Or are you ignorant, brethren—for I speak to those knowing the law—that the law lords over the man for as long as he lives? Romans 7:1
Moses wrote that “the man who does those things shall live by them” (Romans 10:5), literally meaning that if a man breaks the law, his failure to do the things of the law brings physical death. Although some grace believers came out from under law, most believers today have never lived under it. The Gentiles were never given the law, and the Jews today do not live according to the Mosaic law. Yet we can see, both from history and from Scripture, that one who lived under the law was bound to it in the same manner that a woman is bound by the law of marriage (Romans 7:2). However, when her husband dies, the wife is no longer bound by that law and is free to marry another.
The Mosaic law was given to expose our sin nature, fully revealing the kind of character our fallen nature possesses. A grace believer is not under law and is thereby freed from its bondage because Christ’s death has been imputed to him, rendering the sin nature ineffective and no longer lord over his life. However, if he attempts to live by law, the sin nature is revived, and he dies to his ability to live out the salvation he has in Christ.
Therefore, since we have died to the sin nature and are no longer bound to obey it, let us not seek to use the Mosaic law to govern our lives. Rather, let us properly use the freedom we have in Christ to live out His righteousness apart from law.