The Old Testament and the New Covenant Part 4
The apostle Paul paints a picture for us of the end of the Law with an analogy about marriage in Romans chapter 7. The death of a woman’s husband in this illustration represents our death to the Law.
“For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. So then, if while her husband is living, she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man” (Romans 7:2-3).
Just as a married person is committed to a relationship with their spouse while their spouse is alive, you were “married” to the Law until Christ’s arrival on the scene put the law to death. So what is our connection to the Law now since we died to it?
Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God” (Romans 7:4).
Do you see the sequence? Just as a married woman is free to marry another after her husband died, so you are now free to “marry” another since you “died to the Law”. And who is this “another” we are now joined to? “Him who was raised from the dead.” Jesus.
“For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. But now we have been released from [set free, died to it, out from under it, no longer a part of our spiritual lives] the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter” (Romans 7:5-6).
How have we been “released from the Law”? Through Christ’s death, “we died to the Law which bound us.” We no longer live under the “old arrangement,” i.e. the Old Testament, law-keeping system. We now live under a “new arrangement” and walk in the newness of the Spirit rather than the oldness of the letter of the Law.
Over the past three days, we have shown that the old covenant is outdated and obsolete (Hebrews 8:13). The old covenant has come to an end (II Corinthians 3:11). We have died to the Law and it is of no consequence to us now. It has no connection, no influence, no requirement for living the Christian life (Romans 7:1-6).
So what are we to do with the old covenant and the Old Testament that describes it? Do we just forget about it, ignore it, tear it out of our Bibles, and move on? We will talk about it next time.