2nd century art, in Christian catacombs, Jesus is the Good Shepherd.Paraphrased from Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Bible ~
Believers are united to Christ, that they may bring forth fruit unto God.
"If we continue under the law as a covenant, and seek justification by obedience, we continues as slave of sin in some form. Nothing but the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, can make any sinner free from sin and death. Believers are delivered from that power condemning us and our sins to death. We are in a covenant of grace, and not under a covenant of law/obedience/works; in the gospel of Christ, not under the law of Moses.
The passage is about the Christian covenant of marriage and, also, a parable of law versus the saving grace of Jesus Christ. Christ's covenant of grace. By Christ’s death, we are freed from being under the law as a covenant; as the wife is from her vows to her husband after his death. In our believing in God’s love in Jesus, powerfully and effectually, we are dead to the law.
Our life is dependence on Jesus Christ's love, and duty to Him. Good works are produced as an example of our faith; as fruitfulness from the vine is the product of relationship with God and understanding His love. The law, cannot set the heart right to the love God, or give truth and sincerity in the inward parts. We seek the fulfillment found in God’s love."
Jesus said:
Matthew 5:17
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
Romans 7:1-20
1 Do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to men who know the law—that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives? 2 For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage. 3 So then, if she marries another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress, even though she marries another man.
4 So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God. 5 For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. 6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.
7 What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, "Do not covet." 8But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead. 9 Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. 10 I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death.
11 For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. 12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good. 13 Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.
14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
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Believers are united to Christ, that they may bring forth fruit unto God.
"If we continue under the law as a covenant, and seek justification by obedience, we continues as slave of sin in some form. Nothing but the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, can make any sinner free from sin and death. Believers are delivered from that power condemning us and our sins to death. We are in a covenant of grace, and not under a covenant of law/obedience/works; in the gospel of Christ, not under the law of Moses.
The passage is about the Christian covenant of marriage and, also, a parable of law versus the saving grace of Jesus Christ. Christ's covenant of grace. By Christ’s death, we are freed from being under the law as a covenant; as the wife is from her vows to her husband after his death. In our believing in God’s love in Jesus, powerfully and effectually, we are dead to the law.
Our life is dependence on Jesus Christ's love, and duty to Him. Good works are produced as an example of our faith; as fruitfulness from the vine is the product of relationship with God and understanding His love. The law, cannot set the heart right to the love God, or give truth and sincerity in the inward parts. We seek the fulfillment found in God’s love."
Jesus said:
Matthew 5:17
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
Romans 7:1-20
1 Do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to men who know the law—that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives? 2 For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage. 3 So then, if she marries another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress, even though she marries another man.
4 So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God. 5 For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. 6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.
7 What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, "Do not covet." 8But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead. 9 Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. 10 I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death.
11 For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. 12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good. 13 Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.
14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
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