Sinclair Ferguson

The Bible uses that metaphor, doesn't it?

We are married to Christ.

But when we are married to Christ, what happens to the law?

Well, the law becomes our in-law.

The law becomes our in-law.

Now, I remember my Latin teacher at school telling me that the oldest recorded joke in the world was about a mother-in-law.

And we're all familiar with that kind of difficulty.

A man marries a woman he loves, and it's a case of marry me, marry my mother.

You can't have me as your wife without having my mother as your mother-in-law.

Now, she is not directly related to you.

But if you're a right-thinking husband, you want not only to love your wife,

but to please your mother-in-law.

There may be times when the mother-in-law who wants the very best for this relationship proves to be slightly irritating to you.

But if you love your wife through your wife, you're related to her mother, she is your mother-in-law,

And as you grow in wisdom and in grace, you live in a way that more and more pleases your mother-in-law for this reason that you are more and more pleasing your wife, blessing your wife.

And in a sense, all illustrations break down.

But in a sense, that's a good illustration, isn't it, of how we're related to the law.

We can't say to Christ, I want you, but I don't want your father's commandments.

I never liked your father's commandments and they always condemned me.

And he says, marry me and I will have borne all the judgment of God against your breach of the commandments.