Relevant

Paul's Thesis

In Romans 7, Paul is making an argument why the Law given Moses is no longer binding upon "those who know the Law" (Israel) -- God's wife in Hosea. Paul reminds the reader that under the Law of the Husband that when the husband dies, the Law over the wife is dissolved, and the wife is free of the Law which binds her to her husband. She can now remarry without committing adultery. In Romans 7:1-6, Paul implicitly taught that when Jesus died, this broke the bond between Israel and God to the Law, and thus "those who know the Law" (Israel) are now free of the Law and could marry another who supposedly had no such Law --  the risen Jesus.

Hence, what is so embarassing is that this passage necessarily means that when Jesus died, the God of Sinai supposedly died, and this is what frees Israel from the Law given by her husband at Sinai. This is solely what drives the preposterous notions Paul is not focused on the Law given Moses or that the husband who dies whose death dissolves the Law (of Moses) is the Law itself.

In Depth Exposition of Romans 7:1-6

What does Paul mean by "the Law of her husband" in verse 2 of this illustration? Since this part of Paul's letter is addressed to those "who know the Law" (v. 1) and the wider context up to this point is about the Law given Moses, we deduce Paul means the Law given Moses -- the Law of the husband God of Israel, as stated above. Yahweh repeatedly refers to himself in Hosea as the husband of Israel.

And note Paul is aware that there is a fear of "adultery" if a transition is made to Jesus illegitimately from the "law of her husband," right? (See v. 3.) What is this fear? That somehow a Jewish person would be disloyal to the God of Israel by embracing Jesus. Paul is thus not speaking of a fear of being disloyal to the Law itself which proves Paul does not intend us to think the Law is the husband. Rather, the only disloyalty one would fear is toward the husband known as the God of Israel.

How does Paul teach Jewish believers identified in verse 1 can overcome that fear when Paul teaches they are "loosed" and "released" from the Law that they are not betraying the God of the OT? (v. 2) By believing Paul when he teaches that the "husband be dead." (v. 2.)

But how did the God of Israel supposedly die thereby bringing to nothing the "law of her husband"?

"You became dead to the Law by the body of Christ...to him who was raised from the dead." (v. 4.)

What necessarily did Paul say earlier must happen to the husband to free Jews (v. 1) from the "law of her husband?" (See v. 2.) The husband must die. And right there in verse 4 we have someone -- the Christ -- who died and was risen from the dead. It is obvious that Paul regards the pre-resurrected Jesus as representative of the God of Israel who died in Jesus' death, and whose death thereby severed forever the wife's connection to the "law of her husband"i.e., the Law at Sinai delivered to Israel by Yahweh. (This means the post-resurrected Jesus could not represent the same divinity He represented when He died or otherwise, the bond of the Law given Moses would persist as the husband from the first marriage would never have truly died.)