7 Do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to men who know the law—that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives? 2 For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage. 3 So then, if she marries another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress, even though she marries another man.
4 So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God. 5 For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. 6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.
As in any law - Greek, Roman, Jewish, biblical - the law is only in effect as long as you are alive. Nobody is subject to prosecution or punishment after he is dead.
Paul then gives an analogy to illustrate this point about the law. This passage is not teaching about divorce or remarriage (both Paul and Jesus addressed those issues elsewhere in scripture - Matthew 5:31-32, Matthew 19:3-12, 1 Corinthians 7:10-15). In this analogy, the laws governing marriage are only applicable as long as you are alive. Widows are free to marry again because the death of the spouse has released them from the legality of marriage.
Therefore, just like the widow in Paul's analogy was free to remarry upon the death of her husband, when we respond in faith to Jesus Christ we are freed from the condemnation and penalty of the law because Christ suffered, in our place, the penalty of death that the law demanded. We now belong to Christ so that we can bear fruit - new attitudes and actions as evidence of a transformed life.
Before we became Christians, the law could not save us. It could only condemn us and demand our death. But Christ paid that penalty for us, and we were united to Him in death. As believers we are dead to sin which means that the law can no longer condemn us!
MacArthur....
Salvation is a complete change of relationship. You no longer have the first husband you had, you no longer are under the bondage of the law. You're now married to Jesus Christ....We are not only identified in union with a dead Savior in the past but we are one with a living Savior in the present.
But this husband will never die. We are secure in that relationship forever.
And because of Christ, we bear fruit. It's a statement of fact. There's no such thing as a fruit-less Christian. If you are truly saved, you will product fruit - both in attitude (love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control) and action.
Salvation by grace does not and cannot produce reckless sinning, it produces fruit that glorifies God.
Before we were redeemed our sinful flesh produced sinful impulses which were both revealed by the law and excited even more by the law (forbidden fruit) resulting in physical, spiritual and eternal death.
But thankfully we are no longer in the flesh. When we became redeemed we died to sin through Christ and we are no longer condemned by the law - we've been released from any legal liability. We've been released - to sin? Never! To serve! Not just externally, not just concerned with the letter of the law. But internally.
So somebody asks the question: if we're free from the law as Christians, is the law binding on us? The answer is no and yes. It is not binding in the sense that our acceptance with God depends on it, it is binding in the sense that our new life seeks to serve it. You see, the law couldn't save you because you couldn't keep it. Now that God saved you, the law can't condemn you and for the first time in your life by the power of the Holy Spirit you can keep it. So we're not under the law's condemnation but we serve God's law out of the depths of a committed heart.
Is the law important? Oh yes. Can we say with the psalmist, "O how I love Thy law?" Oh yes. Even though it can't save us? Yes. Even though it would condemn us? Yes, because Jesus Christ has born that condemnation and by planting within us the divine nature has enabled us to keep that very law. And we don't serve it externally but out of newness of spirit.
So, we're dead to the law in the sense that it could save us or condemn us. But listen, people, we are more alive to the law now in terms of serving it to the glory of God than we've ever been.
Tomorrow's scripture focus: Romans 7:7-12
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