February 10, 2002
“LIFE IN
CHRIST – NOT LIFE UNDER THE LAW”
Romans 7:1-6
In Romans 6 Paul pointed out that before we came to Christ we were dead in our sins, a virtual slave to sin under the Law, but once we have embraced Christ as our Saviour, we are now no longer under the Law but alive to God in Christ Jesus and a servant of His.
Now in chapter 7, to further emphasize our life in Christ and the hopelessness of life under the Law, Paul brings in a brilliant illustration or example. He reminds us that the Law has jurisdiction over a person as long as that person is alive. He further states that a married woman is automatically bound by law to her husband while he is living. But, if her husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband.
Or do you not know brethren,(for I am speaking to
those who know the law, that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as
he lives? For the married woman is
bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is
released from the law concerning the husband.
So then if, while her husband is living, she is joined to another man,
she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from
the law, so that she is not an adulteress, though she is joined to another man.
Paul now makes the application.
Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die
to the Law through the body of Christ, that you might be joined to another, to
Him who was raised from the dead, that we might bear fruit for God. For while we were in the flesh, the sinful
passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our
body to bear fruit for death.
We were in the flesh through Adam and sin was steadily at work in us – aroused by the Law (for don’t we naturally want to do the things we are told we can’t do?) And the result of that sin is death!
A wise man once said that the best way to know God’s estimate of sin is to realize the tremendous price it took to atone for sin, the death of His Son.
Verse 6 is the clincher:
But now we have been released from the Law, having
died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit
and not in oldness of the letter.
The interpretation: Adam was our first husband. Through Adam we were bound by the Law of the flesh it do its bidding. We could not serve God. But on the cross Adam was crucified in Christ. We were in Adam so we died in Adam on the cross - - - BUT we were raised up with Christ so we share our life in Him and under His law to serve God in newness of life.
Beloved, let this sink in. We are no longer required to serve under the old law of our first husband. We are free to serve under the new law of our second husband, Jesus Christ. Again I say, “Praisealleujah!”
Love
to you all,