Romans 7:4

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.

V4a – Death to the law means now belonging to Christ. Paul offers this simple statement as an explanation of justification by faith. You died to law, you are now united to Christ, and you now serve in the newness of the Holy Spirit. Let’s expound on that simple statement:

Trust is no longer in the law, but in Christ. If the law is permanent, as long we live, then we, as believers, need to understand that we’ve stopped trusting in the law, in our own works; we’ve stopped trying to commend ourselves to God, to purchase reconciliation or persuade God into forgiveness, to make ourselves acceptable to Him; instead we’ve looked to Christ, thrown ourselves at His mercy, and sought forgiveness from Him and in Him. We who have believed have died to the law; our old husband (sin) is no longer our master; we have actually died to our husband, and we are released from the law that bound us to him or it. No only are we released from the law and from sin, we are united and bound to a new husband, a new master, Christ the Lord.

Christ’s death, and our death in Him brought us into a new freedom whereby we were freed from the condemnation of the law, which would have been on us until death did us part. But because we died in our union with Christ, and because He died in our place, the power of that law, the jurisdiction of that law has been broken. And we are as free as a wife whose husband has died to be united to another. And, in fact, we are freer than that, because in the very act of being freed from the old husband, we have been at that very moment joined to a new husband. A new relationship exists, and now the relationship that we had to the law before is entirely changed. Are you free in your marriage with your spouse? With Christ?

V4b – Why did you die to the law? To bear fruit to God. Paul contrasts law and grace, with a double contrast in mind. We are not under the law. What does that mean? Sometimes Paul points to this reality in terms of the progress of redemptive history, the progress from old covenant to new covenant; we are no longer under the Mosaic code, because Jesus Christ has offered up the final and perfect sacrifice. And so the burdensome aspects of the old Mosaic code are no longer upon us. We have been freed from that. But at other times, Paul speaks in terms of the law as the covenant of works. The Law of Moses was not given as a different way of salvation. Yet there were (and are) those who understood it to be such. They had misunderstood the function of the law. But there’s more. Because of the covenant of works with Adam, we are all obligated to perfect obedience, complete obedience, and all of us have failed under that arrangement. And yet we have an instinctive desire to try and right that relationship with God. But we attempt to right that relationship in the wrong way. We attempt to earn ourselves back into relationship, but the relationship has already been violated, and the law has already been violated. So what does it mean to be free from the law? It doesn’t mean to be free from rule. When Paul says, “Not under law,” he is pointing to a different ground of our acceptance by God. We are accepted through Christ. We are accepted by God’s grace. We are justified freely by His blood, not through the law.

If we have been freed through the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ from attempting to cause ourselves to be accepted by God and to condition God’s grace by our actions, then suddenly our relationship with the law changes. Suddenly the law is sweet and is not burdensome, because it is an expression of love to a Heavenly Father who has redeemed us freely. That’s why the preface of the Ten Commandments is so important. “I am the Lord your God, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Now, therefore, you shall have no other gods before Me.” It’s not, “Keep these Commandments, and I’ll think about bringing you out of Egypt.” It’s, “I’ve already brought you out of Egypt. Now, keep My Commandments.” That’s being brought out from under the law and granted the blessings of the covenant of grace. It leads to a different view of the law. It gives us motivation to keep it. And that’s why we have been freed: to obey, to glorify God by obedience.

Furthermore, the fulfillment of the law is love. But the law combined with our flesh, or our sin natures, brings the fruit of death. Being freed from the law is actually being freed from our sin natures so that, rather than being condemned in the flesh to perform sinful acts, we are free to bear the fruit of the Spirit in living for Christ. We are no longer controlled by the flesh when we are justified in Christ. We are slaves to Christ.

What does Paul say in Ephesians 2:10? Look at the context of Ephesians 2:1-15a. Do you see the parallels with what we’ve been discussing here and last time in Romans?