ENCOURAGEMENT FOR THE DAY

 Introduction to Romans 7

Romans 7

Review and introduction.

Within the Book of Romans there are five major divisions which can be summarized as follows: Sin, Salvation, Sanctification, Sovereignty, and Service. Sin covers why we need God, why we need Christ in our lives. Salvation explains how to become a Christian.

Now we're in the third major section which is on Sanctification - How to live the Christian life. The key in chapter 6 is the word "sin". We saw that we are freed from the power of sin when we became Christians. We don't have to give in to sin anymore. People say "I can't help myself!" but that's not true. We can help ourselves. The secret is in Romans 6.

The word "sin" appeared 17 times in Romans 6. One of the key words we'll see in Romans 7 is the word "law". Chapter 6 is about freedom from sin for the Christian. Chapter 7 is about freedom from the Law for the Christian. In Chapter 6, the first six verses talked about death to sin. In chapter 7, the first six verses talk about death to the Law.

Romans 7 is probably one of the more important chapters in the Bible relating to the Christian life. We will begin it by looking at three major sections of this chapter: the Reasons we're freed from the Law (v. 1-3), the Results of being freed from the Law (v. 4-6), and the Purpose of the Law (v. 7-13). I'm sure we'll find ourselves identifying with many of the points Paul will make over the next several days.

Many times we read the Bible as if it is a collection of good ideas which are separate from one another. As we have seen demonstrated throughout the Book of Romans -- this is not the case. For each principal taught, Paul has laid a solid foundation of logical and critical reasoning. Have you been following along? Take a few minutes today and see if you can summarize where we've been -- it will really help you as we move forward.

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