You Died to the Power of the Law

In one paragraph

Pastor Nathan opened Father's Day with an informal, acoustic worship set and a lighthearted Father's Day skit, then turned to Romans 7 for one of the more demanding passages he has tackled in this series. The message sat in the tension between knowing what is right and failing to do it, and what that tension tells us about ourselves, the law, and grace. Pastor Nathan started with C.S. Lewis's...

Read together

1. Romans 7:4-6 Main text read aloud as the starting point of the sermon, about dying to the law and being united with Christ
2. Romans 7:14-25 Read aloud in full as the controversial closing section about the struggle with sin and the wretchedness of the speaker
3. Romans 6:14 Quoted by John Murray to connect death to the law with being under grace rather than law
4. Romans 5:20 Cited as Paul saying the law came in so that transgression would increase, but where sin increased grace abounded all the more
5. Acts 15 Peter's address to apostles and elders on whether Gentile believers must follow the Jewish law, used to show salvation is by grace through faith not law
6. 2 Corinthians 13:11-14 Read as the closing benediction about rejoicing, restoration, greeting one another, and the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ

Talk about it

1. C.S. Lewis argued that when people quarrel, they appeal to a shared standard of right and wrong, and that nobody can live up to even their own standard. Where have you seen that play out in your own life?
2. Pastor Mike walked through the difference between indicative, imperative, and subjunctive in Romans 7, pointing out that our ability to produce a harvest of good deeds for God is subjunctive, meaning possible but contingent. What does it mean practically for your daily life that God makes it possible but does not override your will to make it happen?
3. Paul says the law itself is holy and good, but that it aroused his sinful desires rather than curing them. Has there ever been a time when knowing something was wrong seemed to make the temptation stronger rather than weaker? How did you work through that?
4. Paul identifies coveting as the commandment that broke through his sense of obedience and showed him his true condition. Why do you think an internal sin like coveting might be harder to reckon with than more outward ones?
5. D. Martin Lloyd Jones argued that the key point of Romans 7:14-24 is that anyone trying on their own, apart from Christ and the Holy Spirit, to do good will find themselves in that same struggle regardless of where they are spiritually. Where in your life are you still trying to do good in your own strength, and what would it look like to stop?