God’s purpose is for Man to live righteously. In this chapter, Paul shows that Man’s problem is his inability to live righteously, because of his humanity. Romans 7:1-6 Freed from the Law 1 Don’t you know, brethren, (and I speak to those who know the law,) that the law has authority over a man as long as he lives? 2 The woman who has a husband is bound to her husband, by the law, so long as he lives. However, if her husband dies, she is loosed from the law of her husband. 3 If she marries another man while her husband lives, she will be called an adulteress. If her husband dies, however, she is free from that law, and is no adulteress, even though she is married to another man. 4 Similarly, brethren, you have become dead to the law, by the body of Christ, so that you could marry another, even Him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. 5 For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. 6 But now we are delivered from the law, dead to that by which we were held, that we should serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.
- Paul’s exhortation (in Chapter 6) is for us to present our bodies to God as instruments of righteousness … and not as instruments for accomplishing sin … but there is a problem, which Paul describes in the following verses.
Romans 7:7-12 The Law is Not the Problem 7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. I should not have known what sin is, if not for the law, for I had not known lust was sin until the law had said, “You must not covet.” 8 However, sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. 9 For I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. 10 And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. 11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. 12 Wherefore the law is holy and the commandment holy, just and good.
- Because we are in Christ, our death to sin has freed us from the bondage of the Law, so that we may serve God by the prompting of the Spirit, rather than by the demands of the Law.
- Our positional change, however, leads to some very practical problems.
Romans 7:13-23 The Problem is Our Flesh 13 Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. 14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. 15 For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. 16 If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. 17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwells no good thing, for the desire to do good is present within me, but I cannot find the ability to do it. 19 For I do not do the good that I want to; instead, I do the evil that I do not want to do. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is not I who does it, but sin that dwells in me. 21 I find, then, that when I desire to do good, a law of evil is present with me. 22 For my inner man delights in the law of God, 23 but, in my members, I see another law warring against the law of my mind, and making me captive to the law of sin which is in my members.
- Now, in Christ, we have the desire to do what is right but no power to accomplish it. Sin still gets the best of us.
- We do what we hate (sin), and we cannot do what we love (righteousness).
- he Law is not the problem, for we agree with what the Law requires and forbids.
- The problem is with our flesh, which cannot overcome the greater power of sin. The righteousness for which we were saved, and which we are obligated to perform, we, by ourselves, are unable to achieve.
Romans 7:24-25 The Solution is with God 24 O, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 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.
- If we had to rely on ourselves and our works (represented by our bodies), the result would be death.
- Thankfully, God has provided divine help to enable us to live righteous lives, as the right response to God’s righteousness.
- Paul tells us, in the next chapter, what that divine help is … and how we can benefit.