|
The Book of Romans Chapter Seven
Preface
In this chapter the apostle Paul continues to address the practical and progressive aspect of salvation (chapters 6-8), which traditionally has been called sanctification, but which may be more accurately known as soul or life salvation. Again, in regards to this aspect of salvation, Paul is not speaking about the believer’s deliverance from eternal hell (lake of fire) but from the power of sin in the believer’s life that will result in a quality of life, not only in the present, but also during the coming Messianic Era.
In this chapter Paul addresses the replacement of the law due to the incapability of the law to provide the means for anyone to live properly for God. He defines the strength (purpose) and the weakness (ineffectiveness) of the law in relation to mankind.
Romans 7:1-6 Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man. Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.
In chapter six Paul informed his readers that their union with Christ through the “new birth” ended the tyranny of the sin nature in their lives, if indeed they accept this positional truth both mentally and intimately (vss. 3, 6, 9; both Greek words—ginosko and eido—are used) and by faith (“reckon”—or count as a fact); and, upon this foundation, to purposely decide to “disallow” their sin nature to have control of them by presenting the members of their bodies as instruments of warfare for righteousness.
In this chapter Paul explains that spirit salvation technically ended the dominion of the law under which they were slaves. Although Paul may have had Jewish believers in mind, his remarks are germane and applicable to all believers, since even the Gentiles were “a law unto themselves” and had “the work of the law written in their hearts” (2:14, 15). This then is a continuation of Romans 6:14, where Paul declared: “For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”
Paul continues to develop the theme that a person who has accepted Christ by faith has indeed participated in Christ’s death, which effectively has brought about his death to the enslaving power of the sin nature and the law. He uses the analogy of the relationship of a husband and wife living in accordance with the law to demonstrate this fact.
Paul shows how death breaks the marriage contract, i.e., a woman is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if he dies, she is released from this “marriage law.” If she should marry another as long as her husband is living, she is guilty of adultery; but, if her husband dies, she is free to marry again without any guilt of wrongdoing. The point of the illustration is that just as death breaks the marriage relationship, so the death of the believer with Christ breaks the jurisdiction (power) of the law over him.
And just as the believer is now dead to (no longer under the power of) the law, he is now able (free) to be united (i.e., controlled by the Spirit) to Christ for the production of righteous “fruit” for God.
When Paul first uses the phrase “in the flesh,” he refers to believers (including himself) before their conversion to Christ by faith (spirit salvation). Those “in the flesh” are unregenerate, or not “born again,” and those “in the Spirit” are regenerate. It is important to note that both “believers and unbelievers may walk “according to the flesh,” but only believers can walk “according to the Spirit.” The question naturally follows: “How does one walk in the Spirit as a Christian?”
The last sentence in this passage has bearing in the comments of the previous paragraph in this commentary and in one other of Paul’s concerns. The sentence: “But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.”
Paul on several occasions had to face believers who turned from the grace-life of living in the newness of the Spirit, and, instead, resorted to legalism (which provides no power to overcome sin), i.e., going back to their religious traditions and practices in order to achieve spiritual maturity. The problem with “serving . . . in the oldness of the letter,” is that its only result can be the acquisition of self-righteous pride (such as was the case with the scribes and Pharisees) and “human good works,” which will all be consumed (as worthless) at the judgment seat of Christ (Isaiah 64:6; 1 Corinthians 3:12-15; 2 Corinthians 5:10; James 1:25).
Romans 7:7-12 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead. I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me. Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.
The next logical consideration is approached by Paul with the rhetorical question: “What shall we say then? Is the law sin?” From Paul’s previous comments being critical of the law, the reader may have come to the conclusion that the law is evil. To this Paul answers: “Certainly not!”
Paul continues in the next several verses to explain the important role that the law plays in the life of everyone—the lost and the saved. He does this using himself as an example. He essentially informs that the law itself is not sinful, but that it reveals sin in man. It was the law that convicted him of the terrible depravity of his heart. As long as he compared himself with other people, he judged himself respectable. But as soon as the demands of God’s law surfaced in its exposing (convicting) power, he was without excuse and stood condemned.
The law is not sin, but it arouses sin (7:5). The law only reflects the holy and absolute standards of God who is holy; therefore, the law is holy (vs. 12) and spiritual (vs. 14). The law makes sin known to man (3:20). Paul, using himself and the law’s prohibition on coveting (Exodus 20:17; Deuteronomy 5:21) as an example, demonstrates how the law made him want to sin all the more. Prior to the law, his awareness of sin was dormant (dead); and, he was spiritually alive. This is most likely a reference to the concept of “the age of accountability,” whereby a person is not held accountable for his sin until he comes to the age where he understands the gravity of sin in light of God’s law. But even though the law is holy and spiritual, once it is understood it can only bring forth spiritual death.
The Law is not the cause of the act of sin, the principle or nature of sin within an individual is. But the Law’s specific commandments stimulate the sin principle into acts that violate the commandments and give those acts the character of transgression (4:15; cf. 3:20; 5:13b, 20a). As Paul concluded, “Apart from Law, sin is dead.” This does not mean that sin has no existence without the Law (cf. 5:13), but that without the Law sin is less active, for the law arouses “sinful passions” (7:5). . . .
Some generalize the words, “Once I was alive apart from Law, to refer to the experience of mankind in the period between the Fall and the giving of the Mosaic Law. But there is no basis for this. Evidently the apostle was speaking of his personal experience as a child and perhaps even a youth prior to his awareness and understanding of the full impact of God’s commandments. The clause, “but when the commandment came,” does not speak of the giving of the Mosaic Law, but the dawning of the significance of the commandments . . . . The result was the principle of “sin” within made its presence and power known (it sprang to life) in his violations of the commandment. As a result Paul “died” spiritually (cf. 6:23a) under the sentence of judgment by the Law he had broken. (The Bible Knowledge Commentary—New Testament; Dallas Seminary Faculty; 2004)
Romans 7:13-25 Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
Paul poses another rhetorical question: “Has then what is good become death to me?” In other words, “Is that which is good the cause of spiritual death?” In a sense, it is an attempt to make God, who is holy and Author of the law, responsible for spiritually killing those He has created. To this Paul again and forcefully says “NO!” The law is simply the light that reveals the inward nature to sin and the individual sinful acts that this nature produces.
But the real significance of this passage is that it reveals the two natures that war against each other in the believer. In this sense, Paul is speaking strictly about the battle every believer faces during the process of soul salvation. Paul goes into detail as to how confused he is when in accord with his new spiritual nature he wants to do works of righteousness; he finds that he is powerless to do so. Instead he finds that often he does just the opposite. And by so doing he not only confirms that the law, which he breaks, is indeed holy and spiritual, but that there is a force within (sin nature) that compels him to break the law.
The conclusion is that it is not the inward man (new man in Christ) that generates the impulse that produces acts of sin; but rather, it is the sin that dwells in me (sin nature) that so influences Paul and is responsible for his inner warfare and continued confusion over good and evil. He comes to the conclusion that within “his flesh,” which genetically contains the “sin nature,” nothing good dwells.
But Paul is not excusing himself by passing his acts of sin off to his indwelling sin nature. He fully understands that he alone is responsible for his individual acts of will to break God’s commandments. He is not attempting, nor should any believer attempt, to “pass the buck.” All Paul is doing here is tracking down the source of his sinful behavior, not excusing it!
Notice the prominence of the first-person pronouns—I, me, my, myself; they occur over forty times in verses 9-25! People who go through this Romans 7 experience have taken an overdose of “Vitamin I.” They are introspective to the core, searching for victory in self, where it cannot be found.
Sadly, most modern Christian psychological counseling focuses the counselee’s attention on himself and thus adds to the problem instead of relieving it. People need to know that they have died with Christ and have risen with Him to walk in newness of life. Then, instead of trying to improve the flesh, they will relegate it to the grave of Jesus. . . .
There can be no progress in holiness until we learn what Paul learned here—“that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells.” The “flesh” here means the evil, corrupt nature that is inherited from Adam and that is still in every believer. It is the source of every evil action that a person performs. There is nothing good in it.
When we learn this, it delivers us from ever looking for any good in the old nature. It delivers us from being disappointed when we don’t find any good there. And it delivers us from occupation with ourselves. There is no victory in introspection. (Believer’s Bible Commentary; William MacDonald, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1990)
Paul concludes that the only way that he can be delivered from his body of death is through Jesus Christ our Lord! But his explanation on how this is practically accomplished comes in the following chapter (8).
|