Free to Live
Opening Prayer
“If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36). Thank Jesus for the freedom he gives.
Read Romans 7:1-6
[1] 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? [2] 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. [3] 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. [4] 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. [5] 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. [6] 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. Scripture taken from the THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
What is Paul teaching with this marriage analogy?Paul keeps on digging, drawing on every cultural reference the Romans can understand to ensure they grasp this fundamental truth. This time he draws on the legalities surrounding marriage, reminding his readers that a woman’s vows to her husband end upon his death (2). When he dies, his widow is free to remarry without censure (3). Similarly, through Christ’s death, believers have died to the power of the law, so they, too, are free (4): free to belong to another, free to live a new kind of life. It might seem that Paul is repeating himself in these passages, but one glance at the human condition explains why. We know we’re saved by grace, but there are still those days when we pray harder, read more Scripture, and feel we’ve earned more favor in Jesus’ eyes. Yes, our old life is dead, but one look at our priorities, anxieties and desires reveals that sometimes our old life is on an (old) life-support machine! So, sometimes our hearts fail to grasp this great truth. We need to hear it again. Our old life is dead; our new life, transformed by Christ’s love and power, is here.
Apply
Think of the ways you try to earn God’s love and acceptance. Talk to him about it today.
Closing prayer
Lord, I’m grateful that I can’t and don’t have to earn Your favor. I know Jesus has done that for me.
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