Part 2 of the
last post to you...
Romans 7:7, Paul says something good about the law - that it told him what sin was. Of course, this, despite overly simplistic statements to the contrary, does not require use to believe the Law remains in force - I can say something good about a former NFL player who is now retired.
But notice the pattern: In verse 6, Paul tells us we no longer serve the law. Yet in verse 7 and again in 12 he lauds the Law.
My point is this: Romans 7 establishes a clear precedent where Paul affirms the goodness of the law while also affirming its time is over. This, I believes, gives us more justification for thinking that in 3:31, he is doing the same thing - applauding the law, recognizing its important role in God's plan, while also believing is now retired. From chapter 7 we know that Paul has good things to say about the law and we also know he believes it is in the past. These things are not contradictory.
Again, look at the pattern in chapter 3 - Paul has just said that justification has nothing to do with Law. Even if, as I believe to be the case, Paul thinks the law is retired, he is highly motivated to dispel the notion that he is saying the law was irrelevant - hence he "upholds" or "establishes" the law.
This was already addressed elsewhere your taking a single scripture from it's contexts around
Romans 6:1-23;
Romans 7:1-25 and
Romans 8:1-13 and trying to apply an interpretation to fit a teaching of lawlessness (without law) which is not biblical or supported in the scriptures. There is no where in the entire bible that teaches that God's 10 commandments are abolished. It is a teaching that has Paul in contradiction with Paul when he says faith does not abolish Gods' law it establishes Gods' law in
Romans 3:31 or that circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing but the keeping of the commandments of God in
1 Corinthians 7:19 or elsewhere when Paul shows that we love our neighbor as ourselves by being obedient to those commandments from Gods' law that show us how we love our fellow man in
Romans 13:8-10.
Paul also shows in
Romans 8:1-4 that the righteousness (moral right doing -
Psalms 119:172) of the law is fulfilled in us as we walk not in the flesh but in Gods' Spirit (see also
Galatians 5:16). Paul does not teach a teaching of lawlessness or that Gods' 10 commandments are abolished anywhere in the bible. He teaches they are established by faith and are a part of Gods 'new covenant promise *
Hebrews 8:10-12 from
Jeremiah 31:31-36 and
Ezekiel 36:24-27. It is Paul not me that says that God's law is holy, just and good in
Romans 7:12 and that it is God's law that gives us the knowledge of what sin is when broken that is defined as breaking Gods' law in
Romans 3:20 and
Romans 7:7 and that the purpose of Gods' law is to show us we are all sinners in need of Gods' grace that we can receive through faith as shown in
Romans 2:4-29 to
Romans 3:1-23 and that faith does not abolish Gods' law, but establishes Gods' law in the lives of all those who believe what Gods' Word says.
Your interpretation of a single scripture in
Romans 7:6 taken away from it's context to apply a meaning that Gods 10 commandments have been abolished has Paul in contradiction with Paul and the rest of the bible. Here let's prove this and add all the context back in first by looking at the previous verse your disregarding. We can have a look at the whole chapter if your interpreted and their connection with
Romans 6:1-23 through to
Romans 7:1-25 and
Romans 8:1-13 in another post if your interested that says the same thing that is being shared with you here, but let's simply start with the immediate scripture context your disregarding again if it might be helpful.
Romans 7:1-7 is building on what Paul was talking about in
Romans 6:1-23 where he contrasts baptism and the death of the old man of sin or dying to our sinful nature and walking in newness of life.
Romans 8:1-13 is building on both
Romans 6 and
Romans 7 contrasting walking in the Spirit and not in the old man of the flesh that has died so that we can be married to another in Christ. This is all context your disregarding that does not agree with your interpretation of
Romans 7:6.
Take a look...
Romans 7:1-7
[1], 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 liveth?
[2], For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.
[3], So then if, while her husband liveth, 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.
[4], 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.
[5], For when we were in the
FLESH <
G4561 Carnal mind or sinful human nature>,
the motions of SINS, which were by the law,
did work in our members to bring forth fruit to death.
[6], But now, by dying
to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.
[7], What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay,
I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust,3 except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.
FROM THE SCRIPTURES ABOVE
- Paul is speaking to those who understand the law - Romans 7:1
- The law has dominion over a man as long as we live - Romans 7:1
- Example of marriage and a woman being bound to her husband as long as she lives - Romans 7:2
- If the husband dies then she is free to marry another - Romans 7:2-3
- We are to become dead to the law (of our first husband) by the body of Christ - Romans 7:2-4
- For when we were in the flesh (first husband sinful nature) the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death - Romans 7:5
- We are to die to what has bound us which is sin - Romans 7:5-6
- Dying to that which has bound us (sin and death) we can serve in newness of life of the Spirit - Romans 7:6 compare Galatians 5:16 with Romans 8:1-4 and Romans 8:13.
- It is through the law of God we have the knowledge of what sin is - Romans 7:7
The context your disregarding here is that Paul is talking to those who know the law and is saying that before we come to Christ we (those who know the law) are married to the law of sin and death which is working in our members. That is Gods' law reveals sin to us and gives us the knowledge of what sin is when broken. This first husband (sinful nature) must die before we can be married to Christ to walk in His Spirit in newness of life. This agrees with what Paul is talking about already in
Romans 6:1-23 where he is talking about the true meaning of "baptism" and dying to the old man of sin so we can walk in newness of life.
Romans 6:1-7
[1], What shall we say then?
Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
[2],
God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? [3], Know you not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
[4],
Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
[5], For
if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:
[6],
Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that from now on we should not serve sin.
[7],
For he that is dead is freed from sin.
[8], Now
if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:
[9], Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dies no more; death has no more dominion over him.
[10], For in that he died, he died to sin once: but in that he lives, he lives to God.
[11],
Likewise reckon you also yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
[12],
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in the lusts thereof.
[13], Neither yield you your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin: but
yield yourselves to God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
[14], For sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under the law, but under grace.
[15], What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
[16],
Know you not, that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are to whom you obey; whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness?
[17], But God be thanked, that
you were the servants of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.
[18],
Being then made free from sin, you became the servants of righteousness.
FROM THE SCRIPTURES ABOVE
- We are not to continue in sin - Romans 6:1-2
- We are to be dead to sin - Romans 6:2
- We baptized into Christs death - Romans 6:3
- We are buried into Christs death through baptism - Romans 6:4
- We are to walk in newness of life - Romans 6:4-5
- Our old man of sin and death is crucified with Christ - Romans 6:6
- Our old man of sin and death is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that from now on we should not serve sin - Romans 6:6
- Our old man of sin and death is dead in Christ so we can be freed from sin - Romans 6:6-7
- Our old man of sin and death is dead with Christ so that we can live with Christ (married to another - Romans 7:1-7) - Romans 6:8
- We are to reckon ourselves dead indeed to sin, but alive to God through Jesus - Romans 6:11
- We are not to let sin (breaking God's law) reign in our bodies any longer - Romans 6:12
- We are to yield ourselves to God as those being alive from the dead - Romans 6:13
- Sin (breaking Gods' law) is no longer to have dominion over us - Romans 6:14
- We are made free from sin to become servants of right doing - Romans 6:18
................
CONCLUSION: It is that which binds us that we are released from
which is sin that we are to die to not the law so that we can be married to Christ and walk in His Spirit. We are released from the condemnation of sin and death through faith in Gods' Word and by walking in His Spirit in newness of life (
Romans 8:1-4). So nope the single scripture you have
taken out of it's context in
Romans 7:6 as shown above does
not teach anywhere that Gods' 10 commandments are abolished. It is teaching that we must be released from the law of sin (breaking God's law) and death that has bound us in order to be married to another (Christ) to walk in newness of life not of the letter but of the Spirit of God.
May God bless you as you receive his Words of correction.
