Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

Romans 7:24

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 deliverance follows. A believer may thus speak, doubtless often does; but this condition is precisely that from which we are delivered.

Who shall deliver me. Not merely a wish: would that I were delivered, but rather: who will deliver me, who can do it; not without a reference to help from a person. Those who apply the passage to the regenerate must assume here a temporary absence of relief. It does apply to the regenerate man, when by seeking sanctification by the law he forgets Christ, and deprives himself of the help of the Spirit.

From, lit, ‘out of,' the body of this death, or, ‘this body of death.' The interpretations are quite various: 1. This body of death; (a) this mortal body. But this makes the body the seat of sin, or amounts to a desire for death; both of which are unpauline and contrary to the context, (b) Still less satisfactory is the view that personifies death as a monster with a body. 2. ‘The body of this death.' This is preferable, since the emphasis in the original seems to rest upon ‘this death.' There is, however, no reference to physical death, but to the whole condition of helplessness, guilt, and misery just described, which is, in effect, spiritual death. But ‘body' may be taken either: (a) literally, or (b) figuratively. The literal sense suggests that the body is the seat of sin, and may be made equivalent to a desire for death. Meyer guards it thus: ‘Who shall deliver me out of bondage under the law of sin into moral freedom, in which my body shall no longer serve as the seat of this shameful death.' This agrees with the reference to ‘members' in Romans 7:23. But the figurative sense has more to recommend it ‘Body' is the organism of ‘this death;' it clings to me as closely as the body. We thus avoid on the one hand making this a desire for death, and on the other giving to ‘body' that ethical sense which is peculiar to ‘flesh.' The ethical idea is in this ‘death' not in ‘body.' A turning point is now reached. It is probable that even this cry is uttered ‘in full consciousness of the deliverance which Christ has effected, and as leading to the expression of thanks which follows' (Alford, following De Wette).

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Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

Romans 7:24

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