What God Joined Together - Family Radio

Chapter 2
ADULTERY CALLS FOR THE DEATH PENALTY
A second ceremonial law that relates to marriage is found in Deuteronomy
22:22: “If a man be found lying with a woman married to an husband, then they
shall both of them die, both the man that lay with the woman, and the woman:
so shalt thou put away evil from Israel.”
This law demanded the death penalty for a man and woman who were
discovered in an adulterous relationship. Dramatic judgment on those who
commit adultery was the literal, earthly application of this command.
The heavenly meaning or the Gospel application of this command is found
in the New Testament, where this command points to an awesome spiritual
marriage. This marriage is revealed in Romans 7:1-4:
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 the 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.
In a spiritual sense every one in the human race is automatically married
to the law of God. This marriage is not the result of man’s desire. Rather, it is
a marriage in which God has joined two parties together into an indissolvable
union. These two parties are the human being on the one hand and the law of
God on the other hand. Because God has joined these two together, no man can
break the union. No matter how we might wish we were free from our spiritual
marriage to the law of God, we cannot be freed from it.
It is a marriage between a perfect husband and a very imperfect wife. The
husband, the law of God, is absolutely blameless. The wife, however, is the
human being, and she is altogether adulterous. We know that the law of God
is the husband because Romans 7:1 declares that the law has dominion over the
man. In any marriage, the husband is the head of the wife and the wife is to be
submissive to the husband.
Therefore, within this spiritual marriage, we humans are to submit
obediently to the law of God, which is our spiritual husband. Every time we
commit a sin we are engaging in spiritual adultery. We are being unfaithful to
our spiritual husband, the law of God.
The law of God, as the husband, cannot divorce the adulterous wife because
what God has joined together cannot be put asunder by man. God takes this
6 What God hath joined together...