Or do you not know, brothers and sisters (for I am speaking to those who know the Law), that the Law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives?
Parallel translations
- WEB Or don’t you know, brothers (for I speak to men who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man for as long as he lives?
- KJV Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?
- BSB Do you not know, brothers (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives?
- NKJV 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?
- NLT Now, dear brothers and sisters—you who are familiar with the law—don’t you know that the law applies only while a person is living?
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Paul reminds his readers that law binds a person only while they live. This principle sets up his argument that believers have died to the law.
Overview
Addressing those who know the law, Paul states a basic legal truth: law's authority over a person ends at death. This prepares for his analogy of marriage and his claim that believers, having died with Christ, are released from the law as a covenant of works. The point serves his larger theme of life under grace rather than law.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Rom 6:14For sin will not have dominion over you. For you are not under law, but under grace.
- Rom 7:6But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that in which we were held; so that we serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter.
- Rom 6:3Or don’t you know that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
- Prov 6:23For the commandment is a lamp, and the law is light. Reproofs of instruction are the way of life,
- Rom 10:1Brothers, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God is for Israel, that they may be saved.
- Rom 9:3For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brothers’ sake, my relatives according to the flesh,
- Gal 4:21Tell me, you that desire to be under the law, don’t you listen to the law?
- Rom 2:17–18Indeed you bear the name of a Jew, and rest on the law, and glory in God,
- 1 Cor 9:8Do I speak these things according to the ways of men? Or doesn’t the law also say the same thing?
- Rom 1:13Now I don’t desire to have you unaware, brothers, that I often planned to come to you, and was hindered so far, that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among the rest of the Gentiles.
- Ezra 7:25You, Ezra, according to the wisdom of your God that is in your hand, appoint magistrates and judges, who may judge all the people who are beyond the River, who all know the laws of your God; and teach him who doesn’t know them.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Paul unfolds the gospel in full: Christ our righteousness received by faith, the second Adam in whom many are made righteous, in whose death and resurrection we are buried and raised.
How Romans 7:1 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.