Question 1

What does it mean that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives?

Accepted Answer

Paul is using a simple truth about law in general. A law can only claim a living person. While someone lives under a law, that law can command, judge, and punish. Once a person dies, the law’s claims on that person are over. Paul uses this point to prepare the way for his main thought. He wants believers to see that through their union with Jesus in His death, they have, in a sense, died with respect to the old covenant law, so its power to condemn and rule them has come to an end.

Question 2

Why does Paul use the example of a married woman and her husband?

Accepted Answer

Paul chooses marriage because it is an everyday picture his readers would understand. A woman is bound by the law to her husband while he lives. If she goes to another man while he is still alive, everyone would call her an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law and may marry another man without guilt. Paul is not teaching about all details of marriage here. He is using this one point to show that death ends a legal bond, and so prepares us to see how believers are freed from the law through Christ.

Question 3

What does it mean that believers are dead to the law by the body of Christ?

Accepted Answer

When Paul says believers are dead to the law by the body of Christ, he is talking about Jesus’ real death on the cross. Jesus took on Himself the curse and sentence that the law pronounces on sin. When we are joined to Christ by faith, His death counts as our death. In that sense, the old covenant law can no longer claim us or condemn us as it once did. The law itself has not changed, but its role toward us has. Its power to bind us as a condemning master is broken because the penalty has already been carried out in Christ’s body.

Question 4

What does it mean to be married to another, even to Christ who is raised?

Accepted Answer

After saying that believers died to the law, Paul does not leave them in a bare, empty state. He says they are now joined like a wife to a new husband, Christ, who has been raised from the dead. This picture shows a close, living relationship. Believers now belong to Christ, not to the law as a covenant of works. He is alive, so this union is ongoing and fruitful. From this new “marriage” come good works and changed lives, which Paul calls “fruit unto God,” showing that real obedience grows out of being united to the risen Lord.

Question 5

What are the motions of sins that worked in our members to bring forth fruit unto death?

Accepted Answer

The “motions of sins” are the stirrings and desires of sin inside us. Paul says that when we were “in the flesh,” that is, in our old, natural state, these sinful desires were stirred up by the law. The law itself is good, but when it commands, our sinful nature resists and is even provoked. These desires then act in our bodies and lives, leading to sinful actions. The result of this is “fruit unto death,” meaning deeds that deserve death and show we are separated from God. This shows how serious sin is and how powerless we are without new life.

Question 6

In what sense are believers delivered from the law in this passage?

Accepted Answer

Paul says, “now we are delivered from the law,” but he does not mean believers are free to ignore what God calls right and wrong. The point is about the law as a covenant that condemns and holds us bound. Through Christ’s death, that bond has been broken. The law can no longer stand over believers as a harsh master that only points out guilt and threatens punishment. Instead, they now serve God in a new way. God’s moral will is still good, but believers relate to it as those forgiven and alive in Christ, not as people trying to earn life by keeping rules.

Question 7

What does it mean to serve in newness of spirit and not in oldness of the letter?

Accepted Answer

Serving in “oldness of the letter” describes trying to obey God outwardly, only by written commands, while the heart remains unchanged. It ends up being a dry, external keeping of rules that still leaves a person under sin’s power. Serving in “newness of spirit” means a new way of life given by God’s Spirit. Believers now obey from a renewed heart, out of love and gratitude, not just fear. The same God is served, but the power and motive are different. This new service flows from union with Christ and the inner work of the Spirit, not from bare commands.

Question 8

Does being dead to the law mean Christians can live however they want?

Accepted Answer

No. Paul’s whole point is the opposite. Being dead to the law as a condemning covenant frees believers so they can truly serve God. Before, sin ruled and the law only stirred it up, leading to “fruit unto death.” Now, joined to Christ, believers are meant to “bring forth fruit unto God.” Their freedom is not freedom to sin, but freedom from sin’s rule. They are bound to Christ like a wife to a new husband. Out of this bond come good works and a desire to honor God, not a careless life. True grace leads to holiness, not to laziness.

Question 9

Who is Paul mainly talking to when he says he speaks to those who know the law?

Accepted Answer

When Paul says he is speaking to those who know the law, he likely has in mind people who are familiar with the law given through Moses, especially Jewish believers in the church. They would understand how law works and how marriage law functioned. At the same time, the truths he explains apply to all believers. Gentile Christians, who may have learned the law through teaching, can also follow his reasoning. He uses their shared knowledge of how law and marriage work to help them see what has changed now that they are joined to Christ.

Question 10

How can this passage help believers think about good works and fruit today?

Accepted Answer

This passage helps believers see where true good works come from. Paul says the purpose of being joined to Christ is “that we should bring forth fruit unto God.” Good works are not a way to earn God’s favor, since the law has already shown our sin and Christ has already borne the penalty. Instead, good works are like children born from a true marriage. They grow out of a real union with the risen Christ and the new life of the Spirit. This keeps believers from pride and from despair, and teaches them to focus on staying close to Christ as they seek to obey.

Romans 7:1

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?

Release from the Law

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Romans 7:1

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?

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Release from the Law

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