But, however this may be, even if there is an exception in the case of such sin, to the general law against putting away, _there is no exception whatever to the general law against re-marriage in each other’s lifetime_. “Whosoever shall put away his wife” (“except it be for fornication,” belongs only to these words, most clearly not to those that follow), “and shall marry another, committeth adultery; and whoso marrieth her which is put away” (this means in the original Greek _any_ divorced woman) “doth commit adultery.” You get the full force of this whole prohibition, if you bear in mind that our Lord is answering the Pharisees’ reference to the permission given by Moses in the first and second verses of the 24th chapter of Deuteronomy, and showing what was to be observed in future. With reference to the first verse, which recognises putting away in certain cases, Christ says, “Whoso putteth away his wife (except it be for fornication), and marrieth another, committeth adultery.” In answer to the second verse, in which Moses permits, “When she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man’s wife,” Christ says, “_Whosoever marrieth any divorced woman_, _committeth adultery_.” This, then, is the sum of the matter:—_Perhaps_ Christ permits a man so to put away a faithless wife, as no longer to have his home and children contaminated by her presence, or to be responsible for her maintenance and recognition as his wife: but He does not allow him to take another wife in her lifetime; and if any one marries her, He counts him an adulterer, a sinner of that odious class which God, when He ruled temporally, commanded to be stoned to death, and whom He still condemns to spiritual and eternal death, saying through His apostle, that they “shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” {12}