Romans 7:1-6

Chapter 6 has dealt with the arguments that effectively see sin as desirable. In Chapter 7 we move to a different issue. OK, sin is bad, we want to live rightly, do we not then need law? The essence of Paul's argument is that law is good, but we are bad, and sin has control of our lives. Sin is the fundamental problem that needs to be dealt with, and law is powerless to do this.

If someone wants to live right, then the natural way to do this is the principle of law. Ie get of rules and instructions and how to live, then obey the rules and follow the instructions. Simple isn't it? But it doesn't work. The rest of chapter 7 deals with the "doesn't work aspect", but first Paul deals with a deeper issue.

It is so deeply ingrained in us that "obeying the rules" is the way to live right, that he needs to address this issue. In Paul's time the Jews were particularly wedded to this way of thinking with the Law, but it applies to many of us as well.

Paul says that we do not need to live this way (and will later say that it is in fact futile to do so). He uses the analogy of marriage. While a person is married a person is bound by obligations and committments relating to marriage, but when the person's spouse dies those obligations no longer apply.

Likewise, we died to the law through Christ's death on the cross. We now belong to Christ, who was raised from the dead, and the purpose is that we bear fruit for God.

Before we came to believe were under law. Ie we would be judged on whether or not we had obeyed the rules. But then we were under the control of our flesh, and this led to sin and death.

Now we are free from the law. This does not mean we are free from the need to do right, but we are free from the principle of law. The rules were not wrong. It has always been wrong to murder, lie, etc and always will be. But we are free from the principle of seeking to do right by following a set of rules. The objective remains the same, the means of achieving that objective has changed. As Paul says, we are to serve in the new way of the Spirit not the old way of law.

It is impossible to stress too much how alien this thought is to our human nature. In the rest of Chapter 7 Paul will show that in fact the law principle is doomed to failure, then in Chapter 8 he will describe the new way of living by the Spirit.