my weird, gross bible

I usually try to read a psalm during my morning prayer time, and lately I've been reading one chapter of Romans every day (and a different one each week). It's been a huge blessing, but I'm not going to lie and say I always understand what I read! For example, last night I read these puzzling verses in Romans 7:

Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. (Romans 7:4-5)

Is it just me, or is Paul using sexual innuendo as a metaphor for new life in Christ? Maybe I'm just prudish, but that surprised me. I'm pretty sure I'm not reading too much into it though, considering the context (verses 1-3) are about marriage laws:

Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress. (Romans 7:1-3)

So essentially, Paul seems to be saying in verses 4 and 5 that we were bound (figuratively married) to the law before, and the offspring of that union was death. When, through Christ's death, our flesh died, our marriage/binding/obligation to the law was severed. We are spiritually resurrected through our faith in Christ's resurrection, so we are able to figuratively remarry—as the bride of Christ. The offspring of this new union should be "fruit for God" (v. 4), i.e. the fruits of the Spirit.

WHAT!?

I mean, a disclaimer here is probably a good idea: I am by no means a biblical scholar or in any way authorized as a theologian. But that's what it sounds like Paul's trying to get at. A marriage metaphor that includes both the sexual (the part about our sinful passions being aroused by the law... yuck) and legal aspects of a marriage. The Bible is SO WEIRD! But SO. ALIVE. I mean what's more alive than sex?

I hope I haven't scarred anyone, but let's be honest—

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)

...when this is the way Scripture describes itself, I think we can pretty safely expect it to awe us, surprise us, and even gross us out. Or, I mean, I guess maybe this doesn't gross anyone out but me. I'll revisit this after I get married and let y'all know.


Does anyone have any examples of weird stuff they've found studying the Bible? Leave a comment!


- Deanna

P.S. f any real biblical scholars happen to stumble across this, please feel free to correct my potentially horrifying interpretations of scripture. Love me some theology!