Romans 7

1. Know ye not, etc.?** The illustration is addressed both to Jews and Gentiles, and is founded upon a legal principle familiar to all, viz., that death dissolves all legal ties.

2 the law of her husband. That is, the law which bound her to her husband.

4 ye also are become dead to the law, etc. We are “made dead to the law through the death of the body (or mortal nature) of Christ”; in order that He may bring us into the new bond of love and obedience to Himself, expressed under the figure of marriage: as in Eph. v. 32.

5 the motions of sins. R.V., “the sinful passions.” That is, passions that spring from and lead to sin. When we were in the flesh (i.e., in our unrenewed state of enmity to God’s will: see note on John iii. 6), the holy restraints and requirements of the law called forth these passions, and so led to sin and death: cp. vers. 7, 8.

6. But now we are delivered, etc. Rather, “But now having died (i.e., with Christ), we are released from the law, wherein we were held fast; so that we serve” God by the free promptings of a new spiritual life, and not in the mere letter of the law: see 2 Cor. iii. 6, and note.

7. Is the law sin? If freedom from law brings freedom from sin (1-4), and if the fruit of union with law was death (5), it may be said that the law and sin are almost the same thing! By no means. The law is not sin; but it produces in us the conviction of sin, by teaching us what sin is (7), and by bringing out into greater energy the power of evil in our hearts (8).

Just. Better read, “covetousness.” The Greek word is the same as that used in verb form in quoting the commandments, and the force of the words is lost by a different translation. The tenth commandment is particularly specified, probably because it explicitly refers to the desires; see note on Exod. xx. 1.

8 without the law sin [was] dead. Paul illustrates from his own experience the truth already stated in ver. 5, that the wickedness of the heart is comparatively inactive and unknown, until it is excited under a sense of the law’s restraints. For men always strive for what is forbidden, and desire what is denied: cp. Prov. ix. 17.

9. I was alive, etc. The word “I” is emphatic here. All this is neither speculation nor hearsay. I have passed through it all myself.

11. Sin, taking occasion by the commandment, etc. Sin, here personified, used the law as an instrument of temptation, as the serpent did to Eve: see Gen. iii. 5, and note; and 2 Cor. xi. 3.

12. Wherefore. Or, “So that” (R.V.). Whatever may be its incidental results, the law, as a whole, and every one of its precepts, is—holy in its nature; just in its claims and sanctions; and good in its tendency.

13 sin, that it might appear sin, etc. By bringing such a disastrous result from that which was fitted for “good.”

14 the law is spiritual. The law is a transcript of the holy will of God, requiring spiritual purity: but man is “carnal,” being more or less under the influence of the “flesh,” i.e., of human nature apart from Divine grace.

15. I allow not. Rather, “I know not,” as R.V.; either like a slave (14) who blindly does the bidding of another; or perhaps like one distracted by conflict of soul, who hardly knows what he does, and does the very thing he meant not to do. Thus the apostle is led on to the desponding cry of helplessness in ver. 24, and to the joyful announcement in ver. 28, which he amplifies in ch. viii.

19,20. These verses repeat verses 15, 17 in very similar words.

24 the body of this death. Or, “this body of death”: cp. “their body of sin” (vi. 6).

25. I thank God. That I have obtained deliverance through Jesus Christ our Lord. It was not the law, but the grace of the Saviour that brought relief and inspired hope. This leads up to the triumphant words of ch. viii.

indwelling of the Spirit in the heart is called “the firstfruits,” or “the earnest” of the Spirit, and is regarded as a pledge of the heavenly inheritance.