Romans 7:1–6

Released from the Law through Death

7Or do you not know, brothers (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law is master of a person for as long a time as he lives? ²For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of the husband. ³Therefore as a result, if she belongs to another man while^* her husband is living, she will be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress if she^* belongs to another man. ⁴So then, my brothers, you also were brought to death with respect to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to the one who was raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. ⁵For when we were in the flesh, sinful desires were working through the law in our members, to bear fruit for death. ⁶But now we have been released from the law, because we^* have died to that by which we were bound, so that we may serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter of the law.