“Free from the Law” (Romans 7:1–6)

“Free from the Law” (Romans 7:1–6)

Pastor Cameron Jungels

Eastside Baptist Church

Sunday AM, November 12, 2017

 

Romans 7:1–6 (NIV)

7 Do you not know, brothers and sisters—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person 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 that binds her to him. ³ So then, if she has sexual relations with 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 if she marries another man.

⁴ So, my brothers and sisters, 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 for God. ⁵ For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, 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.

 

1. The Principle: Death releases a person from his obligation to legal demands (v. 1).

 

2. The Picture: The principle is illustrated by the analogy of marriage. Death releases a spouse from the marriage vow and its legal obligation (vv. 2–3).

 

3. The Point: We died through our union with Christ and his death on the cross and resurrection from the grave. Therefore, we are no longer bound to the Law and its demands and penalties. We now belong to Christ to live for God (v. 4).

 

4. The Practice (vv. 5–6)

   a.  Our Past Practice: In the past, while in unbelief, our practice was to be in the bondage of the Law, which magnified sin, which results in death (v. 5).

   b.  Our Present Practice: In Christ, in the present, we are free from the bondage of the Law and are now free not to serve ourselves but to serve God through the indwelling Holy Spirit. The indwelling Holy Spirit fulfills and replaces the Law’s function in our lives and accomplishes it more perfectly and effectively (v. 6).