Released to Relationship: Reimaging Our Connection to the Law

A Summary of the Katy Bible Sermon “But What About the Law?”, preached by Matt
Mancini on June 21st, 2026.

Romans 7 is often regarded as one of the most challenging chapters in the entire New Testament. Anyone who has spent time studying it knows it can feel like a theological labyrinth. Yet at its heart, this passage is not an attack on God’s Law—it is a defense of it. 

The central question Paul addresses is vital for every believer: If we are justified by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, then what exactly is the purpose of the Law? Is it worthless? Is it flawed? Is it somehow opposed to the Gospel?

Paul’s answer is both fascinating and profound. He suggests that the Law itself isn’t the problem. The problem was our relationship to the Law.

The Principle of Jurisdiction

Paul begins with a self-evident axiom: law only has jurisdiction over people while they are alive. To illustrate this, he uses the analogy of marriage. In a marriage, a woman is bound to her husband by law as long as he lives. But if he dies, the legal relationship fundamentally changes. She is no longer bound by that specific law and is free to be joined to another without guilt.

It is important not to overcomplicate the illustration. This isn't a hidden allegory where we try to figure out exactly who the "husband" or "wife" represents. Paul is not inviting us to assign a symbolic meaning to every detail. It is a simple legal principle: death changes your relationship to the law. 

Crucially, death doesn't render the law invalid or "bad." A widow who remarries is not violating the law; she is acting in accordance with it.

The Theological "Mic Drop"

In verse 4, Paul delivers what we might call a theological mic drop. “You also were made to die to the law through the body of Christ.” Notice what Paul doesn’t say. He does not say the Law failed. He does not say the Law was abolished.

Instead, he says that we died.

This is the drum Paul has been beating throughout Romans 6. When Christ died, the "old you"—the version of you that was a slave to sin and subject to the Law’s condemnation—died with Him. Because you have died, the Law’s jurisdiction over you as a "threat" or "condemner" has ended.

We have not escaped the Law through rebellion. Rather, God accomplished a lawful change in our status through the death of His Son.

The Goal: Union, Not Just Release

Why did God do this?

It wasn't just to give us a "get out of jail free" card. The goal of the Gospel isn’t merely release from condemnation; it is union with Christ.

Think of a wedding. A bride and groom don't stand at the altar celebrating their "freedom from singleness." If that's their only focus, the marriage is headed for disaster. No, they are celebrating their union with the person they love.

Similarly, we were released from the Law's jurisdiction specifically "so that you might be joined to another... in order that we might bear fruit for God."

We were not merely saved from something; we were saved to Someone. 

The "Before and After" Picture

Paul describes our "before" state as being "in the flesh"—which simply means being lost. In that state, the Law actually had a paradoxical effect: it aroused sinful passions.

In the sermon, the illustration was of an Oreo cake. If someone tells you, "Don't eat the Oreos off that cake," suddenly you're aware of the cake, and your desire to eat those Oreos is inflamed by the very command not to. 

The command isn't bad, but our rebellious hearts react to it. Under the Law, any obedience we produced was ultimately insufficient. It was driven by obligation, fear, and the threat of consequences rather than by genuine love for God.

Serving in Newness of Spirit

Two words change everything:

"But now…" 

Because of Christ, everything has changed. Paul writes we now serve in the "newness of the Spirit" and not the "oldness of the letter."

Imagine a husband who has a list of things his wife likes and dislikes. If he follows that list because he’s afraid she will leave him if he fails, he has no joy, and his wife takes no pleasure in his "obedience" because it's done out of compulsion.

His actions may be technically correct, but they are driven by fear rather than love.

But if that same husband knows he is secure in his wife’s love and covenant faithfulness, the list changes. He knows he is loved and accepted. The list no longer feels like a burden. Instead, it becomes a guide that helps him bring joy to the one he loves.

This illustrates the believer's relationship to God's Law. The Law is no longer our enemy, our prosecutor, or our source of condemnation. It is a partner and a map that shows us how to please the One to Whom we are now eternally joined. The Gospel does not eliminate obedience; it transforms the motive behind it. We obey not to earn God's love, but because we have already received it in Christ.

As the old poem says:

“Run, man, run, the law commands,

But gives me neither feet nor hands;

Far better news the Gospel brings;

It bids me fly and gives me wings.”