We have been looking at choices.  How we can respond to God’s grace - the relevancy of the gospel - the choices we can make to respond to God’s grace in the real time of our lives.  This morning we are at Romans 7:1.

Getting our grey matter thinking about choices.  Scrolling down the headlines online of on our tech device of choice - given a choice which these actual headlines would you click on?

“U.S. jets intercept Russian planes” or “Jeb Bush’s existential crisis.”

“Tour boat sinks; at least 5 die” or “Some veggie hot dogs have meat”

“Deadly quake hits southern Asia” or “GOP tries to make sense of Trump”

“Poll:  No debate boost for Clinton” or “Famous artists and their cats.”

“All about the new Star Wars” or “The Hunger Games:  Mockingjay - Part 2’:  Exclusive photos”

Every day we’re confronted with choices.  Some more serious than others.  Behind every choice we make is one basic bottom line choice.  Which is what?  To choose to keep focused away from God or to turn towards God.

In what we looked at in chapter 6 - we’ve seen that God - is gracious to us - favoring us even though we don’t deserve God’s favor - but God is gracious to us - by even giving us the choice to turn towards Him.

Which is a no brainer.  Turning towards God should be a no brainer choice for us.  In chapter 6 - Paul asked the question:  If we know and experience God’s grace how could we ever even think about turning away from God? 

And yet - if we’re honest with ourselves - we do.  We do turn away from God.  We struggle with sin in our lives.  We fail at living life God’s way.  More often we experience guilt and shame and doubt - sorrow and despair.

What we’re coming to - here in chapter 7 - is a question that Paul asks.  Can the law help us with our sin?  Can God’s law help us to live life as God has created life to be lived?  Living life in His grace and power?

Two groups.  White and gold.  Let’s read these verses together and then we’ll go back and unpack.

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?  For a married woman is bound by the law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage.

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 the law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.

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.  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.

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.

What then shall we say?  That 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.” 

But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness.  For apart from the law, sin lies dead.  I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died.

The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.  For sin, seizing and opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.  So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

Did that which is good, then, bring death to me?  By no means!  It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.

Let’s unpack.  Verses 1 to 6 focus on The Jurisdiction of The law.

Verse 1:  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? 

To help us know what we’re suppose to know about the law we have a short quiz. 

Question #1:  If Nick has 1 goat and Maria has 9, how soon will they marry?  Maybe you recognize this one from My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

Answer:  10 months.

Next question:  If a passenger train leaves New York heading west at 80 mph., and a freight train leaves Chicago heading east at 40 mph., what color is the engine of the north bound train?

Answer:  Cadmium orange

Final question:  What is the next number in this sequence:  2,4,6,27,6,10,32?

Answer:  97.3

There is no logical way - practically - or by any other means way - to arrive at those answers.  If you’re feeling a tad frustrated by that you’re starting to latch on to what Paul is getting at here about the law.

Try to imagine God - in all of His Holiness - awesomeness - righteousness - sinlessness - absolute divine separation from anything that’s tainted with sin - God who is in nature and essence above and beyond any of us.  If it were possible for us to go there - to let our minds go even beyond everything we can imagine about God - and yet God is way beyond even any of that.  That absolute unimaginable standard of God’s holiness is Law - with a capital “L”.

Law - lower case “l” - is what Paul is writing about here.  The law that Paul writes that his Hebrew brethren know.  It’s what they knew from history.  Since the fall of Adam.  What was a part of their lives since God called Abraham out of Ur - since God etched His Ten Commandments on to stone tablets up on Mount Sinai - God continually communicating with His people - communicating Who He is and what it means to live in a righteous - holy - relationship with Him.

God laying all that out for His people is “law” with a small “l”.  What we have preserved for us on paper or bytes and bits.  What that life looks like.  Here’s how to live rightly before God.

Paul writes - in Romans 3:23 - writes - for all - each one of us - all of humanity except for Jesus - for all have sinned and - what?  fall short - never even coming close to reaching - the glory of God - God’s absolute standard of God’s holiness and the requirement of living with that kind of holiness.

Our sin separates us from God - His glory - the absolute reality of who He is.

The law that Paul’s brethren knew - verse 1 - they knew by way of bloody sacrifices - dismembering and burning animals - an ongoing realization of transferring guilt.  Rituals and regulations.  Endlessly trying to obey God and yet always falling short.

That’s why the quiz with questions and impossible answers.  Because the law - bottom line - the law is a question with an impossible - extremely frustrating - answer.  Here are the instructions of what it means to live in relationship with the Holy God - here’s the standard.  Question:  Can you live up to God’s standard?  Answer:  No.  It’s impossible.

The law is like taking a shower with our raincoat on.  It never solves the underlying problem of our sin.

Paul writes - in verse 1 - that the law is “binding on a person.”  This impossible standard - the law - has jurisdiction - mastery - authority - has had jurisdiction over every human since Adam - including us.  We’re trapped by it - bound by it - compelled to obey it - to seek to live up to it - to comply to its requirements - and yet always in futility - because we can never accomplish what it asks of us - which is to be untainted by sin holy as God Himself is holy.

Going on - verse 2.  Paul’s illustration of what it means to be bound by the law.

Verse 2:  For a married woman is bound by the law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage.  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 the law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.

The people who study these things tell us that - at some point in their marriage - about 70% of all spouses contemplate the untimely death of their spouse - an unfortunate accident with the car - a freak electrical short in the bathtub - semi-accidental poisoning.

A wife could say, “I’m a different person today.  I’ve evolved and Cro-Magnon man here hasn’t.”  Or... “This isn’t what I signed up for.  And now I’m stuck with Bozo the Clown who has the emotional maturity of a gnat.”

The law is indifferent to the feelings of the women - inflexible - uncaring - unchangeable. 

She can rationalize all she wants.  She can try living in adultery.  But the reality is pretty clear.  Even if she’s living with another man - trying to ignore the reality of the first marriage - claiming to be married to the second - trying to ignore the reality of the law - she’s still bound - by the law - to the first husband.

So many people today - consciously or unconsciously - try to ignore the reality of God - His holiness - and His requirements of us.  If we just ignore Him maybe He’ll go away.  Or we want a God who’s all love without the justice - all that judgment and wrath.  God is like whatever I want him or her to be like.  God should give me better karma based on my efforts to do what I think is the right way to live.

That’s a delusion - a deception - that comes straight from the pit of hell.

Someone here posted this:  “Chocolate comes from cocoa, which is a tree.  That makes it a plant.  Chocolate is salad.”  Say what you want.  It doesn’t change reality.

Death is the only thing that releases this woman from being bound by the law to her marriage with her husband.  Until her husband dies she’s bound to him - life with him.  But, when he dies, she’s released.  He has no more say over who she marries - where she can go - what she can do.  Because - well... He’s dead.  And, the requirements of the law have been fulfilled.

The same is true of us - spiritually.  The law is inflexible - uncaring - unchangeable - a standard of holiness - of conduct - of living - that we cannot live up to - but that we’re bound to unless released by death.

Going on in verse 4 - verses 4 to 6 - focus on our release - what it means to be free from the law. 

Verse 4:  Likewise - because death is the only release from the requirements of the law - 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. 

“You also” - that’s us - followers of Jesus Christ - Paul’s brethren and sistren.  In Paul’s illustration the women is God’s people - us.  Do you see that?  She is “you also” - us.

Hang on to something...

In Paul’s illustration the first husband represents... Adam.  Adam got us into this.  Since the day Adam sinned - people have sinned.  We’re really good at sinning - proficient at it - skilled.  Yes?

We’re joined to Adam - as humans - as fellow sinners - as failures at living up to God’s holy standard - the law.  Unless Adam dies - in a spiritual sense - we’re stuck futilely trying to succeed at the impossible.

Jesus - born in Bethlehem - takes on the role of the first husband... Adam - who got us into this mess.  Jesus takes on the role of the husband - the place of humanity - each one of us who’ve fallen short - stumbled around in our own sin.  On the cross takes on all of our sin - and dies - in our place - His death ending the jurisdiction of the law over us. 

Still together?

In Paul’s illustration - our second husband is... Jesus - risen from death.  Because Jesus is alive the believer in Jesus - the one who’s trusting Him as their Savior from this unholy marriage with Adam - because Jesus is alive we can be joined to Him - to live life with Him - in His victory over death - in the fruitfulness of all that that life with Him can be.

Verse 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.

Romans 6:23 - the wages of sin - what we earn by sinning - is what? Death.  Fail at fulfilling the law - which is impossible to fulfill - fail and you die - now and forever - eternal punishment - eternal separation from God.

Verse 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.

Do you remember the movie Jaws?  Jaws 2 - Jaws 3-D, Jaws - The Force Awakens.  There’s a scene in the first Jaws movie where Police Chief Martin Brody gets his first look at this terrifying great white shark - turns to the captain of the boat and says, “We’re gonna need a bigger boat.”

There’s no way to deal with sin living according to the law.  According to the law we’re toast.  But Jesus is that bigger boat.  God - by His grace - saving us from the jurisdiction of the law - joining us to a totally different life - where God Himself meets the requirements for righteousness - a life empowered and led by the Spirit.

The bottom line on the law’s jurisdiction for those who’ve trusted Jesus as their Savior is our release:  Meaning newness of life in Christ.

Verses 7 to 13 focus on The Purpose of the Law.

Verse 7:  What then shall we say?  That law is sin?  By no means!   

Let’s grab Paul’s question.  If the law is something that we need God - by His grace - to release us from - then maybe the law is sinful?  Maybe the law is the problem.  We’ve got newness of life in Christ.  Maybe we should just jettison the law as some kind of Old Testament works thing and just live by grace.  What possible purpose could the sinful law have in the life of the believer?  That’s all Old Testament stuff.

Paul’s answer, “By no means!”  No way.  Wrong line of thinking.

What then shall we say?  That law is sin?  By no means!  Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin.

Do you see where Paul is going here?  The law isn’t sin.  The law helps us to know sin.

For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”  But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment - think The Ten Commandments - lower case “l” - especially number 10 - “You shall not covet.”  But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness.  For apart from the law, sin lies dead.

One major purpose of the law is to clarify sin.  Try that with me, “To clarify sin.”

A few years back (2009) - at the Liberty Bowl in Memphis, Tennessee - at half-time the University of Kentucky Wildcats were loosing badly to the East Carolina Pirates - 16 to 3 - in what was becoming a very lopsided game that unranked Kentucky was not favored to win.  Probably they were going to get creamed. 

At half-time - down 16 to 3 - as Kentucky was walking off the field heading to the locker room - a reporter stuck a microphone in the face of the Kentucky coach - Rich Brooks.

The reporter asked, “What are you going to tell your defense to get them going in the second half?”  Answer:  “Tackle.”

Reporter:  “What are you going to tell your offense to get them back in the game?”  Answer:  “Score.”

Kentucky came back to win 25 to 19.  Starting with a 99 yard second half kick-off return.

That’s clarity.  Cutting through all the distractions - bottom line - boom - this is it.  That’s what the law does.  The law is God clarifying what it means to live in relationship with Him.

Notice that Paul doesn’t just arbitrarily pick a number between 1 and 10 and happens to choose commandment number 10.  Commandment number 10 - “You shall not covet” - is the only commandment of the ten that can be broken totally in our heart.

That’s in tune with Jesus.  Right?  When Jesus is teaching about the law in the Sermon on the Mount - Jesus took the law to a whole other level.

The so-called self-proclaimed “righteous” people of Jesus’ day we’re going down a check list of commandments they were keeping.  “You shall not murder.”  They said, “Right.  Got that one.  I haven’t murdered anyone.  So I’m okay with God.”

Then Jesus said that anyone who’s angry with his brother or calls him a fool is guilty of murder.  Emphasis - not going down a list of outward things to do to be right with God - but emphasis on what’s really going on in our hearts.

The commandment said, “You shall not commit adultery.”  They said, “Right.  Got that one.  I haven’t had sex outside of marriage.  So I’m okay with God.”

Then Jesus said that anyone lusting after a woman was guilty of adultery.  Emphasis on what goes on in our heart.

Point being that the self-righteous of Jesus’ day were zealous in keeping the law but they’d missed the point.  The law is the means not the - what?  the end.  The law doesn’t make us right with God.  It can’t.  Wrong jurisdiction.  The law clarifies where we are at the heart level in our relationship with God.

Say your doctor puts you on a strict diet.  He gives you list of what you can and can’t eat.  The list is law - what it means to stay on the diet - to eat rightly.

Then one day you walk into Jantz’s.  After a lunch of salad without dressing - yummy lettuce and a few tomatoes - you just happen to glance at the list of desserts.  Low and behold not one of those desserts is on the list of eat and don’t eat that your doctor gave you.  Which means you can eat every single one of those desserts and be totally obedient to the law of the diet.

Kinda misses the point.  Doesn’t it?

For so many Christians life becomes a series of things we do and don’t do.  Don’t play cards.  Don’t cuss.  Doing what we can to live God’s way and still knowing - down deep - that we fall short.  That something is critically wrong.

When we’re living by what we do - knowing as Israel knew - that we all fall short - life before God leads to a life of legalism and guilt and doubt and depression and discouragement and defeat and pain and incrimination and woundedness.  We begin to fear God - not an awe and respect kind of fear - but fear of judgment.

We begin to fear each other.  Hypocritically holding each other accountable for behavior that we have no business holding each other accountable for.

Living that way we’re getting bound up in what God’s released us from in Jesus Christ.  All that keeps us back from what God really wants to do in our hearts - to enable us to live in newness of life with Him.

Sometimes we’d like God to text us to tell us what to do - just give us the do’s and don’ts that we can pick and choose from.  Ask God for guidance and tweet - there it is - God’s word to us.

But its amazing how if we just paid attention to what God’s already revealed to us how much He’s already revealed to us.  From Genesis to Revelation - timeless principles and examples from the lives of real people living before God.  Specifics such at the Ten Commandments. 

Summaries like:  “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind...  Love your neighbor as yourself.”   (Matthew 22:37-40)

The law - what God gives us from Genesis to Revelation - clarifies where we are in our relationship with God.  And its not a list of external things to do or don’t do that’s the point.  Its God working to show us where our hearts need to be surrendered to Him.

Meaning that when we know what God says is the standard - and we know that we fail at it - we need to choose to run towards God’s grace.  To confess our failure and turn our hearts over to Him.  To die to our own efforts at getting free from what binds us and to be joined to Him.  To seek His healing and solutions and transformation of our lives. 

That’s what so many believers have found for themselves.  If we just read through and meditated and allowed God to speak to us from what He’s already written - and seek to open our hearts to Him - its amazing how He changes us and guides us and empowers us through life.

Point being that the law isn’t about a list of do’s and don’ts.  The law  clarifies where our hearts are not right with God - clarifies where there’s sin in our relationship with God.

Paul’s second purpose for the law comes in verses 9 to 13.  That is to intensify sin. 

Verse 9:  I was once alive apart from the Law - I was living life my way - happy as a clam at a clam bake - ignorant of God’s standard - but when the commandment came - God’s do this to live in a right relationship with Me - sin came alive and I died - suddenly I knew I was falling short and there are serious consequences for my sin.

Verse 10:  The very commandment that promised life - showing us how to live life with God - proved to be death to me - because I couldn’t live up to it - For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me - fooled me into thinking I could live up to its standard - and through it killed me. - because I couldn’t.

Verse 12:  So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.  The law is doing what its suppose to do pointing us to God.  The law isn’t the problem.  My sin is.

Verse 13:  Did that which is good, then, bring death to me?    Does the law cause us to be eternally separated from God in eternal judgment?  May it never be!  It was sin - my sin is what condemns me - It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, - the law clarifies where we fall short and as a result also points to the severe consequences of sin - eternal death - and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.

That last line is the one we need to grab on to.  It helps us to understand what Paul is saying here.  and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.

Imagine 4 guys in a rubber raft floating down a slow moving stream.  Life is but a dream.  A couple of the guys have their fishing poles out - lines trailing along behind them.  They’re sipping sweet tea and eating tortilla strips with guacamole.  Another guy’s leaning back on the side of the raft.  He’s got his hat covering his face.  In the warm air he’s snoring away.

The water is crystal clear - clean.  There’s a slight cooling breeze.  Trees line the banks of the river.  It is a lazy - perfect - idyllic - hypnotic  afternoon.

Are we there?

Guy number 4 has a map.  On that map he sees that around the next bend is a churning rapids leading to a waterfall hundreds of feet high.  Death is around the corner.  He shoves the guy number 3.  “Wake up!”  Nothing happens.  He begins to shout.  “We’ve got to get to shore!”  Nothing happens.  He begins to shove and shout and grab oars.  “We’re gonna die if we don’t get out of here!”

“beyond measure” - verse 13 - is the Greek word “uperbole” which is where we get our English word... hyperbole.  In English it has the idea of exaggeration.  In Greek the idea of excessive - beyond what can be measured - outrageously surpassing any expectation.

God gives us the law because He’s trying to get our attention.  “Wake Up!  Death is coming!  You need to change the direction of your life!”

God shows us our failure - not to discourage us - to pile on despair and hopelessness in our lives - but to show us the urgency of turning towards Him.

Processing all that…

You can lead a horse to water but you can’t… make him drink.  Many of us are like that horse.

God brings us to the stream of living water and we balk at drinking.  God shows us our thirst.  Shows us the stream.  We balk at letting God deal with what’s really going on in our lives.  How many times do we choose not to drink the water of life.

Seemingly we're content to go on living with anger and depression and addiction and despair and bitterness and pride and gluttony - living with self-destructive sinful behavior that’s wounding us and wounding others and wounding the ministry and testimony of the church.  When do we choose to let God deal with reality of what’s going on in our lives?

The law is good because it is absolute - firm - unyielding.  It cannot be bought off with our excuses and compromises with our sin.  It’s not impressed with our efforts to control our lives and keep things together - our self-help programs.

The law relentlessly points out issues in our lives that need to be dealt with.  The law relentlessly points to failure and wounds and struggles and areas of separation between us and God.  The law relentlessly points to where we fall short and mercilessly reveals our inability to deal with and resolve our issues.

Ultimately the law points to our desperate need for God - bringing us to the choice of trying to continue to cope or to make do or to cover-up or to excuse our sin - or to honestly face the reality of where we at and to cry out to God - to turn towards God and trust that He graciously and lovingly can and will deal with our sin - to choose to turn towards God and trust Him to do with us whatever He wills.

God by His grace releases us from the jurisdiction of the law so that the purpose of the law can be applied to our lives.  When we fail - we have the freedom to turn towards God - who desires for us to know newness of life with Him.

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Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®  (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.