Remarried

Remarried Rom 7:1-4

Romans 7 is a further explanation of Paul’s statement in 6:14. “For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law, but under grace.” Two basic statements “For sin shall not have dominion over you.” He explained the meaning of this statement in 6:15-23. The second statement, “for you are not under the law, but under grace,” he explains in chapter 7.

Paul is concerned about the law and the believer’s relationship to the law (33 times he mentions the law). He is also concerned about bringing forth fruit unto God which is impossible as long as we are “married’ to the law (Jones). The chief thing to our sanctification is to understand our position to the law and our marriage union to Christ that we might be fruitful Christians. Spiritually speaking, we are married to either the Law or the Lord (Carr)

The Law and Marriage

The Principle of the Law v. 1 Or do you not know, brothers--for I am speaking to those who know the law--that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? All laws, whether they are God's Laws or man's laws can only be enforced on a man for as long as he lives. When he dies, he is free from the power of that law. He is beyond its reach.

Spiritually speaking the same is true for the believer. As long as we are alive in our natural state, we are condemned by the Law of God, but when we die, we are free from the demands of the Law (Carr) Here is the obvious apparent truth. The idea is that the hearers are really not ignorant of this. He appeals to what he assumes they know. He is talking to people who understand law. Everyone knows this whether Greek law, Hebrew law, Roman law, Mosaic law, biblical law, Jewish law, any law. Anybody who knows law knows that law only has dominion over living people. The law only applies to people that are alive (MacArthur). The law applies to us as long as we live. As long as one lives in a specific country he is subject to their laws. The moment he dies the law can’t touch him. You cannot sue a dead man in court. The moment he dies the law can’t touch him. He is finished with the law. This is common knowledge to all who are under the law. (Jones).

The Portrait of the Law v. 2 For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. 3 Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress - The image of marriage is used to demonstrate the principle. As long as a woman's husband is alive, she is bound to him by the law of marriage. If she leaves him for another, she is guilty under those laws and is still her husband’s wife. However, if her husband dies, she is free to marry again, because she has been liberated from the law of her husband. The only way to be free from the confines and demands of the Law is

for us to be dead. Until we die, the Law hangs over our heads making demands that we can never hope to keep. However, at death, we are set free from these terrible demands (Carr). She’s bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. If he’s dead, she’s loosed from the law of her husband. The marriage law doesn’t apply if your husband’s dead. You're not bound to the corpse the rest of your life. The Law binds people only while they’re alive. You can’t go marry somebody else. As long as you’re married to your husband and he’s alive, you can’t go do that. But if her husband dies she’s free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she marries another man.” And the whole point of the analogy is just to say that law only applies in marriage as long as both partners are alive. When one dies, that law of marriage is no longer applicable. When the husband dies she has freedom and liberty from the law. She’s free to be exactly as she was before she ever married the guy in the first place. She’s so free that she can go marry another man (MacArthur). This whole analogy of marriage is to show us Four things: First, the universal relationship of men in sin (nonbelievers) to the law of God. The wife is under her husband, under his authority (bound, released 1 Cor 7:27) under the power and control of her husband, so the whole human race is under the law of God (Rom 2:12-16, 3:19-20) Second, the binding character of the relationship. The text says, a married woman is bound by law to her husband. The Greek is in the perfect tense suggesting that she is bound permanently She goes on being bound and as mentioned in v 1 nothing but death can break this relationship. Marriage is a permanent relationship terminated only by the death of one of the partners. Third, the analogy shows us the possibility of a new relationship. The pervious illustration of the slave (Rom 6:15-23) speaks of a new relationship, but the marriage illustration makes it clearer. The death of either party releases the surviving partner for a new relationship. Here the women is set free by the death of her husband. Someone must die for the new relationship to begin. Finally, the analogy is used to show that the object of this new relationship is to bring forth fruit for God. As long as we are “married to the law” we can never produce this fruit. It is only in our “marriage to Christ” that this becomes possible. We must dissolve the first marriage and enter into the second relationship. This can only occur by a death to the one to whom we are bound. The word “released” is found in Rom 6:6 (destroyed) it means “to render of no effect”, to be “null and void”. When the women is released from the law of marriage at the death of her husband, she has made the law of no effect and is free. It is not enough for us to break from our old relationship with the law, in order to bear fruit we must be joined in a new relationship in the proper way (Jones).

Liberty and Marriage

A New Freedom. v 4 Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, - Paul tells us that we have become dead to the Law though the "body of Christ." Rom 6:6, when Jesus died on the cross, those who receive Him also died on that cross. Therefore, we are free from the Law, because we have died to it! The whole idea is that when Jesus died on that cross we also died and when we died, our marriage to the Law and all of its demands on our lives were done away with. We died to the Law! Our death in Christ brought freedom from the power of sin, so too, we have been delivered from the power of the Law. The Law stood over us demanding death for the sins we are guilty of, but when Jesus died, He satisfied the righteous demands of the Law. Since we were in Him when He died, we too have satisfied the Law. The Law demanded death. We have died and since that is true, it has no more claims against us! In other words, we are free in Jesus! (Carr) The law has not died, but we have died, thus all the claims that the law had on us are null and void. Because our death in Christ we are no longer bound to the law, no longer under the dominion of the law, we are free from the obligations of this former marriage. We are no longer under the convent of works. We are no longer in the position of trying to save ourselves, to justify ourselves, to sanctify ourselves and to make ourselves fit to stand in the presence of God by keeping the Law. We are under grace, which allocates our redemption through Christ who perfectly kept the law and paid the penalty of sin by his perfect sacrifice for those who place their faith in him. We can’t be and are not justified by the law, but only by Christ’s obedience to the law in our behalf (Rom 10:4, 8:3)

A New Family – v 4 so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, we are "married to another". At the instant we became dead to the Law, we were married to the Lord Jesus Christ. We have become a part of His family. Just as a remarriage after the death of a spouse brings about a change in the marital relationship, it also brings with it other changes as well. When we were under the dominion of the Law, we were constantly being held to a standard we could never meet. The Law was harsh and it was never satisfied. Regardless of how well we may have lived our lives, the Law always told us that we were never good enough. The Law constantly reminded us of our lost condition and that we were totally helpless and that there was no hope for us. Our relationship to the Law was one of cruelty and pain. However, in Jesus, we have a new husband and a new relationship. He tells us that when we came to Him for salvation, He cleansed us from our sins and made us righteous. He holds no impossible demands over our heads, because He has already paid the entire price for us, he has met the demands in his perfect obedience to the law and his substitutional payment for our sins by his death. In Him, we are loved, we are free and we are complete. We are no longer bound to a hateful, cruel, demanding husband. In Jesus, we have been joined to one who places our needs first. One who loved us so much He willingly died in our place on the cross. One who never remembers our past, nor reminds us what we were before we married Him. Instead of holding our past over our heads and pouring salt into our wounds, the Lord Jesus lovingly binds us up, draws us to His bosom and loves our past away! (Carr) The privileges of being married to Christ: His name becomes our name Acts 11:26, His stranding becomes ours 1 Cor 1:30, His possessions become ours Rom 8:17, Conformity into his image Rom 8:29 etc (Jones).

When you died to the law you were joined to Christ. You weren't freed from the law just to float around in no relationship at all. You were freed from the law and united to Christ. Christ is your new "husband." And notice what it says about this Christ – "who was raised from the dead." This person we are joined to is alive. This is no list of commandments. This is no external slate of duties. This is a spiritual union with an all-glorious, all-providing, all-satisfying, ever-living Person. More real than the person sitting next to you. (Piper). Our marriage to Christ is possible because we have been raised with him. We would have no ability to marry another if we remained dead. Also, our marriage to Christ will never end because Christ has risen from the grave to never die again Rom 6:9. That’s a great word about the security of our salvation and our marriage bond with Christ. Our husband will never die. He will never die. And so we will ever be secure in Him. (MacArthur)

A New Fruitfulness v 4 in order that we may bear fruit for God. God saved us and brought us into a relationship with Himself so that we might glorify Him by bringing forth fruit for the glory of God. Eph 2:10. Gal. 2.19-20. We have been given new lives so that we might glorify the Lord our God. The fruit is two-fold. Our Attitudes. the fruit of the Spirit Gal. 5:22-23. The natural man cannot consistently produce in his life! Our Actions: Not only will we be different internally, but externally through the things we do for the Lord, John 15:1-8, Luke 3:8. God's desire for His children is that we be fruitful for His glory! (Carr) As a Christian we have an entirely new purpose in life, namely to bring forth fruit. The non-Christian knows nothing of this, he lives for himself, and he lives to satisfy himself. Also, the Christian has an entirely new ability and new power and strength which enables him to bear fruit v 6. (Jones)

The aim of this joining (this "marriage"), he says, is that you "bear fruit for God." There it is. You don't go on sinning. If you are in Christ, justified, and married to your Savior, Jesus, you bear fruit for God. That means that new desires and attitudes and choices and actions grow like fruit from this all-satisfying relationship between you and your living "husband," Jesus Christ. (Piper).

There’s no such thing as a no-fruit Christian. Salvation has a product. Because of a transformed life, we bear fruit unto God (Mac Arthur). “As far as we are concerned, redemption is in order to produce holiness. We are delivered from the law in order that we may be united to Christ. And we’re united to Christ in order that we may bring forth fruit unto God. The only evidence of union with Christ is bringing forth fruit unto God.” (AA Hodge)