Slices
Prepare
Think about your priorities as a Christian. Which of them matters most to you?
Bible passage
Released from the law, bound to Christ
7 Do you not know, brothers and sisters – for I am speaking to those who know the law – that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives? 2 For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her to him. 3 So then, if she has sexual relations with another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man.
4 So, my brothers and sisters, 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 for God. 5 For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. 6 But now, by dying to what once 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.
Explore
Do you or your church sometimes get bogged down in thinking about rules, rather than, for example, Christ’s mission in our world today? The Jewish believers in Rome had a similar problem. They were finding it difficult to let go of the old rule book (the law) on which all their living had been based. Not that the law wasn’t good (7:7), but in Jesus, things had changed.
The apostle Paul gives the example of the laws about marriage and adultery (vs 2,3) to illustrate what he means. Under the old law, once her husband had died, a woman was free to marry another (v 3). Now, in Christ, we have ‘died to the law’ (v 4), so we are set free from the burdens it brings. We joyfully receive God’s gift of eternal life (6:23). But there’s more…
Yes, we have been released from the anxiety of sin, death and punishment – but we have been set free for a purpose. In Christ, we are released from the law so that we can serve in the new way of the Spirit (v 6). Our priority as believers, as people who are alive in Christ, is not about rule-keeping, but it is about how we can ‘bear fruit for God’ as we live in this world (v 4).
Respond
How might you, in Christ, serve in the new way of the Spirit? Empowered by the Spirit, how might your life ‘bear fruit’ for him today?
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: 1 Chronicles 11–14; 2 Corinthians 12
Pray for Scripture Union
Pray for the Revealing Jesus conference (taking place tomorrow, Prayers Friday and Saturday), that will bring together SU staff, volunteers, Faith Guides and Mission Partners. Ask God to bless this special time and pray that many will be fired up, refreshed and better equipped to Reveal Jesus to the 95.
