Moving into chapter seven of Romans we come to one of those chapter divisions that were introduced centuries after the original letter was written. Useful as they are for providing quick reference points, they can also sometimes mislead us by creating artificial divisions within the flow of the text. There is such a case here - chapter seven does not begin a new theme. Paul continues to outline his answer to an objection by some Christians concerning the Christian’s relationship to divine law, a section that began in chapter 6 v 14, 15. Paul concluded that Christians ‘are absolutely not under law, but under favour’ and as a result of this statement he then anticipated an objection. ‘What then? Are we to self-forfeit because we are not under law but under free favour?’ In other words the theme of this section began with the objection by legalists that if Christians are not under law then they are led into permissive licence in their speech and behaviour.
We saw the initial response of Paul to this objection in the previous post – ‘May it never be!’, (Romans 6 v 15), and he continues to explain his response throughout chapter seven and beyond. Thus, here in verse 1 of chapter 7 he once again mentions the theme of law. ‘Or are you ignorant brothers – because I am speaking to those knowing law – that the law has authority over the man on the basis of how long a time he lives?’. He is particularly speaking to Hebrew Christians who are familiar with Sinai Covenant Law or Levitical Law.
He then gives an illustration of the principle ‘that the law has authority over the man on the basis of how long a time he lives’. The illustration is drawn from marriage. ‘Because the woman married to a husband is tied to the living husband by law. But if the husband dies she is inactive down away from the law and the man. Therefore then, if she happens to another man, the husband being alive, she will legally be an adulteress, but if the husband dies, if happening to another man and being accused an adulteress, she is delivered from the law’, (Romans 7 v 2, 3). In other words if a woman is married to a man, law ties her to her husband – but only while her husband is alive. If her husband dies, the law tying her to her husband is rendered idle and she is no longer tied to this man. This means that if she has an intimate relationship with another man whilst her husband is alive, then she is legally categorised as an adulteress. But if she has an intimate relationship with another man after her husband has died, the law tying her to her husband has been rendered idle, so she is free from any legal accusation of being an adulteress. The law has authority only whilst her husband is alive.
Paul then applies this principle to Christians – including Hebrew Christians who, before they became Christians, had been placed under the Sinai Covenant and its written codes of divine law.
