Romans 7:1-11
1: Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives?
2: For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband.
3: So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man.
4: Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.
5: For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death.
6: But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.
7: What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “YOU SHALL NOT COVET.”
8: But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead.
9: I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died; 10: and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me;
11: for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.
Paul compared the believer’s freedom from the Law to the legal position that a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he is alive. If she was with another man while her husband was alive she committed adultery, but if her husband died, she was free to marry another man. In the same way, the Jews died to the Law so they could be joined to Christ and bear fruit for God.
Paul said while in the flesh, the Law aroused a sinful coveting. Through the Law one came to know sin and sin would take that opportunity to deceive and kill. The Law itself was not bad, it was good. It was instructional. It would have brought life to anyone who could have kept it, but it also revealed man’s inability to keep it. It’s like a parent telling their child not to do something because it’s wrong, but the child does it anyway. When he didn’t know it was wrong, it was still wrong, and there was still consequence for doing it, but he was unaware of his sin. Yet once he knows it's wrong and continues to do it, then he’s at fault for disobeying his parents, and his sinful desire to continue doing that thing is brought to light.
Mankind has gone from the same state of innocent unawareness to the revelation of sin—what it is and that its wrong, either through the Law of Moses or the law of nature (as we saw in Romans 1). Once a person realizes that sin is wrong, that it enslaves him and leads to trouble and death, and that he struggles to live free from it, ultimately unable to live free from it, he can become free by the grace of God, repentance, and faith in Jesus Christ. Now, he can wisely and willingly choose to walk in the ways of God—in the Spirit—and not choose the sinful desires of the flesh. One might think that the wiser state of man is actually better than the innocent beginning.
2: For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband.
3: So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man.
4: Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.
5: For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death.
6: But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.
7: What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “YOU SHALL NOT COVET.”
8: But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead.
9: I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died; 10: and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me;
11: for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.
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Paul compared the believer’s freedom from the Law to the legal position that a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he is alive. If she was with another man while her husband was alive she committed adultery, but if her husband died, she was free to marry another man. In the same way, the Jews died to the Law so they could be joined to Christ and bear fruit for God.
Paul said while in the flesh, the Law aroused a sinful coveting. Through the Law one came to know sin and sin would take that opportunity to deceive and kill. The Law itself was not bad, it was good. It was instructional. It would have brought life to anyone who could have kept it, but it also revealed man’s inability to keep it. It’s like a parent telling their child not to do something because it’s wrong, but the child does it anyway. When he didn’t know it was wrong, it was still wrong, and there was still consequence for doing it, but he was unaware of his sin. Yet once he knows it's wrong and continues to do it, then he’s at fault for disobeying his parents, and his sinful desire to continue doing that thing is brought to light.
Mankind has gone from the same state of innocent unawareness to the revelation of sin—what it is and that its wrong, either through the Law of Moses or the law of nature (as we saw in Romans 1). Once a person realizes that sin is wrong, that it enslaves him and leads to trouble and death, and that he struggles to live free from it, ultimately unable to live free from it, he can become free by the grace of God, repentance, and faith in Jesus Christ. Now, he can wisely and willingly choose to walk in the ways of God—in the Spirit—and not choose the sinful desires of the flesh. One might think that the wiser state of man is actually better than the innocent beginning.
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