Today, we transition into Romans 7 where the overall topic in Romans 6-8 is the sanctification of the believer in Christ. You will remember that sanctification is about the salvation of our soul (our minds, our wills and our emotions). And, you will remember that justification is different than sanctification. Whereas justification is being made right with God, sanctification is gaining the thoughts, ways, and wisdom of God, enabling us to experience the life the Lord Jesus died to give us. You will also remember that justification is based solely on our faith in the Lord Jesus' work on the cross. And sanctification is based on our ability to say, "no" to self, and, to say "yes" to the Lord in our thinking and choices.
In v.1 of today's passage we read, "Do you not know, brothers and sisters—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives?"
In today's passage the Apostle Paul addresses those who think that they measure up to the law of Moses and subsequently earn God's favor. The most often used word in Romans 7 is the word "law". Therefore, the theme of Romans 7 is the Christian's relationship to the law of Moses. These, to whom Paul wrote, believed that the Lord Jesus plus their goodness equaled their salvation. They did not understand that they could not measure up to the law, not even in the slightest bit. They did not understand that the law of Moses is completely perfect and inflexible. They did not understand that there is no bending of the laws rules and there were no exceptions. They did not understand that the law finds all under its jurisdiction guilty before God and deserving of hell.
In v.2 of today's passage we read, "For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her to him."
Here, the Apostle Paul uses an illustration from marriage to demonstrate that Christ has fulfilled the requirements of the law, and the believer in Christ is subsequently dead to the law. Death ends the believer's responsibility to the law. The Believer has died to the law through our union with Christ. So, just as in a marriage, if the husband dies, the wife is free to remarry, the believer in Christ is free from the law and is now married to Christ. Just as the wife is free from the law because death ends her responsibility to her husband, the believer in Christ died in Christ and is therefore dead to his responsibility to measure up to the law.
The law of Moses does not enable any human to rise above our sinfulness. The believer in Christ has been separated from the demands of the law when we were united with Christ. As a result, the Lord Jesus measures up before God on our behalf. It is a good thing that the law of God crushes us underneath its perfection, because when we have been brought to an end of self, the Gospel wraps us in its message and makes us presentable to God. And, the gospel only makes sense to those who have run out of options and have come to the relieving realization that we are incapable of measuring up to God's demands.
In v.3 of today's passage we read, "So then, if she has sexual relations with another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man."
Due to the entrance of sin into the world through Adam's choice in the Garden of Eden, all of mankind has been turned over to the dominion of the god of this world, Satan. By one man sin entered the world, and death through sin. Death spread to all. And, sin made us adulteresses with reference to God our Creator. Our existence was contaminated with a natural rebellion toward God.
When we were conceived, we were given a body, a soul and a spirit. Our soul is our consciousness, our ability to make decisions and to reason. Our bodies are inextricably connected to our souls. Our spirit was dead to God, because of what Adam did in the Garden of Eden. And, according to the Lord Jesus in John 3, in order for sinful man to be made right with God and to live with God for eternity, we must be "born again." And, of course, this is what happens to us when we trust in the finish work of Christ on the cross for the forgiveness of our sin.
Through the death of Christ on the cross the requirements of the law were met on the behalf of all who have placed our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. As a result, our lives should not reflect a ladder-centered version of the Christian faith. Rather, now that we have been forgiven through Christ, our lives should be lived out of a cross-centered perspective on life.
For us who believe in Christ, God is now destroying our idol of self-sufficiency in order to reveal Himself as our sole sufficiency. God kills in order to make alive; he strips us in order to give us new clothes. He lays us flat on our backs so that we’re forced to look up to Him. God’s office of grace is located at the end of our rope. The thing we least want to admit is the one thing that can set us free: the fact that we are weak and helplessly dependent upon God.
