Bible Reading: Romans 7
Romans 7:4-5 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.
Believers are dead to the law. That just sounds strange, doesn’t it? How can the Bible say a believer is dead to something that it also says is holy and god?
Romans 7:12 Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.
The problem is not with the law. The problem lies with me! My flesh is corrupt to the core. My sin works death in me. When I see the commandments of God I desire to do them, but I find that I am not able. As a fallen human being, I am so saturated with sin that I cannot do the things that are pleasing to God. The Bible uses a metaphor to describe what happens to a person when they become a Christian.
I start out like a woman married to a man. That man’s name is law. No matter how hard I try, I cannot please him. He requires moral perfection and I do not have it! If I were to go and marry another man, it would be considered adultery. So God solves this problem by allowing his Son to die on the cross to pay for my sin. When I hear the gospel and believe on Christ, I die. The old person dies and is now free to marry another person who has also died – Christ! Christ gives a whole new life. This new life does not try to clean up my old sinful flesh. My flesh is slain through my crucifixion with Christ.
Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
This new life only happens after I die with Christ. The only answer to my flesh is death. The flesh cannot please God. The fruit that came from the flesh’s marriage with the law was all sin. But when I am married to Christ the fruit is pleasing to God because it is the fruit of the Holy Spirit and it is produced by Jesus Christ. It is a blessed thing to die and to receive a new life from Jesus.
In Christ,
Rody
