According to the law of Moses, marriage is for life.

A man and woman are bound to each other as long as they are both alive.

But when one dies, the other is released from the law and is free to marry another.

Now Paul uses this illustration to explain a key point of the Gospel.

You were once married to sin and death.

You were bound to that relationship by the the law.

Now the only way out was through death.

And here is the good news. You died with Jesus Christ.

And the law can no longer hold you as a prisoner of sin.

As Paul wrote in Romans 7:4, "You died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you might belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead."