Ep 37: Released From The Law, Alive In Christ

A simple analogy changed how we read Romans forever: when death ends a marriage covenant, the living are free to belong to another. Paul uses that image to show how Christ’s death frees us from the law’s jurisdiction so we can bear real fruit for God. We walk through Romans 7–8 to trace that move from diagnosis to deliverance: the law is holy and honest about sin, but only the Spirit gives life. No shortcuts, no clichés—just clear-eyed realism about why we still feel the inner war and how grace actually changes people.

We slow down on the tough questions. Is the law bad? No—it reveals what’s wrong in us. Does “no condemnation” mean sin no longer matters? Not at all—it means sin’s penalty and power no longer define those united to Christ. We unpack works of the flesh and fruit of the Spirit with practical markers you can use this week. We push beyond “baptism as announcement” into baptism as union—buried with Christ, raised in newness of life. And we talk about church as a living body, not a content stream. Your gifts matter, and someone else’s growth may depend on your presence.

Hope frames everything. The Spirit indwells us as the new temple, assures our adoption, and leads us as sons and daughters who cry “Abba.” Creation itself groans for renewal, and the glory ahead outweighs today’s pain. Nothing—death, powers, or the unknown—can sever you from the love of God in Christ. If you’re tired of white-knuckling your faith or treating spiritual life like a checklist, this conversation points you to a better way: set your mind on the Spirit, walk with the body, and bear fruit that lasts.

If this helped you see Romans 7–8 with fresh clarity, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find it. What part challenged you most today?

Chapters

• 0:00 Romans Series Reboot
• 0:22 Marriage Analogy And The Law
• 4:10 Died To The Law Through Christ
• 6:13 Is The Law Sinful
• 9:14 Sin, Law, And Human Failure
• 11:25 Darkness, Absence, And Sin
• 12:17 Flesh Versus Spirit: Inner War
• 13:19 No Condemnation: Romans 8 Opens
• 15:17 Image Of God And Restoration
• 18:17 What No Condemnation Does Not Mean
• 20:14 Works Of Flesh And Fruit Of Spirit
• 24:08 Baptism Beyond Public Declaration
• 27:07 Confession, Forgiveness, And Assurance
• 27:28 Outro And Next Week Tease

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:00

Welcome back to another episode of Practical Discipleship. I'm Austin.

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And I'm Shanahan. And here we discover what it means to follow God by engaging with Scripture and igniting our faith.

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So others may know. Let's do it. Alright, guys, we're picking up back in Romans chapter seven. Picking back up with our Romans series. I apologize that some of these are out of order. It's just that when something happens or studying something else in scripture, I'm like, ah man, that's going to be a good episode to do it on. And then so I want to do it before we forget. But, anyways, picking back up in Romans chapter seven. Um, if you guys listen to the last one, we we did Romans 5 and 6, talking about baptism, specifically in Romans chapter 6, about how Paul's talking about how you were dead to sin and alive to God. Um, specifically, he talks about baptized or being baptized into Christ's death, and picking up in Romans chapter 7 here, he explains this a little bit further, and he uses the analogy of marriage of being this binding covenant, and he relates it to the law. So, in opening up in chapter 7 here, he talks about marriage, and he talks about how if you're married and then you get a divorce, but your spouse is still alive, then that is still considered adultery because marriage is a binding covenant of while while you are still living. But if you're married and your spouse dies, then you are free to remarry, and that's not considered adultery because you have been set free from from that covenant or that law. And so that's what he that's the analogy that he uses of being released from the law, the law being like the Old Testament, if we're talking specifically to the Jews here. And so in verse 4, he says, Likewise, my brothers, you have also 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. So again, going back to Romans chapter six, we know that he was talking about being baptized into Christ's death. We were buried, therefore, with him in baptism, into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead, the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. So God's covenants are binding on us. God doesn't just give a covenant and then later on in the New Testament just change his mind and say, you know what, never mind, scratch that old testament covenant. Now, now it's under the new. And that's why Paul is using this analogy of marriage, because just like I said, marriage is a binding covenant while you're alive here on earth. Okay, it's not it's not eternal, we're not married in heaven. This is, I mean, we can actually even look at the the gospels when the Pharisees try to trick Jesus about this whole marriage thing. They ask him about, well, if this woman has had five husbands, who's going to be their uh husband in heaven? And Jesus responds, um, essentially along the lines that, you know, they're not given in marriage in heaven. They're uh they're like the angels, there's there's there's no marriage. Um, the whole point is that the body of Christ is is the bride, the bride, and Christ is the groom. But it anyways, so we know that marriage is binding while we're here alive. And Paul is saying that if your spouse dies, then yeah, of course, you're free to to remarry. That's not considered adultery. Um, and it's the same thing with the law, the covenant here. And this is this is what is important to to realize that if if you're not a believer in Christ, then you are still uh under the law, you're under the old testament. And this is the whole reason why we don't we're not under the sacrificial system anymore. We'll talk a little bit as we go on about um why there's no temple that's that our bodies are actually the the the temple of the Holy Spirit and all of that. But you have, as a Christian, putting your faith in Christ and being baptized, you have died to the law, resurrected up into a new life, and now you are under the new covenant. So Paul says in verse 4, likewise, my brothers, you have also died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, right? Because God's covenant is binding. This obviously this uh can all be brought into like when the book of Hebrews says that blood has to be shed for the forgiveness of sin. Christ comes down, takes the punishment, he sheds his blood. And those who are under Christ have died to that old testament law and are now living in the the new covenant. So I love the way that Paul uses the analogy of marriage because that makes it kind of easy for us to kind of understand and put it in our our earthly mindset and be like, oh, okay, if you compare it to marriage, I understand. Where it's not it's not like you're just divorcing your spouse and then you go and remarry. It's if your spouse dies, then yeah, that that covenant of marriage no longer exists and you are free to remarry. But continuing on on verse 7, he explains how um the law and if uh the law of itself is not sin. And he's probably going on and explaining this a little further because explaining how you know you've died to the old and you're alive in the new. People, it's kind of it would be a common question being like, Well, why would we have to do that? Is the old testament bad? Is it was it's like God's just writing off the the first law and he needs to restart? And so Paul kind of breaks this down. He says in verse 7, What then shall we say that the law is sin? And he says, By no means, like, of course not. If it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. So the law reveals sin. And he even goes on to say, you know, if the law didn't say you shall not covet, I wouldn't know what covet is. So he talks about how the law revealed sin. And then there's this interesting verse in verse 10 of chapter 7. He says, The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. So he's not saying that it's like, oh, God's God's commandment promised to be death to me. What he's saying is that God's commands promise eternal life if one keeps them, and yet they lead to death since everyone violated what God had ordained. We could read this back in Romans chapter 3, where Paul talks about how everyone has fallen short of the glory of God, right? Every single person who has walked this earth or is currently walking this earth has sinned, besides Jesus Christ, of course, who's God Himself. But besides Jesus, every single person that has walked this earth has has sinned and has not fulfilled all 613 laws of the Old Testament. So by that standard, it's like, okay, well, if you've broken one law, then you've broken the entire thing. You have not walked perfect, and therefore you need to be forgiven of your sins. Well, how are you forgiven of your sins? Of course, Jesus being crucified on the cross, blood has to be shed for the forgiveness of sin. That's the entire point of the gospel of why Jesus comes down. So it's not the it's not that the law is evil within itself. The law is actually holy, righteous, and good. He uh Paul actually even says this in verse 12. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. It's sin that is evil. And this is kind of I've I've heard people kind of use this argument where people are like, well, if God's so holy and good, why did he create sin? And that's the wrong question to ask because I'll say it like this sin is the result of the absence of God. It's the same thing with like the uh the light and darkness argument. The only way to create darkness is actually to take away the light. You can't just create darkness. Darkness within itself actually doesn't exist, it's just the absence of light. To make something more dark, you take more light out. Same thing with like the heat and cold. To make something cold, you take away the heat. You can't just create cold. It's you're it's cold is the absence of heat. And so I kind of use that that uh that same analogy with the whole sin thing, where obviously God did not create sin. Sin is just the result of the absence of God of people not following, of people not following God, and it's the absence of Him in their life. And that's what I think Paul is kind of talking about in verse 13 here. He says, Did that which is good then bring death to me? And he says again that by no means. It was sin producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. And then Paul kind of goes on and explaining like this spiritual warfare between the flesh and the spirit. A good book to to go to for the whole spiritual warfare thing is the book of Ephesians. Um, but here Paul is talking, you know, he's he's saying Paul is saying that he he does the things that he does not want to do, and he's talking about the flesh and contrary to that, the the spirit that is in accordance with God. So he's talking about this the this like spiritual warfare thing that is waging in waging war in his mind between the flesh and the spirit. And that kind of gives us a segue into chapter eight here, and chapter eight is titled Life in the Spirit. So he opens it up and he says, There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. And he goes on to say that for God has done what the law could not do. And he explains what he means, and he's he explains by by sending his son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, he condemns sin in the flesh. That's why it's so important to understand that God himself comes down in human form, takes on our sins upon himself, and and kills it when Jesus was crucified on the cross. This could go all the way back to uh the beginning of the Garden of Eden, when God creates humanity, right? He creates Adam and Eve. And when we're bringing into the whole image of God thing, when Adam and Eve sinned, they had tainted the image of God. I'm I'm on the side where I don't believe that the image of God was completely destroyed, but it was definitely very heavily tainted. Uh, probably to the point where it's like not even recognizable. If we're discussing uh theology, I'm kind of more on on that side of it, whether than some people will say that the image of God was completely destroyed. I don't want to go down that whole thing. I can do another episode on that if you guys would like about explaining the whole image of God. But most importantly, the thing that I want to make my point in this episode is that Paul, what what Paul is saying is that by Jesus coming down in the likeness of sinful and flesh, he condemns sin in the flesh, right? So the whole point is that the image of God was tainted or destroyed, whatever word that you want to use. Christ comes in human form in the image of God to restore what was destroyed prior, all the way back in the Garden of Eden. And of course, fulfilling all of the Old Testament. Another really important thing that I want to mention here when Paul is talking about how there's no condemnation for those who in Christ Jesus and the Spirit of Life has set you free, and you know, in Christ Jesus from the law and sin and death and everything, what Paul is not saying is that there's no such thing as sin anymore for Christians. Okay, that's what Paul is not saying. And we know that's not what he's saying because if you continue to read down further, this is why it's so important to read scripture in context and not just do verse plucking. Because if someone wanted to say, Oh, yeah, there's there's no such thing as sin anymore for Christians, and they pull up Romans chapter 8, verses 1 and 2, and they'll say, See, there's no there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law and sin and death. And they'll say, See, there's no must there's no such thing as sin anymore for Christians. But if you continue on reading, um let's see, he says, by sending a son like this, verse four here, in order that righteous in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit. And then verse six, for to set the mind on the on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace. All right, so let's break this down a little bit. So obviously, Paul is not saying that there's no such thing as sin anymore. He goes on to explain himself, just like what we read, that if you set your mind on the flesh, it's death. If you set your mind on the spirit, it is life. And then if we go to the book of Galatians, um, this is a really good one to go to because he lists out literally what is the works of the flesh and what's the works of the spirit, and how we will know. So if someone's asking, like, well, how do I know if I'm walking in the flesh, or how do I know if I'm walking in the spirit? Galatians chapter 5. So Paul's uh verse one, he says, For freedom Christ has said is free, stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery, right? So it sounds very familiar to Romans what what he was talking about. Um but if we go to uh Galatians five, verse sixteen, he says, But I say walk by the spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the div for the desires of the flesh are against the spirit, and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh. For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do, but if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law. Okay, now keep in mind, when he's writing Galatians, this is to the churches of Galatia. He says that in chapter one. So we know that these are to the churches that are in Galatia. If you went through my Acts series, I went through all the different towns and countries that Paul went went to. So if sin was no longer a thing for Christians, he wouldn't he wouldn't write this in here. And so verse 19, he just says it how it is. So he says, now the works of the flesh are evident, and he lists out all these sins. He says, sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalies, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. So obviously he doesn't list out every single sin, but he lifts out or he lists out these big like uh umbrella terms that other sins can fit into, and then he ends it with, and things like these. And he says, I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Okay, again, the book of Galatians is written to Christians. This is to a church. And verse 22, there's a contrast. He says, But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, and such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. That last part of being crucified with its uh being crucified with Christ with its passions and desires, obviously for me, it echoes uh all the way back here to Romans chapter six about the whole baptism thing. This is why I believe that baptism is so much more than just a public declaration of your faith. I don't know where along in church history where that came to be a thing, but I know many churches that will say that baptism is just like a public declaration of your faith. Um, I don't know. You guys read Romans chapter six and you tell me what you think. Um, but Romans 6, 3, he says, Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Killing that that old sinful desire and being resurrected up in into the new life. And then just looking at the context and the structure of Romans right after he's talking about baptism being cru like being buried with Christ in a death like that, and then opening up in chapter 7, being released from the law, and uses that whole marriage thing as an example. It's obviously way more than just a public declaration of your faith. So going back to the whole sin thing, we even have another verse in 1 John 1 9, he even says, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So sin is still a thing for Christians. Just because you're a Christian, that doesn't mean that you cannot sin. But what the good news is, is that if you are a Christian and you have fallen in to sin, Jesus is always faithful and just to forgive us of our sin and cleanse us from all of our transgressions and all of that. That is the good news. However, if you're not under Christ, then you're gonna be held accountable to the law itself. And that's a scary thing because we know that nobody has walked perfect in their entire life. Besides Jesus, of course, like you know, like like I said. And when I say Christian, I mean someone who truly uh submits to Christ and follows him. I'm not talking about just someone who calls themselves a Christian and goes to church on Sunday and that's it. Going to church on Sunday does not make you a Christian. I'm I'm convinced that there are a lot of a lot of seats filled in church that are not necessarily Christian. Now, I'm I'm obviously I'm a big believer in the importance of church. Um, I actually look at um according to the New Testament that the church obviously is the body of Christ that comes from the word ecclesia that Paul brings from the Septuagint, all that. Um, and my argument is that if you do not attend church, then you are not part of the body of Christ, and if you're not part of the body of Christ, then what body do you belong to? So I'm not saying that church isn't important, church is very important. I'll actually say that church is necessary, you cannot walk the Christian life by yourself, it's a team sport. Um, however, what I am saying is that just going to church and doing that to try and like mark it off your list for the week on Sundays or whatever day that you go to church, that does not make you a Christian. Church is just obviously an important factor that's played into the Christian lifestyle, because, like I said, the church is the body of Christ. And so when people want to make this argument that, oh yeah, I'm a Christian, but it's not necessary for me to go to church, that that argument makes zero sense to me because the church is the body of Christ. And if if you do not attend church, you are actually doing a disservice to the body of Christ because you have gifts inside of you that God has given you that the body of Christ needs. I don't believe that there is one person who has every single gift of the Spirit in them. That's why we lean on the body of Christ because other people have different gifts and talents that we don't necessarily have. Right? An example of this is in uh 1 Corinthians, Paul's talking about the whole body of Christ and the different gifts. You know, not everyone's called to be a pastor, not everyone's called to be a street evangelist, or not everyone's called to be on the worship team or whatever. The point that I'm trying to make is that those people who want to say that they're Christian and never attend church or actually only want to do church online, which actually church online, that's that's not a thing. Watching church online is not the same as attending church physically and being part of the body of Christ. It's saying I mean, I would say the same thing about this podcast. If the only thing that you're doing is listening to a Christian podcast, that's not church. It's nice to be able to use these things to spread the gospel or the message more and just you know share it out in places where we wouldn't necessarily necessarily be able to go. Um, and I'm not saying that watching online church is bad, or obviously listening to a Christian podcast, but if that's the only thing that you're doing and you're replacing that with actually attending church or attending the body of Christ, then that's a problem because at that point you're just on the sidelines and you're not part of the Christian team. All right, sorry, got a little off track there. Um, Romans chapter 8, verse 7. Um, after all that, you know, talking about the difference in the flesh and the spirit, he says, for the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law, indeed it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Reading that, that should echo the whole thing where we worship God in spirit and truth, and that without faith it's actually impossible to please God. So those who are non-believers who do not believe in Christ and who are constantly walking according to the flesh cannot please God. I think Paul makes it pretty self-explanatory there. But then he goes on, verse nine, he says, You, however, are not in the flesh, but are in the spirit. And he says, In fact, the spirit of God dwells in you. This sounds a lot like first Corinthians, right? When Paul's talking about how um your body is now the temple of God. It's the temple of God because the Holy Spirit actually dwells within you, those who are Christian, and that's why there's no need for a temple today. And Christ being crucified, that's obviously why we don't have the entire sacrificial system anymore. Again, Romans chapter 7. Why? Because we are released from that law, because we have died to it, and Christ has resurrected us into a new life under a new law, which where the spirit of God actually dwells within us. And he says that anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him. Paul mentions in the book of Ephesians, uh, where the Holy Spirit is our seal to our inheritance. Sorry that I'm jumping around different books a lot in this episode, but it's just it's so important to see how everything is connecting. And Paul mentions these other things and these other letters. Um, but yeah, he says, anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him, but those who do have the Holy Spirit, even though that your your body is dead to sin, the spirit is what brings life within you. This is why Paul talks about walking, like walking in the spirit. Um, in Galatians, what I read earlier, he talks about how if you walk by the spirit, you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. And again, this whole spiritual warfare thing that's waging war in your mind, that you have this tug and pull between wanting to walk according to the flesh of your like your sinful desire, and then you have this tug to walk according to the spirit of like honoring God and listening to the Holy Spirit who is within you. And I think it's really interesting in verse 14 of chapter 8 in Romans, he says, For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. And so that kind of reading that that should convict you to walk in the ways of God, and it just proves that this whole thing of that you just saying that you're a Christian, but your life doesn't reflect it, you're not actually a child of God. According to verse 14, it is for those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. And then he goes on to say that you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, Abba Father. So by what Jesus has done on the cross, and those who put their faith in him have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and you are adopted into Christ's kingdom. And then I love the way how he ends chapter eight, where it's like this this future glory thing where Paul uh what he's saying, what he's essentially saying is that the sufferings that we deal with in this lifetime are not even worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed to us, of how great it is going to be in heaven, where everything is back to this created order of how it was supposed to be from the beginning of in the Garden of Eden. And he even talks about how creation itself is longing for this this revealing and this redemption that um, and this is actually, I mean, you uh can see how sin right here theologically doesn't just affect the person who is committing the sin. It actually affects everything around you, it actually affects creation itself. Again, going all the way back to the Garden of Eden, we see this when God curses the ground, there's the thorns and the thistles, animals start killing each other and everything. Well, that was not God's intended creation from the very beginning. It's sin that has tainted and destroyed certain things. And I think that's an important thing to remember is that sin does not just affect you, it affects people around you. But the good news is that we have this glory that is waiting for us, those who um accept Christ as their Lord and Savior, and that creation itself will be set free from its bondage, and we will have the redemption of our bodies. Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians how we're uh going to be given like a heavenly body. It's not like our physical body that we have here now. But, anyways, the whole point is that Paul's saying this this future glory that we await, um, it's not even comparable even to the to the uh the sufferings that we struggle here on earth. Um, and then the last part of chapter eight, um, he's mentioning God's everlasting love. And this is this is a really popular verse that people probably know, but he says, For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. And it's just a good reminder that those who are Christian who are really trying to strive and honor God, you slip up and sin. Jesus is faithful to forgive to you to Jesus is faithful to forgive you of your sins. That doesn't separate you from the love of God because God's love is way, way greater than our sin. Um, that's actually the the last episode on Romans that I was talking about, how you can't you can't out sin God. There's no there's no outsinning God that it's too much for him to forgive you for. But we do have a commandment to walk by the Spirit and not to gratify the desires of the flesh.

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Thanks for listening to another episode of Practical Discipleship. Follow, subscribe, and make sure you tune in next week.