"For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous person; though perhaps for the good person someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:6-8.

article

02JAN
2010

Marriage, Divorce and Union with Christ

Marriage, Divorce and Union with Christ

“…Do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law),
that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives?”
Romans 7:1.

This letter is addressed to the saved, the unsaved and the not so sure. I’ve often heard the word “Personal” used in churches when salvation is discussed. Titles like “Personal Savior” are applied to Jesus regularly as preachers tell people how to accept Him as their “Personal Lord and Savior.” Have you ever heard the word “Personal” used like that? It’s a good word to use because Jesus is definitely a personal Savior. I suppose the usage and emphasis of today’s “Personal” terminology arose after some forgot that salvation in the heart of the Christian was indeed an intimately personal thing. If someone is taught religion only as ritual, ordinances, performance, or creedal affirmation then it isn’t the Christian Religion. Jesus saves individuals on a very personal one-on-one basis. It’s as personal as a marriage between a man and a woman when it’s real.
There seems to be a major disconnect, however, in the personal nature of Christ’s love for many people in the church even though the word “Personal” is used very often in the sermons they hear. Lots of people claim to be “Saved” but live like they’re un-saved, 1 John 3:6. I see many titular believers not seeking after God in the way the Bible says that they will be if they’re truly regenerated by the Holy Ghost, and I so badly want to help them. They’re just not all that interested in God, the Bible or other Christians. They can’t even have a conversation about faith without feeling that they’re being pushed or pressured uncomfortably. They don’t read their Bibles, come to church, or get involved in small groups for fellowship. Because they don’t find delight in Jesus they don’t care to involve others in that delight. Here’s a simple test for you, reader. If I were to call just five people who knew you best and ask them what the most important thing in your life was, what would they say? Would they answer without hesitation with something like Jesus and your faith as most important to you?
Many people erroneously think they’re Christians, but they aren’t. They simply can’t yet be. They believe in Jesus, yeah, but they aren’t followers or worshippers of Jesus and there’s a very big difference. In this letter I want to talk about what I might call the major identifiable reason why I believe this is the case, and what we as Christians in the church can do to change it for the better.
Understanding the “Personal nature” of sin is crucial if we’re to properly understand the personal nature of our faith in God our Savior. Such understanding can strengthen and establish the faith of the faithful, settle or unsettle the confused and doubtful and lead them to wisdom, or expose the heart of the unsaved at its self-righteous core, Hebrews 4:12.
At the outset I cited Romans 7:1. It tells us that we’re under the spiritual jurisdiction of the law until we die. The point Paul is making is one of innate principle under all natural law. No matter what the punishment is that’s demanded by human law, once a person dies there’s nothing more it can demand of them; they’re free from its jurisdiction. That’s pretty simple, right? The spiritual reality of Paul’s legal metaphor follows the same simple truth. Do you know about the law of God, how it works and your relationship to it? Do you know that you have to die before you can be free of it? Jesus says that men must be born again, John 3:3, 5 and 7. That new birth always follows a death. Our water baptism then publicly symbolizes 1) a death, and 2) a subsequent new life. One follows the other. We must die to our sin to live in Jesus. Romans 7:1-6 is the focus of this letter. If you’ve not read this passage before, or haven’t in some time, please do so now. In this passage Paul relates the relationship between law and a non-believer to a marriage. He says that any person not in Christ has a “Spouse” called law. Have you ever thought of sin that way? He also relates the life of a disciple and Christ to a marriage. In this he seeks to make both sin and Christ personal in life.
Paul uses natural law to demonstrate spiritual truth. “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,” Romans 7:2. Marriage is a very personal thing, right? Question: Do you know that before you were a Christian you were in a very close life-long relationship with your very own “Personal sins?” God hates sin and sinner (Psalm 11:5; Psalm 7:11) and you loved both sin and sinners. Do you know that sin was, in essence, like a spouse to you? That you knew it well and were in loving union? Sin comforted you when you were down, and was there for you when no one else was. Did you know that you were completely bound by eternal terms and conditions to the law of sin like vows till death? That’s the point of this passage in Romans. Paul likens the law to a spouse with baggage. He describes sin very personally. This is a message we all need to hear. Many believers are not believers in reality because they’re attempting spiritual polygamy. They’re not yet dead to their first spouse and so they cannot legally be married to Christ. If you wish to live in Christ you must first die to the law. I’m not saying that it’s something within your own power to do; I’m just saying that it must happen. We’ll talk about how Scripture says it’s possible.
Paul’s point in verse 3 is that a person can’t ever rightfully be born again (or married) to Jesus until they’re dead to their sin/spouse which is articulated, animated and pronounced by the law. “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 7:3. If you’re not dead to your sin/spouse then you’re not alive in Christ, don’t be deceived. Law equals sin not because it itself is sin, but because the law is the very strength and authority of death by sin, 1 Corinthians 15:56. Breaking the law is why people die, Romans 6:23.
Paul is unfolding in principle how a person is delivered from their sin obligation under law to freedom in Christ. Do you know that you must be perfect according to God’s standard to enter heaven? Revelation 21:27. This is no small matter. Just one sin unpaid and you will die eternally in hell, Ezekiel 18:4. That’s not God being evil; that’s God being good against evil. Our personal sins make us that atrocious, Romans 3:9-18. Jesus freely shares His perfection with those who’ll follow Him and so Christ is the Christian’s blessed assurance. You don’t have to be the worst of sinners, just sin. If you live anywhere in the world where there’s civilized law then you know that you don’t have to break every law to end up in prison. Just break one law and the law will have its way. James makes this same point and tells us that being guilty of violating any one of God’s commandments, specifically the Ten Commandments, makes us “Guilty of all,” James 2:10-11. This principle is true of all law. God is rightly angry against all the lawlessness of mankind. I’d also like to remind you that none of us has sinned just once. None of us can receive mercy until we’re freed from sin which is our spouse according to the law. Paul literally likens that release from the bondage of sin enforced by the law to being released from a marriage.
Spousal type bondage under the law can and should be used metaphorically for all people on earth, not just for the Israelite people to whom the Mosaic Law was first entrusted. The New Testament’s authors labor to make the point that both Jews and Gentiles have the same SIN problem because we’re all Adam’s kids, Romans 5:12; 1 John 5:19. So it is that when God says, “All have sinned…” in Romans 3:23, that “All” is rightly categorized as all people everywhere at all times. All men are born married to this spouse called sin and we repeat our vows daily. We’ve all sinned in a million ways, but it doesn’t seem personal to some. Satan would have it no other way. He wants people to think that they’re alright with God, and so Joel Osteen’s teaching flourishes. I want you to see your sin/spouse’s personal nature so that all of the Bible’s talk about it might make better sense. Ultimately this is to make the cross make sense. Love doesn’t make the cross make sense; love as a rescue mission for perishing sinners makes the cross make sense. We’ve sinned specifically by breaking God’s moral commandments, 1 John 3:4. Humans demonstrate their inherited SIN natures from Adam through the personal sins they commit hourly. We’ve all lied, stolen, committed adultery (at least in thought if not in deed, Matthew 5:27-28), dishonored God and much worse more times than we can count. All of this is sin. The Ten Commandments specifically shut our mouths and we cannot help but agree with God that we’re guilty, Romans 3:19. We do nothing but sin, John 6:63. Just look at the Ten Commandments (Deuteronomy 5:1-21) and you will read your personal sin defined. You are accountable to God for it by the law. That is your sin/spouse and it will kill you if you die while still hitched. The law must drop its charges if you’re to live with Jesus; Paul will soon tell us how that can happen. The consequences of breaking the law don’t just go away…unless you die. The law itself is “Holy and just and good” (Romans 7:12), but it reveals our badness so in effect it’s only death to us. That’s why we can say that law equals sin; because in us the two are manifestly inseparable, Romans 7:9. The negative reaction against God’s law also reveals that sinners love their sin in a very personal way. They actually love evil and hate righteousness, John 3:19-20; Romans 7:5; Galatians 5:16-21. This is often proven true when a sinner is told the truth about their sin, and when that sin is made personal. Even when this is done between friends politely the result is often the same. When they are told that no one is “Good” in the sight of God this angers them and causes them to resent Christ’s message. They defend their sin like a good spouse defends the other.
Sin has become a distant concept in our culture. It’s as if many think that God will not be just because there is strength in our numbers. This is only magnified by the lax teaching of some in the church. Rather than being like a personal spouse, sin is only mentioned as just some minor obstacle to a personal relationship with a God who otherwise thinks people are awesome. It’s as if some preachers don’t want to bring it up lest they distract people from Jesus. They say things like “I don’t preach on sin because we’re under grace.” This is a dangerous error. Lost men are not under grace; they’re married to the law. Meet them where they are. We so rarely hear thundered that it is grace and grace alone that can overcome sin, but act as if it’s in the sinner’s power to simply “Decide” and overcome it. It’s a watered down idea spread thinly across the landscape and made impersonal by never asking a man to fess up to it personally before God. Sin is so rarely made personal. Some have even wickedly made love into God and claim that it’s not our place to talk about sin lest we “Judge.” We must understand that if we lie we’re liars before God. If we steal we’re thieves. The confession of sin by many today is often a confession of pride simply admitting that they’re less than perfect. We’re much worse than that and the law helps us understand this. Sin should be identified. Don’t let sinners define it; they’ll sin in their definition. They’ll call it being exclusive and intolerant, not carpooling, or not recycling trash. The carnal mind will not even define sin rightly. Godly preachers don’t just mention sin and leave it as a concept to be defined subjectively.
“There were present at that season some who told Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answered and said to them, “Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish,” Luke 13:1-5. Some were surely offended by this, but not unnecessarily. Jesus didn’t unnecessarily offend. Offense is from God and is nearly always necessary. It’s a good thing. When sin is illuminated by conviction it produces a Godly sorrow, 2 Corinthians 7:9-10. Are you sorry that you’ve sinned? If a person perceives their personal guilt then they begin to understand why they need a personal Savior to rescue them from the righteous judgment to come, Acts 17:31. Personal sinners need personal Saviors. Sin cannot remain an undefined concept, Romans 7:7. It must be preached as personal transgression of the law or else Christ’s personal substitution will come to make no sense.
“The law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor,” Galatians 3:24-25. Just because Christians have now been justified by faith alone they should not fire the tutor. When a person sees that the law’s penalty can be removed in grace then the Gospel isn’t just some subpoena; it’s a clarion call for freedom from sin. That’s what we want. We want to make disciples to follow Jesus, Matthew 28:19. Until we die we cannot be born again or even appreciate life in Christ. The law therefore serves another crucial inward function. The more I see the debt that I owed to God, the more thankful I am that Jesus saved me. Seeing the depth of sin produces a proportional depth in gratefulness to the Savior. This principle is made very clear in the Scriptures, Luke 7:41-43 and 47; Romans 5:6-8. The law shows us how grateful we should be.
The law, letter for letter, illuminates sin in a way like no other description can. Like a spouse it knows its other half best and its message therefore hits home with them like no other person’s words can. It’s as if there’s a silent message uttered whenever it is mentioned. It stands as a witness like no other. It’s judicial, clear, objective and clean. It’s like a mountain range that cannot be moved. When the law is opened up properly sinners are instructed, Psalm 19:7. It is sobering, enlightening and axiomatic. It’s a lamp that can either light the way to Christ or the path to hell, Psalm 119:105.
Here in Romans 7 Paul also relates our salvation to a marital union with Christ. Marriage to Christ can only take place legally, however, if you’re single. This is the main point of Romans 7:1-6. Many professing Christians simply can’t be Christ’s. They’re in actuality adulteresses and adulterers because their first marriage to sin has not yet been dissolved. This is the essence of dead works and dead religion. They aren’t dead to the law. God isn’t confused on the matter, 2 Timothy 2:19. They cannot inherit the kingdom of God, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, because they’ve never genuinely repented/divorced their sin. This is all the work of God, but Christians are not to become slack in their duty to the truth. True conversion always brings about the divorce from sin and self at some identifiable point. Only false converts are trying to be married to two people at the same time, both to the law and to Christ. It’s an illegitimate covenant and isn’t honorable. The law will not hold its peace. The spiritual reality of this is made clear in Romans 7:1-6 through the metaphor of marriage and remarriage. What I’m saying is that if a person is not truly repentant then they cannot even utter proper vows to Christ. What sin the “Sinner’s prayer” has become in our generation. People are actually assured that they’re saved by decision. They walk isles in churches in spiritual polygamy. They must confess and forsake their sins (that’s repentance, that’s the divorce) and turn wholly to Christ or else they cannot have definitive assurance that they’re saved. I want you to have that assurance, reader. I’m not necessarily trying to order the events of salvation here, but it must all take place. Sinners must divorce their sin legally in order to enter into covenant with Christ because Christ is no adulterer.
“And you, being dead…He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.” Colossians 2:13-14. Calvary is the justice of the peace where our first marriage must be legally annulled, Romans 3:26; 5:1. Consider that “Handwriting of requirements” like a marriage certificate for a moment. Christ does away with it at the cross for all those who believe, Romans 10:10-11. What a glorious truth! We don’t die physically. We die to the demands of the law spiritually through grace by Jesus Christ. We are set free from the penalty of sin and made alive eternally all by grace. Oh the value of the death of the Son of God!
Without some understanding of the law and the principles set forth in Romans 7:1-6 the following makes no sense in any culture: “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.” But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for “the just shall live by faith.” Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us,” Galatians 3:10-11 and 13. This makes sense to both Jew and Gentile when the law is exposed and made as personal as Romans 7:1-6 makes it.
There are only two kinds of people-
those dead to sin and those dead in sin. – Leonard Ravenhill.
A person not in Christ is forever obligated to a very “Personal” sin debt. They’re in unholy matrimony forever. C.H. Spurgeon said, “Sin and hell are married until repentance proclaims the divorce.” Christ must end that relationship or else there can be no salvation. I ask you sincerely, has that marriage ended in you? Do you love sin or do you love Jesus? You can’t love both. Is He like a husband to you? That’s a very personal Savior. I know that this is sometimes a hard image for dudes to imagine, but it’s ok. The Bible uses the marriage metaphor freely here not because of sex, but because of the many things that marriage symbolizes like union, care, trust, etc. For ladies this imagery of being married to Jesus is often a bit easier.
This message is really very simple. Until God shows us sin we don’t see Christ. Sometimes it takes place in the opposite order, yes, but both will be seen in the Christian. Sin is imputed to us all today by the law. That law is of God. It is holy and good. It is not evil; it exposes evil. A person must accept its authority and submit to God. They are already dead by it, John 3:18. It’s this knowledge that then serves as a perfect introduction into why Christ died. The cross makes sense when a person sees that Jesus came to pay their sin debt. “You and I broke the law and Jesus came to pay the fine.” – Ray Comfort. Repent of your sins, confess them and ask Jesus to forgive you. Read the Bible. Go to church and seek Him while He may be found.
Some people may think it a bit extreme to relate sin to marriage, but that’s exactly what Paul does, and for a good reason. It’s both extreme and extremely clear. Sin is very personal so unless a person understands it to some degree then Christ will only remain as personal. Jesus does not come into a person’s life and not mention it. There is, in effect, a remarriage that occurs in the life of the believer when they’re born again. That second marriage is made possible by the obliteration of the first. Listen to how the Apostle describes it: “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. We become “Dead to the law.” Remember, once we’re dead it can demand no more of us? Thank God! You cannot die to the law on your own. Paul tells us that the only way a person can become dead to the law is, “Through the body of Christ.” The only way your first marriage to sin and law expires is through salvation or the New Birth in Christ. (See also: Galatians 3:13-14; 2 Corinthians 5:21).
“For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death,” Romans 7:5. Notice the past tense related to old life “In the flesh.” God wants sinners to understand that they sin willfully and passionately. They are not resisting sin. They love that which God hates. By grace, this truth awakens some to truly understanding the personal nature of sin and its blinding effect.
“But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter,” Romans 7:6. Disciples of Jesus no longer live under the dominion of the law; they live under grace. They have served sin with papers. Disciples of Jesus have been delivered from that previous personal relationship to a new personal relationship that is far better! Paul first takes the time to talk about sin personally. Only then does he write about the personal liberty and grace that Christ brings. Let us follow a similar pattern often in our witness for the Gospel. Just after Romans 7 comes Romans 8: “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death,” Romans 8:2. Paul often speaks about the relationship between law and man, both Christian and non-Christian alike. Please consider the following statement along with everything else we’ve discussed. “For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me…” Galatians 2:19-20. Christians have died to the law and been raised up in Jesus.
No matter whether you say that the spouse must die or that we must die it is the same imagery used throughout the Scriptures – we must be made free from the penalty of sin to live. We must separate from it to have union with Christ. This is called justification.
Dear friend, are you in adultery in your life? I beg you to be honest with yourself wherever you are. Could you in any way truly liken your separation from sin to a separation from a previous marriage? You would only have sought that divorce to seek after Christ. Are you legally married to Jesus, or are you attempting spiritual polygamy? It will not work. Has your first marriage ceased or are you still bound to it?
Christianity (becoming a disciple of Jesus) is not just forgiveness for past sins. It isn’t merely a clean slate where a person receives another chance to “Make things right.” If that was the case then all men would still be in hell except maybe the thief on the cross, Luke 23:39-43. It’s far greater than that, my friend! Christ’s work is a complete work. It’s a perfecting work. It’s a full redemption, and the person adopted by God will live to please Him having been enabled to do so by God the Holy Spirit Himself. Is this you? Are you surely working out your calling and election in Jesus, 2 Peter 1:10? Do you have a confidence to approach the very throne of God in your heart during prayer, Hebrews 4:16? Does your heart condemn or convict you before God because of sin, 1 John 3:21? You know the answer. Don’t answer for anyone else; just please consider it for yourself.
If those things above are not right with you then perhaps the missing piece isn’t that you haven’t heard that Jesus is a very personal Savior. You probably have. Perhaps you haven’t heard that you’re a very personal sinner. Maybe you don’t know just how dangerous your position is before Yahweh, Psalm 50:22. Consider sin well, my friend. As you do, please consider Christ. Calvary was literally shrouded in darkness, Matthew 27:45. Sin brings that darkness. Let the darkness crowd upon you in your living room. Let your consideration of sin cover your face so that you can’t even see your own hand. It’s in that dark place that the light of the Gospel shines brightest. That’s where I saw it. That’s where Christ met me, and I’ve never been the same. I don’t speak to you about these things to condemn; I speak about these things for the sake of the condemned. Leave your sin. Repent of it and trust in Christ. Come and welcome to Jesus Christ. He is a gracious Redeemer. He says, “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out,” John 6:37. Come to Him and He will receive you, Isaiah 55:7.
Christians are nowhere near perfect, but they are full of God’s perfection, 2 Corinthians 4:7. Their righteousness is not their own, but God’s. It is as John MacArthur once called it, “An alien righteousness.” They no longer live in sin nor do they use grace as a license for sin, Romans 6:1-2. They’re forever maturing more and more into Christ by His grace.
Preachers, do you make the law personal or do you just try to make Christ personal? I’m not saying every sermon should be about sin, but how much of your preaching details it? One of the surest marks of a false prophet is that “Smooth speech” that’s devoid of the mention of sin. If you only preach about Christ in deep and personal ways, I ask you to consider Romans 7:1-6 well today. You should seek to expose the rotting corpses sitting next to many of your people in the pews every Sunday. Maybe that’s why we call them pews. I’m kidding. Many of them have never been made to see it. They’re like Christian before the burden fell. They’re still married and the burden is on their backs. Tell them to leave their wife and flee to the heavenly city. This wife surely doesn’t wish to go. You’ll be nowhere near as harsh to them as the law will be on that day. Perhaps that corpse has its arm around the man whose arm is around his wife. Doesn’t this horrify you? Labor that they might see it! By grace they’ll see and forsake it. They will love and thank you eternally for it. Season your sermons by the illumination of sin on very personal levels. Christ meets men there. They cannot be accepted by Jesus until their first spouse dies. Kill the spouse! Many of them are so blind they’re not even aware that they’re married. They cannot sit at the marriage supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:9) unless they have been to Calvary to die.
I do not believe that any man can preach the Gospel who does not first preach the law…Lower the law and you dim the light by which man perceives his guilt; this is a very serious loss to the sinner rather than a gain; for it lessens the likelihood of his conviction and conversion. I say you have deprived the Gospel of its ablest auxiliary [its most powerful weapon] when you have set aside the law. You have taken away from it the schoolmaster that is to bring men to Christ…They will never accept grace till they tremble before a just and holy law. Therefore the law serves a most necessary purpose, and it must not be removed from its place. – C.H. Spurgeon.
Here’s where I think we should work better with God to fix things. God saves. He will save His predestined without fail, Romans 8:29-30. Election is His business. Preach the law to all and grace to all. Name the commandments often in your preaching. Don’t name them as concept, but as nails in Christ’s hands and feet. Make sin as personal as you would His work on Calvary. That work was very personal to the Son and it was because of the presence of SIN. Go through the law and hold up the mirror so your people can see their faces in it. Do it lovingly and regularly. The sheep will love you, the goats will be made nervous and the wolves will howl, but God will honor it, Isaiah 58:1. He will save. You cannot push a man who is married to hell any further away from God. Show those who need it that they’re not saved. Let all men see their sins as the Scriptures define them. Take them to the classroom and introduce them to the tutor, Galatians 3:24-25. This won’t take them out of Christ’s influence. Nothing could. God will convict in this, and His unfailing goodness will continue to lead many to repentance, Romans 2:4. Men cannot repent if they don’t know what sin is. They can’t repent personally if their sin doesn’t appear personal. Preach it like a spouse. Preach about sin and find ways to make it personal. I’m talking about doing the work of an evangelist, 2 Timothy 4:5. Work sin well into the fabric of your people as a way to disarm Satan. Even a redeemed Christian can almost never go wrong to meditate on his or her sin. It reminds them of their place under God.
The law has great use even in the lives of God’s children. It still keeps them from sin. It’s a reminder of Christ’s love. It’s an eternal Sabbath memorial sweetly reminding them how God gave them rest from works in Christ forever. For the true believer the law serves as another member in the choir reminding and memorializing God’s amazing grace. John Wesley wrote:
While [every true believer] cries out, “O what love have I unto thy law, all the day long is my study in it;” he sees daily in that divine mirror, more and more of his own sinfulness. He sees more and more clearly that he is fullness a sinner in all things that neither his heart nor his ways are right before God and that every moment sends him to Christ. Therefore I cannot spare the law one moment, no more than I can spare Christ, seeing I now want it as much to keep me to Christ, as I ever wanted it to bring me to Him. Otherwise this evil heart of unbelief would immediately depart from the living God. Indeed each is continually sending me to the other-the law to Christ, and Christ to the law.
This is why Paul writes that by faith we establish the law, Romans 3:31. We don’t call it evil or useless after we’ve been saved. We establish it all the more because it establishes our hope in Jesus for grace. We declare it all the more because it established Christ. Why is Jesus called sinless? It’s because He never broke the law in thought, word or act; God can’t sin. The whole of the Law was kept by Him, not just the Decalogue. The law’s witness shone brightly around Jesus while He was on earth, John 8:46. We affirm that the law can’t take anyone past the cross. The law illuminates the transaction taking place on the cross. The cross would make no sense without the knowledge of sin. We must show the law’s holiness and affirm its intention as God designed it. “The law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good,” Romans 7:12. Paul said it best: “…I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.” Romans 7:7.
For more extensive discussion and historical witness about the use and necessity of the law in evangelism, please see my article entitled “Systematic Evangelism” available at www.Biblecia.com/articles.
Readers, if you’re truly in Christ then you know that you have died to your sin. You despise sin. It was a bad marriage. You war against it now every day of your life. If you still live like the world then I beg you to consider your sin now. Consider it as personal as it is. You are married to it till death do you part. Forsake that marriage. Let the law have its way and die before God. Agree with God, and ask Jesus to receive you. Repent of your sin as defined by the law and put your faith in Jesus Christ. He died and rose again from the dead so that you might have life. He is forever a most personal Savior. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved,” John 3:16-17.

Thank you for your attention to this letter.