Our church group's weekly Bible study is focused on the Book of Romans this winter. We have made our way to chapter seven and an unexpected message is coming into my spirit from the beginning of the chapter!
... the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives ... For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man. ~Romans 7:1-3 NKJV
What grabs my attention first is verse 1 - The law has dominion over a man as long as he lives.
Of course! At the point of death, the law condemns us for eternity. Only God's grace redeems us from the wages of sin.
Right after that, the Apostle Paul points out the similarities of marriage on earth and the Church of Jesus. I believe there is strong evidence that marriage is God's template for His plan of Salvation. He began working His plan to redeem us from sin way back in the Garden of Eden before the Fall from Grace ever happened:
Adam | Jesus |
Disobedient For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, | Obedient So also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous. -Romans 5:19 |
Eve is Adam’s Helper: And the LORD GOD said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” – Genesis 2:18 | Church is given Christ’s Helper Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.-Romans 5:5 |
Eve = Created flesh of Adam’s flesh Then the rib which the LORD GOD had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. And Adam said: "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man." -Genesis 2:22-23 | Church = Dead to the Law/flesh and Reborn to Spiritual Life Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead, by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. -Romans 6:4 |
Naked but not ashamed (Before the Fall) … they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed -Genesis 2:25 | Church Restored by Faith in God’s Grace For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. -Romans 1:16 |
Adam’s Offspring to Leave Parents to Join Wife Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. -Genesis 2:24 | Church to Leave Family to Join Christ “Assuredly, I say unto you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s, who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time … and in the age to come, eternal life”. -Mark 10: 29-30 |
After the Fall Adam & Eve bore Fruit (populated the earth but with children who were born into sin) | Church to Bear Fruit to God Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another - to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. -Romans 7:4 |
What is our fruit to God? - The Fragrance of Christ!
Just as the priests of Aaron burned incense daily as a sweet aroma offering to God upon the altar in the Tabernacle, our efforts to share the Gospel of Christ is bearing a sweet aromatic fruit daily to God.
Here is a link to the similarities between the ancient Jewish wedding rites and the Church !