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ROMANS CHAPTER 7
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Rom 7,1-6
· (3e) Responsibility to the Family Ø
Pattern your marriage after Christ and the church
· (104b) Thy kingdom come Ø
Purifying process Ø Purified by circumstances Ø
Purified through dying to sin -- These verses go with verses
21-25
· (118m) Thy kingdom come Ø
Manifestations of faith Ø Freedom Ø
Law of the spirit Ø Newness of the spirit
transcends oldness of the letter
· (119l) Thy kingdom come Ø
Manifestations of faith Ø Curse of God is
broken Ø Curse of the law is broken
· (187e) Die to self (Process of substitution) Ø
Separation from the old man Ø Die to the flesh Ø
Dying to receive the glory of God Ø Die to self
to be set free
· (187h) Die to self (Process of substitution) Ø
Separation from the old man Ø Die to the flesh Ø
Spirit versus the flesh Ø Deny the flesh to
walk in the Spirit
-- This parable contains four elements:
The first husband, the wife, the law that binds them together, and the second
husband. Paul is using marriage as a metaphor to illustrate what happens to a
person when she dies to her fleshly, evil desires that are regulated by the
law in order to walk in the Spirit. The woman stands
for the believer, the first husband stands for the Law, and the second husband stands for the Spirit. The woman cannot
legally be joined to another man (the Holy Spirit) unless the first husband
dies
(the law). The law is dead to those who walk by the spirit in the sense that
the spirit has made the law obsolete, since the Spirit will always lead the
believer to fulfill the requirements of the law, though the law is not
abolished. If the woman tries to walk by the law and by the spirit, she shall be called an adulteress. This means you
cannot walk in the flesh and in the spirit at the same time.
· (205k) Salvation Ø
Salvation is based on God’s promises Ø Faith
versus works Ø The faith of God versus the
faith of men Ø Faith versus the law
Rom 7,1-4
· (237m) Kingdom of God Ø
Pursuing the kingdom Ø Transferring the kingdom
Ø The church is transferred to the kingdom Ø
Transferred from the law to the Spirit
Rom 7,1-3
· (225l) Kingdom of God Ø
Illustrating the kingdom Ø Parables Ø
Parables about the body of Christ
Rom 7,2-25
· (96b) Thy kingdom come Ø
Positive attitude about suffering Ø
Abstaining from sin
Rom 7-2,3
· (134i) Temple Ø
Your body is the temple of God Ø Sins of the
body Ø Immorality Ø
Adultery Ø Spiritual adultery
Rom 7,4-6
· (53a) Paradox Ø
Opposites Ø Of life and death Ø
Die in order to live
Rom 7-4,5
· (129e) Thy kingdom come Ø
Manifestations of faith Ø Bearing fruit Ø
Bear fruit by dying to self
Rom 7-4
· (38e) Judgment Ø
Jesus defeated death (Satan) Ø Resurrection
anointing
· (115b) Thy kingdom come Ø
Working the grace of God Ø Working God’s
grace through Christ Ø We receive the anointing
through Christ
· (136f) Temple Ø
Your spirit is the temple of God Ø The body of
Christ Ø Jesus’ fleshly body Ø
Partaking of Jesus’ sacrifice with our own flesh
-- God calls us to associate with the flesh of Christ on the cross by dying
with Him to our fleshly interests and desires, 'so that just as Christ was
raised by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of the life
of the Spirit' (Rom 6-4). We cannot walk in the Spirit unless we first die to
the flesh. Corresponding to that, just as a priest has an offering before the
Lord, so we too must have something to offer before we can enter the Holy of
Holies and commune with Him, and that offering is our flesh. This verse
says that we offer it through the body of Christ, meaning that God has made
our offering acceptable through the blood of Christ. We offer our bodies to Him
in that we give Him the right to lead us into our divine destiny to
perform with our bodies whatever He calls us to do. As we carry out His will, He empowers us by His Spirit.
Rom 7-5,6
· (162g) Works of the devil Ø
Being a slave to the devil (Addictions) Ø
Bondage Ø Addicted to sin Ø
Being a slave to the sinful nature -- This verse goes with verses 14-25
Rom 7-5
· (21e) Sin Ø
Disobedience Ø Unfruitful
· (54k) Paradox Ø
Opposites Ø Law entices us to sin --
This verse goes with verses 8-11. Not only do we have a body that is prone to
sin, but we also have a law telling us not to practice those things. However,
the law does more to suggest we sin than it does to detour us from it. A
mother has her hands full with a little child who already has his mind made up
about something he wants to do, which usually will destroy something or hurt
himself. When the mother tells the child not to do it, she entices him all the
more to do it, but if she doesn't tell him he may never know it was wrong. The
law was never given as a deterrent, but as confirmation to our conscience
about what is right and wrong.
· (134g) Temple Ø
Your body is the temple of God Ø Body of sin Ø
Our bodies are home to the sinful nature -- This verse goes with verse
18
Rom 7,7-25
· (194g) Die to self (Process of substitution) Ø
Turn from sin to God Ø Hate evil Ø
Victory over sin Ø Hate evil by loving good
Rom 7,7-13
· (11d) Servant Ø
The law is our standard of conduct – When our conduct falls below
the expectations of the law, we are the ones to suffer, not the law. The law
was given to define sin, so if anyone had any questions whether they were
sinning, they could just look it up. Notice that the first commandment, the
greatest of them, is preventative to sin, so that a (fictitious)
person can obey the first one and nullify the rest. This implies that though
there are ten, there is really only one, and that the other nine are stated
because we won’t follow the first. If we did love the Lord our God with
all our strength, soul, mind and heart, we would also love our brother,
which means we would not commit murder or covet anyone's things ....
· (26a) Consequences of sin Ø
Death Ø Dead to God through sin
· (52c) Judging Church with world Ø
Law judges sin Ø Power of sin is the law
· (53c) Paradox Ø
Opposites Ø Of life and death Ø
Die trying to live
· (90f) Thy kingdom come Ø
Keeping the law Ø Law is our tutor Ø
It shows us our need for Jesus -- These verses go with verses 24&25
· (161l) Works of the devil Ø
Essential characteristics Ø Satan’s
attitude determines our direction Ø Carried away by sin
· (185e) Works of the devil Ø
The origin of lawlessness Ø Mystery of
lawlessness Ø The mystery of sin
Rom 7,7-11
· (22a) Sin Ø
Greed tries to satisfy man’s need for security Ø
The deception of greed
-- Is there a correlation between the deception
of the law and the deception of greed? The deception of the law is stated in
Rom 7-10, "This commandment, which was to result in life, proved to
result in death for me," and the deception of greed is that it cannot
satisfy the state of poverty in the human soul. Just as the law promised
life and brought death, so greed promises wealth and brings poverty. Man's
most vital needs are within his spirit and there is nothing that can give us
what we truly need like God has already given us in His Son.
Rom 7-7
· (17d) Sin Ø
Judging in the flesh Ø Accusing God and
others of sin – This verse goes with verse 13. Paul addressed these
seemingly silly questions because he knew we would. The answer is no, God’s
laws are not sinful any more than God is sinful. The issue at hand is
whether the law causes us to sin. It doesn’t, we sin on our own accord. If
the law does anything it arouses our rebellious nature to do the opposite of
what it says simply for the joy of exercising our will against it.
Rom 7,8-11
· (54k) Paradox Ø
Opposites Ø Law entices us to sin --
These verses go with verse 5
Rom 7-9
· (59h) Paradox Ø
Two implied meanings Ø Alive in my soul /
Alive in my conscience
· (155d) Witness Ø
Validity of the believer Ø Witness of the
believer Ø Conscience Ø
An evil conscience keeps us from believing God Ø
Knowledge of evil testifies against our deeds
-- The power of sin is the knowledge of
it, and the law supplies that knowledge, increasing our transgression,
making sin more evil than had you not known of it. This separates us
from God and a good conscience. According to the Bible, the word death
means "separation." This was Adam and Eve's fate when they ate the
fruit and died. First they died in the presence of God, so they were no
longer welcome there, then they died physically in their bodies many years
later. Likewise, when we have a bad conscience it makes it hard
to believe God, because sin has separated us from our faith, having more evidence against us that we care
about sin,
which is the opposite of God.
· (181g) Works of the devil Ø
Practicing witchcraft Ø Lawlessness Ø
Having no regard for the law Ø Being without
law
Rom 7-11
· (181g) Deception
(Key verse)
· (181j) Works of the devil Ø
The origin of lawlessness Ø
Self deception Ø Deceitfulness of sin
-- The "Deceitfulness of sin" is a big
topic, both in the Bible and in real life; that is, we find ourselves deceived
by it perhaps every day. But what is it and how does sin deceive us? Rom 7-11 is
the root of this biblical concept and will serve to understanding its fearful
and mysterious attributes. This verse says that sin uses the law to deceive us;
that is, the knowledge of sin increases our curiosity about sin, and in that
curiosity falsely guarantees our satisfaction. Sin, however, is incapable of
delivering its promised satisfaction, since it is attempting to replace God in
our lives, who alone can completely meet our needs, only on His terms. We
have just simplified a very complex and deadly problem, but the ramifications of
sin's deceitful ways are endless. Look at the drug addict, how the drugs in his
body lies to him about its power to fulfill, yet every time the user requires
more drug to reach the same high, until he can no longer feel the high anymore,
yet the addiction is still there. This is an example of intrinsic deception sown
with the fabric of our bodies; that is, the chemist did not invent the drug for
its effects to wane over time; instead the user's body is merely responding in
its own way to the drug. This says nothing about the affinity of our bodies to
be addicted to sin, which casts accusations of conspiracy at the mystery of
lawlessness (Satan who is the orchestrator of it all) to spin a web of deception
for the world to fall under its spell and make puppets of us all. In any and
every situation sin behaves the same way toward us; we get mad, cuss and blow
off some steam, and it does make feel a little better, but not about ourselves;
instead our conscience goes into remission until we repent. Again, sin does us
more harm than good, always.
Rom 7-12,13
· (16b) Sin Ø
Man’s evil nature is the enemy of God
Rom 7-12
· (133d) Temple Ø
Your body is the temple of God Ø Holiness Ø
God is holy Ø The word of God is holy
Rom 7-13
· (17d) Sin Ø
Judging in the flesh Ø Accusing God and
others of sin – This verse goes with verse
7; see it for
commentary.
· (245k) Kingdom of God Ø
Spirit realm imposed on the natural realm Ø
Literal manifestations Ø Manifestations of
the devil Ø Manifestation of sin
Rom 7,14-25
· (58d) Paradox Ø
Opposites Ø Sinful nature is responsible, not
me
· (162g) Works of the devil Ø
Being a slave to the devil (Addictions) Ø
Bondage Ø Addicted to sin Ø
Being a slave to the sinful nature -- This verse goes with verses
5&6. Can anyone understand the addiction of sin, our affinity to it, or is
our helplessness against it the mystery of lawlessness that we are not
permitted to comprehend for now. Perhaps ours is only to wrestle with it from
day to day. How can we who have a free will be in bondage to things that we
hate as Christians? Or perhaps a better question is why do we submit to such
base things? We must be careful what we call a mystery and what we simply
don't understand, because there may be some important truths buried at the
base of this mystery which could help us become free from the monstrous tyrant
of sin. Remember, at the end of this chapter Paul says that Jesus Christ has
afforded us the answer to all of our sin problems, but it is still up to us to
let go of our addictions long enough to implement His solution, which is
simply to be a slave to Christ instead. What does a slave to Christ look like?
Because Jesus is the word of God we as His slaves are disciples of His word,
and because we need to be with Him to avoid being with sin, we also pray a lot.
Thus the word of God and prayer is the solution to sin; it is the solution to
everything!
· (187i) Die to self (Process of substitution) Ø
Separation from the old man Ø Die to the flesh Ø
Spirit versus the flesh Ø Spirit is willing but
the flesh is weak
· (193k) Die to self (Process of substitution) Ø
Turn from sin to God Ø Run to God Ø
Run to God to avoid running from Him
· (195d) Denying Christ Ø
Man exercises his will against God Ø Idolatry Ø
Serving two masters Ø You cannot serve
righteousness and sin together
Rom 7-17,18
· (16c) Sin Ø
Man has a body of sin -- These verses go with verses 20-24
Rom 7-18
· (16a) The sin nature
(Key
verse) – If you were to
pursue the first
section of this major topic (Man’s evil nature), you would gain incredible
insight on the struggle that we have been involuntarily thrown into.
· (134g) Temple Ø
Your body is the temple of God Ø Body of sin Ø
Our bodies are home to the sinful nature -- This verse goes with verses
20-25
Rom 7,20-25
· (134g) Temple Ø
Your body is the temple of God Ø Body of sin Ø
Our bodies are home to the sinful nature -- These verses go with verse
5
Rom 7,20-24
· (16c) Sin Ø
Man has a body of sin -- These verses go with verses 17&18.
The sin nature is sown into the fabric of our bodies and is based on
poverty, and poverty gives birth to the evil twins: greed and envy, the
haves and the have-nots. We were born into this world with nothing, and we
will leave this world with nothing, and in between we will have nothing,
except we will accumulate a bunch of junk and be associated with a number in
a bank that will represent wealth, which we will use to represent how much
we are worth to other people. None of this wealth is true, but is a figment
of our imagination, because still within the core of our being we are completely
bankrupt without Christ, even with Him we cannot collect our inheritance
until we die, we can only live on the interest. We possess no more wealth
than a squirrel; in fact, we have the body of an animal—we are classified as
mammals. According to the way our
brains are built to think, there is no such thing as "human
psychology," there is only animal psychology, otherwise psychologists would
not study pigeons. Who cares how pigeons think, unless there is a direct
application to our own minds. We have all the needs and bodily
functions of mammals; we must: breath, eat, sleep, expel waste, milk our
young, and stay warm. Our bodies are no more sinful than any other animal's, but our sin nature obviously is, and gains opportunity
through our animalistic needs. For example, we go to work every day to meet our
daily needs, but we seek to possess more than what we need (Materialism),
which leads to sin. Then we classify people based on how much junk they
have, and consider people with more junk to be successful. We think according to the needs of our
flesh, and allow the sinful nature in our bodies (which dictates how we
should think and live) to corrupt our minds. The sinful nature is a snowball
effect between our flesh and your mind—our flesh has legitimate needs, but
fears poverty, which feeds the mind with selfish motives for greed and envy.
Rom 7,21-25
· (39k) Judgment Ø
Jesus defeated death Ø Jesus defeated the law
of sin
-- The law of
sin states that if you live in a body of sinful flesh (and we all do) you must
sin, and if you sin you must die. God sent His Son in the likeness of sinful
flesh to die in a body like ours. Those who killed Christ are our
representatives in that those of us who partake of His grace are consequently
guilty of His death. Jesus’
greatest miracle was that He lived in a sinful body like ours, yet He was
without sin. Therefore, according to the spiritual laws that govern the
creation, Jesus could not die because He had no sin, yet He did, which is how
He broke the law of sin and death and afforded salvation for us. Jesus'
sinless life contradicted the law of sin in His flesh and broke the power of
death from anyone who has faith in Christ by evidence of His resurrection.
That is what He came to do, as Heb 2-14 says, "Since then the children
share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that
through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that
is the devil."
When the Father went to judge His Son, He found that none of His sin was His
own, so He forgave Jesus for our sin and raised Him from the dead. His
righteousness became our life. In His very death He destroyed the power of sin
which is death, by maintaining the righteousness of God in the members of His
earthly body. His blood is therefore the essence of life, and His flesh is the
veil through which we must pass by believing He was God incarnate come to take
away our sin. Now that Christ paid our penalty, He made it illegal for sin to
have jurisdiction over anyone who would believe in Him for eternal life.
· (104b) Thy kingdom come Ø
Purifying process Ø Purified by circumstances Ø
Purified through dying to sin -- These verses go with verses
1-6
Rom 7-21
· (54k) Paradox Ø
Opposites Ø Contrast of two natures
Rom 7-24,25
· (90f) Thy kingdom come Ø
Keeping the law Ø Law is our tutor Ø
It shows us our need for Jesus -- These verses go with verses 7-13
· (117e) Thy kingdom come Ø
Rest in Jesus Ø Let Jesus do the work Ø
Let Him work on you
· (119i) Thy kingdom come Ø
Manifestations of faith Ø Curse of sin is
broken Ø Curse of death is broken
· (227g) Kingdom of God Ø
God’s kingdom is a living organism Ø God
working in you Ø Dependence on Jesus Ø
Depending on Jesus to have compassion Ø
Depending on Jesus to deliver us
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