Paul expounds on the theme that we are under grace and not under the law by giving us an example from daily life in today's passage.
"Do you not know, brothers and sisters---for I am speaking to those who know the law---that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives?" (Romans 7:1) Laws are for the living. When we die, we are not expected to keep the laws of this world because we are no longer living in the world. For the past several days Paul has been explaining to us that when we come to Christ we die to our old selves and to our old lives, therefore grace is what has authority over us now, not the law.
"For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her to him." (Romans 7:2) When we get married we promise to stay together "until death do we part". The death of one of the parties to the marriage contract ends the marriage contract. The law states that a person is no longer married if his or her spouse has died.
"So then, if she has sexual relations with another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man." (Romans 7:3) The law of Moses, and the law of most or all nations, says that a person is committing adultery when he or she is unfaithful to a spouse. In the same way, if a person is already married and marries another, he or she is an adulterer. But if a person's spouse has died, the law is no longer binding, and the surviving spouse can remarry without breaking any laws of God or man.
Now that we have come to Christ, we are dead to our old lives, and we are no longer bound to the law. We are bound to Christ. We are not being unfaithful to the law because the law is not binding on a person who has died, and we are dead to our old selves. "So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God." (Romans 7:4)
Earlier in our study of Romans we discussed the fact that there was nothing wrong with the law, but that there was something wrong with us. Adam fell, and the whole human race fell, and the law we could not keep and did not want to keep did nothing but shine a bright spotlight on our sinfulness. We broke law after law after law. The ones we did not break in practice we broke in spirit, as Jesus clearly pointed out when He said things like, "You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'You shall not murder, and anyone who murders is subject to judgment.' But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment." (Matthew 5:21-22a) And, "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart." (Matthew 5:27-28)
The law did not save anyone. Faith (and the grace that comes by faith) saved those under the law, just as faith saved Abraham who lived before the law. Now, in Christ, we have the grace that comes through salvation by faith in Him, and this grace fills the gap between our imperfection and the Lord's perfection. The principles of the law are godly, and we could perhaps have been saved through the law if we had been able to perfectly keep the law, but we couldn't do it. Grace does for us what we couldn't do for ourselves because Christ did for us what we couldn't do for ourselves. Now we belong to Him and not to the law. Now we owe our allegiance to Him and not to the law. Following Christ will enable us to better fulfill the spirit of the law than we ever could before, but where we have failed in fulfilling the spirit of the law, Christ was successful in keeping the law. It is through the perfect sacrifice of the perfect Lamb of God that we find the atonement we could not earn for ourselves.
Paul reminds his readers that grace is greater than law. "For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code." (Romans 7:5-6) The law had to do with religion, but grace has to do with a relationship. We were not successful or satisfied when bound to the law. But now we are bound to Christ, and this relationship is able to satisfy us to the very depths of our souls.
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