Romans 7 Study Notes

7:1-6 Roman Christians knew about Roman civil law, and many of them (especially those of a Jewish or proselyte background) knew the Mosaic law. Of course neither law could hold sway over a dead person. Having died with Christ, the believer is not under Mosaic law (6:14).

7:2-3 A married woman, bound by law to her husband so long as he lived, was legally free to marry another man if her husband died.

7:4-5 Believers have died to the “old self” (6:2-6) and are free to marry another and bear fruit for God. The death of Messiah is the means by which we died to the Mosaic law (Gl 3:13-14; Col 2:14).

7:6 As new creations, believers serve in newness with a new power from the Spirit, not as old men (6:6) laboring vainly under the letter of the law.

7:7-8 The law itself is not evil or sinful, but one of its functions is to reveal sin. In fact Paul speaks as if sin is an unknown entity apart from the law when he says, I would not have known sin if it were not for the law. Sin, seizing an opportunity, uses the law to motivate the flesh (fallen nature) to action. Once again Paul personified sin almost as Satan himself.

7:9-10 The phrase once I was alive has been variously interpreted as a reference to: (1) Paul before he came to know the law as a young Jewish boy, (2) Paul before his conversion and the conviction brought by the Holy Spirit, (3) Paul speaking as Adam in the garden of Eden before the command came, or (4) any Hebrew before the giving of the Mosaic law at Mount Sinai. The basic point in each of these interpretations is the same: God’s intent in the law was life, but sin deceived man by the law and brought death.

7:11-12 Though the law makes sin known and is in fact used by sin to produce death, it is nevertheless holy and just and good, reflecting God’s perfect and eternal holiness.

7:13 Did the good law cause death? The correct understanding is that sin used something good to bring human death. God used the law to accomplish his purpose to fully expose sin and point the sinner to God’s only remedy for sin.

7:14-25 This section is probably the most difficult and controversial passage in the letter to the Romans. For the most part the Eastern Church has interpreted it as referring to an unregenerate person (e.g., Paul before his conversion). The Western Church has followed Augustine, Martin Luther, and John Calvin in thinking it refers to a regenerate person (Paul after his conversion). Some suggest a mediating position. One such view interprets the subject as an OT believer who loves the law (Pss 1; 119) but struggles to perform it. Living before Christ and Pentecost, this person does not have the permanent and empowering gift of the Holy Spirit, as do new covenant believers. Another view holds that the subject is almost converted to Christ and is now under conviction of sin by the law.

The view that the subject of vv. 14-25 is a regenerate person is sometimes modified in the following ways. (1) The subject is saved but has not had “baptism” in the Pentecostal sense or a second work of grace (as held in some types of Wesleyan theology). (2) The subject is an immature believer, not yet equipped for warfare with his fleshly desires. (3) The subject is a believer trying to become sanctified by legalism.

The view outlined here takes the position that the subject is a regenerated believer, most obviously Paul himself but generically every believer. Paul describes the new self in relation to the law of God and is looking at only one aspect of the person. The new self will be considered in relation to the Holy Spirit in the next section where the Holy Spirit is mentioned twenty-one times. The main reason for the position offered here is a consideration of what this person’s problem really is. In v. 14 he is said to be of the flesh (Gk sarkinos, not sarkikos). Many translations confuse these two Greek words. The first word emphasizes composition while the second emphasizes tendency (“fleshy” vs. “fleshly”). In v. 18 in my flesh means the whole fallen nature that needs the resurrection body (Php 3:21). In v. 24 the wretched man cries out to be rescued (“out,” Gk ek) from this body of death. As a believer in Christ, Paul longed to be delivered from the fallen human body which still has indwelling sin.

7:14-15 The law is from God and is therefore spiritual, but Paul is of the flesh (a metaphorical reference to spiritual fallenness) and thus finds himself conflicted with the heavenly law of God.

7:16-17 Paul agreed with the law and its goodness, but sin is an alien power that has residence within him and causes him to do things he hates.

7:18-19 Even after conversion, there is no part of a person that is sinless, no place without sin’s presence, and the believer is unable to keep the whole law. The only good in a believer is the presence of the Holy Spirit.

7:20-23 In the inner self (Gk eso anthropos), in one’s deepest recesses, the believer delights in God’s law, but he finds this alien power living within, waging war with him and taking him prisoner to the law of sin.

7:24-25 Many modern commentators and translators try to reorder these verses, but the order makes sense if the interpretation outlined above is followed. In v. 24 the subject cries out for deliverance from the fallen human condition. A cry of thanksgiving is then offered to God because the subject knows that Jesus will deliver him from his body. The believer recognizes that in his mind he wants to serve God’s law since it is holy, just, good, and spiritual, but at the same time his fallen nature is in the service of this alien power—sin.