Click here to read today's passage on Bible Gateway.
Married to the Law
Because this is Romans, there is far more in our readings every day than I can hope to address. Today's reading is no different - chapter 6 is a very rich chapter, so take some time again to read it slowly and carefully. The major point: through faith in Christ we have died to sin. We are no longer slaves to sin (owned and controlled by it), but are rather slaves to Jesus and righteousness (again, owned and controlled). Remember this, because we'll come back to it at the end of chapter 7. That being said, I want to quickly deal with an easily misunderstood illustration at the beginning of chapter 7:
"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? 2 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. 3 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.
4 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. 5 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. 6 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."
Again I have a nifty diagram to help explain.
Married to the Law
Because this is Romans, there is far more in our readings every day than I can hope to address. Today's reading is no different - chapter 6 is a very rich chapter, so take some time again to read it slowly and carefully. The major point: through faith in Christ we have died to sin. We are no longer slaves to sin (owned and controlled by it), but are rather slaves to Jesus and righteousness (again, owned and controlled). Remember this, because we'll come back to it at the end of chapter 7. That being said, I want to quickly deal with an easily misunderstood illustration at the beginning of chapter 7:
"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? 2 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. 3 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.
4 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. 5 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. 6 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."
Again I have a nifty diagram to help explain.
Click to embiggen
As I said, it can be easy to misunderstand this illustration. Many who read this think that it is saying that the Law has died. After all, we don't have to follow it anymore, do we? While that is true, the CANNOT die. It is the eternal word of God and will never pass away. So if the Law can't die, it means that WE must died. We die in order to be released to our obligation to the Law. When we are dead it no longer as any authority over us. We are then raised BY Christ to life WITH Christ. Our husband (the Law) didn't die -we died in order that we might have a NEW husband, Jesus. This is why we CANNOT simply just be the "new and improved" version of our former selves. If we are simply "better", we are still married to the Law. We MUST be new creations or we still stand condemned under the Law. This is the miracle that occurs in our salvation: that we die and are raised as new creations. That is why the symbolism of baptism is so important: it's more than just a symbol of being clean or something weird that we do - we were dead and buried with Christ and are raised to life again in a miraculous act of grace.
RSS Feed
