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Commentary on Romans 7 verses 1–6
Among other arguments used in the foregoing chapter to persuade us against sin, and to holiness, this was one (Rom 7:14), that we are not under the law; and this argument is here further insisted upon and explained (Rom 7:6): We are delivered from the law. What is meant by this? And how is it an argument why sin should not reign over us, and why we should walk in newness of life? 1. We are delivered from the power of the law which curses and condemns us for the sin committed by us. The sentence of the law against us is vacated and reversed, by the death of Christ, to all true believers. The law saith, The soul that sins shall die; but we are delivered from the law. The Lord has taken away thy sin, thou shalt not die. We are redeemed from the curse of the law, Gal 3:13. 2. We are delivered from that power of the law which irritates and provokes the sin that dwelleth in us. This the apostle seems especially to refer to (Rom 7:5): The motions of sins which were by the law. The law, by commanding, forbidding, threatening, corrupt and fallen man, but offering no grace to cure and strengthen, did but stir up the corruption, and, like the sun shining upon a dunghill, excite and draw up the filthy steams. We being lamed by the fall, the law comes and directs us, but provides nothing to heal and help our lameness, and so makes us halt and stumble the more. Understand this of the law not as a rule, but as a covenant of works. Now each of these is an argument why we should be holy; for here is encouragement to endeavours, though in many things we come short. We are under grace, which promises strength to do what it commands, and pardon upon repentance when we do amiss. This is the scope of these verses in general, that, in point of profession and privilege, we are under a covenant of grace, and not under a covenant of works - under the gospel of Christ, and not under the law of Moses. The difference between a law-state and a gospel-state he had before illustrated by the similitude of rising to a new life, and serving a new master; now here he speaks of is under the similitude of being married to a new husband.
I. Our first marriage was to the law, which, according to the law of marriage, was to continue only during the life of the law. The law of marriage is binding till the death of one of the parties, no matter which, and no longer. The death of either discharges both. For this he appeals to themselves, as persons knowing the law (Rom 7:1): I speak to those that know the law. It is a great advantage to discourse with those that have knowledge, for such can more readily understand and apprehend a truth. Many of the Christians at Rome were such as had been Jews, and so were well acquainted with the law. One has some hold of knowing people. The law hath power over a man as long as he liveth; in particular, the law of marriage hath power; or, in general, every law is so limited - the laws of nations, of relations, of families, etc. 1. The obligation of laws extends no further; by death the servant who, while he lived, was under the yoke, is freed from his master, Job 3:19. 2. The condemnation of laws extends no further; death is the finishing of the law. Actio moritur cum person - The action expires with the person. The severest laws could but kill the body, and after that there is no more that they can do. Thus while we were alive to the law we were under the power of it - while we were in our Old Testament state, before the gospel came into the world, and before it came with power into our hearts. Such is the law of marriage (Rom 7:2), the woman is bound to her husband during life, so bound to him that she cannot marry another; if she do, she shall be reckoned an adulteress, Rom 7:3. It will make her an adulteress, not only to be defiled by, but to be married to, another man; for that is so much the worse, upon this account, that it abuses an ordinance of God, by making it to patronise the uncleanness. Thus were we married to the law (Rom 7:5): When we were in the flesh, that is, in a carnal state, under the reigning power of sin and corruption - in the flesh as in our element - then the motions of sins which were by the law did work in our members, we were carried down the stream of sin, and the law was but as an imperfect dam, which made the stream to swell the higher, and rage the more. Our desire was towards sin, as that of the wife towards her husband, and sin ruled over us. We embraced it, loved it, devoted all to it, conversed daily with it, made it our care to please it. We were under a law of sin and death, as the wife under the law of marriage; and the product of this marriage was fruit brought forth unto death, that is, actual transgressions were produced by the original corruption, such as deserve death. Lust, having conceived by the law (which is the strength of sin, Co1 15:56), bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death, Jam 1:15. This is the posterity that springs from this marriage to sin and the law. This comes of the motions of sin working in our members. And this continues during life, while the law is alive to us, and we are alive to the law.
II. Our second marriage is to Christ: and how comes this about? Why,
1.We are freed, by death, from our obligation to the law as a covenant, as the wife is from her obligation to her husband, Rom 7:3. This resemblance is not very close, nor needed it to be. You are become dead to the law, Rom 7:4. He does not say, "The law is dead" (some think because he would avoid giving offence to those who were yet zealous for the law), but, which comes all to one, You are dead to the law. As the crucifying of the world to us, and of us to the world, amounts to one and the same thing, so doth the law dying, and our dying to it. We are delivered from the law (Rom 7:6), katērgēthēmen - we are nulled as to the law; our obligation to it as a husband is cassated and made void. And then he speaks of the law being dead as far as it was a law of bondage to us: That being dead wherein we were held; not the law itself, but its obligation to punishment and its provocation to sin. It is dead, it has lost its power; and this (Rom 7:4) by the body of Christ, that is, by the sufferings of Christ in his body, by his crucified body, which abrogated the law, answered the demands of it, made satisfaction for our violation of it, purchased for us a covenant of grace, in which righteousness and strength are laid up for us, such as were not, nor could be, by the law. We are dead to the law by our union with the mystical body of Christ. By being incorporated into Christ in our baptism professedly, in our believing powerfully and effectually, we are dead to the law, have no more to do with it than the dead servant, that is free from his master, hath to do with his master's yoke.
2.We are married to Christ. The day of our believing is the day of our espousals to the Lord Jesus. We enter upon a life of dependence on him and duty to him: Married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, a periphrasis of Christ and very pertinent here; for as our dying to sin and the law is in conformity to the death of Christ, and the crucifying of his body, so our devotedness to Christ in newness of life is in conformity to the resurrection of Christ. We are married to the raised exalted Jesus, a very honourable marriage. Compare Co2 11:2; Eph 5:29. Now we are thus married to Christ, (1.) That we should bring forth fruit unto God, Rom 7:4. One end of marriage is fruitfulness: God instituted the ordinance that he might seek a godly seed, Mal 2:15. The wife is compared to the fruitful vine, and children are called the fruit of the womb. Now the great end of our marriage to Christ is our fruitfulness in love, and grace, and every good work. This is fruit unto God, pleasing to God, according to his will, aiming at his glory. As our old marriage to sin produced fruit unto death, so our second marriage to Christ produces fruit unto God, fruits of righteousness. Good works are the children of the new nature, the products of our union with Christ, as the fruitfulness of the vine is the product of its union with the root. Whatever our professions and pretensions may be, there is no fruit brought forth to God till we are married to Christ; it is in Christ Jesus that we are created unto good works, Eph 2:10. The only fruit which turns to a good account is that which is brought forth in Christ. This distinguishes the good works of believers from the good works of hypocrites and self-justifiers that they are brought forth in marriage, done in union with Christ, in the name of the Lord Jesus, Col 3:17. This is, without controversy, one of the great mysteries of godliness. (2.) That we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter, Rom 7:6. Being married to a new husband, we must change our way. Still we must serve, but it is a service that is perfect freedom, whereas the service of sin was a perfect drudgery: we must now serve in newness of spirit, by new spiritual rules, from new spiritual principles, in spirit and in truth, Joh 4:24. There must be a renovation of our spirits wrought by the spirit of God, and in that we must serve. Not in the oldness of the letter; that is, we must not rest in mere external services, as the carnal Jews did, who gloried in their adherence to the letter of the law, and minded not the spiritual part of worship. The letter is said to kill with its bondage and terror, but we are delivered from that yoke that we may serve God without fear, in holiness and righteousness, Luk 1:74, Luk 1:75. We are under the dispensation of the Spirit, and therefore must be spiritual, and serve in the spirit. Compare with this Co2 3:3, Co2 3:6, etc. It becomes us to worship within the veil, and no longer in the outward court.
Did not the law itself contain a foreshadowing of something like this when it commanded that a widow who was childless (for her husband had been impotent) should marry his brother? For the law of the Spirit is the brother of the law of the letter, and the woman will be better able to bear fruit from him.
For just as a woman is freed by the death of her husband from the law of her husband but not from the law of nature, so also they will be set free by the grace of God from the law by which they were held captive, so that it will be dead for them and they will not be adulterers by being joined to Christianity. For if the law lives in them they are adulterers and have no right to be called Christians, since they will be subject to punishment. Nor will he who is joined to the gospel after the death of the law and later returns to the law be an adulterer to the law but to the gospel. For when the law’s authority ceases, it is said to be dead.
Next, after hinting this at the commencement, he carries on what he has to say by way of proof, in the woman's case, in the following way. "For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the Law to her husband, so long as he liveth: but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the Law of her husband. So then, if while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she is 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." He keeps continually upon this point, and that with great exactness, since he feels quite sure of the proof grounded on it: and in the husband's place he puts the Law, but in the woman's, all believers. Then he adds the conclusion in such way, that it does not tally with the premiss; for what the context would require would be, "and so, my brethren, the Law doth not rule over you, for it is dead." But he does not say so, but only in the premiss hinted it, and in the inference, afterwards, to prevent what he says being distasteful, he brings the woman in as dead by saying, "Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the Law." As then the one or the other event gives rise to the same freedom, what is there to prevent his showing favor to the Law without any harm being done to the cause? "For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the Law to her husband as long as he liveth." What is become now of those that speak evil of the Law? Let them hear, how even when forced upon it, he does not bereave it of its dignity, but speaks great things of its power; if while it is alive the Jew is bound, and they are to be called adulterers who transgress it, and leave it whiles it is alive. But if they let go of it after it has died, this is not to be wondered at. For in human affairs no one is found fault with for doing this: "but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband."
As long as her husband is alive, a woman must live according to his will alone, but once he is dead and she is married to another man, she should no longer live in the manner of her former husband.
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SUMMARY
Romans 7:3 continues Paul's intricate analogy of marriage to elucidate the believer's liberation from the Law's dominion. Through this legal illustration, Paul explains that just as a woman is bound to her husband only for the duration of his life, becoming an adulteress if she marries another while he lives, so too is she freed from that specific marital law upon his death, enabling her to lawfully marry another without incurring the charge of adultery. This principle sets the groundwork for understanding how believers, through their identification with Christ's death, are similarly freed from the Law's condemning power to enter into a new, life-giving union with Christ.
CONTEXT
Literary Context: Romans 7:3 is an integral part of Paul's extended argument in Romans 7, which addresses believers who are familiar with the Mosaic Law. Paul begins in Romans 7:1 by stating that the Law has authority over a person only as long as they live. He immediately follows this with the marriage analogy in Romans 7:2, where he posits the legal bond of a wife to her living husband. Verse 3 then completes this initial premise by detailing the consequence of violating this bond (adultery) and, crucially, the condition under which the bond is dissolved (the husband's death). This entire illustration serves as a foundational premise for Paul's profound theological conclusion in Romans 7:4, where he applies the analogy directly to the believer's death to the Law through Christ's body. The immediate context is thus a carefully constructed legal and theological argument designed to explain the believer's new status.
Historical & Cultural Context: Paul's audience, particularly those "knowing the law" (Romans 7:1), would have been intimately familiar with the legal and social norms surrounding marriage in both Jewish and Roman societies. Under both legal systems, marriage was a binding covenant, and adultery was a serious offense, particularly for the woman, often carrying severe penalties. The principle that death dissolves a marriage bond was universally recognized and understood. Paul leverages this established legal reality—that a woman is bound to her husband until his death, after which she is free to remarry without being an adulteress—as a readily comprehensible illustration. He is not primarily discussing the ethics of divorce or remarriage, but rather using a clear, undisputed legal principle to illuminate a spiritual truth about the Law's authority and its termination through a metaphorical "death."
Key Themes: This verse contributes significantly to several major themes in Romans and Paul's broader theology. The primary theme is the Law's Dominion and Release. Paul establishes that the Law's authority is limited by death, setting the stage for the believer's freedom. This ties into the theme of Justification by Faith, as it underscores that righteousness is not achieved through adherence to the Law, which can only condemn. The Analogy of Marriage and Death is a central literary device, vividly illustrating the legal termination of a bond. Most importantly, it foreshadows the theme of Union with Christ. While not explicitly stated in this verse, the entire analogy builds towards the idea that believers have "died" with Christ to the Law, allowing for a new, spiritual marriage to the resurrected Christ, as detailed in Romans 7:4. This new union leads to the ultimate theme of Bearing Fruit for God, contrasting with the Law's inability to produce righteousness, as explored throughout Romans 7.
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Paul employs a powerful Analogy in Romans 7:3, using the universally understood legal principle of marriage and death to explain a complex theological truth. The marriage bond serves as a Metaphor for the believer's relationship to the Law, and the husband's death is a Symbol for the believer's identification with Christ's death. The precise Legal Language ("adulteress," "free from that law") lends authority and clarity to his argument, grounding the spiritual reality in a tangible, relatable human experience. The structure of the verse, presenting a conditional statement ("if...then") followed by a contrasting condition ("but if...then"), highlights the stark difference between being under the Law's condemnation and being freed from it.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Romans 7:3 is foundational for understanding the believer's freedom from the Law's condemning power. It underscores the theological truth that the Law, while holy and good, was never intended to provide righteousness or life; rather, it exposed sin and brought condemnation. Through Christ's death, believers are metaphorically "dead" to the Law, just as the wife is freed from her husband's law by his death. This liberation is not an invitation to lawlessness, but a divine provision for a new, life-giving union with the resurrected Christ, enabling genuine righteousness and fruit-bearing that the Law could never produce. It shifts the basis of our relationship with God from legalistic obligation to a covenant of grace, empowered by the Spirit.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Romans 7:3 offers profound assurance and a radical reorientation for the Christian life. It assures us that our past failures under the Law's demands no longer define us, nor does the Law hold us captive to condemnation. Our union with Christ's death has severed that old bond, granting us complete emancipation. This freedom is not an excuse for moral laxity but an empowerment for genuine righteousness, born out of love and gratitude for our new union with Christ. We are no longer striving to earn God's favor by keeping rules, but responding to His grace by living in the power of the Spirit, yielding fruit naturally. This understanding liberates us from the burden of legalism and invites us into a vibrant, Spirit-led life, where obedience flows from a transformed heart rather than from fear of punishment.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Does Romans 7:3 provide a biblical basis for divorce and remarriage?
Answer: No, Romans 7:3 does not provide a direct biblical basis for divorce and remarriage. Paul's primary purpose in this verse is not to discuss human marriage laws or divorce, but to use a universally understood legal principle—that death dissolves a marital bond—as an analogy for the believer's relationship to the Mosaic Law. The "death" in the analogy refers to the believer's identification with Christ's death, which frees them from the Law's dominion. The focus is on the dissolution of a legal bond by death, not on the circumstances of human divorce. Jesus' teachings in Matthew 19:3-9 and Paul's instructions in 1 Corinthians 7 are the primary passages that address marriage, divorce, and remarriage in the New Testament.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Romans 7:3, though an analogy rooted in the Law, finds its ultimate and glorious fulfillment in Christ. The "death" that frees the woman from her first husband's law perfectly prefigures the believer's spiritual death with Christ, which frees us from the Law's condemning power. When Christ died on the cross, He bore the full penalty of the Law for us, effectively dying to the Law on our behalf (Galatians 2:19). Through faith, we are united with Him in His death and resurrection (Romans 6:3-11), meaning that our "old self" has died with Him, and we are now raised to walk in newness of life. This union with the resurrected Christ is the "marriage to another" that Paul alludes to in Romans 7:4. Because Christ has fulfilled the Law and died to its curse, and we are in Him, we are no longer "under the law" but "under grace" (Romans 6:14). This new covenant union with Christ is not merely a legal freedom from something, but a dynamic, life-giving bond to Someone, enabling us to bear "fruit unto God" by the power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 7:4).