Romans 7:1-6
OUR SPIRITUAL LIBERATOR KING
The third of March is the day of Bulgaria’s liberation from Turkish bondage. On that day in 1878, in San Stefano, the preliminary treaty was signed that brought an end to the Russo-Turkish War of Liberation. We thank God that on this momentous day we were freed from our five centuries of Turkish bondage. In truth this was not yet the full liberation of Bulgaria, since she remained a vassal state of Turkey for another thirty years, but even so, on this date the beginning of liberation was set in place. Glory to God for the political freedom of Bulgaria! For it is God who gives the nations, God who gives the borders, He who “marked out… the boundaries of their lands” (Acts 17:26). Yet this great national holiday is an occasion to reflect not only on our political freedom, but also on the liberation from spiritual bondage that the Lord Jesus Christ brought us — our spiritual Liberator King, who set us free from the yoke of sin.
JESUS CAME TO BRING US FREEDOM
And we sang in our songs, “Freedom in the blood of Christ! We are free, completely free in body, spirit, and soul!” In the Gospel according to Luke 4:14-21 we read how, after His baptism at the Jordan River and after His forty-day temptation in the wilderness, Jesus returned to Galilee “filled with the Holy Spirit” and ready to begin His ministry. He began to teach in the synagogues and very quickly became well known. On His return to Nazareth, the town where He had grown up, He was invited to preach in the local synagogue. There the people were gathered to worship the God of Israel, and part of the service was the reading of the Holy Scriptures and their exposition. By this time they had heard that Jesus had begun His ministry and had become something of a “rabbi” — a teacher of the law. So they handed Him the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, and He began to read (verses 18-21):
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18-19)
“The year of the Lord’s favor” is the year of jubilee. According to the Law, if someone had been sold into slavery, then in the year of jubilee he had to be set free, and if his land had been sold, it had to be returned to him. So “the year of the Lord’s favor” was in fact the year of liberation, the year of freedom.
Evidently Jesus read these words in a striking way, because by the time He finished, the whole audience was electrified with anticipation, waiting to hear what His interpretation would be. The eyes of everyone were fastened on Him. In that moment Jesus did something unheard of — He applied this prophecy about the long-awaited Messiah not to someone else, but to His very own Self (verse 21).
21 He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:21)
That is, He said, “I am the One these words are about. I am the Messiah you are waiting for. I am the One in question. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, God’s anointing is upon me, to bring you freedom.” In this way Jesus announced the beginning of His ministry, and from the text He chose it is clear that Christ’s ministry is a ministry of liberation. He said, “The Spirit of the Lord… has anointed me… to proclaim — what? — freedom for the prisoners… to set the oppressed free.” Glory to God! The gospel is a call to freedom. It is good news for the poor, freedom for the prisoners, sight for the blind, and release for the oppressed. In the Gospel of John 8:36 Jesus says:
36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. (John 8:36)
We preach the truth because we are convinced that God’s Word is truth. Through this truth Christ sets us free. A little earlier in the same chapter He says (John 8:32):
32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. (John 8:32)
The Son is the liberator, He is our “Liberator King.” And the freedom He gives is not temporary; it is true freedom. From what does Jesus set us free? From many things: He sets us free from sin, He sets us free from eternal death, He sets us free from punishment, He sets us free from fear, from sickness, from everything, from every evil. But let us focus on just one of the things Christ sets us free from — the Law.
PEOPLE WHO KNOW WHAT LAW IS
In Romans 7:1-6 the Apostle Paul teaches the Jewish Christians of Rome an important lesson.
1 Do you not know, brothers and sisters—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives? 2 For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her to him. 3 So then, if she has sexual relations with another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man. 4 So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. 5 For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. 6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code. (Romans 7:1-6)
The church in Rome was made up of Jews and Gentiles, and at that time they did not get along very well. Part of the reason for this was that in the beginning the church consisted only of Jews. Later, however, the Gentiles became more numerous than the Jews, because they received the good news more warmly and enthusiastically — they were more open to the faith. But in the year 49 the emperor Claudius expelled all the Jews from Rome (Acts 18:2). They left the city, and the church became entirely Gentile. Five years later, however, after his death in the year 54, when the emperor Nero came to power, the Jews returned to Rome. And when they came back into the church, they found the Gentile church far too “worldly” by their legalistic standards. That is how it seemed to them. Not that the church had truly become worldly, because the believers continued to worship Jesus Christ and continued to strive to live a holy and godly life — but to them, to these Jewish Christians, this church seemed worldly. As a result a division began between Jews and Gentiles, because the Jews considered that the Gentiles were not living the way a Christian ought to live in order to be saved. The Gentiles did not keep the law… In fact one of the Apostle Paul’s aims in this letter to the Romans is to show them that in Christ, between Jews who keep the law and Gentiles who do not keep the law but believe in Jesus Christ and live filled with the Holy Spirit, there is no difference in their standing before God.
We understand that the Apostle Paul is speaking to Jews in this letter from the fact that he argues (proves) his theses (his claims) from the Law of Moses and addresses those to whom he speaks as “those who know the law” (verse 1). If there is anyone who “knows what law is,” it is the Jews. The Romans, too, knew “what law is,” since they had their Roman law, which to this day lies at the foundation of many states. But the Jews continued to keep the law — to keep the ritual part of the law, to keep circumcision and the Jewish feasts — and this is not necessarily a bad thing, because the Law is good (Romans 7:12; 1 Timothy 1:8), and it is part of their culture and national identity. But this law-keeping becomes bad the moment they begin to act as though keeping the Law saves them, adding to faith the keeping of the Law as well. At that moment they begin to act as though, because they keep the Law, they are more righteous than the Gentiles — the Gentiles who do not keep the law but who have believed in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and Savior and in His sacrifice for their salvation. And in the seventh chapter of the letter the Apostle Paul says to those Jewish Christians who want to keep the law in order to be saved: “You know what? You are behaving like a woman whose first husband (the Law) has died and who has now married another (Christ), yet who lives as though her first husband (the Law) were still alive and still pines for him…” (verses 1-6). But in doing so she neglects her present husband. This is the condition of those who, after being set free from the Law and joined to Christ, return again to the Law as a requirement or a means of salvation.
DEATH NULLIFIES THE LAW
1 Do you not know, brothers and sisters—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives? (Romans 7:1)
Right at the very beginning the Apostle Paul lays out his thesis (his central claim): “The Law is in force over a person only as long as he is alive.” If a person dies, what law is there left for him? He is free from every law. And since in the previous chapter the Apostle Paul has already established the fact that through baptism the believer is co-crucified and co-buried — crucified together with and buried together with Christ (Romans 6:3-5) — we can guess what his thought is, and his thought is that, since we are legally dead in Christ and through Christ, we are free from the law. In Romans the Apostle Paul uses this legal language — the language used in law, in the courtroom. Legally, because you have identified yourself with Christ through faith and He has died, you are dead. And because you are legally dead through Christ, through this death of yours, which is His, you are free from the Law.
Death nullifies the law. In verses 2-3 the Apostle Paul illustrates this fact with the law of marriage.
2 For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her to him. 3 So then, if she has sexual relations with another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. (Romans 7:2-3)
Imagine a woman who runs away from her husband, leaves him, and marries another. Her husband is alive, yet she marries another — this is sin, and God’s Word calls it adultery and immorality.
3 But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man. (Romans 7:3)
You see, if her husband dies and she, as a widow, marries another, she does not become an adulteress. We find confirmation of this in 1 Timothy 5:14, where the Apostle Paul counsels younger widows “to marry, to have children, to manage their homes and to give the enemy no opportunity for slander.”
This example will become even clearer to us if we know that, according to Jewish law, a woman did not have the right to divorce or to seek a divorce. According to Jewish Law a woman had the right to marry, but not to divorce. Divorce was a “privilege” belonging to men alone. Only men had the right to divorce; women did not have this right, whether they liked their husbands or not. That is how it was, and this is why the Apostle Paul says here that, indeed, a married woman was “bound” — notice, he uses precisely this metaphor — to her husband as long as he was alive, until death, or else until he decided to leave her, if he was somehow dissatisfied with her. But even if she was for some reason dissatisfied with her husband, she did not have the right to divorce. So, indeed, the woman was bound to her husband “until death.” However, if he dies — she is free. Or if she dies — again she is free, but once she is dead… she can no longer do anything at all, let alone marry — unless she rises again. Death, however, in every case ends the force of the law.
OUR SECOND HUSBAND
In verses 4-6 the Apostle Paul moves from the illustration to its application.
4 So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. (Romans 7:4)
Notice, in the previous example it says that the living woman is free if her husband dies. But now the Apostle Paul turns things around and says that not only is the one who is alive free from the law if their partner dies, but also the one who has died — the dead one — is free from the law as well. And whereas, humanly speaking, when we die that puts an end to everything and we can do nothing more, yet being dead in Christ, we go on living, because Christ not only died but also rose from the dead. This is the miracle of sacrifice. Sacrifice is when someone else bears the punishment you deserve. And when he bears it, that bearing counts as though you yourself had borne it. And because we deserved death, Christ died in our place, and His death is reckoned as ours. This is the miracle of sacrifice, and this is why “we preach Christ crucified” (1 Corinthians 1:23).
For “the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives” (verse 1) — death puts an end to the law. And the Apostle Paul turns things around, since he cannot say that the law is dead, because the law is not dead. Even though Christ has already come, the role of the Law to lead us to Christ continues to be in force (Galatians 3:19,24,25). But even though the Law goes on living, those who have believed in Christ do not go on living with it. For, by identifying ourselves with Christ, we die to the law and are free from it. Rising with Christ to new life, we are joined — no longer to the Law, but to the One raised from the dead, to Jesus Christ. We belong not to the Law; we belong to Jesus Christ. And out of this new union with Christ flows a life so abundant and fruitful that it is unattainable through the Law.
THE FRUIT OF OUR UNION WITH CHRIST
Look, here it seems that the Apostle Paul’s idea is the idea of offspring, because he speaks of “fruit” (verses 4-5). For when we are joined to the One raised from the dead, we are joined to Him in order to bear “fruit for God.” From our union with Christ spiritual fruit is born — and what is this spiritual fruit? The fruit of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). From our union with the Law fruit is also born, but this fruit is sin. Why? Because the Apostle Paul says that our sinful passions are “aroused” by the law (verse 5). Because when you are given a command, “Do not do this!” you go and do exactly that. Why? Because you are curious, because you think that if it is forbidden, it must be something good… Because “forbidden fruit is the sweetest” — isn’t that so? This is why Christianity is not a religion of rules and laws, but a teaching of love. You must come to experience that God loves you, and from there on, when you do something for Him, you do it not by force, but willingly.
And look what the Apostle Paul says in verses 5-6:
5 For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death; (Romans 7:5)
What is the “fruit for death”? It is sin, these are the “acts of the flesh” (Galatians 5:19-21).
19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-21)
SERVING IN THE NEW WAY OF THE SPIRIT, NOT THE OLD WAY OF THE WRITTEN CODE
And in verse 6 of Romans chapter 7 the Apostle Paul continues:
6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code. (Romans 7:6)
Remember this, beloved brothers and sisters. In our church we serve “in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code” — not by law, but by grace! Then, where do works come in? We will get to works as well. Because Christ sets us free not only from the law. He also sets us free from sin. He does not set us free from the law so that we may commit sin, but so that we may bear “fruit for God.” But the Apostle Paul says this: “we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code,” and we must understand the order of things. If we start with works right at the very beginning, we will never reach grace. The beginning is always grace. The beginning is always love for God. The beginning is always the motives. And if we have this motive of liberation, of faith in Christ, of love for God — if the Holy Spirit works in us — then we will have works as well. Works are the fruit. And God does not expect us to do them by our own strength, but expects us to do them by the power of the Holy Spirit. As the Apostle Paul says in Philippians 2:12-13:
12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. (Philippians 2:12-13)
It is God who works in us so that we may do works that are the fruit of our faith (James 2:18; Acts 26:20). So if anyone thinks that by his own strength he can do works by which to please God, he is in great error, and his convictions are not according to God’s Word. According to God’s Word, grace comes first. Works follow; they flow out of our faith. But to put works before grace is like putting “the cart before the horse.” Will that cart go anywhere if it is in front of the horse? And the “horse” is the Holy Spirit. He is the One who moves us to produce the fruit of the Spirit, or works of faith. So, in the first place, we serve not in the old way of the written code — not by the law, not by works — but “in the new way of the Spirit”! So let us be filled with the Holy Spirit. Because if a person is full of the Holy Spirit, will he commit sin? No! If a person is full of the Holy Spirit, he will do God’s will. This is how things happen. Not with, “You must do this, you must do this, you must do this…” but with, “Love the Lord with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your strength,” and let Him work in you, let Him give you strength. Live by God’s grace, and let all the glory be to God!
DOING SOMETHING IN ORDER TO BE SOMETHING
In a little while we will say more on this matter, but for now let us return to our text. In Romans 7:1-6 Paul draws an analogy with marriage. But his aim here is not to teach about the family; it is to illustrate his thought. Imagine a woman who is married for the second time — let us call her “Eleonora” — just a made-up name; there is no such person in our church. Her first marriage was not a very good one. In fact, to tell the truth, it was terrible. She could never please her husband or satisfy his expectations. (Who can please the Law?) No matter how hard she tried, nothing worked out — she never managed to do the right thing and be good enough to meet her husband’s demands; he was always dissatisfied. In her relationship with her husband she constantly carried the burden of trying to please him, trying to be what he would accept, trying to be worthy in his eyes. Eleonora was constantly trying “to do something in order to be something,” but somehow it never worked out, and she always felt empty and unfulfilled. Remember this expression: “to do something in order to be something” — this is what the Law says. “Whoever sins in one thing sins against the whole Law” (James 2:10). You must perform. You must keep this, you must keep this, you must keep this… And if you keep all the commandments, you will live. But if you do not keep all the commandments — you will not live.” That is what the Law says. So you must do something in order to be something; if you do something, you will be something — otherwise, you will be condemned.
Such is the condition of the lost sinner who is not in Christ and not under His grace, but is bound to the law and subject to its demands. If you want to be justified by keeping the law, then you have to do certain things. And you know what? No one can be justified by keeping the law. Because the Apostle James says in James 2:10 that
10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. (James 2:10)
Whoever stumbles at one point, is he guilty of only one thing? No, he “is guilty of breaking all of it.” Whether you did it or not — it makes no difference. This is a trap. The Law is a trap. Once you enter into legalism and law-keeping — once you set the keeping of certain things as a requirement for salvation — you fall into a trap.
Look, to want to be saved through works required by the Law, or through some rules you impose on yourself, is like hanging over a bottomless abyss while holding onto a long chain. Picture it. A deep chasm. Over it a bridge. From the bridge a chain hangs down toward the chasm. And you are hanging on this chain. If it breaks — you fall and are killed. If all the links of the chain are sound — no problem. But if just one of the links of this chain is defective and comes loose or breaks — what happens? The whole chain breaks and you fall. This can cost you your life. In exactly the same way, just one sin — just one covetous desire, just one lie, just one piece of gossip, and we are not even talking about murder — is enough for you to be condemned by the law and to lose your salvation. According to the Law, even if you are perfect in everything else but sin in just one thing — this costs you your life. Even a single sin, however small, is enough for us to be condemned by the Law. In and of ourselves, apart from Christ, we can never be good enough or do enough good works to be justified in God’s eyes. I am sorry, brothers and sisters, but I do not want to be saved this way. I cannot be saved this way. Because if any person could be justified by works required by Law, then God would have made salvation to be that way. But this is why God gave the Law — to show us that we cannot save ourselves through our own righteousness. The Law was in force for about fifteen hundred years — until Christ. However, of all those who tried to fulfill the Law, did anyone succeed in fulfilling it? Only Christ. But He is the perfect Son of God, in whom there is no sin. If people could be saved by keeping the Law, then Christ would not have come. But because no one can be justified by works required by Law, therefore God in His grace sent His only begotten Son, “that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
SPIRITUAL ADULTERY
And to mix grace and law is, to put it bluntly, like mixing things that do not belong together. We cannot mix Christ with the Law. These are separate things. They are incompatible. According to the Apostle Paul, they are “different husbands.” Christ is one “husband,” the Law is another “husband” — you cannot mix them! If you mix them — this is spiritual adultery.
FOR ALL OUR SINS — PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE
Christ died for us! And we must understand that the death with which Christ died is for all the sins of all humanity. His blood is sufficient for all our sins. Did Christ die only for our past sins? Let me ask you, when did Christ die? When He died, had we committed even a single sin? We were not yet born, so how could we have committed sin? Christ died even before we were born. Why did He die before we were born? Because God laid upon Him all our sins — the sins of all humanity, committed throughout its entire existence — past, present, and future. When He died on the cross, Christ died for my past sins, for my present sins, and for my future sins. This does not mean that I should therefore allow myself to live in sin. Because if I do that, it would mean that I am “crucifying Christ a second time” (Hebrews 6:6). But in any case, we must be assured and certain that Christ’s death was and is a sufficient sacrifice for all our sins — past, present, and future.
WHY, AFTER YOU HAVE BEEN SET FREE FROM THE LAW, DO YOU ENTANGLE YOURSELF AGAIN UNDER ITS SLAVISH YOKE?
But let us return to the example of Eleonora. Her husband dies — that bad one whom she could never please — she is set free from her husband’s law and can marry again. This is what happens — she marries another man. And now things are different. Her new husband truly loves her, spends time with her, encourages her, and likes everything she does. Her life undergoes a complete turnaround. She stops carrying the heavy burden of “doing something in order to be something.” Her husband accepts and loves her just as she is. Now she experiences the freedom to live a life she never even imagined could exist. The newfound joy in her heart is written on her face. And this is wonderful.
Would it not be foolish for this woman — Eleonora — at some point to decide to stop living the free life she now lives with her new husband, and to decide to live as though she were still married to her first husband — to keep feeling unworthy, rejected, and unsuccessful in her attempts to meet his impossible standard? It is precisely such behavior that resembles the return to the Law of a believer who has been set free from the Law in Christ. Through Christ we Christians are free from the burden of the ritual law, which imposes on us the fulfilling of certain requirements in order to be accepted by God.
NEITHER LEGALISTS NOR LAWLESS — NEW CREATIONS
This is why some people in Paul’s day did not like him and would say, “Paul, you are lawless! Paul, you are a false teacher!” I do not know how you receive this teaching, but the Apostle Paul is in our Bible, brothers and sisters! What I am preaching to you today is his teaching. So if anyone wants to reject the Apostle Paul, that is his own problem. But this is the truth in Christ, and it is not lawlessness. This is why I tell you that we must be in the middle. Not in order to be mediocre or “lukewarm,” but in order to be right on target. We must be neither legalists nor lawless, because the Apostle Paul rejects not only legalism but also lawlessness (living in sin). What, then, must we be, if we are to be neither legalists nor lawless? We must be “new creations” (2 Corinthians 5:15; Galatians 6:15)! This is why we preach the new birth and tell people that they must repent of their sins and be born again. Because unless someone is born “from above” — which means to be transformed and made new through the Holy Spirit. You cannot do this by your own strength. You repent, and it is God who gives you the new birth. And when you are born again and transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit, you are joined to Christ and begin to live your new life, which is a life of faith in God. The Holy Spirit changes you, and He makes you able to produce fruit for God.
JUST AS WE ARE
So for us the Law of Moses is dead, our marriage to it is over, and it no longer has authority over us. Now we are betrothed to Christ and His grace. We are free, we are valued, we are accepted, just as Christ is. Because God in Christ accepts us just as He would accept Christ. Christ died for us just as we are. He knew what we are like. Christ did not die for the righteous, but for the unrighteous. What did He say (Luke 5:31-32)?
31 It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. (Luke 5:31-32)
He came for us, brothers and sisters! He loved us just as we are — He loved us sick, He loved us sinful. He does not want us to remain that way, but He loved us just as we are. He loved us with an everlasting love. He loves us unconditionally, because such is God’s love, and such is the love with which we, too, must love one another. Not that the person deserves your love, because he may be unpleasant or unlikable to you — he may be anything at all, but you love him because God loves him, because God created him, because Christ shed His blood for him. If we do not grasp God’s love, we cannot love with God’s love. If we do not understand God’s love and do not receive it, we cannot love others with this love. Therefore, if we want to love others with divine love, we must first of all receive God’s unconditional love toward us. And what hinders us from receiving God’s unconditional love toward us is our pride. Because a proud person does not like to be loved this way, unconditionally. He wants to earn God’s approval and God’s love. But God wants us to humble ourselves and say, “No matter what we are, God loves us with this everlasting and unconditional love of His, and we have no need to prove anything. We are accepted, and nothing else matters. Glory to God for this perfect love and grace with which Christ accepts us! Glory to God for this freedom from Law that He gives us!” In Christ God has set us free from constantly feeling obligated, constantly guilty, constantly insufficient, because our sufficiency is not in ourselves, but in God.
STAND UP FOR YOUR FREEDOM!
Let us defend and stand up for this incredible, divine freedom that Christ has given us! For on this very matter the Apostle Paul tells us in Galatians 5:1:
1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. (Galatians 5:1)
What is the “freedom for which Christ has set us free” that the Apostle Paul is speaking of? It is freedom from Law. And we must not go back into legalism. We must not go back into law-keeping. This would be like desiring to return again into Turkish bondage after we had been set free from it — to entangle ourselves in it once more.
BY GRACE ALONE AND THROUGH FAITH ALONE
We must not think that by performing certain things we will be saved. Because no one is saved through works, but all who are saved are saved only through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what I have preached throughout my whole ministry, and if anyone has not understood it, then he has not been listening carefully. In Galatians chapter 2 we read the words of the Apostle Paul to the Apostle Peter. He addresses him because, before certain of the Jewish brothers came, he used to associate freely with the Gentiles and eat together with them. But when these Jewish brothers came, they said to him, “Oh Peter, these Gentiles are unclean. You cannot have fellowship with them until they are circumcised and become like us. You cannot eat with them until they begin to eat only what we eat, and prepared the way we prepare it.” So, under the influence of these legalists, the Apostle Peter left his Gentile brothers and stopped eating with them; he “drew back and separated himself” from them and began to eat only with the Jews. And this legalistic pressure from the Jews was so strong that even Barnabas was carried away by their “hypocrisy.” The actions of Peter and Barnabas were hypocritical, because both of them knew very well that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel. So here is what Paul says to Peter on this occasion:
15 We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles (Galatians 2:15)
Notice, here the Apostle Paul speaks to the Apostle Peter as a Jew to a Jew — as one who “knows what law is” to one who “knows what law is.” They are both “Jews,” and not “sinners” from among the Gentiles. The Jews considered themselves “righteous” in comparison with the Gentiles. They had the patriarchs, they had the Law, they had the promises. But even so, here one “righteous” Jew speaks to another “righteous” Jew and says to him, “Both you and I know very well that even if we are ‘righteous’ according to the law, before God we are not justified by our own human righteousness, but only through faith in Jesus Christ.”
16 know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified. (Galatians 2:16)
Notice that here the Apostle Paul says one and the same thing in three different ways. First, he says it as something that has already been discussed and established as part of the Christian faith, something that is commonly known and accepted, something that both Paul and Peter knew as a revelation from God: “know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ.” Then the Apostle Paul tells the Apostle Peter that this truth, which they both know, is not only theory but their own personal experience: “So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law.” And finally the Apostle Paul backs up the validity of his shared experience with Peter with a universal principle, which is: “because by the works of the law no one will be justified.” So, I am very sorry, but those who do not agree with these words of the Apostle Paul do not accept “the truth of the gospel” (Galatians 2:5,14) and are trying to serve in the “old way of the written code,” and not “in the new way of the Spirit.” We, however, will go on serving “in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code” (Romans 7:6; 2 Corinthians 3:6)!
“FREEDOM,” NOT “LICENSE”!
And we see in God’s Word, in the Letter to the Galatians, that the Apostle Paul immediately strikes a balance by saying that this spiritual freedom we have in Christ does not mean license — it does not mean that, since you are not under law, you can do whatever you want and live in sin. And here I too will strike a balance, because I do not want us to be unbalanced. This is why I tell you that we must be neither in the one extreme nor in the other extreme. We must be in the middle. This does not mean mediocrity; it means precision and exactness in the Spirit. It is like riding a bicycle. In order to ride a bicycle, you must be able to keep your balance on it. Balance requires equilibrium. In this same fifth chapter of the Letter to the Galatians, in which the Apostle Paul tells us to stand up for the freedom from Law that we have in Christ, in verse 13 the Apostle Paul also cries out the following:
13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free (As I told you, the gospel is a “call to freedom”!). But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. (Galatians 5:13)
This is the hard part of the Christian life — to be balanced. Because the demands on us come from both sides. On the one hand, we must not be saved through Law — we must believe that we are saved only through Christ. On the other hand, salvation through faith alone is not permission for us to sin. So we must fall into neither the one extreme nor the other. One extreme is for you to say to yourself, “I am saved by grace, I can sin — no problem…” but in that case this is sin, and you are in an extreme. The other extreme, however, is for you to say to yourself, “I will be saved by what I do, and if I do not do it — I am afraid for my salvation.” But how can you be afraid for your salvation, man, when Christ saved you on the cross two thousand years ago! Do you believe in Him or not? Or do you believe in yourself? If you believe in yourself, then you have a problem. Therefore, in order to bring balance into our lives, after telling us, “Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery!” the Apostle Paul now tells us, “Only do not use your freedom as an occasion to indulge the flesh!” And we must say “Amen!” to both.
We must not “abuse” our freedom. Our freedom in Christ is something wonderful, but the abuse of it is something wrong. Just as spiritual gifts are something wonderful, but the abuse of spiritual gifts is something not good. And fire is a good thing, but the abuse of fire causes fires and disasters. Therefore we must not think that freedom is a license for sin, because it is not so. The Apostle Peter says the same thing in 1 Peter 2:16:
16 Live as free people (WE ARE FREE!), but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. (1 Peter 2:16)
We are free from the Law. Does this mean we can become alcoholics? Does it mean we can commit sexual immorality? Does it mean we can become like this world? Never! We have been delivered from the world! How could we go back into it again? So we must not use freedom as a “cover-up for evil,” but use freedom as God’s slaves — according to its purpose. Those who abuse their spiritual freedom — the Apostle Peter describes them like this in 2 Peter 2:17-22:
17 These people are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. (2 Peter 2:17)
Those who abuse the freedom from Law that we have in Christ will not be saved.
18 For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of the flesh, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. 19 They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for “people are slaves to whatever has mastered them.” (2 Peter 2:18-19)
If, knowing about the freedom we have in Christ, we turn the church into orgies, then we are fit for hell. But have we turned the church into orgies? What are the “lustful desires of the flesh” into which we are enticing people? What is our “depravity,” and to what “debauchery” exactly have we become slaves? On the contrary, we preach and strive to live a godly life. We preach and strive to have healthy families and to be good citizens of our country. We encourage what is good and rebuke what is evil. We affirm that freedom requires responsibility!
20 If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. 21 It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. 22 Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud.” (2 Peter 2:20-22)
This here is no longer legalism, but “sound doctrine” (Titus 2:1-14)! Healthy families, healthy workers, healthy relationships, purity, sanctification, and perseverance in preparing for the returning heavenly King. Christ sets us free not only from the Law, but also from sin — and this is perfect freedom. So, even though we have been set free from the Law, we are not, and must not be, lawless! Because “sin is lawlessness” (1 John 3:4).
THE LAW OF CHRIST
In 1 Corinthians 9:21 the Apostle Paul says:
21 To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. (1 Corinthians 9:21)
Notice that even though he says he is free from the Law of Moses, the Apostle Paul says, “I am not free from God’s law.” So, even though we have been set free from the Law of Moses, we are not without law — we are under the law of Christ. What is this “law of Christ”? The “law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2) is the law of love. Because earlier, in Galatians 5:13, we read:
13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. (Galatians 5:13)
Here, this is an exhortation. This is a command. But it is not the kind of command by which, if you keep it, you will be saved. It is simply a direction for how to express your love, how to express your service to God, because you love Him. And this is the law of Christ — the law of love. Because the Lord Jesus Christ had said it in John 13:34-35:
34 A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. (John 13:34)
And here is the hard part — love is not an easy thing! You have to experience it in order to be able to love. Christ loved us with this unconditional love. Christ loved us when we were sinners. Can we love a sinner? Or do we say, “A sinner? To hell with him!” Well then, how will we lead people to salvation? We must love sinners. Not to love the sin, but to love the people enslaved by sin, so that we may minister to them and bring them to repentance. And in order to do this, we must be filled with the Holy Spirit.
35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. (John 13:35)
And the Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:13:
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13)
And here again we must remind ourselves that it is precisely love that is the chief criterion of spirituality and of maturity. Not the spiritual gifts — some people think that miracles are the mark of how spiritual you are, so they go from church to church searching for miracles. It is not the works done by us that are the mark of spirituality, because some people think that if we set up such-and-such rules and laws for ourselves, we have already become spiritual. Love is the mark of spirituality.
And in Romans 13:8-10:
8 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. (Romans 13:8-10)
This is also stated in Galatians 6:2:
2 Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. (Galatians 6:2)
Here is where the “law of Christ” is — the law of love. So this is what I am preaching to you, and this is what we are to do. We are saved by grace alone and through faith alone. From there on, we are under the law of Christ, and this means that we must love one another, care for one another, accept one another, forgive one another, and “carry each other’s burdens.” And we are to remember that there is a Law that has authority over us, and it is not the Law of Moses, but the law of Christ. The Apostle James calls this law of Christ, the law of love, the “royal law” (James 2:8).
8 If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right. (James 2:8)
Here it is, what the “royal law” is: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” This is the law of Christ.
LIVE AS WHAT YOU ARE IN GOD’S EYES
And it is striking that this law is not enslaving. It is liberating. So Christ sets us free from the Law of Moses, and the Law that He gives us is a liberating law. A little further down in the same chapter James calls the “royal law” the “law that gives freedom” (James 2:12).
12 Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, (James 2:12)
Glory to God! We are speaking of this freedom. And look, this is a higher law. This is not the Law of Moses. We will not be judged according to the Law of Moses. But we will be judged according to the Law of Love, we will be judged according to the Law of Freedom. So, Freedom does not mean irresponsibility! You must be responsible. But the Law of freedom is not a law that enslaves. It is not a law of the “do something in order to be something” kind, but a law of the “Since you are a saint, since you are a child of God, since you are a citizen of the heavenly kingdom, therefore live and act as such!” kind. This is something entirely different.
Look at what the Apostle Paul says to a church in which a man had committed sexual immorality. He had committed sexual immorality — and of a kind that is not even common among the Gentiles — he had committed immorality with his father’s second wife (1 Corinthians 5:1). And it says that, instead of being grieved, they had become proud (1 Corinthians 5:2). But look at what the Apostle Paul says to this church, which not only had allowed this to happen but was also proud of being “above these things” (1 Corinthians 5:7-8):
7 Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. (1 Corinthians 5:7-8)
What strikes me in the apostle’s words here is that he tells them, “as you really are” (unleavened). So, even though they had committed this sin of becoming proud about being above sin and about being able to tolerate in their midst even such a blatant fornicator, the Apostle Paul still calls them “unleavened.” And here he acts in exactly the same way I am telling you: not “Set yourselves free in order to be unleavened!” but “Since you are unleavened, be what you are!” and of course, “Expel the wicked person from among you!” (1 Corinthians 5:13). So we must always have this right position that God’s Word teaches us.
7 Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. (1 Corinthians 5:7)
This must be the reason. Not “in order to be unleavened,” but “as you really are unleavened,” “since you are unleavened.” In Christ we are “unleavened.” And therefore we must cast off from ourselves every sin, we must cast off every yeast of sin, every malice, every wickedness, and celebrate with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. This is also why the bread with which we serve our Lord’s Supper is unleavened — to remind us that we are unleavened and must not allow to ourselves and in ourselves any yeast at all — neither the yeast of sin, nor the yeast of bondage, nor the yeast of legalism, nor the yeast of hypocrisy. Rather, let us be free in the Lord Jesus Christ!
This morning I am in the assembly of the saints. As we look at one another, we may not see one another as saints, but through God’s eyes I see you as saints, because that is what God calls us. And we are saints not because we are sinless, brothers and sisters, but we are saints because we have been redeemed with the blood of Christ. Because in Hebrews 10:14 it says:
14 For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. (Hebrews 10:14)
Being made perfect is not something required for your salvation or for your relationship with God; it is something that flows out of your salvation and out of your relationship with God. We must not look at ourselves as sinners who are trying to fulfill the Law in order to gain God’s approval. Because if we look at ourselves as sinners, we will say to ourselves, “Well, I am a sinner anyway — so I go on sinning.” But today I want to tell you, “If you have believed in Christ, you are not a sinner. You are not a sinner. If you have believed in Christ, you are a saint, you are a child of God who may indeed have sinned, but who will never remain in sin. Because if you have this born-again nature which the Holy Spirit conceives in us, you will hate sin, you will not delight in sin, you will flee from sin. If something is sin, you will know that it is sin, and you will leave it. In Christ you are not a sinner, in Christ you are a saint, because you have been sanctified with His blood! In Christ you are justified! In Christ you are a member of God’s family (Ephesians 2:19)!” And I want to ask you, can sinners be members of God’s family? A member of God’s family cannot be a sinner. A member of God’s family can be only someone who has been redeemed and justified! So here is the difference: not “do something in order to be something,” but “since you are something, do what corresponds to your calling in Christ”! This is how you must look at and think about yourself. By faith you must say, “I am a saint!” By faith you must say, “I am justified!” And we must live worthily of the calling we have received, because God has given it to us as a credit of trust, by grace. God did not give us the title “children of light” (1 Thessalonians 5:5) because we earned it. He gives it to us by grace. And we must justify God’s trust in us. This is what the Apostle Paul says in Ephesians 4:1:
1 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. (Ephesians 4:1)
Live as sons and daughters of light, because you are sons and daughters of light! Since you are a saint, since you are a child of God, since you are a citizen of the heavenly kingdom, therefore live and act as such! This is not something required for your salvation. You must not live in fear that “If I sin today, then that’s it — I lose my salvation.” If you do something right, will you earn your salvation? Know that your salvation is accomplished. It is finished. What did Christ say on the cross? “It is finished!” (John 19:30). Did He bear it all? Is His blood sufficient? Is His sacrifice sufficient? For your salvation Christ has paid the price! But after you have been saved, living a holy life is something that flows out of your salvation! So:
- Live as a saint!
- Live as one who is free!
- Live according to the Law of Christ, and not according to the Law of Moses!
- Live according to the Royal Law!
- Live according to the Law of Love!
- Live according to the Law of Freedom, and be free in Jesus Christ!