Paul shows that
just as a married woman is released from her obligation to her husband when he
dies and is free to marry another,
even so the believer,
through the death of Christ, has died to the law (and is therefore discharged
from its demands) and is now joined to Christ that he might bring forth fruit
for God.
(Romans 7:1-6)
Paul begins by
calling to his readers minds a principle of law with which which
they would be familiar - namely that death changes ones relationship to the
law.
Romans 7:1-3 - Do you not know,
brothers-- for I am speaking to men who know the law-- that the law has
authority over a man only as long as he lives? 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 of marriage. So then, if she marries 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, even
though she marries another man.
Paul then applies
this principle (that death changes ones relationship to the law) to the death
they died in Christ, showing that:
Just as a woman whose husband who has died is
No longer under
obligation to her first husband
Free to marry
another
So we who have died in Christ
Are no longer
under the Law
Belong to Christ
who is not dead (having been raised)
Romans 7:4-6 - So, my brothers, 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
to God. For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions
aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death.
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.
Romans 7:4-6 - So, my brothers, 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
to God. For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions
aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death.
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.
Notice the contrast between belonging to Christ and being under the Law:
Under the Law (the written code) our sinful nature used the Law
to arouse our sinful passions so that we bore fruit deserving of death
(sin)
In Christ we serve in the new way of the Spirit bringing forth fruit
that is pleasing to God