Freed from marriage to the law.
“So then, if she is joined to another man while her husband is alive, she will be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from the law, and if she is joined to another man, she is not an adulteress. Romans 7:3, NET. Paul emphasized the conclusion of what he had been arguing. Humankind was married to the Moral Law. Humankind violated God’s command. Therefore, humankind, the wife, became a sinner irrevocably. Accordingly, the Moral Law, the husband, condemned humankind, the sinner, to eternal death. Eternal death is the only payment of wages for sin. The condemnation by the Law made the marriage of humankind to the Law unbearable. Humankind, the wife, could never free itself from the marriage to the Law. In verse two of chapter seven, Paul stated that only the eternal death of humankind could dissolve its marriage to the Law and free it from the Law’s dominion. Because of the Law, the husband could not die; humankind, the wife, had to die eternal death, the sure death.
However, God loves humankind selflessly. Therefore, God determined that he would save it from guilt and eternal punishment for sin. Accordingly, God provided a way out of humankind’s predicament. However, God’s way out did not remove the death sentence from humankind. Humankind had to die with no way out. God told the serpent in the garden, “And I will put hostility between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring; her offspring will attack your head, and you will attack her offspring’s heal. Genesis 3:15, NET.
Therefore, God put humankind under the promised grace, the Messiah who would come at just the right time. Jesus is the woman’s offspring because he received the human body through her. God sent Jesus Christ to save the world at just the right time. Jesus Christ, the Grace, loved humankind as it is, and he wanted to marry it. Humankind found this possibility appealing. However, humankind was married to a husband who could not die. The Grace of God, Jesus Christ, could not remove the condemnation from humankind. Only the eternal death of the woman, humankind, could free her from marriage to the Moral Law. How did humankind free itself from the Law’s dominion?
Read the next blog.
