Defined By Who You Are In Christ

Romans 7

If a marriage must be based on laws instead of love, it is going to make for an unhappy home.

We learn from The Apostle Paul and the pages he penned as Romans 7 that Christians or followers of Christ are not under the law, however, this does not give them a license to become outlaws.

From chapter 6, know that Christ followers have new life in Jesus, and a new Master in Him, and we also have a new love. We are married to Christ.

“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? 2 For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. 3 Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress. 4 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. 5 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. 6 But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.”Romans 7:1–6 (ESV)

If the law cannot change us or control us, what good is it? Its purpose is to reveal sin, and it does its job well (v. 7).

“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.” Romans 7:7 (ESV)

Paul learned that the law even aroused evil desires in him. If something as holy as God’s law can arouse sinful desires, what wicked sinners we must really be!

The law in itself is not evil but “holy and right and good” according to verse 12:
• It is holy because it came from God.
• It is right because it justly condemns the sinner.
• It is good because it leads the sinner to Christ.

The law is ineffective in defeating sin only because of the weakness of fallen humanity
What we know is the law brings out the worst in us, but love brings out the best in us. The Holy Spirit within us helps us to do what God wants us to do and to be what God wants us to be. The Holy Spirit helps to bear much fruit.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. Galatians 5:22–26 (ESV)

We learn from the last half of Romans 7 that “evil is with me; it doesn’t define me.

“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. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.” Romans 7:22–25 (ESV)

Paul is not excusing our sin. He is reminding us that our true identity is no longer found in our actions, even if we keep sinning.”

“For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.” Romans 7:22–25 (ESV)

“When sin wants me to define myself by what I’ve done wrong, I remember that God defines me by who I am in Christ.” (Dr. Tony Evans)

Today, be reminded that your love relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ is alive and exciting, and you will have righteousness instead of wretchedness when you continue to seek His Word/His law, seek His ways, and lean on the wisdom of the Holy Spirit.

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