1 Now, dear brothers and sisters – you who are familiar with the law – don’t you know that the law applies only to a person who is still living? 2 Let me illustrate. When a woman marries, the law binds her to her husband as long as he is alive. But if he dies, the laws of marriage no longer apply to her. 3 So while her husband is alive, she would be committing adultery if she married another man. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law and does not commit adultery when she remarries. 4 So this is the point: The law no longer holds you in its power, because you died to its power when you died with Christ on the cross. And now you are united with the one who was raised from the dead. As a result, you can produce good fruit, that is, good deeds for God. 5 When we were controlled by our sinful nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced sinful deeds, resulting in death. 6 But now we have been released from the law, for we died with Christ, and we are no longer captive to its power. Now we can really serve God, not in the old way by obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way, by the Spirit.
Even today, civil law has very little morality built into it. Of course it is against the law to murder, or to steel. It is against the law to drive over the speed limit, or run a stop sign. But civil law usually doesn’t address issues of morality – it is perfectly legal to be gay. In most states it is perfectly legal to have an extra-marital affair. When Paul speaks of “the law”, he is referring to the law of God. Paul began chapter seven by addressing his fellow Jewish Christians. The Jewish Christians just simply could not let go of the Mosaic Law. Throughout the first six chapters, Paul impressed upon them that they are saved through the grace of God, by faith in Jesus Christ, and not by obeying the religious laws. He also drove home the point that anything that distracts us from focusing on Christ is potentially dangerous to their faith.
His point in verse four is this: They are no longer bond by ceremonial religious law, as their ancestors were, because now we have Jesus Christ who fulfilled that law. There needn’t be any more animal sacrifices, because Christ death on the cross paid every sin debt that ever was and ever will be. There was no more need to follow the dietary laws, because we are made clean through the blood of Christ.
These early Christians were holding themselves back from being what God wanted them to be. I’m sure the church leaders were met with resistance on a daily basis. Hypothetically, the church bulletin may have read, “Evangelical outreach this coming Saturday at the market – bring money to buy a sack lunch.” The Jewish Christians may have responded, “We can’t go on Saturday – it’s the Sabbath! Besides, we don’t go to the market – there are Gentiles there and they might touch our garments and make them unclean. And furthermore, you can’t possibly be suggesting that we buy food from the market and eat it in public… without properly washing it? You must be joking, right?”
Actually, that’s exactly what Paul was saying. We are no longer bound by those laws. We are free to talk to pagans, throw our arms around pagans, and eat with pagans. We are free to show these people, which we may have never spoken to before, the love of Jesus Christ that is shining through us. Paul finished verse four by saying, “As a result, you can produce good fruit, that is, good deeds for God.”
But Satan used the law for a different purpose. Think of it this way; Before you believed, your future was spiritual death, so obeying the law was pointless. “For the wages of sin is death…” Romans 6:23. It is faith in Christ that saves us, not following the law. Without believing, you are dead anyway. There are a whole lot of happy sinners out there that don’t realize the price they are paying.
Then you become religious. You learn all of these religious laws and work to keep them as best as you can. But, the result is that the laws that you so desperately try to keep are turned against you, and now you realize that you are a sinner. And worse, as Paul points out in verse five, the law aroused evil desires that produced sinful deeds. To sin against God, you must first know that your action is a sin, and then choose to disobey God. Before we knew the law, all we had was our sense of right and wrong – which in itself is convicting enough. But now we have the law, and we know when we are sinning. We are trapped in a hopeless, legalistic religion, that still results in spiritual death. At least before you found religion, you were able to live a happy-go-lucky life. Now you’re faced with the reality that there is nothing that you can do to make yourself good enough to be accepted by God.
That is, unless you accept the free gift that God is offering you. Christ death and resurrection made it possible for us sinful humans to be made right with God – not by anything that we can do – but by covering ourselves with His righteousness. “… but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23
Now we are saved! Now we can live our lives in the freedom of knowing that when we leave this earthly life, we will be in the presence of the Lord Himself. We no longer need to fear death, because our eternity is guaranteed. We no longer have to live by religious law, instead we live by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We are released from the law, as Paul explains in verse six, because our old nature died with Christ when we accepted the cross. And now we can truly serve God in the way He has planned for us from the beginning!
Study Questions
Are you still bound by religious law?
Some people try to earn their way to God by keeping a set of rules. But, all they seem to earn for their work is frustration and disappointment. It is only through the power of the Holy Spirit in us that we can truly be free to live for God’s Glory. Ask Him into your heart.
Are you producing good fruit?
Christ said that He is the vine and we are the branches. Apart from Him we can produce no fruit. But, with Him we will produce abundant fruit. Is your focus simply on getting yourself to heaven, or are you out in the world being His hands and feet?
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