1Or 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?2For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband.3So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man.4Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another-- to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.5For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death.6But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.7What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, You shall not covet.8But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead.