Rom 7:1-6 | Family | STEP | The apostle had shown, in chap , that "the law worketh wrath," and is unable to give justification and salvation. He had further said, in chap , that believers are not under law, but under grace. This latter idea he proceeds in the present chapter to unfold, in verses ; and while he vindicates the law as "holy, and just, and good," he yet shows the impossibility of gaining through it a victory over sin, in verses . He then goes on to show, throughout the whole of the eighth chapter, the blessed state of those who are not under law, but under grace. The law ; the Mosaic law, as he proceeds to illustrate.

Romans 7:1-6

The apostle had shown, in chap Ro 4:15, that "the law worketh wrath," and is unable to give justification and salvation. He had further said, in chap Ro 6:14, that believers are not under law, but under grace. This latter idea he proceeds in the present chapter to unfold, in verses Ro 7:1-6; and while he vindicates the law as "holy, and just, and good," he yet shows the impossibility of gaining through it a victory over sin, in verses Ro 7:7-25. He then goes on to show, throughout the whole of the eighth chapter, the blessed state of those who are not under law, but under grace.

The law; the Mosaic law, as he proceeds to illustrate. Loosed from the law of her husband; from the law which, so long as he lived, bound him to her as her husband, and thus bound her to him. She is free from that law; the release of her husband from it by death, is her release also. Ye also are become dead to the law; in carrying out the comparison, the apostle necessarily changes its form somewhat. He could not well say that the law, which may be here regarded as their former husband, was dead. Instead of that, he says, Ye are become dead to the law; the essential idea being that the death of either party dissolves the relation existing between them.

By the body of Christ; by his crucified body making expiation for your sins. Thus ye are released from the law as a means of justification before God, so that ye are no longer in this respect bound to it, any more than a woman is bound to her husband after he is dead. Thus the way is prepared that ye should be married to another, even Christ; in other words, should come into a state of justification by virtue of your union with Christ through faith. Deliverance from the law of God as a covenant of works, and from the necessity of obeying it as a ground of justification, is essential to the obeying of it as a rule of duty. In the flesh; in their natural state, with no ground for justification except obedience to law, and under the necessity of perfectly obeying it or suffering its curse. Its strict requirements and its awful threatenings, instead of leading them to love and obey it, were the occasion, through their wickedness, of exciting against it greater hatred and more violent rebellion; thus, in the language of the Holy Ghost, "bringing forth fruit unto death." We; Christians, who have seen that by the works of the law we cannot be justified, have given up dependence on obedience to it, and are trusting in the atonement and righteousness of Christ for salvation.

Are delivered from the law; not as a just measure of obligation, but as a ground of justification, and from liability to suffer its curse.

That being dead; the marginal reading, "being dead to that," is much to be preferred. It is a repetition of the idea that they are dead to the law, as in verse Ro 7:4.

That we should serve in newness of spirit; serve God not in external form merely, or from slavish fear, but in spirit and in truth, from love to God and his laws.