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“Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.” (Romans 7:4-6, ESV)

Pastor Abel’s sermon on Romans 7:1-12 is titled “Law or Lawlessness?”

It has been said that there are 613 commandments in the Jewish Law contained in the Biblical Old Testament (you can find the full list here). That’s a lot of rules. Upon reading through the first five books of the Law of Moses, Genesis through Deuteronomy, and then progressing into the historical narrative books of Joshua through Esther, one comes to realize just how seriously God expected his people to follow every single rule he gave.

Just read through chapter 28 of Deuteronomy to see the blessings that God promised for obedience to the law, along with the terrible curses promised should Israel walk in continued disobedience.

And yet, any parent of a rebellious child (which all children are to some degree!) will tell you that simply having a list of rules, along with consequences and rewards (the old carrot and stick method) can only get you so far. If the child doesn’t have a heart to obey those rules, if they don’t see the value of them, they will never truly get it. The irony is, once the heart is in the right place, all the rules are not needed because the child will want to do what the parent wants out of love.

Christians are people who have been given such a heart to love God. This is exactly what God promised to do in Jeremiah 31:31-33 and Ezekiel 36:25-28:

And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. (Ezekiel 36:26-27, ESV)

The point, as Paul says, is that now that we have a new heart, given to us by God, our obedience and fruitfulness flows from the Spirit that God has given, from that new heart of love for God. And while the old law still reflects God’s character and his desires for our lives in many ways, and is still useful for us today, we are no longer bound to the written code. We are free to obey God out of love.

 

Small Group Questions

  • What experiences of Christian legalism have you had (perhaps legalism from your own life, or legalism that you’ve seen in the past)? Why is this so destructive to our faith?
  • What about the other side of the coin? What experiences have you had with the idea that any behavior is fine because God forgives everything we do? Why is this equally destructive?
  • Discuss the three ways the law is used in a Christian’s life, as mentioned in the sermon (restrains, reveals, renews). How does this work?
  • How can we walk in obedience to the command of scripture, without becoming legalistic?