Studies in Romans 7:1-6

For those who have not been reading along, I am doing a quick study of Romans chapters 6 - 8. I have already done 3 posts concerning chapter 6.

Even though we are beginning a new chapter, Paul is still answering the question back in Romans 6:15 - 'should we sin because we are under grace?' - which addresses the issue of the Christian having a license to sin.

7:1- 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?

** Paul begins another analogy to answer the question in Rom. 6:15.

** He starts with something that they are familiar with, the law - in order to explain the unfamiliar.

7:2- For the married woman is bound to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning her husband.

** 1 Cor. 7:39

7:3- 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.

** This is the same as saying that you are either slaves of sin or slaves of obedience and righteousness - but now instead of sin, Paul is talking about the Law and he uses marriage as the example. The husband represents the Law. When he died, she was freed to join with with another man. So when we died with Christ, we died to the requirements of the Law - as it says in the next verse.

7:4- Therefore, my brethren, you were also made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, that we might bear fruit for God.

** In Chapter 6, the topic was death to sin. Now the topic is death to the Law. See Rom. 8:2 (we have been set free from the law of sin and death).

** Chapter 6 used the term united. Here, it says we are joined to Him who was raised from the dead. Paul explains this in Romans 6:3-4.

** The reason for being joined to Him is to bear fruit for God. Bearing fruit for God results in simply abiding in Christ. How? Read the word. Meditate on the word during the day. Think about Christ. Filter all of our thoughts and actions through the Word. Bearing fruit starts in the mind - just like a branch bearing fruit starts in the roots, you don't see fruit right away. But as we begin to focus on the Word on a daily basis, it will affect our actions. So the actions result from the meditations of godly thinking. God through the Holy Spirit works through us through the knowledge of the Word in order to bear fruit for Himself. Simply doing good works without godly intent does not bear fruit for God.

** 2 Cor. 10:3-5 describes spiritual warfare. It is not in the fleshly members of our bodies, but in the mind. our bodies have been corrupted from original sin (Rom 6:6 - "body of sin"). However, our minds oriented towards God can override the corrupted flesh. Satan attempts to focus our minds on other things so that we do not bear fruit for God.

7:5- For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death.

** Sinful passions happen while we were in the flesh.

** Sinful passions were aroused by the Law.

** Sinful passions were at work in the members of our body.

** We are either bearing fruit for God, or for death. It's the same idea as before. If our thoughts are oriented towards sin and the flesh, the works that we do illustrate that we worthy of death. We were already oriented towards death when we were born because of the original sin. But our thoughts and deeds illustrated that we were deserving of death.

7:6- But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.

** Rom. 6:7 says that we were freed from sin when we died. Now Paul says we have also been freed from the Law through death also.

** The hope is that we live by the Spirit and not by the Law. Paul is next going to explain why it is not good to live by the Law.

This wraps up the point from Paul's hypothetical question in Romans 6:15 - should we sin because we are not under law but under grace?

The main points:

a) We were slaves of sin and married to the Law, but we have died with Christ - freeing us from sin's slavery and the demands of the Law - and joining us to righteousness and God.

b) We don't sin because we are no longer slaves to sin. Before salvation, the sinful desires of the flesh beared fruit for death. And knowing that the outcome of sin is death, why should we want to practice sin any longer?

c) We are joined to God to bear fruit for Him.