What does Romans 7:4 mean?

Paul brings home the point to which he has been building in this chapter. He has written that one who has died is no longer bound by the law, just as a woman whose husband has died is no longer bound by that marriage. She is free to marry a new husband.

Paul now writes that Christians are the ones who have died, freeing us from our responsibility to the law of Moses. What does this mean? God counts us as being so closely identified with Christ that His physical death on the cross amounts to the death of our old, spiritual selves (Romans 6:6). Paul said repeatedly in the previous chapter that our death "with Christ" has freed us from slavery to sin (Romans 6:2, 18). Now he adds that our death with Christ was also a death "to the law."

Since we died in this way, our former responsibility to the law is broken and we are free to belong to someone else. Specifically, Christians now belong to Christ, the one who has been raised from the dead.

The verse ends with a statement about the point of our new identity in Christ. Now we exist to bear fruit for God. This death to law and resurrection to Christ has created for us a new purpose. Our lives contribute to God's harvest of useful "fruit." The following verses speak more about this fruit.