THEREFORE MY BRETHREN, YOU ALSO WERE MADE TO DIE TO THE LAW THROUGH THE BODY OF CHRIST: hoste adelphoi mou, kai humeis ethanatothete (2PAPI) to nome dia tou somatos tou Christou: (Romans 7:6; 6:14; 8:2; Gal 2:19,20; 3:13; 5:18; Eph 2:15; Col 2:14,20) (Mt 26:26; Jn 6:51; 1Cor 10:16; Heb 10:10; 1Pet 2:24)

Therefore  (5620) (hoste) means so that, consequently, accordingly, thus. This opening word indicates that illustration is now giving way to application. It draws an inference from the preceding illustration and introduces the actual relation with respect to Christians who are in a position corresponding with that of the wife.

Made to die (2289) (thanatoo from thánatos = death) means to kill, to cause to be put to death, to mortify, to deliver over to death.

Note that the Law has not died. Believers have been made to die to the Law. Paul avoids saying that the Law died, for that is not taught in Scripture, though the law had a certain course to run. Paul is continuing the emphasis already made in Romans 6, that death ends obligation, having stated in Romans 6:14 (see note) believers are no longer under (under the power, authority, and control of) law, but under grace"

In Galatians Paul explained that

Christ redeemed (bought us back, delivered us by paying the price = His precious blood) us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse (which condemned us to die) for (on our behalf, speaking of His substitutionary death) us (Galatians 3:13)

In Colossians he explained that God

cancelled and blotted out and wiped away the handwriting of the note (bond) with its legal decrees and demands which was in force and stood against us (hostile to us). This [note with its regulations, decrees, and demands] He set aside and cleared completely out of our way by nailing it to [His] cross. (see note at Col 2:14)

Paul went on to explain that

(believers) have died with Christ (believer’s union with Christ in His death and resurrection) to the elementary principles of the world... (see note Col 2:20)

Writing to the churches in Galatia Paul explained that

"through the Law I died to the Law (when a person is convicted of a capital crime and executed, the law has no further claim on him - similarly when the believer has died with Christ Who paid the penalty for sins in full which satisfies God's justice and he is forever free - risen with Christ - from any further penalty), that I might live to God (only by being dead to the law for the law could never produce a holy life and that was never God's intent). I have been crucified with Christ (the believer is identified with Christ in His death) and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me (Jesus did not die for me in order that I might go on living as I choose but that from now on He might live His life in and through me, empowering me by His Spirit to live in a supernatural way previously not possible in my strength) and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith (means reliance or dependence, living in continual dependence on Christ, yielding to Him, allowing Christ to live His life) in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me." (Gal 2:19-20)

The believer’s rule of life is Christ and not the law. It is not a matter of striving or trying, but of trusting and relying. We now live a holy life, not out of fear of punishment, but out of love of God and a desire to be pleasing to Him as our Father.

Through (1223) (dia) marker of instrument by which something is accomplished, by means of.

The body of Christ should not be interpreted as a reference to the church, since the word has not been used in the corporate, mystical sense so far in the Epistle, and when it is so used (see note on Romans 12:4-5) Paul brings in the human body as an analogy in order to make his meaning clear, as he had done in an earlier letter (1Cor 12:12, 13).

Newell writes that...

The great lesson which each of us must lay to his own heart, is, that those in Christ, whether Jew or Gentile, are not under law as a principle, but under grace,—full, accomplished Divine favor—that favor shown by God to Christ! And the life of the believer now is

(1) in faith, not effort: as Paul speaks in Galatians 2:20 (note):

The life which I now live in the (physical) flesh, I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God

(2) in the power of the indwelling Spirit; for walking by the Spirit has taken the place of walking by external commandments; and

(3) exercising ourselves to have a good conscience toward God and men always: particularly, not wrongly using our freedom. (Romans 7)

THAT YOU MIGHT BE JOINED (be married to, might belong to, becoming another's)  TO ANOTHER TO HIM WHO WAS RAISED FROM THE DEAD: eis to genesthai (AMN) humas hetero to ek nekron egerthenti (AAPMSD): (Ps 45:10-15; Isa 54:5; 62:5; Hos 2:19,20; Jn 3:29; 2Cor 11:2; Eph 5:23-27; Rev 19:7; 21:9)

Joined (1096) (ginomai) means to cause to become or to come into existence and more literally "having become another man's"

In a sense believers are now united to Christ as His bride (see note Ephesians 5:25) for we have been betrothed to our Beloved and betrothal in the Jewish culture was tantamount to a legal binding relationship and to break it one had to get a writ of divorce. As a woman could marry a new husband only after her first husband had died, so we have been married, as it were, to our great Bridegroom after we died to the law.

To belong to Christ involves participation not only in his death but also in his resurrection. Severance from obligation to serve the law is only part of the truth. We are married, as it were, to the risen Lord, with a view to bearing fruit to God. Perhaps an analogy is intended here--as a marriage produces progeny, so the believer's union with Christ results in spiritual fruit. It should be recalled that in our Lord's teaching the secret of fruit bearing is union with Himself (Jn 15:1 ff.), emphasized here in Romans 7:6.

THAT WE MIGHT BEAR FRUIT FOR GOD: hina karpophoresomen (1PAAS) to theo: (Ro 6:22; Ps 45:16; Jn 15:8; Gal 5:22,23; Phil 1:11; 4:17; Col 1:6,10)

That (2443) (hina) is a marker of result or of purpose for the fact that believers are in Christ, having been born again to a new Master with a new Power and Purpose in Christ.

Bear fruit (2592) (karpophoreo from karpos = fruit + phero = to bring) literally means to bring forth fruit, to be fertile, productive. In John 15 those who abide in the Vine Christ Jesus, will bring forth "much fruit" ("good works").

Karpophereo is in the subjunctive mood which with hina (conjunction meaning "for the purpose of", "in order that") is used to express purpose -- fruit bearing. If you are a believer and feel you have no "purpose", here it is...go and bear fruit, much fruit, fruit that remains for eternity. Focus on the facts not on your feelings. Let this truth renew your mind if you are downcast.

Paul moved from the second person plural (you) to the first person plural (we), including himself along with his readers. The believer who has died with Christ is released from bondage to the law and hence from bondage to sin and is free to experience the abundant life of Christ. God’s purpose in all this is in order that we might bear fruit to God (cf. notes Romans 6:22 Galatians 5:22;  5:23 Philippians 1:11). Only a person who is spiritually alive can bear spiritual fruit, that is, holy living (cf. Jn 15:4-5).

And the aim of this joining (this “marriage”), he says, is that you “bear fruit for God.” There it is. You don’t go on sinning. If you are in Christ, justified, and married to your Savior, Jesus, you bear fruit for God. That means that new desires and attitudes and choices and actions grow like fruit from this all-satisfying relationship between you and your living “husband,” Jesus Christ.

So being set free from the law does not mean freedom from love and justice; it means freedom to marry the one who is love – the one who produces love in us from the inside out – like fruit on a vine, not tinsel on a tree.

Paul is saying that before faith in Christ's death, burial and resurrection, we were ''married'' to a husband named ''the Law''. But when we died with Christ in Romans 6, we were set free from our husband and united with our new Husband, Christ. The old ''husband'' is not dead...believers are the ones who have died.

Newell adds that...

FOR WHILE WE WERE (past tense) IN THE FLESH (unregenerate): hote gar hemen en te sarki: (Ro 8:8,9; Jn 3:6; Gal 5:16,17,24; Eph 2:3,11; Titus 3:3)

Were is in the imperfect tense which speaks of durative action (= action that is ongoing, progressive or continual) in the past (when you were unregenerate). At that time we were dead in our trespasses and sins and under the rule and control of our fallen sin nature inherited from Adam. We had no choice but to obey the strong desires of our unregenerate flesh.

NIV is interpretive but accurate "controlled by the sinful nature"

Flesh (4561)(sarx) (Click in depth study) is used 147 times in the NT and because of multiple nuances (some Greek lexicons list up to 11 definitions for sarx!) the diligent disciple must carefully observe the context of in order to discern which nuance is intended. The range of meaning extends from the substance flesh (both human and animal), to the human body, to the entire person, and to all humankind.

In the present context, sarx is used in the moral/ethical or spiritual sense to describe the outlook of mankind which is continually orientated toward self,  is prone to sin, is opposed to God and which pursues its own ends in self-sufficient, independence from God. Flesh thus is the ugly complex of human sinful desires that includes the ungodly motives, affections, principles, purposes, words, and actions that sin generates through our bodies. Sarx as used in this manner denotes the entire fallen human being—not just the sinful body but the entire being, including the soul and mind, as affected by sin. To live in the flesh is to be ruled and controlled by that evil complex. Because of Christ’s saving work on our behalf, the sinful flesh no longer has the "right" to reign over us, to debilitate us and drag us back into the pit of depravity into which we were all born.

In the flesh - In a Scriptural survey of the term "in the flesh", we find that the most common use is to describe one's physical being (see 2Cor 10:3, 2Cor 12:7, Gal 2:20, Eph 2:11, note on Phil 1:22, 24, 1Ti 3:16). And in this verse in Romans 7, it is interesting to note that the Amplified Version qualifies the phrase “In the flesh” with the explanatory clause that this refers to "mere physical lives" but a careful examination of the context does not support this interpretation.

The Weymouth paraphrase is interesting...

For whilst we were under the thraldom of our earthly natures, sinful passions— made sinful by the Law—were always being aroused to action in our bodily faculties that they might yield fruit to death.

Phillips renders it...

While we were "in the flesh" the Law stimulated our sinful passions and so worked in our nature that we became productive - for death!  (Phillips: Touchstone)

Donald Barnhouse rightly states that...

Here, ‘in the flesh’ does not refer to the body. These three simple words describe the deadly state of people who have not been born again... It is a moral state, the condition of the unsaved before God. The state of the redeemed is described in chapter 8:

“You are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you” (see note Romans 8:9).

Being in the flesh, then, is the opposite of being in the Spirit. We all begin in the flesh, but some of us are now in the Spirit, even though the flesh is still in us. Because we have been freed from the flesh by the death of our Lord Jesus Christ and our union with Him in His resurrection, we are liberated from the passions of that flesh and may henceforth be dominated by the new life of our risen Lord.

William Newell explains that Paul...