One Woman and Two Husbands

Romans 6 mainly deals with the freedom from sin and how to live in that freedom lifelong. Just as how the Israelites (God's people) lived as slaves to the Pharaoh, we all were slaves to sin. And just as how a slave gets freedom from his/her master through death, we also gained our freedom from sin through the death of our old self with Jesus on the Cross. We now have a new Master who is Christ Jesus, who is a Father to us, and not a Pharaoh/ cruel taskmaster/ slave driver. He is the God of comfort who gives rest to all who come to Him with a weary and burdened heart.

Romans 7:1-6 Do you not know, brothers and sisters—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives? For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her to him. So then, if she has sexual relations with another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man. So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.

Paul relates the relationship between humans and the law to that of a husband and wife. The law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives. Every person is bound to the law only till death. 

A woman is bound to her husband based on the marital laws given by Moses, but if a husband dies she is set free. In those days, the law permitted a husband to divorce his wife but a wife couldn’t divorce her husband. So even if a woman wished to be set free from an unhappy marriage and move on in life with another person, it would be possible only if her husband died; if not she’d be called an adulteress. 

In this example laid by Apostle Paul the woman relates to each one of us, the first husband is the law and Christ is the second husband. The law remains there, it’s still alive, but through our death and resurrection with Christ, we’re set free from the law, the first husband and have become the Bride of Christ.
For when we were bound to Mr. Law, the first husband, we bore fruit for death; but after our death through the body of Christ, we belong to Him so that we might bear fruit for God. 
The first husband can also be addressed as Mr. Law / Mr. Perfect because he's a perfectionist and highly demanding, and though there’s a long set of rules (Do’s and Don'ts) given to follow, Mr. Law doesn’t help us to fulfil it. 

In this first marriage, where Mr. Law is the husband and you are the wife, children are born, namely - sin, sickness, curse, disaster, depression, poverty and the last child - death. This was the fruit of your first marriage, and that’s how the people of Israel lived under the Old Covenant till Christ came into the scene.

Tomorrow, we’ll see how our lives changed when we got into a new covenant with Christ, the second husband!

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