“Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28).
THIS is how our author ended the previous section. This is a familiar verse pointing to our first coming to Christ. We came to Christ heavy laden with sin and guilt. In Christ at the Cross we found that burden lifted, finding forgiveness and being given His righteousness (imputed to us) in His perfect work of atonement on our behalf. But after that, delivered from condemnation, the principle of sin remains, the battle continues within even though “I will to do good” – “I find a law that evil is present with me” – Romans 7: 13-25. But Christ still calls out “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” – come and claim the “liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free” (Gal. 5:1).
IT is at this point that some might raise a flag of antinomianism (anti-Law) into such a discussion. But the Law has its vital place always – it is God’s standard for righteousness, His will to be performed. The Law does not change, we change regarding it; it no longer condemns (Rom. 8:1), rather it becomes our delight. As our author is going to point out below, “His perfect will becomes a delight to us, not a duty. We now operate under a different principle, the “Spirit of life in Christ.” It is that Spirit producing fruit in us “Against which there is no law,” in which “those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Gal 5:23-24). This answers Paul’s Romans 7:25 cry, “Who (not what, but who) will deliver me from this body of death?” Answer: “I thank God – through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Rom. 7:24-25) It is Christ, always!
WITH that, let us finish this Romans Seven Reckoning chapter.
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 4 – Conclusion
Each of us has “died unto the law” (Gal. 2:19, ASV), we were “discharged from the law” (Rom. 7:6), and we are now “not under law”(Rom. 6:14). We are completely out of the realm of the principle and command of the law, and are forever on the ground of grace in our Lord Jesus Christ. “The law came in besides, that the trespass might abound; but where sin abounded, grace did abound more exceedingly: that, as sin reigned in death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 5:20, 21, ASV).
The Spirit of Truth is not only explicit and thorough in presenting the truth, but He is also exact and painstaking in preparing our hungry hearts for the appropriation of it. Most of His spiritual work He accomplishes in our lives through natural means, such as our careful, dependent study coupled with the vicissitudes of everyday life. The bondage of the principle of law finally brings us to its goal—the death of the cross. Now we are able to understand that “I through the law died unto the law, that I might live unto God. I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I [self] that live, but Christ [my new life] liveth in me [new creation]: and that life which I now live in the flesh [body] I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me” (Gal. 2:19, 20, ASV).
As we reckon upon having died to the principle of law, and abide in our risen Lord, the Holy Spirit progressively carries out the will of the Father in our life. His perfect will becomes a delight to us, not a duty. “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh; that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Rom. 8:3, 4, ASV), “not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life” (Heb. 7:16).
“Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage” (Gal. 5:1); “for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death” (Rom. 8:2). “Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin [and law], but alive unto God in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 6:11, ASV).
