Romans 7:1-5 Know you not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? For the woman which has an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he lives; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband lives, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. Wherefore, my brethren, you also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that you should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
‘Know you not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives?’ In Romans 6:1-23 the obligations of all people to live a holy life was set forth. In Romans 7:1-25 it shows that the Jew is freed from all obligation to law keeping and shows why the law is helpless to deliver any man from sin and hell.
‘Be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband’ death breaks all marriage bonds.
‘Wherefore, my brethren, you also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that you should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead’ Here it is stated that Jews are dead to the law because Christ has fulfilled its types and prophecies and abolished it, so they can be married to Him and produce fruit.
‘Body of Christ’ – the body of Christ in sacrifice, not the congregations (Eph. 1:23; Col. 1:18, 24).
‘That we should bring forth fruit unto God’ referring to the fruit of John 15:16.
‘For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death’ – when we were in the flesh and carnal program of the law (Heb. 9:10), the passions of sin worked in our members by the law and produced sins that the law had to condemn to death. This is explained fully in Romans 7:7-25.
‘In the flesh’ – meaning living in sin (8:8-9).
‘By the law’ the motions of sins acted contrary to the law and were made exceedingly sinful by the law and that condemned them (7:13). The law was the means of disclosing how sinful we were.
Living the Word 