Romans Pt 36: No Law but Love (Rom 7:6-25)
By Tommy Preson Phillips
The Main Character of Romans 7
We have already met the pious-yet-poor Jewish Christians, the Roman Gentile Christians, we have looked at things from the point of view of the Christian who is also a slave in the empire (ch. 6). And here in Romans 7 Paul takes us into the mind of yet another type of church member in Rome, one called a proselyte.
As well has having both Jewish and Gentile Christians, there were also two types of Jewish converts present in the church in the church in Rome, and indeed, throughout the New Testament.
1) God-Fearers: Gentiles who accepted Jewish moral laws, but didn’t take part in the ceremonial rites.
2) Proselytes: Gentile converts who had fully converted to Judaism, including circumcision, sabbath keeping, and the kosher diet.
In chapter 7, Paul uses a literary device, called a prosopopoeia, where a writer steps into the mind of a character to write from their perspective. Paul uses this device very liberally in his letter to the Romans (notably, in chapter 1 Paul writes from the role of pious the Pious Jew critiquing their Gentile brothers).
We can see the journey of the proselyte, as their spiritual pilgrimage takes them from Greco-Roman religious cults, to pious (yet exhausting) Jewish law-keeping. Verses 7-9 tells us that our proselyte once lived a life without the law. They didn’t even know what sin was, let alone ideas like coveting.
Somehow along the path, they are miraculously drawn to the God of Israel and temple worship, complete with devotion to the Torah, the sacred laws that guided every aspect of Jewish life (v1-6). But instead of finding freedom and peace in their hearts, they find only inadequacy. They struggle to keep the commands, and the more they strive the more they fail.
Romans 7:15
I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.
The law doesn’t reveal the pristine person hiding inside, it only serves to reveal more brokenness, more inability, more sin.
Romans 7:21-24a
So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am!
Though most people do not (and should not) think of themselves as having been a wretch in their pre-conversion days, most of us do understand what it is like to struggle with self-control. Many of us, when we read Paul’s character crying out in desperation “why do I do the things I wish I didn’t do?!?” know exactly what this feels like.
But Paul is a methodical teacher. He doesn’t just bring his audience to a place of feeling the hopelessness of pious religion, he also wants them to see the way that Jesus sets us free from the law entirely, so that humanity can live in freedom. Look at how Paul ends his dramatic performance:
Romans 7:24b
Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
The great reveal is that through Jesus, the law-keeping has ended. There is no book of laws for the Christian to follow. We follow the Spirit of God towards Christ and Christlikeness. Our way is peace, and our law is grace. It is no longer obedience to laws of God, but devotion to the love of God that we strive for. This love has been revealed through the life, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and the church exists as conduit of that love.
Law VS Love
Let me try and put this in the most tangible way that I can. People steal because they do not love. People murder because they do not love. We lie, cheat, manipulate, oppress, and coerce because we do not love. There is no point in simply obeying laws if it does not change our hearts, nor do we have any ability to overcome our disdain for others by simply making rules to keep ourselves out of trouble.
When it comes to conquering the flesh and obeying the law, the flesh will eventually win.
You will lie in order to defend your reputation.
You will kill to save yourself.
You will deceive to provide for yourself.
In the end, laws bring us to war against ourselves. But when it comes down to love, love always wins.
You will be honest if you love them.
You will die to save them.
You will provide for them before your own self.
In a comparison between the effectiveness of law VS love to form people well, love wins every time. And without love, the law is pointless. This is why Paul writes:
1 Corinthians 13:1-7
If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.
If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.
If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.
Law will always fill the void where love has withdrawn.
Jesus sets us free because he teaches us how to receive and give unconditional love and unreserved grace. The Christian is the religious pilgrim who ventures into spiritual darkness armed with no laws, no rules at all, no oughts or ought nots; only the love of Jesus to guide us and the fruits of the spirit to feed the lost sheep as God gathers them together from every corner of society and humanity.
May the love of Jesus be received among us, a love that sets us free from the chains of both sin and law.
Discussion Questions:
1. How does Paul's use of the literary device prosopopoeia in Romans 7 contribute to our understanding of the struggles faced by a proselyte in the Roman church, and what insights does it provide into their spiritual journey?
2. In Romans 7, Paul describes the proselyte's experience of inadequacy and the constant struggle to keep the commands of the law. How does this portrayal resonate with the common human experience of grappling with self-control and the tension between wanting to do good and succumbing to wrongdoing?
3. Paul argues that the law reveals brokenness, inability, and more sin, rather than uncovering the pristine person hiding inside. How does this perspective challenge conventional views on the purpose of religious laws, and how does it set the stage for Paul's later emphasis on the freedom found in Jesus Christ?
4. Paul, throughout his arguments in chapters 6-8, argues that through Jesus, the era of law-keeping has ended for Christians, and the focus is now on devotion to the love of God and others. How does this shift from obedience to laws to devotion to love impact the way Christians approach morality and ethical behavior?