Michael's Abbey Bible Study - Romans Chapter 7

1 Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives? Paul frequently used "do you not know" as a strong rebuke of Christians who ought to know and live by a basic point of Christianity he was about to remind them of. However, here and in 6:3 the Greek would be more accurately translated as "are you ignorant" which is a harsher and stronger wording. Paul only used this extra harsh wording in these two verses.
That Paul stated he was speaking to those who know the law does not mean he was now addressing the Jews in Rome. There were very few of them in Rome. And the context does not support it. This almost certainly refers to the fact that as Christians they would have been studying the Old Testament to learn about God as all Christians should. This was a reminder that even if they were not Jews under the law, they were not ignorant of the law either.
On the heels of being dead to sin in chapter 6 and the explicit text in verse 4 of this chapter, that the law's jurisdiction ends at death is the beginning of Paul's teaching on the proper attitude of a Christian to the law.
2 For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. Paul began this teaching with a marriage analogy. Under the Law of Moses marriage is only until death do us part. Thus when one spouse dies the other is automatically released.
Marriage is a legal contract even today, even though the corrupt court systems of the west have rendered it meaningless over the last sixty years. A contract that one side can unilaterally cancel is not a contract and cannot even be defined as an agreement. For the majority of human history and cultures marriage could not be discarded by one side, or even by both sides, unless there was just cause for ending it.
It is likely Paul used a woman as an example because men could divorce their wives under Mosaic Law, but women could not. Whereas Jesus said that was not God's plan but a concession by Moses because men's hearts were so hard. Including all that would overly complicate Paul's argument. It should be noted that under Roman law either spouse could divorce the other simply by leaving the marital home without intending to return.
3 So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man. Under Mosaic Law, a woman could separate from her husband. But she could not divorce him. For her to be with another man while separated was clearly understood to be adultery. However, at this time Israel was under Roman rule which allowed divorce. And a large number of Jews lived abroad in other countries, many of which allowed a woman to divorce her husband. But Mosaic Law applied to Jews regardless of the local government.
All that aside, the point is that death releases us from the jurisdiction of the Law.
4 Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. Just like we died to sin after becoming Christians, we died to the Law through the voluntary sacrifice of Jesus on the cross and His resurrection. The Law convicted sinners. But Jesus frees us from sin. This is one way He was the fulfillment of the law. We are joined with Him and are raised from a life of sin to a life of righteousness. Bearing fruit for God means that we do works of righteousness instead of works of sin. Our righteous works have nothing to do with our salvation. But they are evidence of our faith to ourselves and others. Most importantly, our righteous behavior and attitude are a witness to unbelievers. Jesus was the light of the world while He walked the earth as God incarnate. After He left the torch was passed to us, and now we are the light of the world as Jesus said in Matthew 5:14-16.
5 For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. To be clear, the Law does not cause sin. It is that life in the flesh before we were Christian was ruled by sin, death, and the law. The law was meant to convict people of their sin. But when living by the flesh the forbidden fruit is wanted even more. Thus the knowledge of the law is an enticement to do those sins, which separates us from God and leads to death.
6 But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter. We were held captive by the law just like we were held captive by sin. To be clear, this is the case for everyone, not just the Jews. Our release from the law is from our death to sin and the law. The law was meant to convict, and it did so. Yet it was not the end but the beginning of the return to right relationship with God. While Paul ended the verse by contrasting living under the law of the Old Covenant with living under the Holy Spirit of the New Covenant, this does not put the two at odds. The New Covenant is the fulfillment of the Old, not its contradiction. An analogy would be the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution. The Articles were the first step towards unifying the American colonies that was fully realized under the Constitution. Much of the values of the Articles are in the Constitution just like much of the values of the Law are in the New Covenant as taught by the New Testament. It is just better revealed in the new.
7 What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, "You shall not covet." Here Paul anticipated and countered how some would twist verses 1-6 and claim they mean something that is not not there at all. Paul was comparing our freedom from sin to our freedom from the Law. But in no way was he saying that the Law of Moses was sinful. To come to that conclusion they have to take these verses so far out of context that they have to ignore the rest of the Bible, let alone Romans.
The purpose of the Law was to convict people of their sin, and thus to convince them of their need for God's grace and to repent. And before it could convict it had to inform them of what was sin. A person who never thought to do a particular sin on their own is informed of the sin's existence.
8 But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead. Our sin nature is quick to pervert the knowledge the Law provides. The Law is good and is intended for good. But our sin nature easily twists the good to bad ends. In this case it is the temptation of forbidden fruit. That is truly ironic since the existence of the sin nature is due to the taking of forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. The sin that wasn't thought of before becomes what the sin nature desires, meditates on, and pushes for all day long. Without the temptation of the forbidden made possible by the knowledge of the Law there is less ammunition for our sin nature to use against us. Paul hyperbolically said sin was dead without the law. Another way to think of this is sin as the predator who always wants to devour us, but the law gives it the teeth and claws to be effective.
9 I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died; Paul was writing hyperbolically, but not by much. The temptation of the forbidden is so powerful that it wakes sin in us and both figuratively and literally. It figuratively kills us in that it makes our desire for what is sin very powerfully tempting. Without God it is impossible to resist. It literally kills us in that it makes us a slave to sin and turns us away from God.
10 and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me; The commandments of the law against sin were meant for our good. But our sin nature perverts them into weapons to doom us to Hell, the eternal death.
11 for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. The sin nature will take any opportunity to twist the truth, lie to us, lead us to sin, and turn us away from God. This twisting away from the good purpose of the law is illustrated by a modern way our sin nature leads us to sin and worse sin. On their own a person can pervert their natural sex drive beyond its good intention as created by God. It was supposed to bind a husband and wife together so they stay together, work together, raise children together, and serve God together. And it was designed by God to be great fun as well. A person on their own could come up with getting this pleasure outside marriage, and with more than one person. But if they took to watching porn, which brings the sins of lust and coveting at a minimum, they would be informed of all sorts of perverted and sinful acts they wouldn't have come up with on their own. Their sensibility becomes seared so normal sex in a loving marriage no longer has any attraction or effect. And how sad is that?
12 So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. The Law, whether you mean the Law of Moses or the Law of God for all humanity, is from God. God is the definition of what is good, holy and righteous. Therefore anything from Him can only be good, including the Law. That the sin nature of mankind twists and misuses the Law including getting tempted by it does not change the inherent nature of the law. Spelling errors are not the fault of the pencil. The writer is to blame. A person's smartphone or their thumbs are not to blame for the vile things they post on social media. It is the fault of the person who created them in their mind. An SUV does not run over people. It is the driver who did it. When a person plays Beethoven badly we don't blame Beethoven. We blame the terrible musician.
13 Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful. Paul repeated this point several times with different wording to foot-stomp this point and make it absolutely clear. The problem is not the Law. It is the person putting sin in the driver's seat. The Law is good and convicts us of our sin. It is our fault and no one else's if we choose not to repent. Our sin nature motivates us to wallow in sin rather than turn to God. But it is a choice.
14 For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. Paul stated that the Law is spiritual, and that this is a fact we all know. However, this is something we are easily distracted from. The things of this life tend to occupy our time and our minds. Pursuing God is our most important task in life. Yet it is pushed aside and minimized. It is only acknowledged to when we go to church once or twice a week. And it is totally forgotten when we want to indulge in sin. Paul articulated this problem in the remainder of the verse. We are flesh and spirit. But the flesh intrudes and leads us to to ignore God and turn to the sins we desire.
15 For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. Keep in mind this was Paul writing. He was the rockstar of the Pharisees in both knowledge and practice who encountered Jesus personally and was taught by Jesus to become the rockstar of Christians. He publicly called out Peter for his public sin even though Peter was one of the inner circle of three closest disciples to Jesus. That is the guy who wrote here he was not living like a Christian as he wanted and was doing the sin he hated. It seems clear that the "I don't understand" was Paul being hyperbolic as he explaine why later in this passage.
16 But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. Paul's point was the fact that we want to do good but still sin is to confirm that the Law is good. This seems to not make sense as sinning would appear to be rejecting the law. However, wanting to do what is right is evidence we accept the law. And knowing that we are sinning also confirms we accept the standard of the law and that we are failing to live by it.
17 So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. In no way was Paul saying he was not responsible for his own actions and sin. As he stated in verse 15, his will wanted to do good. But there is something in him that was producing sin. It was the sin that was already within him just like it is the sin already within us that produces sinful actions.
18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. Sin is in the very nature of our flesh. Anyone who has raised a child through the toddler years understands we are born with a sin-nature. No matter how strong our will is to do good, our sin nature is in our core and will win if we try to grunt through it alone.
We should always keep in mind that no one is good, no not one as Jesus, Paul, and others repeatedly told us. Thus when we start to feel like we are good people and living good lives we would be wise to remember that anything good in us is from Jesus and the Holy Spirit, and we are hopelessly sinful without them. It is when we get full of ourselves and think we are good is when we are capable of the worst sins and the greatest destruction.
19 For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. This verse puts what Paul was writing about in verses 15 and 16 clearly and plainly. His will was to do good, but he didn't do it. And the evil he didn't want to do he did.
The NASB translates the Greek word prasso as practice. While translating this as "do" in other translations is technically correct, it does not have the implication of continuous action or a regular practice that is meant in the Greek. For example, one does not train for competition as a one-time action unless failure is the goal. It is a practice continued over time, a way of living.
20 But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. Again, this does not excuse our sin. It points out the root cause and reason we fail to do good on our own. But it is still ourselves choosing sin. By making the true nature of the illness clear the patient is willing to undergo the treatment. Only someone who understands they are sick will endure the healing process.
21 I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. This summaries the point Paul was trying to make since verse 14. What is translated here as "principle" is nomos in Greek, which is literally "the law". This is the same word translated as law all through this text. In other words, Paul has found a law of our nature. And this is that even though we want to do good, evil is present in us.
22 For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, In other words, in the will and mind we agree with God's law with great delight.
23 but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. But against the will and mind wanting to do good in verse 22 the law of our sin nature occupies the members of our bodies. Members means all parts of the body and not just limbs and appendages. This includes the lips, the ears, the eyes, and so on. The two are mortal enemies waging a war.
The secular world teaches that the mind and intellect is above and in command of the body. Mind over matter is the cliche. However this passage of scripture completely contradicts that flawed view. Even our anecdotal experience tells us the world is wrong unless we choose to live under a delusion. We can see that no matter how much we desire to do good we keep doing wrong. We may try to put the blame on something else, like we were tired, had a bad day, or circumstances. But those are excuses for choosing the actions we know to be wrong.
The fact is that in the war within us the sin nature has the high ground, the greater experience, and superior weapons to defeat our will to do right. Thus our desires to be disciples of Jesus who follow His commandments are captured and made a prisoner of war by our sin nature.
24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? On our own we are hopelessly doomed. We are sinners who cannot stop sinning because sin is so much a part of our bodies. Each of the members of our body lead us to sin. Our eyes look at what we shouldn't. Our hands do sin after sin. Out of our mouths pour sin after sin.
25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin. Of all who have been, are, and will be human, only Jesus never sinned. Yet Jesus took the punishment we earned on himself and willingly became the perfect sacrifice. Thus he satisfied the perfect justice of God and the perfect mercy of God at the same time. Because of this we can be free from sin.
Yet in our lives we live in a perpetual dichotomy serving God with our minds and serving sin with our flesh just like Paul did. The two are incompatible. This is the struggle we live with as Christians.
Worse, the perfect God is both the only thing that can save us that we desperately desire, and the thing we cannot stand to be in the presence of because of our sin. God is both our greatest desire and our greatest threat. But through the power of Jesus our will to do good can actually win against the sin nature of our flesh. If we choose to follow Jesus, the real Jesus, He makes it possible for us to win. And the more we win, the easier winning becomes. This is the process of sanctification.

Scripture quotations taken from the NASB © The Lockman Foundation.

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