Married to another... Romans 7:4 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. Here, Paul was addressing Jews who knew the law (v1). He was not only trying to convince them that they were no longer under the law, but that they were married to another now, a replacement for the law. It was Jesus Christ and His new covenant that frees people from the bondage of the law. Why? So we can bring forth fruit unto God. The law never brought forth fruit unto God, but unto death (v5). Now, if Christ tells us to keep His commandments, do you think He means Gods original 10 commandments and other Jewish law? Or do you think He has new commandments under the new covenant in the new testament? I ask because He does have other commandments in the new testament. For example, in the old testament books of the law (Gen.-Deut.) youll never see a commandment saying Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. (Mark 16:15). The gospel didnt even exist yet back then. It was only prophesied of. However, today we have the world wide web at our access. This allows us to travel the whole world without a plane or boat. And the current day social networks allow us to interact with other people, again, from all over the world. Are you keeping that commandment? He has others as well in the new testament, like: Mark 12:30-31 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. Now, most Christians were previously gentiles, not Jews. Yet they feel as though the have the same mandate from God as the Jews do, to keep the law. Listen, the law was NEVER given to the gentiles. Only the Jews. And if thats not enough of a reason to not be under the law, all the verses in the bible that teach of how Jesus redeemed us from the bondage of the law are frequently ignored. Paul was trying to convince the Jews of this. Seeing how difficult of an undertaking this is to convince legalistic Christians of this (who were never Jews) I can see how nearly impossible this must have been for Paul. The Jews knew the law very well. They studied it and lived it. And yet, many of them still come around to the understanding of the true, perfect grace of God through Jesus Christ.
Posted on: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 04:34:51 +0000
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