Rm 7, 1-6 But now we are released from the law

Romans 7

(Rm 7, 1-6) But now we are released from the law

[1] Are you unaware, brothers (for I am speaking to people who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over one as long as one lives? [2] Thus a married woman is bound by law to her living husband; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law in respect to her husband. [3] Consequently, while her husband is alive she will be called an adulteress if she consorts with another man. But if her husband dies she is free from that law, and she is not an adulteress if she consorts with another man. [4] In the same way, my brothers, you also were put to death to the law through the body of Christ, so that you might belong to another, to the one who was raised from the dead in order that we might bear fruit for God. [5] For when we were in the flesh, our sinful passions, awakened by the law, worked in our members to bear fruit for death. [6] But now we are released from the law, dead to what held us captive, so that we may serve in the newness of the spirit and not under the obsolete letter.

(CCC 1963) According to Christian tradition, the Law is holy, spiritual, and good (Cf. Rom 7:12, 14, 16), yet still imperfect. Like a tutor (Cf. Gal 3:24) it shows what must be done, but does not of itself give the strength, the grace of the Spirit, to fulfill it. Because of sin, which it cannot remove, it remains a law of bondage. According to St. Paul, its special function is to denounce and disclose sin, which constitutes a "law of concupiscence" in the human heart (Cf. Rom 7). However, the Law remains the first stage on the way to the kingdom. It prepares and disposes the chosen people and each Christian for conversion and faith in the Savior God. It provides a teaching which endures for ever, like the Word of God.