"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. Romans 7v4.
Paul continues his analogy of marriage, as he now considers the annulment of the law: this is not to say that the law was faulty in any way, but that it has run it's course, it fulfilled it's purpose; it is worth repeating that no one was able to keep the law and only the lifelong obedience to the law by Jesus Christ broke the trend; He fulfilled the law in it's entirety, and in it's every aspect, and so only in Christ can we escape the penalty of a broken law, and there are no exceptions.
In chapter 6 we died to sin; now in chapter 7 we died to the law. Paul says we are married to Christ, and in marriage all that is true of the man becomes true of the woman. Just as in chapter 6 sin has no longer claim upon us so now it is equally true that the law has no more claim upon us. The whole scenario is presented as the greatest love story ever told, "Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her." Now Paul can confidently say "we are not under law" Romans 6v15: again "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death." Romans 8v2 In Galatians 2v24-25 "Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith has come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster."
In 2nd Corinthians chapter 3 the apostle Paul lays out in detail the fact that the law is no longer functional as far as God is concerned. In verse 7 he described the law as "the ministration of death written and engraven in stone ." Now he says we are part of the ministration of righteousness " written not in tables of stone but in the fleshy tables of the heart." In verse 11 he says "the law is done away."; in verse 13 he refers to the law as "that which is abolished."; in verse 14 he says " the veil is done away in Christ," we are now under a new covenant in Jesus Christ. Our whole existence now depends not on our own efforts which failed, but on the perfect and finished work of Christ which will never fail.
Other scriptures (and there are many) which refer to this very subject are as follows in Ephesians 2v15 Paul says that Christ on the cross "abolished in His flesh the enmity even the law of commandments contained in ordnances." In Colossians 2v14, again referring to Christ on the cross he says "blotting out the handwriting of ordnances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross." All these scriptures are very important for us to realise that the law has been annulled by God at the cross so far as His people are concerned.
The whole subject is also taken up in detail in the letter to the Hebrews and it is important for us to know the true character of the realm in which we live. In Hebrews 10v6-7 he says that Christ has become "the mediator of a better covenant." In chapter 8v13 he says that by bringing in a new covenant he has made the first one old, and is ready to vanish away. In chapter 9v11 he says "Christ being come an High Priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect tabernacle."
In chapter 10v1 he says that the law was a shadow of good things to come. Now that the good things (the gospel of Christ) has come, we have the substance we no longer need the shadow.
This is a vital subject that appears all over the New Testament; the very words "New Testament" simply mean a new covenant; God is dealing with the world now in a far superior way and Jesus Christ in His perfect obedience and fulfillment of the law is not only the only way of salvation but He is the code for all our lives. Only now can we fulfill the purpose for which we were created that is "to bring forth fruit unto God." No horticulturalist plants a seed or a bush or a tree without the expectation of fruit being produced as a result. God is no different, and He expects fruit from the creatures of His hand; no fruit having been produced by the law, now only in Christ will His people yield the fruit that the glorious God of heaven so richly deserves.
Tomorrow d.v. we will study the activity of the law.
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