We are Free from the Law System
RO83-01

The Sin Nature

So, people find it very hard to feel kindly toward statements of this kind that the apostle Paul has been making. And his very life on occasion was threatened for making statements that what people do doesn't matter with God when it comes to getting into heaven. It is only what God has done that matters with God when it comes to getting a person into heaven. But the human heart has this propensity to evil, and the arrogance that flows from this propensity – the arrogance to think that you can do something that will gain God's favor and God's blessing.

Well, this compelling drive to do evil, in fact, dooms a person to eternal punishment in the lake of fire. Because we have been born with this defect in our nature, there is no destiny but hell. The unbeliever, for this reason, is a slave of this desire to do evil. It's part of his very nature. The unbeliever cannot free himself from this terrible compulsion to do that which is wrong. Numerous religious systems are devised to satisfy the justice of God, and to achieve some standard of righteousness. But all of these depend on human efforts, and therefore, Paul has condemned them. That is what he means by law-keeping (rule-keeping) in order to gain God's favor. Somebody who is already contaminated cannot produce something that is uncontaminated before God in terms of moral worth.

Therefore, we have found that God himself, as the moral judge of mankind, provided a solution for the control of sin. God has decreed that the believing sinner should be removed from a position in Adam to one in Christ – from a position of moral guilt and death to a position of absolute righteousness and life. God, as judge, identifies a believing sinner with the death of Christ in payment for human evil, and so releases the sinner from the old enslavement to the sin nature.

This has been God's solution on His own. God has said, "I'm going to make it possible to take you out of Adam and put you in Christ. You can't do it, but I can do it." Secondly, God says, "I'm going to release you from being a slave of this desire to do evil, and I'm going to change you to a slave with the desire to do what is right." God says, "You can't do it, but I can do it."

Grace

That has been the whole point that Paul has been pressing in this section. God does it all. Man can't do anything. And worse than that, Paul says, "Not only does God do it all, but God has to do it all." And if you interject yourself in any way, then you are doomed. I need not remind you of the vast number of religious systems today which are based upon the fact of man helping God to achieve salvation. God saves by grace. That means that God does it all, and it means that you better not interject yourself in any way in the process, or else it's no longer grace.

Absolute righteousness for heaven is secured not by human doing, but by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ without the addition of having to keep any rules or religious ceremonies. A little later in Romans 10:4, we're going to read: "For Christ is the end of the law (that is, of a system of rule-keeping) for righteousness to everyone that believes." Jesus Christ is the end of all systems of trying to please God by what you do in your human capacities to everyone that believes. Those who believe in Christ as Savior are through with being under enslavement – to trying to make it by something they do.

Ephesians 2 is another area that you know well – those famous verses, 8-9: "For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast." The writers of the Old Testament have declared to us that God will not share His glory with anyone. So, man cannot be saved by works, and boasts of that.

This is not to say, of course (let me qualify immediately) that moral conduct is not to be pursued by the Christian. This does not in any way disparage moral living. This is exactly where we are headed. When we get to Romans 7:7, we're going to enter a new portion of Romans which deals with experiential of godliness – with daily personal morality. So, when we say we are free of the law system, we are not saying that we are free of that which constitute morality before God.

Here in Romans 7:1-6, Paul is completing his explanation of God's judicial solution, then, of the sin nature problem by removing the sinner from law-keeping, and placing him under grace. In Romans 6:14, he has made the statement, "Sin shall not have dominion over you (the propensity toward evil, and the desire to do wrong, shall not reign over you as king), for you are not under a law system, but under grace." He has introduced the well-known fact that laws have jurisdiction over a person as long as that person lives.

So, in Romans 7:1, he says, "Don't you know, brethren, for I speak to them that do know about legal systems, how that the law (or a law) has dominion (authority or jurisdiction) over a person only as long as he lives." A law has application while you are alive. No matter what the crime you may commit is, once you are dead, the penalty of the law cannot be applied. So, the law has jurisdiction only as long as you live. Death terminates the authority of the law.

Then Paul illustrated this point in verse 2 by the law relative to marriage. And he said in that verse that once a marriage is legally and sexually sealed, it can only be terminated by death. In this case, he pointed out that when the husband dies, because the husband and wife are one flesh, the wife also dies. Both of them die. The woman does not die, but her status of wifehood dies when her husband dies. Consequently, she is no longer a wife, and she is now, therefore, as a woman, free to remarry. Thus, the authority of a law or a code of rules is permanently terminated by death of those subject to the regulations. And I want to stress that is permanently terminated.

As we come to the application of this to our own relationship to Jesus Christ, you are going to have another evidence that once you are saved, you are always saved. There is a permanent termination through death of the relationship of condemnation or of authority (of jurisdiction) of a former regulation.

So, we begin morning in verse 3. We look first at the case of the living husband. And Paul says, "So then, if while her husband lives." The words "so then," if you were to look in a Greek Bible, you would discover, look like this: "ara oun:" two words. "Ara oun" is an expression which the apostle Paul repeatedly uses in his epistles to introduce a deduction from a previous statement. So, when we see this in the Greek Bible, we say, "Aha, he's going to give us a deduction now, based upon what he has said in verse two." The word "ara" means "so," and it is a particle. The idea is "accordingly." It indicates an analogy. The word "oun" is the word "then," and it indicates a consequence.

This phrase indicates that Paul is about to state the point of the illustration that he gave in verse 2 about the law of marriage. Remarriage of a woman can be a moral evil before God. Death of the husband permanently separates the remarriage from being a moral evil for the wife. Death has to come into the picture for remarriage not to be a moral evil. The issue here is the termination of one authority, and subjection to a new authority.

"So then:" here is a deduction. "If" this looks like this in Greek: "ean." This word "ean" is a conjunction which indicates uncertainty, but something that is liable to happen: "If while the husband," and the word for husband is "aner." This, you remember, is the word that stresses the concept of male. It does mean husband, but it stresses the fact that he is a male person: "If while the husband lives." The Greek verb is "zoa." "Zao" refers to physical (life). It is in the present tense. It is the constant status of a husband – that he's alive. It is active. The husband does the living. It is a participle. A principle is being stated.

This, in the Greek grammar, is set aside by itself in the sentence. It's just a little phrase that says, "So then, if while the husband lives," and it is just set aside there. We call that (for you Greek students) that's a genitive absolute. Absolute means that it's separated from the rest of the sentence. It sits there as a condition. Then here is something that consequently, happens.

"If then while her husband is still alive, she be married." The word "be married" is "ginomai." This word means "to become." It's actually the word for "become," and commonly used in the Scriptures to express the idea "to become something." Here it connotes the idea of "to be joined to," or "to become in terms of being joined to something." So, the idea here is, "If, at any point, she be joined to." This is aorist tense. It means at any point (aorist is a point action) that a new marriage relationship is entered. It's middle in form. It's active in meaning. She enters the new marriage by her choice. It's indicative it mood, which means a statement of fact: "That she become," and the Greek says, "to another." This is the word "heteros." "Heteros" is one of the Greek words for "different," and it is the word for "different" that means different of another kind.

The Greek is such a nice language. It uses various words for the same idea, but conveying it in different ways. Another word for "different" in Greek is "allos," but that is in terms of different in terms of number or terms of quantity. But when you talk about "different in kind," then you use "heteros." That's why we use, for example, the word in English "heterosexual," meaning "different in kind." It is both sex, but is definitely different in kind.

So, this is indicating here a "heteros" relationship; that is, a different male in kind from her husband. And that's what this word heteros is attached to. "If she become" or "If she'd be joined to another man." And again, "man" is "aner," meaning male: "If she be joined to another male; that is, "If she become another man's." The meaning of course is quite obvious. The meaning is that, while she is a wife with a living husband, and under the authority of that living husband, she enters sexual relations with another male who is not her husband. If that condition should come about, then she has entered what the Greek calls a certain business that brings to her a certain title because of the business that she's engaged in.

Mind you that all of this is true because there is a law. Above everything that Paul is saying, he says, "Here is a law, and this is what the law says, and this is how the law applies, and you cannot change this law.

So, here is the law of the institution of marriage. Here's this married woman, and she has a lover outside of her living husband. In that case, the Scripture says, "That she shall be called." And let me show you this word. It's "chrematizo" in Greek. The basic meaning of this word is "to transact business." This is the word that the Greeks used when you wanted to refer to somebody who's in business of some kind: "I'm doing this kind of business. I'm in this business. What business are you in? What 'chrematizo" are you in? I'm in this business or that business – transacting business." This, in time, then leads to the idea of doing business under a certain name: "I do business." Well, what's the name of your business?" "Well, I'm this? I'm a bricklayer. I'm a carpenter. I'm an architect. I do this business. This is the title under which I do this business."

Here, the idea of doing business is conveyed into the idea of "bearing a name" or "to be publicly called" by something that reflects the business that you're in – that indicates the business that you pursue.

Christians

The word here has the special meaning of "called" here in terms of this wife. She is called something because of the business that she is in as a married woman – of sex with another male. This word "chrematizo" is in the future tense; that is, it indicates that every time in the future, this is what will customarily be done toward such a woman. It is active. She will be so labeled. It is indicative – a statement of fact.

An Adulteress

I am speaking about the general rules. I understand that there are certain qualifications that the Scripture sets forth under which separation, and even divorce, is legitimatized in Scripture. But we're not getting into that. Paul does not get into that. Paul is simply trying to establish a principle that a law (and he's using the law of marriage as an illustration) has application until death comes into the picture and breaks it. So, we're just taking the normal human relationships of marriage, and we're not going into any variations on the matter. Under a normal relationship, you cannot terminate a marriage without death. If a woman does enter a relationship in terms of physical associations outside of the life of the husband, then she is in a business which is described by the word "moichalis," which is a title of divine condemnation for violation of divine institution number two of marriage. She is an adulteress.

Then, in verse 3, he takes up the case of the dead husband. So, much for the living husband – now the case of a dead husband: "But." The Greek has the word "de." This is a conjunction. It's introducing an opposite situation: "If." And here we have the word "eon," a conjunction, and this introduces a third-class condition. Remember that a third-class condition in the Greek (of the four classes we have) means maybe he will, and maybe he won't. So, this third class says, "But if her husband be dead" – maybe he does die; and, maybe he doesn't die. You can tell whether he is or not, generally. Most women think they can, but he might or might not die. But this condition is potential.

If Her Husband be Dead

So, if he should die (maybe he will, and maybe he won't) – but if her husband dies, then the situation is change. She is free. The word "is" is the Greek word "eimi" – the word for the status of a person. It is present tense. This is constantly true of her once her husband is dead. It is active. This is a position actually possessed by the widow. It is indicative – a statement of fact. And that position is that she is free ("eleutheros"). "Eleutheros" means "liberated." So, here you have a liberated woman. Her husband is dead. And the Scripture says that she is then liberated.

The feminist movement today has a different idea about being liberated, but basically it is the same concept. What the feminist movement is seeking is freedom from the authority of the male – freedom from the controlling decision-making process of the husband. And that to them is liberation.

She is liberated "from," and that's the Greek word "apo." That's mean separation from what? From law. And that's the Greek word "nomos." "Nomos" is the noun for a legal regulation governing marriage. The Greek has "the law," because it's referring to the specific law that he's been talking about up here in verse 2. Now her husband is dead. She is liberated from that particular law, referring to marriage.

"So that." And this is a way that the Greek has of expressing a result. It takes an infinitive, and it takes a definite article, and it puts them together, along with a noun or pronoun. So, what we have here is indicating a certain result. And that is that she now is no more a "moichalis." This is the same word again that we had before: an adulteress. Now she is not an adulterous: "Though she be married." And again, the same way, "ginomai" (that word for "become"). Again she becomes (she be joined to). It's aorist – at some point in time. It's passive. When she has a legal ceremony performed upon her. It is participle – a spiritual principle is stated: "She be joined again to another." This is the same word again: a "heteros" – a different kind from her previous man. Again, this is the word for male ("aner"). He uses all the same words right down the line. Translated: "Though she become another man's."

So, the main point of the application here that Paul makes in verse 3 of what he has stated in verse 2 is that the law of marriage, relative to the first husband, no longer has any jurisdiction over her once that husband is dead. And Paul illustrates that a legal requirement can be terminated legitimately. A person can move from one authority to another authority with complete integrity, provided it is done on the proper basis where you are released from the previous authority, and then you are free to put yourself under another authority. The example is that once a wife's husband is dead, she is released from that authority. And she is now free to put herself under the authority of another husband.

Grace and Law

He begins with the word "wherefore." In the Greek Bible, you would see this word: "hoste." This means "therefore" or "so," and it introduces the application to the Christian (to you and me) of this illustration about the limitation of legal jurisdiction. Remember, that Paul is dealing with the problem that people have of the fact that they should do some kind of penance. They should do something. They should perform something so that God will be willing to take them to heaven. They should achieve some kind of favor with God by something they do. That is so ingrained in the propensity to evil within us (that sin nature) that he is trying to break that concept by showing how that is not true – that a different authority has been established.

He introduces the application to the Christians. He returns to the principle of Christians being under grace and not under law in dealing with their moral evil. Actually, he introduces, in this verse, one of the greatest summaries of what it means to be a Christian that you'll find anywhere in the Bible. Verse 4 happens to be one of those monumental verses of Scripture. It sums up in a nutshell the nature of Christianity. And if a lot of these people who are running around trying to please God by their efforts, who are thinking that they can secure divine favor by their efforts, understood verse 4, they would soon overcome that misconception.

Verse 4 explains the way in which the grace of God, in contrast to trying to keep rules of right conduct, releases us from the guilt of the sin nature. This word "hoste" connotes" This is the way it is with you." That's the idea of this word: "This is the way it is with you."

Brethren

Some of them have a problem. When we get to Romans chapters 9, 10, and 11, they're going to be entirely devoted to explaining to the Jew what has happened to him now that Jesus Christ has arrived – what has happened to his old system, and what God has now in store for him, and how this whole salvation system in the church relates to what God had set up in the Old Testament order with the Jewish people. So, you almost have the sense that Paul feels that he needs to enter a little word of kindness and encouragement here because he realizes that this whole concept of saying: the law is kaput; it's done with; and, it's out, is a terrible blow to the Jewish people who have become Christians.

You also are become Dead

The word "dead" is "thanatoo." "Thanatoo" is a word for the cessation of life – separation from life. It is aorist tense – the point in the past when the person believed in Jesus Christ, and he was joined to the death of Jesus Christ. It is aorist tense, because it is a point action, indicates once-and-for-all. At some point in your experience, you were once-for-all joined to the death of Christ. A person cannot be joined to the death of Christ twice. That's why, again, we see that you could not be saved today, and lost again tomorrow, because it would require you to be joined to the death of Christ again. The Greek language makes it very clear that some place, at some point in time, you were joined to the death of Christ – period; over-and-out; never to be repeated. It is also passive voice, which indicates that you receive the benefits of being joined to the death of Christ. You did not join yourself to that death by some effort of your own. God simply took you when you said, "OK, I'll accept your Son." He took you and He placed you in Christ through the baptism of the Holy Spirit. You were joined to Christ. It is passive. It is indicative – a statement of fact.

Christians, previously were restricted to the system of human being to gain salvation, have now been released by death from that system of human doing.

So, here's the picture. You were made to die. That is the idea: "Wherefore, my brethren, you also, in the same way as the illustration which I have given you, were made to die. This was done to you," to what? "To the law." And again we come to that word "nomos." The word "nomos" refers to systems of human effort in general.

The Mosaic Law

That's exactly what God says in Romans 10:5, where we read, "For Moses described the righteousness which is of the Law; that the man who does these things shall live by them." Do you want to have eternal life?" Moses says, "Fine. Here's what God requires of you." And he gave the whole gamut of the moral law, and the whole gamut of what was reflected by the ceremonial law. And he says, "You do this, and we'll give you eternal life."

Look at Galatians 3:12. We have the same concept again – a system of keeping the Mosaic Law for achieving a relationship to God in eternity. Galatians 3:12: "And the law is not of faith, but the man that does them shall live in them (or shall live by them)." The Law is not a matter of believing God. That's grace. The law is a matter of doing. If you can obey the law, you'll live by it.

Now, of course, you know that the snake in the grass there (the hidden stinger) is that nobody can keep it, because of the propensity to evil that we inherited from Adam. Because we are born in Adam, we have only the capacity and the inclination to do that which is evil. So, it is not possible for anybody to achieve the standard of absolute righteousness, which indeed was expressed by the Mosaic Law. So the requirement of 100% achievement of God's divine standard is absolutely impossible.

So, here, this standard of human doing, which was all people had open to them, is the issue that Paul says was the standard that has been done away with: "Wherefore, my brethren, you were made dead to the law" – , to the system of achieving justification by human efforts. How? "By." The word "by" is "dia," a preposition here that means "through." Through what? How were you released from trying to get to heaven by your doing? This is a very important point here. "By a body" (a "soma). And that refers to a physical body. It refers to you in your physical structure. But here it refers specifically to the body of "Christos" – to the body of Christ, the second person of the Godhead. The physical death of Jesus Christ on the cross, while bearing the sins of the world, is what he's referring to here.

You and I were separated from human systems of law, including the Mosaic Law, as that expressed the moral standard and righteousness of God. We were released from that by the physical death of Christ on the cross. In other words, getting back to that discussion that we held many, many months ago, and have already covered in the book of Romans, did Jesus Christ have to die physically to pay for your sins as well as spiritually? The answer is, "Yes." Here again is a very clear indication that you could not only saved, and the atonement could not be complete without the physical death of Jesus Christ. This was part of the atonement. We had been released from the law of human doing by the physical death of Christ.

Notice what Colossians 1:22 says in reference to this: "In the body of His flesh, through death, to present you holy and unblamable and unreproveable in His sight." Now what in the world does that verse mean except that the body of Jesus Christ, the body of His flesh, had to die in order to make it possible for you to be presented before God holy. Do you know what "holy" means? Holy means as good as Jesus Christ. It means absolute righteousness. So, this is a very clear declaration that the physical death was necessary.

Ephesians 2:15 also indicates that to us, when Paul says, "Having abolished in His flesh (that is, Jesus Christ in His physical body) the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, to make in Himself of two one new man, so making peace." There was the Jew; there was the gentile; and, there was a middle wall of partition separating the two from one another. Jesus Christ came along, and in His death, through His flesh on the cross, broke down that wall by removing the authority of the law, and made it possible for Jews and gentiles to be brought together under one system of salvation – under the grace order of the age of the church.

So, here's the point. Jesus Christ died as a human being, free from all personal moral guilt. But He died under the curse of God's moral law, as expressed by the Mosaic Law, and as was violated by mankind. Jesus Christ died under the moral guilt of all mankind.

Now then, in applying this illustration of verses 2-3, he says that the Christian is viewed as being married to Jesus Christ in His death. There are two husbands. And we're going to look a little ahead here, and then we'll go into this in more detail. There are two husbands in applying this illustration. Let me give this to you now so that you get this in mind. One husband is Jesus Christ under a moral guilt. You know what happened to him. He died. He's under the moral guilt of the law. We should say that. You and I are under the condemnation of the moral standard of the law. We are held enslaved to that condemnation, and we are married to Jesus Christ while He is under that condemnation. He is the first husband. He dies. And when he dies, authority of the law's claim against Christ is broken. And because we are in Him, it is broken against us. Now that marriage relationship is dead, and a new marriage is formed with Jesus Christ in resurrection.

You Died with Christ

So, this death with Jesus Christ released the believer from the authority of the law system, and thus its penalty. The death of our husband, Jesus Christ, while bearing the sins of the world, has terminated our marriage to Him, and thus to the law that condemned us. The first marriage to Christ, while under the authority and the condemnation of the absolute righteousness of the Mosaic Law is terminated.

The Law can no Longer Exercise any Claim

You are Free from the Law System

So, here is a fabulous theological analysis. It's not really all that complicated once you think about these two husbands, and realize that the wife dies with the husband. You, the wife, have died with your husband, Jesus Christ. And therefore, the law's authority (rules and moral regulations) have terminated. You are not under their condemnation. That guilt has been removed.

Then the middle of verse 4 takes up the second marriage, and the consummation of this second marriage, and we'll pursue that next time.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1977

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