Sermon 11: Romans 7

Romans 7:1-6 

"Know ye not, brethren (for I speak to them that know the law), how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he lives?  For a woman, which hath, a husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he lives; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.  So then if, while her husband lives, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.  Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.  For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sin, which were by the law, did work in our bodies to bring forth fruit unto death.  But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter."

  The ground covered by this seventh chapter is really gone over twice.  The first part lays the broad facts before us; the latter part goes into the details and particulars of what is given in the beginning.

  In the six verses that have been read, there is given us an illustration and the application.  The illustration is easily understood.  The simple fact of marriage is taken.  A woman having a husband is bound to that husband so long as he liveth.  By what is she bound?  By the law.  It is contrary to the law for her to have two husbands at the same time; but if the first husband be dead, the same law will allow her to marry another man.  This is but a plain illustration, and if it is kept in mind throughout the study of the chapter, it will be a great help to us in understanding it.

  There is no need of any argument in this chapter for the perpetuity of the law.  That is not the question under consideration.  The apostle is not making a special argument to prove that the law is not abolished.  His argument starts from that point as one already settled, and shows the practical working of the law in individual cases.  He brings it right home to the hearts of men that they are under the law; and if they are under it, how can it be abolished?  He urges its claims upon the hearts of men, and by the Spirit of God they feel its working power upon them, and therefore know that it is not abolished.