Free from religious law1I speak to you as my brothers and as those who know the religious law. You are aware that the law only has authority over a person while he is alive. When he has died it is of absolutely no relevance to him.2For example, a woman remains married to her husband as long as he lives; but if he dies her marriage also ends according to the law. She is free to marry again, if she so desires, without being guilty of adultery.3Whereas if she were to enter into another relationship while her husband was alive then she would be an adulteress.4So, my brothers, understand that it was only possible for you to become a living member of Christ's body because you had died to the law first. You cannot be 'married' to both the law and Christ. It is clear that you live in Christ Jesus, He who was raised from the dead, so that now you might live a life that fulfils God's purpose for you, not simply obeying a set of religious laws. When you died with Christ you died to the religious law; now you are united with Him in His risen life.5In the past, when you were under the control of your flesh, your natural inclination was to sin and to break God's law. In fact, whatever the law says you are not to do aroused in you a perverse desire to do those very things. Consequently, you used your body in sinful ways that only led to spiritual death.6Yet the situation is now completely different. Because you have died with Christ, you are free from the sinful passions that once put you into bondage. You have been liberated from the very idea that you can please God by trying to obey a set of religious rules and regulations. You understand now that the only way you can serve God and please Him is by walking in the new way, led by the Holy Spirit. This is such a better way of life that it is pointless to return to your former way of trying to please God in ways that you failed to keep anyway!
Scripture quoted by permission. The passage above is taken from THE TRUTH VERSION. Copyright © 2009 by Colin Urquhart. All rights reserved worldwide. (The Truth New Testament)