Now, dear brothers and sisters—you who are familiar with the law—don’t you know that the law applies only while a person is living? For example, when a woman marries, the law binds her to her husband as long as he is alive. But if he dies, the laws of marriage no longer apply to her. So while her husband is alive, she would be committing adultery if she married another man. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law and does not commit adultery when she remarries. 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.
Romans 7:1-6 NLT
A Christian focuses on Christ; building a relationship with Him, not a list of rules. Like Christ’s disciples we choose to follow Him and die to the law – not because God’s law is bad but because the law was used by sin to produce evil desires inside us (v 5). We cannot prove ourselves righteous through church, Bible knowledge, morals, or helping others. We are declared righteous by faith (3:21-31). Our Savior died and rose so the law would no longer have power over those who are united with Him. This leads to a harvest of life as a person follows the Spirit. Paul uses an illustration of a spouse who dies; since we died to our old lives, we died to the power of the law. The law, the good rules of God, were never meant to save a person. They were meant to show a person when they had done wrong. Accepting Christ’s righteousness changes everything. We can be free to do God’s will by following the Holy Spirit living inside us. Let go of the rule book and focus on Jesus.
Have you found that the law (or rules) make you want to break the rules? What does it mean for you to “die” to the power of the law? What does it mean for you to accept the approval of God, and not prove yourself to Him and others?
