"Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God." Romans 7:4
Death dissolves every obligation to the law. When we died with Christ, our obligation to the law was dissolved. In a very true sense, by our death in Christ, we were delivered from the law. Being "dead to the law" should be distinguished from "the law being dead to us". The latter is not taught in scripture. In saying that we are dead to the law, the apostle implied that we are dead to it as a way of justification and sanctification. In other words, the law can neither justify the sinner nor sanctify the saint. In this sense, those in Christ are freed from trying to meet the requirements for salvation.
Christ's death met the demands of the Law, and by it, freed us from the law. This freedom is not freedom from obeying the law of God, but freedom from relying on the law for salvation and sanctification. Now that we have been released from the law as a means of justification and sanctification, we are at liberty to be united to the law of Him who has thus bought us with His blood. In John 13:34, Jesus gave His followers a new commandment saying, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another."
When a woman whose husband is dead marries another man, she comes under the law of her new husband. The fact of her freedom from her dead husband does not mean that when she remarries she will not be under the law of her new husband. In the same way, when the Christian died to the law, it only freed him from the law of that husband, the law; now that he is married to a new husband, Christ, he is under the law of this new husband, Christ.
The object of becoming married to a husband, Christ, is that we should live a holy life. Such is what the illustration of the woman under the law of her husband served.
Toni
