Bible Question: ive asked this question before...and u did answer me...but someone brung it to my attention that Romans 7 said not unless my husband is dead i am not free to remarry...even though he deserted me and was adultress throughtout our marriage.They also gave me the 19th chap. of Matthew and 1 corinthians 7 and ecclesiastes 5. please help me... |
Bible Answer: Dimples, I am going to offer my views on this subject and let you decide for yourself. I will probably not be popular for taking this stance on this forum but the truth is the truth. Modern Christianity has made divorce the "unpardonable sin" and this was never God's intention. Yes, it is God's design that when we marry someone, we marry them for the length of our earthly lives. This is His highest will. It is the blue-print for Jewish culture, there is no denying that. But this is not the way things always turn out. In marriages, infidelity happens, physical abuse happens, severe psycological abuse happens, things go wrong. To insist that two people stay in an abusive relationship, whether it is sexual, physical, or psycological, is just plain legalism and doesn't stand up to scripture. The Christian world has grabbed the Jewish law (which the Jews never could keep) and made it the standard for Christian performance. Yes, that law does reflect God's character and moral attributes, but the fact remains that we, as NT believers are no longer under the law. We are under grace. As soon as someone (like me) says this, the legalist will immediately day, "That doesn't give you the license to sin." True. I don't need a license to sin. I can sin quite well without one. Nevertheless, even if grace is abused, it is still grace. God design for one man and one woman to be married for earthly life. This started in the garden of Eden way before the law was given. That is His ideal. However, His ideal was also that Adam and Eve not eat from the forbidden fruit. Where things do not turn out for the "ideal", we must trust in God's grace. In fact, we must trust in God's grace whether things are ideal or not. :) Jesus was born under the law and most of His teaching is law-based - Gal 4:4. But we, as NT believers are no longer under Jewish law. The church, by and large, has a really hard time accepting this. The Romans 7 passage which Paul wrote was NEVER intended as a marriage/divorce law. If we look at the context, it is extremely clear that Paul is using Jewish culture (marriage and divorce laws) to illustrate a spiritual truth. That being that mankind is born married to Mr. Law. But we, as believers, need to be married to Mr. Grace. The only way (except through adultery) for one to get out of a Jewish marriage is for one of the partners to die. Now Mr. Law did not die because his job is to lead the sinner to Christ. So, instead, we died in Christ to Mr. Law. Because of our death to the law, we can now be married to Mr. Grace, Jesus Christ. That is the whole point of Romans 7:1-6. It is an illustration to show that we are no longer under Jewish law and are now married to Christ - we are His bride! PTL! But the legalists comes along and takes this illustration and makes it the standard instead of embracing the truth that this passage illustrates. It is so ironic. Paul uses this illustration to show that we are no longer under the law and we use it to keep believers bound to Mr. Law! I would laugh if it weren't so perverted. Please see Part 2. ChristLifer2001 |