f sin; and these all at work in our limbs
(constituting the 'old man,' and having {242} ourselves for the
subject-wife) brought forth the fruits of actions fit only for a
kingdom of death. But now we are discharged from the law, like the
wife whose husband is dead, having died to that in which we were held
captive, and come to life in a new region; so that we can be
slaves--that, as we have seen in the last chapter, we must always be,
so far as yielding a complete obedience is concerned--only no longer
under the old bondage of a written law, but in the new freedom of the
empowering Spirit.

Or are ye ignorant, brethren (for I speak to men that know the law),
how that the law hath dominion over a man for so long time as he
liveth? For the woman that hath a husband is bound by law to the
husband while he liveth; but if the husband die, she is discharged from
the law of the husband. So then if, while the husband liveth, she be
joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if the
husband die, she is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress,
though she be joined to another man. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also
were made dead to the law through the body of Christ; that ye should be
joined to another, _even_ to him who was raised from the dead, that we
might bring forth fruit unto God. For when we were in the flesh, the
sinful passions, which were through the law, wrought in our members to
bring forth fruit unto death. But now we have been discharged from the
law, having died to that wherein we were holden; so that we serve in
newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter.

{243}

1. If we ask ourselves what is practically meant by St. Paul's idea of
the marriage of the redeemed soul to Christ, which supplements his
thought of the whole Church as the bride of Christ[2], the answer seems
to be that it is made up of a moral and a theological factor. The
moral factor is the idea of the devotion of the believer to Christ--'as
a young man marrieth a virgin.' The theological idea is that of the
risen Christ making the soul of the believer fruitful in good works by
infusing into it His own Spirit or life.

2. The conception of the freedom of the redeemed from the moral and
ceremonial law is very easily realized by reference to our ideas of
civic freedom in connexion with the criminal law. The criminal law
exists, and the policemen are among its administrative officers, but
the respect