THE MARRIAGE IN ROMANS 7.1-6 (PART 1)

Once upon a time, there were two good men. Both of them were men of integrity. They were spotless in their conducts and ethics. They both were healthy, smart, rich and gorgeous. They both graduated from prestigious universities with suma-cumlaude. Both of them were born and raised in loving family. These two men had wonderful positions along their career. Most importantly, both men were devoutly faithful to God. They never missed Sunday services, prayer meetings, monthly tithing and all religious duties. They were active in ministry and became examples to so many people in the church and in the market place. They were more famous than the American idols ever. Generally speaking, they were perfect in and out. Let us name these two men, one is Kola and the other is Kole.

These two men were married. Kola was married to Loka, while Kole was married to Loke. Both wives on the other hand were far from perfect. Months after the marriage was officiated in the church, Loka was depressed. Loka shared to her friends, ‘My husband is so perfect that he cannot see any defect and lacking on me.’ ‘The more I see Kola, the more I see myself being a useless and unworthy person,’ continued Loka. Kola was like someone who is on the top of a mountain, while his wife Loka was like someone who is in the deep and dark ground of a valley. The problem was that Kola had never been willing to help Loka and to struggle with his wife in growing to be a better person. Kola argued that to allow himself reaching out his wife in the dark valley is to sin of religious compromise. What Kola did from the beginning of the day to the dark of the night was simply judging and condemning  Loka's lacking and weaknesses. Kola was successful in uncovering all negative sides of Loka. Loka, who was like a pure and beautiful princess on the wedding day was now like an ugly wretch. What a horrible marriage it was. 

Kole and Loke have different story. Loke was also lack of so many good things. Her husband, Kole, however, was willing to help her to be free from her weaknesses. Kole was willing to go down and to reach Loke out in the deep dark valley, and to fight with her overcoming all challenges in reaching the top of the mountain. Loke was so grateful to have Kole as her husband. Loke felt that she has been renewed and transformed to be a better person day by day. While Loka felt to be an unworthy person before her husband, Loke felt to be a growing worthy person before her husband.

According to Romans 7.1-6, Kola is a picture of Torah, while Kole is a picture of Jesus Christ. Both Torah and Jesus Christ are good, holy, perfect and spotless (Romans 7.12). Both Torah and Jesus Christ come from God. Paul was speaking mostly to people who tied in a strong covenant with God under the Torah. Paul was explaining to them the impossibility of  solving the problem of sin through obeying Torah, because in all aspects, human beings are defect, sinful, lacking, weak and powerless. Unfortunately, Torah does nothing to help the powerless human beings to obey the law. The more we look into the requirements of the law, the more we sense the clouds of hopelessness in overcoming the problem of sin. We will not be able to fulfilling the law at any cost. But Jesus is different. Knowing that human beings are powerless and hopeless, he decided to reaching us out and transforming us from the enemies of God into the friends of God; from slaves to sin to slaves to righteousness; from a child of this world to be a child of God; from darkness into light; and from eternal death into eternal life.

What Jesus did is basically to offer himself satisfying the wrath of God by taking the punishment of our sins on the cross. Jesus severely suffered and died for us. His life on earth was not easy. Jesus was inhumanly and cruelly killed on the cross. Instead of us, Jesus hanged on the cross and died there in agony and unimaginable suffering. All of these brutal scenes are to tell us how serious the problem of sin is. God’s gracious grace however prevails. The problem of sin is so huge, but the grace of God is limitless in reaching out, lifting up, life-transforming and saving the sinful and weak human beings like us.

Now, what should we do in response to the gracious grace of God through Jesus Christ given to us who believe in him? In approaching Good Friday and Easter, I invite all of us to sincerely be thankful to God. Without the unimaginable brutal death of Jesus, we will be like Loka staying in the deep dark valley of death and hopelessness. Let us offer our most precious, personal, genuine and heartfelt thanksgiving to God alone. Romans 5.7 says, ‘Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man, someone might possibly dare to die’ – And Jesus died for us, not the righteous people, not the good people, but the ungodly, unrighteous, sinful and enemies of God (5.6).

Other practical action that we may do in response to the passage is to follow in the step of Jesus. All of us, including born again Christians tend to easily judge on so many things and people. Indeed, we cannot avoid judging in our life. Paul’s argument in Romans 7.1-6 does not forbid us from judging, but encourages us to assist and to help those whom we judge to be better persons. Unlike Kola, we need to follow Kole in going down to the deep dark valley to free Loke from her lacking and weaknesses. Are we willing to pay the price of judging others? In Paul and in Jesus, judging is not free. Now, as judging is unavoidable, helping others to be free from our judgment is doable and a must. We are called to practice emphatic with others, to struggle with others and to stand on others' shoes in overcoming all challenges and weaknesses and in climbing the mountain of grace and righteousness. We are called to help others to growing in the ability of self appreciation because God created us in his image and likeness, and Jesus died to restore and to perfect the broken image of God in us.  

In the case of Jesus, he gave his life to save our lives. ‘God is rich,’ say many modern evangelists and pastors, but he did not give us money or houses or cars or jeweleries. All of those things will do nothing to transform our eternal destiny. God gave his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, the only effective, powerful, possible and authoritative agent of transforming and transporting us from eternal death to eternal life. Be thankful!