Viewpoints on ROMANS 7

By Michael Griego on May 24, 2024 • ( 0 )

What does the Bible really say about divorce? Am I still beholden to anything in Old Testament law? Can I lose my salvation if I keep sinning? ◊

There are 3 major items that come to the forefront when one studies ROMANS Chapter 7, a chapter which I’ve labeled as “The Struggle.”

One highlighted topic is around divorce and what is legally acceptable or not in God’s eyes. If “God hates divorce,” can a Christian get divorced?

Another topic is the viability of law. Do I need to adhere to it? What about Old Testament Law – does that apply to me today, even as a Jew, or even as a Gentile? How is one to look at God’s law in the context of our modern culture?

The final topic is simply sin itself and our propensity to still do it. Can a Christian still sin? Can I lose my salvation if I keep on sinning? If Paul is saying he’s “a wretched man,” then what about me? Can God get to the point where He just gives up on me and ejects me being heaven-bound?

1. What About Divorce?
As many Christians will quote Malachi 2:16 and cite the translation that “God hates divorce,” there is understandable dispute about the acceptability of divorce. What’s interesting here in Romans 7:2-3 is that Paul was not teaching about marriage or divorce but was illustrating the point that believers have “died” to the law. In that sense, believers are released from the law and now able to belong [marry] to another, to Him [Jesus] who was raised from the dead.

But apart from that, does God hate divorce? In fuller context, Malachi (circa 5th century BC) was written to the Jews who had returned from Babylon after 70 years of exile. Though the temple in Jerusalem was rebuilt in 516 BC, the scattered people had fallen into a state of spiritual apathy and disillusionment. As Ezra and Nehemiah faced in rallying and encouraging the new Jewish wanderers back into Jerusalem and in good standing with God, there were many cases of Jewish men abandoning their wives and marrying attractive foreign or pagan wives. In that sense, Malachi was castigating Jewish men for their making a mockery of marriage.¹

Of course, sin is sin. And the breaking of a covenant relationship, as serious as the God-ordained construct of marriage between a man and a woman, is sin in any context. Jesus himself referenced Deuteronomy 24:1-4 in Matthew 19:8, not in support of the prohibition of divorce, but in calling it out as not as God created or intended, even in Moses’ time.²

2. What About the Law?
This whole issue of “Law” can be confusing in the context of Old Testament/Jewish law and its application for us today, even as Christians or non-Christians. To be clear, what’s often referred to as the Law are the first 5 books of the Bible written by Moses, are referred to in Judaism as the Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy). These contain history plus Jewish/Hebrew laws, decrees, and customs. The most well-known of these laws are the Ten Commandments, which nicely summarize God’s directive guidance and teaching of His people in relation to Holy God and each other. Incidentally, by the time of Christ, Jewish Pharisees had added almost 1,000 additional laws and commands to the Hebrew faith.³

The original civil and moral teachings in the Law have been, arguably, the foundation for all civilized society and governance since they were documented in the Old Testament. But the Law was specifically for the Hebrew people, God’s chosen people through Abraham’s line (see Genesis 12) as a means for preparing the world for the savior of the world, Jesus, the Christ. The entire Old Testament lays out the platform for the coming eternal King, God incarnate, who would die as the Lamb of God, the ultimate sacrifice for all of mankind. This one act erased the stain of sin on anyone who would believe in the dead and resurrected Jesus. Whether one is Jew or Gentile (non-Jew), identity with this redemptive act eternally shields one from God’s holy wrath and judgment.

So while the Law does not apply to us specifically today, outside of basic moral code and ethics, Paul in Romans 7 notes that the law is not a bad thing. In fact, the law lets us know what sin is. We wouldn’t have necessarily known it if it wasn’t spelled out for us in the Scriptures.

Nevertheless, I am dead to the law – it has no hold on me. The law has shown me my sin and now I am free to align and follow Jesus Christ, born again and alive to a new life.

3. What About Sin?
So in that sense, I am good – figuratively, emotionally, and spiritually. God loves me and I love God, so all’s right with the world, right? Not quite. In Romans 7:14, Paul honestly points out the plight of each of us as humans, even those that have surrendered their lives to Jesus:

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do…. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it… What a wretched man I am! (Romans 7:14-20, 24)

Paul sounds like a mess. But he is being very frank about his struggle – the struggle of every Christian’s life – that of ongoing sin. Yes, while we shouldn’t sin, we do sin, just like Paul. And this sin, and the corresponding guilt, will cause us to drift away from our walk and alignment with God.

We think: “How could God still love me?” or “I feel so distant from God” or “I believe in God but He must hate me by now.”

Many Christians wonder if they can even lose their salvation.

The answer is No. Outside of a wholesale renunciation of God and the gift of Christ, we are sealed in our identity with Jesus regardless of our human sin. The work of atonement is finished, once and for all.

…we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all…. For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. (Hebrews 10:10, 14)

Again, the key is our identity with Christ is what saves us. It does not say we act perfect and will never sin. Rather, through Jesus Christ we have been made totally acceptable in the eyes of Holy God. No one can take that away from us.

Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 7:25)

Are you encouraged by Romans 7?
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What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! – Romans 7:24-25a

¹“For I Hate Divorce,” says the Lord: Interpreting Malachi 2:16″, in Scielo.org., by Solomon O. Ademiluka, University of South Africa. Note: an enlightening analysis of the various interpretation issues associated with this passage.

²Note: for another fair analysis of Malachi 2:16 and God’s stance on divorce, see Why Does God Hate Divorce?, in GotQuestions.org.

³Pharisaic Laws, in Bible.org.