Romans 7:1-12
SS Lesson for 10/08/2023
Devotional Scriptures: Heb 8:6-13
Paul addresses the above questions in Romans 7, a deep dive into the purpose and applicability of the Old Testament law to Christians. Tension between Christians of Jewish and Gentile backgrounds is a context of the book of Romans, something that is no longer an issue in the church today. Even so, the question of the place of the Law of Moses as regulations for human behavior is still debated. Therefore, while understanding Paul’s ongoing argument in Romans can be challenging, diligent study of this book is essential for the practice of biblical Christianity. The book of Romans is the fullest expression of Paul’s teaching, what he calls “my gospel” (Romans 2:16; 16:25). Paul refers to his teaching this way as he draws frequently on his Jewish heritage. By one count, Romans features more than 50 direct quotes from the Old Testament. In Romans 5, 6, and 7, Paul identifies three great tyrants of humankind: sin, death, and the law. Each of these has had a role in oppressing men and women and robbing them of the possibility of a reconciled relationship with the Lord. Each of these three has had “mastery” and “authority” (Romans 6:9; 7:1; compare 6:14), the language of tyranny. Death has reigned in terror since the sin of Adam (5:14). Sin has reigned in the lives of men and women (6:12), leading to the consequences of judgment. Law (whether Mosaic or secular) exists as the authority to define and punish wrong behavior (6:15-23). In Romans 7, Paul returned to a discussion of the rightful place of the law in God’s plan.
But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter
(Scriptural Text from the New King James Version; cross-references from the NIV)
1 Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives?
2 For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband.
3 So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man.
4 Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.
5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death.
6 But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.
39 A woman is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she wishes, but he must belong to the Lord.
6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin, 7 because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.
3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.
24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.
6 He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
18 For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit,
63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.
2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.
7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, "You shall not covet."
8 But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead.
9 I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.
10 And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death.
11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me.
12 Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.
11 By them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.
101 I have kept my feet from every evil path so that I might obey your word.
20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.
12 All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law.
15 because law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
4 For every living soul belongs to me, the father as well as the son — both alike belong to me. The soul who sins is the one who will die.
12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned—
15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars — their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death."
22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;
13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness.
22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
14 but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.
6 The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace;
In Romans 6:1-14, Paul’s first argument is that living in sin is entirely inconsistent with the gospel. Living in sin is the opposite of what justification is all about. Salvation is accomplished when the Holy Spirit baptizes a person into the person and work of Christ (see 6:3; 1 Corinthians 12:13). By this baptism we are joined with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. Water baptism is but an “acting out” of that which has already occurred in our Spirit baptism. Paul now appeals to this baptism, what it achieved, and its implications.
Our union with Jesus Christ shows us that “continuing to live in sin” is outrageous, shocking, and detestable. If we, in Christ, died “to sin,” how is it that we could even entertain the thought of continuing to live “in sin”? Beyond this, in Christ, we were raised to new life. Jesus, by His resurrection, was transformed. He died once, but He now lives forever in righteousness. If we are in Christ, how can we persist in living as we once did as unbelievers? Our conduct as Christians should be consistent with what took place at our conversion. Continuing to live in sin is inconceivable, because it is inconsistent with all that took place when we were justified by faith in Jesus Christ. Therefore, Paul calls upon his readers to live in a way that is consistent with this reality, so that sin must no longer be allowed to reign over us. Instead we should present our bodies to God as instruments of righteousness.
The second argument which Paul gives for ceasing to live in sin is found in Romans 6:15-23. Those who would advocate “living in sin” would do so under the banner of “liberty.” Paul refutes this error by raising the banner of “slavery.” “Freedom,” Paul argues, is a misnomer. In reality, everyone is a slave and must choose one of two masters. Unsaved men are the slaves of sin. They have no choice, though they think of themselves as free (this is a part of Satan’s deception).
One’s choice to become a slave can be either conscious or unconscious. To continue to present oneself to sin is to remain a slave to sin. Very few people choose to become drug addicts. They begin by sampling drugs, by dabbling with them. They think they are in control, but soon the drug controls (enslaves) them, and they are no longer free. So it is with sin. To dabble with sin is to become enslaved to it. And to be enslaved by sin is to put oneself on the road to death. Paul points out the two options, slavery to sin and slavery to God, with their very different destinies: death and life. Put in this light, remaining in sin is remaining a slave to sin, and pursuing death.
Paul’s third argument against “living in sin” is found in the first 6 verses of chapter 7. It is really just an extension or illustration of his previous argument, based upon the relationship between marriage and the law. A woman who is married is not free to remarry, because the law forbids it. Only death frees the woman to remarry another man. If her husband dies, she is freed by his death.
We have died, in Christ, so that we now have the freedom to choose a new master. While sin once ruled over us, it need not do so any longer. We are freed from the dominion of sin by death. Now, we can be joined to another—Jesus Christ. While the fruit of one’s union with sin is death, the fruit of one’s union with Christ is righteousness, resulting in life.
There is something very interesting and important about what Paul has said in verses 1-6 of chapter 7. The Law played a part in our bondage. But it was not the Law which was “put to death,” so to speak, we were put to death. The inference is an important one, for it is not the Law which is the ultimate problem; it is us. It is the weakness of our own sinful flesh. This will be taken up in the next segment of our passage.
For now, we can see that justification was never intended to serve as a license to sin. Justification has, as its goal, righteousness, which leads to eternal life. To think that one who is justified can continue to live as he used to is outrageous, inconceivable, and disgusting. Let no one dare to think such thoughts.
While the legalist is wrong in thinking that the Law is a deterrent to sin, the libertine would love to conclude that the Law is, itself, the problem. The libertine hates rules, especially God’s rules (see 8:7), and therefore he is eager to name the Law as the source of man’s problems. “If we could but pronounce the Law “evil” and could thus abolish the Law and rid ourselves of it altogether,” the libertine reasons, “what a better place this world would be.”
“Not so!,” Paul will object in Romans 7. The problem is not with the Law; the problem is with us. Romans 7:7-24 takes up the matter of the Law and the role it plays in dealing with sin in the Christian’s life. The question which Paul raises concerns whether the Law is, itself, evil. If the Law is the culprit, then we would best be rid of it. The Law of God is not evil to Paul, but “holy and righteous and good” (see 7:12). The Law of God, Paul has already affirmed, is not nullified by the gospel but is rather to be established by it (3:31).
Paul first affirms the goodness of the Law by pointing out its valuable role in defining and exposing sin (7:7). An x-ray is not evil because it reveals the presence of a tumor; neither is the Law evil because it points out sin in our lives. The Law performs a valuable function in this regard. Sin takes advantage of the Law and uses its own evil purposes. Sin actually uses the Law to create an appetite for sin. Sin takes the command not to covet and uses it to produce coveting of all kinds within us (7:8).
In his inner man, Paul agrees with the requirements of the Law. As a Christian, he desires to obey the Law, and he sees its demands as “holy, righteous, and good” (7:12). He desperately desires to do all that the Law commands and to avoid that which it condemns. And so, as a Christian, Paul finds the Law to be a good thing. His problem is that while he wants to obey the Law and to meet its demands, he finds that he does not and he cannot live within the Law even though he has the desire to do so. The “spirit is willing,” so to speak, but “the flesh is weak.”
The problem which Paul (and every other Christian, as well) experienced is the problem of the weakness of the flesh. Sin is extremely powerful, and the flesh is incredibly weak. The desire to obey God’s Law can be present, while the ability to do so is not. This leads to great frustration. In contrast to the apathy of the one who would “continue in sin” (Romans 6) is the agony over sin which others experience, an agony Paul has summed up in this way:
Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? (Romans 6:24).
As Abraham and Sarah were “dead” with respect to having a child (Romans 4:19), so the Christian is “dead” with respect to obeying God’s Law.
This is the dilemma of the Christian. Here is the root problem, the explanation for sin in the life of the Christian. The problem is not in the Law of God, but in my own weakness, the weakness of the flesh. Sin has the power to use good things, like the Law, to overpower the flesh of the Christian and to produce sin.
The dilemma of the Christian, described by Paul in Romans 7, is not unlike the dilemma of the non-Christian in Romans 1:18–3:20. Just as the unbeliever cannot produce righteousness by his own works, neither can the Christian. The difference between the Christian and the unbeliever is that the Christian actually desires to please God, but is not able to do so, while the unbeliever could care less about obeying God (see 8:7-8).
(Adapted from URL:https://bible.org/seriespage/c-responsibilities-justification-agony-and-ecstasy-romans-61-839)
First Peter 1:16, quoting Leviticus 11:44-45, says “Be holy, because I am holy.” We may disagree on which aspects of the Law of Moses still apply in the New Testament era, but this is one area where there is no doubt. We press further when we wonder how to be holy as God is holy. That is a profoundly important question, and we must commit to growing in holiness throughout our lives. To be holy requires a distinction from that which is unholy—and God is the one who makes that distinction known in his laws. Same thing with being loving versus being unloving (see Galatians 5:14, quoting Leviticus 19:18). If there is no God, no lawgiver, then there can be no absolute laws with regard to being holy, loving, etc. But God does exist, and he has given laws for the good of humankind. The way to counteract deadly, worldly influence is to study the ways God intends as presented throughout our Bibles.