Verse 4 is transitional; here Paul begins to apply the meaning of the illustration from marriage. A number of ways may be used to translate the particle with which Paul introduces this verse: that is the way it is (Good News Translation); “that is why” (Jerusalem Bible); “in the same way” (New American Bible), etc.

Once again Paul uses a specific address, my brothers, making this verse emphatic in its argument. The pronoun you, which appears four times in this verse, must be taken as a reference to all of Paul’s readers and not to the Gentiles alone. For that reason the pronoun we in the latter part of the verse should be inclusive in those languages which distinguish between the inclusive and exclusive forms.

That is the way it is with you may be translated as “this also applies to you” or “you are also involved the same way.”

In you also have died, Paul employs an unusual form of the verb “to die,” a passive form, but all translations take it in the same sense as the Good News Translation. In Greek the verb rendered have died is an aorist tense, and expresses action at some definite time in the past, perhaps a reference to the baptismal experience of the believers. You also have died may, however, require a change from metaphor to simile—for example, “it is just as though you had died” or “you also have seemingly died.”

Paul’s use of the word Law in this verse is ambiguous, though the Good News Translation (also Jerusalem Bible, An American Translation*, Moffatt) takes it to mean the Jewish Law. Paul’s analogy in this passage is not perfect; but his main concern is to emphasize the contrasts between death and new life, and this is the point at which his argument must be understood. He has compared the believer to a married woman; when her husband dies she is free to marry another man. The Christian is released from the Law (though the Law does not die), and this release from the Law is made possible by the death of Christ and by the death of the believer in connection with Christ’s death. As death opens up the possibility for the married woman to have a new relationship in life, so the death of Christ makes a new relationship possible for the believer.

As far as the Law is concerned may be rather differently expressed in some languages—for example, “if you think about the Law,” “if you consider the Law,” or even “if you are talking about the Law.”

The phrase translated because you are a part of the body of Christ (literally “by means of the body of Christ”) is difficult. Some understand body in the sense of the church, which is elsewhere spoken of as the body of Christ (see 12.5; 1 Corinthians 12.27), while others take it as a reference to the death of Christ (see 6.6). Apparently the Good News Translation follows the first of these possibilities (so also the New English Bible “by becoming identified with the body of Christ”). If the second of these possibilities is followed, then this passage might be rendered: “by the death of Christ you also have died as far as the Law is concerned.”

In the same way that Christ’s death freed the believer from the Law, so his resurrection makes possible a new relationship: and now you belong to him who was raised from death in order that we might be useful in the service of God. The understood agent of the passive voice (was raised from death) is God, that is, “God raised him from death.”

That we might be useful in the service of God is literally “that we might bear fruit for God” (so most translations). Of all the translations normally cited in this volume, only the Good News Translation and the Jerusalem Bible (“to make us productive for God”) have made the meaning of the metaphor explicit. The metaphor may have the specific meaning of “bringing others to God,” but in the present context the emphasis seems to be more general, that is, simply living a life that is useful to God. In some languages, useful in the service of God may be expressed as “doing good for God’s sake” or “doing good as a way of serving God.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Romans. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1973. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .