Book of Romans - Christianity 101

The Christian’s relationship to the Law was a subject that Paul felt he needed to be very clear about. He was asked about it wherever he went, and was often criticized for being too "soft". But the radical message of God’s grace means a decisive break with the Law - which is the subject of chapter 7.

¹ Do you not know, brothers -- for I am speaking to men who know the law -- that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives? ² For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage. ³ So then, if she marries another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress, even though she marries another man.
⁴ So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God. ⁵ For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. ⁶ But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.
⁷ What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, "Do not covet." ⁸ But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead. ⁹ Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. ¹⁰ I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. ¹¹ For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. ¹² So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.
¹³ Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.

When you find these occurrences, list the things Paul wants us to know:

What illustration does Paul use in verses 2-4?

In verse 4 Paul says that we "also" died to the law. What else has he told us we’ve "died to" in the last chapter?

The word translated "sinful nature" in verse 5 is literally "flesh". Using a concordance, find out where "flesh" or "sinful nature" occurs most in the New Testament.

Paraphrase the questions Paul answers in verses 7 and 13.

Verse 13 describes the purpose God had for the Law - write a definition in your own words (see also Galatians 3:19-25):

Larry Richards,
Expository Dictionary of Bible Words