An Illustration from Marriage
1 Since I am speaking to those who know the law, brothers and sisters, p don’t you know that the law rules over someone as long as he lives? 2 For example, a married woman is legally bound to her husband while he lives. q But if her husband dies, she is released from the law regarding the husband. 3 So then, if she is married to another man while her husband is living, she will be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law. Then, if she is married to another man, she is not an adulteress.
4 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you also were put to death r in relation to the law s through the body of Christ t so that you may belong to another. You belong to him who was raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God. 5 For when we were in the flesh, u the sinful passions aroused through the law were working in us ,v to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we have been released from the law, since we have died to what held us, so that we may serve in the newness of the Spirit w and not in the old letter of the law.
Sin’s Use of the Law
7 What should we say then? x Is the law sin? Absolutely not! y On the contrary, I would not have known sin if it were not for the law. z For example, I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, Do not covet. ,a 8 And sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, b produced in me coveting of every kind. For apart from the law sin is dead. c 9 Once I was alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life again 10 and I died. The commandment that was meant for life d resulted in death for me. 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me, e and through it killed me. 12 So then, the law is holy, f and the commandment is holy and just and good. 13 Therefore, did what is good become death to me? Absolutely not! g On the contrary, sin, in order to be recognized as sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment, sin might become sinful beyond measure.
The Problem of Sin in Us
14 For we know that the law is spiritual, h but I am of the flesh, sold i as a slave to sin. ,j 15 For I do not understand what I am doing, k because I do not practice what I want to do, l but I do what I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want to do, I agree with the law that it is good. 17 So now I am no longer the one doing it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. m For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it. 19 For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, I am no longer the one that does it, but it is the sin that lives in me. 21 So I discover this law: ,n When I want to do what is good, evil is present with me. 22 For in my inner self I delight in God’s law, o 23 but I see a different law in the parts of my body, ,p waging war against the law of my mind and taking me prisoner to the law of sin in the parts of my body. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? q 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! r So then, with my mind I myself am serving the law of God, but with my flesh, the law of sin.
7:1–3. Paul explains in 7:1–8:17 the change in ownership of human beings, who are enslaved either by sin or by Jesus Christ. After a succinct introduction (7:1–6) he explains that, before their conversion, believers were ruled by sin and death (7:7–25). As the result of their being united with Christ, they are ruled by the Spirit of life, who helps them to live according to the will of God (8:1–17). [Law and Grace in Paul’s Letters]
7:4. Paul concludes from the legal example that the law has authority over a person only as long as the person lives and that believers, who are united with Jesus’s death, are freed from the power of the law. Believers in Christ no longer belong to the law, and thus they are free to belong to someone else—God. As a result of their incorporation into Christ, believers experience the power of resurrection in their lives, allowing them to bear fruit for God.
7:5–6. Paul’s assertion that the sinful passions were “aroused through the law” (7:5) would be provocative for Jews, who believed that the role of the law was to curb sin, not to stimulate sin. Paul will explain in verses 7–11 what he means. When the fundamental self-centeredness of human beings encounters the law, which formulates God’s will and which demands unconditional love for God and neighbor, the sinful ego reacts and asserts itself; and thus sinful passions are stimulated and sinful actions ensue.
7:7. Paul next describes the rule of sin. The assertion in verse 5 (and the statements in 3:19–21; 5:20) may suggest to some readers that the law itself is sin. Paul energetically rejects such a conclusion. He explains his “Absolutely not!” in verses 7–12: the law belongs on God’s side and is thus opposed to sin. The problem is sin, not the law. Paul recounts the history of the encounter between the “I” and sin. The identity of the “I” (Gk egō) is widely disputed. It is best understood as not being autobiographical (Paul recounting his own experience). Rather, Paul describes in this passage the encounter between human beings and the reality of sin, with the narrative of Adam’s fall (Gn 3) in the background.
7:8–10. Paul describes in 7:8–11 how sin came from outside to the “I.” Appearing as a personified entity, sin used the commandment as an opportunity to produce the desire for what is forbidden, which then became a base of operations for sin (7:8). The statement “Apart from the law sin is dead” explains the function of the law. When there is no law or commandments, sin is inactive and powerless. God’s enemy was able to attack Adam and Eve in Eden only because there was the commandment of Gn 2:17. The potent power of sin is death, an effect that takes place only when there is a law that represents the will of God and that thus defines what constitutes rebellion against God, the consequence of which is death. The time when “I” was alive in absence of the law (7:9) is the time in paradise before the fall, when everything was “very good” (Gn 1:28–31; 2:7–15), the time before the arrival of the commandment of Gn 2:16–17.
7:11–12. The cause of the death of the “I” was not the commandment but sin, which used the commandment for its own purposes (7:11). Sin’s mode of operation is described with the word “deceive,” which takes up Gn 3:13, where Eve laments that the serpent has tricked her. When we interpret Gn 3 not only as the story of the fall of Adam and Eve but also as the fundamental narrative of human existence, we see that sin deceives in three ways. (1) Sin distorts the divine commandment by emphasizing seemingly negative aspects of God’s will. (2) Sin lets humans believe that disobedience against God’s commandment will not be punished with death. (3) Sin uses God’s own law to cast doubt on the goodness of God and thus on the very identity of God, seeking to provide a reason for preferring self-determination over subjection to God. Genesis 3 demonstrates that the strategy of sin worked: Adam and Eve were deceived, as they believed the serpent; rather than improving their situation through their self-asserting action, they were driven from Eden.
7:13. Paul clarifies the role of the law (which is good) and the character of sin (which deceives). He repeats the objection of verse 7: if the law is good, and if the law pronounces the death sentence, then the law is responsible for my death. Paul’s protest clarifies again that it is not the law but the operation of sin that is responsible for my death. Paul shows that the divine purpose regarding the function of the law (after the encounter between the “I” and sin) is twofold. (1) The law reveals sin as sin. It proves that sin misuses God’s good gift of the law. It uncovers sin’s deception of human beings. It shows that following the desires suggested by sin leads to death, not to the fulfillment of the promises made by sin. (2) The law increases sin “beyond measure.” As the law unmasks sin with regard to the consequences of sinning, the true character of sin is demonstrated—it always leads to death.
7:14–16. In 7:14–23 Paul describes the historical reality of the “I,” which now belongs to sin and which is controlled by the death sentence of the law. Paul begins by describing the “I” as the place of conflict between sin and the law, between “what I want” and “what I do.” The origin of the law is God’s Spirit (7:14). However, God’s holy law with its just and good commandments does not have the intended effect in human beings. Since “I” belong to the sphere of the flesh, which opposes God, “I” am a slave living under the control of sin. The conflict between the law, which has been usurped by sin, and the “I” is a conflict inside human beings—between what “I” want and what “I” do. “I” understand what “I” want, but “I” do not understand that “I” do what “I” hate (7:15). “I” want to do the good that God reveals (and the law demands) and refrain from evil. Human beings, created by God, who is good and holy, feel aversion when they do the evil and impure things that the law prohibits. Their guilty conscience confirms that the law is good (7:16).
7:17–20. Paul demonstrates that in the conflict between the “I” and sin, it is sin that dominates. “I” discover “sin living in me,” as in a house (7:17). “I” am forced to acknowledge that “nothing good lives in me” (7:18). Human existence in the “flesh” or “sinful nature”—the life in opposition to God and his will—is not good, as humans were before the fall. “I” realize that “I” have only myself to blame: “I” know what is right, but “I” cannot do it. Despite recognizing what is good and wanting to do it, we practice the evil in which we do not want to be involved (7:19). This historical reality demonstrates that my actions are influenced by sin, the occupying force controlling the “I” (7:20).
7:21–23. The final description of the human predicament reveals a contrast within the law itself. As the law has been usurped by sin, manipulated in pronouncing the death sentence rather than promoting life, “I” find this law active in my experience, unable to do good, but very much capable of doing evil (7:21). Having been created in God’s image, “I” delight in God’s law “in my inner self,” which has not yet moved into action (7:22). However, “I” find “in the parts of my body” that, rather than being obedient to the law, “I” am obedient to sin. The law of God has been manipulated by sin—when the law encounters sin, it pronounces the death sentence. Thus the law of God has become “a different law,” a law misused by sin that leads to death rather than to life (7:23).
7:24–25. The desperate cry “What a wretched man I am!” (7:24) expresses the hopelessness of the fleshly condition. “I” am controlled by sin and realize that my body is owned by death. As a sinner “I” will suffer the death penalty stipulated by the law. The despondent question in 7:24 acknowledges that human beings cannot save themselves. In 7:25a Paul gives the answer to the question—God himself has solved the problem of the sinful human condition through Jesus Christ for all people who acknowledge Jesus as Savior and Lord. Romans 7:25b is a concluding summary of verses 14–24. Created in God’s image, “I” want to serve God and obey his law. But the fleshly “I” is under the law, which has been usurped by sin and which is therefore encountered as law that pronounces the death sentence.