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Romans 7:2-6 reveals that Christ is the new Husband. As regenerated beings, both male and female believers have Christ as their Husband and are a part of His wife. Yet a great many believers, although they have been Christians for many years, may never have heard that they have Christ as their Husband. If we the believers do not know that we have Christ as our Husband, we are pitiful persons, for in effect, we are like widows, females who have lost their husbands. The word widow connotes pitifulness. A widow has been stripped and robbed of all her enjoyment; she has lost everything of the enjoyment of human life. Surely all genuine Christians have Christ as their Husband, yet it is pitiful that many of them do not know Him as their Husband.
Romans 7:2-4a says, “For the married woman is bound by the law to her husband while he is living; but if the husband dies, she is discharged from the law regarding the husband. So then if, while the husband is living, she is joined to another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if the husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress, though she is joined to another man. So then, my brothers, you also have been made dead to the law through the body of Christ.” These verses show two husbands. The first husband (the old husband) is not the flesh or the law but the old man mentioned in 6:6, who has been crucified with Christ. The second husband (the new husband) mentioned in 7:2-4 is Christ.
Since our old man, who was the old husband, has been crucified with Christ (6:6), we are freed from his law and are joined to the new Husband, Christ, the ever-living One. As believers, we have two statuses. The first you in 7:4 refers to us in our old status as the fallen old man, who left the original position of a wife dependent on God and took the self-assuming position of a husband and head, independent of God. The second you in verse 4 refers to us in our new status as the regenerated new man, restored to our original and proper position as the genuine wife to God (Isa. 54:5; 1 Cor. 11:3), dependent on Him and taking Him as our Head. We no longer have the old status of the husband, for we have been crucified. We now have only the new status of the proper wife, in which we take Christ as our Husband, and should no longer live according to the old man, that is, no longer take the old man as our husband.
Because fallen man left his proper position as God’s wife and desired to be the husband, God gave him the law, which he cannot possibly keep. The law is intended not for the wife but for the husband, and the law was given not that it might be kept but that the old man might be exposed (Rom 7:5; 3:20; 5:20). Paul thus refers to the law as “the law regarding the husband” (7:2).
We all had an old husband, the old man. When we were baptized into the death of Christ, we were identified with Him in His death, in which our old man was crucified and died. Through the death of our old man, the body of sin was annulled. Since the law was intended for and given to the old husband, the old man, the death of the old man also has made us dead to the law through the body of Christ.
Our old man has been crucified to the law through the body of Christ that we might marry another husband, Christ, who has been raised from among the dead. In Romans 7:4b, Paul says, “That you might be joined to another, to Him who has been raised from the dead, that we might bear fruit to God.” This joining indicates that in our new status as a wife, we have an organic union in person, name, life, and existence with Christ in His resurrection. Now we are married to Christ, our new Husband. In 2 Corinthians 11:2 Paul also tells us that he has betrothed the believers to one husband, Christ.
Since Christ is our Husband, we must depend on Him and take Him as our Head (Eph. 5:23). To take God as our Husband means to terminate all that we are, have, and do and to trust in God for everything. Taking Christ as our Husband also means that we believe in Christ. God’s intention is to bring us back to Himself and to cause us to place our full trust in Him. No longer should we live by ourselves but by Christ. We must let Christ live for us. We should live no longer by ourselves, act by ourselves, or be anything in ourselves. We must be completely terminated, and our head must be completely covered. We are no longer the husband. We, as the old man, have been crucified. Christ is now our Husband.
Christ is not only our Head — He is also our person. We must even take Christ as our life (Col. 3:4). Christ is our Husband, our Head, our person, and our life. We have been terminated and have become nobody. Christ lives in us and for us. Therefore, we are fully under grace, no longer under law in any way. The law has nothing to do with us, and we have nothing to do with the law. “For I through law have died to law” (Gal. 2:19). Now in grace we are alive to God.
When a person believes and is baptized into the Triune God, he becomes involved with another person, that is, he marries another person, Christ. Before he believes and is baptized, he is involved with only one person, for he has only himself as his person, that is, his old man. However, once he believes and is baptized into the Triune God, he becomes involved with another person — the divine person who is our Redeemer, Reconciler, and Life-Savior. This wonderful person, God, became involved with us through the death and resurrection of Christ. In His death, we as the old man died, and in His resurrection, we as the regenerated new man were raised with Him. Since our old man has been crucified with Christ, we are freed from the law, which was given to the old man, and we are living to God. This is a great change.
According to their experience, many regenerated and baptized believers can testify to this change. Before a person believes into the Lord, he lives by the old man under the law. After he believes and is baptized, something within him begins to regulate him not to live in the old way. This inward regulation is, on the one hand, death to his old way of living and, on the other hand, the living of his regenerated new man, that is, his living to God. Since his old man has been crucified with Christ, he is freed from the law. Therefore, he now becomes a person who lives no longer to the law but to God. This marvelous change indicates that he has died to the law and now lives to the living God.
Romans 7:4 tells us that as a wife we bear fruit to God. When we are in resurrection and always live to God, we bear fruit to God. When we were in the flesh, that is, when we were the old husband, everything related to us was death. All we could produce was death. Everything we brought forth was a fruit of death and to death. Now as a regenerated person, that is, as the wife, we bear fruit to God. This simply means that everything we do now is related to God, whereas formerly, whatever we were and whatever we did was death. Therefore, here we see a vivid contrast between death and God, between bearing fruit to death and bearing fruit to God. This shows that when we were the old man and the old husband, held under the law, everything we were and did was death. The result was fruit to death. As a new man and the wife married to a new husband, whatever we are and do is related to God. We bear fruit to God. The phrase bear fruit to God means that God comes forth, that God is brought forth as fruit. Thus, all we are and do must be the living God. We must bring forth God as an overflow of God. In this way we have the living God as our fruit and we bear fruit to God.
Romans 7:6 says, “But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that in which we were held, so that we serve in newness of spirit and not in oldness of letter.” Since the old man has been crucified, the regenerated new man is now free from the law of the old man (vv. 2-3; Gal. 2:19). Since the law was given to the old husband, the old man, not to the wife, and since the old husband, the old man, died on the cross, the new man, the wife, has been discharged from his law. Hence, we as the wife and the new man are no longer under the law.
Romans 7:6 shows that as the wife we must also serve the Lord in newness of spirit, not in oldness of letter. We have to realize that in 6:4 we have the newness of life for our living; in 7:6 we have the newness of spirit for our service. Newness of life issues from our being identified with Christ’s resurrection and is for our walk in our daily life. Newness of spirit issues from our being discharged from the law and being joined to the resurrected Christ and is for our service to God. Thus, both newness of spirit and newness of life are results of the crucifixion of the old man.
Furthermore, both newness of life and newness of spirit are related to the Spirit. The newness of life is related to Christ Himself in His resurrection, who is the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). The spirit in the phrase newness of spirit refers to our regenerated human spirit, in which the Lord as the Spirit dwells (2 Tim. 4:22). We may serve in newness of spirit because God has renewed our spirit. Everything that is related to our regenerated spirit is new, and everything that comes out of our spirit is new. Our regenerated spirit is a source of newness because the Lord, the life of God, and the Holy Spirit are there. We need to learn how to exercise our spirit continually.
Everything in our regenerated spirit is new. In our regenerated spirit there is nothing but newness. Oldness is not with our regenerated spirit; it is with the old law, the old regulations, and the old letters. Therefore, we should not serve in oldness of letter. By letter here Paul means the code of the written law in the Bible. There are many ordinances, requirements, and regulations in the Bible. If we do not have the Spirit and instead desire to keep these ordinances, requirements, and regulations, we will serve God in the oldness of the dead letter. We need to realize that we, as the old man, have been crucified with Christ, and that we, as the new man, are freed from the old man’s law and have been married to our new Husband, the resurrected Christ, that we might bear fruit to God and serve the Lord in newness of spirit.
