Romans 7.1-The Law Has Jurisdiction Over A Person As Long As They Live
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday August 14, 2008
Romans: Romans 7:1-The Law Has Jurisdiction Over A Person As Long As They Live
Lesson # 209
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 7:1.
Tuesday evening we presented an overview of Romans chapter seven.
Last evening we began to note Romans 7:1-6, in which the apostle Paul uses the analogy of marriage and argues that the Christian’s bondage to the Law has been severed because they have died with Christ and have been freed from the Law and placed in union with Christ.
Therefore, the Christian is no longer obligated to keep the Law because of his union with Christ.
This evening we will study Romans 7:1, in which Paul poses a rhetorical to the Jewish Christians in Rome and asks if they are ignorant of the fact that the Mosaic Law has jurisdiction over a person as along as he lives.
We pointed out last evening that Paul is addressing the Jewish Christians in Rome specifically in this passage, which is indicated in his parenthetical statement “I am speaking to those who know the Law.”
Romans 7:1-6, “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? 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. 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. 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.”
Let’s look at in detail verse one.
Romans 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?”
“Or” is the “disjunctive” conjunction, that is also called a “particle of separation” e (h&) (ay), which introduces a rhetorical question that presents a “related alternative” to Paul’s statements in Romans 6:14-23.
In Romans 6:14-23, Paul employs the analogy of slavery to teach his readers that the Christian does not have a license to sin because he is no longer under the Law but under grace but rather it frees him and obligates him to obey God.
His statements in Romans 6:15-23 are in response to any possible false inference that might be concluded from his statement in Romans 6:14 that the Christian is no longer under the Law but under grace.
Now, in Romans 7:1-6, he employs the analogy of marriage in order to teach his readers a related analogy that teaches the same truth that the Christian is no longer under the authority of the Law but under grace.
In this paragraph, he teaches that just as a woman is no longer under her husband’s authority when he dies so the Christian is no longer under the authority of the Law since he died to the Law.
He died to the Law when he was identified with Christ in His physical death through the baptism of the Spirit the moment he was declared justified by God through faith in Jesus Christ as his Savior.
Therefore, in Romans 7:1, the conjunction e is introducing a paragraph that extends to Romans 7:6.
This paragraph is not only related to Paul’s statement in Romans 6:14 but also to the slavery analogy in Romans 6:15-23 that follows.
Thus, Romans 7:1-6 continues Paul’s thought, which began in Romans 6:14b and continued through Romans 6:15-23.
Romans 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?”
“Do you not know” is the second person plural present active indicative form of the verb agnoeo (a)gnoevw) (ag-no-eh-o), which means, “to be ignorant” and is used to pose a rhetorical question of Paul’s Jewish Christian readers regarding the fact that the Mosaic Law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives.
The verb agnoeo in this rhetorical question indicates quite clearly that these Jewish Roman Christians were familiar with this truth about the Law that it has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives but no longer does once the person dies.
The second person plural form of the verb is indicating that Paul is addressing this question to a particular group of Christians, namely, those Jewish Christians that might contend that the Law was necessary to restrain sin and that grace gives one a license to sin.
That Paul is speaking to the Jewish Christians is clearly indicated by his qualifying statement, “I am speaking to those who know the Law.”
“Brethren” is the vocative masculine plural form of the noun adelphos (a)delfov$), which refers specifically to the Jewish Christians in Rome since Paul qualifies that he is addressing those individuals who were familiar with the Mosaic Law.
Romans 7:1, “Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives?”
The parenthetical statement “For I am speaking to those who know the Law” specifies the Jewish Christians in Rome as those Paul is now addressing who were familiar with the Mosaic Law through instruction.
“The Law” is the noun nomos (novmo$) (nom-os), which appears twice in Romans 7:1 and refers each time to the Mosaic Law.
“Has jurisdiction” is the verb kurieuo (kurieuvw) (ko-ree-yoo-o), which means, “to have jurisdiction” over a person.
“A man” is the noun anthropos (a*nqrwpo$) (anth-ro-pos), which is used in a generic sense for a human being without reference to sex or racial background and is equivalent to “a person.”
“As long as” is composed of the preposition epi (e)piv) (ep-ee) and the accusative masculine singular form of the relative pronoun hosos (o%so$), which is followed by the accusative masculine singular form of the noun chronos (xrovno$) (khron-os).
The preposition epi is employed with the accusative form of the relative pronoun hosos and the noun chronos as a marker of an extent of time within a unit.
It indicates that a Jew is under the jurisdiction of the Mosaic Law “during” the course of his entire lifetime.
The relative pronoun hosos refers to an extent of time of the same length as another extent or unit of time and means, “as long as.”
It denotes that a Jew is under the jurisdiction of the Mosaic Law “as long as” he lives or during the course of his entire lifetime.
In Romans 7:1, the noun chronos refers to an indefinite extent of time or duration of time.
Therefore, this prepositional phrase denotes that the Mosaic Law has jurisdiction over the Jew “during the entire extent of time” that he lives in his body that is contaminated by the indwelling old Adamic sin nature.
Romans 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?”
“He lives” is the verb zao (zavw) (dzah-o), which means, “to live” and is used of the soul existing in the human body that is contaminated by the indwelling presence of the old Adamic sin nature.
Therefore, we can see in Romans 7:1 that Paul poses a rhetorical to the Jewish Christians in Rome and asks if they are ignorant of the fact that the Mosaic Law has jurisdiction over a person as along as he lives.
Then, in Romans 7:2-3, he employs the marriage analogy by teaching that according to the Mosaic Law, a woman is not bound legally to her husband if he dies.
Then, in Romans 7:4-6, he makes an application for his readers by stating that in the same way the Christian is freed from the Law and is thus no longer under its authority since He died with Christ and has been placed in union with Him.