Romans 7 Reckoning – Part 2

OKAY, I hope you read Romans 7 in its entirety, better yet in the context of both Romans 6 and 8 as well.  We will now venture a little further into Chapter 46 – “Romans 7 Reckoning.” The last posting introduction went rather long.  This one will be shorter.

I AM not wanting to break this chapter up into sections, as is my custom, thinking it is better read as a whole.  But that would not fit well with the overall purpose here.  So, if you have a copy of the book, I recommend reading the entire chapter in one sitting.  Saying that however, this is a chapter that is somewhat incomplete in thinking through Romans Seven.  But how could it not be, there is so much in Romans Seven to be studied?  Suffice it to say the topicis Reckoning, to which our author of our study is referencing that one point, and can’t cover all the additional teachings resident in Romans Seven.

JUST two more points before starting today’s reading: First – Our author points us back to the reality of “Position” and “Condition” in Christ.  Remember those phrases?  Those two identifiers are critical to our thinking through the book, The Complete Green Letters, and Christian life in general.  If need be, go back in the blog and review those topics to refresh your thoughts. Second – Keep in mind that utmost and foremost our author is pointing us to our need of Christ, that at the end of Romans Seven, (vv24) the question it is not “what” but “who” will deliver me from the body of death?  A point that must not be over-looked.

SO with that, let us begin.   

In the inexorable riches of Christ,
Joe
Neh. 8:10, Isa 30:15, Jas 1:2; Prov. 21:30
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Chapter 46 — Romans 7 Reckoning – Part 2
If believers knew more fully the deliverance of the first part of Romans Seven, they would experience less of the defeat of the latter part! This vitally important chapter has to do mainly with the principle of law.

Positionally, in Christ, no believer is under law. “The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ”; “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth” (John 1:17; Rom. 10:4). Conditionally, almost all believers are to some extent under the principle of law “as a rule of life.” The all-too-general attitude is: I must love the Lord and others; I must maintain my testimony; I must witness and work for Him; I must resist self; I must stop this sinning. The feeling of constraint expressed in “I must” makes for Romans Seven defeat.

“The law is holy … just, and good” (Rom. 7:12). The purpose of God’s law, both in command and principle, is to bring to light and cause us to face up to the fact of our sinfulness, weakness, and bondage. His faithful ministry negative though it be, is all-important. Law does not make us sinners; it is holy, and reveals to us that we are sinful. “By the law is the knowledge of sin” (Rom. 3:20).

Anything we seek to do, or keep from doing, in our own strength brings us under legal bondage. Any promises or vows we make to the Lord, any code of ethics or rules of conduct that we set up for ourselves or have placed upon us, are on the basis of law and therefore result in failure and ever-deepening enslavement. The principle of law applies to the self-life, and can produce nothing but self-righteousness. Thus, the law convicts of our need of life in Christ.

The years of struggle and failure we experience are not only to prepare us for liberation from the tyranny of the principle of sin, but from the bondage of the principle of law. We are brought not only to the release of Romans Six, but to the deliverance of Romans Seven. We exchange “the law of sin and death” for “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:2).

We are given the key to the problem of law at the very door of Romans Seven: “Know ye not, brethren, … how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?” (Rom. 7:1). Exactly! All through the years of defeat, we have been slowly learning that the harder we tried to live the Christian life the deeper we came under the dominion of the law of sin. We tried to “be,” we tried to “do,” and there was nothing but failure year in and year out.

“For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sin, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit [works] unto death” (Rom. 7:5). As long as we depended on our own resources, all we produced was sin; we hungered for life, and brought forth death. But in the midst of our wretched attempts to be delivered from the “body of this death” (Rom. 7:24), our faithful Father was teaching us what we had to know for our freedom in Christ: self is our greatest enemy, Christ is our only hope. “For to me to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21).     …….to be continued.