Romans 7:1-6 – Free from the Law

So that verse belongs in the timeline of Christian living, not necessarily in the traditional “Romans Road” tracts we’ve all seen about how to be saved.

Now to Romans 7, but first, It’s interesting to notice how Romans uses certain words more than any other book: faith’s mentioned 39 times, grace 24 times, law 78 times, flesh 26 times, and spirit 21 times. There’s a sort of progression that runs:

Romans 3–4: faith without works.

Romans 4–5: grace and the free gift.

Romans 5–7: sin and our relationship to it.

Romans 7: the law.

Romans 8: flesh vs Spirit.

Romans 7 is a key chapter for a Christian because there’s many Christian arguments about the believer’s relationship to the law. Are we under it? Are we part of it? Can it condemn us? Do we get the blessings but not the curses? Paul answers all that.

Romans 7:1 says,

Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?

This isn’t a new subject. We already learned in Romans 6:14–15 that we’re not under the law.

Romans 3 taught that the law cannot justify. Romans 4–5 taught that salvation is without the deeds of the law.

Yet, through Romans 6, we know we’re now servants of God, yielding our members to righteousness. And that raises the question: if we’re servants, is that the same as being under the law? The Jew would especially think so, because the law created servants with rules and commands.

So Paul has to explain that our service to God now is not law‑service. We’re under grace. We’re dead to sin, and we’re also dead to the law. The law cannot help us live the Christian life. It cannot condemn us, and it cannot empower us. We have no living relationship to it.

Paul says, “I speak to them that know the law.” That means Jews, because they were given the oracles of God as we saw in Romans 3:1–2. They knew the law better than anyone. And Paul needs to show them — and us — that in Christ, the timeline’s changed. The law belonged to the old man. Grace belongs to the new man.

In Romans 7, Paul turns to the Jewish problem with grace.

Back in Romans 2:17–20, he already said the Jew “rested in the law,” he “boasted of God,” and was “instructed out of the law.” Israel alone received God’s law. Gentiles never rested in it.

So when Paul now teaches salvation by grace without works, baptism into Christ’s death, not with water, and living under grace instead of law, the Jew naturally asks, “What about the law that God gave us?” That law was a privilege. Every command was a way to worship God. So, saying justification comes without the law could be offensive to a jew.

So, when in Romans 7:1 Paul says, “I speak to them that know the law.” That means he was speaking to Jews and the Gentiles who sat in synagogues learning the law.

Moses never had dominion over Gentiles. The law was given to Israel alone. Romans 2:14 says Gentiles “have not the law.” Romans 3:19 says the law speaks “to them who are under the law.” That’s not everyone. God gave Israel a privileged position, then gave the law to show even privileged people cannot keep it, so “every mouth may be stopped.”

Paul shows us a timeline. Romans 5:14 says that from Adam to Moses there was no law. Sin was in the world, but “sin is not imputed where there is no law.” So when Paul says “the law,” he means the specific law God gave through Moses to Israel.

A lot of the book of Romans deals with Jewish issues because Paul’s grace message created friction for Jews. God had operated through the law for centuries, and now Paul says the law cannot justify, cannot sanctify, and cannot give life. Today, many Christians think they’re “spiritual Israel,” so they try to put themselves under the law. Paul’s teaching in Romans 7 helps correct that. Circumcision avails nothing. Keeping the law avails nothing. Tithing, water baptism, feast days — none of that puts us in Christ.

So, Paul in our opening verse here says, “the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth.”

For a Jew, yes. For a Gentile, no. A Jew could tell a Gentile, “You didn’t tithe,” and the Gentile could say, “That law wasn’t given to me.” But Paul’s real question is much bigger. Are Jews still bound to the law after believing the gospel of grace?

If a Jew gets saved, should he keep living under Moses’ law? Some people even teach today that Gentiles are saved by grace, but Jews must keep the law. Paul says no.

This is the issue in Galatians 3 as well.

Gentiles there in Galatia were being pressured to keep the law to stay holy, almost like becoming Israel. Paul rebukes them in Galatians 3:1,

O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?

Christ crucified is the timeline marker. The cross ends the law’s dominion.

Romans 7 will show that if we’re in Christ — Jew or Gentile — we died to the law. We’re not bound to it for justification, sanctification, or service. We now serve God under grace, not under Moses.

Paul asks the Galatians a simple question in Galatians 3:2:

Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith?

He says in Galatians 3:3,

Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?

Those words — law, flesh, Spirit — show the same problem we see in Romans 7. The Galatians were Gentiles, so it was foolish for them to think they needed the law. But behind that is the bigger question: Are Jews still bound to the law? Is the law still required for service, even if not for salvation?

Paul answers in Galatians 3:21:

Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.

But Scripture shows that all men are under sin, so the promise comes by faith in Christ.

Then Paul makes the bold statement in Galatians 3:28,

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

From Moses to Paul, there was always Jew and Gentile.

But now, in Christ, that identity’s gone. The one identity now is Christ Jesus, not flesh, not law.

This shows God’s timeline shift: Israel under Moses to Christ revealed to the mystery given to Paul to the body of Christ with no Jew or Gentile.

So when Paul says in Romans 7:1, “I speak to them that know the law,” he’s talking to Jews or Gentiles who sat in synagogues. They knew the law had dominion over a man as long as he lives. But Paul just said in Romans 6 that the gift of God is eternal life. So if a man lives forever, does the law rule forever? Some groups teach that the law is eternal. But Gentiles were never under it, and Jews were condemned by it.

So what does “as long as he lives” mean?

It means as long as he lives under that system! Romans 6 already said we are under grace, not under law.

Paul’s point is that the law has no dominion over a dead man. If we think we still live in the flesh, then we place ourselves under the law. But if we know we’re in Christ, we’re not under it.

To illustrate the whole thing, Paul uses marriage.

Let’s be clear. Paul’s not teach marriage rules, as many Christians think he does with this passage.

He’s drawing an illustration of how death ends a legal obligation. Romans 7:2 says a woman’s bound by law to her husband as long as he lives. If he dies, she’s loosed from that law.

Romans 7:3 says that if she marries another man while her husband lives, she’s an adulteress. But if he’s dead, she’s free from that law, and marrying another man’s not sin.

Paul’s point here is simple: Death frees a person from the law’s obligation and from the law’s condemnation.

Under the law, adultery is sin. But if the husband’s dead, the same act is not sin. So the law condemns in one situation and not in another. Why? Because death changes the legal standing.

This is Paul’s setting up for Romans 7:4, which reads,

Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

You and I may still be walking around in our bodies, but legally, spiritually, we died when we first trusted Christ, and a dead man can’t be punished, can’t be obligated, and can’t be ruled by Moses.

This is how Paul shows that the believer — Jew or Gentile — is not under the law. You died with Christ, and death ends the law’s dominion.

It’s so important to see that Paul’s point in Romans 7 is not marriage teaching. The marriage example only shows how death frees a person from the law. In verse 2 (Romans 7:2), the woman is loosed from the law that binds her to her husband in life.

In verse 3 (Romans 7:3), she’s free from that law.

In verse 4 (Romans 7:4), we are dead to the law. In verse 6 (Romans 7:) we’re delivered from the law. That’s the whole point. Paul’s showing how the believer is now free from the obligation and condemnation of the law.

Now, if we were to think like a Jew for a moment, we could feel the tension. The Jew says, “God gave us this law. I must keep it.” Paul answers, “Your own law says death releases from obligation. And since you trusted Christ’s death and resurrection, His death counts as yours.”

Grace doesn’t say, “Forget what God said.” Grace says, “Christ died, and His death has legal consequences, and one consequence is that we’re free from the law.”

In Romans 7:4, Paul explains why he used the marriage picture: “Wherefore… ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ.”

Just as the woman was free when her husband died, we’re free because Christ died. This applies to someone who was once under the law. Gentiles were never under it, but Jews were. Now, through Christ’s death, even the Jew is legally dead to the law.

Romans 6 taught that being in Christ means being in His death and resurrection. That’s why we’re dead to sin, and that’s why Romans 6:23 has a deeper meaning than just: “The wages of sin is death.” That death already happened to us in Christ. The good news is that the gift of God — eternal life — comes after that death.

So Romans 7 only makes sense if we understand Romans 5–6 first. If we skip that, we’ll think Romans 7 puts us under Israel’s new covenant law and, of course, numerous Christians do that today, and they miss the all-important mystery fellowship of Romans 5–6 and jump straight into covenant thinking.

That’s another reason why we need to see the whole picture of the Bible and not just individual pieces of the story here and there.

Paul says we’re dead to the law, just as the woman was free when her husband died. That means the church has liberty, as Galatians 5:1 tells us,

Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

And just as the woman could marry another, Romans 7:4 says we are “married to another,” to Him who is raised from the dead — Jesus Christ. This is not a literal marriage. It is a union. Two becoming one, just as Paul makes an enormous effort to teach us.

Ephesians 2:15 teaches the same thing.

Christ abolished “the law of commandments contained in ordinances” to make of the two (Jew and Gentile) one new man. Marriage takes two and makes one.

That’s why Paul uses marriage language — to show union with Christ, not to give marriage rules.

Ephesians 5 uses marriage again as a picture of Christ and the church. The Bible does not give long marriage‑advice chapters, contrary to the opinion of many. Instead, it gives long “Christ‑and‑the‑church” chapters. If we learn who we are in Christ and how to walk as a minister of grace, we’ll know how to handle any relationship.

So, we see that Romans 7’s not about marriage advice as so many think. If we don’t understand Ephesians 1–4 and who we are in Christ, how to walk worthy, how to forgive, and how to keep unity — we won’t understand Ephesians 5, where Paul uses marriage only to picture Christ and the church. Marriage is an illustration, not a new marriage law.

We’re dead to the law, alive to God, and united with Christ.

So, on to Romans 7:4, which further expands on this,

Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

Here “the body of Christ” means Christ’s physical body — His flesh that died under the law. He was “made of a woman, made under the law,” and He died under that law. When He rose, He was no longer under it. If we only know Christ quote “after the flesh,” we see Him under Moses’ law. If we know Him in glory, we see Him not under the law, and our relationship to Him is the risen one, not the earthly one.

Romans 6 already taught that we’re baptised into His death. His death becomes ours. His resurrection becomes ours. We didn’t die physically, but God counts Christ’s death as our death. That has legal consequences. A dead man cannot be charged, condemned, or obligated. So Christ’s death frees us from Adam, as we saw in Romans 5. It frees us from sin and frees us from death (Romans 6), and now, in Romans 7, frees us from the law. His death accomplished everything the law never could.

So when Paul says we’re “dead to the law by the body of Christ,” he means Christ’s literal death is counted as ours. That death frees us so that we may be joined to Christ in resurrection life. Romans 7:4 says, “that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead.” Marriage here means union — two becoming one. We’re joined to Christ, the new man.

What a great and wonderful thing this mystery is!

Ephesians 5:30 says we are “flesh of His flesh, bone of His bones.” That’s why the church is called the Body of Christ. Christ’s body came first; the church is named after Him because we’re joined to Him. Israel was a nation under a covenant. We’re a new creature joined to Christ by the Spirit.

This’s why the church is clearly not the “bride of Christ.” Romans 7’s not teaching that. The phrase “bride of Christ” never appears in Scripture.

Revelation 21:9 speaks of “the bride, the Lamb’s wife,” and the angel shows John a city — the New Jerusalem — promised to Israel under covenant. That’s not the church. Our union with Christ is not a covenant marriage; it’s a mystery fellowship, being placed into His death and resurrection by the Spirit.

Romans 7 is about something that’s already true: we’re dead to the law now. Revelation’s marriage supper is future. Romans 7 is present truth. Truth for now, today, for the body of Christ.

So Paul’s point is simple:

Christ died. We died with Him.

Christ rose. We rose with Him.

His death frees us from the law.

His resurrection joins us to Him as one new man.

Romans 7 teaches that the “marriage” to Christ has already happened. It happened the moment we believed. If we’re not already united with Christ, wecouldn’t “bring forth fruit unto God” as in Romans 7:4, could we?

Verse 6 says we’re “delivered from the law… that we should serve in newness of spirit.” That only works if we’re already joined to Christ. The mystery revelation says we’re one body, fellow‑heirs, partakers in Christ. Christ in me, me in Christ — done. It’s no use looking for a future ceremony or city.

This union with Christ happens without the law. If we’re dead to the law, then our marriage to Christ cannot be Israel’s new covenant.

The old covenant was Moses’ law written on stone. The new covenant is God writing the law in Israel’s heart so they keep it, as Jeremiah 31:31 and Hebrews 8 tell us. That’s about the new covenant with “the house of Israel and the house of Judah.” That covenant writes God’s laws in their hearts.

Romans 7 is not that. Romans 7 says we’re dead to the law so we can be married to Christ. That is not covenant language. It’s the mystery fellowship. That’s the timeline. That’s our identity.

We’re not joined to a covenant. We’re not joined to Israel or to a nation. We’re joined to Christ Himself. Romans 4–6 already taught that we entered Christ by faith, not by covenant. If we ignore Romans 4–6, we’ll think Romans 7 makes us Israel under a new covenant. But Paul’s talking to Jews about being freed from their law, not putting us under a new one.

Romans 7:4 says we’re “married to another… to him who is raised from the dead.” Marriage means a new identity. When a woman’s husband dies, she’s free to take a new name, a new household. We’re dead to the law, so we can take a new identity in Christ. Our identity’s not Moses, not circumcision, not tithing, and not Jewish heritage. Your identity is Christ risen.

We answer anyone who thinks they’ve got to keep the law with,

“Your identity’s with Christ, not the law.”

A Jew might say, “But I want to keep circumcision for heritage.” Paul says, “Your identity is Christ.”

Another says, “Tithing brings blessing.” Paul says, “Your blessings come from Christ. That’s Romans 5.” The confusion comes from not knowing who we are in Christ.

On to Romans 7:5, which says,

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…”

That means before salvation, in Adam, and for Israel, under the law’s dominion. In the flesh, the law stirred up “motions of sin.” The law shines light on sin. Romans 3:19 says the law stops every mouth. Romans 5:20 says the law makes the offence abound. Romans 3:20 says that by the law is the knowledge of sin. The law brings death, not help.

The law didn’t save Israel. It condemned them. Grace saves. Christ saves.

So, Romans 7’s showing the timeline:

In Adam → in the flesh → under the law → death → in Christ → new identity → fruit unto God.

Our identity is Christ, not the law. Our life is Christ, not Moses. Our fruit comes from Christ, not commandments. Grace is the only power that works.

We come to Romans 7:6, and it’s one of those “but now” verses that we’ve talked a lot about and that many people skip over.

Just like Romans 3 and Ephesians 2, the “but now” marks our new identity in Christ. Paul says,

But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.

“But now we are delivered from the law.” That means at one time Israel was under the law, held by it and condemned by it. But now, through Christ’s death, they’re delivered from it.

Paul speaks to the Jewish mind, saying: “Brother, you believed Jesus is the Messiah. Don’t you know you were baptised into His death and resurrection? Don’t you know you’re under grace, not under law?”

Christ’s death — His physical body dying under Moses’ law — released them from that dominion.

Paul speaks the same way to the Gentile Galatians because they were acting like Israel.

As we saw a minute ago in Galatians 5:1, Paul says Christ broke the chains, and they were trying to put them back on. Paul warns: “If ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.”

See, Circumcision once marked Israel as God’s covenant people, but now if someone trusts in that ritual, they reject Christ’s finished work.

If we take one part of the law, we become a debtor to all of it — tithing, sabbath, baptisms, sacrifices, everything.

Paul says in Galatians 5:4, “Whosoever of you are justified by the law, ye are fallen from grace.” Not lost salvation. Fallen out of the mindset, the knowledge of Grace, which causes all sorts of hardship in our daily walk through this life.

In Christ, circumcision and uncircumcision mean nothing. What matters is faith, which works by love. The law cannot give righteousness. Only the Spirit gives righteousness by faith.

Romans 7 is not about unbelievers. It is about saved people — Jews who believed the gospel — learning that they are dead to the law. They lived under it, tried to keep it, failed under it, and were condemned by it. But Christ died, and they died with Him. That death removes the law’s dominion. God can now declare them righteous by faith, not by Moses.

The good news is that Christ rose. So they rise with Him. Romans 7:6 says they are delivered from the law “that we should serve in newness of spirit.” Not to run wild, but to serve God as servants of grace, not servants of the law.

They were In the flesh,  under the law destined for death. Then, in Christ’s death they were delivered they rose with Christ into newness of spirit.

Grace frees. Christ frees. The law condemns. The believer serves God in the Spirit, not in the oldness of the letter.

Romans 7:6 says “that we should serve.” That connects straight back to Romans 6, where Paul said we, Jew and Gentile are now servants of God by grace, not by earning it. Romans 7 explains how we serve: not under the law, but in “newness of spirit.” That means we cannot serve God today under the law. If we try to serve in the “oldness of the letter,” we’re not serving in the Spirit.

This is the first time Paul mentions “spirit” in Romans 7, and it prepares for Romans 8, where “spirit” appears about twenty times. We’re dead with Christ, dead to sin, dead to the law — but we’re not left dead. Romans 8 will show how to walk by grace, which is walking by the Spirit.

“Newness of spirit” here is not the Holy Spirit Himself. It is our enewed inner spirit — quickened when we believed the gospel, renewed by truth, made alive by God’s grace. Paul uses similar language in 2 Corinthians 3:6, where he says God made us “able ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.” We have a free downloadable booklet in the Resources section of our website explaining further what Paul meant in this verse.

Both Israel’s New Covenant and the mystery fellowship require a renewed spirit, but they’re not the same thing.

Israel’s New Covenant (Jeremiah 31, Ezekiel 36) gives Israel a new heart and new spirit so they can keep God’s statutes. That covenant still has law in it — only now it’s the Holy Spirit that causes obedience not their own works.

But Romans 7 says you are removed from the law entirely and given a new spirit for a new identity, not for covenant obedience. Our life is in Christ, not in a covenant.

This is how we minister to Israel today: even if they reject Christ according to the mystery, the old law cannot save them. Christ ended that system. They need either the New Covenant (future) or the mystery fellowship (present). God is only doing one of those today — the mystery.

Paul explains that the law engraved in stones was glorious, but it was fading. The ministry of the Spirit is more glorious. In Romans 7–8, that Spirit places us into the body of Christ. In Israel’s New Covenant, the Spirit places them into their promised kingdom. Two different operations.

If we don’t understand Romans 5–6 — how we got into Christ by death and resurrection — we’ll mistake Romans 7 for Israel’s New Covenant and make ourselves Israel. But Romans 7 says we serve “in newness of spirit, not in the oldness of the letter.” Hebrews talks about Israel’s New Covenant, but Paul talks about the Spirit’s work in the body of Christ far more. Romans 7–8 mentions “spirit” more than Hebrews through to 3rd John combined.

The Spirit under grace changes our inner man, teaches us to think differently, and bears fruit outside the law. We don’t need miracles or signs to know wehave the Spirit; we need the truth of God’s grace.

2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away.” Romans 10:4 says, “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness.” The law could not save Israel, Jew, or Gentile. Christ ended it.

Romans 7 shows the shift in God’s timeline:

Law to condemnation to death, then Christ’s death to delivereance to newness of spirit to service under grace.

Romans 8 will explain how that Spirit walk works. But Romans 7 makes the foundation clear:

We’re delivered from the law.

We serve God in the Spirit.

Don’t go back to the old letter.

May God bless you in the knowledge of His grace.