Romans - Chapter 7

Romans 7 (New International Version)


An Illustration From Marriage

The law has authority over a man only for as long as he lives in the “sin nature” (the Adamic nature) of his original birth.

Romans 7:1-3
1 Do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to men who know the law—that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives? 2 For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage. 3 So then, if she marries another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress, even though she marries another man.

But, we now have died to the law. Through the sacrifice of Christ we no longer belong to the sin nature of our original birth. We now belong to Jesus Christ, so that we may glorify God. When we lived by our “sin nature” the sinful passions that were identified by the law were at work in us. By dying to what once bound us we have been released from the law. We now live by the Spirit not the written code.

Romans 7:4-6
4 So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God. 5 For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. 6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.


Struggling With Sin

Paul asks another curious question. “Is the law sin?” Of course not! The law was created so that we could identify sin. We would not know the true gravity of coveting if the law had not said, “Do not covet”. Sin seized the opportunity afforded it by the law and produced all sorts of sinful desires. “Apart from law, sin is dead”. When the commandments came sin sprang to life. The laws intended to save me - killed me.

Romans 7:7-10
7 What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, "Do not covet." 8 But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead. 9 Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. 10 I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death.

The law is holy; the commandments are holy – what is their purpose? How can something that is good cause death to me? The law (which is good) came solely for the purpose that sin might be recognized as sin.

Romans 7:11-13
11 For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. 12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good. 13 Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.

The law is spiritual, but I am sinful. As a slave to sin, I don’t even understand why I do what I do. I realize what is the right thing to do and I want to do it but I can’t help myself. My sin nature has control of me. I do the wrong thing anyway. I end up doing what I know is wrong, that which I never wanted to do to begin with. As convoluted as this may seem, consider the fact that if I understand that what I’m doing is the wrong thing to do, but I do it anyway, I at least admit that the law is good. For the law identified the sin to begin with. It was my sinful nature that ignored the warning. It is as if I am possessed by another entity. Something inside of me has control of me and is forcing me to do that which I know is sinful. I know that nothing good lives inside of me. I am filled with and controlled by the “sin nature” I was born with. I have the desire to do only that which is good, but I continue to do only that which is sinful. It is not I doing it; it is sin living inside of me.

Romans 7:14-20
14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.
17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

So Paul concludes at the end of his argument, I recognize good and I want to do good, but at the same time evil is right there within me. Even though I delight in God’s law, another force, more powerful than I, is at work controlling me, making me a prisoner to sin. I am absolutely miserable, wretched, as a result of this situation. I am trapped and I cannot save myself. Who can and will rescue me from this terrible situation? God will, that’s who. God will rescue me through his son Jesus Christ.
In conclusion: In my mind I know, understand, and desire to live by God’s law, but as a result of my sin nature, and it’s control over me, I cannot help but sin.

Romans 7:21-25
21 So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God's law; 23 but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

WOW!!!
This is a real nail-biter.
Hold on, the best part is coming.
Wait for it... Wait for it...
Chapter 8 is coming...