Alright, I have to admit as I was reading through this chapter of Romans I went back and forth on how to approach this last section of scripture.  You can take it as a whole and get the overall picture of what God through Paul is trying to get across, but you will miss out on some gems that I really want everyone to see.  I also believe that the Lord rewards those who seek Him with their whole heart, and so I want to put in the work to try to get everything from this scripture that God has for us.  So, I’m going to split the rest of Romans 7 into 3 or 4 messages, and I truly believe it will be worth our time.  Hopefully you will as well.

Romans 7:12-15 – “So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.  Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.  For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.”

Paul transitions here from explaining the purpose of the law (to point to the righteousness of Christ and our need for a savior), to explaining how this applies to him (and all of us) in a personal way.  I love this section of scripture, because you are able to see the heart of a Christian who loves God, who is running the race of faith, and who struggles with sin as we all do.  Please don’t read this just as another story, but know that this is a message from God to you.  Paul’s story and personal account is no different from where each of us are today.

If I said to you the words, bright, warm, shining, and “in the sky”, you would probably figure out that I was talking about the sun.  All of those descriptive words are true of the sun, but the fullness of their meaning is not found in the words, but when you look into the sky to see the sun, see it’s blinding brightness and feel the warmth it brings.  This is the same way with the law that was given to us from God.  It is descriptive of God’s righteousness, but the fullness of the law was found in Jesus Christ.

So the law that was given is holy, and the commandments we were given were holy and righteous and good because they were describing true righteousness, the holy righteousness of Jesus Christ.  So if the law that was given by God was a blessing, and we heard in previous verses that the law was meant to expose our sinfulness as we fell short of what the law required, does that mean that the law itself is the reason why we are condemned by God as sinners?  Did that which is good, bring death to us? Not at all.  Each of us is a sinner, we have bodies, but just as Jesus Christ is righteousness, and the law points to his righteousness, our actions are unrighteous, and they point to the fullness of our unrighteousness, the sin that is within us.  Does that make sense?  That was the dual purpose of the law, to point to the fullness of Righteousness in Christ, and to point to the fullness of sin in us.  Jesus Christ is not simply righteous, he is holy and righteous, he is righteousness in perfection, altogether different from what we can even fathom when we think of the word “righteous”.  We are not simply sinful, we are sinful in perfection, in our essence, altogether different than what we can even fathom when we think of the word “sin”.  Is that hard to accept?  It is because of our sin and pride that this doctrine is so hard to take in!

Isaiah 64:5-7 – “Behold, you were angry, and we sinned; in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved?  We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.  We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.  There is no one who calls upon your name, who rouses himself to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities.”  If our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment, we do not understand righteousness, and even our best “good” deeds are stained by our sinfulness.

This is what it means when Paul is saying that “It was sin, producing death in men through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.”  So, the law is spiritual, pointing to the very essence of true righteousness which is found in God alone, which is altogether beyond what we can measure.  We cannot understand this righteousness fully because we are not spiritual, but fleshly.  We are sold under sin.  In our fleshly nature, sin is our master, and we are slaves to it.  Every inclination of our heart, every thought in our mind, and ever action is in submission to our sinfulness.  That is man’s natural condition apart from Christ, and we who know Christ, who have His righteousness through faith still struggle with our flesh, even while we long for Christ and His righteousness in our lives.  How deep is our need for Christ!  What great victory is His on the cross to redeem sinners!  But more on that in the next message…

I hope this finds you well.  Know you’re prayed for, and I will close with the blessing given from God to Moses to give to the people of God – “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.”  (Numbers 6:24-26)