Romans 7

3 Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.

4 Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.

5 For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.

6 But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.

8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead.

9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died.

10 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.

11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.

12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

13 Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.

14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.

15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good.

17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.

19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.

20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.

22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being,

23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.

24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

It is one thing for a believer to understand that his identification with Jesus Christ means that he has died to sin (6:2) and to count or reckon that to be true (6:11). But it is something else for him to deal with the sin nature that remains within and its efforts to express itself in his thoughts and actions. This is the internal conflict in the area of sanctification that every believer faces.

Romans 7:1–6 ESV

1 Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? 2 For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. 3 Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress. 4 Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. 5 For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.

Verses 1–6 relate to 6:14, the intervening verses (6:15–23) being a digression raised by the question in 6:15.

Romans 6:14–23 (ESV)

14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

15 What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!

16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?

17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed,

18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.

19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.

22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The statement that a believer identified with Jesus Christ in His death is no longer “under Law” (6:14) should not have surprised Paul’s readers because they were men who know the Law. This statement should not be restricted to Jewish believers in the church at Rome because Gentiles also knew the principle that the Law has authority (kyrieuei, “rules as lord”; cf. 6:9; 14) over a man only as long as he lives. This is a self-evident truth, which Paul then illustrated by marriage. A married woman (lit., “the under-a-man woman”) is bound (perf. tense, “has been bound and stands bound”) to her husband as long as he is alive. But if her husband dies (in Gr., a third-class condition indicating a real possibility) she is released (perf. tense, “has been and stands discharged”) from the law of marriage (lit., “from the law of the man”). She is bound to him by marriage as her husband while he lives, and obviously his death frees her from that marriage.

Then Paul continued the illustration, pointing out that if a wife marries (lit., “if she comes to”) another man while her husband is still alive she is called (future tense, “shall be publicly known as”) an adulteress. Conversely, on the death of her husband she is free from that marriage (cf. 7:2). So she is not an adulteress if she marries (lit., “even though she comes to”) another man. A widow who marries again is not guilty of adultery.

7:4–6. In these verses Paul applied his illustration of marriage to a believer and the Law. He said, You also died (lit., “you were put to death,” as was true of Jesus) to the Law. Just as a believer “died to sin” (6:2) and so is “set free from sin” (6:18, 22), so he also died to the Law and is separated and set free from it (6:14; cf. Gal. 2:19). As a wife is no longer married to her husband when he dies, so a Christian is no longer under the Law. This separation was through the body of Christ, that is, because of Christ’s death on the cross.

As a result Christians belong to another, to Him who was raised from the dead (cf. Rom. 6:4, 9). This One of course is the Lord Jesus Christ. In a sense believers are united to Him as His bride (Eph. 5:25). God’s purpose in all this is in order that we might bear fruit to God (cf. Rom. 6:22; Gal. 5:22–23; Phil. 1:11). Only a person who is spiritually alive can bear spiritual fruit, that is, holy living (cf. John 15:4–5). A person who is married to Christ can bear spiritual progeny. Paul moved from the second person plural (you) to the first person plural (we), including himself along with his readers.

The apostle continued, For when we were controlled by the sinful nature (lit., “For when we were in the flesh”; sarx often means sin nature; cf. Rom. 7:18, 25) the sinful passions aroused by the Law were at work in our bodies. This describes a believer before he was saved (cf. 6:19). The Law by its prohibitions aroused sinful passions, as explained in 7:7–13. In that sense unsaved Gentiles were “under” the Law. Consequently their progeny was not “fruit to God” (v. 4) but fruit for death. Sin, Paul repeatedly affirmed, leads to death (5:15, 17, 21; 6:16, 21, 23; 7:10–11, 13; 8:2, 6, 10, 13).

But now, being identified with Christ, believers are dead to the Law. Like a widow released from marital obligations, so believers are released from the Law and its arousal to sin. The purpose of this release “from the Law” is so that they may serve (a better rendering is “be slaves”; cf. “slave[s]” in 6:6, 16 [thrice], 17–18, 20, 22) in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code. The word “Spirit” may be “spirit” (lowercase “s”) to contrast with the written document, the Law. The thought then is that believers do not live by the “oldness” of the Law but by the “newness” of a regenerated spirit. Or “Spirit” may refer to the Holy Spirit, the Source of new life. (Cf. comments on “the Spirit” and “the letter,” 2 Cor. 3:6.)

The Law and Sin

Romans 7:7–13 ESV

7 What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. 9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. 10 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. 13 Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.

The involvement of the Mosaic Law in the discussion of a believer’s identification with Christ and death to sin raises a question about the Law’s relationship to sin.

7:7–8. Is the Law sin? Paul’s response again was a vehement denial. Certainly not! (mē genoito; cf. comments on 3:4) The Law arouses sin (7:5) but that does not mean the Law itself is sin. In fact, Paul said later, the Law is holy (v. 12) and spiritual (v. 14). Paul went on to explain that the Law made sin known (cf. 3:19–20). Then to be specific, he mentioned coveting. The Law’s prohibition, Do not covet (Ex. 20:17; Deut. 5:21), makes people want to covet all the more. Paul knew sin as a principle and specifically, covetousness as an expression of it, and that knowledge came through the Law. Paul described how it worked. The indwelling principle of sin, seizing the opportunity (lit., “taking a start point” [aphormēn, a base for military operations or for an expedition]) afforded by the commandment (cf. Rom. 7:11), produced in me every kind of covetous desire. The Law is not the cause of the act of sin; the principle or nature of sin within an individual is. But the Law’s specific commandments stimulate the sin principle into acts that violate the commandments and give those acts the character of transgression (4:15; cf. 3:20; 5:13b, 20a). As Paul concluded, Apart from Law, sin is dead. This does not mean that sin has no existence without the Law (cf. 5:13), but that without the Law sin is less active, for the Law arouses “sinful passions” (7:5).

It is significant that, beginning with verse 7 and continuing through this chapter, the Apostle Paul turned to the first person singular, presenting his personal experience. Up to this point he had used the third person, the second person, and even the first person plural. But now he described his own experience, allowing the Holy Spirit to apply the truth to his readers.

7:9–12. Some generalize the words, Once I was alive apart from Law, to refer to the experience of mankind in the period between the Fall and the giving of the Mosaic Law. But there is no basis for this. Evidently the apostle was speaking of his personal experience as a child and perhaps even a youth prior to his awareness and understanding of the full impact of God’s commandments. The clause, but when the commandment came, does not speak of the giving of the Mosaic Law, but the dawning of the significance of the commandment (“Do not covet”) on Paul’s mind and heart before his conversion. The result was that the principle of sin within made its presence and power known (it sprang to life) in his violations of the commandment. As a result Paul died spiritually (cf. 6:23a) under the sentence of judgment by the Law he had broken. The commandment not to covet was given to help people see how to live, but it actually produced death because of the sin in human hearts.

Repeating from 7:8 his description of sin’s relationship to the commandment, Paul declared that sin … deceived me. Apart from the Law, the principle of sin was dormant and inactive; but using the commandments of the Law, it demonstrated its controlling force over one’s actions. So this sin deceived him (exēpatēsen, “led [him] astray”; cf. 2 Cor. 11:3; 1 Tim. 2:14) and put him to death (lit., “killed” him), not physically but spiritually. Sin is like a personal enemy within (cf. Gen. 4:7). The Law, instead of being sin (Rom. 7:7), is holy, and the commandment not to covet (which, as a part of the Law, represents the whole) is holy, righteous, and good.

7:13. Paul then considered still another possible misunderstanding in his effort to clarify the relationship of sin and the Law. Taking the last-mentioned quality of the commandment (“good”), he asked, Did that which is good, then, become death to me? Once again his immediate response was a vehement denial (By no means! mē genoito; cf. comments on 3:4), followed by an explanation. The principle of sin, not the Law, becomes death to an individual (5:12). But sin uses the commandment, the good thing, as an agent or instrument to keep on producing death in a person and thereby sin is seen as utterly (lit., “exceedingly”) sinful. The internal principle or nature of sin uses the specific commandments of the Law of God—in part and in the whole; a “holy, righteous, and good” thing in itself—to manifest its true nature as opposed to God and to demonstrate its power within individuals.

The Believer and Sin

Romans 7:14–25 ESV

14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

7:14. Understanding the conflict in personal sanctification involves seeing the relationship between a believer and his indwelling sin. In verse 14 Paul made a transition from the previous subject (vv. 7–13) to the next one. The statement, The Law is spiritual (cf. v. 12), is not only the conclusion of Paul’s previous argument but also an accepted fact among people. The Law comes from God who is Spirit (John 4:24) and expresses God’s will for human living. Paul, using himself as the example, said the problem is that I am unspiritual (sarkinos, “fleshy, made of flesh”). In addition he was sold as a slave (perf. tense, “had been sold and remained in that state”) to sin (lit. “under the sin”; cf. “under sin” in Rom. 3:9).

In relating his personal experience in 7:14–25 Paul consistently used the present tense whereas he had used the imperfect and aorist tenses. Obviously he was describing his present conflict as a Christian with indwelling sin and its continuing efforts to control his daily life. The clause, “sold under sin” (KJV), describes an unregenerate person; but sin also resides in a believer, who is still subject to sin’s penalty of physical death. As a result, indwelling sin continues to seek to claim what it considers its property even after one has become a Christian.

7:15–17. At the start Paul confessed, I do not understand what I do (lit., “what I am producing I do not know”). He was like a little boy whose honest answer to why he did something wrong is, “I don’t know.” A person’s actions are at the dictate of someone or something besides himself that he really does not understand and cannot explain. Paul continued to present this quandary he faced: For what I want to do I do not do (lit., “For what I am wishing, that I am not doing,” prassō) and conversely, What I hate I do (lit., “What I am hating that I am doing,” poiō). No difference of emphasis can be put in this verse on the two Greek verbs translated “do” (even though such difference is significant elsewhere), because the occurrence of those two verbs is reversed in verse 19. This statement can be made by an unregenerate person in his highest moral and ethical moments, but it can also be said by a regenerate person. There is no reason to conclude that Paul was not describing his experience as a believer at that time. Paul said, I agree that the Law is good. Here the Greek word for “good” is kalos, “beautiful, noble, excellent,” whereas in verse 12 it is agathē, “useful, upright.” Because of this evidence, Paul concluded, It is no longer I myself who do it (lit., “no longer am I myself producing it”; cf. v. 15) but it is sin living in me (lit., “but the dwelling-in-me sin”). This does not mean Paul was avoiding personal responsibility for his actions; he was speaking of the conflict between his desires and the sin within him.

7:18–20. Paul’s experience convinced him that “the Law is good” (v. 16). But he also concluded, I know that nothing good lives in me. Then he hastened to explain that by the phrase “in me” he meant in my sinful nature (sarki, “flesh”; cf. vv. 5, 25). This is not literal physical or material flesh, but the principle of sin that expresses itself through one’s mind and body.

As support for this conclusion Paul explained, For I have the desire to do what is good (“For to wish is present with me” [or “is lying beside me”]), but I cannot carry it out (lit., “but to produce the good is not”). Paul then repeated in slightly different words the statement of verse 15b, and then in verse 20 he repeated in effect his statement in verse 17. Paul recognized that even as a believer he had an indwelling principle of sin that once owned him as a slave and that still expressed itself through him to do things he did not want to do and not to do things he desired to do. This is a problem common to all believers.

7:21–23. Paul was a person who tried to learn from his experiences, so now he concluded, I find this law at work. This is not the Mosaic Law, of course, but a principle drawn from experience. Also in 8:2 “law” (nomos) means principle. This law or principle is the reality of ever-present evil in an individual whenever he wants to do good. Paul held fast to the fact that, as he said, In my inner being I delight in God’s Law (cf. 7:25). “In my inner being” is literally, “according to the inner man.” (The “inner man” is used in the Gr. NT also in 2 Cor. 4:16 and Eph. 3:16.) Delight in God’s Law was the psalmist’s response, stated repeatedly in Psalm 119 (e.g., vv. 16, 24, 47; cf. Ps. 1:2). Because of regeneration, a believer has a new nature or capacity for loving spiritual truths. Yet, recognizing the facts of experience, Paul said he saw another law or principle at work within him. This is the principle of sin. Paul called it “sin living in me” (Rom. 7:17, 20), “evil” right there with me (v. 21), and “the sinful nature” (vv. 5, 18, 25).

This principle is continually doing two things: waging war against the law of the believer’s mind and making him a prisoner of the law of sin at work within his members. The indwelling principle of sin is constantly mounting a military campaign against the new nature, trying to gain victory and control (cf. “slave” in vv. 14, 25 and “slaves” in 6:17, 19–20), of a believer and his actions. The new nature is called “the law” of the “mind” (noos; cf. 7:25) because it has the capacity for perceiving and making moral judgments. Further, despite a believer’s identification with Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection and his efforts to have Christ-honoring attitudes and actions, he cannot in his own power resist his indwelling sin nature. In and of himself he repeatedly experiences defeat and frustration.

7:24–25. Paul expressed that frustration in his exclamation, What a wretched man I am! Significantly Paul’s description of himself is part of John’s picture of the church of Laodicea—“wretched” (Rev. 3:17). The apostle then asked, Who will rescue me from this body of death? Paul recognized that as long as he was in his mortal body he would face the conflict with the indwelling sin principle and would have defeat in his own strength. Here he wrote of the “body of death”; in Romans 6:6 he wrote of the “body of sin.” These mean that sin works through one’s human body (cf. 6:6, 12–13, 19; 7:5, 23), bringing death (6:16, 21, 23; 7:10–11, 13; 8:10). Paul’s answer to this question was triumphant and immediate: Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! Paul in this answer was looking to the final triumph of Jesus Christ for His people. Just as believers are identified with Him in His death and resurrection by faith here and now, so they will join their resurrected and exalted Lord for all eternity in new bodies, free forever from the presence of sin (8:23; Phil. 3:20–21). Meanwhile, in this life, Paul concluded, I myself in my mind (noi; cf. noos in Rom. 7:23) am a slave (lit., “am serving as a slave”) to God’s Law, but in the sinful nature (sarki, “flesh”; cf. vv. 5, 18, where sarki, from sarx, is also trans. “sinful nature”) a slave to the law of sin (cf. “slave to sin,” v. 14). While awaiting freedom from the presence of sin, believers still face conflicts between their regenerated minds (or new natures or capacities) and their sin natures or capacities.

Witmer, John A. “Romans.” The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures. Ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck. Vol. 2. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985. 467–469. Print.

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