Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law), how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? (2) For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law 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; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. (4) Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law 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 unto God. (5) For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. (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 not in the oldness of the letter.
The Apostle is here particularly addressing the Jews, who were well acquainted with the binding obligation of the law. And he brings forward the marriage state, by way of illustrating his argument, that the obligation to the law, like that between a man and his wife, continued in full force the whole term of life. For, a woman which hath an husband, is bound to that husband during the whole of his life. But, if he dies, the obligation is cancelled. Her marrying then, becomes no breach of chastity: the former contract is done away. This is a well-known law in common life, and indeed is founded on the law of God. It can need no further illustration. From hence then, the Apostle argues, that believers in Christ being dead to the law as a covenant of works, and the law dead to them; they are both lawfully and honorably married to Christ: and the evidence of this union appears, from bringing forth fruit unto God, from the graces of the Spirit, which in regeneration they receive. Thus the legal right of the thing is fully proved, even when considered only under the common acceptation of the customs among men, which are going on every day in ordinary life.
But, we must not stop here, in our view of the Apostle's figure. In the relation to Christ, and his Church, it ceaseth indeed to be a figure, for it is a blessed reality. The marriage between Christ and his Church, (of which every other among men is but a type), carries the subject infinitely higher. For, the Son of God betrothed his Church to himself before the foundation of the world, and that forever, Hosea 2:19; Ephesians 1:4. And God the Holy Ghost preached this great truth to the Church, from the beginning of the creation of God. And the Lord God said, it is not good that the man should be alone, I will make him an help meet for him. And, when the woman was created from the man, and brought unto him, and were married; this union was declared to be a type and figure of Christ's union with his Church. So Paul was directed by the Holy Ghost, in after ages, to explain this wonderful subject. And so he hath done it, in his Epistle to the Ephesians. This is a great mystery, (saith the Apostle), but I speak concerning Christ, and his Church, Compare Genesis 2:18; Genesis 2:21-25 with Ephesians 5:23 to the end.
Hence therefore, it will follow, that Christ and his Church were One before the foundation of the world: that the Church was raised up to be an help meet for him, through all the departments of nature, grace, and glory: and all this, in an union, never to be dissolved. So that in this senses as the Head, and Husband of his Church, he hath always lived, and is always living. And so it is written, For thy Maker is thine husband, the Lord of Hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole earth shall he be called, Isaiah 54:5
Neither in this sense hath there ever been, or can be, a divorce. For, although we read of the continued provocations of the Church, by reason of her adulteries; and the Lord, (speaking after the manner of men, while beholding her in her whoredoms), saith: Plead with you mother plead, for she is not my wife; neither am I her husband: yet in the same moment bids her return, because he had betrothed her to him forever, Hosea 2:1, throughout. But we nowhere meet.with any bill of divorce, the Lord had given her to put her away, though he demands any to shew it. Yea, the Lord, in the after days of his flesh, when openly tabernacling among his people, declared, that the doctrine of divorce was from Moses, on account of the hardness of men's hearts: but, (saith the Lord), from the beginning of the creation it was not so. And, what God had joined together, no man should put asunder. It is Jehovah, in his threefold character of Persons, hath made Him, who is fellow to the Lord of Hosts, and the Church, one from everlasting: and nothing can arise in the time-state of the Church to separate. I cannot stay to write down all the scriptures which might be brought forward, in proof to this most blessed of all truths; but I earnestly beg the Reader, before he goes further, to turn to them in his Bible, according to the order in which I have marked them; and if the Lord be his teacher, the glorious doctrine will appear to him with full evidence, Proverbs 8:22-31; Eph 1:4; 2 Timothy 1:9; Psalms 45:13; Ezekiel 16:1 throughout; Hosea 3:3; Isaiah 1:1; Romans 11:1-2; Malachi 2:15-16 for treacherously, read as in the margin, unfaithfully; Mark 10:2-9; Jeremiah 3:1 and Jeremiah 3:14
When this view of the original, and eternal marriage of Christ and his Church is well understood, and established by scriptural evidence in the mind; we then go on to prosecute the Apostle's beautiful illustration of the subject, as it relates to the government of the Church, during the time state of the law. The law, (we are told by the same authority, in another part of his writings), was added because of transgressions till the seed should come to whom the promise was made. And it acted as our Schoolmaster unto Christ. But when faith is come we are no longer under a Schoolmaster, Galatians 3:24-25; Galatians 3:24-25. Nothing could have been more happily chosen than this figure, to illustrate the great truth the Apostle had in hand. By the coming of Christ, the Church's lawful husband, he demands his lawful wife. And, by the work of God the Spirit in her heart in regeneration, we are now delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. Sweet and precious thought! All the rigor of the law, all the threatenings of the law, its curse and condemnation, as the ministration of death; all are done away in Christ. Christ, as the Church's husband, surety, and head, hath redeemed her from the curse of the law, being made a curse for her. And the Church, brought by sovereign grace to the knowledge and enjoyment of her high privileges in Christ, saith: I will go and return to my first husband, for then was it better with me than now, Galatians 3:13; Hosea 2:7. See Mark 10:1 with the Commentary.