Many today believe we are still under the Law. I have written about this before in a post called Please Stop Living Under the Law. These next few verses also explain clearly why we are no longer under the Law and why we don't want to be under the Law!
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 {Romans 7:5} Regardless of what you feel your experience to
be, the Bible declares that the believer is NOT in the flesh. How did the flesh
of the believer cease? It died when Jesus' flesh died. But ye are not in
the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now
if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his {Romans 8:9}. We must learn to walk by faith in the Truth of God's Word, instead of by our emotions and feelings!
But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter {Romans 7:6}. Now, in contrast to our past relationship to the flesh and the Law {now that the old husband, the flesh, is dead} now that we are married to the new man, {Christ}, we are delivered from the Law. With his death {the death of our flesh} we {the woman} are delivered from the Law {The entire Mosaic system}, which prevented us from being married to Christ. Deliverance from the Law came when we ceased to be part of that body over who the Law exercises jurisdiction; those living in bodies of flesh.
"that being dead..." That man {first husband =
flesh} to which the Law held us is now dead. It was the husband to which the
woman was held, not the Law. Paul tells us that we are now free from the Law
because THAT {that = flesh} to which the Law held us is dead. That which brought forth fruit
unto death is now terminated. That which we received from Adam, which thing is
terminated in Christ, the natural man of flesh, is dead.
The believer's death
occurs in union with Christ's death {Romans 6}. Being wed to Christ, our own spirit is now
renewed by the presence of the Holy Spirit, enabling us to serve our new Master. Before we were married to Christ, we served the old man, the first
husband {the flesh}, under the letter of the Law. It was a cold, lifeless service,
without grace, promising only death if we failed. It is not the written Word of
God; it is "the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones,"
which Moses received on Mt. Sinai. Clearly this oldness of the letter is the
old dispensation instituted at Sinai {the Law}, which is set in contrast to the new
dispensation of Christ {New Covenant}.
What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet {Romans 7:7} How can the Law be sin if it exposes sin? The letter of the Law caused Paul to see the spirit of his own heart. The Law is most effective in uncovering sin, even in the intentions. He will eventually arrive at the conclusion that, though the Law exposes sin, it cannot produce righteousness. Therein is its weakness. The Law defines the problem, but it cannot deliver a cure. Only Jesus' death on the cross and ours with Him provides the cure!
For I through the Law am dead to the Law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me...for if righteousness come by the Law, then Christ is dead in vain.
Galatians 2:19-21
The next verse begins HERE. This study begins HERE.
