When the Covenant Breaks: What About the Doctrine?
Few passages have weighed heavier on the divorced and remarried than these words:
“Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery.” — Luke 16:18
“If, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress.” — Romans 7:3
For many, those verses have sounded like a lifelong verdict—proof that God may forgive your past but never fully bless your future.
But both Jesus and Paul were describing life under the Law, not life in Christ.
They were showing the limits of human faithfulness so that grace could be seen for what it is: complete, undeserved freedom.
Jesus’ Words (Matthew 19 and Luke 16)
When Jesus called remarriage adultery, He was confronting a culture that had made divorce casual. Men could abandon wives for trivial reasons and still claim righteousness.
He wasn’t creating a new law—He was holding up the old one to its full height. The Law required perfect love, lifelong fidelity, and no exceptions. That’s what righteousness by human effort looks like: impossible.
His point wasn’t “try harder.” It was “you can’t.”
The Cross would become the answer to that impossibility.
At Calvary, the only truly faithful Bridegroom bore the guilt of every broken vow.
The judgment for all covenant-breaking—adultery included—was satisfied in Him.
What About “God Hates Divorce”?
That line comes from Malachi 2:16, where God rebuked priests who were dismissing their wives while still offering sacrifices.
He wasn’t saying He hates divorced people—He was hating the violence done to love.
“For the Lord God of Israel says that He hates divorce, for it covers one’s garment with violence.” — Malachi 2:16
God hates what betrayal does to His image in us: trust broken, hearts wounded, promises shattered.
But in that same chapter, He calls Himself a witness to their pain.
He hates what wounds His children, not His children for being wounded.
And the Cross proves it.
The very thing He hates—sin’s destruction of love—is what Jesus carried to end.
Paul’s Words (Romans 7:1–4)
Paul’s “adulteress” language trips people up because it sounds like confirmation of guilt. But look closely: he’s not writing a manual on marriage—he’s preaching about law and grace.
“For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband... Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead.” — Romans 7:2, 4
Paul is using marriage as a metaphor for covenant.
Humanity’s first “husband” was the Law—an unrelenting partner that exposed sin but couldn’t heal it.
When Christ died, we died with Him. Death ends covenantal obligation.
So the believer is no longer “married” to the Law, but now joined to Christ in a new covenant of grace.
That’s why Paul says, “She will be called an adulteress.”
The Law can still call her that—but the accusation has no authority. The Cross ended that covenant and its power to condemn.
You are free to belong entirely to Jesus. The Law may still whisper your label, but grace has the final word: righteous.
Grace and Remarriage
Grace doesn’t treat marriage lightly. It honors it enough to heal the hearts crushed beneath it.
If the Cross paid for all sin, there is no leftover guilt attached to remarriage.
You’re not living in ongoing adultery; you’re living under ongoing grace.
This doesn’t erase the past—it redeems it.
You don’t stand before God as a divorced or remarried person trying to get right; you stand as one already made right by Jesus’ faithfulness.
Conclusion
Jesus’ and Paul’s words reveal how impossible perfection is under the Law—and how sufficient grace is after the Cross.
If you’ve lived under the fear that remarriage marks you as an adulterer forever, hear this:
“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” — Romans 8:1
The Law may still call you guilty.
Grace calls you beloved.
And heaven agrees with grace.
