Romans 7:1-6
1Know 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? 2For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. 3So 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.
The point Paul is making is that the woman once under bondage to the law is no longer bound by it. With the death of her husband, she became dead to the law of her husband and no longer an adulteress.
4Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. 5For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. 6But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.
The analogy is that with the death of Christ we became dead to the law and are no longer in bondage to it. Being delivered from the law delivered us from sin. As the woman is no longer an adulteress, we are no longer sinners.
Romans 7:17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Romans 7:25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
Colossians 2:11-12 In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: 12Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.
Romans 6:18 Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.
This is the totality of the meaning of this passage. The rest of the chapter deals with our old relationship compared to our new relationship with sin. Chapter 7 is a continuation and restating of chapter 6.
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