Session 4.17: April 10, 2026

Study session scripture: Romans 7:1-6

Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.

Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.

Study session topics:

• The triumph of grace over the power of the law

• Law is binding only until death

• Ancient Greek wording omits "the" in v. 1

• Paul is talking about a broader concept of law than the Law of Moses

• Death ends all obligations and contracts

• Paul's illustration: marriage

• Paul ties the idea of marriage dissolving at death to the Christian's relationship to the dominion of the law vs. the dominion of Christ

• This illustration is not allegorical (i.e. the husband does not represent the law, or Adam, or our old nature)

• Though this is an imperfect illustration, it is useful for several reasons:

  • A woman who is married to a man is under the authority of that man

  • The subjection of a wife to a husband in marriage is for life

• In spite of the permanence of this relationship and the authority it confers, there is still the possibility of entering into another relationship

• The object of marriage is to bear fruit

• Flesh vs. spirit

• The word "flesh" here has a deeper theological meaning that Paul often uses in his letters in contrast with "spirit"

• Flesh (sarx) can refer to a physical human body (Luke 24:39, Gal. 2:20), the whole of mankind (Isaiah 40:6), or our fallen, sinful nature

• v. 5 uses the latter meaning

  • It can't be a physical body, since it speaks of flesh in the past tense

  • It can't be all humanity, since it is contrasting flesh with the new life according to the Spirit

• Interpreting the use of the word "flesh" correctly is critical, because misuse of the term has given rise to the modern view of the "carnal Christian"

• Scripture does speak about and to immature Christians, but it does not support the idea of them being in a separate category of persons from "spiritual" Christians

• Scripture treats the process of sanctification for the Christian not as something that is optional, but as an inevitability (I Cor. 6:9-11, Philippians 1:6, Hebrews 9:13-14)

• In Romans 7:6, Paul presents 2 categories: captivity to sin aroused by the law, and serving in the new way of the Spirit

Study session audio: