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, deliver... [ Continue Reading ]
DELIVERANCE FROM UNDER THE LAW (7:1-6). Paul now declares that the Christian is delivered from the dominion of the Law because he has died to it in the death of Christ, and this in order that he might be conjoined with the Risen Christ like a widow is conjoined with her new husband (compare Ephesian... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Or are you ignorant, brothers (for I speak to men who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man for so long time as he lives?' The ‘or', and the argument, both look back to Romans 6:14, ‘you are not under the Law but under grace'. In dealing with this Paul expresses his confidence that th... [ Continue Reading ]
‘For the woman who has a husband is bound by law to the husband while he lives, but if the husband die, she is discharged from the law of the husband. So then if, while the husband lives, she be joined to another man, she will be called an adulteress, but if the husband die, she is free from the law... [ Continue Reading ]
‘On which basis, my brothers, you also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ; that you should be joined to another, even to him who was raised from the dead, that we might bring forth fruit unto God.' In the same way the sacrificial death of Christ (‘through the body of Christ'; compa... [ Continue Reading ]
‘For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were through the law, wrought in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.' For when we were living our old lives under the Law (we were in the flesh, following the ways of the flesh, compare Romans 8:5) the sinful passions within us wer... [ Continue Reading ]
‘But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that in which we were held; so as to serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter.' But now we (our ‘old man') have died with Christ, and we are therefore now discharged from the Law, having died to that in which we we... [ Continue Reading ]
PAUL'S PERSONAL EXPERIENCE OF THE LAW, USED AS AN ILLUSTRATION IN ORDER THAT THE ROMAN CHRISTIANS MIGHT ALSO APPLY IT TO THEMSELVES, DEMONSTRATING BOTH THE HOLINESS AND THE POWERLESSNESS OF THE LAW; THE SINFULNESS OF OUR FLESH, EVEN THOUGH REDEEMED; THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE REDEEMED MIND; AND THE W... [ Continue Reading ]
‘What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not.' The vital question is put. If the Law has to be treated in the same way as the principle of sin within, by our being put to death to it (Romans 6:2; Romans 7:4); by our being freed from it (Romans 6:18; Romans 6:22; Romans 7:6); and by our bei... [ Continue Reading ]
PAUL'S INITIAL EXPERIENCE OF THE ‘SLAYING' POWER OF THE LAW (7:7-13). Having demonstrated that much of what sin does in chapter 6, the Law does in Romans 7:1 (see introduction to chapter 7 above), Paul now faces up to the shocking question as to whether that means that he equates the Law to sin. And... [ Continue Reading ]
‘But sin, finding occasion, wrought in me through the commandment all manner of coveting.' And from that time of illumination onwards he had found himself coveting more and more, because the principle of sin was at work within him. Sin had taken the opportunity of his new knowledge, which in itself... [ Continue Reading ]
‘And I was alive apart from the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died,' This was what had happened to Paul, while he was still Saul. He had been striving with all his might to obey the Law, and had prided himself on how well he was doing (Galatians 1:13; Philippians 3:4),... [ Continue Reading ]
‘And the commandment, which was unto life, this I found to be unto death,' And the result was that the commandment which was found in the Law, the commandment which was supposed to be giving him life, was found by him to be ‘unto death'. He had recognised that his hopes of eternal life had gone. He... [ Continue Reading ]
‘For sin, finding occasion, through the commandment beguiled me, and through it slew me.' And what was to blame for what had happened to him? It was sin (not the Law). Sin had taken advantage of the commandment so as to beguile him and then to slay him. It had brought home to him his sinfulness, ha... [ Continue Reading ]
‘So that the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good.' Thus he had recognised that ‘the Law was holy, and that the commandment was holy and just, and good'. They were from God and were instruments of God set apart for His holy purpose, and they were both righteous and good. I... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Did then that which is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might be shown to be sin, by working death to me through what is good; that through the commandment sin might become exceeding sinful.' Did this then mean that what was good had brought about death in him? By no means.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LAW WHICH WAS SPIRITUAL WAS LIMITED BY THE FLESHLINESS OF MEN (INCLUDING CHRISTIANS) WHOSE DESIRES OFTEN CAUSED THEM TO DO WHAT WAS BAD RATHER THAN WHAT WAS GOOD (7:14-8:4). When looking at this passage we have to see it in the context of the whole letter. We must ask, is it just a parenthesis,... [ Continue Reading ]
‘For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am fleshly, sold under sin.' If we consider the passage from Romans 7:14 to Romans 8:4 we discover an interesting fact. It commences with ‘we' and then immediately moves into ‘I, me', and with the exception of ‘our' in Romans 7:25 (easily explicable in a... [ Continue Reading ]
‘For what I do I know not.' Here begins Paul's description of the human moral struggle that is experienced by most good people, but is especially the lot of the Christian whose moral sense has been heightened. He has constantly to battle with himself. And we have, of course, to recognise that what... [ Continue Reading ]
‘But if what I would not, that I do, I consent to the law that it is good.' ‘Thus', says Paul, ‘if I at times do what I in my mind do not want to do, doing what I know to be contrary to God's Law, but hating it even while I am doing it, I am by my very hatred of what I am doing demonstrating that I... [ Continue Reading ]
‘So now it is no more I who do it, but sin which dwells in me.' But why, says Paul, do I sometimes behave like this? What explanation can there be? His reply is that it is because what he does is not done by his true self, his inward man, his regenerate nature. It is rather done by ‘sin which dwells... [ Continue Reading ]
‘For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing, for to will is present with me, but to do what is good is not.' While up to this point what he has been describing has been of the flesh (‘I am fleshly') and not of the Spirit (‘the Law is spiritual'), technical terms have been avoi... [ Continue Reading ]
‘For the good which I would I do not, but the evil which I would not, that I practise.' Meanwhile he continues to describe the effects of his fleshliness. ‘(At times),' says Paul, ‘I find myself failing to do the good that I want to do.' The doing of that good is the aim of his life. But sometimes ... [ Continue Reading ]
‘But if what I would not, that I do, it is no more I who do it, but sin which dwells in me.' And the explanation for all this was the sin that dwelt in him that lay at the root of his fleshly disposition. It was because he was ‘a sinful man' that he found it so impossible to live up to his own idea... [ Continue Reading ]
‘I find then the law, that, to me who would do good, evil is present. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man, but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members.' So he recognises that... [ Continue Reading ]
DELIVERANCE IS AT HAND (7:24-8:2). ‘Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me out of the body of this death?' The thought that he has not wholly and continually been able to overcome sin caused Paul great anguish so that he cries out in his wretchedness. His very recording of the facts had awoke... [ Continue Reading ]
‘I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I myself (I as I am in myself) with the mind, indeed, serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.' It is a mistake to see this verse as concluding the argument. The ‘so then' (often translated ‘therefore') in Romans 8:1 refers back to... [ Continue Reading ]