Or, Getting Off the Performance Treadmill
Scripture: Romans 7:1-6
Date: September 11, 2022
Speaker: Sean Higgins
In The Pilgrim’s Progress Christian ignored the counsel of Evangelist and turned toward the house of Mr. Legality who lived in the village of Morality.
So Christian turned out of his way to go to Mr. Legality’s house for help: but behold, when he was got now hard by the hill, it seemed so high, and also that side of it that was the next way side, did hang so much over, that Christian was afraid to venture further, lest the hill should fall on his head….Also his burden now seemed heavier to him than when he was in his way. There came also flashes of fire out of the hill that made Christian afraid that he should be burned.
The part of the hill hanging over him was Mt. Sinai, the Law. What’s also interesting in Bunyan’s version is that Christian was encouraged to go to Mr. Legality by Mr. Worldly Wiseman.
There is another powerful image, perhaps not as poetic. In his book Transforming Grace, Jerry Bridges has a chapter called “The Performance Treadmill.”
If we’ve performed well—whatever “well” is in our opinion—then we expect God to bless us. If we haven’t done so well, our expectations are reduced accordingly. In this sense, we live by works rather than grace. We are saved by grace, but we are living by the “sweat” of our own performance.
I love treadmills! When I was training for the LA Marathon in 2001 I did a lot of running. The majority of my running was done on a treadmill. Not being a particularly fast runner, I spent a lot of time with my friend, Mr. Treadmill. We got to know each other very well.
Saturdays were my long run days. Sometimes I would be on the same treadmill for over 4 hours!
But even though a treadmill looks kind of calm, a treadmill has expectations – high expectations! A treadmill expects (and requires) that you keep up. You cannot fall behind, you cannot miss one step, you must perform up to speed or you will pay the consequences.
While Christians present their members as slaves to righteousness (6:19), we still need to learn what it means to be under grace and not under law (6:15). Even for those who know their solas, who have dropped the burden of earning justification with God, we need the exposition about our relationship to the law that Paul provides in Romans 7.
Something to know about the Legal Authority of the Law
Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? (Romans 7:1 ESV)
Or do you not know is a tactful, rhetorical question. The apostle once again uses a self-evident truth as the foundation of his argument. Important to note: he is addressing brothers .
The word law probably does not refer here to law in general, but to the law of Moses. First, we have already seen that the Mosaic law is the subject of discussion in chapters 2-5. Second, it is the Mosaic law that provokes sin (5:20). Third, believers are no longer under the Mosaic law (6:14-15).
The following context also indicates that the Mosaic law is in view. Paul specifically cites the 10th commandment of the Decalogue (7:7), and he is certainly referring to the Mosaic law in 7:12 in affirming the holiness of the law and the goodness of God’s commandments.
But even if the ‘law’ refers to a law in general, the principle is just the same.
The verb binding (or “jurisdiction” NASB) simply means to “rule over, lord over, master,” “hath dominion over” (KJV). The same word is used in 6:9 and 6:14 of the lordship of death and sin. So Paul is not referring to the rule of the law in some abstract sense, but in connection with the lordship of death and sin.
The law binds only as long as he lives . This is really not a bombshell. The principle is obvious. But Paul continues to build his case. If the law was good, as religious Jews contended, then this is no big deal. But as the apostle continues to prove that the law (because of sin) keeps us in a harmful relationship.
An illustration of the Legal Authority of the Law
For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress. (Romans 7:2–3 ESV)
The picture here gives further evidence that the Mosaic law is in view.
A wife is bound to her husband while he lives . This fits with the Jewish background since wives had no right in Judaism to divorce their husbands, while on the other hand husbands could divorce their wives (Deuteronomy 24:1-4). In addition, wives were considered free from the marriage upon the husband’s death.
By contrast, according to Romand law both husbands and wives had the right to initiate a divorce.
The main point of the picture is that one’s relationship to the law is changed when death occurs. The married woman is bound, that is, she is “tied,” obligated, constrained by the law to her husband. It is only when her husband dies that she is released from that law.
Verse 3 gets even more specific. It is not giving any teaching about divorce or remarriage, it is simply explaining the principle. Imagine the scenario: a woman whose husband dies is most certainly free from the restraint and obligation and free to marry another man (Paul even encourages the younger widows to do so in another letter).
But a woman who joins herself to another man while still married is called an adulterer. She sins, she breaks the 7th commandment. Death makes the difference.
The significance of freedom from the Legal Authority of the Law
No illustration is without its shortcomings. The picture of the married woman does not precisely correspond to the death of the Christian to the Law.
It is the man who died in the illustration, so if everything corresponded we would expect that the Law has died. But it is the Christian who died, not the Law.
The point is still clear, however. We died to sin in Christ and to the impossible demands of the Law which condemned us to death. Our death and resurrection has freed us from the authority and penalty of the law.
There are two products, and I chose that to emphasize beyond the intention/purpose, these are the results.
Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. (Romans 7:4–5 ESV)
The address to the brothers is repeated for the second time in this paragraph. Paul uses this term at least 10 times in this letter, but is is surprising to find it again after only three verses. The repetition is significant. He knows that the subject is personal, he knows that the subject is critical.
Verse 4 is the key verse of the paragraph. The analogy in verses 2-3 convey not only that believers have died to the law, but also that believers have a new relationship with Christ.
That believers were made to die indicates that God is the one who puts believers to death. They did not accomplish this on their own initiative.
The phrase died to the Law recalls 6:2. Just as believers died to the power of sin, so too they have died to the power of the law. Just as believers have been “released” from the body of sin (6:6) so too they are released from the authority of the law (7:6).
The dominion of the law has been broken and now believers are married to Christ. They were made to die that you may belong to another, to Him who has been raised from the dead .
The death of Christ is crucial, but so is His resurrection! The resurrection of Christ makes it a whole new world! We have been buried with Him, we are raised with Him.
Being joined to Christ is the ONLY way that anyone can bear fruit to God. This expression is conceptually similar to 6:4 where the participation in Christ’s death is for the purpose of “walking in the newness of life.”
Verses 5-6 are introduced to explain verse 4 in more detail. They answer the question: “Why is it that believers need to die to the law?”
Because, according to verse 5, the law in the unregenerate/unbeliever does not produce righteousness. Instead, their sinful passions are actually increased through the law with the result of death, about which more in verses 8, 11, and 13, even the second half of chapter 7.
The typical Jewish view was that the Law helped prevent people from sinning. Paul contends that it aids and encourages sin. Sin is provoked and stimulated by the law (see also 5:20).
But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. (Romans 7:6 ESV)
The key is again, having died. The death of Christ definitively broke the power of the law that in concert with sin produced death.
Paul has already declared as forcefully and unambiguously as possible that freedom from the law’s bondage does NOT mean freedom to do what the law forbids. Freedom from the law does not bring freedom from sin but just the opposite – freedom for the first time to do what is righteous and to serve in newness of the Spirit.
The letter is similar to Romans 2:9; refers to the OT law and its inability to effect righteousness apart from the Spirit. The letter of the law demands but does not enable obedience. In fact, the letter of the law actually kindles the desire to sin.
How many religions are worldly-wise and keep men sweaty and fearful on the performance treadmill? In Christ we are free to run in righteousness. This is the fruit of belonging to Christ.
For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. (Galatians 2:19 ESV)
His diving power has granted to us everything necessary to know, reckon, and yield our members to Christ. Abide in Christ in order to bear fruit for Him. You are His. You do not belong to sin or to the law, but to Christ.
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. (2 Peter 1:3–4, ESV)