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.
Romans 7:4
Jesus, in His death and resurrection, changed forever how we relate to God's Law. We now belong to Him Who perfectly fulfilled the Law's demands, and through His sacrifice eliminated the condemnation of the Law that demanded our sacrifices for sin. In His resurrection we have new life so that we can have a life in Him that bears fruit pleasing to God. It isn't about my efforts to please God by keeping the Law. Now it is about having died to those demands in Jesus so that I can live in obedience to the Lord by His saving grace.
And the relationship with Christ is about much more than sheer duty to obey. I would fail at that. Paul says instead that we "belong... to him who has been raised from the dead". To belong to Jesus is linked to the marriage analogy Paul has been employing in Romans 7:2-3. When we come by faith to Jesus, the relationship is binding two hearts together like a marriage. We belong to Jesus in this new sense of being joined to Him. We are His, and no longer do our sins condemn us under the Law. We now know a new love perpetuated by repentance, receiving forgiveness, trusting Christ's work for us, and finding in His grace and mercy the capacity to obey and live in holiness through the Spirit's enabling. Jesus saves us and provides the means for us to truly bear good, holy, righteous fruit for God.
Lord Jesus,
Thank You, my loving Lord, for freeing me from the Law's demands so that through Your saving work and the regeneration of the Holy Spirit I may know a life pleasing to God. I am Yours. I am not my own for I was bought with the price of Your life's blood. And I belong to You. You love me. You saved me. You call me to know and follow You. And so I want to live as Yours so that good fruit might be shown in my life.
Amen
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