This section is an illustration of the position assumed in v. 14 of the preceding chapter ; we are not under law, but under grace. Paul remarks, as a general fact, that the authorit}-- of laws is not perpetual, v. 1. For example, the law of marriage binds a woman to her husband only so long as he lives. When he is dead, she is free from the obligation which that law imposed, and is at liberty to marry another man, vs. 2, 3. So we, being free from the law, which was our first husband, are at liberty to marry another, even Christ. We are freed from the law by the death of Christ, V. 4. The fruit of our first marriage was sin, v. 5. The fruit of the second is holiness, v. 6.
The apparent confusion in this passage arises from the apostle's not carrying the figure regularly through. As a woman is free from obliga- tion to her husband by his death, so we are free from the law by its death, is obviously the illustration intended. But the apostle, out of respect probably to the feelings of his readers, avoids saying the law is dead, but expresses the idea that we are free from it, by saying we are dead to the law by the body of Christ.