Belonging to Christ
Paul uses the analogy of marriage to get across a very important spiritual truth. When a man and a woman get married, they belong to each other. It is a lifelong relationship, and they are to be faithful to each other. However, if one of them dies, the other is free to marry another person. Then, they belong to their new spouse. Spiritually, much the same thing happens when we put our trust in Jesus as our Lord and Savior. We no longer belong to the Law, because Christ died to bring an end to the Law. Now, we belong to Jesus. We are married to Him. Our purpose in life is to be faithful to Him and bear fruit for God, like a married couple would have children to be fruitful. God inspired Paul to make this point. (Romans 7:4) He spoke to us as brothers and sisters in Christ. He let us know that we have been put to death in relation to the Law through the body of Christ, who died for us. Now, we belong to the One who was raised from the dead, Jesus. This happened so we would bear fruit for God. I pray we will all see the significance of what is said here.
How are we doing in our relationship with Jesus? I pray we will look at our relationship as a marriage relationship. That is the closest possible relationship we can have with another person. We should be growing in our love for Him all of the time. He should be the primary focus in our life. If we are right with the Lord, it will make us a better husband or wife, parent, employee, and servant. If we focus on other people and things instead of the Lord, our life will suffer from being unfaithful to Him. We must talk with Him in prayer all of the time. We must consult Him about all of our decisions. We are to live as one with Him, because we belong to Jesus. If we will do that, we will bear fruit for God. We will have the fruit of the Spirit. (Galatians 5:22-23) Also, we will see the fruit of other people coming to know Jesus through our life testimony and our witness. So I have to ask us, "How is our fruit?" We will be judged by our fruit when we stand before Christ, so it is vital that we have that closest possible relationship with the One to whom we belong.
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Tomorrow, I intend to read Romans 8-11.