Word of life – Rom 7:3

“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.”

(13 – 27 May 2012)

At the beginning of chapter seven, which deals with the relation between our corrupt nature and God’s law, the Apostle Paul uses a comparison, speaking about legal marriage between a man and a woman. While a woman is legally married to her husband, she cannot live with another man. If she does, it is regarded as adultery. If her husband dies, the woman can marry another man and it is no longer adultery but marriage at law.

Our human nature is wounded by sin and is likened to a woman who is bound by the law of marriage. We are bound to keep God’s commandments, but the problem is that we are unable to fulfil them all because of our corrupt nature. The law is just and immediately convicts us of sin. Certainly, the law is connected with a blessing too. He who keeps it receives a blessing; however, it is beyond our strength to keep it. Therefore, the law actually convicts us of sin, which, to some extent, is positive. It forces us to seek help directly from God, and God has given us this help in the person of His Only Begotten Son who executed justice by paying for all our sins with death and thus fulfilled the law. So in Christ is the fulfilment of the law. If we unite to Christ, we actualize the mystery of baptism through which we were buried into Christ’s death (cf. Rom 6:4). In fact, if we are in Christ and united to Him through repentance and faith, the law cannot convict us. We have died with Christ to judgment and punishments for our sins imposed on us by the just law.