Paul’s use of the marriage illustration in Romans 7:1-6 is puzzling. His initial setup appears clear: he notes that, as a general rule, death severs one’s obligation to the law (v. 1). He then applies the principle to the specific case of a widow, explaining that a married woman is bound by law to her husband only as long as he lives; however, if her husband dies, she is liberated from the law of her husband (vv. 2-3). All of this is preparation for his theological conclusion: “So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ” (v. 4). One might have expected him to suggest that the former husband (the law) died, thereby freeing believers to be married to the new husband (Christ). The difficulty is that he has the woman dying, not the husband. Most commentators contend that this is indeed Paul’s intent, but he has the husband in the illustration as the party who dies merely to establish the general principle that death ends one’s obligation to the law. But this standard interpretation is dissatisfying since Paul asserts explicitly that, just like the woman in the illustration, believers have “also” (καί) died to the law. I propose that the difficulty arises because commentators typically assume two things: first, that the former husband in the illustration represents the law, and second, that only the husband, and not the woman, died in the illustration. I suggest reconsidering these assumptions. The former husband, I argue, symbolizes the old Adam (aka “the flesh”), whose authority is exerted through the law. Furthermore, the woman is envisioned as, in fact, undergoing death representatively through the death of the former husband. With these revised assumptions, Paul’s use of the marriage illustration falls into place and becomes consistent. An advantage of this interpretation is it sheds light on the flow of Paul’s argument in this section of Romans. Paul initially establishes the two-Adams framework in 5:12-21, which paves the way for his discussion in 6:1-23 of the believer’s transfer from the realm of the old Adam to the new realm under the lordship of Christ the new Adam. This broader two-Adams paradigm has repercussions for interpreting Paul’s discussion of the believer’s relationship to the law in 7:1–8:11. Specifically, it confirms the view that the anguished “I” of ch. 7 does not represent the believer’s ongoing struggles with sin. Rather, 7:7-25 is to be read as describing in greater detail the fruitless life of the unbeliever striving to keep the law while “in the flesh” (7:5), while 8:1-11 narrates the transition to the new way of life married to Christ the new Adam.