CHAPTER 7
Romans 7:1-4
- Num ignoratis fratres (scientibus enim
Legem loquor) quod Lex dominatur homini
quamdiu vivit? - Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them
that know the law,) how that the law hath
dominion over a man as long as he liveth? - Nam viro subjecta mulier, viventi viro
alligata est per Legem; quod si mortuus fuerit
vir, soluta est a Lege viri. - For the woman which hath an husband is
bound by the law to her husband so long as he
liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed
from the law of her husband. - Proinde vivente marito, si alteri viro
conjuncta fuerit, adultera vocabitur: quod si - So then if, while her husband liveth, she
be married to another man, she shall be called an
mortuus fuerit vir, liberata est a Lege ne amplius
sit adultera si alteri nupserit.
adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free
from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though
she be married to another man.- Itaque fratres mei, vos quoque mortui estis
Legi per corpus Christi, ut posthac alterius sitis, - Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are
become dead to the law by the body of Christ;
ejus qui ex mortuis suscitatus est, ut fructificemus
Deo.^200
that ye should be married to another, even to him
who is raised from the dead, that we should bring
forth fruit unto God.
Though he had, in a brief manner, sufficiently explained the question respecting the abrogation
of the law; yet as it was a difficult one, and might have given rise to many other questions, he now
shows more at large how the law, with regard to us, is become abrogated; and then he sets forth
what good is thereby done to us: for while it holds us separated from Christ and bound to itself, it
can do nothing but condemn us. And lest any one should on this account blame the law itself, he
takes up and confutes the objections of the flesh, and handles, in a striking manner, the great question
respecting the use of the law.^201
1.Know ye not,etc. Let the general proposition be that the law was given to men for no other
end but to regulate the present life, and that it belongs not to those who are dead: to this he afterwards
subjoins this truth — that we are dead to it through the body of Christ. Some understand, that the
dominion of the law continues so long to bind us as it remains in force. But as this view is rather
obscure, and does not harmonize so well with the proposition which immediately follows, I prefer
to follow those who regard what is said as referring to the life of man, and not to the law. The
(^200) That is, the law by which she was bound to her husband, or, the law by which he became her husband. It is an instance of
the latitude in which the genitive case is used. — Ed.
(^201) The connection of the beginning of this chapter with Romans 6:14 deserves to be noticed. He says there, that sin shall not
rule over us, because we are not under law, but under grace. Then he asks, in Romans 6:15,
“Shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace?”
This last subject, according to his usual mode, he takes up first, and discusses it till the end of the chapter: and then in this
chapter he reassumes the first subject — freedom from the law. This is a striking instance of the Apostle’s manner of writing,
quite different from what is usual with us in the present day. He mentions two things; he proceeds with the last, and then goes
back to the first. — Ed.