A Real Marriage

Romans 7:1 LSB

Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is master over a person as long as he lives?

Romans 7:2–3 LSB

For the married woman has been bound by law to her husband while he is living, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man.

Romans 7:4 LSB

So, my brothers, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.

I know that we’ve spent a few weeks on these same verses, but it is vitally important as we consider our sanctification, our living out of the life which we have been called to, that we take yet another look at what the truth of these verses produce in the life of the believer!

For although we have learned much about our savior, and then subsequently much about ourselves through these verses, we have yet to discover in them the astounding and foundational implications of our changed relationship to law, the results of our new relationship with Christ, and then the most explicit reason why all of this has taken place!

So let us first recall fresh in our minds precisely what has happened – and I again urge you to recall that these things have already happened to all who are in Christ Jesus, to all who are truly Christian on account of our justification by faith alone in the finished work of Christ alone. Not only that, but there’s nothing here that we ourselves have done, we have been the recipients of these things, they were done to us!

And we started off under the rule and the dominion of the Law; in the same manner as a wife is placed under the authority and rule of her husband, even so we were placed under the authority and rule of the Law. We cannot understand verse four without realizing that it “So, mu brothers, you also were made to die to the Law” without seeing it point back to Rom 7:2-3, “For the married woman has been bound by law to her husband while he is living, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man.”

In the same manner as the wife, who cannot be truly free to be married to another while her husband still lives and has her as his wife, we cannot be joined to another in that marriage-type relationship while we remain married to the Law; for the Law still lives, it does remain and it will remain, our Lord declared in Matthew 5:18, “... until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.”

And so, the Law cannot die, and thus in ourselves we are faced with an impossible thing, for “...it is appointed for men to die once, and after this comes judgement”, explains Heb 9:27. Butt would then be too late to be joined to Christ! Paul himself wrote in 2 Corinthians 6:2, “for He says, ‘AT THE ACCEPTABLE TIME I LISTENED TO YOU, AND ON THE DAY OF SALVATION I HELPED YOU.’ Behold, now is ‘THE ACCEPTABLE TIME,’ behold, now is ‘THE DAY OF SALVATION’—”. To wait until we die, then, is of no help to us in this matter. We were stuck! We were unable to overcome our bondage under the Law which could only condemn us, for though we were under it and bound to it, we ourselves were unable to obey it; it “came in” Paul wrote in Romans 5:20, by the side, as it were, “so that the transgression would increase.” And thus strengthened and empowered by the Law, “sin reigned in death”, Paul went on to say in verse 21 of that chapter, and at the in of 1 Corinthians 15:56, “Now the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law;”.

Yet with God, nothing is impossible, even this power of sin and of law over man. “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law,” Galatians 4:4 exultantly declares. God the Son came in the flesh, in the body of an infant some 2000 years ago. The Son, the second person of the Trinity, left the glory which He had with the Father before the world was (Jn 17:5), and willfully placed Himself under the authority of the Law. He “...was made for a little while lower than the angels...”, Hebrews 2:9 declared. Jesus Christ the Righteous kept the law in every detail, even unto the conclusion of the law’s hold, the law finished its mastery over Him in that He not only lived but also died under the Law, He was violently and purposefully put to death under the Law; the Son voluntarily submitted Himself even to the full and final conclusion of God’s holy and perfect Law.

And through the mysteries of God, we, when we were justified through faith, became organically “...united with Him in the likeness of His death”, declared Romans 6:5, “our old man was crucified with Him” (v6), we died and were “buried with him through baptism into death”, immersed into Him and organically grafted in, planted with Him.

“You also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you may be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead.”

“Also” to what? To the woman under the authority and rule of her husband! To she who could not be joined to another as long as they both yet lived! And despite the Law still remaining, God provided a way for us to die – having been organically united to Christ Jesus at His death!

And so we have died not only to sin, but also now to law – this isn’t talking about the more specific Law of Moses given only to the Jew, but but that larger Law of God hinging upon the two greatest commandments that Lw of Moses hinges upon spoken by our Lord in Matthew 22:37-40, “And He said to him, “‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ “This is the great and foremost commandment. “And the second is like it, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ “On these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets.”” Encompassing both the Jew with the explicit oracles of God, and the Gentiles with the work of the Law written in their hearts as a law to themselves (Rom 2:14-15), we are talking about “this will of God as a rule of duty, no matter how revealed”, as Charles Hodge puts it. To be free from the Law of Moses, which came in well after Adam, pales in comparison to being freed from the law of God as a general matter.

And the immediate and most direct result of our now having died to our first husband, the Law, is that we are now able to be lawfully, legally, and righteously, married to Christ Jesus; “…so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead.

This is no mere union between equals, but a real and complete marriage of us as the bride to Christ the bridegroom.

Now, I really want you to exercise your mind here, because the implications of no longer being bound under law, but in fact dead to it, and still furthermore we are now married to Christ, to Him who was raised from the dead, which are utterly staggering.

Consider our life under the law, when we were under its dominion. How did we approach God? It was entirely mechanical and external to ourselves, it required absolute obedience to its cold and impersonal demands, and promised only condemnation to all who violated its commands. The law itself dominated our lives, it was a thing to be feared, a thing to be obeyed. The law was impersonal, it had to be taught in detail to each and every person; “Know God!” it demanded we say to each other, for cold words were met with stone hearts.

But no longer! We have died to this law, it no longer is over us as a husband is over his wife! We no longer obtain our name or our standing before God through this law! We no longer have such a mechanical and external set of demands placed upon us!

No, instead we are joined to another, to Christ Jesus! And so, all of the many benefits of marriage for the wife, are ours in this real and true marriage to Christ Jesus! He as our husband gives gifts to us His bride, He provides certain things for her.

Turn to Ephesians 5 starting in verse 25, and let us read together:

Ephesians 5:25–27 LSB

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless.

Christ did not merely give Himself up for His bride, shedding His precious lifeblood for her, but He also desired to share His life with her. A husband does not simply obtain a wife and then leave her alone, but they share their lives together. The do the living of life, the activities of life, together, in an intimate fashion. They get up together, they go about their days together, they share their plans and designs with each other to a degree and manner that would never be shared with a stranger!

Nothing done by either the husband or the wife is done in an isolated manner, what the husband does affects the wife, and what the wife does affects the husband. Their very lives are intertwined and inseparable!

And so it is, with Christ and us, we who were justified by faith and made dead to the Law through the body of Christ, so that – in order that – we might then be joined to Him who was raised from the dead! Christ also, in the same manner as husbands among men, came to share in the entirety of life together with we, His bride!

Not only are we a sharer in the entirety of life together, but we are a sharer of His precious name. And if the world can recognize that now, in it’s identifying us as “Christian” - little christs, those who take after and are devoted to Him, as imprecise and as crude an understanding that they have, how much more shall we experience the reality of sharing His name in eternity, Revelation 3:12 declares “‘He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the sanctuary of My God, and he will never go out from it anymore. And I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name.” How can we fail to consider that we who are in Christ, and married to Him, will share the name for which “every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth”, as Philippians 2:10 declares.

And so we will share in the glory and the honor given to Christ Jesus. In our Lord’s prayer to His Father in John 17:22, Jesus declared “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one;” meaning to not only those present with Him in that room, but “for those also who believe in Me through their word” (v20), those believing by faith unto justification.

We share in our Husband’s privileges – the Father loves the son, and the Father loves the bride of the Son! Jesus continued on in John 17:23 “I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.” And so, as the bride of Christ, Paul wrote in Ephesians 2, through Him we have access to the Father!

Paul wrote of this in Ephesians 2:18, saying that “...through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father”, the writer to the Hebrews encourages us yet further, saying in 4:16, “Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

What more can I say? That on account of our marriage, the bride of Christ receives the ministering of the servants of Christ, the angels ministering to the Son. On account of our marriage, the bride of Christ shares in the standing of the Son. On account of our marriage, the bride of Christ shares in the possessions of our husband, His inheritance, His acceptance by His Father, His authority to reign and judge, the list goes on!

What’s more, but that He enjoys presenting us; as a bridegroom presents his bride not just to himself, but to the whole world, displaying her and proud of her, enjoying her beauty and presenting her to his father, so also does our husband, Jesus Christ, look forward to that day when the great crowd sounding like many waters and peals of thunder cries out in Revelation 19:6-7,

“Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns.

“Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.”

We could continue, but I think this sufficient to get you started thinking for yourselves of the many ways Christ our Husband shares His very life with us!

But we must yet go on, there is yet more to learn here:

Ephesians 5:28–30 LSB

So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of His body.

Now notice this clearly, not only do we have those many great privileges we already discussed, but we also enjoy the protection of our new husband! He is our head, He Himself is the savior of us. He loved us so much that He gave Himself up for us, He died to justify us, He died to sanctify us.

As great and as wonderful and as world-changing as they are for us, forgiveness and justification are never an end in themselves to God! For they always lead directly to sanctification!

For it is not we who sanctify ourselves, but our husband, Christ, who “nourishes and cherishes” His bride, even as His own flesh. He surrounds and encompasses His wife with the comfort and protection and security necessary for her to flourish and become mature and healthy!

His desire and His purpose is not simply that we remain static and unchanging, but that we would grow and mature! We were joined to Him in the marriage relationship, Romans 7:4 says, “in order that we might bear fruit for God”!

He desires us to bear fruit, that our very lives might evidence a life lived to the glory of God, showing for true “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control”!

Not that we would be more secure in our salvation – we are secure, we have been already made dead to law, and joined in marriage to Christ. But we can increase our happiness, our maturity; v 27 declares that Christ desires His bride to have “no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless.”

Ephesians 5:31–32 LSB

FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH. This mystery is great, but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.

Now, if Paul thought this to be a great mystery, certainly it is sufficient that even we accept this on faith, on account of God declaring it true.

Now I’m sure that we all know of particular couples in which the husband and wife fail in these regards. But just as Paul reminded us in the first part of Romans 3 that our inability to meet the requirement of God isn’t a demonstration of His being unrighteous, but rather His just-ness, in the same way man’s sinful nature corrupting marriage points to the far greater holiness of the marriage of Christ to the church!

So, with all of this in mind, let me leave you with yet one more thought as we turn back to o passage in Romans 7:4,

Romans 7:4 LSB

So, my brothers, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.

As the bride of Christ, married to Him in a legal and ethical and moral manner, our marriage to the Law having already been brought to a just and final conclusion through death, we are to be entirely subject to our new Husband. Our life must never be framed in and held in bondage to the Law.

Our new husband does not just desire the time we may spare, but we are entirely and completely subject to Him.

We are entirely subject to Christ, our life can no longer be framed in and held by the law, but we have a new husband, and may enjoy the great benefits and privileges which come through our being joined to Him!

We have taken his name, we have joined in His privileges, we partake in His standing, we share in His future and in His possessions, we enjoy His protection.

We are the direct and particular recipients of His love! How great a treasure it is, to be married to the Son of God!

How, then, could we ever turn back and give obedience to our former husband, from whom we were separated by death!?

Let us Pray!