I would like to begin with a brief summary so far of what Paul has written to the Romans. The book of Romans is the Magna Carta of salvation. It’s kind of ironic, that most Christians think that salvation can be explained in a few sentences. Whereas, Paul writes 16 chapters in an epistle on the academic level of a dissertation for a Phd. All on the subject of salvation. We are entering our fifth month of studying this epistle, and we aren’t even half way through it yet.

Now concerning this subject of salvation, you should remember as I’ve told you many times, that salvation has three parts. Salvation is comprised of justification, sanctification and glorification. And for salvation to be complete, it must include all three. Justification is the removal of the penalty of sin. Sanctification is the removal of the power of sin. Glorification is the removal of the presence of sin. But before Paul can explain our salvation, he must first show that we need saving. So in the first 3 chapters, Paul spoke of condemnation. All have sinned and are under the condemnation of the law, which is the death penalty.

The antidote for condemnation is justification. Justification is the beginning of our salvation. It is being born again, transferred from the penalty of death to the gift of life. Justification, Paul said, came apart from the law. Justification did not come by keeping the law. Rather, it came by faith in what someone else did on our behalf. Christ, as our substitute, took our place in death that we might receive righteousness, or justification, through Him, by faith in Him.

Then, in chapter 6, Paul moves to the next phase of our salvation, which is sanctification. Beginning in ch 6 vs 1, Paul asks, now that we are justified, shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? The point he is speaking of is living in sin. And the answer he gives is a resounding “No.” God forbid! God has given us the power over sin, Paul says, so that we might no longer be under the control, or dominion of sin anymore.

First, Paul said that we have died to sin with Christ. And we have been raised with Christ to a new life. So we that have died to sin are now a new creation. Old things have passed away. As a result of being born again, we have a new nature, a new heart and as such we are not enslaved any longer to sin. So sanctification, the power over sin, is possible because we have a new life and the old man is dead.

And then Paul basically asks the question again but with a different emphasis. “Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?” The point of this question this time though isn’t can we live in sin, but can we occasionally dabble in sin because we have no condemnation under the law anymore. Again, the answer is negative; “may it never be.”

And to illustrate his point, he uses the analogy of a slave, something very familiar to the culture that he lived in. Basically, what Paul says is that once we were under the dominion of sin, enslaved to sin, but when we died in Christ, we no longer have an obligation to the old master which was sin anymore. We have a new master, which is righteousness. And so we aren’t obligated to obey the old master, but we obey our new master. 6:22 “But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.” Why would anyone want to go back to the old life of slavery to sin again? If you truly have been born again, you will not want to go back under sin’s domination again.

So as Proverbs says, as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. As the heart is changed then so will the actions of a man be changed. As we are imputed righteousness, so will that righteousness work itself out in a man’s actions. So sanctification starts in a change of heart.

Now when we get to chapter 7, Paul is going to change analogies once again. He turns form the analogy of slavery to the analogy of marriage. And maybe some of you out there might think that there is a connection between slavery and marriage more so than others. I hope that’s not the case, but I am afraid a lot of people in bad marriages don’t see much difference in the two.

But I really don’t think that was what was on Paul’s mind. I think instead what he wants to show is that our relationship to God while analogous to slavery, as seen in chapter 6, it is better illustrated as marriage. And I am sure that Paul has in mind here the ideal marriage. After all, if you are married to Christ, then you could have no better husband.

So, Paul uses the analogy of marriage to teach a principle. And in some ways the practical aspects of this principle are like the one used in the previous analogies. In all cases, the relationship changes because of a death. And such is the case here in this analogy.

The principle is stated in vs 1, “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?” The principle then is that one’s obligation to the law is until they die. Paul is saying that the law is made for man, but once a man dies, it has no jurisdiction over him any longer.

The word law can be given here it’s broadest meaning. Not necessarily Jewish law, though that would be included, but Roman or Greek also. Death ends all obligations, it breaks all bonds, and severs all ties. So when a person dies, he is dead to the law, thus free from it’s authority and released from it’s domination. We saw that illustrated in the slave analogy in chapter six.

But Paul wants to use a better analogy to illustrate this principle. And so he uses that of marriage. Let’s read how Paul illustrates it. Vs.2,3 “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.”

So the apostle’s analogy then is illustrated by a man and woman who are married. He says the law has dominion over a man or a woman as long as their mate is living. But when their mate dies they are freed to be married to another. If the husband dies the woman is free to be married to another. She is no longer under the law of marriage. After his death she cannot be called an adulteress if she is married to another man.

Every now and then I conduct a wedding. I’m happy to say that I think all of the couples are still married today. God designed marriage to be for life. When I conduct a marriage ceremony I like to use the traditional vows; “I, John, take you, Mary, to be my lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part.” Notice, that marriage is lawful, that means under the law. And the marriage lasts until death. At which point, they are no longer together, nor is the marital bond still in effect. So the marriage does not continue after death.

Jesus said as such. He said that we will be like the angels in heaven, who neither marry nor are given in marriage. I remember the first year after my wife and I were married. My wife had not been saved very long. And when she found out that we would not be married in heaven I remember her asking me about it, and I thought that I saw tears in her eyes as she considered not being with me. Maybe it was my imagination. Or maybe it was tears of joy, I don’t know. Sometimes I can’t help but wonder if 30 years of marriage to me hasn’t changed her view on that a little. Her favorite prayer these days seems to be “even so Lord, come quickly!”

But there is a reason why God created marriage. It wasn’t something that man came up with. God was the one who said it wasn’t good for man to be alone. And so God made a help mate for Adam, and then he presented her to him. And at that point God said in scripture; “For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.”

God views marriage so seriously because marriage is a picture of our relationship to God. God looked around the universe and all the galaxies that He has made and He found no one suitable as a help mate for Him. And so He formed man out of the dust of the earth in His likeness, in His image. He created humans to love Him, to have a relationship with Him, that He might be with them and that they might be one with Him. But man’s choice of sin destroyed that relationship. However, God had a plan to reconcile man to Himself, a plan of salvation, that we might be united forever with Him.

So in the illustration that Paul gives, the marriage is dissolved when the man dies. And when Christ died as our substitute, He died in the place of Adam, who was our representative man. Notice, Paul did not say here that the law died, but that the husband died. Christ became sin for us. He was the second Adam, in that He represents man, and took on our sin, and as He died, so vicariously we died with Him.

Now granted that is a rather complex analogy. Commentators have argued over the nuances of interpretation of this passage for centuries. But I believe we can understand the main point of it. The point is that death dissolves the marriage bond. And in the same way death dissolves the bondage to the law. The marriage bond is broken by the death of the husband. And in our case, the legal bond to the law is broken by the believer’s faith in Christ’s death on the cross, as we die through His death. Our old marriage is dead, and we have a new marriage to Christ.

Paul then in vs 4 gives us his application from this illustration. He says, “Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.”

There are a few important points we need to understand here. First, is found in the statement, “you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ.” It was through Christ’s death on the cross that we also died. That’s the grace of God in salvation. When you realize that the love of God for us did not require us to die for our sins, but He caused Christ to die in our place. That’s amazing. But we receive the full benefit as if we died with Him, so that our penalty to the law was paid in full.

The other point is revealed in the phrase, “so that you might belong to another, even to Him who was raised from the dead.” Our release from the bondage of the law means union with Christ. Our relationship to Christ is like the relationship of marriage. We belong to Christ now, a marriage based on grace, and no longer do we belong to the old marriage under the law.

Now just as in a marriage the consummation of the couple results in fruit, so does our union with Christ result in fruit for God. Paul says, “we might belong to another, in order that we might bear fruit for God.” It’s important that we understand what fruit refers to. Many preachers always seem to make fruit in connection with a harvest of souls. And that may be a part of it. But I think it is more likely that this refers to actions and attitudes and works and speech that are like Christ.

Gal 5:22-23 gives us an idea of what fruit looks like. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” So the fruit of our union with Christ is our sanctification. It is our actions that are changed from works of sin to works of righteousness. The fruit of our union with Christ is that we have a new love, and so we do the things that are pleasing to Him. Because we love Him we keep His commandments. The fruit of our union is that we are being conformed to His image. That is the way our sanctification works, from the inside, out. We are changed on the inside by justification, given a new heart and a new nature, and being joined to Christ, and filled with His Spirit, we then bear the fruit what we have become. So fruit for God is our life of sanctification, or holiness.

Then Paul gives a final analysis of this fruit, born of our new relationship with Christ. He says in vs 5, “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. 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.”

What Paul is saying is that when we were governed in our old Adamic nature by the lusts of the flesh, we were made even more aware of our sin because of the written law of God. Now we are going to talk further about how that works next week in the passage starting with verse 7, but for now I will just read a bit of it so that you might have a sense of what he is talking about. However, I will not comment on it now so that we won’t duplicate what we are going to talk about next week. But in regards to the way the law stimulated the old nature, he says in vs 7,”I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COVET.’ But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind.” So as we said last week, the law acts to magnify sin, to make it more apparent. And I think that is what Paul is indicating here.

But the main point Paul is reiterating here is that in our old nature we bore fruit for death. The only outcome of our sinful nature was that it produced even more sin, and sin produces death. The wages of sin is death, 6:23. But now, having died to that old man, we have been released from the law, just as the wife is released from her husband through death. And in this newness of life in Christ, in this new relationship of marriage with Christ, we serve in newness of the Spirit, no longer serving the old marriage under the law.

So in regards to fruit; our old relationship to Adam in our nature produced sinful fruit. The new relationship to the second Adam, Jesus Christ, produces righteous fruit. Thanks be to God that we are no longer married to our sinful nature. And so we are no longer under the condemnation of sin or the power of sin.

Now our sanctification is characterized by a willingness to serve God in newness of Spirit. That is the liberty that we have in this relationship. A new heart in a new marriage relationship with Christ, is based on love and not obligation. And so out of love we serve the Lord, trying to please Him, to be like Him, that we might be one with Him.

This is the way that Jeremiah 31:33 characterizes it; “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”

Sanctification is a process of dying to the old man, and living and walking in the Spirit. It starts with a new heart, with the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ, and then it is a process of becoming more like Christ, of dying to sin, and living for righteousness. It’s a process that will not end until we are taken to be with the Lord. And then this body of death will finally be done away with forever and we will receive a new, glorified body. That is glorification, the final stage of our salvation. Sanctification is the middle phase. Between justification and glorification we are working out our salvation with fear and trembling, doing what is pleasing to the Lord, serving Him because we have a new spirit, being indwelled by the Holy Spirit who gives us the power to serve Him out of a new nature, a new heart, serving Him out of our love for Him as we draw near to Him, and He draws near to us.

John Newton, the famous preacher of the 18th century who was converted while a ship’s captain in the slave trade and gave up that life for a life serving the Lord, who went on to write Amazing Grace, said this about this intermediate state of sanctification. “I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am.” What we are now is we have been called, we have been justified by the righteousness of Jesus Christ, we have been changed in our nature, we are being sanctified in the image of Christ, and one day we will be glorified in His presence forever when this body of sin is done away with.

I hope that this passage we have looked at today has revealed to you that the genuine Christian life is not that of bondage but of freedom. It’s a life that is not motivated by legal regulations but by love for Christ. It’s a life that is not spent pursing sinful passions that lead to death but walking after the Spirit which is life. And it is a life that does not bear fruit for death, but bears fruit for God, as we serve God with a glad and grateful heart.