Hopefully, everyone took some time to review the last several weeks of studies from Romans 6. As we continue our journey through chapters 6, 7, and 8, it's like math: you must get the previous chapter's principles, or the following chapter won't make sense. (Btw, math was my least favorite subject, so I have no doubt you can grasp the book of Romans).
Chapter 6 was a deep dive into how we are no longer under law but under grace (the law shows us our sin and points us toward the Messiah). Grace is now available through the person of Christ, and we underwent a spiritual, transformational death and life when we chose to trust in Christ's work and not our own efforts.
Chapter 6 is about the old nature dying so we can experience a new life of grace through the Messiah, and chapter 7 further underscores that we are free from the law. In a moment, we'll read what Paul has to say. Remember that Paul was a devout Jew according to Philippians 3:5-6: "circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless." He knew the law, the requirement it held, and the devotion it required:
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?2 For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her to him.3 So then, if she has sexual relations with another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man.
Paul is emphatic in helping us understand how we are no longer under the law, but under love. He gives us a human illustration of a marriage covenant. We were once married to the law (perfection demanded), but when one dies, those obligations and covenantal contracts end, and we are free from those specific laws due to the spouse's death.
This death dissolves our marriage obligation to the law, leaving us at liberty to contract a new relation—to be joined to the Risen One, to spiritual fruitfulness, to the glory of God. Our death with Jesus (explained in chapter 6) sets us free from the law, as Paul communicates to us again in 7:4:
So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. 5 For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death.
What a fantastic purpose: to bear fruit for God. Before, we produced death, but since we are now dead to it, we are transformed into life, and the natural growth is righteous fruit. Paul goes on to summarize verses 1-5 in this next verse and reminds us of our deliverance once more:
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, and not in the old way of the written code.
The law does not justify us; it does not make us right with God. The law does not sanctify us; it does not take us deeper with God and make us more holy before Him. The law reveals our sin. If this seems confusing or new to you, that's okay. We'll work on this spiritual principle more next week as we jump into 7. The law had a beautiful purpose and need, and we must understand why.
Until next week!