Romans chapters 6 through 8 are a unit, written by a Christian, for Christians, about Christians. We are in a covenant of grace, not a covenant of works. We are sinners. We have been freely saved and justified and we are, therefore, being sanctified. It is all true at the same time. We should not set these truths against each other but affirm them all in their paradoxical wonder.

Bob Godfrey preached from Romans 6 recently and his message inspired me to look again at the relationship between chapters 6, 7, and 8. As I reconsider those chapters (focusing on ch. 7 as the nexus between them) I am impressed with the paradox of the Christian life. First, remember the outline of Romans. It is in three parts: Guilt (1:18–3:20), Grace (3:21–11:36), and Gratitude (12:1–16:27). We could just as well, if perhaps less memorably, say: Law, Gospel, and Sanctification. In chapters 3–5 he lays out his doctrine of justification by grace alone (sola gratia), through faith alone (sola fide). In chapter 6 he begins to explain in detail the consequences of our justification, that it necessarily leads to gracious, gradual, sanctification. Believers are united to Christ. That union is represented by our identification with Christ’s death in our baptism. Contra the Federal Visionists et al., the sacrament does not effect that union. The Spirit of Christ, who graciously grants new life and true faith, through faith, unites us to Christ. Baptism is the sacrament of that union not the instrument. This is a great difference between Reformed theology and sacerdotalism, which turns the sacrament into the thing signified.

Sin No Longer Has Dominion (Romans 6:14)

Sola gratia, sola fide, believers are united to Christ. We have died to sin and we have been made alive to Christ. This is, as Bob reminded us yesterday, who we are. We seek to put to death the old man because of our identity. So, it is true, “…sin will not have  dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.” The second clause is cryptic and Paul spends most of chapter 7 explaining what he meant.

Thus, chapters 6 and 7 are organically linked. They are a unit. He has not changed his audience nor has he changed topics exactly. Remember, the over-arching topic of the better part of Romans and of this section of the book is the gospel, the good news for sinners. In Romans 6:14 he has declared two great truths. In reverse order:

1. We are no longer under the law for our standing before God
2. Therefore sin no longer has dominion over us

As long as we were under the covenant of works, whereby the law says to us (as Paul reminds us in Romans 2:13): “For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous but the doers,” then sin has dominion over us because, in Adam, after the fall, we can never meet that test. Now, however, the last Adam (1 Cor 15:45) has come and fulfilled the covenant of works for us. He has set us free from the law of sin and death. Believers have been delivered from condemnation (Rom 8:1).

The Struggle Is Not Over (Romans 7:14)

Nevertheless, the Christian pilgrimage remains and so does sin. So, Paul turns to explain what he meant in Romans 6:14, when he said that sin no longer has dominion over us because we are not under the covenant of works but under the covenant of grace. The law as a covenant of works is like a marriage. The two spouses are bound to each other so long as both are alive but when one dies the other is free. By virtue of our union with Christ and his death, we have died to the law as a covenant of works. It no longer says to us: “do this and live.” Christ has done it for us, in our place. His obedience and righteousness have been credited to us. It is as if we ourselves had done all that Jesus did for us (Heidelberg Catechism 60).

Because we are not yet in glory we still struggle with sin. There is a terrible chemistry that exists as the result of the mixture of the law and our sinful nature. Before we were Christians (Rom 7:5),  our sinful passions bore the fruit of death. Now, however, that we are united to Christ, we bear fruit for life. We no longer serve in the old way of the written code but in the new way of the Holy Spirit. Romans 7 was written to believers, about the Christian life, by Paul who was describing his Christian life and ours.

The law is not sin. That is impossible. The law is holy, righteous, and good. We are sinful and the law teaches us the greatness of our sin and misery. We call that the pedagogical use of the law. The terrible chemistry of the law and our sin means that sin seizes the opportunity of the law to arouse in us sinful passions (e.g., covetousness). The law, which promised eternal life under the covenant of works, proves to be death to us (Rom 7:11–12). The law itself did not produce death but sin did it through the law. Here is the agony, the struggle of the Christian life. We have been renewed by grace alone. We have been granted true faith and through it we have been united to Christ. We have died with him to the law and sin. We have been raised with him to new life and to justification. The old “I” is dead and yet he lives and so we struggle with him.

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