In the 7th chapter of Romans, Paul lays out in detail the remarkable truth regarding the basis for our freedom from the bondage of sin. Here we find that our liberty hinges on freedom from law—that is, being dead to law. And here the nagging question as to how we can be free from the power of sin, even as we continue to encounter shameful problems with it, is finally answered.
He begins his argument in Romans 7:1-3, where he says that law has jurisdiction over a person’s life only as long as he lives. This reinforces what he had just taught—that we have in fact died to sin. Without question we have, but not in the way we tend to think about it, since our death to sin is not really a personal death at all.
Let’s look a little closer. Paul says that freedom from law is actually the basis for our freedom from sin. He uses the example of a woman being held accountable to the Law by virtue of the fact that she is married. Consequently, she can’t pursue a relationship with another man without being labeled an adulteress. But when her husband dies, she is free from any responsibility the Law placed on her regarding her former husband.
Why is this important? Because although in this instance the wife is the one who has been freed from (dead to) law, she didn’t die at all; her husband did! And so it is with us. By comparison, we’re like the living wife rather than the dead husband when talking about our own death to sin. Just as the commandment concerning adultery now no longer applies to her, in Christ we have also been removed from the realm of jurisdiction of law.
We are in fact just as dead to law in regard to our sin as she is to the commandment which once governed her marriage. But law has lost its jurisdiction over us not because sinful behavior can now be considered legal, permissible or acceptable, but because our sin is no longer punishable. God has acquitted us of wrongdoing because the punishment for sin—that is, separation from Him—is no longer enforced. And this is the key to understanding the true nature of our death to sin.
Excerpted from: Free from the Power of Sin: The Keys to Growing in God in Spite of Yourself