Romans 7:2Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Consequently, the law is appointed for the living and does not extend to the dead. Do you see how he depicted a twofold freedom?

Then, having hinted at this at the beginning, in the proof he speaks about the wife, saying: "A married woman is bound by law to her living husband. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband."

"Therefore, if while her husband lives she becomes another man's, she will be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though she becomes another man's" (Rom 7:2-3).

The Apostle explains this often and with great precision, because he is firmly confident in the truth he is proving. By the husband he means the law, and by the wife all believers.

When the husband dies, the wife has the authority to be joined in marriage to another. Here he likened the law to the husband, and his hearers to the wife.

Then he ought to have said: therefore, brethren, the law has no authority over you, for it has died. But the Apostle did not say this, so as not to grieve the Jews.

Instead, he presents the wife as having died, that is, the Jews themselves. For this reason they enjoy a twofold freedom. If the wife is free from the authority of the law when her husband dies, much more is she free when she herself has died.

He everywhere shows the danger of seeking to remain under the law. He exhorts them instead to pursue and thirst with their whole mind for grace through faith, that is, justification in Christ. Those who were baptized, he says, were also buried with Him, so that, having died to sin, they might live to God in righteousness.

Therefore he says: "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness. But present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members to God as instruments of righteousness. Sin shall not have dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace" (Rom 6:12-14).

When Paul says, "A married woman is bound by law to her living husband; but if the husband dies, she is released from the law of the husband," and so forth, one must note the difference between this analogy and the matter to which it refers (Mt 5:32).

Paul says that the husband dies, so that the wife, freed from the law of her husband, may marry whomever she wishes.

He compares the soul to a woman, and the husband to the experience of sin working in our members to produce fruits of death, so that such a marriage may produce offspring worthy of itself.

The law was not given to remove sin or free from sin, but to show sin until grace came. As a result, those under the law were seized by an even stronger desire for sin, and they sinned more because of the fall.

For just as a married woman is bound to the law of her husband while her husband lives, but if her husband dies, she is freed from the law of her husband, that is, the marriage with the dead husband is considered dissolved.

Then she is free to marry whomever she wishes. So you also were put to death to the law through the Body of our Lord, which you received.

It is fitting and righteous that you should belong to Him Who descended to the dead for our sake and ascended, so that at His coming He might bring you to God as holy fruit.

This law comes from the Gospel, not from Moses and not from earthly righteousness. Some grasped something by the instruction of nature, others from the law of Moses, but all were made perfect through the Gospel of Christ.

He also gives an example corresponding to the matter at hand and says: "For 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 her husband." Then he sets this forth more clearly.

"The law has dominion over a man as long as he lives." Who lives, the man or the law? Origen and Estius refer this to the law. Chrysostom, Ambrose, and many others refer it to the man, which is confirmed by the general course of thought.

"The law is appointed for the living and does not extend to the dead," says Chrysostom. He compares the law to the husband, and believers to the wife.

At the same time he observes that the Apostle does not adapt the conclusion to what preceded. In verse 4 he should have said that the law died and that Christians may belong to another.

Instead, the Apostle speaks of the death of Christians to the law, with the purpose, as Chrysostom notes, of not offending the Jews. Yet this substitution of persons does not alter the matter.

Third, the Christian, breaking his union with the law of works, which is like a marriage, enters another obligation of fidelity in union with Christ. The goal of this union is the fruit-bearing of virtue, or holiness to God (Rom 7:1-6).

Just as "a married woman is bound by law to her living husband, but if the husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage," so also "you, my brethren, have died to the law through the body of Christ."

This is a compressed metaphor meaning the death of Christ. Its purpose is "that you may belong to another, to Him Who rose from the dead, that we may bear fruit to God" (Rom 7:2-4).

And what is this fruit? The Apostle has already spoken of it above. This fruit is holiness (Rom 6:22).

Having proved in chapter 6 the complete incongruity of remaining in sin after justification and sanctification are granted to all through Christ, the Apostle Paul now shows that there are no grounds for remaining under the law either.

If one may say that in chapter 6 he persuaded his readers to abandon sinful pagan life, here he persuades another kind of readers, those from the Hebrews, to abandon attachment to the law.

In doing so he explains, first, the temporary significance of the law, and second, its replacement by a new spiritual life with Christ.

The Apostle indicates the temporariness of the Mosaic law by comparing it to a spouse. After his death the wife may freely marry a second time. All the more so, since according to the Apostle, we also died in the person of Christ.

This ordinance of the law concerning the relation of wife to husband is clear in itself and requires no special remarks. But what should it mean in application?

Since the husband here represents the law, and the wife represents those bound by the law, the Apostle's figurative expression will mean this. While the law lives, that is, stands in force, those under the law are obliged to obey it and live according to its prescriptions.

But when the law dies, that is, ceases and loses its force, those under it become free from its obligations, from obedience to it, and from following its prescriptions.