Sermon Tone Analysis

Romans 7:1-6

It has been said that there is nothing certain but death and taxes.

I have never experienced death, but I know something about taxes and I am convinced that the only way to be free from them is to die.

Your family might get a bill, but you will be beyond the reach of the IRS then.

This is what Paul is trying to get us to understand about our new relationship to the Law and to Sin.

Chapter 7 finds the Apostle Paul still trying to make this matter of our being dead to the Law and to Sin clear.

In the last of chapter 6, he used the analogy of slavery to teach us that, in Christ, we were free from the Old Master of Sin and alive to a New Master: the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, he moves from the analogy of a Master and Slave to a Husband and Wife.

He uses marriage as a picture of our new relationship to the Law.

The fact is, spiritually speaking; we are married to either the Law or the Lord.

So, tonight, I would like to consider the question:

"Married?

Yes!

But To Whom?"

I.

The Law and Marriage

1 Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?

2 For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.

3 So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

A. The “Power” Of The Law –

1 Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?

The idea here is that all laws, whether they are God's Laws or man's laws can only be enforced on a man for as long as he lives.

When he dies, he is free from the power of that law.

He is beyond its reach.

For instance, when Le Harvey Oswald was arrested for the murder of President John F. Kennedy, he was subject to the laws of the state of Texas and of the United States of America.

However, when Jack Ruby walked into that Dallaspolice station and killed Oswald, the law could no longer touch him.

It would have been foolish of the authorities to have placed him on trial with him being dead!

When he died, he was beyond the reach of the Law.

Spiritually speaking the same is true for the believer.

As long as we are alive in our natural state, we are condemned by the Law of God,

But when we die, we are free from the demands of the Law.

That’s the “Power” Of The Law

B. The “Picture” Of The Law –

2 For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.

3 So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

In these verses, Paul uses the image of marriage to demonstrate what he means.

He tells us as long as a woman's husband is alive, she is bound to him by the Law of Marriage.

If she leaves him for another, she is guilty under those laws and is still her husband’s wife.

However, if her husband dies, she is free to marry again, because she has been liberated from the law of her husband.

The whole idea of this passage is not to give us a treatise on marriage,

But to remind us that the only way to be free from the demands of the Law is for us to be dead.

Until we die, the Law hangs over our heads making demands that we can never hope to keep.

However, at death, we are set free from these terrible demands.

I.

The Law and Marriage is The Power and Picture of the Law

II.

Our Liberty and Marriage

4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

A. A New “Freedom”

Paul tells us that we have become dead to the Law though the "body of Christ."

This refers us back to Romans 6:6

It reminds us that when Jesus died on the cross, those who receive Him as Saviour have also died on that cross.

Therefore, we are free from the Law, because we have died to it!

The whole idea is that when Jesus died on that cross we also died and when we died, our marriage to the Law and all of its demands on our lives were done away with.

We died to the Law!

Just as our death in Christ brought freedom from the power of sin, so too, we have been delivered from the power of the Law.

You see, the Law stood over us demanding death for the sins we are guilty of,

But when Jesus died, He satisfied the righteous demands of the Law.

Since we were in Him when He died, we too have satisfied the Law.

The Law demanded death.

We have died and since that is true, it has no more claims against us!

In other words, we are free in Jesus!

A New “Freedom”

B. A New “Family” –

Verse 4 goes on to tell us that we are "married to another".

At the instant we were married to the Lord Jesus Christ, we became dead to the Law.

We have become a part of His family.

Just as a remarriage after the death of a spouse brings about a change in the marital relationship,

It also brings with it other changes as well.

When we were under the dominion of the Law, we were constantly being held to a standard we could never meet.

The Law was harsh and it was never satisfied.

Regardless of how well we may have lived our lives, the Law always told us that we were never good enough.

The Law constantly reminded us of our lost condition and that we were totally helpless and that there was no hope for us.

Our relationship to the Law was one of cruelty and pain.

However, in Jesus, we have a new husband and a new relationship.

He tells us that when we came to Him for salvation, He cleansed us from our sins and made us righteous.

He holds no impossible demands over our heads, because He has already paid the entire price for us.

In Him, we are loved, we are free and we are complete.

This is what is pictured in Ephesians 5:24-27

We are no longer bound to a hateful, cruel, demanding husband.

In Jesus, we have been joined to:

One Who places our needs first

One Who loved us so much He willingly died in our place on the cross

One Who never remembers our past, nor reminds us what we were before we married Him.

Instead of holding our past over our heads and pouring salt into our wounds,

The Lord Jesus lovingly binds us up, draws us to His bosom and loves our past away!

What a blessing to be His this evening!

We have a A New “Freedom”, A New “Family”

C. A New “Fruitfulness”

“that we should bring forth fruit unto God.”

This verse continues with Paul reminding us that God did not do all of this just to bless us.

He saved us and brought us into a relationship with Himself so that we might glorify Him by bringing forth fruit for the glory of God.

This is made clear by what Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:10

Here we are reminded that we are "His workmanship".

That is, we are His masterpieces and we were recreated so that we might bring honor to the Master.

This is the idea behind Galatians 2:19-20

We have been given new lives so that we might glorify the Lord our God.

This fruit that we are to bear is two-fold:

]It makes its appearance in our Attitudes.

As the fruit of the Spirit is displayed within and through us to a dying world –