A DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE (FREEDOM IN CHRIST)
INTRODUCTION
Did you all see some fireworks last night? I really enjoy watching fireworks and my favorite place to watch them is in Virginia. While living in Yorktown, Virginia each 4th of July we would go to watch fireworks at the Yorktown Battlefield. It was great, there were probably a thousand people and they always had an Air Force band playing patriotic songs AND yes we always brought plenty of food. The atmosphere was incredible and I had great feelings of pride and admiration, as we sat on our blankets, on the very ground where so many men gave there lives in the final and decisive battle of the American Revolution.
Only a few years earlier 50 men had signed a document written by Thomas Jefferson. "When in the course of Human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve a political bond which they have committed with another and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and nature’s God entitles them.... We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
That document was the Declaration of Independence signed in congress on July 4th 1776. Declaring their freedom from the oppressive rule of England.
The title for todays message is A DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE (FREEDOM IN CHRIST).
Today we will be studying Romans chapter 7 and chapter 8:1-4.
Paul in these verses writes what could be called a Christians Declaration of Independence. In these verse Paul declares that in Christ we have been set free from three things.
I. We are free from the LAW ("do to be") [7:1-6]
Sally was married to Bill for many years. Then one evening Bill had a heart attack and died. Several years latterSally remarried a man named Jack. Jack was in many ways differentthan Bill. Bill didn’t like to eat breakfast (he just grabbed a cup of coffee and headed out the door) and Jack liked to start his day with a big country breakfast. Bill didn’t care if the house was kept clean and Jack wanted the house to be neat and tidy.
After Jack and Sally had been married for a year, Jack was beginning to get aggravated. He came down the stairs hoping to find things different but the house was messy and as he went into the kitchen hoping to smell bacon and eggs cooking on the stove, he only found a cup of cold coffee. When Jack voiced his dissatisfaction with the situation Sally said "well that’s the way Bill liked things".
Jack said " Sally, Bill is dead. You are my wife now. You have to stop living like you are still married to Bill.
Paul in these verses is teaching the Jewish Christians an important lesson. We know that he is talking to the Jewish Christians because he says in verse one "I am speaking to men who know the law". Paul in teaching this lesson draws an analogy or an illustration from marriage. LET ME SAY UP FRONT HERE THAT PAUL’S INTENT HERE, IS NOT TO PROVIDE TEACHING ON MARRIAGE (HE AND OTHER WRITERS DO THAT IN OTHER PLACES IN GOD’S WORD). Paul is making only one point in this analogy and the point is this:
You Jews are still keeping the law you are still boasting in the Law, You still believe that the law makes you more righteous than the Gentiles. Do you know what you are acting like, You are acting just like a woman whose 1st husband is dead but acts as though he is still alive.
Paul says in verse 4 "so, my brothers, you also died to the law". The law to them is dead and they have been joined to another. You are free from the law and are now under the grace of Christ.
How does this truth apply to us?
Did you notice what I put on your outline right next to being free from the law (do to be).
That’s really a good summary of what keeping the law taught. If you were to be righteous by keeping the Law you had to DO certain things TO BE righteous. And do you know what? no one could ever be righteous by keeping the law. James "the half brother" of Jesus in his letter writes in James 2:10 "Whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it".
We can never be good enough or do enough to be made righteous in the eyes of God. Many times we are like those Jewish Christians. We have been set free from the requirements of the law by the blood of Christ. It is not what we do that saves us, it is what Jesus has done for us. Jesus has done all that needs to be done to make us right before God. Nothing we will ever do will add to our salvation. YET!! We too, many times, carry around the burden of believing that we have to do something to earn or to make sure we are saved. Going to church, reading our Bible, praying to God, memorizing scripture, teaching a SS class or helping the poor is not going to save anyone. Now it is true, that these things are the fruit a person who is saved, is supposed to bare. BUT they can’t save us ONLY the grace of God which we enter into through obedient faith in Christ can save us.
I think one of the reasons we have such a hard time accepting this is that we live in a society that tells us that we have to do to be. Our society tells us : " your valuable only if you are pretty. You are more valuable if you produce. You are difintely more valuable if you can slam dunk a basketball, throw a touchdown pass or hit a homerun. You are valuable if you have a DR after your name, or star in movies, or hold a political office or have a six figure salary or drive an expensive foreign car. Where does this value system leave the average people. I’ll tell you where in a constant struggle to be somebody or do something that society tells them to be, and they try real hard but never even have a chance AND THEY FEEL like they are not really worth all that much. Paul in Romans seven declares our freedom.
We are free from the Law.
We are free from the burden of having to do to be.
We are free and we have value in Christ.
ARE YOU FREE?
CHRIST CAN SET YOU FREE!
II. We are free from the frustration of the Flesh. [7:14-25]
This is really a tough passage, and what I want for us to do is to answer several questions that will help us understand what Paul is trying to teach here.
Before we do that we first need to understand what Paul means by "I’ in these verses. I believe that it is best to understand this as a literary device used to describe the universal struggle of mankind and especially the struggle of Christians to do right.
What is the frustration of the flesh?
Paul really sums up this frustration well in verse 15. And I am sure that everyone here will have to agree with Paul and say "AMEN Paul that’s exactly how I feel".
He writes: [15]
Why are we frustrated?
First let me say that in a way our frustration is good. It indicates that we care, that we do in fact want to do good.
And second let me say that if we are not frustrated by this struggle then we probably have a spiritual problem.
Now let’s answer the question why are we frustrated?
We are frustrated because we have the desire to do good. Paul expresses this in verse 18.
We are also frustrated because we delight in the Gods law. When we delight in God’s word; We do not find God’s word burdensome, It is not a chore to go to God’s house and worship Him, Giving God our time, talents and treasure is not something we do grudgingly, but is something we do with a cheerful heart of thanksgiving. AND Serving God is not a task that we seek to get over with, as soon as possible. Rather serving God and seeking His will is our greatest source of joy.
Since we desire to do good and since we take delight in God’s word we get frustrated when sin spoils our efforts.
The next question is HOW are we frustrated?
I think it will help us to understand how the process of frustration works in the spiritual realm if we ,first discuss how this process works in everyday life.
We all know what it is like to have good intentions, to set our minds and hearts on accomplishing some task. We make great plans; We plan to do things like: eat a more healthy diet, start an exercise program, get up right when the alarm clock rings, finish those projects around the house, start to get to places on time and a lot of other thing as well.
In our minds we tell ourselves I’m really going to get it done this time, we may even make a New Years Resolution. AND then we all know what happens: we eat those 12 donuts, our exercise bike sets all alone in a corner, we hit the snooze 5 times, the car is still on the blocks in our driveway and it seems we are always running late every place we go.
And we don’t understand. We have not changed our plans we still want to do good, but we don’t.
Friends that is exactly what Paul is talking about. As Christians we want to do good. We love God, And He has been so good to us. We know what we should do. We know: we should make God #1, we should spend time with Him each day, we should pray for those who need prayer and we know we should give God our best AND we know there are things we must stop doing; being prideful gossiping, being envious and other sins.
Paul says that sometimes (and I know all of here can relate to what he is saying) that when he is doing wrong he knows it, and he still wants to do good BUT his sinful desire is so strong at times it is like it has a personality of it’s own It is almost like it is not even him doing it. But it is him, and it is us.
The truth of the matter is this: It is easier for us to do wrong then to do good. We have to work at doing good and doing wrong just seems to come naturally.
It is easier not to pray then to pray
It is easier not to be committed then to be committed.
It is easier to have impure thoughts then pure.
It is easier not give then to give.
This condition causes us all to lament with Paul "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death"
Many believe that this term body of death refers to a Roman form of capital punishment that was practiced in that day. If someone committed a particular hideous murder they would take the corpse and tie it to the murderer face to face hand to hand ,until he died. If Paul is referring to this, it paints a vivid picture of our sinful tendency as being like we are dragging along a corpse with us.
HOWEVER EVEN as Paul asked the question he knew the answer.
D. WHo will recuse us?
Thanks be to God that Through Jesus Christ we are freed from this body of death.
How does Christ rescue us?
He intercedes for us.
His Spirit lives within us to convict us of wrong and to guide us righteousness.
By HIS example and advice. {Matt26:41}
Jesus on the night he was arrested on the night before His death. Showed us what to do when we face temptations. The very Son of God , earth’s Perfect Man, PRAYED to God when he sensed His own Human, frailty while standing face to face with the strain of the supreme demands of obedience to God.
His weary disciples did not do so well, they fell asleep. And do you remember what Jesus said to them. "Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing BUT the flesh is weak"
The spirit is willing BUT the flesh is weak. Isn’t that really the same thing Paul is talking about here in Romans.
What advice did Jesus give? Watch and Pray!
1) We need to be alert and we need to recognize our own vulnerability.
2) And we need to pray and depend on the leadership, power and protection of God.
That night in the garden Jesus was the only one who watched and prayed. And he was the only one to stand firm in the crisis of temptation. The others panicked and fled.
Jesus sets us free from the frustration of the flesh.
Are you free? Christ can set you free.
III. We are free from CONDEMNATION [8:1-4]
What is condemnation?
The word actually means "the result of judgment". So a good way to understand this term would be the sentence a Judge pronounces at the end of the trail.
If you are still in your sin when you stand before God. God will bang the gavel and pronounce you guilty and sentence you to eternity in the depths of Hell.
Who made it possible for our freedom from condemnation?
JESUS CHRIST.
Jesus was sinless AND He fulfilled the righteous requirements of the Law. Therefore God offered Him as a sin offering and He bore the sins of the world as He died on the cross.
How are we set free?
We are set free from condemnation when we are "IN" Christ. How do we get in Christ?
"for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
CONCLUSION
Our society doesn’t even have a clue to what freedom is. They think freedom means, that they are free to do what ever they want. It means they are free to do drugs, drink, have sex with whoever or what ever they want, it means that kids are free to do whatever they want to do in school "go not go" "study not study", and it means adults can do to what ever is necessary to get ahead..and you could probably add your own to this list, etc etc... etc...
And tragically the things that are supposed to be evidence of their freedom have in reality enslaved them, and are now a heavy ball and chain around their neck.
Drugs and drinking has led to an addiction, a lost home-lost job lost family. Sex anytime, anyplace, anyone has led to AIDS/DEATH, STD, unwanted pregnancies, a broken heart from being used, and the inability to enter your marriage bond pure and undefiled. And kids who use their freedom in school find them selves uneducated and flopping hamburgers or washing dishes the rest of their life.
IN CHRIST WE HAVE FREEDOM--TRUE FREEDOM!
We are free from the law "Do to Be"
We are free from Condemnation
We are free from the frustration in life.
{ILLUST}
Your ice skating in the Olympics your about to go up for your last performance. And before you do the judges inform you that you have already won the Gold Metal. You already have enough points before this last skating performance.
How do you think you are going to skate? Are you going to hold back, be nervous or inhibited. NO! You will probably skate your best ever , you will be free to skate as never before because you have already WON. If you are in Christ YOU ARE FREE. We are free to skate like never before because we know that through Christ the victory is already ours. NOW that’s FREEDOM!!!!!!!!!
