So then, if while the man liveth, she taketh another man, she shall be [a]called an (A)adulteress: but if the man be dead, she is free from the Law, so that she is not an adulteress, though she take another man.

[b]So ye, my brethren, are dead also to the Law by the [c]body of Christ, that ye should be unto another, even unto him that is raised up from the dead, that we should bring forth [d]fruit unto [e]God.

[f]For when we [g]were in the flesh, the [h]affections of sins, which were by the [i]law, had [j]force in our members, to bring forth fruit unto death,

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Footnotes

  1. Romans 7:3 That is, she shall be an adulteress, by the consent and judgment of all men.
  2. Romans 7:4 An application of the similitude thus. So, saith he, doth it fare with us: for now we are joined to the spirit as it were to the second husband, by whom we must bring forth new children: we are dead in respect of the first husband, but in respect of the latter we are as it were raised from the dead.
  3. Romans 7:4 That is, in the body of Christ, to give us to understand how straight and near that fellowship is betwixt Christ and his members.
  4. Romans 7:4 He calleth the children, which the wife hath by her husband, fruit.
  5. Romans 7:4 Which are acceptable to God.
  6. Romans 7:5 A declaration of the former saying: for the concupiscences (saith he) which the law stirred up in us, were in us as it were an husband, of whom we brought forth very deadly and cursed children. But now since that husband is dead, and so consequently being delivered from the force of that killing law, we have passed into the governance of the spirit, so that we bring forth now, not those rotten and dead, but lively children.
  7. Romans 7:5 When we were in the state of the first marriage, which he calleth in the next verse following the oldness of the letter.
  8. Romans 7:5 The motions that egged us to sin, which show their force even in our minds.
  9. Romans 7:5 He saith not, of the law, but by the law, because they spring of sin which dwelleth within us, and take occasion to work thus in us, by reason of the restraint that the law maketh, not that the fault is in the law, but in ourselves.
  10. Romans 7:5 Wrought their strength.

So then, if she has sexual relations with another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress.(A) But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man.

So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law(B) through the body of Christ,(C) that you might belong to another,(D) to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. For when we were in the realm of the flesh,[a](E) the sinful passions aroused by the law(F) were at work in us,(G) so that we bore fruit for death.(H)

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Footnotes

  1. Romans 7:5 In contexts like this, the Greek word for flesh (sarx) refers to the sinful state of human beings, often presented as a power in opposition to the Spirit.