LISTEN
This sermon was preached by J Adams at the Ladybarn site of Christ Church Manchester on Sunday 10th June 2018.
SERIES
This message was part of the ‘SERIES NAME’ series, preached at Christ Church Manchester’s church in Withington in EARLY/MID/LATE YEAR. The full series included the following sermons:
BIBLE VERSES
This sermon was based on Romans 7:1-13
Released from the Law
1Or 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? 2For 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. 3Accordingly, 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.
4Likewise, 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. 5For 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. 6But 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.
The Law and Sin
7What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. 9I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. 10The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. 11For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
13Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.
KEY POINTS
The Spirit of the Law, not the Letter of the Law.
- We have been freed from the law but that doesn’t mean we now live self indulgent sinful lives.
- We now choose to follow the law because we have relationship with him. Law tries to change us from the outside in but relationship changes us from the inside out.
- We now live by the spirit of the law because we want to, not by the letter of the law because we have to.
Is the Law a Bad Thing?
- The law in itself is not a bad thing, it is not sinful to follow the law.
- The thing which determines whether the law is a helpful thing or a hindrance in our relationship to God is our approach to it.
- Are we trying to follow the law to be good enough and ‘tick the boxes’ or are we choosing to follow the law because we love Jesus and we want to seek him first?
The War on Sin has Already Been Won.
- God has already defeated Satan, sin and death. It’s a done deal!
- We still have battles which we have to overcome and choices to make in terms of how we live.
- We may (we will) still sin because we are not perfect but thankfully God is looking for us to have hearts which are after him. We don’t need to be 100% perfect to enjoy that relationship and know salvation!
MORE SERMONS
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