FIFTEENTH PASSAGE (7:1-6). THE BELIEVER IS SET FREE FROM THE LAW AT THE SAME TIME THAT HE IS SET FREE FROM SIN. AGREEABLY to the proposition stated Romans 6:14: “Sin shall no more have dominion over you: for ye are under grace,” the apostle had just expounded emancipation from sin by subjection to g... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _Or are ye ignorant, brethren (for I speak to them that know the law), that the law hath dominion over a man for as long time as he liveth? For the married woman is bound by the law to her living husband; but if the husband have died, she is loosed from the law of the husband._ ” We are familiar w... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _So then if, while the husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if the husband be dead, she is freed from the law, that she may not be an adulteress, though she be married to another man._ ” This verse is not a needless repetition of Romans 7:2. It ser... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _So that, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should belong to another, even to Him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit to God._ ” Coming to the application, the apostle approaches his readers anew, and more closely, addressing... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _For when we were in the flesh, the affections of sins, excited by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death;_ ” The _for_ evidently bears not on Romans 7:5 only, but on Romans 7:5-6 together. The expression: _to be in the flesh_, is very far from being synonymous with _liv... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _But now we are delivered from the law, being dead to him under whom we were held; so that we serve in newness of spirit, and not in oldness of the letter._ ” The contrast between this _but now_ and the _when we were_ of Romans 7:5, corresponds exactly, both as to form and substance, with the cont... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Let it not be! Nay, I did not learn to know sin, but by the law; for I had not known lust, if the law had not said, Thou shalt not covet._ ” Some commentators think that in the second question the word _sin_ should be taken in the sense of _a cause_ of sin... [ Continue Reading ]
This whole exposition is introduced by the objection which consists in identifying the law with sin. But it must not be thought that the apostle's aim is really to exonerate the law from such a suspicion. Who, in the circle in which he taught, could have pronounced such a blasphemy against an instit... [ Continue Reading ]
SECOND SECTION (7:7-25). POWERLESSNESS OF THE LAW TO SANCTIFY MAN. Sixteenth Passage (Vers. 7-25.) The essential ideas of this passage are the following: After having involved man in death (Romans 7:7-13), the law leaves him to struggle in this state which cleaves to his nature, and from which it... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _Then sin, taking occasion, wrought in me by the commandment all manner of concupiscence; for without the law sin is dead._ ” After revealing to him the presence of sin, the law itself intensified in him the force of this evil principle. This idea of progress is indicated by the δέ, _now, then_, w... [ Continue Reading ]
a. “ _And I was alive when I was formerly without law; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died;_ ” Calvin well expresses the rhythm of these verses: “The death of sin is the life of man; and, on the contrary, the life of sin is the death of man.” The _Vatic._ reads ἔζην instead of ἔζ... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _So that the law assuredly is holy, and the commandment holy, just, and good. Did then that which is good become death unto me? Let it not be so! But sin, that it might appear sin, wrought death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful._ ” The result... [ Continue Reading ]
Here was the place strictly speaking for the _but_ (δέ), answering to the μέν, _assuredly_, of Romans 7:12. But Paul interrupts himself; he feels the need of yet again stating the problem in all its difficulty. This is what he does in the question beginning Romans 7:13. The difference between the re... [ Continue Reading ]
It is from this Romans 7:14 especially that the difference between the two explanations of the passage comes out: that which applies it to the state of man regenerate, and that which regards it as depicting the impotent struggles of a sincere and serious man, but one still under the yoke of the law,... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal_, _sold under the power of sin._ ” We have in this cycle, Romans 7:14, an affirmation: “I acknowledge that the law...but I am captive;” then the demonstration of this fact (Romans 7:15-16); finally, Romans 7:17, the conclusion, which is mere... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _Indeed what I perform I know not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I._ ” This verse contains the proof from fact of the state of slavery which Paul has just affirmed. The slave knows not what he does, for he does the will of another. So Paul complains that his work is no... [ Continue Reading ]
VV. 16 likewise reproduces the second part of Romans 7:14; it is, so to speak, the paraphrase of the words: _sold to sin._ It is not to be thought that Paul wishes to exculpate himself in the least when he says: “It is not I who do it, but sin.” On the contrary, he wishes to make the miserable state... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _If then I do that which I would not, I consent with the law that it is good. And now it is no more I that perform it, but sin that dwelleth in me._ ” These two verses draw the conclusion from the fact mentioned Romans 7:15, a conclusion which is the reaffirmation of the thesis laid down in Roman... [ Continue Reading ]
VV. 18 b, 19. “ _For to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do._ ” In what precedes, Paul had already claimed a certain will in relation to good; he here affirms the same thing more expr... [ Continue Reading ]
SECOND CYCLE: ROMANS 7:18-20. The first verse again contains a thesis parallel to that of Romans 7:14. This thesis is demonstrated by experience in the second part of the verse and in Romans 7:19, which thus correspond to Romans 7:15-16 of the first cycle. Finally, in Romans 7:20 we find as a concl... [ Continue Reading ]
The _I find not_ was the proof that no good whatever dwelt in the flesh; it is demonstrated in turn by the two facts stated in Romans 7:19. The only difference between this verse and Romans 7:15 b, is that here the verb ποιεῖν, _to do_, accomplish, is applied to good, while the verb πράσσειν, _to wo... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _Now if I do that I would not, I myself_, _it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me._ ” A conclusion uniform with that before enunciated, Romans 7:16-17: “I am not master of myself; a stranger has forced his way into my house and holds me captive.” This is really the proof of the _... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _I find then, this law, that, when I would do good, evil cleaves to me._ ” Always the same two characteristics of his moral state: will for good, but powerless; evil carrying him away in practice. We have frequently seen the term νόμος, _law_, taking the general sense of a _governing principle of... [ Continue Reading ]
THIRD CYCLE: ROMANS 7:21-25. This cycle, while repeating the same experiences, stamps them as the abiding and definitive _result_ of the state of things described throughout the whole passage (ἄρα, _consequently_). The following cycle really contains the full picture of man's state under the law. Li... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _For I applaud the law of God after the inward man: but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members._ ” The verb συνήδομαι strictly signifies: _I rejoice with._ Does it mean, as van Hengel thinks: with... [ Continue Reading ]
This verse is the development of 21b: _Evil is present with me._ All the expressions of this verse refer to the same figure and form a picture. At the moment when the speaker starts to follow the law of God which attracts him, he beholds (βλέπω, _I see_) an armed adversary advancing against him to b... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? 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._ ” The figure of the preceding verse continues in this; these two exclamations are those... [ Continue Reading ]
Of the three readings presented by the documents in the first part of this verse, we must first set aside the Greco-Latin: ἡ χάρις τοῦ Θεοῦ, _the grace of God._ This would be the answer to the τίς in the preceding question: “Who shall deliver me?” Answer: “The grace of God.” This reading evidently a... [ Continue Reading ]