Romans Chapter 7 Verse 1

• Paul presents the idea here that all men are born bound to the law.  Back in Chapter 5 he began this thought as he talked about just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because all men sin, he now elaborates a bit more and says, look all men are born to die.  That’s a plain and simple scientific, natural fact but it’s also a spiritual truth.  Every man will die but Jesus said to Martha, “if anyone believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live!”
•  So it is man’s choice.  Live and die and then be swept into the second death or live and die and live forever…ok you just lost me…check this out.  Paul says here that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives, right?  Well then how are you freed from the law?  Die!  You got it!  You mean die physically?  Yea ok but I wouldn’t recommend it!  If you wait until you die physically to be freed from the law then in effect you die in your sin…and then you will face what Jesus called the “second death” in Revelation 2, 20 and 21. 
• Turn over to Revelation Chapter 20 verses 11 – 15.  And now look over at Revelation Chapter 21 verses 6 – 8.  Hebrews 9:27 says, “It is appointed unto man to die once, and then the judgment.”  Every man must die once, but it is your choice whether you will die twice.  In other words die physically upon the earth and then die spiritually in the final judgment.  So that is an option…that will free you from the law however that freedom from the law is to depart from it unfulfilled and therefore to be condemned…man, at that point, you’re lost!
• So then how are we freed from the law other than breathing our last?  You die!  Not physically as in your heart halts but as in you take up your cross and crucify your flesh man.  You see we are all born on a pedestal in our own minds.  Something special.  The best thing out there.  Deserving of service.  Deserving of good things.  Deserving of respect and comfort and for others to recognize our awesomeness…and so we do what we want, get what we want, live as we please and all of that, from the very beginning in thinking ourselves derserving…is called sin.  Jesus said the commandments of God are to love God and to love others…where are you in that equation?  Loving….
• But you are stuck in sin, stuck under the black cloud of condemnation of the law until you break man…until you die to yourself and humble yourself acknowledging your sin…until you do that then you are proclaiming to heaven and earth that you are god, you are savior and that savior of self cannot save you from the second death.  But even before that, without brokenness you’re just bitter man.  Spiteful, hateful, contentious, arrogant and self-centered…why?  Because sin is having its way with you man…you’re a puppet in the name of pride…
• You’re a seed purposed from the get-go to bear fruit but you never allow yourself to be planted, watered, shined upon and so you never grow up man…Jesus said in John Chapter 12, “This is so true, this is essential, most assuredly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies it produces much grain.  He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life, if anyone serves Me let him follow Me.”  Follow you where, Jesus…”to the cross son.”
• Your choice.  Die to sin now, or die in sin later.  Live now or live forever…your choice.  The law and the implication of the law, sin…will rule you man until you do one or the other…but what a waste to cling to “I’m worthy, I deserve better, You can’t talk to me like that, bow down and just do what I want,” what a waste to live a life like that…alone…and then an ultimate waste to die apart from knowing the grace of Jesus and the love of His Spirit flourishing within you and pouring freedom out of your pores man…as you produce grain and more grain and set more free and teach one, teach two, teach three, teach four, teach more of the power and liberty and love that is waiting for you in surrendering your life completely to the Lord…

Romans Chapter 7 Verses 2 – 4

• According to the Old Testament Law, a husband could divorce his wife, but a wife could never divorce her husband and so see what Paul is trying to make clear and that is we are born in a “stuck” type of position.  Stuck in sin…but the gospel of Jesus Christ is that you can be set free!  He has made a way!
• But the key is not for the law to die, it can’t!  It’s alive and well!  Psalm 19 says that it’s perfect, not even sick man!  And so the death Paul says here happens on our end.  He says, “you have become dead to the law through the body of Christ!”  Not the body of Christ as in the church but the body of Christ as in His perfect sacrifice given to free you from sin!
• So the idea, the wondrous truth here is that if you are dead to the law and alive in Christ, in other words you are as Paul is…remember how zealous for the law he was, how his whole life was given over to the things of the law, the most minute of details and yet he was a mess and then he encounters Jesus…the One who wrote the check that satisfied what he had been calling due on the heads of thousands of Christians…and he writes Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ (in other words I am hidden in Him man, we are one, we are together…I brought the sin, He brought the perfection and together the law in my life was satisfied, I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
• Ever see a dead person take the defense stand in a court of law?  Nope.  Why?  What authority does the law have upon them now?  Serve this sentence, pay this fine…please…they’re dead!  You’re wasting your time prosecuting!  And most of the time it’s us prosecuting ourselves isn’t it?  You’re wasting your time.  God has called you clean.  He has removed your filthy rags and placed upon you His robe of righteousness!  When you realize that you died with Christ positionally on Calvary…that that day your filth was washed away for all of eternity and you are free from the sin that so condemns you…to free others will be your joy.
• To not hold it against them, just as it’s not held against you…will be your joy.  To demand to serve others as you have been so divinely served will be your strength…you will surge with the reality that you are free from the demands of the law, the power and the penalty of sin and freed to just be close to God…to know Him and to love Him…when that sets in man you won’t demand so much, you won’t rest so little, you won’t be so centered on your own comfort…you’ll bear fruit man.
• Folks have gotten this passage all wrong over the years to their own demise and the proof is that there’s no fruit unto God.  It isn’t that I have been freed from the law that I might live any kind of life my flesh may want, Paul cleared that up already in the last chapter…the truth is that you’ve been set free from the law because it could never make you righteous.  And check this out. Bearing fruit to God, being in Christ…is actually MUCH more strict in its behavioral implications than the law ever dreamed of being.  The difference is that with the law you had to do it and you failed therefore you sacrificed but in the Lord you GET to do it and you have the power not to fail if you, as Paul put it in Galatians 5:16, if you walk in the Spirit you will not fall to the junk of the flesh.
• Paul said the love of Christ contrains me…he never said that about the law…and notice his life, not a struggle to bear fruit…he wasn’t agonizing over every word he wrote in this letter just trying to get it out…no it just came flowing out…naturally.  That is what fruit does in the life of one who is in relationship with Jesus…fruit just flows man.  Jesus said, “abide in Me and I will abide in you and you will bear much fruit.”  (John 15)
• Religion says fruit makes you righteous.  Truth says that righteousness makes the fruit and that righteousness is simply being alive in Jesus as He imputes His righteousness to you…it’s not yours…apart from Jesus, it ain’t there!  Jesus said apart from Me you can do nothing…so it’s not about you man, it’s about Him, what He’s done for you and who you are in Him and who you are…is free and today if you are without Him, you’re not…you’re bearing fruit to an entirely different master…look at the next verse…

Romans Chapter 7 Verse 5

• Bearing fruit to death.  What does that sound like to you?  Poison man.  Fruit that kills when it’s taken in.  What does that look like?  Galatians 5:19 – 21.  “Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions (putting oneself forward), heresies,  envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice (prasso in the Greek meaning “carry on”  such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
• Poison man…I can prove it!  Paul says that they are “at work” in us…working to sicken us, destroy us…that’s us apart from knowing the Lord!  That’s us Christians apart from being real man…in our commitment to the Lord!  When there is such power and health (the opposite of poison man…) such life awaiting you if you’d just turn on for real for the things of God…Paul calls it “newness of life…”

Romans Chapter 7 Verse 6

• Notice the pattern there?  So many claim, “only God can judge me bro!  I’m under grace not under the law!”  But look at their lives, see the fruit to death and perceive how backwards they have it.  The pattern is here in this verse.  Paul says first you have done nothing to cast off the law, in you dwells nothing good man…the Lord, this Jesus has DELIVERED you…yet you worship so little…yet you love self so much…you sure you understand the gospel?
• Then Paul says, once delivered…you’re not skipping about grabbing every sin because you’re no longer held to stand trial for it, but you’re dead!  Being delivered from it you’re now dead to it…and what’s next?  SERVICE!  A real understanding of the gospel of grace, a true reality of what kind of love would give Himself to rescue you, will lead to straight up service man…and that service to the Lord to others, that response with all of you will walk you right into newness of life in the Spirit man…
• It’s not newness of life so serve me…newness of life so lemme get that, lemme have that…it’s not newness of life and now it’s all about you…all of that shows a clear ignorance of the gospel of Jesus Christ…that reveals that a false gospel has been received and unfortunately these are the last days, that is the gospel that is most popular…most often preached…but when the rubber hits the road…its powerless.  Can’t save you, can’t even help you…just proliferates the poisoning.
• God would have you to observe the cross.  See the price of your freedom.  Study what kind of love would do such a thing…and them meet love.  Speak to the King of Kings, walk with the Creator and be delivered from this junk called sin…die to it man…and come alive with truth, let the chains fall that are choking you out and then get into the business of chopping chains off of others…that’s gospel man.  Rescued folks, rescuing.