DEAD TO THE LAW Romans 7:1-4

Hello, this is William Bell. Welcome to the All Things Fulfilled channel. And in this video, we're going to talk from Romans chapter seven. We're looking at the fulfillment of the law. We're going to talk about verses one through four particularly. This is a text that confuses many, and it has confused me in time past in terms of, you know, looking at it over the years. But now I think we have a bit more clarity on it. The basic understanding I had, you know, hasn't changed, but just got a little bit more refined. Nevertheless, let's go ahead and take a look at it because people use this to say the law ended at the cross, and that's not what the text is teaching. We're going to look at it very carefully and we're going to see. All right. Especially if you go back and look at all the other videos, because if you make this one to say something contrary to the previous ones, then it just doesn't work. They all have to harmonize. So let's see how that will take place. Now in verse one, it says, or do you not know brethren, for I speak to those who know the law, that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives for the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. Now here's what Paul does as he addresses those who knew the law. He used an illustration based upon the relationship of a woman to her husband and the law of marriage relating that says that the woman who has a husband, meaning that she was married at the time was bound by the law to her husband as long as he lived. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. In other words, she's free at that point, no longer bound to him. Verse three. So then if while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress. But if the husband dies, she is free from that law so that she is no adulteress though she has married another man. So the only condition that he gave to the woman to be able to marry another man was that if the husband died, then she could marry another man, but she could not marry another man while her husband was living. And so the application of the text is this. Therefore, my brethren, and the reason he addressed the brethren was because they had the position of being the wife or the bride, the woman. The text says, for example, in second Corinthians 11 and verse two, for I am jealous over you with godly jealousy for I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. So the members of the body of Christ were betrothed and therefore they had the position of the woman. So what he was trying to tell them is you cannot have two living husbands at the same time. The only way that you would be eligible to marry another was through a process of death or an act of death. So that's what he says. Let's read it again. So then if while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress. The Bible didn't teach polyandry for women. And so he says, but if her husband dies, she is free from the law so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man. So notice that it was death that broke that bond. Now watch verse four. Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law. Now, what did he say? You have become dead to the law through the body of Christ. He told them how that was done in Romans chapter six, when he said they had been buried with Christ by baptism into death. So baptism places the believer into the death of Christ, into his death. And it was his death that freed them from the obligation and debt to keep the law. So if you have someone out there telling you that you have to keep the law, if you are a believer and you have died with Christ, you can tell them that there is no obligation to do that. That's what the Bible taught for these believers in the New Testament. And so again, therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law. So don't let anybody go around telling you that you need to be following the law through the body of Christ, that you may be what? Married to another. In other words, that's a whole different husband. Why? Because a death has occurred, severed the bond, and therefore there was marriage to a new husband that was to Christ, to the one who was raised from the dead. They were under a covenant with Moses before. By dying, they were under a covenant to Christ. And so he says to him who was raised from the dead, Moses wasn't raised from the dead, but they were married to one who was raised from the dead in order that they would bring forth fruit to God. So this text is not teaching that the law died, which is what some saying, but rather it teaches that the individuals died to the law. That's Romans six, three and four. And it's Romans chapter seven in verse four. Look at the text carefully. I'm going to read it one more time. Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead. Now, where does it say, therefore, my brethren, the law has become dead. No, the law didn't die and it couldn't die because it had to be fulfilled. And as we've shown in previous videos, it wasn't fulfilled until 70 AD until the temple was destroyed, but they could be released from it prior to its fulfillment through dying with Christ. And what other caveat to that is it was an already, but not yet process. In other words, it didn't happen instantaneously, but it happened over that 40 year period. They were dying to it. And that complete severance from it took place in 70 AD when it was a field. But nevertheless, they died to the law and the scripture says to him who was raised from the dead in order that they might bear fruit to God. Verse five says for when we were in the flesh, see the law was the realm of the flesh because it depended upon human strength in order to keep it or to obtain the righteousness that was in it. And what human could do that? Not one. The only person who did it was Jesus Christ. And that's why Romans 10 in verse four says Christ was the end or the goal, the purpose of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes you don't have to keep the law. You had to believe in Christ in order to obtain the righteousness that was in the law. And so he says, when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by the law held them in bondage. They died to it. They were no longer under it so that we should serve where in newness of the spirit. That's the new covenant. Second Corinthians chapter three, verses six and seven, and not in the oldness of the letter. So it should be very clear. They died to the law. That's how they released themselves or were released from the obligation and debt to keep it. The law could no longer condemn them. Romans chapter eight in verse one, there's therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, which is the realm of the law, but according to the spirit for the law of the spirit of life in Christ. Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death for what the law could not do. Remember in the previous video, we showed that he could never make anybody perfect. So why are people walking around trying to beat you over the head with it? The text says what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh. God did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh. And on account of sin, he condemned sin in the flesh that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit, according to the new Testament, the one based upon the priesthood of Christ. With that, that's our message. I'm William Bell. Hope you got something from it. Leave us a comment, subscribe to the channel, click the button or the bell, and you'll get a notification. Every time we upload a new video, visit our website at allthingsfulfilled.com download our mobile app. With that, you have a great day. We'll see you in the next video.