Freedom from the Law - Rom 7

[AlanFromWichita]

Jesus freed us from the law of sin and death, but what does that mean, in a practical sense?
Rom 7:1-6:

Are you unaware, brothers (for I am speaking to people who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over one as long as one lives?

Thus a married woman is bound by law to her living husband; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law in respect to her husband.

Consequently, while her husband is alive she will be called an adulteress if she consorts with another man. But if her husband dies she is free from that law, and she is not an adulteress if she consorts with another man.

In the same way, my brothers, you also were put to death to the law through the body of Christ, so that you might belong to another, to the one who was raised from the dead in order that we might bear fruit for God.

For when we were in the flesh, our sinful passions, awakened by the law, worked in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, dead to what held us captive, so that we may serve in the newness of the spirit and not under the obsolete letter.

How does this apply to us today?

I’ll give others a chance to cast the first thoughts.

Alan

 

[Pfaffenhoffen]

Jesus freed us from the law of sin and death, but what does that mean, in a practical sense?

How does this apply to us today?

I’ll give others a chance to cast the first thoughts.

Alan

Death: after you die, you are with Jesus and you sin no more, you die no more.

 

[Bearontherun]

We are free from the old covenant law of rules and continual animal sacrifices since Jesus completed and perfected the law for us by his death on the cross as the Unblemished Lamb. Now, our union with Christ is what matters and the mosaic law has been forever set aside. That is my best most practical interpretation.

 

[TimothyH]

Remember who Paul was writing to in his letter to the Romans. Paul was writing to a group of Jewish converts to Christianity in Rome who were insisting that gentiles - Romans and Greeks - had to be circumcised and had to obey dietary restrictions in order to associate with the Jewish converts and even to be saved.

Paul is saying what the Jews already knew, that those under the mosaic law of the old covenant were strictly bound by it. If they violated one of the rules or regulations of the mosaic law, it was a sin, and in doing so they had set themselves apart from Israel whom God called “His chosen son” (singular). The mosaic law defined what was and what was not sinful and as such, defined what cuased death and seperation from God’s chosen people.

Paul tells the Jewish converts that if they live by the mosaic law, they must obey all of it, down to the very last letter, and further, if they break it, they have sinned. Remember that Paul was a Pharisee, the strictest sect of the Jews, the most zealous for the Mosaic law.

Paul tells the Jews however, that Christ’s new law - love one another - contains in it all of the mosaic law. If they accept the new law under the new covenant, they are freed from the old law, which was effectively impossible to keep. And Christ came to not only give us the new law, but to infuse us with himself and thereby give us the ability to keep the new law as well.

Paul’s words are effectively - if you live by the mosaic law and you break any single little part of it, you have sinned and will die - spiritually by your seperation from God and salvation which is demanded under the rules of the old covenant and sometimes physically, such as when the law demanded that sinners be killed. But if you accept Christ’s new law, you are free from the old, impossible to keep, mosaic law.

-Tim-

 

[followingtheway]

We are free from the law because we don’t have to follow the laws of traditional practice of the Old Testament like not eating shellfish and animal sacrifice and the Old Sabbath.

God bless :byzsoc:

David

 

[Benadam]

The law of death from theology of the body

The law of death is natural to earthly life. Because flesh that dies is natural to earthly life. Human flesh left no record of the transition from life to death just as it left no record before the transition. Earthly life ended without leaving remains when not subject to the law of death. Now what remains is the dust it was made of.

It was the human body that informed the intellect of the change from life to death. The revelation of the body to the soul made death real. A reality that now included the experience of shame.\

The human body, once not subject to the law of death, now experiences the urges that drive it to seek out what the law of death requires, what the body and the human species requires, to survive. The law of death drives the body to move of it’s own volition. . Not a servant to a soul obedient to the law of life but obedient to the law of death.

 

[COPLAND_3]

As for freedom from the Law, there are a lot of areas in Romans that deals with that other than chapter 7, and basically it means that we are not under the law but grace, which means that we are not under the ceremonial obligations of the Old Law, and we are to follow the moral obligations out of love and not out of fear.

As for chapter 7:1-6 here is the footnotes in the Aquinas Study Bible

**7:1 them that know the law: **Some say that since the Romans were Gentiles and ignorant of the Law of Moses, it seems that what is said here does not apply to them… But this interpretation does not seem to agree with the intention of the Apostle who always has in mind the Law of Moses, when he speaks of the Law with no modifying qualifications. Therefore, it is better to say that the Roman believers were not only Gentiles; there were many Jews among them. (St. Thomas Aquinas)

7:2 Paul shows by using the example of marriage how the obligation of the law is dissolved by death. (St. Thomas Aquinas)

7:3 In this verse, he applies the foregoing example to the point in question, that is, ‘you have become dead to the law;’ Paul avoids saying ‘the law is dead in you,’ in order not to offend and to spare the feelings of the Jews, among whom the law was held in such veneration; although this would better suit the foregoing example, in which the husband is the party supposed to die, and the law is regarded by the Apostle as ‘the husband,’ in reference to the Jews. The meaning, however, comes to the same, as the relation is dissolved, no matter which party dies, ‘by the body of Christ,’ sacrificed for the abolition of the law, on the cross; or it may mean, by being engrafted on the body of Christ in baptism. (Bishop John McEvilly)

**7:4 **The Old Law was a figure of the New Testament, and therefore it had to cease on the advent of truth. (St. Thomas Aquinas Sum Theo 2.104.6.r2)

7:5 flesh: that is to say, in carnal understanding, when we were doing things that are of the flesh. (Interlinear Gloss) Also the Scriptures calls flesh anything that in any way is subject to corruption, and possesses life that is not its own, and is dissoluble in any way. (Ishodad of Merv)

7:6 law of death: It is called the law of death because if offered the occasion for spiritual death. (St. Thomas Aquinas) The Mosaic law had been the occasion of increasing, in consequence of not furnishing the grace necessary to resist our passions. (Bishop John McEvilly)

 

[fhansen]

Jesus freed us from the law of sin and death, but what does that mean, in a practical sense?

How does this apply to us today?

I’ll give others a chance to cast the first thoughts.

Alan

Under the Old Covenant, people were obliged to obey the letter of the law. But, as NT scripture tells us, the letter kills while the spirit gives life. We cannot come alive simply by acting like we’re alive. IOW, the Law is good and spiritual, as scripture also tells us, but we’re *not *spiritual, so any obedience would be mere acting.

We must come alive first, we must be transformed by God into His image, in order to be able to obey the law the right way, so to speak, by the spirit. This actually means that the Potter must mold us into beings who love as He does, who love Him fully and our neighbor as ourselves, writing His laws on our hearts and in our minds. Then the law is fulfilled by default, because “love fulfills the law” according to scripture.

So the Law could only serve to teach us of our inability to keep it-to convict us of sin-it could not restore the life lost at the fall, the life of grace-of Gods life in us- that can keep us from sin.

 

[ryanoneil]

We are freed from the Law of Moses when we died to sin in Baptism (Rom 6:1-11) and are free for a new marriage with Christ .

 

[Pitcharan]

Jesus freed us from the law of sin and death, but what does that mean, in a practical sense? How does this apply to us today?

I’ll give others a chance to cast the first thoughts.

Alan

The penal provisions of different social structures are God inspired. In addition to these man-made but God-inspired penalties, there is also a hidden natural law at work which causes us to suffer whenever we sin. We suffer retribution every time we sin and if we continue to remain hard hearted we face more troubles that are more severe but part of God’s loving plan to save us. We always reap what we sow and everyone who refuses to believe this and goes on sinning, pays a heavy price. The sin-deterrents just described, build our foundation on the rock who is God; they constitute the initial dim light revealed through Moses the Law-giver. Our Lord and Saviour Jesus is the bright light who gives us Grace to fulfil the Law by accomplishing its righteous requirements. *For the Law was given through Moses; Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. *(John 1:17)

It is important to know the difference between ‘keeping the Law’ and ‘fulfilling the righteous requirements of the Law’. Consider a worldly example like ‘Prevention of Terrorism Act’ (POTA). Keeping this Law means not resorting to acts of terror for any reason. The penal provisions and law enforcement agencies may ensure that the law is kept. However it has no provision to eliminate the root cause of terror – hatred. Fulfilling the righteous requirements is something much higher. It is the rooting out of all evil from our hearts by spreading love, so that there is nothing like terror. For this, we need virtues which constitute the Grace of our Lord who is the bright light and to receive His Grace we need to endure suffering. Jesus beckons us to shed our fear for sufferings saying: “Come to me, all you that labour, and are burdened and I will refresh you. Take up my yoke upon you, and learn of me, because I am meek, and humble of heart: and you shall find rest to your souls. For my yoke is sweet and my burden light”. (Matt 11:28-30)

 

[AlanFromWichita]

Wow. What a wide variety of replies. Thank you all for your contributions! :tiphat:

I’m still reading… there have been a couple that come pretty close to what I thought but before I get carried away and shoot my mouth off I’ll keep reading further and comparing the subject scripture with others.

Alan