Romans – The Play Part 3 – Free From the Law: Romans 7, Grace, and the End of Christian Legalism

You cannot live the Christian life.

I’m going to tell you something you’re ashamed to admit. You are afraid to witness. In fact, you hate to witness. You’d rather for them to go to hell than to have to go through the agony of trying to witness to them. Say amen to that!

You get up and you read your Bible, and it doesn’t make sense. And when it does, it just condemns you. Say amen. And when you get up early in the morning to pray, you go to sleep. And when you get up early in the morning to pray, you can’t think of anything to pray. And you get mad at your husband. And you get mad at your wife. And you throw a living fit. And you know Christians are not supposed to do that. You don’t like to pray. You don’t like to witness. You don’t like to read your Bible. You don’t like to live a good life.

There are times you want to sin! Say amen.

If that’s not true, you’re not being honest with yourself. “Oh, Brother Gene, that’s just shocking. Oh, you shouldn’t say that; this is the most terrible thing in the world.” But it’s the truth. I am telling you that you, in the presence of the so-called Christian standard, are as weak as the Jew in the presence of the law. And you do not wish to cook biscuits at 6:30 in the morning, nor make up the bed or keep the house clean.

Umm… I’m sorry, Corrie. You’re a Dutch sister. The Dutch, the Germans, and the Scandinavian women, I really feel sorry for you all. You are under the law of a clean house. It is true. I know it is true that it is the standard of the Nords that the house must be clean enough to eat off of anything. And the women, literally, and the Swiss, literally kill themselves keeping their house inside and out immaculate. And I know there are Nordic women who just want to say, “Let it go to pot. Let the grass grow up and let the windows be unclean and let him eat crackers and cheese.” There’s too much pressure to conform. And it is the cry of the Christian heart, whether he will admit it or not:

“I don’t like all these things Christians are supposed to do.”

Do you not know that you, the believer, have died to all – all – and all standards? All of them. Every one of them, manmade, whatever is expected of you, is not expected of you. You live under grace. All law, all standards, all codes. All codes were crucified upon the cross of Christ. And so were you.

And that broke the chain. You are free from the Christian life. Say Praise the Lord.

And there you lay, deader than a doornail. Dead. Dead to the law. Dead to moral deeds. Dead to living a good life. Dead to the Christian standard. And Someone came and reached down into the grave and raised you up to a new life. And when you were raised, sin couldn’t find you. The good deeds of the Greeks couldn’t find you. The law of Moses and the law of the Jews could not find you.

And the Christian standard also cannot find you.

Sure enough, 5:00 a.m. came. You married the Lord. And this is so powerful here, saints. Look at what he does. Paul has you marrying in Jesus Christ. You’re one with Him. You have been freed because of death. You rise from the dead. And you are now married, not to the Christian standard or living the Christian life; you are married to the Lord Jesus Christ.