Going Back to the Law is Committing Spiritual Adultery – Michael Edwards

In Romans 7, Paul uses a clear marriage illustration to help us understand our relationship to the law and to Christ under the New Covenant.

“Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives? For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man. Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God” (Romans 7:1-4 NASB).

Paul’s point is simple and powerful. A woman is bound to her husband as long as he lives. If she joins herself to another man while her husband is still alive, she commits adultery. But when her husband dies, she is free to marry another without guilt.

In the same way, we were once bound to the law, that gave sin its power to condemn us - (The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the Law 1 Cor 15:56 NASB). But through the body of Christ we died to the law. The law no longer has jurisdiction over us. We have been released so that we can be joined to Another—Jesus, the risen Lord. We are now the bride of Christ. Our first “husband” (the law) has died to us through the cross, and we are free to belong fully to Jesus.

This is why going back to the law is so serious. If we who have died to the law and been joined to Christ now turn back to the law as our means of righteousness or acceptance with God, we are acting as if our first husband is still alive. In spiritual terms, we are committing adultery against Christ. We are leaving the freedom and intimacy of our marriage to Jesus and returning to a relationship that has already ended.

Paul says the same thing in Galatians: “You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace” (Galatians 5:4 NASB). Falling from grace is not falling into sin. It is leaving the grace of Christ and returning to the law for righteousness. That return severs us from the living relationship we have with our Bridegroom.

We are not under law but under grace (Romans 6:14 NASB). Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes (Romans 10:4 NASB). The law was a tutor to lead us to Christ, but now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor (Galatians 3:24-25 NASB).

This truth is not meant to condemn anyone. It is meant to protect the beautiful freedom and intimacy Jesus purchased for us with His own blood. He wants us to rest fully in Him as our Husband, bearing fruit for God through union with Him, not through striving under a law that has already been fulfilled and set aside.

Stay joined to Christ. Abide in His love. There is no need to return to what has already died. Your Bridegroom is enough.

So what keeps us from sinning under grace? Picture it this way…..

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