Christians are free from the authority of God's Law
1 My Christian friends, you know about laws. You know that we have to obey them. The laws have authority over someone while they are still alive. 2 So think about this. A woman who has a husband must stay with him as long as he still lives. That is what the law says. But if her husband dies, she becomes free from that law about her marriage. 3 While her husband is alive, the law has authority over her. If she goes to live with another man, the law says that she has done something wrong. People will call her an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she becomes free from that law. If she then marries another man, she will not be doing anything wrong.
4 My friends, it is like that for you too. When Christ's body died on the cross, it is as if you also died with him. Because of that, you are no longer under the authority of God's Law. Now you are free to belong to someone else. You belong to Christ, whom God raised up after his death. As a result, we can live in a good way that will please God.
5 In our old lives, we did the bad things that we wanted to do. God's laws caused us to think more about sin. As a result, we used our bodies to do many wrong things. In the end, those bad things lead to death. 6 But now we have become free from the authority of God's Law. It is as if we have died. So those rules no longer control us. We do not still try to obey rules that someone has written down. That is the old way. Instead, we serve God in a new way. God's Spirit helps us to please him.
7:5Paul means that people die in their spirits. They have become separate from God and the true life which he gives. See Romans 5:12-14 