Free To Be Married to Another
by Arthur J. Licursi
Romans 7:1-6 Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? 2For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. 3So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.
4Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead (alive), that we should bring forth fruit unto God. 5For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. 6But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.
Introduction:
All creation and also all of the issues of this life in this world are issues of life that are ordained to be used by God for the purpose of revealing Himself and His plan to us. And so it is with the marriage of a man and woman. The creation and the issues of relationship in this life are shadows of the reality, which is found in the spiritual dimension. Biblically, we are His literal children, birthed of His spiritual loins, whereby we cry Abba Father (Rom 8:16). We also speak of growing up to be genuine Sons of God (Rom 8:14). We are “the Church, which is His body” (Eph 1:22-23). We are His body members, relating to Him as our head. Relationally, we are each His body members, dependent upon Him “as” our Head, much as a dependent spouse may depend upon her husband to be her head. Thus we, in the context of this Romans 7:1-6 (above), the individual members of the body of Christ, whether male or female, are metaphorically seen “as” Christ’s spouse. I emphasize the word “as” Christ’s spouse because the church is not Christ’s bride of Revelation 21:22. The Bride in fact is a believing Israel.
In the context of earthly relationships, earthly husbands represent Christ, our spiritual Head (2Cor. 11:2)…and the wives represent the believer as the dependent and trusting spouse of Christ. The earthly issue of remarriage speaks of separation from a first spouse to marry “another”. Our relationship of spiritual union with Christ is the issue in this important portion of scripture. I am not discussing the right or wrong concerning Christians divorcing and remarrying, that is a temporal matter. I am speaking herein of God’s eternal plan for our spiritual union with Christ, who is as our Head, as the ruling guide of His body “members”; and also of Christ as Husband, to we who are dependent believers, we then are as His submissive spouse.
Who is Who in Romans 7:1-6
In Romans 7:1-3 there are four key elements, two husbands (1 present and 1 former), death, one woman, and remarriage, spoken of allegorically. Romans 7:4, explains that it is “ye” (we as believers) who are dead to the “law of our husband”. How did we die? It was by our co-death with and in Christ’s body on the Cross (Rom 6:3-4). With our “old man” dead, we are thereby free to marry “another”. So, in this allegory, we as believers are both the first husband (as independent self, our old man) and we are the woman freed by the death of her old man; freed to marry “Another”, who is Christ. I trust this will become evident as you read on.
Free To Submit to Him “As” Our Husband
We also must understand that as a regenerated believer’s with a free will, we may choose to live no different than anyone who is not re-birthed, when we are not living in a submitted union to Christ as our husband. We as believers are intended to be subjectively in union with Christ, subject to Christ as our counterpart, our Head, as our husband. But, being free to be in union with Christ is no assurance that we are actually living in a submitted union with Christ. As regenerated Christian, we are objectively, forever, in Christ, but we may not necessarily be subjectively abiding in union with Christ as our Head. It is for us to be abiding in union with Him, with us yielding to His indwelling life in our daily living. Our daily living is to be “in Him.” Jesus said it yet another way also, “except you (as a branch) abide (Gk meno, stay) in me (as the Vine) you have no life in you … apart from me you can do nothing” (Paraphrased).
As a proper wife, our soul/self is abiding in dependence upon Him. Christ, as our Head, dwells in our spirit as the new us. By our wifely submission to Him as our husband, we are maintaining union with Him. We are not always necessarily aware of His manifested presence, but we still know He is there (Rom 8:16), in us, by the indwelling sense of His life that we experience via our conscience and in our peaceable and secure union. We also see His hand in our circumstances and situations, working all things for the good (Rom. 8:28), that we might learn to trust Him as our loving husband.
Just as we progress in our earthly marriage, growing in union with our spouse, the outward manifestations of our mutual love, which were needed initially for assurance, are not so much needed as we grow together in union, because we come to know who we are to each other. We rest secure in each other’s love. In this case, Christ is all and we are the dependent recipient of all that He is – we rest in that. We come to know Him and His unconditional love for us. A successful human marriage is not really a legal issue. It is a love (commitment) issue. Our marriage to Him springs out of love, since He committed Himself for us and to us. We are now constrained by the bands of His love (2Cor 5:14).
A key issue of Romans 7 is for us to come to know that we are free from our “old husband” (the old man of Rom. 6:6) by our old self having been crucified with and in Christ on the Cross (Rom. 6:3). Our death as our Old Man, our independent self, frees us from all outward drives of the sinful flesh and its demands. The point here is that we are thereby freed to take Christ as our new, 2nd, and final husband. We must realize that we are freed by our co-crucifixion with Christ (Rom6:7), the death of our old independent self, the old man. Our freedom is that we might then become united to our proper husband – Christ Himself.
Fruit is not to be manufactured, but rather it spontaneously comes out of that love union. This could never occur out of our 1st union, of reliance upon our SELF. We loved our self, but we in our self, as the Old Man, were impotent. Many Christians are concerned about producing fruit in their Christian life. I say “Don’t worry, fruit will come spontaneously out of our union with Him, since Christ in us is our potent husband”. He is the seed (Gk., sperma, Gal 3:16, 1Peter 1:23) of life. Fruit does not come by the will of the flesh or human effort, but out of our intimate love relationship with Christ as our husband and His potent seed of life in us.
Fruit will come spontaneously in its season. You never see fruit trees struggling, fretting or striving to produce fruit – it just comes in its season. Likewise, as wife-believers, we bear the life of Him who is as our husband whose life-giving spirit (1Cor 15:45) is fruitful in us. We formerly relied upon our former husband, which is our old man, our independent and impotent self and so bore no fruit. Christ as our new husband is most potent by His eternal seed of life placed within us. When we yield to Christ in our spirit as our husband, we are denying our old self; this is a dying to our self a “head”, so His life then can now flow through that proper union (Luke 9:24). It is then that I am His and He is mine, by genuine experience of His life.
Fruit is of Love – Not of Law
There is a major problem, which prevents the blossoming of such a loving union relationship with Christ as our husband. Our “old man” is subject to the law and we as the woman are bound to the “law” of our husband, “so long as he liveth” (Rom 7:2). It’s clear here that the law is laid upon the old husband (our old self) and, not upon us as the properly submissive spouse. When we embrace the “laws” of religion we again assume the position of the “old man” (Rom 6:6), and so we must fail and we loose the peace of our union with Christ as our husband. Thankfully, our “old man is crucified” (Rom 6:6) with Christ in order that we might be freed, not only from sin but also freed from the “law” that empowers sin (1Cor 15:56b). Why were we made free? – It was to be married to “another”, Christ Himself as our head. We are now free to give up our self-headship to take Christ as our head. We are thereby free from the operation of “sin and death.” We have partaken of the death and resurrection life of the one who is in us as our death, and who is our new life. He is our head by His Spirit of life – Christ (Rom 8:2) in us.
This freedom is enjoyed and it works for us so long as we abide in union with Him who is our new husband. Being free from the law (Rom 7:4), we now have no more consciousness of a legal requirement or it’s condemnation (Rom 8:1a), but we do take care of our loving union with Him as our husband. Now, when some may talk about the need for law keeping, we say “Law, what law? – All I know is I love and abide with Him.” So our relationship has grown from legal, to one of love. Such love can only blossom in the absence of legal demands. If the outer constraint of “the law” is what is motivating us, then love is not operating.
Love cannot come by outer constraint. His love is the equivalent of grace – it’s unconditional and comes to us without merit. Paul makes clear that grace and law are mutually exclusive. They cannot coexist. Romans 11:6 And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work. All I now know is He loved me first, and now I love Him.
Abiding In a Submitted Union
“Thanks be to God who causes us always to triumph in Christ,” (2Cor 2:14). Our triumph over all is only found in our abiding union with and “in Christ.” We must admit that we do not always triumph. Could it be that it is because we are not always abide in union with Christ? Oh yes, we as birthed children of God are positionally in Christ, we stand before the Father in Him, and this keeps us from perdition, judgment, because He, as the lamb of God, bore the penalty due us. But we are not always “abiding in Him”, trusting Him, in our current state of being in our daily life.
Thus, Romans 5:10 speaks of two aspects, “much more, being reconciled (objectively), we shall be saved by His life (subjectively)”. Our positional standing and our present dispositional state may be two different things. Our “standing,” is the basis for our salvation from judgment and our reconciliation, while our experiential salvation in our daily living is a change of our “state” of being at any given time. Thus we work out or permit the full outworking of His life within to govern and save us in our daily living. Philip. 2:12-13 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 13For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. We need only to abide in our union with Him, so He then may thereby live overcomingly through us. He is our daily Savior by His living through us when we abide in our union, dependent upon Him.
Dependence Vs Independence
The Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil, of which our father Adam ate, is actually a tree of apparent independence from reliance upon God. Man, at the fall, fell to independence by the knowledge that he had gained from that tree. This is why the society we live in today encourages the young to be self-assertive and independent. This world system and society evolved soon after the fall of Adam. In Genesis 4:20-22, we see Jabal, Jubal and Tubal-cain, who helped develop the “world” system of independence from reliance upon God. Tubal-cain – developed bronze and iron for weaponry as man’s protection apart from God, Jubal – developed musical instruments for entertainment apart from God, and Jabal – developed commerce by raising of animals for food, as man’s provision apart from God. Man could now, apparently, survive apart from reliance upon God. A complete society independent from reliance upon God has fully developed from these meager Biblically historical roots of independence and self-reliance.
God had intended that Adam eat of the tree of life as a picture that God would live through Him as His life and all. Jesus is that tree as we see by the vine tree of John 15. But Adam chose the other tree that would make him independent, as a god, by knowing good and evil (Gen 3:5, 22, 27). So, today we see men, Christian, as well as non-Christian, asserting their selves, living apart from reliance upon God; they are functioning in religion by their “self-doing”. They both live as god of their own lives. Non-Christians live for themselves in godless acts, while most Christians live for themselves in keeping a code of moral ethics or doing religious acts – but both are devoid of the headship of Christ. They do not depend upon Christ in them to initiate, lead, guide their lives.
“The Tree of Life” (Christ) is one of sufficiency, which a man may rely upon and rest in. We as Christians must eat of (take into our soul/self) the Tree of Life (Christ who indwells our spirit) as our daily life-sustaining source. This requires an ongoing union to be maintained subjectively. In the wilderness, manna was supplied daily to Israel as indication of daily dependence upon Him, not only as the initial life-giver, but also as the sustainer of life.
I believe that most Christians today are reaping the result of living their overburdened lives, living by carnal (outer, soulical) religious knowledge. They are living in a separated and independent state of being, depending upon themselves; their own impotent will power, wits and sensibilities. Thus they carry an impossibly heavy load. Therefore, their lives don’t demonstrate any greater peace and rest than that of the non-Christian. As they live by the law of their carnal knowledge, they emasculate the very Christ (The mute His overcoming life) who lives in them; therefore, they have made Christ of absolutely no beneficial effect in their lives (Gal 5:4).
Willingly Receiving His Headship
Now let’s consider the marriage head covering worn by a bride. It is metaphoric of the fact that now we (male and female alike), as wife believers, have our life hid in, submitted to and under Christ our Head. There is now only one head. He is now our head. Our independent headship, demonstrated by our living our own life independently from Him, died as our old man with Him on the Cross. It is finished. Just as the cancer dies when the body is dead, never to return, so also the “old man” is crucified with Him. We need to come to believe in our old man’s death, that we are free of the fallen, independent, Adamic serpentine nature – it has no hold upon we who are dead. We are now free to marry “another,” Him who is our new and governing Head, who guides by His Life and nature within. We take Him who dwells in us as our head. Taking Him as all requires that we let go of all the other loves and commitments, such as our unspoken commitment to be something in ourselves, our self-sufficiency, our self-seeking to be somebody in the church organization, our seeking to appear right in all things; all may be summed up as our love of self.
Anything that separates us from the Christ within is a hindrance to us entering the rest that is ours when we trust Him. Even “good works” that were not initiated by Him can separate us from that fruitful union. We should beware of manmade Church programs, and rather walk by the indwelling sense of His life guiding us, perhaps we work, and perhaps we don’t – we let Him be the Head.
Complying with Religion’s Laws of Works
Typically, once we are saved, re-birthed by God our Father, we often leave or separate our selves from Christ as our husband within, trying to do good things for God – while living apart from Him as our indwelling Head. Most begin by trying to live the Christian life independent of relying upon Him. We essentially say, “Thank you Lord for saving me, now I’m going to do the right thing, for you.” Many apparently will go on to say, “Lord we’ve done many wonderful things in your name” and He will say, “depart from me ye that work iniquity (lawlessness), I never knew you.” It is He who must work within us to do and to will of His good pleasure. All of our doing must be rooted “in Him,” governed by Him. Paul says that it is not what we do or we don’t do that counts at all – “neither circumcision nor uncircumcision … availeth … but a new creature” (Gal 6:15).
Only that which is led by the new life within is vital, potent, and meaningful. His life within is that new creation creature (1Cor 5:17). Religious doing, whether good or evil, it is all evil works, if done apart from His prompting and leading. The workers of “iniquity” in the Matthew 7:23 are independent workers, being “lawless,” not obeying the law of His life (Rom 8:2) spoken within. He will say, “I never knew you.” This is because their work was not rooted in His knowing them. “Knew” here means experiential knowing, as from intimacy. These folks have had no intimate union with Him that they might “know” Him (as Adam knew Eve), so He never knew them in their efforts to do. They acted upon themselves, not by His headship. Hence, they are lawless – not living by His law of the Spirit of life speaking within them.
Relying Upon God’s Work Within Us
In only a few moments we may become married legally by our vows, but it takes twenty or more years for a couple to come to union; and so it is in our spiritual union with Christ as a husband. One day we received Him as Savior, but it usually is many, many years later that we may come to union with Him as our husband. However, we may be confident in this, Philip. 1:6 “… that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:”
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