Romans 7:1

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?  Paul said that he was speaking to the Jews, God's people who knew the law.  He said the law had dominion over a person as long as they lived.  They could not claim that after being obedient to the law for many years, they were now exempt.  The wages of disobedience to the Law of God is death, and will be no matter how long we live, unless we accept God's free gift of grace.  Verse two adds, 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.  Paul used the example of marriage, and he used the woman in the example.  This may be because the woman had fewer rights than the man, but really should apply to both equally.  As long as her husband was alive, she was bound to him.  Once he was dead, though, she was freed from the marriage.  Verse three continues, So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be 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.  Death of her husband frees from the law of marriage, just as death frees us from all laws.  Paul was using marriage as an example that those who knew the Law of God could freely understand, but he was pointing to a bigger truth as we will see in verse four. Verse four states, 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.  Once we accept Christ as our Savior and Lord, we are no longer married to the Law, but we are married to Christ.  It is a now and an everlasting relationship.  Death does not free us from that relationship with Christ but frees us from all that separates us from the perfect will of God.  The Law of God is not dead, but we are freed from the end result of the Law, which is death.  As long as we are married to the Law, we cannot be married to Christ.  I believe this means as long as we attempt to prove ourselves worthy of God by our own merits, we will never humbly accept the gift of grace.  Verse five adds, 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.  I believe Paul was simply restating the truth of the flesh which will lead us to sin, which is made manifest by the law.  The result is death, both physical and spiritual.  We must come to God by faith in the spirit of truth. Verse six continues, But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of the spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. We serve in a newness of spirit of the law, not attempting to justify ourselves by the letter of the law.  The purpose of the law was to point out our inability to save ourselves and to point to salvation through Christ by grace.  Through God's grace, we are freed from the power of sin.