Or do you not know, brothers and sisters, Paul continued, (for I am speaking to those who know the law [νόμον, a form of νόμος]), that the law (νόμος) is lord over a person as long as he lives?¹  Thus Paul introduced another value of the death of those who were baptized into Christ Jesus’ death.²  Then he used a metaphor to describe the life of those who have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so [they] too may live a new life³ (Romans 7:2-4 NET).

For a married woman is bound by law (νόμῳ, another form of νόμος) to her husband as long as he lives, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law (νόμου, another form of νόμος) of the marriage.  So then, if she is joined to another man while her husband is alive, she will be called an adulteress.  But if her husband dies, she is free from that law (νόμου, another form of νόμος), and if she is joined to another man, she is not an adulteress.  So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law (νόμῳ, another form of νόμος) through the body of Christ, so that you could be joined to another, to the one who was raised from the dead, to bear fruit (καρποφορήσωμεν, a form of καρποφορέω to God.

I have unpacked this metaphor elsewhere and won’t do it again.  In the context of this metaphor then the new man born of the Spirit is a new woman bringing forth righteousness, the fruit of the Spirit, as a wife bears her husband’s children.  There is a time lag between conception, coming to term and giving birth.  But that time lag is no excuse, and certainly not a valid reason, for avoiding intimate relations with the Lord Jesus.  On the contrary, the time one spends waiting and hoping for righteousness to come forth is best spent trusting Him, believing things like, For when we were in the flesh, the sinful (παθήματα, a form of πάθημα) desires (ἁμαρτιῶν, a form of ἁμαρτία), aroused by the law (νόμου, another form of νόμος), were active in the members of our body to bear fruit (καρποφορῆσαι, another form of καρποφορέω) for death.  But now we have been released from the law (νόμου, another form of νόμος), because we have died to what controlled us, so that we may serve in the new life of the Spirit and not under the old written code.⁴

What shall we say then? Paul continued.  Is the law (νόμος) sin?⁵  Paul had a bad reputation over his comments about the law.  When he journeyed back to Jerusalem even the elders of the church said to him (Acts 21:20b-24 NET):

You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are who have believed, and they are all ardent observers of the law (νόμου, another form of νόμος).  They have been informed about you – that you teach all the Jews now living among the Gentiles to abandon Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or live according to our customs.  What then should we do?  They will no doubt hear that you have come [Table].  So do what we tell you: We have four men who have taken a vow; take them and purify yourself along with them and pay their expenses, so that they may have their heads shaved.⁶  Then everyone will know⁷ there is nothing in what they have been told about you, but that you yourself live in conformity with the law (νόμον, a form of νόμος).

Paul, who wrote my heart’s desire and prayer to God on behalf of my fellow Israelites is for their salvation,⁸ complied with their request.  But it didn’t work.  Jews from the province of Asia who had seen [Paul] in the temple area stirred up the whole crowd and seized him, shouting, “Men of Israel, help!  This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere against our people, our law (νόμου, another form of νόμος), and this sanctuary!”⁹ The mob would have killed Paul if not for the intervention of the Roman commander of a cohort, his centurions and soldiers.  Paul asked permission to speak to the crowd (Acts 22:1-21 NET):

“Brothers and fathers, listen to my defense that I now make to you” [Table]. (When they heard that he was addressing them in Aramaic [Ἑβραΐδι, a form of Ἑβραΐς], they became even quieter.)  Then Paul said, “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated with strictness under Gamaliel according to the law (νόμου, another form of νόμος) of our ancestors, and was zealous for God just as all of you are today [Table].  I persecuted this Way even to the point of death, tying up both men and women and putting them in prison, as both the high priest and the whole council of elders can testify about me.  From them I also received letters to the brothers in Damascus, and I was on my way to make arrests there and bring the prisoners to Jerusalem to be punished.  As I was en route and near Damascus, about noon a very bright light from heaven suddenly flashed around me.  Then I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ [Table] I answered, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ He said to me, ‘I am Jesus the Nazarene, whom you are persecuting.’  Those who were with me saw the light, but did not understand the voice of the one who was speaking to me [Table].  So I asked, ‘What should I do, Lord?’  The Lord said to me, ‘Get up and go to Damascus; there you will be told about everything that you have been designated to do.’  Since I could not see because of the brilliance of that light, I came to Damascus led by the hand of those who were with me.  A man named Ananias, a devout man according to the law (νόμον, a form of νόμος), well spoken of by all the Jews who live there [Table], came to me and stood beside me and said to me, ‘Brother Saul, regain your sight!’  And at that very moment I looked up and saw him.  Then he said, ‘The God of our ancestors has already chosen you to know his will (θέλημα), to see the Righteous One, and to hear a command from his mouth, because you will be his witness to all people of what you have seen and heard.  And now what are you waiting for?  Get up, be baptized, and have your sins washed away, calling on his¹⁰ name.’  When I returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance and saw the Lord saying to me, ‘Hurry and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about me’ [Table]  I replied, ‘Lord, they themselves know that I imprisoned and beat those in the various synagogues who believed in you.  And when the blood of your witness Stephen was shed,¹¹ I myself was standing nearby, approving,¹² and guarding the cloaks of those who were killing him.’  Then he said to me, ‘Go, because I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’”

The crowd was listening to him until he said this.  Then they raised their voices and shouted, “Away with this man from the earth!  For he should not be allowed¹³ to live!”¹⁴

Despite all this calumny, Paul found no fault with the law except that it was weakened through the flesh.¹⁵  If we all were born only of the Spirit, and heard God say, You shall not commit adultery,¹⁶ we would all say, “Thank you, Lord, that’s what I didn’t want to do anyway!”  In answer to the question then, Is the law (νόμος) sin? Paul said, Absolutely not!  Certainly, I would not have known sin except through the law (νόμου, another form of νόμος).¹⁷

I might feel in myself that it is wrong for you to commit adultery with my wife.  But I may not feel that it is wrong for me to commit adultery with your wife apart from the law.  After all, I have good reasons.  Your wife wants me and loves me, and I her.  And she is beautiful, far more beautiful than you can possibly deserve.  Look at you.  Look at the way you treat her.  Would she have any interest in me at all if you deserved her and treated her right?  I’m doing you a favor, Pal.  Face it!  She’s just more woman than you can handle.

For indeed I would not have known what it means to desire something belonging to someone else, Paul continued, if the law (νόμος) had not said, “Do not covet.”¹⁸ There is a darker side to the flesh born of Adam that hears of God’s law, You shall not commit adultery, and denies that there is a god to say such things, or if there is He doesn’t know his place or He wouldn’t dare say such things, or even more directly, “Oh, yeah! Watch this!”  But sin, Paul wrote, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of wrong desires.¹⁹  I have a fairly good idea of at least some of the things Paul coveted (1 Corinthians 9:4-7; 2 Corinthians 12:11, 15 NET).

Do we not have the right to financial support?  Do we not have the right to the company of a believing wife, like the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas?  Or do only Barnabas and I lack the right not²⁰ to work?   Who ever serves in the army at his own expense?  Who plants a vineyard and does not eat its fruit?²¹  Who tends a flock and does not consume its milk?

I have become a fool.  You yourselves forced me to do it, for I should have been commended by you.  For I lack nothing in comparison to those “super-apostles,” even though I am nothing [Table]...Now I will most gladly spend and be spent for your lives!  If²² I love you more, am I to be loved less?²³

For apart from the law (νόμου, another form of νόμος), sin is dead,²⁴ Paul continued.  Then he expounded on that theme from his own experience.  And I was once alive apart from the law (νόμου, another form of νόμος), but with the coming of the commandment sin became alive and I died.  So I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life brought death!  For sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it I died.²⁵  And again, I think this personification of sin is a reference to the old man that was crucified with Christ.²⁶  This all becomes clearer a bit later in Romans 7.

So then, the law (νόμος) is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good,²⁷ Paul concluded.

Addendum: April 23, 2024
Tables comparing Acts 21:24; 22:16; 22:20; 22:22; 1 Corinthians 9:6, 7 and 2 Corinthians 12:15 in the KJV and NET follow.