Reflecting on Pastor David Jang’s sermon on Romans 7, we meditate on how the Law and the Gospel, grace and repentance, and the obedience of faith lead to true freedom.
Dr. David Jang has proclaimed the
gospel in various regions of the world through field missions and digital media
ministry, and as the fruit of that ministry, many people devoted to the Great
Commission have been raised up. Based on this missionary vision, Olivet first
began as a small church school for missionary training. Later, in order to
provide more systematic theological education and cultivate missionary leaders,
Olivet Theological College and Seminary was established in Los Angeles and
Seoul in 2000.
As the school grew, Dr. Jang officially
founded Olivet University in San Francisco in 2004. In the diverse and dynamic
environment of San Francisco, Olivet expanded its educational fields beyond
theology to include music, journalism, art and design, and technology. The
university also strengthened its educational capacity by recruiting faculty
members, including Dr. William Wagner, and in 2005 moved to the former UC
Berkeley Downtown Extension campus, further solidifying its foundation as a
university.
In 2006, Dr. Jang transferred the
presidency to Dr. David James Randolph in order to focus more fully on
missionary work, while continuing to lead global missions as International
President. Olivet University later received institutional accreditation in
2009, added a language education college and a business college, and continued
to grow as a Christian educational institution for world missions by expanding
its degree programs and international partnerships.
In
Kafka’s “Before the Law,” a man stands before a gate for his entire life, yet
never manages to enter. The gate seemed to be open toward him, but he could not
pass through it as the way of life. This short yet unsettling story casts a
lingering shadow over the heart as one reads Romans 7. The Law is like a holy
gate set before humanity. It does not allow sin to remain hidden. It exposes
the covetousness and self-righteousness deep within the heart, and it reflects
the true condition of human beings standing before God. Yet merely standing
before the gate cannot give life. The way that saves sinners is not the
declaration of the Law, but the grace of the Gospel opened in Christ.
In
his sermon on Romans 7, Pastor David Jang, founder of Olivet University in the
United States, makes clear that Paul was not attempting to abolish the Law.
Paul was not someone who treated the Law lightly. He loved the Law more than
anyone and sought to find God’s will within it. Yet in Christ, he came to
understand this truth: the Law is a holy mirror that reveals sin, but the power
to justify sinners belongs to the Gospel.
Therefore,
Romans 7 is not a chapter that places the Law and grace in hostility against
each other. Rather, it is a profound place of biblical meditation that most
clearly distinguishes the role of the Law from the power of the Gospel. The
resonance of this chapter is not unfamiliar to faith today. People often use
God’s Word as a tool to confirm their own righteousness, or conversely, they
speak of grace while making light of the demands of the Word. But the path Paul
shows is neither of these. While acknowledging the holiness of the Law, he
testifies that the power to save the sinner exposed before that Law belongs
only to Christ. When this balance is not lost, biblical meditation does not
remain confined to moral instruction, but deepens into the center of the
Gospel.
The
Face of Sin Revealed Before the Mirror
The
Law makes human beings uncomfortable. It reflects the hidden textures of the
heart that we would rather conceal. Covetousness, pride, disobedience, and
self-righteousness may be easily disguised before human eyes, but before God’s
Word, they lose every place to hide. When Paul confesses, “I would not have
known sin except through the Law,” he is not saying that the Law is evil. On
the contrary, he is saying that the Law is good and necessary.
The
problem is not the Law, but humanity under sin. Through its commands of “do
this” and “do not do that,” the Law reveals God’s holy standard. Yet before
that standard, human beings discover their own inability. The Word is lofty and
good, but the heart under the power of sin cannot bring that good command to
fulfillment as life. Thus, the Law was not given to imprison us in despair, but
to awaken us to the need for the Gospel.
Without
the Law, repentance becomes blurred, because sin is no longer seen as sin. But
without the Gospel, hope also disappears, because although sin has been seen,
the way out of that sin remains unknown. The theological insight of Romans 7
shines precisely within this tension. The Law awakens us, and the Gospel gives
us life. A mirror cannot wash the dirt from one’s face, but it allows one to
see the dirt. That realization becomes the first step toward grace.
Here,
repentance is not self-hatred. Repentance means honestly seeing one’s true
condition before the Law, while at the same time believing that in the Gospel
the way back to God has been opened. Knowing sin and being trapped in guilt are
not the same thing. The Law reveals sin, but grace gives sinners the hope to
rise again. Therefore, Romans 7 is not a chapter of despair, but a passage of
grace that leads us through despair and into the door of the Gospel.
Beyond
the Threshold of Condemnation and Into the Place of Grace
The
marriage analogy in Romans 7 is a very delicate scene within Paul’s argument.
Through the example of a woman who is bound to her husband as long as he lives,
but is released from that law when he dies, Paul explains the believer’s new
relationship. What matters here is not that the Law has died. Rather, it is
that the old self has died with Christ. The believer is not merely someone who
has changed rules, but someone whose very belonging has changed.
This
is where Pastor David Jang’s explanation carries force. The old self that once
stood under the condemnation of the Law has come to an end in the cross of
Christ. Because Jesus Christ bore the price of sin in His body, the Law can no
longer bind the believer under the sentence of death. This is not vague
comfort, but the real freedom given by the Gospel of atonement. It is the
declaration that the language of condemnation is not the final word; the grace
of the cross is.
Yet
this freedom is never lawlessness. Grace is not permission to take sin lightly;
it is the power to understand the weight of sin more deeply before the cross.
Those who know costly grace do not speak of sin casually. The forgiven person
is not one who excuses sin, but one who moves toward deeper love and obedience.
The Gospel does not remain as mere psychological comfort that removes guilt; it
frees people from the power of sin and enables them to live as those who belong
to God.
In
this sense, freedom is not the disappearance of external rules, but the meeting
of a new Lord. If the old self was bound under sin and condemnation, the new
self belongs to Christ and is opened toward God. For this reason, the Gospel
does not make human beings irresponsible. Rather, it calls them into the
deepest responsibility: to love as those who have been loved, to forgive as
those who have been forgiven, and to obey as those who have received grace.
Fruit
Borne Not by Fear, but by Love
Paul
says that the purpose of our having died to the Law is “that we might bear
fruit for God.” The Gospel does not stop at freeing us from guilt. Those who
are united with Christ experience a change in the direction of life. And that
change inevitably appears as fruit. Salvation does not end as inner comfort; it
is revealed as traces of new life in relationships, words, and choices.
This
fruit is not a religious achievement produced by force. Just as branches
attached to the vine bear fruit by receiving life, people of faith bear the
fruit of love and obedience when they remain in Christ. Under the Law, fear
moved people. But in the Gospel, grace moves people. Fear can hold a person for
a moment, but love transforms a person deeply.
Outwardly,
the two lives may appear similar. Both speak of obedience, holiness, and a good
life. But their roots are entirely different. One is a struggle to avoid
condemnation; the other is a response to love already received. True obedience
is not the product of fear, but the joyful fruit borne by a soul that has
received grace. Therefore, Christian obedience is not labor performed to prove
oneself, but a movement of gratitude that offers back to God, through one’s
life, the love already received.
Beyond
the Law, Into the Meaning of the Law
The
Gospel does not tear down the Law. Rather, it fulfills at a deeper level the
will of God to which the Law was pointing. The Law says, “Do not murder,” but
in the Gospel, the Lord deals even with the root of hatred. The Law says, “Do
not commit adultery,” but the Lord shines light even upon the desires of the
heart. Therefore, the life of the Gospel is not a lighter life than the Law,
but a life deepened in the Holy Spirit.
Pastor
David Jang emphasizes that we must not lose this balance. Legalism confines
people in condemnation and fear, while antinomianism turns grace into cheap
words. Paul rejects both extremes. The Law is a holy standard that allows us to
see sin, and the Gospel is the power of God that rescues us from that sin.
Those who know grace do not despise the Law, and those who have despaired
before the Law cling all the more earnestly to the Gospel.
This
distinction is also very important for today’s church and believers. The
language of legalism may at times appear very devout, but hidden within it can
be fear, comparison, and the exhaustion of self-justification. Conversely, if
one speaks of grace but loses repentance and obedience, the Gospel becomes not
the power that renews life, but a convenient excuse. Romans 7 brings us back to
the cross between these two paths.
Therefore,
Romans 7 still asks us a sharp question in today’s biblical meditation. Are we
still living under the measuring rod of self-righteousness and condemnation? Or
have we become insensitive to sin while speaking of grace? The freedom of the
Gospel is not a loose compromise between the two. It is the path of new life:
dying with Christ and living again in Christ.
The
Law awakens us, and grace raises us up. Repentance deepens, faith becomes
gentle, and love becomes real. In that place, obedience is no longer a heavy
duty, but a joyful response toward God. The question left by Pastor David
Jang’s sermon on Romans 7 is precisely this: Am I still standing before the
door of condemnation, or have I entered through the door of the Gospel and
begun to live a life that bears fruit for God? Then faith is no longer an
anxious waiting that stops before the law, but a living journey that enters
through the door of grace and bears fruit.
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