Chapter 7

Romans 7:1-6

Apostle Paul furthers his point about the law being in no effect because of the grace granted to us by our Lord Jesus Christ. He uses one of the 614 laws of the Torah to give an example of what happens when we decide to live under grace and not under the law. He states that if a woman is married to a man and decides to marry another man while inside the first marriage, she is then called an adulteress. But if the first man she marries is dead, then the second man she marries does not account to her as an adulteress by law. If we separate ourselves from sin (if we put sin to death), we then join ourselves (marry) to those in the same faith, being the body of Christ. And once we become apart of the body of Christ, we are then divorced to sin altogether, because it is now dead to us. And just like the wife that serves the household of her husband as the master of the household, we will need to serve sin no more, but the one who put sin to death, which is Jesus Christ, The Lord our Righteousness, is who we should serve from now on.

Romans 7:7-12

Apostle Paul continues to act as a litigator against the defendant (the sinner) to debunk the excuse to sin so that we can use the law as a means of escape. He asks the reader if the law is sin, and Paul says no. He revitalizes the previous verse in Romans 3:20, to show the reader why the law was given to us in the beginning and the purpose of it. He once again uses the law to back up his claim with the “Thou shalt not covet” to know what lust is and how to refrain from it. In verse eight he describes man’s nature in detail. Whenever someone tells us not to do something, our brain tells us “Rules are made to be broken”, and therefore we break them even more because of an authority telling us not to do so. Since the law is telling us what sin is, to someone who didn’t know sin before, wondered at what coveting is and decided to explore the lust of our hearts and then we are now in danger of our lives because we did not adhere to the law, but went against it because in our nature it is to disobey because of one man’s sin, our earthy father Adam. At the end of the eighth verse, he says that ‘For without the law sin was dead,’ meaning that without you knowing the law it was not relevant to you at first. In the next verse he explains that before knowing the law he was alive and not in danger because he was already inside the boundaries having the law written in his heart, but once he heard the commandment set by the law, sin revived (manifested) and he died (was separated from life). Now, the conundrum of our nature is shown in verse ten, that when there is a rule set by God to keep us alive, we find ourselves to be dead, because of our disobedience, which is the first sin that has multiplied into many sins. Because sin was in the commandment, it deceived me, meaning that there was already a boundary, but now I know that there is a possibility to step outside of that boundary, my curiosity was peaked, and I decided to step outside of that boundary and sin struck me and I died. But even though sin is deceitful and trickery subdued me, the law is still holy because it set apart from death. The commandment is also holy because it keeps us safe from stepping outside of the boundary, so we won’t die, and it is also just and good because it preserves our lives.

Romans 7:13-19

In verse thirteen, Paul explains to the reader how sin was deceitful. First, he asks a question and wants to know that if something is good, does it cause death? Of course not. But since sin is enticing to man’s flesh, it proposes an alternate decision and gives you a different look at the law. We must understand that the devil gives us suggestions, but the Lord God gives us commandments. If you look at the law and try to find loopholes in it or a way to get around it, you are now dancing with the devil and fashioning yourself for death. And the longer the dance, the longer you are in sin. The fourteenth verse is a revelation. John the Baptist told us that God is a Spirit. Apostle Paul tells us that the law is spiritual. So, that means that the kingdom of Heaven is ordered and structured by laws and the law started in Heaven. He then shows all of us that we are all carnal, sold under sin. How are we sold under sin? That is because where there is work, there is a reward, and when Adam disobeyed God, he moved with his bodily parts to instrument death into his life, being a debt that he owed from the sin he allowed into his life. And then Paul gives a clear look into the mind of a sinner from verse fifteen to nineteen. To reiterate what he is saying, Because of the law, I don’t allow myself to do what I am not supposed to do, but for things that I hate to do, are the things in which I do. So, if I do the things which I am not supposed to do, then I have to agree that the law is good. Paul understands that because our flesh is weak after so many times of us indulging in our sins, that is now the operation of sin working in our flesh. He explains further in verse eighteen, because of the operation of sin being prevalent in my flesh, I want to do the right thing, but I can’t because of sin ruling over me and me obeying it. The result of that is knowing good that can keep me alive and choosing not to do it and also knowing evil that can bring death to me and choosing to still do it.

Romans 7:20-25

Apostle Paul teaches us in these last five verses of this chapter that there is a distinction between two laws: the law of God and the law of sin. The law of God is spiritual, and the law of sin is carnal/fleshly. Since we are part spirit, body, and soul, we do not have access to the soul and we are limited to the interactions of the Spirit (through dreams and visions), so we are always (until death) in conjunction with the body, which is always at odds with the spirit. Since our spirits are from God (who lives forever), and our souls are God-made (which is like a plant i.e. Parable of the Wheat and the Tares), we are naturally drawn to the law of God on the inside. But since we are still contained in the body, which is formed from the dust, we always have another entity present with us that doesn’t want anything to do with the spirit. And that is because the spirit cannot die, but the body can die, so they are always against each other. It is super-natural for us to follow the law of God, but it is natural for us to indulge in sin. We are therefore held captive because of the law written in our flesh, but the law in our mind is of spiritual matter. Paul exclaims that he is a wretched man and asks who will deliver him from the body that dies. And his answer of course is in the gratitude of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.