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Transcript 549A
The Christian and the Law: Romans 7
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: Hello, Mr. Camping. I have a question about Romans 7. When Paul says that he can't do what he wants to do, was that in his early Christian life, or was he talking about his later Christian life?
HC: The question is, is Romans 7 talking about the apostle Paul before he was saved or after he was saved?
Now when we read, for example, some of the verses here, we certainly would think that he is talking about the time before he was saved. He talks about being sold under sin, he talks about being carnal. But when we read some other passages and verses here, we know that this cannot be. We read, for example, in verse 22, "For I delight in the law of God after the inward man." Now no unsaved person, no unsaved person could make that statement. The Bible declares in Romans 3 that "none seeketh after God. There is none righteous, no, not one." Only someone who is a child of God can say, "I delight in the law of God after the inward man."
And of course he could say this because when he became saved, as is true with all of us who become saved, he received his resurrected soul. In his soul existence, in his spirit existence, that part of his personality that leaves the body at death, he had become a new creature in Christ. He was born from above. And therefore he could declare, "I delight in the law of God after the inward man."
However, he's recognizing that he still has body that lusts after sin. And that body has not been saved yet. It will be saved on the last day. It's guaranteed that this will happen, he'll receive his resurrected body. But at this point in time he hasn't received it as yet. And therefore he finds that this is trouble in his life.
And so he says, for example, in verse 23, "But I see another law in my members (that's in his body) warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. Oh, wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death?"
CALLER: How are you supposed to let the law of the inward man win out over the law of the flesh?
HC: Good question. How will you let the law of the inward man win out over the law of the flesh? Well, the Bible instructs us, "Crucify the flesh and its desires." The apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, says in I Corinthians 9, in the closing verses, "I buffet my body, lest after saving others I become a castaway." In other words, he beats it down. He gives it no quarter. The minute he becomes to see the lust of the flesh begin to gain the ascendancy a little bit, he prays for victory and he repents and he draws closer to the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the path that all of us walk as children of God.
CALLER: Okay. What relationship does the law have to believers?
HC: What relationship does the law have to a believer?
CALLER: Is God requiring us to keep it now, or are we set free from it, or what?
HC: Are we required to keep the law? Are we set free from it? Doesn't the Bible say that we're not under the law, but we're under grace? Let's see if we can understand this.
Before we are saved, the only path open to us outside of Christ, to get to Heaven, is by keeping the law perfectly. But if we don't keep the law perfectly, the law itself is an accuser against us, declaring, "The wages of sin is death." And so the law has us in bondage. The law is sentencing us to hell. We are under the law, and there's no way in ourselves that we can escape from it.
When we talk about the law, we talk about the whole Bible. Any statement that God has made in the scriptures that we violate, any one at all, is going to send us to hell, unless we keep it perfectly. Now when we are saved. we are free from the law in this sense, that the demands of the law (the wages of sin is death) have been completely paid for by the Lord Jesus Christ. He has taken all of our guilt, so that the law no longer can accuse us when we break it. The law no longer has anything against us, because whatever sin we have committed in the past or in the present or in the future has been paid for by the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore we are not under the law in that sense, that it is going to send us to hell, We are under the grace of God.
Now that doesn't mean that the law now no longer exists, that it has gone out of existence. If it did, then we would be free to do anything we wanted to do after we're saved. We could murder, we could steal, we could blaspheme God. We could do anything at all if the law didn't exist. No, the law still exists. But we, number one, do not in any sense have to try to keep the law in order to become worthy before God. Nor can it send us to hell if we do sin. But the law rather still exists as the rulebook of the Kingdom of God. It consists of the ordinances God has laid down so that we might enjoy life to the fullest. Now it doesn't threaten us. If we break the law, we're not tampering with our salvation. We're not being again under the shadow of hell.
But when we break the law, because we've become a new creature in Christ, we feel very disturbed by it, because in our resurrected soul we never want to sin again. We'll only be happiest in our new souls when we are keeping the law of God. So the law still exists, we earnestly study it, and we have a tremendous desire to obey it because we love God who has given it to us.
CALLER: I was just reading a book, and in the book it stated that God was requiring nothing from us and that Christians just don't realize that, and they keep trying to live the Christian life under their own power, or something.
HC: Well, I don't know what this author was speaking about, but certainly God does not require anything of us in order to make us worthy. But God gives us the law as an act of benevolence to us, so that we might enjoy life. Anyone who violates God's law thinks that he is pleasing himself, thinks that he is doing something that is noteworthy for himself possibly. But in the long run he is making life difficult for himself. Those who live against the law of God find that life is exceedingly difficult, whereas those who live according to the law of God and follow the law of God find God's blessings are everywhere, and their conscience is clear, they just find that everything works out in their lives to a far better degree than if they break the law.
God has given us the law not as a stricture, not to put us in a straitjacket, but in order that we might enjoy life to the fullest. When God says, for example, to love our neighbor as ourself, we might say, "Well, my, I want me to be number one. Why should I love my neighbor?" But the fact is that if I extend myself to love my neighbor and do it God's way, I'll find that my own life has a fulfillment, has a goal, has self-realization, has a purpose that cannot be attained when I am trying to live only for myself. I'm going to find far more joy and happiness and contentment when I obey that law to love my neighbor.
CALLER: Okay. Thank you very much.
HC: Thank you for calling. Good night.