From Law to Liberty

From Law to Liberty

Romans 7:1-6

When I was in high school, a certain number of community service hours were required to graduate. However, because I played sports, my free time outside of school was very limited so, by the start of my senior year, I had built up very few community service hours. Our school had a large special needs population, and although most of them were fully integrated into the student body, a few of them had severe disabilities that required separation from the rest of the student body, especially during lunch. Since I had limited time outside of school hours and needed to meet my required hours, I decided to volunteer three days a week and eat lunch with those students who were self-contained.

Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I left my friends, took my lunch, and sat in a classroom with four to five special needs students in order to fulfill my required community service hours. By the end of the first semester, I had met all my required hours, but every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I still left my friends and went to eat with my new friends. I was no longer required to do it, but I wanted to do it. I was freed from the requirement, but I continued to do it from the heart. Something that had begun as a requirement became a delight. 

Can you relate? Have your parents, teachers, or boss ever required you to do something that turned into something you wanted to do even though you didn’t have to do it anymore? We all have things we are required to do, but none of us have to adhere to the list of requirements laid out in the Mosaic Law. Those requirements had dominated the life of the Jewish people since they were given on Mount Sinai. The Torah contains 613 written laws, which have been categorized as the civil, ceremonial, and moral laws. These laws were meant as a guide to righteousness and were intended to set the Jewish people apart from the rest of the world and show that they belonged to God and served Yahweh.

It is hard for us to fully understand how the Law affected every area of Jewish life. After they had returned from exile, Nehemiah was shocked at how the Jewish people disregarded the Law. 

In those days I saw in Judah people treading winepresses on the Sabbath, and bringing in heaps of grain and loading them on donkeys, and also wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of loads, which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. And I warned them on the day when they sold food. Tyrians also, who lived in the city, brought in fish and all kinds of goods and sold them on the Sabbath to the people of Judah, in Jerusalem itself! Then I confronted the nobles of Judah and said to them, “What is this evil thing that you are doing, profaning the Sabbath day? Did not your fathers act in this way, and did not our God bring all this disaster on us and on this city? Now you are bringing more wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath.” 

As soon as it began to grow dark at the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I commanded that the doors should be shut and gave orders that they should not be opened until after the Sabbath. And I stationed some of my servants at the gates, that no load might be brought in on the Sabbath day. Then the merchants and sellers of all kinds of wares lodged outside Jerusalem once or twice. But I warned them and said to them, “Why do you lodge outside the wall? If you do so again, I will lay hands on you.” From that time on they did not come on the Sabbath. Then I commanded the Levites that they should purify themselves and come and guard the gates, to keep the Sabbath day holy. Nehemiah 13:15–22b

Instead of being distinct from the rest of the world by obeying the Sabbath, they had disregarded it and become like the rest of the world. The Jewish people were hardwired to obey the Sabbath. This is why the Pharisees had such a difficult time with Jesus when He performed miracles on the Sabbath. God had judged the Jews through the prophets for not keeping the Law, so any breach of the Mosaic Law was extremely serious.

Enter the Apostle Paul. He tells the Romans, “you are not under law but under grace.” To Jewish ears, that was a shocking sentence. For their whole lives, they have been taught that they live under the Law. Their diets, their interactions with their neighbors, even when they could work were all governed by the Law. Yet, Paul writes, “you are not under law but under grace.”, and in Romans 6:15-23,  he begins to unpack what that means. Christians are no longer slaves of sin but have become slaves of righteousness. Paul sums up his argument in Romans 6. 

But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. Romans 6:17-18

Christians have become obedient from the heart. They do not obey God merely out of duty, but out of the delight of their hearts. They do not obey as a requirement but as a joy. 

In Romans 7, Paul will spend a considerable amount of time teaching Christians about their relation to the Law. In verses 1 through 6, he continues his argument from chapter 6 and begins to lay the groundwork for the rest of chapter 7.

The Idea of Bondage to the Law (v. 1)

To begin, Paul states a fact about the law on which his readers would unanimously agree. 

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? Romans 7:1

Again, although it is written as a question, Paul is actually making a statement, “The law is binding on a person only as long as he lives.” This would have been almost unanimously accepted. Then Paul adds a parenthetical statement. “Or do you not know brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law–” Paul assumes the Roman Christians have a strong knowledge of the Old Testament Law. Many of the Christians in the church at Rome were former Jews who had become Christians, but even the Gentiles in the church would have been familiar with the Old Testament because it was the Scripture of the early church.

Paul begins his argument by stating several universal facts. He states, “The law is binding on a person only as long as he lives”, then he goes on to illustrate the principle.

The Illustration of Bondage to the Law (v. 2-3)

Keep in mind that Paul is continuing his argument from Romans 6 and trying to help the Romans see that they are not under law but under grace. They are no longer slaves to the law but are now obedient out of a desire of the heart. They obey not because they have to but because they want to. Paul uses the example of marriage to illustrate being bound to  the law and then being freed from the law.

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. Romans 7:2–3

When people get married, it is “until death do us part.” A married woman is bound to her husband, by law, while her husband is alive. They made a covenant before God and the community to be committed to one another in marriage as long as they both live. If the husband dies, the woman is released from the law of marriage. Paul is saying that she is free, if and only if, her husband dies. He states positively and then negatively. If the woman leaves her husband, who she is bound to by law, before his death and lives with another man as if that man was her husband, she is an adultress. Why? Because she is bound by the law; she is not free to marry. 

This passage is not intended to provide detailed instructions on divorce and remarriage here. Paul addresses that in detail in 1 Corinthians 7. Here, he is merely using marriage as an illustration on how one is bound to the law and how one is freed from the law. Do not get distracted from his argument here by delving into divorce and remarriage. (If you have questions, feel free to text Whit, and we will address them in the Sermon Review podcasts, or contact me and we can set a time to discuss it.) 

Paul is not using marriage as an allegory for the Chritian life as some commentators suggest. He is merely using the largely accepted understanding of marriage to illustrate the principle, “the law is binding on a person as long as he lives.” Paul wants his audience to understand what he means when he says, “You are not under law but grace.” For someone who lives under law, it can be very hard to understand grace. When people live under certain rules, it can be difficult to understand life outside of those rules.

When Ellen and I lived in Washington, D.C., we hosted high school students in our home for dinner and a Bible Study. Everyone knew that no cell phones were allowed at the table. One day, we invited a new student, who took a phone call during dinner. Every one of the students who regularly attended looked at the newcomer with shock and disgust. He had broken the law of no cell phones at the table, and he was judged for it. I remember a Sunday here at Park when one of our senior saints told me that her father had required her to wear a dress to church every Sunday. She told me she vividly remembered wearing pants to church for the first time, and then she said, “I still feel a little weird about wearing pants today.” 

When certain norms and rules have been established in a family, group, or society, it feels wrong to break them. Paul knew that for his audience to hear, “you are not under law but under grace,” would have felt weird even though it was true, so he used the illustration of marriage because it would have been easy to understand. If you are married, you are bound to your spouse until he or she dies. If  your spouse dies, you are freed from the law of marriage. After stating and then illustrating his point, Paul then gives the implications of the principle. 

The Implications of Breaking from the Law (v. 4-6)

What does it mean to not be under the law but under grace? What does it mean to be freed from the law? What is a Christian’s relationship to the law? Paul hopes to answer these questions and begins by summarizing the previous chapter. 

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. Romans 7:4-6

Paul starts with “likewise,”, which connects his previous thought with the implications he is about to address. 

We have died to the law through the Body of Christ 

You are no longer under the law because you have died to the law. When Jesus died, He died to sin once and for all. He died to the law, fulfilling all its legal requirements that stood against us. He paid the full penalty that the law required, and that payment was accepted when He was raised from the dead. When we become Christians, we are baptized into His death. We are united to Him in His death. We have been buried with Him by baptism into death. We died to the law through the body of Christ and were united with His body when we became Christians. To be a Christian is to be united with Christ in His death. 

If you are not a Christian, this may seem strange to you. The Bible teaches that every person must fulfill the law of righteousness, which is the standard God requires in order to be accepted by Him. The problem is that no one can fulfill the requirements of this law by their good works. The Bible teaches that every one of us has fallen short of God’s standard and broken the law of righteousness and must, therefore, be treated as a lawbreaker. In our society, those who break laws deserve to be punished, whether it is a teenager who breaks the law of curfew, a driver who breaks the law of speed limit in a school zone, or a drug addict who breaks the law by using illegal substances. All of them deserve to be punished. We cannot deny that we are all lawbreakers. We may have broken different laws, but we have all broken some laws. Therefore, we all deserve to be punished. The wages of sin, which is breaking the law, is death. We deserve death for breaking the law. 

That is the problem, but God provided a solution. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. God sent Jesus to fulfill the righteous requirements of the law. Jesus lived a perfect life, meaning He was righteous and never sinned. He never had an evil thought or did anything that was not written in the law. But even though He was perfect, He was treated as a lawbreaker. He was crucified on a cross to pay for sins, not His own sins but the sins of anyone who turns from their sins and trusts in Him. Right before He died, He said, “It is finished.” The “it” was Him fulfilling the righteous requirements of the law and dying for sinners once and for all.

But the best news is not just that Jesus died, but that three days later, He was raised from the dead. Jesus is alive. He lives, and because He lives, you can live too. If you repent of your sins and trust in Jesus Christ, God will save you. You will be united with Him in His death and His resurrection. You are united in His death in that His death becomes your death. The wages of sin is death, and when we are united with Jesus, He has died the death we deserve and paid our penalty. You are united with Him in His resurrection in that His resurrection becomes your resurrection and you will experience eternal life in Jesus Christ. Friend, I do not know the details of your life, but I know you are a sinner in need of a Savior. Jesus stands ready to save you. Only trust Him, and He will save you. 

It is impossible to understand Romans 7:4-6 unless you understand the person and work of Jesus Christ. Christian, Jesus died to the law and because you have been united with Him, you have died to the law. And since you have died to the law, you have been set free from it. 

Having been set free from the law, we belong to Jesus Christ

The law is binding on a person only as long as he lives. You were bound to the law as long as you lived in sin, but since you died to sin and were united with the body of Christ in His death, you have been set free from the law so that you may rightfully belong to another. Jesus Christ is not dead; He is alive. He rose from the dead, and since we have been united with Him in a death like His, we have been united with Him in a resurrection like His. We are not under the law, but under grace because we have been set free from the law through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The death of Christ frees us from the law. Because He died to the law, we are now free to belong to another. 

We belong to Jesus Christ. The language Paul uses continues the slave language of Romans 6. We have been set free from the law and now belong, as willing, joyful slaves, to Jesus Christ. 

We belong to Jesus Christ in order to bear fruit for God

We are not saved from sin merely to escape the penalty of the law. We have been saved from death unto life. We belong to Jesus Christ, our Master, our Savior, our Elder Brother, in order that we might bear fruit for God. This fruit has two spheres: internal and external. Attitude and Action. In Galatians 5, Paul defines the fruits of the Spirit.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Galatians 5:22–24

Those who belong to Jesus Christ have crucified, or killed, their sinful passions and desires in order to bear love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control in their attitudes and actions. Belonging to Jesus Christ is being changed from the inside out. Because our hearts have changed, we want to live for God. 

The Holy Spirit has been poured into our hearts so that we can live resurrected lives. Our lives should be new since we are in Christ who became new when He rose from the dead. The Spirit has given us gifts to be used for the common good. If one has the gift of teaching, let them teach; the gift of service, let him serve; the gift of mercy, let him be merciful. We are not called to sit on the sidelines of the Christian life. We are called to bear fruit for God, which is both an internal and external work. We sit at the feet of Jesus and choose the good portion. Every day, we bask in the sunshine of the Gospel, and then we get busy for the Lord.

 Can you imagine preparing a great feast, only to find out that you are the only person who will enjoy it?  No! You work hard in the kitchen so that you can bless others around the table. The same is true for the Christian. We labor hard to know God and rejoice in what He has done for us in Christ so that we can be a blessing to others with our words of encouragement and our hands of service. You may need help discerning how the Lord has made you and how He has gifted you to serve the Body, but you belong to Jesus Christ so that you can bear fruit to God. When God gives you a gift, He wants you to use it to bless others. 

I would add that it is important for us to consider the belonging language in the daily life of our church. Jesus Christ set us free from the law so that we can belong to Him and bear fruit. To belong to Him is to be united with His Body, and to be united with His Body is to be united with the church. Let me encourage you to belong to Jesus Christ by belonging to His people through covenant membership in a local church. Church membership is not an add on to the Christian life; it is foundational to it. We belong to God through Jesus Christ and also to one another in the Gospel. 

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.
1 Corinthians 12:12–27

I cannot hear this belonging language without considering the implications of belonging to God and being members of His Body. 

The law revealed our sinful passions

As Paul continues, he shifts from the blessings of the Christian life to remembering what their lives were like when they were bound to the law. 

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. Romans 7:5

When we were bound by the law, it exposed the sinful passions of our hearts that were always there. It reveals what is really happening in our hearts. Consider a child who is told not to eat the cookies, but when you come back, chocolate is all over his face. He may not have even wanted a cookie until you told him that he couldn't have one. In the same way, now that the law is stated, sin is aroused in our hearts making us want the cookie. The law does not create sin in our hearts; it merely exposes it. 

When we were living for our sinful desires, we were bearing fruit for death. We were running after sin, and it was killing us and preparing us for wrath and eternal death. Beloved, always remember who you once were and the fruit of your former sin, so that you will never return to it, 

We now serve in the Spirit not under the law.

In Romans 6:14-15, Paul began his argument about not being under the law but under grace.  Now he closes his argument by alluding to the New Covenant promises of Jeremiah and Ezekiel. 

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. Romans 7:6

 We now live by the Spirit not by the law. This is a fulfillment of the promise of the New Covenant. 

For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”  Jeremiah 31:33–34

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. Ezekiel 36:25–27

Paul is helping his audience see that this has always been the plan. God promised to send His Spirit to live with us so that we could walk and obey His rules. Remember we obey these requirements not because we have to but because we want to. We have been released from the law so that we now serve in the new way of the Spirit according to our new resurrected status.

We no longer live to justify ourselves with the works of the law. We are no longer defined by the written code; we are defined by the Spirit who dwells within us. We no longer do good works to earn salvation but to please our Savior. Christianity is not about a list of rules or a list of do’s and don'ts. It is about a Person. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we are now freed from the law to obey our Savior, Jesus Christ. 

Christianity is not a list of requirements that we have to do; it is a Person we get to worship. We belong to Jesus Christ. He has ransomed His life for ours. We were bought with a price. He laid down His life to bring us God. We are called to do good works, but the good works are not about us. They are now about Jesus. We are not under law but under grace, and we must remember that grace is a Person. Beloved, you belong to Jesus. You have died to the law and been set free from all its requirements so that you can serve Him through the power of His Holy Spirit.