Sermon 23 of the series, “Romans: Gospel Blueprint.”
Paul addressed a dangerous question: if believers are no longer under law but under grace, does that free them to sin? His answer was an emphatic NO (6:15). He explained it in terms of slavery. Everyone presents themselves as a slave to one master or another, either to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness (6:16). Genuine believers used to be slaves of sin, but they became obedient from the heart and were set free to become slaves of righteousness, leading to sanctification (6:17-18). Paul reminded them of the fruit each master produces: slavery to sin yielded only shame and death; slavery to God yields sanctification and its end, eternal life (6:20-22). He closed with the verse most of us know by heart: “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (6:23). That settles the believer’s relationship to sin. But it opens a new question: if we are no longer under law but under grace, what exactly is our relationship to the law itself? The apostle addresses that question directly, using marriage as an illustration.
Released by Death
Paul begins with a principle both Jew and Gentile in the Roman church would recognize: law has jurisdiction over a person only while that person is alive. He anchors it in something concrete, marriage. A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives; only his death releases her from that bond, free to remarry without any charge of adultery.[1]
Romans 7:1-3: 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.
Paul is not teaching about marriage here; he is using marriage to prove a single legal point, that death changes what law can demand of a person. Readers should be careful not to press every detail of the illustration of marriage beyond the main point.
Released to Belong
Paul applies the principle. Believers died to the law, but not on their own effort. Christ’s physical body died; the believer died with Him through their union (6:3-5). The purpose of that death was so that the believer could belong to Christ.
Romans 7:4-5: 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.
The law’s jurisdiction ended, so the believer could belong wholly and exclusively to the risen Christ. The apostle explained that sinful passions were aroused by the law, leading to death. This is a similar point where the law increased sin (5:20).
Released to Serve
Paul repeats the word “released,” borrowing from the widow’s language. Being released was due to death to the law. The result of belonging to God is a new way of living through the Holy Spirit. He contrasts the law with the Holy Spirit.
Romans 7:6: 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.
The new way of the Spirit points to the internal, Spirit-worked obedience promised through the prophets: God’s law written on the heart (Jer. 31:33; Ezek. 36:26-27). The old code could command but never produce what it commanded. Fruitfulness for God was never a matter of trying harder under the old system; it flows from union with Christ and the indwelling Spirit.[2]
Application
1. Believe that you have died to the law and now belong to Christ. We must believe that we are free from the Old form and now belong to a new way of living through faith in Christ Jesus our Lord.
2. The law triggered sinful passions in us, but since we are no longer under it, we are freed. We bear the fruit of sanctification because we belong to God in Christ Jesus. There is a difference between obeying for the sake of rules versus obeying as a fruit.
3. Always remember that there is a new way of serving: serving in the Holy Spirit. The new way comes from the new life in the Holy Spirit. It is not the old person trying to improve but a totally new life with a new way empowered by the Holy Spirit.
[1] James D. G. Dunn et al., Romans 1-8, Volume 38A (Zondervan Academic, 2018), 368. Dunn explains that under Jewish law, the woman cannot divorce her husband. She is freed upon the death of her husband.
[2] Thomas R. Schreiner, Romans (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament), 2nd ed. (Baker Academic, 2018), 343. Schreiner states “Only those who have died with Christ to the law and possess the Holy Spirit have the ability to bear fruit for God.”
RELEASED by Ed Pilapil Jr. It’s not about trying harder For such will not take you farther No righteousness under the law Something that the apostle saw Through death, released from the marriage Free from the law, free from its wage And to be joined to another It’s faith, and not trying harder Sinful passions, the law aroused Triggered sin, the letter announced But there’s a new way of living Needs renewing of the thinking To now belong to Christ the Lord Severed from sin; also the law Released to sanctification In this, there is no confusion
Study Guide
1. Compare the marriage illustration in Romans 7:1-3 with the baptism illustration in Romans 6:3-4. What single point is Paul making with each picture, and where should we stop pressing the details of an illustration further than Paul intended?
2. The phrase “in the flesh” appears in 7:5 and “in the new way of the Spirit” in 7:6. Explain the contrast between these two phrases from the immediate context, including what each produces ( Ro 7:5-6).
3. How will you serve God “in the new way of the Spirit” this week rather than “the old way of the written code”? Draw your answer directly from Romans 7:1-6, not from a general idea of trying harder.
