Devotion #1: Context

Context is everything! It is one of the fundamental aspects of studying Scripture. Without proper context, we can take a verse or a passage of verses to say whatever we want. It can cause the Word of God to appear to say very damaging ideas and things that were never intended to be affiliated with the Word of God. The misuse of context can be construed by others as the truth of God’s Word, though it is a lie.  

This is why careful scriptural study must be a part of the believer’s life. It is not just a pastoral responsibility; it is the responsibility of every follower of Jesus. As we navigate Paul’s outstanding wisdom and understanding of doctrinal issues, please know that context can never, and I mean never, be forgotten or removed from the passages we study. All through Paul’s life, as well as long after his life, people have taken his words, twisted them, and manipulated them to say things they were never meant to say.  

As we start Romans chapter 7, I hesitate to say Paul is starting a new thought, though it may seem as such because he uses a new analogy. It must be read in context to the previous chapter as well as the entire book as a whole. If you are just picking up our devotion for the first time, this may be a little hard to comprehend without the previous context. Paul uses a universally understood illustration for his analogy: marriage.  

Before we dive into the meaning of Paul’s marriage analogy, it might be helpful to recap and highlight a few of the main points from Romans chapter 6.  

First, what “enslaves” us before we accept Christ? According to Romans 6:6-23, we are enslaved to sin.  

Second, what must “die” for us to be set free from the sin that enslaves us? This is answered in multiple places throughout chapter 6, but maybe most directly in 6:6-7, where Paul states that we must die spiritually to sin (just as Christ died physically) to be set free from sin’s captivity over us.  

With those two points in mind, let us now read Paul’s marriage analogy in Romans chapter 7. Romans 7:1–3 says, “Or do you not know, brothers - for I am speaking to those who know the law - that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.” 

This analogy perfectly illustrates how our old self, the flesh, was bound to sin. However, that bond was only active as long as our old self remained alive with its fleshly desires. Death had dominion over us (as Paul stated in Romans 6:9,14), but now we have died to that which held us captive (sin). Paul is simply conveying the exact same points he made earlier in chapter 6.  

You may be wondering why Paul uses the word “law” in Romans 7:3 rather than the word “sin,” as he did previously in chapter 6. Are we free from the Law of God when we accept Christ and die to our old self? Well, it is important to understand that the Law has many purposes, and one of these purposes is to show us our transgression in context to an unregenerate heart (which is why Paul uses the phrase “the law of sin and death” later in Romans 8:2). At the beginning of chapter seven, Paul shows us through the illustration of the married woman that we have been released from that specific purpose of the Law. We are released from the law of sin (depicted metaphorically as the “law of marriage” in verse two), which means that the law no longer produces in us an increase in trespass. Thank God! Now, we can serve Christ, free from the captivity of sin that once enslaved us.