ADDRESSES ON ROMANS
In chapter six Paul shows that we are severed from sin, the old master: in chapter seven, that we are severed from the law, the old husband. We are dead to the old husband and his law. We not only died with Christ, but we were raised with Him, and have been united to Him, just as a woman may be united to another man after the death of her husband. Therefore, the bond that once connected us to the ten com~ mandments and all the Mosaic Law has been severed. Being united to the law is like being united to a man who has rigid rules, one who can not be pleased. The woman who tries to please her husband, but can not, cries out in despera~ tion, "O wretched woman that I am!" So also the man who struggles to keep the law and fails-and only One has ever kept God's holy law; only He could keep it-that man cries out in desperation concerning the old husband, which is the law: "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from this body of death?" (verse 24). When Paul raised this cry of despair, he added the only answer known to the human heart: "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (verse 25). And what an easy Hus~ band He is to get along with! How great is our deliverance! We were once married to the old husband, whom we could not please; but we died with Christ and were raised with Him, united to our new Bridegroom. And life is entirely different now! You see, my friend, that here in chapter seven Paul is not only putting before us the absolute necessity of our being free from the law, but he is also showing us that the law has no connection with us. We must die to it. It is significant that the implication is in reverse to the illustration which Paul uses here. According to the illustration, the husband dies, while the wife lives and marries again. But the law can not die; it slays the faithless wife. God's holy law never changes; but Christ kept the law, satisfied its claims; and judicially the sinner who accepts Christ as his Substitute on the cross dies with Him. Thus it is that we are dead to the old husband, the law, and Page 116]
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