Has the Biblical Law been Abolished? (Romans 7:4)

Asher Chee |

Romans 7:4 ESV 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.

Romans 7:4 is sometimes used as indication that Christians no longer have to keep the biblical law, especially the saying, “You also have died to the law.” However, if we read it in its context, we would find that this is not at all the case.

The Larger Context

People misunderstand Romans 7:4 largely because of how chapters 6 and 7 are artificially separated from each other by chapter divisions in Bible translations. In reality, chapter 7 continues the flow of thought from chapter 6, so it is unreasonable to think that Paul would not consistently follow through his flow of thought.

In chapter 6, the Apostle Paul described a believer’s relation to sin and Christ in three stages:

  1. Before we were saved, we were in union with sin.
  2. When we were saved, our union with sin was severed.
  3. Now that we are saved, we are in union with Christ.

In 6:15–23, Paul illustrated these three stages by using a master-slave relationship as an analogy:

  1. Before we were saved, we were slaves to sin.
  2. When we were saved, we became no longer slaves to sin.
  3. Now that we are saved, we are slaves to righteousness, and to God.

The Analogy from Marriage

In the next passage, 7:1–6, Paul illustrates a believer’s relationship to sin and Christ by using another analogy: a marriage. In verses 1–3, Paul describes the marriage law:

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? 2 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. 3 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.

The law of marriage binds a wife exclusively to her husband in marriage. While her husband is still alive, the law of marriage prevents her from getting married to another man. However, after her husband dies, the wife is “released from the law of marriage.” Then, she can marry another man. This is the context in which verse 4 was written.

Following Paul’s Flow of Thought

Verse 4 starts with the word “likewise”, which indicates that Paul is using marriage as an analogy to illustrate a believer’s relationship to sin and Christ. Before we were saved, we were helplessly bound exclusively to sin. However, that changed when we “died to the law through the body of Christ.” Paul explains what this means in the next two verses:

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. 6 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.

In verse 5, Paul describes our past situation before we became believers. While we were still unsaved, “while we were living in the flesh,” the law was used by our sinful passions to incite us to sinful acts. Later on in verses 7–25, Paul clarifies that the law did not cause us to do sinful acts, but rather sin in the flesh working through the law.

In verse 6, Paul describes our current situation as believers, as indicated by the expression, “But now”. Paul used the same language which he used in described the marriage law in verse 2. When a woman’s husband dies, she becomes “released from the law of marriage”, and she would be no longer bound to her husband. Likewise, when we believed in Christ, we became “released from the law”, and we are no longer bound to sin.

Conclusion

Therefore, in context, the expression “died to the law” does not mean that we no longer have to keep the biblical law. Rather, it means that the law can no longer be used by our sinful passions to cause us to do sinful acts.