Free from the Law                              Romans 7:1-6

Today as you can see, I want to continue our examination of Paul’s letter to the Roman Church. Romans was one of the last letters Paul wrote, yet the Holy Spirit placed it first among his letters in the New Testament, and I believe that’s because this letter has so many theological explanations of the work of Jesus and what it all means to us on a personal level.

Verse 1, “Do you not know, brothers and sisters – for I am speaking to those who know the law – that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives.”

Paul is writing this part of his letter to the Jewish Christians, those who were given the Law of Moses, those who have been taught that the law ruled, and they must adhere to it or risk losing God and his grace.

The Bible is known as the “Living Word,” and it may have been written thousands of years ago, but its lessons and undercurrents apply to us in this age. As I look at this passage, I see under the surface of the Jewish Christians Paul is addressing all Christians today; all those who believe in Jesus for salvation, but layer that belief with rules, laws, and traditions. For those today who say faith saves, but you have to do this, you have to tithe,         you have to convert this number of souls to gain God’s grace.

Verse 2, “For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if he dies, she is released from the law…” Paul uses this example to make a point; the law has jurisdiction over the living, not over the dead. And then next, Paul goes on to show his audience how this analogy applies to them, and to us; verse 4, “So brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ…”

Now this can seem confusing and there’s a few things in here that I’m going to try to work through. First, by her husband’s death, the woman is free to remarry. She’s free to live a life not alone but with another. In this example, a death is the pivot point that changes the trajectory of several lives. In verse 4, Paul applies this point to us. We died to the law through the death of Jesus. It’s through a death that the law no longer has rule over us. We are free to be “remarried” to Christ. Our joining with Christ is the axis in our lives. We are now legally free in God’s eyes to be righteous, and to bear fruit for God and his kingdom.

People don’t always understand that for us to die to the law means we now live for Christ. Paul’s enemies tried to convince people that Paul meant that to die to the law meant we can now live lawlessly, doing whatever we please. Romans 8:3-4, “And so he condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us…”

 Paul explains here that dying to the law does not mean we are not obligated to keep moral commandments; we are charged by God to live a moral life according to his teachings. But as we go through a mortal life in an imperfect world, we will fail at times to do what God says. Yet in those times, the righteous requirements of God’s law is still met in us through our faith, and through our joining with Christ.

Now I want to touch on Romans 13:8 and how it relates to these verses; “…for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.” Too many people corrupt this; “I offer scathing criticism, but with love in my heart. I still love my spouse, so it’s ok to cheat. I can do whatever I want because I do it with love.” It sort of reminds me of the southern saying, “Bless his heart.” You can say anything as long as you add, “Bless his heart.” “That is one horrible hair style she got, bless her heart.”

As I study Paul, I see that as a Pharisee, he believed he was blameless in regard to the law. He didn’t know he was only blameless in the sense of outward obedience, and I bet he wasn’t perfect in that either. Paul’s very belief in his adherence to the law exposes his pride. In his heart he was proud of his blamelessness, and pride is a sin.

People are no different today. I knew a woman who would tell me she went to church every day, sometimes twice on Sunday. She told me what a great Christian she was. She was also one of the most uncaring and vindictive people I ever met. We need to take care not to be prideful in our faith. We need to be careful not to let ourselves feel we are better than others because of our faith.

Verse 6, “But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit…”

Dying to the law means we are free from the condemnation of the law. Paul writes in this verse that the law held us in bondage. It did this by putting us under the curse because we failed to keep it perfectly.

Romans 5:20, “The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more.” Attempting to be right with God by keeping the law is doomed to failure. The law’s only benefit in regard to salvation is in its showing us the impossible standard of holiness God demands. And how it shows us Christ is our only hope.

Verse 5, “For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us…” Dying to the law means we are now free from the law’s inability to produce obedience. Think of human nature, see a sign that says, “Keep off the grass,” and don’t you just want to step on the grass. Sometimes laws instill in us a desire to see how far we can push against it. Even Paul contends with this; Romans 7:7-8, “For I would not know what coveting was if the law had not said ‘You shall not covet.’ But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting.”

So we see we have died to the law and are reborn in union with Christ. Great, what does it mean to be in union with Christ?

 Our union with Christ is a loving one. Verse 4 says, “You also died to the law through the body of Christ.” This points to the cross where Jesus died a horrible death as payment for our sin. Ephesians 5:25, “…Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” Christ loves us enough to accept the cross. Now we willingly accept him, not because of fear, but also because of love, our love of him.

Our union with Christ is a liberating one. We are no longer bound to sin, we are free to live bound to God. Romans 6:14, “For sin shall no longer be your master because you are not under the law, but under grace.”

Our union with Christ is an eternal and holy one. Romans 6:22, “But now you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefits you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.”

 Congregationalist Reverand Martin Lloyd-Jones wrote, “You are either a Christian or you are not a Christian; you cannot be partly Christian…we either are, or we are not Christian.”

Today we see that faith has eternal consequences, and it’s our faith that saves us. Rules and laws and traditions only affect us while we live, they do nothing for our eternity. We see that God gives us two ways to live, under the law’s dominion, or under God’s grace. We see that being joined with Christ means we are no longer condemned by the law, when we fail, Christ’s righteousness is ours through his death. We see that the law cannot produce our obedience to it, human nature pushes us to break it. We see we are in a mutually loving relationship with Christ, this is not a one-way relationship. We see that by our faith we are redeemed, sanctified, glorified, and holy; eternally with God in us, and eternally in God.

And finally, we see a couple of warnings for believers. Galatians 5:6, “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” We are warned not to pervert this premise. We are warned not to condemn others, not to live a unlawful life claiming we do so in love. And we are warned not to be prideful. We must not believe our faith means we don’t ever sin, we must not believe our faith puts us above anybody else. We must understand this, and we must live this in all our dealings with others.

Believe, be saved, and live for God.

Amen