Now Paul uses the specific illustration of marriage. His use is in some ways confused as in the illustration it is the husband who dies, but in the application it we who have died, but the fundamental point is that we are free from previous commitments and we start a whole new relationship. When we give our lives to Christ everything changes.
There is a deep emotional and psychological commitment to living by law, whether it be “law” or “the Law”. This was especially true of the Jews and the Law. Their whole way of life was centred around the Law and trying to keep it. A moral person will be equally focused on trying to be good. Paul has shown in the earlier parts of Romans that such a person is still a sinner, they have still fallen short of the glory of God. Through the cross we are justified by the blood of Jesus, declared righteous. Does it matter how we live? Yes, it certainly does as Paul has said in chapters 5 and 6. How then do we live a “good life”, how do we live to please God. Our natural reaction will be to try and do this by law, ie be relying on our own efforts. If we do this we will have the same failed results as we had before we came to Christ. We need to appreciate that we are no longer bound to this way of living. There is a new way, which Paul will not get on to until chapter 8, the way of the Spirit. First he establishes our freedom to stop living by law, and the futility of trying to live by law.
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