[16] The omission of the article adds immensely to the force, fullness, and clearness of the passage. It is διά νόμου νόμῳ ἀπέθανον. A wonderful clause, surely. Would that it were better understood! It demolishes a vast mass of human theology. It leaves the law in its own proper sphere; but takes the believer completely from under its power, and out of its range, by death. "Wherefore, 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" (which we never could do if under the law). "For when we were in the flesh"--a correlative term with being under the law--"the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death." Mark the melancholy combination--"under the law"--"in the flesh"--"motions of sins"--"fruit unto death"! Can any thing be more strongly marked? But there is another side, thank God, to this question--His own bright and blessed side. Here it is: "But now _we are delivered from the law_." How? Is it by another's having fulfilled it for us? Nay; but, "_Having died to that_ [ἀποθανόντες ἐν ᾡ] wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter." How perfect and how lovely is the harmony of Romans vii. and Galatians ii.! "I through law am dead to law, that I might live unto God."] Now, if it be true, and the apostle says it is, that we are _dead to law_, how can the law, by any possibility, be a rule of life to us? It proved _only_ a rule of death, curse, and condemnation to those who were under it--those who had received it by the disposition of angels. Can it prove to be aught else to us? Did the law ever produce a single cluster of living fruit, or of the fruits of righteousness, in the history of any son or daughter of Adam? Hear the apostle's reply--"When we were in the flesh," that is, when we were viewed as men in our fallen nature, "the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death." It is very important for the reader to understand the real force of the expression, "in the flesh." It does not, in this passage, mean "in the body." It simply sets forth the condition of unconverted men and women responsible to keep the law. Now, in this condition, all that was or ever could be produced was "fruit unto death"--"motions of sins." No life, no righteousness, no holiness, nothing for God, nothing right at all.[17]