Romans 7:4 – Dead To The Law

Romans 7:4
⁴ Wherefore, my brethren, you also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that you should be married to another, even to Him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit to God.

Paul’s teaching about the law is very clear. It takes an educated person to mess it up. That’s what religion has done. As a Christian, we are no longer under the Jewish system of laws whether it be the Ten Commandments or all the rules and regulations of ceremony. Paul says brethren and sisters also, that “through” (Greek word dia) the body of Christ, through His death we are also dead to the law. And as He is now raised from the dead, we have no connection to the law.

This is a hard saying for religious people. Religious Christians are trying to promote the Ten Commandments when Paul says we are dead to them. Why then are we trying so hard to get the Jewish laws in public places?

^“14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under the law, but under grace” (Romans 6:14). As believers we are no longer under the law. That’s simple enough. We are under the New Covenant system of grace. Grace and law can’t mix. Jesus spoke of not putting new wine (the New Covenant) in old win bottles (Old Covenant) because it won’t work. Yet we keep trying to mix old and new knowing that Jesus said it wouldn’t work.

We are no longer married to the Jewish system of laws. We are married to another—Jesus. It is through this marriage we have become joint-heirs with Jesus. It’s like a marriage relationship. That’s why Paul uses that term. In a marriage relationship you can’t have a mistress (law) on the side. Marriage is a covenant of mutual trust and only through that union can fruit be produced.

Fruit is a product of the tree. God has grafted us into that tree. Through Jesus we just sit out on the branches resting in His finished work. Fruit isn’t going to happen through the law. It has no power to do anything but make us sin. Only through Jesus will we see fruit to God.