Much has been made of the use of first-person personal pronoun "I" in this chapter and much discussion has been expended on determining the chronological and logical sequence of events in Paul's experience. While we believe that this was an actual experience of Paul, probably shortly after he became a Christian and when he was wrestling with the question of his relationship to the law, we also believe that this experience, although abnormal, is a possible Christian experience when a Christian is seduced into legalism. We believe that many Christian are seduced into this experience shortly after they become Christians and at the end of their Christian "honeymoon." We also believe that many Christians never escape and are never delivered as Paul was ( Rom. 7:24- 25) from this experience because they have been taught that this is the normal Christian life and never have been taught the Christian's true relationship to the law and deliverance from being under law.
Paul's discussion of the Christian's relationship to the law here was occasioned by the statement he made in 6:14 that "sin shall not have dominion over you; for you are not under law, but under grace." In the first part of this chapter ( 7:1-6), Paul explains why the Christian is not under law: he has died with Christ to the law and is thereby released from it ( 7:4, 6). For the Christian to be under law is for him to be under the dominion of the law and to be a slave of the law; this would be equivalent to an idolatry of the law which is basically what legalism is. The Law of God is not legalism; legalism is a distortion and misunderstanding of the law of God. Paul did not have a word for legalism as distinct from the law; here in Romans he uses the phrase "under law" to express this legalistic relationship to the law. A Christian becomes entrapped in this legalism when he believes the legalistic teaching that a Christian's relationship to God depends upon his submission to the law and when he accepts the legalistic claim that the law is the only way to be delivered from the dominion of sin. But the law does not deliver from the dominion and slavery of sin, rather the passions of sin are aroused or energized through the law ( 7:6). The law is not thereby sin ( 7:6), but sin finding an opportunity in the commandment "Thou shalt not covet" works all kinds of covetousness ( 7:7-8). Being under the law, instead of delivering from the dominion of sin, leads instead to the enslavement to sin ( 7:14, 25). Instead of leading to life as the legalism claims, the commandments leads to death ( 7:10).
7. What then shall we say? Is the law sin? May it not be!
On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law;
for I would not have known coveting except the law had said,
"You shall not covet."
8. But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment,
worked out in me all kinds of covetousness.
For apart from the law sin is dead;
9. but I was alive apart from the law then.
But when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.
10. And I found that the commandment,
which was unto life,
this was unto death.
11. For sin, taking opportunity through the commandment,
deceived me and through it killed me.
12. So then the law is holy,
and the commandment is holy and
righteous and good.
7:7. What then shall we say? Is the law sin? May it not be!
On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law;
for I would not have known coveting except the law had said,
"You shall not covet."
This verse begins with two questions:
(1) "What then shall we say?" and
(2) "Is the law sin?"
The first question ties the second question to the statement in
verse 5:
"our sinful passions which were through the law were energized in our
members." Paul answers the second question with an emphatic "May it not be"
and a statement of the purpose and function of the law: "On the contrary,
I would not have known sin except through the law." The law is not sin but
exposes sin. Paul has already stated this in
Romans 3:20.
But we will see in the next few verses that the law makes sin known in quite
an unexpected way. In the last part of this verse, Paul explains his answer
with a specific command of the law; "for I would not have known coveting
except that the law had said, 'You shall not covet.'" This is a reference
to the tenth commandment of the Mosaic law (Exodus 20:17; Deut. 5:21).
Some commentators have suggested that Paul used this commandment because in
Jewish tradition the tenth commandment was the core and summary of the law.
Others have suggested that Paul used this commandment because the Greek word
epithumeia, translated here "coveting," means "lust" and refers to
sexual desire, which some teach is the original sin inherited from Adam.
Since the Scripture nowhere teaches this doctrine, we reject this suggestion.
We believe that Paul used this commandment because this of all the commandments
clearly prohibits the internal choice behind the external action. Jesus showed
that the other commandments also prohibit the internal choice as well as the
external act (Matt. 5:27-28). The internal choice to desire or covet anything
that belongs to one's neighbor lies behind the act of taking that thing from
one's neighbor.
7:8. But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment,
worked out in me all kinds of covetousness.
For apart from the law sin is dead;
In this verse, Paul explains how the law makes known sin. "But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, worked out in me all kinds of covetousness." The Greek word aphorme translated here "taking opportunity" was often used in military and commercial contexts to denote the base of operations for a commercial expedition or military campaign. Sin used the commandment as a base of operations for its acts of sin. The word "sin" here does not mean the sinful nature. "For apart from the law sin is dead." And according the doctrine of Original Sin the sinful nature was never dead and remains in man, even in the Christian, until he dies. This doctrine is not taught here or anywhere in the Scriptures. Paul here personifies sin as a slave master who uses the law as a base of operations for his acts of sin. Without the law, sin has no base of operations; sin is then effectively dead. In the next verse, Paul says that when the commandment came, sin came alive again. When the commandment came, sin could again begin to operate from its base of operations, the law. Paul does not explain here how this happens; he only says that it does happen. He will explain that in verse 23 below.
7:9. but I was alive apart from the law then.
But when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.
The last clause of the
preceding verse 8
belongs with this verse.
"For apart from the law sin is dead,
but I was alive apart from the law then.
But when the commandment came, sin came alive again and I died."
This verse is a continuation of the preceding verse.
When was Paul alive apart from the law?
Surely, not before his encounter with Christ on the Damascus Road; he was a
Pharisee under the law (Phil. 3:5-6) and spiritually dead then. And he was made
alive with Christ when he met the risen Jesus Christ there, as he put his
faith in Christ and acknowledged Him as Lord (Acts 9:5, 20-22; 26:15-19).
This is why I believe that this was Paul's experience shortly after he became a
believer and when he was wrestling with the question of his relationship to the
law. And he was delivered from this Romans 7 experience (
Rom. 7:24-
25).
This was not Paul's normal experience any more than that it should be the
normal and continual experience of any believer. It is a possible experience
of any believer when he is seduced into placing himself under the law. And he
will be delivered from this legalism when he realizes that he as a believer is
not under law but under grace (
Rom. 6:14)
and that he has died to the law with Christ (
Rom. 7:4,
6).
While the believer is thus under the law, he is in an abnormal state,
where sin is alive and he is dead; the law separates him from God
and that is spiritual death (see
verse 23 below.
7:10. And I found that the commandment,
which was unto life,
this was unto death.
In this verse, Paul tells what he found as result of the experience described in the pervious verse. He found that the commandment, which he thought was unto life, was unto death. And what was true of the commandment, "You shall not covet," is also true for the whole law. The purpose of law was not life, but death. (The Greek preposition, eis, here translated "unto" indicates purpose or goal.) Legalism says that the law is the way to obtain life, that is, that the purpose of the law is to make alive. Legalism says that by keeping the law one can earn eternal life. But this is not true. God gave the law, not to make alive (Gal. 3:21), but for the knowledge of sin ( Rom. 3:20) and as instruction, teaching, how to conduct oneself as alive to God. And as such "the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good" ( Rom. 7:12). But if one does not do the commandments, he dies. "The soul that sins shall die" (Ezekiel 18:4, 20). But legalism goes beyond what God intended and adds the false teaching that the law can make alive. Paul here says that he found that this was not true. The law is not unto life, but unto death.
7:11. For sin, taking opportunity through the commandment,
deceived me and through it killed me.
In this verse, Paul explains his statement in the previous verse, that is, that the commandment is unto death. The commandment is unto death because sin uses the commandment as an opportunity for sin to act and thus through the commandment to kill him. Sin deceived him into relying on the commandment as the way to life. This is the basic problem with legalism; it is sin; it is idolatry, trusting in the law instead of God. Sin is able to carry out this deception because the law has all the characteristics of God; it is holy and righteous and good, as Paul points out in the next verse. But the law is not God; it is the old covenant relationship to God -- the letter that now kills. Legalism, like all forms of idolatry, deceives its worshippers and followers into believing that it is good and right for them to trust in it. But also like all forms of idolatry, legalism has exactly the opposite effect -- death instead of life (See Rom. 1:22-23).
7:12. So then the law is holy,
and the commandment is holy and
righteous and good.
In this verse, Paul returns to his original question: "Is the law sin?" No, the law is not sin, but holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Although the law is not God, it was the covenant of God with Israel and thus it is holy, that is, it was separated to God from all human covenants. Although legalism distorts and misunderstands the law, the law is holy and has had a place in God's plans and purposes (Gal. 3:23-26).
13. Then did that which is good become death unto me? May it not be!
But sin, in order that it might be manifested to be sin,
is working death in me through that which is good; in order that
sin through the commandment might become exceeding sinful.
14. For we know that the law is spiritual;
but I am carnal, sold under sin.
15. For that which I am working out I do not understand; for not
what I wish, that I am practicing; but what I hate, that I do.
16. But if what I do not wish, that I do,
I agree with the law that it is good.
17. But now it is no longer I who am working it out
but sin which dwells in me.
18. For I know that the good does not dwell in me,
that is, in my flesh;
for to wish is present with me,
but the working out the good is not.
19. For the good that I wish, I do not do,
but evil that I do not wish I practice.
20. But if what I do not wish, this I do,
it is no longer I that work it out
but sin which dwells in me.
21. I find then it to be a law that when I want to do good,
the evil is present with me;
22. for I delight in the law of God according to inner man,
23. but I see another different law in my members,
warring against the law of my mind and
taking me captive to the law of sin which is in my members.
24. Wretched man that I am!
Who will deliver me from the body of this death?
7:13. Then did that which is good become death unto me? May it not be!
But sin, in order that it might be manifested to be sin,
is working death in me through that which is good; in order that
sin through the commandment might become exceeding sinful.
The previous verses, particularly
verses 10
through
12,
raise a questions with which this verse begins:
"Then did that which is good become death to me?"
In verse 12, Paul says the commandment is good. But in
verse 10,
he says that the commandment was not unto life, but unto death.
Thus the question in this verse: Did the commandment which is good become death
unto me? Paul answers this question with an emphatic "May it not be!" and
gives an explanation that it is sin that is working death, not the law.
"But sin, in order that it might be manifested to be sin,
is working death in me through that which is good."
Death is not caused by the law, but by sin. The law makes death the
consequence of sin, but the law does not cause death. Under law, no sin,
no death. But the law shows the consequences of sin as well as showing what
sin is. The basic sin is idolatry and idolatry separates from God because
it puts something in the place of God (Isa. 59:2). Thus sin works death
through the law which is good. The law shows or manifests what sin really is,
making sin exceedingly sinful. There is no worse sin than idolatry; to trust
in something other than the true God, the Creator of all things, is exceedingly
sinful. This is the main reason why idolatry is the basic sin. But this
basic sin, which makes something other than the true God one's ultimate
criterion of his choices, leads to other wrong choices, other sins; sin
(in the singular) leads to sins (in the plural). The law shows this exceeding
sinfulness of sin. But the law does more than just manifest the nature of
sin; it becomes the basis of operations for sin's activity, as Paul will
show in the following verses.
7:14. For we know that the law is spiritual;
but I am carnal, sold under sin.
In this verse, Paul begins to explain how sin becomes exceedingly sinful through the commandment. First of all, in this verse, he shows the condition of one who is under law. And in particular he shows the condition of himself, as a believer, when he is under the law. Under the law he finds himself in a dualism. On the one hand he, along with all believers, knows that "the law is spiritual." But on the other hand, he finds he is "carnal, fleshly," that is, "sold under sin." This dualism is not an ontological or anthropological, that is, it is not a dualism of two natures, but it is an ethical or moral dualism between what he ought to be under the law and what he really is under the law. He is not what he ought to be according to the law. He is "carnal, fleshly, sold under sin." Paul is here, not talking about the sinful nature, but is talking about being under the slavery of sin as a slave master. Sin here is not the sinful nature, but sin as a slave master. As Paul explains in the next verse, sin as a slave master makes him do the opposite of what he wants to do.
7:15. For that which I am working out I do not understand;
for not what I wish, that I am practicing; but what I hate, that I do.
Paul's actions under the law are a puzzle to him. In this verse, he explains why he concluded in the previous verse that he is carnal, fleshly, sold under sin. He does not understand what he is doing. For he is not doing what he wants to do, but he is doing the opposite of what he wants to do; he is doing what he does not want to do, the thing he hates. The commandment tells him not to covet and he wants to obey the commandment; but he does the exact opposite of what he wants to do according to the commandment. This puzzles him; he does not understand what is happening.
7:16. But if what I do not wish, that I do,
I agree with the law that it is good.
In this verse, and in the next Paul draws two conclusions from the puzzling actions related in the previous verse. First, because he does what he does not want to do according the commandment, he finds himself agreeing with the law that what he wants to do is good.
7:17. But now it is no longer I who am working it out
but sin which dwells in me.
In this verse, Paul draws the second of two conclusions from the puzzling actions related in verse 15. Because he is doing the opposite of what he wants to do, he concludes that, since it is no longer he that is doing what he does not want to do, it is sin that is doing it. And since that sin does not work outside of himself, sin is not external but internal to himself, then sin must dwell within. This sin is not the sinful nature, that is, that he is in his very being and essence sinful. In fact, Paul has said just the opposite; he has distinguished himself from sin; this sin and the "I" of Paul are two different things. Our nature is not something in us but what we are, our essence. And my nature is what I am by choice, what I choose to be. That nature is sinful only when I choose to sin. But Paul finds himself doing what he chooses not to do; this is the puzzle. He can will the right choice, but he cannot do it. Therefore, it is sin that is keeping him from doing what he wants to do and making him do what he does not want to do; he is enslaved to sin, "sold under sin" ( Rom. 7:14).
7:18. For I know that the good does not dwell in me,
that is, in my flesh;
for to wish is present with me,
but the working out the good is not.
In this verse, Paul explains what he means by the phrase in the previous verse: "sin which dwells in me." Sin means that the good does not dwell within him. And what does it mean to say that the good does not dwell within him? Paul explains that in the last part of the verse. He can want to do the good ("to wish is present with me"), but he can not do the good ("but the working out the good is not") that he wants to do. This is the sin that dwells within him. Sin is not the sinful nature; it is that he cannot do the good he wants to do. Paul does not say he cannot do the good because of his sinful nature; that concept has been read into this passage (eisegesis, not exegesis). Neither is the flesh the sinful nature. Paul, like the other New Testament writers, never uses the word flesh (sarx) to mean the sinful nature in the sense of that nature in man which makes him sin, that is, that man sins because he is a sinner by nature. On the contray, man does not sin because he is a sinner, but he is a sinner because he sins by choice, not by nature. Paul uses the word translated flesh (sarx), like the rest of the New Testament writers, with the following different meanings.
In this verse 18, Paul uses the Greek word sarx translated "flesh" to refer to that part of him that is not spirit (See meaning 4 above). His spirit is that part of him that agrees that the law is spiritual ( Rom. 7:14). In verse 14, he saw himself, the "I," sold under sin. Having distinguished himself from the sin in verse 17, in this verse 18, he now see his flesh as that part of him to be sold under sin, in which sin dwells. He does not say that the flesh causes him to sin; he is only saying that it is not in his spirit that his inability to do the good dwells. This verse 18 is not an explanation why he cannot do the good that he wants to do. In verse 23 Paul will give that explanation. In this verse 18, he is only recording the fact that he cannot do the good he wants to do.
7:19-20.
19. For the good that I wish, I do not do,
but evil that I do not wish I practice.
20. But if what I do not wish, this I do,
it is no longer I that work it out
but sin which dwells in me.
In these verses, Paul makes explicit the line of reasoning that led him to his conclusion in verse 17, that is, that it is not the "I" that does not do the good, but the sin that dwells in him. In verse 19, Paul states the fact that what he wants to do is not what he does. His "wanting to do" is different from his doing. From this fact, he draws the conclusion that it is not the "I" that is doing this, but sin which dwells in him. Legalism always creates this dualism. The person under law wants to do the good embodied in the law, but he does not do it -- he does the opposite. The result is the dualism between what he ought to be and what he actually is. This is the classic problem raised by any and all normative ethics, that is, any ethics based on rules, standards, and laws.
7:21-23.
21. I find then it to be a law that when I want to do good,
the evil is present with me;
22. for I delight in the law of God according to inner man,
23. but I see another different law in my members,
warring against the law of my mind and
taking me captive to the law of sin which is in my members.
In these verse, Paul draws his conclusion from the analysis
of his experience as a believer under law given in the previous verse.
In this conclusion, he explains why he cannot under law do what the law says
he ought to do. Paul formulates his conclusion in the form of three laws:
(1) in verse 21 the law of sin,
(2) in verse 22 the law of the mind, and
(3) in verse 23 "the other law," the law of death.
The first law is the law of sin (verse 21). Since sin is not what man under
law wants to do, he concludes that sin must dwell in the members of his body
rather than in his real inner self (
7:17-20).
The second law is the law of God (verse 22) which the man under law
delights in, which he agrees with his mind is right, good and holy (
7:12,
16):
the law of the mind.
The third law is "another law" (heteros -- another of a different
kind; not allos -- another of the same kind) in verse 23. This is a
law different from the first two laws; it wars against the law of the mind,
the law of God, and brings the man who is under law into captivity to the law
of sin. What is this third law? In the next verse, we find a clue.
"Wretched man that I am!
Who will deliver me from the body of this death?" (
7:24)
The law of death is this third law, this other law.
And this is confirmed in
Romans 8:2
which says,
"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free
from the law of sin and death."
The law of death brings the man under law into captivity
to the law of sin. Death leads to sin; that is, all sin because of
death, "because of which [death] all sinned" (
Rom. 5:12d).
The law separates the man under law from God; this is practically the same as spiritual death. And the man under law sins because he is practically spiritually dead. For the Christian to place himself under law is like placing himself in spiritual death; the law has taken the place of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus and it has the same results as death -- sin.
7:24. Wretched man that I am!
Who will deliver me from the body of this death?
In this verse, Paul gives expression to his defeat and despair in being under law. "O wretched man that I am!" This defeat gives rise to a cry for deliverance. "Who will deliver me from the body of this death?" Notice that Paul does not here see the sinful nature as the reason for his defeat, but his body is under the law of death. The demonstrative pronoun translate "this" modifies, not "body." but "death." It points back to the law of death in the previous verse. It is not from the mortal body that Paul is crying for deliverance, but from the law of death which has his body under its power. As Paul explains in the next chapter ( 8:10), the body is dead because of sin. Not because of our personal sin but because of the sin of Adam ( Rom. 5:12, 14, 17; I Cor. 15:21-22). This dead body is not under the control of our will completely even as believers. Man is able -- in varying degrees from man to man -- to discipline his body and control it, but it is never totally and completely under the control of his will. But under law, this control is completely lost, and the body does exactly the opposite of the good commanded in the law and what one's spirit wants to do. And the law of death is the cause of the law of sin. Being under law, man's spirit is separated from the law of Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. This is spiritual death, the law of death ( Rom. 8:2). The law has taken the place of the Holy Spirit and man's spirit is not able by the power of his own will, his choice, to force the body ("flesh") to do the demands of the law which he wants to do. In this sense, the body is dead. Thus the cry is for deliverance from the body of this death.
Romans 7 is not the normal Christian life but the abnormal experience of the believer under law. But if the Christian falls into this legalism, there is deliverance. "Thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ" ( 7:25a). In the next section, Paul will explain the steps in this deliverance from legalism.