Romans 7:1-6

                                                                 Romans 7:1-6

Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress. Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.

Whenever we are told not to do something, we are automatically drawn towards and tempted to do that very thing.  If a parent tells a child not to open a box that is sitting on the table, as soon as the parent leaves the room, you can be assured that the child will head straight for that box.  He might not open it right away but will get close to it, touch it, pick it up, shake it, and then maybe drop it in such a way that the lid just happens to come off.  This is the way our fallen human nature works.  This is why the Law of Moses would never work to bring about salvation.  The Law only brought about a greater awareness and even a desire to sin.

  

IN CHRIST WE HAVE BEEN LIBERATED FROM THE LAW: When Christ died on the cross, He died our death.  He fulfilled the law and then he paid the price that the law demanded for sin even though He had no sin.  In so doing, the law of God has been satisfied and we are released from any obligation to try to fulfill the law on our own, which we are all unable to do.  Paul uses the illustration of marriage to demonstrate that a wife is bound to her husband as long as he is alive.  However, when her husband dies, she is free to marry another without being accused of adultery.  Humanity was under bondage to the law until Christ set us free from that bondage.  Our obligation to the law died in Christ.

 

IN CHRIST WE ARE ABLE TO SERVE GOD BY THE SPIRIT: Through faith we have become the bride of Christ.  We belong to Him.  Instead of being in bondage to the law, we are in a covenant relationship with Christ.  His righteousness belongs to us.  The law was only capable of demonstrating our own sin to us.  In fact, we were so under the bondage of sin that the law even created a deeper desire for sin in us.  That love for the prohibited has been replaced by a love for Christ that has been placed in our hearts by the Spirit of God.  He has changed us and the delights of our hearts.  This is the power of the Gospel and the promise of Christ for all who believe.

 

APPLICATION: Stop striving to follow a law that only tempts us to sin more.  Trust in Christ alone for salvation and trust His Spirit to change our affections and desires so that our delight will be in Christ.  Recognized the weakness of the flesh and surrender to Jesus to give us the power to be set free from sin and death by the death and resurrection of Jesus.