Meet Will Baxter

As you have probably noticed up to this point in Romans, Paul keeps referring to the law in chapter 7. We are in the thick of a section all about sanctification (chapters 6-8). Sanctification is a big word that means the process of becoming like Christ as we live in a relationship with Him. Paul uses the law references to explain what a Christian's relationship to the law is supposed to look like. The law referenced here is the Mosaic Law—a set of commands showing how God wanted the Israelites to live.

Dr. Constable's Notes point out that the law in verse 5 is like an x-ray machine that reveals a tumor—our sin. (Dr. Constable's Notes, Romans 7:7-12, p. 105.) The law arouses our sinful nature by prohibiting the things our sinful nature craves. In verses 5-6, there's also a marriage metaphor. To understand it, we need to look at verses 1-4, which explain that the law of marriage only binds a woman to her husband when he is alive. Thus, a married woman who lives with another man is subject to the law concerning adultery only if her husband is alive. When we are married to the law (as a system of salvation), we bear fruit that leads to death from our sinful desires being aroused. But now we have been released from our old marriage to sin through our own death in Christ. "While it is the husband's death that frees the wife to remarry, in our case it is our death (in Christ) that frees us to 'remarry.'" (Keller, Romans 1-7 For You, pp. 157-58.)

These verses remind me that I serve Christ out of gratitude for what He has done for me. I am no longer married to my old desires—lust, pride, and man's approval—but to Christ. He (not me) is who I want to please and satisfy.