Married to the Law?
A Gentile, married to the Law? Whaaaaat???? I just listened to Martin Lloyd-Jones, "Union With Christ: Its Nature," all (practically) the while thinking, "I was once married to the Law"??? But now "I'm dead to the Law through the body of Christ that I might be married to another (Christ)??????" I believe I totally understand the truth of the latter half--- being married to Christ (yes, because of my union with Him through the baptism of the Spirit). Thank God that I'm clear about that part of it. But I want to understand the whole analogy that Paul is presenting in Romans 7--- in what way was I ever married to the Law in God's sight??? I've never thought of myself as forensically married to the Law, given by God to Moses on Mt. Sinai, because, hello, I'M NOT A JEW. That was for THEM, not for me, for I've always just been an outsider, looking in. The only requirement I've ever felt like I was "under" was to live a morally perfect life... to not sin against God or others. This imagined or felt requirement was definitely stifling to me all my life because it was impossible for me; I constantly failed. I can only imagine that that's how it must feel to be married to the Law as Jews are. But LEGALLY SPEAKING, I was never in the position of the Jew, married to the Law. So here's the thing: if I was never married to the Law in the LEGAL sense, how can it be said that I am now dead to the Law and married to Another?
I'm not troubled about my present legal relationship to God; I know I belong to Him. "BLESSED ASSURANCE, Jesus is mine; oh, what a foretaste of glory divine! Heir of salvation, purchased of God, born of His Spirit, washed in His blood!" No, it's just the analogies that Paul uses. Analogies are supposed to make truths that are hard to understand CLEARER. If I were a Jew, one of His covenant people, this analogy would be helpful. But I'm not. I'm just a Gentile. I never hear other Gentile Christians bemoaning how this truth doesn't seem to pertain to them; just me. Why am I so thick-headed?