Romans 7:1-6

Fifteenth Passage (7:1-6). The Believer is set free from the Law at the same Time that he is set free from Sin.

AGREEABLY to the proposition stated Romans 6:14: “Sin shall no more have dominion over you: for ye are under grace,” the apostle had just expounded emancipation from sin by subjection to grace. But he had said: “For ye are not under the law, but under grace.” And the words underlined required a special explanation. It is this demonstration which is furnished by the following passage. In his view the two emancipations, that from sin and that from the law, are two closely connected facts, so that the one is the complement of the other. Also between the descriptions of the two deliverances there is to be remarked a parallelism of figures which extends to the slightest details of the two descriptions. It is easy to see how exactly Romans 7:1-4 corresponds to Romans 6:16-19, and Romans 7:5-6, to Romans 6:21-23. Only the general figure in the two cases is borrowed from different domains of social life. The law being a nobler master than sin, the apostle in speaking of it substitutes for the degrading relation of servitude, the more exalted one of marriage; and hence also in Romans 7:5-6 for the figure of fruits (of labor) he puts that of children (the issue of marriage).

To prove the believer's emancipation from legal bondage, Paul supports his argument by an article of the law itself, which he applies spiritually, Romans 7:1-4; then he shows that the believer makes use of this right, not to yield himself more freely to sin, but to serve God better than he would have done under the law (Romans 7:5-6). His emancipation in relation to the law is therefore legitimate more than that, it is morally beneficial and necessary.

The first three verses adduce the example cited from the law, and the fourth applies it.