Romans 7:1-6 (NIV)
1 Do you not know, brothers--for I am speaking to men who know the law--that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives?
2 For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage.
3 So then, if she marries another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress, even though she marries another man.
4 So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God.
5 For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death.
6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.

In Romans chapter 7 we have Paul using the analogy of marriage to help illustrate our relationship to the law. One of the questions that usually arises from this chapter is that of Paul's conversion. Was Paul a follower of Christ when he struggled with sin?

Others take the position that this is a picture of Paul when he was not a believer and what a struggle he had with sin as a non-believer. Still another way some take this passage is that Paul was a believer, but he was a carnal follower of Christ. I had one professor who helped translate the NIV Bible that his position on this passage of Scripture depended upon the latest commentary that he had read. In other words it is not easy!



In verses 1-6 Paul simply lays out that a married woman is free to remarry when her husband has passed away. We as believers have passed away in Christ and therefore, are free to follow in the new way of the Spirit. We are free to follow. We have been released from the written code of the law. People can get so bound up with rules, regulations, and the like that they totally get out of touch with the relationship. For us it is not just the relationship, it is the power of that relationship. We are followers in the new way of the Spirit. We have Holy Spirit power and this becomes very clear in Romans 8. Are you serving in the new way of the Spirit? This does not mean your Christian life is effortless, but it does mean that there is a new focal point of resource for your life and your efforts. When your well goes dry you will find more water waiting right at your faith tips(this is instead of finger tips).