Posted on 10/22/2017 12:16:31 PM PDT by metmom
“Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ” (Romans 7:4).
The law can no longer punish those who have died with Christ.
It’s an axiomatic truth that laws don’t apply to dead people. No policeman would issue a ticket to a drunk driver who was killed in an accident. Nor was Lee Harvey Oswald tried for killing President Kennedy, since he himself was killed by Jack Ruby. In Romans 7:2-3 Paul uses marriage to illustrate that truth: “For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. So then if, while her husband is living, she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress, though she is joined to another man.” Paul’s point is simple: death ends a marriage because the laws regarding marriage don’t apply to the dead.
The same principle holds true in the spiritual realm. Since believers have died with Christ (Rom. 6:3-7), the law can no longer condemn them; it no longer has authority over them. Paul’s use of a passive verb (“were made to die”) indicates that believers don’t make themselves dead to the law; they were made dead to the law through a divine act.
The only provision for paying the penalty the law demands is the Lord Jesus Christ’s death on the cross. To the Corinthians Paul wrote, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). The apostle repeated that truth in Galatians 2:19-20: “For through the Law I died to the Law, that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me.”
Suggestions for Prayer
Thank God that you are no longer under the law’s condemnation (Rom. 8:1).
For Further Study
Read Romans 3:20; 7:12; Galatians 3:24-25. Since the law can’t save anyone, what is its purpose?
Studying God’s Word ping
Bump
To see who loves God's instructions anyway, despite their not being able to 'do anything' for a person. A lot of people have no use for those who can't do anything for them. They might even despise them and treat them with contempt.
Folks just never know whom they might encounter on any average day. Angels, prophets... all is not as it appears.
Matthew 5
46 For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
47 And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?
48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
Christ's command is to love one another. The Law is who he is, so there's the paradox, because Jesus saves, yet the Law "doesn't save" anyone.
Things will all make sense in the weirdest way. Little children will catch right on.
“Since the law can’t save anyone, what is its purpose?”
To instruct those of us that are being saved or condemn those who will be condemned. You will be either judged by the law or you have already fulfilled it through Christ Jesus.
Romans 15:4
For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
1 Corinthians 10:11
Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.
19 For, behold, the day cometh, it burneth as a furnace; and all the proud, and all that work wickedness, shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith YHVH of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
20 But unto you that fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in its wings; and ye shall go forth, and gambol as calves of the stall.
21 And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I make, saith YHVH of hosts.
22 Remember ye the Torah of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, even statutes and ordinances.
זִכְרוּ תּוֹרַת מֹשֶׁה עַבְדִּי אֲשֶׁר צִוִּיתִי אוֹתוֹ בְחֹרֵב עַל־כָּל־יִשְׂרָאֵל חֻקִּים וּמִשְׁפָּטִים
23 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of YHVH come.
24 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers; lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.
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