The Old Way Is Over - Romans 7:1-6

Romans 7:1-6, The Old Way Is Over

Opening Hook

• Christianity is not God helping the old you behave better.
• God's answer to the old life is death and resurrection.
• The law can reveal righteousness, but it cannot produce life.
• God did not merely give us better instructions, He gave us Christ.

Segment 1: Death Changes the Relationship, Romans 7:1-3

• Romans 7:1, The principle of jurisdiction
  • The law has dominion as long as a person lives.
  • Death fundamentally changes the legal relationship.
  • Key principle: Death changes jurisdiction.
• Romans 7:2-3, The marriage illustration
  • Marriage illustrates Paul's theological point.
  • Death releases a person from the former legal bond.
  • The illustration is about death changing relationship and obligation.
• Connect Romans 7 to Romans 6
  • Romans 6:6, the old man was crucified with Christ.
  • Romans 6:8, we died with Christ.
  • Romans 6:11, reckon yourselves dead to sin and alive to God.
  • Romans 6: death changes our relationship to sin.
  • Romans 7: death changes our relationship to law.
• The gospel is not behavior modification
  • The old man does not need renovation.
  • The old man was crucified.
  • God's answer to Adam is not improvement, but death and resurrection in Christ.
• The law is not the problem
  • Romans 7:12, the law is holy, just, and good.
  • The law can reveal sin but cannot cure it.
  • A mirror reveals dirt but cannot wash your face.
  • The law can define holiness but cannot impart holiness.
• Application
  • Are you trying to improve someone God says died with Christ?
  • Are you measuring yourself by an identity that is no longer yours?
  • Are you carrying guilt because you are still trying to make the old man acceptable?
• Transition
  • The cross did not simply forgive the old life, it ended it.
  • Death releases us from the old relationship so we can belong to Another.

Segment 2: Joined to Another, Romans 7:4-6

• Romans 7:4, Dead to the law through Christ
  • We did not become dead to God, holiness, or obedience.
  • We became dead to the law through the body of Christ.
• The purpose of freedom is union
  • "That ye should be married to another."
  • Biblical freedom is not autonomy.
  • We are released from the old realm to belong to Christ.
• Union with the risen Christ
  • We belong to "him who is raised from the dead."
  • Christianity is participation in the life of a living Lord.
  • Galatians 2:20, crucified with Christ, yet Christ lives in me.
• The goal is fruit, Romans 7:4
  • "That we should bring forth fruit unto God."
  • Fruit is different from religious performance.
  • You can tie apples onto a dead tree, but that does not make the tree alive.
  • Law says, "Produce."
  • Grace says, "Abide."
  • John 15:5, life flowing from the Vine produces fruit.
• Romans 7:5, Two kinds of fruit
  • Life in the flesh produces fruit unto death.
  • Union with Christ produces fruit unto God.
  • The difference is not merely effort, but the source of life.
• The limitation of the law
  • The law exposes what is wrong but cannot supply the life to make it right.
  • The command reveals and provokes the rebellion already present in fallen humanity.
  • This prepares the way for Romans 7:7-25.
• Romans 7:6, A new way of serving
  • "But now we are delivered from the law."
  • Oldness of the letter versus newness of the Spirit.
  • Grace does not eliminate obedience.
  • Grace makes genuine obedience possible.
• The New Covenant connection
  • Ezekiel 36:26-27.
  • God gives a new heart.
  • God puts His Spirit within us.
  • God works from within rather than merely commanding from without.
• Application
  • Is your Christianity being produced by union or performance?
  • Are you manufacturing religious behavior or bearing spiritual fruit?
  • What does the life of Christ look like through you today?
  • What does Christ look like in your marriage, temptations, disappointments, conflicts, and private life?

Closing Truth

• Death -> Release -> Union -> Resurrection -> Fruitfulness
• The law could tell us what fruit should look like.
• Only Christ can make it grow.
• The gospel is not God making the old you better. It is the old you dying with Christ and the new you living by His resurrection life.