In Romans 7's marriage analogy, does 'the law' mean the Mosaic law or the law of the land?
In Romans 7's marriage analogy, the law refers to the civil law of the land, not the Mosaic law. Paul uses a marriage relationship governed by civil statutes—whether in Israel or America—to illustrate how death dissolves the legal bond, just as a mortgage or criminal case ends at death.
Les explains that in Romans 7 Paul is using a marriage relationship under the civil law of the land, whether it is Israel or America. He is not talking about the Mosaic law here. When a husband and wife are legally married, that law is part and parcel of the marriage until it is dissolved by divorce or death. The law tells them what they can and cannot do, even with community property. Death ends the whole thing, as with a mortgage foreclosure or a murder case when the accused dies before the verdict. Paul uses this as an illustration: the woman is bound by the law to the husband so long as he lives, but if the husband is dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.
For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.
More Questions
How does Paul use the marriage illustration to explain being held to the law?
Paul's illustration of husband and wife in Romans 7 is that, just as a husband and wife are held together by the law of the land and cannot operate or function without that law being part and parcel, so the law binds a person until death.