Romans 7:3

So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

7:1-6 So long as a man continues under the law as a covenant, and seeks justification by his own obedience, he continues the slave of sin in some form. Nothing but the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, can make any sinner free from the law of sin and death. Believers are delivered from that power of the law, which condemns for the sins committed by them. And they are delivered from that power of the law which stirs up and provokes the sin that dwells in them. Understand this not of the law as a rule, but as a covenant of works. In profession and privilege, we are under a covenant of grace, and not under a covenant of works; under the gospel of Christ, not under the law of Moses. The difference is spoken of under the similitude or figure of being married to a new husband. The second marriage is to Christ. By death we are freed from obligation to the law as a covenant, as the wife is from her vows to her husband. In our believing powerfully and effectually, we are dead to the law, and have no more to do with it than the dead servant, who is freed from his master, has to do with his master's yoke. The day of our believing, is the day of being united to the Lord Jesus. We enter upon a life of dependence on him, and duty to him. Good works are from union with Christ; as the fruitfulness of the vine is the product of its being united to its roots; there is no fruit to God, till we are united to Christ. The law, and the greatest efforts of one under the law, still in the flesh, under the power of corrupt principles, cannot set the heart right with regard to the love of God, overcome worldly lusts, or give truth and sincerity in the inward parts, or any thing that comes by the special sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit. Nothing more than a formal obedience to the outward letter of any precept, can be performed by us, without the renewing, new-creating grace of the new covenant.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

So then if ... - compare Matthew 5:32.

She shall be called - She will be. The word used here χρηματίσει chrēmatisei is often used to denote being called by an oracle or by divine revelation. But it is here employed in the simple sense of being commonly called, or of being so regarded.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

3. she be married—"joined." So Ro 7:4.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Ver. 3,4. Ye also are become dead to the law; i.e. ye are taken off from all hopes of justification by it, and from your confidence in obedience to it, Galatians 2:19. The opposition seems to require that he should have said, the law is dead to us; but these two phrases are much the same.

Question. What law does he mean?

Answer. Not only the ceremonial, but the moral law, for in that he instances, Romans 7:7. The moral law is in force still; Christ came to confirm, and not to destroy it; but believers are freed from the malediction, from the rigid exaction, and from the irritation thereof. Of this last he speaks, Romans 7:8,9, and from it we are freed but in part.

By the body of Christ; i.e. by the sacrifice of Christ’s body upon the cross; thereby he delivered us from the law, in the sense before mentioned.

Fruit unto God; i.e. fruits of holiness and good works, to the glory and praise of God.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

So then if while her husband liveth,.... True indeed it is, that whilst her husband is alive, if

she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; she will be noted and accounted of as such everybody, except in the above mentioned cases:

but if her husband be dead; then there can be no exception to her marriage:

she is free from the law; of marriage, by which she was before bound:

so that she is no adulteress; nor will any reckon her such; she is clear from any such imputation:

though she be married to another man; hence it appears that second marriages are lawful.

Geneva Study Bible

So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be {a} called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

(a) That is, she will be an adulteress, by the consent and judgment of all men.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Romans 7:3. Ἄρα οὖν] See on Romans 5:18.

χρηματίσει] she shall (formally) bear the name. See Acts 11:26; Plut. Mor. 148 D; Polyb. v. 27, 2, 5, xxx. 2, 4. The future corresponds to the following: ἐὰν γένηται ἀνδρὶ ἑτέρῳ] if she shall have become joined to another husband (as wife). Comp Deuteronomy 24:2; Ruth 1:12; Jdg 14:20; Ezekiel 16:8; Ezekiel 23:4. It is not a Hebraism; see Kypke, II. p. 170; Kühner, II. 1, p. 384.

ἀπὸ τοῦ νόμου] from the law, so far, that is, as it binds the wife to the husband. From that bond she is now released, Romans 7:2.

τοῦ μὴ εἶναι κ.τ.λ[1532]] Not a more precise definition (Th. Schott); nor yet a consequence (as usually rendered), which is never correct, not even in Acts 7:19 (see Fritzsche, a[1533] Matth. p. 845 ff.); but rather: in order that she be not an adulteress. That is the purpose, involved in the divine legal ordinance, of her freedom from the law.

[1532] .τ.λ. καὶ τὰ λοιπά.

[1533] d refers to the note of the commentator or editor named on the particular passage.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

3. she shall be called] The Gr. verb indicates a deliberate “calling;” the winning of a title. Same word as Acts 11:26.

that law] Lit. the law; i.e. of her husband.

married] Lit., in this ver. and 4, the verb is merely be, or become: if she be [joined] to another husband—lawfully or not.

Bengel's Gnomen

Romans 7:3. Χρηματίσει) viz. εἁυτὴν, she will come under the appellation of an adulteress, and that too by the power of the law. She shall bring upon herself the name of an adulteress.—εἂν γένηται ἀνδρὶ ἑτέρῳ, LXX. Deuteronomy 24:2.

Romans 7:3

Vincent's Word Studies

She shall be called (χρηματίσει)

See on Acts 11:26.