‘That You May Belong to Another’
“For 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.”
I was listening to a testimony last time. It was Maria’s story. Maria (not real name) was married to an absolute tyrant. He was an alcoholic who would cheat on her, beat her up, and abuse her in more ways than one. But she was too afraid to leave. Where would she go? Would she be alone all her life if she left? Would he find her and treat her worse? While in this marriage, Maria met Jesus. Maria’s husband ended up divorcing her. Maria met and married another man, a Christian who loves and protects her. She keeps praying for her first husband, hoping the Lord would save him too. This is a true story. And there are many like this.
The Tyranny of Sin & Evil
Maria’s story brought me to tears. So, imagine what I felt when while reading Romans, I saw a clear parallel between Maria’s first marriage and who I was before knowing Jesus. Jesus also rescued me from a tyrannical marriage, the worst possible.
Paul is using the analogy of marriage (Romans 7:2-4) to explain how it is that people who were separated from Christ, now legally belong to him. I know the analogy in Romans 7 is specifically about Jews who were under the Jewish law but if you read Romans (or any epistle in fact), you can see that the analogy of slavery or union or belonging to the domain of darkness is used to describe all of us, Jew or Gentile, apart from Jesus Christ. A life apart from Christ is a life lived under worse tyrants: the flesh, sin, and the devil. They are masters more wicked than Maria’s first husband could ever be. The end of serving them is certain death - the eternal death of our very soul.
“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.”
Whether Jew or gentile, we were all born under the tyranny of evil, living in the passions of our flesh and doing shameful things. We were dead men and women walking, always thirsty and never quenched. We latched onto counterfeit versions of love or happiness, which always left us more empty and broken. Then we met Jesus or more accurately, Jesus found us. United with him in death and life, we are finally free to live.
Free At Last
“For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.”
Jesus pulled us out and legally ended this tyrannical marriage by laying down his own life for us, putting the devil to open shame, defeating sin and death, and rising from the dead. He took us, wiped out our shameful records clean, and robed us with his perfect righteousness. Even now, he continues to cleanse us from within, restore us, and teach us what true love is. The love we never knew. The love that lays his life down for his bride in ultimate selflessness. For our beloved needs nothing from us; he is all in all. This one, he is gentle and lowly in heart. He does not break the wounded reed but protects us and leads us into green pastures. He fills us with true Life, for he is Life. He teaches us how to drink deeply from him and have every one of our thirsts quenched for eternity. Of his peace and joy, there is no end.
Belonging to Jesus
For reasons that I frankly don't fully understand, I was touched deeply in my soul by the phrase ‘That You May Belong to Another’ from Romans 7:4. Repeating to myself multiple times, ‘I belong to Jesus’, was like a wave of fresh water washing and soothing my open wounds. ‘I belong to Jesus, I am okay!’ . I hope this will stick with you and encourage you as well. There is no better thing than to be comforted by truth from God’s Word, the truth about Jesus, and who we are in Him. This is the kind of comfort that binge-watching TV or binge-eating can never provide.
“... in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Be courageous and strong; you belong to Jesus!
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