Romans 7:1-6 Do you not know, brothers and sisters—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person 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 that binds her to him. So then, if she has sexual relations with 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 if she marries another man. So, my brothers and sisters, 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 for God. For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, 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.
My brothers and sisters, 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 for God. For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. Yet many of us believe that we are in the realm of the flesh. In other words, we are not totally new creatures, but we are just partially transformed. Or a more crass and dangerous way to consider our thoughts about God’s work is to say God does not do things perfectly. But, everything around us in the physical world is perfect. We have the right amount of oxygen in the air to breathe; we are the right distance from the sun for life. Our bodies are constructed for life with an awareness of our surroundings; but we say God’s work in our spirits is not perfect. We must beware of such thinking. Paul says we were buried with Christ and arose with him because of faith in his works, not our own. We entered into a new realm, a different domain. Are we new creatures or not? If we are not new creatures, free from sin and death, we are still in the realm of the law, responsible to the law. Without Christ, we try to live by every jot and tittle of the law, by obedience to the law’s dictates. In Christ, we come under the authority of the new breath within us, the Holy Spirit. We cannot say we are alive in Christ and hang onto the law rather than follow the voice of the living God. Obedience to God by the law is religion; obedience to God by the voice of the Spirit is faith and trust. We who are alive IN CHRIST are there because of Christ’s life in us and not by obedience to the law. If we are dead, the law has no authority over us so why should we live by the dictates of the law? 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. If the law has no hold on us, how will we be judged? By what standard do we assess our lives? The Bible is very explicit in this area. You must live in concurrence with the two royal commandments given by Jesus: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all you mind. This is the first and the greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. (Matthew 22:37-39) Both these requirements demand a commitment to God’s voice. As Jesus often said, Let him who has ears hear the voice of the Lord. The heart will be hardened if we fail to obey his words. If we live an outwardly religious existence, we will fail to find the heart of God. God will be no more than a difficult taskmaster, asking us to do more than our flesh is capable of doing. God has set us free from the task of obeying the law. Rather we are a new creation in the mode of Jesus Christ, attempting to obey God through the power of the Holy Spirit. As Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus, Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. (Ephesians 5:1)
Still, we might ask, What about sin in our lives? Will sin destroy us despite God’s gift of salvation? Or will the anchor to our souls, the righteousness of Jesus Christ, hold fast? Of course, sin will not destroy us, for God has a perfect plan for our redemption: Jesus Christ. The word says, hear the PERFECT ONE. The perfect is Jesus Christ. He alone can be called MERCY. He alone can be called GRACE. He is the epitome of all that is holy and righteous; He satisfies the perfection of God, HIS EXACTNESS. With faith in Jesus Christ and his works, we become integrally involved in the goodness of God, receptors of everything CHRIST IS. We receive mercy because he is MERCY. We become FULL OF GRACE because He is GRACE. We are not living outside of him; we are IN HIM, filled with HIS FULNESS. We are one with him: he in us, we in him. The lives we live are not ours but his life to live. We follow his example. When Jesus was tempted, He said, It is written: “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4) How do we treat the world then? Not by showing them how far short they fall from obedience to the law, but by expressing God’s mercy and grace to them. Since we know Jesus is the full representation of God’s mercy and grace to a lost world, we have a gift to offer hurting people. As Christians, we are not caught in a barren wilderness with no direction or sustenance. No, we have the direction of God to love people and the ultimate direction to reveal Jesus Christ to all. Jesus said, Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. (Mark 16:15) If we demonstrate God’s love to the world, telling them Jesus is love, we are leading them to the fountain that will never go dry, a new life, a new realm. People are not sustained in this barren world by relying on their own ideas and wisdom. This is the blind leading the blind. People generally lack direction, looking for the amenities of life, wandering from day to day, trying to feed fleshly motivations and desires. Their spiritual lives are hopelessly lost in their own constructions: atheism, religion, mysticism. When someone tells you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living? Consult God’s instruction and the testimony of warning. If anyone does not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn. Distressed and hungry, they will roam through the land; when they are famished, they will become enraged and, looking upward, will curse their king and their God. Then they will look toward the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter darkness. (Isaiah 8:19-22) Looking for answers to our biological existence without God’s presence does not bring us happiness. As humans, we are bound by the laws of nature, community, and authorities. Even though we are bound to our environment, the Bible says we sit in heavenly places with God. IN CHRIST we are perfect and free even though we might inadvertently disobey a command or law set up by man. The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned. (Isaiah 9:2) For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6) Christ’s kingdom will never end. His realm of the Spirit, the Kingdom of God, will never cease. We who have entered into Christ by faith will never cease, for we will live in God’s eternal domain, not subject to laws but to God’s eternal voice. We will be finally at home, free to be what God has made us to be.
Dear friends, walk in freedom; live by faith in the works of Jesus Christ. You have died, the old man is dead. He went to the grave with Jesus. We have been raised IN CHRIST as new creatures, no longer holding to the law. Our master is not the law, but the voice of God. We live IN HIM, knowing our lives are to express his will. When our flesh says, No, I do not want to give love, grace, or mercy to someone, we will remember God’s voice says, I ask you to love your enemies, those who are unloveable. Then we will choose to fall under his authority and not our own. We will pray with Jesus: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:10) This is walking by faith and not by sight as the Bible tells us to do. Obedience to God’s word, his will, brings internal satisfaction. Paul went from city to city, expressing the good news: Jesus Christ has been resurrected. Paul preached this message because the resurrection brought humanity into a new realm, an eternal one. Many people in these cities ridiculed the message of the resurrection, thinking believers had lost their minds. The scoffers might accept the life of Jesus and appreciate many of his teachings, but they could not and would not accept the message of the resurrection that Jesus won the victory over death. They were like snarling, threatening dogs to Paul. They would not accept the meat that was offered to them, something that would sustain their lives. Those who hated him attempted to kill Paul many times. The resurrection to these people meant that they would have to bow to an authority that could bring eternal life to them. They did not want to release the authority to run their own lives, not to God or anyone else. If they were to be religious, they would construct their own fleshly, earth-bound religion, even allowing them to live carnally minded and sexually perverted lives. As the word says: But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” These are people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit. (Jude 1:17-19) The resurrection means Christians have to commit their lives to the God of the heavens who has given all men a measure of faith. They can trust in their own works through obedience to law or they can trust by faith in the works of Christ. The community of Jews that hounded Paul were men of the law, but Paul was a man of faith. Paul declared as we do that we have died with Christ and were raised with Christ in newness of life. The law no longer has a hold on our lives, for we live by the voice of God as the Holy Spirit leads us on the path of righteousness. Rejoice in your freedom as you bear fruit for God!
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