Romans 7:1-6. The same subject. Illustration from matrimony 1. _Know ye not_, &c. The passage from hence to end of Romans 7:7 is closely connected with the last chapter. By a perfectly new simile (marriage), it illustrates further what has been just illustrated by the metaphor of slavery, and (in t... [ Continue Reading ]
_to her husband so long_, &c]. Lit. TO THE LIVING HUSBAND. So it should be rendered; q. d., "to the present, not to a past or future, husband." _she is loosed_ Lit. SHE HAS BEEN CANCELLED FROM, &c. The perfect tense indicates the _ipso facto_character of the release. The obvious equivalent of the p... [ Continue Reading ]
_she shall be called_ The Gr. verb indicates a _deliberate_"calling;" the _winning of a title_. Same word as Acts 11:26. _that law_ Lit. THE LAW; i.e. of her husband. _married_ Lit., in this ver. and 4, the verb is merely be, or BECOME: IF SHE BE [joined] TO ANOTHER HUSBAND lawfully or not.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Wherefore_ The word marks transition from the facts to the spiritual inference. _are become dead_ Lit., and better, WERE MADE DEAD; a passive verb, suggesting the external, objective work which caused their "death;" viz., the Death of their Representative and Head, the Second Adam. _to the law_ T... [ Continue Reading ]
_when we were in the flesh_ For illustration of this important phrase see especially Romans 8:8-9. St Paul here assumes of Christians (1) that they were once "in the flesh;" (2) that they are so no longer. To be "in the flesh" thus describes the man's condition previous to the special gift of the Ho... [ Continue Reading ]
_now_ AS THE FACT STANDS. _are delivered_ Lit., and better, WERE DELIVERED; by our Representative's death ideally, and actually through faith in Him. _delivered_ Lit. CANCELLED, ABOLISHED. This peculiar expression confirms the remark above on Romans 7:4, that St Paul designedly avoids the idea of... [ Continue Reading ]
The true function of the Divine Law: to detect and condemn sin, both before and after Justification 7. _What shall we say then?_ Same words as Romans 6:1. Here opens a new and important section, including the remainder of ch. 7, and passing on in close connexion into ch. 8. The dogmatic statement an... [ Continue Reading ]
_But_ This word refers to the statement "I had not known lust;" and this verse explains the action of the law in causing (indirectly) the knowledge of sin. _sin_ As a principle, "working" evil desires as its result. _occasion_ The Gr. word = the French _point d'appui_. The positive inexorable prec... [ Continue Reading ]
_For I_ The "I" is emphatic. Through this section, as often elsewhere, Sin is quasi-personified, and distinguished from the Self which nevertheless it fatally infects. It is an alien thing, an invasion, which (at the Fall) broke in on Man's nature created upright. In this representation of Sin, no e... [ Continue Reading ]
_ordained to life_ In the Gr. simply TO LIFE. Such was its natural tendency. "This do and _thou shall live_" is the statement of a deep and holy sequence. The failure lies not in the commandment but in the fallen will. And meantime no _modification_in the commandment is conceivable; for that would b... [ Continue Reading ]
_For sin_, &c. A reiteration of Romans 7:8, with more detail. The "deception" here is fully illustrated by the history of the Fall. (Cp. carefully Genesis 3:4-5.) The Tempter "took occasion by" the prohibition to "deceive" the woman as to the character of God for truth and love; alienated her will f... [ Continue Reading ]
_Wherefore_, &c. This is not a direct inference from the preceding passage. The holiness of the Law is rather assumed as an axiom than proved. But the _fault of Sin_has been so brought out as to leave the _faultlessness of the Law_vividly in view. _the law the commandment_ The general and the parti... [ Continue Reading ]
_that which is good_ These words are emphatic in the Gr. He has said (Romans 7:10) that the commandment was found to be, in respect of him, "_unto_death." Here he rejects the thought that it _was death;_a principle, or true cause, of death. _made_ The Gr. verb is simply DID IT BECOME? _But sin_ Su... [ Continue Reading ]
_For we know_ The "_for_" points to the fact just cleared up that sin, not the law, is the true cause of the soul's misery; which results from the _collision of sin_with the law. "_We know;_" as an admitted foundation-truth among Christians; a truth not only implied by the whole drift and often by t... [ Continue Reading ]
E. THE STATE DESCRIBED IN Ch. Romans 7:14-24 The controversy over this profound passage is far too wide to allow of full treatment here. It is scarcely needful to say that conclusions very different from those in the notes have been drawn by many most able and most devout expositors, ancient and mo... [ Continue Reading ]
_I do_ The Gr. word is strong; CARRY OUT; perhaps with allusion to servile task-work. _allow_ In the old English sense of the word; "to allaud," "to praise, or approve:" so "the Lord _alloweth_the righteous," Psalms 11:6, Prayer-Book. But the common meaning of the Gr. is I KNOW, in the sense of rec... [ Continue Reading ]
_If then_, &c. The emphasis is obviously on "that which I would not:" q. d., "If my faulty course of action is contradicted by my will, I thereby consent to the goodness of the Law, which also contradicts it.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Now_ i.e. IN THIS STATE OF THE CASE. _it is no more I_ The Gr. is lit. BUT NOW NO LONGER I DO IT, &c. The "_no longer_" is noteworthy, as implying (in the natural and common meaning of the words) a _different previous_state. It is possible indeed for the Gr. phrase to mean "no longer" with a _logic... [ Continue Reading ]
_For I know_, &c. This verse intensifies the statement just made. "Sin dwells in him" to such a degree that "no good thing dwells in him:" the intruder has occupied the whole dwelling, and _every part_of it is _infected:_by vitiating the affections and will, sin has spoilt _all_. Notice that the emp... [ Continue Reading ]
] These verses almost repeat Romans 7:15; Romans 7:17; not however as a tautology, but as emphasizing by repetition the two main facts in view, the reality of the renewal of the will, and the reality of the struggle of the flesh.... [ Continue Reading ]
_I find then_, &c. The Gr. construction of this verse is difficult. But the explanation is helped by remembering that THE LAW, not "_a_law," is the right version; and all analogy of passages leads us to refer this to the Divine Law. There can thus be little doubt of the practical meaning of the vers... [ Continue Reading ]
_I delight in_ Lit. I DELIGHT WITH. The Law, as the will of God, is quasi-personified, and the regenerate soul "rejoices _with it_" in its delight in holiness and truth. The Law's loves and hatreds are those also of the soul. Cp. 1 Corinthians 13:6, where render, "rejoiceth _with_the Truth." _the in... [ Continue Reading ]
_I see_ The true Self contemplates, as it were, the perverting element, the _Alter Ego_, the flesh. Such conscious contemplation surely befits the idea of the regenerate state rather than that of the state of nature. _another law_ See on Romans 3:27. The word "law" is used here with the elasticity... [ Continue Reading ]
_O wretched man_, &c. Lit. MISERABLE MAN [AM] I. The adjective indicates a state of _suffering;_the _pain_of the inner conflict as felt by the regenerate "mind [38]." [38] In Lord Selborne's _Book of Praise_will be found a most remarkable Hymn, (No. ccclxx), beginning "O send me down a draught of l... [ Continue Reading ]
_I thank God_ Here first _light_is let in; the light of hope. The "redemption of the body" shall come. "He who raised up Christ" shall make the "mortal body" immortally sinless, and so complete the rescue and the bliss of the whole man. See Romans 8:11. _through Jesus Christ our Lord_ "In whom shal... [ Continue Reading ]