WEDDED TO CHRIST DEAD TO THE LAW
Romans 7:1-6
We have been crucified with Christ as Paul explained in the previous chapter which produces a freedom we never had previously. Previously, we were slaves to sin and death, and slaves to our master the devil. We know this was true because the Law held us captive because we broke God’s law and we were bound by the law in judgement and death. But the gospel delivered us from this bondage…. though the Law is perfect, because it’s God’s law for His creation. Understand! The Law is His statues, commandments, ordinances and testimonies. In Deut 6:1-9 we read this revealed truth about God’s Law. “…Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey. "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
Solomon wrote this about God’s law at the end of his letter, “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.” Eccl 12:13-14. To venerate God and to obey Him is the whole man….it is our new disposition in Christ; it requires all of you, not just some parts. Remember God’s law is perfect (Romans 7:12, Psalm 19:7) …….though we have failed to keep it because of our sinful disposition. God holds everyone accountable according to the law. As Paul previously said “Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.” Rom 3:19-20
God's commands/ His law, make us aware of the sin already within us. The law makes us aware that we are sinners, spiritually dead and separated from God. Instead of seeing ourselves as good, and moral, we realize we're corrupt and in need of forgiveness. R C Sproul would even extend the laws reality in this way “The law serves as a restraint upon our sin. We live in a lawless culture, and yet some say we are an over-governed culture. Every year Congress adds hundreds of new laws, new ways to make us guilty before the state and to get into trouble. We have to have law enforcement to keep a civil society because every day people violate the law and other people. Can we imagine what society would be like if we did not have any law? We have laws that post speed limit at 65mph, but we go 75mph or 80mph. If speed limits were removed we would be driving 90mph or 95 mph. There is some restraint, which is why no government is worse than bad government. The worst of all possible societies are those marked by anarchy, because laws, as much as we hate it, still excise some restraint upon us. As sinful as we are, we would be even more sinful if the restraints were removed.”
Paul explains how the law still applies but also releases us from the bondage of the law, to a freedom in Christ with an illustration of marriage. When we get married we take our vows as we promise to honor and cherish each other as long as we both shall live. We understand if one of the spouses die, the man or woman is no longer obligated to those vows. Just as the death of a husband frees a wife to remarry, so the believer is not free to be united to God until he or she is dead to the law.
What Paul is saying is that
the law has authority
over man as long as he lives.
Literally this means the law is “lord over” your life apart from Christ. The Law deems you in your natural disposition as “guilty before God” and the verdict is death and eternal condemnation. Paul reminds the believers in Rome, that we have a new status and a new power through the gospel of Jesus Christ.
We died in Christ, and in
Christ the
law was fulfilled.
Going back to the previous chapter. “For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.” Rom 6:7-10. Paul would go on to say, “For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.” Rom 6:14. And in chapter 14 Paul says, “For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.” Rom 14:8-9. The law binds us and the only way to be released from the law is death. Our death in Christ who took the full force of God the Father’s wrath for our law breaking.
Someone had to die in order
for
you to live again.
Just as death makes the wife free to remarry, through His death and our death, we are free from the law and married to Christ. What is Paul saying? Death is final or complete in the literal sense, but for the Christian this word for death is “passive”. Which would indicates that believers do not die naturally, or put themselves to death, but have been made to die by the divine act of God in response to faith in Christ. The Law has power to condemn you and I to death for our sin but the Law has no power to redeem us. (Romans 6:3-7) It’s Christ alone! What Paul is declaring is that our faith in Christ brings death to the law and consequently freedom from the laws penalty. The law that binds us and regulates our marriage is in effect only as long as our partner remains alive. So Paul argues that, likewise, when the Christian dies with Christ, the law is not binding on the Christian anymore the way it was.
That's why we are not "under law, but grace." Through the gospel of Christ, our death to the law becomes our new life in Christ who suffered the penalty of death on our behalf. And it’s through the gospel we are married to Christ that produces in us a complete change in the relationship as His child, as the church. “For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.” 2 Cor 11:2. In the new birth we are “subject/submit to Christ” as Paul said in Ephesians 5:24-27. One theologian said “Her head, being wholly dependent upon him, and entirely resigned to him, and receiving all from him; from whom alone is all her expectation of provision, protection, comfort, and happiness; wherefore she has respect to all his commands, and esteems all his precepts concerning all things to be right; and yields a cheerful, voluntary, sincere, and hearty obedience to them; arising from a principle of love to him, and joined with honour, fear, and reverence of him.”
What does this produce
according to
Paul being married to Christ?
Bearing Fruit For God. (v4-v5)
In this marriage we bear fruit for God. Because before Christ, we were only bearing fruit for self. (v5). But in Christ…… Everything we do is to be an extension of God’s grace to us, as we do our very best working and serving others, because everything we are doing is….“Unto the Lord”…..
I
serve my church, for the glory of His name.
I
serve my husband, with love for the glory of His name.
I
serve and love my wife and will willing die for her, for the glory of His name.
I
obey and love my parents, for the glory of His name.
I
work my very best and nothing less, for the glory of His name.
Everything
I, we do, is to be done out of a “sincere
heart unto the Lord”
What is the goal of this new union? It is we might “bear fruit for God” in every good work…..because this manifests the character of Jesus Christ in our lives.
Bearing fruit that has an incorruptible love for Christ. As Paul gives the charge to the believers in Ephesus. “Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible. (With a pure heart; without pretending; without hypocrisy)” Eph 6:24
Bearing Fruit that has an unshakable faith in the Gospel. As the Hebrew writer wrote “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.” Heb 10:19-23
Bearing Fruit that has a hatred for evil and a desire to do good. “Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.”
Rom 12:9-11
Bearing Fruit that has a confidence and desire for holiness. Paul said “For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God, and supremely so toward you.” 2 Cor 1:12. That’s the fruit that ears unto God and brings Him the most glory, because everything we are doing is for Him, and not for me or you.
A Divine Freedom From God’s
Holy Condemnation & Wrath. (v6a)
Our Master is of another, which is Christ. You and I have been purchased from the slave market. We have been “released” from our moral and spiritual liabilities and penalties under God’s Law. According to Paul “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree" Gal 3:13. This Doesn’t Mean! We have a freedom to do what the law forbids, but a freedom for the first time to what is righteous. A freedom that an unregenerate person does not, and cannot have, apart from the gospel.
This new freedom not only
gives us the ability to do what is
right, but that we will do what
is right also.
The Christian life, the home, the workplace, the local church are to be places where we live as obedient children of Heaven. Peter said, “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence,” 2 Peter 1:3. This new freedom gives us the resources and the ability to live a life worthy of His glory on earth as we await Heaven. Remember! Our redemption has a divine origin. God is the one who initiated our redemption. As Paul said, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ” Ephesians 2:4-5
We did nothing to earn this freedom.
We could no more contribute anything
to our redemption than an impoverished slave could contribute to his purchase
by a human master. Our redemption delivered us as Paul writes in Galatians 1:4
that we are “delivered from this evil world” In Colossians 1:13,
“He delivered us from the power of
darkness.” Before
we were Christians we were slaves to sin, free from Christ; now we are slaves to Christ, free from sin. As
Paul said in Romans 6:4
Serving God In The Way We
Were Intended to Serve Him. (v6b)
Though the Spirit we live in a “new way” and not in the same “old way” I once lived that bore fruit unto death. R C Sproul wrote in his commentary, “When Satan comes with his accusations, “It’s me again with the law”… that liar tells me the truth in a distorted way: “You are helpless, Sproul. Look at the law; look at your life. What do you see?” I see my helplessness and I see the cross. I see the gospel, which is the thing Satan hates more than anything in the world. The dead man is not capable of obedience. The will has ceased functioning. When we are dead, there is no more sin. Dead people do not sin. The Law does not reign over corpses, and in Jesus Christ we are corpses. We are dead. The law cannot touch us with the scourge of its curse.”
In Christ we have been set free from sins curse. This quote by R.C. reminds me of the song “Embracing Accusation” by Shane & Shane. Where Satan is preaching to me half-truths; because if he preaches the full gospel truth…. he is one who is cursed.
The
father of lies coming to steal, kill and destroy
All
my hopes of being good enough
I
hear him saying, "Cursed are the ones who can't abide"
He's right, Hallelujah, he's right
The
devil is preaching the song of the redeemed
That
I am cursed and gone astray
I
cannot gain salvation, embracing accusation
Could
the father of lies be telling the truth
Of
God to me tonight?
If
the penalty of sin is death, then death is mine
I
hear him saying, "Cursed are the ones who can't abide"
He's
right, Hallelujah, he's right
The
devil is preaching the song of the redeemed
That
I am cursed and gone astray
I
cannot gain salvation
Oh, the devil's singing over
me an age old song
That I am cursed and gone
astray
Singing the first verse so
conveniently over me
He's forgotten the refrain, Jesus
saves
Again! Paul says “we are released” to live, serve in a new way. As believers we want to obey God The old way, doesn’t, and cannot, condemn me no more. “We serve” is confusing though, because this verse doesn’t describe the voluntary service of someone who is able to refuse an order and look for another master. This new way is serving, because we have been released from the bondage of the Law that constantly held us down. To producing “New life in the Spirit” to habitual bond slave of obedience to Christ. This newness of the Spirit is the necessary fruit of redemption. “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” John 15:1-2. John MacArthur said, “Fruitless Christian is not a genuine Christian and has no part in the Kingdom.” This is what separates us from the goats…the old way in which you and I lived once before Christ set us free by becoming a curse for you and me. As God’s children we are dead to the law as it demands and condemnation is concerned. We now live in newness of the Spirit, which means we love and serve God’s law with the full and joyous hearts.
And
to obey God’s law is to do His will; and to do His will
is to give Him glory.
We are married to Christ and dead to the law that condemns to outer darkness and eternal torment. The Spirit has set us free from the bondage of sin and death and now we live for Christ by bearing fruit for God and His glory. Bearing fruit by the Sprit to say “Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day.” Psalm 119:97. For the first time in our lives we are able to meet the law demands for righteousness which is what God desired when it He gave it in the first place.”
Freedom from sin, means freedom for righteousness, freedom for eternal life. What does it mean to married to Christ? Christ has made us the recipients of His affection… and in turn, we are to make Him the ultimate object of ours.
What Paul is telling us this morning is that……
We bare His name because we are no longer who we were. Our old name is gone now. We have a name that is above every name, the name of our royal bridegroom, Jesus Christ.
We have the privilege of standing before Him with all confidence.
We have access to God the Father through Christ by the Spirit.
We have provision as joint heirs with Christ. As Paul said “And my God will supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” Phil 4:19
We reign with Christ.
We enjoy the very presence of God in our reconciliation.
We
have a divine protection as we journey home. Jesus
said “And behold, I am with you always, to the
end of the age." Matt 28:20
Martin
Lloyd Jones said, “As Christians, we are
entirely outside of the jurisdiction of the law because Christ received the
just and full penalty demanded by the law. Jesus paid all our debts. Therefore,
we are no longer afraid of law with its condemnation, death, and judgment. We
are in Christ, married to him.”
We died in Christ, and in
Christ
the law was fulfilled.
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