1 Do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to men who know the law—that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives? 2For 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 of marriage. 3So then, if she marries 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, even though she marries another man.
4So, my brothers, 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 to God. 5For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. 6But 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.(NIV)
Main Points and Discussion Questions
1. Just as death makes the law of marriage defunct, so the believer’s “dying and rising” with Christ makes the demands of the Mosaic Law defunct. Therefore, the believer is free from the Law (vv.1-4)
2. Just as believers transferred their “slavery” from sin to that of righteousness (Romans 6:15-23), so they transfer their “subjection” from the Law to that of Christ (v.4).
Discussion Question 1: How does the “freedom” that Christians have differ from the “freedom” that the world understands and seeks after?
3. Christians are called to “bear fruit” for God. (v. 4)
Discussion Question 2: Read Luke 8:14, John 15:8, Gal 5:22-23, 2 Pe 1:3-9, Heb 12:11
a) What is the fruit that we are to bear as Christians?
b) What is God’s purpose in having us bear fruit?
c) What does God often use to bring out fruit from us?
d) What can prevent us from bearing fruit?
e) If we fail to bear fruit, what can be the result?
4.Rather than enabling obedience, the Law can only bring out the worst in an unregenerate heart. (v.5)
5. The Holy Spirit enables believers to serve and please God (v.6).
Discussion Question 3: Read Jn 14:26, 16:12-14; Acts 1:8; Rom. 8:25-27; 1 Co 2:12-13
In what ways does the Holy Spirit make it possible for us to fulfill God’s “righteous requirements of the Law” (Rom 8:2-4)?
