Romans 7.4a-The Christian Is Dead With Respect To The Law Through The Body Of Christ
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday August 20, 2008
Romans: Romans 7:4a-The Christian Is Dead With Respect To The Law Through The Body Of Christ
Lesson # 212
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 7:1.
This evening we will study Romans 7:4, which teaches that in the same way that a Jewish wife is discharged from the marriage contract with her deceased husband and free to marry another so the Christian has been discharged from the Law and was married to Christ through the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 7:1-4, “Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives? For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man. Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.”
“Therefore” is the “inferential” use of the conjunction hoste (w%ste) (hoce-teh), which is drawing an inference from the preceding spiritual principle that appears in Romans 7:1 that the Mosaic Law has jurisdiction over the Jew until he dies.
It also draws an inference from the marriage analogy that appears in Romans 7:2-3 that illustrates the spiritual principle presented in Romans 7:1.
Hoste introduces the actual relation with respect to Christians who are in a position that corresponds to the position of the Jewish wife in relation to her husband.
Like the Jewish wife who was bound to her husband while he was still alive, so prior to their conversion to Christianity, the Jewish Christian was bound to the Law while in his unregenerate state.
Like the Jewish wife is no longer bound to her husband once he dies, so the Jewish Christian is no longer bound to the Mosaic Law when he was identified with Christ in His physical death.
In other words, the Christian died with Christ the moment he was declared justified through faith in Jesus Christ and identified with Him in His physical death.
Now, we must understand that the analogy is not exact and verse 2 and 3 are not an allegory.
Unlike the Jewish husband who died in the illustration or analogy, the Mosaic Law did not die.
In Romans 7:4, the Christian represented by the wife in the illustration died and was separated from their first spouse, the Mosaic Law by their own death with Christ.
If the Christian is represented in the illustration by the wife and the Law by the husband, then the application does not follow the illustration.
Now, if the wife died in the illustration, the only way that she could marry again would be to come back from the dead.
This is the way Paul is using the illustration.
The Christian died with Christ and was married to Him through the baptism of the Spirit the moment they were declared justified through faith in Christ.
Paul’s point is therefore that the marriage relationship has been broken by the death of one of its participants.
Like the Jewish woman is freed from her husband by his death so in the same way, the Jewish Christian has been freed from the Mosaic Law when he died with Christ.
Paul’s teaching in Romans 7:4 recalls his teaching in Romans 6:14 and is connected to it.
Romans 6:14, “For the sin nature, will, as a certainty, never again, have dominion over all of you for all of you, as an eternal spiritual truth, are by no means under the authority and dominion of the Law but rather under the authority and dominion of grace.”
The reason why Romans 6:14 and 7:4 are connected is that Paul teaches in Romans 5:20 that the introduction of the Law increased the transgression of Adam in the sense that the Law exposed man’s sinful nature to disobey the revealed will of God and in fact stimulated man’s sinful nature to disobey the revealed will of God.
If the Christian is no longer under the authority and dominion of the sin nature according to Romans 6:14, then he is equally not under the dominion of the Law since it was an addendum to the sin nature in the sense that it made the sinner aware that he was a sinner by nature and that God was holy.
The fact that the Christian died with Christ is called “retroactive positional truth,” which is one of two different aspects related to “positional sanctification” the other being “current” positional truth.
The former means that when Christ died on the Cross, God views the justified sinner as having died with Christ as well.
The latter means that when Christ was raised from the dead, God views the justified sinners as having been raised from the dead with Christ.
Both are accomplished through the baptism of the Spirit.
The apostle Paul speaks of “retroactive positional truth” in relation to himself in Galatians 2:19-20.
Galatians 2:19-20, “For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”
Romans 7:4, “Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.”
“My brethren” refers specifically to Jewish Christians since Paul clarifies who he is addressing as those who were familiar with the Mosaic Law.
Paul’s use of this expression emphasizes the sensitivity of not only the apostle Paul towards his Jewish countrymen but also the sensitivity of the subject of the Law as well.
The implication is that Paul considers that the Jewish Christian’s relationship to the Mosaic Law is a sensitive subject that he is dealing with in Romans chapter seven since the Jews were strongly influenced by the legalistic teaching of the Judaizers.
“Were made to die” is the verb thanatoo (qanatovw) (than-at-o-o), which is used in a figurative sense and is used of the Jewish Christians in Rome as having been put to death with respect to the Mosaic Law by being identified with Christ in His physical death through the baptism of the Holy Spirit (Romans 6:4).
Romans 6:4, “Therefore, we have been buried with Him through baptism with respect to His physical death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead ones through the glory of the Father, in the same way, we, ourselves will also walk in the realm of an extraordinary life.”
Paul does not say in Romans 7:4 that the Mosaic Law died since it is a part of God’s Word, which is eternal.
Rather, he teaches that the Jewish Christian who was condemned by the Mosaic Law prior to their conversion to Christianity, is now dead with respect to the Law in the sense that the Law no longer has dominion and authority over him like a Jewish husband no longer has dominion and authority over his wife when he dies.
They died to the Mosaic Law because they were identified with Christ in His physical death through the baptism of the Spirit the moment they were declared justified through faith in Jesus Christ.
As we noted in Romans 6:14, the justified sinner, and in particular the Jewish Christian is no longer under the Mosaic Law in the sense that it has no authority or sovereign power over him since he is now under God’s grace policy.
Therefore, since they have been justified by grace through faith in Jesus Christ and are no longer under the dominion of the sin nature, then likewise, they are no longer under the authority of the Mosaic Law.
They are also no longer condemned by it since the Mosaic Law was an addendum to the sin nature so as to point out the sinner’s need for a Savior.
The Jewish sinner is condemned by the Mosaic Law because it demands perfect obedience, which they had no capacity to do.
Christ’s perfect obedience accomplished what the Law demanded according to Romans 8:1-4, which teaches that the Christian does not live without a rule or a law to govern his conduct in life since his conduct is now governed by “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.”
The Christian is under “the law of Christ,” which is to love one another as He has loved the church (John 13:34; cf. 1 Corinthians 9:20-21).
Galatians 6:2, “Bear one another's burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.”
Therefore, the Christian is dead to the Mosaic Law in the sense that it can no longer condemn him because the presence of the sin nature gives him no capacity to render perfect obedience to the Law, which the Law requires.
Romans 7:4, “Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.”
“Through the body of Christ” indicates that the death of Lord Jesus Christ’s physical body on the Cross of Calvary was the “means” by which the Jewish Christians in Rome have died with respect to the Mosaic Law.