Romans 7:1-6 (Quoted from the NLT)

1-3 “Now dear brothers and sisters—you who are familiar with that law—don’t you know that 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 she is alive. But if he dies, the laws of marriage no longer applies 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 power of 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 old 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 to 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.

My comments:  God works through covenants, and the law was a covenant God made with the Israelite’s when he gave them the 10 commandments through Moses on Mount Sinai.  The only way out of a covenant is through death.  The law couldn’t die, so instead God found a way for us to die to the law through Jesus, so we could be released from that covenant.  God found fault with the first covenant as it says in Hebrews 8:7.  That verse says, “If the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need for a second covenant.”  2 Corinthians 3:7 calls the covenant "etched on stone"(NLT) (or the 10 commandments) the “ministry of death” (NKJV).  In our reading today it says in verse 5 that the law aroused our evil desires.  So God wanted to do away with that covenant, and He gave us a better one.  He tells us about this new covenant in Hebrews 8:6-13.  He also mentions it here in our reading from today’s passage.  Verse 6 says our new covenant is living in the Spirit, or in other words, allowing the Holy Spirit to guide us.  In Hebrews 8:10 it says that God will put his laws in our minds, and write them on our hearts.  I believe He does that through the Holy Spirit.  Anyway, that is my take on what today’s passage is saying.  That we died to law and the power it had over us through Christ, and God made a better covenant with us which is guiding us through the Holy Spirit.