Day 1 Dying to the Law

Dying to the Law

Do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives? 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 of marriage. So then, if she marries 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 even though she marries another man.

So, my brothers, 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. Romans 7:1-4

The negative effects of the Mosaic law have been a recurring theme in Romans. Paul has argued that possession of the law did not improve Israel’s situation before God. It was not possession of the law but obedience that counted and Israel failed to fulfil the law (2:12,13,17-24). As a result the law was unable to justify a person (3:20,28). In fact the overall impact of the law on Israel had been negative. It stirred up consciousness of sin (3:20), brought wrath (4:15) and increased trespass (5:20). If Christians were to be free from sin, they must also be taken out from under the law’s binding authority (6:14,15)

In 7:1-6 Paul addresses the negative effects of the Mosaic law and its relationship to believers. Following the ‘not under law but under grace’ contrast of 6:14,15, Paul states that Christians have been set free from the binding authority of the Mosaic law (7:4 is the centre of the paragraph). 7:1-3 leads up to this central point with a general principle and an illustration and 7:5,6 gives further explanation and elaboration.

Much of what Paul says in 7:1-6 parallels chapter 6. As believers ‘die to sin’ (6:2) and are set free from it (6:6), so they ‘die to the law’ (7:4) and are set free from it (7:6). As freedom from sin leads to serving God and producing fruit pleasing to Him (6:18-22), so freedom from the law leads to serving ‘in the new way of the Spirit’ (7:6) and producing ‘fruit to God’ (7:4). These parallels suggest 6:15 – 7:6 is a single, two staged exposition of the new life that freedom from sin and the law produces but it is more likely Paul had in mind in chapters 6 and 7 the parallel arguments about the believer’s relationship to sin and the Mosaic law, the two key powers of the old regime.

Our understanding of the impact of the Mosaic law on our lives as Christians is crucial. Otherwise we find ourselves prey to anyone quoting a few proof texts. Follow closely Paul’s thinking as we work our way through Romans 7.

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