*****

IN the last sermon on Romans 7:1-4a we looked at the truth that Paul expressed in the first verse of this chapter. The truth is that we are freed from the law of God by death. We saw that this did not mean that the law had no more influence over our lives, but that we ceased to be under the rule and dominion of the law. The law is still that which shows us and teaches us the holy standards of God, but we are free from the curse of the law and condemnation of the law because we have died. This is a very wonderful truth, and as we look at verse 4 on its own and in more detail and as a whole, we are going to consider this truth again, how it is effected and where it leads us to. There is no harm in repetition. In fact it is very valuable specially as we seek to grapple with some new truth which our minds are not too familiar with. Even if we have been Christians for some time, and have been well taught, we may still have never really understood this truth and its implications and purpose, specially as so much teaching given is by people who are confused at this point. Let us look at the verse sentence by sentence.

So, my brothers ...

The word ‘so’ indicates that the apostle is drawing a conclusion, and this is what he is doing from the argument he has been working out in the previous verses. The argument in the previous verses is that death frees us from the authority of the law.

Paul has been showing that all human beings by virtue of being born into this world are placed under the law of God. Paul indicates that the law of God is like a ruler or a husband. We belong to the law and are under the dominion and authority of the law. The law is implacable. The law has no feelings of any kind. We can’t reason with the law or plead with the law. The law has no room to manoeuvre, it can only carry out the rule of authority it has been given. The law has no mercy and can show no mercy. So under the law the terms are plain and ridged. The law tells us that if we keep all its demands perfectly, and never fall short of those demands in the smallest degree, then it will pronounce that we are just and holy and entitled to life. But if we transgress any part of the law, or fall short in the smallest way from the holy standard of the law, then the law can only pronounce us guilty of death, and we must die. There is no remission. There is no provision for mercy. There are no extenuating circumstances. If we fall short, we are condemned and must die. This is the curse of the law, and the only way we can escape from this curse is by death. How can we die and escape from this curse without suffering the death which executes the curse. This is the problem Paul is presenting to us, and he is giving us the precious answer in verse 4.

Paul speaks to us as ‘my brothers’. This address is important to notice. It is because Paul can speak to us as ‘brothers’ that this wonderful solution to the problem is available. There is no idea that only men can benefit, but rather by the expression ‘my brothers’ Paul is expressing a relationship which both men and women can have with him. The term ‘my brothers’ is expressing the nature and relationship which is the blessing of all who believe in Jesus. We are family, and all the blessings of the family accrue to each and everyone of us.

You also died to the law through the body of Christ.

This is how we die to the law. This is a very precious and life giving death. If we die naturally under the dominion of the law, we are indeed free from the law, but it is no blessing because it is the freedom of condemnation and punishment. We become free by being sentenced and the full rigor of the law being executed upon us. What we need is another death before that condemning death takes place.

When we are brought to faith in Jesus Christ as Saviour we experience this liberating death to the law. How is this so? Paul tells us that we die to the law through the body of Christ. This is a wonderful provision. The sentence of the law against our sin and falling short can’t be overlooked, because there is no provision in the terms of the law for such mercy. The sentence of the law has to be carried out, because the broken law can’t be forgotten. A condemning death must take place, and so it does. It was carried out on the body of Christ. He took our place. Our sins were placed on him. The law pronounced the sentence of death and hell, and Jesus died and went to hell.

The wonderful thing is what Paul has been telling us all through chapter six. We are joined to Christ by faith. We were in Christ when he died. His body became our body, and when he died we died in and through him. Our sins suffered the just punishment through the death of the body of Jesus. So we have died to the law through the body of Christ. The law has no more claim upon us, and we are freed from its dominion and rule. There is now no condemnation for us ever again, because all our sins met their punishment through the body of Jesus. Jesus took upon himself all our sins, that is all the sins we have and will commit throughout our life here on earth. This is the extent of our death through the body of Christ. It was the body of Christ that suffered the pain. We are free from the law and the law can no more touch us.

That you might belong to another.

The purpose of this death to the law was not that we should be free to do as we like. This is the conclusion so many make when they hear that we have died to the law. They think that this truth that we have died to the law is a licence to sin, and so think the truth is horrible, and feel that this must be a wrong understanding of the apostle or that the apostle had got things wrong. The trouble is that those who are frightened with the idea of our death to the law simply do not understand what is happening, and so they never enter into the wonder of the blessing.

There is never a sense that we human beings can be free in the sense that we are under no rule. We have freedom of choice, and so we make decisions, but they are always in context of an authority ruling over us. Naturally this authority is the law of God, which demands obedience and when we disobey punishes us. We are not free when we die to the law, but we are free from the law and we come under a new authority. We have died in Christ so that we may belong to another, that is that we might belong to Christ. Christ has ransomed us from the law. Christ has redeemed us by the infinitely expensive price of his own life and shed blood. So God says to us “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name, you are mine.” We change the implacable authority of the law for the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, who has loved us with such a great and wonderful love. How can we live in a way that will hurt the lover of our souls. We now want to please him, and seek to do his will.

The wonderful thing about this new authority is that there is no threat hanging over our heads as there was when we were under the law. The threat of punishment was always threatening us under the law, and so we served, as far as we did serve, through fear. Now the threat is removed. Jesus says, I have forgiven you all your sins. I will remember your sins no more. You will never be condemned. I have given you the gift of eternal life which will never be taken from you. So without any threat we live under infinite love, and so we serve out of love. We love him because he first loved us, and so we express that love by wanting to do his will, and seeking to do his will.

To him who was raised from the dead.

This statement is not uttered by the apostle simply to identify the one to whom we now belong, though this is certainly true, but is added to show the nature of our dying to the law. Our dying to the law is through Christ and so we are united to him. From this it is also true that we are in him and joined to him as our husband for ever, and so when Jesus rose again, we also rose again.

Here is the truth which makes it impossible to suppose that those who believe and are released from the dominion and rule of the law, can ever think of sinning without compunction. Because we are raised with Christ - that is are joined to him who was raised from the dead, it is impossible for us to go on sinning. The thought is repugnant to us, our nature revolts against such and idea. Sinning is offensive to us, and so when we do sin and fail because of the mortal body in which we still have to live in this world, this grieves us and causes us shame, and we hate that sin, and repent.

The truth is that just as Christ was raised to life in the heavenly realm, so are we. As Paul says in Ephesians 2, we are raised to sit in heavenly places with Christ, and so we have the life in our new born self that is compatible with this heavenly realm. Nothing that defiles can live in that heavenly realm so this new life is, as Paul says later in chapter 4 of Ephesians, created to be like God in righteousness and true holiness. When we sin in this life after this resurrection, it is not us that is sinning, as Paul says later in this seventh chapter of Romans, but sin that dwelleth in us, that is in our flesh. We are now holy in our new self, and so the Holy Spirit dwells within us, and we can live in the heavenlies with Christ, and do so live. This is the glory of this death we have died, that we are raised to this new holy life, which is already longing for deliverance from this fallen flesh, and to depart and be with Christ forever.

In order that we might bear fruit to God.

Under the authority of the law we could not bear fruit to God. Paul goes on in this chapter to explain this. Under the law all we could do is be sinners, and even our best acts, which we foolishly think live up to the standard of the law, are still sins because they have imperfections and blemishes which fall short of the glory of God. So we can never bring fruit to God, that is do anything that is truly pleasing to God.

Now with this new life things are different. We now can bring forth fruit to God. This is more than simply saying that we have a change in our lives so that we now want to live for God, and seek to do everything as unto God, and also seek in all things to do the will of God. This is true. This is an expression of this new life that we have and the new authority we are under, but there is more in what the apostle says in these words concerning bearing fruit than this.

Now we can do works that truly please God and are holy. Firstly, because we are under the authority of Christ, and his death has borne the guilt of all our sins, all the works we do are cleansed by the blood of Christ before they are presented to God, and so come before God as holy. So our lives truly bear fruit to God.

Secondly, however, because in our new self we are holy as God is holy, our desires to please God are holy, and so we bear fruit that is holy to God. In some unexplainable way our living is acceptable to God, because our lives, when stripped of the contribution of the flesh and our fallen nature, are holy and come to God as holy.

This also means that whereas under the law all the leanings of our nature were opposed to God, and all that we did that had any good in us was coerced out of us by fear, now we have a holy principle working in us that desires only to please God, and do works that are holy.

We need to believe this, live in the truth of it, be taken up with the glory of it, so that we live every minute of our lives in the light of it.

Conclusion.

Dear believer in Jesus, realise the death you have died in Christ. Realise that you are freed from the condemnation of the law for ever, and the law can never again threaten you or frighten you. Realise that you now belong to Christ who has loved you with and everlasting love, which means that his love will never cease to enfold you. Live in the light of the fact that you have been raised to new life, which is yours forever and fit for heaven, and live in the glory of the expectation that one day, when this life is ended, you will enter fully into that heavenly life in the presence of the lover of your souls, our Saviour Jesus Christ.