GENERAL CONFERENCE.
BATTLE CREEK, MICH., 1891.
BIBLE STUDY.
LETTER TO THE ROMANS
BY ELDER E. J. WAGGONER
"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? For a 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. 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. 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. For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sin, which
were by the law, did work in our bodies to bring forth fruit unto
death. 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." Rom. 7:1-6.
The ground covered by this seventh chapter is
really gone over twice. The first part lays the broad facts before us;
the latter part goes into the details and particulars of what is given
in the beginning.
In the six verses that have been read, there is
given us an illustration and the application. The illustration is easily
understood. The simple fact of marriage is taken.
There is no need of any argument in this chapter for the perpetuity of
the law. That is not the question under consideration. The apostle is
not making a special argument to prove that the law is not abolished.
His argument starts from that point as one already settled, and shows
the practical working of the law in individual cases. He brings it right
home to the hearts of men that they are under the law; and if they are
under it, how can it be abolished?
---While the law will not allow the woman to be united to two husbands at
the same time, it will allow her to be united to two in succession. It
is the law that allows her, and it is the law that unites
her. The same law that unites her to the first husband, also allows her
to be united to the second, after that the first is dead. This is easy
to be understood, and there is no need to consider it further.
The question now arises, who was the first husband
that died, in order that we might be united to the second? The sixth
chapter has answered that.
Compare Rom. 7:5 with Rom. 6. "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."
The law held us in the
first union, and now to what were we united? Q: What were we in?
A: We were in
union with the FLESH.
In the sixth chapter we found that the body of
sin is destroyed by Christ.
Q: By what means is it that the body of sin
becomes destroyed?
A: By the man being crucified with Christ.
In the first place we are joined to sin,—the
sinful flesh. We cannot serve two masters. Here are two figures. We are
servants to one master,—united to one husband. We cannot serve two
masters at the same time, and we cannot be united to two husbands at the
same time. But we can be united to two in succession. The first one of
these, to whom we have all been united, is the body of sin; the second
is Christ, who is raised from the dead.
In Jer. 3:1 we read, "They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go
from him, and become another man’s, shall he return unto her again?
shall not that land be greatly polluted? but thou hast played the harlot
with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith the Lord."
Paul in writing to the Corinthians says, "I have espoused you to one
husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ."
Now we desire that loveliness of character, which can be found only in
Christ. We find that this union in which we are held—with the flesh—is
not a pleasant union, but the husband to whom we are wedded is a
task-master, he is a tyrant who grinds us down so that we have no
liberty. The flesh is tyrannical, and it holds us down, and makes us do,
not as we wish to do, but as it wishes us to do.
