7:2 For the woman that has a husband is bound by law to the husband while he lives,
but if the husband dies, she is discharged from the law of the husband.

7:3 So then if, while the husband lives, she is joined to another man,
she would be called an adulteress.

But if the husband dies, she is free from the law,
so that she is no adulteress, though she is joined to another man.

7:5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were through the law,
worked in our members to bring forth fruit to death.

7:6 But now we have been discharged from the law,
having died to that in which we were held;
so that we serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter.
 

For I wouldn't have known coveting,
unless the law had said, "You shall not covet."

7:8 But sin, finding occasion through the commandment,
produced in me all kinds of coveting.
For apart from the law, sin is dead.

7:10 The commandment, which was for life, this I found to be for death;

7:11 for sin, finding occasion through the commandment,
deceived me, and through it killed me.

7:13 Did then that which is good become death to me? May it never be!
But sin, that it might be shown to be sin, by working death to me through that which is good;
that through the commandment sin might become exceeding sinful.

For I don't practice what I desire to do; but what I hate, that I do.

I consent to the law that it is good.
7:17 So now it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me.

For desire is present with me,
but I don't find it doing that which is good.

7:19 For the good which I desire, I don't do;
but the evil which I don't desire, that I practice.

7:20 But if what I don't desire, that I do,
it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me.

7:22 For I delight in God's law after the inward man,
7:23 but I see a different law in my members,
warring against the law of my mind,
and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members.

So then with the mind, I myself serve God's law,
but with the flesh, the sin's law.

Applying the women's role in the marriage covenant to the believer was appropriate, as he wrote in Ephesians 5:24-32 that such is analogous to the relationship between the Church and Christ. Christ taking the role of the husband, as he also applies in Romans 7:4. And with respect to the issue of divorce, just as under the Mosaic Law, Jesus can "divorce" us, but has promised not to do so (John 6:37), but we don't have the authority to "divorce" him, just as under the Law of Moses, women don't have authority to divorce their husbands. And this is one of two rebuttals to those who don't accept the concept of Eternal Security upon the basis that the saved can hypothetically of their own free will walk away from Christ and become unsaved. (The other rebuttal is from 1John 3:9,10 which indicates that the saved have also lost the ability to live a lifestyle of sin, which of course would include walking away from the Christian life) Thus the saved have neither the authority nor desire to lose their salvation.

vs 4 The point of vs 1-3 is that we were under the authority of the Law - or in a sense "a wife to the law". But having died with Christ, we were made dead with respect to the law. That is, we were dead to the law and the law was dead to us - death being seen as a doorway between two states rather than a state itself. The result being that we are now married to Christ - "Bearing fruit" having the connotation of bearing children as the wife's role in a marriage.

vs 5,6 Serving under Christ is different than serving under the law. Serving under the law meant to do literally whatever the letter of the law explicitly said. But serving under Christ is serving by the spirit. We are given general principles to follow and infer specific applications by our spirit from those priniciples.

vs 7-13 The main benefit we received from the law was that it helped to reveal our sinfulness and thus convicted us of sin. This prepared us to receive the righteousness which is from Christ by leading us to the conclusion that we needed a Savior. vs 9 "Once I was alive apart from law" Which is contrary to idea that we are reckoned guilty from birth. We're innocent until we commit sin. Which is also consistent with "re" in "redemption". We start out right with God, then we become lost, then we are redeemed by Christ.

vs 14-25 Records Paul's personal experience in this matter. There have been various interpretations depending on whether we assume Paul is talking about his pre-salvation days, or is he speaking of a time when he was a Christian, but "carnally" (if there is such a state), or if this is his normal experience as a Christian.

It seems to me that when he says "I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin", he is referring to simply to his flesh. He makes many references in this section to his flesh, though the NIV often translates "flesh" (sarx) as "sinful nature" which detracts from the connection. "Unspiritual" in vs 14 is "sarkikos" in the greek. Notice the similarity to "flesh" = "sarx" in the greek.

Notice also the similarity between the description of one having the Spirit in Romans 8 with Paul's description of himself in Romans 7

Rom 8:5 "For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit."

Rom 8:7 "Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be."

Rom 7:22,23 "For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members."

Rom 7:25 "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin."

This is the struggle that every Christian goes through. In the end we can thank God that we're going to die. For then there will be no more struggle with the flesh. Rather, we will physically be raised from the dead and given a new body - without sin. This is what Paul meant by "Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God-- through Jesus Christ our Lord!" But as for the present, he says: "I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin." The mind being a slave to God's law is promised as part of the New Covenant:

"This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the LORD. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest," declares the LORD. "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more." Jeremiah 31:33,34

Ro 6:6 "Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin."
Eph 4:22 "That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;"
Col 3:9 "Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;"