Diplomatic Immunity

Introduction

An old lady went to a tombstone-cutter’s office to order a stone for her husband’s grave. After explaining that all she wanted was a small one with no frills, she told him to put the words, “To My Husband,” in a suitable place. When the stone was delivered she saw, to her horror, this inscription:

“To My Husband—

In a Suitable Place. (Lloyd Cory)

This joke is speaking into what we will discuss today.

You, if you have believed upon Jesus, are not bound to or by sin or the law anymore.

It has lost its grip on you.

It does not control you.

This is because you have died to it.

As Paul wrote in Romans 6:14-15 “For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but grace? By no means!”

“Law is God’s moral measure, the command for good and right living, the just requirement to be perfect. The Law is good, but the Law is also our condemnation.” (McDavid, Law and Gospel 14).

This law that Paul is speaking of is the Mosaic law.

This section is not the beginning of a new section, but the continuation of the previous. It is the resuming of the idea Paul pronounced in 6:14-15. It is a commentary upon that verse.

In this portion Paul is just introducing how it is that we are not bound to the law anymore but under grace.

The simple understanding is that you can only be condemned by the law if living.

If you are dead, you cannot be convicted by the law.

This is the suitable place we are in in accord with the law.

This is the analogy that Paul is pushing forth.

Although, in the analogy the husband seems to be the law and we the wife.

How does this fit? The Law did not die, but we did as 7:4 says.

How does this fit?

The illustration is used to demonstrate that death is what releases from the law.

When dead, the law has no sway over you.

So, as the wife, we died to the law and the flesh when we died with Christ as Romans 6:10-11 tells us.

Simply, we can marry again because we have come back from the dead and are married to Christ.

We are not bound by the law anymore.

This does not mean we live lawless. No!

It means our motivation is not from the law it is from God’s grace and our union with Christ.

How? You may ask.

It is because Jesus fulfilled the law when He died on the cross.

He said he did not come to abolish the law but fulfill it, Matthew 5:17.

The word abolish is kataluo. This word is closely related to the word for released used here in verse 2 and 6. It means To end the effect or validity of something, to put an end to.

The word released katargeo as in verse 2 and 6 is to cause the release of someone from an obligation (one has nothing more to do with it), be discharged, be released.

Simply because Jesus fulfilled the law we who have believed are free from it as if it was abolished in our lives. It does not hold us.

Let us then turn to the text and what it says.

Life in the Old Way

In verses 1-3 we see that while one is alive they are bound by the law.

The marriage analogy is fitting because while one is alive and married they are bound to the person they married. Til death do us part here.

Death is the end all of marriage.

It is the only way out.

Now, do not take this to be saying something it is not.

Paul is using marriage as an analogy and nothing more.

This is not a teaching on marriage but the old way under the law and the new way under Christ.

This law only incites rebellion in us.

It is not the liberator for us. It is not a cure or able to heal us.

No, it commands certain things that we cannot ever attain to.

The law is a curse to us.

Holy and righteous, Yes!

It is still a curse to us.

It is because it is something we cannot ever attain.

We cannot live it out.

It is beyond us.

It is too perfect for us to ever live it out rightly.

But, bound to it we are.

We are locked to it.

Simply, it curses us. It condemns us.

It tells us what is wrong with no cure.

It diagnosis us and that is it.

Very much like a doctor telling you that you have cancer, and that you are dying from this cancer, then just leaving.

He told you what was wrong, and what needed to go.

He told you what was killing you.

He told you to live you needed this cancer gone.

But, he did not tell you how, or what to do to remove it.

This is seen in Paul's epistle to the Galatians 3:21-23.

Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. 22 But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

23 Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed

The law told us that we are wicked and needed something to cure it, but it did not tell us the cure.

It only curses us. It does not cure us.

It controls us as long as we are alive. Just as the wife is bound to the husband and only by death is she free.

[Paul uses the woman in this analogy because in that time a woman could not divorce her husband the only way she was able to be free to remarry was for her husband to die.]

That is why Paul used the marriage analogy.

He said that only death could stop the law of marriage.

One has to die for the other to be free.

He is simply stating that the law is so binding on us that death is the only way to break the bonds of the law on your life.

Which leads to the next point:

Once we die, We truly live

In Verse 4 the analogy culminates into the point.

We have to die to live to be free.

You see, “When we try to be good while we are bound by the law to our old self, the result is a false facade of goodness. Deep inside, we know we are bound to sin, but we try to create a false front of goodness, an image or reputation of goodness–and the result is that we are hypocrites. Though we try outwardly to be good, we inwardly know that we are still the same old self-centered creatures we always were. Paul describes this hypocritical self as an adulterer.” (Stedman Reason to Rejoice 140).

When we are under the law any attempt we make to “marry” ourselves to goodness turns us into adulterers because we are still married to the law.

It is because of this that one has to die so the other is free from the law.

If not then any action with another person is adultery.

Death is the only way out.

The law did not die but us to the law and we are raised again with Christ as our new husband.

We die to the law and live to Christ.

It takes death to be free.

We find liberty through our death with Christ.

This liberty only comes with death. Our death.

We see this indicated back in chapter six. It is found in verses 22-23.

22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The law had us bound to the knowledge of our sin and made us slaves of it because we could not break it.

Through Christ we have the free gift of eternal life.

It has to be through Christ alone because, the law only increased sin as Romans 5:20 says and gave knowledge of sin as Romans 3:20 says.

Increased sin does not save but subjugate.

It makes us try and earn our rights.

It makes us think we can gain life on our own.

We are so enslaved that we think we can earn our way, or we try and marry an image of goodness and therefore become an adulterer.

That was not the intention of the law, no, it was to inform us that we could not do it alone and drive us to God but that is not what happens.

Why?

“One of the most puzzling aspects of human behavior is our ability to know exactly what we should do—on everything from keeping up with laundry to abstaining from adultery—and fail to do it.” (McDavid, Law and Gospel 20).

We are so under this yoke of bondage that we do not even realize it.

We have to die to be free from this.

It is our death to the law that frees us.

As stated earlier, when dead you cannot be convicted of the crime.

You see, once one believes upon Jesus for eternal life, they have died to the law.

The one who fulfilled the law it is through His body we have died to the law.

Our union with Him has linked us to His experience where He bore the penalty for sin. Where He fulfilled it all.

This death we die removes the guilt we bear.

It removes the guilt and failings.

Through it we no longer; falter, fail, sink.

Nor are we bound to sin, under the yoke of bondage.

We are no longer told how miserable and incapable of fulfilling what must be fulfilled.

We are not perfect, but we are covered in perfection because the Perfect One has fulfilled what we could not.

It is because of this where we are free to serve God and be fruitful for Him.

We can do so because our motivation is not from the law it is from God’s grace and our union with Christ.

We serve out of love and not fear. We bear fruit for the Lord this way.

This leads to the final point today

Freedom From the Law Means Love/Service Not Lawlessness

Paul says here that while we were living in the flesh our sinful passions were aroused by the law.

The passions that were aroused while in the flesh were aroused through the law. These passions used our bodily members to produce thoughts and acts characterized by death.

Simply, we knew we should not do, but we did.

We knew we should do, but did not do.

We should listen but we do not listen.

It is like a story I heard of a hotel in Galveston.

This high rise hotel built directly above the Gulf. It was so close to the water that the staff worried that people would want to and try to fish from the balconies. First-story glass windows, high winds, and lead sinkers would not be a good combination. So, the management placed a huge sign that read:

Absolutely No Fishing From The Balcony!

What happened next is easily guessed. People dining in the first story dining area became accustomed to the smack of sinkers on the windows. Sometimes to the tune of cracking glass.

Finally the managers realized that they needed to remove the sign.

Guess what? The fishing stopped when the sign was removed.

Why was that?

The management not wanting anyone to fish from the balconies did not change.

The people coming in were still the same type of people.

What changed?

The bondage of the law changed.

People no longer saw that they were not to do something.

The law aroused the sinful desires of the people and therefore they acted out the sinful desires that it aroused.

Sin leads to death.

Freedom leads to love and service.

That is the fruit we lay up for ourselves while under the law.

Not only that but we “we tend to look expectantly ahead into some future assumption of progress, believing we will arrive there by our own gradual steps of self-betterment.” (McDavid, Law and Gospel 13).

Another illustration that may help you see the bearing fruit for death.

We have all seen where someone does something they were not supposed to do and then they mess it up a little bit.

Instead of just admitting they messed up and made a mistake, they try and fix it.

Well, while trying to fix it they make it worse.

Then while trying to cover this up, they make that even worse.

This they do until it is completely ruined and beyond repair.

That’s us under the law.

We break it and try not to break it and by that we break it more.

That is the fruit we bear for death.

“[T]he problem within us is worse than we’d ever admit....”

This is why it takes death to truly live. Death gives us diplomatic immunity. We are free to serve and follow Christ without restriction.

This does not lead to lawless actions. No, but to love and desire to serve Christ. This is so because:

The ‘good news’ is Jesus Christ, who died and rose from death, [took] the whole of God’s wrath upon himself and [set] us free.” (McDavid, Law and Gospel 14).

It is from that where we have hope in this situation.

The sign has been removed and we no longer see something telling us not to fish.

When we die with Christ we die to that old way.

We die to the old thing that held us captive.

We are released.

We are free from the condemnation. We are free from the wrath of God.

We are no longer bound to sin, the flesh, and death.

We are no longer storing up fruit for death.

No, we are storing up fruit for life with Christ.

We are serving in the Spirit.

This is the new life. This is life everlasting with Jesus at the moment you believed.

We are no longer bound to the task master, the law.

No, we are new and serving in the new by the Spirit of God.

The thing we have broken has been fixed by Jesus.

It is in these verses where we see the Diplomatic Immunity we have through Jesus Christ.

Verse six says we are released from the law to serve in the spirit.

We are no longer accused by the law. We have immunity from it because of Jesus.

Is that not awesome? We are not condemned by the law but have immunity.

It is because of this why one can serve in the new way. You are not bound and drug down by the old way. You have freedom to serve.

Free to Live

I know all of this talk about the law may be a bit confusing.

You say that we are not under the law and I have never had to do the stuff written in the Old Testament.

You are somewhat correct.

But the 10 commandments are still binding.

We are judged by the perfect standard of God’s law because we have to be perfect to attain heaven.

The law describes this perfection you, me all of us have to attain to.

This is a demanding concept. It is very frustrating.

It is something that you are judged by whether you believe it or not.

God’s law is holy and righteous and the standard of which we are judged.

As James wrote For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. James 2:10.

Let me ask you simply, do you think that you could keep all of the ten commandments always perfectly?

No. None of us can.

That is why we have to die to the law by dying with Christ and being united to him in his death and rising.

If we stay in the old way and try to keep the law and attain heaven, we will be trying to work our way to God, and this does not work.

You see, “If the law were simply a matter of doing or not doing, commission or omission, we might reasonably imagine we have a shot at keeping it.” (McDavid Law and Gospel, 27).

“The problem is that no one follows the law perfectly—not the little-l laws of society and certainly not the Big-L Law of God.” (McDavid 26).

So, thanks be to Jesus Christ that that law is fulfilled and you can live out your life in grace.

You are not bound to the law and trying to work harder and harder for acceptance.

No, you keep the law daily because you are found in Christ.

You are under grace, not the law.

You have died to the law with Christ and now you are bound to Him.

You will ultimately fail in some points of the law daily.

Thankfully you are under grace and those failings are covered.

As Paul wrote, we are serving “in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code” (Romans 7:6).

The Holy Spirit guides you and directs you. He will let you know if something you are doing is not right.

When you feel that tug at your conscience or gut or even that flitting thought that this may be wrong, that is the Spirit letting you know it is.

Although, we are out from under the law, we are not free to do as we want.

We are not saying that this freedom allows for all kinds of sinful behavior because we are not under the law.

No! We are saying that the law cannot save you only faith can. The law only condemns you, it does not build you up.

This is diplomatic immunity. You have exemption from certain laws. You are not judged by those laws anymore because those laws have been fulfilled.

Again, this does not give license to sin and behave how you want too.

Just as those who have diplomatic immunity from other countries can be brought home because they behave badly, so can you by your father in heaven.

Live life in the newness of the Spirit in Christ.

Follow His guidance and you will live a more productive life in Christ and for Christ.

And know that because you are joined to Christ in the death you shared with him you are not held captive by the law and its strict demands anymore.

No! You have been released and now you are wed to the one who has borne that burden so you do not have too.

Rest in Him and know that he gives rest to the weary.

He Himself tells us:

28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30).

If you haven’t took this rest offered by Christ today it is offered.

Jesus offers you eternal life beginning right now in Him, if you will believe upon Him for this eternal life.

He is the only one who can give you rest and relieve the burden.

Will you believe and have that rest?