The New Way

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. (Romans 7)

Having dealt with the limitations of the Law to save and bring righteousness, Paul now goes on to illustrate their relationship to it by comparing them to a widow. Just as a widow is free to remarry, believers in Christ are no longer restricted to Law, but now free in Christ, as His bride, to live by grace. It's a whole new way of living, in which we have the Holy Spirit to Guide us from within, developing in us the character of God the Father and Son. This character is consistent with the Law, which was external to us, and far less powerful in being able to bring about righteous living. We now have Christ in us, the hope and power of the Glory of God. What a difference that makes. Live the new way.