). In addition, wives were considered free from the marriage upon the husband’s death.

By contrast, according to Romand law both husbands and wives had the right to initiate a divorce.

The main point of the picture is that one’s relationship to the law is changed when death occurs. The married woman is bound, that is, she is “tied,” obligated, constrained by the law to her husband. It is only when her husband dies that she is released from that law.

Verse 3 gets even more specific. It is not giving any teaching about divorce or remarriage, it is simply explaining the principle. Imagine the scenario: a woman whose husband dies is most certainly free from the restraint and obligation and free to marry another man (Paul even encourages the younger widows to do so in another letter).

But a woman who joins herself to another man while still married is called an adulterer. She sins, she breaks the 7th commandment. *Death* makes the difference.


# The Products (verses 4-6)

The significance of freedom from the Legal Authority of the Law

No illustration is without its shortcomings. The picture of the married woman does not precisely correspond to the death of the Christian to the Law.

It is the man who died in the illustration, so if everything corresponded we would expect that the Law has died. But it is the Christian who died, not the Law.

The point is still clear, however. We died to sin in Christ and to the impossible demands of the Law which condemned us to death. Our death and resurrection has freed us from the authority and penalty of the law.

There are two *products*, and I chose that to emphasize beyond the intention/purpose, these are the results.

## First, that we will BEAR FRUIT to God, not death.

> 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. (Romans 7:4–5 ESV)

The address to the **brothers** is repeated for the second time in this paragraph. Paul uses this term at least 10 times in this letter, but is is surprising to find it again after only three verses. The repetition is significant. He knows that the subject is personal, he knows that the subject is critical.

Verse 4 is the key verse of the paragraph. The analogy in verses 2-3 convey not only that believers have died to the law, but also that believers have a new relationship with Christ.

That believers were made to die indicates that God is the one who puts believers to death. They did not accomplish this on their own initiative.

The phrase **died to the Law** recalls 6:2. Just as believers died to the power of sin, so too they have died to the power of the law. Just as believers have been “released” from the body of sin (6:6) so too they are released from the authority of the law (7:6).

The dominion of the law has been broken and now believers are married to Christ. They were made to die **that you may belong to another, to Him who has been raised from the dead**.

The death of Christ is crucial, but so is His resurrection! The resurrection of Christ makes it a whole new world! We have been buried with Him, we are raised with Him.

Being joined to Christ is the ONLY way that anyone can bear fruit to God. This expression is conceptually similar to 6:4 where the participation in Christ’s death is for the purpose of “walking in the newness of life.”

Verses 5-6 are introduced to explain verse 4 in more detail. They answer the question: “Why is it that believers need to die to the law?”

Because, according to verse 5, the law in the unregenerate/unbeliever does not produce righteousness. Instead, their sinful passions are actually increased through the law with the result of death, about which more in verses 8, 11, and 13, even the second half of chapter 7.

The typical Jewish view was that the Law helped prevent people from sinning. Paul contends that it aids and encourages sin. Sin is provoked and stimulated by the law (see also 5:20).

## Second, that we will SERVE in newness of Spirit, not oldness of law.

> 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. (Romans 7:6 ESV)

The key is again, having died. The death of Christ definitively broke the power of the law that in concert with sin produced death.

Paul has already declared as forcefully and unambiguously as possible that freedom from the law’s bondage does NOT mean freedom to do what the law forbids. Freedom from the law does not bring freedom from sin but just the opposite – freedom for the first time to do what is righteous and to serve in newness of the Spirit.

The **letter** is similar to Romans 2:9; refers to the OT law and its inability to effect righteousness apart from the Spirit. The letter of the law demands but does not enable obedience. In fact, the letter of the law actually kindles the desire to sin.


# Conclusion

How many religions are worldly-wise and keep men sweaty and fearful on the performance treadmill? In Christ we are free to run in righteousness. This is the fruit of belonging to Christ.

> For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. (Galatians 2:19 ESV)

----------

## Charge

His diving power has granted to us everything necessary to know, reckon, and yield our members to Christ. Abide in Christ in order to bear fruit for Him. You are His. You do not belong to sin or to the law, but to Christ.

## Benediction:

> His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. (2 Peter 1:3–4, ESV)

The gravity between grace and obedience is like that between the earth and the moon. As the earth constantly throws and catches the moon, so obedience is propelled by and tethered to grace. There have been some who tried to make the earth revolve around the moon, who make obedience central and grace in second place, which is wrong and deadly. But the fix is not to sever the connection; it’s not grace or obedience, it’s understanding which pulls which.

Paul refutes two errors about grace in Romans 6. By no means (!) should we sin more in order to show off grace more (Romans 6:1). By grace we've been baptized into Christ, into His death and into His resurrection life, and we know, reckon, and yield our members as instruments of righteousness. Grace freed us from sin (Romans 6:7), sin has no dominion over us because we are "under grace" (Romans 6:14).

The authority of grace led to the second possible misunderstanding. By no means (!) should we think sin doesn't matter because we're not under law (Romans 6:15). The law has never had the power to free anyone from his sin (which would be like saying that reading the Farmers’ Almanac gets rid of weeds). But that doesn't mean that the law is meaningless. The law shows what righteousness is like, which condemns the unrighteous, but also reveals the template that grace presses us into. Grace does not make lawless men, grace saves lawless men into true liberty. Grace doesn’t free the moon from the earth, grace gives the moon its course.

There is an antithesis all through the last half of Romans 6. We studied verses 15-18 a couple months ago, and saw that grace has changed our hearts and committed us into doctrine that sets us free to serve a new master. We were obedient slaves of sin, but now "having been set free from sin" we are obedient slaves of righteousness (verse 18).

There will be slavery and their will be liberty, two kinds of slavery and two kinds of liberty, and two results. The slaveries are antithetical, one or the other. The two kinds of liberty are antithetical, mutually exclusive; you can step on the gas and the brake pedals at the same time, you cannot be in reverse and drive at the same time. The two results are antithetical, life or death.

The ESV keeps verse 19 as the last verse of the paragraph beginning in verse 15, but while the subject of slavery continues, Paul opens with an admission before pushing the analogy further.

The focus in verses 19-23 is the end of lawlessness, but in two ways. There is a destination of lawlessness (an end), and there is a deliverance from lawlessness (an ending of).

Slavery is the analogy Paul employed in verse 16. The imagery started earlier in the chapter when he talked about no longer being enslaved to sin (verse 6). The slavery ethic is the answer to why sin matters even under grace.

Paul acknowledges in verse 19 that it's not a perfect analogy; there are human, natural limitations. The comparison might be distasteful; if you were a slave and maybe even more if you weren't. But the totality of service cannot be escaped. It’s not like having covid where you may or may not notice, it’s like being male or female where every cell in your body gives directions.

For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness. This is what they did, what all men do apart from union with Christ. Their bodies are tools for sin. Impurity is a kind of uncleanness (ἀκαθαρσίᾳ); their hands were dirty. Lawlessness (ἀνομίᾳ, so not “wickedness” as NIV or even “iniquity” as KJV) is a boss, a kind of tyrant, who demands more and more. The "without law" drags unto "without law."

Verse 20 does call this a kind of freedom, you were free in regard to righteousness. But again, this is like the moon being free of the earth's gravity. Men don’t write poems about the glorious “freedom” of a big and wandering space rock; the moon’s glory is in its connection. It doesn’t mean an unbeliever can’t do anything right, but right isn’t the rule.

For believers, there is an imperative to freedom, required without irony: so now present your members as slaves to righteousness (verse 19). This is a totality of liberty: under grace as slaves "set free from sin" (verse 18).

Slavery is inescapable, and there are antithetical freedoms.

Verse 20 goes back to get a running start again. When you were slaves of sin there was no care for the things that are right. That has consequences. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which are now ashamed?

This question could be taken a couple ways that makes the same conclusion. Usually in the NT the idea of fruit is positive; rotten fruit is an oxymoron. Does that mean that fruit is never a general metaphor for consequences? You reap what you sow (Galatians 6:87-8), and we could call what grows out of sowing to the flesh "fruit."

So if the fruit and the things are separate in verse 21, then there was no fruit from the things. If fruit and the things are the same, then the fruit was garbage. The result, whether no good fruit or bad fruit, is the same: being ashamed. This is a painful feeling of loss of status. When a believer looks back he sees reasons for embarrassment, he has no excuses.

Now we sow different seed. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification. Instead of humiliation there is holiness. Under grace we are forgiven, and under grace we are free, and under grace we see fruit. How could it be otherwise? "What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!"

Slavery is inescapable, and there are antithetical fruits.

Shame isn't the final stop for the lawless. The end of those things is death (verse 21). Death is ambiguous, it has a number of referents. This death refers to eternal punishment. We know it's eternal because of the antithesis, eternal life. The spiritually dead are the slaves of sin. The physically dead aren't sinning any more. The eternally dead are separated from God forever. It's the "reward" (Tyndale) of their slavery: The wages of sin is death (verse 23).

End is τέλος (both in verses 21 and 22). The telos of lawlessness is death and the telos of sanctification is life.

By gospel contrast, those who are truly free to obey see increased fruit of freedom and its end, eternal life (verse 22). It's the crescendo of the chapter: The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

There are a couple Greek words for gift, and this one (χάρισμα) has an emphasis on how it is free, how it connects with grace. God gives eternal life. God gives grace, God gives us union with His Son, God gives liberty (note the passive voice in “having been set free from sin” in verse 22), God gives us purpose for our bodies, God gives profit, God gives us His eternal presence.

Slavery is inescapable, and there are antithetical futures.

Sin is like a malicious algorithm in your internal GPS, not only surfacing lawless search results, but always giving wrong directions. The sinner is a slave to the program. Grace is not just like a compass pointing north, grace is the gravity that pulls us where we ought to go.

The one thing assumed is that direction matters. Are we to sin, take even a step in the wrong direction, because we’re under grace? By no means!

Beloved, He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6). In the meantime, He has called you to work good. It’s ironic that the school year used to begin when harvest was done, now, for most of us, the fall is when the early seeds are sown, and late spring is when we’ll see the next gleaning. Because you are partakers of grace, and as you seek the fruit of sanctification, present your members as slaves to righteousness.

[May] your love abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 1:9–11, ESV)

# Introduction

The gravity between grace and obedience is like that between the earth and the moon. As the earth constantly throws and catches the moon, so obedience is propelled by and tethered to grace. There have been some who tried to make the earth revolve around the moon, who make obedience central and grace in second place, which is wrong and deadly. But the fix is not to sever the connection; it’s not grace *or* obedience, it’s understanding which pulls which.

Paul refutes two errors about grace in Romans 6. By no means (!) should we sin more in order to show off grace more (Romans 6:1). By grace we've been baptized into Christ, into His death and into His resurrection life, and we know, reckon, and yield our members as instruments of righteousness. Grace freed us from sin (Romans 6:7), sin has no dominion over us because we are "under grace" (Romans 6:14).

The authority of grace led to the second possible misunderstanding. By no means (!) should we think sin doesn't matter because we're not under law (Romans 6:15). The law has *never* had the power to free anyone from his sin (which would be like saying that reading the Farmers’ Almanac gets rid of weeds). But that doesn't mean that the law is meaningless. The law shows what righteousness is like, which condemns the unrighteous, but also reveals the template that grace presses us into. Grace does not make lawless men, grace saves lawless men into true liberty. Grace doesn’t free the moon from the earth, grace gives the moon its course.

There is an antithesis all through the last half of Romans 6. We studied verses 15-18 a couple months ago, and saw that grace has changed our hearts and committed us into doctrine that sets us free to serve a new master. We were obedient slaves of sin, but now "having been set free from sin" we are obedient slaves of righteousness (verse 18).

There will be slavery and their will be liberty, two kinds of slavery and two kinds of liberty, and two results. The slaveries are antithetical, one or the other. The two kinds of liberty are antithetical, mutually exclusive; you can step on the gas and the brake pedals at the same time, you *cannot* be in reverse and drive at the same time. The two results are antithetical, life or death.

The ESV keeps verse 19 as the last verse of the paragraph beginning in verse 15, but while the subject of slavery continues, Paul opens with an admission before pushing the analogy further.

The focus in verses 19-23 is the end of lawlessness, but in two ways. There is a destination of lawlessness (an end), and there is a deliverance from lawlessness (an ending of).


# First, the end of lawlessness will be slavery, either a slavery of tyranny or liberty.

Slavery is the analogy Paul employed in verse 16. The imagery started earlier in the chapter when he talked about no longer being enslaved to sin (verse 6). The slavery ethic is the answer to why sin matters even under grace.

Paul acknowledges in verse 19 that it's not a perfect analogy; there are **human**, **natural limitations**. The comparison might be distasteful; if you *were* a slave and maybe even more if you *weren't*. But the totality of service cannot be escaped. It’s not like having covid where you may or may not notice, it’s like being male or female where every cell in your body gives directions.

**For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness**. This is what they did, what all men do apart from union with Christ. Their bodies are tools for sin. **Impurity** is a kind of uncleanness (ἀκαθαρσίᾳ); their hands were dirty. **Lawlessness** (ἀνομίᾳ, so not “wickedness” as NIV or even “iniquity” as KJV) is a boss, a kind of tyrant, who demands more and more. The "without law" drags unto "without law."

Verse 20 does call this a kind of freedom, **you were free in regard to righteousness**. But again, this is like the moon being free of the earth's gravity. Men don’t write poems about the glorious “freedom” of a big and wandering space rock; the moon’s glory is in its connection. It doesn’t mean an unbeliever can’t do anything right, but right isn’t the rule.

For believers, there is an imperative to freedom, required without irony: **so now present your members as slaves to righteousness** (verse 19). This is a totality of liberty: under grace as slaves "set free from sin" (verse 18).

Slavery is inescapable, and there are antithetical freedoms.


# Second, the end of lawlessness will be slavery, either a slavery of shame or sanctification.

Verse 20 goes back to get a running start again. **When you were slaves of sin** there was no care for the things that are right. That has consequences. **But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which are now ashamed?**

This question could be taken a couple ways that makes the same conclusion. Usually in the NT the idea of **fruit** is positive; rotten fruit is an oxymoron. Does that mean that fruit is never a general metaphor for consequences? You reap what you sow (Galatians 6:87-8), and we could call what grows out of sowing to the flesh "fruit."

So if the **fruit** and **the things** are separate in verse 21, then there was *no* fruit from the things. If **fruit** and the **things** are the same, then the fruit was garbage. The result, whether no good fruit or bad fruit, is the same: being **ashamed**. This is a painful feeling of loss of status. When a believer looks back he sees reasons for embarrassment, he has no excuses.

Now we sow different seed. **But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification.** Instead of humiliation there is holiness. Under grace we are forgiven, and under grace we are free, and under grace we see **fruit**. How could it be otherwise? "What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!"

Slavery is inescapable, and there are antithetical fruits.


# Third, the end of lawlessness will be slavery, either a slavery of death or eternal life.

Shame isn't the final stop for the lawless. **The end of those things is death** (verse 21). **Death** is ambiguous, it has a number of referents. This **death** refers to eternal punishment. We know it's eternal because of the antithesis, eternal life. The spiritually dead are the slaves of sin. The physically dead aren't sinning any more. The eternally dead are separated from God forever. It's the "reward" (Tyndale) of their slavery: **The wages of sin is death** (verse 23).

**End** is τέλος (both in verses 21 and 22). The telos of lawlessness is death and the telos of sanctification is life.

By gospel contrast, those who are truly free to obey see increased fruit of freedom **and its end, eternal life** (verse 22). It's the crescendo of the chapter: The wages of sin is death **but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord**.

There are a couple Greek words for **gift**, and this one (χάρισμα) has an emphasis on how it is *free*, how it connects with grace. God gives eternal life. God gives grace, God gives us union with His Son, God gives liberty (note the passive voice in “having been set free from sin” in verse 22), God gives us purpose for our bodies, God gives profit, God gives us His eternal presence.

Slavery is inescapable, and there are antithetical futures.


# Conclusion

Sin is like a malicious algorithm in your internal GPS, not only surfacing lawless search results, but always giving wrong directions. The sinner is a slave to the program. Grace is not just like a compass pointing north, grace is the gravity that pulls us where we ought to go.

The one thing assumed is that direction matters. Are we to sin, take even a step in the wrong direction, because we’re under grace? By no means!

----------

## Charge

Beloved, He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6). In the meantime, He has called you to work good. It’s ironic that the school year used to begin when harvest was done, now, for most of us, the fall is when the early seeds are sown, and late spring is when we’ll see the next gleaning. Because you are partakers of grace, and as you seek the fruit of sanctification, present your members as slaves to righteousness.

## Benediction:

> [May] your love abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 1:9–11, ESV)

"Yahweh is my pastor, I have everything I need."

That’s an alternative way to start Psalm 23, a song whose words are so well-known, it sounds wrong to say it a different way. Perhaps there’s some rhetorical benefit to our mediation by hearing the same truth stated differently.

John Wycliffe (1395) had it as, "The Lord governeth me, and no thing to me shall lack." William Tyndale didn't get to the Psalms, but the Myles Coverdale translation (the first complete English Bible) in 1525 had "the LORDE is my shepherde, I can wante nothinge." Of course we still echo the King James, published in 1611, "The Lord is my shepheard, I shall not want."

The Psalm is around three-thousand years old, the English words through which we are comforted are over four-hundred years old. The truth of it will never get old.

Though not quoted in the New Testament, is there a Psalm with which we are more familiar than Psalm 23? Psalm 1 is prominent, as is 51, and 119, even key verses in Psalm 22 as we saw in the previous sermon. I'd argue that the sense of peace and provision in this Psalm is stolen by Martin Nystrom (1984) who put Psalm 42 to the tune we know; the deer in Psalm 42 wishes he was the sheep in Psalm 23.

Psalm 23 is a song of comfort, and it belongs to kings just as much if not more than to kids. The psalm is attributed to David, and why not, since he had been a shepherd himself (1 Samuel 16:11). Did he write it when he was a shepherd? Maybe, but the shepherd metaphor ends with verse 4, and verse 5 especially sounds more fitting to the battlefield than the grazing field. Kids should memorize it and sing it, again, not because it is for kids but because it forms kids with a glad dependence on the Great Pastor.

In English we have it so good, we can use the words pastor and shepherd to refer to the same person. Pastor comes from the Latin word pastor, which means shepherd. I'm using Pastor because we need to spend a little time outside our meditative ruts. And for us moderns, pastor may make it a little more personal; our pastors are men, rather than a distant figure of speech about a shepherd.

The Great part comes from Hebrews 13:20. Like I said, Psalm 23 isn't quoted in the New Testament, but the imagery of shepherd certainly carries over. He's called "the great shepherd of the sheep" in Hebrews, and Jesus referred to Himself as the "Good Shepherd" who lays down His life for the sheep in John 10. Throw in Peter's description of Christ as the "Chief Shepherd" and it's another Jesus is Lord, He is the Lord, He is Yahweh embodied.

The song uses the metaphor of Shepherd and sheep in verses 1-4 and has an illustration of Host and guest in verses 5-6. Altogether the picture is of the Pastor's personal care for His sheep. The sheep follow Him, and His care follows them all the days of our lives. It’s a great song with great application.

“A poet should address the specific and if there be anything about him he will articulate the universal.” —Goethe

The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want. The shepherd metaphor isn’t new; Jacob blessed Joseph’s sons and said God “has been by shepherd all my life long to this day” (Genesis 48:15), and he called God Shepherd again in his direct blessing to Joseph (Genesis 49:24).

It's personal, because the LORD is Yahweh, the covenant-keeping name which He revealed Himself, and David could call Him my shepherd (and then “me” and “me” and “my” and “me” and “I” and “I” and “me” and “me” in verses 2-4).

The lack of want communicates both contentment and security.

Verse 2 poetically pushes the analogy, as a shepherd goes first and leads his flock for food and water, to green pastures and still waters. The pastures are for more than eating, they are also for resting; the sheep are made to lie down without worry about predators. The still or placid part of waters is likewise a safety issue; rushing water would be fresh but also might be too fast and drag a sheep downstream.

Already in verse 3 we know that this sheep is more than a sheep. The LORD restores my soul, a reference to healing or fixing. The whole man is refreshed.

The shepherd continues to lead in the second part of the verse, this time in paths of righteousness, in the way he should go. The LORD as pastor does it for the LORD's name; it is for His name’s sake.

Verse 4 is the first explicit mention of threat.

Even though I walk through the valley

These are well-worn words, though still a translation that could have gone different ways. The phrase is a superlative, “the shadowiest of all shadows” (Gerald Wilson) or “deepest/darkest shadow,” the “valley of death-shade.”

The valley of the shadow of death isn't a particular place on the map, it’s a deep ravine that doesn't get much sunlight. There are apparently places like this in Israel where a shepherd might lead his flock on the way to more pasture. It’s a place of possible danger. But even in a place with limited escape routes and limited visibility, the shepherd is there. You are with me.

The presence of the shepherd is the difference-maker. It was a feeling of being forsaken that dominated the majority of the previous Psalm. The guidance to pastures and along the paths requires the presence of the pastor.

Even his rod and staff are a comfort. Both of these tools would be an encouragement. It's like watching a theologian walk into a debate with his Bible in his hand. Some commentators have speculated that rod and staff have a spiritualized reference, but the point is, the shepherd has everything he needs to beat back enemies, to rescue a stuck sheep, and to keep going.

Though no new appellation is used for the LORD, it's not obvious that the shepherd illustration continues. It could be that the picture is of a host, and fine, because a feast is definitely on the table.

The connection between the shepherd and host includes 1) provision, 2) protection, 3) presence.

Where is this table? We know that enemies are near, but is David thinking of himself in his palace with enemies outside the Jerusalem walls, or is he thinking of his military camp, with enemies over on the adjacent hill? Either way, they are present, but they are unable to separate us from the good.

There is a table prepared, a banquet, a feast. To go along with that, there is oil to anoint his head. It's not royal oil or anointing, it is a special kindness in a hot and dry place; refreshing to dry hair and flaky skin, a better smell than a room full of the un-showered. A cup overflows; the wine is plenteous and the host over-generous.

And those who follow the LORD are followed by Him. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. The goodness is tov, the mercy is hesed, the steadfast love (“lovingkindness” NASB, “faithfulness” NET, “love” NIV) of the Lord regularly referred to the Old Testament. The Lord is committed to His sheep. The verb follow is used in other places to refer to chasing or hunting. This is the only place in Scripture where the chased are unable to escape the good. We cannot outrun the goodness and mercy in our lifetimes. It’s as if the Host sent Goodness and Mercy to follow us around the feast making sure we have all we could need.

The house of the LORD was the tabernacle for David, it is not limited to one footprint for us.

He is our shepherd, our host. He guides us, He gives us what we need. He sets us a feast, He follows us with His goodness and mercy.

This is a psalm for warm, confident dependence. It shows that it's not what you know but who you're with.

We will not get over looking to the Shepherd.

And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd. And I, the LORD, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them. I am the LORD; I have spoken. (Ezekiel 34:23–24 ESV)

For the Lamb in the midst of the throne

Are you following the Shepherd? Can you say you are being followed by His goodness and mercy? There is no other Great Pastor. Let us be the people whose God is the Lord, our Shepherd.

The Lord is your great Shepherd. No one can snatch you away from His goodness and mercy. You may not yet know exactly where He's leading you, but you can know surely that there is no day of your life where He takes a vacation from being your Shepherd. Follow Him.

Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. (Hebrews 13:20–21, ESV)

# Introduction

"Yahweh is my pastor, I have everything I need."

That’s an alternative way to start Psalm 23, a song whose words are so well-known, it sounds wrong to say it a different way. Perhaps there’s some rhetorical benefit to our mediation by hearing the same truth stated differently.

John Wycliffe (1395) had it as, "The Lord governeth me, and no thing to me shall lack." William Tyndale didn't get to the Psalms, but the Myles Coverdale translation (the first complete English Bible) in 1525 had "the LORDE is my shepherde, I can wante nothinge." Of course we still echo the King James, published in 1611, "The Lord is my shepheard, I shall not want."

The Psalm is around three-thousand years old, the English words through which we are comforted are over four-hundred years old. The truth of it will never get old.

Though not quoted in the New Testament, is there a Psalm with which we are more familiar than Psalm 23? Psalm 1 is prominent, as is 51, and 119, even key verses in Psalm 22 as we saw in the previous sermon. I'd argue that the sense of peace and provision in this Psalm is stolen by [Martin Nystrom (1984)](https://gccsatx.com/hymns/as-the-deer-panteth-for-the-water/) who put Psalm 42 to the tune we know; the deer in Psalm 42 wishes he was the sheep in Psalm 23.

Psalm 23 is a song of comfort, and it belongs to kings just as much if not more than to kids. The psalm is attributed to David, and why not, since he had been a shepherd himself (1 Samuel 16:11). Did he write it *when* he was a shepherd? Maybe, but the shepherd metaphor ends with verse 4, and verse 5 especially sounds more fitting to the battlefield than the grazing field. Kids should memorize it and sing it, again, not because it is for kids but because it *forms* kids with a glad dependence on the Great Pastor.

In English we have it so good, we can use the words pastor and shepherd to refer to the same person. Pastor comes from the Latin word *pastor*, which means shepherd. I'm using *Pastor* because we need to spend a little time outside our meditative ruts. And for us moderns, pastor may make it a little more personal; our pastors are men, rather than a distant figure of speech about a shepherd.

The *Great* part comes from Hebrews 13:20. Like I said, Psalm 23 isn't quoted in the New Testament, but the imagery of shepherd certainly carries over. He's called "the great shepherd of the sheep" in Hebrews, and Jesus referred to Himself as the "Good Shepherd" who lays down His life for the sheep in John 10. Throw in Peter's description of Christ as the "Chief Shepherd" and it's another Jesus is Lord, He is the Lord, He is Yahweh embodied.

The song uses the metaphor of Shepherd and sheep in verses 1-4 and has an illustration of Host and guest in verses 5-6. Altogether the picture is of the Pastor's personal care for His sheep. The sheep follow Him, and His care follows them all the days of our lives. It’s a great song with great application.

> “A poet should address the specific and if there be anything about him he will articulate the universal.” —Goethe


# The Shepherd (verses 1-4)

**The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.** The shepherd metaphor isn’t new; Jacob blessed Joseph’s sons and said God “has been by shepherd all my life long to this day” (Genesis 48:15), and he called God Shepherd again in his direct blessing to Joseph (Genesis 49:24).

It's personal, because the **LORD** is Yahweh, the covenant-keeping name which He revealed Himself, and David could call Him **my** shepherd (and then “me” and “me” and “my” and “me” and “I” and “I” and “me” and “me” in verses 2-4).

The lack of **want** communicates both contentment and security.

Verse 2 poetically pushes the analogy, as a shepherd goes first and leads his flock for food and water, to **green pastures** and **still waters**. The pastures are for more than eating, they are also for resting; the sheep are made to **lie down** without worry about predators. The **still** or placid part of waters is likewise a safety issue; rushing water would be fresh but also might be too fast and drag a sheep downstream.

Already in verse 3 we know that this sheep is more than a sheep. The LORD **restores my soul**, a reference to healing or fixing. The whole *man* is refreshed.

The shepherd continues to lead in the second part of the verse, this time in **paths of righteousness**, in the way he should go. The LORD as pastor does it for the LORD's name; it is **for His name’s sake**.

Verse 4 is the first explicit mention of threat.

> Even though I walk through the valley
> of the shadow of death,
> I will fear no evil,
> for you are with me;
> your rod and your staff,
> they comfort me.

These are well-worn words, though still a translation that could have gone different ways. The phrase is a superlative, “the shadowiest of all shadows” (Gerald Wilson) or “deepest/darkest shadow,” the “valley of death-shade.”

The **valley of the shadow of death** isn't a particular place on the map, it’s a deep ravine that doesn't get much sunlight. There are apparently places like this in Israel where a shepherd might lead his flock on the way to more pasture. It’s a place of possible danger. But even in a place with limited escape routes and limited visibility, the shepherd is there. **You are with me**.

The presence of the shepherd is the difference-maker. It was a feeling of being forsaken that dominated the majority of the previous Psalm. The guidance to pastures and along the paths requires the presence of the pastor.

Even his **rod and staff** are a comfort. Both of these tools would be an encouragement. It's like watching a theologian walk into a debate with his Bible in his hand. Some commentators have speculated that rod and staff have a spiritualized reference, but the point is, the shepherd has everything he needs to beat back enemies, to rescue a stuck sheep, and to keep going.


# The Host (verses 5-6)

Though no new appellation is used for the LORD, it's not obvious that the shepherd illustration continues. It could be that the picture is of a host, and fine, because a feast is definitely on the table.

The connection between the shepherd and host includes 1) provision, 2) protection, 3) presence.

Where is this **table**? We know that enemies are near, but is David thinking of himself in his palace with enemies outside the Jerusalem walls, or is he thinking of his military camp, with enemies over on the adjacent hill? Either way, they are present, but they are *unable to separate us from the good*.

There is a table prepared, a banquet, a feast. To go along with that, there is **oil** to anoint his head. It's not royal oil or anointing, it is a special kindness in a hot and dry place; refreshing to dry hair and flaky skin, a better smell than a room full of the un-showered. A **cup** overflows; the wine is plenteous and the host over-generous.

And those who follow the LORD are followed by Him. **Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life**. The **goodness** is *tov*, the **mercy** is *hesed*, the steadfast love (“lovingkindness” NASB, “faithfulness” NET, “love” NIV) of the Lord regularly referred to the Old Testament. The Lord is committed to His sheep. The verb **follow** is used in other places to refer to chasing or hunting. This is the only place in Scripture where the chased are *unable to escape the good*. We cannot outrun the goodness and mercy in our lifetimes. It’s as if the Host sent Goodness and Mercy to follow us around the feast making sure we have all we could need.

The **house of the LORD** was the tabernacle for David, it is not limited to one footprint for us.


# Conclusion

He is our shepherd, our host. He guides us, He gives us what we need. He sets us a feast, He follows us with His goodness and mercy.

This is a psalm for warm, confident dependence. It shows that it's not what you know but who you're with.

We will not get over looking to the Shepherd.

> And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd. And I, the LORD, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them. I am the LORD; I have spoken. (Ezekiel 34:23–24 ESV)

> For the Lamb in the midst of the throne
> will be their shepherd,
> and he will guide them to springs
> of living water,
> and God will wipe away every tear
> from their eyes.” (Revelation 7:17 ESV)

Are you following the Shepherd? Can you say you are being followed by His goodness and mercy? There is no other Great Pastor. Let us be the people whose God is the Lord, our Shepherd.

----------

## Charge

The Lord is your great Shepherd. No one can snatch you away from His goodness and mercy. You may not yet know exactly where He's leading you, but you can know surely that there is no day of your life where He takes a vacation from being your Shepherd. Follow Him.

## Benediction:

> Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. (Hebrews 13:20–21, ESV)

It is one thing to have trouble, it is another thing to have trouble and feel as if God isn't near. It's different when you are in a trial with strong faith then when the trial is a test of faith. Pain and persecution of the outer man doesn't feel good, but when the inner man feels forsaken by God, that is a kind of consuming discomfort.

Psalm 22 is a song of faith for those who feel forsaken. I've already used the word "feel" a few times. David wrote this song with correct theology; he knew that God is everywhere, as he wrote in Psalm 139:7. Where can we go from His presence? We use the word omnipresent. In Him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28). So the truth of it is, in space and time, God is always near. In our experience, we do not always sense it.

This song is from David and for the assembly. The choirmaster arranged it and taught it to the congregation for at least a couple reasons. And for us it's almost impossible to read (or sing) it as other than a prophetic song about Christ's experience during His crucifixion. Jesus quoted the first verse, the apostles applied many more lyrics to the events of Good Friday. There is no doubt that the Messiah fulfills it, in His first and second comings. One journal article even calls Psalm 22 the “Fifth Gospel.”

It is about Christ, it is also about the king, and it is for the congregation. All of this works together for our instruction and edification as well.

There have been numerous suggestions on how to divide the song, but we'll consider just two parts: the grief part (verses 1-21) and the glad part (verses 22-31).

It is written “according to the Doe of the Dawn” with Doe or “Hind” (words for a female deer) likely referring to the tune for singing.

There are a number of problems that the psalmist describes, but the worst is that he feels forsaken.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Jesus used the Aramaic of these words on the cross, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (Matthew 27:46).

Why have you forsaken me? (verse 1). Why are you so far from saving me? (verse 1). You do not answer (verse 2). God seems to be far from the psalmist in verses 11 and 19. Verse 11 is the summary problem and request.

Be not far from me,

The song starts with questions (verse 1), with crying (verse 2), then with a contrast between those who were heard and rescued and the psalmist who is alone (verses 3-11). He is singing in the dark.

The song recounts deep theology, but the truth almost makes the experience worse. You are...enthroned on the praises of Israel (verse 3), inhabiting and exalted by the nation's worship. As the fathers, the previous generation, worshipped and trusted they were delivered (verses 4-5). David knew the stories, but felt at the moment as if the inheritance had been spent.

The psalmist doesn't feel heard, he doesn't even feel like a man; I am a worm and not a man (verse 6). Those around him despise him, mock him, and make mocking gestures at him, they make mouths at me (verses 6-7); the worst Monty Python taunts (and as applied to Jesus, Matthew 27:39). Verse 8 makes clear that they know the psalmist identifies with Yahweh, but apparently Yahweh has rejected this psalmist because there is no rescue (also to Jesus, Matthew 27:43).

He rehearses the truth: Yet you are he who took me from the womb...from my mother's womb you have been my God (verse 9). His whole life, physically and spiritually has been dependent on God.

But he's attacked as if by animals. There are bulls, lions, and dogs. The strong bulls of Bashan were from a fertile area and these fat bulls came circling and biting (verses 12-13).

His own physical strength was drained, poured out like water. He couldn't keep it together, all my bones are out of joint. His courage was like wet bread, my heart is like wax, it is melted within my breast (verse 14). He can’t cope. It was as if his clay pot was shattered and had been sitting out in the dessert all summer, a potsherd (verse 15). You lay me in the dust of death acknowledges how he got into this position.

The dogs are back to sniff and snarl and bite; they surround the psalmist and have him circled. They have pierced my hands and feet (verse 16) is a rough translation, but certainly one that works by the time the apostles apply it to Jesus (see also Zechariah 12:10, John 19:37, and Revelation 1:7).

He's so sickly and gaunt that his bones are obvious, the dogs are glad, ready to gnaw (verse 17). Death is close, because they're already dividing up his clothes to make a game out of it (verse 18).

Yet he doesn't forget the Lord. He says again, But you, O LORD, do not be far off! (verse 19) Come and help and deliver and rescue. All the animals are mentioned again, in reverse order.

Verse 21, a word of unknown meaning, the wild oxen or horns of the unicorns (KJV), also considered a buffalo, or maybe rhinoceros. They are symbols of the threats.

Such a significant change in tone happens around this point in the psalm that some commentators have invented a scenario in which the worshipper gets a "new" word from the Lord through a priest or prophet such that now he can rejoice. That's clever, but not necessary.

The place to be is with the assembly.

I will tell of your name to my brothers,

Hebrews 2:12 applies this to Christ who suffered in order to save and sanctify His brothers (see Hebrews 2:10-11, too).

There is a call to praise Him, to glorify Him, to stand in awe of Him (verse 23). It's for those who fear Him, who have His word and His promises.

It's also a reminder that the LORD does not actually forget or forsake His people, even though they feel like it.

For he has not despised or abhorred

He repeats that he will praise in public and obey in front of the God-fearers.

Such worship is not limited to Israel, but for both Jews (“offspring of Jacob” and “offspring of Israel” verse 23) and Gentiles.

All the ends of the earth shall remember

All the ends of the earth is phrase found thirteen times in the Old Testament (Gerald Wilson).

We have come a long way since the beginning of the psalm. But the discipline of prayer, of public worship, of remembering, and of hope pull us toward the expectation that salvation for anyone is in submission to the Lord.

Depression to eschatology, emotions to politics.

Whether men are rich or poor, old or young, their hope is in the Lord. Those who fear Him will tell their kids, their grandkids, and fear of the Lord will be their future for their good. A feast will be provided for the faithful (verses 26, 29).

They shall come and proclaim his righteousness, the testament that the Lord does what is proper.

It is probably fine if you have never felt this way, as long as you are thankful, though you wouldn't know how thankful you really should be. Agony is like a test, and the anguish is also forming Christ in our hearts.

If you have felt, maybe are feeling, this way, friend, you are not alone. Your Savior knows.

A thousand years of saints sang the song between David and Jesus, a couple thousand more years of saints have been singing it since. This is how you do it. This is the response of faith when feeling forsaken.

Accused, criticized, canceled, can’t cope?

The tools, the tactics against loneliness in this Psalm, include:

“My God” in faith is fine. That there can never be first person singular is silly; those criticisms aren’t consistent with scripture. What is not fine is never first person plural, the we, the assembly. A typical second level temptation to the first level temptation of sadness is isolation. What is not fine is refusing to subject your subjective feelings to truth. Do. Not. Do. It.

I don't know exactly how you feel, but the Lord does. I don't know how you feel, but I know you are not actually alone. I don't know how you feel, but I know that the Lord wants you to live by faith; your need for faith hasn't expired. So though you cannot steer Him, you must stay stuck to Him and stand firm in faith.

The LORD our God be with us, as he was with our fathers. May he not leave us or forsake us, that he may incline our hearts to him, to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his rules, which he commanded our fathers. (1 Kings 8:57–58, ESV)