Honest as they may be, what these misguided brethren are really doing, in making such a contention, is confusing the forgiveness of sins with the consequences of sin. Such mistakes will never lead one to accurate conclusions.
The Bible’s teaching on divorce and remarriage, though difficult to accept, is easy to understand. In speaking to some Pharisees who wanted to know if He permitted divorce for just ‘any old reason,’ Jesus made clear that there was only one reason God permitted divorce (
Mt. 19:9). [As a side note: God is the One who joins man and woman in marriage. Shouldn’t He also have the right to say upon what basis they can separate?] Christ’s law on divorce and remarriage is clear: Unless one gets a divorce for the reason that their spouse physically cheated on them, then they do not have God’s approval in that divorce; and anyone they marry, after their unauthorized divorce, would be entering into an adulterous union with them (cf.
Mt. 5:32). Christ’s teaching in
Matthew 19:9 is for everyone (notice the “whoever”), not just Christians.
Everyone who remarries, after an unauthorized divorce, “commits adultery” (
Mt. 19:9). The Greek verb, which translates “commits adultery” in English, is in the present tense...meaning continuous action. That means this: the person who thus enters a second, unauthorized marriage literally enters a state of “living in adultery,” and remains there until the adulterous marriage is dissolved (i.e., repented of).
So our misguided brethren, who say I am teaching baptism washes away all sins except adultery, have missed a key point in Bible teaching: that the ‘forgiveness of sin’ is not the same thing as the ‘consequences of sin.’ Yes, a person who unscripturally divorces their mate can be forgiven for that sin; but the consequences of that sin are that they must remain unmarried or reconcile with their initial spouse (
1 Cor. 7:11) if they wish to be right with God. May God strengthen the church to lovingly, yet firmly, teach this difficult truth to a world that has been ruptured by the plague of divorce. Only then can we say that we are the friend of Jesus--when we are willing to teach and practice exactly what He taught and practiced (
John 14:15,
21).