Freed from the Law to Bear Fruit for God

Summary

God’s law reveals His perfect standards but provides no power to meet them, leaving us condemned. Through union with Christ’s death and resurrection, believers die to sin and the law and are released to live under grace. This freedom enables fruitful lives marked by Christlike character, good works, generosity, praise, and leading others to faith. True service flows from the Spirit’s power, not legalistic rule-keeping.

The Law’s Demands and Our Inability

Imagine a husband who mercilessly demands that his wife keep the house spotlessly clean. There is no help.

There is no allowance for sickness or failure, no praise or approval. The marriage is until death do them part.

Similarly, God’s law reveals His perfect standards. It provides no means to meet them. Like a mirror, God’s law shows us our dirty faces. It cannot clean them.

It condemns us because we cannot achieve its demanding standards. It requires absolute obedience. Only Jesus meets the standard.

According to Jewish law in Paul’s day, a wife could not divorce her husband for any reason. Divorce was the husband’s sole right.

Only his death freed her to marry someone else. In Paul’s illustration, believers are the wife. The law is the husband.

Dying to the Law Through Christ

Paul twists the application. From his illustration, we would expect the law, the authority, must die. Instead, in Romans 6:3-4, Paul tells us we died by being united to Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection.

Dead people are free from sin (Romans 6:7) and the Law of Moses (Romans 7:3). Romans 6:14 (NIV) connects them: “For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.”

Death to sin and the law prepares us to bring forth fruit for God. Many Christians define their spiritual lives by what they do not do. Not smoking, drinking, etc., are not bad decisions. But the law still has authority over them.

Freed from the Law to Bear Fruit for God

They are not free to serve and love Jesus, who died to set them free. We are freed from the law to bear fruit for God through death to sin and the law.

 

What Spiritual Fruit Looks Like

What kind of fruit does God expect? Fruit in the New Testament encompasses at least six areas of the Christian life, including:

1.     Those we lead to faith in Christ (1 Corinthians 16:15).

2.     The Christlike character traits the Holy Spirit produces in us (Galatians 5:22-23).

3.     Understanding the things of God (1 Corinthians 14:14)

4.     Every good work (Colossians 1:10).

5.     Financial investment in God’s work (Philippians 4:17).

6.     Praise to God (Hebrews 13:15).

Serving in the New Way of the Spirit

“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” (Romans 7:6, NIV).

The new way of the Spirit consists of a new life, motivation, and power. Experiencing them results in sharing our faith, behaving, knowing, working, giving, and praising progressively more like Jesus. See additional free spiritual growth resources for Christians.

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God has empowered me to write His Power for Your Weakness—260 Steps Toward Spiritual Strength. It’s a free, evangelistic, devotional, and discipleship e-book. Pastors have used it in Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia to lead 7,590 people to Christ and teach the basics of Christianity to 17,681 people. I invite you to explore and use it in your setting.  

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