Romans 7 v 1 – 6
1 Or do you not know, brothers–for I am speaking to those who know the law–that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? 2 For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. 3 Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.
4 Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. 5 For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.
6 But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. (ESV)
- The Law and Marriage:
a. The Power of the Law (v 1).
b. The Picture of the Law (vv 2-3a). - Our Liberty and Marriage:
a. We have a new Freedom in Jesus (v 3b).
b. We have a new Family (v 4a) – the Church.
c. new Fruitfulness (v 4b) – good works following salvation (Eph. 2:10).
It makes its appearance in our attitude and actions (Gal. 5:22-23). - Our Lives and Marriage:
a. The old life in sin (v 5)
(i) we were in the flesh.
(ii) we were controlled by the motions of sins.
(iii) we were challenged to sin by the Law.
(iv) we were actively engaged in working out our own death.
b. The new life in the Spirit (v 6)
(i) we’ve been released from the Law.
(ii) we’ve been released to serve – slaves of Jesus.
(iii) we’ve been given a new life to better serve Him.
The Law has not been done away with, but our relationship to it has changed. We want to do what it commands in order to glorify God. Where do you stand in relation to the Law of God?
Are you married to the Law or to the Lord?