Release from the Law
(Galatians 3:15–25)
Do you not know, brothers (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives? Rom 6:14Rom 7:6Rom 6:3Pro 6:23Rom 10:1Gal 4:21Rom 9:31Co 9:8 For instance, a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage. Gen 2:23-241Co 7:41Co 7:39Num 30:7-8 So then, if she is joined to another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law and is not an adulteress, even if she marries another man. Exo 20:14Mat 5:32Mrk 10:6-121Ti 5:11-14Deu 22:22-24Jhn 8:3-5Lev 20:10Num 5:13-31
Therefore, 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. 1Pe 2:24Gal 5:22-23Isa 54:5Rom 8:2Eph 5:23-27Gal 2:19-20Rom 7:6Eph 2:15 For when we lived according to the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, bearing fruit for death. Eph 2:3Gal 5:16-17Gal 5:24Gal 3:10Rom 6:13Rom 6:211Co 15:561Jn 3:4 But now, having died to what 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. Gal 3:23-252Co 3:6Rom 7:4Rom 6:4Gal 2:19-20Gal 4:4-5Rom 6:14-15Gal 3:13
God’s Law Is Holy
What then shall we say? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed, I would not have been mindful of sin if not for the law. For I would not have been aware of coveting if the law had not said, “Do not covet.” 1 Rom 3:20Rom 4:151Co 15:56Exo 20:17Deu 5:21Rom 13:9Rom 7:8Psa 19:7-12 But sin, seizing its opportunity through the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from the law, sin is dead. Rom 7:111Co 15:56Rom 4:15Jas 1:14-15Rom 7:13Jhn 15:22Rom 5:20Jhn 15:24
Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. Gal 3:10Rom 8:7Jas 2:10-11Rom 7:4Gal 2:19Rom 10:5Rom 7:11Rom 7:21-23 So I discovered that the very commandment that was meant to bring life actually brought death. 2Co 3:7Lev 18:5Gal 3:12Rom 10:5Ezk 20:11Ezk 20:21Luk 10:27-29Ezk 20:13 For sin, seizing its opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through the commandment put me to death. Gen 3:13Rom 7:8Heb 3:13Jer 17:9Isa 44:20Jas 1:22Jas 1:26Jer 49:16
So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good. 1Ti 1:8Psa 119:137Psa 19:7-12Rom 7:14Psa 119:172Neh 9:13Rom 3:31Deu 4:8
Struggling with Sin
Did that which is good, then, become death to me? Certainly not! But in order that sin might be exposed as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful. Jas 1:13-15Gal 3:21Rom 7:8-11Rom 8:3Rom 5:20
We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 1Ki 21:252Ki 17:171Ki 21:20Isa 52:3Rom 7:18Eph 3:8Isa 50:1Mat 5:22 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do. But what I hate, I do. Gal 5:17Rom 7:19-20Ecc 7:20Jas 3:2Nam 1:7Php 3:12-141Jn 1:7-8Rom 12:9 And if I do what I do not want to do, I admit that the law is good. Rom 7:121Ti 1:8Rom 7:14Psa 119:127-128Rom 7:22 In that case, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. Rom 7:20Php 3:8-9Rom 7:18Jas 4:5-62Co 8:12Rom 4:7-8Rom 7:23
I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh; for I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. Jhn 3:6Psa 51:5Gal 5:17Psa 119:115-117Rom 7:25Job 14:4Gal 5:24Job 15:14-16 For I do not do the good I want to do. Instead, I keep on doing the evil I do not want to do. Rom 7:15 And if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. Rom 7:17
So this is the principle I have discovered: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. Eph 6:11-13Rom 6:14Rom 7:23Rom 8:2Heb 2:17Psa 119:133Rom 6:122Pe 2:19 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law. Psa 1:2Psa 40:8Psa 119:35Psa 119:47-48Heb 8:10Job 23:12Psa 119:97-1042Co 4:16 But I see another law at work in my body, warring against the law of my mind and holding me captive to the law of sin that dwells within me. 2 Gal 5:17Jas 4:1Rom 8:2Rom 6:191Pe 2:11Rom 7:25Heb 12:41Ti 6:11-12
What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Rom 6:62Ti 4:18Tit 2:14Rom 8:22Co 12:7-9Rom 8:26Psa 102:20Heb 2:15 Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord! Gal 5:17-24Col 3:172Co 12:9-101Pe 2:5Isa 49:13Psa 107:15-16Rom 6:171Co 15:57
So then, with my mind I serve the law of God, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.