Jesus said, "And I say to you, 'Whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery: and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery.'" (Matthew 19:9) Jesus made it clear that "whoever" divorces for a reason other than the sexual immorality (fornication) of his or her spouse, and then marries another person, "commits adultery." That being the case, what does God require of the adulterer who wants to become a Christian? What does repentance demand of him, with respect to his adulterous marriage, in order to be saved? To truly repent of his adultery, must he leave the sinful relationship, or may he stay in the remarriage wherein Jesus said he is committing adultery?
Some brethren advocate that such a person need not end the adulterous remarriage in order to repent and be forgiven. Instead, they define adultery as "treacherous treatment" of the marriage covenant, i.e., divorce and remarriage. In order to repent, they opine, one need not end the second marriage, but merely repent of the first-marriage divorce (having treacherously dealt with their marriage covenant) by determining to stay in the second marriage and no longer divorce. By redefining adultery, these people allow the remarriages of fornicators to stand, while assuring them that they have fully repented of their sins by agreeing never to again divorce.
Adultery is a sexual sin:
- "Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, they said to Him, 'Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act.'" (John 8:3, 4)
- "Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent. Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds." (Revelation 2:20-22)
- "Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge." (Hebrews 13:4).
Those who redefine adultery to mean divorce and remarriage are twisting God's word to their own destruction (2 Peter 3:16)!
Now, back to repentance. What do we teach a thief who became rich at the expense of his victims? Would we not tell him to return the stolen goods? Or, what about the homosexual? After baptism, can he continue in his unholy relationship, or must he repent and cease his sin? Or, what about polygamy (which is adultery, Romans 7:2; Matthew 19:4-6)? (Those who redefine adultery should answer this question without ambiguity: "Is the polygamist today committing adultery by having plural wives?" If so, is his adultery a sexual or a nonsexual sin?) May the polygamist, upon believing and being baptized, keep his extra wives, so long as he repents and takes no new ones? Or, must be end his sinful relationships with all women except the one to whom God joined him (Matthew 19:6)? When the polygamist commits adultery by taking extra wives, but later repents of his sin, he must cease his adultery. The same holds true of adultery that is the result of unlawful remarriage (Matthew 19:9).
To bring forth fruits worthy of repentance, one must cease his sin - whether that sin is of a sexual nature or of some other sort.
- "Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones." (Luke 3:8)
- "But declared first to those in Damascus and in Jerusalem, and throughout all the region of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent, turn to God, and do works befitting repentance." (Acts 26:20)
- "But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts." (Revelation 9:20-21)
One must bear the fruit of repentance in order to be saved from his sin: "For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death." (2 Corinthians 7:10) Also read Colossians 3:5-10 and 1 Corinthians 6:9-11.
"But," some brethren argue, "You cannot commit adultery with your spouse." The apostle Paul said that you can: "So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is .free from that law, so that she is not adulteress, though she has married another man." (Romans 7:3) Jesus said you can (Matthew 19:9). Enough said?
Another related issue is whether the alien sinner is subject to Christ's teaching on marriage, divorce, and remarriage. In fact, since some brethren are now advocating that they are not, this becomes their basis for redefining adultery and repentance. Of course, from the beginning, marriage was given to all men, and all men are today under Christ's authority over marriage and all other subjects (Matthew 19:4-9; Genesis 2:24; Hebrews 13:4).
Truth will answer this emotional and controversial subject. We can "understand what the will of the Lord is" (Ephesians 5:17). Let us pray that God's truth will be glorified rather than perverted by the wisdom and will of men (Galatians 1:6-11; 2 Thessalonians 3:1).
Among brethren, there are as many as sixteen different positions concerning the marriage, divorce, and remarriage issue. Why so many? Sadly, many people we seek to teach the truth concerning their need for salvation have marriage problems. Some brethren have come up with these different positions in order to escape the need for converts to leave their unscriptural marriages. Unfortunately, such teaching is little more than lying to people and allowing their souls to remain in sin. Christ's blood removes sin-not relationships. We understand that the drunkard must put down the bottle; the drug addict must stop using drugs; and the gambler must not place another bet. Yet, the one living in an adulterous relationship can repent and then return to his adultery.
The truth is, of course, that the difficulty lies in the fact that the human relationship is an emotional issue. But the number of years a couple has spent together, the children born to their relationship, and the love they share do not alter the plain teaching in God's word. I do not preach on marriage, divorce, and remarriage unless I accompany the lesson with one on Bible repentance. When people fully understand the Bible's teaching on repentance, many of the erroneous positions on marriage, divorce, and remarriage will fade away like the night. Brother Price said it best-repentance demands that we cease from sinning-ANY SIN!! (KMG)