Dead to the Law

Grace to You.org ^ | 1997 | John MacArthur, Grace Community Church

[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?

[metmom]

Studying God’s Word ping

[ladyL]

Here is where the train goes off the track. There are TWO laws referenced in Scripture. There are the 10 Commandments which are part of the New Covenant Jer.31 are written on our heart and then there are the 613 mitzvot(laws) of Moses which were carried on the outside of the Ark of the Covenant, showing there are 2 laws. The 10 Commandments were carried inside the Ark.

It was the law of Moses that was nailed to the Cross and made null and void...not the Ten Commandments. You have to differentiate between the two laws when interpreting Scripture.

[rollo tomasi]

Interesting point about the 10 Commandments ladyL.

"What shall we say then? Shall we continue in SIN that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?" Romans 6:1-2

What is/the source of sin if there is "no law"? What are the "good works" as opposed to "sin" or "bad works" in Ephesians 2:8-10?

Grace is given, however there is a consistent pattern throughout the Word that preaches responsibility of the believer as well; towards God along with the treatment of other people.

To reiterate your point, Christ in Matthew 19:16-21 taught that man should adhere to the 10 Commandments which are a basic set of simple rules to follow, but with one caveat, you are not good or perfect. This is where the Grace of God through Christ's sacrifice comes in. Grace + "good works" (Avoid sin, adhere to Mark 12: 28-34) if you read the Word as a whole (In our behavior Paul taught us to imitate Christ) and don't "cherry pick" verses or one particular "lesson" and just run with that (This brings confusion). Paul was warning about this in Galatians 1:6-7.

[rollo tomasi]

Sorry, “no law” should be changed to “dead law”...

[j_guru]

Amen

[metmom]

Got some Scripture to support that?

[Ezekiel]

..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.

The Messiah is the Redeemer. He is the Law - the one who holds the keys to the jail. Nobody gets past him. Noone goes in, noone goes out without his authority.

So in a flipped over way, the Law does indeed save, because he is the Law. Those who are forgiven much, love much. There is everything to love about him for what he did. Well not for the individual benefit of the sacrifice per se, but for the soul behind the actions, the one who was willing to die for his friends. Same way people should know that it is the tree that provides the shade from the hot summer sun, not the shadow itself. No tree, no shade.

As it is axiomatic that laws die with the deceased, a soul is not a soul unless it is alive. Now if people would be grateful for his raising of the dead to life, they'd love others as they were loved by God and by him. Somehow that simple message got trampled to death on the doctrinal battlegrounds of perceived wisdom..

Jer 31

32. But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, says the Lord, I will put my Torah in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people:
33. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will no longer remember their sin:

And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord

There goes the religion forum!

For what is easier, to say, 'Know the Lord', or to say 'I love you'?
But that you may know the Lord, say, "I love you."

Easy to out a liar with that one, because love doesn't DO what many religion forum posters do to each other on a daily dysfunctional basis.

[metmom]

No, the Law does not save. It never has and never will.

The Law points us to our need for Christ, that the atonement and forgiveness that is freely given to us who break the Law will be credited to our account when we throw ourselves on the mercy of the court and simply believe what God told us and trust Him to do it.

[ladyL]

1 John 2:3-4 4 Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, 5 but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: 6 whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

John 14:15
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

Deut 31:24-26 differentiates the Book of the Law or the Mosaic Law and the Ten Commandments God’s Law. Two Laws.

Should you desire to pursue Truth

There is an excellent book Ten Commandments Twice Removed sold on Amazon...short read$2.00. I heard a Southern Baptist Pastor of 40 years say that next to the Bible this book was the most powerful book he had ever read.

[Ezekiel]

So in a flipped over way, the Law does indeed save, because he is the Law.<<<

No, the Law does not save. It never has and never will.

???

John 14

6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
7 If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.

Matthew 7:12 Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.

Matthew 22

35 Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying,
36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

The Messiah is full of love. It's the very nature of his being. Love is his heart and soul. He IS the Law.

Now if some folks refuse to leave their comfy jail cells because they prefer bondage, what more can he do?

If they stay put, then they can say he did nothing for them, so no need to be grateful, and certainly no need to love him or to love others as he loved them. They'd feel... obligated.

As I have noted previously, the dead doctrines of demons are killing people, because these doctrines prevent people from being healed.

The Messiah is the Law, which is love love and more love. It spills right out all over the place! A lot of people don't want that kind of attention though - they'd feel on the hook to reciprocate. Of course, for the downtrodden, it's life from the dead. What sense of obligation? Whatever he says to do they'd do joyfully, for the love they have for him in return.

Not complicated, but the experts have so succeeded in jamming their sticks into the wheels, that the riders are convinced that the problem is with the bicycle.

[ladyL]

This has been such an area of confusion for the Body of Christ. When the understanding of the two laws is grasped then Paul’s teachings become clear once you decipher which law he is referring to.

Jer.31 says God’s Law is written on our hearts when we become a New Covenant Believer. Yahshua even upped the ante as far as the Law was concerned when He said, I tell you even if you LOOK on a woman...when He resurrected He didn’t change the Sabbath or any of the Laws. It was the Nicean Council 325AD that created a whole different religion that wasn’t what Yahshua and His disciples practiced based on the Torah. Oh my.

[Cvengr]

mark

[boatbums]

This has been such an area of confusion for the Body of Christ. When the understanding of the two laws is grasped then Paul’s teachings become clear once you decipher which law he is referring to. Jer.31 says God’s Law is written on our hearts when we become a New Covenant Believer. Yahshua even upped the ante as far as the Law was concerned when He said, I tell you even if you LOOK on a woman...when He resurrected He didn’t change the Sabbath or any of the Laws. It was the Nicean Council 325AD that created a whole different religion that wasn’t what Yahshua and His disciples practiced based on the Torah. Oh my.

Just to be clear, are you saying that we must have both faith in Jesus Christ AND obedience to the Ten Commandments in order to be saved? If so, how was Abraham and all those before him saved when the Ten Commandments had not yet been given?

[metmom]

The Law no longer has any dominion of claim on us or over us.

In Christ we died to the Law. We are no longer under it's control.

Romans 7:1-6 Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.

Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.

[rollo tomasi]

Saved = Sacrifice/Resurrection/pure Faith

To maintain Grace = Faith PLUS obedience to Christ's commands (Which sum up the Law)

Are you denying the fact that Christ/God does not reject those who speak in His name but refused to adhere to God's commands? That is a constant theme since Genesis.

[ladyL]

boatbums...you make a good point about Abraham was made righteous because he believed Yah when Yah said to him that his descendants would be as many as the stars of the sky and the sand on the shore.Genesis 15:6(A fascinating study is to find where those descendants are today.)

Along with that is the words of Yahshua John 5:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

At the time Yahshua spoke this “my word” was the Torah. So if you heard and did His Torah and believed on Yahweh who sent him, you were saved eternally.

Go figure. doesn’t line up with church doctrine

[boatbums]

Saved = Sacrifice/Resurrection/pure Faith To maintain Grace = Faith PLUS obedience to Christ's commands (Which sum up the Law) Are you denying the fact that Christ/God does not reject those who speak in His name but refused to adhere to God's commands? That is a constant theme since Genesis.

You don't "maintain" grace, grace keeps us. You either accept or reject it - it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast. We are "his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." (Ephesians 2:10) Our works are NOT and CAN NOT save us. Those who have been born again by faith in Christ are new creations and are indwelt by the Holy Spirit of promise. It is that spirit at work in us conforming us into the image of Christ. That is why genuine faith WILL result in a changed life that seeks to love and honor the Lord because HE first loved us. It is wrong, however, to imagine that it is our works that merit, earn or cause us to deserve salvation. It is ALL by grace - from start to finish:

For the gospel reveals the righteousness of God that comes by faith from start to finish, just as it is written: “- The righteous will live by faith.” (Romans 1:17)

[boatbums]

Along with that is the words of Yahshua John 5:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. At the time Yahshua spoke this “my word” was the Torah. So if you heard and did His Torah and believed on Yahweh who sent him, you were saved eternally. Go figure. doesn’t line up with church doctrine

It doesn't line up with Scripture. If Jesus (I know Sacred Namers don't like that name) meant we had to do "His Torah" to be redeemed, He would have said so. But he repeatedly said it was belief and faith in Him that saved us. Hearing His word is the good news He preached of redemption by His shed blood for our sins. He is our Passover lamb - the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. It's not by what you "do" plus faith, but faith only. That doesn't mean we should go out and live as we please in debauchery, just that our works do not save us - Jesus saves us by grace THROUGH faith in Him. If we must do Torah in addition to having faith, then it is no longer grace that saves us. Grace is unmerited favor.

[ladyL]

Luke 18:18

18And one who was a nobleman came to him and said to him, “Good teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 19Yeshua said to him, “Why do you call me good? There is no one good except the one God.” 20”You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not testify a false testimony, Honor your father and your mother.’ “* 21He said to him, “I have kept all these things from my childhood.” 22But when Yeshua heard these things, he said to him, “You lack one thing: Go sell everything that you have and give to the poor, and you shall have a treasure in Heaven, and come after me.” 23But when he heard these things, it grieved him, for he was very rich.

WHOLE LOT OF “DOING” GOING ON....