Dead to the Law (Rom. 7:1-6)

Dead to the Law

(Rom. 7:1-6)

In our study of Romans, we have found that we are dead to sin and free from the slavery and bondage of sin in Romans 6. Here in Romans 7, we begin with how we are dead to and freed from the Law and the consequences of breaking the moral law of God that was revealed to us through Moses. Today, we will study about the power of the Law, dying to the Law, and the use of the Law.

I. Jurisdiction of the Law (v. 1 - “Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives?”)

Paul begins here in chapter 7 by making a statement that every living person is under the authority or jurisdiction of law. The law he mentions here is any kind of law be it civil or religious. At that time Rome ruled the world, so everyone one living in the Roman Empire was subject to Roman law. The Jews were so supposed to be bound by the Mosaic law. But Paul was saying that the law has authority over all people. We all live under law, for us it is the Constitution of the United States and the laws of this land and it's states. If we break the law then we will suffer the consequences of the law; we will be prosecuted and punished by the law. But if a law-breaker dies then he no longer be subject to prosecution and punishment under the law. Take for instance, Lee Harvey Oswald, who was supposedly the assassin of President Kennedy. Before Oswald went to trial, he was shot to death by another man. Therefore, because he died, he was not prosecuted and punished under the law of the land. Although the crime he committed was a horrible crime, because he died, he did not suffer the penalty of the law of the land. The jurisdiction of the law is only limited to the living. What Paul is saying is that the law is binding only on the living. So where is Paul going with this? Paul is alluding to the Mosaic Law, that supreme moral Law of God that none of us can keep from breaking. But Paul doesn't stop there, he goes on in the next verses to reveal what he means.

II. Dying to the Law (v. 2-3 - “For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man. ”)

So it is becoming more clear, Paul states that we as Christians have died to the Law. Paul uses a illustration of the marriage law as an analogy between that and the point that he made in verse 1, the law has no authority over a person when they're dead. He uses an illustration of when a woman is married and her husband is living and she marries another man then she is guilty of being an adulteress; she is an offender against the law of marriage. She is bound to her husband as long as he is alive. But if he dies then she is free from the bonds of matrimony and can freely marry again, she is no longer bound to her former husband by marriage. Marriage laws are binding only when both spouses are living (“till death do you part”). So, in verses 2&3, the woman is absolutely free from the law that bound her to her late husband. In verse 4, Paul begins to apply this truth to us as Christians. He explains that just like the death of the husband has freed the woman from being bound together in marriage, that we as Christians were made to die to the Mosaic Law (moral law of God). We have died to the Law that has condemned us to our sins through the person and work of Jesus Christ. The law was never a means of salvation to us (Rom. 3:20a - “Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight”); the law was to show us how sinful we are and to teach us that we need a Savior from sin (3:20b - “for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin). In chapter 6, we found out that we have died to and freed from sin, but here we see that we have died to the law and free from it's consequences of the penalty of the law. The law declares that if we break the moral law of God (sin) then we must suffer the penalty of the law which is death (1 Cor. 15:56 - “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law”). Under the law of God, we are found sinful and condemned because we cannot keep the holy and moral law of God. If we but only break one commandment, we are guilty of breaking all of of the law (James 2:10 - “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all”). Christ's death has freed all believers from the law. Christ's life was sinless, He kept all of the law, in fact He fulfilled the law by His sinless life (Matt. 5:17 - “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill”). He fulfilled the law on our behalf and bore our penalty for not being able to keep the law. But by His death he has freed us from our former relationship to the law (condemnation), just like the widow was freed from her relationship to her former husband. Just like the widow she was free to be united to another husband, we are free to be joined to another, our Lord Jesus Christ. We are free now to live a new life in our new relationship.

III. Living to Serve (v. 4-6 - “Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another; to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.”)

Salvation in Christ has brought about a totally new spiritual relationship just as the remarried woman had a totally new marital relationship after her husband died. The image of a dead husband and a new husband in a new committed relationship even can apply to us as Christians. We could say that we are no longer “married” to the law but are now “married” to Christ. We are in a new spiritual relationship. 2 Cor. 11:2 says, “For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ”. Paul is showing us that we are placed into a new way of life, a new way of living, because we are now in a new relationship. And that new way of life is evident as we live out the new life. It says here in verse 4, that because we have been saved, we now have a life that has been transformed and because we are joined to Christ, that we should produce or “bear fruit” for God. In Galatians 5, it contrasts the fruit of a sinful life with that of the fruit of the Spirit in our new relationship with Christ. The fruit of the sinful condemned man is seen in 5:19-21, “Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you just as I have forewarned you that those who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God”. It goes on to describe in the life of the believer, we will began to produce the fruit of the Spirit which is seen in Gal. 5:22-25, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit”). In verse 5, that when we were sinners we produced the fruit of death which comes through living a life of sin under the law. The purpose for us being joined with Christ is to produce fruit for God for it says in Eph. 2:10, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works...”). We were delivered from the law and united to Christ to bear fruit for God. Our lives have been delivered from the penalty of sin whose fruit is death so that we will live out holy lives which is the fruit of repentance. The old life under the law was evident in the sinful life we lived, it was evident that we were under the condemnation of the law because of sin. But if we are truly His, in a new relationship with Christ then our lives will bear fruit for God, it will be evident as we live out our lives to Christ's glory. In this study of Romans 6 and 7, we see that we are delivered from our old sinful life condemned by the law. We have been released, set free, and made dead to the law and sin which only brings condemnation and death. We were held by it and bound to it. There was no way out. But God who was rich in mercy and grace has provided deliverance from it through the death and resurrection of Christ. Through Christ's death we have died to sin and the law and by His resurrection we now live eternally in Christ; it says in verse 6, that since we are delivered in Christ from the death of the law that we should serve God in the newness of the Spirit not in the oldness of the law. It could be best summed up by Paul in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me”.

The Law did what it was supposed to do and that it showed me how sinful I truly was and convicted me of my evil. But it also pointed me to the one who saved me from the condemnation of the Law. Ask yourselves today, have you let God deal with your sin and the condemnation of you as a sinner seen through the holy law of God? Only Christ can cleanse you of your sins and deliver you from the penalty of sin, which is eternity in Hell. Put your faith in Christ today.