Free from the Law of Sin and Death

Just as Jos. 1:8 speaks of the Book of the Law and Ps 1:2 speaks of the law of the Lord, Romans 8:2 speaks of law--the law of sin and death. The law of sin is illustrated in Ro 6:16, "Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness."

Sin is characterized as a slave master and the person in sin is in bondage to this master. Sin causes a barrier between man and God. Isaiah 59:2, "But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear." Ultimately, sin leads to death (Ro 6:23), including eternal separation from a good and righteous God.

While Ro 8:2 speaks of this law of sin and death, it also speaks of another law--the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. The writer of Romans found life in Jesus. Ro 8:2, "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." The slave master, sin and death, does not hold Jesus in his grips (Jesus did resurrect from the dead.) Neither does this slave master hold in his grips those that belong to Jesus.

The freedom of which this passage speaks is the same freedom seen in John 8:36; it is freedom from a life of sin followed by eternal death. This freedom gives life where there was previously death and righteousness where there was previously sin. For all these things, Brethren, ought not we to rejoice day and night!