Dead To The Law And Its Punishments

I am reading from Paul's letter to the Romans this morning and came across an interesting section where Paul is describing to the Jews why they were free from the Law. Here are the verses - Romans 7:1, 4-6 NIV:

[1] "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?

[4] 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. [5] 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. [6] 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."

The interesting thought that hit me this morning relates to the law, namely that it establishes standards for righteousness and punishments for transgressions. If, through our dying with Christ and rising with Him, we are are set free, then neither the requirements nor the punishments apply to us anymore. A dead person can't break the law, nor can a dead person be punished for breaking the law! We are alive in Christ, and in this life we live and serve according to the new way of the Spirit!

As I read this, the first thing to pop into my mind was "what is this new way of the Spirit?" First and foremost it is life being filled with the Holy Spirit, who dwells within us. It is intimately living with the Holy Spirit present in our very being. It is deep relationship with a living God. It is no longer a life compared to a written code of behavior, but is now life lived according to the inner manifestation of our loving relationship.

In verse 2&3, which I didn't include above, Paul writes of the analogy of a wife and husband. In verse 4 he speaks of us belonging to Christ, and this marriage analogy is continued. Paul describes this new life as us being married to Christ. This is helpful to me, as being married, my life of intimate relationship with my wife had grown all the years we have been married. My knowledge of her, her thinking, her heart, and her emotions have grown continually. Over time our relationship has grown deeper, and we have become more and more alike in our thinking. That is the type of life change I believe that Paul is speaking about here, a life committed in love and relationship with our God, empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Finally this new life, being freed from the requirements and punishments of the Law is made possible to us through Jesus' passion, death and resurrection. We didn't earn this, didn't qualify for this in any way. It is the grace of God, through faith in Jesus that we are welcomed into relationship. Jesus was the one who fulfilled all the requirements of the law and bore all the punishments for our transgressions against the Law, and thus set us free from both. It is because of Him that we are considered dead to the Law and its code of behaviors and punishments.

Why would we now live as if we are still under the rules and punishments that He has set us free from? One of the issues that we find in many of our churches is they have effectively convinced us that neither the law nor the punishments have gone away. What is preached is a new version of the old testament law, with a little Jesus thrown in. We are still required to act in a certain way, adhere to a strict set of rules or our salvation is in danger of being lost. We are told that we will be punished by God for our sin, as described by the rules. Yet none of these can be true if what Paul writes here is true. It is about relationships not rules, mercy and grace not judgment. We have been set free from both.

We, however, cannot think that we can do anything we like in this new covenant, which was established by the blood of Jesus. In the same way that we cannot just do anything we want and not have our marriage relationship affected, so it is with our relationship with God. We are meant to be guided and directed by our love and by the ever present Holy Spirit. We are not to live as if we are no longer married, or nor longer in relationship, but are invited and called to experience the wonder of an intimate relationship with God.

So let us live our lives as if we are dead to the Law and its punishments and alive in our new life in Christ. Let us welcome the freedom of mercy and grace and dive deep into relationship with our loving and merciful Savior.