November 27

Nov 27 – Today from Proverbs 27 we look at verse 15
"A quarrelsome wife is like a constant dripping on a rainy day."

Believe it or not, we are going to draw a doctrinal position from this proverb. It relates to one of the Apostle Paul’s favorite subjects – law verses grace. The law takes on the role of the quarrelsome, or more properly, contentious (KJV) wife. The root of the Hebrew word for contentious in this verse actually means to rule by judgement. In the analogy presented, the wife is unceasingly contesting the statements and decisions of the husband. He is never good enough to ultimately satisfy her. After a sustained amount of time, it becomes maddening. Like the constant dripping of water on a rainy day, it soon becomes the overwhelming focus of the senses and emotions. The more one tries to shut it out, the more pronounced it becomes. So it is with the law. By seeking to use the law as a means to save ourselves, it becomes a contentious wife. Every decision, every action is scrutinized under her ever watchful eye. No matter how hard we try, it seems we are never good enough to satisfy her. Soon the law becomes our taskmaster, the overwhelming focus of our senses and emotions. We seem to no longer be able to sense the other things all around us that God made for our enjoyment – just the constant contending of the law. Drip – drip – drip. Our strength is no match for her. We cannot divorce the law, because divorce itself is breaking the law. How then can we be freed from her?
Paul uses this very analogy in Romans chapter seven to answer this question. The solution; one of the two in the marriage must die. The law cannot die, for it is righteous and eternal. The only other alternative is you (and I). Paul gives the illustration that by law, a married woman is bound to her husband for life. Only through the death of her husband is she free to marry another. Then he reveals the wonderful spiritual truth of the analogy, "You also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God. For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death." (Romans 7:4&5) Paul is saying that the fault was never in the law, it was in our sinful nature. We remained in bondage to the law because we could never satisfy the law (drip – drip – drip). Only by putting the old nature to death could we be freed from bondage to the law. Paul goes on to say, "But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit (grace), and not in the old way of the written code (law)." (verse 6, parenthesis mine). In Christ we died to the law – having no way to satisfy its demands. He satisfied them for us. Now, instead of being bound by law, we are free in His grace. The fruit of the Spirit is not a set of new laws to be kept, it is the result of an abiding relationship with Christ. The deathly fruit of the law is the result of the weakness of our flesh (old nature). The ability to fulfill God’s purpose for our lives is the result of dying to self and appropriating His power at work in us through Jesus Christ our Lord. By His grace, we are freed from the ‘constant dripping’, and free to enjoy Him forever. The law is satisfied.