Frameworks:
Romans 7
(The
objective of these ‘Frameworks' is to provide an easy-to-read
layout of the text in order then to use these individual verses
for verse-by-verse study or meditation. To focus each
verse we have also added in italic a description of what is happening)
CHAPTER
7
v.1-6
Freed From the Law, serve in the Spirit
v.7-12
The Law and Sin
v.13-25
How it works in us
[Context:
We continue to provide a brief summary of each previous chapter
to provide present context:
Ch.1
The sinfulness
of the world Ch.2 All – Jew & Gentile –
are under God's judgment
Ch.3
Jews are
the same as Gentiles in that salvation only comes through faith
in Christ
Ch.4
Abraham
illustrates how justification only comes through faith
Ch.5
Peace
with God is a natural outworking of justification. Adam sinned
– Christ saves
Ch.6
Sin now
longer has a place in our lives as we consider our old sinful
lives dead and we've been raised to a new life
NOW
he faces
the truth that as his old life has died he has been freed from
the Law. He wrestles with the fact that there is a drive within
himself that knows about the goodness of the Law but can't keep
it, a drive called sin]
v.1-6
Freed From the Law, serve in the Spirit
v.1
(do you who
understand the Law realise it only operates when someone is alive)
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?
v.2
(so if a woman
loses her husband the law no longer operates that ties her to
him) 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.
v.3
(inside marriage
she can commit adultery but once he dies she is free to marry
another) 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.
v.4
(so when you
died to your old life [and Law-keeping] and became one with Christ
you were free to bear his fruit ) 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.
v.5 (previously,
being desire orientated, the Law stimulated rebellion in our desires
which brought spiritual death) For
when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused
by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death.
v.6
(but having
died to that old way we have been freed to be led by the Spirit
not rules) 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.
(Bible
Footnote:
In v.5 in contexts like this, the Greek word for flesh (sarx)
refers to the sinful state of human beings, often presented as
a power in opposition to the Spirit.)
v.7-12
The Law and Sin
v.7
(the reality
was the Law made me realise what was sin, such as in coveting
which the Law forbids) 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.” [Exo 20:17; Deut.
5:21]
v.8
(but when the
Law said don't do it, it made me want to do it all the more. Without
the law sin had no power over me) But
sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced
in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was
dead.
v.9
(I was fine
before the Law but once I knew what it said it provoked rebellion
and that leads to spiritual death) Once
I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came,
sin sprang to life and I died .
v.10
(thus the apparently
life-bringing commands actually brought death) I
found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life
actually brought death.
v.11
(so this inner
propensity to do wrong, that we call sin, was exacerbated by the
rules) For sin, seizing the
opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through
the commandment put me to death.
v.12
(in itself,
the Law - God's rules – were right and proper) So
then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous
and good.
v.13-25
How it works in us
v.13
(did the good
bring death then? No way. It simply revealed sin for what it was
– a death bringer) 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 .
v.14
(the law is
spiritual [from God] but I am unspiritual bound to sin) We
know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as
a slave to sin.
v.15
(I don't understand
it [naturally] for I want to be good but am not ) I
do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do,
but what I hate I do.
v.16
(I have to agree
that the Law is right) And if
I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.
v.17 (it's
not just my will that does wrong, it's this inner propensity or
drive that pushes me to it) As
it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living
in me.
v.18
(good doesn't
dwell in that inner propensity because my will wants to do good
but I can't do it) For I know
that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.
For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it
out.
v.19
(I can't do
the good only the not good) 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.
v.20
( if this is
true then it's the power of sin living in me that does it)
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.
v.21
(so there is
evil in me that stops me doing good) So
I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right
there with me.
v.22,23
(although I
delight in the Law there's something else in me that stops me
obeying it) For in my inner
being I delight in God's law; 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.
v.24
(I need help!)
What a wretched man I am! Who will
rescue me from this body that is subject to death?
v.25
(Thank you God,
you have provided Jesus to overcome the fight between my God-desires
and my selfish sin desires) 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.