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If we are no longer under the curse of the Law, are we in a new contract with God? In Romans 7:4, Paul states that we died to the law so that we may belong to another. In other words, Christ paid the penalty of death required by the law for our transgressions, and our death penalty is no more.
“Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.”
Romans 7:4 ESV
Paul is not saying we died to the Law of God, His Torah. He goes on in the rest of Romans 7 to discuss how there are two laws at work within us. One, the Law of God, or the good we desire to do, an another, the law of sin and death, or the evil we don’t desire, but which we consistently do. These are violations of God’s Law which bring the condemnation of death along with them, according to the law. But we are now released from that second law of sin and death, or law violations.
”For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.“
Romans 7:5-6 ESV
Does this mean the law no longer applies? In some respects, yes. The penalties and condemnations are no more, but God’s law still guides our life and defines sin:
”What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.“
Romans 7:7, 12-14 ESV
Paul goes on to state that he desires to uphold God’s law and do what is right in his mind, but his flesh is constantly drawn to the violations of God’s law, which he does not desire. This phenomenon is what he terms the law of sin, which brings death. Since law violations define sin, and we do not want to violate the law, but continually do so (being constantly aroused by our sinful passions), we are in agreement with the law, that it is good. In other words, it is an intrinsic self-proof that the law defines sin, for we know that nothing good dwells in us.
”Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.“
Romans 7:16, 18-19, 22-23, 25 ESV
But under our new marriage covenant with God through Christ, our transgressions are no more. There is no more condemnation of death for those who are in Christ:
”There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.“
Romans 8:1-2 ESV
So is the new marriage contract with God the same as the old? No, it is not the same. The old marriage contract defined sin, and brought the condemnation of death along with it. Under the new marriage contract with God through Christ, we are not free to violate God’s law and continually sin. We are free from the penalties of that sin, and through Christ, our resolve to follow God’s law is stronger than ever.
Recall that God divorced the House of Israel because they played the harlot with many foreign gods.
“1If a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man’s wife, will he return to her? Would not that land be greatly polluted? You have played the whore with many lovers; and would you return to me? declares the Lord. 6 The Lord said to me in the days of King Josiah: “Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there played the whore? 7 And I thought, ‘After she has done all this she will return to me,’ but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. 8 She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the whore.”
Jeremiah 3:1,6-8 ESV
We see in Jeremiah 3:1 that God asks a rhetorical question about divorce and remarriage. If a wife divorces and remarries, but then wants her original husband back, could he take her back? No, this too is adultery, and by Law, God cannot remarry in this instance unless there is a death of the spouse. Jesus restates the same in Matt 5:31-32:
It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”
Matthew 5:31-32 ESV
Christ is referencing Deuteronomy 24:1-4, where it states that if a man divorces his adulterous wife, he cannot return to her if she remarries.
“When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, and she departs out of his house, 2 and if she goes and becomes another man’s wife, 3 and the latter man hates her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter man dies, who took her to be his wife, 4 then her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after she has been defiled, for that is an abomination before the Lord. And you shall not bring sin upon the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.
Deuteronomy 24:1-4 ESV
Since God holds to His law, he cannot remarry the divorced northern House of Israel, since she remarried her foreign gods, unless there is a death. We see that God did divorce the northern House in Jeremiah 3:8 as the southern House of Judah looked on and fell into the same adultery:
8 She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the whore.
But God did not divorce the southern house and scatter them as He did the North, but kept them gathered so that the prophecy of a savior through the line of Judah would come to pass.
Now let us return to the opening of Romans 7 and understand what it truly meant for us to have died to the old marriage contract through Christ’s actions so that we may belong to a new marriage. For God loved the world that He gave himself up in the form of His son so that we may re-enter into a marriage contract with God through His death. The law binds as long as one lives, but is no longer binding in the event of death.
“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? 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. 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. Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.”
Romans 7:1-4 ESV
Again, what’s interesting here, is that God still binds Himself to the Law, even through Christ had already died and risen. God is holding to the same OT divorce decrees, despite Christ’s death. The law still applies, but the penalties are no more. So for those who want to abolish the law after Christ, why would God still be using the Law to bring in the New marriage covenant if it were obsolete? The answer is that it’s not obsolete, but demonstrated to us in a new light. That is the nature of the new marriage. Our penalties are no more and we desire to uphold the law through Christ for God will not have a 2nd failed marriage.
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