We no longer are slaves to a legal set of values and rules in order to gain favor with God,

but we now serve God out of love because He's granted us salvation. We're free, free to serve God,

not free to serve ourselves. We did that before. We aren't legalists serving the letter,

but in the NUNIS of Spirit we serve Christ.

Welcome to Grace to you with John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson. When you think about

dying, it's human nature to have a couple of selfish wishes. One, that death won't come too early

in life, and two, that when you do die, it will be peaceful, easy, happening in your sleep perhaps.

So it may surprise you to learn that if you are in Christ, you have already experienced one

very important kind of death. John MacArthur explains today as we continue freedom from sin,

our study, with a message titled, Dead to the Law. Turn to the book of Romans and follow along as

John begins the lesson. 23 times in Romans chapter 7, there's a reference to the law.

It is the theme of this chapter. Now the law of God is a glorious thing, and we need to establish

that because this chapter says so much about being dead to the law, that we need to understand in

order to balance that off, that the law of God is indeed a glorious thing. In spite of the fact that

we have been set free from it. Now let's take the first section of chapter 7 and look at it.

I want to give you four points. The axiom, the analogy, the application, and the affirmation.

Here we go. The axiom. And Paul is good at establishing self-evident axiomatic principles.

No you not brethren, for I speak to them that know law, how the law has dominion over a man

as long as he lives. Now that isn't any profound theological statement, that's just an axiom.

The law only applies to people that are alive. Now that's the axiom. He moves from that to the

analogy. And this is a fascinating analogy in verses two and three, and he uses an analogy from

marriage, verse two. For the woman who hath a husband, you got that? Not too hard, is it? It's a married

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