This is part six of Written on the Heart, a series on how a Christian lives with the law of the Old Testament under the New Covenant. We have seen what the law was for and how its shadows point to Christ. Now we ask what has changed in us.
A widow in the ancient world could not simply decide she was single again. The law bound her to her husband as long as he lived. If she went to live with another man while her husband was alive, everyone in town had a word for her. But if her husband died, the same law that bound her now released her. She could stand before witnesses and marry again, and nobody had a word for her except congratulations.
Paul builds one of his most important arguments on that ordinary piece of family law.
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? 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.
Romans 7:1-6 (NKJV)
Somebody Died
In Paul’s picture the husband dies. In the application we die. The details do not line up perfectly, but the principle is the same. Death ends the law’s hold, and a new marriage becomes possible.
You also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ. Became dead is thanatoo (θανατόω), Strong’s G2289, to put to death, to kill. It is the word for an execution. Paul has in mind a death that happened, not a gradual drifting away, and he tells us where. Through the body of Christ. When Christ died, those who belong to Him died with Him (Romans 6:3-6). The law had a claim on us, and the claim was paid in full at the cross. A dead man owes the law nothing more.
Then verse 6 gives us another word worth slowing down for. We have been delivered from the law. Delivered is katargeo (καταργέω), Strong’s G2673, to render inoperative, to make of no effect, to release. Here is the striking thing. It is the same word Paul used in verse 2 for the widow. She is released from the law of her husband. The law still exists. The town still has marriage laws. But that law no longer operates on her in the same way. It has been switched off as far as her old marriage is concerned. That is what has happened to the believer in relation to the law as a covenant.
Married in Order to Bear Fruit
Now look at the purpose clauses. We died to the law that you may be married to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.
Paul does not say we died to the law so we could be single. Nobody in this picture is left free to live as he pleases. We were released from the law in order to belong to Christ, and the goal of the new marriage is fruit. The old marriage produced fruit too, Paul says, but it was fruit to death, because the law stirred up sinful passions it had no power to subdue. The letter told us what to do and left us to do it. The Spirit lives in us and produces the life the letter described.
Fulfilled in Us
Paul comes back to this at the start of Romans 8, and here he says the thing that holds this whole series together.
For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Romans 8:3-4 (NKJV)
Notice what the law could not do, and why. It was weak through the flesh. The law was not weak in itself. It was strong enough to show sin and condemn it. It was weak the way a perfect blueprint is weak when the only materials on site are rotten lumber. God did what the law could not do by sending His Son, who condemned sin in the flesh.
And the purpose? That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us. Righteous requirement is dikaioma (δικαίωμα), Strong’s G1345, a righteous decree or statute, what the law rightly demands. And fulfilled is our old friend pleroo (G4137) from Matthew 5:17. Jesus came to fulfill the law. Now Paul says the law’s righteous requirement is fulfilled in us.
Look carefully at the grammar. Paul does not say we fulfill it. He says it is fulfilled in us. The verb is passive. Someone else is doing the fulfilling, and the next verses tell us who. The Spirit of God dwells in you (8:9). So Christians have not been released from the law in order to ignore what it requires. We have been released from the law as a covenant so that what it required could finally happen in us by the Spirit. Jeremiah’s promise is coming true.
What the Requirement Looks Like
That raises the obvious practical question. If the righteous requirement of the law is being fulfilled in us, what does it look like? Paul answers in Romans 13.
Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not bear false witness,” “You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
Romans 13:8-10 (NKJV)
Summed up is anakephalaiomai (ἀνακεφαλαίομαι), Strong’s G346, to sum up, to gather under one head. Paul uses it in only one other place, Ephesians 1:10, where God will gather together in one all things in Christ. The commandments are not thrown away. They are gathered together under a single heading, the way a long column of figures is added up into one total at the bottom. The total is love.
That does not make the individual commands unnecessary. Paul lists them for a reason. Love is not a vague feeling that floats free of instruction, and the commandments describe what love does and does not do.
Under Law Toward Christ
Paul gives this new way of living a name in Galatians 6:2. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. And in 1 Corinthians 9 he explains how he lives under it.
And to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might win those who are under the law; to those who are without law, as without law (not being without law toward God, but under law toward Christ), that I might win those who are without law.
1 Corinthians 9:20-21 (NKJV)
Paul could eat kosher with Jews and eat at a Gentile table, because he was no longer bound by the law of Moses as a covenant. But he refuses to let anyone call him lawless. Under law toward Christ is ennomos (ἔννομος), Strong’s G1772, literally in-law, within the law, subject to law. Paul is in-lawed to Christ. He is not without a law. He has a new one, and it is the law of a Person.
Jesus gave that law its center on the night before the cross. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another (John 13:34). Love your neighbor as yourself was old. As I have loved you was new. The measure of the law of Christ is the cross itself.
The Perfect Law of Liberty
James, writing to Jewish believers, says the same thing in his own vocabulary. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does (James 1:25).
Looks into is parakupto (παρακύπτω), Strong’s G3879, to bend beside, to stoop down and peer in. It is the word John uses for the disciple stooping down to look into the empty tomb (John 20:5), and the word Peter uses for angels who desire to look into the gospel (1 Peter 1:12). James pictures someone bent over the word, looking hard. Liberty is eleutheria (ἐλευθερία), Strong’s G1657, freedom. A law of liberty sounds like a contradiction until you have been set free by Christ. Then it is simply a description of what it is like to want what God commands.
James calls it the royal law in 2:8, and he names the same summary Paul does. If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, You shall love your neighbor as yourself, you do well. Then he warns his readers that showing favoritism to the rich breaks it. So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty (2:12). Liberty is the freedom to love the way Christ loved, and we will answer for how we used it.
| Word | Original | Strong’s | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| thanatoo | θανατόω | G2289 | To put to death, to kill. Romans 7:4, became dead |
| katargeo | καταργέω | G2673 | To render inoperative, release. Used of the widow (7:2) and the believer (7:6) |
| dikaioma | δικαίωμα | G1345 | A righteous decree, what the law rightly requires |
| anakephalaiomai | ἀνακεφαλαίομαι | G346 | To sum up, to gather under one head. Romans 13:9 and Ephesians 1:10 |
| ennomos | ἔννομος | G1772 | Within the law, subject to law. Under law toward Christ |
| parakupto | παρακύπτω | G3879 | To stoop down and look intently, as into the empty tomb |
| eleutheria | ἐλευθερία | G1657 | Liberty, freedom |
Bending Over the Word
Most of us read the commands of the New Testament either as a list to perform so God will stay pleased or as nice ideals for people further along than we are. Paul and James give us a third way. The commands are the shape of love, the fruit the Spirit is producing in people married to Christ.
This week, take James 1:25 at its word. Choose Romans 12:9-21, a passage full of commands. Read it slowly, bent over it the way John bent over that tomb. For each command ask two questions. How did Christ love me this way? Whose burden could I carry this week by loving them this way? Then pick one name and one act, and do it before Sunday. That is what the law of Christ looks like in a kitchen or an office or a hospital waiting room.
Discussion Questions
- In Romans 7:1-6, why does Paul say we died to the law? What is the purpose of the new marriage?
- Paul uses katargeo for both the widow and the believer. What does that show about how the law relates to us now?
- Why does it matter that Romans 8:4 says the righteous requirement is fulfilled in us rather than by us?
- How does John 13:34 change the measure of love compared with Leviticus 19:18?
- Do you tend to read New Testament commands as a performance list or as optional ideals? What would change if you read them as the shape of love?
Going Deeper
Read Romans 6:1-8:17 in one sitting. Notice how Paul moves from our death with Christ in chapter 6, to our death to the law in chapter 7, to life in the Spirit in chapter 8. Then read Galatians 5:13-6:2 and compare Paul’s list of the fruit of the Spirit with his summary of the law in 5:14. Next time we look at the two ditches on either side of this road, and at the church council that first had to find the road between them.
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