Free At Last

Well, grab your Bibles and let's go to Romans chapter 7 this morning. I don't know for how many Easters, but for many, many Easters, I always take a break from the exposition I'm doing. I'm in Malachi now and praying. preached particularly on the doctrine of the resurrection. But I'm not doing that this Easter.

Though certainly that doctrine is included, sometimes we got to be careful. Separating things that ought to always stay together. And you can't have Christ's death without his resurrection if you're going to have salvation. One without the other makes both of them inconsequential. Anyway, looking at Romans chapter 7, we have an interesting analogy the apostle uses here to teach us some of the glories of our salvation.

Romans 7, beginning in verse 1. 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?

Now here's the illustration he pulls out of the culture of the day, verse 2. For the married woman is bound to her husband while he is living, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband.

So then if while her husband is living she's joined to another man She shall be called 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. Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the law. Through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another. To him who was raised from the dead in order that we might bear fruit for God.

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. But now we have been released from the law. Having died to that by which we were bound.

So that we serve in newness of the spirit and not in oldness of. The letter. It was the tenth day of the seventh month. The most holy day in all of Israel. It was the great day of atonement.

And one man, and only one man, participated in this holy ordinance. And that was Israel's great high priest. He would stand in the outer chamber of the temple. And they would bring to him two goats. The first goat brought to the high priest was standing before him.

And the high priest would lean over and lay his hands on that goat's head. And pray out loud, confessing the sins of the nation of Israel. And then that goat was led astray out into the wilderness, never to return. It's where we get the phrase the scapegoat from. The picture was of him taking our sins and carrying them away.

And then they would bring the second goat to the high priest. He would slay it. On the altar of sacrifice. He would collect some of its blood. And added to that, he would take a little pot of smoldering coals off of the altar.

And he would take a portion of incense. And with that goat's blood.

Some smoldering coals and some incense, he would turn around. Leave the outer court area and walk through the holy place. And then too. The Holy of Holies. No one went into the Holy of Holies.

Matter of fact, tradition has it that they would tie a rope around the high priest, lest in some way he was not cleansed and purified properly, and he would die in the Shekinah glory of God in the Holy of Holies. Upon entering the Holy of Holies, the cherubim are on the wall, the ark of the covenant on the floor, the top of the ark of covenant was called the mercy seat. He would quickly put some incense on the coals so the smoke of the incense would go up and shield him. From the Sakana presence of God's glory. And then quickly he would take the goat's blood and sprinkle it on the mercy seat.

signifying God freeing them From their sin. And their guilt. and their condemnation. That wasn't a perfect freeing. It wasn't a completed freeing from their sin and guilt.

But it was temporal, as one sense it was holding back. The just wrath and judgment they deserved. Because it would only hold it back so long because he had to come back the next year. And do it again. But this would free them from that judgment for a season of time.

You know, I think. God has placed into all of men's hearts. A longing For freedom. Freedom from this, freedom from that. Free to be ourselves, sometimes we say.

But the great freedom we need. It's freedom from the consequence of our sin. Freedom from the guilt that we have before a holy God. Freedom from the just condemnation that should come upon guilty. Sinners Now, in our text today, we have this interesting analogy.

Where Paul talks about Women And women particularly in the marriage covenant. And how in this day A woman had no rights like a man had. She could not leave a bad marriage. Her husband could be cruel. And abusive, and she would want to be free from that, but she had no recourse.

On the other hand, the man had all the rights. He had all the authority in the marriage. he could leave her abandoned literally on the side of the road And he was okay for do that.

Now, I want to tell you this: as Paul is using the analogy of marriage in this day, this is not a biblical teaching on marriage. He's just pulling out of the culture how they had perverted God's idea of marriage. God has given man, the husband, the authority in the home and the authority over his wife. But he's to use that authority to love his wife. and protect her.

and provide for her. They forgot that part.

So, for the most part, these men in Israel begin to twist and pervert God's law in the area of marriage, and they had done that in many areas of where the law addressed. But in this case, it put the wives in a very often difficult, miserable condition.

Well they long to be free. But so many of them were trapped.

Now, certainly there were good husbands and there were godly husbands who did love their wives and did treat them wonderfully. But that unfortunately was not the pattern.

So Paul takes that situation, pulls it out of the culture to give us an illustration, a metaphor, an analogy. of what we have Before we come to Christ as Lord. and savior.

So Thinking about being free from sin. Free from guilt. Free from the condemnation that we all deserve. What is required?

Well, we know from the Old Testament, progressing all the way through to the increasing revelation through the New Testament. God has required An innocent third party. Sacrifice. That's what we saw the great high priest. On the part of the people, an animal was sacrificed.

We come to the New Testament. And we find The sacrifice. The Lord Jesus Christ.

So we find this. Illustrated in the Old Testament and fulfilled in Jesus Christ in the New Testament. But let's look at Paul's unique way of laying this out to help us understand better the freedom we have from guilt, sin, and condemnation in Jesus Christ. First of all, he says we are wedded. Married to the law.

in the same way that a woman in this day was married to her husband. Notice what it says there in verse 1 of chapter 7. Or do you not know, brethren, for I am speaking to those who know the law, the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives. Then in verse 2, he says, Now, and you know a woman. In your culture today, she's under the jurisdiction, i.e., the authority of her husband, as long as the husband lives.

Now, we're wedded to the law like a woman is wedded to her husband under that jurisdiction.

Now, let's think of it in terms of the moral law of God. That is one way to summarize God's law for all people of all time. And we see that under the moral law. No gods before me, he would say. No idols you must ever put before you to worship and serve or create.

Do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. Remember the Sabbath day, keep it holy. Honor your parents. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery.

You shall not steal. You shall not lie. You should not covet. The moral law of God. And we are, listen to me.

Paul says we are wedded. To that law. That's our husband. We're under his authority. And by the way, this was an arranged marriage.

You didn't pick it out. God arranged it for you from the foundation of the world. He arranged it for you before you were born. You were born under that law. That's the picture Paul is painting for us here.

And by the way, It's not a good marriage.

Now, not that there's anything wrong with the law. The law is the expression of God's very character and nature. It's perfect. The law will abide forever for all eternity because it is an expression of God. But it's a bad marriage for us because We break the law.

We sin against God by transgressing this law, so the law condemns us. We're breaking it down into several principles here as he again pulls out of the marriage relationship, particularly the wife's dilemma in this particular day, and how that parallels with our dilemma as we're under the law. First of all, notice the binding authority of the law on us. The binding authority. Look, if you will, at verse 2.

He says, for example, the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living. She has no recourse. She has no exception clause. She has no divorce grounds in ancient Israel, at least the way the ancient Jewish fathers interpreted the law of God. It was a desperate trap situation.

She had no way to free herself. From an unloving, unfaithful, abusive man. And that's exactly what Paul wants you to feel and see about your situation under God's law. You are bound to the law of God. You can't get out from under it.

You can redefine marriage all you want. You can redefine sexuality and morality all you want, but God's law doesn't change. And we're bound to it. This arranged wedding, our husband is the law.

Now, in this day, both Jew. And Gentile, the Jews, and the Greco-Roman world understood the law system because both countries or both cultures, you should say, were austere in their enforcement. of law keeping.

Now, what a powerful picture that is. Secondly, not only the binding authority of the law, but Paul uses this analogy. to teach us the comprehensive authority of the law. It's very comprehensive. In verse 3, notice what he says.

Four is thin. while her husband is living. Back up in verse 2. She's bound to the law while her husband is living. Here's the point.

It's comprehensive. As long as your husband is alive. The wife, in this cultural context, was bound by his authority. She was not free. To do as she wanted, to choose another man, whatever it might be.

That's quite comprehensive, but remember. The New Testament teaches us very clearly. That the law of God doesn't just apply to what you do. It applies to what you are. Jesus said If you've hated in your heart.

You've committed adultery already? You've broken one of the Ten Commandments. Jesus said, if you have lust in your heart, Why, you've committed adultery already. You see, the law of God doesn't just apply to what you do, it applies to your very being. To the very thoughts and intentions of your heart.

That's quite comprehensive. As long as the law is alive, the law can't die because it's an expression of God's character. And everything that you are in your thoughts, your intentions and your actions are all under law. You have no freedom. You're bound.

And it is a comprehensive binding authority that is over you. Hebrews chapter 4 teaches us that the Word of God can judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Again, emphasizing the comprehensive element. It judges everything.

Well, Paul says, just like a woman, as long as her husband's living, she's bound. And just as his authority over her is completely comprehensive, Thirdly. Notice the condemning authority of law is mentioned here. He says in verse three: if this woman decided I can't take this anymore. This man's cruel.

He's having affairs with other women. He treats me like an animal or like a servant. And that was very common. And this day, And I'm going to find me a loving husband. But the Bible says she does not have that freedom, she's bound under that husband.

Look at verse 3.

So then, if while her husband is living she's joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress. What's the point? She stands condemned under her husband's authority for choosing another man other than him.

So here we have this Clear, decisive condemnation if she chose to do that. Matter of fact, in Leviticus chapter 20, a woman could be stoned to death. For violating the covenant she had with her husband by joining herself. To another man.

Well, what Paul's bringing out here again, he is not teaching a treatise on marriage. We've done a lot of that, but that's not what he's doing. He's taking the cultural context, the way they viewed marriage and the way they practice it and paralleling it to what we have under the law. And I'm telling you, the law is comprehensive over you and it is condemning of you. Matter of fact, James says: if you break one point in the law, you're guilty of all the law.

Everyone you know, everyone you see, everyone who has ever lived beside Jesus Christ lives a life condemned under the law of God. None of us can keep the law. We all fall short, the Bible says. And it's a powerful condemning authority. In John chapter 3, Jesus said, We are condemned already.

What's he mean by that condemned already? He said, You're not waiting to do something to be condemned. You stepped into this world out of the womb of your mother. condemned by the holy and righteous and true and eternal law of God. That's what you're wedded to.

That's who you're wedded to. That's the one you're joined to. That's the one who has authority over you.

Well, not only that, now he pulls out of the marriage metaphor or illustration and just adds another aspect. Of what we are under law. We see it in verse 5. And that is the compounding. authority of the law.

In the sense that our guilt just keeps compounding. Notice how he words it in verse 5 of our text. For while we were in the flesh, that means before you became a Christian. While you are just in your natural humanity Verse 5: The sinful passion, something that's raging within you naturally. Which were, interesting, aroused by the law.

We're at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death.

So he says, while you're in your natural state, the way you were born, God hasn't done anything to change you. In that natural state, you have these sinful passions. There is a contamination to your very being. There is a pollution, a corruption of sin that permeates every cell in your body.

Now In one very real sense, well, in an absolute sense, your flesh is not inherently evil. Adam and Eve were not eatable before they sinned, but once they sinned, they brought corruption into all human flesh. All people who would ever be born.

So the whole of our being The whole of our being is hopelessly corrupted and polluted by sin. That's what we are. That's what the theologians call total depravity. There's no part of your being that's truly good or virtuous whereby you might lift yourself up by your own bootstraps. and gain some kind of approval before a holy God.

Sinful passions that he mentions here, those sinful passions that rage in your being. Listen to me, young person.

Well, I'm 66. Listen to me, senior adult. It's the sinful passion in you that causes your eyes to look at things your eyes should not look at. It's the sinful passion raging in you that causes your ears to listen to things you should not be listening to. It's the sinful passions within you that cause your feet to take you places you should not go.

Causes your hands to touch things you should not touch. Causes your mind to think on things your mind should not be dwelling on. I'm telling you something, we are hopelessly compounding sin all the time. The compounding authority of sin. You see, the law of God, as this text teaches, doesn't just show us why we violate God's holy character.

It actually stimulates more unholy character. Did you get that? He says that the sinful passions, that's what the text says. Which are aroused, stirred up by the law. And we all know that this is true.

We all understand this. You know um If you've got a little boy or a little girl, I raised three children and I'm helping raise seven grandchildren, about to be eight. And almost without exception, No, I shouldn't say it that way. With that exception. If you're teaching a child, now don't touch that.

It's very common that you'll get something like.

Now I want to do it even more. And they just, I mean, I saw, you won't believe it, one of my own offspring. Don't touch that. It was kind of like this. What is that?

It is funny. There are babies. We get that. But you know what? Adults do the same thing.

Something in us. If you give us a law, we just say, Will you watch me? You better listen to me. You don't ever really break God's law, you break yourself over God's law. There's something in us.

And so we just sin even more. The more law we see, the more rules we see, the more thou shalt not we see, the more we sin. It's just a part of our sinful, fallen nature. It's who we are. And then he says As we're doing these kinds of things, what we're actually doing, look at verse 5 there, we bear fruit for death.

As you're sinning, Somebody throws a law up to you and says, Well, here's what the law, here's what you all do.

Now, by the way, there's a proper use of the law in culture and society in the home. There's a proper use of the law. I'm not saying you throw it out completely, but here's what I'm saying: here's what Paul's saying. Are you listening? You do not use the law to gain a right standing before God.

It's useless for that. Because, as far as you and your standing and your acceptance to God, the law can only make you. Less worthy, not more worthy. We have to have rules and laws and life and society in the home. We know that.

So don't get out of ballots on me this Easter Sunday morning. But he says in verse 5, for while we were in the flesh. The sinful passions, the natural old, unredeemed man, the humanity I walk around in, it's aroused by the law, it kicks against it. And it's at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. I think the idea there is.

It increasingly produces, it increasingly reveals that I deserve eternal death. I cannot deserve to be in the holiness of God. You know, there's Nothing you can ever do. Free Christ. Before you know Christ, that will ever.

Merit anything before God. Nothing. You can give your body. Give your life to serve the lowest, most desperate, oppressed people in all the world and let everything go that we know of American comfort or American values and just devote yourself to that. But if you are not in Christ, you gain nothing before God.

You just bear fruit for death. Because if you don't know Christ at the end of the day, what you're trying to do is prove how good you are. And you're not good. Not compared to him. You might be very good compared to me.

But the Bible says when we compare ourselves with ourselves, we are not wise. There's only one standard. And his name is Jesus.

Well, um, how's this marriage working out for you? That's what Paul just wants you to get to. You're married to the law. You're born into the law. That's your husband.

Is it working out? It's not working out at all, Paul says. But there is one option. You can be wedded to Christ. You can have a divorce.

Divorce is good. If, in effect, you divorce the law to be married to Jesus, that's a good righteous divorce and remarriage right there. Since my marriage to the law was not working out, I mean, I was bound to it. It was comprehensive, it was condemning, it was just compounding in my life. But now you can leave the law's authority.

But only by I come into Christ. Two simple points here, and we'll be done. Number one, when you're wedded to Christ, and you're wedded to Christ by faith, by the way. I love my friends and some of our professing Christian denominations, but very often what they do is they leave the Old Testament law and just develop a New Testament law.

Well, my flesh can't keep either one.

So, don't just dump more law on me. I can't handle law. It's a bad marriage, it only corrupts and condemns me. I need a marriage to one better than that. And you come to Christ by faith.

You come to Christ bankrupt of any confidence in yourself. I can't go to enough churches. I can't be baptized enough times in a baptistry. I can't take the ordinances or the sacraments in the church. I can't clean up my morality or my integrity or my ethics enough.

You can't do it. I just come Christ bankrupt and trust that you would save me by faith. A, if you're wedded to Christ. You become legally discharged from the law.

Now, remember his illustration: if she just hauls off and leaves her husband. While he's living, she's an adulterer. She's condemned. You can't do that. But when you come to Jesus, you can legally leave your old husband.

In a righteous way, leave your own husband. to be joined to the new one, Jesus Christ.

Now, he says there's got to be a death in this. Note at verse 2 again. If the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living, but if her husband dies, She is released from the law concerning the husband.

So, somebody's got to die. Of course, in this case, if she's going to leave her husband and get another husband, she can't die. She won't be here anymore.

So, the husband has to die. The Bible's not teaching kill your husband, okay? Just, if you've got a bad one, he dies, I guess, praise the Lord, huh? Um I got options now. Ha ha ha ha ha.

Now, don't get out of whack on me here. This is not a teaching on divorce and remarriage in the Bible. This is an illustration from a corrupt marriage situation.

So somebody's got to die if you're going to have a new wife. But the law can't die, and that's your first husband. Because the law is an expression of God. It's the very nature of God in written form. But you can die.

That's what Paul is saying here, but you can die. Notice verse 3 here.

So then, while her husband is living, she's doing to another man, she shall be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from the law.

So that she is not an adulteress, though she's joined another man. Verse 4: Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the law through the body of Christ. That you might be joined to another. Intimacy. To him who was raised from the dead in order that we might bear fruit for God.

Now, two words here that he uses for the woman that also apply for us: the woman who's free now to find a new husband, and now a person who says, I'm free from the law to find me a new husband, which is Jesus. That is the word free there. Free You're free from it. You're released. No obligation any longer.

And then the word released is used in verse 2: you're released from the law concerning the husband.

So there is no obligation any longer on your life to the law once you come to Christ. Because in God's eyes, you died to all obligation to that law. When Jesus died, you died. When Jesus was buried, you were buried. When Jesus was raised, you were raised.

Pastor, how does that work? I don't know. But it's wonderful. It's wonderful.

Somebody tells you that, oh, well, you got to do this, and then you got to do this. You've got to join this church, or you've got to take this sacrament or this ordinance to have a right standing before God. You can say, Look, I've been released from all obligation to that husband. I'm no longer under any obligation. I'm free from every bit.

of that.

So we died in Christ on the cross.

So we've died to the law's binding authority, we've died to the law's comprehensive authority, we've died to the law's condemning authority. and its multiplying authority. Because he faced the law for us and in our place. Matter of fact, Galatians 4, 4 says of Jesus. that he was born of a woman born under law.

Now, he he was bound to the law. He was under the law's comprehensive authority, but he was never under the law's condemning authority because he never broke the law.

However. At the cross, he did come under the condemning authority of the law because he was dying in our place.

So our condemnation came on him, and God the Father looked on him as if he were a sinner, like we are. God looked on him as if he were guilty, as we are guilty. God looked on him to receive the condemnation that we should deserve. It all fell on him. Because he took our place.

Under The law.

So now we're released, we're discharged, we've terminated all association with the law as far as gaining a right standing before God. We are free, that means exempt, not bound by any obligation to that law to gain a right standing before God. When Christ became a one-celled human being in the womb of Mary. the weight of the father's law was upon him. Then he was born under the law.

And for thirty three years he lived, fulfilling all the law, and then he died being punished under law for the children in their place. Romans 8:1 reminds us, therefore. There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. My, my, my, what a salvation we have. None of this is possible.

if he didn't rise again. None of this is possible. Not only are we legally discharged from the law, but lastly, we are now lovingly devoted to Christ. Person. Four says we are joined to another.

The word join there is a unique Greek word. It doesn't mean like I'm joining a bus, I'm getting on a car, I'm joining up with something physically. It's actually a word that has the idea of creating something new. There's something that God does that's supernatural and powerful and divine that God does that joins us to Christ. It's the new birth.

It's being born again. It's being made alive by the Spirit. and then were joined to Christ. And so I've been released from the old standing and the old husband, the law, and now I've been married to, joined up with, through this supernatural born-again experience to Christ. And you know what he did?

And now Do not look at God's law woefully, trying to gain acceptance.

Now I'm beginning to learn to love him and love his law and do it out of that love for him. And that's the only worship he wants. It doesn't want your woeful Groveling around, scheming, deceiving, and then you start twisting and turning the law all around so it fits you better. No, he wants you to be on that journey of now I love him. And I'm devoted to him because I have been joined to him.

Matter of fact, in verse 6, an interesting phrase here. But now we've been released from the law, having died to this listen, by which we were bound. We were bound under the law, and we were bound up in a way that we could not be free to serve God righteously. We could not, we were not able to serve God in a way that pleased God. And you never can until you come to Christ.

Now we're free. From sin, we are free from condemnation. We are free from the multiplying effects of sin in our life. But only because of the magnificent and wonderful work and power of Jesus Christ.

Now we are finally. Are you listening to me? I hope this resonates in your heart. If it doesn't at all, you're probably not saved. We are afraid to know God.

Before we just knew his rules.

Now in Christ we begin to know him. We are free to be in loving and treasuring God. We're free now to truly bear fruit, not for death. We talked about that earlier, but fruit. for God in His glory.

Notice how he says it there. In verse 6, but now having been released from the law, having died that by which we were down, so that we serve in newness of the spirit, not in oldness of the letter. Last part of verse 4 is where I should be: to him who raised him from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. A loving devotion to Christ. I could care less to have 10,000 people here.

Who are trying to work out some sort of system in their own strength and their own ability whereby they feel like they're more accepted to God? I want a church full of people that are lovingly devoted to Christ. Those are the kind of people God saves. Or that's what happens when God saves us and changes us.

So now we are married to God through Jesus Christ. And we can bear fruit. That really pleases him and honors him and glorifies him. We are free. Free, free from bondage.

To the law We are free from the comprehensiveness of the law. We are free from the condemning power and authority of the law. and the compounding authority of the law. That old high priest. He's gone into the Holy of Holies and he's sprinkled.

The blood on the mercy seat. And he turns around and he moves that veil out of the way and he begins to walk out of the Holy of Holies. He's got some dried-up blood on one hand. He has some little fragments of incense on the other hand. And he's got a Part of ashes and coal that are simmering and as he walks out that Holy of holies, he walks into the holy place and he walks through the holy place And he walks out into the outer court.

And you have to know that that high priest looked at that. goat blood and that incense and that smouldering pan and thought, This isn't enough. It's just not enough. But out there in the outer court If he could look over the wall of Jerusalem. And look with the eyes of faith, he would see a little hill out there.

The one true mercy seat of God, Golgotha. Calvary. And if you could look forward with the eyes of faith out of the Old Testament dispensation into the new. He would see an old rugged cross standing there. And Jesus, the Lamb of God, nailed there.

Coming off his precious, holy, and pure body. Is that Royal Righteous redeeming blood in each drop. Falling and hitting that arid Israeli saw And each drop that hits. sends up a little tough of dust. That says Free from condemnation.

Free from sin. Free from guilt. Yeah. Free at last. Free at last.

Free at last. Thank God Almighty. I'm free last. That's what Easter. provides for us.

I beg you. I command you. Run to Jesus. Don't run to me. I'm not a priest.

I can't fix anything. By faith run to Jesus. If you'll come to him, he said, Pastor, you don't know what I've done. You don't know how I live. You don't know how sorry and corrupt I am.

Here's what I do know: I know how powerful Jesus is. He is mighty to save, the Bible says. He will forgive you, He will cleanse you, and He will change you. He'll get you out of a real bad marriage and get you into a real good one. If you'll come to him.

Mm-hmm.