Here is a new cause for praise. The reign of sin, with its cruel bondage, gives place to

the reign of grace and righteousness, with its glorious freedom. The gospel proclaims

liberty to the captive, it sets the prisoner free, free to serve.

In the third pair, namely, Rom. 7: 4, 5, the figure employed is changed from that of

the slave, to that of the relationship of husband and wife. The key-thought, however, is

not so much the enjoyment of marital privileges, as it is that of "freedom from the law"

that bound to the first husband, in order to be at liberty to marry a second time, the two

husbands standing for law and Moses, and grace and Christ. As a result of the "death" of

the law, the believer is free to be joined to the risen Christ; and the fruit of the old union

with law is contrasted with the fruit of God. Finally we are shown the unalterable

antagonism of these two forces. In the members pulsates the law of sin, and that law

of sin is ever seeking to bring the believer into captivity; seeking to subject the mind to

the flesh. Galatians speaks of this antagonism in terms of the "flesh" and "spirit"

(Gal. 5: 17).

The entrance of sin and death into this world is here seen as a terribly literal and

practical fact. It lays hold of every member of the body, whose allegiance it claims. The

word and deed, the eye and ear, that should glorify God, have all been commandeered.

The end, too, of these things is death. We are to learn that the law of the spirit of life in

Christ Jesus has set us free from the law of sin and death, and if that be so, it should be

our reasonable service to present these bodies of ours to the Lord for His glory.

The fourth pair stresses the close relation that exists between the law of sin and the

members of the body, even though the mind may be already delighting in the law of God

after the inward man.

We do not stay to say more now, our intention being to pass these key-words in

review before we come to the chapters containing them. There are others to consider,

and until they are studied in their contexts we shall not feel sufficiently equipped to

attempt examination of these mighty themes.