Romans 7:1-6 (NLT)

1-3 “Now, dear brothers and sisters—you who are familiar with the law—don’t you know that the law applies only while a person is living? (2) For example, when a woman marries, the law binds her to her husband as long as he is alive.  But if he dies, the laws of marriage no longer apply to her.  (3) So while her husband is alive, she would be committing adultery if she married another man.  But if her husband dies, she is free from that law and does not commit adultery when she remarries.” 

4-6 “So, my dear brothers and sisters, this is the point: You died to the law when you died with Christ.  And now you are united with the one who was raised from the dead.  As a result, we can produce a harvest of good deeds for God.  (5) When we were controlled by our own sinful nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death.  (6) But now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no longer captive of its power.  Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit.”

Romans 7:5 in other translations:

NKJV: “For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. 

NASB “For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death.

NIV “For when we were in the realm of the flesh, this sinful passions aroused by the law were at work within us, so that we bore fruit for death.”

My comments:  Paul made the analogy of the Law being like our husband, and before we could marry Jesus, we had to die to the law first, otherwise it would be considered spiritual adultery (verse 3).  When we were married to the Law, it aroused evil desires in us (quoted from verse 5), and those evil desires produced a harvest of sinful deeds, that resulted in death.  But once we died to the law and married Jesus instead, through that union we produce a harvest of good deeds (verse 4).  Notice we can’t be married to the law and Jesus at the same time.  In other words, we can’t use the Mosaic Law as our guide and the Holy Spirit at the same time.  When we are married to, or united with Jesus, then we follow the new way of being led by the Holy Spirit instead of the written rules of the Mosaic Law (verse 6).  Being guided by the Holy Spirit instead of the Mosaic Law is also confirmed in other passages, one being Galatians 5:16-18(NLT):

“So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. (17) The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants.  And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires… (18) But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under the obligation to the law of Moses.” 

Galatians 5:18 (NKJV) “But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law”