Romans 7:3

“ So then if, while the husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if the husband be dead, she is freed from the law, that she may not be an adulteress, though she be married to another man. ”

This verse is not a needless repetition of Romans 7:2. It serves to draw from the legal prescription explained in Romans 7:2 the conclusion which the apostle has to demonstrate the legitimacy of a second union in the case supposed. What would be a crime during the husband's lifetime, becomes legitimate when he is dead.

The term χρηματίζειν strictly signifies to do business, and hence: to bear the name of the profession to which one is devoted. To this day a large number of our family names are names of some trade. Comp. also Acts 11:26.

The expression: freed from the law, is defined by the context: it bears special reference to the law on the rule of marriage. But the expression is designedly kept up in all its generality to prepare for the absolute application of it to believers, which the apostle is about to make.

That she may not be an adulteress (if she marries again): the law was really intended to reserve for her such liberty.

Augustine, Beza, and Olshausen have attempted another explanation, according to which Romans 7:2-3 are not the development, but the allegorical application of the maxim of Romans 7:1. In its clearest form it is as follows, as it seems to me: The woman bound by the law to her living husband is the human soul subjected by the law to the dominion of sin (the first husband). The latter, sin, dying (through faith in Christ crucified), the soul is set free from his power, and enjoys the liberty of entering into union with Christ risen (the new husband). But this explanation would carry us back to the idea of the preceding passage (emancipation from sin), whereas Romans 7:6 shows clearly that Paul means to speak here of emancipation from the law. Then the relation between Romans 7:1-2 would require to be expressed, not by for, but by so (οὕτω), or so that (ὥστε). Finally, the ὥστε, so that, of Romans 7:4 shows it is not till then that the moral application begins.