Divorced from the Law

[Rom 7:4 Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another – to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God].

This verse says that we have to become dead to the Law in order for us to bear fruit. This implies that if we have not died to the Law, we cannot actually bear fruit. What is fruit? It is the result of the Holy Spirit living through us (Gal 5:22-23), the very manifestations of His character, and not our own efforts to “live holy”. Instead of letting the Holy Spirit live through us, we suppress Him when we try to earn the approval of God through our own obedience and try to live according to the Old Covenant Law.

As a child I was raised in a very conservative Christian home, made to go to church and attend Sunday school every Sunday and I learned to relate to God on the basis of my own performance. For our final year church exam (can you believe that such a thing exists??) just before we were “confirmed”, we had to write a test that included writing down word for word the 10 commandments by heart. I scored the highest in the class with 98% and felt very good about myself, thinking I was a model Christian. But the very next week I caught myself having lustful thoughts and I spent the night on my knees, crying and begging God for forgiveness because now I was “bad” again.

This is a pattern in the life of most Christians who live under the Law: One week you’d have a good week, feeling that you didn’t make too many mistakes and that God is pleased with you. But then you’d find yourself doing that one thing you swore you’d never do again, and you’re back to square one. The Law demands a level of obedience that no human being is able to achieve, and failure to comply is punishable by death. And that’s where Jesus comes in: He lived a perfect sinless life, fulfilling ALL the requirements of the Law and effectively ENDING it (Matt 5:17-18). He destroyed the hold of sin (which was strengthened by the Law) by removing the consequences / punishment for sin completely. [1 Cor 15:56 The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law]. And He set us at liberty to live free from the fear of judgement (1 John 4:17-18) and the power of sin. [Rom 6:14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace].

When two people marry, they make a vow to stay true to each other until death should part them. Now back in the old days when a person’s vow still actually meant something, a vow could not be broken except through death by one of the parties involved. Well the same goes for vows / covenants / oaths made by God. When God makes a vow, it WILL come to pass and stay in power for all eternity. So when God made a covenant with Israel and gave them the 10 commandments and the Old Covenant Law, the only way for them to be able to get out of that Covenant was to fulfill it or to die for breaking it. Now watch this: Jesus Christ both fulfilled it (and earned ALL the blessings for perfectly obeying it) and then went even further and died for us because mankind could not hold up their part either (and carried all the curses & punishment for disobedience on our behalf as well). Now if that isn’t love, I don’t know what is…

Now by simply putting our faith in Jesus, we also die to the law (and all the curses for disobedience) and become alive to God (and through Christ are given ALL the blessings for His obedience – [Eph 1:3 Blessed (be) the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly (places) in Christ].

[Rom 7:1 Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? 2 For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. 3 So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man. 4 Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another – to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God].

[Gal 2:19 For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God].

Once we realize that we are actually dead to the Old Covenant Law, we will stop trying to relate to God on the basis of our own good or bad behaviour, and simply love Him because He is a good Dad. Gone are the days of Do’s and Don’ts, of us running around like slaves to try and live up to the demands of the old husband of the Law, that slaps us around and always demands more! Here are the days of being married to our new husband, Jesus Christ, who loves us because we are His glorious bride, His beloved church. Yay God!!!!

In Grace
Andre van der Merwe

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 27th, 2009 at 4:30 pm and is filed under Previous Messages. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.