The Inability of the Law (Romans 7:14-25)

Paul has been laboring in the book of Romans to prove that the gospel of justification by faith in no way nullifies the Law of God and by no means is a message that means that the Law of God is bad. Paul has already declared that the Law itself testifies that the righteousness of God does not come through the Law but is by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 3:21-22). Paul has also declared that faith in the Lord Jesus Christ does not nullify the Law but actually establishes the Law (Romans 3:31).

The reason that Paul would have been accused of preaching against the Law as he preached the good news of justification by faith in Christ was because too many misunderstood the purpose or intent of the Law. The Law was not given to show man’s goodness but his badness by showing God’s goodness and man’s violation of that which is good. This is why Paul said, “The Law came in so that the transgression would increase” (Romans 5:20). Although this may seem to be a bad thing it is really a good thing because it is only through seeing our badness that we will see our need for a Savior.

So the intent of the Law is to announce sin (Romans 7:7), arouse sin (Romans 7:8-9), authorize sin (Romans 7:10-11), and amplify sin (Romans 7:12-13). By the Law being the perfect standard of that which is good it gives an accurate and totally true evaluation of that which is not good. So the Law is that which is holy and righteous and good (Romans 7:12) and sin is that which is unholy and unrighteous and bad – and we are sinners – a truth to which the Law testifies without fail. Since we are sinners and are unable to do good then both our justification and our sanctification are by faith in Christ.

Now this is the context of what we are studying in the book of Romans. If we will keep in mind that Paul is showing that justification by faith in Christ is what the Law is pointing to as our only hope and that sanctification by faith in Christ is what the Law is pointing to as our only help we will be able to better understand what Paul is talking about in the rest of chapter 7.

Having explained what the Law is supposed to do – its intent – Paul now explains what the Law cannot do – its inability. That brings us to this tremendous truth – the Law can show us our badness but it cannot provide us with any goodness. This means that the righteousness of God that I need to be acceptable to God is out of my reach through the Law so I need someone who has completely fulfilled God’s Law to give me His righteousness on the basis of His love and grace apart from anything that I have done.

Once these two inseparable ministries of the Law (its intent and inability) are properly understood then the sinner is left standing before God stripped of any false notions of self-righteousness so that he can throw himself on God’s mercy in Jesus Christ and receive God’s grace through receiving Jesus Christ. Having been justified by faith and not the Law the believer can then also live by faith and not the Law – the righteous man shall live by faith (Romans 1:17).

In Romans 7:14-25, Paul explained the inability of the Law and gave three necessities that the Law cannot give:

The Law can educate about sin’s control but cannot empower you to change (Romans 7:14-17).

Not only is there no justification through the Law neither can one be sanctified through it. In his attempts to keep the Law and live a sanctified life Paul was agreeing that the Law was good but he was finding out that it couldn’t change him. The Law had “come” to Paul fulfilling its intent showing him that it was spiritual and dealt with the inner man and not just the outer man. Outwardly one can appear to be righteous but inwardly full of wickedness – this is what the Law taught Paul.

Human nature is carnal (fleshly); but the Law’s nature is spiritual. This explains why the old nature responds as it does to the Law. It has well been said, “The old nature knows no Law, the new nature needs no Law.”

It was through Paul’s attempts to keep the Law that he also was educated by it about his true condition – he was of the flesh, sold into bondage to sin. Every time Paul attempted to do what the Law wanted him to do he couldn’t and every time Paul attempted not to do what the Law prohibited – inwardly he couldn’t. Through this experience Paul was agreeing with and confessing that the Law was good – but that he wasn’t.

Have you ever made a resolution and didn’t keep it? What did you learn in the process? Did you learn that you wanted to do good but couldn’t? Did you learn that you were controlled by a force greater than you? (Romans 7:17)

The Law cannot empower the old nature to change; it can only educate how sinful that old nature is.

The Law can enlighten about sin’s corruption but cannot enable you to do good (Romans 7:18-21).

After attempting to do what the Law requires and failing, Paul was enlightened about his true condition – “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me (in my mind), but the doing of good is not (in my flesh). Paul found out that the Law can enlighten about sin’s corruption but cannot enable you to do good.

Paul was saying that in and of himself he could not obey God’s Law; and that even when he did evil was still present with him. So the Law was powerless to enable Paul to do good just as it still is today with any man. The Law can enlighten about sin’s corruption but it cannot enable you to do good.

Even after a man is saved the Law does not enable him to do good. His sanctification cannot be attained through the Law. The Law cannot enable you to do good – it can only enlighten you about sin’s corruption.

The Law can elucidate about sin’s captivity but cannot emancipate you (Romans 7:22-25).

Elucidate means to make clear or explain – to give explanation. Emancipate means to free from bondage. The Law elucidates the reality of sin’s captivity of our old natures – it makes clear and explains our imprisonment to the law of sin in our bodies.

After having been justified by faith apart from works of the Law, many wrongly conclude that they now have the ability to be sanctified by keeping the Law. This is not true and would mean that having begun by the Spirit we are now being perfected by the flesh (Galatians 3:3). However, anyone who has ever tried his best and made resolutions and even “rededications” has discovered that painful reality that though he wants to do good he cannot free himself for his old nature – not even through trying to keep God’s Law.

The Law cannot free us from the bondage of sin in the old nature. The inward man may delight in the Law of God, but the old nature delights in breaking the Law of God. People who wrongly believe that they must live the Christian life in the power of the flesh under the Law will say things like, “Living the Christian life is hard!” Actually, living the Christian life in the power of the flesh under the Law isn’t hard – it’s an impossibility!

The only proper response of any person attempting to live the Christian life by keeping the Law is to exclaim what he has discovered – “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?”

Is there any deliverance? Sure there is! “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Because the believer is united to Christ, he is dead to the Law and no longer under its authority. But he is alive to God and able to be led by the Holy Spirit. The explanation of this victory is in Romans 8.

The final sentence (Romans 7:25) does not teach that the believer lives a divided life but that there is a struggle within him between the flesh and the Spirit. The believer does not obey the flesh and the Spirit at the same time. He either obeys the flesh and his old nature and sins or he obeys the Spirit and his new nature and is sanctified.

The Bible has nothing good to say about the flesh – nothing good dwells in it (Romans 7:8); the flesh is hostile toward God (Romans 8:7); does not subject itself to the Law of God (Romans 8:7); those who are in the flesh cannot please God (Romans 8:8); those who are living according to the flesh must die (Romans 8:13); and so on it goes.

The Law cannot emancipate you – it can only elucidate about sin’s captivity. If we are to be set free and sanctified we must yield to the Holy Spirit and not attempt to serve God in the flesh!

Is the Law Sin? (Romans 7:7-13)

Paul was accused constantly of preaching against the Jews and their Law. We see the reality of this truth as it came to a head in Acts 21:27-28 – “When the seven days were almost over, the Jews from Asia, upon seeing him in the temple, began to stir up all the crowd and laid hands on him, crying out, ‘Men of Israel, come to our aid! This is the man who preaches to all men everywhere against our people and the Law and this place….’”

Paul wrote his letter to the Romans years ahead of his arrest in Jerusalem. However, Paul was constantly running into the arguments and accusations that if the Gospel that he preached was true then he was indeed preaching against the Jews and the Law. This is evident all over the place in the book of Romans.

Don’t forget that Romans is the Holy Spirit inspired explanation of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and in it the Spirit of God using the apostle Paul as a weapon of righteousness demolishes and destroys the false accusations raised up against the truth of the Gospel. This is what we are seeing as we move through this letter. At every turn we are seeing the speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God’s Gospel and every wrong thought about the Gospel being destroyed and taken captive to the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5).

Follow that trail with me for just a few moments: In Romans 2:17, Paul began to demolish the false assurance of the Jews who relied upon their lineage and their Law. This would seem to the Jews that Paul was preaching against the people and against the Law. However, he was only establishing the truth that salvation always had been and always would be by faith apart from works of the Law for anyone who believes – whether Jew or Greek. So in Romans 3:21-30 the apostle preached the truth of justification by faith in Jesus Christ as the only means by which God could and would forgive a sinner and remain just in the process.

The truth of justification by faith in Christ alone apart from works of the Law would have brought out the false accusation that if the Gospel is true that it nullifies the Law. So we read, “Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law” (Romans 3:31). The Gospel doesn’t nullify the Law it establishes the Law. We looked at that truth and saw that through faith the Law is established because the perfect obedience to the precepts of the Law were fulfilled in the sinless life of Christ; the penalty for violating the Law was fulfilled in the sacrificial death of Christ; the probity (integrity or rightness) of the Person of the Law was fulfilled in the supernatural resurrection of Christ; and the potential for our fulfilling the Law is made possible through our loving and living for Jesus (Romans 8:4). So the Gospel doesn’t nullify the Law it establishes it!

Then in Romans 5:20-21 Paul went on to show one of the purposes of the Law – “The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” This truth would prompt the faulty reasoning and false accusation that the Gospel is that which gives a license to sin – “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?” (Romans 6:1-3).

So in Romans 6 the apostle showed how the believer has died to sin and is alive to God through identification and union with the death of Christ and the resurrection of Christ. It was here that Paul was proving that sin’s mastery over us was broken and Christ’s mastery over us was born. Paul had already stated that the Law cannot break the mastery of sin but instead increases it (Romans 5:20). This being true then it is of necessity that a person be released from the dominion of the Law if he is to be released from the mastery of sin. This is precisely what Paul is teaching – “For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace” (Romans 6:14).

For the life of him, the legalist cannot see how not being under the law but under grace does not lead to a life of more sin and more lawlessness. And I want to add that for the life of him, the libertine cannot see how not being under the law but under grace does lead to a life that fulfills the Law. The truth that those who have been saved are not under law but under grace would prompt the faulty reasoning and false accusation that a person can sin all they want – “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!” (Romans 6:15). It is this accusation that Paul destroys in Romans 7.

The legalist believes that the Law is that which arrests sin when in truth it is that which arouses sin (Romans 7:5). The purpose of the Law was not to remove sin but to reveal sin (Romans 7:7). Since the Law arouses sin and does not arrest sin and the Law reveals sin but does not remove sin, then we must be released from the Law’s dominion and the only way that is possible is for us to die to the Law through the body of Christ so that we might be joined to the Lord and not the Law (Romans 7:4). This now means that we are not under law but under grace – we are not under law but under love – we are not under law but under the Lord – we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter (Romans 7:6).

But now to the heart of the problem: Paul has been speaking the truth about the intent of the Law which was in contradiction to what the Jews believed to be its intent. Paul said that the duty of the Law was to condemn not justify (Romans 3:20); that the Law was to witness to God’s righteousness through faith not work it in us through the flesh (Romans 3:21-31); that the Law had never been and never would be God’s means of justification (Romans 4:1-25); that the Law was given to increase transgression so that grace could prove to be greater (Romans 5:20-21); that we have to be released from the Law’s dominion if we are to be released from sin’s mastery over us (Romans 6:14 – 7:4); and that the Law arouses sin and does not arrest sin (Romans 7:5). All of these truths about the Law bring us to this faulty reasoning and false accusation that the Law is sin – What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? (Romans 7:7a).

Here’s how that faulty reasoning would work to bring about a false conclusion and result in a false accusation:
1. The Law arouses sinful passions (Romans 7:5)
2. Sin is bad
3. Therefore the Law is bad
So the charge is laid that Paul is preaching that the Law is bad and therefore the Law is sin.

Paul answers his would be critics – May it never be! Perish the thought! Don’t even think about it! On the contrary, he says, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law. He has already stated this truth in Romans 3:20 – For through the Law comes the knowledge of sin. Paul wasn’t teaching that the Law causes sin but that sin is already there and that the Law reveals it – it arouses it. You cannot arouse what isn’t there but you can arouse what is. You can’t reveal what isn’t there but you can reveal what is.

This is the duty or intent of the Law. It is to reveal or reflect what is there. The Law serves the purpose of a mirror or standard by which to accurately measure or evaluate ourselves. We look into the Law and we do not see our baldness but our badness; we don’t see our sweetness but our sourness; we don’t see our outer features but our inner filth.

What shall we say then? Is the mirror bad? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know my badness except through the mirror; for I would not have known that desiring was ugly if the mirror had not said, “You shall not desire” (7:7). For without the mirror my ugliness was dead. For I was handsome in my own estimation without the mirror once; but when the mirror came, my ugliness was revealed and revived and I saw how ugly I really am (7:8b-9).

Is the Law sin? Are God’s commandments evil? No! The Law is an expression of the holy character and nature of God. Sin is a violation of God’s holy character and nature. The Law reveals our wickedness but is not responsible for it!

The Intent of the Law (Romans 7:7-13)

Contrary to what many of the Jews believed about the Law, its intent was never to be a means of attaining to the righteousness of God but its intent was to define transgressions and show the total inability of man to attain to God's righteousness. The Law would therefore be that which condemned and brought about wrath but not that which gave sinful men a means of becoming righteous. So let's look at what God intended the Law to accomplish.

The Law announces sin (Romans 7:7) – it shows what sin is by saying what sin is. This means that the Law reflects what sin is by reciting what sin is. Paul declared that he would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for he would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “You shall not covet”. Paul was saying that the Law announced sin by showing him what it was through saying what it is.

Notice that it was not the first nine commandments that gave Paul problems – it was the tenth – You shall not covet. The word “covet” means to “desire” or used in the more negative sense – “to lust.” It is this commandment, that when you believe that you are a pretty good person because you haven’t killed anyone or committed adultery with anyone or stole anything, that comes along and shows you just how wicked you really are because it doesn’t deal with the outer man but the inner man. It is here that you see that breaking the spirit of the Law is equal to breaking the letter of the Law. How? Notice how Jesus used this in Matthew 5:21-27. So the Law announces sin.

The Law arouses sin (Romans 7:8-9) – it stimulates sin but is not the source of sin. This means that the Law revives sin but is not responsible for sin. Here is how it works: Sin takes that which is good – the commandment/Law – and uses it as a base of operations by which to launch an attack and produce all sorts of bad or evil. Sin will take that which is good (God’s Law) and use it to produce that which is bad (violation of the Law). Sin takes that which is good and uses it as an opportunity to stimulate hatefulness and hurtfulness toward that which is good. However where there is no Law sin is dead (7:8). This does not mean that sin doesn’t exist where there is no Law but that it is dormant not having the opportunity to violate that which is good. Paul has already stated this truth – “For the Law brings about wrath, but where there is no law, there also is no violation” (Romans 4:15). “For until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed where there is no law” (Romans 5:13). “The Law came in so that the transgression would increase…” (Romans 5:20). Sin needs a law to violate in order to be stimulated and revived.

Maybe this little example will help us to understand: A speed limit sign that says that the limit is 55 stimulates me to believe that I can get away with 65. A 65 mph limit sign stimulates me to believe that I can get away with 75. So the speed limit sign stimulates my lawbreaking but is not the source of it – it revives my lawbreaking but is not responsible for it.

Paul goes on to say in Romans 7:9 that there was a time in his life that he didn’t see himself as a sinner because he didn’t see himself as a lawbreaker. The reason for this is because Paul was looking at the outward letter of the Law and not the inner spirit of the Law. Paul had the Fonz complex at one time in his life – he would take a glance into the mirror of God’s Law and say, “Heyyyyyyy!” Paul would think, “I’ve never murdered, I’ve never committed adultery, I’ve never stole, etc.” But one day the Law came to him – he truly understood what the Law means when it says, “You shall not covet.” It came to him – it was illuminated to him and for the first time he saw what it really meant. When this happened Paul saw how wretched he was because the commandment, “You shall not covet” – you shall not desire – showed him and stimulated in him all sorts of desiring. It would be like traveling 55 mph in a 55mph speed zone with a sign that says do not desire to travel over 55mph and a trooper clocks you with his radar gun which is also an x-ray gun and pulls you over because your desire was to be traveling 75 mph. As soon as this happens you would realize that you had never obeyed the Law though at one time you thought you had. This is what Paul describes in Philippians 3:3-9. The Law announces sin and the Law arouses sin

The Law authorizes sin (Romans 7:10-11) – it strengthens sin (1 Corinthians 15:56) by sentencing the sinner or sanctioning sin’s penalty. This means that it reinforces sin by requiring sin’s penalty to be paid to the sinner. “You shall not covet/desire” along with the other nine commandments were the perfect expression of what is necessary for a man to do if he is to obtain life by keeping the Law. The Law of God, which is what He requires us to keep perfectly if we are to earn life, proves to result in death for us (7:10). Why does that which is supposed to result in life instead result in death? Because of sin! This is precisely why there is no law that can be given which can impart life – we are sinners and sin will use the law to effect our deaths. The Law can only give life to those who never sin but it must give death to all who do sin.

Sin promises us that disobeying the Law is our real source of life and liberty, it deceives us, and we violate the Law incurring the penalty of death rather than the blessing of life (7:11). So sin deceives us so that it can use that which is good to kill us. Sin takes opportunity through the Law to deceive us about the Law and to kill us through the Law. The Law then reinforces sin by requiring sin’s wages to be paid to sinners. So the Law announces sin, the Law arouses sin, and the Law authorizes sin.

The Law amplifies sin (Romans 7:12-13) – it shames sin by swelling its sinfulness. This means that it reveals sin by raising its sinfulness. The Law is holy and righteous and good (7:12). So here we must ask ourselves: are God’s commandments evil? No! If everyone in the world at every moment in time obeyed the Laws of God from the heart then it would be heaven on earth. Anyone who believes that the commandments of God are evil or the source of evil has already been deceived by sin about the Law.

Since the Law is holy and righteous and good – did that which is good become a cause of death for me, asked Paul? May it never be! The trouble is not in the Law but in sin, and the use that sin has made of that which is good. By sin using that which is good (the Law) for evil purposes causes the Law to amplify sin and show it for what it really is (7:13). This is the intent or duty of the Law (Romans 3:20) – it announces, arouses, authorizes, and amplifies sin so that we will see our need for the Savior.

Released from the Law (Romans 7:1-6)

In Romans 5 the apostle Paul brought out the truth that the Law came in so that transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more (5:20).

Based on this truth the apostle anticipated being misunderstood and misinterpreted so in chapter 6 he raised the question that would have been asked by those who misunderstood – “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? (6:1). Then he answered that question – “May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? (6:2). Then he goes on to show that we have died to sin and are alive to God proving that the outcome of justification by faith does not issue in a lawless life but in a sanctified life. However, the apostle wanted his readers to know that their sanctification had absolutely nothing at all to do with works of the Law no more than their justification did – “For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under Law but under grace” (6:14).

Once again Paul had to anticipate opposition and misinterpretation of what he was teaching for surely there would be some who would continue to argue that Paul was teaching against the Law and that he was giving license for a lawless life, so Paul asked the question that would have been on the lips of his opponents – “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under Law but under grace?” (6:15).

Paul's response to this objection is No! People who are justified by faith alone will not continue in sin. All of Romans 6, 7, and 8 are an explanation for why that is.

Now in Romans 7, Paul is still dealing with the very same question. He is still answering the objection of Romans 6:15, "Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?" Why doesn't freedom from the law result in lawless people? Why don't justified people sin more and not less?

Here in Romans 7 we will see both the intent of the Law (Romans 7:1-13) and the inability of the Law (Romans 7:14-25). Under the heading the intent of the Law (Romans 7:1-13) we will see two major points: (1) the dominion of the Law (Romans 7:1-6), and (2) the duty of the Law (Romans 7:7-13).

For now we will deal with the dominion of the Law and our removal from under its dominion so that we are not under Law but under grace (Romans 7:1-6).

To show the Law’s dominion over us and how we are removed from under its dominion so that we are not under Law but under grace, the apostle Paul used an illustration in order to make application.

The illustration (Romans 7:1-3) – the illustration is the law of marriage which carries with it self-evident truth that is known by all who know the laws of marriage. The law has dominion over a person as long as he lives – “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?” (7:1).

According to the Law of God the marriage cannot be dissolved except by death or immorality of one of the spouses. Jesus taught this truth to some Pharisees who questioned Him concerning whether or not it was lawful to divorce for any reason at all. The Lord replied that what God has joined together, let no man separate. To which the Pharisees asked, “Why then did Moses command to give her a certificate of divorce and send her away?” Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way. And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery” (Matthew 19:3-9).

Since legally the marriage cannot be dissolved except by death or immorality then those who are married are bound by the law to their spouses as long as they both are living. The Law has dominion over them and they are under the law with an obligation to fulfill it – “For the married woman is bound by the law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband” (7:2).

In this illustration, once the husband dies then the woman is released from the dominion of the law concerning the husband. But as long as the husband is alive she is under the dominion of the law and cannot break it without becoming a transgressor.

“So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress…” (7:3a). The law has something to say about this situation because the marriage covenant between the husband and wife has been broken and the one who broke it is either an adulterer or an adulteress. So if the husband is alive and has not committed immorality then the wife cannot be joined to another man without violating the law. She is under its dominion and must obey it or else become a transgressor of it and be rightly defined by it as 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” (7:3b). The law has nothing to say about this situation because the marriage covenant between the husband and wife has not been broken but indeed has been fulfilled – “until death do us part.” So now the law has been fulfilled – it has been established – so that she is free from the law and it has nothing to say about her marrying another man.

The Application (Romans 7:4-6) – Paul’s application in Romans 7:4-6 clinches the argument of how we are not under the dominion Law but under grace through our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

We died to the Law (7:4-5) – when we were unsaved and in the flesh (Romans 7:5) we were under the dominion of God’s Law. We were condemned by that Law. When we trusted Christ and were united to Him, we died to the Law just as we died to the flesh (Romans 6:1-10). The Law did not die; we died!

In Paul’s illustration the husband died and the wife remarried. However in his application we are the wife and the Law is the husband. The Law will not and cannot die because it is moral and eternal (Matthew 5:18). So the wife must die and be raised from the dead if she is to be freed from her union with the Law and be united to another. This is the apostle’s point in the application of the marriage illustration.

Christ’s sinless life and sacrificial death, and supernatural resurrection fulfilled the Law. When we trusted Christ we died with Him and His death became our death and likewise just as He was raised from the dead we too were raised to walk in newness of life as those dead to sin but alive to God. So when we died with Christ we died to the Law and arose from the dead in order that we could be under the dominion of the Lord and no longer under the dominion of the Law.

Notice that the wife does not kill herself – she is made to die to the Law through the body of Christ – this is a divine act of God in response to faith in Christ. Just as by His doing we are in Christ Jesus, by His doing we have been made to die to the Law.

It is by our union with Christ that we are set free from the dominion of the Law and are now enabled to bear fruit for God. As we live under loving loyalty to the Lordship of Christ our obedience to Him leads us into obedience to God – “so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:4).

Why is it that we must be set free from the dominion of the Law in order to be enabled to bear fruit for God? Wouldn’t the Law be that which enables us to bear fruit for God? Can’t we be sanctified by keeping the Law? No! The Law arouses our sinful passions because of our badness and in the end we bear fruit for death - “For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death” (Romans 7:5).

It's because until we are united to Christ in his death, and rise with him to newness of life, we don't have the Spirit of God and are merely "flesh." That is, we have only a fallen, sinful human nature without the transforming work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We must die to the Law if we are going to bear fruit for God.

We are delivered from the Law (7:6) – this is the logical conclusion: the Law cannot exercise dominion over a dead person. Death means deliverance from the dominion of the Law but our being raised to walk in newness of life is so that we might serve our Lord in love.

The word serve is from the Greek word “doulous” (doo-los). It does not describe the voluntary work of a hired worker but that of a bondslave whose sole purpose is to obey the will of his master. We are God’s bondslaves because of love. We love Him and serve Him because He first loved us by giving His Son for our redemption.

We were delivered from the Law that we might serve Christ. This truth refutes the false accusation that Paul taught lawlessness.

What is different about Christian service as opposed to our old life of sin? We are now energized by the Spirit of God through our love for the Lord. Under the Law there was no enablement, but we have been delivered from the Law’s dominion and placed under the Lord’s enabling love.

People who are not under Law but under grace will not sin more but will in fact sin less!

Understanding Sanctification (Romans 6:14)

To not understand the gospel is to not understand either Law or grace. When this is the case one will either resort to legalism or license. Legalism never gives victory over sin because the flesh is corrupt and weak and so the Law arouses the sinful passions of the flesh rather than arresting them. The Law is that which gives power to sin (1 Corinthians 15:56) and not that which gives victory over sin.

License never gives victory over sin because it turns God’s grace into an excuse to remain in sin by adding the demonic doctrine that you can be saved and still live in sin; that you can believe but you don’t have to behave; that you can be justified and still not be sanctified. In this case people use grace as a license to live in sin.

Legalism tries to behave without believing; license tries to believe without behaving; Christians behave because they believe and therefore are sanctified because they are justified. God’s grace is that which gives the power to behave (Titus 2:11-14) and never that which gives a license to sin (Jude 4).

The gospel of justification by grace through faith stands in direct opposition to both legalism and license. The gospel always gives victory over sin where legalism and license never do. Being justified by faith in Christ through the gospel always issues in being sanctified in life by living under His Lordship. Justification (having been declared holy) always issues in sanctification (being made holy) and therefore there will be progressive victory over sin in the life of the saved person.

Notice that in legalism and license that there is a reversal or a removal of sanctification in relationship to justification. In legalism (attempting to be justified by works of the Law) sanctification precedes justification and this can never be because the Law does not give the power to live a holy life but is in fact that which gives power to sin. So in legalism there is a reversal of the relationship of justification to sanctification. In license justification stands alone with absolutely no connection whatsoever to sanctification following or flowing from that justification and this can never be because grace is not that which gives a license to sin. So in license there is a removal of the relationship of justification to sanctification.

However, salvation with its various aspects is a seamless garment that cannot be divided, rearranged, or have any one aspect removed and still be biblical salvation. People who distort the gospel by distorting the aspects of salvation do it to their own destruction. Salvation has three aspects: (1) justification (past tense), (2) sanctification (present tense), and (3) glorification (future tense).

In justification we are set free from sin’s penalty; in sanctification we are being set free from sin’s power and pollution; and in glorification we will be set free from sin’s presence. Sanctification – being set free from sin’s power and pollution is something that neither legalism nor license can accomplish. Why not?

The missing element in both legalism and license is love. Jesus said, “If you love Me you will keep My commandments” (John 14:15). Our obedience to Jesus is based on our love for Him which is based on His love for us which was demonstrated to us through the gospel. We love Him because He first loved us and we obey Him because we love Him.

Legalism and license are both perversions of love. Legalism is feigned obedience without love and license is feigned love without obedience. Lordship is true obedience because of true love – love is the power source of sanctification. We read of faith working through love (Galatians 5:6); that love constrains us or controls us – “For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf” (2 Corinthians 5:14-15); and that love fulfills the Law (Matthew 22:37-40; Galatians 5:13-14; James 2:8).

Loving loyalty to Jesus as Lord gains victory over the power and pollution of indwelling sin. The Law cannot do this – it gives the command to obey but not the power to obey. The gospel of God’s grace gives the power to love and therefore the power to obey – we are not under Law but under grace – we are under the Lord.

"For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace" (Romans 6:14).

Living for Jesus (Romans 6:14-23)

We have been looking at attaining victory over sin in Romans 6:1-23. We have seen that we are to know – know that we are dead to sin and alive to God (Romans 6:1-10); we have seen that we are to believe or consider this to be true because it is (Romans 6:11); and we have been looking at we are to present or yield (Romans 6:12-23).

We have already considered how we are to present/yield (glad-hearted and free/willingly) in Romans 6:12-13. Now in our study we come to why we are to present/yield (Romans 6:14-23).

Why we are to present/yield (Romans 6:14-23)

We are to yield because of love (Romans 6:14-15). It is because of God’s love for us that we yield ourselves to Him. His love for us is expressed by His grace to us. God in His love has given us His grace which does not give us an excuse to sin but a reason to obey. Paul has proved that we are not saved by the Law and that we do not live under the Law. For many this would mean that we can sin all we want because they don’t understand the wonderful constraining and controlling power of love. Love is what gives the strength or ability to obey.

Sin and Law go together (1 Corinthians 15:56) just as obedience and love go together (John 14:15). Since we are not under Law, but under grace, sin is robbed of its strength. The person who claims to have Jesus as Lord but does not obey Him doesn’t love Him. Jesus said, “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord’, and do not do what I say?” He also said, “If you love Me you will keep My commandments.”

Another way of saying the truth of Romans 6:14 would be to say that sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under the Lord. We are under the Lord because of love. We are to yield because of love.

We are to yield because of liberty (Romans 6:16-20). Whatever you yield to becomes your master. Sin is an unloving and unkind tyrant. It is deceptive promising pleasure and happiness but instead takes one into deeper and deeper misery and ultimately paying death and destruction. Sin will take you farther than you want to go; keep you longer than you want to stay; and cost you more than you want to pay!

Before you were saved, you were the slave to sin. Now that you belong to Christ you are freed from the old slavery and made the servant of Christ. Christ is a loving and kind Lord and as we obey Him we experience liberty from the bondage of sin. We grow in our sanctification (Romans 6:16). Our growth in sanctification, our making progress in victory over sin is based on obedience from the heart because of our love for the Lord. Our sanctification is always based on our thankfulness for our justification (Romans 6:17) – He who has been forgiven much loves much! God works His salvation in a person’s innermost being. God changes men’s natures when they trust Him. A person whose heart has not been changed has not been saved. Righteous living issues from an obedient heart because of being committed to Christ because of love for Christ.

Knowing the truth of the gospel (Romans 6:17) and loving Christ because of it issues in liberty from sin and loyalty to Christ (Romans 6:18). This truth can also be stated like this – “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). And just as enthusiastically as we served sin – presenting our members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness – we are to in like manner serve righteousness – so now present your members as slaves to righteousness resulting in sanctification (Romans 6:19).

The late Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote, “As you go on living this righteous life, and practicing it with all your might and energy, and all your time…you will find that the process that went on before, in which you went from bad to worse and became viler and viler, is entirely reversed. You will become cleaner and cleaner, and purer and purer, and holier and holier, and more and more conformed to the image of the Son of God” (Romans: An Exposition of Chapter Six [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1972], pp. 268-69). Obedience to Christ because of love issues in liberty from sin and sanctification.

Obedience to self and sin issued in slavery to sin and condemnation without any reference whatsoever to any form of sanctification (Romans 6:20). To be free in regard to righteousness is to have no connection at all to righteousness or any ability to bring it about. Only loving loyalty to Jesus as Lord can make righteousness our master and bring about liberty from sin.

We are to yield because of love and liberty.

We are to yield because of life (Romans 6:21-23). If you serve a master you can expect to receive wages. There is fruit that comes from the master you serve. Sin pays the wages of death! God also pays wages – holiness and everlasting life.

Jesus said that He came to give life and to give it more abundantly. This is the exact opposite of what sin gives (Romans 6:21). After being saved we became ashamed of the sinful things that we used to do that only had the outcome of death and destruction. The fruit of sin that was in our lives only produced more bondage and more destruction.

However, because we yielded to God because of love and were set at liberty from sin, we derive our benefit or fruit resulting in sanctification (victory over sin) and the outcome, eternal life (Romans 6:22).

So one’s master determines what one receives – either death or eternal life. Those who remain in their sin and remain under sin’s dominion will receive death. Those who are removed from their sin and placed under the Lord’s dominion will receive eternal life (Romans 6:23). The fruit of loving sin is death – the fruit of loving the Lord is eternal life. We will obey what we love! Yield because of love, liberty, and life!

Victory Over Sin (Romans 6:12-23)

Romans 6:1-23 is dealing with the truth that believers are dead to sin and alive to God showing that their justification through faith in Christ always leads to sanctification through faith in Christ.

True and biblical justification never fails to issue in true and biblical sanctification. This means that there will be a noticeable change in the life of the truly justified person. He or she will become a brand new creature obeying the Lord out of love because of what He has done for him or her. This is why we read in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” It is based on our justification that we will begin to have victory over sin and grow in sanctification.

In our studies of Romans 6 we have been looking at the truth of how we can achieve victory over sin. The first instruction for attaining victory over sin is “know” (Romans 6:1-10) – this involves the mind. We are to know that we are dead to sin (Romans 6:1-7). Christian living is based on Christian learning; Christian devotion is based on Christian doctrine; Christian behavior is based on Christian belief. We must know if we are going to believe – “How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?” (Romans 10:14).

We are to know that we are alive to God (Romans 6:8-10). Knowing that Christ’s death and burial was a substitute for our sins we also know that His resurrection was necessary and also was on our behalf. This means that we should love and serve Him and no longer live for ourselves but for Him who loved us and gave Himself up for us. This means with Jesus as our Lord that we are dead to sin and alive to God.

But not only are we to know that we are dead to sin and alive to God, the second instruction for attaining victory over sin is believe (Romans 6:11) – this involves the heart. We must also believe what we have heard (Romans 6:11). It isn’t enough to hear it we must also believe it and if we believe it we are going to live it. That is why Christian behavior is based on Christian belief.

Now we come to where the rubber meets the road. Here is where we learn how to behave because of what we believe. This is where we become doers of the Word and not just hearers who deceive themselves.

The third instruction for attaining victory over sin is present/yield (Romans 6:12-23) – this involves the will.

The word present/yield is found five times in this section (Romans 6:13 – twice, Romans 6:16 – once, Romans 6:19 – twice) and means “to place at one’s disposal, to present, to offer as a sacrifice.” If we will present or yield our bodies to the Lord as a living sacrifice for His glory then we will attain victory over sin (Romans 12:1-2). We are to give ourselves to the Lord (present/yield) and live for the Lord.

How we are to present/yield ourselves (Romans 6:12-13).

This is an act of the will based on the knowledge we have of what Christ has done for us. It is an intelligent act and not an impulsive decision based on some emotional stirring. In other words we understand or know the truth that we have died to sin and are alive to God through our identification with Christ as pictured in baptism (Romans 6:1-10) and we believe and consider that we are dead to sin and alive to God (Romans 6:11). Based on this we present or yield ourselves to God as those alive from the dead (Romans 6:12-13). We are His. We have been bought with a price. We are not our own and do not want to be our own. We give ourselves to God.

We need to consider the tenses of the verbs used in these two verses. A literal translation is: “Do not constantly allow sin to reign in your mortal body so that you are constantly obeying its lusts. Neither constantly yield your members of your body as weapons [or tools] of unrighteousness to sin; but once and for all present/yield/surrender yourselves to God” (Warren Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary: Romans 6). Our once and for all surrender to God is based on His mercy and love toward us and is described in Romans 12:1.

There must be in the life of the believer that once and for all surrender of the body to Jesus Christ. In other words we must make application with the implications of the gospel – we must surrender ourselves totally to the Lordship of Jesus. We do this willingly because of the beauty of Christ as seen in the gospel. We understand that we have been bought by the King who loved us and gave Himself up for us so we willingly become His slave, His servant because we now love Him for what He has done for us. We surrender all to Him. We sing of this once and for all surrender in the hymn Living for Jesus (348). The chorus goes like this – “O Jesus, Lord and Savior, I give myself to thee; for thou in thine atonement, didst give thyself for me; I own no other Master, My heart shall be thy throne; my life I give hence-forth to live, O Christ, for thee alone.”

This does not mean that there will be no other steps of surrender, because there will be. We lived all our lives up to the point of salvation under sin’s dominion and self-rule. We practiced sin and became very good at it. As a matter of truth, sinning was not our second nature – it was our nature. And now, having once and for all yielded or presented ourselves to God through faith in Christ we must daily submit ourselves to Him rather than to sin. We must learn to live by our second nature (new nature) and not our first nature (old nature).

Ours is a journey of faith where we die daily, trust Christ and do His will and not our own. We should be able to say, “I have been crucified with Christ; and 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 up for me” (Galatians 2:20). However, we cannot have any further steps of obedience to Christ as Lord without the first step of once and for all yielding or presenting our bodies to Him as His servants. And remember – we give ourselves to Him because He gave Himself for us!

Without understanding the gospel with the mind, believing it with our hearts, and from that willingly yielding our bodies to Jesus once and for all exclusively for His use we will not have victory over sin. Actually the person who has never once and for all yielded to Jesus as Lord has misunderstood the gospel, misbelieved the gospel, misapplied the gospel, and has not been saved by the gospel. Why? Because there has not been a willing transferal of ownership and loving loyalty to Jesus as Lord based the truth of the gospel. This means that there is no growth in victory over sin because there has been no justification which always issues in Jesus being our Lord which always issues in sanctification – “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30).

We must know and understand that the gospel is not, “Invite Jesus into your life!” Nowhere in the Bible will you be able to find that phrasing or thought. We do however find the truth that Jesus is to be our life in the Bible – “When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory” (Colossians 3:4). When we yield to Jesus as Lord we are not inviting Him into our lives – we are dying to our lives and He is becoming our life. This means that we are no longer lord of our lives but He is! This means that we are no longer governor of our lives but He is! This means that we are not our own for we have been bought with a price; therefore we are to glorify God in our bodies (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

The gospel is that Jesus invites us into His death so that as He was raised from the dead He can become our lives and raise us up to walk in newness of life under His loving Lordship. He is Lord and He deserves our loyalty.

The gospel rightly understood and rightly believed will issue in the gospel being rightly applied, which means that we will willingly submit to Jesus as Lord. How do we yield or present ourselves to God as those alive from the dead? By willingly presenting our bodies to Jesus as Lord for His use and His glory!

“Living for Jesus a life that is true, striving to please Him in all that I do, yielding allegiance glad-hearted and free, this is the pathway of blessing for me. O Jesus, Lord and Savior, I give myself to thee; for thou in thine atonement didst give thyself for me; I own no other Master, my heart shall be they throne; my life I give hence-forth to live, O Christ, for thee alone” (Baptist Hymnal, Living for Jesus, 1975 edition, 348).

Victory Over Sin (Romans 6:1-11)

In order to attain victory over sin we must know, believe, and apply the wonderful truths of the gospel of our salvation. So then we must know the gospel, believe the gospel, and apply the gospel if we are to attain victory over sin. We do not possess the ability to overcome sin in ourselves. We cannot use the Law to overcome sin because we are sinners and therefore the Law arouses sin in us rather than arresting sin in us. We cannot use license as an excuse to continue in sin because that defeats the whole purpose of the gospel in the first place. The purpose of the gospel is to give victory over sin and transform self-loving sinners into God-loving saints.

Since neither Law nor license gives a remedy for sin and since we do not possess the ability to overcome sin in ourselves, God has granted to us everything we need pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, so that we might become partakers of the divine nature and escape the corruption that is in the world by lust (see 2 Peter 1:3-4). The Lord Jesus put it this way, “You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free” (John 8:32).

Christian living is based on Christian learning; Christian devotion is based on Christian doctrine; Christian behavior is based on Christian belief. Each of these statements is another way of saying the truth that sanctification is based on justification. So if we are going to have victory over sin then first and foremost we must be saved – justified. And then we are to take the reality of our justification and make progress in our sanctification. Our progress in sanctification is not by works of the Law. We do not begin in the Spirit and then become perfected by the flesh (Galatians 3:3). Our progress in sanctification is still by faith – knowing, believing, and applying the truth of the gospel to our lives.

This is what Paul is talking about in Romans 6:1-23 in order that Christians can attain victory over sin and live lives that are pleasing to the Lord in all respects and to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord and of His gospel.

Paul gave three instructions for attaining victory over sin in Romans 6:1-23. We will only consider two of them as found in Romans 6:1-11 at the present and then we will cover the last one as found in Romans 6:12-23 at a later date.

The first instruction for attaining victory over sin is “know” (Romans 6:1-10). Paul repeated the word “know” three times in Romans 6:1-10 – 3, 6, and 9. Paul wanted the Christians at Rome to know basic doctrine because he knew that behavior always flows from belief and that sanctification always flows from justification. This is why Paul wanted his readers to know and understand justification because in and through that would flow their sanctification.

The basic doctrine Paul wanted Christians to know was their identification with Christ in death, burial, and resurrection as illustrated in baptism. Just as we are identified with Adam in sin and condemnation through virtue of being born into his family with him as our federal head and representative, so we are now identified with Christ in righteousness and justification by virtue of being born again into his family with Him as our federal head and representative. Through our new birth we are children of the King and this knowledge believed should control how we behave. But the apostle went even deeper than this truth to show what happened to us in Christ Jesus to show that it is an impossibility to be justified without sanctification flowing from it.

So Paul took the truth of the gospel – the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus and our identification with Him in those events to establish two major truths that when known will affect how we behave and will give us victory over sin.

Know that we are dead to sin (6:1-7).

We are dead to sin through identification. We know the gospel – that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). So if Christ’s death was for my sins then his death was for me, His burial was for me, and His resurrection was for me.

“Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?” (Romans 6:3). The Holy Spirit of God identified us with Christ when He baptized us into Christ at our conversion. The Holy Spirit made the death of Christ real to us and made it not only His death but our death. In substitution Christ died for my sins; in identification I died with Him. In substitution Christ died unto sin (Romans 6:10a); in identification I died unto sin (Romans 6:2-3).

“Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death…” (Romans 6:4a). The Holy Spirit of God identified us with Christ’s death and His burial. The Holy Spirit makes the burial of Christ real to us and makes it not only His burial but our burial. Burial is for the dead not the living and so the death of Christ was real because the burial of Christ was real and through identification with Him our death and burial are real because we deserve it and He didn’t. So through identification when we look on the death and burial of Christ we understand and confess that what He did was substitutionary – that we deserve it and He didn’t so that it was for us and not for Him.

In order for Christ to die and be buried there had to be something instrumental in His death. “Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed (acquitted) from sin” (Romans 6:6-7). So not only are we identified with Christ’s death and burial we are also identified with His crucifixion. Those were my nails he took; that was my crown of thorns he wore; and those were the stripes due to my back that he endured!

We are dead to sin through illustration. Our water baptism illustrated our death and burial to sin and resurrection to walk in newness of life under loving loyalty to Jesus as Lord (Romans 6:4-5).

Know that we are alive to God (6:8-10)

We are alive to God through identification. The resurrection of Christ was based solely on His righteous life and character. Since His death and burial were substitutionary then His resurrection was necessary! However, it is based on His resurrection that we are able to be justified (Romans 4:25 and 1 Corinthians 15) and that He can now be the Lord of our lives giving us His presence through the Holy Spirit as a new life principle (Romans 6:4b-5). We are longer alive to sin and dead to God but we are now dead to sin and alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Since we are dead to sin by identification with the death and burial of Christ then we are also alive to God by identification with the resurrection of Christ.

We are alive to God through illustration. Our water baptism illustrated our death and burial to sin so that it declares that we are dead to sin and resurrection to walk in newness of life so that it declares that we are alive to God (Romans 6:8-10).

The second instruction for attaining victory over sin is believe (Romans 6:11). Your translation might say “consider” “count” or “reckon.” “Reckon” doesn’t mean “to think” or “to guess.” It means “to put to one’s account.” It simply means to believe what God says in His Word is really true in your life concerning your salvation. We are to act on God’s Word and be doers of it and not just hearers. We are to behave because we believe. We believe that we are dead to sin and alive to God so we should practice it and not just preach it.

United with Christ in Death and Life

The apostle Paul was constantly misunderstood and falsely accused for preaching justification by faith by preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Many speculations and lofty imaginations were raised up against the knowledge of God and His gospel. Paul's ministry was one of persuasion where he used the Word of God to destroy speculations and persuade men of the truth.

The constant attack against the gospel and against Paul's preaching was that he was giving a license to sin and was preaching against the Law if the gospel was true. However, nothing could be farther from the truth! So the speculation was reared by the legalistic Jews and it was rejected by the apostle Paul and then refuted by Paul.

The speculation reared against the Gospel of God (Romans 6:1) – Justification is so free and easy that it appears as that which will give a license to sin – it especially looks that way to the legalist. So the legalist rears up the speculation against the Gospel of God and accuses the Gospel of that which gives a license to sin.

The speculation rejected by the apostle Paul (Romans 6:2) – “May it never be!” Justification is not that which gives a license to sin and therefore there is no way that justification is against the Law – justification, the legal and actual declaration of righteousness in Christ, never fails to issue in sanctification – “How shall we who died to sin still live in it?”

The speculation refuted by the explanation of the Gospel pictured in baptism (Romans 6:2-11).

First, baptism pictures that we died to sin (Romans 6:2-7). In what sense have we died to sin? We have become united to Him. By God’s doing we are in Christ Jesus – God establishes a union between us and Christ so that His death is our death. This is in direct correlation to how we were united to Adam so that his disobedience is our disobedience and his condemnation is our condemnation. Those who are in Christ Jesus through faith in Him died with Him on the cross – His death was our death and God sees it as such and so do we (Romans 6:3); those who are in Christ Jesus were buried with Him – His burial was our burial (Romans 6:4); those who are in Christ Jesus have become united with Him in the likeness of His death (Romans 6:5); and those who are in Christ have been crucified with Him and are no longer to be slaves to sin (Romans 6:6-7).

So the outcome of being united to Christ through faith is that we have a new relationship to sin. You can’t go on living in sin because you have died to sin because Christ died to sin and when He died we died with Him. This is based on union through imputation. Anyone who claims to have a new relationship to God through Jesus should ask himself this question: does my professed relationship with Jesus give me a new relationship to sin? Have I died to sin?

It is an impossibility to be united to Christ without becoming a brand new person (2 Corinthians 5:17) because of now having a different relationship to sin – instead of living in it we have died to it. Justification never fails to issue in a person’s death to sin. Before we were saved we all formerly lived in and walked in the lusts of our flesh and indulged in the desires of the flesh and of the mind (Ephesians 2:3). But that is past tense! We were dead [to God] in our trespasses and sins, in which we formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived…(Ephesians 2:1-3).

Since justification never fails to issue in a person’s death to sin it also never fails to issue in sanctification which is a person’s life to God - “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30). So not only does our union with Christ provide the foundation for our justification; it also provides the foundation for our sanctification. This brings us to our second picture in baptism.

Second, baptism pictures that we are alive to God (Romans 6:8-11). A dead man needs more than anything else a new life principle. This is precisely the purpose of God in the Gospel as He puts us to death to sin in Christ and then raises us up with a new life principle under the Lordship of Christ (Romans 6:4). Here is where our journey of sanctification begins and it contradicts the fallacy that justification through faith gives a license to sin. So perfection is not yet and will not be arrived at in this life.

However, perfection is guaranteed in the future when we see Jesus (Romans 6:5; 1 Corinthians 15:49; Philippians 3:20-21; 1 John 3:2). But that is called glorification and here we are dealing with sanctification.

Baptism not only pictures justification – dying to sin – it also pictures sanctification – living to God – so that we see clearly that baptism contradicts the false notion of easy-believism.

Since baptism pictures that we have died to sin and are alive to God (Romans 6:8-11) then anyone who has been baptized but doesn’t have a new relationship to sin (no longer obeying it and its lusts) also doesn’t have a new relationship to God (obeying Him because we love Him) and his baptism is a sham, he doesn’t know what baptism means, and he doesn’t understand the Gospel.

Do you have a new relationship to God that is proven by your new relationship to sin? Have you died to sin and are you alive to God?

Lordship: The Death Blow to Legalism and Antinomianism

The apostle Paul was often misunderstood and falsely accused of evil for preaching the good news of justification by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He was especially misunderstood and mistreated by the legalistic Jews who thought that the good news of Jesus Christ was a message against the people and against the Law. “When the seven days were almost over, the Jews from Asia, upon seeing him in the temple, began to stir up all the crowd and laid hands on him, crying out, ‘Men of Israel, come to our aid! This is the man who preaches to all men everywhere against our people and the Law and this place…” (Acts 21:27-28).

Paul was perceived as being anti-Semitic (against the Jews) and antinomian (against the Law) because of his preaching of the gospel. The root word for Law is nomous. If we say that someone is autonomous we are saying that he is self-ruled or self-governed. Auto means self and nomous means law. So to say that someone is antinomian is to say that he is against the Law – he is against being ruled or governed. This was the accusation brought against the apostle Paul from the legalistic Jews. They accused Paul of antinomianism – being against the Law and preaching against the Law. For the legalist, the true gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is seen as antinomianism. The legalist perceives the gospel to be that which nullifies the Law and therefore that which gives a license to sin.

However, the apostle Paul proved that the good news of justification by grace through faith in Jesus Christ was that which actually established the law and not that which nullified it (Romans 3:31). Listen! Even the Lord Jesus Christ said that He didn’t come to abolish the Law – He said, “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but fulfill” (Matthew 5:17).

The Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled the Law completely. He upheld the Law in principle through His sinless life; He upheld the Law in penalty through His sacrificial death; and He upheld the Law in probity through His supernatural resurrection. Probity means integrity or uprightness. The supernatural resurrection showed the Law to be that which is good and it showed the Person of the Law, God the Father, to be just, good, and right in all His dealings. Therefore when we exercise faith in the Lord Jesus Christ we do not nullify the Law but establish the Law by trusting in the One who completely and perfectly upheld the Law through His life, death, and resurrection.

But for the life of him, the legalist cannot comprehend that faith establishes the Law. The legalist cannot see how grace isn’t the same as antinomianism. So after establishing the truth of imputed righteousness through the grace of Jesus Christ who upheld the Law on our behalf, whose grace is greater than multiplied sins, the apostle Paul anticipated the false accusation of antinomianism – “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may increase” (Romans 6:1)?

You see, the legalist would attempt to carry Paul’s message of justification by grace through faith to what he believed to be its final conclusion and would inevitably come up with the charge of antinomianism. The legalist would reason: if justification is by grace through faith then the Law has been nullified and men have a license to sin.

The legalist believes that the only remedy against sinning is the Law. The legalist also believes that God cannot be pleased apart from works of the Law. So the legalist adds Law to justification in violation of the plain and clear teaching of the Scripture. So the legalist, being under the Law, has not died to sin because the power of sin is the law (1 Corinthians 15:56), and so there is no deliverance from sin through the Law.

However, the legalist has no real understanding of the working of the gospel so he sticks with his faulty logic rather than looking into how the gospel actually is not that which gives men a license to sin. What the legalist needs is an explanation of the wonder working power of the gospel.

So Paul answered the question that would be raised from the legalist – “May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it” (Romans 6:2)? God in His wisdom and power has designed salvation in such a way that those who are justified by grace through faith in Jesus Christ have died to sin so that there is no way that the gospel of grace promotes sin or gives a license to sin.

“May it never be” is a strong and forceful way of saying that the gospel is not that which promotes or perpetuates sin. So the legalist is immediately confronted with the truth that his understanding of the gospel is wrong. If he would examine the gospel closely and see how faith in Jesus establishes the Law, puts one to death in Christ, and raises him with a new life principle under loving and loyal obedience to Jesus as Lord, the legalist would understand how the gospel doesn’t promote sin. Jesus said, “If you love Me you will keep My commandments” (John 14:15).

Any man under the principle of being ruled by the Law is doomed because by the Law comes the knowledge of sin and no flesh shall be justified in God’s sight through the works of the Law. However, any man under the principle of being ruled by the Lord because of his love for the Lord is blessed and justified because we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law and that we are justified without any cause in us by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. We love Him because He first loved us.

Can’t you see how loving loyalty to Jesus as Lord because He loved us and gave Himself up for us doesn’t make one lawless? This is how it works: while unsaved we all lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest (Ephesians 2:3). Our life principle was under the lordship of sin and the principle of Law cannot give life to a sinner but actually gives power to sin. “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)” (Ephesians 2:4-5).

You see, God put us to death with Jesus our Lord who did fulfill the principle of the Law and died on our behalf so that he could put to death the lordship of sin in our lives and raise us up with Jesus to walk with a new life principle – loving loyal obedience to Jesus as Lord.

Salvation restores that which was lost – obedience to God through obedience to Jesus and is what the Bible calls the obedience of faith. Salvation is a Lordship issue! Lordship is the death-blow to legalism showing it to be the lie that it is.

Imputation

After having established the truth of justification by faith, the apostle moved into his discussion on the blessings of that justification: that we have peace with God; access to God; we exult in the hope of the glory of God; we have assurance of God’s love for us; we have assurance of final salvation; and we exult in God Himself through Jesus Christ our Lord.

But what we may not realize and may not have stopped to consider is how can the sinless life, sacrificial death, and supernatural resurrection of one Man bring about justification for as many as have faith in Him. It may seem that under penal-substitution one Man could only die for and save one man. Why isn’t there a one for one ratio in salvation with each sinner needing his or her own savior who couldn’t be anyone else’s savior? How is it that Jesus can be the Savior of innumerable souls and not just the Savior of one individual?

Actually the answer to that question is of utmost importance and is what the apostle Paul was establishing in Romans 5:12-21 – the basis of justification through imputation. The basis of our justification through one Man is imputation through headship.

The first man, Adam, was given headship over the human race. All men descend from him. Even Eve had Adam as her origin. This means that Adam was created first; that Adam by virtue of the created order was the head of the race; and therefore Adam was the federal representative for all men. This made Adam responsible for all men and that whatever Adam became all men would become by the very law of nature in procreation – each will reproduce “after its kind.”

The fall of man into sin changed man’s nature to that of a sinner and therefore all men born into the world through the agency of a human father are born with a sin nature. In the fall of man it was Eve who sinned first and then Adam. However, we read that sin and death entered through Adam and not Eve because Adam was the head of the race and responsible for it.

So the consequences of the fall into sin was that death spread to all men because all sinned in and with Adam and all receive a sin nature from Adam who is our representative head. All who have an earthly father have a sin nature because of the imputation of the guilt of one man – Adam. This is the reason for the virgin conception of Christ. God bypassed the necessary imputation of the sin nature of Adam to Christ by Christ not having an earthly father. Although Mary had a sin nature and was a sinner, the woman is not the head of the race and the sin nature is not imputed because of her but because of the man. Therefore, because of the virgin conception of Christ, He was not born with a sin nature.

To understand this better let’s consider he angels. The angels don’t procreate. Their full number was created when God created the angels and there aren’t any being born and there aren’t any more being made. So no – you’ll never be an angel! The angels do not have a federal head or representative – when Satan fell he didn’t cause the fall of all the angels and his sin was not imputed to any other angel. The other angels that fell, fell on their own and each fell from a pure and perfect state into sin. Since there was no imputation of sin from one head angel neither can there be the imputation of righteousness from one savior for angels – if they were to be saved each would have to have a different savior – and that is not going to happen!

It is on the basis of federal headship that not only can one man be responsible for the fall and sin nature of all men but that one Man can also be responsible for the salvation and rescue of innumerable souls and not just a one to one ratio. The last Adam, Jesus Christ was born of a virgin so that the sin nature of Adam was not imputed to Him. He lived a sinless life in perfect obedience to God which qualified Him to lay down His life in one full and final act of obedience – His obedience to the point of death, even death on a cross, as a substitute or sacrifice because of our transgressions. Our sin was imputed to Him so that He could pay our debt. The Lord Jesus experienced a supernatural resurrection because of His innocence and because the death that He died was not His own but for others. It is on this basis and this basis alone that His righteousness can be imputed to those who have faith in Him – He was raised for our justification.

As the last Adam, Christ is the federal head of the redeemed race and all who are in Christ will be made alive! This is how one Man can save so many!