Romans 7: 1 - 12

1 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? ² 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. ³ 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.

⁴ 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. ⁵ 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. ⁶ 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.

⁷ What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’ ⁸ But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead. ⁹ Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. ¹⁰ I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. ¹¹ For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. ¹² So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.

Alive in Christ, Bearing Fruit for God.

In Romans 7 we come to another of Paul’s arguments of logic concerning the law. When we became Christians, we died to the law, and we came alive in Christ. The illustration that Paul uses concerning marriage has troubled some people – and it is important to not look into it too deeply, nor use it as an allegory, but it doesn’t work that way. The important point is that a death took place, and that changed everything. Jesus, the Son of God, came to live for us, teaching us the truths of how we should live for God, and he died for us. Jesus died on the cross – the perfect man who had never sinned died a criminal’s death. And in doing so, he took our place and he paid for our sins. He averted the wrath of God from us and thereby restored our relationship with him. And when we trust in Jesus, our old sinful way of life is also put to death – the illustration has been used before that we died to sin. Or, to put it another way, the old sinful life was put to death by being nailed to the cross with Jesus.

And following that death, we can now live! We are brought into freedom – mainly freedom from sin and freedom from death. But was also might say freedom from the law, which is what Paul writes about here. Now, when we say we are free from the law, it doesn’t mean we are free from having to keep the law. The Ten Commandments still apply to us as much now as ever. But the difference is that under the old covenant, people were required to live under the law in order to be righteous before God. Now, in Christ, we have his righteousness, which has nothing to do with our keeping of the law. Rather, the righteousness of Christ that we have comes through faith in him, and through his death on the cross. And we now obey the law of God because we are saved – not the other way around.

‘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.’ (v.4). What kind of fruit are you and I bearing for God? Galatians 5 talks about the fruit of the Spirit, which is one kind of fruit. Jesus also talked about being fruitful in a different way in the parable of the sower. Are you full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control? Are you seeing fruit for the kingdom in people who are getting to meet Jesus through you? Are people seeing the fruit of good works in your life as you live for Christ and follow him?

 

Prayer

Lord, I thank you that through the death of Jesus, I can know life. I thank you that my old sinful life is put to death, and I am risen to new life in you. Please fill me with your Spirit, and help me to bear fruit for you. May I have opportunities to live for you in my interactions with other people, and may I see those opportunities and take them! Amen.