Fruit is the key to why we are free.

John Farley
Pastor-Teacher
Wednesday,
December 17, 2014

Fruit is the key
to why we are free.

A Marriage (1-6)
A Murder Mystery
(7-13)
A Monologue (14-25)

Outline of chapter 7

1. Verses 1-6: the marriage.

1. Those who were under the Law were released from that bondage by sharing in the death of Christ;

…so that, joined to the Risen Christ, they bear fruit for God.
ROM 7:1-6.

The key verse is verse 4.
 
As we read along in verse 4, we kept asking the question, WHY?

It takes us on a journey, and the destination is -FRUIT!

Joined to Christ!
 
That is the marriage!

2. Verses 7-13: a murder mystery.

The Law is from God, and is good, but the flesh, faced with this good thing, went from bad to worse!

The flesh revealed itself as the hopeless, wretched thing it really is.

The Law not only cannot make us holy, but also is an obstacle to sanctification.

The Law reveals sin. That is a GOOD thing.

The Law also provokes sin.

Sin worked death in me THROUGH THAT which is good.

Sin did it and made it look like the Law was implicated.

3. Verses 14-25: final argument, and the most convincing one.

The two earlier principles get worked out in an experimental and vivid way.
 

I’ve fought this same battle, and I lost it too - just like he says.
He says it like it is.

He verbalizes what our life would be like, if we were left under the Law to struggle to get holy.

Only through Christ are we delivered from sin’s power, and from the Law that gave it that power.

1. Romans 7 gives a full explanation of the negative effects of the Mosaic Law.

These have been hinted at earlier in the letter. As in ROM 3:19-20, 27-28; 4:13-15; 5:12-14,20-21.

2. Romans 7:1-6 repeats for the law the same points Romans 6 made about sin.

In chapter 6,
the believer has died to sin (verse 2), …

and therefore has been freed from it (verses 7,18, and 22)….

…so that it no longer is master over him (verse 14a)

In ROM 7:1-6,
the believer has been made to die to the law (verse 4)

And has been freed from the law (v. 6)
So that it no longer rules (vs. 1, 6)

3. The bold assertion of Romans 6:14 required further explanation.

Romans 7 is that explanation.

That would have been a provocative statement for Jewish Christians to hear.

…as well as
“God-fearing” Gentiles who had attended the Jewish synagogue and read the Torah.

Death ends a person’s bondage to the law.

One relationship ends with death, and that makes a new relationship possible.

Death ends a relationship and sets us free to enter a new relationship -with the Risen Christ.

We died to our place in Adam, called here “in the flesh”. We are in the Last Adam, Christ Risen!

In Christ we are not at all under the principle of law, and this sets us free to delight in Christ,

and to surrender to the promptings of the Holy Spirit within!

So that we might bring forth fruit unto God.

This can only happen with people who are in the Risen Christ and are indwelt by the Spirit!

GAL 5:17-24 is a wonderful companion passage
to Romans 7:1-6.

FRUIT is the KEY...
 
And LOVE is the KEY FRUIT.