Romans 7:1 – Beginning with Romans 7:1 and reading through Romans 7:6, we read that we are released from the Law. Note.--Some of the efforts to explain Romans 7:1-6 have not been very helpful. The meaning is sometimes obscured by injection into the passage things that the Holy Spirit did not put into it. Paul was not teaching a lesson on the relation of husband and wife, but was using that well-known relationship as an illustration to show the brethren their relation to the law and to Christ. There is always one main point of comparison in an illustration, and to seek to extend the illustration to points not intended by the user is con-fusing. What is the purpose of Paul's marriage illustration? He still has in mind freedom from the law, and whether that freedom permits the Christian to sin (Romans 6:14-15). His illustration not only shows that we are free from the law, but that Christians are bound to Christ. He now is our master. Romans 7:1 : Or are ye ignorant, brethren (for I speak to men who know the law), that the law hath dominion over a man for so long time as he liveth? Law, in the parentheses, has no the before it in the Greek: "I speak to those who know law" who know both the purpose and the limits of law, any and all law, including the law of Moses. Paul credits them with knowing that the law has dominion over a man so long as he lives, and no longer. The law is the law of Moses, though what is here affirmed of the law of Moses is true of any law under which a man lives. When a man dies, the law governs him no longer--he is dead to the law, and the law is dead to him.