Knowing that his readers-especially Jewish ones-would have many questions about how the law relates to their faith in Christ, Paul sets out to explain that relationship (he refers to the law 27 times in this passage in Romans 7). In a detailed explanation of what it means not to be under law, but under grace (6:14-15), Paul teaches that: 1) the law can no longer condemn a believer (7:1-6); 2) it convicts unbelievers (and believers of sin) (7:7-13); 3) it cannot deliver believer from sin (7:14-25); and 4) believers who walk in the power of the Spirit can fulfill the Law (8:1-4).
Romans 7:1, “1 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?”
Paul’s audience is here to the Jews. The Jews would know the Law having grown up under its culture and influence. Many people want to say that they are bound by Torah (the Law), but this is a faulty understanding. Many have tried to willingly use this Scripture to somehow overstate what Paul is saying here. Paul is addressing an issue of rule and practice of the Law by way of analogy. Paul is including here God’s written law, he is not referring to any specific law code, but to a principle that is true of all law-Greek, Roman, Jewish or biblical.
Torah (Law observance) is an issue that we must stop here to address. Many in the Messianic community are greatly confused. What must I do? Observe Torah? If one observes all the Laws and stumbles in one they have broken all (James 2:10). Everyone has sinned and fallen short of the glory of the Lord, but the good news is that we are under the New Covenant not under the Old. This means that we do not have to obey the demands of the Torah. We will naturally as we abide in the Spirit obey the Law. The Law can only have its dominion for as long as a person’s life after that it goes away. Yet the eternal law of the Lord will always have dominion and rule over a person no matter if they are living or dead, for that is what we shall be judged by, for a believer according to what He has done, and for a non believer with how he/she did not receive the Lord into their life. The issue then of observing Torah becomes the issue of this: If one obeys the Law yet stumbles they would be falling back into the Old Covenant. Yet the liberating truth is that when one comes to know the freedom that they have as a believer to live in and abide in the Lord through the New Covenant hope; a believer comes to realize that they are no longer bound to the Law, but to the law of love in Him. This frees the believer to worship the Lord in Spirit and in Truth knowing that they can live freely from their hearts, because He gave them life from His life.
What is being said here between the Old and new covenant needs to be explained in further detail. The Old Covenant leads us to salvation while the New Covenant leads us through the door to salvation. After salvation a believer grows in obedience as the Spirit of Truth resides within them. We are freed from the Law in relation to the OT to live in grace, which is freedom. Obedience is a direct outgrowth as the New Covenant leads us to grow in Old covenant obedience. Their is therefore no separation between the two covenants because each one is instructive in teaching us essential aspects of what salvation is. Salvation is by grace through faith, through the shed blood of the Lord. The Law leads us to the blood, but the New Covenant leads us through the door of the OT law. The Old covenant serves its standard in drawing us to Christ through the Holy Spirit, but after that the Holy Spirit then uses the Old Covenant to lead us to obedience through the New Covenant.
Romans 7:2-3, “2For 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. 3So 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.”
These two verses are not a complex allegory, but a simple analogy, using marriage law to illustrate the point Paul made about the law’s jurisdiction (v.1). This passage is not teaching that only the death of a spouse frees a Christian to remarry; it is not teaching about divorce and remarriage at all. Both Christ and Paul have fully addressed those issues elsewhere (Matthew 5:31-32; 19:3-12; 1 Cor 7:10-15).
The law then governs a woman’s actions no longer has any jurisdiction over her once her husband dies. Widows are free to marry again, and Paul even encourages younger ones to remarry as long as their potential mate is a believer (1 Cor 7:39; 1 Tim 5:14). Even the illegitimately divorced can marry again (1 Cor 7:8-9).
Romans 7: 4Therefore, 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.”
Therefore forms the logical conclusion or application of Paul’s brief argument (vv.1-3). Become dead in the Greek construction of this verb emphasizes two important points: 1) this death happens at a point in time, with results that are complete and final; and 2) someone else in this case God Himself-initiated this death (you were made to die”). In response to faith in His Son, God makes the believing sinner forever dead to the condemnation and penalty of the law (8:1).
Through the body of Christ refers to the substitute for sinners, He suffered the penalty of death that the law demanded. Be married to another refers to just as the widow in Paul’s analogy (vv.2-3) was freed to remarry, the believer has been freed from his hostile relationship to a law that condemned him, and can, therefore, be remarried this time to Christ (2nd Cor 11:15; Eph 5:24-27). Fruit refers to a transformed life that manifests itself in new attitudes (Gal 5:22-23) and actions (John 15:1-2; Phil 1:11; 2 Cor 5:21; Gal 2:19-20; Eph 2:10; Romans 1:13).
Romans 7: 5For 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.”
The Scripture speaks of flesh as a term in a non-moral sense to describe man’s physical being (John 1:14), and in a morally evil sense to describe man’s unredeemed humanness (6:6; Romans 8; Gal 5; Eph 2), that remnant of the old man which will remain with each believer until each receives his or her glorified body (8:23). In the flesh here describes a person who is able to operate only in the sphere of fallen mankind-an unredeemed, unregenerate person (8:9). Although the believer can manifest some of the deeds of the flesh, he can never again be “in the flesh”.
Sinful passions refers to overwhelming impulses to think and do evil, which characterizes those who are “in the flesh” (Eph 2:3). Aroused by the law refers to the unbelievers rebellious nature is awakened when restrictions are placed on him and makes him want to do the very thing the law forbids (v.8; 1:32 of Romans). Fruit to death refers to the sinful passions at work in unbelievers-produce a harvest of eternal death (5:12; Gal 6:7-8).
Romans 7: 6But 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. “
Delivered from the Law: This refers not to freedom to do what God’s law forbids (6:1,15; 8:4, 3:31), but freedom from the spiritual liabilities and penalties of God’s law (v.4; Gal 3:13). Because we died in Christ when He died (6:2), the law with its condemnation and penalties no longer has jurisdiction over us (vv.1-3).
Serve: This is the verb of the word for “bondservant” (1:1) but here it is parallel to being slaves of righteousness (6:22), emphasizing that this service is not voluntary. Not only is the believer able to do what is right, he will do what is right.
The newness of the Spirit: A believer has a new state of mind which the Spirit produces, characterized by a new desire and ability to keep the law of God (8:4).
Oldness of the letter: The external, written law code that produced only hostility and condemnation.
If you haven’t come to Him today, I would like to invite you to come. All you must do right now is believe in your heart, and confess with your mouth that He died, rose again and ascended to the right hand of the Father. This decision takes your own action to take responsibility for the choices that you have committed in life, and then come to the conclusion that you have to trust in the Lord for salvation, not in your own works. If you did this today then welcome into the family of the Lord. I’m here to encourage you and build you up in the Lord.
May the Lord richly bless you and draw you closer to Him. Each one of you remain in my prayers daily. I pray that He would draw you closer and closer to Him, and that you would grow firmly rooted not only in His Word, and love, but in the power of His Spirit.
Pastor David Jenkins
