Digging Deeper into Romans 7:1-4

Digging Deeper into Romans 7:1-4

7 Know ye not, brethren, for I speak to them that know the law (those that were brought up in the instruction of the Torah), how that the law (Torah) hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?

• Paul is telling the reader: this is to those that know the Torah. If you do not know the Torah stop and learn it before you continue as you will not know what he is talking about otherwise.)

² For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law (marriage covenant) to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law (marriage covenant) of her husband.

³ 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 (marriage covenant); so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

• This is the “mystery” of the gospel….how will YHWH make a provision for the peoples of the world to be rejoined in the covenant marriage of eternal salvation? YHWH cannot break his own instructions or otherwise He would be a liar and that is not possible.
• Ezekiel 16:30-32 “How weak is thine heart, saith the Lord God, seeing thou doest all these things, the work of an imperious whorish woman; In that thou buildest thine eminent place in the head of every way, and makest thine high place in every street; and hast not been as an harlot, in that thou scornest hire; But as a wife that committeth adultery, which taketh strangers instead of her husband!”
• Jeremiah 3:8 “And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.”
• John 7:35 “Then said the Jews among themselves, Whither will he go, that we shall not find him? will he go unto the dispersed among the Gentiles, and teach the Gentiles?”
• Isaiah 49:6 “And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.”
• Matthew 15:24 “But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
• Matthew 10:5-6 “These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
• Deuteronomy 24:1-4 “When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house. And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man’s wife. And if the latter husband hate her, and write her a bill of divorcement, and giveth it in her hand, and sendeth her out of his house; or if the latter husband die, which took her to be his wife; Her former husband, which sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that is abomination before the Lord”

Paul is telling us of the progression of the relationship we have with God. When God gave Moses the commandments at Mt. Sinai they established a marriage covenant between God and His people. When the people sought after other gods {the ones they learned about while in Egypt} YHWH gave the people a writ of divorce and sent them out. The Northern 10 tribes were dispersed into all the world and the Southern 2 tribes were sent into captivity.

The people of the Northern tribes [the Wild Olive branch] are despised by the world and repeatedly oppressed by the nations while the Southern tribes [Natural Olive branch] are sent out and return to the land of Israel.

• Ezekiel 37:19-24 “Say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand. And the sticks whereon thou writest shall be in thine hand before their eyes. And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land: And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all. Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwelling places, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God. And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them.”

Now the people are ineligible to “remarry” themselves to God as their prior husband has not died. That is until Jesus [the exact representation of God] comes to be the ultimate sacrifice for sin and dies on the cross. It is in His resurrection that He becomes alive and new to the people, the people become alive and new [capable of being born again] in His sacrifice and are now eligible to be married once again and thus return to covenant with God.

• Deuteronomy 30:1-6 “And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither the Lord thy God hath driven thee, And shalt return unto the Lord thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul; That then the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the Lord thy God hath scattered thee. If any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the Lord thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee: And the Lord thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers. And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.”

⁴ Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law (the marriage covenant – freeing us from adultery) 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 (children of the new marriage covenant) unto God.

• Acts 1:4-6 “And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?”