Romans 7-8

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7 Do you not know, brothers and sisters—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives? 2 For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her to him. 3 So then, if she has sexual relations with another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man.

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Remember that Paul is speaking to Gentile and Jewish Believers about their unity.
Speaking to the Jewish believers who apparently were boasting about their “special” relationship with God (which has already been addressed by Paul.) he is going to illustrate the point that he has been making which is that when we identified with the death burial and resurrection of Jesus we essentially died to our sinful nature along with Christ and we have been given a new nature that is not bound by sin but rather we now have the ability to become obedient to the righteousness that comes from Christ.
Now we need to understand that Paul is using the letter of the law to prove a point as an illustration not as a judgement on the law. The only reason I want to point this out is because Paul will do this from time to time and many people pull out of those moments theology that was never intended to be there.
Now in this circumstance we would agree with the theological implications of the “letter of the law” but still we need to recognize that he is using it as an example of our freedom from the law.
So what is his point?

4 So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. 5 For when we were in the realm of the flesh, w the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. 6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.

So when we died to our sin we also died to the law (more on that in a minute). And are now “wedded” to Christ so that we might bear fruit for God.
We were essentially married to our selfish nature and because of that when we applied the law to our nature it caused us to burn with passion toward the sin that we selfishly wanted to live in.
Now the imagery here is not mistakes that we make, but rather a life handed over to sinful nature.
Understanding the reality that we aren’t sinner because we sin but rather we sin because we are sinners is really important for us here in order to understand what Paul is saying.
When you are a slave to sin, applying the law cannot free you, it only exaggerates the desire to follow those things that are contrary to God - because we are controlled by that selfish nature. So the fruit that comes from that is death, however when we died to sin, we died to the effects of the law and sin (which leads to death) and are therefore released from the law as well, because we no longer need it to keep us in line because now the Spirit does that.

7 What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” f 8 But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead. 9 Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. 10 I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. 11 For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. 12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.

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After all of that Paul doesn’t want us to think then that the law is evil or that what God gave us was wrong but he does want us to know that it, by itself, only points out the potential for sin and being shown the potential for sin our sinful nature wants to do it. So the law doesn’t make us sin, but our sinful nature uses the law, distorts it, and turns it to fuel our own selfish desires. That is why we cannot control sin by dealing with the actions you can only control the actions by killing the sinful nature and that is only done by getting more of Jesus.
The law is holy very other than us and God’s commands are good because they come from him. But when you are bound to your sin, you cannot help but be controlled by your own selfish desires - remember this is a life dominated by sin.

13 Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! Nevertheless, in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it used what is good to bring about my death, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.

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Again it isn’t the law that makes us sin, it isn’t temptation that MAKES us sin, it is sinful nature that makes us sin and according to Paul that sinful nature is our own selfish desires.
But the law actually helps us see our sin but when we are not given to Christ we are condemned but when we are given to Christ then we see the sin repent and are free. Otherwise we can save ourselves. But we can’t we need Christ to set us free.

14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. u For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?

This is the famous verse that I talk about, but we need to read this passage along with the following passages. Because if we set this aside on its own we actually don’t see Paul’s point.
This is the famous verse that I talk about, but we need to read this passage along with the following passages. Because if we set this aside on its own we actually don’t see Paul’s point.
Looking at just this passage it can be frustrating, thinking well there you go, I am always going to sin, Paul says it himself that he is always going to sin and there is nothing that we can do about it.
However we know that previously Paul has stated that we are no longer prisoners to our sin (slaves to sin) and he wouldn’t contradict himself. You can’t say that we are no longer slaves to sin and then say I am a slave to sin.
The answer comes with the idea of the diatribe - look at verse 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Keep in mind he is talking about the reality that he has just described.
And here is the answer -

25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

But isn’t being a slave to God’s law bad - no not here in this argument Paul is juxtaposing God’s law to sin’s law.
In Paul’s mind he is a slave to righteousness but in his sinful nature - which by the way he is continually crucifying through submitting to the work of the Spirit in his life - he is a slave to the law of sin.
But we can’t stop there we have to go on

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, n God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. p And so he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Because of that (being delivered through Jesus Christ) there is no condemnation because through Jesus we are not bound to live the way Paul just descried, we have been set free from the law of sin and the death that it produces.
So the law in and of itself was powerless to set us free, because the law by itself (not combined with the Spirit of God) was weekend because of our sinfulness.
But because Jesus conquered the flesh and thereby conquered our sinfulness by fulfilling the requirements of the law and dying for us he stopped our flesh’s impact on the law (for those who are in Christ)

5 Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. 7 The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.

So if you live submitted to your selfish desires (not submitting to Christ) you will always want to do what your flesh wants to do, but if you are submitted to Christ and the work of His Spirit in you then your will want to do what the Spirit wants you to do. But people who are still sinful in their nature cannot possibly please God or live righteously essentially they cannot be a good person because everything they do is tainted with sinfulfness.

9 You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. 10 But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.

But Paul is saying that isn’t us if we have submitted our lives to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. If we have done that His spirt indeed lives in us and we will respond in kind. Now even though these fleshly bodies are still subject to death (they will pass away) our spirit (our real self which is a new creation in Christ has been redeemed and that spirit which is from God will also then resurrect and give new life to even our mortal bodies.

12 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.

So because of that spirit and because of the resurrection we have an obligation to live according to that new nature and that new life and not according to our selfish desires. Paul states it plainly if you live according to the flesh - if you do not live as if you have been redeemed then you are not redeemed. Doing good doesn’t save you, but when you believe in Jesus the good you do demonstrates the life you have and if you don’t do the good then apparently you don’t have the life.
It is the proof of what God has done.
There is also another level to this that if we continue to live in the flesh we will walk away from the life the Christ gives us.

14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

So because of that new life that Christ brings we now have a different relationship with God. He is no longer judge and jury where we need to fear him and his justice rather He is our father who loves us and has given us an incredible inheiritence.
And Paul will spend a good portion of the next sections describing aspects of that relationship.
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