Romans 7:9-11

a. “ And I was alive when I was formerly without law; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died; ”

Calvin well expresses the rhythm of these verses: “The death of sin is the life of man; and, on the contrary, the life of sin is the death of man.”

The Vatic. reads ἔζην instead of ἔζων : both forms are classical. What is this life which the apostle enjoyed when he was yet without law? Augustine, the Reformers, and some modern commentators (Bengel, Bonnet) think that the time in question is when, sunk in his Pharisaical delusions, filled with self-righteousness, Paul thought himself in possession of the life of God, of true righteousness. They understand the: I was alive, in the sense of: I thought myself alive. This interpretation is in itself forced; but there is more against it. Could Paul really say of himself that, as a Pharisee, he was without law? It was, on the contrary, the time when he was absolutely under the law, ὑπὸ νόμον, according to 1 Corinthians 9:20, kept under the charge of the schoolmaster, who was to bring him to Christ, according to Galatians 3:24. Then if it was his Pharisee life which he wished to characterize in the words: when I was formerly without law, what would be the time denoted by the following words: when the commandment came? Will it be said: the time of his conversion, when the law took its inmost meaning for him, in Christ, its full spiritual bearing? “Though before his eyes,” says Calvin, when speaking of his life as a Pharisee, “the law did not seriously affect his heart with the conviction of the judgment of God.” It was only by the Spirit of Christ that his eyes were opened, and that the commandment truly humbled and condemned him. But where, then, is this idea of the interposition of Christ, and of the profound crisis of which he speaks elsewhere as a new creation? And was the understanding of the commandment then the sole or even the principal character of this transformation? Certainly, if these words refer to his conversion, some indication or other would not be wanting to designate this transition to a new faith. To discover a period in Paul's life to which the words: formerly when I was under the law, really apply, we must go back to the days which preceded the awakening of his moral consciousness under the operation of the law. We are thereby led to the period of his childhood, before he was subjected to the Pharisaic ordinances and the exact discipline of the law. From the age of twelve, young Israelites were subjected to the legal institutes, and became, as was said, sons of the law, bené hattorah. This stage of his outward life was undoubtedly for the young Saul the signal of the inward crisis described from Romans 7:7 onward. From the moment he found himself called to apply the prescriptions of the law seriously to his conduct, he was not slow to discover sin within him; for in the depths of his heart he found lust; and not only did the law unveil this evil principle to him, but it intensified its power. The torrent bubbled and boiled on meeting with the obstacle which came in its way. Till then Saul was alive, morally and religiously, which does not mean merely that he thought himself alive; nor does it denote merely the innocent and pure sprightliness of childhood, yet untroubled by any remorse. The word live, when used by Paul, always includes something more profound. It refers here to the state of a young and pious Israelitish child, trained in the knowledge and love of Jehovah, tasting by faith in the promises of His word the blessings of the covenant, awaking and going to sleep in the arms of the God of his fathers, and seeking not to displease Him in his conduct. There was here a real beginning of life in God, a pure flame, which was extinguished no doubt afterward by self-righteousness and by the inward strife inseparable from it, but which burst forth at last magnificently at the breath of faith in Jesus Christ.

The words: when the commandment came, after what precedes, refer simply to the appearance of the commandment, with its holy majesty, in the conscience of young Saul. Then began in him the serious attempt to put it fully into practice. The term commandment is used instead of law, because, as Romans 7:7 shows, it is specially the tenth commandment which is in question. It is by it above all that the work here described is effected in him. This work was, as Paul tells us, to make sin live or revive. The term live forms an antithesis to the other: sin is dead (Romans 7:8). It is a somewhat difficult question which of its two meanings is to be attached to the preposition ἀνά in the composition of the verb ἀναζῆν, that of anew (like our re in revive): recovered life; or whether, according to its strict signification, above, it merely denotes here the transition from the passive to the active state: took life. Meyer, in favor of the first sense, insists on the fact that it is impossible to quote, either in the N. T. or in the classics, a single case in which this verb or its analogues (ἀναβιόω, ἀναβιώσκομαι) signifies anything else than revive (Luke 15:24, for example). This cannot be denied. Nevertheless it is true that many verbs compounded with ἀνά do not at all include the idea of a return to a previous state; thus ἀνατέλλω, to spring (speaking of plants), and to rise (speaking of the stars); ἀναβοάω, to raise the voice, to cry; ἀναζέω, to bubble up. The verb ἀναβλέπω is taken in both senses: to look above (Matthew 14:19; Mark 7:34; Luke 19:5), and to see anew (Acts 9:12; Acts 9:17-18). In John 9:11, the meaning is doubtful. If we translate: “ recovered life,” what is the previous life of sin present to the mind of the apostle? Origen discovers here his system of the pre-existence of souls, and of a fall anterior to this present life. Hilgenfeld also ascribes this idea to the apostle. But how obscurely would it be expressed, and how would it come about that no other trace of it is found in his writings? Romans 5:12 is anything but favorable to this theory. Augustine and Bengel think of the first appearance of sin in paradise; but this fact is too remote to furnish us with the explanation of the word revive here. It would be better to hold that Paul was thinking of sin as it had lived in his parents before reviving in him. But what is simpler still is to abandon this idea of the renewal of the life of sin, and to explain ἀναζῆν in the sense of: to awake to active life.

The commentators who have applied the preceding words to the Pharisaic epoch of the apostle's life, are embarrassed by the declaration: Sin revived, and I died (10a). Would such be the terms in which he would characterize his new birth? Impossible! But they apply, it will be said, to the most advanced stage of his Pharisaism. M. Bonnet says in this direction: “Sin, pursued to its last intrenchments, manifested its power by a desperate resistance...; and, on the other hand, the man saw the nothingness of his moral life, and succumbed to the sentence of death executed by the law within the depths of his consciousness.” But where in Paul's Epistles do we find the evidences of such a crisis? It seems to me more natural to carry it back to the time when his moral consciousness was first developed, and to hold that this state was gradually increasing during the whole time of his Pharisaism.

Romans 7:10 a The transition of sin from its latent state to that of an active force was to Saul a mortal stroke. The internal divorce between God and him was consummated: to infantine liberty there succeeded fear, to filial feeling the revolt of the heart and servile obedience, two equally sure symptoms of death. A weight henceforth repressed the impulse of his soul Godward.

The words which follow serve to bring out the unforeseen character of this effect (Romans 7:10 b), and give the true explanation of it (Romans 7:11).

Vv. 10 b, 11. “ And the commandment, which should have guided me to life, was found to turn me to death; for sin, taking occasion, deceived me by the commandment, and by it slew me. ”

This coming into activity on the part of sin, which Paul felt as if he were the object of a spiritual murder, was occasioned by a gift of God, the commandment; for this was the instrument of it, the commandment which God had given to the faithful Israelite with the words: “This do and thou shalt live ” (Lev 18:5)! Instead of guiding him to holiness and peace, or giving life, it did the opposite, by revealing sin to him and increasing its power, it raised a thick wall between God and him, and involved him in death! The feeling of surprise which so unexpected a result produced is expressed by the word εὑρέθη, was found.

Meyer understands the term death (end of the verse) of eternal death, in the sense that the man who passes through such experiences is doomed to final perdition (apart, of course, from redemption). But Paul is speaking of a more immediate result, a separation from God, that spiritual death which he describes himself, Ephesians 2:1 et seq.

Undoubtedly this description of the effects of the law exhibits only one aspect of the truth, that which had been particularly experienced by Saul the Pharisee. For he then regarded the law as the means of establishing his own righteousness (Romans 10:3), and not as the pathway opened to divine grace. The psalmists frequently describe the effects of the law in a wholly different light (Psalms 19, 119, etc.), and we cannot doubt that Jesus Himself, during the period of His development up to His baptism, found in it the fulness of what God had promised: Doing these things, thou shalt live by them, or what is expressed by the words of Paul: “The commandment which was given me to guide me to life. ” Only, if it is to display this beneficent effect, the law must be received either by a heart free from sin, or otherwise by a heart which does not separate the commandment from the grace accompanying the law, a heart which seeks in it not the means of acquiring self-merit and gratifying its pride, but the way of union to the God of the covenant by sacrifice and prayer: as an illustration, let the parable of the Pharisee and the publican serve!

Vv. 11 is intended to explain what really took place. It throws back the blame of the sad experience related, on its true author, sin, as was already done in Romans 7:8, while reproducing this explanation more forcibly after the fuller development of the experience itself in Romans 7:9-10. The word ἡ ἁμαρτία, sin, is placed foremost; for it is the true culprit, not the law; it is this depraved instinct which the commandment encountered, and which caused the latter to produce a result diametrically opposed to that for which it was given.

The words taking occasion refer, as in Romans 7:8, to the external objects corresponding to our various lusts. The commandment, by raising a barrier between these objects and us, makes them appear so much the more desirable; we cannot get rid of the impression that a jealous God takes pleasure in refusing them to us, for the very reason that they would promote our happiness. Such is the mirage which sin produces in us by the commandment itself. The words: deceived me by the commandment, certainly contain an allusion to the part played by the serpent in Genesis 3, where, as we have said, it fills the office here ascribed to sin in relation to man in innocence. It deceives and seduces Eve by ascribing hatred to God, love to itself; and hence murder, separation from God, either by internal revolt or external disobedience.

The repetition of the clause: by the commandment...by it, with each of the two verbs, expresses forcibly how contrary to the nature of the commandment is the part which sin makes it play.

The verb ἐξαπατᾳν includes the two ideas of deceiving, and of thus causing to deviate from the right road (ἐκ, out of). Deception causes to deviate, and deviation leads to death: by it slew me. It is incomprehensible how Calvin should take the liberty of giving a purely logical sense to the terms deceived and slew: “Sin was unveiled by the law as a seducer and murderer (Ergo verbum ἐξεπάτησεν non de re ipsâ, sed de notitiâ exponi debet).”

It remained to conclude by finally formulating the result of this profound psychological analysis contained in the passage Romans 7:7-11. This is what is done in Romans 7:12-13. The ὥστε, so that, Romans 7:12, announces a conclusion.