(1) Tour experience of human laws helps here: you are aware that law rules a man so long only as he lives—for instance marriage binds the wife during the life of her husband; but after his death she is free to marry another. (4) So you were under the law, but you died with the Christ, by the death o... [ Continue Reading ]
ΝΌΜΟΝ. Quite general—not Roman or Jewish, but a general axiom of law. Ὁ ΝΌΜΟΣ = the law under which he lives, whatever it be.... [ Continue Reading ]
Romans 6:1 to Romans 7:6. The ethical bearing and standard of the new life in Christ. (1) Are we to conclude that the state of sin is to continue, as a provocative, so to speak, of the graciousness of GOD; the more sin the greater grace? (2) It is a monstrous thought; the fundamental characteristic... [ Continue Reading ]
ΚΑΤΉΡΓΗΤΑΙ�. Cf. Galatians 5:4 : has been made, so to speak, non-existent as regards that law and so freed from it.... [ Continue Reading ]
ΧΡΗΜΑΤΊΣΕΙ, Acts 11:26 only = will be called; cf. Wetst. ΓΈΝΗΤΑΙ�. Cf. Leviticus 22:12; Ruth 1:12 f. ΤΟΥ͂ ΜῊ ΕἾΝΑΙ. Cf. Romans 6:6 note.... [ Continue Reading ]
ἘΘΑΝΑΤΏΘΗΤΕ, you were put to death, i.e. your former nature was slain but you yourselves survived to enter upon a new life, free from that law which bound the old nature, but with its own characteristic obligation. ἐθαν. corresponds to κατήργηται of Romans 7:2. See Romans 6:8 n. ΔΙᾺ ΤΟΥ͂ ΣΏΜΑΤΟΣ ΤΟΥ... [ Continue Reading ]
ἯΜΕΝ ἘΝ ΤΗ͂Ι ΣΑΡΚΊ = ὁ πάλαιος ἄνθρωπος of Romans 6:6. ΤᾺ ΠΑΘΉΜΑΤΑ ΤΩ͂Ν ἉΜ.: ΠΑΘΉΜΑΤΑ only Paul, Heb. and 1 Pet. = (1) sufferings, cf. Romans 8:18, and commonly; (2) = experiences, here and Galatians 5:24 = concrete instances of πάθος, the state in which the subject is regarded as not active but re... [ Continue Reading ]
ΚΑΤΗΡΓΉΘΗΜΕΝ� = ἐθανατώθημεν τῷ νόμῳ |[148] Romans 7:2. [148] | parallel to ἈΠΟΘΑΝΌΝΤΕΣ ἘΝ ὯΙ ΚΑΤΕΙΧΌΜΕΘΑ = being dead in or to that character in which we were held in a state of subjection; ἀποθανόντες τῷ (or ἐν τῷ) παλαίῳ�.; cf. John 5:4 T. R., the only other instance of the passive in N.T. Cf.... [ Continue Reading ]
ΤΊ ΟΥ̓͂Ν ἘΡΟΥ͂ΜΕΝ; Yet another suggestion stated, to be put aside. If under law we are slaves to sin, under grace to righteousness, it might be supposed that the law itself is sin: but as the law is a revelation of GOD‘s will, such a supposition would be monstrous. ἈΛΛΆ introduces the true statemen... [ Continue Reading ]
Romans 7:7-25. The new life is effective to achieve righteousness in each man, as the law could not do. (7) Not that the law is itself sin, but it awakes the consciousness of sin, as, for instance, covetousness is not felt as sin till it is known to be a breach of law; sin gets its opportunity throu... [ Continue Reading ]
ἈΦΟΡΜῊΝ … ΛΑΒΟΥ͂ΣΑ, ‘having got a handle.’ ἈΦΟΡΜῊ = a starting point, base of operations, opportunity. Ἡ ἉΜΑΡΤΊΑ throughout the passage is treated as a concrete force or power. It is remarkable that S. Paul comes as near as possible to personifying the conception of sin, but does not actually use t... [ Continue Reading ]
ἘΓῺ ΔῈ ἜΖΩΝ Κ.Τ.Λ. ‘I was living unaffected by law once.’ He goes back to a pre-moral state—not necessarily in actual memory of a completely non-moral experience, but comparatively: his life as a child was untouched by numberless demands of law, which accumulated with his moral development; at that... [ Continue Reading ]
ἘΓῺ ΔῈ�. Here of the death to the pre-moral life, a death by and in sin: _aor._ = became dead. ΕὙΡΈΘΗ = proved in my experience; more than ἐγένετο.... [ Continue Reading ]
ἘΞΗΠΆΤΗΣΕΝ Κ.Τ.Λ. Here we get nearest to personification of ἡ ἁμ., with the echo of Genesis 2:13; cf. 2 Corinthians 11:3; 1 Timothy 2:14. The deceit lies in the representation of the satisfaction of the forbidden impulse as more desirable than obedience to the command.... [ Continue Reading ]
Ὁ ΜῈΝ Κ.Τ.Λ. The antithesis is not expressed; an interruption is caused by the occurrence of one more false conclusion which has to be removed. Then the line of thought is resumed in Romans 7:14. ΔΙΚΑΊΑ = right.... [ Continue Reading ]
ΤῸ�.Τ.Λ. Did that good thing, law, itself prove death to me? Ἡ ἉΜΑΡΤΊΑ. Sc. ἐγένετο ἐμοὶ θάνατος. ἽΝΑ Φ. The effect of sin found to be death proves sin to be what it is. ΔΙᾺ ΤΟΥ͂� = διὰ τοῦ νόμου. ΚΑΤΕΡΓΑΖΟΜΈΝΗ, by producing.... [ Continue Reading ]
ΟἼΔΑΜΕΝ ΓᾺΡ ὍΤΙ. Appeal to acknowledged principle. ΠΝΕΥΜΑΤΙΚΌΣ introduces the final description of the internal conflict: it is a struggle of πνεῦμα against ἁμαρτία to win the mastery of σάρξ. In this struggle law is on the side of πνεῦμα, but only as a standard and revelation of right, not as a sp... [ Continue Reading ]
ΓᾺΡ amplifies the idea of πεπραμένος; he is no longer his own master but under a tyranny he hates. Δ ΚΑΤΕΡΓΆΖΟΜΑΙ. The effects I produce are not the outcome of my own knowledge and purpose. ΟΥ̓ ΓΙΝΏΣΚΩ = I form no true conception of, I do not thoroughly realise—the durative present. Cf. ἐξηπάτησεν... [ Continue Reading ]
ΝΥΝῚ ΔῈ. But, in this case, this being so. ΟΥ̓ΚΈΤΙ ἘΓῺ. It is, when this point is reached, no longer my true self that is producing these effects, but the indwelling and alien tyrant.... [ Continue Reading ]
ΟἾΔΑ = I am fully conscious that.… ΤΟΥ͂Τ' ἜΣΤΙΝ Κ.Τ.Λ. A correction of the too wide ἐν ἐμοί; in his true self there is ἀγαθόν, the knowledge of and appreciation of law. ἘΝ ΤΗ͂Ι ΣΑΡΚΊ. The evil is not the flesh, but alien from, though lodged in, the flesh. ΠΑΡΆΚΕΙΤΑΙ. Only here and 21.... [ Continue Reading ]
19 = 15.... [ Continue Reading ]
20 = 17.... [ Continue Reading ]
ἌΡΑ sums up the reiterated positions of Romans 7:15-20. ΤῸΝ ΝΌΜΟΝ = this law of my condition: a new sense of the word involving some confusion of language. The law of his condition is that there are two laws at once in his complex nature, one a law of his mind, i.e. the law of GOD accepted by his m... [ Continue Reading ]
ΤΩ͂Ι ΝΌΜΩΙ ΤΟΥ͂ ΘΕΟΥ͂. The law of GOD, however revealed, but always in the form of positive command. ΤῸΝ ἜΣΩ ἌΝΘΡΩΠΟΝ describes the inner core of personality, including mind and will. Cf. Romans 6:6 n.... [ Continue Reading ]
ἘΝ ΤΟΙ͂Σ ΜΈΛΕΣΙΝ describes the flesh as organised and active in various directions = the σῶμα in detail. Observe that S. Paul does not say ‘_of_ my members’ but ‘_in_ my members.’ He carefully avoids using language which implies that this law is proper to the flesh in its essential nature; it has it... [ Continue Reading ]
ἘΚ ΤΟΥ͂ Σ. Τ. Θ. Τ. The man has become all but wholly involved in his body which sin has made captive to death. Τ. Θ. Τ. this moral death. Just as in Romans 7:9 S. Paul’s been self-analysis carries him beyond actual memory into the imagination of a pre-moral state, so here he carries the analysis o... [ Continue Reading ]
24, 25. A parenthetic exclamation, a cry for help, and the answer.... [ Continue Reading ]
ΧΆΡΙΣ ΔῈ ΤΩ͂Ι ΘΕΩ͂Ι. An exclamation—not in construction. For the phrase cf. 1 Corinthians 15:57. ΔΙᾺ Ἰ. Κ.Τ.Λ. Sc. ῥυσθήσομαι or ἐρρύσθην. Law being the bare declaration of right had no power to move the living springs of action: that power comes from and through the Risen Lord imparting His own ne... [ Continue Reading ]