Bible Commentaries
Romans 7

Verses 7-25

The Inward Conflict

INTRODUCTORY WORDS

The first part of the seventh of Romans presents the illustration of a woman with two husbands. It tells us that the woman which hath a husband, is bound by the law to her husband as long as he liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. Then the conclusion is drawn, that we are "become dead to the Law by the body of Christ; that [we] should be married to Another, even to Him who is raised from the dead."

Here is a happy message from God to men.

1. The impossibilities of freedom and peace under our first husband, the Law. The Law was just and holy and good, but it was impossible, because we are, by nature, neither just, or holy, or good. How then can two walk together when they are not agreed?

The Law put the woman, or wife, under many obligations, hard for her to bear. It laid down a course of action that was a yoke that could not be worn. Thus, friction was ever present. The woman was brought under bondage, a bondage that galled her and denied unto her any liberty of action. What could she do? She was bound helplessly and hopelessly.

2. The day when her husband died. She had been bound under the iron hand of the Law, to her husband, until, one glad day, her husband died; then she was free.

It may seem strangely put, but it is true: the Law died to us the moment the One who had perfectly met the Law's every requirement, and satisfied its every claim against us, died. Now the Law no longer holds a legal sway over us, for all its claims against us were met by Christ. For, "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree."

What else is ours? We who have been redeemed from the curse of the Law have the placing of sons. Let us never turn again to bondage. Rather, we will stand fast in the liberty wherewith, we have been made free.

If we step under the Law, we step under the curse. If we step under the Law, we become subjects of wrath; for, whosoever shall keep the whole Law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all."

3. Now we are married to another Husband, even unto Christ. We could not marry Christ as long as we were married to the Law, and were under the Law. However, the Law being dead, through the body of Christ, we are married to Him.

How blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven. How thrice blessed is the man who is married to Another. As long as the Law lived, and we were tinder its rule and condemnation, God could not then grant us marriage to the Son; but when every demand of the Law was met, through the Blood of Christ, and in Him the Law was dead to us and its sway broken, we became married to Christ How glorious is this new relationship!

Without the least entanglement to the sway of bondage, we are in liberty and love joyously keeping the Law. Yea, we are going the Law one better, for whereas we gingerly and grudgingly went one mile, under the Law, we find that under love we are going the first mile easily, and are going also the second mile and going both miles with smiles.

This is, as clearly as we are able to unfold it, the deeper meaning of the illustrative message given us by the Spirit in the opening verses of Romans 7:1-25 .

I. THE PROVINCE OF THE LAW (Romans 7:7-11 )

1. A vital question: "Is the Law sin?" Far from it, for it is written; "I had not known sin, but by the Law." The Law could not be sin, for it is the revealer of sin; It is so holy and so true that it exposes sin makes one to see himself a sinner. It is a plumb line so straight that it reveals all crookedness. It is a purity so white that it makes black all iniquity. Sin is the breaking of the Law, but sin is not the Law. The reason that men do not keep the Law is because the Law presents a standard of righteousness that none can attain unto,

2. A true answer: "Without the Law sin was dead"; that is, Paul never realized that he was a sinner until the Law flashed its light into his inner soul. He had thought himself without sin. That is true of many. It is the "Thou shalt not" of the Law that reveals to the sinner the state of his sinful heart. When the Law came, with it came a deeper sense of the sinfulness of sin. Here is the Word: "For I was alive without the Law once: but when the Commandment came, sin revived, and I died."

It is as though one were unconscious of his sickness, then some restorative was given, and with returning consciousness came the knowledge of one's true condition.

It is as though one were on a wrong road, hastening on, thinking himself on his way home, then suddenly there flashed across his pathway a sign which showed him he was wrong.

Mark you, to think oneself right does not make one right. Not at all. The Law is like the thermometer that reveals the fever; it is like the color of the eye, that shows a languid liver.

3. "The Commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death." Of course, if life could have come by the Law, then Christ had not died. And the Law would have been unto life, if man could have kept the Law. Thus it was because of sin that the Law became the sentence of death. The law of the land is no terror for the righteous and the law-abiding citizen. Under all the waving of the law flag, the righteous never quails. It is only the guilty who fear the law. So where sin is, the Law becomes at. once the harbinger of death.

II. WHEREIN SIN BECOMES EXCEEDING SINFUL (Romans 7:12-13 )

1. The Law is not the destroyer of the wicked. One had as well claim that the law is the executioner of a murderer. Not at all. The law slays no man. There is just as much law overhanging the best of citizens as the worst. There is just as much of threatening vengeance to one as to another. It is the same law to all. The only difference is in the individual. If all have sinned, then all are under condemnation. If none have sinned, then none are condemned.

"Where is the sane man who would say, "Down with the law"? It is far better to say, "Obey the law." The law is not to make any man's life miserable, it is for his protection and safety; it is for his good. Sometimes the sinner cries out "Down with God," as though God were responsible for the sinner's fate. To the contrary, God, like the Law, does not wish the death of any one, but would that all men might live. God is a Giver of life, a God of love.

2. The Law came that sin might appear sin. The Law came to reveal to the sinner that sin (not the Law) was working death in him. The Law came to show man his sin, that he might escape the Avenger, and flee to Christ. The Law says, "Death is working in you! Seek life!" It says, "You are lost. Seek the Saviour."

The Law, therefore, takes the providence of the looking-glass; it is not provided as a solution, wherewithal a man may cleanse himself; it is provided to show man his sinful heart. It is a schoolmaster, to rush us to the Lord Jesus.

3. The Law makes sin exceeding sinful. It does not merely show us our sinful selves, but it shows us how sinful we are. We are not only sinful, but we are helplessly sinful. We are not only lost, but we are hopelessly lost. We are sinners beyond human repair. We are sinners with no star of promise shining in our sky. We are sinners with a "Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin" over our heads.

The Law makes sin exceeding sinful. It shuts up every mouth, and makes the sinner stand condemned before God. To the sinner upon whom the Law shines the holiness of God and His just demands, there comes the sense that the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. It shows that the sinner is an unclean thing, full of wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores.

How the words ring out "exceeding sinful"! Let no one ever justify himself. Let none speak lightly of sin.

III. A STRIKING CONTRAST (Romans 7:14 )

1. The Law is spiritual. Whatever else we do, let us in no wise condemn the Law for our sinful acts. The Law is not sinful, even though it shows us that we are sinful. The Law is spiritual, because it breathes out the holiness of God; it proclaims the standards of His righteousness. The Law is spiritual, because God is spiritual, and the Lord Jesus is spiritual, and the Holy Spirit is spiritual. The Law is spiritual because it is not carnal, nor sensual, nor ungodly. It is spiritual because it is the pathway to spiritual vision, and because it brings a comprehension of the attributes of God.

2. Man is carnal. He is carnal because he is sinful, earthly, worldly, self-centered. Man is carnal because the flesh is carnal, and man walks after his flesh.

Even a Christian may be deemed carnal if he fails to walk in the Spirit, that he may fulfill the Law. He is carnal when he lives for temporals instead of eternals; when he looks at the things which are seen instead of at the things which are not seen; when he lays up his treasures upon earth instead of in Heaven.

3. The contrast between the just requirements of the Law and the carnal individual. The text says, "The Law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin." Now comes the beginning of the great conflict between the spiritual Law and the carnal flesh. The conflict lies in the incompatibility of each to the other. The Law can never relinquish its just requirements; it can never set aside its lofty spiritual standards. On the other hand, the flesh can never scale the heights of the Law's just demands. It is ever impotent to measure up, and it has no means of helping itself.

Think you that God can justify the guilty? Not so long as He is a just God. Think you that God can welcome into His hallowed presence the unholy and unclean? Not so long as God is holy. Man, in his self-life, can never lift himself up; and the Law, in its righteousness, can never let itself down. The honor and the majesty and the integrity of the God-given must be sustained at all costs.

IV. THE EFFORT OF THE SELF-LIFE TO REACH THE GOAL OF HOLY LIVING (Romans 7:15-18 )

1. There is the acknowledgment that the Law is good. With that acknowledgment comes the end of self-vindication. It is a blessed step toward victory, when one comes to the moment of acknowledged self-deficiency. There is left no desire to blame anything, or anyone, for our defeat.

2. There is the acknowledgment of indwelling sin. Here is the statement: "Sin * * dwelleth in me." Peter was in grave danger when he said to Christ, "Though all men shall be offended because of Thee, yet will I never be offended." Self-confidence was in his certain undoing. Pride or self-trust always is a forerunner of a fall.

Paul said, "I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing." Let us not call black white; nor evil good. We may exercise ourselves always to have a conscience void of offense; we may even assert that sin shall not have the dominion over us, and that we have put off the old man, and put on the new.

3. There is the confession of defeat. "That which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not." Here is, alas, the lot of many, many saints. To will is present with them, but how to perform that which is right they know not. Thus the confession still runs on, "For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do."

With this sense of defeat comes the admission, "Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me." So a new law comes to the surface; "When I would do good, evil is present with me."

Thus far there is not one word of how the power of one's sinful self may be overthrown, and the Law of God fully met.

V. A STUDY IN SEVERAL KINDS OF LAWS (Romans 7:21-23 )

1. The Law of the conflict between the two natures in the Christian. "I find then a Law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me." The young Christian is very apt to find this law at work soon after he or she is saved. "For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh." Let victorious saints warn younger and less mature saints of the dangers by the way, lest when they find the working within them of this law, and their prone-ness to yield to sin, they become discouraged, perhaps even doubting their salvation.

2. The law of God after the inward man. This is the law of a new life the call to holier and higher things. In this law the regenerate soul delights. He knows it is laid down for his advancement and betterment.

3. The law in his members. This is the law of one's old sinful self. It is the law that controls the conflict and forces the issue, seeking to work the defeat and undoing of the saint.

4. The law of his mind. There is another law which grips the Christian. It is the law of his mind a desire for the things of God. It comes from a life which has been enlightened by the Spirit.

5. There is the law of sin. This law is situated in his members. It is the power that controlled his life in the old days of his sinnerhood, when he knew not God. He hoped it would be gone, but he finds it still within him.

What a confusion is all this to the saint, who struggles on five laws, all hid away in one struggling life. Some think that this whole message (in chapter 7) describes an unsaved man trying to be saved by the Law. We can hardly agree. Some of these laws do not fit in with an unregenerated heart. Others say that it is the story of a Jew trying to be saved by the Law. Perhaps so, yet there is something beyond even this. It must be a saint trying to reach the glorious doctrine of victory over sin and self, as set down in the 6th chapter, but utterly failing. In his struggle to reach victory, he finds so many things at work within him that he is heading toward certain despair.

VI. THE CRY OF DEFEAT (Romans 7:24 )

1. This cry is a clue to what the struggle really was. Here is the cry: "O wretched man. that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" It is the cry, not ox a sinner seeking salvation, but of a. struggling saint seeking deliverance from the carnalities of his sinful self. He has tried and failed. Now, forlorn and forespent, he faces defeat over his sinful self.

2. This cry presents what we have heard many, many times from honest but disheartened Christians. Some have struggled on for years, and no one has told them the way to victory.

We are by no means excusing the defeated Christian, for all the time God had His way of victory within an easy grasp. Perhaps the defeated Christian has not sought as diligently as he should have sought for the path to victory. Perhaps he rather liked to pamper his flesh. Yet, withal, there are many who have tried and failed, and tried again and again, only to cry out in the words of our verse, "O wretched man that I am!"

3. The cry calls the "ego" "The body of this death." The disappointed, crushed, and defeated Christian is, indeed, in a slough of despond. He hardly knows which way to turn, or what to do. He feels that he is dragging around with him a dead body that is full of stench and shame. He offers no excuse for his evil self; he does not linger to excuse his sinful propensities. He simply acknowledges his sin, and its heinousness.

How hopeless is the one who tries to find anything good in his old man, his self, his body of sin.

VII. EUREKA THE PATH OF VICTORY IS FOUND (Romans 7:25 )

Here is the refreshing voice of victory: "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin."

1. Instead of a groan there is thanksgiving. "I thank God." Yes, it is a time for praise when one arrives at the starting point of the overcoming life. What a relief! What a new vista of triumph!

2. Instead of self, Christ now takes the throne. "Through Jesus Christ our Lord." When we come to the end of selftrust and self-trying, we are ready to turn to Christ, the One who holds the keys of victory in His hand. He at once begins to lead us in the train of His triumph; His victory is ours, and it is a victory that abides. As we begin to grasp the impotency of the flesh to conquer itself; let us look away to the potency of the Spirit. Let us let go of the flesh, and let God.

3. Instead of the old slavery to the flesh, there is a new allegiance to God. A new life enters in to hold sway. It is the life of the risen and exalted Christ our Lord. We give Him rule in our hearts, and He comes in to reign.

Bless God, we are not left to be forever the slave of a fallen and debased sinful self, after the Adamic line. We are, at last, on the higher plane of a God-filled, and God-endued life. No longer need we continue in sin; no longer need we dwell in the sorrow of despair and defeat. Sin shall no more have dominion over us.

AN ILLUSTRATION

Much of the testings which befall us come from the sins of our own flesh it is, as it were, flesh echoing back to flesh.

"A little boy once went home to his mother and said, 'Mother, sister and I went out into the garden, and we were calling about, and there was some boy mocking us.' 'How do you mean, Johnny?' said his mother, Why,' said the child, 'I was calling out "Ho!" and this boy said "Ho!" So I said to him, "Who are you?" and he answered, "Who are you?" I said, "What is your name?" He said, "What is your name?" And I said to him, "Why don't you show yourself?" He said "Show yourself." I jumped over the ditch, and I went into the wood, and I could not find him, and I came back and said, "If you don't come out I will punch your head"; and he said, "I will punch your head."' His mother said, 'Ah, Johnny, if you had said, "I love you." he would have said, "I love you." If you had said. "Your voice is sweet," he would have said, "Your voice is sweet." Whatever you said to him he would have said back to you.' 'With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again' (Matthew 7:2 )."