Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Romans.  Tonight is study #32 of Romans 3,  and we will read Romans 3:19-23:

Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:  For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

I will stop reading there.  Going back to verse 19, it says in Romans 3:19:

Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.

The implication is that the things the Law says to those that are under the Law is addressing every human being, as it goes on to say, “that every mouth may be stopped,” without exception, “and all the world may become guilty before God.”  There are no exceptions.  There are no exemptions.  There is no one who is above the Law, and as a result, the Law is telling everyone that his mouth is to be stopped, and he is to become guilty before God.  And that is because all have transgressed the Law, as we read here: “what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law …” 

It says in Romans 7:1:

Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?

This refers to man in a general way, as applying to all people.  The Law has dominion over mankind, the people of the earth, as long as each one lives.  Again, let me read it just as it is written: “Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?”

It goes on to say in Romans 7:2:

For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.

The example of being bound and under the Law is of a woman who is bound by the law to her husband, and she is only free from the law to her husband if he is dead.  Then it says in Romans 7:3:

So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

Again, this is speaking spiritually of mankind, the creature made in God’s image, and their binding to the Law.  In other words, they are married to the Law of God, and as a result, they are duty-bound, obligated, and responsible to obey the Law, just as a woman is bound by the law to her husband.  And if they transgress the Law, they are committing adultery because it is a marriage relationship, and to transgress the Law is to disobey it, and to go after another, which God speaks of as “spiritual adultery.”  This is the reason He addresses mankind in at least a couple of places in the Bible in this way: “Ye adulterers and adulteresses…”  (You can read that phrase in the Epistle of James.)  God is speaking to all people, and He can do this because all people are bound, or married, to His Law, and all have transgressed His Law, thereby engaging in spiritual adultery in a similar way to a woman who is married to her husband, but she is having relationships with others outside of the marriage.  So God refers to all people as “adulterers and adulteresses” for breaking His Law.

It goes on to say in Romans 7:4:

Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

Only the elect of God are spoken of here, and that is why it says, “my brethren.”  It applies only to those who have become saved because salvation involved Christ bearing the sins, which are the spiritual fornication and acts of adultery of His elect.  Every transgression of the Law is an act of spiritual adultery, and Christ bore all the adulteries, or sins, of His people, and He paid for them.  And the way He paid for them was to die because the Law was like a vengeful husband that had been offended by an adulterous wife.  The Law of God, as shown in Deuteronomy and elsewhere in the Old Testament, lays down the Law that anyone involved in adultery was to be stoned to death.  That Law was given because it is really revealing God’s intention to slay the sinner, the transgressor of His Law and spiritual adulterer, with His wrath.  So Christ bore our spiritual adulteries, and the Law (in the figure of a husband) struck Him dead, like Moses struck the rock, and Christ died in our place.  But in His death, He set us free from the Law. 

We were bound to the Law in a marriage.  In any marriage, you are bound as long as you live, but if the husband be dead, you are free from that marriage, and now you can legally and justly marry another.  And that is what God is saying: “…ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another…”   Who then can we marry?  “…even to him who is raised from the dead,” who is Christ Himself.  He becomes our new bridegroom, and that is the figure the Bible uses.  John the Baptist spoke of Christ as the Bridegroom, and there are other references in the Scripture to our being “the bride of Christ.”  We are the ones He has taken to Himself after freeing us from the Law, so there is no adultery in this new marriage between each elect child of God and Christ.  It is a beautiful marriage.  It is a just marriage.  That is the only way to be free from the Law’s demand by the Husband.

Again, it is only possible to be “dead to the law” if we were chosen by God and predestinated before the foundation of the world.   At the point of the world’s foundation, the Lord Jesus Christ bore our sins, and suffered and died at the hands of the Law, by God Himself.  God and His Law are synonymous.  In His death, payment was made, and then He rose to justify His people, and we are free: “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” (John 8:36)   That is what Romans 7 is referring to, as it speaks of the binding to the Law of God, but no man has kept the Law since the fall of Adam.  The Law would only condemn us, and in our condemnation we would surely die because the only option is to keep the Law perfectly, but no one is capable of doing that.  So all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and the wages of sin is death.  The payment the Law requires is that all mankind must die.  And the elect have died in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ, so this is our liberty.

In Galatians, God gives the warning in Galatians 5:1:

Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

That is, the yoke of bondage is the yoke of the Law, as people tried to keep the Law perfectly, and this was a problem with the Judaizers who said that one must keep the Law of Moses in being circumcised, and so forth, and yet all those things were fulfilled in Christ.  (We do not have time to go off in that direction to talk about that.)  But it does need to be pointed out because there are those that accuse God’s elect because in our new marriage to the Lord Jesus Christ, we are not under the Law, but Jesus said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments,” and that statement applies to the intimacy between Jesus and His people in this new spiritual marriage.  So, of course, there is to be love in marriage, as it is laid out in Ephesians 5 where God speaks of the marriage relationship between a man and woman as a type and figure of the marriage relationship between the bride of Christ and Christ, the bridegroom.  We read there that He loves the church, and that would refer to the eternal church, who are only those He has saved.  I will read it to make sure I quote it right, in Ephesians 5:22-23:

Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.

Again, this is not referring to the corporate church, but to the eternal church.  Even though the church age is over in our time, there is still a “church.”  It is the eternal church that the elect are part of, although it is not a church building.  It is the spiritual house of God, the spiritual church. 

Again it says in Ephesians 5:23-24:

…even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.

The church is subject to Christ.  We submit to Him.  We do so in regard to His commandments.  So Jesus said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”  And the commandments are the same – they are the Bible, and the Bible is a Law book, and the commandments are God’s Laws.  It is understandable, but we have to be careful in order to understand it.  If we are not saved and freed from the Law, we are still under the Law and bound to the Law, and, therefore, we are obligated to keep the whole Law of the Bible in order to enter into heaven.  We cannot offend in one point, or we are guilty of all.  We have to keep the Law perfectly, and none are able to do so.  Therefore none are able to enter into heaven by keeping the Law, which is why the Bible says, “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ,” and that points to what Jesus has done for us.  We understand that.  We know that.  We are not talking about obeying God’s commandments in order to become saved.  That would be a “works gospel,” whether the command is, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,” or “Thou shalt not kill.”  They are all commandments of God, and we do not think that we have become saved through our obedience or action in obeying any one of God’s commandments, or a thousand of His commandments.  We know we cannot become saved that way.

But what the Lord Jesus stated, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”  Therefore obeying God’s Word and doing His will (as we come to understand it through His opening of our eyes to His commandments in the Bible) will be a way of showing our love to our spiritual Bridegroom, our Husband to whom we have become spiritually married, and we submit to Him.  We are subject to Him, and this is seen through the keeping of His commandments. 

If we fail to keep His commandments perfectly (and we will), it is sin, and we know that all our sins are forgiven.  We are not concerned or troubled regarding salvation.  We know it is not a matter of salvation.  It is a matter of showing forth love in the marriage relationship we have entered into with Christ.

So there is a huge distinction between the two, but there are a number of so-called believers that will accuse the elect of God of engaging in a “works gospel” because, for example, it is the Sunday Sabbath, and we do not want to work or play, but we want to keep the focus on spiritual things.  They say, “Oh, you are under a works gospel, and trying to get saved by keeping the Law.”  That is a false charge.  Often this accusation is made by people who are more “antinomian,” which is Greek for “against the law.”  They are free spirits, so to speak.  They are independent spirits and do their own thing.  They want to be the determiners of the Gospel rather than letting God be the determiner of His Gospel and His Word.  They just want to do as they please.  They find a couple of words that they misunderstand, and they think they are upholding “grace,” but they completely misunderstand, and they are just developing their own kind of gospel, and trying to be holier than God, because God says in Ephesians 2:8:

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

We are not justified by the works of the Law.  We are saved by grace through faith, and that faith is not your work.  It is the gift of God, the faith of Christ.  It is the pure Gospel of grace, and God gets all the glory.  It is not the works of man in any way. 

Then it says in Ephesians 2:10:

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Look up the word “walk.”  What is that talking about?  It is about walking in His commandments and statutes, and walking in the truth.  The truth is the Law.  The truth is the commandments.  You see, there is a proper order of things.  First, God saves us, and salvation is of the Lord.  He gets all the glory, and it is not of man’s works.  Then after we are saved, God has ordained that we are created in Christ Jesus unto good works, to perform the doing of His commandments with our new-found ability in our new resurrected soul and the Spirit of God indwelling us.  Then God will work in our lives to will and to do of His good pleasure.

And what is God’s good pleasure?  It is the things He has said.  It is to do His commandments.  As we do so, we will be responding to His everlasting love, as He first loved us.  And He first saved us, and then our response is obedience out of love.  It has nothing to do with getting saved.  It has nothing to do with a works gospel because a works gospel has to do with salvation.  But it is just living the Christian life.  It is a sorrowful thing that so many have no understanding of how to do that.