LifeWay Explore the Bible Series for October 9: It’s all about victory

I suspect that, like me, you know some people who feel they have no need for church or religion because they view themselves as “good people.” They see no need for a Savior because they have done nothing from which they need to be saved. They are moral people, good neighbors, patriotic citizens, hard-working, tax-paying Americans. They assume that because they are good, God must be on their side.

If you try to talk to them about church, religion or salvation, you quickly find they feel strongly that salvation is what other people need. If you know such people, or ever have been tempted to be such a person yourself, then the passage this week is for you.

In it, the Apostle Paul reveals the frightening danger of thinking ourselves good even as he hints at the glorious and undeserved salvation God offers through Jesus.
    
Romans 7 begins with a discussion about the Old Testament law. Continuing his theme from chapter 6, Paul reminds us we have died in Christ, and one of the implications of that death is we have died to the law (v. 4). He then makes the curious comment that “when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies” (v. 5). That the law would arouse sinful passions in a person is not the way most Jews in the first century would have understood the law.

Such a statement also challenges the modern assumption that the purpose of the law was to bring salvation by means of obedience. I imagine a quick poll of your class members will reveal that when they think about the Old Testament law, this is not the function they associate with it!
    
On the contrary, that the law would somehow arouse sinful passions within a person raises the question of verse 7: “What shall we say then? Is the law sin?” But Paul is emphatic that it is not. Instead, the law is “holy, righteous, and good” (v. 12). It has fulfilled its God-given purpose of helping us recognize sin as sin (v. 13).

In other words, the law is a corrective to the very human problem of viewing ourselves as good and, therefore, as without need for God or his salvation. We may think ourselves good, but if we honestly compare ourselves to God’s standard, we will find we have failed. Even worse, we will find we cannot help ourselves.

Knowing the law, we agree it is ideal (v. 16), but we still find ourselves doing unlawful things (v. 15), and so our sinful nature is revealed (vv. 17-18). “What a wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” Paul asks (v. 24).
    
Before we answer that question, let us allow this truth to place our lives under its sometimes uncomfortable spotlight. Many people assume all God desires is that people be good, and the law simply is a tool to help us be good. Yet here we find the the law was not designed to help us be good, but to help us belong to God in such a way that we might live for God’s purposes.

Have you ever considered God might have a plan for you that involves more than simply being good? Have you ever considered the commands of the Bible might have some deeper purpose than simply helping us be nice or kind or moral? Have you ever considered that morality might be a means to some end and not an end in itself?

If this is true, then we might be moral, but still miss the mark. We might live a good life, but for the wrong reason. We might be nice people, and then discover there is more to life than nice. Romans 7 forces us to wrestle with the idea of a purpose larger than law-abiding morality even as it points out our inability to attain God’s ideal.
    
Such an agonizing position of knowing the good we want to do but being unable to do it throws us upon God’s grace. The law was meant for salvation—just not the way so many assume. The law does not lead us to salvation through our perfect obedience. Instead, the law leads us to salvation by illuminating our sinful natures and our desperate need for God. By naming wrongs and providing the opportunity for sin to awaken sinful passions within us, the law fulfills its divine purpose, proving itself to be holy, righteous, and good. It is an instrument for salvation, but it is not the ultimate means of salvation.

Salvation does not come through any law-abiding righteousness on our part but “through Jesus Christ our Lord” (v. 25). In his death and resurrection, he has atoned for the penalty of our law-breaking sinfulness and has further broken the power of that system over us (v. 4).

Through the death and resurrection of Christ, we belong not to sin and the law that helps us recognize it, but to God. By this grace we are united to a goodness greater than morality, and by this grace alone do we find victory over our sinful and rebellious natures. Have you experienced the victory of Christ that leads to a life that bears fruit to God?