All right, so Mark asked me to lead the study today. And this is normally a study on Romans. We've been going through the book of Romans, line by line, chapter by chapter. And I think Mark is at the end of chapter six right now. And what I wanted to do today was to give kind of a perspective, some overview of covenant theology. as it pertains to the background in these chapters here, Romans 5, 6, and 7, where Paul gives us, first in Romans 5, the idea of federal headship that we looked at before with Adam and Christ. And then in Romans 6, we see the idea of baptism brought in. And then in Romans 7, the idea of marriages. Paul brings in the idea of marriage. But I think, I mean, as J.I. Packer said, the gospel of God is not properly understood until it is viewed within a covenantal framework. And I just wanted to kind of bring some discussion about the covenantal framework and how it really is the proper way to really understand all of Scripture. In fact, I know we A lot of people like to focus on the promises or people look at the law, but they kind of see those things as separate or disjointed things. But in fact, all those are different aspects of a covenant and they're by no means separated, right? The promises are part of a covenant promise or for fulfillment of the covenant. No promises come apart from any kind of covenantal framework. So it's really important to look at the covenant, and I just wanna go through some of the aspects of what a covenant is quickly, hopefully, and then get to Romans 5, 6, and 7, and see how the covenant idea that Paul keeps kind of under the covers, but how it really is important to understand what's happening there. I will say, what is a covenant? The concept of a covenant is a covenant establishes a binding relationship between parties. A covenant has stipulations, as it's called by covenant theologians, or simply commandments, as we will see. And then a covenant has also blessings for keeping the commandments. that is for satisfying the law or satisfying the stipulations of the covenant. And then it has curses for violating the covenant, violating the commandments or breaking the covenant. So that's what a covenant has all those different parts to it. And we have to keep them all together as part of this one concept. Okay, so first of all, the parties involved in a covenant, There's many different examples of covenant in scripture. And so one thing that we say is that the parties can be equal, as in a covenant of marriages between two equal parties, male and female. And in the covenant between Abraham and Abimelech Genesis 21, 27, where there was a dispute about the well at Beersheba. And so Abraham and Abimelech, generally equal parties, they made a covenant. They came to an agreement with stipulations and blessings and curses for keeping and breaking the covenant, respectively. However, a covenant does not really presume the equality between the parties. In fact, the majority of the covenants that we see are between God and men. And of course we know full well that those are not equal parties. We start with the covenant with Adam after he was created was between the sovereign creator God and the holy dependent creature whom he had just created, like Adam didn't, couldn't say to God, like, well, you know, I'm not so sure about this, or I would also like, there's no negotiation, right, with God. God imposes the covenant on the creature because he is infinitely above the creature. And yet, I mean, Adam was upright. He was righteous. He had righteousness when he was created. And yet, just in terms of the difference between the creature and the creator is an infinite distance. Likewise, with Noah, when God made the covenant with Noah after the flood and after Noah was already back on dry land again, God simply stated what the covenant was, that he would no longer destroy mankind with a flood. He set the rainbow in the clouds that we can see as a sign of the covenant. And so that covenant was between a judge, as we see, like God judged the whole world and saved only eight people, Noah and his family. And so that covenant was certainly not between equals, On this, the Westminster Confession says, the distance between God and the creature is so great that although reasonable creatures do owe obedience unto him as their creator, yet they could never have any fruition of him as their blessedness and reward, but by some voluntary condescension on God's part, which he had been pleased to express by way of covenant So the covenant that God makes with us is actually a condescension to enter into a relationship with men, as he first did with Adam, and then in other various covenants that we see throughout the scriptures. So that's the parties of the covenant. Can they equal? But certainly not necessarily equal, as we see God imposing the covenant on people. And this is consistent with some of the other covenants that we see historically in amongst like the Old Testament we see a king who would conquer a city or a conquer a nation and then he would impose a covenant on them like you must do this and I will do this and if you don't do this then I will do this and so that's a kind of a covenant that is common back then but nowadays we don't really see such things in our life. We have contracts, but a contract is not like a covenant, really. A contract is between equal parties, more or less. Okay, so moving on to the stipulations or the law of the covenant, the commandments. The commandments are the very heart of the covenant, actually, the very essence of what the covenant is about. It's the matter of the covenant. even though there is more to a covenant than just the law or the stipulations. Nevertheless, when we say like, if you break the stipulations, you've broken the covenant. So the covenant is in a sense, like bound up in the commandments. So what Adam, I mean, God gave to Adam, this is said of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat. Like that is the commandment that God gave to Adam. And for Noah, oh, I'm sorry, not Noah. In the Old Testament, when God brought the people out of Egypt, he made a covenant with the people at Mount Sinai. And we read in Exodus, it says, and he was there with the Lord, that is Moses, was there with the Lord 40 days and 40 nights. He did neither eat bread nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables of stone the words of the covenant the Ten Commandments. And also in Deuteronomy 4, it says, 4.13, and he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even the Ten Commandments. So what we're told is that the Ten Commandments are the covenant, the Ten Commandments are the law of the covenant. And as we can imagine, the stone tablets upon which the covenant was written, the 10 commandments. If you were to break one of the commandments, you've essentially broken the whole stone. So you've really broken all the commandments. And what we see in other places in scripture, like Deuteronomy 27, 26, it says, cursed is the one who does not confirm all the words of this law by observing them. And in James 2.10, it says, for whoever shall keep the whole law and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. So the point is that if you break only even one commandment of the covenant, you have become a covenant breaker, and the whole covenant is broken at that point. So the stipulations of the covenant hang together. You can't say, well, God, I like These commandments here, but this one, I don't really like it. So, you know, we're not negotiating with God. God commands us, as it said in Deuteronomy 4.13, he declared unto you his covenant and he commanded you to perform the 10 commandments. This is not optional. This is not a thing that we can negotiate with God or try to, you know, work out some kind of an arrangement. There's no such thing. All right, so then let's move on to the consequences of the covenant. This includes both the blessings for keeping the covenant and the curses for breaking the covenant. So first, a covenant is a binding agreement. There's no early termination or opt-out clauses. Parties are entered into a covenant relationship, are bound in that covenant. They're bound to experience the consequences of the covenant. As we say, marriage is a covenant because it's till death do us part. It's not like a contract where we'll be married for a year and then after that we'll cancel the marriage. It doesn't work that way. So as far as the curses and the blessings go, in Deuteronomy, the whole book of Deuteronomy is written as a covenant and covenantal language is just all throughout the whole book of Deuteronomy. Here in Deuteronomy 11, verses 26 to 28, it says, behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse, a blessing if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day, and a curse if you will not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day to go after other gods, which ye have not known." So here we set, as part of the covenant, blessings if you obey and curses if you do not obey. And that is the nature of the covenant. You have to, you are bound in the covenant and you will experience one or the other, either blessings or curses, not partial blessing and partial curses, but one or the other. So let's start with the blessings. So going back to Adam, Adam was created righteous. He was created, he was placed in the garden. He was given a wife, a sinless wife. He was given dominion over the creatures. He was given pleasant work in the garden. So he received the blessings of the covenant right from the beginning. He was given already on probation kind of, all the blessings of the covenant right from the beginning. He didn't need to merit them or earn them, but God gave them to him graciously from the beginning. And with just the one stipulation, the one requirement not to eat of that one tree, he could have eaten of all the other trees, but just the one, that's it. So the Westminster Confession, On this it says that God created man, male and female, with reasonable and immortal souls, endued with knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness after his own image, having the law of God written in their hearts and power to fulfill it. So Adam was blessed right from the beginning. Adam and Eve were both blessed, placed in the garden, It says, and the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man saying, of every tree of the garden, thou mayest freely eat. So that's how Adam was started. He was given every benefit right from the beginning. Also in Deuteronomy, we read in Deuteronomy 28, Deuteronomy chapter 28, verses one to 14, goes through a whole long list of blessings of the covenant. I'm not sure we have time to read the whole thing, but set it aside for yourself to go read Deuteronomy chapter 28. I will just read a little right now. It says, and it shall come to pass if thou shall hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments, which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations on earth. That's verse one. The Lord will establish you as a holy people to himself, just as he has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in his ways. And this is the covenant promise repeated so many times in scripture. It says, I will walk among you and be your God and you shall be my people. So that is the ultimate blessing is to be the people of God and to have God as our God and God himself is our great reward. As he said to Abraham, I am your shield and your very great reward. So the blessing and the curses for disobedience are stated also in Adam's covenant. It says, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. Genesis 2.17. And Deuteronomy 28 verses 15 to 68. Many more verses are devoted to the cursing than the blessing. There we read, but it shall come to pass if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God to observe carefully all his commandments and his statutes, which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you. And many, many curses are listed there in the second part of Deuteronomy 28. And then finally, we have the real true fulfillment of the curse that was told to Adam. The day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die. We read in Revelation chapter 21, verse 8. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, abominable murderers, sexually immoral sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. So that's the ultimate death that God spoke about, although Adam didn't suffer that immediately. I mean, Adam never, but that is the final death that covenant breakers look forward to. That's the only thing they have to look forward to. Okay, so that is basically the parts of a covenant. We have the parties, the law of the covenant, and then we have the consequences, blessing on one hand and cursing on the other. So we need to keep these four things in mind as we read throughout the whole scripture, because this is the way that we have to understand the commandments. This is how we understand our relationship to God infinitely above us and yet condescending to enter into relationship with us. So now I want to look at the covenant of works. Does anybody have any questions on that? All good? Awesome. Okay. All right. So now I want to talk about the covenant of works and what that is. Again, from the Westminster Confession, chapter 19, it says, God gave to Adam a law as a covenant of works by which he bound him and all his posterity to personal, entire, exact, and perpetual obedience, promised life upon the fulfilling, and threatened death upon the breach of it, and endued him with power and ability to keep it. So we see all the aspects of the covenant that God gave to Adam. And then we see this covenant of works repeated actually in the giving of the law to Moses. Although there's more to the Mosaic covenant than just the covenant of works, but we see the covenant of works kind of embedded in that. I mean, ultimately a covenant, Mosaic covenant is a covenant of grace, At the heart of it, it has this fundamental covenant of works, which still continues on. And we all, as the Westminster Confession said, God gave to Adam a law, but he bound not only him, but all his posterity. And that includes all of us. We are all bound to this personal, entire, exact, and perpetual obedience However, Adam broke the covenant, as we know, and we all, being in union with Adam, have then come under the same condemnation as Adam. As Mark covered in Romans 5, 12, a couple of weeks ago, a few weeks ago, it says, this, our idea of union with Adam is that by one man, all have sinned. Adam sinned, and we all, are guilty in Adam, and we are all born with a sin nature because of Adam's guilt. His guilt is our guilt. And all the world is under the law as a covenant of works. That's Romans 3.19. All the world is bound under this law. Although the covenant is already broken, men are still bound to the covenant and are still bound to the exact and personal obedience to the law. But the problem with that is it's already been broken and they go astray from the womb, even telling lies and working out the consequences of the sin nature that they inherited from Adam. This is the idea, the scripture talks about it being under the law as a covenant of works where we can't escape from the law, but we certainly can't be saved by the law either because there's absolutely no way for us to keep the law. It's already broken. First of all, we're already guilty. So there's simply no hope of salvation through the law. And so God in his infinite wisdom, has made a new covenant. We call it the new covenant or the covenant of grace and covenant theology. The covenant of grace is, I think I need to make this clear, the covenant of grace is fundamentally the same as the covenant of works, the same stipulations hold, the same curses and blessings are hold, and the parties are also the same. But what is the difference? And the difference between the covenant of grace and the covenant of works is the introduction of the mediator. The Lord Jesus. Into the covenant of works. So where is an at where in the covenant of works, Adam and his posterity were bound to their entire exact and perpetual and personal obedience. The introduction of the mediator of the covenant introduces a substitute who himself personally and vicariously satisfies all of the stipulations of the covenant. As we know, Christ is sinless and is perfectly righteous. He was born under the law and he satisfied every aspect of the law. Second, The mediator of the covenant must bear the entire curse of the covenant. That is, as the curse is due to all of us, because we've all are in Adam and ourselves have broken every single law. So therefore to us is due the curse of the covenant, which is the second death, as we read, all liars, all of us are liars, have their part in this in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone that is the second death that is an eternity of separation from god of wrath for sin so the mediator has to bear that entire infinite curse and then third the mediator has to receive the blessings of the covenant And that we understand the blessings of the covenant are eternal life and riches of glory and such things as we can probably scarcely even comprehend at this point. But we know that the mediator has to receive those blessings as we know Christ did when he was resurrected. He ever lives now. Death has no hold over him anymore. And of course he ascended into glory and he sits at the right hand of God the Father. So he is the king of glory. All right, so about this idea of the mediator, 1 Timothy 2.5 says, for there is one God and one mediator between God and men. the man Christ Jesus. That's 1st Timothy 2.5. And Hebrews 9.15, it says, and for this cause, he is the mediator of the new covenant that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant, that they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. So there's basically all the aspects of the covenant right there, and the fact that the mediator is the one who steps in to satisfy the stipulations or the law of the old covenant, of the covenant of works, and to redeem the people who are under the first covenant, under the condemnation of the first covenant, and that he might receive the promise of eternal inheritance and give that, pass that promise and the blessings of the covenant on to us. So it's essentially the same covenant, but the introduction of the mediator in there allows the covenant of works to become a covenant of pure grace where someone else has satisfied the things which we and Adam had all failed to do. and also to bear the penalty or the curses or the condemnation of the covenant that is actually due to us as well. So that's what we call the covenant of grace. And there is another covenant also that we have to consider, which is the covenant between the father and the son. Some people call that the covenant of redemption, but it is essentially a covenant between two equal parties, father and son, in which the son himself volunteers or is willing to come to bear the wrath to fulfill the covenant of works, basically, but not for himself, obviously, but for others. And for him, the promise that he has is a people for himself. I mean, as we read in Hebrews, He came, now where's that verse? Well, let me take a look at, I'm gonna look this up right now. Sorry, I wasn't quite prepared for this. I'm doing this on the fly, but Isaiah 53. We read that, it's all covenantal. You need to see it as covenantal. He shall see the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong. Because he has poured out his soul unto death, and he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bear the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors. So this is the Christ of the covenant the mediator who came down and for himself, his promise to him was a people and specifically a bride. We remember the story of Abraham and Isaac where Abraham sent his servant out to find a bride for Isaac. We see that Isaac was a type of Christ because he was essentially or almost practically offered as a sacrifice on the same Mount Moriah that Christ was sacrificed on. So the idea that Abraham's servant would go out and find a wife for Isaac is a picture for us of what the Holy Spirit is doing to go fulfill the promise of the covenant that the father made to the son that he would as we just read, divide a portion with the great, and Christ will see the travail of his soul, the work, and the people, his people, and it says he will be satisfied because that is his covenant blessing, and we are his covenant blessing if you are in Christ. Okay, so that's the covenantal background. I think we need to please bear that oh I'm sorry there's one I forgot one very important verse in Genesis 15 I really I want I would love to spend a whole hour just talking about this one verse in Genesis 15 we have the covenant that God made with Abraham and we see what's called in Genesis I'm gonna read a few verses here starting at verse Genesis 15, I'm gonna start at verse 12, if you wanna follow along. And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abraham, and lo, a horror of great darkness fell upon him. And God said unto Abraham, know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them, and they shall afflict them 400 years. Also that nation whom they serve, I will judge, and afterward they shall come out with great substance, and now shall go to thy fathers in peace and be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation, they shall come hither again, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full." And now this, verse 17. And it came to pass that when the sun went down and it was dark, behold, a smoking furnace and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces. And I forgot to read the part about the pieces, sorry. God said to Abraham, take a heifer three years old and a she goat of three years old and a ram of three years old, a turtle dove and a pigeon. And he took all these and he divided them. That is, he cut them in half and he laid them one half on one side and one half on the other side and a pathway through them. And in verse 17, it says that when the sun went down, a smoking furnace and a burning lamp passed between those pieces. And this is what is called essentially the cutting of the covenant. The cutting is the dividing of the animals and passing through them is a solemn I would say obligation, in which two parties obligate themselves and say the obligation is that unless I fulfill the words of the covenant, may I be like these animals here, which are cut asunder, which are killed. May I be destroyed as these animals. So it's a solemn event. commitment a very serious commitment where we see the father and the son passing between these pieces and the they to obligate themselves but notice that Abraham was in a deep sleep Abraham himself was only a witness to this event he was not himself a participant he did not obligate himself he was not obligated rather Christ was obligated on his behalf and on behalf of all his people. So that it is, in fact, that this cutting of the covenant shows us that Christ himself obligated himself to satisfy the law of the old covenant, even to the point of death. And he did satisfy all it, and he also was indeed himself Sorry, someone's making a lot of noise. Okay, so that's the idea of the covenant and the covenant and the cutting and the obligation that's involved. And the covenant of grace is where Christ obligated himself to fulfill the covenant, not because he needed to do it for himself. Obviously, he is the king of glory, He did it for other people and to redeem other people as a bride unto himself as his own people. Now then, okay, that's the covenant background. So now I want to go through kind of, I guess quickly Romans five and then six and then seven just to show how the covenant background helps us to understand what it is that Paul is talking about here. So in Romans 5, 12 to 21, Paul presents us with the idea of federal headship. We covered this not too many weeks ago with Mark. And we know it starts out with Adam, like it says, wherefore, as by one man's sin entered into the world and death by sin, so death passed upon all men for all have sinned. That begins with the breaking of the first covenant of the covenant of works. And we see the outworkings of that, where Paul goes on to talk about death reigning from Adam to Moses. And he compares the offense with the gift and whatnot. And we get to verse 518, where Paul sets Adam and Christ side by side as two federal heads. It says, therefore, as by the offense of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. Even so, by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. So here we have these two federal heads and Paul presents to us the idea that you are either in one or the other. You're either in Adam or you're in Christ. And your covenant participation is essentially determined by which federal head is your federal head. If you are in Adam, then you are participating in the covenant of works. You stand already condemned. You stand as a covenant breaker in Adam and in yourself. And the only thing that you have to look forward to is the lake of fire, which is the second death. That is the end of all those who are covenant breakers. Or if you are in Christ, then because of what Christ did as federal head, he himself completely satisfied the covenant of works. He never, ever sinned. He kept the law perfectly. And of course, he as well bore the penalty of the covenant. He suffered separation from his father. The father essentially turned his back on his son and the son was given up to suffer the penalty of our sin. So, that federal head, if you're in that federal head, then you already have acceptance with God. You have all the blessings of the covenant essentially free, absolutely free of charge, right? There's no obligation on you to receive those blessings of the covenant because it's something done by someone else, which is given as a gift. So that leaves us with the idea that, oh, cool, I can have Christ as my federal head and then just go on about my sinful existence. And then Paul takes, and that is, I think, the correct understanding of the idea of federal headship, that there's no particular reason in that that you couldn't go on sinning. So Paul presents us with them with a second covenantal a viewpoint of of this and which is it brings in in terms of baptism because the idea of the excuse me jim sure some people might not realize that covenant and federal are the same word um okay Yeah, well, the idea of federal. Sorry, I just muted someone because I don't know. That was you, Mark. Can you say anything? I think I muted Mark. I'm on. OK. So I wanted to say the idea of federal headship has two different aspects to it. The first is an objective or a representative view. Like we have this idea that, we have this idea in our own country of representation, like we elect our representatives and they go off and they do things and we may or may not even pay attention to what they're doing, but they're acting on our behalf. Like, I don't know, if for instance, we had a president and he decided to, you know, whatever, launch an attack against another country, we as citizens of his country of this of the country represented by the president we would be then in a state of war with that other country even though we did nothing like we didn't call the launch the bombs or whatever happened right we but nevertheless we are in a condition because that is our representative and what what our representative does we're uh we we will have suffer the consequences or the blessings from that however federal and that the idea of the representative idea makes us think like cool I can just have my representative and then just go off and live my life however I want to but what Paul brings up in Romans chapter 6 is the idea that federal headship is not the idea of federal headship isn't some arbitrary notion however it's based on a like an actual Union between the representative and the representative, like between the head and the body, there is a unity there. But like in Adam, where there's a physical unity, we were in, you could say like Adam's loins when he broke the covenant, we were all in Adam at that point. And likewise, there needs to be has to be understood that there is and must be a real union between Christ and his people. Otherwise, it's just an arbitrary assertion. Yeah, Christ died for me, and I'm good now, so I'm just gonna go on about my life. And that's a complete misunderstanding of what the idea is. So Paul brings in, starts on Romans chapter six, And it brings in the idea of baptism. So baptism also has to be viewed in covenantal terms, and we probably don't do that as much as we should. But baptism is a sacrament of the New Testament, ordained by Christ, not only for the solemn admission of the party baptized into the visible church, but also to be to him a sign and a seal of the covenant of grace. of his ingrafting into Christ, of regeneration, of remission of sins, and of his giving up unto God through Jesus Christ to walk in newness of life, which sacrament is by Christ's own appointment to be continued in his church until the end of the world. That's from the Westminster Confession on, I forgot what chapter, on baptism. So in Romans 6, Paul brings in the idea of baptism as union with Christ. We are baptized into Christ, into his death. And the idea that what Paul brings that is kind of a before and after picture of, as you say, coming, transitioning from having Adam as your federal head to having Christ as your federal head. It's not something that has no effect on us. In fact, it is a tremendous effect, it's a complete regeneration and a renewal of the person with consequences like before and after, like after we shall not live unto sin because we're not separate, we're not our own, we are bought with a price and our union with Christ has real actual implications for our lives. We have to be regenerated and brought into union with him in his life and his death. And that cuts off the idea of baptism is identical with circumcision in the Old Testament. There's a cutting off of a dead flesh that only prevents a feeling. In the Old Testament, it talks about circumcise your hearts because your heart is covered with a like fat it talks about or skin that prevents feeling it prevents us from understanding so the idea of baptism is a is a cutting off or a washing away of our of The filth that closes and we rise to newness of life cleansed converted and in Christ and unto righteousness not no longer continuing in the things that we did before when Adam was our federal head All right, so that's a little teeny bit on Romans chapter six and just the covenantal concept of it, because we are actually coming into participation in the new covenant. Not water baptism doesn't do that in itself, but water baptism as a sign and a seal of the covenant of grace, wherein we are brought into the covenant, not just the visible church, but we're truly regenerated then into the invisible church the one which may or may not correspond to the actual visible church okay that's all I wanted to talk about baptism for now but I really want to get to Romans chapter 7 because it's so beautiful and I think a lot of people tend to skip over it or not really spend a lot of time on it but to me it's one of the most beautiful chapters in the whole New Testament because it because it talks about marriage, and not just our own marriages, but marriage to Christ as the ultimate blessing of the covenant, the one thing that the Father promised to the Son. And here we see it as an outworking from our own personal perspective of entering into the covenant relationship with the Lord, with Christ, and being what He his promise, what was promised to him, his people. So first of all, as marriage is a covenant, I'm not sure we think about that in our country nowadays. We think of it more as a temporary thing, like, yeah, we'll give this a try and see how it works out. That's what people, if they even get married or just live together. But here in the Old Testament, there's some specific verses that talk about marriage as a covenant. First, Ezekiel 16 verse 8, it says, Now when I passed by thee and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love, and I spread my skirt over thee and covered thy nakedness. Yea, I swear unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest mine. So this is the idea of marriage, of a covenant between to people or between God and his people, God enters into a covenant in it, and marriage is a picture of that. In Malachi 2.14, it says, yet ye say, wherefore, because the Lord hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously, yet is she thy companion and the wife of thy covenant, So the idea of marriage as a covenant is the idea of being bound in that covenant with your wife or husband, and for better or for worse, right? Sickness and in hell, until death does you part. That's a covenant. The idea of marriage is actually given as a picture of a greater reality, which is Christ and the church. In Ephesians 5, Paul says, for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall be joined unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh. And this is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. And in Matthew 25, we read of the parable of the 10 virgins, where it says, then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto 10 virgins, which took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And in verse 10, it says, and while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage, and the door was shut. And then finally, in Revelation 21, it says, And I, John, saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. So this, as Paul said, is speaking of concerning Christ and the church. So here, let's plunge into Romans 7 and cover it this quickly, if this makes sense. So in Romans 7, I want to say, first of all, that there are two parts to it, as we have seen. There's Romans 7, verses 1 to 6. Paul starts out with an introductory section, six verses. He talks about marriage and the law, and it's all very covenantal. So those who are quote in Adam are bound to the old covenant by virtue of the perpetual obligation that we've talked about. Paul presents this as being married to the law. And those who are bound in that old covenant, the covenant of works are under the law. They're under the law as a covenant of works yet without hope. They are already in violation and they've already broken the covenant and are simply awaiting the final judgment at which they will receive the curses of the covenant. The covenant is already broken, so the law is certainly no means of salvation, but rather an instigation to sin further. It says in Romans 5.20, the law entered that the offense might abound And in 7.13, it says that sin by the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. So being bound in the old covenant and being married to the law is like having to misquote another verse that Jesus said, to have a millstone tied around one's neck and be thrown into the ocean. The millstone is not going to save you The millstone is not even going to help you be saved. It's going to, in fact, drag you down to the bottom as you wrestle with the law, as you excuse your behavior or accuse yourself as you struggle with this idea. Being under the law as a covenant of works, there is absolutely no hope. You're separated from Christ. You're separated from his mercy at that point. And then Paul goes on to say that in order to be set free from the marriage to the law, according to the law of marriage, and in order to be given in marriage to Christ, to be betrothed to him, we must die to the law. Romans 7, 4a, it says, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that you should be married to another And marriage to Christ, in the second part of 7.4, it says, that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. So in this first section, Romans 7, verses 1 through 6, Paul talks about us being bound in a marriage to the law, which is essentially to be in the old covenant The law is our only hope. I mean, I don't mean it like that. I mean, the law is, there's no escape from the law. I guess that's what I mean. There's no hope to escape from the law or the consequences of the law, as long as you are under the law and bound in that old covenant. So we must, as he said, die to the law. in order that we could be married to another, which is Christ. All right, so then in the second part of Romans 7, which is verses 7 through 25, Paul then lays out, as I will say, in terms of Hebrew parallelism, an explanation or an example which further, which duplicates, explains what he said in the first part from verses one through six. I know a lot of people read verses one to six and say, oh, that's good. And then they read the rest of it as if it was something completely different. But as we know throughout scripture, that scripture repeats things. It'll say it one time, then it'll say it again in a slightly different way to give us a better idea of what's happening. Almost all the Proverbs are like this and so many things. The Hebrew parallelism is just so common in Scripture. So as we let Scripture interpret Scripture, the second part we will interpret in light of the first part. That is, Paul is still talking about marriage. He's still talking about the covenant change from being married to the old covenant or being under the law to being married to Christ. And so let's see how that works out. So in verses 7 through 13, Paul presents us with the predicament of the person who is under the old covenant, under the law. This person wrestles with the law, struggles with it in a sense, and comes to the point of death really coming to the verse 714 which I think is really important I've said a few times but 714 is a moment of great self-awareness of a revelation to the person actually that it says for we know that the law is spiritual but I am carnal sold under sin we say that the law is spiritual but I am carnal that's a reflection it's an under understanding of the dreadful condition of the unregenerate person, which is the person in the old covenant under the law. The law is spiritual, but we are not. By nature, we are of the flesh, and not only have no ability to keep the law, we don't even have the ability to even want to keep the law. The law is fundamentally love to God, and unregenerate person is enmity against God. They hate God. And even though they may cover it over with a variety of decorations or deceptions, nevertheless, in the heart, the heart of their heart is a real hatred for God. And so the possibility of someone who is of the flesh keeping the law is simply just, it's not possible. If the law is spiritual and you are carnal, And there's no way, it's like a fish trying to walk on land, right? A fish is a creature of the water. There's no way for a fish to walk or fly or any such thing. So it's also the sinner, the unregenerate person can by no means, by no means keep the law. It's not even in the realm of possibility. It's absolutely impossible. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. And that which is born of the spirit is spirit. And these two are opposed to each other. The flesh and the spirit are wholly opposed to each other. That which is of the flesh can only sin. They that are in the flesh cannot please God. I'm sorry, that previous was John 3, 6. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. Romans 8.8 says, they that are in the flesh cannot please God. Why? Because they can't submit themselves to the law of God. They cannot. Because whatsoever is not of faith is sin, Romans 14.23. And the unregenerate person cannot have faith, cannot have true saving faith. So that's the first part of Romans 7. verses 7 to 13 that's our condition and that's that's what Paul is talking about there that he sees the law says he shall not covet but well he can't help a covet because the law makes him covet the law leads his sinful flesh to do exactly what the opposite of what the law commands so let me come to verse 14 And essentially, the idea that we are, oh, sorry, we're already in verse 14. Anyway, the idea that sold under sin, and I think this is such a key concept that we have to grasp, it's the idea of our utter helplessness to do anything other than sin. When you say you're sold, that means already that you're taken away, like you're not your own anymore. You belong to someone else and to be sold under sin is the most wretched possible condition. You're sold under a taskmaster who only seeks your own destruction and helpless. To be sold under it is to not be able not to sin. The idea that whatsoever is not a faith is sin and you have no faith that all you can do is sin. But the awareness of that is so critical. There's a verse in 1 Kings 21, 25, it says, but there was none like Ahab, which did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord. Ahab sold himself. But here, we are sold under sin passively, like we don't sell ourselves under sin, we are already sold under sin. by Adam, essentially. And we see that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart is only evil continually, Genesis 6, 5. And neither does a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit, for every tree is known by its fruit. For if thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush do they gather grapes. as our heart is, what comes out of our heart is what's in our heart. Like if our heart is desperately wicked, as Jeremiah 17, nine says, then the only things that will come out of our heart are evil and wickedness. And if we understand that coming to that realization of saying, I am sold under sin, I can't stop sinning. I can only sin. It's hopeless for me. That's actually, And Romans 7 here is both the darkest point, but also, in a way, the brightest point, because that point is a signal of regeneration. As we see before that, there's a kind of a wrestling with sin, but it's an external wrestling, more of excusing or accusing yourself, but at the starting from verse 15 to the end, we see a different kind of struggle. We see an internal struggle. It's no longer like the law, I am under the law and sold under sin. It's rather something different, which can only be a characteristic of a regenerate person. So now the idea of regeneration is one of the main promises of the new covenant. Here in Hebrews 8 and 10 it says, in Hebrews 8 verse 10 it says, for this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws into their mind and write them in their hearts. And I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people. That is covenant language, right? That's the same thing that we saw I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people. But the fundamental way that that happens is that God puts his laws into their minds and writes them on their hearts. In Hebrews 10, 16, it also says, this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws into their hearts and in their minds, I will write them. So from what we see, that regeneration happens at around verse 14, and there's a new principle at work now in the person. And this is what we call from, what I call anyway, from Romans 7, verse 15 to the end, to verse 25, and even maybe including Romans 8.1, is what I would call betrothal to Christ. Taking Romans 7, 1 to 6 as our template or our interpretive scheme for these verses here, we see that the person dies to the law and then are married to Christ. And that's what Paul was talking about. And here we see the person before regeneration bound up with the law, unable to escape like a tar baby. The law will never leave you alone. and yet you're still bound up under the obligation to keep it and with no hope of keeping it. But then when regeneration comes and the law is written on the heart, the change of covenant from old covenant to new covenant has taken place. That is, the law itself is satisfied by Christ. Therefore, we have no obligation in a sense, in order to achieve justification or acceptance with God, the law is taken out of the way and we can be reconciled with God. And the new covenant is that the law is written on the heart. And that's what we see the rest of the chapter is, I will call it walking the aisle. In a marriage ceremony, we're walking the aisle to the front where we see the Lord waiting for us. Also, we call it the narrow way. As Jesus said in Matthew 7 verses 13 and 14, he says, enter by the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction. And there are many who go in by it because narrow is the gate. And difficult is the way which leads to life. And there are few who find it. And as Paul said in Romans 7, 15, for that which I do I allow not for what I would that I do not, but what I hate that I do. Now this is a new principle at work in Paul. This is Paul regenerate now, but I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So then with my mind, I serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin. And this I will call the narrow way. It's a way of spiritual warfare. It's a hard, a difficult way. That's a way of, battle and fighting which many people would not really want to engage in but if you are born again and you have the law written on your heart then you're you're in the warfare whether you whether you like it or not and of course God who began a good work and you will see it through to the day of completion but don't expect the way to be easy it's difficult and it and it involves this this wrestling internally with our sinfulness and our flesh and putting it to death. That is the way which leads. And by the time we get to Romans 8.1 where it says, there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ. We go from having Christ in us, which is the law being written on the heart as Christ is implanted in us. to them being in Christ and having no condemnation. But the marriage itself is not fully consummated. It's a betrothal. We stand up there and Christ is not right there. Christ is in us and we are in him. But right now we have the Holy Spirit and we don't have the full consummation of the marriage yet. And we still look forward to that when Christ will return. as we looked in Matthew 25, where the virgins went in at the return of Christ to the marriage feast to be married to the Lord. So I just have a couple of quotes from a really good book called The Best Match by Peirce. It's really a whole book is kind of about this idea of marriage to Christ. He says here, oh, to see poor sinners come in and give themselves up to him in a marriage covenant. This is the joy. This is the rest. This is the satisfaction of his soul. Hence it is said, he shall see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied. And oh, an espousal with Christ, what could be sweeter? What could be more desirable? and who that understands would not choose it above all else that this world offers. There's no husband like Christ and no happiness like an espousal to him. But the question is, how may we attain to it? Truly, truly the work is great and it is the divine spirit alone that does it and can tie the marriage knot between Christ and you. but he works in this labor, therefore, to be deeply sensible of your utter estrangement from him by nature, and also of your woeful state by reason of that estrangement. That is, I would say, labor to see yourself in Romans 7, 14, where it says that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. labor to see yourself like that and understand that only a marriage to Christ can save you from that wretched, wretched condition. So that's it. That's all