Dr. Cecil A. Fayard - 2001 Sermons
Sunday, June 24, 2001   

INTRODUCTION: Romans 7:1 begins: “Know ye not, brethren....” What Paul has written here, he has written to the redeemed, to the justified, to those who have trusted in the crucified, buried, and risen Lord. To the brethren, He writes that believers have been set free. In chapter six, we are told that we are free from sin (Romans 6:14-15). Here we are taught that the justified are at liberty, free from the law. Paul makes it plain that our freedom from the law is not to be used as an excuse to sin.

We must also be careful not to take this passage out of context. If you read just verses 2-3, you could conclude that the main teaching of this passage is marriage and divorce. It is not. What verses 2-3 teach clearly is that the law has no authority over a person after he or she is dead.

Because the believer is dead to the law (verse 4), he is free to be married to the risen Savior.

Friends, the law is not our Savior. Christ our salvation, is by grace not works (Titus 3:5). No one has ever been saved by keeping the law (Romans 3:19-20; 5:20; 6:14).

Lest someone get the wrong ideas, it should be pointed out that Jesus held dear the divine law (Matthew 5:17-19). Yet, He knew that it did not save. By the time that Jesus came to earth, the Jews had come to consider obedience to the law as a man’s of salvation.

1. VERSE 1, THOSE WHO KNOW THE LAW
   1. Paul was writing to the New Testament church at Rome. This was not the Roman Catholic Church for this church was founded three hundred years before the church known as the Roman Catholic Church was founded.
      
      1. He wrote to brethren, the saved.
         
      2. These folks were familiar with the law. They knew what it said.

   2. Now Friends, the Bible does teach that we are to love the precious law:
      1. Psalm 119:1-11; 18; 136-i38; 165.
         
      2. We are to love the commandments, but they will not save. We must ever realize that “all have sinned...” We keep the law out of gratitude not obligation to salvation.

   3. You cannot earn salvation by strict obedience to the law.
      
      1. You will not get to heaven by adhering to the law.
         
      2. We are justified by faith not law (Galatians 3:6-13).

   4. “The law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth.”
      
      1. No matter who you are and no matter what you have done, the law cannot touch you once you are dead. It makes no difference what law it is: American, British, Roman, or Bible law. Once you are dead, the law cannot touch you.
         
      2. It does not matter how bad the crime is. When you are dead, you cannot be prosecuted. The force of the law is over.
         
      3. Because we know Christ, we are dead to the law and cannot be prosecuted.

2. VERSES 2-3, THE ILLUSTRATION GIVEN
   1. Verse 2-3, Marriage is honorable (Hebrews 13:4). It is to be for life; it is a covenant relationship (Malachi 2:1 3-16).

   2. Marriage does not extend beyond fife (Luke 20:33-36).
      
      1. After death, there is not question. The woman is free to marry. The law has not jurisdiction after death.
         
      2. Note that it is not the law that dies. The law does not die. In this case, the husband does.
         
         1. With the believer, it is not the law that dies; we die (Romans 7:4; Galatians 2:19-20).
            
         2. Death, in this case of the husband, dissolves the marriage bond; and death, ours, dissolves the legal bond of the law. It is because we believe in Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection that we die to the law and are made unto God.

3. VERSES 4-5, THE CONNECTION
   1. Verse 4, Because of what Christ did for the believer, we who believe “are become dead to the law by the body of Christ.....”
      
      1. Christ died for sinners (Luke 19:10).
         
      2. Those who believe have everlasting life (John 3:16).
         
      3. God did not spare His Son; He delivered Him up (Romans 8:32; Isaiah 53:4; II Corinthians 5:21).
         
      4. “It is through the body of Christ crucified that our indebtedness to the law was completely paid off, so that, as a result, believers were made dead to the law, the latter’s ‘bill’ having been fully paid” (Hendriksen 216).
         
      5. We are dead to the law and married to the resurrected Lord.
         
         1. In verses 2-3, the death of the husband freed the woman to marry another.
            
         2. Because Christ died for us, we are free from the law and are to be married to Christ.
            
         3. This marriage is a fruitful union: “that we should bring forth fruit unto God.”
            
            1. Galatians 5:22-23
               
            2. Ephesians 2:10
               
            3. Psalm 1:3
               
            4. Proverbs 11:30

   2. When we were lost, we were governed by our sinful nature.
      
      1. Our life before salvation was a fife controlled by the flesh.
         
      2. In verse 4, we have “fruit unto God.” Now in verse 5, we see fruit unto death.
         
      3. Ephesians 2:3-4 tells us that before salvation we are under sin’s control..

4. VERSE 6, THE DECLARATION
   1. We are delivered.”
      
      1. “We” — born again believers.
         
      2. “We” are delivered, released from, the liability of the law because when Christ died on the cross, we died in Him (Galatians 2:20; 3:13).
         
         1. Note that freedom from the bondage of the law is not freedom to do what the law forbids us to do (Romans 6:1-2, 15).
            
         2. We are not free to sin, but now are free to do right, to do what is righteous.

   2. “That we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.”
      
      1. We are released from the bondage of the law to serve, not to sin.
         
      2. “Newness of spirit....” is the fruit of redemption. How sad that so many today are basing their hope on keeping the law and not on the finished work of Christ. The believer is free to be fruitful. It is not drudgery; it is a delight.