The Authority of the Law - Romans 7:1-6

Introduction

Chapter 6 - Relationship between us (Christians) and Enslavement to Sin

United with Christ

Symbolized in Baptism (Death, Burial, and Resurrection)

Died to Sin - Sin no longer has any mastery in our lives

Alive to God - We have new life in Christ

Romans 6:11 ESV

So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Yield/Present ourselves

Not to sin in order to obey its passions leading to death

to God as slaves of righteousness leading to sanctification and eternal life.

Chapter 7 - Relationship between us (Christians) and the Law

topic of Sanctification

Galatians 3:1–6 ESV

O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith— just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”?

Paul is addressing this topic by looking at the affect of the law in the life of the believer

The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Six: Christians and the Law (Romans 7)

Something in human nature makes us want to go to extremes, a weakness from which Christians are not wholly free. “Since we are saved by grace,” some argue, “we are free to live as we please,” which is the extreme of license.

“But we cannot ignore God’s Law,” others argue. “We are saved by grace, to be sure; but we must live under Law if we are to please God.” This is the extreme expression of legalism.

Paul answered the first group in Romans 6; the second group he answered in Romans 7. The word law is used twenty-three times in this chapter. In Romans 6, Paul told us how to stop doing bad things; in Romans 7 he told how not to do good things. “You were not justified by keeping the Law,” he argued, “and you cannot be sanctified by keeping the Law.”

I will be adapting the outline by Warren Weirsbe’s Commentary

3 main topics in relation to Law and the Believer

The Authority of the Law (1-6)

The Ministry of the Law (7-13)

The Inability of the Law (14-25)

Topic addressed (1)

Romans 7:1 ESV

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?

“Do you not know”

to not know v. — to be lacking in knowledge or information.

Addressing a topic that is true.

“Know the Law”

to know (experientially) v. — to know or have knowledge about (someone or something); normally as acquired through observation or the senses.

The Companion Bible: Being the Authorized Version of 1611 with the Structures and Notes, Critical, Explanatory and Suggestive and with 198 Appendixes Chapter 7

law. Gr. nomos. Occ. over 190 times, of which about two-thirds are in Paul’s Epistles, the greater number being in Romans and 31 in Galatians. There are 23 in this chapter.

Torah ⇔ law n. — the Torah, understood by its prominent legal characteristics.

“Law is binding on a person only as long as he lives.”

Binding - to dominate (completely) v. — to exercise control over someone as his master.

Romans 6:9 ESV

We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.

Romans 7:14 ESV

For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.

Not binding on those who die.

Marriage Illustration (2-3)

Romans 7:2–3 ESV

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. 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.

Marriage

Marriage is seen as a committed relationship between one man and one woman that is binding for life.

When one dies the other is free from the commitment to marriage and is free to engage in a new relationship.

It is wrong to engage with another while both are still living.

This is not a text teaching about Marriage and remarriage.

Paul is using an illustration that is known to people to make a point for understanding.

death releases one from the Law.

The Companion Bible: Being the Authorized Version of 1611 with the Structures and Notes, Critical, Explanatory and Suggestive and with 198 Appendixes Chapter 7

This is an illustration of the fact that death breaks all bonds; husband and wife, master and servant.

Romans A. The Believer’s Death to Law: An Illustration (7:1–6)

In the case of his illustration, marriage, Paul’s point is that laws governing marriage are null and void when the marriage union is broken by the death of one spouse. Death is the only thing that frees one from the lordship of law in marriage.

The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Six: Christians and the Law (Romans 7)

But in Paul’s illustration from marriage, it was the husband who died and the wife who married again. If you and I are represented by the wife, and the Law is represented by the husband, then the application does not follow the illustration. If the wife died in the illustration, the only way she could marry again would be to come back from the dead. But that is exactly what Paul wants to teach! When we trusted Christ, we died to the Law; but in Christ, we arose from the dead and now are “married” (united) to Christ to live a new kind of life!

We died to the Law (4-5)

Romans 7:4–5 ESV

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. 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.

New relationship (4)

Likewise, you have died to the Law

Likewise connects to Illustration

Death has caused us to no longer be bound to the Law, but we are bound to God.

Died - to be exempt ⇔ be put to death v. — to be or become exempt, conceived of as being caused to die in relation to something.

“Through the Body of Christ” - His death and resurrection

“so that we could belong to another”

“So that” - in order to accomplish

Belong to another

“To be closely related to someone or something., belong to” (BDAG)

Idea of Marriage - relating to illustration in vs. 2-3.

“to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.”

Old self under Law (5)

While living in the flesh

Flesh - sinful humanity ⇔ flesh n. — the physical aspect of a person in distinction to the immaterial soul; often understood as the seat of sin and rebellion to God.

Romans: An Introduction and Commentary 1. The Marriage Analogy (7:1–6)

While we were living in the flesh. That is, when we were unregenerate.

Our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. How the law can arouse sinful passions appears in verses 7–13. The ‘fruit for death’ consists of those evil works whose ‘end’ is death, according to 6:21.

Law and Sin

Sinful - sin (act) n. — an act or feeling that transgresses something forbidden or ignores something required by God’s law or character; whether in thought, feeling, speech, or action.

Passions - propensity n. — an inclination to do something.

Aroused - Through the Law

Romans 7:5 LEB

For when we were in the flesh, sinful desires were working through the law in our members, to bear fruit for death.

Bear fruit - to produce consequences ⇔ bear fruit v. — to produce actions and natural consequences befitting one’s nature; conceived of as a tree bearing fruit according to its kind. (Compare with vs. 4)

Death

We are delivered from the Law (6)

Romans 7:6 ESV

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.

Distinction between past (5) and present (6)

Romans 7:5 ESV

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.

Romans 7:6 ESV

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.

We are Now...

Released from the Law

Released - to be exempt v. — to be or become freed from or not subject to a privilege, obligation, or liability to which others or other things are subject.

from the Law (Mosaic Law)

Died - 6:1-3, 11

Captive - to be checked ⇔ be held down v. — to be or become less intense or tempered; be held in restraint or kept within limits; conceived of as being physically held down.

Serve

Serve - to be dominated by ⇔ be a slave to v. — to be or become entirely dominated by some influence or person; conceived of as being the legal property of another.

“New way of the Spirit”

Romans 6:4 ESV

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

Living by the Spirit will be addressed further in chapter 8.

“Old way of the Written Code”

Written Code - system ⇔ letter n. — the Mosaic law system; understood as if a single character of the scrolls which contained the Torah.

Takeaways

Christians have been

United with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection.

Released from the Law through death.

are to serve in the new way of the Spirit.

Romans 7:4–6 NLT

So, my dear brothers and sisters, this is the point: You died to the power of the law when you died with Christ. And now you are united with the one who was raised from the dead. As a result, we can produce a harvest of good deeds for God. When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death. But now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power. Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit.