Dead to the Law - Devotional

“Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ” (Romans 7:4).

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.”

Read Romans 3:20; 7:12; Galatians 3:24-25. Since the law can’t save anyone, what is its purpose?

You are studying the Word wrong! The Law Jesus paid for on the cross was the Law of sin and death. You are still under the 10 Commandments. Read Matthew 5:17-20.

Do you actually believe that you are exempt from murder or adultery? You are also not exempt from the 4th Commandment also. What Jesus did on the cross was to enable a person to confess their sin and repent without a Temple sacrifice because He paid that price for us. It is ridiculous to claim you can murder someone and God will accept your behavior. Even a murderer can confess their sin and repent and not be doomed to hell is what Paul spoke of in Romans. If you sin knowingly however, there is no sacrifice for sin.

Heb 10:26 For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,

Heb 10:27 but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.

Heb 10:28 Anyone who has rejected Moses' law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

Heb 10:29 Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?

When Paul wrote Romans he did NOT mean the 10 Commandments were dead, but that you don't have to die if you sin and don't have a sin offering of blood. That sacrifice has been made. The wages of sin have always been death, but Jesus came to pay that for us. Scripture says we will be beaten with many stripes if we sin, but we are sons and daughters and the Father loves His children and will NOT kill us if we repent. If you won't accept the sin offering Father has provided us, the Law of sin and death still remains. To pretend you can sin with no consequence is a lie from the pit of hell.

Dead to the law, but not to the consequences of the sin- Those last till physical death for some- whether it be disease, destroyed organs like liver, lungs, etc- or mental problems struggling with certain sins and desires- battling them all the while-

God is serious about avoiding sin, and that is why- We can’t escape the consequences of sin to our bodies and minds- even though we are eternally dead to the ultimate effect of sin, eternal damnation, when we are saved-

Matthew 5:17-20 is but one example. I gave you the Hebrew example already. There are many more if you read your Bible. The problem with taking one verse out of context can get you and others in hell.

Lets try this one

Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus,* who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. Rom 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.

Here Paul said EXACTLY what I just quoted you a couple of posts earlier. The law Christ died for was to pay your sin debt so you wouldn't have to die. If you sin, you are living in the FLESH! If you still sin, you will still be condemned. You must walk in the Spirit to stop sinning. If you continue to sin thinking you don't have to pay for it, you are in danger of hellfire. If you sin and quickly repent, He is quick to forgive. Before the cross, you would have to bring a sacrifice to the Temple for a sin offering. There is no verbiage in the Bible that says you don't have to follow the Law. The Law will last until Heaven and Earth burn up.

The Law of sin and death have been paid for by Christ's blood. If you steal or tell a lie, you still must repent or the sacrifice doesn't remain.

You’re hair splitting the Law to justify staying under parts of it.

Works can’t and won’t save you or keep you saved. Judaizers were addressed at the Council at Jerusalem in Acts 15. You need to learn from it.

Acts 15:10-11 Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”

Acts 15: 19-29 Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, but should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood. For from ancient generations Moses has had in every city those who proclaim him, for he is read every Sabbath in the synagogues.”

Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men from among them and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They sent Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, leading men among the brothers, with the following letter: “The brothers, both the apostles and the elders, to the brothers who are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, greetings. Since we have heard that some persons have gone out from us and troubled you with words, unsettling your minds, although we gave them no instructions, it has seemed good to us, having come to one accord, to choose men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth. For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”

Here Paul said EXACTLY what I just quoted you a couple of posts earlier. The law Christ died for was to pay your sin debt so you wouldn’t have to die. If you sin, you are living in the FLESH! If you still sin, you will still be condemned. You must walk in the Spirit to stop sinning. If you continue to sin thinking you don’t have to pay for it, you are in danger of hellfire. If you sin and quickly repent, He is quick to forgive. Before the cross, you would have to bring a sacrifice to the Temple for a sin offering. There is no verbiage in the Bible that says you don’t have to follow the Law. The Law will last until Heaven and Earth burn up.

The Law of sin and death have been paid for by Christ’s blood. If you steal or tell a lie, you still must repent or the sacrifice doesn’t remain.

You are correct. And, well stated.

The standard of God’s judgment is His 10 commandment law. Romans 2 makes that very clear. Revelation 11:15-19 is the icing on the cake (judgment, the ark of his coventant/testament holding the 10 commandments). Anyone who believes in once saved, always saved and no responsibility for sin, has fallen for Satan’s lie. God’s 10 commandment law is the basis of His new covenant with us. If we claim to be Christians, we will keep his commandments out of love to Him. If we don’t, we are liars, and the truth is not in us. Not obeying God is lawlessness.

1 John 2:
…3By this we can be sure that we have come to know Him: if we keep His commandments. 4If anyone says, “I know Him,” but does not keep His commandments, he is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5But if anyone keeps His word, the love of God has been truly perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him.

We know that Christ will judge everyone before He returns. What tool will He use as a standard of judgment?

For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law. So speak, ye and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty (James 2:10-12).

The standard of judgment is the law of God, because “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4).

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14).

The law of Ten Commandments is the standard of judgment. It is also called the law of liberty because we can only be free of our sinful habits when we follow that law. God has appointed a day for judgment and Jesus Himself will judge using this law:

He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead (Acts 17:31 NKJV).

I said in my heart, “God shall judge the righteous and the wicked, For there is a time there for every purpose and for every work” (Ecclesiastes 3:17 NKJV).

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