WHAT THEN OF THE LAW? IS THE LAW GOOD OR BAD? AND HOW DOES THE
CHRISTIAN STAND IN RELATION TO THE LAW. HOW CAN IT BE FULFILLED?
(7:1-8:4).
Whereas chapter 6 has concentrated on our deliverance from the tyranny
of sin, this chapter brings out the position of the Christian as
regards the Law, deliver... [ Seguir leyendo ]
DELIVERANCE FROM UNDER THE LAW (7:1-6).
Paul now declares that the Christian is delivered from the dominion of
the Law because he has died to it in the death of Christ, and this in
order that he might be conjoined with the Risen Christ like a widow is
conjoined with her new husband (compare Efesios... [ Seguir leyendo ]
‘Or are you ignorant, brothers (for I speak to men who know the
law), that the law has dominion over a man for so long time as he
lives?'
The ‘or', and the argument, both look back to Romanos 6:14, ‘you
are not under the Law but under grace'. In dealing with this Paul
expresses his confidence that t... [ Seguir leyendo ]
‘For the woman who has a husband is bound by law to the husband
while he lives, but if the husband die, she is discharged from the law
of the husband. So then if, while the husband lives, she be joined to
another man, she will be called an adulteress, but if the husband die,
she is free from the law... [ Seguir leyendo ]
‘On which basis, my brothers, you also were made dead to the law
through the body of Christ; that you should be joined to another, even
to him who was raised from the dead, that we might bring forth fruit
unto God.'
In the same way the sacrificial death of Christ (‘through the body
of Christ'; compa... [ Seguir leyendo ]
‘For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were
through the law, wrought in our members to bring forth fruit unto
death.'
For when we were living our old lives under the Law (we were in the
flesh, following the ways of the flesh, compare Romanos 8:5) the
sinful passions within us we... [ Seguir leyendo ]
‘But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that
in which we were held; so as to serve in newness of the spirit, and
not in oldness of the letter.'
But now we (our ‘old man') have died with Christ, and we are
therefore now discharged from the Law, having died to that in which we
we... [ Seguir leyendo ]
PAUL'S PERSONAL EXPERIENCE OF THE LAW, USED AS AN ILLUSTRATION IN
ORDER THAT THE ROMAN CHRISTIANS MIGHT ALSO APPLY IT TO THEMSELVES,
DEMONSTRATING BOTH THE HOLINESS AND THE POWERLESSNESS OF THE LAW; THE
SINFULNESS OF OUR FLESH, EVEN THOUGH REDEEMED; THE TRANSFORMATION OF
THE REDEEMED MIND; AND THE W... [ Seguir leyendo ]
‘What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not.'
The vital question is put. If the Law has to be treated in the same
way as the principle of sin within, by our being put to death to it
(Romanos 6:2; Romanos 7:4); by our being freed from it (Romanos 6:18;
Romanos 6:22; Romanos 7:6); and by ou... [ Seguir leyendo ]
PAUL'S INITIAL EXPERIENCE OF THE ‘SLAYING' POWER OF THE LAW
(7:7-13).
Having demonstrated that much of what sin does in chapter 6, the Law
does in Romanos 7:1 (see introduction to chapter 7 above), Paul now
faces up to the shocking question as to whether that means that he
equates the Law to sin. An... [ Seguir leyendo ]
‘But sin, finding occasion, wrought in me through the commandment
all manner of coveting.'
And from that time of illumination onwards he had found himself
coveting more and more, because the principle of sin was at work
within him. Sin had taken the opportunity of his new knowledge, which
in itself... [ Seguir leyendo ]
‘And I was alive apart from the law once, but when the commandment
came, sin revived, and I died,'
This was what had happened to Paul, while he was still Saul. He had
been striving with all his might to obey the Law, and had prided
himself on how well he was doing (Gálatas 1:13; Filipenses 3:4), so... [ Seguir leyendo ]
‘And the commandment, which was unto life, this I found to be unto
death,'
And the result was that the commandment which was found in the Law,
the commandment which was supposed to be giving him life, was found by
him to be ‘unto death'. He had recognised that his hopes of eternal
life had gone. He... [ Seguir leyendo ]
‘For sin, finding occasion, through the commandment beguiled me, and
through it slew me.'
And what was to blame for what had happened to him? It was sin (not
the Law). Sin had taken advantage of the commandment so as to beguile
him and then to slay him. It had brought home to him his sinfulness,
ha... [ Seguir leyendo ]
‘So that the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous,
and good.'
Thus he had recognised that ‘the Law was holy, and that the
commandment was holy and just, and good'. They were from God and were
instruments of God set apart for His holy purpose, and they were both
righteous and good. I... [ Seguir leyendo ]
‘Did then that which is good become death to me? Certainly not! But
sin, that it might be shown to be sin, by working death to me through
what is good; that through the commandment sin might become exceeding
sinful.'
Did this then mean that what was good had brought about death in him?
By no means.... [ Seguir leyendo ]
THE LAW WHICH WAS SPIRITUAL WAS LIMITED BY THE FLESHLINESS OF MEN
(INCLUDING CHRISTIANS) WHOSE DESIRES OFTEN CAUSED THEM TO DO WHAT WAS
BAD RATHER THAN WHAT WAS GOOD (7:14-8:4).
When looking at this passage we have to see it in the context of the
whole letter. We must ask, is it just a parenthesis,... [ Seguir leyendo ]
‘For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am fleshly, sold under
sin.'
If we consider the passage from Romanos 7:14 to Romanos 8:4 we
discover an interesting fact. It commences with ‘we' and then
immediately moves into ‘I, me', and with the exception of ‘our' in
Romanos 7:25 (easily explicable i... [ Seguir leyendo ]
‘For what I do I know not.'
Here begins Paul's description of the human moral struggle that is
experienced by most good people, but is especially the lot of the
Christian whose moral sense has been heightened. He has constantly to
battle with himself. And we have, of course, to recognise that what... [ Seguir leyendo ]
‘But if what I would not, that I do, I consent to the law that it is
good.'
‘Thus', says Paul, ‘if I at times do what I in my mind do not want
to do, doing what I know to be contrary to God's Law, but hating it
even while I am doing it, I am by my very hatred of what I am doing
demonstrating that I... [ Seguir leyendo ]
‘So now it is no more I who do it, but sin which dwells in me.'
But why, says Paul, do I sometimes behave like this? What explanation
can there be? His reply is that it is because what he does is not done
by his true self, his inward man, his regenerate nature. It is rather
done by ‘sin which dwells... [ Seguir leyendo ]
‘For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing,
for to will is present with me, but to do what is good is not.'
While up to this point what he has been describing has been of the
flesh (‘I am fleshly') and not of the Spirit (‘the Law is
spiritual'), technical terms have been avoi... [ Seguir leyendo ]
‘For the good which I would I do not, but the evil which I would
not, that I practise.'
Meanwhile he continues to describe the effects of his fleshliness.
‘(At times),' says Paul, ‘I find myself failing to do the good
that I want to do.' The doing of that good is the aim of his life. But
sometimes ... [ Seguir leyendo ]
‘But if what I would not, that I do, it is no more I who do it, but
sin which dwells in me.'
And the explanation for all this was the sin that dwelt in him that
lay at the root of his fleshly disposition. It was because he was ‘a
sinful man' that he found it so impossible to live up to his own idea... [ Seguir leyendo ]
‘I find then the law, that, to me who would do good, evil is
present. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man, but I
see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind,
and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my
members.'
So he recognises that... [ Seguir leyendo ]
DELIVERANCE IS AT HAND (7:24-8:2).
‘Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me out of the body of this
death?'
The thought that he has not wholly and continually been able to
overcome sin caused Paul great anguish so that he cries out in his
wretchedness. His very recording of the facts had awoke... [ Seguir leyendo ]
‘I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I myself (I as I
am in myself) with the mind, indeed, serve the law of God, but with
the flesh the law of sin.'
It is a mistake to see this verse as concluding the argument. The
‘so then' (often translated ‘therefore') in Romanos 8:1 refers
back t... [ Seguir leyendo ]