Why the Law Can't Save You — Romans 7:5-14 Explained

Hello, and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. Okay, here we go. And once again, we're glad to have everybody with us, and we'll come right back. We left off in Romans chapter 7, and we were in the area of verses 5 and 6. But again, we like to welcome our television audience. We'd love the opportunity of coming into your living room or wherever you are, and we always like to let people be aware that all the past programs from Genesis 1 up to the present in Romans are available by videotape or the printed little books. In other words, we've taken 12 programs and made a six-hour videotape, and then each six-hour videotape has been transcribed into one little book so that they are parallel. So if you're interested, we do it as nominally as we can. We're not in it to make any money on them. And again, as I've announced more than once, if you can dub the tapes and send them out to others while you feel free to do so, don't let that copyright concern you. In the same way with the little books, the only thing we ask is that, of course, someone doesn't try to do it for profit. All right, I think that's enough of the announcements for now. We'll come right back into where we left off in chapter 7, and we'll jump right in at verse 5 and 6. Now, we made some comment on verse 6 in the last program, but we'll look at it briefly again. Romans 7, verse 5, Paul is still dealing with this breaking the relationship of old Adam, who has to be crucified, not by anything we do. We can't crucify ourselves. I guess that's one reason the Lord chose crucifixion rather than any other form of death, because that's one form of death, you see, that man cannot accomplish on his own. You cannot crucify yourself. You cannot drive the nails into your hands and put the pole up in the air, because that had to be done by outside. So I think maybe that's one reason why crucifixion was the death of choice, to carry through this whole theme that as we are crucified with Christ, it is nothing that we can do. We cannot crucify ourselves. It is totally, wholly, and completely a work of God on our behalf. All right, now then in verse 5, he is reviewing all this again, as he's already done so often, for when we were in the flesh, when we were under control of old Adam, the motions or the results of sins, plural, now you see the difference? Sin is the old Adam. He is the fountainhead of our sins, plural, of action. Old Adam is just simply the manufacturing point, but what we do are sins, then it becomes plural. All right, so for when we were in the flesh, or under old Adam, the motions of sins which were by the law, now again it goes right back to the things that the law said to do and not to do, and which man in turn does not do and does do, and as we're going to see later in chapter 7, all right, these motions of sins which were by the law did work in our members, that in this body of flesh, to bring forth fruit, the end result of that production, and it was death. That's all it can work for. As we saw in verse 23 of chapter 6, the wages that old Adam pays, who is under control of Satan, is eternal death, whereas with God, His wages are eternal life and blessings and bliss and all these good things. All right, now verse 6. What's the first word? But, and I always call that the flip side, see? Whereas old Adam did nothing but generate sins, plural, that became fruit unto death, the flip side now is that we are delivered from the law, and we commented on this in the last program, that being dead wherein we were held, that is under old Adam and under the curse, that now we should serve in newness of spirit, under the control of the Holy Spirit, under the control of the Word of God, under the control of the Creator God Himself, and not in the oldness of the letter or the law. Do you see how clearly this comes out? Now then we move on into verse 7. What shall we say? Is the law, and again, it won't do a lot of violence, it's not quite as easy here, but is the law like old Adam? Is the law something that just generates sin? Well, what's his answer? No. No way. He said, I had not known about old Adam. See, I'm constantly using old Adam instead of the word S-I-N. I had not known about old Adam except how? The law. Now remember what we said in the last program? The law hangs over the old Adamic nature, constantly trying to convict him that he's breaking it and that he's contrary to it. All right, now this is what Paul is going to make reference to. I had not known about old Adam except for the law. It was the law that showed Paul what old Adam was all about. For I had not known lust, or covetousness, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. Now this is an interesting commandment. Why does Paul pick this commandment, Thou shalt not covet, as his example, instead of Thou shalt not kill or Thou shalt not steal? Well, those of you who've been in my evening classes, you know. This is the one commandment out of the ten that has to always be committed first. Yeah, that makes you frown. I don't blame you. You cannot kill unless you covet. You cannot steal unless you covet. You cannot commit adultery unless you covet. You cannot destroy someone's character with false gossip unless you covet. You see that? All the way through the ten commandments, the thing that triggers breaking the law is coveting. Now a lot of people come back maybe a week or two after I've taught this and say, Now wait a minute, Les. When it says, Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, where does coveting fit in that? Perfectly, because by and large, why do people curse and swear? Why do people use foul language? They covet something. What is it? Attention. See, they think they're drawing attention to themselves with their foul language. And so, again, coveting triggers it. No matter how you look at it, you cannot break one of the ten commandments unless, of course, you covet first. And so that's why Paul is going to use this commandment as the primary example of the law. All right? For I had not known, up there in verse 7, for I had not known lust or desire, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. Verse 8, But sin, but old Adam again, see, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of contraptions, and if I understand the word correctly, it's immoral thinking. Evil thinking is contraptions. For without the law, old Adam was dead. Now what does he mean by Adam being dead? He's not functioning. He's not functioning in the spirit realm because he is not paying any attention to the law. Now don't lose sight of what kind of a man Paul was. What was he? Religious, a religious fanatic, in fact. And as he lays out so clearly in one of his letters—I think it's in Philippians—he was an Israelite. He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees, of the tribe of Benjamin, circumcised the eighth day. He was the epitome of a Judaistic Jew. He practiced the Jewish religion to the hilt. He was a Pharisee, see. But as a Pharisee, religious, self-righteous man that he was, was he paying any attention to the law? No, he was above it, see. He had no confunctions that he was a lawbreaker, because he was so religious, he was so pharisaical, that he was practically above the law, and so the law wasn't convicting him as he's going on his religious way. And people are no different today. All right, now read on. For I was alive without the law once. In other words, he was functioning as a Pharisee, as a religious zealot, and the law wasn't even touching him. It was just rolling off of him like water off a duck. But when the commandment came, old Adam woke up. That's what revived means, doesn't it? Old Adam woke up. And as soon as the law came down on the Adamic part of Paul and woke him up, what happened to Paul's old Adam? He died. You see that? Come back with me to Acts. I wasn't planning to do this. Acts chapter 9, verse 1, and I'm going to have to give you a couple other verses from Acts so that you get a perfect picture of what Paul really was as a fanatical religious Jew. First in chapter 9, and then we're going to look at a couple verses in chapter 26. Just to get a picture of what this man was and what he's referring to now in chapter 7. Verse 1 of chapter 9, "...and saw the Jew, the Pharisee, the religious fanatic, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord." In other words, these Jewish believers who had now embraced Christ as their Messiah, "...he went to the high priest and desired of him letters to Damascus, to the synagogues, that if he found any..." Now remember he's going into the synagogue, so 99 times out of a thousand, what kind of people would he be dealing with? Jews. So he goes to Damascus and he goes into the synagogue to see if there are any Jews that are practicing this belief in Jesus of Nazareth. "...that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women..." See, he didn't care. He had no compunction about dragging women into prison any more than he did the men. "...that if he found any of this, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus, and suddenly there shined right about him a light from heaven, and he fell to the earth, and he heard a voice saying unto him, and of course this is the Lord from heaven now speaking, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" And he said, verse 5, "...who art thou, Lord?" Now those of you who have made a study of the Old Testament, and I think it carries right into the early part of the New, who was Lord? Jehovah! Jehovah! And I feel no violence to Scripture that had Saul not had such an awe for the name in all practical circumstances, he would have said, Who art thou, Jehovah? Because he knew this voice was coming from the presence of God. There was no doubt about that. And so I like to put it that this is his, at least in mind, if not in actual word, he knew he was talking to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Jehovah. And so he says, Who art thou, Lord? Or who art thou, Jehovah? And when Jehovah answered, I am Jesus, man, who would have even thought such a thing in Paul's shoes? Jehovah is claiming to be Jesus of Nazareth whom he hated and detested, who he thought was an imposter, who was a blasphemer? And he's Jehovah? Well, look what it did to the man. It melded him like wax. And no wonder he fell to the ground blinded physically in order to see spiritually who Jesus really was. He was the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. And you remember I proved this when we were way back four or five years ago in Genesis that when, or in Exodus rather, when the burning bush and the voice from the burning bush told Moses, You go and tell Israel that I am that I am has sent you. And then you remember I took you into John's Gospel, chapter 8. And as the Pharisees again of Jesus' day confronted him and said, Well, you're not even 50 years old. You claim to have seen Abraham. Who are you anyway? And what did Jesus answer? Before Abraham was, I am. What was he telling them? I'm the same one that spoke from the burning bush. I'm the Jehovah of the Old Testament. Of course he was. All right. So now then Saul had to recognize that the one that he was hating, the one that he was trying to stamp out, this Jesus of Nazareth, was the God that he thought he was worshiping. And he had to bring the two together. All right. Now then let's turn to chapter 26. And now, of course, as the apostle has gone through all his trials, his sufferings and his turmoil, and he's coming down toward the end of his freedom, at least, before he will be imprisoned in Rome. Look what he says in Acts chapter 26, verse 9. Acts 26, verse 9. I verily thought with myself that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. See what I just told you? Oh, he thought Jesus of Nazareth was an imposter, a blasphemer. He was a fake. And the best thing he could do as a servant of the true God of Abraham was to stamp out anybody who had anything to do with this Jesus. And that was the purpose of his life. All right, read on. Verse 10. Which thing I also did, see, in Jerusalem, and many of the saints, the believing Jews at Jerusalem, many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests, and when they were put to what? To death. And what was their crime? Believing that Jesus was the Christ, and old Saul of Tarsus was the chief advocate of this. Put them to death. The quicker we get them off the scene, the quicker we can stamp out any reference to Jesus of Nazareth. And so that's what he's admitting here, see, from his standpoint now as being the apostle. Having received authority from the chief priests, verse 10 again, and when they were put to death, I gave my voice, and if you have a margin, a better word is vote. I voted against them, or I voted to have them put to death, and I punished them often. In every synagogue, Paul says, I compelled them to blaspheme. What was he doing? He was forcing these Jewish believers, forcing them, and I imagine by threat of torture or whatever, to renounce their faith in Jesus. It's unbelievable, but this is what he was in the name of his religion. You remember I said months and months ago, there isn't anything more torturous, there isn't anything more inhuman than religious fanatics. They could care less what happens to their victims as long as their religion comes out on top. Well, Paul was no different, or Saul, and so he said, I punished them often, compelled them to blaspheme. Now reading on in verse 11, and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities, whereupon, verse 12, as I went to Damascus, see, and we saw from chapter 9, that was his purpose for going to Damascus, was to drag those Jewish believers and literally drag them, bound back to Jerusalem, where they could be put on trial by the Sanhedrin and the Pharisees and the chief rulers, and where Paul or Saul at that time could sit there and say, put them to death, get rid of them. Now that's where he had come from, see. All right, now then, come back, if you will, to Romans chapter 7, and keep all this in mind. He's so religious, he is such a fanatic that the law wasn't even touching him. It was just rolling off of him like water off a duck. And even though he was guilty of, I think we can call it murder, when he actually demanded the death of these Jewish believers, in his own mind, he was putting them to death murderously. All right, read on now in chapter 7 of Romans. And so the commandment, that is the 10, the Mosaic 10 commandments, which was ordained to life, they're holy, they're perfect, see, I found to be unto what? Death. Because up in verse 9, as soon as old Adam and Saul woke up and realized that the law was condemning him, what happened? He says, I woke up. I revived. And he became aware that the law was convicting him. It wasn't polishing things over or covering things over. It was convicting him. And so he found that the law now was claiming he had only one prospect as a lawbreaker, eternal death. All right, now verse 11. For old Adam, taking occasion by the commandment, in other words, the 10 again, deceived me, and by it slew me. It was killing me. What does he mean? Well, now come back again. Let's compare scripture to scripture. Come back to this chapter 7, verse 5. This is exactly what he's talking about. Back to verse 5. For when we, and he could speak of himself, he could say, for when I was back in the flesh, the motions of sins, in other words, putting these people to death, blaspheming the name of Christ and whatever else he may have been guilty of, the motions of sins which were by the law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto what? Death. And Saul was no different. Saul, the religious fanatic, every day of his life he was piling guilt upon guilt upon guilt, heading for the day when he too would leave this life and would come before the great white throne and hear those words, depart from me, you religious fanatic. I never knew you. That's where he was headed. See? All right, now back to chapter 7, now verse 11. And so old Adam had been keeping him blind to the reality of the true purpose of the law, which was to convict him. Remember what it said back in Romans 3? For the law does nothing but give us the knowledge of sin. All right, that's where it finally came to even with Saul. All right, now verse 12. I'm going to try and watch my time. Wherefore, the law, the Ten Commandments, is holy, and the commandment is holy, and just, and good. Was then that which is good made death unto me? In other words, did the commandments be something other than good? Well, he answers it. God forbid, don't think such a thought. But, here's what the Ten really amounted to. But, old Adam again, sin. But old Adam, that it might appear as old Adam. Now what's he saying? He's just making a double emphasis. But, old Adam, in order that he could be seen for what he really is, bent in rebellion, bent to do nothing but what that which is evil, bent to ignore the law. But, old Adam, read on, working death in me by that which is good. Now, that sounds like double talk. But, you see what he's saying over and over? That the law in itself was good. It was perfect. But, what was it doing to the man? It was killing him. It was convicting him. All right? That sin, reading on in verse 13, that sin, old Adam, by the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. Now, I've got to take you back to chapter 3. I've just got to, because here's where we get the explanation of what he's talking about. Verse 20, Romans 3, verse 20. Now, I know most people, even if they've heard of that 30 minutes on television, by now they've forgotten what we had in chapter 3. Romans 3, verse 20, and keep this hooked up with the solitarsis. Therefore, Romans 3, verse 20, therefore by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight, and here it is now, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. The law shows us what old Adam is really made of. Okay? Now then, come back to chapter 7. So, what does the law do for solitarsis? It compounds his sinfulness. How? By revealing everything he does was sinful. Everything he was doing was contrary to the will of a holy God. All right, now I've got a couple minutes left. Verse 14, for we know, any good religious Jew knew this, we know that the law is spiritual. Man, it was written by the finger of God. It was supernaturally presented to the nation of Israel. It was holy. It was God-given, and so it was spiritual. But, Paul says, I am carnal, that is, in his pre-saved condition, I am fleshly, I am sold under old Adam. He's under the curse. He's under the result of a fall back there in the garden. And that, of course, what we've been emphasizing now for six chapters, and I guess for 10, 12 weeks, that when Adam sinned, he plunged the whole human race under the curse. He plunged the whole human race separated from their Creator. And solitarsis was no different, religious as he was. And so he was carnal, he was fleshly, even though he was religious, yet the motivating power within him was not the things that were pleasing to God, but quite the contrary, because he was stamping out those who had recognized Jesus was indeed the Christ. Now, again, we have to understand the mindset of not only Saul of Tarsus, but all the religious Jews of Jesus' day. Why were they so constantly against him? They could not believe that he was the Christ. He could not be the one promised all the way back from Genesis chapter 12. with Les Feldick