Romans 7:1-4

What Then Of The Law? Is The Law Good Or Bad? And How Does The Christian Stand In Relation To The Law. How Can It Be Fulfilled? (7:1-8:4).

Whereas chapter 6 has concentrated on our deliverance from the tyranny of sin, this chapter brings out the position of the Christian as regards the Law, deliverance from which is found in our dying with Christ and living in Him in the new life of the Spirit (Romans 7:1).

This question concerning the Law might not seem so important to us, but for the early church at the time that Romans was written it was a vital question. There were many Judaising Christian teachers going around claiming the need for believers to be ‘subject to the Law'. And the church in Rome had almost certainly initially first been established by Jews who had returned from the Feasts at Jerusalem where they had heard both the teaching of Christ, and later that of the Apostles (Acts 2:10), and would have had to reconcile it with their own belief concerning obedience to the Law, which they had on the whole learned from the Rabbis.

Furthermore many of these probably remained in fellowship with the synagogue, and we note that when Paul was brought in chains to Rome the Jewish leaders were quite ready to listen to what he had to say (Acts 28:17). In Rome Jews and Christians were at peace. Thus among many of the Jewish Christians in Rome there would have been a strong allegiance to the Law.

And whilst the church in Rome had now expanded so that the majority of the church (i.e. the churches which were scattered around Rome) were of Gentile origin, they would initially have joined in with a church which was very Jewish. After all the church was seen as the continuation of the true Israel (Romans 2:28; Romans 11:17; Acts 4:24; Galatians 3:29; Galatians 6:16; Ephesians 2:11; 1 Peter 1:1; 1 Peter 2:9; James 1:1), in contrast with those who ‘say they are Jews and are not' (Revelation 2:9). The question would thus be asked, ‘How then could they not be bound by the Law?'

Paul answers the question from three viewpoints:

· Firstly on the grounds that Christ through His death has delivered His people from ‘under the Law' so that they can be conjoined with Christ, thus releasing them to new life under the Spirit (Romans 7:1).

· Secondly on the grounds of the failure of the Law to provide a satisfactory answer to the problem of a disposition to sin (Romans 7:7).

· And thirdly on the basis that the Law is actually fulfilled by those who walk after the Spirit (Romans 7:24 to Romans 8:4; compare Romans 2:27).

Paul is not denigrating the Law (Romans 3:31; Romans 7:12). He is simply indicating that it provides no means by which men can be saved from sin. As he says in Galatians, ‘if there had been a Law given which could make alive, truly righteousness would have been of the Law' (Galatians 3:21). He sees it as providing an adequate means of demonstrating that all men are sinners (Romans 2:12; Romans 4:15; 1 Timothy 1:9), and as being such that men are unable through weakness to keep it (Romans 2:21), so that it then points them to Christ (Galatians 3:23). But, as he has pointed out previously, it cannot make them ‘accounted as righteous' before God (Romans 3:19), nor can it enable them to grapple with sin within themselves, because of the weakness of the flesh (Romans 7:4; Romans 7:7). Thus he speaks of ‘what the Law could not do because it was weakened by the flesh' (Romans 8:3 a).

In Chapter s 2 to 5 being ‘under the Law' had mainly had in mind the Law as accusatory, as it brought those who failed to live up to it under condemnation, but now Paul is adding to that the Law as a supposed means of being delivered from the power of sin, something in which it failed because of man's weakness.

It is significant that there are close parallels between Chapter s 6 and Romans 7:1, between the Christian's relationship with ‘sin' and his relationship with ‘the Law.' Thus in Romans 6:2 the believer has ‘died to sin', and in Romans 7:4 the believer is ‘dead to the Law'. In Romans 6:18; Romans 6:22 the believer is ‘freed from sin', whilst in Romans 7:6 he is ‘freed from the Law'. In Romans 6:14 a sin no longer rules over the believer, and in Romans 7:1 neither does the Law. In Romans 6:22 freedom from sin results in bring forth fruit to God, whilst in Romans 7:4 the same results from freedom from the Law as a result of being ‘joined to Another'. Thus sin and the accusatory Law are seen as parallel ‘adversaries' of the Christian which have to be dealt with by the believer dying to them Romans 6:2; Romans 6:11; Romans 7:4. No wonder Paul then asks the question that might be on his reader's and hearer's mind, ‘is the Law then the equivalent of sin?' But the answer is ‘certainly not'. For whilst sin is a direct enemy seeking to keep men in slavery, the Law is good and holy, with its problem lying in our sinfulness. So there is in fact a direct contrast between sin and the Law.

But in considering the verses that follow, about which there has been much controversy, it is necessary to recognise exactly what we should compare with what. For it is important to recognise that it was not Paul who introduced our chapter divisions. Instead he used other means in order to indicate what should be seen as part of the same argument. In our Bibles chapter 7 ends at Romans 7:25. But there is a good case for arguing that it should also include Romans 8:1. But what is that case? It is threefold:

· Firstly it lies in the fact that there is within Chapter s 7-8 a prominent passage in which Paul speaks of ‘I' and ‘me'. And this passage goes from Romans 7:7 to Romans 8:2. This therefore indicates that, in spite of Romans 8:1, which we will look at when we come to it, Romans 8:2 must be included in the argument Paul is making in chapter 7.

· Secondly it lies in the fact that in this passage the question of the significance of the Law is being dealt with. And this is a question which is not finalised until Romans 8:4. For the law is not only proved to be holy, righteous and good in its convicting men of sin (Romans 7:7), and because good men delight in it (Romans 7:22) but it is also demonstrated to be so by the fact that regenerate man approves of it and fulfils it. (We use the word ‘regenerate' here in order to indicate those who by believing have found new life in Christ and have thus been born of the Spirit from above - John 3:1) It is in Romans 8:4 that we are informed that the law is fulfilled by those who ‘walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit'. This being so we have a second reason for not seeing chapter 7 as a separate entity in itself in Paul's mind.

· And thirdly it lies in the fact that in Romans 7:6 the Spirit/letter comparison is found. This is an idea first mentioned in Romans 2:29. Thus in Romans 7:6 ‘we (Christians) serve in newness of spirit (or ‘the Spirit') and not in oldness of the letter', because we have been conjoined with the risen Christ (Romans 7:4). And in view of the previous mention of the Holy Spirit in Romans 5:5, and of constant reference to Him in chapter 8, we can see no reason why we should not use a capital S here. Similarly in Romans 2:29 the same contrast brings out who is ‘a true Jew' (whether he be Jew or Gentile) and who is not. The true Jew is one who is one inwardly (thus in his inward man - compare Romans 7:22), and the true circumcision is that of the heart, ‘in the spirit (Spirit) and not in the letter'. In both cases this is the sign of the truly regenerate man.

But brining out the importance of this is the fact that a similar contrast is then found in Romans 7:14. There ‘the Law is spiritual' (pneumatikos) whilst Paul (and all men) are ‘fleshly' (sarkikos). Here we have a similar contrast of ‘spirit' (pneuma) with what is not comparable with spirit because it is inferior to it, or is even opposed to it. In the previous examples it was ‘the letter'. In this case it is ‘the flesh' (sarx). This continued comparison could then be also seen as being made in the contrast of ‘the law of the mind' with ‘the law of sin' (Romans 7:23; Romans 7:25). It is certainly being made in Romans 8:1 where the Spirit is constantly contrasted with the flesh. Thus the theme of ‘the spirit (Spirit) as compared with something inferior can be seen as continuing on from Romans 7:6 to Romans 8:12.

These indications should warn us against trying to interpret the meaning of chapter 7 without taking into account a part of chapter 8, for the simple reason that the initial verses of chapter 8 are required in order to finish off two of the themes which are found in chapter 7, and because the use of ‘I, we, us, continues from Romans 7:7 to Romans 8:2.