when loosed from the law, to himself:
Then being united to Christ risen from the dead,
we ought to cleave to him alone:
And as the life of Christ after the resurrection is eternal,
so hereafter there shall be no divorce.
But further, the word law is not mentioned here in every part in the same sense: for in one place
it means the bond of marriage; in another, the authority of a husband over his wife; and in another,
the law of Moses: but we must remember, that Paul refers here only to that office of the law which
was peculiar to the dispensation of Moses; for as far as God has in the ten commandments taught
what is just and right, and given directions for guiding our life, no abrogation of the law is to be
dreamt of; for the will of God must stand the same forever. We ought carefully to remember that
this is not a release from the righteousness which is taught in the law, but from its rigid requirements,
and from the curse which thence follows. The law, then, as a rule of life, is not abrogated; but what
belongs to it as opposed to the liberty obtained through Christ, that is, as it requires absolute
perfection: for as we render not this perfection, it binds us under the sentence of eternal death. But
as it was not his purpose to decide here the character of the bond of marriage, he was not anxious
to mention the causes which releases a woman from her husband. It is therefore unreasonable that
anything decisive on this point should be sought here.
- Through the body of Christ. Christ, by the glorious victory of the cross, first triumphed over
sin; and that he might do this, it was necessary that the handwriting, by which we were held bound,
should be cancelled. This handwriting was the law, which, while it continued in force, rendered us
bound to serve^203 sin; and hence it is called the power of sin. It was then by cancelling this
handwriting that we were delivered through the body of Christ — through his body as fixed to the
cross.^204 But the Apostle goes farther, and says, that the bond of the law was destroyed; not that
we may live according to our own will, like a widow, who lives as she pleases while single; but
that we may be now bound to another husband; nay, that we may pass from hand to hand, as they
say, that is, from the law to Christ. He at the same time softens the asperity of the expression, by
saying that Christ, in order to join us to his own body, made us free from the yoke of the law. For
though Christ subjected himself for a time of his own accord to the law, it is not yet right to say
that the law ruled over him. Moreover, he conveys to his own members the liberty which he himself
possesses. It is then no wonder that he exempts those from the yoke of the law, whom he unites by
a sacred bond to himself, that they may be one body in him.
Even his who has been raised, etc. We have already said, that Christ is substituted for the law,
lest any freedom should be pretended without him, or lest any, being not yet dead to the law, should
dare to divorce himself from it. But he adopts here a periphrastic sentence to denote the eternity of
that life which Christ attained by his resurrection, that Christians might know that this connection
is to be perpetual. But of the spiritual marriage between Christ and his Church he speaks more fully
in Ephesians 6
That we may bring forth fruit to God. He ever annexes the final cause, lest any should indulge
the liberty of their flesh and their own lusts, under the pretense that Christ has delivered them from
(^203) “Obæratos“ — debtors bound to serve their creditors until payment is made. — Ed.
(^204) That his crucified body is intended, is clear from what follows; for he is spoken of as having “been raised from the dead.”
— Ed.