Romans 7:3-4 “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. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.”
It says her in Romans 7 that by the body of Christ the law is dead, and we are to be married to another. If we are to be married to another, there must be something that we are already married to that must die. And if it doesn’t die, we are considered an “adulterous” because our true husband (Christ) is still alive. Or another way to consider it, is it that we are considered an adulterous because we are married to Christ, but our other husband is not yet dead. When that husband we are wrongfully married to dies we become dead to the law (Romans 7:4 above). And then we are free to be married to Christ.
Romans 7:6 “But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and notin the oldness of the letter.”
The Greek word used here for “letter” is gramma which means any writing, document, epistle, or sacred writing. So here we can construe that it is talking about a sacred writing that we learn the law from, or the Bible. So the Bible itself is no longer to be understood by the “old” traditional way or “oldness of the letter” (Romans 7:6 above). But it is to be understood by the spirit. The old way can also means the original literal storyline, or what the letter is literally saying the first time you read it.
2Corinthians 3:6 “Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.”
Not only should the Bible or letter be understood spiritually, but if the old original way of understanding the words (literal letter) does not change it remains as a seed, which is still dead (the letter killeth from 2Corinthians 3:6 above). The word remains a seed and is dead, and it actually killeth us rather than brings life. But when the old original way of understanding it dies, the spirit can then bring life.
2Corithians 11:2-3 “For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may presentyou as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.”
We have one true husband who is Christ. But when we live through the law our minds are corrupted, and we stay married to the wrong husband. However, it can be difficult to recognize the law or the literal words as being the source of our corruption, rather we think it is actually heling us know how we should live, act, and do. The tree of knowledge of good and evil opened Eve’s eyes of understanding. But it says that is a false life, which is really death (see previous post). The difference between the tree of knowledge (law of works) and the law of faith is very subtle. Eve (our mind, see 2Corinthians 11) was deceived by it because there is only a subtle difference between the two. Both ways are in the Bible and the words are the twoedged sword which was explained in a previous posts on May 24, 2014 (duality in the Bible). The oldness of the letter killeth which is the very tree of knowledge of good and evil, but when it is seen as a sword which turns everyway, the words transform into the keeper of the WAY to the tree of life (see previous post on June 14, 2014).
Our true husband should be looked at closer. And if we have a true “husband”, what do WE represent?