Click here to download the October 8 Sunday School lesson.
Fall Quarter 2023: God’s Law Is Love
Unit 2: Faith Triumphs, Law Fails
Lesson 6
Sunday School Lesson for the week of October 8, 2023
By Craig Rikard
Background Scripture: Romans 7:1-29
Key Text: Romans 7:1-12
Lesson Aims
- Understanding Paul's use of marriage as a metaphor of law and grace.
- Understanding how the law is always relevant, even for the Christian.
- Understanding the difference between obeying the law to earn God's favor versus obeying the law as a response to God’s favor.
Supplement to Teacher and Student Manuals
Background of Text
Please read the context for last week’s lesson on Romans 2: www.sgaumc.org/advocatesschooldetail/october-1-lesson-inward-and-outward-17661398.
The basic subject matter in Romans 2 is Paul’s attempt to create unity between the Jewish Christians and the Gentile Christians. The Jewish Christians possessed the Old Testament as a point of reference in understanding the person of Jesus. However, many, if not most, Gentiles were unaware of the teaching of the Old Testament. Thus, Paul faced the tremendous task of affirming the Mosaic Law without making obedience to the Law necessary for the Gentile Christians to become Christians. He had to value the Law without making it mandatory for salvation in Jesus Christ. The thrust of Paul’s argument is that one is saved by grace alone. However, he believed the Mosaic Law was necessary for grace. Grace means God initiates forgiveness and new life for all, but the only way we know what is right and wrong before God is through the Mosaic Law. How do we know we are sinners? We are given the Mosaic Law in Old Testament scrolls and in the conscience of those who did not have regular access to the scrolls and teaching of the Rabbis. When we violate the Law in written Law or violate the Law as it lives in the conscience of the heart, we realize we are in need of grace and forgiveness. Grace and forgiveness are not made possible through keeping the Law more diligently, for we cannot perfectly obey it. Grace and forgiveness come through the gift of Jesus Christ alone.
Still, there were Jewish Christians who believed the Gentile Christians should continue to keep the written Law, observe the festivals, and observe the traditions, especially circumcision. Paul believed when they demanded that Gentiles be circumcised and obey other traditions, they live not under grace; they live under Law. The Law is an informant - a revealer of sin - not a requirement to be obeyed in order to gain salvation.
In what way do you believe the Mosaic Law is helpful for one to become a Christian? In what way does the Law fail us in gaining salvation? Do you believe from Scripture that the Mosaic Law continues to help us in our Christian walk?
Walking Through the Text
Metaphor of Marriage
It is vital to understand that when Paul employs metaphors, he is not attempting to demand a new moral or doctrinal law. For example, in using marriage as a metaphor, Paul is not attempting to redefine or alter the rite of marriage. He is simply using marriage to help illustrate the difference between Law and grace. In this metaphor, the relationship between the legally married husband and wife illustrates the Law. The married people entered into a binding relationship with their spouse. This relationship was unbreakable and unbinding. Those who live under the Mosaic Law live in a binding, unbreakable covenant. Their life and relationship depend on keeping the Law. If they are obedient to the Law, they experience the favor of God. If they fail, they suffer the curse of disobedience.
If the woman commits adultery, she has violated her relationship with Law. (Notice the male is not mentioned as committing adultery). Therefore, having violated the Law, she most likely will be legally divorced, and her life will be cursed. She can never remarry and will always be perceived as a social pariah. As long as the requirement of the Law exists, she is bound to the law and judged by the Law. The Law rules her life.
Paul then adds a caveat to his metaphor. What if her husband dies while she is a faithful wife? Now the requirements of the law are non-binding. Since her husband died, she can remarry. Paul even goes so far as to say if she had committed adultery before her husband’s death, the law declares she is an adulteress, a violator of the Mosaic Marriage Law. However, if the husband dies while she is an adulterer, she is then declared innocent of her adultery. She can only be guilty as she violates the Law. If the Law no longer bears upon the current situation, she is declared innocent. She cannot be declared guilty since the marriage no longer exists. We can gain a sense of the complexity employed by the religious leaders regarding the Mosaic Law. In this case, the violation of law had nothing to do with the harm adultery inflicted upon the couple. It had to do with obeying the specifics of the written Law. It didn’t matter who got hurt, what mattered was keeping the letter of the Law.
What questions does Paul’s metaphor of marriage raise in your mind regarding sin? What was the actual sin in Paul’s metaphor? How does the Mosaic Law serve as “master” over the individuals? Where is grace in the metaphor?
Paul now applies his metaphor to Christ. For those Jewish Christians who had lived under the Law (much like the husband and wife in his metaphor), they are bound to the Law and judged by the Law. They are expected to obey the Mosaic Law. Even when they fall short, they are still accountable and judged by the Law. However, if a Jewish person trusts in Jesus Christ, the one who liberates them from the legalistic word of the Mosaic Law, who then becomes their judge? Jesus offers them forgiveness as they are. He is the initiator of grace. The new Christian now is called to fulfill the Law of Laws: “Thou shalt Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.” The new Christian does not obey the Law to gain eternal life. Obedience to this Law of Laws is the
RESPONSE to the grace and love received through Jesus Christ. Those who violated the Mosaic Law are “declared” clean by the grace of God in Jesus. Declared is a legal term. A judge can declare you clean even if you have done nothing to make yourself clean. Jesus has judged all who are guilty, who earnestly choose Christ the life he offers to be
declared righteous.
What has the Mosaic Law taught you in your spiritual pilgrimage? If dependent upon the Mosaic Law alone for righteousness, what would we do when we disobeyed? Why is grace, love and forgiveness important when we disobey the Law? How does obedience to the Law of Laws (Deut. 6) liberate us? What do you think is the difference between obeying the Mosaic Law to gain favor with God and obeying the Law of Laws as a loving, gracious response to God’s gift in Christ?
Using the metaphor, Paul declares we are dead to the rigid Law, not that the Law doesn’t matter. Most of the Law still teaches us the moral and just life. There are some laws which are cultural and no longer speak to our current culture. For example, women do not have to cover their heads in church, and we are not bound to the strict dietary laws of the Torah. However, the Law is dead in that it cannot save us from our repeated shortcomings and the attitudes of the heart that hinder our relationship with Christ. In verse 4 Paul wrote that we are dead to the Law but are alive to the risen one, the Christ who makes us alive to a new Law of godly love, liberty, and grace. Verse 6 reads, “But now, by dying to that which once bound us, we have been released from the Law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way to the written code.”
The Law, again, is our teacher
In last week’s lesson, Paul addressed this same subject. We can forgive Paul for his repetition. As he shared the good news that the Gentiles did not need to obey the Law for a meaningful, saving relationship with God, Paul was also mindful that if not careful, he made the Mosaic Law appear less precious and useful. The Mosaic Law was indeed precious. It was the gift of God, given to Moses on Sinai. The tablets were carried from place to place in the Ark of Covenant. Prior to Jesus, the Law represented what they knew about God. Still, from the beginning, no one could keep and maintain strict obedience to the Law. Thus, everyone in relationship with the Law was guilty.
It raises the question, why did God give us a Law we could not keep, thus always falling short. According to Paul, the Law was never given to ensure we live a perfect life. The Law revealed the high, moral, life-affirming life God desires for us. The Mosaic Law was the high mark, the gold standard that defined a righteous life. For all who fell short there were rituals in the temple such as the Day of Atonement and the Scapegoat to receive forgiveness for one year.
Jesus did not erase the Law, he fulfilled it. Thus, the law was not annihilated in Jesus, it was perfectly fulfilled. To live the Law of Shema, the Law of love, was to keep the law. When we love God and one another, we do not take God’s name in vain or slander our brother or sister. We do not worship other Gods. We do not steal from our brother and sister because we love them. We do not covet our brother’s spouse for we love him, his spouse and our spouse. We would never kill or take another life, etc. When we do fall short, for we are still captive to our humanity, a heart of love seeks forgiveness, learns from the sin, and walks again in the new life Jesus made possible.
Can you give further examples of how keeping the Law of Laws (thou shalt love the Lord they God with all thine heart, soul, mind and strength, and thy neighbor as thyself) actually allows us to keep the ten commandments? What do you think is the difference between living a moral life for fear of earning the judgment of God, or living a moral life as a response to the gift of being declared righteous and forgiven?
Prayer
Almighty God, you have revealed to us how we can live together in grace and respect. You have revealed how precious we are to you as you declared us righteous in Jesus. Keep us forever mindful of the high moral standard taught in the Law, and ever so mindful of liberating grace that anchors us in the Law of Laws. In Jesus name, Amen
Dr. D. Craig Rikard is a South Georgia pastor. Email him at craigrikard169@yahoo.com.
