​A punishment in the form of slow agonizing transition from the world of the living to the world of the Dead. The criminal was tied tightly, hand to hand, foot to foot, and mouth to mouthto the corpse. Death didn’t come from a single strike. Instead, the prisoner died from the septic shock and gangrene caused by the bacteria from the decomposing body entering their own system through the skin and breath in a literal manifestation of the person’s crime; they were forced to become their victim.

Being alive but bound to something dead and decaying, is the same as a person without Christ, or a believer who clings to the “old self”, therefore they are essentially carrying around spiritual death.

The pain and corruption spread inward until there’s no life left. In contrast, 2 Corinthians 5:17 offers God’s antidote: “If anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation; the old has passed away, the new has come.”

The transformation isn’t cosmetic but total;it’s a rebirth of desires, identity, and purpose. John Wesley’s commentary captures this beautifully: “the believer gains new faculties and affections, seeing the world and themselves differently because the dead self has finally been released.”

In Romans 7, Paul speaks of dying to the old law and to sin so that we might belong to Christ is a call to leave behind mere religion, which in fact is only external practice and embrace relationship which is inner renewal. In this sense, spiritual adultery is trying to serve two masters: Christ and the flesh, life and death, freedom and bondage. Hence my previous question: “are you tied to a corpse?”

This should challenge all to self-examination, Grace not withstanding; Have you, truly allowed the old self to die, or do you still drag it behind you?

The image I’ve used is unpleasant by design, yet it’s used to fully confront the reader with the reality of sin’s decay and the beauty of new life in Jesus.