Romans 7:1–25: Released from the Law, and the Law Holy and Good (two sessions)

Read 7:1–3. What rule about the law does Paul begin from? How does the married woman illustrate it? What changes when her husband dies?

In 7:4, how did believers die to the law? To whom do they now belong, and for what purpose?

In 7:5, what was at work “when we lived according to the flesh”? What aroused it, and what fruit did it bear?

In 7:6, what has happened to believers “now”? In what new way do they serve, and what old way do they leave behind?

How does the marriage picture of 7:2–3 fit 7:4, where the believers, not the husband, die? Is it an exact allegory, or does it make one point? What law would “those who know the law” (7:1) have had in mind?

What does “through the body of Christ” (7:4) mean: his body given up in death, or the church as his body? Compare Col 1:22 with 12:5 and 1 Cor 12:27, and look back at 6:3–6.

How does being “released from the law” (7:6) relate to being “not under law, but under grace” (6:14)? Released from the law in what sense?

Paul speaks of “the sinful passions aroused by the law” (7:5). Does that make the law itself bad? How does 5:20 help, and what will Paul say in 7:7 and 7:12?

Is “the new way of the Spirit” (7:6) about God's Spirit, or about a renewed human spirit? Compare 2:29 and 2 Cor 3:6. Where does Paul take this up next?

Believers died to the law “that you might belong to another, to Him who was raised from the dead” (7:4). What does it mean for you to belong to the risen Christ this week? What fruit for God might that bear?

Paul says we “serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code” (7:6). Where do you slip back into the old way, treating God's commands as a code to keep you acceptable?

If believers are released from the law, are they free to do as they please? How would you answer a friend who says so?