The Jurisdiction of the Law
Thinking about Romans 7:1.
Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? (Romans 7:1).
In Romans 7:1, Paul makes his point by calling attention to a principle everyone understands.
The law can’t come after you when you’re dead.
The law “has dominion,” or “jurisdiction” over a person as long as they are alive.
Robert Taylor told of a man who had been summoned to appear as a witness for a trial. When he did not show up, the judge inquired as to his whereabouts and why he was absent. A person in the court rose and explained, “You Honor, I can give you three reasons why he is not here. The first one is that he has just died.” The judge answered sharply, “The other two will not be necessary.” - Wacaster, Studies in Romans, 251
If a person wants to be free from the law, they must die.
However, freedom from the law doesn’t mean freedom to do whatever you want. Freedom from the law means being free to serve God (Romans 6:11-14).
Those who have been buried with Christ in baptism have died with Him to sin and have been raised up to live a new life set free from sin.
Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. (Romans 6:3-7)
Paul has begun to make his point that we have been set free from the law by being buried and “dying” with Christ.
Next, in Romans 7:2-4, he will illustrate how the law only has jurisdiction over a person so long as he is alive by using marriage.