Released to Serve in the New Way
Scripture Reading: Romans 7:1–6 (ESV)
1 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 Thus 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.
Paul uses the example of marriage to show that death changes the binding authority of the law. Just as a widow is free to remarry, believers have died to the law through Christ so that they can belong to Him.
This is not a call to lawlessness. Instead, it is an invitation to serve God in a new way—not out of external obligation, but from the inward power of the Spirit. We are no longer bound by a written code that exposes our sin without empowering us to overcome it. We now live and serve by the Spirit, who produces genuine fruit for God.
As we pray today, let us thank God for freeing us from the burden of trying to earn righteousness through the law. Let us embrace the joy of serving Him out of love and the transforming power of His Spirit.
Prayer Points:
Thank God for releasing you from the law’s condemnation through Christ.
Ask Him to help you bear fruit for Him by the Spirit’s power.
Pray for joy in serving God from love rather than obligation.