Week 5 - Romans 7:1-13
Romans 7:1-13 (NIV)
1 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.
7 What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead. 9 Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. 10 I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. 11 For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. 12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.
13 Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! Nevertheless, in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it used what is good to bring about my death, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.
It’s Complicated: Our Relationship with the Law
How is a Christian supposed to relate to the Old Testament law – the commandments given to the nation of Israel? It was complicated for early believers to understand, and it is also complicated for us.
For the first century church in Rome, it was equally confusing. The Gentile believers were likely to appreciate and live out their freedom in Christ apart from following all the details of the Old Testament, while many Jewish believers saw the moral code of the Old Testament as still binding. Of course, that doesn’t mean they always kept it!
Paul explained that the Old Testament law has an important purpose. It is good, and shows us the power sin has over our lives. But the law does not have the power to set us free from sin’s power – no matter how much willpower we muster up. God’s moral law shows us our need for a Savior – who then releases us from the law so that we can “belong to another… and bear fruit to God” (verse 4). As we place our belief and allegiance in Jesus, His transforming power enables us to “serve in the new way of the Spirit.”
Questions
What does it look like when you try to earn a sense of right-standing with God by obeying His law? How does that work?
What will it look for you today to live “released from the Law” and “belonging to another?”