Objection 10: Romans 7:1-6 proves that the law is done away. Under the figure of marriage Paul explains that we are “delivered from the law,” and that, indeed, the law is dead.
Romans 7:1-6 reads:
“Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.”
What is Paul discussing in Romans 7? The same thing he is discussing in the chapter immediately preceding: That although we are saved by grace through faith, not by the works of the law, we do not keep on sinning. We live for Christ and bear righteous fruit for Him.
The key to understanding this passage is that when Paul speaks of “the law” that the widow has been released from, he is not talking about the Ten Commandment law or the code of moral precepts. In this passage, Paul is using the term “law” to mean the law of sin. What is the law of sin?
In order to understand what the “law of sin” is, we need to go deeper into Romans seven. In Romans 7:14-25, Paul talks about how our sinful nature wars with our God-implanted desire to do the right thing. Within this larger discussion we find this passage:
So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. Romans 7:21-23
Here Paul speaks of “another law at work in me, the law of sin.” Paul is referring to our sinful human nature, which he calls a “law,” as though it is a natural law, like gravity. And, indeed, the outworking of our fallen human nature does seem to be as constant and predictable as gravity.
But Paul’s message in Romans 7:1-6, is that the Christian believer is, because of Christ’s death on our behalf, free from the “law of sin.” We do not need to be married to it anymore:
“So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law [that is, the law of sin, which is your sinful human nature controlling you] 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 for God.” Rom. 7:4.
Clearly, the “law” of which Paul speaks is the “law of sin,” at work in us, our sinful, fallen nature, not the Ten Commandment law. But this is made even clearer in the next verse:
For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. Rom. 7:5.
The sinful passions aroused by the law? What law? Again, obviously “the law of sin” which is the outworking of our sinful, fallen human nature. The NIV drops a note after the word “flesh” (Gr.: sarx), stating that here, and in many other passages, it is not used literally but rather in reference “to the sinful state of human beings, often presented as a power in opposition to the Spirit.” Exactly. And this is what Paul calls “the law of sin.”
The really good news is that Paul is saying we are now free from this law of sin. We no longer need to live according to the flesh, or to be a slave to our fallen human nature. We are free to live according to the spirit of Christ, and let His spirit dwell within us.
“But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law [again, the “law of sin” at work in our nature] so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.” Rom. 7:6
Being released from the law of sin, which is our sinful nature, we no longer serve “in the old way of the written code.” Now in this last clause of verse 6, Paul is referring to written law. What does he mean? He means that we don’t serve Christ by trying to keep a written code, we serve Christ with joy in salvation, and love for God and mankind. The experience of conversion and salvation in Christ means that we pursue much greater works of the Spirit than we would if we were trying to be saved by hewing to a written list of restrictions. In his paraphrase, “The Clear Word,” Jack Blanco interprets Romans 6:6 this way:
“But now we’re delivered from the condemnation of the law because our sinful lives have died. We are no longer slaves to the law of sin but serve God willingly and joyously with a new spirit, not in the old way of obeying just the letter of the law.”
I think that Blanco nails the meaning of this verse: Because the law of sin in our nature has died with Christ (and symbolically through baptism) we are free to serve God in a new and joyous way, not just by obeying a list of “dos and don’ts.”
We can now see that Romans 7:1-6 builds on what Paul wrote in the previous chapter. The “dead husband” metaphor is part of an extended argument against cheap grace, against continuing to sin after you have repented and claimed forgiveness through faith in Jesus Christ.
As we look at Paul’s letter to the Romans, we see that in chapters 2 through 5, Paul is making the case that we are all condemned sinners who are saved solely through the grace of our lord Jesus Christ, claimed by faith; we are saved by grace through faith. Then, in chapters 6 and 7, Paul makes the case against “cheap grace,” saying that just because we are saved solely by grace through faith, we do not therefore go on sinning.
In making his case against cheap grace, Paul uses three metaphors. The first is that if we accept Christ’s death on our behalf, then we died with Christ, and the dead do not keep sinning:
“What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with [Christ] through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.” Rom. 6:4-14.
In verse 14, Paul segues or transitions into his second metaphor against continuing to sin, which is the master/slave analogy. Paul says that by accepting Jesus Christ as your savior, you have accepted Him as your new master. Your old master was sin, but your new master is the righteousness of Christ, by which you are redeemed, so now you must be a slave to righteousness. The slave does the will of his master:
“For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Rom. 6:14-23.
The “dead husband” metaphor is the third in Paul’s argument against cheap grace. He says that you were married to sin, under the law of sin, but that husband died, and his claims on you went to the grave with him. Therefore, you are no longer under the law of sin, the tyranny of your sinful fallen nature. In other words, you need no longer be married to your “old man of sin,” your sinful nature. You have been released from the law of sin:
“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? 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. 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. So, my brothers and sisters, 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 for God. For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, 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.” Rom. 7:1-6.
Some people say that Paul preaches grace and does not teach the forsaking of sins, but in Romans we see a very balanced presentation of the gospel: Yes, we are saved by grace through faith, but no, we do not keep on sinning. There are several whole chapters on both aspects of this, so it is a complete misrepresentation to say that Paul preached only grace at the expense of obedience.
I think Paul realized or sensed that perhaps this last metaphor, and his use of the term “law” to mean our sinful, fallen nature, might prove confusing (as indeed we know that it did prove confusing), because he hastens to add that the law is not actually sinful: “What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not!” Rom. 7:7. No, the law of God, the moral law, the Ten Commandment law, is not sinful.
That is clear enough, but Paul continues with a more thorough explanation of how the Ten Commandment law defines sin and points it out to us, showing us that we are sinners:
“I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’ But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead. Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died.” Romans 7:7-9.
And just to make double certain that we understand that the law itself is not the problem, Paul explains very clearly that the problem is not with God’s law, but with us, and particularly with our sinful, fallen natures. In fact, Paul goes so far as to call the law “spiritual” and “good,” and to say that he delights in God’s law:
“We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.” Romans 7:14-25.
So Paul calls the Ten Commandment law “spiritual” and states that in his higher faculties he “delights in God’s law.” Does it sound like Paul was trying to do away with the “spiritual” law that he delights in? Of course not. Yes, the Ten Commandment law condemns our sinful, fallen nature, but the answer to that is conversion, repentance, accepting Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf and being born again, not doing away with the law.
It is only if we ignore the entire context and setting of Romans seven that we can make Paul appear to teach the abolition of the Ten Commandment law. In context, he is telling us, for a third time and using a third metaphor, that because of Christ, we need not continue to sin.