Coachlight Bible Study – Romans Chapter 5

Coachlight Bible Study – Romans Chapter 7

Sanctification And The Law

We learned in the last chapter, the two common mistakes among Christians concerning the Law. They are legalism and license. Legalism is reducing our relationship with God to a set of rules used to measure our spirituality. License is the wrong application of being free from sin used to gratify the flesh, rather than being lead by the Holy Spirit. We need to stay away from both of these deadly mindsets.

We find that there is two parts to the Law of God. The first part, regulatory (regulated the life of the Old Testament Jew), was done away with when the veil tore at the crucifixion. The Revelatory part of the Law is the signpost of sin, (It points out sin, but can not take it away)

Paul continues teaching about sanctification, but this time with a different analogy. Last chapter, Paul used the analogy of a slave market, this time he uses the analogy of a marriage relationship, comparing the Spirit Lead life to widowhood and remarriage. Paul continues explaining the concept of sanctification, and in the next chapter, he explains how the born again receives the victory.

I. The Spiritual Man Is Free From The Law

Romans 7:1 Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,)how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?

Romans 7:2 For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.

Romans 7:3 So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

Romans 7:4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

Romans 7:5 For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. {motions: Gr. passions}

Romans 7:6 But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. {that being…: or, being dead to that}

A. A Wife Is Bound To Marriage As Long As Her Husband Lives

1. If The Wife Remarries While Her Husband Is Alive – She Is An Adulteress

2. If The Wife Remarries After Her Husband Dies – She Is Not An Adulteress

B. The Justified Man Is Dead To The Law

1. The Christian Is Free To Marry Another

2. The Christian Marries The One Who Raised From The Dead

3. The Christian Then brings Forth Fruit Unto God

C. The Natural Man Is Alive To The Law

1. The Natural Man Has The Motions Of Sins

2. The Natural Man Is Bound To The Oldness Of The Letter

3. The Natural Man Brings Forth Fruit Unto Death

The Law Ends At Death – Marriage Analogy
The Husband Alive	The Husband Dead
Wife Is Bound By The Marriage Law	Wife Loosed From The Marriage Law
If The Wife Remarries – She Is An Adulteress	If The Widow Remarries – She Is Not An Adulteress
Contrast Between The Spirit Lead And Natural Man
Unjustified & Bound	Justified & Free
Governed By Law	Free From The Law
Totally In Bondage While Alive	Free By Union With Christ In His Death
Continual Motions Of Sins	Free To Marry The Risen Christ
Serves Sin In The Oldness Of The Law	Serves Christ In Newness Of Spirit
Brings Forth Fruit Unto Death	Should Bring Forth Fruit Unto God

II. The Natural Man Is Deceived By Sin – (Past Tense)

Romans 7:7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. {lust: or, concupiscence}

Romans 7:8 But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.

Romans 7:9 For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.

Romans 7:10 And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.

Romans 7:11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.

Romans 7:12 Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.

Romans 7:13 Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.

A. The Law Is Not Sin

1. It Is The Signpost For Sin

2. Its Job Is To Reveal Sin

B. The Law Then Provoked In Him A Desire To Do The Unlawful

C. The More Aware Of Sin – The More Sin Happened

D. This Is Deception

1. Following The Law Is Supposed To Bring Life

2. The More Aware Of Sin – The More Sin Appears

3. Sin Brings Death – Sin, Not The Law Is The Deceiver

The Natural Man Is Deceived By Sin

First, He Is Unaware That He Is A Sinner

Second, He Learns That Following The Law Is Supposed To Bring Life

Third, The Law Reveals Sin

Fouth, The Law Provokes In Him To More Sin

Fifth, Learns That Sin Brings Death

He Thought Would Bring Life – Sin Deceived Him

III. The Carnal Man Is Defeated By The Law – Switches To 1^st Person Present

Romans 7:14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.

Romans 7:15 For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. {allow: Gr. know}

Romans 7:16 If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.

Romans 7:17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

Romans 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,)dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

Romans 7:19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.

Romans 7:20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

Romans 7:21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.

Romans 7:22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:

Romans 7:23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

A. The Law Is Spiritual – From The Holy Spirit

B. The Carnal Man Can Not Keep The Law

C. The Carnal Man Can Not Follow A Set Of Laws

D. The Carnal Man Has A Battle Between Two Laws

E. Death Is The Result If The Carnal Man Continues In Sin

The Carnal Man Is Defeated By Sin
The Battle Between The Law And The Law Of Sin And Death
What I Do Not Allow	That I Do
What I Would Do	That I Do Not
What I Hate	That I Do
What Good I Want To Do	That I Do Not
I Delight In The Law Of God	Evil Is Present
There Is Only One To Trust For Deliverance – It Is Not The Law
He Is Jesus Christ The Lord

IV. Paul’s Rhetorical Question – The Obvious Answer Is Christ

Romans 7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? {the body…: or, this body of death}

Romans 7:25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

V. We Saw Our Part In Sanctification In The Last Chapter

The Three Ways To Sanctification Revealed

1.) Know That We Are Baptized Into Christ’s Death – Chapter 6,Verse 3

2.) Recon Ourselves To Be Dead To Sin, But Alive Unto God – Chapter 6,Verse 11

3.) Yield Ourselves To God – Don’t Yield To Unrighteousness – Chapter 6,Verse 13