The second thing we are
dead to is the Law. This comes as a shocking thing to say to most Christians.
They see it as blasphemy to say that we are dead to the Law. It therefore
really shocks people to actually find that there are scriptures in the Bible that
say that we are dead to the Law and no longer have to live under it.
Romans7
1 Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those
who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives?
A person is under the Law
as long as that person lives. All of us are under the Law as long as we are
still alive to it.
There is only one way
that a person can be freed from the Old Testament Law. That way is death. That
person must die.
2 For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law
to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released
from the law of her husband.
Paul now uses the example
of a natural marriage and its laws to illustrate his point.
The husband is our old sin
nature (the old man), the wife is the soul and body part of us (our personality),
and the thing that binds us together and ensures that we can’t escape is the Old
Testament law. It is like the house we are locked into.
We, the wife, were
enslaved to a wicked husband, the old man in a marriage that we hated and
wanted out of. Unfortunately we couldn’t just up and leave. We can’t just pack
our bags and get out. We are bound in this house.
In the Old Testament,
there we no remedies for a woman who wanted to leave a bad marriage. The man
was allowed to divorce his wife for any reason but she couldn’t. This was a
picture of us under the sin nature and the Law.
The only solution for a
woman to a bad marriage was for her old man to die. As long as he was alive she
was bound to him. Once he died she was free from Him forever and could find
someone she liked.
This is the same way we
were under the Law. We had a wicked husband called Hamartia, our old sin
nature. And we were bound to him. We couldn’t leave him no matter what.
He was ugly, he fathered
ugly kids, he stunk, he was poor, he was old, he was mean, he had bad breath,
he beat us, he beat the kids, he beat the cat, he beat the dog, he gossiped and
had every bad attribute we can imagine. We wanted out of the marriage but
couldn’t leave because we were enslaved to him.
Not only that, we were
living in a house called Old Testament law. And this house only strengthened
this wicked husband’s grip on us. It strengthened his control over us. It
empowered him to do whatever he wanted.
Romans 7
8 But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment,
produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead.
9 I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived
and I died. 10 And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring
death. 11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it
killed me.
Every day we wished and
prayed for this wicked man to die. Then one day, a new guy appeared on the
block. His name was Jesus and He was the one who had built this house called
Law that we were locked in.
Jesus was everything our
old sin nature wasn’t. He was perfect. He was kind, gentle, loving, powerful,
and all together wonderful to us.
But Jesus had to go to
the Cross to pay for our sins. And when He went to the Cross He took our old
man with him and when He died, our old man died too. It's like they had a car wreck and both of them died.
But then Jesus by God’s power rose from the dead leaving our old man dead forever. Our old husband stayed dead in the grave.
Now we are free from that
old sin nature. That old husband is dead. We are no longer bound to him. We got
married to Jesus and moved into His new house called grace. We left that house
where we were bound. That house called Law.
3 So then if, while her husband lives, she marries
another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is
free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married
another man.
Having two natures is
comparable to a woman having two husbands. That would be adultery. And yet many
of us believe that we have two natures. A righteous nature and a sin nature.
You can only have one.
If you are a Christian
the old sin nature has been taken away and you now have a new righteous nature.
4 Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to
the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another --- to
Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.
We through Jesus, are now
dead to the law. We are no longer living in that house. We have left that
country. Therefore we can no longer be controlled by it.
The law was made for our
old sinful nature
1Timothy1
8 But we know that the law is good if one uses it
lawfully, 9 knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but
for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the
unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for
manslayers, 10 for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for
perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine,
Now that old sin nature
has died. Therefore we are no longer under the law.
Now we are married to
another. His name is Jesus. And we should bring forth fruit in relationship
with Him. Just like any normal marriage does. And this time it is the beautiful
fruit of righteousness. Not the ugly kids of the sin nature.
5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions
which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to
death. 6 But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we
were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in
the oldness of the letter.
Now we have been delivered
from the Law. How else can this be said for us to believe it?
Jesus has delivered us
from the Law. We are free from the Law. We are no longer under the Law.
Consider this amazing
fact, in just these first six verses of Romans 7, Paul says we are ‘released from the law’ in verse 2, ‘free from the law’ in verse 3, ‘dead to the law’ in verse 4 and ‘delivered from the law’ in verse 6.
Also consider that
Romans6:14 said that (this verse).
Romans 6:14 says that we ‘are not under
law but under grace.’
What more do you want in
order to be convinced?
Galatians2:19
For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might
live unto God.
We are dead to the Law.
And the way we died to the Law was through the Law. What does this mean?
Remember that our death
to the Law happened at the Cross where Jesus was crucified and died in
accordance with the Law. The Law demanded that the person who sins must die and
the wages of sin is death. Therefore Jesus as our sacrifice died and paid the
penalty that the Law required for all our sins. Therefore He died through the
Law.
But we were in Him when
He died. Therefore, in the same way that He satisfied all the demands of the
Law and was set free from it, in that same way we too satisfied all the demands
of the Law and were set free from it.
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