1 Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?
2 For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.
3 So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.
4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
Romans chapters 6,7 and 8 deal with how a believer can and should live for God. That is called sanctification. So how can we live to please God?
Vs 1.) “Know ye not…?” It all starts with knowing some specific things that Paul explains in these chapters. Review the five “know ye”s in chapter 6 to make sure you know these basics that are so essential in order to walk in step with God.
“We…desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God”.
(Col 1:9,10) What does this say is necessary to walk worthy of the Lord and do good works that please Him?
In verse 1, Paul points out a principle that is obvious. Laws have power over people as long as they are alive, but have no effect on the dead.
Vs 2 & 3.) Here is an illustration of this principle. When a husband dies, the marriage law no longer applies to him or to his wife. (These verses are not about marriage today. We are not under Israel’s law now. Marriage is only used here as an example of a law. For instructions about marriage in our age, read I Corinthians 7.)
Vs 4.) Now here is the application of the principle in verse 1. When we believed and God the Spirit baptized us into “the body of Christ”, our old sin identity died with Christ. (Rom 6:3; I Cor 12:13) Once our old self is dead, the law that governed it has nothing more to do with us.
Death of our old identity ends our need for God’s law. “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ,” Once we are in Christ, “we are no longer under a schoolmaster.” (Gal 3:24,25) As I Tim 1:9,10 says “the law is not made for a righteous (saved) man.”
“Dead to the law” means separated from it, having nothing to do with it.
Now we can get on with life in Christ, our new identity. The reason for ridding us of our old identity and the law, is “that we should bring forth fruit unto God”. This is impossible to do by trying to keep the law today in the age of grace. Now we have God’s Spirit (mind, I Cor 2:12-16) and He wants us to walk in that mind-set. (Gal 5:16-18; Eph 4:23,24) The Spirit doesn’t need a law. (Rom 8:4) The law is kept by the flesh, so when we are trying to keep the law, we are walking after the flesh, not the Spirit.
The law could never keep people from sinning, it just pointed out sin and condemned it. (Rom 3:19,20) So if we try to please God by keeping the law, or any other set of rules, we will be condemned all the time by our constant failures.
In contrast, under grace, we can rejoice all the time in Christ’s victory in paying for our failures. (Phil 4:4) We seek to please Christ out of love and gratitude (Eph 5:1,2; Col 3:13-17) like a new bride wants to please her husband. “For it is God which worketh in you (through His word) both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” Phil 2:13 (Again, marriage here is an illustration. It is not
saying that we are the “bride of Christ” as many claim we are. Look up Rev 21:9,10 to see who that bride really is.)
5 For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
6 But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.
Vs 5.) “When we were in the flesh” refers to the time before we trusted in Christ. (Rom 8:8,9; Gal 5:25) At that time sin moved us, like pawns according to the laws of chess, toward certain death.
Vs 6.) “But now…” (Paul’s “but now”s always shine hope into a completely dark scene!) …we are delivered from the law” WHY? Because our old sin identity, to which the law applied, is dead.
Now we can choose to serve God with a grateful and willing mind (that’s called “newness of spirit”), not out of fear of punishment for breaking the “letter” of the law.
“For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” (2 Tim 1:7)
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