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This passage is important because it is sometimes used to try to support the idea that one can still be “bound” to a spouse even though legally divorced. Yes, some disciples insist it is true even though a certificate of divorce is obtained and even after both parties have married another. Also, this text is often used to support the traditional position on MDR even though the idea of an exception, to the idea that the divorced may not marry, is absent from any of Paul’s teachings. If Jesus taught an “exception” to the divorced being allowed to marry (“except in the case of fornication”) wouldn’t Paul also follow suit? Jesus did not address the churches through epistles designed to answer questions Christians had regarding various issues, such as marriage, but Paul did. And we should set up and take notice when we realize that Paul nowhere mentions the "exception clause" that men contend grants the right to marry only to certain ones involved in a divorce. In studying this passage, consider what Paul’s intention was for writing and try to avoid making a proof text out of what he said.
Romans 7:1-4: 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? 2 For 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. 3 So 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. 4 Wherefore, 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, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
Virtually all who seek to teach as noted above quote only verses one through three. But verse four is important to get the intended meaning and those who deliberately ignore it do so to their own shame. First, Paul speaks to people who knew the Law—Jews who had become Christians. They would understand his teachings. Paul said, “The Law has dominion over a man as long as he liveth.” Did Paul mean the Law could not be changed or ended and a man was bound by it till death? No, for the Law had already been changed by Christ (Eph 2:14-16; Heb 8:6-13; 9:17). Since Paul was not making the point that men would be under the Law until death on what basis can we conclude that a woman is bound to a man by the law of marriage even when that marriage no longer exists? Is it because Paul speaks of “death” as destroying the bondage? Does this point negate the fact that divorce destroys the bondage? Why, Paul says when an unbeliever departs the believer is “not under bondage in such cases.” Some have labored diligently to prove that the believer is still under bondage but I prefer to believe what the text says. At any rate, Paul used “death” to make his point and the fact that he did not mention “divorce” in no way lends support to the idea that only death ends a marriage. Who but Catholics believe that anyway?
Indeed, if a woman leaves her husband or he puts her away, and then she marries another man, she will be an adulteress. Why? Because she is under the law of her husband—the marriage covenant. Since this text is not about divorce and remarriage Paul merely makes his point about the change of law by comparing death in marriage to death of the Law, which freed those that were under it to be “married to another” (Rom 7:4; Gal 2:19). Note the comments of Albert Barnes below:
As the woman that is freed from the law of her husband by his death, when married again comes under the authority of another, so we who are made free from the law and its curse by the death of Christ, are brought under the new law of fidelity and obedience to him with whom we are thus united.
That ye should be married to another. That you might be united to another, and come under his law. This is the completion of the illustration in #Ro 7:2,3. As the woman that is freed from the law of her husband by his death, when married again comes under the authority of another, so we who are made free from the law and its curse by the death of Christ, are brought under the new law of fidelity and obedience to him with whom we are thus united. The union of Christ and his people is not infrequently illustrated by the most tender of all earthly connections--that of a husband and wife, #Eph 5:23-30 Re 21:9, "I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife;" #Re 19:7.
God was married to Israel (Jer 3:14), but he divorced her for unfaithfulness and unwillingness to repent. Yet she could marry another even though her husband (God) was still living. If the passage teaches what some insist then these Hebrews who had married Christ would be in an adulterous union with Christ. But the passage teaches the opposite—it teaches these Hebrews can “be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead.” So God’s previous wife, Israel, who was divorced for unfaithfulness, is now being given as a bride to another—Jesus Christ. Teachers who do not see and believe that a divorce does what God intended it to do see the above situation as the Jews having two husbands--both the father and the Son--and therefore committing adultery. But Paul said, “For I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ (2 Cor 11:2b). This applied to all, including Hebrews who had been married to God but were divorced.
In the text under study, Paul’s intention was to get the Hebrews to come out from under the Law of Moses and to be married to Christ or come under the law of Christ. This is the same principle involved in Paul’s orders to let the “unmarried marry” found in various places in 1 Corinthians 7. Those that could be married to Christ includes the divorced who were unfaithful under the previous covenant. To this day, the Jews must come to Christ if they seek to “bring forth fruit unto God.”
Articles for additional study:
"The Law of The Husband" http://www.zianet.com/maxey/reflx106.htm
"While Her Husband is Alive" http://www.freedomsring.org/ftc/chap17.html |
