Bible Commentaries
Romans 7

Verse 1

Romans 7:1

Romans 7:1

Or are ye ignorant, brethren (for I speak to men who know the law),—[They knew the law, for it was constantly read and expounded in their hearing; and the practice of ap­pealing to the Jewish Scripture made even Gentile believers familiar with them.] Having shown in the preceding chapter that the recipients of divine grace were forbidden to sin “that grace may abound,” they were bound to serve God. He now shows that the law of Moses had been taken out of the way, and that they were no longer under it, having been committed to the service of Christ.

that the law hath dominion over a man for so long time as he liveth?—There is a difficulty in this verse as translated by both the King James Version and the American Revised Version. They make it say that the man is in subjection to the law so long as the man lives. But the context shows that when the law ceases to be in force, the man is released from obligation to that law. Greenfield, in his “Notes on the Greek New Testament,” translates it: “The law hath dominion over a man so long as it is in force, and no longer.” There is noth­ing in the Greek that forbids this translation, and the sense requires it. The law has been taken out of the way by Jesus in his death on the cross. He had fulfilled the law, and it was in his person nailed to the cross.

Verse 2

Romans 7:2

Romans 7:2

For the woman that hath a husband is bound by law to the husband while he liveth;—[She is united to him and is under his authority as the head of the household. To him is particularly committed the headship of the family, and she is subject to his authority.] The Jews and their obligations to the law are compared to the woman married to a husband.

but if the husband die, she is discharged from the law of her husband.—[If the husband dies, the wife is released; if the wife dies, the husband is released. Death is common to both par­ties. When the husband dies, the wife dies so far as the legal relation is concerned. The husband is represented as the party who dies, because the figure of a second marriage is to be introduced, with its application to believers. (Romans 7:4). As the woman is not dead, but in respect to her relationship to marriage is situated as dead by the natural death of her hus­band, so believers have not died a natural death, but are made dead to the law, since they are crucified to the law with Christ.] So the Jews were bound to the law of Moses, under which they had lived, so long as the law had lived or was in force; but since the law was taken out of the way, they were released from their obligation to it and were free to become united to Christ.

Verse 3

Romans 7:3

Romans 7:3

So then if, while the husband liveth, she be joined to an­other man, she shall be called an adulteress:—[To be joined to another man during the lifetime of her husband would make her an adulteress, which would subject her to the severest punishment of the law—stoning. (Leviticus 21:10; John 8:5).] So if, while the law of Moses was in force, the Jews served according to another law, they would be guilty of spiritual adultery.

but if the husband die, she is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though she be joined to another man.—[The same law which renders the wife inseparable from the husband as long as he lives sets her free from this subjection as soon as he dies. The conjugal bond being broken by the husband’s death, the wife dies also as a wife. She is dead (to the con­jugal bond) in her dead husband.] If the law be dead, or taken out of the way, then they would not be guilty of spiritual adultery, though they served according to another law.

Verse 4

Romans 7:4

Romans 7:4

Wherefore, my brethren,—[“Wherefore” introduces a consequence of the general principle of law which has just been exemplified in verses 1-3.]

ye also were made dead to the law—This refers to the cruci­fixion of the “old man” with Christ (Romans 6:6), for thereby the believer himself died to the law. “For I through the law died unto the law, that I might live unto God. I have been cruci­fied with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me.” (Galatians 2:19-20).

through the body of Christ;—These strong words remind us of the violent death of Jesus Christ on the cross. Into that death we are baptized. This participation in Christ’s death had been fully established and its significance explained in chapter 6. Here, as there, the union in death becomes the source of union in the new life of the risen Christ. This is confirmed by the following: “For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that one died for all, therefore all died; and he died for all, that they that live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto him who for their sakes died and rose again.” (2 Corinthians 5:14-15).

that ye should be joined to another, even to him who was raised from the dead,—[This is the completion of the illustra­tion in verses 2 and 3. As the woman is freed from the law of the husband by his death, and when married again comes un­der the authority of another, so we, when we are made free from the law and its curse by the death of Christ, are brought under a new law of fidelity and obedience to him with whom we are thus joined.]

that we might bring forth fruit unto God.—The fruit is “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control.” (Galatians 5:22-23). It is to God’s honor and glory that we should be fruitful in “good works.” (Titus 3:8).

Verse 5

Romans 7:5

Romans 7:5

For when we were in the flesh,—Those who are con­trolled by corrupt propensities, evil inclinations, and desires of the flesh are said to be in the flesh. Hence, it refers to our condition before we became obedient to the gospel of Christ.

the sinful passions,—The gratification of sinful desires.

which were through the law,—This does not mean that the law produces the sinful passions, but that it reveals and manifests them. Paul says: “I had not known sin, except through the law: for I had not known coveting, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.” (Romans 7:7). “For through the law cometh the knowledge of sin.” (Romans 3:20). Now, if Paul had to learn from the law what sin itself is, most cer­tainly he had to learn from it what desires are sinful.

wrought in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. —When we were in the flesh, the sinful passions in our mem­bers were so excited as to bring forth fruit unto death. How vain, then, to look to the law for life or help when it only threatens a curse and works only for and unto death! [Not only did these sinful desires work in our members when we were under the flesh, but to an extent they work in them still, for otherwise we should be without sin. The difference between our former state and the present is that these desires then ruled us; now we rule them. It is true that we do not now suffer the flesh to control us, but still we are in it; and so long as this is the case, we shall be more or less in­fluenced by it.]

Verse 6

Romans 7:6

Romans 7:6

But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that wherein we were held;—[We were held in the law, as in the power of a master, and were so held till we died in the person of Christ when he died on the cross. By that death we were released from the law, and so passed under grace, where we now stand.]

so that we serve in newness of the spirit,—That we may in the new spiritual state, or in union with Christ, serve God. This service is the new service of those living new lives. It is a spiritual service. “The true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth.” (John 4:23).

and not in oldness of the letter.—The “oldness of the letter” was after the flesh, complying with the letter, not in spirit. The obedience to the Jewish law did not necessarily require the service of the spirit, or from the heart. Under Christ all service must be from the heart. The weakness of the law was that it condemned sin, but did not enlist and purify the heart.

Verse 7

Romans 7:7

Romans 7:7

What shall we say then?—Inasmuch as he had said that the law excited sin by its prohibitions, without manifestations of mercy and love to conquer them, what judgment shall we pass, or what objection make?

Is the law sin?—Is the law the cause of sin?

God forbid.—No, assuredly. To unveil sin is really, in some respects, the opposite of producing it.

Howbeit, I had not known sin, except through the law:— The law commanded holiness, yet he would not have known sin as sin except by the law which forbade it. [Had God kept silent in regard to sin and never communicated unto man upon it in the form of law defining what things are sins, the con­ception of sin would never have been in the human mind.]

for I had not known coveting, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet:—Although there was coveting in the heart, he would not have known it as sin if the law had not said, “Thou shalt not covet.” [Paul and all the Pharisees knew and were ever ready to admit that certain outward actions were wrong; but that God took cognizance of the heart and of its most secret workings, and even of its habits or dispositions, they were less disposed to imagine, and were, therefore, deplorably ignorant of the extent and turpitude of their sinful condition in his sight.]

Verse 8

Romans 7:8

Romans 7:8

but sin, finding occasion, wrought in me through the com­mandment all manner of coveting:—The moment the com­mand came to him, sin took the command as an occasion to stir up within him all manner of coveting. He longed for them now that they were forbidden. [The law, then, is not sin; nor does it cause those evil desires which induce it, but sin itself causes them. This is shown in the following verses, where similar expressions are used: “For sin, finding occasion, through the commandment beguiled me, and through it slew me.” (Romans 7:11). “But sin, that it might be shown to be sin, by working death to me through that which is good.” (Romans 7:13). These passages teach that the effects of sin working through the law arouse evil passions and lead to the desire of the very things which the law forbids.] That is, when the heart was not purified from the love of sin, the effort to control it by penalties excited the more rebellious spirit.

for apart from the law sin is dead.—For without law to bring it out, sin lies dead—inert and passive. [It is dead as regards the conscience. Sin did not fill the conscience with remorse until the law revealed what was sin.]

Verse 9

Romans 7:9

Romans 7:9

And I was alive apart from the law once:—As the sinful feeling lay dormant apart from the law, he felt as if he were alive. He had no sense of sin or of its condemnation. [He was alive in all the freedom of an untroubled conscience. Pos­sibly he refers to the undisturbed feeling of legal righteous­ness, as in the rich young ruler, who, when brought face to face with the commandment, could say: “All these things have I observed: what lack I yet?” (Matthew 19:20). This seems to have been the case with Paul, who says that he was, “as touching the righteousness which is in the law, found blame­less.” (Philippians 3:6). In this sense he had kept the law, as every pious Pharisee did.]

but when the commandment came, sin revived,—The lusts reigned and ruled in his members, but the sense of sin as connected with them and the consciousness of condemnation revived. [In this state—“apart from the law,” the specific commandment already mentioned, “Thou shalt not covet” (Romans 7:7)—he had not till this moment realized that it re­quired a heart service as well as an outward service. Sud­denly sin came to life, resuming the active power which properly belongs to it.]

and I died;—He felt he was dead in sin. [This evidently points to some definite period in his experience full of pain­ful recollections. Just when or how Paul first began to feel the power of the law is not revealed, but in a man so strong and earnest as he was we may discern the intense, but un­availing, effort to satisfy by outward observance the de­mands of a holy and heart-searching law. When he became “a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious” (1 Timothy 1:13), a misguided zeal for God must have goaded him into fury by the sting of an uneasy conscience and the terrors of the law. Some such desperate struggle certainly is sug­gested by the words of the Lord when he said to him on that ever-memorable day, as he was approaching Damascus, bent on the persecution of the saints: “It is hard for thee to kick against the goad.” (Acts 26:14). While the outward strife and inward fury were both raging with unabated fury, the sudden “light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about” (Acts 26:13) him, and the accus­ing voice, flashed conviction upon his soul and subdued his strong, proud will. That was the decisive moment of the struggle upon which he now reflected, and came to realize that instead of serving God he was obnoxious to him, so that for “three days he was without sight, and did neither eat nor drink.” At length, Ananias, sent by the Lord, came to him with “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” and commanded him to be baptized and wash away his sins, calling on the name of the Lord. (Acts 22:16). Up to this time he was, in the Jewish sense, under the law, but really “apart from” it. It had not yet come to his heart and under­standing. The activities of his soul were in full exercise without restraint. But when the heart-searching law broke in upon his apprehension, he not only saw that he had broken it, but the sin which he had not felt before arose in active rebellion against that law, and he died.]

Verse 10

Romans 7:10

Romans 7:10

and the commandment, which was unto life, this I found to be unto death:—So the law that was given to promote

life excited sin and brought a sense of guilt and condemnation to death.

Verse 11

Romans 7:11

Romans 7:11

for sin, finding occasion, through the commandment be­guiled me,—Sin, finding occasion through the commandment, beguiled me and excited me to violate the law. [Sin’s deceit consists in presenting the object of desire as a good, though when obtained it at once proved to be an evil. In the case of Adam and Eve the commandment afforded the advantage. God said: “Thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Satan now had the ad­vantage and, using it, he said to the woman: “Ye shall not surely die.” This deceived her. It was the precept that was the occasion, and the lie did the deceiving. And so in the case of Paul. The sinner, by breaking the law, does not really obtain what he expects; the fancied pleasure or gain seems worse than worthless by reason of the loss and suffering it brings back upon him. In this sense a breaker of the law is always beguiled or deceived.]

and through it slew me.—Violating the law brought death. [The law, which was ordained to give life and had the prom­ise of life attached to it (Romans 10:5; Leviticus 18:5), he found to be to him, because of his sinfulness, only a means of death; for sin, finding in the law an opportunity to accomplish his ruin, deceived him into breaking the law, and, by thus bringing down upon him the curse of the violated law, slew him.]

Verse 12

Romans 7:12

Romans 7:12

So that—[The conclusion from the foregoing representa­tion of the effect of the law is that it is not to be blamed for the evil which it incidentally produces.]

the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good.—The law God gave Moses is the divine standard of holiness, righteousness, and goodness. [The law is that which says, and the commandment is that which is said. The law is the abstract, the commandment the concrete.]

Verse 13

Romans 7:13

Romans 7:13

Did then that which is good become death unto me? God forbid.—By no means. [The commandment is that which is meant by “that which is good.” Paul had just said: “The commandment, which was unto life, this I found to be unto death” (Romans 7:10) ; and, “Sin, finding occasion, through the commandment beguiled me, and through it slew me” (Romans 7:11). Without doubt the question here asked is based on these two statements. The commandment was found to end in death, because those who broke it incurred its penalty. It was sin and not the law that beguiled and did the slaying. As the law was designed to prevent sin, it certainly did not incite it.]

But sin, that it might be shown to be sin, by working death to me through that which is good;—Sin used the law which was good as the occasion for exciting in the heart the re­bellious and sinful feelings that brought death.

that through the commandment sin might become exceeding sinful.—The law gave the perfect standard of holiness. It demanded that man should live up to it without the heart being purified. Sin excited the heart more and more, aroused the spirit of rebelliousness, and made the heart more exceed­ingly sinful. Jesus Christ sought to bring man up to the same standard of holiness by first purifying the heart, casting out the love of sin, and instilling in the heart the love of holiness, and the service would be from the heart and not from fleshly fear. [As heinous as sin is within itself, its power for evil increases as the means through which it operates grow better; and thus it exhibits itself in all its hatefulness in per­verting that which is good into evil.]

Verse 14

Romans 7:14

Romans 7:14

For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.—Man was carnal and could not receive and cherish in his carnal heart the abiding Spirit. The mind per­ceived the truth, but his heart, unchanged and dominated by the flesh, did not cherish or obey it, and while in that condition could not be freed from sin.

Verse 15

Romans 7:15

Romans 7:15

For that which I do I know not:—This is the picture of the struggle that goes on between the flesh and the spirit to rule the life of the man who is attempting under the Mosaic law to serve God without the purification of the heart. The flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. They are contrary the one to the other.

for not what I would, that do I practise; but what I hate, that I do.—The things that he does his mind disapproves, and what he recognizes as hurtful, that he does. He explains this in these words: “But I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members.” (Romans 7:23). That is, the law which his mind approves is not able to overcome the law of sin ruling in his members. He says that the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus freed him from the law of sin, and death dwelled in his members. For what the law of Moses could not do, in that it was weak through the law of sin dwelling in the flesh, God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned, or enabled, man to overcome sin in the flesh. (See Romans 8:2-3). He is here showing that the law of Moses could not overcome the law of sin in the flesh.

Verse 16

Romans 7:16

Romans 7:16

But if what I would not, that I do, I consent unto the law that it is good.—If the mind approved what the flesh re­fused to do, he consented to the law that it was good.

Verse 17

Romans 7:17

Romans 7:17

So now it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwelleth in me.—So it was not his inner self that did the evil, but sin that dwelt in his members. And unless he was delivered from the sin that controlled him, it would defile his spirit and drag him down to ruin.

Verse 18

Romans 7:18

Romans 7:18

For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing:—The flesh seeks after its own gratification, and never after anything that demands the abasement, or cruci­fixion of the flesh. The inner man must be educated, trained, and brought under the elevating and purifying of the word of God to such an extent as to control and keep down all excessive demands of the flesh. God does not propose to take away or to destroy the desires and appetites of the flesh. He only proposes to so educate and train the man so as to mortify, crucify, and control the impulses of the flesh. This is the great work of the Christian’s life: to keep down fleshly desires and impulses and to keep them in harmony with the word of the Lord.

for to will is present with me, but to do that which is good is not.—His will was present to do good, but with the flesh in the mastery he found no way to accomplish it. [The “good” which he could not attain is the absolute good—the morally perfect, the perfection required by the law. Jesus so uses the term: “Why askest thou me concerning that which is good? One there is who is good.” (Matthew 19:17). “Why callest thou me good ? none is good save one, even God." (Mark 10:18). The law requires absolute good. “For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one who continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law, to do them.” (Galatians 3:10). There is a relative goodness predicated of man, but no man is absolutely perfect; neither can he, in the flesh, attain this perfection.]

Verse 19

Romans 7:19

Romans 7:19

For the good which I would do I do not:—The flesh in control hindered his doing the good things in the law that his mind approved.

but the evil which I would not, that I practise.—The evil things that his mind condemned, the flesh led him to do.

Verse 20

Romans 7:20

Romans 7:20

But if what I would not, that I do, it is no more I that do it,—If he did the things that his mind desired not to do, it was not his inner self doing it.

but sin which dwelleth in me.—But if sin that dwelled in him ruled, it would defile his heart and carry him down to ruin.

Verse 21

Romans 7:21

Romans 7:21

I find then the law, that, to me who would do good,—There are two laws here—the law of sin and death, ruling in his members, and the law of Moses, striving to overcome this law of sin and death, but is not able to do so because of the flesh. Then in the next chapter the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus frees from this law of sin and death in his mem­bers that the law of Moses could not overcome. The apostle is showing that what the law of Moses could not do, God sent Jesus Christ and through him gave the law of the Spirit of life, which changed the heart, the affections of man, and so through Christ overcame the flesh.

evil is present—This law of sin in the flesh was present, so that when he desired to do good it prevented him.

Verse 22

Romans 7:22

Romans 7:22

For I delight in the law of God—He not only approved the law, but he delighted in it, being “instructed out of” it. (Romans 2:18).

after the inward man;—[This delight was not in that which was outward in doing it, but in the “inward man”—in his “wish,” in his “consent,” in his “hate” of what the law con­demns. He proved his delight in the law by his persistent effort to keep it notwithstanding his constant failure.] The “inward man” is the “mind” (Romans 7:23; Romans 7:25), the “spirit” of man (1 Corinthians 2:11), as contrasted with the “outward man”— the body, or flesh. This “hidden man of the heart” (1 Peter 3:4), without which man would not be man, is the spiritual, willing, reasoning being.

Verse 23

Romans 7:23

Romans 7:23

but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind,—While he approved this law of God with his inward man, there was another law in his members—the outward man—warring against this law approved by the in­ward man.

and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members.—[This law of sin does not fight a battle merely, but carries on a successful campaign against the “law of the mind”—the law of God. This campaign is successful against him because it leaves him in captivity to the law of sin in his members. His suffering is not in the path of wickedness which he pursues, but in the chain that drags him along that destructive way—a chain that he cannot break. His sin is not an act; it is a helpless subjection to the law of sin in his members. This is a legal experience, written to show that, whatever else the law can do, it can deliver no man from the flesh.]

Verse 24

Romans 7:24

Romans 7:24

Wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?—This subjection of the spirit to the law of sin in the flesh brought the whole man to ruin. [Throughout this paragraph the deliverer has been kept out of view, that his presence, as absolutely indispensable to the life and happiness of the believer, may be realized. The need of being in Christ and under grace, in contrast with being under a purely legal system, has been shown in the develop­ment of the argument in these words: “For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were through the law, wrought in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that wherein we were held; so that we serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter.” (Romans 7:5-6). Here “the law, wrought in our members to bring forth fruit unto death,” which answers to “captivity” and “wretched,” called “the body of this death.” Under grace is a state in which we are “discharged from the law, having died to that wherein we were held; so that we serve in new­ness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter.” Think, then, of one as being left with all his imperfections under the law, without grace, yearning to do good, but learning finally that the good is beyond his reach. There would be wrung from him the cry for deliverance from his wretchedness. This is the point to which Paul has been leading the argument. Experience shows that the law leaves man, no matter how earnest to keep it, in a state of miserable slavery and wretched­ness.]

Verse 25

Romans 7:25

Romans 7:25

I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.—[The lan­guage is abrupt, and the sense is incompletely expressed, no direct answer being given to the question, “Who shall deliver me?” This abruptness is, however, proof of genuineness, an­swering as it does most naturally to the outburst of anguish and the sudden revulsion of feeling when Paul turns to view his actual state in contrast with his former misery. The cause of thankfulness is not expressed, which is quite after the man­ner of lively emotion; but a thanksgiving offered to God through Jesus Christ implies that he is the author of the re­demption so earnestly desired. The victory was the subjuga­tion of the flesh to the spirit, so that he could say; “I buffet my body, and bring it into bondage.” (1 Corinthians 9:27).]

So then I of myself with the mind, indeed, serve the law of God;—With the mind he approved the law of God. [This is a summary conclusion drawn from what is said in this para­graph. Paul is here speaking of himself as a Christian, and it follows that what he says is true of every Christian. The law of God comprehends the full volume of his expressed will in so far as it is applicable to Christians. To serve God “with the mind” is the same as to “worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:24). The service takes its rise in the mind and consists in obedience to the divine will.]

Then no man can live up to his convictions of right with­out faith in Christ to help him hold in check the evil dwelling in his members that enslave him, soul and body, to the body of death. The law of Moses gave the standard of morality, but all fell short of it. The flesh overcame them, and they, under the lusts of the flesh, the greed of gain and power and the pleasures of life, fell short of the ability they taught. Solomon, with all his wisdom and the goodness of his youth, is a striking example of the weakness of the flesh. Jesus came in the likeness of sinful flesh to overcome sin in the flesh that he might enable men to attain to the righteousness of the law through faith.

but with the flesh the law of sin.—The flesh was stronger than the spirit and served the flesh and he could not be freed from sin under the law. [To serve the law of sin with the flesh is to commit sin under the influence of the flesh. Certainly no one can serve both the law of God with the mind and the law of sin with the flesh at the same time. These two principles war against each other, and without external help the flesh overrides the spirit and brings it into subjection to the rule of the lusts and passions of the flesh. Hence, the struggle, the captivity, the cry for deliverance.]