You're Free To Get Married

What does freedom in Christ mean? How does one attain and live in this freedom? Is freedom really free? These are all good questions that I hope to answer as we look at chapters seven and eight of the book of Romans. The apostle Paul opens chapter seven with an illustration about the law using the example of marriage. Here is what he has to say: Or do you not know, brothers--for I am speaking to those who know the law--that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? Thus a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. 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. Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit. Romans 7:1-6

I want to pay special attention to the first verse of this passage for a moment. Paul says that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives. When we look at the original Greek we see that this word translated as binding carries the definition of being the lord over, ruling over, or having dominion over. Paul then uses a typical lawful marriage to explain this principle. A woman is bound by the law to her husband as long as both of them live. However if her husband were to pass away, she would be released from that marriage and could be free to marry another. It is a very simple concept really and very easily applied to our situation as Christians.

Paul says likewise we are free from the lordship, dominion, or rule of the law over us if we have die to the law through Christ. The dominion of the law is not the dominion of a savior, the law brings the death sentence on each one of us, because each of us is guilty of breaking it, and the punishment prescribed in the law for transgressing it is death. Christ died for us though, and his death can be substituted for our own. Once we die to the law through Christ the law can no longer exercise dominion over us.

We therefore are free from its lordship over us, and are under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We serve God then not under the old written code of rules and regulations that can not save, but we serve in the new life of the Spirit. Our service goes from one of legalistic obligation that can do nothing, and changes into one of a relationship with our Lord and Savior that is wonderful to be a part of. If you die to the law through Christ, you are free to be married to the bridegroom, Christ Jesus.

Lord Jesus,
I want to be know you and be fully known by you. I know that I am set free from the lordship of the law, and that I am free to be wed to another. I choose to accept your proposal, and to wed myself to you. I understand why the church is called the bride of Christ, and I want to live as your bride in that sense forever.