What does Romans 7:2 mean?

This passage in Romans explores the relationship between the law and human sinfulness. The prior section discussed the idea of servitude, either to sin and death, or to righteousness and life through Christ. Here, and the following verse, Paul is illustrating the statement he made in verse 1. There he wrote that the law of Moses remains in effect only for the living. In the same way, the law of marriage binds together two living people. If a woman's husband dies, legal obligation no longer applies to that relationship. Death is the condition which nullifies that law.

Paul will go on to show that, as he wrote in the previous chapter, those who trust in Christ for the forgiveness of their sin experience a kind of spiritual death and resurrection. Earlier, this was demonstrated as a reason Christians should not—really, cannot—continue to live in sin after being saved. Here, Paul notes that this death, our death with Christ, is what frees us from our obligation to the law.