Over the years, God has been creating a new race of people. It is a race that contains all races and colors. These are people who are being changed from the inside out. You see, God's solution to the sin problem is not merely to make small outward changes, but to make a radical and dynamic change from the inside. We are being transformed radically, not superficially, by Jesus' death and by Jesus' life. We are new creations in Christ Jesus. Old things are passing away, and day by day, we are becoming transformed into the likeness of Jesus.
But how is that transformation taking place? Some think that we are saved by grace and transformed by works of good deeds. Now we certainly should be doing the will of God, but many reduce this to keeping the law. Are we transformed into Jesus' likeness by keeping the law? What role does the law have for the Christian? Now that we are followers of Christ, how should we view the law?
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? (7:1)
The guiding principle around which this section of Scripture is built is that the Law only has jurisdiction or authority over a person as long as that person is alive. This should be so obvious that it does not need to be stated. Suppose a drunken driver gets in a horrible accident and dies as a result. A patrolman might come along and assess what has happened, but he does not give the deceased drunken driver a ticket, because the law has no authority over him anymore. He has died.
Whenever Paul points to the law here, he is referring to it as a standard of conduct. The law is a standard of conduct by which we live. And this type of law is everywhere. We can see this by observing carefully the things that we say to one another. For instance, have you ever said, “I don't think that is fair?” What does that statement mean? One thing it means is that we recognize a standard of conduct by which we can evaluate what is fair and what is not fair. When someone says, “I think this is the right thing to do,” what are they saying? They are saying that somewhere there is a standard of conduct to which they subscribe, that guides them in their idea of rightness or wrongness. Even when people say, “I am going to get even with that person,” they are saying that someone somewhere has violated a standard of conduct. Otherwise, how can you get even? How do you know when you are even, if there is no standard of righteousness. The law is everywhere.
Many people labor under the law as Christians. They have not really recognized what it means to be set free in Christ. There are many churches who have many rules and regulations by which you must live your Christian life in order to be accepted by that group. Perhaps you have been a member of a church like that; a church which dictates, not merely the basics, but many other things which they think are included in the basics. In other words, what we have done in many of our Christian circles is written our own Talmud. We have written our own Mishnah. We have not been satisfied with the Word of God, but we have gone beyond that and prescribed a certain code of ethics, or code of standards. There are some churches that will check you out before they let you in. They have ushers who check the length of your skirt, the length of your hair, and give you the “once over” to see whether you meet a certain standard before you are allowed in the door. There are churches that believe, somehow, all of these things are essential. They live under law. But many of us who do not receive those laws still live under our own set of laws. And the law, far from being an asset to us, becomes a liability.
What are some of the characteristics of people who live under the law? One telling characteristic is that they become very proud. Even though they are not meeting their own standards, they boast of their own record of accomplishments. Why? Because a focus on works always results in pride.
Another way you can recognize people who live under the law is that they become very critical of others. There is something about the law which makes us judge others, when we need to judge ourselves. Many who live under the law, while blind to any error in their own lives, will judge others.
Finally, trying to live by law produces hypocrisy. There is a tension inherent in trying to live by law. Since we are not meeting the standards to which we have subscribed, and because we know that we ought to meet them, we are tempted to appear like we meet them.
2 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. 3 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. (7:2-3)
What we are looking at here is not a teaching on marriage, divorce and remarriage, but a teaching on being free from the law. It is an illustration to point out the fact that we are now released from the law and have entered into a new relationship with Christ. The point being made is that when a woman is married, the law concerning that marriage is in effect while both partners are alive. We state in our marriage vows that we will be faithful to our partner “until we are parted by death.” But, when one partner in that marriage dies, the law concerning that marriage is null and void. But when a woman goes out and lives with another man while the law of the marriage still applies, the law calls her an adulteress.
You see, one of the functions of the law is to condemn failure. The law never rewards us for doing right, or for keeping it, but it condemns us when we disobey it. Look at our traffic laws, for instance. As long as you drive the right speed, as long as you obey all the traffic laws - nothing happens. But when we begin to disobey those laws things begin to happen. Patrolmen begin riding up behind us with lights flashing, and the whole world becomes aware that we are a lawbreaker. This is because the law condemns failure. As a result of this, it produces defeat in us, especially if we are trying to live up to a law we cannot live up to. That is precisely the dilemma we have as Christians, if we are trying to live up to a certain set of standards in our own strength.
When God gave the law, He gave it to show us that we could not, in our own efforts, live up to it. Now, what we could not live up to before, we still can not live up to, even though we have come to Christ. Many of you know that before you came to Christ, as hard as you tried, you could not be righteous. And you still can't be righteous by yourself. If you try to live according to your own strength, you will fail miserably, and will feel condemned and defeated. But there is encouraging news.
4 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.. (v. 4)
Here is the analogy. He says that our first husband, to whom we were married, has died. Since he has died, we are free to be married to another, even Christ Jesus. Our first husband was our old sinful nature inherited from Adam and condemned by the law. That was our dilemma. Jesus Christ, seeing that we were in that bondage, came to set us free. He took our place on the Cross. When Jesus died, He bore our sins, our old nature, our old self on the Cross. He took upon Him the sinful nature of humanity on the Cross, and we died there with Him. A death has taken place. The parallel here is that since we have died through the body of Christ, now we are now free to be married to another. That other is Jesus Christ.
5 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. 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. (7:5-6)
The effect of the law bore fruit for death. It worked death in us. It did not produce joy, it produced a struggle. But now that we have been joined to Christ through His death, we begin to take upon ourselves His nature. We are released from the Law. It has no effect on us any more. We are free to begin to live like He wants us to live.
Whenever you and I develop a code of ethics, we must be very careful, lest we back ourselves into unrealistic, legalistic rules and regulations that have nothing to do with the Word of God. The beauty of our relationship with Jesus Christ is that it is not a relationship based on law. It is not a relationship based on “Do this and don't do that.” I am not saying that there is no moral law. There is. But we can only keep the moral law of God by an inward motivation and an inward power which Jesus Christ alone can produce in us through His life. What happened whenever we came to Christ was that we entered into a life-giving situation, one in which we share His life through a spiritual, living relationship. We are joined to Christ spiritually. We have a union with Him, and it is only as we draw upon this union and begin to experience His life, by the Spirit, that we can keep God's law. It is futile to try to do it otherwise. Do not try to keep a bunch of rules and regulations which someone, somewhere, has said was right. It may not have anything to do with the Word of God. Do not even make a set of rules and regulations for yourself, but allow God to work His work in your life thoroughly. Come to Christ, submit to Him, pray and seek His guidance and wisdom. Begin to allow Him to control your life and to control your actions.
Some of you may be saying, “Brother, if you preach that kind of stuff, you are going to have people going out and doing all kinds of things saying that they are not under the law but under grace. You have to have standards. If we just tell everybody to fall in love with Jesus and let Jesus lead them, they are going to be led all over the place.” We only have two options. One, we can prescribe every little standard that we think is right, or, two, we can allow God to live in His people and to lead them by His Spirit.
But if you try to live by the law, you are not led by the Spirit. You do not even need the Spirit's advice any more because you already know what is right. That was the problem the Pharisees had. They did not need to consult God, they already knew what was right. That is the same problem some Baptists have. What we need above all else, is not a clearer understanding of a code of ethics; what we need is a clearer understanding of a relationship with Jesus Christ.
I predict that as people begin to enter into a living, vital, dynamic relationship with Christ, they will be led to keep God's moral law. They will be led to live up to a higher standard than they ever could have lived up to before because it is God who is leading them.
The purpose is that we might bear fruit for God. The purpose of being free from the law is not to transgress the law. The purpose of being free from the law is to enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ which will then enable us to bear good fruit for Him.
What kind of fruit does He want us to bear? There are two kinds of fruit in Scripture. One is action fruit. That is the kind of fruit we normally think of as good works, sharing Christ with someone, leading someone to Christ, doing a good deed, doing some righteous work. But there is another kind of fruit that is called attitude fruit. Attitude fruit is good character. Galatians calls it the Fruit of the Spirit. What kind of attitude do we have? What kind of character are we developing? God's purpose is that we might bear fruit for Him, and the secret is to enter into that dynamic life relationship with Jesus Christ where we are share His life and draw upon the power of that life.
Suppose a man buys a beautiful new car that has a lot of power. You see him a couple of weeks later and ask him, “How do you like your new car? How does it run?” He says, “It is great, and it goes really fast downhill. But it is very hard to push uphill!” You suddenly realize that this man does not understand that there is a means of self-propulsion in this automobile. Where could he have been hiding for the last hundred years? This is like the old Indian who bought a new Cadillac. The next day he was seen in it riding down Main Street being pulled by four horses. You say, “Just stick the key in the ignition switch, turn it on, put it in gear, and go!” But many Christians do not recognize the power that exists in their life already, through Jesus Christ.
One of my favorite stories is of an old lumberjack. The chainsaw had been invented and he went to the store to buy one of them. He was promised by the salesman that it would increase his production five-fold. He got up very early the next morning and worked from sunup to sundown. He looked at his production and saw that he had only cut half as many trees as before. This was frustrating to him. He went back the next day, getting up even before the sun was up, worked twice as hard as before and barely got his production up to two-thirds of what he was doing before the chainsaw. He thought something was wrong with the saw, so he took it back and complained to the store owner. The owner took it back into the shop to see what was wrong with it. The lumberjack walked back with him, and the owner of the store grabbed the handle and pulled it. The saw fired up and the lumberjack, startled, looked around and said, “What is that noise?”
It is really sad that many Christians live in that kind of relationship with God. They have come to know Jesus Christ, and yet they have not drawn upon His power to enable them to live their lives. The message the Holy Spirit is trying to get across to us, is that we, by the grace of God, have been released from the Law; we no longer serve it, we serve a living God who has empowered us and enabled us to live the life that Christ wants us to live, not by our own strength, but by the strength He provides.
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