ROMANS
Study Notes—Chapter 7
bodies: Lit., “members.”—See study note on Ro 6:13.
we have been released from the Law: At Ro 7:1-6, Paul uses an illustration to explain the release from the Mosaic Law experienced by Jewish Christians. A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives, but if her husband dies, her situation changes. Her marriage to her husband is no longer valid, and she is free to marry another. This change in her situation is similar to the change a Christian experienced when he “died with reference to sin.” (Ro 6:2, 11) The Jewish Christians “were made dead to the Law through the body of the Christ,” which provided a ransom, allowing them to “become another’s,” that is, to come to belong to Christ. (Ro 7:4) Paul explains at Ga 3:13 that “Christ purchased us, releasing us from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse instead of us.” The individual showing faith in Christ figuratively died to his former situation and was no longer under those old obligations. He could now become a slave “in a new sense.” (Ro 7:6) The person who died in such a way is, of course, still alive physically and is free to follow Christ as a slave to righteousness.—Ro 6:18-20; Ga 5:1.
be slaves: One translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures into Hebrew (referred to as J18 in App. C4) reads “be servants to Jehovah.”
my body: Lit., “members.”—See study note on Ro 6:13.