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It is noteworthy that the stress on slavery does not cease when the new life in Christ
begins. Paul talks about being a "slave to righteousness" and a "slave to God". Strictly
speaking the believer does not change his condition as a slave--he changes his master--
once a slave to Satan, sin, and self, now a slave of Christ, "whose service is perfect
freedom". What an exchange! What a transformation! And Paul the one who stresses
freedom more than any other N.T. writer, specially when he says:
"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then, and do not let
yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery" (Gal. 5: 1, N.I.V.).
Yet he delighted to constantly describe himself as the "slave of Christ"! (translated
servant in the A.V.). This is a seeming paradox, and yet not so to the one who rejoices in
the truth of the section now before us, namely 6: 1-23 with its mighty deliverance
brought about by the God-made union with Christ in His death and resurrection.
Chapter 7: begins another section still dealing with this great doctrine of
identification with Christ. In 6: 14 Paul had stated that the believer was not under the
reign of law, but under the reign of grace. The Apostle is now going to amplify this:
"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? For 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. So 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" (7: 1-3,
N.I.V.).
The Apostle is concerned to show that legal obligation is discharged only by death.
Sometimes Paul uses the definite article with `law', and sometimes omits it. Generally
speaking, law with the article refers to the law of Moses, without it, law in general, that is
Roman law as well as Jewish. Here at the beginning of chapter 7:, Paul asserts that
death breaks man's relation to the law and to illustrate this he brings forward an analogy
from marriage. It is important to bear in mind that the Apostle in no way belittles the
law. It was "holy, just and good" (7: 12), but as a means of acquiring merit before God,
law-keeping was impossible and therefore, completely deceptive. Death is the answer to
the dominion of sin (chapter 6:) and likewise it is the answer to the dominion of law
(chapter 7:). Applying the analogy to the believer, Paul reminds him again of his
identification with Christ in His physical death, "So, my brother, 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" (verse 4, N.I.V.). This `fruit' is
the life that is dominated by the risen Christ and brings glory to Him. It is the "fruit of
the spirit", the new nature, described in Gal. 5: 22, 23.
However, looking back to the days of unregeneracy, sinful passions aroused by the
law produced the very opposite "fruit unto death" (verse 5). God's mighty deliverance
through the union with Christ means that the believer is released from the slavery of law
so that now he can become the slave of God and serve Him freely "in the new way of the
Spirit and not the old way of the written code". In place of legalism that seeks to enforce
statutes there is the spirit of willing service through dedication and love.