Paul declares Believers Freed from the Law
Romans
7:1-6 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? 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. NKJV
First we must understand that this letter of Paul’s
was not written by him with chapter and verses (others added that to give the
readers specific locations) it was a letter just as any of us would write today
written in a continuous flow expressing and conveying a specific message. Paul
continues his theme right into chapter 7 of us being no longer under the law.
Paul was speaking at this time in his letter to Jewish men and women in the
Roman Church who knew the Law of Moses and that was not just the Ten
Commandments but as we have unfolded in earlier studies it included many other
laws the people were required to obey as Moses received them from God and gave
them to the Jewish people. They are of course too numerous to list them all but
for example they had the Law of Burnt Offering, the Law of Grain Offering, and
the Law of Sin Offering just to name a few and in each one of these Laws God
instructed Moses how they were to be obeyed. These 3 Laws and the others given
to Moses by God for the Jewish people to obey were a shadow and picture of our
Lord Jesus Christ who was to come as Israel’s Messiah/Redeemer of the World and
fulfill every one of those Ceremonial Laws (Colossians 2:16-17 & Hebrews 8:3-5 & Hebrews 10:1-4).
Paul makes the point clearer by showing how the law
keeps people in bondage and cannot liberate or set any soul free from sins
dominion over and in their lives by setting forth the example of a wife bound
by the Law of Moses to her husband as long as the husband lives. Paul wants
them to make the connection between what the wife is under in obligation by the
Law to remain joined to her husband as long as he lives and likewise all of the
Jews were bound to obey the Law of Moses in order to be Jews. Likewise the Jews
and Non-Jews (Gentiles) are bound by God’s Moral Law (the Ten Commandments) to
obey them perfectly always for the Ten Commandments set the standard to be
obeyed yet it did nor could it ever dispense power to the Jew or Non-Jew (Gentile)
enabling them to obey it. Like the woman married to a man is considered an
adulteress if she marries another man while her husband still lives, so is
every Jew or Non-Jew (Gentile) considered a sinner or Law breaker before God if
they do not keep the whole law (Romans
2:25 & James 2:10-11). Paul wants the believers to understand that just
as only when a woman’s husband dies is she freed from the law that binds her to
him and likewise we believers having received our Lord Jesus Christ (who took
our sin into Himself dying for our sins) we have died to sin in Christ and now
are freed from the Law by way of our union to Christ Jesus our Lord. Now that
we are under grace and not under law (Romans
6:14) we have been loosed or freed from its tyrannical demands but with
this freedom and liberty there does not come license to break the Law for now
that we are in Christ and under grace, He (Christ) has fulfilled the Law (Matthew 5:17-20 & Romans 10:4-5 &
Galatians 2:21) and therefore in Him we too can fulfill the laws righteous
requirements as we are empowered by grace through the Spirit.
Paul explains this great mystery of us being married
to our Lord Jesus Christ as His bride having been divorced from the Law as he
so clearly expounds it in detail in the entire Ephesians 3 & Ephesians 5. It is this union and connection and
joining in Christ’s Mystical Body that enables us to bear fruit to God the
Father (Philippians 1:9-11) and Paul
often prayed for other believers to be filled so with Christ for this intimacy
with Him in love is how we live no longer in willful sin and rebellion to God’s
Moral Law as we once did when were dead spiritually and incapable of bearing
only sin which always led to death. Paul is saying that before any of us were recipients
of God’s Grace the law provoked the corrupt nature in us to sin more. It was as
if since as each one of us saw our inability within to obey God’s Moral Law we
rationalized our lack of power (no grace) to further indulge ourselves in sin
because we could not help ourselves. Instead of the helplessness sin’s power exuded
over us pushing us to God for help, it kept us away from Him through guilt and
shame making us rationalize or cover up our depraved condition to sin’s power
as we looked to ease the guilt and shame by comparing ourselves to others. Paul,
however, now wants all of us true believers to recognize, remember, and now
repudiate that old defeated state of mind and being and see ourselves now as being
delivered from those bonds and chains that the Law held us in and walk in the
Spirit where we will not satisfy the desires of the flesh (Galatians 5:16-18).
Philippians
3:3 “For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in
Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh” NKJV
“Before I truly believed or trusted the Gospel of
Christ I was still under the law. Where the law is, there is bondage or
enslavement to sin (the sins of pornography and masturbation and all forms of
sexual addiction). Being under the Law gives freedom in nothing but rather
leads into, and brings about, a spirit of bondage or enslavement. The Law
exacts rigorous obedience where there is no strength or power found to perform
the obedience. The Law held me guilty. The Law cursed and condemned me for
disobedience. Therefore, as long as I was still under law, and of the works of
law, I was always under a spirit of bondage or enslavement.” Clifford D. Tate,
Sr. from my book entitled “Silent Assassins of the Soul”
Galatians
3:10 (AMP): “And all who depend on the Law [who are seeking to be justified by
obedience to the Law of rituals] are under a curse and doomed to disappointment
and destruction, for it is written in the Scriptures, Cursed (accursed, devoted
to destruction, doomed to eternal punishment) be everyone who does not continue
to abide (live and remain) by all the precepts and commands written in the Book
of the Law and to practice them.”
“Let me give you an example to illustrate this
point. When a man falls into quicksand, his self-effort of struggling to free
himself only sinks him deeper and deeper into the quicksand. Such was the case
with me and with every person still under the curse of the Law. My self-effort
to try to free myself or stop the sins of pornography and masturbation (sexual
addiction) served only to thrust me deeper and deeper into my addiction and
dependence. When the Gospel took effect in my heart, however, under the
influence of the Spirit of God I was liberated or freed (with strength Christ
gave me) to not sin. Being still under the Law is contrary to the Gospel and to
the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit now dwells or lives in me by grace through faith.
The principle of grace being worked out in my soul gives me liberty or freedom
from the bondage and enslavement of sin. It gives me a liberty or freedom from
the law’s rigorous exaction, curse, and condemnation and from the veil of
former blindness and ignorance. When I was converted to Christ by truly
believing and trusting Him then the veil of ignorance was taken away. The
blindness of my mind and the hardness of my heart were cured and are being
sanctified daily by Christ’s grace. My condition is now one of joy and freedom
in the Holy Spirit.” Clifford D. Tate, Sr. from my book entitled “Silent
Assassins of the Soul”
“The law, by commanding, forbidding, threatening,
corrupt and fallen man, but offering no grace to cure and strengthen, did but
stir up the corruption, and, like the sun shining upon a dunghill, excite and
draw up the filthy steams. We being lamed by the fall, the law comes and
directs us, but provides nothing to heal and help our lameness, and so makes us
halt and stumble the more.” Matthew Henry
If you do not
know the Lord Jesus Christ and His amazing healing power, pray this from your
heart to the Lord Jesus Christ (you speaking directly to Him), Dear Lord Jesus,
I confess to You that I am a sinner and I need Your forgiveness. I believe You
shed Your Blood and died for my sins. I believe that You rose from the dead
proving that You alone are God. I repent of my sins. I want to turn from my sins.
I ask You Dear Lord Jesus to come into my heart and take control of my life. I
want You to be my Lord, Savior, and my God. Amen...
Sincerely
in Christ,
Clifford
D. Tate, Sr.
Author
of “Silent Assassins of the Soul - Are you Broken by Pornography and Masturbation?
You can be Restored by the Lord Jesus Christ and brought into Deliverance,
Freedom, and Victory! A Guide for Men and Women in the Enemy’s Crosshairs”
e-book available now @ Amazon Kindle, @ Apple I Bookstore for IPod, Barnes and
Noble for Nook, Reader Store for Sony Reade, Kobo, Copia, Gardners, Baker and
Taylor, and eBookPie…
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