CF Bible Study, Romans 7:7-8: The Necessity of Knowing Sin

Kolb’s Basement, October 24, 2007

7 What shall we say then? Is the Law Sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “you shall not covet.”
8 But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law, sin is dead.
Romans 7:7-8

To Be Justified, You Must Know Sin

In Luke chapter 18, Jesus told a story about a Pharisee and a tax collector to some men who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and viewed other people with contempt.

“Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’ I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.” Luke 18:10-14

There is a deep-seated and vital difference between these two men that worked itself out in the justification of one and not the other. The difference is this: the Pharisee did not know sin, and the tax collector did.

The Pharisee knew much about sin—the sins of others. He speaks of swindlers, adulterers, and unjust men. But he did not comprehend the corrupt root of sinfulness in his own nature. He could not see the swindling, adultery, and injustice inside of himself. As a result, the Pharisee blinded himself with pride and, never seeing his helpless condition, did not receive the justification that was necessary for salvation.

The tax collector knew sin. He not only saw that there was much sin around him, but more importantly, he knew that deeply imbedded within himself was a nature soaked with sin. Consequently, fully comprehending his inherent wickedness, he could do nothing but humble himself and cry for mercy. And he received mercy.

We must know sin or we will never know salvation in Christ. Jesus said that he came to heal, not the well, but the sick; he came to call, not the righteous, but sinners to repentance (Matt. 9:12-13). In other words, those who perceive themselves to be well, being blinded to their sinfulness and helplessness, will never be healed by Jesus. Only those who humble themselves like the tax collector, understanding their mortal sickness, will receive mercy. We must be unblinded and awakened to our sinful condition without Christ, so that we will run to Christ, believe, and be saved.

In Romans 7, Paul addresses how it is that we come to know sin.

Is the Law Sin?

He approaches the issue to protect the Law. After everything negative that he has said about the Law, you could easily wonder, “If law binds us in marriage to sin, and we must die to it, and it even works in us sinful passions (v. 5), is it evil?” All that he says from here to the end of the chapter is in defense of the Law.

When Paul refers to the Law in this chapter, he usually means the Jewish Law, and particularly, the Ten Commandments. He does this because that is what was foremost in his experience and in the experience of many of his readers. It also is one of the greatest revelations of God’s requirements for mankind in history. But this does not mean that what he says does not apply to us as gentiles who live thousands of years removed from Mount Sinai. Essentially, all law (which is a revelation of God’s requirement derived from His character) works the same. It can be written on tablets of stone or on the human heart (chapter 2-3) or found in the demands of Christ and His apostles. So these verses can be directly applied by us tonight.

Law Causes Us to Know Sin

Let’s examine what Paul’s answer is to the idea that the Law could possibly be evil. It shows us how great a blessing revealed law really is. “May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the Law (v. 7).”

First of all, notice that Paul assumes the very point that I began with—it is crucial to know sin. His argument is that the Law is not sin because it is the instrument God uses to cause us to know our sinfulness, which assumes that to know our sinfulness is a great blessing. So, the very reason the Law could not be sin, is that it causes us to understand our sinful nature.

I said that it causes us to understand our sinful nature and not sin because I think that is exactly what Paul means by sin in this text. Verse 8 clarifies this. “But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting [or evil desire] of every kind.” In effect, he is saying that “sin produced sin in me.” This is not sin with multiple personality disorder, but it is Paul understanding that there is an underlying reality beneath the individual sin of covetousness at work inside of him to produce that sin. This reality is his sinful nature.

How, then, does the law cause us to know sin? Look at Paul’s example to find out. “For I would not have know about coveting if the Law had not said, ‘you shall not covet’”

Coveting refers to evil desire. It encompasses everything from lust to pride. It is very interesting that Paul uses this particular commandment as an example. If you compare this one with the others, you find a big difference. All of the others have to do with outward sin, “you shall not steal,” “you shall not murder,” “you shall not commit adultery,” etc. This commandment, however, drives right to the heart of the person. It uncovers his nature. I think that is why Paul uses this commandment to unfold what he means by saying that he would not have know sin except through the Law.

Paul is not saying that he would not have known that coveting was sinful had the Law not told him. That may be true, but it is not his point. His point is much deeper. Had the commandment, “you shall not covet,” not revealed to him God’s standards and his inability to meet them, he would never have come to understand and experience the inherent coveting nature within himself.”

What a blessing the Law is, because it reveals to us our sinful condition so that we will run to Jesus for forgiveness and healing! If the Spirit works, the law uncovers our sinfulness by showing how unable we are to obey it. Without this (“Apart from the Law”) “sin is dead (v. 8).” Unless God takes the law and pierces your consciousness with it, revealing your sin, sin is dead to your understanding. Paul said that he was once alive apart from the law. That does not mean that there was time when he was not under the Law, but that God had not penetrated him with the law and opened his understanding to his sin. Therefore, sin was dead to him. Some of you in this room may be alive apart from the law, and until God opens your eyes, you will never see your sin. The law is a great gift. Listen to it!

Law Is not the Problem, Sin Is

Law is not the problem. That is what Paul saying. You still must die to law. You still need justification. But you need it, not because the law is evil, but because of sin. God’s requirements are not what damn you; your rebellion against them is what damns you.
Read this in verse 8. “But sin [you will see this all through chapter 7: “the Law is good, but sin . . .”], taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me coveting [or evil desire] of every kind.”

The original idea in this phrase “taking opportunity” is military. Sin uses the law as a military base of operations. We have begun to understand this over the past few weeks in chapter 7. The death that comes through the law is what sin must have to reign in death. The law is the foundation of its dominion.

So I do not think that Paul is saying that, when the Law came in and he began to see his sin, sin flared up. I think he is saying this: “All that time as a Pharisee, when sin was dead to me and I thought I was alive, sin was at work in me, through the Law as it condemned me, and I was completely blind to it.” The law is not sin—it does not cause your death—your sinful nature causes your death. Because of it, believe in Jesus, die to law, and be joined to Christ.

A Final Exhortation

A tremendous lesson can be learned from this passage. If you are not a true believer in Jesus, you must listen to the law—as it is in your nature and as you see it in the Bible—and come to know your sinfulness. Then, in full knowledge of it, like the tax collector, plead with God for the mercy that He gives to the humble.

Some of you here may be walking over hell on thin ice. And you do not know it because you do not understand the depth and damnability of your sin. And here is the law, yelling at you that you are walking in perilous danger. Yet you will not listen. You are deaf, and you keep walking. One day you will fall, if you do not listen to the law that God has kindly revealed.

The Bible says that the heart of a man without Christ is desperately wicked. Your heart is desperately wicked. Will you not understand it? Know your sin, and come to Christ.

Bryan Elliff © 2007

CF Bible Study, Romans 7:4-6: Justification, the Center of Exultation

McDonald’s Basement, October 17, 2007

4 Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.
5 For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused [or, made to happen] by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death.
6 But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.
Romans 7:4-6

Chapters 6, 7, and 8 of Romans are about justification, not sanctification. Often the dichotomy is made that 1-5 is about justification and 6-8 is about sanctification. That dichotomy is not legitimate. All of 1-8 is an explanation and defense of justification.

In 6-8, Paul is building walls around this doctrine. He will not see the truth of justification that he so deeply loves and has thrown his life upon, be trampled upon by degenerate false teachers who only want license to live like the Devil and go to heaven. And so he sets out to prove that a life of good fruit is the inevitable result of justification. Justified people cannot live in sin because the very nature of justification is freedom from sin.

Last week I made the point that there is a direct link between chapters 6 and 7. Tonight, I want to more clearly define that link. In order to do that, we will use the end of chapter 6 as a window to look into chapter 7. We will ask two questions derived from 6 and answer them in 7.

What is behind Slavery to Sin?

The first question comes from 6:20-21. “For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. Therefore what benefit were you then deriving [literally, what fruit were you having] from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death.” The question is, “What is behind slavery to sin?”

Paul illuminates the answer in 1-3 of chapter 7. He asks in verse 1, “Or do you not know that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives?” As long a person is in the realm of law, it condemns him. But that does not fully answer the question yet. That is only a step in the argument. Why is it important that law can condemn a man as long as he lives?

Paul makes clear why it is important with the illustration in verses 2-3. It is important because, just as the married woman is bound her husband while under the law, we are bound to a husband while under law. As long as we live in the realm of law’s condemnation, we are bound to Sin as a husband. As long as the middle ball (law) is between sin and death (remember last week’s illustration), sin will always result in death and death will always work itself out in more and more sin.

Behind slavery to sin is the marriage-binding power of law.

What is behind Freedom from Sin and Slavery to God?

The second question is derived from verse 22 of chapter 6. “But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit [have you fruit], resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.” The question here is, “What is behind freedom from sin and slavery to God?”

This is answered in verse 4 of chapter 7. “Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another . . .” Death to law, as in Paul’s illustration, is behind freedom from our old husband Sin and marriage to our new husband Christ. What, then, does it mean to “die to the law?”

First, death to law was historical and physical. It was “through the body of Christ.” I think it is much the same as the meaning of death to sin in chapter 6, but with a different emphasis. When Jesus died his condemnation-bearing death on the cross, he was dying as the representative of His elect. They, therefore, died that death in Him. To have died to the law, at least partly, means to have died under the condemnation of law in Christ.

But this means more than that. By virtue of being a death under the law (bearing its condemnation), that death in Christ was a death to the law—a going out of existence with regard the law’s ability to condemn because the punishment has been taken. Due to this death to law, or justification, there is now no more condemnation to those in Christ Jesus.

This is the only hope of freedom from Sin and marriage to Christ. Until law is died to (until the middle ball is taken away), mankind’s marriage to her natural husband grows only stronger. But if there is death to law and now no condemnation, there is now no marriage to Sin.

Behind freedom from sin and slavery to God (divorce from Sin and marriage to Jesus) is death to law—or justification.

Bearing Fruit for God

Paul has a purpose in going so deeply into the nature of justification. It has to do with the question in chapter 6: “shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?” His aim is to prove that the very nature of justification is that it produces a life of good fruit. And, therefore, a justified person cannot bear a life of sinful fruit. Observe how this works out in both 6:22 and 7:4.

“But now, having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit [Greek, “have your fruit”] . . . (6:22)”
Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law [you were justified] . . . in order that you might bear fruit for God. (7:4)”

But why does justification result in good fruit for God? To understand that we need to go a little more deeply into death to law and its results. There are two reasons in this passage.

First, death to law (justification) frees us from the mastery of Sin and makes us slaves of God. We have seen this, but see it again in verse 5. “For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused [or, made to happen] by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death.” The harsh root of “fruit for death” is slavery to sinful passion made to happen by the law. But if there is death to law through Christ (justification), these sinful passions can no longer work with authority and mastery.

Second, justification makes us slaves of Christ in the Spirit, having freed us from slavery Sin under the oldness of the law. “But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter [the Law].” Not only are you freed from sin and enslaved to Christ, but the essence of that marriage is that you serve your new master, bearing good fruit, in the power of His Spirit. What does this mean? At least two things.

1. Serving in the newness of the Spirit means that the requirements of Christ are not outward and overbearing and binding to Sin, but, because of the Spirit’s working, inward and delightful. No more do we hate Jesus’ just demands for love and worship, rather, because of the Spirit of God, we yearn to love and worship our new husband.

2. Serving in newness of the Spirit means that we are not required to keep impossible commands, but are taught and worked in by our Master to begin to do them.

We were married to Sin under the ultimate jurisdiction of a greater Master. This Master justly required love, worship, and adoration. But by the very fact that we cannot love and worship this Master, we were bound more tightly to Sin. We were condemned and could not get free from that husband.

Through death to the condemnation of those requirements, we are freed from Sin and married to the greater Master, Christ. No longer is the requirement of love and worship hateful, it our utmost yearning and delight. And no longer is it impossible to obey the command to love and worship this Husband, because He begins to teach and move within us to fulfill it.

We therefore cannot live in sin, because justification—death to law—has brought about liberty from Sin and marriage to Christ, whom we serve in the power of His Spirit, bearing fruit for God.

The Centrality of Justification

This final point comes from the love I see in Paul for justification in these chapters. He is overwhelmed with its beauty and so jealous for its purity.

The cross is central. Everything that happens for the glory of God in this created universe centers around, is traced back to, and terminates on the justifying cross of Christ. This is because the purpose of God in this universe is to glorify His grace (Eph. 1), and the cross is the decisive demonstration of God’s grace, and the ultimate groundwork of all the glory God gets for His grace.

We saw this in chapter 5. God took the sin of Adam and put all people under punishment and sin because of it. We asked the question when studying this, “Why did God impute the sin of Adam to this world? And why is sending millions of people to hell?” The stunning answer is the cross. God wrote a history of sin and death and misery so that Christ could come, be crucified to save His people from their sins, and massively exalt the grace of God.

All of the glory God has received, is receiving, and will receive for His grace in this universe is in justification, because every grace that He displays is mediated through justification. The cross, then, is at the center of God’s glorification not only because it the decisive demonstration of His grace, but because it mediates his grace.

Freedom from Sin and the all-satisfying slavery to God comes about through justification. Romans 7 shows that. And so, all the glory that God gets because of that transfer of masters is ultimately glory that He gets in the cross.

The work of the Spirit in sanctifying us is mediated through justification. That is also clear in Romans 7. Therefore all the glory for God’s grace that comes in that work is glory, ultimately, in the cross.

Finally, eternal life is through justification. And all of the glory that God will get in bringing the new heavens and new earth, saving His elect from all nations, and giving them righteousness, true worship, and true joy is glory that He will get in the justification of the cross.

My conclusion is this: boast in nothing but the cross. Paul was flattened by this doctrine. You can feel the awestruck amazement in his language in chapter 5. He was breathless at the fact that one Man took the wrath of God in place of His people and so transcendently glorified the grace of God. And you can see the zeal with which he protects it in chapters 6-8. His conclusion was, “may it never be that I should boast except in the cross of Christ. (Galatians 6:14)”

William Tyndale lived and died for justification. I will tell some of his story in hope that it will arouse in you a profound desire to live and die like him.

He was born in 1494 in England. He was a brilliant student, knowing at least seven languages. His passion was to translate the Bible into vernacular English, taking it out of the prison of the Latin vulgate. In response to one man’s assertion that, “We were better to be without God’s law than the Pope’s.” Tyndale’s said, “I defy the Pope and all his laws; if God spare my life, ere many years I will cause a boy that driveth the plough shall [to] know more of the Scripture than thou dost.” This was his passion.

In 1525 He completed the first printed English vernacular translation of the New Testament and began smuggling it into England (from which he had fled for his life). Finally, in 1536, he was burned at the stake as a heretic.

The question in my mind is, “What drove this man to live a harsh life of an exile, and then to die?” I think this is the answer: He loved justification. When you pull away everything else, Tyndale’s passion to translate the Bible into English was a passion to proclaim and protect justification.

Nothing but the cross can save, he said, “though thou hast a thousand holy candles about thee, a hundred ton of holy water, a ship-full of pardons, a cloth-sack full of friar’s coats, and all the ceremonies in the world, and all the good works, deservings, and merits of all the men in the world, be they, or were they, never so holy.”

He could not stand the truncating and skewing of the true gospel of the cross that he saw dominating the Catholic Church. “Christ is our Redeemer, Saviour, peace, atonement, and satisfaction to Godward for all the sin which they that repent . . . do, have done, or shall do.” He lived and died for that.

So my plea tonight is that you become a person whose boasting is radically and fervently centered in the cross. What a force we could be for the name of God if we were consumed by justification as Paul and Tyndale were.

Make justification the center of your exultation because it is the center point of the purpose for which the universe is created and for which God exists—the glory of God.

Bryan Elliff © 2007

CF Bible Study, Romans 7:1-3: Marriage to Sin and the Bond of Law

McDonald’s Basement, October 10, 2007

1 Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives?
2 for the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband.
3 So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man.
Romans 7:1-3

For the past two months we have studied Romans 6. We have talked about the mastery of sin over the natural person, and the fruit that is born, and the death that results. We have also talked about the believer’s death to sin in Christ, the good fruit that is born, and life that results. What we have not talked about much—and what is crucial in understanding all of that—is its underpinning; what is behind and what is underneath slavery to sin and slavery to God. That is what we will look at tonight. It is possibly the most important link in Paul’s reasoning.

Romans 7 is complex. Do not tune out or give up because it is complex. Strong, deep, God-saturated people are built upon deep, complex, God-saturated doctrine. Great Christians are created in Romans 7—in the hard passages of Scripture. So do not tune out or give up because of the complexity of this chapter. You have a golden opportunity tonight to lay some foundations, to continue to build your life on rock-solid, complex theology, and to run from the utterly flimsy foundation of the beach.

Chapter 7 Follows Chapter 6

Romans chapter 7 is not disconnected from Romans chapter 6. That is huge. If you miss that, you will probably miss most of the chapter. If you grasp that, you will probably grasp this chapter. What makes the chapter so easy to miss is that it is easy to imagine Paul as completely changing his imagery and ideas from chapters 6 to 7. But in reality, chapter 7:1-6 is the most important part of his answer to the question in verse 6:15, and it is the groundwork of all of chapter 6. What we need to do, then, is go back and trace the line of thought from chapter 6 up to chapter 7 and try to find the link.

“What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?” Paul asks in 6:15. He then answers decisively in verses 19-23. It is now unfathomable that you could live in sin as a slave of God. You were a slave of sin, you had bad fruit, and that results in death. But you are now a slave of God, you have the good fruit of sanctification, and that leads to eternal life. “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (6:23)”

And then, immediately after this answer in verse 23, Paul says, “Or do you not know . . . that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives.” Verse 1 of chapter 7 comes directly after verse 23 of chapter 6. Undoubtedly there is a link. What is that link?

Is not this the link: “Why? What is behind all of this slavery to sin, and bad fruit, and death, Paul? And what is behind freedom from sin, and good fruit, and life? Why is the ‘wages of sin death,’ and how can God give the free gift of eternal life?” And Paul’s answer in chapter 7 is: the law is behind slavery to sin, bad fruit, and death. And freedom from law is behind slavery to God, good fruit, and life. The beginning of chapter 7 is meant to illuminate chapter 6. So, in some ways, this is the most important part of Paul’s argument, because it shows the underlying reason for everything that he has said in chapter 6.

Verse 1: A Man is Under Law as Long as He Lives

For a few weeks this summer, I was in South Africa. It is against the law to drive on the right side of the road in that country. As long as you are in the realm of South African law, it will have the ability to condemn you. That is Paul’s quite straightforward first point. “Or do you not know . . . that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives. (v. 1)” In other words, if a man is alive (or in the realm of law), the law has jurisdiction over him. While you are in South Africa, you cannot drive on the right side of the road.

What should you do, then, if you want to drive on the right side of the road? You should go to a country where it is legal. You should go out of the realm of that law and come to a place where it has no power. As long a person is in the realm of law, it rules him. Let me use an illustration a bit closer to Paul’s wording. A murderer is under law as long as he lives. As soon as he dies, however, he is free from that law. He may be dead, but he is free. The federal penal system has no jurisdiction over dead bodies.

Now why is that important? It is important because it relates to believers’ death in Jesus. Paul draws a parallel. He says that a man who is alive physically is under law. And a man who dies physically is freed from law. And then the parallel: “. . . you were made to die to the law through the body of Christ . . .” You have gone out of the realm of law just like the man who dies physically, and it has no more jurisdiction over you than it does over his dead body. Jesus representative crucifixion removed the condemnation of the law for you, thus making you dead to the law.

Marriage to Sin
2 for the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband.
3 So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man. (7:2-3)

Here Paul brings in an illustration about a marriage to demonstrate the point that he made in verse 1—that the law has jurisdiction over a man as long as he lives. He says in verses 2-3 that a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is alive. Therefore, she cannot marry another man. But if her husband dies, she is free and can be joined to another.

Surfacely, that is a very bad illustration. It seems to be an atrocious attempt at illustrating something already clear enough in order to make it more clear. “All you are trying to say, Paul, is that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives. That’s a simple enough concept. Why are you pulling out such a complex illustration to explain something so straightforward?” That is an enormous question. Why does Paul use this illustration? Why does he take us down such a strange, complicated track, in using the picture of a marriage and then comparing to our situation in Christ? Why does he not use a simple illustration like one I used earlier about South Africa or the murderer? The answer to that question is the key to verses 1-6. If you get the answer right, you will understand the point. If you get the answer wrong, you will totally miss the point. So why does he use this illustration?

I think the reason is that Paul wants to draw out something about the relationship of sin and man and the law that could not be seen with a simpler illustration. Miles from being a bad illustration, this is a masterful picture of the work of law in man. So let’s contemplate this for a moment.

Paul sets it up. There is a woman who is married to a husband. And there is something that binds that marriage together. What is it? Law. “For the married woman is bound by law to her husband . . . (v. 2)” So then, as long as they are alive, they are in the realm of law and it binds them together. If the married woman joins herself to another man she is an adulteress (v.3). You notice that is a big part of Paul’s point; the married woman wants to marry another, but the law prevents her by binding her to her current husband. As long as these two live in the realm of the law of marriage, they are bound to one another and cannot get free.

Something has to happen for this woman to be able to marry another. The husband has to die. While he lives, she is bound. If he dies, she is free. That is the set up. But what is the point? How does this relate to us? The answer is in verse 4. “Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another . . .” Just like the married woman, you were formerly bound to a husband and were unable to be joined to another.

So, who was your husband that Paul personifies in this illustration? My answer to that is this: Sin was your husband. Now why do I say that Sin was your husband and not law? It might seem at first glance that, in Paul’s mind, law is what you were bound to, because law is what you have died to (v. 4).

But notice the illustration again. In this picture, is the married woman bound to the law? No, she is bound by the law to her husband. I think this is the essence of Paul’s point. The law is what is behind and underneath man’s marriage to Sin. It is the underlying worker in all of what was said in chapter 6. Remember that he is using a complicated picture and not a simple one. The reason for that is that he wants to manifest something about how Sin and man are bound together. That point is this: man and sin are bound by law. If you only want to show the simple idea that a man is under law while he lives (v. 1), you use a simple illustration (like the one about South Africa). But if you want to display something about the way law forces and sustains man’s marriage to Sin, you use this illustration. And do not forget that this comes right after chapter 6. The imagery of man’s bondage to Sin as a master has not left Paul’s mind. He is merely bringing in a slightly new picture (which is not really new, because in Jewish culture that husband was a sort of master over the wife) to demonstrate that role of law in that bondage.

But here you say, “Bad illustration again, Paul. You said that the married woman is bound to the husband while he lives. And if he dies she is free. Now you say, in correlation (v. 4), we died and are free. That’s not a consistent parallel. In the illustration, the husband dies. In the application, we die.”

The object of the illustration is to show this: the law is what binds the marriage, and death to law is the only way the wife can be free from the husband. This death happens, in a sense, for both the wife and the husband through the husband’s death. They both go out of the realm of law through his death. Paul then takes that element of the illustration and applies it to us. We were bound to Sin by the law (like the wife), but now we have died to the law (like the husband and, in a sense, the wife) and (like the wife) we can be joined to another.

The Bond of Law

We need to address one more issue in order to fully comprehend this. Paul has implied it in chapter 6, but he hammers it in chapter 7. How does law bind us to Sin?

There is one fundamental reason, and it is found in chapter 5 verses 20-21. “And the Law came in so that the transgression would increase . . . so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign . . .” The first thing you see in this passage is that Sin reigns through something—death. It says that “. . . sin reigned in death . . .” This means that death (the condemnation for sin) is the foundation of Sin’s reign. It is a cycle. Sin results in death, and death means more sin (remember Romans 1), which means more death, and so on. The second thing you see in this passage is that something had to be there before Sin could reign in death—Law. “And the Law came so that . . .” The reason the Law (in this case the Jewish Law) had to come in for sin to reign in death is that, without law, there is no death (no condemnation) and therefore no reign of sin.

I have a picture in my mind that may help. Imagine a bar out in front of you. And imagine that two small metal balls are hanging down from that bar on the end of two strings. If you pull the ball on the right off to the side and then let it go it will hit the other ball. This ball will then swing to the left and then come back and hit the other ball, and these balls will continue to do this indefinitely. In my mind, the two balls are sin and death. Sin hits (results in) death, and then death hits (results in) sin.

But now move these balls a few inches apart and swing one at the other. What happens? Sin misses death and death misses sin. What must we do then? We must add another ball to hang stationary in the middle and transfer the energy from one ball to other. This middle ball is law. It is what causes sin to result in death and death to bring about sin. Without it, sin would swing free and then finally stop.

That is the point of 7:1-3. What is behind and beneath man’s marriage to master Sin? Paul’s answer is: law.

We will not apply these truths until next week in verse 4-6. But this week is very important set up. We have spent so much time on this so that we will view our death to law in Christ as glorious, and beautiful, and indispensable.

Bryan Elliff © 2007

CF Bible Study, Romans 6:23: Battling and Believing

McDonald’s Basement, October 3, 2007

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:23

If you want to know the answer to the question in verse 15, “shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace,” you go to verse 23, because in verse 23 Paul draws out the answer in such drastic, and vivid lines that you cannot miss it. In fact, this verse is a condensation of the whole of chapter 6. This chapter is mainly concerned with one question. It is essentially, “shall we sin because we are justified?” The answer in the first part of the chapter (v. 1-14) is, “No, the very reason you cannot sin because you are justified is that you are justified. You have been unified with Jesus and are dead to sin and alive to God.” The answer in the second part of chapter (v. 16-23) is, “If you are a slave to sin it proves you are not justified. And the outcome of that is death.”

Verse 23 brings both of these ideas together. “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life . . .” This first part of the verse corresponds to the second part of the chapter; you cannot live in sin because slavery to sin results in death and slavery to God results in life. Now here is the second part of the verse, which corresponds to the first part of the chapter. “. . . in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Eternal life is in Christ Jesus. If you are justified and have eternal life, you are unified with Jesus and are dead to sin and alive to God.

Tonight we will look at the three contrasting pairs of verse 23—Sin and God, wages and free gift, death and eternal life.

Sin and God

There are no neutral people in the world. There are no free-floating, self-governing entities. Every person is a slave of one of two masters. They are either a slave of sin or a slave of God. If a person is a slave of God, he is not a slave of sin. If a person is a slave of sin, he is not a slave of God, because anything less than slavery to God is sin. If you are a Muslim and serve Allah, you are a slave of sin or God. If you are an atheist and do not even believe in God, you are a slave of sin or God. If you are a person who has never heard of Christ, you are either a slave of sin or God. And if you do not even care, you are still mastered by one of the two. There are no autonomous in-betweens.

I have known this verse for a long time and I have always thought that what Paul means when he talks about “the wages of sin” is “the wages that you get when you sin.” But that is not what he means. I now understand that Paul is contrasting two masters and what they give. Two reasons make this clear.

1. If you take “the wages of sin is death” to mean “the wages that you get when you sin,” it is logical to understand the other half of the verse the same way. So “the free gift of God is eternal life” would mean “the free gift that you get when you God.” That obviously does not work.

2. Most importantly, the picture that Paul has used for all of chapter 6 is the picture of two opposing masters, sin and God. It is no surprise, then, that he continues this imagery.

When Paul writes about slavery to sin, he wants you to view it in the blackest, most death-like way possible. In chapter 1, he describes some of this slavery. “And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful . . . (1:28-31)” What is that? That is slavery to sin. Paul wants you to look as sin as a master and hate it, and loath any thought that you could continue in it as a Christian.

That is not what Paul means when he writes about slavery to God. Slavery to God is slavery; you are totally dominated by righteousness and by God. But this is the slavery that we were created for and yearn for. It is the one true slavery. Sin is a fake, usurping master—taking the good reality of slavery and making an evil reproduction. The reason that the world thinks slavery (being controlled by something) is bad, is because their experience with slavery is slavery to sin. But that is not the true slavery. It is a shadowy, depraved imitation of the real thing. There is a real slavery, and it is wholly good and satisfying.

In Ephesians 1, Paul says that God has “made known to us the mystery of His will, in accordance with His kind intention . . . with a view to the . . . summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth.” What is that? That is the final subjecting of all things in slavery to Christ, and it is a “kind intention.” For the church this slavery to Christ will mean righteousness, Christ-likeness, true worship, and complete satisfaction to praise of God’s glory.

So do not think of heavy burdens, and pain, and death when you think of slavery to God. Think of what you most yearn for.

Wages and Free Gift

There is an important connection between verses 21-22 and verse 23. In verse 21, Paul shows the outcome of bad fruit and ultimately slavery to sin—death. Distinguishingly, in verse 22, he talks about the result of good fruit and ultimately slavery to God—life. And then he says in verse 23, “For the wages of sin is death and the free gift of God is eternal life.” In other words, death is the outcome of slavery to sin because that is what Sin gives its slaves. And eternal life comes from slavery to God because that is what God gives his slaves.

But there is a vital difference between these masters and what they give. One gives wages. The other gives gifts. “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life . . .” The tremendously important contrast that is being made here is that you earn the wages of master sin, and you cannot earn the free gift of master God. That is the fundamental distinction between a wage and a gift. One is earned and the other is received.

The wages of sin are in you. I mean by that that you are the worker and representative of yourself as a slave of sin. The wages that you get are exactly what you have earned and deserve. You, in yourself, have not honored God and you have not conformed to His image, and therefore you get death as just payment.

The free gift of God is in Christ. He is the worker and your representative as a slave to God. All gifts are earned—just not by the recipient. Gifts are earned by the giver. And it is by virtue of Christ’s work and your union with Him that you have the free gift of eternal life. It is in Him. This is what Paul says in verse 23, “For the wages of sin is death [that is in you], but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Death and Life

Now let us ponder for a moment the third contrast—death and life. Paul’s emphasis here is not the death and life that is experienced by people on earth. It is not the death that non-believers have currently or the life and resurrection that believers have now. While those may be implied, his true emphasis is the end—the final results of slavery to these two masters—eternal death and eternal life.

Here, the contrasting picture of the two opposing masters breaks down. These two masters are not equal. God is completely free and autonomous in His giving of gifts, but sin is subordinate to God in giving of wages. Ultimately it is God who gives the wages of death as well as the gift of life.

Maybe it will be helpful to rebuild the illustration that I used a few weeks ago. There is a kingdom with a ruling King, and throughout the kingdom there are castles and villages that are ruled by a lesser master, Sin. All your life you are made to work as a slave to that master, fighting and working against the greater King and his kingdom. Then, at the end when the King is purging out the domain of Sin and is besieging your castle, Sin flees. And you and your fellow slaves are left to receive the just consequences of your rebellion from the King. Perhaps that is the picture Paul has in mind. Sin lures you and dominates you and then, as payment, leaves you to die.

We should never lose the reality of these truths in our contemplation of the Bible. Slavery to sin does result in death. Slavery to God does result in life. Sometimes we talk about these things as if they are some fairy tale or fictional story, and we are trying to discover the author’s meaning for an upcoming exam.

Jesus Christ was an actual person. He was a real as James Madison or Ronald Reagan. His death was a real as the death of my grandmother. I love Francis Schaeffer’s statement because it is so shockingly true: If you had been there, you could have rubbed your hand on the cross and gotten a splinter in your finger.

Eternal death and life are also real—as real as the chair you are sitting in. I live for this. It is what keeps me from committing suicide. I do not rest my hope in a fairy tale, but in actuality. The life that I have been promised—the righteousness, the worship, the new heavens and earth, the salvation of the nations—will be given.

Battle and Believe: My Exhortation from Chapter 6

I have one more point from this verse. It is the point I am most eager to make.

We know from verse 22 that sanctification is necessary for eternal life. It is the pathway and there are no detours. We also know from verse 23 that eternal life is a free gift. Now here is the point. If eternal life is a free gift, and if sanctification is necessary for eternal life, sanctification must be a free gift as well. If God had said, “You can have eternal life for free.” And then He said, “But you have to have good fruit, you must walk this pathway of sanctification, in order to obtain it. And as for that, you are on your own.” It would not be a free gift any more. It would be based on something that you did. But eternal life is free and therefore sanctification must also be free.

John Piper gave an illustration that is very useful. Let us say you went to the train station to take a trip to St. Louis. Outside, a man came up to you and said, “I will give you a free trip to St. Louis. All you have to do is get on the train and you are there for free.” And then as he walked away he said, “Oh, by the way, you do have to have a ticket. And I am afraid I can’t help you out with that.” Is that a free trip? Not at all! If it is free, everything necessary must be free as well. And if eternal life is free, so is sanctification. Sometimes I like to think of salvation as a package. Regeneration, justification, faith, sanctification, and eternal life are all yours as a free gift in Christ Jesus.

There is a very thin walkway between two equally dangerous extremes in the relationship of justification and sanctification and eternal life. On one side you have a ditch that is sanctification and no justification. At its root it is works righteousness. On the other side, you have a ditch that is justification and no sanctification. People in it say, “I don’t need sanctification, I have justification. I can sin because I am not under law but under grace.” Does that sound familiar? Both of these are wrong and dangerous.

I think that the truth can be summarized in two words: Battling and believing.

We battle knowing that sanctification is completely necessary for eternal life, and that God uses our battling to produce sanctification in us. We fight like we are fighting for life itself. But we believe that eternal life and all that is necessary for it is a free gift in Christ Jesus. He is our justification and our sanctification. In His merits and His work alone do we have eternal life. This gift is ours in Christ and God will bring it to perfection.

So my simple and earnest exhortation, from all of chapter 6, is this: battle and believe.

Bryan Elliff © 2007