Romans 7:5

“ For when we were in the flesh, the affections of sins, excited by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death; ”

The for evidently bears not on Romans 7:5 only, but on Romans 7:5-6 together.

The expression: to be in the flesh, is very far from being synonymous with living in the body; comp. Galatians 2:20. The term flesh, denoting literally the soft parts of the body, which are the usual seat of agreeable or painful sensations, is applied in biblical language to the whole natural man, in so far as he is yet under the dominion of the love of pleasure and the fear of pain, that is to say, of the tendency to self-satisfaction. The natural complacency of the ego with itself such is the idea of the word flesh in the moral sense in which it is so often used in Scripture. Now, what part does the law play in the moral development of man in this state? The affections of sins, παθήματα ἁμαρτιῶν, are, says Paul, excited by it. The Greek term, which may be rendered by affection or passion, denotes an essentially passive state. And, indeed, the affections of sense, which correspond to certain external objects fitted to satisfy them, are less of the nature of spontaneous determinations of the will, than the effect of impressions received. As to the complement: of sins, it might be taken either as the genitive of cause (produced by sins), or of quality (which have the character of sins). But in both senses the singular: of sin, would have been more natural. This complement might also be explained as the genitive of apposition: the affections in which the varied inward forms of sin consist, such emotions as are intemperate or impure, interested or proud, selfish or violent. But is it not more natural to see in this complement: of sins, the genitive of effect? the affections which do not fail to produce every kind of sins, as soon as, being strongly excited, they seek their gratification.

The regimen: by the law proclaimed to them, a Spiri> and a gospel different from those they have already received. Such expressions forbid us to suppose that the doctrine of those emissaries was not greatly different from his own and that of the Twelve, especially from the Christological standpoint (another Jesus). There is certainly here something more than the simple legal teaching previously imported into Galatia. It was sought to allure the Corinthians by unsound speculations, and Paul's teaching was disparaged as poor and elementary. Hence his justification of himself, even in the First Epistle, for having given them only “milk and not meat” (1 Corinthians 3:1-2). Hence also his lively polemic against the mixing of human wisdom with the gospel (1 Corinthians 3:17-20). All this applied to the preaching of lly, worked within, denotes that sort of inward fermentation which is produced when the passions, excited by the resistance of the commandment, seek to master the body in order to their gratification. The verb ἐνεργεῖσθαι, to act, operate, is always taken by Paul in the middle sense, which we give to it here, never in the passive sense. to be put in action; comp. 1 Thessalonians 2:13; 2 Thessalonians 2:7; Galatians 5:6; 2 Corinthians 1:6; 2 Corinthians 4:12, etc. etc. The word: the members, corresponds to the expression: of the sins. Every evil instinct has, so to speak, an agent corresponding to it in one of the members of the body. The result of this impure working, caused by the shock of the holy law against the carnal heart of the natural man, is an abundance of evil fruits which produce death in man; comp. James 1:14-15. The εἰς, to, in order to, contains, as it always does, the notion of end, and not only of effect. In the affections of the flesh, it is said, Romans 8:6, there is a secret aspiration after death. The man who acts without God tends to separate himself ever more profoundly from God.