“…My brothers and sisters, 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 for God. For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. 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.” Romans 7:4-6
Having been born into sin, made known to us by the law, we belonged to sin and the fruit of it (death). But Jesus died for our sin, according to the law, so we could belong to Him. His life replaces (fulfills) the law. Now that we belong to Christ, the fruit (byproduct) of this new union is a better life that brings glory to God. And even though I still sin, I still belong to God because of the contract Jesus made. As a result, we have no:
FEAR & LOATHING…
“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do - this I keep on doing.” Romans 7:15; 18-19
Romans 6 says we are free from sin - Romans 7, free from the law. Both contracts ended with Jesus’ death, to whom we now belong. The law is good in that it shows us (like an x-ray) what the problem is, but it was never intended to empower us to stop sinning. It only shows us we can’t on our own. We need help - enter Jesus. But if we try to stop on our own one of two things will happen: We either become proud of our ‘goodness’ (pharisee) or we hate ourselves for our failures and then quit on God.
…ONLY FREEDOM & LOVE.
“What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Romans 7:24-25
The Law forces us to focus on ourselves and our sin. But the Spirit shifts our attention to God and His love. This new point of view helped Paul change from how will I save myself from myself, to who will save me? Once we own our sinful nature (wretched), we can disown sin itself and find deliverance through Jesus - thanks be to God!
“There is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus…” Romans 8:1
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