[1] Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? [2] For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. [3] Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress. [4] Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.

I love Romans 7:4. This verse has helped me over the last few years. I love the verse because it gives insight into the work of Christ and how we can "bear fruit for God." Before we talk about that, let's consider the backdrop of the verse. 

The first three verses from the chapter call for us to consider marriage. If the husband is alive, the wife is bound to be with her husband. Although it is not stated, it would be equally true that if the wife is alive then the husband is bound to his wife. The only way for the wife to live with another lover is if her husband were to die. If the husband dies, then she is free to marry again. This is simple and clear. 

Now let's go to verse 4 and think about the Law and the Gospel. There was a time that we were married to the law. The Law could not be escaped, and we were united to it. The law was always there to remind us of what was right and good. The law treated us very well. The law was not the problem. The other spouse was the problem; we were the problem. Our first husband exposed how bad we were. Although he treated us well, he could not change us from the inside out. Our hearts could not find peace in that tumultuous marriage. 

Brothers and sisters, we have died to the law! It was not the law that died, but it was the law that slayed us. In the body of Christ, God the Father judged us by our faithlessness to that first marriage. We were found eternally guilty. However, we did not pay the price of the adulteress; it was Christ himself who paid it. The faithful husband, namely Jesus, was judged in my place for my sin. Jesus did this that he might save us from the first marriage and bring us into a new one. 

Fellow Christians, we have been brought into a new marriage. We now belong to another. We belong to Christ. Because of His work, we are now in a beautiful marriage with a spouse who does not condemn, but transforms His bride. We are now counted spotless, and His mission is to one day make us spotless. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, saved us out of that first marriage, and brought us into this new one, "In order that we may bear fruit for God." 

You want to bear fruit? By grace, lean into the right marriage.