Romans 7:1-6 (NIV)
Do you not know, brothers–for I am speaking to men who know the law–that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives? 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 of marriage. So then, if she marries 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, even though she marries another man.
So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God. For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.
Paul has been writing about how we were slaves to sin in our old lives, but had now died to that old life, and had been raised up to live as bondservants, slaves by choice, of righteousness. He now uses another illustration to drive the point home.
His illustration is that of a marriage covenant. As long as the two human parties to the marriage covenant are alive, God, the non-human party in the covenant, holds the covenant in force, and the human parties are bound by it. If one or both parties break the requirements of the covenant, it is considered adultery by God.
But covenants are in force only as long as all parties are living. If one of the parties to a marriage covenant dies, the covenant becomes void and is no longer in effect. If the surviving partner marries someone else, it is no longer considered adultery by God.
Paul extrapolates that reality back into his former point. Since we died with Christ, we also died to the legalism of the law. The Old Covenant with its flesh-based requirements is no longer binding on those who have died and been born again.
That does not, however, mean that we become free agents, able to do whatever we want in violation of God’s moral requirements. Instead, we die to the Old Covenant in order to be bound under the New Covenant, a marriage covenant with Jesus Himself, the one who was raised from the dead. And we are bound in this New Covenant for a very specific purpose: to bear fruit for God by growing His kingdom, making disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19-20).
Paul points out the huge difference between these covenants, and he is very well-versed in this, since he lived passionately under the Old Covenant before he died to legalism and sin and was raised to live passionately under the New. Under the Old Covenant, the passions of the flesh were in charge, snaring us over and over again in sin, leading to spiritual death. But, by dying to the Old Covenant and the flesh which had control under it, we are now raised up to serve God in the Spirit in the New Covenant. In the power of the Spirit, the flesh is no longer in charge, so each person is free to choose to live here and now continually in God’s presence, holy and righteous, and enduring to all eternity.
Father, many refer to the good news, meaning that we can go to heaven someday and avoid hell. And that is indeed good news. But Your gospel is so much more than just a better future someday. It is about a better now, a present where we can serve You without being inexorably bound by sin, constantly dragged down by earthly appetites, and consistently stymied by our weak flesh. Instead, as those who have died to all that, we can live as those who have been raised to life and to a powerful relationship with You through faith in Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit, so that our lives here and now, today, are holy, obedient, and powerful. Thank You! Amen.