Romans 7:1-13 -- "Freedom from the Law"

St. Paul was once called Saul of Tarsus, the young man at whose feet were laid the clothes of those who stoned Stephen. Saul gave approval to his being stoned to death for the crime of preaching Christ (Acts 7:58). Once the Pharisee of Pharisees, the blasphemer and the persecutor of the Church (Phil 3:5–6), Saul’s story changed when he came face-to-face with the grace of God—the crucified and resurrected Christ.

At the revelation of this grace, Paul could no longer value the works of the flesh he had previously held in high esteem. He now reckoned them as dung in comparison to the grace of God in Christ Jesus. For the grace of God had revealed to him a much more precious and perfect way of being made righteous before God, a way that does not depend upon works or our obedience but on the obedience of the one man, Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God (Phil 3:7–11). This was the kind of righteousness that Saul had sought with all his might but never attained, just as his fellow Jews were seeking but always stumbling, never attaining. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. Likewise, we never will succeed in keeping the Law. Thanks be to God, therefore, that

Christ Is Our Freedom from the Law.

The Law of God becomes for the Sinner a Law of death.

Paul is confronted by legalists who opposed the Gospel and held works-righteousness produced by the Law in high esteem, as Paul himself had previously done. Careful reading enables us to realize that Paul does not despise the Law nor invalidate it; rather, he upholds it by expounding the importance of the Law both to the Jews and Gentiles as those created in God’s image and consequently having a duty to uphold this moral code that dignifies and respects the worth of the Creator and their fellow man. However, in matters of salvation, he reaffirms that the Law cannot save; it can only show us our need to be saved—and by a redeemer separate from ourselves.

Scripture tells us in Romans 3:20 and 7:7 that the Law makes us conscious of sin, even magnifies sin (Rom 7:13), condemns sin, and kills the sinner (Rom 6:23). Therefore, the righteous Law of God for the sinner becomes a Law of death! It does not impart life to the sinner. Rather the Law seals the sinner’s bondage to sin until such a time as that sin is dealt with. As long as you are still under the Law — thinking you can be saved by being a good person — the Law will continually work in you by awakening desires that are contrary to its demands. The Law always has power over those who are living, but once it judges and kills you, it no longer has authority over you; you have already met all its demands, that is, death—and you cannot be judged twice for the same offense, for God is not unjust to do so. (Note: In America, this is called double jeopardy.) So if the Law cannot impart life, then it was never given in the first place to save, and no one can be declared righteous by observing it.

Christ’s Death to the Law is Your Death.

For deliverance from the Law to occur, a death must precede the proclamation. In our reading today, Paul uses the analogy of marriage: “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? 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. (vv 1–4).

For any partner to be set free from the marriage covenant, a death must occurred. A will cannot be effected unless the testator dies and a death certificate is produced to verify it. Similarly in Scripture, a death had to occur for a freedom to be granted to the beneficiaries of the covenant. And since God himself was the testator and man the offender, then that death had to be of God as man for it to be efficacious enough. That man is Jesus Christ—fully God and fully man.

By this one man’s obedience, our relationship to the Law and to God, the author of the Law, has changed drastically and forever. By his obedience to the Father, Jesus has undone what the first Adam did in Eden and passed on as an inheritance to his offspring. Jesus Christ, who was without sin, did not deserve to die, for death has no authority over him. Yet he allowed himself to be subjected to our humanness, be identified with our sinfulness. He placed himself under the Law that he wrote by his own finger, was condemned by its demands by the evil that is in human hearts, and died as a punishment as the Law demands! But he did all this taking the place of all sinners and, by so doing, set all free from the Law’s demands and accusations forever (Col 2:13–15)!

Then, to demonstrate the effectiveness of this sacrificial death, God raised Jesus back to life on the third day, publically validating all he had done. God the Father is pleased with the sacrifice of the Son. This death expiated all the sin of the world, once and for all. In addition, the Law no longer condemns those who are in Christ, because in him the Law has been fulfilled! This is the Good News of salvation for all who believe, that by one man’s obedience, those in faith have been made right with God once and for all.

Baptism is Your death into His Death.

How can you be a partaker of such glorious news? “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children” (Acts 2:38–39).

You partake of the saving work of Christ by repenting; that is, the Holy Spirit moving you away from sin to the cross of Christ. Baptism is a Means of Grace through which God distributes the merits of the cross unto you individually. In Baptism, a death occurs that frees from the lordship of Law, sin, and death.

In Romans 6, Paul openly shows how, through Baptism, the Christian joined to Christ’s death—signifying that, you, too, through Baptism, die to sin once and for all and are raised up with Christ to newness of life. As Luther puts it, “in Baptism sin is taken away by spiritual means, that is, the will to commit sin is put to death.”

Now, in ch 7, St. Paul shows the logical sequence: once freed from sin, the Law can no longer accuse you. You have already died with Christ and been raised again to the newness of life, an entirely new creation. This is life lived in and under the grace of God and led by the Spirit of God beneath the lordship of Jesus Christ, the new Adam. “Now,” St. Paul writes, “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” (v 6).

Now that you are united with Christ by baptism and faith, God delivers you from sin, death, and the devil and receives you into His kingdom (Jn 3:5).

This is not your work but a work of God, commanded by him with his promise attached to it (Mt 28:19; Mk 16:16). It includes all sinners, even infants, for they, too, are born in sin under the Law, subjected to death and off course beneath the wrath of God. Baptism of infants is pleasing to Christ, for it takes all the merit from man and ascribes it to Christ alone.

The Law gives us Appreciation of Grace by Showing how Great was the Debt Christ Paid.

As baptized believers, we still need the Law, but not as the means of acquiring salvation. For Christ is the end of the Law so that there may be righteousness to all who believe (Rom 10:4). Yet the Law remains as a mirror that constantly reminds us of who we are apart from Christ. Paul said, “If it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin” (v. 7). The Law actually makes us appreciate grace even more as we see how much we are indebted to Christ.

Christ’s love seeks the unworthy, those who can offer no merit of their own but only and always need him in every aspect of their lives. For redeemed sinners are still entirely dependent on him. The old Adam still clings to us and daily needs to be washed away in repentance. Our daily lives are nothing but living the rhythm of daily dying to sin and daily rising to newness of life in Christ. This is the baptismal life. Poor beggars who need to be clothed and fed daily by the Gospel.

That’s why He gathers us on every Lord’s Day around the Word and Sacraments. Christ himself comes bodily in our midst in accordance with his promise. He comes to unite heaven and earth and then gives unto us a foretaste of the glory to be celebrated soon in the heavenly kingdom. He comes with the precious gifts he bestows on his beloved ones who have been joined to him through Baptism and faith, and feeds us on his body and blood at the altar and spiritually by faith. This kind of feeding nourishes, strengthens, and bestows power and blessings without bounds upon you.

Brothers and Sister, under the slavery of the Law, you were not free to serve. But now, having been freed from the Law, you are free to serve joyfully, just like freed slaves who give themselves to serving their new master willingly as an appreciation for their newfound status as freemen. All thanks to their new master! Christ sends us out to go and serve him by serving others as he has served us. But in the process of serving others, it is Christ who is serving them through you. You are free because He loved you and freed you by his precious blood so that in Him you may always have life, serving him as a kingdom of priests.

In the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.