Romans 7

The following material is adopted from John MacArthur’s commentary on Romans and his Study guide. Additional material taken from sources listed at the end

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— Prayers ( Blue )

— Promises ( Green )

— Warnings ( Red )

— Commands ( Purple )

Death to the Law ( 7:1-6 )

— King David was inspired to pen the definitive declaration of the purpose, eminence and grandeur of the law ( Ps 19:7-10 )

— The last command give by God in the OT is “Remember the law of Moses My servant, even the statutes and ordinances which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel.” (Mal 4:4 )

— By the time of Christ, many Jews considered obedience to God’s law to be not only the demonstration of salvation’s godliness that God intended but also the means of salvation, which God never intended

— The opposite was also true

— As in every age, many people were looking for ways to be religious with being hampered by a lot of restrictions

— For them, the idea of salvation by grace through faith alone apart from the law seemed like the perfect way to have their cake and eat it too

— Knowing that his readers, especially Jews believers, would still have a great many questions about the law in relation to their faith in Christ, Paul continues to explain that critical relationship

The Axiom

( Rom 7:1 ) “Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives?”

— The primary point here is any Law

— In the Greek this is an anarthrous construction (the absence of a definite article before a noun)

— Paul is saying that any law - whether Roman, Greek, or even God-given biblical law - has jurisdiction over a person on as long as he lives

The Analogy

( Rom 7:2-3 ) “For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man.”

— Paul is making a simple point: no law has jurisdiction over a person after he has died

— The passage has absolutely nothing to say about divorce and cannot legitimately be used as an argument from silence to teach that divorce is never justified for a Christian and, consequently, that only the death of a spouse gives the right to remarry

— Such a discussion requires treatment of other passages such as Matt 5:31-32; 19:3-12; and 1 Cor 7:10-15

The Application

( Rom 7:4-5 ) “Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death.”

— The verb is passive, indicating that believers do not naturally die or put themselves to death but have been made to die

— The law was never a means of salvation ( 3:20 )

— The Law has power only to condemn men to death for their sin ( 6:23), but no power to redeem them from it

R.C. Sproul

Is Paul talking about the ceremonial law or is he talking about the Law of Moses given at Sinai? Or is he talking about law in an even broader sense? I am persuaded that he is talking about the whole of God’s moral law, not just that given by Moses or that found in the ceremonies of the Old Testament. Paul goes all the way back to creation. In Romans 5 Paul labored the point that death reigned from Adam to Moses to prove that apart from the law there is no sin, and apart form the sin there is no death.

Since death entered into the world with Adam and Eve, and people after Adam and Eve all died before the Law of Moses was given, sin was in the world before the law. The only way sin could be in the world before the Law of Moses is if another law preceded the Law of Moses, namely, the moral law of God, which He reveals in nature and in our conscience.

— The underlying emphasis of the book of Romans is that salvation produces total transformation

— Through Jesus’ death and resurrection, God “made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” ( 2 Cor 5:21 )

— The purpose of our being joined to Christ is that we might bear fruit for God

Godly fruit exists basically in two dimensions: attitude and action. The fruit of the Holy Spirit in a believer’s life is manifested internally in his attitude of “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” ( Gal 5:22-23 ). As far as godly actions are concerned, Jesus said, “I am the vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it, that it may bear more fruit” ( Jn 15:1-2 ). The writer of Hebrews speaks of “the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name” ( Heb 13:15 ), and Paul prayed that Philippian believers would be prepared for the day of Christ by being “filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God” ( Phil 1:11 )

( 7:5 ) Four things that characterize our old livers as unbelievers

— In verse 5 Paul reminds us of four things that characterized our old lives as unbelievers

— First, they were of the flesh

— Flesh is also used in a moral and ethical sense, but always with an evil connotation

— Paul repeatedly uses it in that way in Romans 8, Galatians 5, and Ephesians 2

— In every instance it refers to man’s unredeemed humanness

— A person who still lives in the realm of the flesh cannot belong to Christ ( cf. Rom 8:9 )

— Of course we can fall back into sin and although we can never again be in the flesh, the flesh can manifest itself in the believer

— Second, the unbeliever is characterized by sinful passions

— These are impulses to think and do evil

— Third, the believer’s old life was characterized by his sinful passions continually being aroused by the law

— The Law arouses evil in the unsaved person because his naturally rebellious nature make him want to the very things he learns are forbidden

— Fourth, the believer’s old life was characterized by the unceasing work of his sinful passions in the members of his body to bear fruit for death

— The whole person is a victim of sinful passions

— We were energized to produce fruit of ultimate and eternal divine judgment in death

The Affirmation

( Rom 7:6 ) “But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.”

— Paul’s point is not simply that the redeemed person is able to do what is right but that he will do what is right

— Doulos, the common NT word for servant

— This verb does not describe the voluntary service of a hired worker, who is able to refuse an order and look for another employer if he so desires

— Paul elevates this word by using it in its Hebrew sense to describe a bondservant who willingly commits himself to serve a master he loves and respects (Ex. 21:5, 6; Gal. 1:10; Titus 1:1; cf. Gen. 26:24; Num. 12:7; 2 Sam. 7:5; Is. 53:11

Sin and the Law ( 7:7-13 )

— Paul has established that the law cannot save ( Rom 3-5 ), that it cannot sanctify ( Rom 6 ), and that it can no longer condemn a believer ( 7:1-6 )

— Now he establishes that the law can convict both unbelievers and believers of sin ( 7:7-13 )

— And, that it can be fulfilled by believers in the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit ( 8:1-4 )

Q: Why, one wonders, did God give His chosen people a law that was impossible for them to keep?

— His purpose was not only to reveal the standard of righteousness by which the saved are to live but also to show them the impossibility of living it without His power

— And to show us the depth of our sinfulness when honestly measured against the law

— The law was not given to show men how good they could be but how good they could not be

— Paul told the Galatians, “Now that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident” ( Gal 3:11a )

— To substantiate that truth, Paul quoted another OT passage that declared that “the righteous man shall live by faith” ( v 11b ; cf. Hab 2:4 )

The Law reveals Sin

( Rom 7:7b ) “What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “You shall not covet.””

— The real battle with sin is internal, in the heart and mind

— Counseling, therapy and even strong willpower often can modify a person’s behavior

— People may stop drinking by following Alcoholics Anonymous or stop lying and cheating with psychotherapy

— But only the transforming power of the Holy Spirit can take a sinful hear and make it pure and acceptable to God

— The law’s part in that transformation is to make a person aware of his sin and his need for divine forgiveness and redemption

— A gospel message that doesn’t have a law component is not good news - good news from what?

The Law arouses Sin

( Rom 7:8 ) “But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead.”

In his rich allegory Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan paints a vivid word picture of sin’s arousal by the law. A large, dust covered room in Interpreter’s house symbolizes the human heart. When a man with a broom, representing God’s law, begins to sweep, the dust swirls up and all but suffocates Christian. That is what the law does to sin. It so agitates sin that it becomes stifling. And just as a broom cannot clean a room of dust but only stir it up, so the law cannot cleanse the heart of sin but only make the sin more evident and unpleasant.

— The axiom of Paul’s argument here is that apart from the Law sin is dead

— It is not that sin has no existence apart from the law, because that is obviously not true

— Sin entered the world long before the law was revealed through Adam ( Rom 5:12 )

— Paul’s point here is that sin is dead in the sense that it is somewhat dormant and fully active

— It does not overwhelm the sinner as it does when the Law becomes known

R.C. Sproul

The little phrase “evil desire” [produced in me coveting of every king] is translated in a variety of ways. The Latin text uses the word from the English term concupiscence comes. This word was involved in one of the great disputes between the Reformers of the sixteenth century and the Roman Catholic Church. Rome said that man was created with concupiscence, not with evil. They defined concupiscence as being of sin; it inclines to sin, but it is not sin. The Reformers replied that an evil desire that gives birth to evil action already is sin. Our sinful deeds flow out of our sinful desires, so we cannot excuse those evil desires as being less than sin. The Greek word used here is epathumia,which is the word for “passion” or “desire” with a prefix that intensifies it. Our specific sins make plain the root of those sins, which is our fallen nature.

What does that five-dollar word mean?

con·cu·pis·cence /känˈkyo͞opəs(ə)ns,ˌkäNGˈkyo͞opəs(ə)ns/ strong sexual desire; lust. "St. Anthony's battle with concupiscence"

The Law ruins the Sinner

( Rom 7:9-11 ) “I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died; and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me; for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.”

— The law not only reveals and arouses sin but also ruins and destroys the sinner

— When Paul fully understood the law he says, I died

— That is, for the first time, he realized he was spiritually dead

— A person who is deceived into thinking he is acceptable to God because of his won merit and good works will see no need for salvation and no reason for trusting in Christ

R.C. Sproul

— If we think back to our pre-Christian days, were we overburdened by a sense of sin and guilt?

— Not until the Holy Spirit brought His conviction on us, quickened our consciences, and made us alive to the law did we feel for the first time the weight of our guilt

The Law reflects the sinfulness of Sin

( Rom 7:12-13 ) “So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful.”

— The law itself is good; it is the breaking of it that is evil

— How much more is God’s law good, and how much more evil is the breaking of it.

R.C. Sproul

Luther said that the basic function of the law is to lead us to Christ, whereas Calvin held to what became famously known as his threefold function of the law. The first function of the law is to reveal the character of God. That is what we have to understand first: whose law it is. The moral law is not simply a list of abstract duties, a list of do’s and don’ts. The law first reveals the lawgiver. In the final analysis laws are grounded in the nature of things; the law is grounded in the character of God. It flows from His very being. As the Author of human life and the Creator of our souls, God has every right to impose upon us whatever obligations He wants.

There are two other functions or uses of the law. The law serves as a restraint upon our sin. We live in a lawless culture, and yet some sociologists are saying we are an over-governed culture. Every Congress adds hundreds of new laws - new ways to make us guilty before the state and to get into trouble. We have to have law enforcement to keep a civil society because every day people violate the law and other people… The worst of all possible societies are those marked by anarchy, because law, as much as we hate it, still exercises some restraint upon us. As sinful as we are, we would be even more sinful if the restraints were removed.

Finally, the third use of the law, which in Latin is called the tertius usus of the law, is one of the most important insights of Swiss theology. Even though we are freed from the burden and destruction of the law, it continues to reveal to us what is pleasing to God.

Q: Who do you think Paul is describing in this passage?

The Believer and indwelling Sin

( Rom 7:14-25 ) “For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.

— This passage is obviously a poignant account of a person’s inner conflict with himself, one part of him pulling one direction and another part pulling the opposite

— The conflict is real and it is intense

— it is obviously important to determine which sort of person Paul is talking about

— Those who believe Paul is speaking about an unbeliever point out that he describes the person as being “of flesh, sold into bondage” ( v.14 ), as having nothing good dwelling in him (v. 18), and as a ‘wretched man” trapped in a “body of …death” (v.24)

— Those who contend that Paul is speaking about a believer in chapter 7 point out that this person desires to obey God’s law and hates doing what is evil ( vv. 1 5 19, 21 )

— That he is humble before God, realizing that nothing good dwells in his humanness (v.18)

— He gives thanks to Jesus Christ as his Lord and serves Him with his mind (v.25)

— The apostle has already established that none of those things characterize the unsaved ( 1:18-21 )

— It also seems that Paul is speaking about himself

— Only a Christian at the height of spiritual maturity would either experience or be concerned about such deep struggles of the heart, mind, and conscience.

The Condition

( Rom 7:14 ) “For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.”

— It is important to note that apostle does not say he is still in the flesh but that he is still of it

—He has already made the point that believers are no longer “in the flesh” ( 7:5; cf. 8:8 )

— We are no longer bound and enslaved to its sinfulness

— The idea is that, although believers are not still in the flesh, the flesh is in them

The phrase sold into bondage to sin has caused many interpreters to miss Paul’s point and to take those words as evidence the person being talked about is not a Christian. But Paul uses a similar phrase in verse 23, where he makes clear that only his members, that is, his fleshly body, is “a prisoner of the law of sin.” That lingering part of his unredeemed humanness is still sinful and consequently makes warfare against the new and redeemed part of him, which is no longer sin’s prison and now its avowed enemy.

Paul’s strong words about his condition do not indicate he was only partially saved at the time but rather emphasize that sin can continue to have dreadful power in a Christian’s life and is not to be trifled with. The believer’s battle with sin is strenuous and life-long. And as Paul also points out later in this chapter, even a Christian can truthfully say, “ know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh” ( Rom 7:18 ). In himself, that is, in his remaining fleshly being, a Christian is no more holy or sinless than he was before salvation.

Probably many years after he became a believer, David prayed, “Be gracious to me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness; according to the greatness of Thy compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me” ( Ps. 51:1-3 ). The rendering in the New International Version of verse 5 of that psalm gives helpful insight: “Surely I have been a sinner from birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.” David well understood the truth the apostle John would later proclaim to believers: “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.” ( 1 John 1:8-10 ).

The Proof

( Rom 7:15 ) “For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.”

— Paul’s proof that sin still indwelt him was in the reality that that which I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do

— Paul found himself doing things he did not approve of

R.C. Sproul

— We are a people of mixed desires, which is why life does not really become complicated until we are born again

— Before we were born again we had only one principle — the flesh

— We walked willingly and happily submitting to the temptations of Satan

— Once the Holy Spirit has raised us from spiritual death, our lives become a battle between two jockeys, to use Augustine’s analogy

The Source

( Rom 7:16-17 ) “But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.”

— Every true Christian has in his heart a sense of the moral excellence of God’s Law

— What then, is the problem? What is the source of our failure to live up to God’s standards and our own inner desires?

— Now, it is no longer I who is the one doing it, Paul explains, but sin which indwells me

— Paul is certainly not teaching that a Christian has two natures or two personalities

— There is just one saved person, just as previously there was one lost person

The Second Lament

( Rom 7:18-20 ) “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.”

— This second lament follows the same pattern as the first: the condition, the proof, and the source

The Condition

( Rom 7:18a ) “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.”

— As seen in verse 15, Paul is not saying that he was totally incapable of doing anything good and acceptable

— He is saying that he was incapable of completely fulfilling the requirements of God’s holy law (cf. Phil 3:12-14 )

The Proof

( Rom 7:18b-19 ) for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.

— The other side of the predicament, Paul says, is that I practice the very evil that I do not want

R.C. Sproul

All choices have a cause, and the antecedent cause for every choice we make is what Edwards called inclination or disposition. He set forth the principle that not only do we choose according to our desires, but we must choose according to our desires, and we always choose according to our strongest desire at the moment of choice. If we can get hold of this principle, it would help us avoid a multitude of serious errors about how the Christian faith works. We always choose according to the strongest inclination we have at any given moment.

Once we understand that, we will realize that never in our lives have we chosen to do something that we did not want to do. This is the ugly power of sin. We choose to sin in any particular situation because we want to. The Devil does not make us do it; we cannot make that plea on judgment day. Every sin we commit proceeds from our internal desire.

The Source

( Rom 7:20 ) But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.

—Paul repeats what he said earlier in verses 16-17

— Before salvation it was the inner I who sinned and agreed with the sin

— An unsaved person cannot truthfully say he is not doing it

— He has not moral or spiritual “no longers”

The Third Lament ( Rom 7:21-23 )

— The third lament follows the same order as the first two

The Condition

( Rom 7:21 ) I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good

— The Lord warned Cain when he became angry that Abel’s sacrifice was acceptable but his was not

— “Sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it” ( Gen 4:7 )

— Sin continues to crouch at the door, even for believers

The Proof

( Rom 7:22-23a ) For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind

— Paul’s inner man, the deepest recesses of his redeemed person, the bottom of his heart, hungers and thirsts for God’s righteousness ( cf. Matt 5:6 )

— He prayed that Christians in Ephesus would “be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man” ( Eph 3:16 )

R.C. Sproul

— If there is any question about whether Paul is talking about his pre-conversion state or his ongoing struggle after his regeneration, this one text should put that to rest forever, because no unregenerate person delights in the law of God in the inward person ( cf. Ps 1 )

The Source

( Rom 7:23b ) and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members

— The source of sin is no longer the inner man

— Paul found himself to be a prison of the law of sin, the principle that evil was still in his old self ( 7:21; Eph 4:22 )

R.C Sproul

Plato put forth that anything physical is at best an imperfect copy of the ultimate idea. His view of the body is quite different from the biblical view, which puts forth salvation of the body. The Greeks believed in salvation from the body until that belief was influenced by oriental mysticism. The physical came to be seen as inherently imperfect or evil. Plato’s view heavily penetrated the thinking of the early Christian father, who began to teach that the way to salvation is through denying the body all physical pleasures. Food, drink, sex — anything that involved the body — was considered inherently evil, and the method of gaining sanctification was subduing bodily appetites.

We know that physical appetites can be the occasion for human sin but not because the physical is inherently evil. It was God who made our bodies, and when He made them He pronounced His benediction upon them, calling them good. It was God who made marriage and the means of sexual procreation, which also received His benediction, but from the days of the early church down through the centuries the idea persisted that the kingdom of God is in eating and drinking; it has to do with physical appetites. The misuse of physical appetites is an occasion for sin, but we radically oversimplify when we claim that the struggle Paul is talking about here is the struggle between the mind and the body. It is between the sarx and the pneuma, the flesh and the spirit. It is betwen the old man and the new man, between fallen, corrupt nature and the renewed inner person.

The Final Lament ( 7:24-25 )

( Rom 7:24-25 ) “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.”

— The Scottish commentator Robert Haldane wisely observed that men perceive themselves to be sinners in direct proportion as they have previously discovered the holiness of God and His law

— set…free has the basic idea of rescuing from danger and was used of a soldier going to a wounded comrade on the battlefield and carrying him to safety

— Paul longed for the day when he would be rescued from the last vestige of his old, sinful, unredeemed flesh

Additional Resources

MacArthur, Romans. Romans 1-8. Moody Press, 1987.

MacArthur, Romans. Romans 9-16. Moody Press, 1991.

MacArthur, John. New Testament Commentary. Moody, 1985.

William Hendriksen. Exposition of Paul's Epistle to the Romans. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1995.

Sproul, R.C. Romans: The Righteous Shall Live by Faith. Romans an expositional commentary. Ligonier Ministries. 2019.