SERMON TITLE: The Rules of the Fight
TEXT: Romans 7:7-12 (ESV)
SPEAKER: Robert Tansill
DATE: 10-26/27
Good morning, Gateway! I'm Robert Tansill, one of your pastors here on staff, and it is great to be with you this morning. I also want to send greetings to both the North Main and Bowling Green Campuses, and to those watching on-line. Josh reminds us every Sunday morning — “God loves you!". These are not words said lightly. The truth of these words are the heart of the gospel, of the Good News that we want to share with you each time we gather as the body of Christ for worship. It is my privilege today to remind you of God’s love and His faithfulness as we explore together what God would have us learn from today’s passage in Romans 7.
This morning we are continuing in our sermon series called, “The Fight” as we focus on Romans 7:7-12. In these verses the Apostle Paul is addressing the role of the law as well as the role of sin in our lives, and how each of these affects our fight of faith. And as we look at our passage, we want to try to understand how sin uses the law for its own purpose, which brings into question the goodness of the law. Let me give you an example.
When I was growing up, my family used to take trips together. I have an older brother and two older sisters, and when we would go on these trips it usually meant the kids were all crammed in the back seat of my dad's station wagon. Being a kid with lots of energy to burn, I was always looking for trouble, and I usually found it with my sister who is five years older than I am. For some reason, I liked to pick on that sister, probably because I knew just how to irritate her. But, as was always the case, as things got heated and my sister eventually complained, my mom would turn around in the front set, and threaten to punish me if I didn't stop. And that was usually the end of it, right? Nope!
For some reason, even though I knew I was going to get in trouble, there was something inside me that kept egging me on to do what I knew I wasn't supposed to be doing. It was almost as if my mom's command to stop picking on my sister actually enticed me to keep doing it. I am wondering how many of you can relate to my experience? Maybe you were in the back of the family minivan, and have no idea what it was like to sit in the back of a station wagon, but you can remember all too well irritating your sibling, despite knowing that your parents had told you to stop. The root of that desire to keep doing what you know you shouldn’t be doing is sin.
But this isn't a problem that just children struggle with. This is a universal problem. It affects all of us in one way or another because we all struggle with sin, no matter our age. In fact, whenever we are told that we can’t do something (especially by God!), whenever limits are placed on us, something inside of us more often than not wants to go against it. When someone lays down “the law”, why do we often want to do just the opposite? This is the question that Paul is dealing with in our passage. So, if you would, turn with me to Romans 7:7-12 as we try to understand the role of the law in our lives.
And as you are turning to the passage, if you’re a guest with us, something we like to do at Gateway is to let you ask questions that we answer on our weekly podcast. So if you have a question, you can text it in to the number printed on the bottom of the sermon notes sheet or you can submit it on the Gateway app.
Looking at Romans 7:7-12, the Apostle Paul writes, "What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. 9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. 10 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.” (Romans 7:7-12 ESV)
As we’ve been looking at the book of Romans over the past couple of months, we’ve seen Paul explain that God has declared us as “justified”, or righteous in His sight, because of what Christ has done for us on the Cross, which we accept by faith. And because of that, we experience both God’s love and His peace in our lives. As one quote I read last week said, “If you don’t have to be afraid of God, then you don’t have to be afraid of anything!” What does that mean? It means that, because God now accepts us as His own, not only are we declared as righteous, but we also experience freedom from the dominion of sin that once ruled our lives, and therefore no longer need to fear His judgment and wrath.
But folks, this does not come without a cost. As we saw last week, those who trust in Jesus are also called to fight! Fight what? Sin. Even though we are freed from the dominant rule sin once had in our lives, we still experience its power to entice us on a regular basis to do what we know is wrong. And it is a battle! But for us to fight well, we have to be aware of a couple of things. And what are those?
The first thing we need to be aware of is found in verses 7-8, which can be summed up this way...
POINT 1: For us to fight well...we must be aware of how the Law works in our lives (vv. 7-8)
Look again at Paul's words in verse 7 where he writes, “What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” So, what’s going on here? After telling us in Romans 7:6 that we are released from the demands of the law because of what Christ has done for us on the Cross, Paul raises the question of whether or not that God-given law is actually the catalyst for sin.
But before going further, let’s make sure we understand what sin is. In their book, “The Great Exchange”, Jerry Bridges and Bob Bevington write, “Sin is often described as ‘missing the mark’—that is, failure to live up to the rigorous standard of God’s holy law. But the Bible makes it clear that it is much more than that. Sin is a rebellion against God’s sovereign authority, a despising of his Word and his person, and even a defiance of God himself.” So, you can see from this definition why Paul’s question is so important. Even though he is clear that the law is not the catalyst for sin, it does expose it, and even seems to agitate it. In fact, using the example of the tenth commandment given at Mt. Sinai by Moses not to covet, Paul shows how sin uses the law for its own purpose with the goal of causing you to rebel against God.
But why did Paul pick the tenth commandment as his example? John Piper suggests that, "It's probably because it is the clearest commandment dealing with the desires of our heart, as opposed to external behavior. The other commandments assume desires behind them – 'you shall not steal' (the desire for something that's not yours); 'you shall not commit adultery' (the desire for illicit sex); 'you shall not murder' (the desire for revenge or money or the like), and so on. But 'you shall not covet' is the clearest command relating directly to the desires of our heart."
In fact, the word "covet" in verse 7 means simply "desire”. Covetousness is a desire that we should not have; a desire that shows we have lost our contentment in all that God is for us in Christ. Even though there are some desires that could be considered good, other desires show that we have lost our satisfaction in God, and are looking for other things to take His place revealing the fact that God is no longer as important in our lives as he ought to be. So, how does sin use the law to get you to rebel against God?
Look at what Paul says in verse 8, “But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead.” As the law exposes those desires or things in our lives that go against what God wants for us, the sin that no longer has dominion over us, but which is still struggling to influence us, is always “grasping for chances” to make us rebel against God. That’s what the phrase, “seizing an opportunity”, means; as the law works to show us what God wants, sin is always “grasping for the chance” to make us rebel against Him, and bring His authority into question in our lives.
And for Paul, one of the ways that he was personally affected as a young Jew living under the law, was to create in him, “all kinds of covetousness”. What did that look like specifically? Well, I think you see a hint of it in Philippians 3:4-7 as he thinks back on his life before Christ where he writes, “If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.” For Paul, what drove him, what he coveted, was power and prestige. That’s what he seemed to want most as a young Jew. He even describes himself at that time in his life as “blameless under the law”, revealing how sin had blinded him to the truth, and used the law for its own purposes. And this could happen to any of us.
As you evaluate your life in light of what Christ has done for you, where do you find yourself reacting negatively to what God wants for you? In what ways are you being confronted by the law of God in your life, and feeling yourself wanting to rebel against it? Maybe there is something in your life that is battling to take the place of God in your heart that is reserved only for Him. And even though the law is telling you that, "You shall have no other gods before me", yet you struggle not to give in to your idolatry. It could be that relationship that you want so badly to work out. That addiction that you just can’t seem to quit. Or that big house, or car, or job promotion that you are so focused on that it has taken priority in your life instead of God.
Or maybe you find yourself caught up in gossiping about someone at your office, in your neighborhood, or even at church. And even though you know God's law says, "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor", yet there is something inside of you that just wants to keep the conversation going, even though what you are saying about that person is false.
And this is why God's law is so important. It exposes the sinful condition beneath all our desires for what it is. As John Piper reminds us once again, “It is independence from God, and rebellion against God. At its core, our sinful condition is the commitment to be our own god. It says, ‘I will be god to me. Or I will make sure the god I have is the kind of god who always does what I want it too. I will be the final authority in my life. I will decide what is right and wrong for me, and what is good and bad for me, and what is true and false for me. And my desires will express my sovereign rule over my life, my autonomy, and – though we don't usually say it – my deity.’"
Before the law was given, sin still existed, but it wasn't acknowledged as sin, which is why Paul says at the end of verse 8, "For apart from the law, sin lies dead." But then the law comes in and says, there is a standard outside us and above us, namely God and his revealed will. God is the measure of right and wrong. God is the measure of what is good and bad. God is the measure of what is true and false. And this measure of God is revealed in the law. This is what Paul is talking about and it's all part of the battle that we face on a daily basis.
And the first thing that we need to do to combat this is to become aware of how the law works in our lives. As Josh showed us last week, even though we have been released from the demands to keep the law perfectly (which only Christ could do... and did in our place), the law still serves a purpose by making us aware of our sin as we seek to bring glory to our God. Though the law can’t save us, it can (and does) expose our unholy desires, and our sin; those things in our lives that are at enmity with God. So, for us to be able to fight well, we must be aware of how the law works in our lives.
But there is a second thing Paul mentions in verses 9-11 that we need to be even more aware of, and which will impact how well we fight for our freedom in Christ. And we can sum it up this way…
POINT 2: For Us To Fight Well...we must also be aware of how sin works in our lives (vv. 9-11)
After having just shown us how the law functions in relation to sin in our lives, Paul now turns to focus more specifically on sin itself. And he does this by showing once again how sin interacts with the law, but also the impact that sin can have on us all. Look at what he says in verse 9. Paul writes, “I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died.”
What is Paul talking about? That question has caused a lot of confusion because it’s unclear who Paul is referring to. Some scholars think he is referring to himself as a young Jew before becoming fully aware of the perfect demand of the law on his life. Others think that he is talking about Adam and Eve in the garden who would have been the only human beings to really be able to experience going from “being alive” before the fall to “death” after it. However, for most scholars, Paul seems to be describing the experience that he and his fellow Jews have experienced as part of the people of Israel living under the law.
Here is how New Testament scholar, Doug Moo, explains it, “Jews in Paul’s day had a lively sense of their involvement with the great acts in the history of Israel. It would be natural for Paul to merge his own experience relative to sin and the law with the experience of his people Israel. As he has made clear throughout Romans, the coming of the commandment (the giving of the law of Moses) meant for Israel not ‘life’ but ‘death.’ Their sin was exposed and magnified, and greater wrath came on them. To be sure, the law held out within it the promise of life. As Leviticus 18:5 teaches, ‘Keep my decrees and laws, for the man who obeys them will live by them.’ But the power of sin already loose in the world through Adam kept this good intention from being realized. People were unable to obey the law. Thus, the law imprisoned Israel in their state of sin and led, in fact, to her ‘death.’”
Folks, that’s the power of sin! This was Paul’s experience under the law, and this is what we all face if we look to the law as the way of making ourselves righteous before God. And yet, it’s so easy to do, and is even encouraged by the world, as well as by some in the church. From the world’s perspective, you are what you do. This paradigm for living is oftentimes what drives us to succeed in our jobs, and in life. The thought behind this is that if you want something, it’s in your power, control, and strength to get it if you just do the right things. But this way of thinking shouldn’t shock us. That’s how the world works!
But when this is the way the church thinks, then it becomes a problem. I don’t know about you, but for me growing up in the church, the law was often used as a way to motivate (or should I say “guilt”) me into doing something. Known as legalism, the message was, “If you just do the right things then God will have to look at you favorably.” And what is the message behind that? That you have the ability to earn your salvation by keeping the law, finding favor with God through what you do. And it is this message that makes so many people not want to be a part of the church.
As David Kinnaman in his book, “unChristian”, says, “What are Christians known for? Outsiders think it is our moralizing, our condemnations, and our attempts to draw boundaries around everything. Even if these standards are accurate and biblical, they seem to be all we have to offer. And our lives are a poor advertisement for the standards. The truth is we have invited the hypocrite image.”
And it is this “hypocrite image” that brings death, which Paul mentions in verse 10, as we try in our own strength to do what the law requires, believing that we will receive “life” by it, but in reality “proving to be death to me”. But even as I say that, we have to be reminded once again that the law is not at fault here. Even though Paul says in verse 10 that, “The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me”, he also said earlier in verse 7, the law is not the issue. Once again, it’s sin.
And in verse 11 of our passage, repeating almost verbatim what he said in verse 8, Paul shows us once again how sin functions. But this time he expands on the role that sin actually plays in our lives, which we all need to be aware of. Look again at verse 11. Paul writes, “For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.”
When the law sheds light on the sin in our lives, not only does sin produce in us all kinds of wants and desires, but it also does something else. It deceives us! What does that mean? Well, the word Paul uses here actually means, "to cause someone to accept false ideas about something". And that is exactly what sin does to us. It gets us to believe in something that is false, and to act on it. It lies to us. It manipulates us. And it seeks to control us.
I don't know about you, but when I first read that definition, I got a little scared. Why? Because I was reminded once again of how insidious sin really is, and the impact that it can have on our lives if we aren't careful to guard against it. In fact, in another book in the New Testament, we can see more clearly how sin works in our lives.
In James 1:14-16, the author, echoing much of what Paul is saying in our passage, writes this, "But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death. 16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers." This is how sin works. And this is exactly what Paul is saying in our passage.
But I want to go back to the definition that we looked at a second ago for the word, "deceive", and ask yourself a question, "As you think about your life, what false ideas are you accepting as true because of sin?" Why do I ask this? Because, every time we come together to worship, when I have the opportunity to stand up here and look at you, it looks like everybody in this place is doing really well. But, truthfully, I don't believe that's the case. Why? For two reasons. First, because some of you have been honest enough with me to tell me it's not true. You share with me the fact that you are struggling with your sin. And I really appreciate your honesty and vulnerability. But second, I know for a fact that there's not one person in this room who isn't being impacted by sin in one way or another by sin; either by your own sin as a result of your being deceived to believe a false idea, or by someone else's sin that is impacting you.
And my fear as your pastor is that you are going to leave this place not having given it a second thought; that you will have come in here with a smile on your face, made nice with those around you, sung a couple of songs, listened to me preach, and then leave, not having been challenged to sincerely examine your heart in light of God's law. And I don't want that for you. Instead, I want to challenge you. Why? Because of something I read from Tim Keller earlier this week as I was preparing my sermon which is this, "The sin that is most destructive in your life right now is the one you are most defensive about."
Folks, what is the sin in your life that you are protecting? What false idea are you choosing to accept as true because it seems to be filling a void, making you feel good, and allowing you to believe the delusion that you alone are sovereign over your life? Put simply, what do you want so badly that it's taking the place of God in your heart and mind? Who is it that you are resentful of that at this very moment that your anger towards them is just stewing, and ready to boil over at any moment? What is it that is making you so envious of someone else that it would actually make you feel good if something bad happened to them for once? Or, what is it about God himself that makes you look to other things to take his place because you are angry at Him for what He's allowing to occur in your life?
These are the types of questions we need to be constantly asking ourselves and other believers around us as we battle the sin that is so prevalent in our lives that keeps trying to get us to accept false ideas about our lives, and seeking to lead us to death. And for us to be able to do that successfully, there is one final thing Paul tells us we must do which is this...
POINT 3: For Us To Fight Well...we have to look both to the Law, and to the One who perfectly fulfilled it (vv. 12)
As Paul concludes this section of our passage, after having shown how the law exposes our sin (and in the process agitates it to act), and how sin then uses the law to deceive us for its own evil purposes, He then says this in verse 12, "So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good." Why? Because the law is a reflection of God's character, and therefore a rule that we are to follow as we seek to fight well.
As the Westminster Confession of Faith says regarding the law, "Although true believers are not justified or condemned by the law as a covenant of works, the law is nevertheless very useful to them and to others. As a rule of life, it informs them of God’s will and of their obligation to obey it. It also reveals to them the sinful pollution of their nature, hearts, and lives, so that, examining themselves from its point of view, they may become more convinced of the presence of sin in them, more humiliated on account of that sin, and hate sin the more. Thus they gain a better awareness of their need for Christ and for the perfection of his obedience."
Did you hear that last line clearly? Let me read it again, "Thus they gain a better awareness of their need for Christ and for the perfection of his obedience." This is why the law is holy, and the command is holy, righteous, and good. It not only shows us what God's standard is, but it also makes us aware of our need for Christ. Why?
Because, as much as we may try in our own strength to meet the demands of the law ourselves, the truth is we are completely incapable to do so because the demand is constant and must be done perfectly. And only one person has been able to do that, being Jesus. Just like the law itself is a reflection of God in its holiness, righteousness, and goodness, so is Jesus who is the only Son of God.
In fact, referring back to James 1:25, just after he tells us how sin leads to death, a little later he writes this, "But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing." What does that mean? Here's what the notes explaining that verse say, "The law of God sets us free, as it drives us to Christ who alone can free us from sin. Having been justified, we then find God’s law to be the law of freedom, for we are truly free only when we do what is pleasing to the Lord."
So, believer, do you want to please the Lord? Do you want to battle the sin in your life so that it doesn't have to power to deceive you, causing to accept false ideas about your desires and wants? Then let me encourage you to look to the law, letting it expose those areas in your life that are not honoring to God. And then, when you feel helpless in yourself to combat your sin, look away from the law and squarely into the face of Jesus, who not only perfectly met the demands of the law for Himself, but for you as well. Let Him help you fight your battle against sin as He reminds you of what He has already done for you, by justifying you through his death, and is doing for you by making you aware of your sin and giving you the strength the fight against it. Remember, He has given you everything you need to fight well. Better yet, He is with you as you fight. Don't rely on your own strength, but on Him. For this is why He came. For to God, and to God alone belongs all the glory.
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