Romans 7:1-4 -- Who Becomes Dead to the Law?

Romans 7:1 - Or don't you know, brothers (for I speak to men who know the law, that the law has dominion over a man for as long as he lives?

Romans 7:2 - For the woman that has a husband is bound by law to the husband while he lives, but if the husband dies, she is discharged from the law of the husband. 

Romans 7:3 - So then if, while the husband lives, she is joined to another man, she would be called an adulteress. But if the husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though she is joined to another man. 

Romans 7:4 - Therefore, my brothers, you also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you would be joined to another, to him who was raised from the dead, that we might bring forth fruit to God.  -- World English.

Paul here is not speaking to the non-believing Jews or the world at large, but to the followers of Jesus, brothers in Christ. Many in Rome were Jewish believers in Christ, and many were Gentile believers in Christ. Evidently, the Gentile Christians in Rome were mostly Greek, or perhaps Paul simply used the term "Greek" to identify those believers who are not of Jewish descent. (Romans 1:16) In saying that he spoke to those Christians in Rome who knew the law, the context shows that he was speaking of those who are "Jews" by flesh born under the Law. Nevertheless, his statement obviously indicates that were are those Christians in Rome who did not know the Law. Scriptures confirm that the Gentiles -- those of the nations aside from Israel -- do not know the Law. (Romans 2:12,13,14,17; 3:19) However, in speaking of those who do know the Law, it should be obvious that he is not speaking in terms as having studied the Law as related to Jesus, but of those who have had the experience of recognizing the Law as a covenant as Jew between them and God..

The Law Covenant was not given to the Gentiles; it was given only to the children of Israel, which Paul commonly refers to as the Jews. Of the Gentiles, Paul wrote: "Gentiles ... don't have the law." (Romans 2:14) To the Jew, Paul wrote: "you bear the name of a Jew, and rest on the law,... and know his will, and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law." (Romans 2:17,18) And he states that to the Jews "were entrusted with the oracles of God." (Romans 3:2) Thus when he addresses those "who know the Law", he is addressing the Jews who were born under the Law and instructed out the Law.

When Paul stated: "you also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ," Paul still speaking only the Jewish Christians in Rome. He was not speaking to the non-Jewish Christians. Only the Jew becomes dead to the Law Covenant, because only the Jew was born under the Law Covenant. Gentile believers in Christ do not need to become dead to the Law Covenant, because they were never born under that covenant. We can reason, however, that the same principle applies to the Gentiles also, not that they are to become dead to the Law given to the children of Israel, but in that they do need to become dead to the law unto themselves in their consciences which would condemn them, for all find themselves, whether Jew or Gentile, counted as condemned as sinners through Adam before God and dying through the sin of Adam, and under the bondage of corruption and subjection to futility, for as he wrote: "We previously charged both Jews and Greeks, that they are all under sin." -- Psalm 39:6; Ecclesiastes 1:2,13-15; Romans 1:18-2:1; 2:14,15; 3:9; 5:12-19; 8:20; Hebrews 9:14; 2 Peter 1:4; James 4:14.  -- Ronald R. Day.

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