Connected

 

Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress. Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. (Romans 7:1-6 ESV).

 

I’ve always found it a bit funny that Mary and I get asked how we have stayed married for so long. Sometimes I’m not quite sure how to take that. Are they asking out of astonishment that she could have stayed with someone like me for so long; or, are they really seeking information or guidance for themselves? I must confess my only real answer is that we simply lived that long. You see, we are connected. I know that there is a legal means by which a couple may be disconnected; however, I also know that God’s best is to be connected with a fellow believer and remain so. The illustrated figurine seems to express our “senior” years. We have the time and ability to sit and laugh with one another. That’s the fruit of being connected in Christ.

 

In our reading today, Paul uses the example of marriage to illustrate his point about the law. With the first thought in today’s devotional in mind follow my process: I am married. I know some things about marriage and how it’s supposed to work. I have preached sermons about marriage; I have helped couples prepare for it; and for 50 years I have experienced it. None of that means I am a good husband. But at the same time, even if I’m poor at it, I am still a husband.

 

Paul’s point is that marriage is not based on performance, or on the application of laws to the situation. Marriage is about two hearts and lives connected in close relationship. In my marriage, with all the good and the bad and the indifferent, one thing I know for sure: as a husband, I belong to my wife. And because my marriage is about a living union, the “laws” of marriage only apply while both of us are living. That’s the point Paul is making about Jesus and the law. Belonging to Jesus is not about living within certain laws about faith. It’s about a living union in which Jesus and I are in active relationship. As the old hymn goes… “the longer I am with Him (serve Him), the sweeter life grows.”