1. WE ARE FREED FROM IT (ROMANS 7:1); FOR, 2, ALTHOUGH IT IS HOLY, IT CANNOT MAKE SINNERS HOLY (ROMANS 7:7). 1. _Christians are freed from the Law._ This section might more properly form a part of the preceding chapter. The statement of chap. Romans 6:14, which has been discussed negatively (chap.... [ Continue Reading ]
3. MORAL RESULTS OF JUSTIFICATION; THOSE JUSTIFIED BY FAITH LIVE A NEW LIFE IN THE SPIRIT. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation; through it the will is affected, and thus is accomplished _morally_ what the law could not do, namely, the sanctification of those born sinners. But just here th... [ Continue Reading ]
Romans 7:1. OR ARE YE IGNORANT. (Comp. chap. Romans 6:3.) In thus appealing to experience, it is implied that every believer, whether he can explain it or not, _feels_ that he is in the state described in chap. Romans 6:22-23, and hence has some knowledge of his freedom from the law. This knowledge... [ Continue Reading ]
Romans 7:2. FOR THE MARRIED WOMAN. This is an example of the principle of Romans 7:1. ‘Married' is more fully explained as ‘subject to a husband.' IS BOUND BY THE LAW. The permanent binding is indicated by the form of the original. The Mosaic law made no provision for her releasing herself from th... [ Continue Reading ]
Romans 7:3. SO THEN. This being the case it follows. The verse forms a parallelism. SHALL BE CALLED AN ADULTERESS. This is the formal sentence, with a definite penalty stoning (Leviticus 21:10; comp. John 8:5). FREE FROM THAT LAW; lit., ‘the law,' in so far as it binds her to the husband, the bi... [ Continue Reading ]
Romans 7:4. ACCORDINGLY; lit, ‘so that.' This introduces the application of the figure in Romans 7:2-3. YE ALSO, as in the case of the widow. WERE MADE DEAD TO THE LAW. The idea is not of being dead, but of being put to death, at some single past time, namely, at justification. ‘The expression i... [ Continue Reading ]
Romans 7:5. FOR. A confirmation of the statement that they should bring forth fruit to God. WHEN WE WERE IN THE FLESH, _i.e.,_ in the natural condition of depravity (see Excursus at next section); still under the law is the negative side. THE PASSIONS OF SINS. The passions which led to sins seem... [ Continue Reading ]
Romans 7:6. BUT NOW. Comp. chap. Romans 6:22. WE HAVE BEEN DELIVERED, or, ‘loosed,' the same word as in Romans 7:2. The annulling of the marriage relation is referred to in both cases. Here the exact reference is to the simple past act of release or discharge from the law, at the time of justifica... [ Continue Reading ]
Romans 7:7. WHAT SHALL WE SAY THEN? Comp. chap. Romans 3:5. The Apostle proposes to consider the wrong inference which arises in many minds, that because the law works as described in Romans 7:5-6, it is itself wrong. IS THE LAW SIN? Because, on account of it, we sin, as already described, is it o... [ Continue Reading ]
2. _The Law is holy_, _but cannot make Sinners holy_. The fact that Christians are freed from the law might suggest a wrong inference as to the character of the law. This Paul denies (Romans 7:7), but shows how the law, though in itself good, leads to acquaintance with sin and to destructive results... [ Continue Reading ]
Romans 7:8. BUT SIN. This approaches a personification of sin, as in chap. Romans 5:12-21. The excitement resulting from the pressure of the law is now described. TAKING OCCASION. This should be separated by a comma from what follows: ‘It indicates the furnishing the material and ground of attack,... [ Continue Reading ]
Romans 7:9. NOW I WAS ALIVE WITHOUT THE LAW ONCE. ‘For' is incorrect; this clause continues the description of the state without the law. ‘Alive' has been explained as meaning: (1.) I seemed to myself to live, because not knowing my sin. (2.) I lived securely as a Pharisee. (3.) I lived comparativel... [ Continue Reading ]
Romans 7:10. WHICH WAS UNTO LIFE. The promise of the law, covering its every ‘commandment,' was ‘do this and ‘live;' its aim was ‘life.' THIS, or, ‘the same.' The latter is perhaps preferable, giving a tragical force to the expression: ‘this very commandment' WAS FOUND BY ME TO BE UNTO DEATH. Th... [ Continue Reading ]
Romans 7:11. FOR SIN, etc. In Romans 7:8, which resembles this, Paul explains the excitement of evil desire through the law; namely, how sin revived, but here he explains the other phrase: ‘I died.' The word ‘sin' is herein more emphatic than in Romans 7:8. It was not in the ‘law,' but ‘sin' that wr... [ Continue Reading ]
Romans 7:12. So that. The result of the whole discussion (Romans 7:7-11) is not to cast doubt upon the law, but to maintain its character as worthy of God who gave it. The original suggests a second member of the sentence, which is indicated in Romans 7:13. THE LAW IF HOLY. This positive character... [ Continue Reading ]
Romans 7:13. DID THEN THAT WHICH IS GOOD, _i.e._, did the commandment itself, which was ‘good,' designed for beneficial results, BECOME DEATH UNTO ME. This the Apostle denies: The law itself was neither sin (Romans 7:7) nor the cause of death. BUT SIN; sin became death unto me. THAT IT MIGHT APP... [ Continue Reading ]
Romans 7:14. FOR WE KNOW. This is again an appeal to Christian experience, but we cannot infer from this that the experience of the ‘I' is distinctively Christian. This verse is a proof of Romans 7:13. THE LAW IS SPIRITUAL; in its essence it is divine, because its characteristics are those of the... [ Continue Reading ]
Romans 7:15. FOR THAT WHICH I PERFORM. In this passage there are three Greek words translated ‘do' in the A. V. We distinguish them thus: perform, practise, do; the first is usually rendered ‘work.' I KNOW NOT. This does not mean: ‘I do not approve,' but that like a slave he performs ignorantly th... [ Continue Reading ]
Romans 7:16. BUT IF. This verse is a logical inference from the position of Romans 7:15. It is, however, the logic of a Christian applied to the condition under the law, or it may mark an advanced step in the recognition of the true position toward the law. WHAT I WISH NOT, THAT I DO. Compare the... [ Continue Reading ]
Romans 7:17. HOW THEN, or, ‘but now,' as the case stands. IT IS NO LONGER I THAT PERFORM IT, _i.e.,_ ‘what I wish not.' I am a slave under sin, what ‘I perform, I know not' (Romans 7:16). Both ‘now' and ‘no longer' are logical, not temporal; they point to an inference, not necessarily to a transit... [ Continue Reading ]
Romans 7:18. FOR I KNOW; not, ‘we know,' which would point to common Christian experience. This verse proves from the experience of the man whose case is described the truth of Romans 7:17. IN ME, THAT IS, IN MY FLESH, in my depraved human nature; ‘flesh' being here used in its strict ethical sense... [ Continue Reading ]
Romans 7:19. FOR THE GOOD, etc. This verse is a proof of the last clause of Romans 7:18; and Romans 7:20, which is an inference from this verse, leads back to the statement of Romans 7:17. BUT THE EVIL WHICH I WISH NOT, THAT I PRACTICE. This is the strongest expression of sinfulness yet made. Paul... [ Continue Reading ]
Romans 7:20. BUT IF WHAT I WISH NOT, etc. Since this is the case (as Romans 7:19 shows), then the position of Romans 7:17 is sustained: it is no longer I, etc. The repetition in this clause is exact, but in the phrase ‘I wish,' some emphasis rests on ‘I.' This is taken by many as indicating a progre... [ Continue Reading ]
Romans 7:21. I FIND THAN THE LAW, etc. The literal sense of the verse is: I find then the law to me wishing (willing) to do the good, that to me the evil is present. Some refer ‘the law' to the Mosaic law, because that has been. In mind up to this point. But it is very difficult to explain the verse... [ Continue Reading ]
Romans 7:22. FOR I DELIGHT IN THE LAW OF GOD. ‘For' introduces an explanation of Romans 7:21. ‘Delight in' is stronger than ‘agree with' (Romans 7:16), but must not be pressed too far, since Romans 7:21, of which this is an explanation, is a summing up of the experience in Romans 7:14-20. Meyer expl... [ Continue Reading ]
Romans 7:22-23. We have four phrases contrasted in pairs: ‘The law of God;' ‘another law in my members,' etc.; ‘the law of my mind;' ‘the law of sin and death,' etc. Each phrase has its distinct meaning, while those forming pairs are closely related: The law of God is the Mosaic law, but the law of... [ Continue Reading ]
Romans 7:23. BUT I SEE A DIFFERENT LAW. Not simply ‘another,' but a ‘different,' one; comp. Galatians 1:6-7. Paul represents himself as witnessing the conflict within his own person. IN MY MEMBERS. To be joined with Maw. This does not mean ‘in my flesh,' _i.e._, carnal nature, over against my rene... [ Continue Reading ]
Romans 7:24. O WRETCHED MAN THAT I AM! Some would inclose this verse and the first clause of Romans 7:25 in parenthesis; but this is unnecessary. The word ‘wretched' implies ‘exhausted by hard labor;' comp. Matthew 11:28. The prominent ideas are of helplessness and wretchedness; the cry for delivera... [ Continue Reading ]
Romans 7:25. I THANK GOD, or, ‘thanks to God;' it being difficult to decide between the two. (Some authorities read: _but_ thanks to God.) This thanksgiving is for deliverance: it is a deliverance THROUGH JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD. Not simply that the thanksgiving is through Him, but the fact that the t... [ Continue Reading ]