Sunday, May 17, 2009

Romans Chapter 7: Freedom from the Law

In order to explain the sovereignty or power of the law over the believer in Jesus, Paul uses an analogy of marriage. Prior to believing in Jesus, we were still subject to judgment in accordance with the law. (The law is the standard of perfection given by God which are written in the old testament.) Without a savior, we were required to pay the penalty for our own sins and that penalty was eternal separation from God- in other words death. Yet when we accepted God’s gift of redemption or salvation through our faith and acceptance of Jesus’ sacrifice, we were not longer bound to the judgment of the law. Likewise when we are married, we are obligated or bound to our spouse. If our spouse is dead, we are freed from that obligation. In a sense when we accepted Jesus in our life, we put to death our former way of thinking. When we humbled ourselves and admitted to our sin and our need for a savior, we put to death our old sinful selves. Now we are not bound legally to the law, and instead we have the spirit. We are not required to fulfill the law for our salvation- which is impossible to do anyway. Instead, our spirit and faith is what gives us life.

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