CBC GENEVA 9/27/2026 AM SERVICE "Free from the Law" Romans 7:1-6 (KJV)

Paul says Romans 7 explains what it means to be free from the law and how that freedom relates to victory over sin. The law and sin are tied together because “the strength of sin is the law.” Paul has already shown that nobody is justified by keeping the law, and now he shows that nobody is sanctified by keeping it either. The law is holy and good, but sinful flesh is the problem. When sinful flesh meets a command, it does not naturally obey. It is stirred up.

Paul uses marriage to make one main point: the law has jurisdiction over a person only as long as that person lives. Believers died to the law through the body of Christ, and they are now joined to the risen Christ in order to bear fruit unto God. The analogy is not meant to answer every question about marriage, divorce, or remarriage. The point is that death brings release, and union with Christ brings a whole new relationship.

Freedom from the law does not mean freedom to live lawlessly. Christ does not set people loose to do whatever they please. Christ joins believers to Himself, under His authority, and the Spirit fulfills the righteous requirement of the law in those who walk according to Him. Love is not a loose word that means whatever somebody wants it to mean. Love tells the truth, refuses immorality, speaks words that build up, gives, forgives, and seeks what pleases God.

The law cannot be used as an impersonal system for approaching God. Paul once thought outward obedience made him blameless, yet pride still exposed him as a sinner. The law brings knowledge of sin, shuts every mouth, and places guilty people under condemnation. The law can show the standard, but it cannot give the power to meet the standard. A list on the refrigerator cannot save anybody, and it cannot put sinful passions to death.

Christ did what the law could never do for sinners. Christ kept the law perfectly, bore its curse, and nailed the handwriting against His people to the cross. Christ releases believers from condemnation and from the law’s power to arouse sinful desire. The Holy Spirit now indwells believers and gives power to obey.

Union with Christ changes everything. Christ becomes the loving Bridegroom, not an impossible tyrant whose acceptance must be earned. Love for Christ changes the motive for obedience from fearful duty to grateful devotion. Christ frees His people not to serve sin, but to serve God in newness of spirit, bearing fruit in holiness, righteousness, and truth.

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Key Takeaways

• 1. The law cannot cure sin The law is not bad, but sinful flesh turns even a good command into an occasion for rebellion. A command can expose the sickness without supplying the cure. Christ, by His Spirit, provides what the law could never produce: a new heart with power to obey. [19:39]
• 2. Death to law is not lawlessness Freedom from the law does not mean disregard for God’s moral commands. Christ frees believers from earning acceptance and from condemnation, not from holiness. The Spirit leads believers into a life where love has real shape, truth, purity, patience, generosity, and forgiveness. [10:46]
• 3. Christ bore the law’s curse The demands of the law required death because sin brings death. Christ alone kept the law perfectly, and His sacrifice satisfied what guilty sinners could never satisfy. Believers therefore stand before God through Christ’s finished work, not through a performance system. [20:48]
• 4. Union with Christ changes motives Christ does not merely hand believers a better set of rules. Christ joins them to Himself in a relationship of love, like a bride joined to her husband. Obedience then grows from love for what Christ has done, rather than fear of failing impossible demands. [27:16]
• 5. Freedom bears fruit for God Christ releases His people so that they may bear fruit unto God. The Spirit does not leave believers passive or unchanged, but empowers them to put sin to death and serve in newness of life. True freedom is slavery to righteousness under a loving Savior.
  
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Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [00:18] - Romans 7 and the Law
• [01:28] - Sin, Law, and Union With Christ
• [03:35] - The Three Sections of Romans 7
• [05:14] - Marriage and the Law’s Jurisdiction
• [07:26] - Dying to Law Is Not Lawlessness
• [12:12] - Freedom From a Performance System
• [15:27] - Freedom From Condemnation
• [17:13] - The Law Apart From the Spirit
• [20:31] - Christ Fulfills the Law’s Demands
• [22:23] - Joined to Christ to Bear Fruit
• [23:22] - Union With Christ Changes Everything
• [26:53] - A Love Relationship With Christ
• [31:00] - Released From Bondage
• [33:15] - Fruitful, Powerful, Holy Freedom
• [35:00] - Either Dead or Alive

Bible Reading

Romans 7:1-6
“Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress. Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.” [00:01]

1 Corinthians 15:56
“The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.” [01:44]

Romans 6:14
“For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.” [00:26]

Observation questions

1. In Romans 7:1–6, what change in relationship does Paul describe through the marriage illustration, and what is the purpose of being joined to the risen Christ? [05:10]
2. What contrast does Paul make between the fruit produced “in the flesh” and the service produced in “newness of spirit”? [06:26]
3. According to Romans 6:14 and the explanation of Romans 7, what does it mean that believers are not under law but under grace? [00:26]
4. What examples show that biblical love has clear moral shape rather than meaning whatever a person wants it to mean? [10:58]

Interpretation questions

1. Paul says that the law is holy and good, yet sinful flesh can be stirred up to sin when it encounters a command. How can both of these statements be true at the same time? [17:49]
2. Why does Paul use death as the key to release from the law’s jurisdiction, and how does union with Christ provide more than simply being released from rules? [09:34]
3. If believers are no longer under the law as a system for earning acceptance with God, why does Paul still expect a holy and obedient life? [33:58]
4. What is the difference between obeying God out of fear that acceptance must be earned and obeying Christ out of love for what He has done? [30:41]

Application questions

1. Where are you most tempted to relate to God through a performance system—feeling secure when you have had a “good” week and condemned when you have failed? What would it look like to rest more fully in Christ’s finished work? [21:49]
2. Are there commands from God that tend to awaken resistance in you, like the impulse to touch a “wet paint” sign? What does that reveal about the need for the Spirit’s power rather than mere self-effort? [18:22]
3. Christ has freed His people from condemnation, not freed them to live however they please. In what area of life do you need to pursue holiness more clearly—in speech, sexual purity, generosity, forgiveness, anger, or truthfulness? [10:51]
4. Think about a recent act of obedience: was it mainly driven by fear, pressure, habit, love for Christ, or gratitude? How might remembering Christ’s love reshape your motives this week? [27:16]
5. What fruit for God would you hope to see growing in your life over the next month? What specific dependence on the Holy Spirit could help that fruit become visible? [32:29]
6. In what situation are you trying to defeat sin mainly by making stricter rules, lists, or promises to yourself? How can you bring that struggle to Christ and actively depend on His Spirit instead? [20:06]