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Romans 7
Haystack bible commentary"Stacks and stacks of commentary...."
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==Romans 7:1-6:
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Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?
2 For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. 3 So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. 4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to 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, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. |
 Nicholas Batzig
The apostle Paul sets out a beautiful argument in Romans 7:1-6 concerning our relationship to the law and our relationship to Christ . Paul uses the illustration of a woman being bound to her husband by law. He explains that if the married woman leaves her husband and marries another man she is an adulteress. But, if she marries another man after her husband dies, she is no adulteress. So, we by nature are bound to the law, in the same way that a woman is bound to her husband. But, Paul explains, the really awful thing about being bound to the law is that “when we were in the flesh the sinful passions were aroused by the law.” The law was like a husband that constantly and harshly tells his rebellious wife what she must do. It actually served to enhance our sin. When we were unregenerate and heard the demands of the law–our consciences bearing witness to the commands–it actually worked against us to make us want to break the law. So our great need was to be set free from the law. Well, according to Paul’s illustration, all of this means that the law had to die if we were to be set free. But, the reality is that a holy God cannot cast away a holy law. The law reflects the holiness of God and this means that the law can never be abolished. It will never die. This poses a great problem for us who need to be freed from the law. This is where the wisdom of God shines forth in glorious splendor. God, in His mercy, has discovered a way to set us free from the law. If we could die then we could be freed from the law to be married to another. This is Paul’s great argument. In the death of Christ, by virtue of our union with Him, we have died to the law. We died when Christ died. Now we are free to be “married to Him who rose again from the dead.” He gave us knew life when He rose from the dead. We rose when He rose. Jesus brought a marriage to pass in His death and resurrection. We are the bride of Jesus Christ. This is attested to time and time again in the NT. When John the Baptist stood and heard Christ he said, “He who has the bride is the bridegroom, but the friend of the Bridegroom–the one who stands and hears His voice–rejoices at the voice of the Bridegroom.” Instead of being a harsh taskmaster Jesus is a loving husband who enables us to obey His commands. He set of free from what stirred up the sinful passions of the flesh in order to draw us with bands of love. What makes a wife want to obey her husband? The apostle Paul tells us “husbands love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her.” The apostle John tells us, “In this is love, not that we loved Him but that He first loved us.” The law could only serve to strengthen our rebellion, but our Heavenly Bridegroom serves to compel us with His love.” -- Nicholas T. Batzig
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 Neil T Anderson Files
"Telling people that what they are doing is wrong does not give them the power to stop doing it. The Law is powerless to give life. Even more discouraging is the statement by Paul that "the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies" (Rom 7:5). The Law actually has the capacity to stimulate desire to do what it is trying to prohibit. If anyone does not think that is true, they should try telling their children that they can go to a certain place but cannot fo to another place. The moment a parent says that, where do the children want to go? They want to go to the forbidden place. They probably did not even want to go there until the parent said they could not. The forbidden fruit always appears to be more plausible. Laying down the law will not resolve the sinful passions. The core problem is the basic nature of humankind, not individual acts or behavior patterns.
-Neil T Anderson; Overcoming Addictive Behavior; 2003 |
==Romans 7:7-13:
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What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.
8 But 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, and just, and good. 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. |
If no one articulated God's holy and awe-inspiring character, then we would not know how to model ourselves after Him. So, God provided the law to help communicate His character to His chosen people who were now out of bondage (Egypt) as they awaited the coming Messiah.
Another way to think about it is that the law turned previously invisible sin visible. The law exposes the present corruption and shines a light on our broken and flawed character! But, at the same time, the law illuminates God's holy and perfect character. The law excites man's innate rebellion (because of the first sin of Adam) by revealing a holy standard, showing us more clearly our need for salvation in Jesus. Too often, Satan inserts his deception into this divine process. We see (#1) our rebellion and (#2) the holy standard of God, but the devil cycles us through his lies of unworthiness, shame, and guilt and we are blinded to the answer of (3) Jesus! #1 and #2 our simply the addition needed to get us to #3; they are not the answer. Only Jesus. -Divinely Interrupted |
==Romans 7:14-25:
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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,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. 19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. 20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. 22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: 23 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. 24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this 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. |
In verses 14-25, “I” is used twenty-four times, and when you add the times Paul uses “me,” “my,” or “myself,” it is another thirteen times. That comes to a total of thirty-seven times in these twelve verses that the apostle refers to himself in this one passage
An antithesis to being “spiritual,” Paul was “carnal.” When the Bible speaks of the unregenerate man, it calls him “soulish”; he is simply body, mind, emotions, and will. That is man as in the old Adam, that which is subject to sin and death. This is an inheritance that we receive from the epoch of Adam. However, when the Word speaks of the believer’s Adamic nature, it refers to him as “carnal” (sarkinos) or fleshly. “Fleshly” is not the physical body but the fallen aspect of Adam that remains with the believer after becoming a Christian—his sin capacity. This is when the believer lives as a non-Christian.
There is a sense that the individual Christian belongs to both the epoch of Adam and the epoch of Christ. The epoch of Adam is represented as the sin capacity and the epoch of Christ is represented as newness of life. Carnality here speaks of someone under the control of his corrupt sin capacity. The carnal or fleshly man is dominated by the old capacity from Adam. This is not our physical flesh but the nature of fallen Adam or sin capacity. Paul was describing his condition after becoming a Christian. It is important for the believer to recognize the reality of this condition. The strongest Christian on earth is not free from the influence of his sin capacity. [SOURCE: Verse By Verse Commentary] 
Romans 7:14-25 is one of the most debated passages in the Bible. There are three major positions that have vied for interpretational prominence over the years. One view sees Paul’s description of his struggle with sin as his pre-conversion experience. The other sees Paul’s description as his post-conversion experience. A third — articulated by Martyn Lloyd-Jones — argues that we ask the wrong question if we inquire about Paul’s spiritual status in Romans 7:14-25. Rather, as the Doctor asserts, Paul is explaining what happens when someone pursues sanctification according to the law rather than by the Spirit. -Derek J Brown |
Herman Bavinck
“The Gospel is temporary, but the law is eternal and is restored precisely through the Gospel. Freedom from the law consists, then, not in the fact that the Christian has nothing more to do with the law, but lies in the fact that the law demands nothing more from the Christian as a condition of salvation. The law can no longer judge and condemn him. Instead he delights in the law of God according to the inner man and yearns for it day and night.”
― Herman Bavinck
Stephen Unthank
John Owen, in his detailed study of indwelling sin, describes the flesh as an “inbred law [that] must needs be effectual... such is the law of sin. It is an indwelling law: ‘It is sin that dwells in me’ (Rom. 7:17, 20); ‘It is present with me’ (Rom. 7:21); ‘It is in my members’ (Rom. 7:23) – yea, it is so far in man, as in some sense it is said to be man himself; ‘I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwells no good thing’ (Rom. 7:18). The flesh, which is the seat and throne of this law, yea, which indeed is this law, is in some sense the man himself... an indwelling law inclining and moving to sin as an inward habit or principle.” The flesh then is Paul’s word to describe the state of every fallen human being as sinfully self-centered and dominated by rebellion. “The works of the flesh are evident,” says the Apostle Paul. They are “sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:19-21). --Stephen Unthank; Greenbelt Baptist Church
Our broken flesh is part of the corrupt system dominated by Satan. It doesn’t mean we are actually possessed, but that our bodies are fundamentally operating under that sick, sinful system. This is true for believers as well as unbelievers. All malfunctions of the body steal God’s gift of life and turn it into an instrument of death. In addiction, the body is under the influence of its own broken condition. Without a spiritual remedy, this reality is dim for the addict. However, as Christians we have access to the Holy Spirit. As we’ll learn later, the addict— and all Christians—will need to be conquered by the Holy Spirit. But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? (Romans 7: 23-24).
Steve Gallagher
"Paul writes: 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. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want." (Rom 7:18-19). There is now a war that takes place within the person that was nonexistent before. There was no battle previously because the flesh enjoyed total freedom in having its way....It is significant to note that Jesus described the conversion experience as being "born-again." In fact much of the New Testament describes a process of growth whereby those who are "babes in Christ" gradually reach spiritual maturity. Unfortunately, man Christians remain immature for a time. However, if they have truly been born again, they will not remain that way. The Spirit of Christ dwelling within them will be constantly prodding them toward the things of God."
-Steve Gallagher; At The Idol of Sexual Idolatry
-Steve Gallagher; At The Idol of Sexual Idolatry