The things Paul wanted to do, he confessed he didn’t do, yet the things he didn’t want do, these things he did. This is what happens when we wrestle between the flesh and the spirit. All Christians know this fight.
Romans 7: Released from the Law
1 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?
2 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.
3 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.
4 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.
5 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.
6 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.
The Law and Sin
7 What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, "You shall not covet."
8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead.
9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died.
10 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.
11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.
12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
13 Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.
14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.
15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.
16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good.
17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.
19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.
20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.
22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being,
23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
Romans 8: Life in the Spirit
1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,
4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.
6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.
7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot.
8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
Heirs with Christ
12 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.
13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!"
16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
17 and if children, then heirs---heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
Future Glory
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.
20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope
21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.
23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees?
25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
God's Everlasting Love
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
33 Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.
34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died---more than that, who was raised---who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?
36 As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered."
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,
39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Things to think about…
1. Paul says the law is binding – like marriage is binding before God, Rom 7:1-6. But if a husband dies the wife is free to marry. So too with the law. Christ has died and rose again; we are now free from the law, vs 4. Paul’s point is that we belong to another and as such are released from the law. We now serve the Spirit, vs 6 and not the law. Praise God for the freedom we have in Christ.
2. Does the law now have no purpose? Paul asks, is the law sinful? His answer – certainly not!, Rom 7:7. What then is the purpose of the Levitical law and the Ten Commandments? Paul goes on to say that it showed up our problem – our sin, Rom 7:8ff. We don’t have the for a Saviour unless we are shown the fact that we have sin working in us and this is the thing that separates us from God. Paul says it (sin) killed him, vs 11. This is why we need to preach the OT law. We need to know that we are all spiritually dead and if Christ is not accepted as our Saviour we will remain spiritually and eternally dead. A fearful thing.
3. Paul then goes on to explain that his fleshly nature makes him do what he doesn’t want to do and vice versa, Rom 7:15-20. Some commentators say here that Paul is speaking about his previous life as one who was under the law and not under grace. They say this is not the case for the Christian. But Paul seems to be saying in these verses that he still struggles with the sinful nature, hence his conclusion on Rom 7:25. I fell the same way and as such I find incredible comfort from Paul’s honesty in these verses.
4. I believe one of the things that confirms that Paul is speaking as part of a post Christian experience in Rom 7 is found in vs 22. We can only delight in the law in our inner being through the power of the Holy Spirit. Paul tells us before his conversion he obeyed the law outwardly, but he did not delight in it in his ‘inner being’. He was a Pharisee and everything to the Pharisees was outward and hypocritical, their hearts were hard. As such as a Pharisee Paul could never say what he says in Rom 7:24, 25. The Pharisees believed they could fulfil the law through their own righteousness. Paul as a converted man says this is only possible through Christ, which delivers us from the law’s death sentence. The glorious truth remains for Paul and for us “Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”, vss 24, 25.Amen.
5. Paul opens this grand chapter with “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Glory! Think about the weight of this truth. The law and its righteous requirements bring condemnation to all of us, but for those in Christ, Jesus says to the law – “peace, be still.” Rejoice in this unshakable truth.
6. Paul says in Rom 8:2-11 that we are now living in the Spirit. This Spirit gives life. Those who live according to the flesh are dead. This is the difference of course between those who are right with God and those who are not. The law of God speaks against the law of flesh. Only the Spirit of Christ can give us freedom from the law of the flesh and the judgement of the law of God.
7. We now cry ‘Abba, Father’, Rom 8:15. This is the Spirit of spiritual adoption given by God the Father for us. Look at the condition though. We must suffer in order that we may be glorified, vs 17. Think about this. The suffering spoken of here of course is against the flesh. Easier said than done. But by the Spirit we can do all things through Christ who gives us His strength.
8. Paul says “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us”, Rom 8:18. We sinned, and God subjected all creation to suffering (futility). Was there any noble or glorious purpose in this? Praise God there is. Suffering is the rod used against our sin that produces hope, vs 20. This is completed when we receive the redemption of our bodies, vs 23.
9. Our prayer life is given wings through the season that occurs between justification and glorification, Rom 8:26-30. This is the period of our life on the earth as Christians. The challenge is not to waste this short season.
10. What can be said of verses Rom 8:31-39. Is there any better news than this? It is impossible to be separated from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Praise the Lord that our suffering is not in vain. This is the whole point of Paul’s testimony. Whatever comes against us whether seen or unseen, in life and death the Father’s love for us is secure in Christ. Amen!
Vision statement for CBC
CBC’s Vision :- To be a growing biblical church community, significantly influencing our city and beyond, through intentional outreach, fulfilling our mission.
Cell groups off over the school holidays.
Prayer Points
1. Pray and Angie as she lost her mum. Praise the Lord for the gift of faith and the example she has been to many. Continue to lift Angie and family in your prayers.
2. Pray for the new year that 2024 may be when the Lord visits his people. May He begin with me.
3. Pray for the families that have lost loved ones in the storms over the new year period. Pray for Christ’s peace.
4. Pray for the new arrives at Christmas to CBC, may they find a home with us.
5. Please continue to pray for Glenys Zawada. Back for rehab as a day patient.
6. The conflicts in Israel and Ukraine. Praise for the peace of Jesus to reign.
7. Mathys has a prayer time at church on Monday afternoons. He would be happy for you to join him and to send prayer requests.
8. That we be bold in our witnessing for Christ. Pray for a heart to see those around you to be saved. Pray for the blessing over the new pastoral care and hosting program.
9. Growth, conversions, joy in the Word and Spirit to remain and increase.
Praise Points
1. New people coming to church over carols and Christmas – pray some would stay and join the church.
2. Praise God for the new year. Pray He gets the glory as we make our plans that He guides our steps.
3. Joy, peace and grace we see at CBC. Thankyou Lord
Announcements
1. Church bank details bsb:- 704 913 and Acc number:- 4000 4388 1
2. Tune in again this week on our YouTube page. Subscribe to the CBC channel Chuwar Baptist YouTube channel.
Catechism questions for January...
Q. 16. Who were our first parents? A. Adam and Eve.
