Notes of Faith March 30, 2026
Pastor’s Pen Pulpit Series: Romans Chapter 7
February 10, 2002
“LIFE IN CHRIST – NOT LIFE UNDER THE LAW”
Romans 7:1-6
In Romans 6 Paul pointed out that before we came to Christ we were dead in our sins, a virtual slave to sin under the Law, but once we have embraced Christ as our Saviour, we are now no longer under the Law but alive to God in Christ Jesus and a servant of His.
Now in chapter 7, to further emphasize our life in Christ and the hopelessness of life under the Law, Paul brings in a brilliant illustration or example. He reminds us that the Law has jurisdiction over a person as long as that person is alive. He further states that a married woman is automatically bound by law to her husband while he is living. But, if her husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband.
Or do you not know brethren,(for I am speaking to those who know the law, that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives? For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. So then if, while her husband is living, she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress, though she is joined to another man.
Paul now makes the application.
Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, that we might bear fruit for God. For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death.
We were in the flesh through Adam and sin was steadily at work in us – aroused by the Law (for don’t we naturally want to do the things we are told we can’t do?) And the result of that sin is death!
A wise man once said that the best way to know God’s estimate of sin is to realize the tremendous price it took to atone for sin, the death of His Son.
Verse 6 is the clincher:
But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.
The interpretation: Adam was our first husband. Through Adam we were bound by the Law of the flesh it do its bidding. We could not serve God. But on the cross Adam was crucified in Christ. We were in Adam, so we died in Adam on the cross - - - BUT we were raised up with Christ, so we share our life in Him and under His law to serve God in newness of life.
Beloved, let this sink in. We are no longer required to serve under the old law of our first husband. We are free to serve under the new law of our second husband, Jesus Christ. Again I say, “Praise, hallelujah!”
Love to you all,
Pastor Charles Covington
Rom 6:14
For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
The desires of the flesh are strong but the power and authority of our Master and Savior are infinitely stronger. We are free in Christ to NOT serve the authority of sin, Satan and death! Remember the One who died that you might have this freedom and redemption from death to life every time you are tempted, every time an impure thought comes into your mind. Do not act on those thoughts and temptations. You are free to do the good things that God has prepared for you and will reward you for doing in His name! Praise be to God for a life free from the shackles of sin!
Pastor Dale