THE KING’S BUSINESS
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claims. So Paul comes around back to his starting point, “that the law hath dominion over a man for so long a time as he liveth” and no longer. But the believer died in Christ’s death, so the law has absolutely no claim upon the believer (cf. Col. 2:14- 16). Is the believer then under no obliga tion whatever now? Oh, yes, he is under obligation, but it is not to the law that he is under obligation. The law is the old husband from whom the believer is set free by his death, but he is under a higher and holier obligation, an obligation to the new husband, i. e. Christ, (v. 4, 1 Cor. 9:21, R. V .; Gal. 6:2). It is very easy at this point to glide oyer into antinomianism and say that the believer being made free from the law is under no moral obligation what ever. But Paul carefully and thoroughly guards this point. The believer set free from the old husband, is “joined to another” “even to him who was raised from the dead,” i. e., the risen Christ. Through union with this risen Christ we “bring forth fruit unto God.” Here, then, is the whole secret of fruit unto God, union with the risen Christ. In this new union it is true we serve, but it is “not in the old ness of the letter” (i. e. in the old way of merfe external obedience to a command written outside of us), but “in newness of the Spirit” (i. e. in a new way that arises from the Spirit’s working and power within us, writing God’s commandment upon Our hearts, (cf. Jer.' 31:33; 2 Cor. 3:3-6). Saturday, July 7 . Rom. 7 : 7 - 13 . Verses 7 to 26 of this chapter form a parenthesis. Paul steps aside from his main argument to answer a question, “Is the law sin?” ■This question is naturally suggested by 1 what Paul has said about the believer’s deliverance from the law. In answering this question, while emphasizing the excellence of the law in itself, Paul also emphasizes the utter impotence of the law to save. Verses 7-25 are a parenthesis: if verses 7-25 had been omitted altogether, the thought!would have moved on with
perfect smoothness, as chapter 8 :1 would follow the thought without a break after chapter 7:6. If Paul had thus written, we would also have been saved much bitter theological controversy, but at the same time would have missed much precious teaching. The purpose of this passage is to show the utter impotence of the law to save any one. The law simply brings the knowledge of sin (v. 7-11). This passage is not intended to describe man’s failure under the Spirit. The Spirit is never once mentioned in the passage, neither is Christ once mentioned, but ji the pronoun “I” abounds. “I” occurs twenty-seven times. Victory under the Spirit’s power is seen in chapter 8 . Verses 7-24 (and v. 5 which suggests vs. 7-24) show what the law can do. Chapter 8 shdws what the Spirit can do. The question is often asked, Do these verses 7-24 describe the regenerate man? To ask this question is to lose sight of the main issue, the contrast of chapter 7 :7-24 and chapter 8 is not so much the contrast between an unregenerate man and a regenerate man, as the contrast between what the law without does and what the Spirit within does (cf. 8 : 3 , 4 ). But it may be safely said that chapter 7:7-24 does not describe a normal Chris tian experience, the experience of one living in the Spirit. The normal Chris tian experience is found in chapter 8 . Paul tells us how he was getting on with a quiet conscience, “alive” in comparison with what followed, until he ran up against the law. But when the law met him, with the precepts he Could not keep, sin, which was already in his heart, but not known as sin (in a state, of comparative death) came tq füll life and he died. It was not the law that “slew” him but sin finding a point of attack from the law slew him. The fault was not with the law, “the law is holy, and ,the commandment holy and righteous and good.” This good law did not become death unto him, but sin, in order that its real nature might be brought to .light wrought death in him through that which was in itself good. We should
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