Dead to the Law and Married to Christ
Thinking about Romans 7:4.
Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. (Romans 7:4)
Paul made the point that a wife is bound to the marriage law of her husband as long as he lives - but when he died, the woman was free to marry another man.
The marriage illustration continues in Romans 7:4.
Dead to the law.
Just as by the death of her husband, the woman from Romans 7:2-3 was free to marry again, so the brethren in Rome were made free from the Law by death. In the illustration, the woman was freed by the death of her husband. The Christians in Rome were made free by the death of Christ.
They had been united with the death of Christ when they were baptized into His death (Romans 6:3-4).
Jesus’ death took the Law out of the way and nailed it to the cross.
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. (Ephesians 2:13-16)
And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. (Colossians 2:13-14)
Married to Christ.
Following the illustration, now that the Law was “dead,” - they were free to marry another - Jesus Christ, the one who has been raised from the dead (Ephesians 5:22-33).
And why were they made dead to the Law? That they might live in lawlessness? That they might bring forth even more fruit (see Romans 6:21) of which they should be ashamed? No, they were freed to enable them to marry Christ. And why were they freed to marry Christ? “That we might bring forth fruit unto God.” - McGuiggan, Romans, 202
Being dead to the Law didn’t mean freedom to live however they pleased. It meant freedom to live for God.
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10)
There is nothing like the doctrine of the husband must die before a woman can remarry. To know the Lord kept that principle alive by crucifying the old nature so that we can marry Jesus through indwelling salvation. Thanks for the article, Jameson.