Why is Paul talking about the Law? (Rom. 7:1)

 

Palo Duro Canyon.  Picture from Unsplash

Several years ago, Sarah and I visited Palo Duro Canyon State Park which is a bit south of Amarillo, in the panhandle of Texas.  It’s a magnificent place, the second largest canyon system in the US, behind the Grand Canyon of course.  What’s interesting is that you’re driving along in West Texas where everything is as flat as a pancake and there aren’t any trees anywhere, and you can see forever – and then suddenly you come across this really big hole in the ground.  At first, you are able to get out at the top where you can look down and over the canyon system.  But then, you drive down into it, and it is like you have gone into another world.  

Well, I feel like there is a need to go in that order with this text: to stop at the top and take in the big picture and look around before we delve into the details of the text.  So that’s what we are going to do today.  In particular, before we consider the argument of the apostle here in Romans 7, we need to stop and look at some of the big ideas and words that he deploys here as well as the connection of this chapter to the larger purpose of this epistle.  We need to do that because I think otherwise we are not going to appreciate some of the details as we ought.  So the order is: big picture first, where we are looking at the scene as a whole, and then we will be in a much better position to drive down into the text and discover the details in verse-to-verse exposition.

Let’s start with the connection to the rest of the epistle.  In Romans 7, we come to a new division in the book of Romans.  We have seen that the theme of this epistle is the gospel of God (1:16-17), which is defined and defended in terms of the good news, sent from God to us, that sinners who are justly exposed to the wrath of God because of sin (which is all of us) can be made right with God – and here is where the good news comes in – not on the basis of works which we don’t have, but on the basis of a righteousness which comes from God, made possible by Jesus Christ through his redemptive work culminating in his death on a cross.  Paul explicitly defines and defends this gospel in chapters 1-4.  

Then, as we have seen, he goes on to develop the implications of the gospel.  He does this in chapters 5-11.  This in turn breaks up into two subsections, namely chapters 5-8 and then 9-11.  We have seen that in chapter 5 the theme is the certainty of salvation for the justified, the justified being those who are righteous in Christ.  And we will see that Paul takes up this theme again in chapter 8.  

What then is he doing in chapters 6-7?  The answer is that he is answering objections which, if taken seriously, would genuinely threaten the credibility of the doctrine of the saint’s eternal security in Christ.  The first objection is that if the saint is eternally secure in the grace of God, then that would mean that we can go on sinning without fear.  These are objections that people still make, aren’t they? \They say that if you teach that the believer cannot lose his or her salvation, then you are taking away any incentive to stop sinning.  You are giving people an excuse to go on sinning, and surely that cannot be true.  So, the argument goes, the believer must not therefore be secure.  

We’ve seen that the apostle answers this objection in chapter 6, saying that far from grace giving us an excuse for sin, grace actually makes such a position unthinkable.  In particular, by grace through union with Christ we are so utterly changed that we are dead to sin and alive to God in Christ.  We are no longer under the dominion of sin but under grace.  Grace reigns, and one of the ways it reigns in the people of God is in a changed life.  This change is irreversible, which means both that salvation cannot be lost and the saved cannot go back to being dead in sin and living a life of sin.

Now in the course of his argument in chapter 6, Paul had made the statement that the believer is no longer under the law and in fact that this is one of the reasons why we aren’t under the dominion of sin (Rom. 6:14).  He has to go on first of all to argue that this also does not mean that we can live contrary to God’s will.  Recall that his argument there was in terms of our belonging to Christ and in terms of freedom from sin and service to God.  However, the apostle Paul realizes that he still needs to clarify what he means by being no longer under the law.  This is what chapter 7 is about.  The apostle is going to tell us what he means, what it means that those who belong to Christ are no longer under the law, and why this is necessary.  In particular, he is going to clarify this whole subject of the relationship of the Christian to the law of God.

Now this is where a lot of people, even those in the church, lose their interest.  They feel like this is really not relevant for them.  They ask, why is Paul even talking about the law?  I mean, if we’re not under it, what’s the point anyway?  Why do we need to think about it?

Well, we do need to think about it.  After all, if the apostle spends a whole chapter in one of the most important epistles in the NT on the law, then we need to understand why.  Paul obviously thought that it is absolutely relevant to NT Christians, Gentiles as well as Jews, to understand how the law of God relates to them.  So if we believe the Bible is the inspired word of God and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness, so that by it we become mature disciples of Christ, then we need to understand Romans 7 and its emphasis on the law.

So as we begin this chapter, I think that there are two great questions then that we need to ask before do anything else or go any further.  The first question is, what is the law?  What does Paul mean by that?  You might think this is a no-brainer, but the fact is that a lot of ink has been spilled over this.  So we need to talk about that.  Then we need to ask, what does Paul mean by being under the law?  There are debates about that as well, and it is critical that we understand what Paul means by that if we are going to understand his argument in Romans 7.  Hopefully, by asking and answering these questions, we will also see why this chapter and its subject matter is so very important and relevant, even to Christians in the twenty-first century, and why Paul would be talking about law to these Roman Christians in the first place.

Let’s begin!

Know what Paul means by “the law.”

Fundamentally, he is talking about the Law of God, isn’t he?  Yes, but we need to know more.  What is this Law of God?  To get a handle on what Paul means by this, I think it would be prudent for us to start by reviewing the use of this word in Romans up to this point.  

The first instance of it comes in the second chapter.  Here we read, “For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law” (12).  Here, “law” means the Mosaic Law, the law of God given to Moses on Mount Sinai, because Paul is distinguishing between Jew and Gentile.  The Jews sin “in the law” because they had the written law of God, and the Gentiles sinned “without law” because they didn’t.  Paul goes on: “For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another” (13-15).  Again, the Gentiles are the ones who didn’t have the law in the sense that they didn’t have the Scriptures.  But, and this is important, they did have the law in the sense of that which was written on their hearts, testified to by conscience.

Now this is important because not every aspect of the Mosaic law was written on the Gentile’s hearts.  For example, neither circumcision, nor the food laws, nor the details of the sacrificial system were things that were testified to by the conscience of the Gentile pagans.  But they did know some things.  As Paul put it earlier: “Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them” (1:32).  What things?  Well, these things: “unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful” (29-31).  In other words, violations of the Ten Commandments.  It’s interesting that Paul uses the same word “law” to describe what the Gentiles knew by nature and what the Jews had in Scripture.

What this means is that when Paul uses the word “law,” he is thinking primarily of those aspects of the Law of Moses written in the Scriptures, which were also written in the hearts of the Gentiles.  Now let me remind you that when Paul talks about the law written in the hearts of Gentiles, he is not talking about the New Covenant promise that guarantees a change of heart that makes someone into a person who loves and keeps God’s law.  No: the Romans 2 passage is a reference to the fact that every person is made in God’s image, and as such has some intuition about right and wrong. This is what Paul is calling God’s law written in the heart.  No matter how pagan a person is, they have some intuition that idolatry is wrong, that murder is wrong, that adultery is wrong, that homosexual practice is wrong.  And when they break God’s law, their conscience testifies against them.

This means that when Paul uses this word “law,” he is referring to a moral code that is universally applicable to all people everywhere, whether they are Jew or Gentile, whether they have the Bible or they don’t. Theologians sometimes call this the moral law of God.  By this they don’t mean that other parts of the Mosaic Law are immoral, but rather that there are aspects of the Mosaic Law that are universally applicable, both in terms of time and place, to the moral conduct of human beings.

Then in 2:17-27, Paul again refers to the law, speaking specifically to Jews.  Here he is undoubtedly speaking of the Mosaic Law, what we have in Exodus-Deuteronomy.  But I want to point out that Paul again makes an important distinction that dovetails what we’ve just seen.  I refer you in particular to verse 25, where the apostle writes, “For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law: but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision.”  Notice that Paul says that you can be circumcised and yet “be a breaker of the law.”  Again, he is thinking here primarily in terms of the moral code as opposed to the more cultic aspects of the law, things like circumcision and food laws and holy days and so on.  That’s why he had just said, “Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal? Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege? Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonourest thou God?” (21-23).  Did you notice what Paul is doing there?  He is basically telling them that they may be circumcised but they still broke the Ten Commandments.  That is primarily what Paul means when he says that they broke the law.

Then as we come to chapter 3, we have two of the most important verses in all the epistle because they summarize the argument of chapters 1-3 and set up the argument for the positive statement of the gospel which will follow in the next few verses: “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin” (3:19-20).  

What does the law do?  It stops our mouths; it condemns us as guilty before God.  And it does this, not only to the Jews, but also to the Gentiles, “that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.”  And this law gives us the knowledge of sin.  Again, the fact that this is universally relevant implies that Paul is thinking primarily of the moral code in the Law of Moses that binds both Jew and Gentile, those who have the Bible and those who don’t.

Now at this point, I think we have enough information to summarize the main point I want to make.  It is this: when Paul uses the word “law” in the book of Romans, and here in chapter 7, he is not primarily thinking in terms of boundary markers (if even at all) – things like circumcision and food laws and so on, things that distinguished between Jew and Gentile.  I have to say this because there are quite a few Bible teachers who want to say that it’s the boundary markers that Paul is most concerned about in terms of the law of God.  I’m showing you that this isn’t the case.  Instead, Paul is referring to those aspects of the Mosaic Law that are universally applicable to all men everywhere in all times and ages.  

Another way to say this is that Paul is thinking primarily in terms of the Ten Commandments.  We see this confirmed even here in chapter 7.  In verse 7, he writes, “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.”  Here, when Paul actually quotes from the law, what does he quote?  He quotes the Tenth Commandment, “Thou shalt not covet.”  So Paul is not talking about the Mosaic Law as it divided Jews and Gentiles in terms of circumcision, but as it united them in terms of the Ten Commandments, or the abiding moral law of God.

And this means that, whatever Paul is talking about here, it is relevant to us.  When Paul talks about the law, he isn’t talking about circumcision and food laws and holy days.  It is true that these things are no longer applicable because they were meant to function only until Christ came.  What he’s talking about are those things that are wrong whether you lived before Sinai or after, before the cross or after, or whether you are a Jew or a Gentile.  Paul is talking about God’s universally valid and objective moral standard for all people everywhere at all times.

At the same time, it is true that it is revealed in a written form in the Mosaic Law.  The Law of Moses more clearly revealed this law than at any other time or place in history.  And even in the New Covenant, the Mosaic Law is behind the moral code that is in the New Testament.  Not everything transfers over, it is true, but we have to say that the New Testament ethic is informed by and even defined by the ethic of the Old Testament.  Hence we can say that he moral law as it is written in the Old Covenant is still relevant and applicable to New Covenant people.

Now one of the questions that often comes up at this point is, How do we differentiate between those aspects of the Mosaic Law that are still applicable and those that aren’t?  How do we discern what part of the Mosaic Law is the universal and timeless moral law of God?  And I would answer that in two parts.  The first part of the answer is to hear what our Lord said in the Sermon on the Mount when he said, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled” (Mt. 5:17-18).  The principle that comes out of our Lord’s words is this: we are to interpret the law in light of Christ’s fulfillment.  This is why we don’t offer animal sacrifices.  They were fulfilled in Christ, which is the point of the epistle to the Hebrews.  The holy days are fulfilled in Christ (Col. 2:16-17).  The temple is fulfilled in Christ.  They are a shadow of which Christ is the body.  The priesthood, the sacrifices, circumcision: all this was only for a time, as the New Testament makes clear.

And that leads us to the second part of our answer: we interpret the law in light of Christ’s fulfillment by the clarity that is given to us in the New Testament Scriptures.  The New Testament provides clarity about what is carried forward and what is not.  If a commandment is repeated in the New Testament, we know for certain that it is still applicable.  And the New Testament authors are exceedingly clear here.  So, for example, all the Ten Commandments, with the exception of the Sabbath commandment, are repeated in the NT.  And they make the claim that the Sabbath commandment is fulfilled in Christ.  We keep the Sabbath ordinance, not by physical rest but by resting by faith in Christ.  Again: we read the OT in light of the NT.

Of course, that doesn’t mean we don’t need the OT!  For example, the OT often clarifies what is meant by the authors of the NT.  When Paul or other NT authors condemn sexual sin, they are doing so in terms of the OT definitions of sexual sin.  Again: the NT ethic is informed by the OT ethic.  We should be careful that we don’t throw our Old Testaments away, or stop reading it, just because we have the gospel in the New Testament.  

So, to sum up, we are arguing that when Paul uses this word law, he means the law of God, revealed in the Law of Moses, but with special reference to the abiding moral code in it that is applicable to all peoples everywhere in all times – including us.  That’s the answer to our first question.  Now on to the second.

Know what Paul means by being “under the law.”

Recall that in Romans 6:14, Paul had said, “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.”  I’m arguing that this statement, “ye are not under the law,” is what is behind everything that Paul is writing about in Romans 7.  It is an explanation of what that means.  Thus, when Paul opens this chapter by sayin.  g that “the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth,” he is talking about being under the law.  To be under the law is for the law to have dominion over you.  And to be delivered from the law (7:6) is to be delivered out from under the dominion of the law.

The question is: what does all this mean?  What is the apostle referring to here?

Now since the law is a reference primarily to God’s abiding moral code for humanity, you might think that to be under the law just means to be under its authority.  But it turns out that Paul means much more than that.  And, in fact, we can dismiss the idea that it only means to be under its authority because if that were the case, Paul would never talk about the Christian being delivered from the law in that sense.  

We know that because the law still has an abiding authority in the life of every Christian.  Sin is still the transgression of the law (1 Jn. 3:4) and our Lord came, not to make it so that we don’t have to keep the law anymore, but so that “the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us” (Rom. 8:4).  After all, there are tons of commandments in the NT.  The Great Commission tells us that we are to teach new converts all that Christ commands us (Mt. 28:19-20).  We are servants to obedience (Rom. 6:16).

What then does Paul mean?  Well, I think a good place to start is by looking at what being under the law is contrasted with and what it means to be delivered from the law.  Starting in Romans 6:14, we see that to be under the law is contrasted with being under grace.  So to be under the law means to relate to God other than by grace.  But that means by works (11:6) since that is the only other option.  To be under the law means to relate to God on the basis of works, not grace.

Then in Romans 7:4-6, we learn that we are delivered from the law by dying to it.  And we die to it “by the body of Christ,” that is, by his death for us (4).  Paul is again referring to our dying with Christ, and our union with him in his death, burial, and resurrection (cf. 6:1-5).  So to be under the law must refer to that state that we were in prior to being united to Christ by the Spirit and faith. Also, we learn that to be under the law means to be in the flesh (7:5).  To be in the flesh is the opposite of being born again, for, as Paul will put it in the next chapter, “ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit” (8:9).  To be under the law then is to be dead in sin.

Finally, we see that it means serving “in the oldness of the letter” which is contrasted with “the newness of the Spirit” (7:6). Now that latter phrase is very interesting and important. It has a parallel reference in Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians.  Note what Paul says there: “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life” (2 Cor. 3:5-6).  Here Paul identifies the letter with the Old Covenant and the Spirit and the gospel with the New Covenant.  That implies that being under the law means to serve God under the terms and conditions of the Old Covenant.

And what are the terms of the Old Covenant?  Its terms are: do this and live.  As Paul will put it in the tenth chapter: “Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them” (10:5).  It means again to relate to God on the basis of obedience to the law of God.  This is to seek salvation by works and not by grace.  We see this also in his letter to the Galatians, where Paul refers to those who “desire to be under the law” (Gal. 4:21) whom he then goes on to describe as those “whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace” (5:4).  So to be under the law means to seek to be justified before God by it.

Now here’s the thing: everyone is either under the law, or they aren’t.  Paul makes it clear that only those who are united to Christ by grace through faith, who belong to God through him, are no longer under the law.  Which means that everyone else is under the law.  Even if a person has never given a thought to the Mosaic Law as such, if they are relying on their own goodness in order to get into heaven, they are under the law in the sense in which Paul is speaking of it.  Everyone else is relating to God on the terms of the law.

And this is bad news.  Do you know why?  Well, Paul tells us why in his letter to the Galatians: “as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them” (Gal. 3:10; cf. Rom. 3:19-20).  To be under the law is to be under a curse, because “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23).  We cannot be justified through our works.  Those who trust in themselves are leaning on a broken reed.  This is why Paul says, “But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith. And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them” (Gal. 3:11-12).

But the good news is that Jesus Christ redeems all who put their trust in him.  Thank God that Paul goes on to say, “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith” (13-14).  The law brings a curse to those who are bound to it; Christ redeems us from that who receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.  When we turn from trusting in our own righteousness and submit ourselves to the righteousness of God in Christ, then we will find that we have been rescued from the curse of the law (cf. Rom. 10:3-4).

So to be under the law is to be unsaved.  It is to be unregenerate, and it is characterized by a confidence in own’s own righteousness apart from the grace of God in Jesus Christ.  

Now a question one might ask at this point is, why did Paul choose this language to describe an unsaved condition, to describe a person outside of grace?  Why does he describe a graceless, unregenerate condition as being under the law?  And the answer has to do with the nature of law.  Law is not grace; law is the opposite of grace.  “The law came by Moses; grace and truth by Jesus Christ” (Jn. 1:17).  

But Paul doesn’t just use the language of being under the law to describe our unsaved condition because the law is the opposite of grace.  He uses it also because the law is powerless in itself to change us.  The salvation that Jesus brings is not only being saved from the penalty of sin; it is also being saved from the power of sin.  Now God’s law can tell us what to do or what not to do.  What it cannot do is to enable us to obey God; it cannot save us from sin’s power.  In itself, it is a dead letter.  It cannot justify us, but neither can it sanctify us.  In other words, the law is in its own nature not grace that communicates the forgiveness of our sins in Christ, and the law in its own nature is not the Holy Spirit who communicates the freedom from our sins in Christ.

This is one of the characteristics of the entire law of Moses and its great difference with the New Covenant.  Do you remember what the prophet said when he related God’s promise of a New Covenant?  Here is how it is put in the epistle to the Hebrews: 

But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.  (Heb. 8:6-12)

What was wrong with the Old Covenant, with the Law of Moses?  The problem was that it was powerless to create a people with hearts for God.  Do you remember the plaintiff cry of God over Israel right after he had given them his law?  It was this: “O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children forever!” (Deut. 5:29).  But the New Covenant succeeds where the Old failed because it changes our hearts and creates in us a desire to obey God.  Because of what Christ has done, who inaugurated the New Covenant in his blood, we can be saved not only from the penalty of sin but also from the power of sin.  As it is put in the prophecy of Jeremiah, God says, “And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me forever, for the good of them, and of their children after them: and I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me” (Jer. 32:39-40).

Now do you see that this is more than just theological mumbo-jumbo?  Do you see that how we relate to the law of God is eternally relevant to all of us?  Do you see that all of us need to be delivered from being under the law of God?  Do you see why Paul is talking about the law?  

The law says to those who seek to justify themselves before God: Guilty!  But the gospel says to those who have come to the end of themselves and have found refuge in the sacrifice of Christ for our sakes: Forgiven!

The law is like the Egyptian taskmasters that puts heavy burdens on us that we cannot bear and then beats us when we cannot deliver.  But the gospel tells us that Christ has taken those burdens for us and placed them upon himself.

The law says, Do it! and does not lift a finger to enable us to do it and leaves us enslaved to our lusts.  But grace comes and gives us wings, gives us a heart that loves God and delights to do his will.

So as we come now to the seventh chapter of Romans, hopefully we will not think that we need not be bothered by it.  Hopefully, we will give it our full attention.  

My friend, where are you this morning?  Are you yet under the law?  Are you trusting in yourself and your moral accomplishments?  Are you foolish enough to think that the law of God grades you on a curve?  God’s own word itself makes it plain that it does not.  God’s law will curse you and shut your mouth before God and pronounce you guilty.  God’s law will reveal your sin and the fact that you deserve to be cast into hell and deservedly so.  In the light of God’s perfect holiness we will have nothing to say.

Let us therefore come to the end of ourselves.  If that’s where you are, it is the grace of God that even brings you there, and we have every encouragement on the basis of God’s own promise in his word to go on to turn to Jesus Christ who alone can save us from our sins.  As the apostle puts it in the tenth chapter of this epistle:

For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them. But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.  (Rom. 10:4-13)