Jesus frequently used metaphors to help people understand, but Paul normally didn't. Paul usually “talked” straight through a subject, with thoughts and explanations so deep and complex that readers would have to spend a good deal of time and thought to follow him accurately, as Peter acknowledged in 2 Peter 3:15-16.

But Paul has been using the metaphor of slavery, and now he’ll switch to a metaphor of marriage, to describe how humans are related to law and sin.

7:1a "Do you not know, brothers - for I am speaking to men who know the law..."
Paul is clearly addressing Jewish members of this church here.

They would naturally have the strongest objection to the radical grace he is calling believers to embrace.

"...that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives?"
He is talking about the Law’s authority. Keep that firmly in mind. it will be easy to lose track of that in the verses that follow, and doing so could lead to significant misinterpretation. But if we keep in mind that Paul's topic is the authority of the law, the analogy that begins in the next verse will make perfect sense.

7:1b "For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive..."
His example is clear. The woman’s subservience is to the law of marriage, not to her husband's authority.

The woman here is controlled by a law that binds a woman to her husband. But that law only has authority over her while her husband is alive. If her husband dies, that law no longer has authority over her. Her husband's death cancels that law's authority. Law no longer controls her.

Principle: Law has no authority over dead people. People outside of Christ live with the law as their master. Law controls them. It also binds them to sin. But those who are in Christ have died to the law, thus it no longer controls or enslaves them. As Paul said back in Romans 6:2, "We died to sin…" [which is what the law has authority over] "…so how can we live in it any longer?"

So his message to Jewish Christians is, “If you remain committed to the Law, you commit adultery against the grace God gave you!”

This is equivalent to the "rebellious slave" in his previous analogy: "even though she marries another man" (Romans 7:3).

To make sure this is clear before moving on, it's important to clearly recognize these facts:

1. Our first husband is LAW.
2. Our second husband is GRACE.
3. Law bound us to sin. Grace binds us to righteousness.
4. We could only marry Grace when Law died.
   

7:4a: "So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ... "

This single verse is packed with meaning and application, so we need to take time with it.

Just as the law of marriage bound the wife to her husband until he died, so the law which had authority over me - as it does over everyone who is outside of grace - bound me to sin. I could only be freed from sin and married to grace if the law died.

When I died to sin through Christ’s sacrifice and became married to grace, the law no longer had authority over me just as a dead husband has no authority over his wife.

Through grace I am no longer controlled by the law of marriage to sin. I am free to marry righteousness.

It is essential to understand this very well, so I'd like to explore it a little more.

Keep in mind that Christ became sin for us. Consider the following verses, which explain this more succinctly:

• 2COR 5:21: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 
• GAL 3:13: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.’”
• 1PET 2:24: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness.”
  

4b "...that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead..."

Likewise, Paul says here, the law (to whom we are all married by nature) must die for you so that you can become Christ's bride.

Christ became sin, my first husband! When He died, sin died. That meant that the law that bound me to sin no longer applied. I was then free to marry another, and then in His resurrection, Christ offered Himself as my second husband.

My first husband is the Law.
My second husband is the risen Christ.

No, not at all. The very reason I die to law is to marry righteousness “that we should bear fruit to God!” (v.4).

Under grace we are free from the authority of the law – and thus free from bondage to sin – so that we can bear righteous fruit to God! The weight has been removed, the shackles unlatched, and we may now live uninhibited, righteous lives!

Sorry for all the exclamation marks, but man how awesome this is!!!

7:5-6 "For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death..."

While we were still married to the Law, we were still bound to sin (v.5). We bore fruit for death. The law aroused our sinful passions, and we gave into them.

Death is the opposite of God, Who is life and the author of life. Death is God's enemy.

"...But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code."

Since we died to sin, we are free to serve in the new way of the Spirit. Sin’s life no longer binds us to that law, so we are released to serve in a new way – by the Spirit rather than by rules.


It frees us from sin's control and causes us to desire - and to accomplish - the things that honor God, which we could never do under law.

A Note About That Freedom:
Imagine a woman who is married to a domineering, demanding, perfectionist. Every day the husband demands perfect adherence to his list of standards – standards far too strenuous for the wife to live up to. No excuses of weakness, stress, or conflict will do. She lives each day knowing that, no matter how hard she tries, at the end of the day she will suffer her husband’s fierce wrath for the areas in which she failed. She serves her husband, but out of fear and compulsion - not out of desire. To make it worse, her husband holds himself to rigid adherence to his own standards and, because he set the standards himself, he succeeds. She pales in comparison to him.

After many years of misery, fear, and failure Mr. Law dies. The woman is finally set free. Understandably, at her former husband's funeral there are more sighs of relief than tears of sorrow. Inside, she celebrates his passing. She quickly marries a kind, compassionate man and does for him what she did for her first husband - but now she does it out of deep desire, with utmost love, and without fear of failure for the rest of her life.

So then, what about when Christians do sinful things?

It isn’t fraud when Christians go back to Christ again and again to accept forgiveness from His patient heart. It doesn’t nullify our marriage to Him. There is no one to condemn us! We do not fear that Christ, our good Husband, will terminate our marriage when we act according to our old habits. He went to greater lengths than we can fathom to die and free us from the guilt and the bondage to sin. Would He so easily take back His sacrifice?

Being obedient vs. Being Who You Are:
As a young child I remember Mom fighting and forcing to get me to bathe well, keep my hair combed, and brush my teeth. But sometime in my teenage years there was a very recognizable change. Rather than fighting to keep me in the bathroom, Mom suddenly had to set time limits on how quickly I needed to get out of the bathroom. Otherwise, I would spend hours grooming myself.

There was a change in who I was, not in what I did.

No one needs to fear that grace will weaken our desire to be righteous. If anything, the desire under grace to be righteous is even greater, and it is certainly more sincere.

Rules and principles grounded in biblical truth aren’t bad, but they are powerless to accomplish their purposes. They work well as measuring rods, but they are inadequate foundations or motivators for behavior.

I can't make myself righteous through the Law any more than I can make myself 6’ tall using two yardsticks.

If rules and fear of failure guide my life, I’ll play right into sin’s hands. Sin will assault me and overpower my rules.

How? From personal experience, I'd say it is like this:

Sin can sabotage my rules, turn me into a Pharisee, and cause me to abandon God's grace.