What does not being "under the Law" mean?

Q: Does not being "under the Law" mean, as some Christians think,

that we don't have to keep the Law of God anymore?

A: No.----below is an explanation of what "under the Law" actually means, as Mr. Waggoner succinctly simplifies the debate.

Also, those Christians who misunderstand / misapply "under the Law" should read the Apostle Peter's Warning on the writings of Paul:

....even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; 

As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; 

in which are some things hard to be understood, 

which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, 

as they do also the other scriptures, 

unto their own destruction. 

Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked... 2 Peter 3:15-17


"The seventh chapter of Romans may be said to be Rom. 6:14 expanded. It is a masterly argument for the holiness and perpetuity of the law, and is all the stronger because the nature or the perpetuity of the law is not the subject under discussion......from Rom. 6:14; Gal. 5:18-23; 4:4, 5; and 4:21-31, that “under the law”

indicates a condition of condemnation on account of sin; and that persons are freed from the law, or redeemed from under the law, only through faith in Christ, by which they are thenceforth enabled to comply with its just demands. In this chapter the apostle carries out the figure of life and death, introduced in the sixth chapter, representing the one still under the condemnation of the law as alive, and the justified one has been dead. The relations of the man to his sins, to the law, and to Christ, are first indicated by an illustration, which we quote:—

“Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law), how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? For the woman which hath a husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.” Rom. 7:1-3.

In this illustration we have four terms, namely, a woman, her first husband, her second husband, and the law. 

The law says, “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” and thus defines marriage as the union of one woman and one man. Such a union the law sanctions. 

Not only does the law sanction such a union, 

but it binds the parties during life. 

While her husband lives, the law binds the woman to him; but when the husband dies, then of course the union is at an end. Now, says the apostle, she may be married to another man, and she will be no adulteress, because she is freed from the law that bound her to her first husband. 

Q: How was she freed from that law? 

A: By the death of her husband, which rendered further union impossible. 

Q: But did the law itself change in any particular? 

A: Not in the least: It performs the same office that it did before. 

---The law binds the woman to the second husband just the same as it did to the first; and if while her second husband lives she should be married to a third, the law will condemn her as an adulterous just the same as it would if she had married her second husband while the first husband was living. 

---Thus, we see that the law is the one thing that remains unchanged. Now read the application:—

“Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that

ye should be married to another, even to Him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. 

For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. 

But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead [or, “being dead to that”] wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.” Rom. 7:4-6.

Here, as in the illustration, we have four parties, namely, the man, his sins, Christ, and the law. 

In the first place, the man is united to his sins. That is when he is “in the flesh,” under the law (Gal. 5:17, 18), and unable to please God. Rom. 8:7. 

Here is a union in which the law holds him fast. “For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit and unto death.” 

The apostle says that the sins were “by the law.” This is the same as “where no law is there is no transgression.” 

---If no law existed, there could be no such thing as sin, and therefore Paul says that the motions of sin were by the law. “

The strength of sin is the law.” Now we say that the law holds the man fast in this union with sin. That does not mean that the law delights to have the man a sinner; nothing of the kind. 

The law has no choice in the matter. 

By his own voluntary action the man has transgressed the law and thereby become a sinner, and now the law can do nothing else than declare him to be such. 

If the man, through fear of the consequences of his sins, or for any other reason, wishes to escape from this union, he cannot. The law still reiterates, “You are a sinner.” If the law could die, or could be made void, then the man at it once would be free; but that cannot be.

*There is, however, a way by which the man may be freed from the galling bondage to sin, if he feels it to be a galling bondage, and that is through faith in the death and resurrection of Christ. He may be “justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed, to the forbearance of God.” Rom. 3:24, 25. 

When “the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ,” has been imputed to the man, the law no longer calls him a sinner. He is justified, freed from the body of sin.

But this freedom from sin, and consequent deliverance from the condemnation of the law, has been accomplished only through Christ. “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things have become new. And all things are of God.” 2 Cor. 5:17, 18. Now the man is united to Christ, and by the same law which before held him to be a sinner.

“The wages of sin is death.” Rom. 6:23. The law demands the death of every sinner. But “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16. For Christ “bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sin, should live unto righteousness.” 1 Peter 2:24. 

By baptism we show our belief in the death and resurrection of Christ, and our acceptance of Him as a propitiation for our sins. Indeed, by baptism we are joined to Christ: “As many of you as have been baptized in the Christ hath put on Christ.” Gal. 3:27. But we are baptized into Christ, by being “baptized into His death.” “We are buried with Him by baptism into death.” 

And thus it is that we receive the penalty of the law; not in person, but in figure. Christ has suffered for sin; and if we are “in Him,” we also are accounted as having received the penalty. And since it is by baptism that we become united to Him, we become dead to the law and united to Christ at the same time.

“Dead to the law.” 

Q: What does the apostle mean by that expression? 

A: Simply that we have (in Christ) received the penalty of the law, and that it now regards us as dead.

“For I was alive without the law once; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.” Verse 9.

The first clause of this verse presents to us a picture of carnal security. It is the confidence of the man who is insensible to danger. “Without the law” means that the law had not been driven by the Spirit into his heart. Many a man who has read the ten commandments scores of times, has never felt them searching his heart. Therefore his way is right in his own eyes, and he feels secure.

"For sin taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and

by it slew me.” Rom. 7:11. Sin is deceitful; it arrays itself in a pleasing garb so that to the unsuspecting one it appears to be good. But underneath its pleasing exterior it carries a weapon that wounds to the death all who come in contact with it.

Notwithstanding all that the law had revealed to Paul, he could say, “Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.” Verse 12. He would uphold the dignity of the law, and shield it from all blame for his present deplorable condition.

“Sold under sin.” This idea is carried out in many places. Peter says that the sinner is “in bondage.” 2 Peter 2:19. 

Paul says that he is in bondage “to the weak and beggarly elements of the world.” Gal. 4:3, 9. He is a slave to sin. Rom. 6:16, 17. 

“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh; that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Rom. 8:1-4.

Verse 2 is a parallel to Rom. 3:21, 22. The righteousness of Christ being imputed to the sinner, frees him from sin and the fear of death. For a long time he may have tried to make himself righteous, but he found his best deeds so far below what the law requires that they alone would have been sufficient to ruin him. 

Even if he could have fulfilled the requirements of the law, that would not have removed past transgression. 

What the law cannot do is to make a sinner righteous. 

This is not on account of any defect of the law, 

but is solely owing to the weakness of the flesh. 

The law points out the disease and shows what a condition of health would be; then the man begins an ineffectual struggle to reach that high condition; the law goads him on until he finds that he has not power to accomplish his desire; and when he has lost all confidence in himself, he accepts Christ as the only source of help, and at once becomes free. 

Thus the law drives the sinner to Christ that Christ may free him from his past sins and enable him to keep the law." 

E.J. Waggoner