By – Torah Background 7: 1-6

Torah Background
7: 1-6

Torah background DIG: After “death and life” and “slavery and freedom” what new image is used here? Which of these three analogies helps you to best understand your relationship with Messiah? What did the Torah produce in those who tried to obey all of its 613 mitzvot? Is it the Torah’s fault that we sin? Why? Why not? How has Yeshua changed all of this?

REFLECT: Do you feel more “married” to the living Messiah or some religious code or rules and regulations? How have you experienced the difference? In your life’s vineyard, what would your “fruit for God” look like? How will you use your spiritual gift this week? Who is the living Torah? Who can you share your faith in Yeshua Messiah with this week?

Because the Jews have been made dead with regard to the Torah, they are now free to be united with the one who has been raised from the dead, namely Yeshua Messiah.

The axiom (7:1): Surely you know, brothers (fellow Jews) – for I am speaking to those who understand the law (Greek: nomos, meaning law as a general principle) – that the law has authority over a person only so long as he lives (7:1)? The main point here is the law, any law, whether it be Roman law, Greek law, or the God-given Torah has authority over a person only so long as he lives (7:1). If a criminal dies, he is no longer subject to prosecution and punishment, no matter how numerous and heinous his crimes may have been. Lee Harvey Oswald, the infamous assassin of President John F. Kennedy, was never brought to trial for that act because he himself was assassinated before his trial began. The law (Greek: nomos) is binding only on the living.¹⁷³

These verses actually continue the discussion Paul began in 6:15, answering the question: What conclusion should we reach? “Let’s go on sinning, because we’re not under legalism but under grace” (6:15a)? There, he used the analogy of a master and a slave to explain how the believer should yield himself to YHVH. In this passage, he uses the marriage covenant as an appropriate analogy to show that the Jews have a new relationship to the Torah because of their union with Yeshua Messiah.

The analogy (7:2-3): The analogy is a simple one, but it has a profound application. For example, a married woman is bound (Greek: hupandros, in the perfect tense, meaning is permanently bound, with no release) by Torah to her husband while he is alive; but if the husband dies, she is released from the part of the Torah that deals with husbands (7:2). When a man and a woman marry, they are united for life. Marriage is a physical union (Genesis 2:24), and can only be broken by a physical cause – death. Therefore, while the husband is alive, she will be called an adulteress if she marries another man; but if the husband dies, she is free from that part of the Torah; so that if she marries another man, she is not an adulteress (7:2-3). As long as they live, the husband and the wife are under the authority of the law of marriage. If the woman leaves her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery. But if her husband dies, she is free to remarry because she is no longer a wife. Death has broken the marriage covenant and she is set free.¹⁷⁴

The application (7:4-5): Thus, you are either married to the Torah . . . or you are married to Messiah. My brothers, you have been made dead with regard to the Torah (7:4a). It is not the Torah that has been made dead, nor is a believer made dead in the sense of no longer responding to its truth. Rather, three aspects of Torah are explored:

First, the capacity of the Torah to make us sin is not the fault of the Torah but a fault in ourselves. A healthy person thrives in an environment deadly to someone who is ill; likewise, the Torah, beneficial to the believer living by faith, is an instrument of death to those controlled by the [sin nature]. The fault is in ourselves in that we have a sinful tendency (to see link click Bm – The Consequences of Adam) to pervert Torah, making it into a framework of legalism instead of what it is, a framework of grace. For your [sin nature] will not have authority over you; because you are not under legalism but under grace (6:14).

Secondly, Torah can still produce feelings of guilt in the believer – as it should whenever he reflects on his sinful behavior. But these feelings are not permanent. The remedy is the confession and repentance of sin (First John 1:9 to 2:2), coupled with the restitution to any injured parties and reliance on the power of the Ruach Ha’Kodesh (see Cf – The Victory in the Ruach Ha’Kodesh).

Thirdly, it is through the Messiah’s body, through His atoning death (see Ba – The Picture of Justification), the believers have been made dead to the penalties set forth in the Torah for disobeying it. The Messiah redeemed us from the curse pronounced in the Torah by becoming cursed on our behalf (Galatians 3:13a).

Paul’s analogy switches directions several times in this verse. It is through the Messiah’s body, through His atoning death, that believers have been made dead to the aspects of the Torah on which Paul is concentrating. Because a death has taken place, they are now free to belong to someone else. That is, using Paul’s analogy, they are no longer “married” to legalism, but free to marry and be united with the one who has been raised from the dead, namely Yeshua Messiah, in order for us to bear fruit for God as evidenced by a transformed life (7:4).¹⁷⁵

We know that Paul is not denigrating Torah itself, because, even in this chapter, he talks about its importance. The Torah doesn’t die, but the relationship to the Torah changes. In a marriage, when one spouse dies, there is no more covenant between them. Messianic Jews have a different relationship with the Torah than Orthodox, Reformed, or Conservative Jews have. To them, Torah is the main relationship through observance. But Rabbi Sha’ul is saying that there is a higher principle here. The Torah is meant to lead us to Messiah. Because this is just an analogy, you can’t press the details here. The Torah isn’t dead to Jewish believers, but the relationship to Messiah should be their main focus. He is the living Torah.¹⁷⁶

The Torah is the Word of God, it is perfect and eternal. The question Paul addresses here is how do Jews approach the Torah? What is the Jewish relationship to the Torah? Before Messiah came, the Jews had a relationship with Torah based on the 613 mitzvot and obedience to them. Not for salvation, but as a blueprint for living. Messianic Jews still revere the Torah (Psalm 1:1-3), but they see the Torah through the lens of Yeshua (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Dg – The Completion of the Torah).¹⁷⁷

For when we were living according to our old [sin nature], the passions connected with sins worked through the Torah in our various parts, with the result that we bore fruit for death (7:5). However, Paul says: If anyone is united with Messiah, there is a new creation (Second Corinthians 5:17); that is, he has a second, new, divine nature controlled by the Ruach Ha’Kodesh. The old [sin nature] had died with Yeshua (6:5); and by the power of the Ruach it will stay dead – we owe nothing to it, that we should obey its corrupted and misguided passions (8:1-13). Instead, as a result of our being united with Yeshua, we owe YHVH obedience to His desires and mitzvot.

The affirmation (7:6): Because Yeshua paid the penalty for our disobedience to the Torah, death, we have been released from this aspect of the Torah, namely, obedience to our old [sin nature]. We have died to that which had us in its clutches, so that we are serving in the new way provided by the Spirit, who has written the Torah on our hearts (see the commentary on Jeremiah Eo – The Days are Coming, declares the LORD, When I Will Make a New Covenant with the People of Isra’el), and not in the old way of outwardly following the letter of the law, or legalism, which brings death (7:6).¹⁷⁸

Dear Heavenly Father, Praise You so very much for the relationship that You offer all who love You. It is amazing that You not only pay our sin debt but You offer Your love to all who are willing to love You back. Praise You that You do not just give a certificate of debt paid to those who love and follow You; but You give Yourself as a part of a living and eternal relationship. Yeshua answered and said to him: If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our dwelling with him (John 14:23). 

Just as a new bride and groom love each other with a fresh love that sparkles in delight at pleasing their new found love – so I delight to please You by obeying You from my heart. He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me. He who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and reveal Myself to him (John 14:21). I look forward to worshipping and praising You throughout all eternity. In Yeshua’s holy name and power of His resurrection. Amen