Many people read Romans 7:6 and
conclude that we are dead to the Law or Torah.
Are we dead to the law or are we dead to sin?
Romans 7:6 NKJV 6 But now we have
been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we
should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.
Let’s examine this scripture
passage from the Hebraic point of view; from its cultural, historic and
linguistic context. But before jumping into this verse, let’s look at who is
writing this letter and see if we can enter into his point of view. Paul wrote
this letter to all those in Rome; this would include Jews and Gentiles. Paul
was a Jewish Rabbi trained under the great teacher Gamliel of the Pharisee sect.
Indeed, Paul describes himself as a Pharisee.
Acts 22:3 NKJV 3 "I am
indeed a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the
feet of Gamaliel, taught according to the strictness of our fathers' law, and
was zealous toward God as you all are today.
He followed the Torah testifying
before Festus that he had not broken any laws whether those of Torah or of the
Roman civil law.
Acts 25:7-8 NKJV 7 When he had
come, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood about and laid many serious
complaints against Paul, which they could not prove, 8 while he answered for
himself, "Neither against the law of the Jews, nor against the temple, nor
against Caesar have I offended in anything at all."
Notice that those people accusing
him had no witnesses that he broke any law. In fact, Paul was arrested as he
was carrying out the fulfillment of his own vow (Acts 18:18) as well as paying
for other believers to bring sacrifices in fulfillment of their vows to
demonstrate that he had not violated Torah nor was he teaching others to do so.
Acts 21:21-24 NKJV 21 "but
they have been informed about you that you teach all the Jews who are among the
Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their
children nor to walk according to the customs. 22 "What then? The assembly
must certainly meet, for they will hear that you have come. 23 "Therefore
do what we tell you: We have four men who have taken a vow. 24 "Take them
and be purified with them, and pay their expenses so that they may shave their
heads, and that all may know that those
things of which they were informed concerning you are nothing, but that you
yourself also walk orderly and keep the law.
From his own words, we conclude
that Paul did not break Torah nor did he teach others to do so.
From a cultural vantage point, we
need to be aware that different sects of Judaism interpreted the Torah in
different ways, each putting up their own “hedge” around the Torah to prevent
someone from “accidentally” breaking Torah. Yeshua participated in discussions
of some of these interpretations the most notable of which is how to observe
the Sabbath. What Paul is running into here in Acts is the teaching that only
Jews can receive God’s salvation.
Acts 15:1-2 NKJV 1 And certain
men came down from Judea and taught the brethren, "Unless you are
circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved." 2
Therefore, when Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and dispute with
them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain others of them should
go up to Jerusalem, to the apostles and elders, about this question.
Paul, as the most prolific
teacher of the Gentiles, took the brunt of this sentiment against salvation of
the Gentiles. The Jews were perfectly willing to accept Gentiles as long as
they learned Torah for three years, were circumcised and underwent a mikvah or
baptism rising to new life as a Jew. In other words, this sect of Judaism
believed that Gentiles had to become Jews in order to receive God’s salvation.
Now, let’s turn our attention to
Paul’s letter to the Romans. Paul begins his letter persuading his readers that
both Jew and Gentile will be held accountable to God. He concludes this portion
of his letter saying those who do the law will be justified and their actions
show the evidence that the Torah is written in their hearts.
Romans 2:13-16 NKJV 13 (for not
the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law
will be justified; 14 for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do
the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to
themselves, 15 who show the work of the
law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and
between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them) 16 in the day
when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.
Notice it is not the works of the
law that Paul says justifies them but that the works of the law are evidence
that the law is written in their hearts. They demonstrate that they have
entered into the New Covenant as described by Jeremiah.
Jeremiah 31:31-33 NKJV 31
"Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new
covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah- 32 "not
according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took
them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they
broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD. 33 "But this is the
covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the
LORD: I will put My law in their minds,
and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My
people.
Paul continues in his letter to differentiate
between the two ideas of justification by works of the law and justification by
grace resulting in works.
Romans 3:28-31 NKJV 28 Therefore
we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.
29 Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles?
Yes, of the Gentiles also, 30 since there is one God who will justify the
circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. 31 Do we then make
void the law through faith? Certainly not! On
the contrary, we establish the law.
Paul continues to expound on this
difference using Abraham as an example. God counted Abraham’s faith as
righteousness then gave him the commandment of circumcision and Abraham
obeyed. Paul then begins to describe the
results of sin comparing it with life through Yeshua.
Romans 5:12 NKJV 12 Therefore,
just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus
death spread to all men, because all sinned—
Romans 5:18-19 NKJV 18 Therefore,
as through one man's offense judgment came to all men, resulting in
condemnation, even so through one Man's righteous act the free gift came to all
men, resulting in justification of life. 19 For as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made
righteous.
Paul now resorts to a couple of
analogies. He really wants us to get what he is saying! Let’s compare those
analogies.
- Death
in Adam through disobedience versus life in Christ through His obedience.
- Death
to the body when we are buried with Christ leads to walking in newness of life.
- Slaves
to sin leading to death versus slaves to obedience leading to righteousness.
Romans 6:4 NKJV 4 Therefore we
were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised
from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in
newness of life.
Romans 6:16-18 NKJV 16 Do you not
know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's
slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading
to righteousness? 17 But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet
you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. 18
And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.
Paul concludes each analogy with
the question shall we continue in sin?
Romans 6:1-2 NKJV 1 What shall we
say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 Certainly not! How
shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?
Romans 6:15 NKJV 15 What then?
Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not!
Paul’s last analogy of being
slaves to sin leads into a third analogy in chapter 7. Mankind starts as slaves to sin. Paul says we
presented our members as slaves of uncleanness and lawlessness (Torah-lessness).
It is as if we were married to sin. Marriage is the union of two into one
flesh. As slaves to sin we are one with sin. Our “husband” is the sin nature. So, we read Romans 7 not starting off married
to Christ or even the Torah, but starting off married to sin in a sense; that
is our fleshly or sin nature.
Romans 7:1-2 NKJV 1 Or do you not
know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has
dominion over a man as long as he lives? 2 For the woman who has a husband is
bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband.
The woman, then, is bound to the
sin nature as long as the sin nature lives. That is the law’s provision for
marriage! In the marriage, the woman is subject to her husband. Only when her
husband dies, is she freed from his authority.
Romans 7:3 So then if, while her
husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but
if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress,
though she has married another man.
In the same way, we must die to
the sin nature first; if we try to “marry another” while still married to the
sin nature, we commit adultery! Paul says that when we were slaves of sin, we
were free of righteousness, and now that we are free from sin, we are slaves of
God.
Romans 6:20 NKJV 20 For when you
were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
Romans 6:22 NKJV 22 But now
having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your
fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.
Our “husband”, the sin nature,
must die before we are free to “marry” another. Even Yeshua, since He came in
the flesh, was tempted the same as we are although He didn’t sin.
Hebrews 2:17-18 NKJV 17
Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be
a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make
propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For in that He Himself has
suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.
Yeshua had to die in the flesh to
free us from our sin nature. Paul writes about that in Philippians.
Philippians 2:8-9 NKJV 8 And
being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to
the point of death, even the death of the cross. 9 Therefore God also has
highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name,
So, when the “husband,” that is the
sin nature, dies, the woman is freed from the law of her “husband,” and is freed
from the law in regards to marriage that forbids being married to another. She
is no longer under that provision of the law. She is dead to that provision of
the law because her husband is dead. Paul then says that we as believers become
dead to the law through the body of Yeshua. We are dead to the law because our
sin nature is now dead in that it was buried with Christ. The law no longer
condemns us. In the analogy of the husband, the law does not condemn us of
adultery. In the broader analogy of the sin nature, the law does not condemn us
as transgressors of the law.
Romans 7:4-5 NKJV 4 Therefore, my
brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that
you may be married to another--to Him who was raised from the dead, that we
should bear fruit to God. 5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions
which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to
death.
Notice that verse 5 uses the past
tense to say “when we were in the flesh.” This implies that we are no longer in
the flesh, not that we are no longer in the law (Torah). We are out from under
the authority of the sin nature. We are now free to “marry” another, specifically
Yeshua through whom we live in the Spirit and are under His authority through
the Spirit.
Romans 7:6 NKJV But now we have
been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we
should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.
We have been delivered from the
law, dying to the sin nature we were held by. We weren’t held by Christ or the law
(Torah) before; we were held by the sin nature! How were we delivered from the
law? The letter of the law condemns the sin in us. When the sin in us dies, we
are no longer condemned by the law; we have been delivered from the law! Paul
goes on to say that the law defines sin, and that the sin nature, provoked by
the law, produces sin in us leading to death. He reiterates that the law is
holy, just and good. He, then, poses the question “Has what is good become
death to me?”
Romans 7:13 NKJV 13 Has then what
is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin,
was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the
commandment might become exceedingly sinful.
He writes of the struggles he
faces with the sin nature. Paul desires to stay faithful to God, delighting in
the law of God but finds himself straying, doing that which he doesn’t desire
to do. He finds himself once more united to the “body of death” the sin nature.
Romans 7:22-25 NKJV 22 For I
delight in the law of God according to the inward man. 23 But I see another law
in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into
captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24 O wretched man that I
am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 I thank God--through Jesus
Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with
the flesh the law of sin.
But through Christ, we are freed
from the law of sin and death to serve the law of God; the law that is holy,
just and good! He begins to wrap up his discussion as chapter 8 begins.
Romans 8:1-2 NKJV 1 There is
therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk
according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 2 For the law of the
Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
Paul doesn’t conclude that there
is now no more law; he concludes there is no condemnation. We are no longer
condemned under the law because the sin nature has died. We are set free to live according to God’s law,
and join Paul in delighting in the law (Torah) of God. We know that when we fall short we have grace
and forgiveness through Yeshua who delivers us from the condemnation of the law—as
long as we don’t walk according to the flesh! Once again it is sin and the sin
nature that is dead!
יבורך שלום
Shalom and be blessed
Dan & Brenda Cathcart
Visit our website at
www.moedministries.com
