Romans 7:1

Or don’t you know, brothers (for I speak to men who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man for as long as he lives?

The Law of God is a serious thing. It defines our rules and the punishments for disobedience to them. What it reveals is that we are going to be in big trouble for the many violations that we have committed against the Creator. With such a serious problem, it is no wonder that faithful men and women wonder what to do about the rules in the Old Testament, such as the Ten Commandments. Many wonder what changed that made it so that we don’t have to go to church on Saturday or how it is that we are no longer in trouble for eating pork. If you were wondering why we don’t follow the rules in the Old Testament any more, this verse makes it pretty clear.

People who died can’t be judged by the law.

Remember what I was saying about the fact that baptism is actually a symbol of our being with Jesus when He died. We did die in Christ and because of that, not only is our sin dealt with, the law has no jurisdiction over us anymore. We have already died and the Law’s most severe penalty is death!

So, we died to sin and to The Law! Many ask the question: “What is to keep us from sinning if The Law isn’t there to keep us in line?” If you have been following along, you actually already know the answer. Remember, The Law never kept anyone in line. It only exposed how wrong we really were. It still does that job today, but it has no power over us because, in Christ, we died already. We don’t have to worry about our legal relationship with God anymore. That was taken care of when Jesus died and when we accepted His death as our own. The real issue that may be bothering you is how do we do what is right. That’s a great question that we can read much more about as keep going through Romans.