Romans 7:7(NKJV) 7What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.”
It is important to slowly read Romans 7 or we will get bogged down in the language. Yesterday we found that the first lesson in this chapter is that we are no longer married to the Law. We have become dead to the law through Christ. That does not mean we are free to ignore the law. It is telling us that there is a better way to keep the law than just by trying to remember the letter. Paul is telling us that we should keep the law from the inside out not the outside in. Again this does not give us some license to sin. It gives us freedom to keep from sinning.
Today I want to answer the second question covered in Romans 7. If we are not called to keep the letter of the law, why is it still quoted in the New Testament? Would we not all feel much better if the Ten Commandments were simply not mentioned? No we would not.
Paul makes it very clear why the law is still valid. “I would not have known sin except through the law.” Who or what sets the standard for behavior? I believe it must be God. If we truly love him we will keep his commandments. If we can learn to develop the inner man that was created in his image and likeness we will keep his commandments. However, how can we keep what we do not know?
I believe that the bible teaches that marriage was designed to be between one man and one woman. It is the standard set in the Garden of Eden. It is the standard held to in the New Testament. In the Old Testament there was a time where this was not the case, but I believe that was due to man’s sin. The ideal is one man and one woman.
Mark 10:6-8(NKJV) 6But from the beginning of the creation, God ‘made them male and female.’ £ 7‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, 8and the two shall become one flesh’;£ so then they are no longer two, but one flesh.
I have traveled to many African countries where men, particularly in the tribal areas, still have many wives. They get wonderfully saved. They love God; however they do not know this commandment. How shall they know that it is God’s will for them to have only one wife if there is no one to teach them this standard?
I understand that this is a bit of an extreme example, but I think we get the idea. The law is there to show us that sin is sinful. The law is there to show us what God expects in terms of our behavior. It is then that we will be free to allow the spirit of the law within us to walk in those standards.
It is also by the law that conviction comes. We will look at the difference between conviction and condemnation later, but for now let me say that even Christians will fall at times. God shows us his righteous standard and we are then able to see that we are not fully there yet. Look at this verse in James.
James 1:22-25(NKJV) 22But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; 24for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 25But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.
This makes it very clear. If we are not both hearers and doers of the Word we deceive ourselves. Not only that, but for the one that allows the Word of God to change him, the law is not a law of bondage but a “perfect law of Liberty.”
So what is the conclusion? We are not called to look at every point of the letter of the law and try to keep it. We are called to understand the spirit of the law and walk in it by the spirit within. The law shows us the right way. The law becomes the mirror that tells us we need a shave or we need to comb our hair. This is not bondage, but liberty.
Do not be afraid to look into this perfect law of liberty. It will not bring condemnation. It may bring conviction. It may tell you where change is necessary. Then remember that the spirit that brought forth this wonderful standard of righteousness lives in you. You can live this standard because this standard is what you are inside since the new birth.
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