Old and New

International Sunday School Lesson October 8, 2023

Romans 7:1-12 (ESV) 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. [4] 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. [5] 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. [7] What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” [8] But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. [9] I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. [10] The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. [11] For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. [12] So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

Romans 7:1-12 (ESV)

Grace and Law is the Focus

It is so easy to lose sight of Paul’s intent in the seventh chapter of Romans. Some have thought that the purpose of discussing marriage in this section of scripture is teaching about marriage. However, everything Paul says about marriage applies to massage in any culture. He is only talking about the length of obligation of the marriage vows. Death ends the obligation of the marriage vows.
Paul is using this as a metaphor of Law and Grace. We have died to the law under grace. Therefore, we are not under the law.

It is very important that we understand that being under grace does not mean we can live anyway that we desire. Sin is still sin. Wrong is still wrong. Living under grace only means that the we are not perfect but still going to Heaven. It means that regardless of what we have done in our lives that Jesus will accept us if we only call on Him. Praise God!!!