Freedom from law. In the previous section, Paul showed that a Christian has freedom from sin because he is identified with Christ in death. The believer now lives unto God! Now Paul shows that one cannot live unto God in grace at the same time as being under the law. He speaks especially to Jewish believers, but it applies to all Christians. The doctrine previously expounded showed that freedom from sin could not be enjoyed by those who were under the Law, but under grace (Rom. 6:15). The question naturally arises: “If I am a Jew, I am born into a legal relationship with God. How can I escape my obligation to the Law in order to live under grace alone?” The answer is: identification with Christ in death frees a person from the claims of the Law, as well as from the power of sin! As mentioned, this applies to the principle of law in general, as well as to the Mosaic law.

The Law. Often new believers who are trying to find practical deliverance from sin will look to the Law for deliverance. This is a big mistake. In Rom. 7 Paul writes to show the folly of this, to describe the experience of a soul under law, and the solution in Christ. Three things that the Law cannot do:

1. It does not give us life.
2. It does not give us strength to perform according to its demands.
3. It does not give us an object for our hearts.

Difference between the Law and sin. Jewish believers needed to be free from the Law as well as sin; but there is a great difference between sin and the Law: sin is an evil thing, while the Law is a good thing (“holy, just, and good”, v.12). However, even though it is good, it does need to be used for its intended purpose.

The Law’s Dominion is Restricted to a Person’s Lifetime (v.1)

 

v.1 The Limits of the Dominion of Law. Paul introduces a foundational principle: law only governs a person while they are alive. This serves as a legal and spiritual axiom. Death severs all legal obligation, and therefore, once a person dies, they are no longer under the rule of the law. This is not about the law dying, but about the person dying. The law continues to function in its domain, but believers, having died with Christ, have been removed from that jurisdiction. The believer no longer stands before God in Adamic life; he is now in Christ and outside the law’s reach. The parenthesis in this verse tells us that Paul now addresses himself specifically to his Jewish brethren; “for I speak to those knowing law”. However, these things are still important for all Christians, not just converted Jews, because many come to Christ from a legal Christian background, and often someone seeking deliverance will put themselves under a self-imposed law.

 

 

vv.2-3 Death Breaks the Marriage Bond. Paul uses the illustration of marriage to clarify how legal bonds are dissolved by death. A woman is bound to her husband while he lives, but death frees her from that obligation and allows her to be joined to another without guilt. Death must come in. If a woman is married to a man, and he turns out to be strict and hard to get along with it’s too bad. She must remain “til death do us part”. The type is clear. The woman is a Jew, and the Law is her first husband. The expression “the law of the husband” refers to the legal principle of marriage. But death is something that breaks the marriage bond, and it frees her to be married to a new, nicer husband. This is not teaching that the Law has died (see v.4) but simply the principle that death breaks the force of the Law. In the analogy, it is the husband who dies; in the spiritual application, it is the believer who dies. It is moral adultery to take a second husband while the first lives, and it is spiritual adultery to try to be under Christ’s headship and the Law’s dominion at the same time. This is a strong argument, and one that the Judaizing teachers would do well to understand. It isn’t just that it doesn’t work practically, but it is spiritually wrong. This is the basis for us to reject of any attempt to combine the Law and Christ as co-rulers over the Christian life. Just as a woman cannot have two husbands, a believer cannot live under both the Law and Christ—they are mutually exclusive. Death to the Law clears the way for union with Christ. Once again, death results in freedom. In this case, freedom to remarry in good standing with God. The word “married to another” (3X) is not in the original. It should be translated “belong to another”, because marriage to Christ is still future (Rev. 19:7-10)!

 

 

v.4 Dead to the Law. Jewish believers, once under the Law, have been released from it through death with Christ. They are now joined to the risen Christ for the purpose of bearing fruit to God.  In the illustration (vv.2-3) the husband dies, but in the application of the principle (vv.4-6), it is the wife who dies. Remember, the Law has dominion over a man so long as he lives (v.1), not so long as it lives. We have died “by the body of the Christ” or by identification with Him in his physical death, which has broken the Law’s claim over us. Who are we espoused to now? The very one that set us free. The believer’s relationship with the Law has ended; Christ alone now governs his walk. Attempting to reintroduce the Law into Christian life is not only ineffective but spiritually unfaithful—it undermines the exclusivity of our union with Christ. The question might arise, “is my new husband going to eventually die?” No. he has been raised in a manner that puts him beyond the reach of death. What is the purpose of this great change? That we might bear fruit. Fruitfulness now flows from this new relationship, not from legal obligation. We couldn’t bear fruit under law (v.5). Note that it doesn’t say we are risen, but that we are espoused to One who is risen.

 

 

vv.5-6 A Practical Description of This Change. Instead of the Law controlling the flesh, it did the opposite: it aroused the flesh, stirring up sinful desires. If we put some restriction on the flesh, it immediately rebels against that restriction (Rom. 8:7, more follows in the rest of Rom. 7). The believer has died to that entire system—both the state (“in the flesh”) and its regulator (the Law). In v.6 we have a summary of the principle in application to deliverance. The relationship with the new husband is far different from the relationship with the old. Jews were “held” under the Law, but died by identification with Christ. They now serve Him from the response of their new nature (“newness of spirit”), not because they are afraid of the consequences of a broken law (“oldness of letter”). Bruce Anstey gives a helpful illustration of a housemaid who becomes a bride. She once served her employer out of obligation, but now, as his wife, serves him more joyfully and fully out of love. So too the believer now serves Christ in “newness of spirit”, and no longer needs a list of commandments!