DELIVERED FROM LAW'S RITUALS ALONE?
This raises a good issue. Many people think that being delivered from the Law is restricted to deliverance from the rituals alone. Not true. When we say that we are delivered from all the Law, some immediately think (and Paul knew they would) that we believe the Law is evil. Not so. The Law is good. Nothing is wrong with the Law. The wrong is in us. Only because a spiritual set of rules in the form of a code book does not cause us to react very well in trying to obey it, forcing us to seek freedom from such a set of rules, does not mean the set of rules are wrong.
Sabbath keepers, take note!!
GRACE DID WHAT LAW COULD NOT DO
There is a righteousness which the Law tried to instill within us, but could not.
Paul told Timothy what the "end" or "purpose" of the Law was.
So, Paul continued, God did what the Law could not do.
Paul explained this to Timothy.
So, nobody is saying the Law is not good. It is good. It is just that the Law could not accomplish its purpose in our lives due to the sinful flesh we possess. As good as the Ten Commandments and the Old Covenant Law of living are, we could never experience the righteousness they sought to give to us. We required the same righteousness from another means. That means was God and Grace. And God did it "through Christ."
WANTING TO DO GOOD IS WANTING TO STOP SINNING
Back to Romans 7. We left off in Romans 7 at verse 16.
Paul realized sin caused him to commit sins. You must differentiate between sins and sin. Sins are actions that are bad. Sin is a something that Paul said was in his flesh that caused him to commit sins. Paul wanting to stop committing sins. The evil that he did was committing sins.
James said something very similar:
PAUL WANTED TO STOP LIVING A CERTAIN WAY
So get the picture. Paul wanted to stop a life of doing evil, or committing sins. He watched himself commit sins when he wanted to do good -- he wanted to obey the Law. And he realized that the root of the life of sin was not himself as such, but something in his flesh. The root was sin. Sin made the flesh a problem for Law to instill righteousness in us, since sin was in the flesh.
After careful consideration of the situation (you can tell that Paul really analyzed his predicament), Paul concluded that there was a definite pattern to his dilemma.
And in the midst of such agonizing defeat of wanting to do good, but sinning instead, Paul cried out!
Death was the only answer! But what good would it be to die? One could never hope to do good by experiencing death! One would simply be out of commission to good and evil.
But wait! There was one way! Somebody else had to deliver Paul, for he certainly could not deliver himself. And there was another!
What the Law could not do, God did. Paul was given a Law to obey in order to do good, and to be righteous as a source of that "good-doing". But Paul got nowhere with that Law. The Law could not accomplish its purpose. But God did what the Law could not, by sending His Son.
Paul clearly explained he is talking about committing sins and being delivered from committing sins (living without sinning) when he said his whole search was to stop committing evil things -- sins.
Since death of our bodies would cause us to be free from sin's effects, God had Jesus die in our places on the cross. And though we did not literally die, that death occurred as our deaths. It was a proxy death. It was a vicarious death. Vicarious means it was done for our sakes as though we experienced it. Since the benefit of death is freedom from sin (Romans 6:7), then we are freed from sin now since we died with Christ.
WHY DO I SIN IF I AM FREED FROM SIN?
Now things may get confusing. But hold on! These truths are not fantasies.
You might think, "If I am freed from sin, then why do I sin sometimes?"
The answer is in the fact that we really do not "know" we are dead as we should know it. Notice that was Paul's repeated issue. "Know ye not?" It has not hit us yet, if we are still sinning.
First you have to realize the logic Paul used. Death frees one from sin. And we died with Christ. So we are freed from sin. We might be literally living as we always have, and breathing air, but as far as God is concerned we died with Christ when we first believed. So the same benefit of being free from sin when one literally dies is true for us since we died with Christ. God said so! That is the way God reasons this thing out. That is how He looks at us. And when this "clicks into place" in our hearts and we see it as true, then we have to start applying that and living life based upon that fact.
If we expect to sin, thinking we have to sin, we will sin. We will live life based upon that expectation to sin.
But if we realize that we are dead with Christ since He died as us and we accepted that, then we will realize we are freed from sin. When we KNOW that, we will truly apply that to our lives instead of expecting to sin. How do we apply it?
THE SAME SPIRIT OF RESURRECTION THAT RAISED CHRIST
And here is the great key! Yield yourselves as those alive from the dead, and your bodily members as instruments of righteousness to God.
You might say, "Huh? What does that mean?"
The word "yield" here means to "present". It is the same greek word used in Romans 12:1 when Paul said to "present" your bodies a living sacrifice. When you are convinced that you are dead to sin, then it is easy to see that you are also risen with Christ from the dead. It doesn't matter what you feel like. You are dead and risen again! Go by the Book, and not your feelings!
Then present yourself to God. You are alive and you have the right to receive power from God to live above sin because He said that you are freed from sin due to your death with Christ. So go to Him about it! Say, "God, I'm alive from the dead. You said so! And I believe it! The life of resurrection that Jesus lived was the result of your Spirit of resurrection. And since I am risen with Christ, then the same Spirit that raised up Christ from the dead must now quicken me so that I can live above sin."
And that is exactly what Paul taught in Romans 8. I think the following verse has more to do with resurrection life RIGHT NOW than it does life after death, though it most certainly applies to both. We died once to sin, and when this body falls asleep should Jesus return long after our life spans, God still sees us as having already died once. So He will ensure we continue on forever and "liveth" a life without end.
If you expected to sin, then that was what you had faith for. You actually, without knowing it, yielded to sin when you thought you had to sin. Paul said you presented yourself to sin all the while you expected to sin all your life on occasion, when you did not have to!
We may not have actually, in the physical sense, died and resurrected, but according to God, our faith in Christ caused us to die with Christ and resurrect with Him in every sense of the word. Therefore, since the Spirit raised up Christ, then we have access to resurrection victory Christ had by the same Spirit.
Paul was not throwing our victory ahead to life after death as most people think of it. He said that now we are dead with Christ. There is life after death, but we already are in that category! We died with Christ and we are now living a life after death. We have newness of life. Now we must walk in it. Enjoy all its benefits.
Imagine a humourous make-believe story of ghost who thinks he is still alive and has not died. (The kids enjoy stories of ghosts who can walk through walls and float around.) This ghost doesn't even think to walk through walls since he thinks he is still alive and living people cannot do such things. He can do it, but doesn't know it. So he doesn't present the opportunities to himself.
Well, we need to present ourselves to opportunities in which we can see God's Spirit of resurrection empower us to live above sin. We might not think we are dead to sin, but we are. And like that little ghost, we will not present ourselves to opportunities in which we can enjoy the benefits of resurrection life now.
APPLY THIS TRUTH TO YOUR LIFE
Why do you sin if you are dead to it? The answer is that you expect to sin and you present yourself to it. You may not consciously say, "I am going to let sin rule me today," but it is as good as said. If you believed a little child running at you, ready to kick your leg, had more power than you, and that you could not help yourself from his little kick, then you would be kicked. You may be able to resist the boy easily, but if you do not know that, then you still have yielded yourself to him unintentionally. So it is with sin. Sin is in your flesh. But if you believe you cannot resist it, when you can due to death with Christ that frees you from dominion of sin, then you will unintentionally yield yourself to commit sins.
Don't worry, sin will jump at the chance to make you commit sins.
Imagine a harmless dog approaching a person who is afraid of any kind of dog. A person can stand there and let a dog take your steak from your plate, or you can set the dog down and tell it to sit. But the dog will prey on those who are ignorantly fearful of it if it can, and enjoy a nice steak dinner! Sin is the same. Simply because the devil knows we have power over him does not mean he won't try to bluff his way over us and torment us if we know no better and do not drive him away. Sin is the same way.
Stop yielding to sin, because that is exactly what you are doing if you think you cannot live above it.
Sin worked when Paul tried to do good. So stop trying to do good. Present yourself to God, instead, expecting His Spirit of resurrection to empower you to live victoriously! Expect the Spirit to lift you up. That is faith. No works are involved. Just expect victory!
The million dollar amount is in the bank's books. Now record it in your personal book from which you receive your information as to how much you can enjoy in life through spending, tally it up with the bank's book, and ENJOY LIFE ABOVE SIN.
Its yours!
There is no WORK to perform. It is just taking God at His Word. God did the work way back at the start of your conversion.