Marriage as an Illustration for Deliverance from Law

Having given water baptism and slavery as illustrations to demolish the argument that we cannot go on sinning so that grace may abound, Paul now gives as the third illustration the concept of marriage in Romans chapter 7, verses 1 to 6. He is also arguing his case that it is no longer possible for us to be under the Law.

Under the Law, the wife is under the obligation of remaining with the husband to whom she is married to only as long as he lives. Once he dies, she is set free and her obligation to the dead husband is set aside and she is now free to marry another person and continue her life. But, if the woman marries another man while her legally married husband is alive, then she is called an adulteress. Death of her husband sets her free to marry another. Death cancels the contract.

This law of marriage is clearly laid in the Old Testament and reiterated by Jesus in Matthew 19:9. He categorically states there “anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness and marries another woman commits adultery.” In Luke 16:18, he further qualifies this by stating, “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”

The idea is whom God has joined together, let man not separate. Matthew 19:6. When God created the institution of marriage, the command was that they will leave their father and mother and be united with each other and become one flesh. Genesis 2:24. When it is so, to marry another person would be equivalent to committing adultery, which is prohibited under the Law. Law says, “Do not commit adultery.” Exodus 20:14.

However, once the partner dies, the contract is cancelled and the surviving person is permitted to marry any one he or she wishes. According to Deuteronomy 25:5, if a man dies without a son, and if he has brothers, the widow must not marry outside the family. That is mainly to keep up the family line of the dead man, for the first child born to the widow and the brother of the dead man would bear the name of the dead man – levirate marriage

That also means on the death of the husband a woman can marry again. Paul later in 1 Corinthians 7:8-9 and 1 Timothy 5:14, encourages widows to remarry. The point of emphasis here is a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but once he dies, she is released from the law of marriage. Verse 1, 2.  

When her husband is alive, if she marries another person, she is counted as an adulteress, but if she marries another person after the death of her husband, she is not considered as an adulteress, but it would become a legal marriage. This is so because she is released from the obligations of the Law. The contract binding her to her husband is broken by his death and she is set free to marry another man. Verse 3.

Similarly, Paul says, we died to the Law through the body of Christ. Through the broken body of Christ on the cross, we have been released from bondage to Law. When Christ died on the cross, we also died to the Law. We have been set free, so that we can belong to another, to Christ who has been raised to life. We can now belong to Christ who is alive, because we also live in Him. Verse 4.

 The fruit of this union of us with Christ is to life and to serve the Lord God. We bear fruit to God. If fruit of law is sin leading to death, the fruit of this union with Christ is life and service to God.

Thus, a person who was wedded to Law, by death to the Law, marries another, that is Christ. A Christian is dead to the Law. And death puts an end to all obligations. We are no longer obliged to law and sin to follow their dictates. Yes, it is to the living husband that the wife belongs.

Before our conversion, when we were controlled by the sinful nature of the body, sinful passions were at work in our bodies, and we bore fruit for death. We brought in deeds that led us to our spiritual death. Verse 5. The Law would include keeping up ritual rules and traditions and customs of the church and Christianity.

Being regular in attending the church, giving charity, organizing fasts, festivals, feeding people, etc., are all good in themselves, but would be only works and law. We cannot buy our salvation through any of these. Neither can we earn our way to God through these meritorious services. These are just the external code and will not get us the approval of God.

On the cross Christ met the demands of the law and paid it with his very own life, releasing us from bondage to sin and death. Faith in this act of Christ alone will save us from our fallen nature and bring us close to God.

We have died to sin and death through the broken body of Christ. By dying to our sinful nature and the law which induced it, we are no longer bound to it, but are released from it. This helps us to live in the new way of life, a life controlled by the Spirit and not the written code, the Law. Verse 6.

In being married to the new husband, Christ, it is not the law, but love for Christ and love for other will rule the life of such a person.

In the final analysis, the principle of a holy life and a saved life is not obedience to the law, but union with the risen Christ.

Are you dead to the law? Or are you still bound to sin and death?

Are you alive with the resurrected Christ? Are you liberated from sin and death?

To whom do you belong? To the old nature or the new nature through Jesus Christ?

Answer to these will decide where you spend eternity.