Free From Law

November 4th, 2024
by Dr. D. Lance Waldie

Nov 4, 2024

Dr. D. Lance Waldie

Romans 7:1-3 Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives? 2 For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. 3 So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man.

It seems that most folks at least try to be good law-abiding citizens. Some even expect to be rewarded by God for such. But in reality, folks like this live in bondage to the idea that being a law-keeper will be their ticket into heaven, their good deeds outweighing their bad. Some law-abiding citizens, however, live sexually immoral lives and typically defend their behavior by saying that no one is hurt by their behavior. After all, they are not like murderers, rapists, and pedophiles. Since no one is hurt physically by their behavior, and they are law-abiding citizens, they comfort themselves with the idea that they too will be rewarded by God and welcomed into heaven. The term that describes such people is bondage. Their efforts will, sadly, never be good enough, for God demands perfection from His people. All humans, therefore, are bound under law—God’s Law. Praise God that Jesus came to die in order to set believers free from His Law!

Paul addresses all those confused by law in Romans 7:1-6, from those who were striving to keep the Law of Moses to those who believed that simply being law-abiding citizens earned favor with God. Paul had previously written that “sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace” (6:14), though grace is never a license to sin freely.

Now from Romans 7:1 to 8:4 Paul addresses the questions about the relationship between law and faith—questions he knew all believers ponder. What he says about the Law is fourfold. First, the Law can no longer condemn the believer in Christ (7:1-6). Second, the Law is meant to convict both Christians and unbelievers of sin (7:7-13). Third, the Law has no ability to deliver a Christian from the effects of sin (7:14-25). Fourth, the Law is only fulfilled by those Christians who walk in the power of the Spirit (8:1-4). In other words, the Law cannot save; it can only convict and condemn. So, those who live by law, apart from faith in Christ, are in bondage to it.

In 7:1 Paul states that the Law has jurisdiction over a person only as long as it is alive. Then in vv. 2-3 he illustrates this with marriage, saying that a woman who is married is bound to her husband (i.e., Law) only as long as he is alive. She is free from the covenant of marriage only if her husband dies. She can remain single, or she can remarry. Either way she is free. If she marries another man while her husband lives, however, she is a law-breaker and an adulteress.

The point here is that Christians are like the woman whose husband has died. They are free from the bondage of the Law since they died to the law. When did Christians die to the law? At the moment of their conversion to Christ, for at that moment they were “baptized into His death” (6:4) and “were united with Him” (6:5). So, Christ’s death becomes their death, and the penalty Christ suffered for their sins sets them free. As Christ suffered, they suffered. As He died, they die. Now they are free from the Law, being bound to Christ for eternity.

Food for Thought

We Christians are no longer under the Law. We are under grace (Rom. 6:14-15). Since the Law is a reflection of God’s holiness, it reveals our sin (3:20) and increases our trespass (5:20). This doesn’t mean we can now commit adultery and murder or lie and steal; rather, it means we no longer live in fear of the Law’s condemnation. Our spouse is now grace, not Law. And we now strive to love both Christ and humanity—the very essence of the Law (Matt. 22:36-40).