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In this section, Paul turns to the second part of his reason for his negative answer to the question raised in the previous chapter at verse 15: “Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?” Paul answer to this question is a vigorous “May it not be.” In verses 16 thru 23 of chapter 6, Paul gives his reasons for his answer: we do not have to sin, because we can choose to whom we want to be obedient, whether to sin or to righteousness. In the rest of the chapter 6, he shows why his readers or anyone should choose to be a slave of righteousness rather than of sin.  “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord”                        ( Rom. 6:23).  Now Paul turns to the second part of his reason for the negative answer. Here Paul will explain why we are not under law but under grace.

ROMANS 7:1-6.
1. Or are you ignorant, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man for so long as he lives?  2. For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if the husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband.  3. So then if, while the husband is living, she becomes joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress;  but if the husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress, although she become joined to another man.  4. So, my brethren, you also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ that you should be joined to another, to him who was raised from dead, that we might bear fruit to God.  5. For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were through the law, were energized in our members to bear fruit unto death.  6. But now we have been released from the law, having died to that in which we were held, so that we might serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.

7:1. Or are you ignorant, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man for so long as he lives?

Paul opens this section with a question.  “Or are you ignorant, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man for so long as he lives?”   This question is not like the questions in 6:1 and 6:15 raised by an opponent, but a question raised by Paul himself to refocus his reader’s attention on a different subject, the law. He addresses his question to those who know the law, for they will not be ignorant of this fact about the law: the law has dominion over a man for only so long as he lives. Are they ignorant of that? The obvious answer is no; they are not ignorant of that.

7:2. For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if the husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband.

To illustrate this fact, Paul uses an example from marriage. In this verse, he uses a well-known example from the law of marriage to illustrate that it is the nature of law that any law has dominion and power over a person only as long as he is alive. His example illustrates that the law of marriage binds a man and woman together as long as they are both alive. In this example, if the husband died, the wife would be free from the law which legally binds her to her husband. Paul could just as well said that if the wife died the husband would be free from the marriage law. The point is that the death of either partner in the marriage discharges (katergeo) the other partner from the law.

7:3. So then if, while the husband is living, she becomes joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if the husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress, although she become joined to another man.

In this verse, Paul drives home the point that death so completely discharges them from the law, that in the case of marriage law, if the living partner enters into marriage to another person, he or she would not be considered to be an adulterer or adulteress. If either had enter into a marriage while the other partner is alive, they would be called legally an adulterer or adulteress. Paul here is not teaching for or against divorce. He is simply illustrating the fact about the law that death sets aside dominion of the law.

7:4. So, my brethren, you also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ that you should be joined to another, to him who was raised from dead, that we might bear fruit to God.

In this verse, Paul applies his illustration from marriage.  “So, my brethren, you also were made dead to the law by the body of Christ so that you should be jointed to another, to him who was raised from the dead, so that we may bear fruit to God.”  We are not under law because we died with Christ to the law and now belong to Him who was raised from the dead in order that we might bear fruit to God. We should resist the attempt to press Paul’s analogy here into a full allegory where every part of story has an analogous counterpart in the application of the story. In the application here, Paul does not say that the husband is the law and the law dies. Nor does he say that the woman corresponds to the believer. This is not an allegory but an illustration with one point of correspondence: death sets aside the dominion of the law. To try to turn this into an allegory where the woman is the believer and the husband is the law, just does not fit. In the allegory, the husband dies but in the application the believer (that would be the woman in the allegory) dies with Christ. True, the believer dies to the law so that he can be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead. But this only means that Paul also used another point of analogy in his illustration to bring out the truth that we not only died with Christ to the law but we also have been raised with Christ and are now alive with Him, being joined to Him. But this does not make it an allegory.

In the last clause of this verse, Paul says the purpose of our being joined to Christ is that we might bring forth fruit to God. Here Paul picks up again the fruit metaphor he used in chapter 6, verses 20 and 21. In the next verse, Paul will contrast this fruit to the fruit we had before in the flesh.

7:5. For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were through the law, were energized in our members to bear fruit unto death.

In this and next verse, Paul explains his application. When we were in the flesh under the law, the sinful passion, which were through the law, were energized in our members to bear fruit unto death. Paul here is speaking to Jewish believers, as he has been since the beginning of the chapter. Note the reference to his readers as “brethren” in verse one and as “my brethren” in the previous verse. The phrase “in the flesh” means “when we were unsaved, apart from Christ.” See Rom. 8:8-9. Paul here hints at the real difficulty with the law. The law becomes the unintended aid of sin. The sinful passions are through the law energized in our members. And the result is fruit unto death. In the next section ( 7:7-12), Paul will explain what this means.

7:6. But now we have been released from the law, having died to that in which we were held, so that we might serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.

In this verse, Paul finishes the explanation started in the last verse.  “But now we have been released from the law, having died to that in which we were held, so that we might serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.”  Referring back to what he said in verse 4 about being dead to the law through the body of Christ, Paul uses the word that he used in verse 2, katargeo translated “released,” to assert the believer’s freedom from the law. The believer was “held fast” in a bondage of the law. The believer is now set free from that bondage to the law so that he might serve as a slave, a slave of righteousness ( Rom. 6:18, 20), in a different manner, that is, “in newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.” Here Paul is referring to the difference between the service to God in the old covenant of the law and the service to God in the new covenant of the Spirit.

“⁴ And such confidence we have through Christ toward God.  ⁵ Not that we are competent from ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our competency is from God, ⁶ who also made us competent as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit;  for the letter kills, but the Spirit makes alive.”    (II Cor. 3:4-6 ERS).