The Frustration of Slavery to Sin

Reading:  Romans 7:13-20
    
    Paul is describing our need to be set free from the Law of Moses.  He has detailed (Rom 7:7-12) how the Law’s prohibitions actually tempted him to sin.  “Did that which is good, then, bring death to me?  By no means!  It was sin, producing death in me through what is good”(Rom 7:13).  Sin, not the Law, is the culprit.  “For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin”(Rom 7:14).  It is important that we remember in the following verses that Paul is talking about the time when he lived under the Law of Moses and was sold under sin—not how he lives now in Christ.

    Living in slavery to sin is frustrating.  “For I do not understand my own actions.  For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate”(Rom 7:15).  He says this in different ways:  “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh.  For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.  For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing”(Rom 7:18-19).  Paul wants to keep the Law, but instead he keeps finding himself sinning.  His desire is sincere, but he is not able to consistently do what he wants to do.  “Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me”(Rom 7:20).  His frustration just proves his point:  someone else is in charge.  He is a slave to sin.  He needs to be set free.  Only Jesus can do for him what the Law could not:  liberate him from this agonizing slavery (Rom 8:2-3).

    We relate to this passage because we have lived in slavery to sin.  We have struggled with not having the power to put sin behind us.  We know what it is to want to do right but continually find ourselves failing.  It is important for us to remember how desperate things were so that we can see the forgiveness and liberation Jesus brings.  It also will help our efforts to teach others; knowing how frustrating that state is will help us appeal to others to come out of it. 

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One Thing to Think About:  Do I remember what it was like to be a slave to sin?  Am I currently enslaved?

One Thing to Pray For:  Opportunities to help others find liberation in Jesus
 

The Forbidden Fruit Syndrome

Reading:  Romans 7:7-12
    
    As Paul discusses the experience of Jews under the Law of Moses, he mentions that “our sinful passions” were “aroused by the law”(Rom 7:5).  How does that work?  Does it mean that a law God gave was evil?  “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’”(Rom 7:7).  The Law of Moses is not sin, but it does define and identify sin.  It tells us where God has drawn the lines and warns us of what will happen when we cross them.   

    But the Law also had a counterintuitive effect:  “But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness”(Rom 7:8).  And again, “sin seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me”(Rom 7:11).  Paul describes an innocent young Jewish boy (Rom 7:9) who learns that covetousness is wrong.  He begins to be curious about it.  Rather than helping him resist sin, the Law tells him what sin is and exactly how to commit it.  The forbidden fruit intrigues him.  Sin he might have avoided springs to life through the Law which forbids it.  This does not mean the Law is the problem; it means that we are the problem.  Paul becomes a sinner, yet “the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good”(Rom 7:12).  The Law has created a problem which he needs more than the Law to escape.

    The forbidden appeals to us.  It draws our attention, ignites our curiosity, and leads us to question why it is forbidden.  Like Eve in the garden, we look longingly at what we cannot have—“good for food,” “a delight to the eyes,” “desired to make one wise”(Gen 3:6).  We convince ourselves it is the answer to our problems.  But the problem is not with God or his laws; the problem is with us.  Law only points us to the need for something beyond law to save us.

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One Thing to Think About:  Why are we attracted to what is forbidden?

One Thing to Pray For:  Courage to trust and obey Jesus’ instructions
 

Death and Freedom

Reading:  Romans 7:1-6
    
    Paul has been stressing that in our baptism we died to sin (Rom 6:11) so that we no longer live in it.  Here he wants to also say that we have died to the Law of Moses—and are now free to follow Jesus without the Law.  “Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives?”(Rom 7:1).  Commitment to law ends when the person dies.  He illustrates by using marriage, which severs the bond between people and makes the surviving mate “free from that law” and able to remarry (Rom 7:3).  Death sets the person free.  “Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God”(Rom 7:4).  When we die to sin, we also die to the Law and can now be “married” to Jesus.  Death sets us free.

    But why does dying to sin also mean dying to the Law?  “For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death”(Rom 7:5).  Rather than setting us free, the Law of Moses only worked to arouse our sinful passions (see Rom 7:7-8).  So the Law ironically led us deeper into sin.  “But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code”(Rom 7:6).  The Law became the tool by which sin “held us captive”(Rom 7:6, see 6:17, 20), but “now we are released.”  When Jesus died—and we died with him—that death set us free.

    All of this may seem strange and obscure to people who have never lived under Moses’ Law.  Paul’s point is that we need more than a set of rules to show us how to live.  All rules do is show us our failings and need for help.  Yet to set us free from our sin, we needed someone to die.  Jesus died for us and we died with him.  Now we are free to live for God, empowered by his grace and strength, ready to bear the good fruit he wants to produce in us.

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One Thing to Think About:  Why did God want to give us more than a new set of rules? 

One Thing to Pray For:  Gratitude for Jesus’ death that liberates and transforms me
 

Fruit

Reading:  Romans 6:20-23
    
    Bible authors often use the metaphor of fruit to describe the feelings and outcomes our lifestyle produces.  Paul does here to remind us of how desperate our slavery to sin was.  “For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.  But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed?  For the end of those things is death”(Rom 6:20-21).  Think back to that time.  What good did our lifestyle bring?  What benefits did we receive from it?  What did we do that we could be proud of?  Our lives of sin, when viewed properly, only produce regret, embarrassment, anger, and disappointment.  Even our good deeds are crowded out by our selfishness and stubbornness.  This is poor fruit.

    Now that we serve Jesus, all that has changed.  “But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life”(Rom 6:22).  The fruit now is “sanctification”—increased separation from the world and our former life.  We grow to be more like God as we anticipate the eternal life we will inherit.  We see the good in our lifestyle—the patience, peace, and joy it produces.  We can be proud (in the positive way) of the person we are becoming, knowing that it is the fruit of God’s work within us.  We have hope for tomorrow and joy in any circumstance.  “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”(Rom 6:23).  We are now on a path that leads to life.  This is good fruit.  

    Today we would call fruit the “bottom line.”  It is a way of evaluating our course of life by filtering out all the talk and appearances and zeroing in on what it produces.  Because Christians have experienced sin, we know its destructive properties firsthand.  Now we have also experienced the good things God has to offer.  Why would we go back to sin?  Why would we continue in it?  We press on to higher things, bearing good fruit along the way.

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One Thing to Think About:  What fruit have I seen in my life from serving God? 

One Thing to Pray For:  God’s sanctification and its ultimate goal, eternal life
 

Under New Management

Reading:  Romans 6:12-19
    
    Since we have died to sin through Jesus’ sacrifice, we guard against lapsing into our old slavery to sin.  “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions…For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace”(Rom 6:12, 14).  Jesus has broken the hold sin had over us (Rom 6:18), but we can allow sin to take over and dominate us once more.  We have experienced that slavery and the despair it produces; Paul wants us not to go back to slavery.  You are under new management; now live like it!  

     Especially does Paul warn that sin is not something we dip our toes in without consequence.  Sin enslaves.  “Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?”(Rom 6:16).  Whatever we may say, we become slaves of the one we actually obey.  Our lives speak louder than our words.  So even though we call ourselves Christians, if we return to our lives of sin, we become slaves again.  “For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification”(Rom 6:19).  Jesus has set you free; now live like it! 

    Christians must think of ourselves as under new management.  Jesus is in charge of my life now.  If I return to that life of sin—if I let sin reign again—if I use my body to obey sin—then I will be enslaved again.  All the progress Jesus has made for me will be brought to nothing.  Paul is arguing that we do not need the Law of Moses to ensure we live righteously (Rom 6:15); we simply need to remember our slavery, what it cost to free us, and whom we now serve.  You belong to Jesus; now live like it!

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One Thing to Think About:  How might I “let sin reign in my mortal body”? 

One Thing to Pray For:  Praise to God for setting me free from my sins and their consequences