Remarrying the first spouse

This post is holding the opposite conclusion from my previous post: Repentance After Unbiblical Divorce

 

Below are quotations from: 

1. Glenn A. Jobe, Is covenant-breaking adultery?, Marriage, Divorce, and remarriage, Jim Laws, Spiritual Sword Lectureship director in Memphis, TN, Oct 18-22, 1992. 

2. Gary Workman, Key Scriptures: 1 Corinthians 7:1-40, Jim Laws, Spiritual Sword Lectureship director in Memphis, TN, Oct 18-22, 1992. 

Can remarry the first spouse who sinned on fornication?

Woman A who puts away Man B for fornication may later take him back when there has been no intervening marriage to act as a barrier of such. They are simply restoring what they once had. 

Repentance on his part is surely a must and total forgiveness is must on her part. Hosea took Gomer back. God takes back those who have committed spiritual adultery and have broken their marriage vows to him upon repentance, prayer and confession — His second law of pardon.  

The Greek words in Mt 19:9 and 1 Cor. 7:11.

In Mt 19:9, “put away” in Greek word is “apoluō ap-ol-oo’-o (G630).” 

In 1 Cor 7:11, “depart” in Greek means “chōrizō kho-rid’-zo (G5563). “Put away” in Greek is “aphiēmi af-ee’-ay-mee (G863). 

That both “chorizo” and “aphieml” in 1 Cor 7:11 can embrace both separation and divorce. The very fact that Paul instructed a Christian who does chorizo a mate to “remain unmarried” makes it perfectly clear that not only a separation but also a legal dissolution of the marriage is in view. The verb embraces both possibilities. 

The word “chorizo” is the very word used by Jesus in forbidding man to “put asunder” a marriage (Mt 19:6). That this was given in answer to a question about divorce (apoluo — Mt 19:3) shows what the word means. (Gary, p.385). 

Be reconciled to her husband in 1 Cor 7:11 after divorce for unscriptural reasons.

Since Paul was told an unscripturally divorced woman to be reconciled to her husband, the view that a few brethren are now espousing — that it would be sinful for her to do so — is not correct. This view is based on a misunderstanding of, “Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries one who is divorced from a husband commits adultery” (LK 16:18). 

That this cannot be applied to a divorced person remarrying his original spouse is proved by the word “adultery.” Adultery cannot take place without a third party (Ezk 16:32). 

Ezk 16:32 says, “You adulteress wife, who takes strangers instead of her husband!”

Since there is no third party in this case, there is no adultery! (Gary, p. 386).   

The breaking of God’s covenant did not release Israel from it. Neither do the unscripturally divorced people today from the marriage covenant. 

No one can so sin against a marriage so as to break it. No one can break wedlock unless God authorizes the dissolution of marriage. Paul says, “For the woman that hath a husband is bound by law to the husband while he liveth” (Rom 7:2). (Glenn, p.523)

Jer 3:6-10, “Then the LORD said to me in the days of Josiah the king, "Have you seen what faithless Israel did? She went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and she was a harlot there. Jer 3:7  "I thought, 'After she has done all these things she will return to Me'; but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. Jer 3:8  "And I saw that for all the adulteries of faithless Israel, I had sent her away and given her a writ of divorce, yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear; but she went and was a harlot also. Jer 3:9  "Because of the lightness of her harlotry, she polluted the land and committed adultery with stones and trees. Jer 3:10  "Yet in spite of all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to Me with all her heart, but rather in deception," declares the LORD.”

Judah’s disobedience of the covenant did not release her from the covenant. God had not yet put Judah away. But through her continued refusal to repent, He would do the same to her as He did to Israel. 

This same principle is expressed in Rom 7:1-3, “Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives? Rom 7:2  For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. Rom 7:3  So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man.” 

The innocent party of a marriage MAY put away a mate who is a fornicator. This is the only cause given by God for the dissolution of the marriage bond. Yet, the couple remains married until the guilty party is put away. (Gary, p.525)

God holds men and women to their marriage bonds and does not allow them to “put asunder what God hath joined together.” The disciples understood the marriage relationship to be a serious matter in Mt 19:10-12). (Gary, p.533)

It is better to want to be married and not find the right woman, then to marry the wrong woman and be stuck with her for the rest of your life. Likewise, it is better to go a little longer without elders than to put unqualified men into office and not know what to do with them. 

Man is not released form divine covenants (whether between God and man or with covenants God establishes between humans, such as the marriage covenant) simply upon man’s violation of them. (Gary, p.534)